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.
Website YouTube LinkedIn
US TV

CSI: Miami – Horatio’s in 18th Century love

3 May 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

He’s got the name for it, so why should it be so unexpected that CSI Miami‘s Horatio Caine is in love – 18th Century style.

Horatio in Love

Horatio’s just proposed marriage (sorry, UK viewer, but I just had to ‘spoil’ you there. Relax. You know exactly how it’s going to work out). Ah. How lovely. But do you think it odd that he’s proposed marriage to a woman he’s not even been seen to hug or kiss once? Her holding his arm (above) just after he proposes to her is the most intimate those two have got in the half-season they’ve been together.

Weird, huh? Now clearly actually having to show signs of affection would both stretch David Caruso’s ‘acting’ abilities and be a sign of weakness that all the other boys in the 10th grade would mock him for. In fact, it would be almost impossible for criminals to respect Caine if he’d actually been seen to kiss a woman.

But I think in this modern day and age, we could cope with the occasional embrace at least. At the moment, Horatio’s acting more like a creepy squire, marrying his young ward to inherit her estate, rather than a fiancé.

Still, at least they haven’t quite sunk to the level of Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, in which Sharon Stone runs around after her fiancé, the eponymous Allan Quatermain, shouting ‘Quatermain! Quatermain!’ (you’re going to get married, soon. Call him Allan, love). That would be bad.

News

I pity the fool who doesn’t watch this reality TV show

2 May 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Mr TGood old Mr T has just landed his own reality TV show. Apparently, he’s going to be a ‘Dr Phil’-like self-help guru who’s going to aid everyday people in their daily lives. Car salesman not meeting his quota? Mr T will help sort it out. Fabulous.

Also coming soon is Back to the Grind, in which actors get to do the jobs of the characters that made them famous. Top of the list is Erik Estrada from CHiPS, who’s going to be a California Highway patrolman. Go Poncherello, go!

News

Clash of the Titans remake is on the cards

1 May 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Clash of the TitansCracking news (or should that be ‘Kraken news’?): Warner Bros wants to remake Clash of the Titans. In case you don’t remember lump-of-wood Harry Hamlin’s first big break, this was a retelling of the classic Greek myth of Perseus and Andromeda, with all the magic of Ray Harryhausen added in for good effect(s).

I’ve fond memories of it, particularly since it was one of the last real stabs at doing Ancient Greece properly before the likes of Xena and Hercules morphed it into some cod-medieval Dungeons and Dragons setting. Plus who can forget the mechanical owl, Pegasus the winged horse and the ever-so-scary Kraken? Or Tim Piggott-Smith wandering around in a skirt?

My big fear is they’re going to do a Tristan & Isolde/A Knight’s Tale and try to make it more ‘contemporary’. Ugh. But who knows? They might do the right thing. I’m not expecting the unexpected (such as doing the whole thing in Ancient Greek, which apparently is something only ITV would be willing to do), and with Troy still lingering in the memory, my hopes aren’t that great. But funnier things have happened…

US TV

He may love Doctor Who, but he’s clearly never watched Sex and the City

30 April 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Sex And The City“Sex and the City. Write it like Sex and the City. Imagine it’s Samantha and Carrie arguing over a man.” Those, according to last night’s Doctor Who Confidential, were the instructions given to Toby Whithouse, the writer of last night’s episode of Doctor Who, by executive producer Russell T Davies on how to write Rose and Sarah Jane’s scenes together.

And thus is exposed the lie of another stereotype about gay men: that they all love Sex and the City. Here we have evidence of at least one that’s not really watched it at all.

RTD: you may love Doctor Who, but I have to tell you now, you clearly don’t understand Sex and the City.

I have through a process of osmosis, watched every single episode of the show and I’ve even been made to go on the Sex and the City tour in New York (which is really bad, so don’t go on it. The coach turned up three hours late for starters…), so I can tell you authoritatively that Samantha and Carrie would never fight over a man. Even in the pilot episode when they’re both after Big, there’s no fight. Sorry.

That could all have gone pear-shaped if Toby had followed your instructions.