TV reviews

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

Streaming TV

Review: House of Cards 1×1 (Netflix)

8 February 2013 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

House of Cards

In the UK/US/Canada/most of the world: Available on Netflix. First episode available free.
In some other places: Acquired by HBO Europe

Welcome to the future, everyone. How are you liking it so far?

So until now, Netflix has been the TV equivalent of a library. You want to watch some TV? Okay, sure. Oh wait, actually, Mrs Brown has already got that out so how would you like to watch this instead? It’s not what you wanted to watch, but you might enjoy it anyway.

But now things are changing. Just like Amazon and other companies that used to just sell you things other people had made, Netflix has decided that it’s going to make some of its own products to get round all those thorny rights issues, broadcast networks and everything else that means they’ve never got what you wanted, when you wanted it.

Now before you mock, we’re not talking about a situation like Dave or UK Gold, in which the budget is thruppence ha’penny, the script was written by someone past their prime and who couldn’t get work anywhere else, and the best actor the producers can hire was 15th on their list of preferences.

No, for Netflix’s first production (and there’s a new series of Arrested Development coming our way, too, among other delights), they’ve got a near A-list cast (Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Kate Mara), an exceptional director (David Fincher) and an Oscar-nominated writer (Beau Willimon), together with a budget of $120m to put together a top-notch 13-part series: a remake of Andrew Davies’ adaption of House of Cards for the BBC, but relocated to the US, with US congressman Frank Underwood turning his Machiavellian talents to betraying everyone in his party when his promised position of Secretary of State is denied him.

And Netflix is releasing all 13 episodes around the world at the same time. If this is the future, it’s not only exciting, it’s going to make my job a lot harder. Here’s a trailer:

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Monday Mornings
TV reviews

Review: Monday Mornings 1×1 (US: TNT; UK: Fox)

8 February 2013 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, TNT
In the UK: Acquired by Fox

David E Kelley used to be a lawyer. I don’t know exactly where he practised law and what kind but it must have been a very weird kind. Look back at his track record and you’ll see the likes of The Practice, sure, which was just about realistic, but he moved on to the likes of Ally McBeal, Boston Legal and most recently, Harry’s Law.

If you could sum up the general themes of Kelley’s shows, they’d be something like this:

  1. Women find this whole working thing a bit difficult, are a bit insecure and prefer to talk about relationships and stuff. Unless they’re old.
  2. It’s not so much the legal niceties of an argument that matter so much as what everyone feels should be the right one – and by everyone, I mean extremely liberal Democrats who all feel exactly the same way as David E Kelley.
  3. Gee, aren’t those non-black ethnic minorities amusing?
  4. Gee, aren’t those black ethnic minorities sassy?

That shtick (apart from options 3 and 4) can just about work with lawyers or crazy lawyers, but it starts to fall apart when you start to transfer the same principles to genres with which Kelley is unfamiliar. In fact, it can be extremely dreadful, as anyone who’s watched his pilot for Wonder Woman can attest.

Now Kelley has turned his attention to doctors and surgeons, using CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta’s book Monday Mornings as his inspiration. The name isn’t a reference to how a surgeon is likely to start shooting people on a Monday (that would be the Boomtown Rats song ‘I Hate Mondays’); it isn’t a reference to how we all hate Monday mornings and are more than likely still hung over from the weekend. In fact, it’s a reference to a practice at certain hospitals: the ‘M&M’ conference or morbidity and mortality conference, in which doctors and surgeons all get together to look over their past week’s work, see who’s died, see what mistakes have been made and then try to learn from those mistakes.

All entirely estimable, but since Kelley can only write about lawyers and somehow turns even shows that aren’t about lawyers into shows that are – cf, again, Wonder Woman – Kelley uses the M&M as a surrogate court room in which the doctors and surgeons like Ving Rhames and Jamie Bamber are the jury, lawyers, prosecutors and defendants, and Alfred Molina – still dressed like Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 – is the judge, ready to pass verdict on the guilty. Should they have done that procedure? Should they have prescribed that medicine that might have saved little Timmy’s life? His parents are outside crying, dammit.

Does it matter? Because the Kelley guide to medicine is pretty much the same as the Kelley guide to law: ignore what’s practical, contra-indicated, clinically proven, probable and everything else, and focus instead on what feels right.

