Third-episode verdict: Ringer

29 September 2011 Rob Buckley TV reviews, US TV 1 Comment
The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c , The CW
In the UK: Thursdays, 8pm, Sky Living/Sky Living HD

So the big surprise so far of this fall season hasn’t been how bland, unexciting and/or stupid the majority of the new shows have been (and we’ve hardly got through half of them yet). It’s been that the stupidest sounding show of them all, Ringer, has turned out to be not too bad at all. Stupid, yes, but still enjoyable.

Episode 1, despite the dodgy green screen work and the silly plot (Sarah Michelle Gellar is on the run from some criminals so takes her identical twin sister’s place – because no criminal would ever think to look there), was still relatively fun.

Not even the arrival of the always unconvincing Jaime Murray in episode 2 as SMG’s love-rival has managed to taint the show since, although some bizarre plot convolutions in episode 3 nearly did for the show. It’s still a bit of fun with a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of soapiness, in which you hope to see the bad-girl-turned-good SMG get the good life she deserves, while evil SMG suffers. Ioan Gruffudd is just lovely throughout. SMG would be, if she could remember which sister has which personality.

I’ll probably be sticking with it, given that the show will have to mutate quite frequently, since they can’t have good SMG keep her secret forever. It’s not brilliant, it’s not even especially clever and it very occasionally gets a bit nasty. But it’s worth a try.

Carusometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Judging by the ratings, it’ll be lucky to last more than a season. But it’s more deserving of survival than Gossip Girl is right now.

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

Third-episode verdict: Ringer

29 September 2011 Rob Buckley TV reviews, US TV Post a comment
The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c , The CW
In the UK: Thursdays, 8pm, Sky Living/Sky Living HD

So the big surprise so far of this fall season hasn’t been how bland, unexciting and/or stupid the majority of the new shows have been (and we’ve hardly got through half of them yet). It’s been that the stupidest sounding show of them all, Ringer, has turned out to be not too bad at all. Stupid, yes, but still enjoyable.

Episode 1, despite the dodgy green screen work and the silly plot (Sarah Michelle Gellar is on the run from some criminals so takes her identical twin sister’s place – because no criminal would ever think to look there), was still relatively fun.

Not even the arrival of the always unconvincing Jaime Murray in episode 2 as SMG’s love-rival has managed to taint the show since, although some bizarre plot convolutions in episode 3 nearly did for the show. It’s still a bit of fun with a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of soapiness, in which you hope to see the bad-girl-turned-good SMG get the good life she deserves, while evil SMG suffers. Ioan Gruffudd is just lovely throughout. SMG would be, if she could remember which sister has which personality.

I’ll probably be sticking with it, given that the show will have to mutate quite frequently, since they can’t have good SMG keep her secret forever. It’s not brilliant, it’s not even especially clever and it very occasionally gets a bit nasty. But it’s worth a try.

Carusometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Judging by the ratings, it’ll be lucky to last more than a season. But it’s more deserving of survival than Gossip Girl is right now.

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