Year: 2007

Negligence on my part: Cane and Big Shots

12 October 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

I’m probably not going to be doing third-episode verdicts on Cane and Big Shots. The simple fact is that despite the fact they’re there, sitting on my iPod, waiting to be watched:

  1. What will all the other new shows on at the moment, I’m just not going to have the time to watch them
  2. The thought of watching them isn’t exactly thrilling me at the moment.

Now I know I did give an almost-positive review of Cane, but since the first episode, I’ve lost any interest I might once have had in it.

As for Big Shots, that I hated from the outset and have a firm intention of continuing to hate it. Life’s too short to be watching Big Shots.

Of course, there’s always the potential of a re-evaluation of both shows with the Random Carusometer later in the season. And I might change my mind completely about watching the episodes I already have, given that I’ve a three-hour train journey to Swansea to look forward to this afternoon.

Life might be short, but train journeys are actually sometimes longer.

Review: Peter Serafinowicz and Flight of the Conchords

12 October 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Much more of a Look Around You feel to last night’s The Peter Serafinowicz Show, I thought. It’s definitely getting weirder and funnier with the hit/miss ratio getting much more acceptable. "Check your poison sockets", "Limpy has cancer": these things should be T-shirts.

As for Flight of the Conchords, I’ve stuck with it for three weeks and I’m still not getting it. It’s been pretty much the same two jokes (one of them says something, the other picks him up on it, then keeps picking him up on it for between four and five more exchanges; New Zealanders aren’t very worldly, but hey, neither’s anyone else really) plus some songs for these three episodes.

But I think I know where it’s falling down. I had my suspicions when I got more laughs from their web site than from the TV show and since Mark mentioned it was a radio show, I tried closing my eyes while I watched it. You know what? It’s a whole lot funnier without pictures. Really, try it and see.

Essentially, Flight of the Conchords is a wordy radio show that someone has incorrectly added pictures to. So I might keep listening to it – is BBC4 actually Radio 4 if you keep your eyes closed while you watch it?

Of course, The Carusometer won’t since it mercilessly mocks the masculinity of anyone who would listen to the radio. I think it might have even used the word ‘wieners’ when I suggested it. Although now it says that only wieners use the correct spelling of weiner.

It can be so harsh sometimes.

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Third-episode verdict: Cavemen

11 October 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Carusometer for Cavemen4-Major-Caruso

It’s a special, custom Carusometer for Cavemen, thanks to ABC’s somewhat interesting choice of shooting a pilot, deciding they didn’t like it that much and getting a load of other episodes shot to precede it. The pilot’s airing fifth, but since I’ve now seen three episodes with The Carusometer, I’m going to pass a third-episode verdict. This way, I’m not going to have to watch any more episodes.

The show’s simply not that funny. It occasionally has a few moments of intelligence, when it exposes stereotypes and racist behaviour through people’s attitudes to the cavemen – as well as the cavemen’s own attitudes. The characters are affable enough. But for the most part, it just doesn’t make you laugh. It’s just people chiselling away the word “black” in the scripts, replacing it with “cavemen”, and hoping we laugh at the cleverness of it all – and not notice that there aren’t any actors from ethnic minorities playing any significant parts, despite the show being about racism.

And yes, it’s another show about slackers. Why this sudden craze in programming, I wonder? And will anyone find a decent way of making it funny?

The Medium is Not Enough hereby declares Cavemen is a 4 or “Major Caruso” on The Carusometer quality scale. A Major Caruso corresponds to “a show that David Caruso might exec produce or star in after seeing an advert on television featuring cavemen. However, after deciding that cavemen are too dirty and too likely to vote Democrat, he changes the format of the show to be about a hard-working Polish actor, played by himself, who fights the terrible prejudice that exists in society towards people with red hair and who can’t act.”

US TV

Third-episode verdict: Reaper

11 October 2007 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

The Carusometer for Reaper 3-Minor-Caruso

Reaper didn’t exactly start off on a high and it’s pretty much maintained the same level ever since. A slacker who works in a faceless retail outlet (shades of Chuck), pushing around trollies, finds out his parents have sold his soul to the devil and he now has to return escapees from Hell back to their rightful torture point.

That’s pretty much every episode. Bad person escapes. Slacker has to return them with the help of his friends. Every. Single. Episode. All that’s different is the bad person and the way he sends them back.

Trouble is it’s been done better (not much better, mind) as Brimstone. It might be a comedy drama, but the show’s not especially funny or dramatic. It might have horrific overtones, but it’s not especially frightening. The Devil is more like a cross between Frank Sinatra and Puck than the Lord of All Evil.

The show’s just there. It exists, purely to fill the airwaves so that people smoking something illicit have something to watch while they’re doing it.

The only spark of any real interest is the interplay between our hero and his secret crush, now recast as Missy Peregrym, who somehow manages not to be very irritating at all (a first for her). Now that’s a miracle.

The Medium is Not Enough declares that Reaper scores a three or “Minor Caruso” on The Carusometer. A Minor Caruso corresponds to “a show in which David Caurso might guest star as a minor demon. Although perfectly happy for his character to shoot and torture other characters, he will insist that there be no use of ‘cuss words’ because it would set a bad example to young people, resulting in dialogue like ‘I’ll darn them all to Heck’. The show will be cancelled within two seasons.”