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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US TV

Lost: We’re not in England anymore

15 February 2007 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Oh dear. There’s a stonking number of Brits and Australians* in the cast of Lost, aren’t there? So how come, when the show does its first proper flashback to England, they still manage to put together something that doesn’t even approach realism.

Not since the likes of The Fall Guy and other 80s classics of television have we been subjected to such tourist rubbish. UK viewers who haven’t seen the episode yet: I’m not spoiling you, I’m preparing you.

* Every single Australian over the age of 21 has been to London on a backpacking holiday at least once, so they could provide useful advice, too, I’m sure.

Continue reading “Lost: We’re not in England anymore”

Thursday’s post-Valentine’s news

15 February 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Get any heart-shaped chocolates?

Doctor Who

Theatre

Film

British TV

  • Oh no! Still no third season of Extras planned. Instead, a “drama based on an urban conspiracy theory”.

US TV

UK TV

Review: Life on Mars 2×1-2×2

14 February 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Lifeonmars21-1

In the UK: Tuesdays, BBC1, 9pm with the following episode on BBC4, 10pm

In the US: Coming to BBC America later in the year. With edits again, probably.

Characters re-cast: 0

Major characters gotten rid of: 1

Major new characters: 0

Format change percentage: 10%

It’s always a tricky thing reviewing Life on Mars. Can you praise/slag off an hallucination? Is it even an hallucination or is it regular drama with a sci-fi twist? Until the end of the series, we won’t know.

So I’m going to tread my way gingerly, here. First, I’ll lay my cards on the table and say I don’t think the first two episodes were quite as good as last year’s cracking crop. I think it’s now playing to the audience a bit too much and crosses from parody into self-parody a bit too often.

But let’s face it. It’s still bloody good fun.

Continue reading “Review: Life on Mars 2×1-2×2”

Love news?

14 February 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Love Valentine’s news.

Doctor Who

Film

  • There’s a look at M Night Shyamalan’s new script, The Green Effect. Wonder if there’s a twist at the end…

US TV

  • UK viewers: Haven’t already seen episode one of Heroes and want to see it now? The UK SciFi Channel is streaming it from its web site for free. You’ll need to register though.
  • The US military would like 24 to cut back on the torture.
  • Kevin Sorbo bitch slaps Sam Raimi over Hercules, Xena et al. Bitter? No…
  • Questions that will be answered in Lost this season (warning: spoilers for other shows):
    • Is Claire Jack’s half sister?
    • How’d Locke end up in a wheelchair?
    • What’s the link between the Others and Dharma?
    • What’s the deal with Jack’s tattoos?
    • What’s so special about Claire’s baby?
  • There are going to be video backstories of Lost‘s big four characters on the ABC.com web site, starting today. You’ll probably already have seen them, though.