TV reviews

A complete archive of The Medium is Not Enough’s reviews of TV programmes since 2005

Star Trek: Picard
US TV

Review: Star Trek: Picard 1×1 (US: CBS All Access; UK: Amazon)

28 January 2020 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, CBS All Access
In the UK: Fridays, Amazon

What do you want in a revival show – new stories or old stories? It’s a question particularly relevant to science fiction TV, which often has legions of fans particularly keen on deciding what’s good and what’s bad according to a set of rules they’ve devised that normally involve the word ‘canon’.

We’ve seen it repeatedly with the likes of Doctor Who, which chose initially to be as mainstream as possible when it was revived in 2005, by avoiding mentioning anything much to do with the show’s past in case it was perceived as being too nerdy.

Jamie McShane, Patrick Stewart and Orla Brady in Star Trek: Picard

Let’s look that up

Star Trek: Picard, on the other hand, is going straight in with the nerd fodder. The show resurrects Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s most popular character, 14 years after he’s retired from Starfleet because he believes it’s become morally bankrupt – thanks to events that happened asa result of the movie that killed the franchise roughly 18 years ago, Star Trek: Nemesis.

Retired to his family’s French vineyard where he can speak bad French to his dog and have some migrant Romulans with Irish accents as live-in staff/egalitarian help-mates, Picard is nevertheless dreaming about Commander Data still. Or maybe it’s B4.

Then up pops a girl (Isa Briones) with superpowers (of a sort) who has been dreaming of Picard, but doesn’t know why (or even who he is), and whom various dark suited people with guns have been trying to abduct or kill – but doesn’t know why. And then it turns out that Data was painting pictures of her 30 years previously.

What’s going on? Will it be enough to lure Picard back into action? And how much of it will need hyperlinks to Wikipedia for normal people to understand what’s going on?

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Outmatched
US TV

Review: Outmatched 1×1 (US: Fox)

27 January 2020 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7:30c, Fox
In the UK: Not yet acquired

The trouble with not being a genius – at least if you’re a writer writing about genius – is by definition, you’re not smart enough to work out what it must be like. Sherlock Holmes can imagine himself into the minds of lesser people; lesser people cannot imagine the thoughts of Sherlock Holmes.

Hence Elementary.

Interestingly, what seems to happen as a result is that the lesser people – let’s call them writers – imagine there must be a fundamental problem with the genius that renders them in some way lesser to the writers. The writers become the geniuses, as do their audiences.

This common failure of imagination usually manifests itself in the idea of inferior social understanding. Gosh, smart people must be really bad with other people who aren’t as smart as them, hey? Men, women, boys, girls – they may know one end of a microscope from another but can they tell when someone’s upset with them? No, of course not. Not like us regular, writer types.

Witness Numb3rs and Scorpion, for example. And now Outmatched.

Continue reading “Review: Outmatched 1×1 (US: Fox)”
Medical Police
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Medical Police, Avenue 5, Little America and Everything’s Gonna Be Okay

22 January 2020 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Miracle Workers

This week’s reviews

We’re entering week three of TMINE’s coverage of the Spring 2020 season and still the new shows keep coming, with a deluge set to hit in February. So far this week, I’ve covered the first episodes of 68 Whiskey (US: Paramount) and 9-1-1: Lone Star (US: Fox).

But there’s more to come after the jump as I look at the first episodes of Avenue 5 (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic), Medical Police (Netflix), Little America (Apple TV+), and Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (US: Freeform). And although it’s not a new show, since it’s such a big change from the first season, I’ll also be considering season two of Miracle Workers (US: TBS; UK: Sky Comedy).

Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens

What’s coming next

Looking ahead, coming in the next week, I’ll be covering Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens (US: Comedy Central), Outmatched (US: Fox) and Star Trek: Picard (US: CBS All Access; UK: Amazon).

And tomorrow’s Orange Thursday will be reviewing Knives Out (2019) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).

Lincoln Rhyme: God Complex
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector

The regulars

The regulars list remains small but is still growing. Joining Evil and Stumptown this week are new shows 9-1-1: Lone Star, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector and The Outsider. Will any of them make it to week three?

Find out more after the jump.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Medical Police, Avenue 5, Little America and Everything’s Gonna Be Okay”
9-1-1: Lone Star
US TV

Review: 9-1-1: Lone Star 1×1 (US: Fox)

20 January 2020 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

In the US: Mondays, 8/7c, Fox
In the UK: Not yet acquired

Spin-offs are a funny old game. You can either do more of the same, just in a different location, or you can do something completely different. The former risks being boring, cannibalising your own ratings and ultimately not attracting anyone new to the show; the latter risks ostracising your existing viewers while not recruiting anyone new.

In the world of procedural TV, the limits are even more restrictive. A cop show is a cop show is a cop show, no matter where you go, so you have to find room to manoeuvre elsewhere.

So kudos to 9-1-1: Lone Star for being brave and different – and making a clean break of it. Sure, just like 9-1-1, it’s still all about the emergency services, focusing on paramedics and firefighters, but as the name suggests it’s set in Texas, and it has no characters in common with the original show. It also has a more famous cast.

More importantly, unlike its predecessor, it’s at least half comedy, that comedy being Parks & Recreation.

9-1-1: Lone Star
Rob Lowe in ITV’s 9-1-1: Lone Star

9-1-1: Lone Star

The story revolves around fancy pants New York firefighter Rob Lowe (last seen starring in the oddly similar show Wild Bill on ITV). Now, already you’ve probably done a double-take and wondered “fancy pants New York firefighter? Since when have they ever been fancy pants?”

Bear with me. All will be explained.

Cityslicker Lowe was one of the first responders to 9/11 and he was forced to rebuild his team of firefighters from scratch following that tragedy. This makes him a figure of interest to the Austin, Texas, fire department, when a tragedy befalls their firefighters. Needing someone who also ‘gets’ diversity – mainly to avoid lawsuits but also because Austin ain’t what it used to be – they invite Lowe down to work his magic, which Lowe agrees to once he learns he has cancer.

Gay, addict son in tow, Lowe starts to reform the department in his new town, recruiting Latinos, transmen and Muslim women Instagram stars from all over the country – and they aren’t just diverse, they can also get the job down. Making things even more alluring to Lowe is the fact the captain of the paramedics is none other than Liv Tyler. Will romance bloom? And can Austin take Lowe and his ‘Gucci loafers’?

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68 Whiskey
US TV

Review: 68 Whiskey 1×1 (US: Paramount)

20 January 2020 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm ET, Paramount
In the UK: Not yet acquired

The army has become a Hallowed Thing in the US in the past 30 years or so. Maybe it’s a backlash agains the attitudes to Vietnam and those serving in it that spawned numerous scathing dramas and comedies in cinemas and on TV. Whatever the cause, whenever a new TV US show turns up about the army, it’s rarely ‘all knives out’ these days.

Certainly, it’s hard to imagine M*A*S*H lasting 11 seasons and getting 125 million viewers for its final episode now. Soldiers having relationships with one another? Soldiers trying to get discharged for wearing women’s clothing? Inconceivable.

And you can tell that not pure conjecture on my part by looking at the reaction to 68 Whiskey, an adaptation Yes (Israel)’s Charlie Golf One that it is pretty much a M*A*S*H for our times. Or at least something that tries to be.

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