TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 1×1

22 February 2011 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

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

(Very) long-time readers of the blog will know that I’m not a big fan of Criminal Minds. In fact, I dismissed it pretty much after the first episode, the second season opener didn’t make me recant and the replacement of Mandy Patinkin with Joe Mantegna lured me in for all of two episodes.

My basic problems with it are that it’s very dull, doesn’t really bother with characterisation beyond a couple of the leads, despite being an ensemble show, and although it pretends to be intelligent, largely that’s a thin veneer that covers up an entirely preposterous plot with as much resemblance to real-life as The Magic Roundabout.

Millions of people disagree with me, however. They’re wrong, obviously, but they do. To cater for “these kinds of people”, CBS has developed an identikit version of it called Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, in which a rapid reaction team called a ‘Red Cell’ heads off in Without A Trace stylee to deal with nastiness as quickly as possible.

However, despite the presence of Forest Whitaker, Janeane Garofolo, the red-headed nerdy one from Criminal Minds and Richard Schiff from The West Wing, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior is just as tedious and stupid, yet without even the few hints of interest that the original had.

Here’s a trailer for the show that for some unfathomable reason doesn’t feature Amber Heard in a bikini (am I on SEO fire this week, or what?).

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US TV

What have you been watching this week (w/e February 18)?

20 February 2011 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Amber Heard on Top Gear

It’s “What have you been watching this week?”, your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week. 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?

My regular recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure: Archer, Being Human, Being Human (US), Cougar Town, House, Modern Family, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, 30 Rock and Top Gear.

This week’s review backlog: Bedlam; Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior; Episodes; Mad Dogs; this week’s Spartacus: Gods of the Arena; and a hell of a lot of episodes of The Killing.

Which leaves, after the jump, mini-reviews of Community, Mr Sunshine, Portlandia, Royal Navy Caribbean Patrol, Smallville and Traffic Light as well as last week’s Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Incidentally, in case you haven’t noticed, “What have you been watching this week?” only covers stuff that’s already aired, so an invaluable source of recommendations for things that are coming up in the UK is provided by Scott Matthewman and The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature. It’s helped me spot a number of things I would have otherwise missed.

Although for some reason, he’s not flagging up tonight’s Top Gear. I’ll be watching, mainly to see how Jeremy Clarkson of all people deals with interviewing a very attractive, openly gay actress who likes to drive muscle cars, that’s all I’m saying…

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Classic TV

Lost Gems: Jane (1982-1984)

18 February 2011 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

janegrab01.jpg

Glynis Barber may best be known now as a star of soap operas such as Emmerdale and EastEnders but back in the 80s, she was something of a small screen pin-up. After a brief appearance in The Sandbaggers as a Russian spy so beautiful “you’d crawl a thousand miles over broken glass” for her, her big break came as Soolin on Blake’s 7, a role about which I’ve already written. After Blake’s 7 finished, she went on to much greater fame and pin-up-dom as Makepeace in fondly remembered Dempsey & Makepeace:

Dempsey and Makepeace

But in between those two series, she starred in a much more poorly remembered show on BBC2 about a literal pin-up: Jane.

Yes, we’re about to get a little bit racey after the jump…

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US TV

Review: Mad Love 1×1

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Mad Love

In the US: Mondays, 8.30/7.30c, CBS

CBS is the most popular of all US networks, but it does have an odd tendency. Whenever it has a successful show, it likes to create a backup in case things go wrong with it. So CSI spawned CSI: Miami and CSI: New York; NCIS got NCIS: LA; Criminal Minds is about to get Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior; and so on.

Sometimes, rather than create a simple spin-off, though, CBS likes to create a show similar to the original. So it is with Mad Love, a sneaky backup in case How I Met Your Mother gets corrupted. The basic premise is pretty much the same: two guys, two girls, two interesting, two not, and there are romantic complications. Here, Jason Biggs (American Pie), a very ordinary lawyer, meets Sarah Chalke (Scrubs), a very ordinary… actually, I missed what she did, but whatever it is, it’s probably very ordinary. Whatever – it’s love at first sight, there’s fireworks and everything.

Each has a much more interesting best friend: Tyler Labine (Reaper), an eccentric lawyer, and Judy Greer (Archer), a nanny who helps brain-dead trophy wives rear their kids. For them, it’s hate at first sight, but you just know that’s going to change.

And as is the trouble with carbon copies, it’s just not as good as the originals. In fact, against a backdrop of the likes of Traffic Light, Perfect Couples and Better With You, it’s a very pale copy that can barely raise a single laugh. Talking of Traffic Light, do you want to have a guess who was in the pilot but got recast again?

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UK TV

Review: Mad Dogs 1×1

15 February 2011 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Mad Dogs

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Sky 1 HD

As we all know, Sky1 doesn’t produce much original content, and what it has produced has tended to be lowest common denominator crud that sucks in the extreme. But the times they are a changing. The new philosophy at Sky 1 is that if they make programmes that are halfway decent, that will entice people to take out subscriptions – in particular, HD subscriptions.

So how about this for tempting: Mad Dogs, an HD-only four-part crime series set on Mallorca that stars Max Beesley, Ben Chaplin, Marc Warren and the Life on Mars/State of Play dream team that is Philip Glenister and John Simm? Maybe with just a hint of nudity from these stars…

Sounds good huh? Well, it doesn’t stop there, when it comes to BSkyB pulling out all the stops for this one: cue the promotional trailer by David LaChapelle. We can talk about whether it’s any good or not after the break…

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