So Heroes is finally back on our screens after such a long wait — okay, if you’re in the UK, it’ll be on our screens on Monday. That means it must be time, à la Lost, for some rubbish theories and random speculation. Nothing revelatory, and since it’s mine, it’s going to be wrong, but I thought I’d share. And then you can tell me yours!
Film
Art
Comics
Theatre
British TV
US TV
Time for a third-episode verdict on Fringe, JJ Abrams new show for Fox about investigations into the weird areas of fringe science. After a first episode that was really rather good indeed, we’ve had a severe drop-off in quality. The problem is that although we have the fantastic John Noble as the equally fantastic Dr Walter Bishop, a mad scientist to whom all other mad scientists should bow down to and worship as their god, everything else is a little dull.
While Joshua Jackson as Bishop’s son is almost interesting, Anna Torv’s FBI heroine is about as involving as a 700-page instruction manual on repairing a steam iron. Even the magnificent Lance Reddick can’t rescue her boss from mere stern untrustworthiness.
The plots and direction have also lacked all the promise of the pilot, with the Cronenbergian coldness and body horror now MIA, replaced with simple weirdness and an X-Files-esque conspiracy theory of outstanding tedium. Those stupid location-naming graphics are irksome, too.
On the whole, probably not worth sticking with, even though there are hints that there’s more plot to come. I might well keep watching, just to see if I’ve been proved wrong – I’ll let you know if I have.
So The Medium is Not Enough has great pleasure in declaring Fringe a three or ‘Minor Caruso’ on The Carusometer quality scale.
In the US: Mondays, 9.30pm ET/PT, CBS
What’s the lowest form of wit or comedy? Some say sarcasm, but clearly they haven’t read anything by Charlie Brooker. Maybe it’s any studio-based comedy about ‘friends’ or work colleagues where the dialogue consists solely of people making increasingly unpleasant remarks about each other in an attempt to get a laugh. That’s pretty low down the list, I would have thought.
But, no, the answer is obvious. Farce is the lowest form of comedy. It consists entirely of utterly implausible situations and ridiculous coincidences and elicits laughs purely through embarrassment.
And Brits are to blame for it. It’s our fault. Can I just say sorry to the rest of the world for that?
Sorry.
If we’d kept it to ourselves, maybe we wouldn’t have so much to answer for. But now we’re exporting it to the world. The Worst Week of My Life was a pretty dreadful BBC1 farce starring the normally talented Ben Miller and Sarah Alexander. The Beeb/Hat Trick sold the format to Germany – twice – and now CBS in the US has remade it as Worst Week.
And it’s absolutely dreadful. Should I apologise for that, too?
Doctor Who
Film
Art
Music
Theatre
British TV
US TV
© 2022 The Medium is Not Enough
