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What did you watch on TV last week (w/e March 28)

29 March 2010 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

I’ve given up the ghost on The Bridge and Sons of Tucson. They’re not happening. But I did watch the following on TV last week.

  • Chuck: Bit rubbish actually, although it did have a few good moments, none of which unfortunately were Morgan. Oh, by the way – Buy More DIE DIE DIE.
  • Clash of the Gods: History Channel documentary on (predominantly) the Greek gods that was broadcast in August but which I’ve only just got round to watching. Turned off after 15 minutes because although it was mostly right, turfing out complete kack like “the first idea of Zeus we get in writing comes from Hesiod” is going to make me seriously doubt any factual information the show is trying to impart.
  • House: An enjoyable mystery to solve, but the Taub stuff was where it was at. Interesting to see House developing some kind of conscience.
  • Justified: Nice, but nowhere near as good as the first episode, which given they’re not using an Elmore Leonard short story anymore shouldn’t be too surprising, I guess. Wry, but without the decent character interaction between the goodies that the show started with.
  • Lost: That was pretty groovy. Those were, like, answers. Wow. Most of the episode was in Spanish. Wow. And wasn’t Nestor C just great?
  • Life Unexpected: Yey, Alexandra Breckenridge is back as a regular by the looks of this. For the first half of this, I was thinking, “God, this is some terrible soap opera style writing.” But by the end, everyone’s character trajectories were making me go, “Ah! Isn’t that sweet?” Yes, even Lux and Bug. What I will say though is there’s almost no point analysing this show. It’s just a bunch of characters who go in various directions with no real message to impart other than “being a parent is hard. Being a kid is hard. But everyone just tries to do the best they can.” Loved Baez getting together with Alex B, too – that seems the most balanced set of relationships. It does make me wonder where the show is going to go next, other than to break everything up again.
  • Parenthood: Quite a nice ep for Erika Christensen’s character, but the show is still lacking proper female interaction and indeed seems to have the message that “women only cause problems, even for other women.”
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Has mysteriously turned into an adult programme (in the true sense of the word), albeit it one with a potty mouth and a loving of soft-core sex and hardcore violence (that would be the other sense of adult, then). It’s actually a reasonable show now I’ve suspended my brain.
  • Supernatural: A so-so episode by Supernatural‘s usually high standards. Semi-poignant in places, but lacking real teeth.
  • 24: Well, it’s been cancelled now. Told you they left it too late. All the same, a cracking episode last week, with an episode-long fire fight. Yes, still as dumb as 24 planks, right down to the CTU agents who can’t do what they’re told so mess everything up. But great to see Katee Sackoff’s character finally proving that she hasn’t been a complete waste of our time, and to make it look like there was a reason for her stupidity for the last 12 eps.

But what did you watch?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might ge

What did you watch on TV last week (w/e March 14)

15 March 2010 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

I should have been watching a lot more TV than I did, last week. I’ve got the first episode of Canadian TV show The Bridge to watch, as well as the first eps of Sons of Tucson and BBC4 documentary Women. I’m also way behind on Archer and have the latest eps of Modern Family, CSI and Spartacus: Blood and Sand to watch, too.

The reason? Rome. I’ve been averaging an two to three episodes a day. It’s really very good. You should watch it if you haven’t already.

But here’s what else I did watch.

