I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
ABC’s big new show for the Fall is Flash Forward, in which everybody in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and has visions of what their life will be like in six months’ time. Hmm.
It stars so many Brits it’s daft (Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, Jack Davenport) as well as the likes of John Cho and Courtney B Vance, though, so maybe it’ll be worth a look in. It’s also written by David Goyer (The Dark Knight) and Brannon Braga (almost every bad Star Trek episode ever written, and all the ones about time travel) so again, a difficult choice.
Probably only about three of y’all watch it, if that, but what did you think of the 80s flashback episode of Gossip Girl this week? Valley Girls (aka “obvious backdoor pilot for spin-off series”) wasn’t half bad, I thought: the present day stuff was relatively promising, after more than a few weeks of some real drek; and although the 80s stuff felt like it had been grafted on and had minimal relevance to the present day plot, “all this has happened before and will happen again; your parents were young once, and one day you’ll be parents, too,” was quite a fun point to make for younger viewers.
I’m not sure how well 80s Gossip Girl might stand up as a show, though. While the presence of ANDREW McCARTHY in a show set in the 80s was a stroke of genius and possibly worth the admission fee alone, none of the other characters felt that interesting, despite its obvious attempt to be The Breakfast Club. It’s basically backstory that was more interesting when mentioned in passing than writ large. And unlike Cold Case, Mad Men, and other shows with flashbacks, this felt more amazed by the decade it was recreating, overdosing on just about everything 80s in just a few seconds: quick – shoulderpads, leotards, MTV, old VHS players, more, more! But for a show aimed at a generation who never even saw a single year of the 80s, that’s probably excusable.
Loved the soundtrack though and a No Doubt reunion where they sing Adam Ant’s ‘Stand and Deliver’ is almost as appealing as ANDREW McCARTHY. Almost.
As a series, it’s not yet a cert and I can see why; the Melrose Place remake is apparently a shoo-in, however. Here’s the promo for it and you can probably catch it (if you’re quick) by visiting YouTube.
What’s the most tear-jerking movie you’ve ever seen and why?
Off the top of my head, I’d say The Shawshank Redemption, mainly thanks to the ending, but hows about you? If you want, you can name a TV show instead, but I can’t think of any TV shows that were specifically tearjerking – can you think of any?
As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.
