TV reviews

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

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Touch (Fox)

30 March 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, Sky1/Sky1 HD

Three episodes into Touch aka "Highway to Heaven for the agnostic" and it’s hard to know what to make of the show. The underlying, karma-like concept behind the show is that "everyone is connected by numbers if only we could see it", but what we’re largely getting is "everyone is connected by numbers in a useful way, providing some 10 year old kid gets his dad to help out through some ridiculously convoluted means, or in a cryptic, utterly pointless way if he doesn’t."

Each episode is more or less the same as the first. Kiddie writes down numbers, wanders around and gives people objects. Kiefer runs around until the numbers appear somewhere and the objects come in useful. Then he helps the people he finds. Meanwhile, usually in some country where people don’t speak English, the numbers pop up and then the story in some ways interacts with the story of someone else, usually in the US, all without the help of kiddie but usually with some Japanese girls rabbitting away nearby.

In other words, it’s a supernatural anthology show with Kiefer Sutherland as a running, shouting version of Rod Serling, but without the decent writing. Or Hero rather than Heroes.

Episode three did at least shake things up a little, with Kiefer’s background as a journalist coming up and Danny Glover getting to do something other than talk complete bollocks for a couple of scenes*.

But there was at least some forward progress on plot, with a hint at how kiddie might turn out once he’s all grown up. We still don’t know why kiddie is doing all of this and why he can’t simply write down some instructions rather than numbers for a change – hell, typing at a computer’s always an option – beyond some hand-waving nebulousness about evolution, but we’re going to have to give the show time with this.

If you think about Touch too hard, there’s not a chance you’ll watch it. But if you can suspend your disbelief, you can get a warm fuzzy feeling for an hour or so, while simultaneously getting to see Kiefer Sutherland run around a lot and see some subtitled foreigners on US TV for a change.

Carusometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Might scrape a second season, provided something happens some time

* I daren’t show my wife it, in case there’s a vague possibility that Touch realistically depicts the way autistic children are treated – both societally and therapeutically – in the US and she ends up launching a one-woman war against it.

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: Bent (NBC)

30 March 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC

Well, Bent is still broken but it did get slightly better in the latest episode. After a deeply uninspiring first couple of episodes last week, things did start to improve slightly this week with its third episode.

The problems essentially remain the same: a "will they, won’t they?" romance between two people whom you really don’t care about either way; actors not exactly on their game; supporting characters who are more liability than support; and a surprising inability, even with some pretty decent comedy writing, to elicit laughs.

But in episode three, we started to look further afield from the two leads to give the support some characterisation, with Swoozie still the only decent character in the show; David Walton started to rein in his performance; and the writing managed to shine through with some decent direction so that there were some actual funny moments, largely involving cell phones but also Peet’s bedroom decor.

It’s a start, anyway. It’s still not that funny a show, but it’s not the total train wreck the first two episodes suggested. I’ll keep an eye on it for you, but at the moment, particularly given the catastrophically low ratings, I wouldn’t recommend watching it.

Carusometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Cancelled before the season even finishes, but if it manages to limp that far, it won’t get renewed for a second season.

US TV

Review: Bent (NBC) 1×1-1×2

27 March 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

NBC's Bent

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC

There are some people, it seems, who can more or less kill any project they’re in, just through proximity. Jennifer Aniston, talented actress though she might be, can pretty much guarantee that any movie she’s in will be terrible.

Then there’s David Walton. Walton is the ebola virus to the immune-deficient patient of NBC sitcoms. He was in NBC’s 100 Questions, which had its episode order cut down to six before it even aired, after which it was promptly cancelled. Then he joined one of NBC’s 2011 mid-season replacements, Perfect Couples, which was practically DOA.

Now he’s one of the two stars of Bent, in which he and Studio 60‘s Amanda Peet (could she be the next Jennifer Aniston?) are ‘bent (but not broken)’ individuals, she an up-tight newly-divorced lawyer, he a gambling- and sex-addicted contractor, both on the inevitable rom-com path to togetherness.

And despite the fact it has an excellent pedigree behind the scenes, zingy dialogue, and one interesting supporting character, there’s not more than two laughs in the first two episodes (not even one laugh per episode) and it’s got spectacularly low ratings, even for an NBC show.

