Year: 2010

US TV

The Big Bang Theory – the different Penny pilot

11 June 2010 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Kaley Cuoco in The Big Bang Theory

Not a big fan of The Big Bang Theory, I have to admit. I watched the first episode and then the next two and ended up giving it a 4 on the Carusometer. I hear things have improved, mainly through the removal of the horrific male gaze that plagued the first few episodes, but whenever I’ve tuned in since, although it’s improved, I’ve not been inspired enough to watch it – your mileage may vary.

But once upon a time, it was even worse. There was a pilot for the 2006-2007 season that starred Canadian actress/VJ Amanda Walsh as Penny, rather than Kaley Cuoco (Charmed). There was also a nerdy character Gilda (Iris Bahr) who was later replaced by Sheldon and Leonard’s friends Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar). And the original theme music was Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science”.

Watch it if you dare, after the jump.

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Friday’s monkey tunes news

11 June 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

Radio

British TV

  • Mark Williams and Ayesha Dharker join Sanjeev Bhaskar in The Indian Doctor
  • Channel 4 to subtitle all programmes from 2011 [subscription required]
  • Channel 4 picks up Pillars of the Earth [subscription required]
  • FX acquires The Walking Dead [subscription required]
  • ITV Player coming to smartphones and PlayStation 3?
  • Freeview HD available to 50% of the UK

US TV

US TV

Review: The Good Guys 1×1-1×2

10 June 2010 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Good Guys

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

Cop shows tend to be about excitement, don’t they? Shootouts, undercover work: you know the form. But most police work is routine, mundane stuff. Any cop assigned to that kind of mind-numbing tedium would want to be doing stuff more like what you’d seen on TV, wouldn’t they?

In that sense, The Good Guys is cop wish fulfillment. An action-comedy cross between Burn Notice and Reno 911 that would really like to be a 70s show like Starsky and Hutch, it sees Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Bradley Whitford (Josh from The West Wing) playing a pair of Dallas property crime detectives, who no matter what they investigate, whether it’s a rock being thrown through a window or a burglary, somehow manage to end up facing gunfire, international assassins and all the excitement the genre has to offer.

If only it were as funny as that sounds. Here’s a trailer.

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Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – 134 – The Wreck of the Titan

10 June 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Wreck of the TitanHere we are again in the middle of another Big Finish trilogy. In City of Spires, the sixth Doctor returns to 18th century Scotland where he bumps into former travelling companion James Robert McCrimmon (aka Jamie), who has no recollection of the second Doctor, the TARDIS or anything else. More than that, Scottish history’s gone a bit weird: Edinburgh and Glasgow have been destroyed and replaced with what seems like an oil refinery. What could be happening?

Well, we never found out at the end of City of Spires. With The Wreck of the Titan, though, we’re starting to get a few clues.

Here, the Doctor and Jamie land on board the RMS Titanic, which is heading for an iceberg. Or should be. Except the moon’s all wrong, the crew aren’t the ones recorded by history, and most of the doors just lead to blank bulkheads.

More mysteries to solve. But will there be answers this time?

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Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles 4×9 – Shadow of the Past

10 June 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Shadow of the PastLiz Shaw: brilliant companion from the brilliant seventh season of Doctor Who. Yet it’s been over three years since she last featured in one of the Companion Chronicles, The Blue Tooth. Hooray, she’s back!

Doubly hooray, it’s Simon Guerrier who’s writing for her, Guerrier being responsible for the brilliant Home Truths and The Drowned World. Can so much excellence all in one place lead only to excellence or is this going to be a letdown?

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