TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: 100 Questions 1×1-1×3

15 June 2010 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 8.30/7.30c, NBC

If you were a historical character, who would you be? Rasputin? Gandhi? Beethoven?

If NBC were a historical character, it would be Robert the Bruce, because no matter what happens, it will just try, try, try again.

Friends has gone. Friends is dead. NBC misses it terribly. It tried to do Friends again with Coupling and failed horribly. Now, it’s giving it yet another go with 100 Questions, in which five friends all try to help each other through life’s uncertainties and love – and we get to see them as the main character, Englishwoman Charlotte Payne, goes to a dating agency and answers 100 questions about herself.

But the signs haven’t been promising. The show was retitled 100 Questions from the slightly quirkier 100 Questions for Charlotte Payne. After the pilot, two of the friends were recast (one of them now being played by Smith Cho, who is being given a retry after appearing on another NBC re-try, Knight Rider). The whole thing was reshot. The episode count was dropped from 13 episodes to six and the show was moved to a Summer slot. The star of the show has moved back to England and got married. And if you were expecting NBC to actually tell you the show was on, well, oops – what a mistake to make. I didn’t notice until last Thursday, just before the third episode.

Despite these signs, it’s not half bad. And that half is Sophie Winkleman – Big Suze from Channel 4’s Peep Show. Here, have a shiny NBC trailer that features the original cast: you’ll still get the drift, even if it’s actually not as good as the updated version.

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US TV

Review: The Good Guys 1×1-1×2

10 June 2010 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Good Guys

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox

Cop shows tend to be about excitement, don’t they? Shootouts, undercover work: you know the form. But most police work is routine, mundane stuff. Any cop assigned to that kind of mind-numbing tedium would want to be doing stuff more like what you’d seen on TV, wouldn’t they?

In that sense, The Good Guys is cop wish fulfillment. An action-comedy cross between Burn Notice and Reno 911 that would really like to be a 70s show like Starsky and Hutch, it sees Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Bradley Whitford (Josh from The West Wing) playing a pair of Dallas property crime detectives, who no matter what they investigate, whether it’s a rock being thrown through a window or a burglary, somehow manage to end up facing gunfire, international assassins and all the excitement the genre has to offer.

If only it were as funny as that sounds. Here’s a trailer.

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UK TV

Review: Doctor Who – 5×10 – Vincent and the Doctor

7 June 2010 Rob Buckley 15 Comments

Vincent and the Doctor

In the UK: Saturday 5th June, 6.40pm, BBC1/BBC HD
In the US: Saturday 19th June, 9/8c, BBC America

Have you been affected by any of the issues raised in Saturday’s episode, such as life imitating art imitating life, giant space chickens following you, the memory of your ex- being wiped, or Athlete?

If so, you can either call the BBC or you can come talk about it in a supportive environment – full of spoilers – after the jump.

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UK TV

Lost Gems: Saracen (1989)

4 June 2010 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

The cast of Saracen

Barber firing a gun in Saracen

Starring: Christian Burgess, Patrick James Clarke, Ingrid Lacey, Michael Byrne, John Bennett
Price: £29.99
Amazon price: £17.93
Network DVD price: £16.99
Released: June 7th 2010

“The Professionals remade by the producers of Inspector Morse. Excited yet?”

A year ago, that’s how I would have started this Lost Gem for Saracen, a 1989 show which never got repeated, released on DVD, uploaded to YouTube or made available to the public in any way since its first broadcast nearly 21 years ago*.

Saracen, launched on the back of a pilot movie the previous year called The Zero Option, centred around the operatives of Saracen Systems, a private security company that exclusively hires ex-special forces soldiers for its protection work around the world.

Starring British actor Christian Burgess and American actor Patrick James Clarke as the ex-SAS David Barber and the ex-Delta Tom Duffy (B&D – Bodie and Doyle anyone?), it was an action-packed but thoughtful show that looked at geopolitical issues, the morality of various industries (including the security and weapons businesses) and the armed forces.

And I remembered it as being a bit dull, honestly. It has great music by Barrington Pheloung (Inspector Morse) and I had it on VHS for a long time, but I ditched my copies in the mid 90s on the general grounds that it wasn’t all that.

But Network DVD are nice enough to be releasing all 13 episodes and the pilot movie on DVD on Monday and in a nice reversal of the usual “memory cheats” syndrome (that is, you remember something from when you were younger as being good but it turns out when you re-watch it that it’s rubbish), Saracen turns out to be actually a very good show indeed that my poor little 17-year-old brain couldn’t take. It takes a little time to find its feet and work out how to balance smartness and action, but it does manage it.

It also help that Ingrid Lacey from Drop the Dead Donkey is in it.

Here’s the introduction from the first four episodes that explains the set-up, together with a bit of action from the first episode. I’ve also added for nostalgia freaks a trailer with the series highlights that originally aired on ITV back in the day that I’ve been saving up for over a year – that’s how far in advance I prepare some of these things. Impressed much? Thought not.

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