Erk. A double bank holiday over the Easter weekend plus a bank holiday on Friday thanks to a certain wedding, plus a heinous amount of work means actually finding the time to write up all the tele I’ve been watching is going to be a bit tricky. Nevertheless, over the next couple of days you should expect:
Episode reviews of Spiral
A third-episode verdict on Breaking In
A fourth-episode verdict on Happy Endings
A review of the first episode of Canadian spy show XIII
I won’t be reviewing The Impossible Astronaut, not just for time reasons but because it’s a two-parter so I’m going to hold off until next week – and oh look, another bank holiday on Monday followed by loads of work – before touching that.
BTW – Game of Thrones isn’t very good. There you go: reviewed!
So here’s an interesting question: is it enough that a female character be strong? I mean literally that’s the only real characteristic that she has.
Because now we have a thought experiment in actual viewing form: King, Showcase’s female cop who doesn’t mind ruffling a few feathers. She’s been sitting in the call centre for ages after refusing to play by the rules, but now she’s going to take over an investigation because the lead detective is rubbish. She’s strong, she’s determined, she’s professional, she’s smart, she doesn’t mind going into the men’s room when there are men in there.
And that’s about it. If you pushed me, I’d say she also has a slightly dull relationship with her husband. And that she wears shoes. But honestly, that’s about it.
Here’s the trailer: see if you can spot some more character traits that would make you want to watch.
Okay, I have to ask: is there some massive build-up of a slight irritation in all the middle-aged, middle class white guys around the world? I’m not talking about some Susan Faludi style-Backlash (that’s a different question). I’m talking about mild irritation which some mildly irritating aspects of their not exactly universal lifestyles. Because around the world, we’re getting some very meta shows in which grumpy, middle class, middle-aged white guys, playing thinly veiled versions of themselves, meander around while their wives look on as patiently as they can, having to deal with things that clearly irk them. A little bit anyway.
First we had Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which Larry goes around as himself, being narked by having to tip waiters, that kind of thing, while his wife looks on as patiently as she can. Obviously a funny show with a funny guy and funny writers. Not quite as universal as Seinfeld‘s comedy of modern manners, but still worth watching.
Then we got Lead Balloon in the UK, in which Jack Dee became very irritated and long suffering in response to a terrible life in which he has a big house, an East European housekeeper and a slightly sarcastic coffee bar owner to deal with, while his wife looks on as patiently as she can.
Then Canada got in on the act with Good Dog, in which Ken Finkleman somehow has to cope with the problems of having a reality TV show made about him and his much younger, model girlfriend, who’s being as patient as she can with him.
By this point, it was clear everyone was doing Curb Your Enthusiasm, so the first episode of Good Dog makes frequent references to Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm, going to see Larry David to get his approval to make an obvious rip-off of Curb Your Enthusiasm and more highly meta fun.
But now we’ve gone completely meta full circle. We’re back in the US. We have Paul Reiser, friend of Larry David, former star of Mad About You, creating and starring in a show called The Paul Reiser Show, which is all about the mild problems faced by a rich guy called Paul Reiser who hasn’t done much since he appeared in Mad About You. It’s directed by one of the directors of Curb Your Enthusiasm. And in it, Larry David turns up as Larry David, doing his Curb Your Enthusiasm version of himself, to talk about the game show that Paul Reiser is going to host that’s a lot like his. All while Reiser’s wife looks on as patiently as she can.
In France: Some time last Summer In the UK: Saturday 16th April, 9pm, BBC4. iPlayer: Episode 5, Episode 6
Well, we’re at the point where the less said about this on the front page, the better, so join me after the jump to discuss episodes 5 and 6 of season 3 of BBC4/Canal+’s Engrenages (Spiral), which is rapidly turning out to be France’s version of The Wire – season 5, or possibly the very first Prime Suspect.
Well, I’m not sure how much point there is doing this now, given that it’s just been pulled from the schedules, but let’s go with a third-episode verdict on CBS’s slightly comedic spy show. The first episode, while not exactly perfect, still managed – after its initial doomed exploration of comedy – to turn in some decent spy moments, with double crosses and action aplenty. It also made us care for all the characters, who actually seemed interesting.
Unfortunately, episode two was an exceedingly dull affair, in which our team of spies have to go to North Korea to rescue a diplomat’s family so he can defect to the West. Here, we lost most of the things that made the pilot bearable. The characters really didn’t get much exploration, the two female characters suddenly had nothing to do, James Murray’s accent was on the fritz, and the action was lightweight to say the least.
Episode three was at least slightly better but suffered from the exact same problems as the second episode. It didn’t help that despite the fact there are three Brits in the acting team, not one of them pointed out that Art History is not a compulsory subject at Oxford and asking someone who supposedly went to Oxford “Where did you live on campus” when there’s no university campus per se, just individual college campuses, isn’t going to help you in the accuracy stakes.
The trouble with Chaos is that it doesn’t do comedy at all well. It does spy stuff pretty well and when it tries, it can do characters. But since it wants to do comedy, everything else is tarnished by its failed attempts. The spy stuff loses its edge and the characterisation doesn’t work as well.
The result is… well, it’s got cancelled, pretty much.
Carusometer rating: 4 Rob’s prediction: You don’t need to be psychic for this one.
