Year: 2010

Thursday’s robot boxing news

13 May 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

Theatre

  • Richard Fleeshman to replace Duncan James on Legally Blonde
  • Clarke Peters to star in Five Guys Named Moe revival
  • Almeida to adapt Mamet’s House of Games, Stephen Dillane to star in The Master Builder

British TV

US TV

Question of the week: how do you like your TV news?

12 May 2010 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Here, in the UK, there is the ostensible legal requirement for broadcast TV news to be impartial. What that actually means and whether it merely favours a centre-left view of the world that doesn’t allow for extremes or which inadvertently backs big business and government (cf any book by John Pilger) is certainly debatable.

But in the US, there’s no such requirement for cable news at least. Hence, Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the relative left. For some that’s horrific – news should impartial. For others it’s the acknowledgement that all news is inherently biased and is filtered by most news editors preconceptions.

So question of the week this week, after Adam Boulton went mental at Alistair Campbell on Sky News, is:

How do you like your TV news: attempting to be impartial or obviously partial?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – 133 – City of Spires

12 May 2010 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

City of SpiresJames Robert McCrimmon (aka Jamie) was a second Doctor companion with a certain form for mucking up the timelines. A Highlander fighting during the Battle of Culloden, originally, he left the second Doctor, his memories wiped by the Time Lords, at the end of The War Games, the sixth season story that also saw the end of the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who. But, thanks to a sixth Doctor story, The Two Doctors, which gave us a post-season six pairing of the second Doctor and Jamie, it’s apparent that all is not what it seemed.

Back in the Companion Chronicle, The Glorious Revolution, there were hints that certain other timeline messing has been going on around our Jamie. This appeared to be resolved, but now we have City of Spires, in which Scottish history is all messed up. The Doctor arrives in Scotland decades after Culloden. The Highland clearances and Rob Roy are 40 years late. Edinburgh and Glasgow have been destroyed in favour of a ‘City of Spires’. And the old Jamie has no recollection of meeting the second Doctor at all…

Cue another one of Big Finish’s trilogies. Oh, did I mention David Tennant’s girlfriend is in this?

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 133 – City of Spires”

Wednesday’s unhappy town news

12 May 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

  • Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell in negotiations to star in Horrible Bosses…
  • …and Aniston to also star in Wanderlust with Paul Rudd
  • Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky to work on The Tiger
  • Vincenzo Natall likely to make Neuromancer movie
  • Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard to star in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis

Commercials

British TV

  • Christopher Eccleston and Jimmy McGovern reunite for Accused
  • BBC3 orders pilot of Adventures of a Teenage Stand-Up Comic
  • Sandra Oh joins David Morrissey and Aidan Gillen in Sky1’s thorne: scaredy cat

Canadian TV

US TV

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 2

Third-episode verdict: Gravity

11 May 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US : Thursdays/Fridays, 10pm/10.30pm/11.30pm, Starz/Starz Cinema/Starz Edge

When last we left Gravity, we were pondering the oddness of a comedy-drama about failed suicide attempts. Three episodes in and we’re still pondering.

After an opening episode that mostly featured just two members of the suicide counselling group – staid Rob and quirky Lily – episodes two and three felt a bit more anthology show, focusing mainly on other members of the group, as well as the weird police detective following Rob and Lily. We got to meet the slight weird perfect housewife, who turned out to (spoiler) have shot herself because it was either that or tell everyone how trapped she felt in her life. And then in the third episode, it was all about the (spoiler) Latino construction worker-come-comedian who has a very small penis.

The police detective, we’re not sure about – we don’t know why he’s following Rob and Lily, but we do know he has (spoiler) gambling problems, hypochondria, cash issues and more, including a very aggressive yoga style.

As of yet, though, there doesn’t appear to be any real plot. We’re merely seeing a group of people struggling to change their lives so they don’t try to take them again. Sometimes we see the things in their old lives that made them want to end them; sometimes we see the promise of their new lives; sometimes we see the intersection. Sometimes it’s tragic, sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s funny.

But it’s almost never truly sad, and it’s almost never very funny. It’s that kind of weird, quirky insubstantial dealing with deep issues in a shallow way that legions of independent film makers have perfected over the years.

Despite this failure to truly excel, it does have some decent actors, some intriguing characters and some rib-tickling moments. It’s just a little bit too fey for my taste. But I’m going to keep watching.

Carusometer rating: 2
Rob’s prediction: Could go either way with Starz, given Party Down is still going, but it should last a season at least.