Archive: US TV

Archives of reviews about US TV

US TV

Review: Heroes 4×1-4×2

23 September 2009 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

 

In the US: Mondays, 8pm, NBC
In the UK: BBC2, the end of the year/start of next year

Well, as ‘please watch us again’ titles go, Redemption could hardly be bettered – and that’s what the latest volume of Heroes is called. Last season was something of a disaster creatively – at least volume 3, since volume 4 was pretty much a return to season one form – with the show haemorraging viewers for most of its run as a result.

So here we are again at the start of a season. As per usual, there are big hopes for the show. As per usual, it’s written by Tim Kring.

Oh bugger.

But actually, for a Tim Kring script, it’s really not that bad. In fact, in a whole lot of ways it was very, very good. But like Father Ted’s Ford Cortina, it seems that all the slight tapping on the bodywork hasn’t yet quite managed to get the show into shape.

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US TV

Review: Community 1×1

21 September 2009 Rob Buckley 20 Comments

Community

In the US: Thursdays, 9.30/8.30c, NBC

Smart comedies are hard to do. So hail to those who try their best to do smart comedies. Even bigger hails to those who manage to achieve it.

But sometimes you need to borrow an old formula to do it. There’s no shame in this if you can make it your own, though, which is what the creators of Community have done.

The name of that formula? Bill Murray.

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US TV

Preview – Bored to Death 1×1-1×2

16 September 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Bored to Death

In the US: Sundays, 9.30pm, HBO. Starts 20th September

Looking for the one – 30? (Manhattan)

Date: 2009-09-16, 7:36AM EDT

Nice looking, gentle, Jewish non-practicing Vegan, writer, stuck on second novel, just separated from girlfriend. Bored. Will offer services as unlicenced private detective to find missing persons, check on fidelity, etc, for $100/day. Looking for like-minded women for friendship, more? Must like pot, white wine, Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely.

  • Location: Nyc residents
  • it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 9376906382

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Fall TV previews: White Collar

16 September 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I’ve already given you some previews of the new shows coming to US TV this Fall (). However, there’s a lovely YouTube channel that collects together all the trailers for all the shows, including the returning ones, in one big, easy-to-navigate place. Perusing it, I found the following exciting trailer for a show that I haven’t really touched on yet: White Collar – a new show starting on the USA Network about an FBI agent and a conman who team up:

US TV

Review: Gossip Girl 3×1

15 September 2009 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Blair and Serena in Gossip Girl 3x1

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, The CW
In the UK: ITV2 again

When Gossip Girl first popped up on our screens, it had a certain something. Okay, it was aimed at teenage girls and was about ridiculously rich people having ridiculously privileged educations and behaving like spoilt brats. But it was sweet, it had its heart in its right, there were some decent male and adult characters, the dialogue was witty, and it was actually quite clever.

Over the next two seasons, it became the must-watch show for teenage girls and indeed older women, keen to find a Sex and the City replacement, as well as a few men. However, as it went on, things became a little sillier. Although the producers promised they weren’t going to make the same mistakes they made with The OC, it all started to go wrong. Ridiculous plots and sub-plots started to crop up (Jenny’s stab at a fashion business, for example); everyone started to play ‘musical boyfriends’, yo-yoing between them all without any real rhyme or reason; and soon the cast had forgotten it was a drama and began mugging it for all it was worth.

So have the producers taken advantage of the summer break to take stock, regroup and come up with some storylines that don’t want to hit your head against a wall at the stupidity of them all?

I’ll give you three guesses. You’ll only need one.

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