Here’s a trailer – it’s not even one-tenth as annoying as the show itself.

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Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: The Doctor Blake Mysteries 1×1 (ABC1/ITV)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

The Doctor Blake Mysteries

In Australia: Fridays, 8.30pm, ABC1
In the UK: Will air on ITV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

If you’re from the UK and of a certain age – your 30s or 40s – you’ll remember Craig McClachlan: he was Henry on Australian soap opera Neighbours, back when anyone who was anyone watched it.

So popular was he in the role, that he was enticed over to the UK to star in BBC1’s Bugs, a fun bit of escapism masterminded by The Avengers‘ Brian Clemens that was thoroughly enjoyable until a bunch of people who’d written some Doctor Who New Adventures novels decided they wanted to make it proper sci-fi and robbed it of any or all enjoyable qualities in its second series.

One thing that McClachlan didn’t really demonstrate in either of those two shows was the ability to act. In fact, he was largely only notable for his haircut and huge pectoral muscles, and that was about it.

Craig McClachlan in Neighbours

So colour me surprised by The Doctor Blake Mysteries, a new Australian crime series set in small Victoria town in 1959 and which stars McClachlan as the eponymous Doctor Blake. Because not only is the show itself really rather decent, but McClachlan – as well as not taking off his top once – seems to have matured into “one of Australia’s favourite and most versatile actors” during the past 20 or so years.

Here’s a trailer.

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Canadian TV

Review: Seed 1×1 (City TV)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Seed

In Canada: Mondays, 8:30pm ET/PT, CityTV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

There are two things that are hard with Canadian comedies. The first is to hate them. They’re so well meaning and liberal and nice. Even what could be a mean-spirited show like Seed – in which a 30something, womanising slacker bartender whose sperm-bank-generated teenage progeny turn up in his life looking for their oblivious father – still manages to be endearing, despite numerous stereotypes about lesbians, dominating career women, liberal middle-class couples, black lesbians, single 30something women, single 30something men, men in general and others. It’s just so gosh darn… nice.

The other thing that’s hard with Canadian comedies is to laugh. The country as a whole has a track record that includes Kids In The Hall and The Newsroom and has filled the entertainment world with so many famous, talented comedians (most of whom you probably don’t realise are Canadians), it would be impossible to list them all. But modern Canadian comedy shows are largely exemplified by the likes of the horrifically unfunny 18 To Life, Men With Brooms, Hiccups, InSecurity, Good Dog and The Line.

And so it is with Seed, a show that’s amiable and trying really hard to be funny, but which ultimately fails to raise more than a wry grin and an “Awe, isn’t that nice?” out of the whole affair.

Here’s a trailer for the first episode, the aptly titled Ill Conceived, followed by a trailer for the rest of the season:

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Canadian TV

Review: Motive 1×1 (CTV)

5 February 2013 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Motive CTV

In Canada: Sundays, 9pm, CTV
In the US: Acquired by ABC for summer 2013
In the UK: Not yet acquired

In the never-ending struggle to come up with new crime drama formats, there are generally two methods of differentiation used by writers: character and gimmick. If you differentiate by character, you end up with shows such as Monk, Elementary, The Mentalist or Psych, in which someone over-laden with personality has to solve crimes while less interesting, more plodding individuals stand around filling up dialogue time and generally failing to solve crimes.

If you differentiate by gimmick, you end up with shows like Justice, Murder One, and The Whole Truth, in which quite dull characters stand around filling out plot time while the gimmicky plot mechanism that drives the show plays itself out.

In both cases, I should point out, you still need to have involving crimes and investigations or both techniques will be for naught.

Now Motive wants to have its cake and eat it, attempting to stand out from the crowd with both gimmick and character. The gimmick here is that as the show’s title suggests, it’s all about the motive: as much time is dedicated to why the crime was committed as to solving it, with huge chunks of the story told in flashback. But it also has character: no special character ticks here but cool, over-acting, intensely irritating detective-mom Angie Flynn, who’s just so down with her kid.

Does it work? Well, it stands out, but it’s forgotten that golden rule and as a result is still a very boring show that makes Cracked look like The Shield in comparison. Here’s a trailer: note, as with all Canadian TV shows, the contractually obligated appearance of at least one person from Stargate as well as Roger Cross from 24 (okay, he isn’t in the trailer but he’s in the show).

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