TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Person of Interest 1×1

24 September 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Person of Interest

In the US: Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

Heroes have had a tendency to be laconic for quite some time now. History buffs will of course know that the word comes from ‘Lacedaemonia’, the very ancient Greek name for the equally ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, whose people were famously short on words, but when they said something, it was always pithy and usually involved fighting or killing people (the most famous “Laconic phrase”, “Μολὼν λαβέ” or “Come and get them”, is one of the mottos of the Greek First Army Corps and the United States Special Operations Command Central).

So heroes have been largely required to be short on words for a good few thousands years now. But can a hero be too laconic, I wonder?

I ask this purely because in Person of Interest, we have Jim Cavaziel playing a former US Army Ranger recruited to help prevent crimes before they happen by a clever, rich software engineer played by Michael Emerson (Linus in Lost). And our hero hardly says anything and when he does, he mumbles. I think we actually have a hero who’s way too laconic, here.

So first, if we have a lesson to take away from Person of Interest, it’s that heroes really shouldn’t mumble quite so much if they’re going to be laconic.

And if we can be uncharacteristically verbose and unlaconic and take away two lessons from Person of Interest, it’s that even if a script is pure cobblers, your entire set-up is completely implausible and you have a lead actor who’s largely inaudible and inexpressive, you can still have a relatively watchable TV show purely through less talk and more action.

How Spartan.

Here’s a trailer.

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US TV

Review: Prime Suspect (US) 1×1

23 September 2011 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC

Prime Suspect is one of British TV’s crown jewels. Twenty years old this year, the Granada show about a female detective’s (Helen Mirren) struggles against the misogyny and sexism of her male colleagues during the investigation of a prostitute-murdering serial killer is an absolutely superb bit of television: when I rewatched it this year, I almost cried at how good it was compared to the vast, vast majority modern British television drama. 

Attempts to make a US version of Prime Suspect have been ongoing almost since the show originally aired. But finally, NBC has got its act together and made a series version of the show. Starring Maria Bello (The Mummy 3, A History of Violence) in an impressively wacky set of hats and scarves, it sees DCI Jane Tennison become New York’s Detective Jane Timoney, who transfers to a new precinct dominated by men who don’t like her and don’t trust her, but have to learn to deal with her when she heads up a murder investigation.

And although there will be a collective protest that our crown jewels have been stolen, the show is actually mostly pretty good – when it sticks to the script.

Here’s a trailer.

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Classic TV

Old Gems: Blue Thunder (1984)

22 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Blue Thunder

Made in 1983, Blue Thunder was a cracking little action movie. Directed by John Badham and starring Roy Scheider (Jaws), it questioned the increasing use of military-grade equipment by the police and the new powers of surveillance available to the police that technology was beginning to afford them.

The centrepiece of the film was ‘Blue Thunder’ as it was nicknamed, an armour-plated police helicopter with a 20mm chain cannon, infra-red cameras, the ability to hover almost silently and microphones that can listen through walls – famously, as an on-screen caption said at the beginning of the movie, technology that was all available in the US at that point.

The film’s message was clear: we have to be very careful about this technology because in the wrong hands, even those of the government, law and order could be subverted. And at the end of the movie, Scheider lands Blue Thunder in front of a train and lets it blow up so no one can use it against the citizens of the United States.

So irony indeed that following the success of the movie, ABC decided to make a TV show in which Blue Thunder is benevolently used by Scheider’s character (now played by James Farantino and called Frank Chaney rather than Frank Murphy) to stop criminals, aided by Dana “Wayne’s World” Carvey and Bubba “Police Academy” Smith.

Here’s the halfway decent titles of the TV series.

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US TV

Review: Unforgettable 1×1

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Unforgettable

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

Interesting fact 1: There are apparently about five or six people in America with very impressive memories. Thanks in part to OCD, they can remember more or less every detail of their lives: ask them what they were doing on 4th March 2006 at 6.02pm and they’ll tell you.

Interesting fact 2: Marilu Henner, one of the stars of sitcom Taxi, is one of these people. As well as cameoing on the show, she is also a consultant to CBS’s Unforgettable, which stars Marilu Henner-lookalike Poppy Montgomery as a former police detective with this condition who uses her skills to solve crimes.

Interesting fact 3: CBS has so many sure-fire hits and such a seemingly captive audience they can commission some of the most boring programmes imaginable and provided they’re about cops, people will watch them. And even if they don’t, CBS won’t care.

Here’s a trailer.

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US TV

Review: Unforgettable 1×1

21 September 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Unforgettable

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

Interesting fact 1: There are apparently about five or six people in America with very impressive memories. Thanks in part to OCD, they can remember more or less every detail of their lives: ask them what they were doing on 4th March 2006 at 6.02pm and they’ll tell you.

Interesting fact 2: Marilu Henner, one of the stars of sitcom Taxi, is one of these people. As well as cameoing on the show, she is also a consultant to CBS’s Unforgettable, which stars Marilu Henner-lookalike Poppy Montgomery as a former police detective with this condition who uses her skills to solve crimes.

Interesting fact 3: CBS has so many sure-fire hits and such a seemingly captive audience they can commission some of the most boring programmes imaginable and provided they’re about cops, people will watch them. And even if they don’t, CBS won’t care.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Unforgettable 1×1”