  • Chuck: Ooh, Chuck gets its heart back and in a ‘game changing’ episode. However, it’s one of those eps where you think, “Hang on, if the bad guys can do that, why haven’t they already done it in every single episode before this?” I do hope it doesn’t mean the end for Ellie and Awesome in the show though.
  • Community: Katherine Macphee was actually quite good and there were some good moments in the episode, but it didn’t have the zing of the previous week’s.
  • Cougar Town: Stuff happened. You know. Actually, a few good character touches, particularly around Ellie, but they should be giving Dan Byrd a whole lot more to do, and they seem to have forgotten the show is supposed to be about the difficulties a 40-something female divorcee might face when dating.
  • Lost: Good ending, and nice to see Ben get redemption in both realities, but felt like a filler ep again. Clearly, the Locke-Sawyer eps are going to the best ones this season.
  • Life Unexpected: It’s just going all over the place, here. I have no idea what they’re up to, and I’m not sure they do, too. But it’s still enjoyable enough.
  • Parenthood: A definite improvement over episode one, but something of a reboot, since now it’s trying to be funny. The Asperger’s element is actually very well handled, even if it has the US perspective of “this is a pathology” rather than something more adaptive and British. Erika Christensen’s “working” mom fight with the “stay at home” mom was entertaining and rang true. But the singular flaw to the show is the lack of female communication – the guys and their issues are the focus, and while the women have issues, they never get to talk about them with anyone, if at all, except with the guys. So you still have a male-centric view of the women’s issues, and the women’s issues then become issues for the men. We needs some BFFs here, please.
  • Pineapple Dance Studio: Possibly the most bizarre thing on TV at the moment. It looks like a reality TV show set in the eponymous West End dance studio (from which the clothing line gets its name), but between the semi-scripted, Fame-like dance moments, the OTT stars and Michael Buerk’s sarcastic, dry commentary, it’s impossible not to think it’s all some Chris Morris spoof. You really can’t tell if it’s real or not. Your gut says fake, but your mind says real. It’s so very weird.
  • 30 Rock: A good visual gag involving dubbing, but not really that funny this week.
  • 24: Just a glimpse, a mere glimpse of old Jack was enough to elevate this show above previous weeks’, but this was just horrifically dim stuff. And can we please just end the useless Dana sub-plot? You’re in the middle of a terrifying nuclear security threat to the United States. You work for US counter-intelligence as a computer operator. You’ve just managed to convince your boss not to prosecute you/fire you for negligence. How stupid do you have to be to pick up a call at 2.30am from an unknown number on your personal cell phone? Switch the bloody thing off!
  • Undercover Princesses: BBC3 has recruited real princesses from Uganda, Saxony and India, stuck them in a house in Chelmsford, given them jobs in offices, hairdressers and the like, and told them to find themselves a man within three weeks. In Chelmsford. I’m not exactly sure what the point of it is: surprisingly, some princesses are better than others at looking after themselves (even if they can’t work a broom or work out how to break an egg), but other than laughing at that, there’s not much to the show. The men aren’t appealing. No one has anything in common with anyone else. You might as well be watching a show in which a modern-day Belgian, fire-fighter and leopard tamer are sent back in time to 1625 and asked to find a goblet, some contemporary Lithuanian art and an original Shakespeare folio while holding down a job as silversmiths in Lincoln for all the use this serves.

But what did you watch?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might ge

What did you watch on TV last week (w/e March 7)

8 March 2010 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

Here’s what I’ve been watching:

