TV reviews

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

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e October 14)?

17 October 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

Enlightened HBO

Time for “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.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Dexter, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Homeland, Suburgatory and Community.

Things you might enjoy but that I’m not necessarily recommending: Being Erica, Strike Back: Project Dawn, and Ringer.

A few thoughts on some of the regulars:

  • Community: Crisis over! Excellent third episode last week. Phew!
  • Dexter: It’s basically season one again, but not quite as good. Not bad though
  • Being Erica: It’s basically season one again, but not quite as good. Not bad though
  • Strike Back: Project Dawn: The amount of female nudity in this is getting ridiculous.
  • House: New doctor isn’t a patch on Amber Tamblyn, a nice twist with Foreman, but sadly missing Chase, Taub and 13 at the moment.

A few things I’ve given a try this week:

  • Enlightened: Appropriately paired with Bored To Death, this sees Laura Dern get a rage attack at her workplace, leave, go off to an anger management enlightenment retreat, then come back and try to get her life back. Possibly the dullest, most pointless TV drama since… oh, Pan Am, but even less happens. Laura Dern’s really pulling out all the stops, though, to give it credit. One episode was enough and so little is happening in it, that I couldn’t even work out what I’d put in a full review. So this is all it’s getting.
  • Spy: A Sky 1 foray in comedy, starring Darren Boyd as a computer geek who quits his job and ends up in MI5. No, not a total Chuck rip-off. Unfortunately, it was so unfunny that we gave up after 15 minutes so never actually saw what happened what he joined MI5 and met up with Robert Lindsay. We’re going to give that second half a try when we’re in a more charitable mood.

I didn’t watch any movies this week, I’m afraid.

The movie I watched this week was Source Code, which wasn’t bad but felt more like the pilot of a TV show (namely Seven Days, but with a few differences). Complicated, but still easy to follow, and the ending made no sense. As, actually did the mechanism for all the time travel.

“What did you watch last 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?

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 1

Third-episode verdict: Homeland

17 October 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US: Sundays, 10pm, Showtime
In the UK: Acquired by Channel 4

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. The first, no-reservations drama recommendation for the fall 2011 season is Homeland. I’ve not much to add to my review of the first episode, except to say that the next two episodes do answer all our worries and in some ways are better than the first episode. It’s also acquired a nightmarish new title sequence that beats even American Horror Story‘s, despite that’s show homage to Se7en.

Just go watch it – you won’t regret it.

PS Interesting to note there are two secret Brits in this show: Damian Lewis and David Harewood.

PPS Is it just me or Showtime now better than HBO as a network?

Carusometer rating: 1
Rob’s prediction: Will last a season. Where they’ll go to after that, I don’t know, but it deserves to run and run based on this

US TV

Review: American Horror Story 1×1-1×2

13 October 2011 Rob Buckley 19 Comments

American Horror Story

In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm, FX
In the UK: Mondays, 10pm, FX UK. Starts November 7th

A new horror show from the creators of Glee!

Yes, Glee. Psyched now? Of course, not.

But then, when Glee was announced as a charming new show from the creators of Nip/Tuck about a High School glee club, there was a similar reaction, so let’s just say “a new horror show from the creators of Nip/Tuck” and take it from there.

Anyway, American Horror Story is something of a misnomer in that it’s not just one horror story, it’s actually every single American horror story ever, more or less, particularly the ones from the movies: there’s The Amityville Horror, Psycho, The Shining, Don’t Look Now, Rosemary’s Baby and more, all rolled up into one big story in which Dylan McDermott (The Practice, Dark Blue) and Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) move into a spectacularly haunted house in LA with their teenage daughter and have to deal with everything from a two-faced maid, ghosts and a weird melted man who murdered his family to a gimp and a boy who might also be a demon.

And the theme of this big story? What do the creators of Nip/Tuck and Glee think is the ultimate ‘American Horror Story’? Family – and sex, apparently, and plenty of it.

Here’s a trailer:

Continue reading “Review: American Horror Story 1×1-1×2”

US TV

Review: Last Man Standing 1×1-1×2

13 October 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Last Man Standing

In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC

Today, I am feeling charitable. Here we have Last Man Standing (not to be confused with Last Man Standing), Tim Allen’s return to sitcoms, in which he finds himself out of work and his wife getting a promotion, so finds himself having to stay at home to look after the kids and the house. His character is a clueless embodiment of patriarchy and “manliness”, a man’s man who loves rooms that “smell like balls” and thinks men should only dance when people are shooting at their feet, who has no idea what Glee is, and takes babies to Blowdart and Shotgun emporia. It’s also a single camera comedy with an annoying laughter track and no fewer than five nuclear power stations flooding every set with over-lighting.

Normally, I would hate it and hit it with bricks.

And I do still largely hate it, because it’s barely in any way funny, largely trying to get by on obvious and offensive one-liners that really should be shot at and forced to dance.

But instead, I’m going to be charitable and claim it’s educational. Yes, educational. It may suck, but like all the new multi-camera comedies this season that are virtually laugh-free (e.g. 2 Broke Girls, Whitney), lots of Americans are watching it (13m in this case) and the kinds of people who are watching it probably need to know what a vlog is, understand that throwing giant fish they’ve just caught onto their children’s homework is bad, and need to know that it’s okay for men to stay at home and look after the kids.

Isn’t that nice of the producers – and me?

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Last Man Standing 1×1-1×2”

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 2

Third-episode verdict: Suburgatory

13 October 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, ABC

Well, the Carusometer hasn’t seen anything like this before – not that it can see much from behind those Shades of Justice, sometimes. What can have gone on here with Suburgatory? Two absolutely cracking episodes, full of fun, warmth, pathos and satirical bite that lift it head and shoulders above the rest of the comedy field, even Modern Family these days. Then stuck right in the middle was a near laugh-free suckfest. What happened there?

Oh yes. Different writer.

So if there’s a quick lesson to be learnt about Suburgatory, it’s that as long as Emily Kapnek is writing it, it’s likely to be brilliant; if she’s not, it’s not.

Other than that, I’ve not much to add since the first episode. The cast is great, especially Cheryl Hines and Jane Levy (an odd junior combination of Emma Stone’s snark and hair and Gillian Jacobs’s facial expressions). The writing’s great. Watch it.

Carusometer rating: 1 (Emily Kapnek only); 2 (on aggregate)
Rob’s prediction: As long as Emily Kapnek does as much of the writing as possible, it should run and run. Will certainly last a season.