TV reviews

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

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 1

Third-episode verdict: 19-2 (Bravo)

13 February 2014 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

In Canada: Wednesdays, 9e/6p, Bravo

Time to pass verdict on 19-2, Bravo Canada’s English-language remake of the French Canadian show, 19-2. Canada’s combined answer to Southland, it follows two cops, one a veteran, one a ‘rookie’ from the countryside, as they patrol the mean streets of Quebec, facing all kinds of problems, ranging from gangs to annoyed Chinese restaurant owners to superior officers and police politics to their own personal demons. 

Now, the first episode was somewhat cliched, full of situations you’ll have seen before, resolved in the ways you’d expect, and with characters and dialogue no more original than that. However, since then, things have improved decidedly. While it’s hard to actually like any of the characters, the show has now taken them all in reasonably original directions and fleshed them out, giving them nuance, so they no longer fit the comfortable boxes into which the first episode slotted them. The plots have also started to become more unexpected, with aspects of both the season arcs and the episodic arcs taking turns you probably couldn’t see coming. In particular, the domestic violence thread in the third episode was both harrowing and challenging.

It’s not an easy show to watch, not quite having the right amount of humour to make the misery of the show bearable, although by the third episode, our two colleagues have at least started to have some fun moments together, rather than constantly hating each other. There’s still enough cliches bubbling under the surface to make you groan when they rise to the top (of course the tough (only) female cop turned out to be gay). The ensemble cast don’t quite gel yet, either, and the dialogue doesn’t exactly sparkle.

But all the same, 19-2 is a compelling show and certainly the finest cop show, if not drama, that Canada’s produced in a long time. One to watch.

Rating: 1
Rob’s prediction: Should run for a good long time

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: Rake (US) (Fox)

12 February 2014 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: The Universal Channel.

Time to cast our eyes over the first three episodes of Rake, Fox’s lacklustre attempt to remake Australia’s popular show about a rogue lawyer who’s gone off the rails a bit (Richard Roxburgh as the eponymous Rake) by diluting it down to the point of non-existence and casting Greg Kinnear as the not-eponymous Keegan Deane. 

This is what it should look like:

This is what it actually looks like:

As a show, it just sort of exists. It’s not especially fun. It’s got almost nothing interesting to say about the legal system. Rake’s Deane’s flaws, including gambling addiction, aren’t really terrible and no one really does anything to him (goodies or baddies) as a result of the thefts, deceptions, etc, he commits, so they just seem like harmless quirks. Greg Kinnear is woefully miscast as Deane, not having the charm or ability to portray the darkness of character needed for the role.

So all it is is 40 minutes or so of Kinnear running around being mildly annoying to people, mildly unreliable and mildly incompetent as a lawyer. Despite the occasional guest actress (Alex Breckenridge in episode two) or guest star (Tony Hawks in episode thee) doing their best to enliven proceedings, they’re always better than the show itself and nothing about any regular aspect of the show makes you want to watch it, unless you’re desperate for a screen saver on your TV and can’t be bothered to stump up for one of those fireplace DVDs.

Avoid.

Barrometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will be cancelled before the end of the season

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: The Musketeers (BBC1/BBC America)

4 February 2014 Rob Buckley 17 Comments

In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, BBC1
In the US: BBC America. Will air in late Spring

So we’re three episodes into The Musketeers, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic The Three Musketeers so embarrassingly low in its ambitions, it decided to leave out the ‘Three’ in case people were confused by there being four heroes. Originally aimed at filling the gap in between seasons of Doctor Who, it’s had all the narrative sophistication of Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds without the charm, characterisation, acting talent or fidelity to the original.

For the first two episodes at least, we’ve been treated to junior league antics, with a collectively poor bunch of actors (honourable exceptions: Peter Capaldi and Santiago Cabrera) prancing around Prague in leathers, sword-fighting like they’re still seven and playing at being Jedi in their back gardens. You’d have been hard-pushed to distinguish most of the characters from one another, such was its bland uniformity, and without their names, the occasional reference to France and the musketeers, you’d have been even harder pushed to realise what the source material for the series was.

Things changed considerably for the better on Sunday, though, where despite the presence of Gaius Baltar himself (James Callis), hamming it up something chronic as a pirate/trader, the show decided to take a turn for the serious and to dust off its moth-eaten copy of Dumas’ original to actually flesh out some of the characters, as well as do some of its own inventing. So at last we get some of Athos’ back story and Cabrera gets to show off his Spanish. The history of the period became something more than just a head-nod in between anachronisms and actually got to be an important plot and character point: Porthos, whose non-whiteness had until now been ignored and used mainly as a combination of colour-blind casting and an acknowledgement of the non-white Dumas, was revealed as the son of a former slave and his experiences of slavery were used to good effect to contrast with the then-legal practice of slavery that even a cardinal of the church could indulge in.

Unfortunately, despite the general hugely improved script quality of the episode compared with its predecessors’, the show’s structural flaws were still there for all to see. As well as the blatant fact the show isn’t filmed in France or have any real French qualities at all, the poor acting, and everything else, it’s about 20 minutes too long per episode. So even though the show was allowed to breath a little and to actually give some qualities to the musketeers for us to care about them, after a while, every scene ended with the surprise that there was yet another scene afterwards that you’d have to sit through to get to the end of the episode.

