In Canada: Sundays, 9pm, CTV
In the US: Acquired by ABC for summer 2013
In the UK: Not yet acquired

In the never-ending struggle to come up with new crime drama formats, there are generally two methods of differentiation used by writers: character and gimmick. If you differentiate by character, you end up with shows such as Monk, Elementary, The Mentalist or Psych, in which someone over-laden with personality has to solve crimes while less interesting, more plodding individuals stand around filling up dialogue time and generally failing to solve crimes.

If you differentiate by gimmick, you end up with shows like Justice, Murder One, and The Whole Truth, in which quite dull characters stand around filling out plot time while the gimmicky plot mechanism that drives the show plays itself out.

In both cases, I should point out, you still need to have involving crimes and investigations or both techniques will be for naught.

Now Motive wants to have its cake and eat it, attempting to stand out from the crowd with both gimmick and character. The gimmick here is that as the show's title suggests, it's all about the motive: as much time is dedicated to why the crime was committed as to solving it, with huge chunks of the story told in flashback. But it also has character: no special character ticks here but cool, over-acting, intensely irritating detective-mom Angie Flynn, who's just so down with her kid.

Does it work? Well, it stands out, but it's forgotten that golden rule and as a result is still a very boring show that makes Cracked look like The Shield in comparison. Here's a trailer: note, as with all Canadian TV shows, the contractually obligated appearance of at least one person from Stargate as well as Roger Cross from 24 (okay, he isn't in the trailer but he's in the show).

Continue reading "Review: Motive 1x1 (CTV)"

Read other posts about: 24, Elementary, Stargate

Doctor Who

• Writers confirmed for series 7b

Film

• David Duchovny, Hope Davis and Timothy Hutton to star in After The Fall
• Diane Kruger and Anton Yelchin to star in 5 to 7
• Woody Harrelson and Martin Sheen to star in September Morn
• Elizabeth Banks to star in Walk of Shame
• Willem Dafoe joins Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac
• Alex Cross sequel already in development

Trailers

• Trailer for Mama, with Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
• Trailer for Jack Reacher with Tom Cruise

French TV

• Accused to be remade [subscription required]

UK TV

• Skins to conclude with old characters, different format
• Phil Davis to recur on Being Human
• Press pack for Secret State
• SyFy to broadcast ST:TNG in high def [subscription required]
• Sky1 acquires The Last Resort
• Tuesday ratings

US TV

• Tuesday ratings: Ben and Kate down 20%, Emily Owens starts low, Hart Of Dixie up

US TV casting

• Knots Landing's Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark to guest on Dallas
• Chuck's Vik Sahay to guest on Bones
• George Takei to guest on Hawaii Five-0
• Dylan McDermott to return to American Horror Story
• Donal Logue to guest on Sons of Anarchy
• Polly Walker to guest on Warehouse 13
• Cougar Town's Briga Heelan to guest on Happy Endings
• Royal Pains' Kyle Howard to guest on Apartment 23

New US TV shows

• ABC buys dramas Warriors and Grievances…
• …to adapt the Netherlands' Sea of Fire
• TNT picks up Frank Darabont's LA Noir for six episodes…
• …to adapt Dean Koontz's Frankenstein
• NBC buys two dramas
• Hallmark orders series of Andie MacDowell's Cedar Cove
• Amazon developing Support and The Face and the Heel

New US TV show casting

• Stargate Universe's Brian J Smith to guest on Defiance

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Read other posts about: Being Human, Chuck, Cougar Town, Happy Endings, Last Resort, Royal Pains, Star Trek, Stargate

In Canada: Thursdays, 9pm ET/PT , CTV
In the US: Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

I can't quite muster the enthusiasm to write a full review of this, since it's quite a bad, quite a boring show. Essentially, you have Erica Durance (Lois Lane in Smallville) and Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1) as irritating, arrogant doctors who work together and are about to get married. Unfortunately, there's a car crash, Shanks is nearly killed and he ends up in a coma.

You might think that was the end of that, but he then spends not just the rest of the episode but quite probably the rest of the series in an out-of-body experience, moving around, talking to ghosts and anyone else in a coma presumably, mulling over whether he was too much of a dick when he was alive.

Meanwhile, in the background to all of that, you have an incredibly tedious standard medical procedural where every patient has an Issue that needs to be dealt with.

Weirdly, we've already seen this done before very recently with A Gifted Man and it wasn't that good then. What makes this worse is that rather than the lead interacting with the invisible lover as per A Gifted Man, Shanks and Durance don't actually get to interact at all now Shanks is disembodied. To some this may seem romantic; to others, it means the show is even less interesting than it otherwise would have been. Even the addition of a supposedly hunky, sensitive Australian ex-lover for Durance to triangle with doesn't lift the script anywhere above forgettable.

Durance is fine, showing slightly more range than she was allowed in Smallville, but only a little. Shanks is very one-note, which is disappointing, given we know from Stargate that he's pretty versatile. The rest of the cast might as well be made from polystyrene for all they matter, but at least you can like them, unless Shanks' and Durance's characters.

Although the central concept is at least interesting, it's tedious, derivative, shows no sign of getting much better, so don't bother with it.

Read other posts about: Smallville, Stargate