TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Believe (NBC/Watch) 1×1

13 March 2014 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

NBC's Believe

In the US: Sundays, 9/8c, NBC
In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Watch. Starts March 27th

There used to be a time when I’d look forward to a show that had the name JJ Abrams attached. Even to this day, Felicity has its fans and although Alias went to seed in the second season, it was a real gamechanger and made Jennifer Garner’s career. Lost cemented Abrams’ reputation, even if he had minimum involvement with it, as did Fringe – at least in some quarters.

But largely, Abrams’ reputation rests on those shows – and it’s a foundation of sand. Look over his CV, and even if you discard the pilots he made that never saw the light of day, such as The Catch, Anatomy of Hope and Shelter, you’ll see he’s mainly produced turkey after turkey. Remember Six Degrees, Undercovers, and Alcatraz? Almost Human wasn’t exactly a tour de force, and if you’re still watching either Revolution or Person of Interest, you have my sympathies.

So now I approach any TV show with Abrams’ name attached with a fair degree of caution. To a certain extent, that’s because Abrams’ playbook has become quite clear. He stocks up the pilot with a sci-fi or fantasy scenario, fills it full of random mysteries and questions that must be answered, adds a secret organisation with answers to these mysteries of the in-world universe that have no implications at all in the real world, adds in a few ‘wow’ moments, a few martial arts fights and then, over the course of the series, slowly ekes them out, adds more mysteries, before finally revealing the largely unsatisfying answers. Not always, but that’s usually how it goes, assuming they don’t get cancelled before they’ve had a chance to reveal all.

So behold Believe, Abrams’ latest show in which a mysterious organisation led by Agent Dale Cooper (sorry, Kyle MacLachlan) is hunting down a young girl with secret powers over pigeons. Yes, pigeons. Oh, she can do other things, too, like predict the future and read minds. How? Good question. She just can and she might change the world as a result, so the baddies want to control her.

However, there’s another secret organisation led by Delroy Lindo that wants to protect her. So they bust a wrongly convicted death row prisoner (Jake McLaughlin from the TV version of Crash) out of jail and put him in charge of protecting her… for the rest of his life. Not the best idea in the world, you might think, so why have they done that? Well, that’s a mystery. Kind of. But it all revolves faith and belief.

It sounds a bit rubbish, it is a bit rubbish, and with yet another central mystery of no real-world import, a secret organisation, etc, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was Abrams working by numbers. But, actually, it’s Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, Gravity) and Mark Friedman (The Forgotten) who are the creative forces behind it, so despite its Abrams-ness, there are a few quirks to it you might not have been expecting.

Like that it’s deliberately silly to the extent that the main baddie is worried she won’t be home in time for her mum’s birthday with all the child-hunting she’s got to do.

Here’s a trailer. It’ll tell you the answer to at least one of the mysteries mentioned above.

Continue reading “Review: Believe (NBC/Watch) 1×1”

US TV

Mini-review: Sirens 1×1-1×2 (USA)

12 March 2014 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Sirens (USA)

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, USA

2011’s Sirens was a rare comedy for Channel 4. Based on real-life accounts of life in the London ambulance service, the show was edgy and funny as well as dramatic.

As is the way of things, it was cancelled at the end of the first season, but even before then, Dennis Leary was looking to adapt it for the US. Three years in the making, here it comes, and despite Leary’s own edginess and experience on Rescue Me, this is largely an insipid piece, taking all the sharp edges and character from the original and replacing it with blokes winding each other up and swearing.

Rather than a nihilistic paramedic, his possible romantic interest female cop and best friend, his gay best friend, a Muslim newbie and the hospital counsellor who has to deal with them, we now have a slightly blokey but neurotic paramedic (Michael Mosley from Scrubs), his ex-girlfriend cop (Jessica McNamee from Home and Away), his black gay best friend (Kevin Daniels) and a newbie paramedic who lives at home with his parents (Kevin Bigley). Also along for the ride is the Old Spice Guy (Isaiah Mustafa) as McNamee’s new boyfriend, as well as a couple of female paramedics who hang around in scenes and laugh a bit, and an old black guy who talks to them like a counsellor but isn’t.

And then we just watch them drive around from accident to accident, winding each other up. But there are no Muslims or issues of faith, no gay hook-ups, no booty calls from more powerful women, no real characterisation beyond the surface level, no insight into life as a paramedic. It’s just blokes making bloke jokes and silly people with soda bottles up their bottoms, or people struck by lightning and who act strangely afterwards. Let’s laugh at the silly people.

If I had to pick anything of interest other than the always awesome Mustafa, it’s that there’s an openly black gay character not being camp and yet still talking about being gay in a US TV series, which is novel. Also, the swearing, when allowed free flow in the second episode, almost verges on The Thick Of It for imagination.

But largely, it’s a pretty bog standard comedy that’s short on laughs, the big appeal of which is blokes winding each other up. Watch it if that’s your thing, otherwise try to watch the original instead.

Here’s a trailer. It makes it look better than it is, largely by taking moments from the entire first season, rather than just the first two episodes.