It’s not a great show – indeed, in combination with the likes of Atlantis and other “original British dramas” (which all seem to be adaptations, incidentally), I’ve been getting conditioned of late to hate anything that’s British and a drama, knowing it’s largely going to be a waste of my time and an insult to my intelligence – but this third episode did make me think there was hope in sight and the show might be worth watching by the end of the season. However, the fact they’re now going to have to write Peter Capaldi out of the series for the second season makes me think that even if I do get to the end of this season, there won’t be much point.

Barrometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will probably get another season but no more, and the departure of Capaldi might be sufficient pretext for the BBC to cancel the show if ratings continue to drop.

What have you been watching? Including Helix, Rake, The Bridge, Olympus Has Fallen and Enlisted

3 February 2014 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

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.

I’m only slightly behind on shows now, having not found the energy to endure last night’s Three Musketeers. Apart from that, though, I’m back up to speed, which is nice.

Shows that I’ve been watching but not really recommending:

Enlisted (Fox)
Brandon Routhe arrived, which was good; the lack of true “losers triumph” ending was welcome after the pilot’s initial venture into that unwelcome terrain; a slight drop off in dialogue and laughs, though. Generally good, though.

Helix (SyFy/Channel 5)
Swiftly becoming less of a sci-fi show with horror aspects, than a horror show with sci-fi aspects, the last two episodes haven’t had the smarts of the first three episodes, but it does feel like the show is righting itself. We still largely don’t have a dicky bird as to what’s going on, but with a death rate among the regulars that’s going to leave us with a cast of zero by episode 10, I imagine secrets will have to emerge soon.

Rake (Fox/Universal Channel)
Not even the presence of Alex Breckenridge could elevate this to anything more than mildly diverting. Greg Kinnear is just so wrong for this show.

The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
Oh gods, another breakout. Just don’t care any more, so even though it’s got the girl from Spy Kids in it now (Alexa Vega, and I don’t want you to feel old or anything, but she’s 25 now), I’m giving up. Oddly, I’ve only just noticed that with Stephen’s dad being called Roger, and Jedekiah being called Price, that’s an obvious reference to Roger Price, the creator of the 1970s TV show.

And in the recommended list:

Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Generally, some excellent moments, interspersed with some very stupid moments. The fights are back, too. Yay!

Banshee (Cinemax)
As with the previous week’s episode, a good look at both Amish and Native American cultures, this time giving Sheriff Hood a chance to do some proper kicking. Still a bit silly, but definitely dialling back on the more blatant and silliest bits.

The Bridge (BBC4)
Overall, a definite improvement on the second season, with some excellent character moments for the two leads, particularly Saga. The last episode did veer the show into more ridiculous, Bond villain territory, some of which made no sense at all, though, but otherwise excellent work all round. Intriguingly, Martin’s storyline has edged close to that of The Bridge (US)’s equivalent character. Looking forward to season three.

Community (NBC/some random UK channel)
Nathan Fillion turned up, to not much effect, but a funny episode with many clever moments.

Cougar Town (TBS)
Not a laugh in the entire episode. Potentially on the death list now.

Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
A largely generic story. Is it just me or is Watson now more like the Sherlock Holmes of the books than Holmes is?

And in movies:

Olympus Has Fallen
Well, we watched White House Down last week and since this was on Netflix for free, we figured why not watch this, too, since it’s basically the same movie: secret service agent has to do Under Siege in the White House and save the President from a bunch of baddies. Here, we have Gerard Butler as the agent, Aaron Eckhart as the President, Morgan Freeman as the speaker of the house, having to deal with some Korean terrorists. And surprisingly, it’s a much better movie for the first three-quarters of its run, giving us better action, more excitement and more plausibility, all played straight. Unfortunately, it’s the final quarter that lets the movie down, as the action shifts from merely saving the White House to saving the entire world. A few Greek myth references (Olympus, Cerberus, Hydra) fail to help, too, and the excellent Ashley Judd gets discarded in the first 10 minutes.

“What have you been watching?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

Canadian TV

Review: 19-2 (Bravo)

3 February 2014 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

19-2

In Canada: Wednesdays, 9e/6p, Bravo

Canada is, of course, a country of two languages: English and French. Now, while English-language TV in Canada underwent something of a renaissance in recent years, quickly followed by a dip as a cut in government funding for the CBC killed off a number of more expensive shows, French-Canadian shows continued to do well. In fact, they’ve been proving a valuable source of material for the English-language networks, which have been adapting some of the more popular shows: Sophie and Rumours have already hit the airwaves, Unité 9 is on the way on CBC, and now we have 19-2, based on the original 19-2. Easy to translate that one.

It’s certainly a good choice for a remake, easily one of the best cop dramas English-language Canada has produced, recently – although that’s not hard, admittedly, given competition such as Motive and Cracked. In a lot of ways, it’s Canada’s answer to Southland, with 19-2 the call sign of the cop car driven by our heroes – a ‘rookie’ (he’s not really, but everyone calls him that) and a grizzled veteran – exploring the streets of Montreal and coming across gritty, real-life problems both big and small, action-packed and funny, that they have to solve, before coming back to the precinct to face the admin, politics and their fellow cops.

Here’s a trailer, followed by the first five minutes or so.

Continue reading “Review: 19-2 (Bravo)”