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

The Heist hijacks more genres than you could shake a stick at

4 April 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Heist

Scottish boy Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible 2, Ever After) has landed himself his own series in the US. It’s not brilliant, but it’s not half bad.

Exec-produced by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mrs and Mrs Smith, Go), Heist has much in common with Liman’s other work as well as with many other genres. Scott plays a jewel thief with the cracking plan of robbing every jewellery store on Rodeo Drive in the US on the same night – Oscar’s Night. Its dialogue makes more than a few passing nods to Tarantino and Guy Ritchie and the plots are just as implausible. There’s a female cop chasing after Scott, with whom he tries to strike up a romance, for just a hint of Out of Sight. And there’s more than a few nods to the con jobs of Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible.

But despite being about as derivative as they come, there’s still a certain sparkle to the show. Scott, despite his fake American accent, is a compelling lead and his burgeoning relationship with the lady cop does have some chemistry, at least. The dialogue may not bear the full stamp of Tarantino approval, but it’s still amusing enough. And the various contrivances of the plot aren’t as staggeringly obvious as they might have been.

Worth watching for a couple of episodes at least.

UK TV

Review: A for Andromeda (UK: BBC Four)

3 April 2006 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

Wow. I know A for Andromeda was on a week ago, but I’ve only just got round to watching it. To rephrase a famous quote from 2001/2010: “My God. It’s full of arse.”

I can’t believe how mind-numbingly dull it was. Seriously, how do you compress six episodes of an old serial down into an hour and a half and still produce something so unbelievably tedious?

There was a good plot in there, trying to get out. I could see it. It had some nice moments and occasional touches of atmosphere. There were even some good actors. But direction and script? Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Fair enough that the original wasn’t much cop, but it still had some interesting ideas in there. With a bit of nurturing we could have something really worthwhile. But we didn’t.

So, it looks like this might be the last of the BBC4 “classic” remakes, then. So much for The Road: I was really hoping they could redo that, given it’s been wiped from the archives and it’s got one of Nigel Kneale’s finest scripts behind it. But on this performance, I’m guessing we won’t be seeing much more in a similar line from BBC4, especially with FictionLab given the shutdown orders.

Can’t believe that’s an hour and a half of my life wasted, as well as my childish enthusiasm totally dashed. There is no Santa Claus, after all.

Five picks up on the House/Sherlock Holmes parallels

3 April 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Glad to see someone eagle-eyed and literate at Five’s trailers department has spotted the more obvious Sherlock Holmes allusions in House, and is bigging them up in the trailers. I say eagle-eyed because they spotted that House lives at 221b – no, that wasn’t CGI. He really does live there – which wasn’t the easiest tribute to spot unless you’re watching closely.

But we’re still playing catch-up with the US and over the last couple of episodes, the Holmes allusions have been getting stronger. We’ve now seen Wilson move in with House and bring his housekeeper with him. So that’s House and Wilson living together at 221b. With a housekeeper. Hmm.

Incidentally, Holmes tributes are not the only kind of homages that House‘s production team makes. Keep your eyes open for House’s Tivo settings. You’ll notice he’s dead keen on Blackadder…

Please, please explain the Green Wing thing to me

2 April 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

I really want to like Green Wing. I like the cast. I like the writers. Everyone seems to like it.

But I’ve watched three episodes of the first series and Friday’s episode of the latest series and I’ve barely laughed once. I simply don’t find it funny. I must be missing something. So could someone please, please, please explain to me what I’m missing, so I can join in?

Thanks.