Charley says: Splink

Apparently, the Green Cross Code, with its mantra of ‘Stop, look, listen, think’, was a bit too hard for 1970s kids to remember. Dolts. Oh hang on, I was one of those. 

So to help us dolts out, in 1976, the Green Cross Code recruited Jon Pertwee to teach us all the obviously far easier to remember mantra of ‘SPLINK’, which stood for (can you guess?) ‘Stop at the Pavement, Look and listen, and If traffic is coming, let it pass. When No traffic is near, cross the road, but Keep looking and listening.’

There. Simple hey?

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Sleepy Hollow (Fox/Universal)

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, Universal. Starts October 9th

As you might expect for a show that relies so much on throwing the crazy out there, Sleepy Hollow is a somewhat hit or miss show, aiming for multiple targets in the hope that something will land. One moment it’s giving us an updating of the Ichabod Crane story, complete with Headless Horseman armed with a sub-machine gun; the next it’s all Omen-ish, giving us the Book of Revelations and Witnesses to the end of the world; the next we’re in Dan Brown conspiracy theory territory, with sects of witches running the US throughout the ages; the next we’re in Kolchak, Grimm, X-Files and Torchwood territory, with Ichabod, clad constantly in the same outfit he’s been wearing while buried in peat for the past 200 years, and his female partner investigate demons of the week against a heavy mythologised background.

The third episode did suggest that it might be finding more of an American Horror Story niche, exploiting old horror stories and American myths. It’s not a bad tack, given that to a certain extent the show is already based in American myth – the American revolution myth – the third episode giving us the interesting ‘fact’ that the Mohawks fought on the side of the colonists in the war, when actually they sided with the Crown and ended up getting shipped off to Canada by Washington after the war as a result. It would certainly be better than American Horror Story.

But beyond the occasional bit of frightening imagery, some good CGI, the central performance of Tom Mison, there’s not much to recommend the show. Supernatural has done all of this better, albeit crasser and less slickly. The really fun stuff seemed to have got burnt off in the first episode. The show drips with too much mythology already and we’re only three episodes in. It’s not a great show, even if it’s prone to having good moments.

Try it, see if you like it, but don’t expect too much of it.

Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: It’ll probably losers viewers over the first season and renewal will be touch or go. Might make it, might not, if it doesn’t do something to lift it out of the supernatural ordinary.

Film

That Airplane reunion you weren’t expecting

It’s been 30 years since Airplane hit the silver screen (they’d probably make a joke about). If you haven’t seen it, fix your condition immediately.

Anyway, to celebrate the anniversary, some of the cast got together. But it probably wasn’t who you thought were going to get back together. Because, you know, it was Airplane and all.

[via]

Tuesday’s “Paget Brewster’s Criminal Minds return, Breaking Bad’s good ratings and Thunderbirds have voices” news

Film casting

UK TV show casting

New UK TV shows

  • Cilla Black and Paul O’Grady to star in BBC1’s Led Astray
  • Rosamund Pike, David Graham, Sandra Dickinson et al to voice Thunderbirds remake

New UK TV show casting

  • Joanne Whalley, Shirley Henderson, Jessica Brown Findlay et al to star in BBC1’s Jamaica Inn

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting