Mary's Boutique Nightmares! (Mary Queen of Shops)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Mary Queen of Shops
Date:	24/07/08 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A hostest with the mostest

Disadvantages: A little staged

Mary Queen of Shops is the right kind of reality TV, the format where you take an expert who knows there stuff and let them help real people to turn around their failing businesses. In many ways its Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares for girls (no effing and blinding and chest bumping) meets 'The Troubleshooter', the one where the now deceased Sir John Harvey Jones would come in and try and turn around much bigger businesses. Where as most of his challenges were traditional heavy industries, Mary Portas, some sort of hands on fashion guru, takes on the flimsy and vacuous world of fashion boutiques, which means we get to meet a lot of likewise people and accompanying tantrums.

The basic format is she tries to turn around failing high street fashion independents, run by people who were only ever going to run failing boutiques, using all her know-how and skills gathered over twenty years in the rag trade. Like Gordon Ramsey, she crashes into their cozy world and tells them exactly what is needed, but without Gordon's over the top aggressive approach for effect, tactile the appropriate word here. There's no sadistic belittling of the 'boutiquers' and she genuinely wants their business to workout, although one or two of the delicate souls on it are soon sniffling. Although Gordon Ramsay comes at it from a more aggressive angle and he wants their restaurants to work even more passionately you always feel he sadistically enjoys deconstructing his subjects first for best results, presumably as his father did on to him.

We have just seen the second series of this finish on BBC2, tucked away on the cozy midweek, 9pm slot. The first five episodes were new projects, the final one a catch up episode on previous challenges from series one. As these are actual local businesses in your high street some of the owners do use the exercise as publicity for their business whilst others really are about to go under you may have been in some of them. Ironically the over confident ones looking for the free plug are the ones in the most trouble, which makes for even better 'nose out of place' telly, especially when they haven't grasped that fact yet. But this is televisions and so the production company effectively bails them out (you the taxpayer) with expensive refits and logistics to make a viable show. Clearly these businesses are badly run and in big debt, the real tension that gets the emotions up in shows like this and Ramsey's Nightmares, and without the shows help would never be able to become the businesses they need to be, which is perhaps a little erroneous and the illusion telly is.

Series one was better than two because it was the new concept that was interesting. Mary Portas is a vivacious forty something chick and full of passion, knowing her business and exactly what's required, someone you the viewer can respect for that knowledge. There's none of that wallet and ego waving you get on Dragons Den. Mary, like most middle-aged women, wants to look younger too, too busy to have kids and husbands. The child bearing hips are covered in trendy stuff from Soho and the beads mask the stretch marks. But she's bright-eyed and bushy tailed and charismatic on TV, setting about her challenge with gusto and creativity, the people who own the shops in serious need of some help and that energy that's like bright spring duster in the cupboard under-the-stairs. .

Anyone who lives in Brighton will know about Juju, the trademark Zebra stripes above the corner store as conspicuous as the fashions inside. When Mary arrived in series one it was going broke, the couple running it unable to pick clothes for the right age demographic. As with most of the owners they tend to be going into this trade in search of some sort of lost glamour, perhaps lookers in their younger years, trying to express their egos by setting up boutiques. One woman in her forties that owned a posh shop in London that was featured in the second series had pictures of herself from her modeling days on the wall of her store flashing various cheesy smiles, like the ones Kate McCann seems to come up with now she has her way with the press.

The owners of the struggling shops have applied to be on the show but quickly on the back foot when criticized, as were the owners of Juju. Some take real affront that they are told that they don't really know what they are doing or what they have been doing and challenge Mary's uncompromising push to change things. 'Change' is by far the last word the shop owners want to hear, especially when she asks them to ditch the best selling lines that have kept the wolf from the door. I suppose if you put your life and soul into a business and then it isn't going well it's hard to accept your dream is over and its your decisions that have got you there. The fundamental error the guys and girls seem to make is buying in lots of clothes they like and wear rather than what's hot and in fashion.

Juju was an example of that a middle-aged partnership running this tacky boutique that sold clothes to people like them, which wasn't that many, especially in a town full of students, which they still felt they were. But they weren't and a drastic make-over was required, Mary ordering a skip to fill with old jean-jackets, thrilly jeans and obnoxious T-Shirts. The 'prentendy' couple for the cameras (he clearly a 'confirmed bachelor' living in Brighton) seemed taken aback they have been doing it all wrong and demanded Mary leave the shop. But the realization they would have to close down was enough to flagellate himself on BBC2 and let Portas have her way. She did and as far as we know the business is still doing well today, although they did bring back stuff Mary advised them not to when she left. One of the only big problems with this format is you don't hear about the shops that perhaps haven't done well with Portas advice. I know one or two of Ramsey's turnarounds were 360 degrees and they closed down.

At least with this show, what you see is what you get, no real mugging to camera to create tensions and conflicts. I know on shows like Ramsey's and The Apprentice they did 'retakes', sequences re-shot to produce more drama. When you watch these so called charismatic experts on TV and you have to believe in them or it doesn't work, which I do with the likes of Mary and Gordon, but you also don't want them to get too much help in turning their businesses around as that would be pretty false and pointless. As the smug 'Dragon' Peter Jones likes saying all the time: anyone can buy something for a quid and sell it for 99p...

Summary: I can fix you...