Month: February 2013

US TV

Review: Zero Hour 1×1 (ABC)

18 February 2013 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC

There are shows that despite essentially having an incredibly stupid premise actually turn out to be quite smart. Consider Prison Break, created by Paul Scheuring, in which an architect gets himself arrested so he can be incarcerated in the same prison as his death-row brother. Because he’s also the architect who designed the prison and has developed an intricate plan to get them both out of jail together – which he’s had tattooed onto his entire body.

Incredibly stupid premise, yet at times, it was actually quite smart, with intricate plotting, fun characters and tension aplenty.

Yet there are also shows that despite essentially having an incredibly stupid premise actually turn out to be absolutely stark staring bonkers insane.

Consider Zero Hour, created by – oh look – Paul Scheuring, in which Anthony Edwards’ wife gets abducted after she buys the wrong clock in a market. It turns out that it’s all part of a sinister conspiracy, involving the Rosicrucians, possibly the second coming or is it the anti-Christ, Nazis, reincarnation, 12 clocks, one for each of the apostles, and an unintelligible international terrorist. Only Edwards, together with a noble band of sceptical journalists, can save her and the world.

Yes, if you thought Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code wasn’t far reaching enough in its implications and Angels and Demons was just too plausible, have I got a show for you… and it’s possibly the stupidest, worst written show since the dawn of time.

Here’s a trailer:

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Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: The Blue Rose 1×1-1×2 (TV3)

18 February 2013 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

In New Zealand: Mondays, 8.30pm, TV3

New Zealand is a small country – okay, it’s quite big, but in turns of population, it’s quite small – but it does still have a surprisingly large effect on world media. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed there, mainly thanks to New Zealand film director Peter Jackson. The Oscar-winning Whale Rider launched the US career of actor Cliff Curtis (Trauma and Missing). A multitude of shows from the late 90s, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, introduced the likes of Lucy Lawless and Karl Urban to the world, and Spartacus is doing so with a new generation of actors all over again, with that show’s Manu Bennett leading the charge into the US.

However, New Zealand does have its own home-grown film and TV industry, and in modern times, three of the biggest forces in New Zealand TV have been broadcaster TV3, and James Griffin and Rachel Lang of South Pacific Pictures, the originators of the long-lasting Shortland Street. This combo first gave us the comedy crime series Outrageous Fortune (remade in the US as Scoundrels), which nurtured the career of many a New Zealand actor, including Anthony Starr, currently doing sterling work as the star of Cinemax’s Banshee.

Then came The Almighty Johnsons, which delved more into fantasy, with a tale of reincarnated Norse gods living in New Zealand. That’s currently filming its third season and a US remake is currently being piloted by SyFy. 

But it’s all systems go at South Pacific because now we have another Lang and Griffin project (actually, so far, it’s most Lang) – The Blue Rose, a comedy crime drama that reunites two of Outrageous Fortune‘s female stars, Antonia Prebble and Siobhan Marshall, in a tale of vigilantism and office temp work. When office temp Jane (Prebble) discovers that Rose, the PA she is replacing, died under mysterious circumstances, she joins forces with Rose’s best friend Linda (Marshall) to get justice for Rose. Along the way, they find others who need their help – victims of fraud, theft and injustice – and soon Jane, Linda and a team of unlikely co-workers are taking on the corporate bullies, fighting for justice and using their unique powers for good. They’re not afraid to break the law in order to stand up for the little people, and every step takes them a little closer to uncovering what really happened to Rose.

It’s an odd combination of office politics and murder mystery with a very odd couple at its heart, but it just about works. Here’s a trailer:

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The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 2

Third-episode verdict: The Doctor Blake Mysteries (ABC1/ITV)

18 February 2013 Rob Buckley 15 Comments

In Australia: Fridays, 8.30pm, ABC1

In the UK: Will air on ITV. No air date yet

In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

Time to pass a judgemental eye over the first three episodes of ABC1’s Doctor Blake Mysteries, in which former Neighbours stalwart Craig McClachlan proves that’s he’s actually now a pretty good actor, while healing the sick and solving murders in a small town in Victoria, Australia, c1959. 

The first episode was pretty good, giving us all the elements of the show, including an intriguing and strong lead character, a decent supporting cast, a proper mystery that needed to be solved and some fine period details. Dr Blake was perhaps implausibly liberal, always on the right side of impending historic arguments, and the show really hammered that point home, but that was a minor niggle really.

Episode two was even an improvement, building up all the characters, giving us police beatings in a Life On Mars “things were different back then” style. The background to Blake and his days in military intelligence and Singapore was well handled (a call-out to McClachlan’s Heroes II?), and the final scenes with the Anzacs were actually very moving. We also got a little on the history of Luminol, which was a clever CSI touch that CSI has never brought up.

Which takes up nicely to episode three, which while otherwise excellent, was slightly undermined by a snigger-worthy murder weapon – an Asian pit viper – that our doctor was able to handle perhaps a little too easily and with perhaps a little too silly a directorial choice to indicate he was thinking about snakes.

Nevertheless, we once again had some good period details, ranging from the use of Australian pounds and the ubiquity of the vacuum salesman (the vacuum being an expensive household purchase) to attitudes towards homosexuality at the time. Again, Blake turns out to be on the right liberal side of the argument, but at least the show comes up with an explanation this time. We also again had a moving ending to the piece, this time between Blake and his housekeeper, which is becoming a touching love story of sorts.

As a piece, the show is a mix of the conventional murder mystery and historical commentary. As a murder mystery, it’s surprisingly good, being complex without being complicated, the eventual solution potentially guessable and Blake coming to his own conclusions without mysterious hunches at the last moment. It certainly beats the BBC’s Father Brown. 

Not being Australian, I can’t really say just how attentive to period detail the show is, and unlike Mad Men, say, it certainly has that knowing hindsight that enables everyone to come out likable and with modern day-compatible prejudices. But it still feels like the 1950s, from the cars and people’s attitudes to the stories themselves.

All in all, if you do like a historic murder mystery, then this is up there with the top of the current worldwide crop, including The Murdoch Mysteries, Whitechapel and Endeavour. One to seek out.

A trailer for NBC’s Hannibal Lecter series

18 February 2013 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Hannibal Lecter helps Will Graham to catch a serial killer is, of course, the plot to the great movie Manhunter. Now Bryan Fuller – who created Pushing Daisies and wrote a lot of the best episodes of Heroes – has created a prequel to that movie, showing how Hannibal used to help Graham on cases, before, of course, Graham had him locked up. It stars Mads Mikkelsen of Casino Royale fame as Hannibal and here’s a trailer. It’s going to air on Thursdays, 10pm EST on NBC, starting April 4 and be cancelled about three weeks afterwards, this being NBC n’all.

What do you think?