Month: February 2011

Sitting Tennant

Sitting Tennant (week 6, 2011)

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Erin C's Sitting Tennant

What on earth does he think he’s up to? I don’t know – we should ask Erin C, who provided this week’s picture nearly a year ago (that’s how long the ST cache goes back for). Anyone know where she is now?

  1. Hebbie: 40
  2. Rullsenberg: 20
  3. Toby, Sister Chastity, Janice, Erin C: 10

In caption land, despite strong competition, it was Lisa G who stormed through last week to win the 10 points. Well done to her!

  1. SK: 30
  2. Rullsenberg: 30
  3. Marie, Electric Dragon: 25
  4. theriverlady: 20
  5. Jane Henry, Lisa G, Toby: 15
  6. Joe B, Virpi: 5

Good luck this week everyone!

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.

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

Sitting Tennant

Sitting Tennant (week 6, 2011)

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

Erin C's Sitting Tennant

What on earth does he think he’s up to? I don’t know – we should ask Erin C, who provided this week’s picture nearly a year ago (that’s how long the ST cache goes back for). Anyone know where she is now?

  1. Hebbie: 40
  2. Rullsenberg: 20
  3. Toby, Sister Chastity, Janice, Erin C: 10

In caption land, despite strong competition, it was Lisa G who stormed through last week to win the 10 points. Well done to her!

  1. SK: 30
  2. Rullsenberg: 30
  3. Marie, Electric Dragon: 25
  4. theriverlady: 20
  5. Jane Henry, Lisa G, Toby: 15
  6. Joe B, Virpi: 5

Good luck this week everyone!

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.

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

US TV

Review: Mad Love 1×1

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Mad Love

In the US: Mondays, 8.30/7.30c, CBS

CBS is the most popular of all US networks, but it does have an odd tendency. Whenever it has a successful show, it likes to create a backup in case things go wrong with it. So CSI spawned CSI: Miami and CSI: New York; NCIS got NCIS: LA; Criminal Minds is about to get Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior; and so on.

Sometimes, rather than create a simple spin-off, though, CBS likes to create a show similar to the original. So it is with Mad Love, a sneaky backup in case How I Met Your Mother gets corrupted. The basic premise is pretty much the same: two guys, two girls, two interesting, two not, and there are romantic complications. Here, Jason Biggs (American Pie), a very ordinary lawyer, meets Sarah Chalke (Scrubs), a very ordinary… actually, I missed what she did, but whatever it is, it’s probably very ordinary. Whatever – it’s love at first sight, there’s fireworks and everything.

Each has a much more interesting best friend: Tyler Labine (Reaper), an eccentric lawyer, and Judy Greer (Archer), a nanny who helps brain-dead trophy wives rear their kids. For them, it’s hate at first sight, but you just know that’s going to change.

And as is the trouble with carbon copies, it’s just not as good as the originals. In fact, against a backdrop of the likes of Traffic Light, Perfect Couples and Better With You, it’s a very pale copy that can barely raise a single laugh. Talking of Traffic Light, do you want to have a guess who was in the pilot but got recast again?

Continue reading “Review: Mad Love 1×1”

UK TV

Review: Mad Dogs 1×1

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Mad Dogs

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Sky 1 HD

As we all know, Sky1 doesn’t produce much original content, and what it has produced has tended to be lowest common denominator crud that sucks in the extreme. But the times they are a changing. The new philosophy at Sky 1 is that if they make programmes that are halfway decent, that will entice people to take out subscriptions – in particular, HD subscriptions.

So how about this for tempting: Mad Dogs, an HD-only four-part crime series set on Mallorca that stars Max Beesley, Ben Chaplin, Marc Warren and the Life on Mars/State of Play dream team that is Philip Glenister and John Simm? Maybe with just a hint of nudity from these stars…

Sounds good huh? Well, it doesn’t stop there, when it comes to BSkyB pulling out all the stops for this one: cue the promotional trailer by David LaChapelle. We can talk about whether it’s any good or not after the break…

Continue reading “Review: Mad Dogs 1×1”

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: Fairly Legal

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, USA Network. Starts January 20th

Three episodes into "lawyer turns negotiator and lives on a houseboat" drama, Fairly Legal (I know there have been four now, but I’m playing catch-up), and the problems that were obvious in the pilot are still obvious now: this is a boring show, filled with largely uninteresting characters – with the exception of Sarah Shahi who’s overdosed on kooky.

Episode two, it has to be said, was marginally better than the first episode, since rather than the overblown implausibilities designed to fool us into thinking this might actually be an interesting show that the first episode hurled at us, this episode focused on some more plausible negotiations while giving us a sub-plot about the reading of Shahi’s father’s will. This left us on a cliffhanger… that was completely ignored in the next episode.

In fact, episode three went back to mine the silly of the first episode, while Shahi’s character continues to be kooky in a way the writers probably think is endearing – and fulfils USA Network’s "characters" remit – but which is actually intensely irritating.

So it’s time to leave Fairly Legal. This is average, mundane drama at best, with nothing to commend it beyond Shahi, who does what she can with the scripts. Fingers crossed she’ll end up on something better afterwards.

Carusometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will last to the end of the season but won’t be renewed