Time to announce the winner of the Primeval competition. After much consideration, I’ve decided to award the prize of a copy of Primeval – Shadow of the Jaguar to…
Year: 2008
Wednesday’s unthemed news
Doctor Who
- Dervla Kirwan as the new assistant? [spoilers]
Film
- Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan to reunite – but not for another Rush Hour
- Richard Gere to star with Hilary Swank in Amelia Earhart biopic
- More studios add content to the US Apple Store
- Stan Lee launches new superhero franchise
- Allison Janney up for two comedies
British TV
- Andrew Davies adapting Joanna Briscoe’s Sleep With Me for ITV1
US TV
- Producers talk about overcrowding in House [spoilers]
- Jennie Garth drops out of pilot for 90210 return?
- More background on Dollhouse
Ashes to Ashes – confessions of the writers
Sometimes, it’s the network’s fault, sometimes it’s the writers’ when a show isn’t quite as it should be. Ashes to Ashes‘ writers explain some of the behind-the-scenes compromises. [via Feeling Listless]
UPDATE: More from the same event, which also suggests that Matthew Graham did not have a happy time on Doctor Who
UK TV
Season finale: The Fixer
ITV has something of a problem. It’s had such rubbish programmes on for so long that even when it gets some decent shows, no one will watch them. And since no one watches them, it can’t get the advertising to fund them properly so they’re not as well made. Have a look at the Hornblower adaptations with Ioan Gruffudd for examples of what happens when you get a good cast and good scripts but bog-all cash.
Or, indeed, take a look at The Fixer. On the one hand, we’ve seen it all before: convicted criminal bust out of jail by the government to assassinate criminals who are above the law. It’s La Femme Nikita, isn’t it? Then make him a taciturn, thoughtful guy who has qualms about his job; give him an irritating sidekick and a stern boss who’ll have him dumped in a river if he starts misbehaving and you’ve essentially got Callan for the 21st century: nu-Callan if you will.
But the show really transcended that unoriginal formula to give us a show worth watching. It’s been an action show that’s far less concerned with action than it has been about character, plot and dialogue. Sure, it was afflicted by Tamzin Outhwaite as an implausible femme fatale. But with Peter Mullan on hand to make even George Cowley of The Professionals seem like a soft Sassenach jessie, fine performances by Andrew Buchan and Jody Latham as the Fixer and his sidekick Callum (hmm…) respectively, and some interesting plotting pyrotechnics, it’s been an interesting, gritty show that just needed a bit of a polish. And some budget.
US TV
Season finale: New Amsterdam
Some shows know when it’s their time to die and head off to the other side gracefully. New Amsterdam, which ironically told the story of an immortal Dutchman who was waiting for the one woman who could kill him, not only knew it was going to die, it knew it was doomed even before it aired, with only eight episodes ever shot.
Again, ironically for a show whose main message was that the candle that burns the dullest lasts the longest and that death has its place, it never really hit levels of greatness. Bar its intriguing central character, played by equally intriguing Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, none of the other characters were that interesting. The plots, while a cut above the standard crime fare, never really inspired and were usually solved by some bizarre skill (grifting, knot-tying) that our hero picked up during his 400 years.
All the same, it had a certain something. It was never quite what you expected – as the season finale showed.