What have you been watching this week (w/e April 2)?

Ron Swanson

My usual recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure are: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, The Killing, Shameless (US) and Stargate Universe. Watch them (and keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well) or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff.

This week, after only three seasons, I’ve given the much-hyped Parks and Recreation a try. Starring Amy Poehler and Rob Lowe, this was supposed to be NBC’s sleeper comedy – the one for people who want to feel smug towards people who watch Community and think they’ve discovered the best niche comedy nobody’s watching.

However, with the exception of Ron, the wonderfully moustached real man character, this was probably the unfunniest thing I’ve seen in quite a while. Even Good Dog was considerably better. It might be because it’s episode eight and no one’s putting their best foot forward, but Portlandia does almost everything in it but better and you’d be hard pressed to find an actual joke. Ron was good though. Can anyone tell me what I’m missing?

“What have you been watching this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

    View all posts