Month: September 2008

Friday’s House and house news

12 September 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Disney to adapt Welsh radio sitcom
  • T4 most likely to be cut by Channel 4 in budget round
  • David Starkey to profile Henry VIII
  • Press pack for BBC2 comedy Beautiful People
  • Trailer for Charlie Brooker’s “BB meets zombies” drama Dead Set
  • Channel 4 commissions full series of School of Comedy

US TV

US TV

Review: Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles 2×1

11 September 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

In the US: Mondays, 8/7c, Fox

In the UK: Virgin1 at some point

It’s back. Woo hoo? Not exactly. I’m almost getting tired of repeating myself* but by the looks of it, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, apart from having the most needlessly long, pretentious title of all TV shows, is pretty much the same as it was last season so that’s what I’m going to have to do.

All the same, there are enough new wrinkles in the set-up that it’s worth having a brief chat about the second season and whether it’s worth joining if you’ve not seen it before.

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US TV

Preview: Dexter 3×1

11 September 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US: Showtime, Sundays, 9pm. Starts September 28
In the UK: Probably FX again, some time next summer

It can’t have escaped many people’s notice that the story-telling structure of intelligent – and unintelligent – American television has changed substantially over the last few years. As well as the impact of 24, which has made serialised television possible again, The Wire‘s use of Shakespearean rather than Aristotelian storytelling techniques has spread to other dramas, while premium cable channels and DVD box sets have made “slow burn” TV shows viable.

All of which makes reviewing just the first episode of a new series a pain in the arse – or ass – particularly with something like Dexter. One of the first shows to demonstrate there was life on cable outside of HBO, it’s now on its third season and continues to demonstrate that some TV shows can’t simply be judged on their first episodes, since all the goodies are in the evolving plot still to come.

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Review: Doctor Who – The Boy That Time Forgot

11 September 2008 Rob Buckley 7 Comments


The Boy That Time Forgot

‘The boy whom time forgot’, surely? Oh well.

First off, let’s ask ourselves a rhetorical question in a loud, slightly self-righteous voice.

“Is nothing sacred? Nothing, I ask you?”

Just thought I’d get that off my chest. See, this Big Finish adventure takes one of the classic moments of the fifth Doctor’s TV reign, tramples all over, gets into its SUV, drives over it, reverses back for another go, then throws it into an old reservoir where it’s left to float among the dead fish and tyres.

Memories: crushed.

All the same, once you’ve accepted that particular shock to your system, The Boy That Time Forgot is quite fun and interesting. Treading a very fine line between self-mockery and pathos, it manages to avoid being an utterly pointless exercise in mining continuity for all its worth – and then some – and becomes something almost thought provoking.

Be warned, I’ll have to spoil you a little bit after the jump just so you have the faintest idea what I’m on about. It might make you more interested in the play, too.

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