TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: No Ordinary Family 1×1

30 September 2010 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

No Ordinary Family

In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
In the UK: Yet to be acquired

Brace yourself: this is the first of not one but two superhero shows on network US TV coming this Fall, with NBC’s The Cape due some time soon (presumably as soon as NBC cancels another show, since there’s no actual airdate yet).

But of the two, this is the most family-friendly. Family, incidentally, is the operative word here. Since ABC scored big last year with Modern Family, it must have seemed natural enough to go for family with the drama as well. Here we have an “ordinary family” – which apparently means “family doing regular stuff but with deep seated emotional issues and resentments, but nothing too dramatic” – whose plane crash-lands in the Amazon. Exposed to some weird green stuff in the river, when they return to the US, they soon discover they have super-powers, which in traditional Heroes style are exactly what they need emotionally: super-strength for the father who wants to fight crime, super-speed for the mother who has too little time, super-brains for the learning disabled son and the ability to read minds for the girl who can’t fit in.

It’s not as adult as Heroes, it’s not as kid-oriented as Kyle XY, it’s not as good as The Incredibles and it’s not as “ordinary” as Misfits – but it’s got Julie Benz (Buffy, Angel, Dexter) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four), it does have some really cool special effects and the stories are something the whole family can enjoy. Basically, it’s Merlin for Americans – but better, obviously

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US TV

Review: Blue Bloods 1×1

30 September 2010 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Blue Bloods

In the US: Fridays, 10/9c, CBS
In the UK: Not yet acquired

In the neverending quest for new ways to do cop and legal dramas, the concept of the “super-format” has emerged (I just made up that name so don’t go looking for it anywhere else. It’s mine). So you want to do cop shows, but you also quite like the whole lawyer thing as well? Well, how about Law & Order, where you get both cops and lawyers: a twofer super-format. Or maybe you quite like stories about guys on patrol, rookie cops and detectives? Well, how about Southland, then? That’s a threefer super-format. Or perhaps you even like the mix of politics that you get at the top of the police hierarchy with the day-to-day police work of the rank and file as well as lawyers? Well, how about The Wire then?

Indeed, The Wire was perhaps the first of the “super-super format” shows: a format that tries to amalgamate everything to do with the legal system and look at it all equally. But post The Wire, what new super-super format can you have?

Blue Bloods rather cunningly does the very American thing of making it all about family. In this case, the Reagans, a New York Irish family of cops and lawyers. We have Tom Selleck, complete with his old Magnum PI moustache, as the New York chief of police. His dad is the former chief of police. He has two sons, one a detective (Donnie Wahlberg), the other a beat cop. He had another son, who was also a beat cop, but who died in the line of duty. And he has a daughter (Bridget Moynahan) who is an assistant district attorney.

The result is a show in which you get to see all aspects of New York policing, from the politics at the top to the investigations by detectives to the day-to-day issues of the average beat cop to the problems of the legal system – all while the politics of torture are discussed over Sunday lunch. For a while, it actually seems pretty good – and then six minutes before the end, we get the Blue Templars and everything falls apart.

Here’s a trailer:

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US TV

Review: Hellcats 1×1-1×3

27 September 2010 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, The CW
In the UK: Not yet acquired

It’s easy to stereotype cheerleaders. Take your pick: blonde Barbies? Bubble heads? Sluts in flesh-expositng outfits? Cliquey? Agents of patriarchy, doing nothing more than standing there and looking pretty while cheering on men? Nothing more than pom pom twirlers?

This is, of course, bollocks.

Apart from the fact that there are male cheerleaders, top-level cheerleading is an incredibly demanding athletic sport – it’s responsible for 2/3 of sports injuries among women at college and requires hours and hours of dedication, training and practice. As with football, its associated scholarships can also be the only way some American women (and men) can afford to go to college and it’s enabled people from the likes of Katie Couric and Meryl Streep through to supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and even Ronald Reagan to get to the upper echelons of society.

These and other stereotype crushing facts are what you’ll learn if you watch The CW’s new dramedy, Hellcats, based on Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick. Oh, and you’ll get to see lots of buff young men and women in skimpy outfits – including Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical! Woo!

Here’s the extended trailer:

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US TV

Review: Outsourced 1×1

24 September 2010 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Outsourced

In the US: Thursdays, 9.30/8.30c, NBC
In the UK: Not yet acquired

We’re going to have to tread lightly here. So…

Outsourcing is a phenomenon which sees businesses transfer some of the things they do to other countries, most famously call centres. Someone has to run those call centres, and sometimes it’s a local, sometimes it’s someone sent over from the home country. One of the biggest countries for providing outsourcing services is India.

There. I made it through an entire paragraph without being too controversial. Because Outsourced, NBC’s new comedy show is a great big hot potato that sees an American company fire its call centre and blackmail the centre’s manager into going over to India to run the outsourced call centre. There he meets a motley collection of misfits as well as another American call centre manager who’s been there a few years and a cute Australian call centre manager he’d like to get to know better (Pippa Black from Neighbours).

Still not too controversial?

Well, let’s just say there are a few cultural clashes and a few stereotypes in the mix as well.

Cue the trailer:

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US TV

Review: Better With You 1×1

24 September 2010 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Better With You

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, ABC
In the UK: Not yet acquired

If you needed proof that a laughter track – or at least a “live studio audience” – will kill 99% of all known US comedies dead, here’s Better With You to come up and smack you in your face and tell you to “wake up and smell the coffee”.

It’s the kind of show that deals in the occasional cliché like that. But only occasionally.

Now, underneath everything, it’s actually quite funny – despite that occasional flirtation with cliché. Okay, it’s very suspiciously like Rules of Engagement (and the near-forgotten What I Like About You) but this story of two sisters, one in a happy relationship for nine years but unmarried, the other getting pregnant and engaged to a guy she’s been dating for seven weeks, does have some good lines, some good actors, touches on some interesting aspects of relationships and – vitally – makes you laugh.

The trouble is the studio audience crushing every ounce of comedy out of the situation. Here, a trailer and a clip so you can see what I mean.

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