Year: 2010

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: Hawaii Five-0

6 October 2010 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, CBS
In the UK: Bravo this month, allegedly

Three episodes into Hawaii Five-0, and I’m pretty much tempted to call it a day on this remake of the classic 60s/70s show. Although the first episode had its merits, episode two was very silly indeed, trying to do Sneakers and being a bit laughable in the process. With no Len Wiseman directing, the action quickly fell apart, giving us possibly the stupidest, most badly edited catfight I’ve seen since the 70s. Daniel Dae Kim driving around on a motorbike while everyone else is in the car just felt odd, and Grace Park seemingly trying to play her character as an 18-year-old was ludicrous.

Episode three didn’t plum the same depths of silliness, but it was duller. This had gang warfare between the Samoans and the Triads, with a bit of backstory for Kim’s and Park’s characters, but fell into tired old cliches and even more ludicrous action scenes: Danny hides behind an overturned trestle table as cover against 9mm rounds (by contrast, a recent episode of Dark Blue showed, more realistically, 9mm rounds passing through internal walls at close range).

The only real reasons for watching (unless you count Steve’s Ferrari, Grace Park constantly in a bikini or you’re a big Daniel Dae Kim fan) are the camaraderie between Scott Caan’s Danno and Alex O’Loughlin’s Steve and indeed Alex O’Loughlin, who really has obvious talent, if only he could find a decent vehicle to star in.

It’ll probably run for a while, but I don’t think I’ll be sticking around for it.

Carusometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will last a season, maybe more if they retool it next season

Question of the week: what’s your favourite TV catch-up service?

6 October 2010 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

On Friday, the results of a survey into UK online TV catch-up services was announced. The Beeb’s iPlayer service came out top, Sky’s Sky Player bottom (yes, even ITV’s beat it). So this week’s question of the week is:

Which online TV catch-up service do you like best and why? And do you have a least favourite?

Mine, for what it’s worth, is the iPlayer, because

  1. You can access it everywhere – on an iPhone, an iPod in a web browser
  2. You can access it on the Wii, which means I can watch it on the tele
  3. It’s easy to find things and it’s well linked to within the BBC web site as well
  4. It has more or less everything, so you know that the chances are you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for 9 times out of 10 and not be wasting your time

In comparison:

  • The Sky Player sucks since it’s hard to use, doesn’t have much content, you can’t use it on iPhones, etc, and you have to link it to specific machines (up to five IIRC). At least it works on a Mac though.
  • ITV’s is awful but that’s mainly because of the programmes on it – although it actually has relatively few programmes.
  • 4oD I’m mixed over. Not usable on iPhones, etc, but does have a huge amount of content. If I could view it on my TV, that would be peachy but even though it’s available via YouTube now, it doesn’t show up on my Apple TV. Damn.

But how about you?

And yes, Americans and anyone else with their own catch-up services can answer this one.

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

Wednesday’s holistic news

6 October 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Film

British TV

US TV

Sitting Tennant

Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant (week 36, 2010)

5 October 2010 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

Erin C’s on a roll, because she’s got the most captionable picture prize again this week. Can nobody stop her? And do you want to, with pics like this?

  1. Erin C: 270
  2. Rullsenberg: 240
  3. Sister Chastity: 230
  4. Toby: 165
  5. Rachel: 90
  6. Sabine: 65
  7. Karen: 35
  8. dreamer-easy: 30
  9. Dawn: 10
  10. kellyann06: 5

Only Marie and Rullsenberg took on the challenge of last week’s "spread gown" challenge – obviously everyone was cowed by their skills. It was a tough choice, but it was Marie’s caption that took the 10 points. Good luck this week everyone and don’t be frightened by M & R – I don’t think they bite.

  1. Marie: 205
  2. Rullsenberg: 190
  3. Toby: 165
  4. Electric Dragon: 160
  5. Dani: 80
  6. Jane Henry, SK: 70
  7. ecg: 50
  8. Rachel: 45
  9. Sabine: 25
  10. whogal: 20
  11. kellyann06, Sister Chastity, Alex, Paul Ebbs, Virpi: 10
  12. George, Joe B: 5

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.

The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Tuesday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.