TV reviews

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

US TV

Mini-review: The Michael J Fox Show 1×1-1×2 (NBC)

27 September 2013 Rob Buckley 2 Comments


In the US: Thursdays, 9.30/8.30c, NBC

It’s surprisingly hard to say what The Michael J Fox Show is about. Is it about Michael J Fox, you might wonder? No, it’s about a former TV news anchor called Mike Henry who’s played by Michael J Fox. But at the same time, it’s also about Michael J Fox, since Henry quit his job after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, just like the actor. Then NBC (in the form of The Wire‘s Wendell Pierce) goes to Fox – sorry, Henry – and asks if he’d like to come back. So he does. Just like the actor.

So it’s a show about TV journalism then? Well, no, because the first episode is largely a public information film about Parkinson’s, its effects, what it’s like to have it, the side-effects of its medicines and so on. While at the same time reassuring everyone that even if someone has Parkinson’s, they can still do their job.

So it’s a show about Parkinson’s then? Well, no, again, because the show is also about Fox – sorry, Henry – and his family: his wife, his daughter and his two sons. Most of the second episode thinks it’s Modern Family, with the kids up to various anctics involving mistaken lesbianism and trying to hit on girls, while Henry gets a crush on the hot upstairs neighbour (played by Henry – sorry, Fox’s – wife Tracy Pollan) and his on-screen wife (Betsy Brandt) tries to be understanding about it.

It’s all very confusing. As a result, the one thing it should be – funny – seems to have got lost along the way. While it’s educational, heart-warming, intelligent and a whole lot of other worthy things, the whole “laughing” thing seems to have been forgotten about in the mad rush to put together a show about Michael J Fox called The Michael J Fox show that isn’t simple a show about Michael J Fox but yet still is.

Fox is engrossing. Pierce is as great as always. The Henry family is well drawn. The show is well meaning.

But laugh out loud funny it ain’t. You’ll laugh a bit for sure. But only a bit. One to watch if you like Fox or want to learn a bit about living with Parkinson’s. For actual laughs or anything very innovative, you’ll have to look elsewhere, I’m afraid.

US TV

Review: Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD 1×1 (ABC/Channel 4)

26 September 2013 Rob Buckley 33 Comments

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
In the UK: Fridays, 8pm, Channel 4. Starts 27th September

Marvel’s The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (delete according to which overly litigious side of the Atlantic you live on) was a movie phenomenon. As well as taking huge box office earnings last summer, it did an unprecedented thing: it took four separate movie franchises, all inhabiting the same universe – Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk – and brought their leads together in one movie.

You can thank a Mr Joss Whedon for its success. Although not the original creative mastermind behind the operation, it was he who directed and wrote The Avengers and it is he who is now the head of all things creative for this unified movie universe.

Whedon is, of course, best known from his TV work. Despite being the man who polished Toy Story into the gem it is, he’s best known as the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel, and later shows Firefly and Dollhouse – collectively known as the Whedonverse.

So to create a TV spin-off from The Avengers, who better to mastermind it all than Joss Whedon? There is literally no one better qualified in the whole world to do this job. He’s certainly got a firm grasp on pretty much everything involved and necessary to making it a success.

Only trouble? It’s TV and the budget and time to craft a show on the same scale as The Avengers just isn’t possible. You certainly aren’t going to be getting the ever-so busy stars, so there’s no Thor or Hulk, no Iron Man or Captain America in this spin-off. With even supposedly secondary characters such as Black Widow and Hawkeye played by the expensive and powerful likes of Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, there’s never going to be a chance of getting them involved, either. And no way is a SHIELD helicarrier or the destruction of New York going to be affordable every week.

So, instead, imagine The Avengers that you knew and loved. Then imagine everything big and brave and bold (and expensive) about The Avengers has been removed, leaving perhaps one or two familiar tertiary characters and some quirky fun bits. Then imagine most of the effects and the scale removed as well.

Then imagine what’s left and the great big gaping hole left behind by all of that and fill that hole with a load of new regular-type (and therefore cheap) characters who you aren’t going to like as much. Add in a scene or two filmed in Paris. Then add in a few references to other Marvel movies such as Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3. Finally, mix in a lot of the trademark Whedon touches you’ve come to expect, from funny and clever dialogue to multi-dimensional characters and kick-ass women.

