Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
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.
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Meme of the week: Shows you’ve given up on

2 March 2009 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

Time is precious. There’s simply too much TV for any one person to watch. But sooner or later we all find some favourite shows that we’re prepared to sacrifice our time on, because we enjoy them – or because we have to review them and get paid for our sacrifice.

But no matter how good some shows start off, they often go to pot after a while or we find we simply don’t have the time to watch them any more.

So meme of the week is a quick question: which TV shows have you stopped watching recently and why?

I’ve just decided after five seasons that enough is enough and I’m not bothering with the mindless repetition, thin characterisation and rubbish plots of Numb3rs any more, except if they have a good guest star. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is on the back burner now, despite having terminators in it, since its silliness, derivativeness and pretension were getting up my nose. And I’m seriously considering giving CSI the chop, simply because I’m not invested in the characters any more.

How’s about you?

US TV

Vanishing Heroes Unmasked

2 March 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Heroes Unmasked will not be returning for Volume 4

Anyone else noticed that behind-the-scenes documentary Heroes Unmasked has disappeared from the BBC2 schedules? And that the BBC web site has said it’s not coming back for Volume 4?

Why’s that then, do you reckon? Plummeting ratings? Lack of interest…?

PS My eBay-purchased Heroes mousemat/mousepad smells of petrol. My hands now smell of petrol. I think there’s a lesson to us all there. But why is it that you can’t buy proper, authorised NBC mousemats/pads in the UK? And why won’t NBC even ship to the UK? Bah, and indeed, humbug. Excuse me while I go off and try to avoid naked flames.

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: The Vagina Monologues and Marie Claire

2 March 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Joanna Page

Bit of a brief Today’s Joanna Page today. But be prepared for an extensive one or two in the next fortnight.

Anyway, our Joanna’s appearing in The Vagina Monologues at the Wales Millennium Centre this week (anyone going?) and there’s a big interview with her about it over in thisissouthwales.co.uk. But she’s also doing a lot of work for Comic Relief, including appearing in a Marie Claire photoshoot. Here’s a behind-the-scenes vid of her, Stephen Mangan, Alison Steadman and her Fat Pig co-star Kevin Bishop at said photoshoot.