Michael is a man, by which I mean he is an idiot. OK he has a high-powered job as a lawyer but he is emotionally distant from his partner Sally and works long hours. This doesn't change when they suffer a miscarriage and hurts her further when he dismisses her hobby of entering their pet dog Archie in dog shows (which again she only took to fill the long hours alone). Things come to a head and Sally dumps Michael sort of being helped in a "friendly" way by dog trainer Guy. While Sally tries to cope with Guy's overbearing mother, Michael decides to start entering Michael in shows to try and demonstrate that he can share Sally's interest and hopefully win her back.
Just before watching this I had written up my review of Coffy, the Pam Grier blaxploitation film. In that review I had commented on sometimes you need to judge a film by the rules of its genre to be fair to it. I mention this because "Catwalk Dogs" is an example of what I was trying to say in the reverse. You see "simplistic Sunday night drama" is not a genre and as such I do not feel that I should be expected to make concessions to it just because most dramas of its ilk in its timeslot generally don't make a lot of effort. Of course Catwalk Dogs does seem to fit into the "unchallenging and warming drama" at some turns but the strong language and rather harsh relationship base suggest that it will be more than that. On the balance of things though it is a rather predictable and smug drama that shows its teeth here and there but never barks or bites. The plotting mostly stays with the safe and easy devices without really exploring them to a degree that is real or convincing.
The presence of Kris Marshall perhaps is no surprise. He is not a great actor (adverts and sitcoms seems to be more or less his forte) and really he is too smug and superficial to ever make for a real person. Mackenzie is not a lot better in the acting stakes but she is a charming presence and she engaged me to the same degree as Marshall annoyed me whatever small amount of chemistry they had is down to her, not him. Lamb is dull, Quick is a solid matriarchal monster while Keegan is too sappy. Sullivan directs with no particular invention but deserves credit for what I can only assume was a difficult shoot with so many animals involved.
Overall then a so-so drama that will offer enough to you if you are used to the shapeless blobs that are served up by ITV on Sunday night under the banner of "one-off drama" then this might please you. For me though the drama was just too unconvincing, the relationship lacked a basing in reality and the humour was either silly or smug. For my money it was passable at best.
