Month: February 2013

Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: The Doctor Blake Mysteries 1×1 (ABC1/ITV)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

The Doctor Blake Mysteries

In Australia: Fridays, 8.30pm, ABC1
In the UK: Will air on ITV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

If you’re from the UK and of a certain age – your 30s or 40s – you’ll remember Craig McClachlan: he was Henry on Australian soap opera Neighbours, back when anyone who was anyone watched it.

So popular was he in the role, that he was enticed over to the UK to star in BBC1’s Bugs, a fun bit of escapism masterminded by The Avengers‘ Brian Clemens that was thoroughly enjoyable until a bunch of people who’d written some Doctor Who New Adventures novels decided they wanted to make it proper sci-fi and robbed it of any or all enjoyable qualities in its second series.

One thing that McClachlan didn’t really demonstrate in either of those two shows was the ability to act. In fact, he was largely only notable for his haircut and huge pectoral muscles, and that was about it.

Craig McClachlan in Neighbours

So colour me surprised by The Doctor Blake Mysteries, a new Australian crime series set in small Victoria town in 1959 and which stars McClachlan as the eponymous Doctor Blake. Because not only is the show itself really rather decent, but McClachlan – as well as not taking off his top once – seems to have matured into “one of Australia’s favourite and most versatile actors” during the past 20 or so years.

Here’s a trailer.

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Canadian TV

Review: Seed 1×1 (City TV)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Seed

In Canada: Mondays, 8:30pm ET/PT, CityTV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

There are two things that are hard with Canadian comedies. The first is to hate them. They’re so well meaning and liberal and nice. Even what could be a mean-spirited show like Seed – in which a 30something, womanising slacker bartender whose sperm-bank-generated teenage progeny turn up in his life looking for their oblivious father – still manages to be endearing, despite numerous stereotypes about lesbians, dominating career women, liberal middle-class couples, black lesbians, single 30something women, single 30something men, men in general and others. It’s just so gosh darn… nice.

The other thing that’s hard with Canadian comedies is to laugh. The country as a whole has a track record that includes Kids In The Hall and The Newsroom and has filled the entertainment world with so many famous, talented comedians (most of whom you probably don’t realise are Canadians), it would be impossible to list them all. But modern Canadian comedy shows are largely exemplified by the likes of the horrifically unfunny 18 To Life, Men With Brooms, Hiccups, InSecurity, Good Dog and The Line.

And so it is with Seed, a show that’s amiable and trying really hard to be funny, but which ultimately fails to raise more than a wry grin and an “Awe, isn’t that nice?” out of the whole affair.

Here’s a trailer for the first episode, the aptly titled Ill Conceived, followed by a trailer for the rest of the season:

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The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: The Following (Fox/CTV/Sky Atlantic)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
In Canada: Mondays, 9/8c, CTV
In the UK: Tuesdays, 10pm, Sky Atlantic

Well, it’s something of a turnaround for The Following, Fox’s new thriller in which former FBI agent Kevin Bacon chases after the serial killer followers of Edgar Allan Poe-loving serial killer James Purefoy. After a dismal and disgraceful first episode that offered virtually nothing new to the genre beyond a decent cast, the second episode was a huge surprise: a fixer-upper that got rid of bad characters, removed much of the sadism and misogyny that permeated the first episode, gave us characterisation and relationships where there was once just emptiness, and added a degree of meta-ness that gave the show an extra level. It still wasn’t brilliant, but it was at least promising.

Episode three is perhaps a course-correction too far, because although once again it was trying to fix some of its existing problems and to add more depth and plausibility to the characters and concepts, the show struggled to be interesting as a result. All the plot revelations, including the two supposedly big shocks but also the minor ones that peppered the episode, could be seen coming a mile off and they made the FBI look like total morons as a result.

The show as it stands now is veering towards watchable and interesting. Unfortunately, much of that interest is in the flashbacks to Purefoy’s original capture, rather than the more ludicrous present day machinations of his minions. It might be worth your viewing time, if you like the serial killer and thriller genre, but I’m bowing out now, since although Purefoy and Bacon are great to watch, the show itself still hasn’t worked out a real killer attraction.
Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Should last until the end of the season at least, and could even go for longer.

BFI events

What TV’s on at the BFI in March 2013

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Mind of Evil

Now that the BFI has finally sorted out my membership, I can once again say that it’s time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of March 2013. This month, as well as the continuing celebration of Doctor Who, which reaches the Pertwee years and a colour-restored version of The Mind of Evil, there’s a short season of TV programmes featuring monologues by the likes of Bernard Cribbins, Tom Baker and Alan Bennett, who’ll be there in person, a documentary on The Wizard of Oz, and a Flipside looking back at how the underground scene of the 1960s was depicted on TV.

Groovy.

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