Year: 2006

Sectarian violence starts tomorrow, thanks to MTV Dance

28 November 2006 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Ofcom has been investigating a few complaints again. For some reason, The Baby Mind Reader was given the all-clear, despite being obvious rubbish. Maybe the fact it was on Five lowered their standards a little.

But more interesting is the complaint against MTV Dance. This, apparently, has been letting some dodgy text messages get through, unvetted, from viewers.

One complaint was received after “all u Fenons [Fenians] out there – die” was shown on screen. The complainant also noted that there had been references to Bobby Sands and the UDA.

So the first thing of interest is that the moderators would have stopped this if they’d known what Fenons meant. Yet they let it through because they thought it was just a regular message of death. Okay…

But why exactly are those little scamps using MTV Dance as a conduit for political propaganda, do you think?

US TV

Fifth-episode verdict: Smith

27 November 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Smith

I was wondering a while back if three episodes were enough to really know if a show is good or bad. I then expanded my reviewing policy to include fifth episodes if the third episode was on the cusp.

Smith was very much on the cusp by its third episode, after which it was cancelled. But CBS was nice enough to put the remaining episodes onto its InnerTube service. So it’s an interesting test of this new policy: cancel at episode three, or wait till episode five before making a final decision.

I’ve now managed to wade my way through the remaining four eps and I have to say, if they’d let it get as far as the fifth episode or possibly even the sixth, I think Smith would have started to have found its feet. While Ray Liotta’s and Virginia Madsen’s storylines were still a bit dull, Jonny Lee Miller and Simon Baker were starting to develop an entertaining double act. They were also managing to inject some excitement into the storylines. Had the show progressed, I’m pretty sure TPTB would have given them more to do and made Smith a lot more entertaining to watch.

So the moral of the story is, if it’s on the cusp, always wait until the fifth episode. At least. Particularly if you’re a big US network.

Uwe Boll’s bout – the full write-up

27 November 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Curious about how all of Uwe Boll’s critics fared in that boxing challenge? Wired has a full write-up under the wonderful headline Raging Boll.

He picked a right bunch of nancies to fight against though, don’t you think, given the number of potential opponents out there? But then again, the upper weight limit was 180 pounds (less than 13 stone, 82kg) so maybe there wasn’t a fine array to pick from after that.

Torchwood’s Greeks Bearing Gifts: any good?

27 November 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

I managed it. Just like I said I would and despite a lone request for me to tune in, I avoided Torchwood yesterday. I didn’t watch it on the tele. I didn’t set the PVR. I feel a certain sense of freedom.

But now I’m curious. Was it any good? The first of the Behind the Sofa reviews says it was both rubbish and offensive, which is what I suspected, but would anyone else like to chime in? There are going to be about 17 different repeats of it, if I need to catch up, I suppose…