What do you have? Yes, you have the inelegantly titled ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, featuring that Agent Coulson who definitely died in The Avengers but has somehow come back; that Agent Hill, who’s preoccupied on CBS in How I Met Your Mother so is only going to be in one episode; that car you half-remember from Captain America; that guy who used to be on Angel but who’s only going to be in one episode too; an aeroplane you haven’t seen before but isn’t going to be in it much and is a whole lot cheaper than a helicarrier anyway; and a whole bunch of people you’ve never seen before but are largely pretty and can deliver a Whedongag.

Some bad? Well, it’s probably not as great as you hoped, but it’s still not half bad all the same. Minor spoilers after the jump.

Continue reading “Review: Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD 1×1 (ABC/Channel 4)”

US TV

Mini-review: Lucky 7 1×1 (ABC)

25 September 2013 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Lucky 7

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

Lucky 7 sees a group of regular workers in a petrol station win big on the lottery. However, each has secrets and hey, guess what? Money don’t make you happy but if a group of people all share in a unique event, that group will end up closer together.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because as well as being a very trite message that’s been done dozens of times before, it’s basically the same as lottery-winners show Windfall, as well as shows like The Nine and Six Degrees.

Strictly speaking, though it’s an adaptation of the not very good BBC show The Syndicate, and if you’re familiar with that show, despite the changes and relocation to the US, you’ll be able to see a lot of the DNA still in it. There’s the “fat people are intrinsically funny and losers” message that grated from the original. There’s the mother who wants to hide her identity. There’s the workers who stage a robbery at their own store. And so on.

It’s improved in several ways. It’s more ethnically diverse than the original, which despite being set in Leeds, somehow managed to avoid having an Asian character in the line-up – something Lucky 7, while still dwelling on the arranged marriage, Indians become doctors or work as cabbies, etc, aspects that all US series tend to have, exceeds considerably by having an entire Asian family front and centre. It looks like the anthology series nature of the original show, which focused on a character per episode, has been dispensed with, too. These characters are also appealing, unlike the original’s.

But this is a tired story and Lucky 7 doesn’t add anything to it. I can’t imagine wanting to watch the second episode, but you never know.

US TV

Mini-review: The Goldbergs 1×1 (ABC)

25 September 2013 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Goldbergs

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC

80s retro is very in right now. Look around at all the revivals of 80s shows on TV and at the movies (Knight Rider, Miami Vice), films like Ted that yearn after the 80s and even shows like The Americans that are set in the 80s and you’ll see what I mean. Of course, at the end of the 80s, 60s retro was very in, which is why The Wonder Years was so popular.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, we now have what is probably best described as the 80s, Jewish version of The Wonder Years, in which writer Adam Goldberg gets various actors essentially to play the parts of his family in scenes drawn from his childhood, which he was precocious enough to video tape extensively.

And while that does give the show a certain heart and authenticity that a lot of other shows don’t have, that’s not really enough to support an entire show. The characters may have more genuine and plausible personality details than a lot of TV characters, but they’re not desperately compelling. Although it’s set in the 80s, there’s nothing in the show beyond the period dressing and references to 80s pop culture that really identify it as such or is peculiar to the 80s, beyond the fact that the kids aren’t downloading Internet porn on their phones. The situations and attitudes are more universal than 80s.

Where the show does well is in terms of plots, particularly those involving grandfather George Segal, which are actually funny. But there’s no magic moment here that makes you love the show or see it’s singular USP until the closing credits where you see the real and make-belief characters next to each other in shots. It’s enough to make me want to watch the next episode, but it’s not enough to make me think this is going to be a keeper.

US TV

Mini-review: Hostages 1×1 (CBS)

24 September 2013 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Hostages

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, CBS

Here are some interesting facts about Hostages.

  1. It stars Toni Collette, Dylan McDermott and Tate Donovan
  2. Toni Collette is a top-flight surgeon, asked to operate on the President
  3. ‘Unconventional’ FBI agent Dylan McDermott takes her family hostage, including cheating hubby Tate Donovan, in an attempt to get her to kill the President
  4. Jerry Bruckheimer is the producer
  5. It’s based on an Israeli series.

I put those facts there up front because I had to make this review interesting in some way, and that’s about as interesting as the show gets. It’s not exciting, it’s not original, it’s not got anything to say, it’s not got any surprises. It’s DULL.

McDermott and his fluffy hair are as implausible in the FBI as they were in the police in Dark Blue. Collette may be a successful woman, but that brings with it all the usual penalties for being a successful woman that US TV brings (cheating husband, children mocking cooking skills and the frequency with which they are deployed – nothing mentioned about Donovan’s cooking, of course).

Even Kidnapped was more interesting than this, and it was on NBC. Skip it.