Month: September 2011

Thursday’s “new Charlie” news

22 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • Claire Skinner, Bill Bailey, Arabella Weir and Alexander Armstrong join the Christmas special [spoilers]

Books

Film

  • Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood join Robert Zemeckis’ Flight
  • Trailer for The Grey with Liam Neeson
  • Trailer for Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz
  • Clip from Batman: Year One

British TV

  • The Body Farm beats 71 Degrees North in the ratings
  • Sky 1 to air Terra Nova a week after the US [subscription required]

US TV

  • Victor Garber set to replace Robert Wagner as voice of Charlie in Charlie’s Angels
  • New Girl and Unforgettable start well, Glee and Ringer drop
  • Party Down‘s Ken Marino to guest on Whitney
  • CCH Pounder to guest on Revenge
US TV

Review: Unforgettable 1×1

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Unforgettable

In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS

Interesting fact 1: There are apparently about five or six people in America with very impressive memories. Thanks in part to OCD, they can remember more or less every detail of their lives: ask them what they were doing on 4th March 2006 at 6.02pm and they’ll tell you.

Interesting fact 2: Marilu Henner, one of the stars of sitcom Taxi, is one of these people. As well as cameoing on the show, she is also a consultant to CBS’s Unforgettable, which stars Marilu Henner-lookalike Poppy Montgomery as a former police detective with this condition who uses her skills to solve crimes.

Interesting fact 3: CBS has so many sure-fire hits and such a seemingly captive audience they can commission some of the most boring programmes imaginable and provided they’re about cops, people will watch them. And even if they don’t, CBS won’t care.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Unforgettable 1×1”

US TV

Review: Unforgettable 1×1

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Unforgettable

In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS

Interesting fact 1: There are apparently about five or six people in America with very impressive memories. Thanks in part to OCD, they can remember more or less every detail of their lives: ask them what they were doing on 4th March 2006 at 6.02pm and they’ll tell you.

Interesting fact 2: Marilu Henner, one of the stars of sitcom Taxi, is one of these people. As well as cameoing on the show, she is also a consultant to CBS’s Unforgettable, which stars Marilu Henner-lookalike Poppy Montgomery as a former police detective with this condition who uses her skills to solve crimes.

Interesting fact 3: CBS has so many sure-fire hits and such a seemingly captive audience they can commission some of the most boring programmes imaginable and provided they’re about cops, people will watch them. And even if they don’t, CBS won’t care.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Unforgettable 1×1”

Question of the week: do you prefer multi-camera or single-camera comedies?

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

On Friday, in response to my review of Whitney, Mark asked “What’s wrong with single-camera comedies?” (or something like it). Okay, let’s set out some definitions. Here’s 30 Rock as a single-camera comedy.

And here’s 30 Rock as a multi-camera comedy.

You’ll notice, for starters, that the multi-camera comedy

  1. Is shot on video, looks cheaper and is over-lit
  2. Has a studio audience guffawing at almost everything
  3. Has performances geared towards a guffawing studio audience and ensuring that the people at the back of the studio can hear what’s being said
  4. Largely is stuck indoors
  5. Not as funny

Okay, you might not be able to tell those last two instantly from those clips, but my points stand. Nevertheless, for much of sitcom history, multi-camera has been the way things have been done, single the rarity, so some might prefer it to single-camera.

So today’s question is:

Do you generally prefer single- or multi-camera comedies?

Question of the week: do you prefer multi-camera or single-camera comedies?

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

On Friday, in response to my review of Whitney, Mark asked “What’s wrong with single-camera comedies?” (or something like it). Okay, let’s set out some definitions. Here’s 30 Rock as a single-camera comedy.

And here’s 30 Rock as a multi-camera comedy.

You’ll notice, for starters, that the multi-camera comedy

  1. Is shot on video, looks cheaper and is over-lit
  2. Has a studio audience guffawing at almost everything
  3. Has performances geared towards a guffawing studio audience and ensuring that the people at the back of the studio can hear what’s being said
  4. Largely is stuck indoors
  5. Not as funny

Okay, you might not be able to tell those last two instantly from those clips, but my points stand. Nevertheless, for much of sitcom history, multi-camera has been the way things have been done, single the rarity, so some might prefer it to single-camera.

So today’s question is:

Do you generally prefer single- or multi-camera comedies?