TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Smallville – Absolute Justice

8 February 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Absolute Justice

In the US: Friday 5th February 2010, 8/7c, The CW

I gave up watching Smallville at the start of this season. As I said at the time, for most of its previous nine years, the show had admirably tried to square the comic book silliness of Superman with the sensibilities of Dawson’s Creek, albeit with decreasing success. Come the tenth season, it just all got very silly indeed and went into comic book overload.

This week, the producers of Smallville fired up their Flash-powered running wheel to give us a two-part story stuck together as a movie. Doing its best to channel Watchmen, Absolute Justice saw former members of the so-called Justice Society of America being killed by an old enemy, necessitating its disgraced surviving members team up again and join forces with the fledging Justice League that Clark Kent, Chloe, Oliver (Green Arrow) and co have been trying to put together.

And like a giant bat signal in the sky, it called to my inner geek to watch it. There’s ironic, huh?

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The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Life Unexpected

8 February 2010 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, The CW

To maintain a sense of consistency with my first-episode review, I’m about a week late with this third-episode verdict. But hell – let’s do it.

So as we all recall, Life Unexpected sees a precocious teenager who’s been through seven foster families track down her birth parents so that she can be emancipated and lead her own life, free of adults. However, despite leading separate lives now, they decide to be ‘Lux’s’ parents for real.

Now, the first episode was actually quite good: it played a little with the darkness of the concept, had some reasonably witty dialogue and moments and the characters were broadly likable. Trouble was, it was pretty much a self-contained concept – where was the show going to go from there?

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US TV

Review: Lost 6×1-6×2

3 February 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Lost 6x1 - Boone and Locke

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC
In the UK: Fridays, 9pm, Sky 1/Sky 1 HD. Starts February 5th

There’s something to be said for the “DVD box set” approach to viewing TV series. Why watch episodes live when you can wait until a season has finished and watch all the episodes in one go?

I’ll tell you why I’m suddenly thinking this is a great idea – I’ve seen the first two episodes of the new season of Lost. Where’s the next one, huh? Next week: that’s where. What use to me is that?

Discussion and spoilers after the jump.

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