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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Tuesday’s “girls are soppy” news

9 October 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

Audio plays

  • Andy Serkis and David Warner to appear in adaptation of The Brightonomicon

Web TV

British TV

US TV

US TV

Questions and realisations from television last week: Everything

8 October 2007 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Street Hawk



Question: Why were most episodes of all the new and returning US shows better in their second week this year?

It’s quite a list of shows this season that had better episodes than their premieres: House, Heroes, The Unit, Big Bang Theory, Bionic Woman, and Moonlight. A few were about as good (Numb3rs, Journeyman) and there was one that was worse (Chuck).

But on the whole, the second episodes were better than the first. Which is odd, because as Ken Levine points out (thanks Toby!), normally the second episode of a series is rubbish or at least pretty bad compared with the first. So why is it that the second episodes have been so good this time round?

Realisation: Second episodes are the new first episodes, thanks to the demise of the “feature-length opening episode”. No spoilers for any current shows, I promise.

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UK TV

Sarah Jane’s Doctor Who reference count: number two

8 October 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Sarah Jane and the Doctor Who references of Doom
Number one was one of The Medium is Not Enough’s most popular ever entries, so without further ado, here’s the second ‘Sarah Jane’s Doctor Who reference count’ – your opportunity to spot all the clever references in The Sarah Jane Adventures to Doctor Who.

I haven’t yet watched today’s episode, part one of Eye of the Gorgon, so I can’t help out. But I hear the Sontarans might have been given a shout out by the SJA massive. Any others?

Monday’s rumour-tastic news

8 October 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

Theatre

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US TV

Review: 30 Rock 2.1

7 October 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

30 Rock

In the US: Thursdays, 8.30/7.30c, NBC

In the UK: Five, at some point, now they’ve finally bought the rights

Characters re-cast: 0

Major characters gotten rid of: 0

Major new characters: 0

Format change percentage: 0%

Number of Seinfelds: 20

There’s something about Jerry Seinfeld. Funny though his own series was, in other shows, he tends to destroy anything that’s good about the show. He’s just not a very good actor.

30 Rock, easily the funniest comedy of last year, even if it wasn’t a ratings smash, doesn’t need Jerry Seinfeld to be funny. In fact, bringing in Jerry Seinfeld makes it less funny. But it does need ratings, which is what Seinfeld can bring to a show, even with a guest appearance.

Trouble is, will he make people want to stay to watch the rest of the series, or does the reduction in quality he brings means his guest appearance will turn off the new viewers to what’s normally good show?

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