David Walton has killed another show. Watch it splew blood in your face if you dare.

Here’s a trailer, which actually doesn’t look that bad. Don’t let that fool you – wear a mask.

Continue reading “Review: Bent (NBC) 1×1-1×2”

US TV

What did you watch last week? Including Touch, 30 Rock, Spartacus and Missing

26 March 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Lothaire Bluteau in Missing

It’s "What did you watch last week?", my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: The Almighty Johnsons, Archer, Being Human (US), BeTipul, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Happy Endings, House, Mad Men, Modern Family, Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory, 30 Rock and Top Gear. Assuming they’re on where you live, of course. 

Now, some thoughts on the regulars, apart from Mad Men, which I’ve still to watch:

  • The Almighty Johnsons – I’m now on New Zealand time, BTW. The darkest episode yet but signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Loki’s getting irritating and the goddesses are getting maltreated. Not much Axl this week either, and very little Anders, too, but he’s off filming The Hobbit, so what can you do?
  • America’s Next Top Model – is now being officially boycotted in this house for anti-Scottish racism
  • The Apprentice – the same old, same old, but don’t you just love it?
  • Archer – the finale wasn’t as funny as the first part, but it was still a pretty good episode
  • Awake – again with the dull procedural. Stop it. More fleshing out of secondary characters is needed, but it’s still intelligent, moving and insightful. It needs more on why this is all happening though.
  • Being Human (US) – Good to see that Sally now effectively has an addiction like the others, putting her on an equally monstrous footing with the others
  • Community – classic Community in that it was dark and weird but not hugely funny. But some character moments of joy, including Jeff and Britta, and the return of dark Abed.
  • Cougar Town – a lovely get out for a thorny dilemma that’s plagued the show for a while, plus a return of the Travis-Laurie dynamic
  • Dirk Gently – Probably the best of the bunch: funny with decent characterisation. Still not loving it, but it’s now not bad
  • John Bishop’s Sport Relief Hell – I only watched a minute of it and nearly cried.
  • Missing – Jesus of Montreal himself Lothaire Bluteau made an appearance to not much effort. More preposterous than the opening episode, with linguistic tricks around the phrase ‘hard drive’ needed for a very uninteresting reveal. The break-in was silly, the whole Netleaks thing was even more ridiculous and the narrow squeak at the end preposterous. But still a tense hour.
  • Ringer: Juliette still can’t act, but last week’s episode made slightly more sense than the previous week’s
  • Southland – an anti-climatic ending to the season, which overall was very strong.
  • Spartacus – phenomenal: shocking, surprising and finally we get to see the Romans as something less than cannon fodder and more the most powerful fighting force in the world (cf Rome).
  • 30 Rock – quite the best season since the first, I think. Some wonderful cameo appearances, including one of the Baldwins doing a great impression of Alex, and a vast amount of almost Community-level meta-ness, particularly the part where Tracey comes off his meds and (spoiler) thinks he’s in a show within a show and his real name is Tracey Morgan. Even Kristen Schaal is just about funny for once.
  • Touch – basically an episode of Highway to Heaven. Nice to have a mini-24 reunion, with Jude Ciccolella, even if the show does all it can to avoid the memory of Jack Bauer by having Kiefer Sutherland get his arse kicked in fights. Danny Glover basically did nothing, as did Guru M-R. The lack of regular characters also makes it hard to care about the show. But at the end of the day, despite all those caveats, quite heart-warming.
  • Two and a Half Men – Only watching it because Sophie Winkleman (Big Suze from Peep Show, but also Charlotte from NBC’s 100 Questions) is on it. Has to be said – not a great show and the usual American TV problem of being mildly bemused and unable to cope with the existence of foreigners, but she’s good.
  • The Voice – I don’t normally do reality, but with Tom Jones on it, how could we refuse? Actually quite enjoyable, although Reggie Yates and Holly Willoughby were entirely superfluous. Surprised will.i.am didn’t get more people, though. And Tom really did seem unimpressed to discover one of his was gay.

And in books:

  • The Go-Between by LP Hartley: bored me rigid. Sorry.

"What did you watch this week?" 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?