TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Royal Pains 1×1

5 June 2009 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Royal Pains

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, USA Network

As recession has struck, so US TV’s attitude to the rich has changed. Where once there was admiration and envy – Sex and the City – so admiration has faded and been replaced by amusement – Gossip Girl and Dirty Sexy Money – before eventually reaching disdain – Privileged and now Royal Pains.

The envy’s still there though.

While still wishing it had their money, Royal Pains is nevertheless quite a fun show that despite its essential dislike of the rich has heart to make up for this unworthy emotion.

Set in the Hamptons, New York state’s retreat for the ultra-wealthy, it sees disgraced ER doctor Mark Feuerstein accidentally wander into a new job as a ‘concierge doctor’ – a live-in, on-call doctor who looks after the rich and famous when they have those little problems the rich and famous suffer from: drug overdoses, car crashes – and deflated breast implants.

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US TV

Preview: Nurse Jackie 1×1

5 June 2009 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Nurse Jackie

In the US: Mondays, 10.30pm ET/PT, Showtime

You’ve got to hand it to Showtime in the US. In the last three years, they’ve gone from being “the network that would like to be HBO but isn’t” to the near-undisputed leader in quality TV in the US. Californication, Dexter, Weeds, Brotherhood – the list keeps getting longer and longer.

Let’s add Nurse Jackie to that list.

If the US were to ever remake either Green Wing or No Angels and still make it a success, this it what it would come up with. Nurse Jackie is a nurse – simultaneously just like every other nurse but also like no other. She knows better than the doctors what should be done. She knows better than the patients.

In fact, even though everyone disagrees with her, she’s still going to do what she thinks is right to save lives, whether that’s fake a signature on an organ donor form or flush a criminal’s ear down the toilet.

Be glad nurse Jackie’s looking after you – but also be a little frightened.

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US TV

Review: Burn Notice 3×1

5 June 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Burn Notice

In the US: Thursdays, 9/8c, USA
In the UK: Coming to FX at some point, I’m sure

Burn Notice is the USA Network’s big and very surprising success. Despite ratings of over 6 million, it sticks out like a sore thumb, with a mixture of spy tradecraft, fights, explosions, shootings and characters who really aren’t that likeable at times – something that isn’t really true of the other shows on the “characters welcome” network that gave us Monk and Psych.

After two seasons trying to piece together who slapped a Burn Notice on him and got him fired from his spy day-job, Michael Westen found out at the end of last season – it was Frasier’s dad. With that cleared up and after refusing to take a job with the old curmudgeon, Westen has new challenges ahead: every enemy he’s ever made could be on their way to Miami to get him.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? But…

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US TV

Deadliest Warrior – The stupidest TV programme ever

2 June 2009 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Deadliest Warrior

There are some insanely daft TV programmes out there if you look hard enough. Just mental ones. Like the remake of Knight Rider or Torchwood for example. Probably the most mental TV show I’ve come across in recent months/years is a documentary. It airs on Spike in the US and it’s called Deadliest Warrior.

Now, I watched the first episode and thought to myself “There is absolutely no point even reviewing this, because it’s so insanely daft the entire review would consist of ‘HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!'”

But I just saw the title of the latest episode and thought I had to share anyway.

The principle of the show is simple. See if you can avoid laughing as I explain. You take two of history’s greatest warriors or fighting forces. You get historical experts and scientists to analyse their ways of fighting. You test some of their techniques out on dummies and the like. You then feed it all into a gaming engine and enact thousands of battles in the computer. And then you see which of the two would have won in a fight on aggregate.

HA HA HA?

Okay, it’s clearly inspired by Discovery Channel’s Fight Science but all the sensible things have been done already, so that’s what they were left with.

They could still have done something halfway intelligent, though. They could have just made it a war games type programme in which armies faced off against each other, or had martial artists of different styles fight one another.

They didn’t.

Instead, their choices of warriors to pit against each other veers between the insanely silly and the outright tasteless. Here’s a list of the ones they’ve done so far – see if you can keep that smile off your face. The last two are absolute classics:

  • Episode 1: Apache vs Gladiator
  • Episode 2: Viking vs Samurai
  • Episode 3: Spartan vs Ninja
  • Episode 4: Pirate vs Knight
  • Episode 5: Yakuza vs Mafia
  • Episode 6: Green Beret vs Spetsnaz
  • Episode 7: Shaolin Monk vs Māori Warrior
  • Episode 8: William Wallace vs Shaka Zulu
  • Episode 9: IRA vs. Taliban

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

It’s the stupidest TV programme ever. Without a doubt.