Year: 2009

What have you been watching this week (w/e October 2)

2 October 2009 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

As you may have guessed, I’ve been watching quite a bit of tele this week and you should have seen the result in a big wodge of reviews. However, on top of this I’ve also seen:

  • Accidentally on Purpose: Episode 2, which was truly dreadful so I’ve given up on it. E4 viewers steer clear of it when it arrives on our scene
  • The Vampire Diaries: Episode 2, to which I can only say, ditto.
  • Hank: review later
  • The Middle: review later
  • The Fixer: Little bit daft, but interesting to see MMA on a mainstream UK show
  • Supernatural: As excellent as always, and nice to see Hector off The Unit getting a job as an archangel
  • House: weird. No instant reset button. A good twist at the end, too (although I did see it coming). No longer can House be accused of being formulaic
  • CSI: Miami: back to insulting our intelligence. I knew it couldn’t last longer than a week
  • Community: last week’s was absolutely sensational, with an ending as well written as 30 Rock. It’s really must-see TV already
  • Mad Men: I played catch-up (not seen Sunday’s though), but the last-but-one episode was excellent

So I’ve still got a big pile of programmes to watch as you can probably tell. Any I should avoid?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please

Friday’s sleepy cat news

2 October 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

British TV

US TV

US TV

Review: Trauma 1×1

1 October 2009 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Trauma

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, NBC

Here in the jolly old UK, we have a programme called Casualty. It’s set in a busy A&E department (aka ER) and has been running for over two decades, yet is even more formulaic than House*.

Basically, each episode starts with a load of normal everyday people going about their business. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and then… something really ridiculous happens (car flips over while stationary, man swallows Amazonian tree frog while walking a dog, woman attacked by TB-crazed badger in the middle of a cinema) that results in horrific and terrible wounds, requiring the immediate arrival of an ambulance full of brave paramedics – who then spend most of the time agonising about their soap opera-like relationships.

Trouble is Casualty is very badly written, very badly acted and looks appalling since the budget’s about £2.50 a week.

Well, hey ho and away we go, America has its own version of Casualty with two big differences to ours:

  1. The cast is hotter
  2. The production values are better

But that’s it’s. Otherwise, they’re the same “dumb as a box of hammers” show.

Continue reading “Review: Trauma 1×1”

Thursday’s pick up news

1 October 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • An actor talks about David Tennant’s finale [big spoiler]

Film

Books

  • An otter to join Winnie the Pooh in new book
  • Clip of David Simon reading from The Wire: Truth Be Told

Theatre

  • Roald Dahl’s Matilda to be adapted as a musical

British TV

US TV

US TV

Review: Lie To Me 2×1

30 September 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US: Monday September 28, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Thursday October 8, 10pm, Sky 1/Sky 1 HD

As you can imagine, with so much TV for me to watch and review, there’s a certain discipline involved if I’m ever going to have a life (arguably, I still need to get one). Thankfully, chez moi, the Carusometer is in charge, and once it’s passed its third-episode verdict, I abide by its ruling decision and ditch a programme it doesn’t rate.

Lie to Me I dropped after the third episode, on the general grounds that while the Carusometer loved Tim Roth, it thought the rest of the cast rubbish, the format ludicrous and too much an obvious copy of House‘s and Bones‘s, and the plots mediocre.

But Shawn Ryan, former exec producer on the now-defunct The Shield and The Unit, took over as show runner for this season. He’s been making interesting noises during interviews, that suggested he could see the flaws in the show, too. So I decided to leap back for the premiere episode of the second season to see if there are notable improvements.

It’s definitely better, but there are still serious flaws. Good old Carusometer. It’s always right.

Continue reading “Review: Lie To Me 2×1”