Year: 2011

US TV

Review: Whitney 1×1

16 September 2011 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

In the US: Thursday, 9:30/8:30c, NBC

This year, we have something of a "battle of the sexes" going on between NBC and ABC. ABC has no fewer than three sitcoms in which men are officially dicks. More on those offences against humour when they air. NBC, which currently has a mandate of trying to attract as many female viewers as possible, has taken a slightly different route and has gone for "men are not all dicks". 

Yesterday, we dealt with NBC’s Up All Night, which sees happy couple Christina Applegate and Will Arnett dealing with their new baby, Arnett opting to be a house-husband and not being a dick.

Today, we have Whitney, which sees single-girl-but-in-a-relationship-for-three-years Whitney Cummings (Chelsea Lately and her boyfriend, Alex, navigating the perils of modern relationships. Together. In a non-dickish, quite supportive way in Alex’s case.

How refreshing.

While it’s not brilliantly funny and as I remarked during my review of Up All Night, observational comedy is one thing but it’s only funny if someone’s failed to point out the observation 10 or 20 times already, it does at least raise a few laughs and has the occasionally original thing to say. Here’s a trailer.

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Friday’s “many remakes” news

16 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

British TV

Canadian TV

  • Darker, scarier Primeval spin-off planned [subscription required]

US TV

US TV

Review: Up All Night 1×1

15 September 2011 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Up All Night

In the US: Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

A common question asked is “Do two wrongs make a right?” Here’s my question: “Do two rights make a wrong?”

Because here we have the very right Will Arnett (30 Rock, Arrested Development, Running Wilde) and the very right Christina Applegate (Married With Children, Samantha Who?) in a sitcom about having a baby.

Yes, that’s right. That’s what it’s about. That’s not just a fact about Applegate’s and Arnett’s characters. This is the intended main source of all the show’s humour.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have children. Nevertheless, I can confidently say, through simple osmosis, I know just as much as these two characters about raising kids, if not more, and apparently have just as much insight as the writers.

Here’s a trailer that contains the funny bits. You’ll notice that since the pilot, Christina Applegate’s character has switched from PR person to talk show host assistant.

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UK TV

A refreshingly honest journalist

15 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Gordon Brewer's CV

From the BBC web site:

Gordon began his journalistic career on The Shetland Times after any hopes of a more technical pursuit were cruelly exposed by a short period working for the oil industry at Sullom Voe. He still keeps a nervous eye on the main flare stack, where he was supposedly monitoring the paint thickness.

In 1983 he moved to Glasgow to join the Sunday Standard as a business correspondent. The paper was closed down six months after his arrival.

After a stint as a freelance he joined the business desk of the then Glasgow Herald, where he proved so incompetent at sub-editing unit trust prices they let him loose as a business reporter. In 1986 he moved to London as business correspondent for The Scotsman, where he experienced the Thatcher boom years at first hand.

He joined the BBC in 1988 as business correspondent for network television news. After six months or so he was asked to move to a new bureau in Tokyo.

During four years in the Far East he mixed news coverage with making films for Newsnight and The Money Programme and Assignment. Despite strenuous attempts to learn Japanese, the nearest he got to fluency was with cab drivers after an evening in the bar.

He returned to London in 1993 to work for Newsnight. This was his opportunity to stop being a business journalist and he reported from Europe, the United States, Russia and the Middle East without the slightest use of arithmetic.

After the 1997 general election, Gordon became a presenter on Newsnight and then on Newsnight Scotland when the programme launched in 1999. He moved to Scotland full time in 2001.

Gordon has a degree in Philosophy and English Literature and wasted taxpayers money for three years studying for a PhD in Philosophy which he has never finished. During his career he has picked up an award for journalism and three nominations for Royal Television Society awards, although with his usual sodding luck he didn’t win any of them.

US TV

Review: Free Agents 1×1

15 September 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments


Free Agents

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, NBC

Funny, isn’t it, how networks mould new shows to make them more like their other shows? Consider Free Agents, a Channel 4 comedy (that you can still watch on 4oD) starring Stephen Mangan and Sharon Horgan as two emotionally-damaged PR professionals who work together but hook up. Quite a dark comedy, it focused on the two’s growing, mostly sex-based relationship, with only the occasional interjection by their sex-mad boss, Anthony Stewart Head.

Now NBC has adapted it. Gone are Mangan and Horgan, in are Hank Azaria (The Simpsons) and Kathryn Hahn (best known as a theater actress in the US). Fair enough. Anthony Stewart Head’s come along for the ride, which is nice. But somehow,a show that would have been perfect for a dark network like FX has become a lot lighter and a lot more like any other NBC ensemble comedy along the way.

And it’s not actually that funny now. Here’s a trailer.

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