Month: July 2008

Thursday’s friendly replacement news

10 July 2008 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

Commercials

Theatre

British TV

US TV

Preview: The Mentalist

9 July 2008 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

The Mentalist

In the US: Tuesdays, 9pm ET/PT, CBS

Fake psychics solving crimes? Haven’t we been here before with Psych?

Not exactly. Psych is very much a comedy, a show that brings the 80s back to us with wacky private detectives that solve not very bad crimes.

The Mentalist, however, while it has comedic moments, is something more in the Criminal Minds vein. Well, Criminal Minds crossed with The Magician and Columbo.

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Review: Bonekickers 1×1

9 July 2008 Rob Buckley 32 Comments

Bonekickers

In the UK: Tuesdays, BBC1, 9pm. Also available on the iPlayer

Nominative determinism is an interesting thing, isn’t it? Does your name make you turn out the way you are or is it irrelevant?

Here’s a simple experiment: let’s look at Bonekickers. It’s supposed to be an action-adventure show about archaeologists. It’s got a great cast, including Adrian Lester and Michael Maloney. It has a great team behind the scenes, including Life on Mars‘s Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham.

But it also has a bollocks name. Will it follow nature and have the qualities expected of its progenitors? Or will it follow the powers of nurture and nominative determinism and turn out to be bollocks?

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Wednesday’s “fight them on the beaches” news

9 July 2008 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

Theatre

British TV

  • Survivors remake now shooting and will be ready by Autumn
  • Pulse to launch martial arts block of programming
  • Beeb defends exec pay rises

US TV

Phase IV – it really is scary, honest

8 July 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

A little while ago, I nominated Phase IV as one of the scariest movies ever made. I’m not sure anyone believed me. That’s probably because the trailer is so rubbish.

So here’s the first nine minutes or so, which are just very eerie indeed and should give you the creeps. If you fear insects, don’t watch it; if you don’t fear insects, you will by the end of it.

Don’t look at the ants. Don’t be paranoid. Of course they’re not conspiring against you.