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Mind Games (ABC)

12 March 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, ABC

Time to pass judgement on Mind Games, Kyle Killen’s latest foray into his two apparent obsessions – the mind and con artists – and Christian Slater’s latest foray into his apparent obsession with workplace dramedies, in which Leverage-style a bunch of psychologists, actors and con artists team up together to use mind control science to help life’s underdogs get what they want.

After a largely unremarkable first episode that excelled at practically nothing and was thrown considerably off balance by Steve Zahn’s central bipolar character, we’ve seen two episodes of the show trying to centre itself. As well as toning Zahn down to the point where he’s an almost bearable, teddy bear-esque character rather than an annoying scene-dominator, we’ve seen a minor reshuffling of characters, with one largely superfluous character being written out in favour of another character (Jamie Ray Newman) who largely fulfils the same function as Megalyn Echikunwoke’s character. No idea why they’ve done that, but the new character is at least an improvement on the previous, somewhat dull one.

We’ve also seen greater focus on the mind control science, which is at least interesting, and the third episode gave us both an interesting ethical challenge to the show’s entire concept as well as a worthy adversary using the same techniques as our good guys.

However, despite these improvements and individual moments that verge on the moving, it’s still largely an uninteresting show that foregoes any real challenges to the viewer, any real tension and any real intrigue in favour of feelgood minor laughs and hijinks interspersed with some misguided attempts to do a darker character dynamic between Zahn and Slater. It’s a shame really, because Slater is giving us some of his finest, Jack Nicholson-impression-free work, but his role in the stories inevitably is about his lack of ethics versus Zahn’s greater scruples, but with no real dilemma since Zahn is always right, Slater always wrong (and a bit evil, albeit well intentioned evil).

What the show really needs is guts, edge, focus and a much smaller character roster. But with Killen having offered all of those in his previous shows, only to have them cancelled after about five minutes, it’s small wonder he’s avoided them here. Unfortunately, as a result, he’s produced a show that rather than be good but cancelled before its time is probably not only going to be cancelled, but deservedly so.

Barometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Will be cancelled by the end of the season.

What have you been watching? Including Community, 19-2, Arrow, Hannibal and The Doctor Blake Mysteries

6 March 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV.

Typical, isn’t it? No sooner have I just about caught about with my previous backlog of viewing then I have to head off again, so I’m predicting a whole new backlog next week. Ho hum.

But after the jump, reviews of Almost Human, Enlisted, Helix, 19-2, The Americans, Arrow, Banshee, The Blacklist, Community, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Hannibal, The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, Moone Boy, Perception and True Detective.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Community, 19-2, Arrow, Hannibal and The Doctor Blake Mysteries”

US TV

Review: The Red Road 1×1 (Sundance TV)

6 March 2014 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Redroad

In the US: Thursdays, 9pm, Sundance TV

Sometimes, as I watch global TV from the vantage point of my extinct undersea volcano, I begin to feel a bit like Russell Crowe. Not good Russell Crowe like in Gladiator or Master and Commander but Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.

Making connections. Making connections everywhere. That’s me.

Case in point – yesterday, we had a look at Australian TV series Secrets and Lies, which stars Kiwi actor Martin Henderson as an everyday guy whose life takes an extraordinary turn for the worse when he comes across the dead body of a child while out running.

You might think the fact that it’s being remade by ABC in the US is the global connection. But no, because at precisely the same time, in the US, Martin Henderson is an everyday guy whose life takes an extraordinary turn for the worse when someone else comes across the body of a child. The only difference in this regard between Secrets and Lies and Sundance TV’s The Red Road is that Henderson is a house painter in the first story, a cop in the second.

But that’s not connection enough. Because in Secrets and Lies, Henderson takes his top off – a lot. Which would be nothing except for the fact that in The Red Road, which is set in the Ramapo Mountains in New Jersey and involves the Ramapough Mountain Indians, Jason Mamao is an ex-con Indian who knows about the kid. Jason Mamao, as we all know, started his career on Baywatch: Hawaii and Stargate: Atlantis, before achieving greater fame on Game of Thrones and from there, Conan. And he’s very famous for taking his top off – in fact, he’s so well known for it, he’s actually sick of it and turned down a lead role in Guardians of the Galaxy because he’d have to take his top off a lot in it.

Coincidence? I think not. It’s all part of some greater puzzle I can’t quite see yet.

As for the show itself, The Red Road, like Sundance first’s scripted effort Rectify before it, is a slow burn. A very slow burn. It takes an awful long time before anything happens in it, instead largely consisting of Henderson dealing with his alcoholic almost ex-wife and his teenage daughter, who’s taken up with Mamoa’s teenage brother, something Mrs Henderson doesn’t like at all.

Mamoa drives around a lot, growls a lot and is actually surprisingly good for someone who normally just has to take his top off; meanwhile, Henderson just has to look pained a lot and upset that everyone is being a colossal dick to him while he tidies up their messes. His accent’s a bit wobbly, too.

However, once ’the incident’ occurs, the show does pick up considerably, and the relationship between Mamoa and Henderson, which doesn’t exist until the end, is likely to prove the lynchpin of the whole piece. I’m going to hold off until episode two before saying whether it’s more than just a slightly more realistic depiction of modern Native American life than Banshee offers. It’s certainly got potential and it goes along a greater clip than Rectify did (thankfully).

Does it really do anything new or take us to any good places? Not yet. But it might.