In the US: Fridays, 9pm, Starz In the UK: Fridays, 10pm, Fox. Starts 19th April
You might have thought the horror that was Torchwood: Miracle Day had ended. There's no more Torchwood, thanks to the series being so poorly received, even the majority of die-hard Torchwood fans couldn't bear any more episodes. Yet like that giant hole in the middle of the Earth, sucking the joy from life in that show's finale, so its legacy carries on.
That legacy is an alliance between BBC Worldwide and Starz aimed at creating yet more dramas as good as Torchwood: Miracle Day - yes, that good - and Da Vinci's Demons is its first bastard offspring. On paper, it might have seemed a good idea, with David Goyer, the co-writer of Batman Begins, crafting a historical fantasy series about the early life of Leonardo Da Vinci. The well known Renaissance polymath, he's popped up in enough shows over the years that he probably deserved a show of his own.
But in practice, it's not. Starz has tried to do historical shows before. It's had huge, deserved success with Spartacus; Magic City may just be nasty but it's a loving recreation of the 1950s Miami at the very least. Unfortunately, rather than aping either of those two shows, it's decided to go the Camelot route and produced a genre-busting show that marries Camelot's sex, nudity, poor action and complete bypass of virtually all history; the BBC's child-friendly but atrocious Merlin, Robin Hood and Bonekickers; the setting and political intrigue of The Borgias; the ridiculous conspiracy theories of The Da Vinci Code; and elements of movies ranging from Batman Begins to Hudson Hawk. Yes, the probably gay Florentine polymath Leonardo Da Vinci is actually a leather-jacket wearing shagger of women, prone to the occasional sword-fight with the local guards, who somehow gets mixed up with the magical secret society that is the Sons of Mithras, all while flying people around in his inventions.
And it's all filmed in Wales with an almost entirely British cast. Be proud. We made this.
About the blog
This is a UK media blog with daily news, views, exclusive reviews and good conversation. There's a bit of a bias towards the latest and greatest US TV, but we also cover UK TV ranging from new Doctor Who to old Z Cars, and BBC4 to S4C.
Add in film, theatre, art, books, events and competitions and you've (hopefully) got officially the fourth best blog on the web for media lovers. Oh yes, and there's The Carusometer, the ultimate guide to quality TV.
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"For most of us watching the telly of an evening is a way to wind down and relax, but for Rob Buckley it’s his blogging bread and butter. With reviews of cult classics and up and coming US and Brit television shows, The Medium is Not Enough is fast becoming essential reading for TV buffs, with over 50,000 hits a month."
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About me
I'm Rob Buckley, a freelance journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of, although you might have heard me on Radio 5 Live's Saturday Edition. I've edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for trade magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider and the equally short-lived Death Ray and Filmstar magazines; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it "web site for urban hedonists" The Tribe. I'm freelance now and have contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network and TV Scoop.