  • The Bible: A History I really only tuned into this to see Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, but it became very apparent that Ann Widdecombe (sp?), who was trying to persuade us all that following the “10 commandments” was all we needed to have a happy life/society, couldn’t construct a coherent argument if her life depended on it, so it was all a bit of a waste of time. Realise I should probably have recorded the following week’s with my heroine Bettany Hughes talking about the women of the Bible instead.
  • Brian Sewell’s Grand Tour: My, what a load of self-congratulatory indulgence. Brian travels around Europe, following the route of those Brits who used to go on a “Grand Tour”. Basically, an excuse for him to go on holiday, since he really didn’t tell you anything useful. Worth it for his wonderful pronunciation of “peasant” though.
  • Burn Notice: That didn’t make a whole lick of sense, did it? Nice explosions, fun and good to see super-Michael can get hurt occasionally. But how did Simon’s super-plan make any sense whatsoever? Or the ending? Or anything else? So the season has basically meandered rather a lot, the Chris Vance plot being essentially worthless. But at least the end promises some possible formula changes next season.
  • Chuck: Good to see Chuck back, even if the budget cuts. As with all of Allison “producer whose name I can never remember”‘s scripts, this was one of the better eps, with more depth of characterisation for Sarah and Casey than we’ve come to expect. However, I’ve come to a disturbing conclusion: I really want to see more of Awesome and Ellie, rather than Sarah. What you going to do? It was also one of the most weapon-illiterate episodes of anything I’ve seen so far short of Torchwood. Someone needs to brush up on snipers before writing these things.
  • CSI: A 50-50 mix of good plot and bad plot. The whole country and western plot was relatively ignorable, offering nothing new, but the dead CIA operative explored new avenues for the show and gave us Will Patton again; it also hinted a new facets of MorpheusLaurence Fishburne and his dad that were pleasing.
  • Community: A welcome return to form with some great moments. More like that please.  
  • Cougar Town: Cougar Town is one of those shows that you watch, enjoy, but have absolutely no memory of afterwards. It’s TV bubblegum. But it’s fun.
  • HIccups: A new Canadian “comedy” show in which a woman who doesn’t fit in and ends up getting into fights visits a rather rubbish life coach. Failed to raise a single laugh in the first 10 minutes, despite everyone involved trying their absolute hardest to be wacky. Do not watch this show.
  • A Kick in the Head – Las Vegas: Alan Yentob’s history of Las Vegas was actually rather good at first, dealing with Native Americans, the Mob, the rise of “architainment” and all of Vegas’s peaks and troughs. Surprisingly, he managed to avoid being too sneery for a good portion of the show, and he was even able to embrace parts of Las Vegas as art. But the poor old Venetian took something of a hammering, and there was a general underlying hint that Yentob thought that Vegas was all “a bit much”. Informative, though, with some good interviews, including Penn and Teller.
  • Lost: Sayid’s back. Cool fights, nice crossovers in the flash-sideways, but what does it all mean? They killed the Japanese dude pretty quickly and in a surprising way. Why? Is Claire going to try to kill Kate (we can only hope)? I’m going to be needing some more answers soon.
  • Life Unexpected: They seem to stripping it down to its bare components now, removing almost all the characters they’ve introduced since the start of the season. Which is odd. It’s still proving enjoyable and the changes are making it a better show.
  • Modern Family: Possibly the second worst episode so far. Yet another one of those “men are stupid, women are great” eps that US sitcoms hurl in our directions every so often and make us want to hurl something back. Trouble is, it also means that the female characters end up unlikeable and less developed. What fears did the two women have to overcome this week? None. So they didn’t have to grow as people. Everybody else did, and their personalities were explored as a result.
  • QI: Isn’t it weird how less compelling QI is when you know something about the subject? I had the same experience when Stevie started talking about quantum mechanics a while back, and found myself saying, “Hang on. That’s not right.” This week, our Stevie tried his luck out on Laconic phrases – no Stephen, Laconic phrases did not originate during the Battle of Thermopylae and date back to at least the 8th century, and the one you’re talking about (“If.”) was actually given to Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Sigh. Illusion – broken.
  • Rome: A little late to the party here, I know, but this is clearly what Spartacus wants to be when it grows up so I thought I’d try the first episode to see what it’s like. Enjoying it a lot so far and if it holds up, I’ll buy the rest off iTunes – yes, I did get the whole first season out from Lovefilm, but I never watched it the whole year I had it. It’s got many of the same elements of Spartacus – Romans, fights, swearing, nudity, sex – except handled in an adult manner, thankfully.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Ah yes, talking of Spartacus, I decided to play catch-up. I’ve still an episode to go, but it’s still oddly compelling in that car-crash sort of way. But my, does it want to show you everything. We even had a scene in which naked John Hannah is compelled by naked Lucy Lawless to start screwing a naked slavegirl up ‘the starfish’ (I use euphemisms – Spartacus does not), while two other naked slave girls continue to minister to her. And they’re all in a bath together. Then, later on, naked prostitutes turned up for an orgy with the naked gladiators and they all frolicked with one another in every imaginable combination, while covered in wine. It’s all still very comic book and entertaining in an odd sort of way, clearly borrowing more and more from 300 with every episode. But there’s a growing intelligence to it when it’s not trying to be big and clever. It’s coming to Bravo, BTW, UK viewers. I wonder if they’ll be able to get away without editing it.
  • 24: Dear 24. Please stop sucking. Thank you.

But what did you watch?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might ge

What did you watch on TV last week (w/e February 28)

1 March 2010 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

Here’s what I’ve been watching – not much because of the Winter Olympics, it turns out:

  • Being Human: Nice ending to the season. Wasn’t expecting any of that, although Kemp going all mental was a bit silly. A whole lot darker than expected, too. And good to see where just about every plot thread went. Wonder if Whithouse and co are big fans of Ultraviolet, though.
  • Burn Notice: Surprise twists aplenty and a good storyline. Good to see Fi getting an examination of her back story, even if it didn’t go anywhere or go into much depth. Carlos Bernard’s Argentinian accent left a lot to be desired. Chris Vance’s storyline – as expected – went nowhere, but in a good way.
  • The Deep End: It’s over and nothing got wrapped up! Everything just sort of finished. Just to reiterate, virtually all the cast are very nice and need to get jobs elsewhere, even if the whole show was awful.
  • Lost: A Jack episode, but we didn’t all want to turn off. How mysterious and unexpected. Good to see Claire in action again, too.
  • Life Unexpected: This week’s slightly famous female guest star was that woman who played Dale Arden on Flash Gordon. So not that famous. A fairly clunky way to write out a character and as a moral for the episode – “women, whatever you do, lie in order to save your relationship” – seemed a strange choice.
  • 24: A terribly boring episode rescued by an almost acceptable final 10 minutes. But I’m sorely tempted to give up this season, because it’s just been so very, very dull.

But what did you watch?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might ge