Month: February 2011

Thursday’s “wot no Armitage?” news

10 February 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

British TV

US TV

  • CBS picks up JJ Abrams’ Persons of Interest
  • Fox orders Weekends at Bellevue pilot
  • Trailer for A&E’s Breakout Kings
  • Henry Ian Cusick to star in Shonda Rhimes pilot
  • More pilot casting, including Nestor Carbonell in Ringer
  • NCIS’s Scottie Thompson joins Partners
  • NBC picks up pilots for Wonder Woman, Prime Suspect, Smash and Grimm
  • Tuesday ratings: No Ordinary Family still dropping off
US TV

Review: The Chicago Code 1×1

9 February 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

The Chicago Code

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Acquired by Sky 1/Sky 1 HD. Coming soon

‘Gritty’ seems to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To many, it means ‘realistic’ – that it depicts the seamier, less pleasant parts of life. To others, it just means ‘looks a bit grimy’.

The Chicago Code – formerly called Ride Along – is gritty. A cop show set to a backdrop of corrupt Chicago city politics, it wants you to believe that it’s gritty in the sense of realistic. But to be honest, although it has Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit) as show runner and principal writer, in a post-Wire, post-Southland world, it doesn’t really succeed – it just looks a bit grimy.

It’s not half-bad and it features the likes of Jessica Beals, Jason Clarke (Brotherhood) and Delroy Lindo, but it’s not as cutting edge as it likes to think it is. Here’s a trailer, followed by a featurette in which you get to hear Clarke’s normal Australian accent.

Continue reading “Review: The Chicago Code 1×1”

Wednesday’s R for Andromeda news

9 February 2011 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Film

British TV

US TV

Jamie’s Dream School: now there’s a teaching faculty

8 February 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Well, Jamie Oliver may have been banned from filming in any schools in LA, but that’s not something that’s happening to him over here. He’s about – as in March time – going to launch a new Channel 4 series called Jamie’s Dream School, in which he gets a bunch of famous people to teach subjects to kids who are a bit bored or something. 

Among the teachers are Daley Thompson, Simon Callow, Ellen MacArthur, David Starkey, Alastair Campbell, Robert Winston, Alvin Hall, Tinchy Stryder, Dominic West, Mary Beard, Jazzie B, Rankin, Nora Sands, Cherie Blair, Rolf Harris, Andrew Motion and David Hempleman-Adams. That actually sounds quite fun.

Anyway, here’s the trailer, with music composed especially by Orbital.

Sitting Tennant

Sitting Tennant (week 5, 2011)

8 February 2011 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

Hebbie's Sitting Tennant

You’ll never guess who won again this week. It’s Hebbie! How does she find them?

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

By popular vote, it’s Electric Dragon who won last week’s caption competition, innit? Well done to him and best of luck to everyone this week.

  1. SK: 30
  2. Rullsenberg: 25
  3. Marie, Electric Dragon: 20
  4. Toby, theriverlady: 15
  5. Jane Henry: 10
  6. Joe B, Lisa G: 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.