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

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Third-episode verdict: Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire

23 April 2009 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Krod Mandoon

In the US: Thursdays, 10pm/9c, Comedy Central
In the UK: BBC2, some time in the Spring/Summer, not this month as previously advertised

What’s this? A third-episode verdict without even a review of the first episode? Well, Comedy Central’s been chucking these babies out so fast, by the time I got round to watching episode one, episode three had already been on, so let’s integrate.

As mentioned in my perfunctory preview, Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is a co-production between BBC2 and Comedy Central – half the cast are British (and sometimes faking American accents) and the other half are American. It features the adventures of the eponymous Kröd Mändoon, semi-fearless warrior and germophobe (as played by Sean Maguire who seems to have a lock-in on things like this since Meet the Spartans), and his motley collection of followers as they try to fight against the oppression of the evil Chancellor Dongalor (Matt Lucas).

Yes, you guessed it, it’s parody time, with role-playing games, Dungeons and Dragons, et al, as the target of this mildly humorous, slightly obvious comedy, mainly involving silly names.

Prepare to laugh – a little.

Continue reading “Third-episode verdict: Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire”

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 4

Third-episode verdict: Cupid

21 April 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Well, it doesn’t look like it’ll be coming back for a second season but it’s time for a third-episode verdict on Cupid, the reincarnated Rob Thomas series about the Roman god of love’s need to match 100 modern day couples if he’s to return to Mount Olympus.

After a relatively bland and inauspicious start, things have only become blander and less interesting, making you almost hope for the ‘glories’ of Valentine. Even though the show started with very little of note, it did at least try to make Cupid vaguely interesting: a bit of a Mediterranean jack the lad. Now, he’s just puckish and has a couple of posters of Greece on his wall.

Meanwhile, Sarah Paulson’s ever-so-serious character has pretty much been a walking charisma vacuum, with little to do except for reprimanding Cupid and being the practical anti-romantic – a thankless task, even if she had any other defining characteristics, which she doesn’t seem to have any more.

The only other redeeming qualities about the show were that the couples being matched did at least seem pleasant and fun. Now, they’re there as plot devices, with the third episode’s "can a Republican and a Democrat really fall in love?" being one of the most shallow pieces of television I’ve seen since Knight Rider – the answer, apparently, is "as long as the Republican likes gay people".

All in all, a complete let-down that just goes to show you that even with a second chance, a show can actually get worse.

Carusometer rating: 4
Prediction: Cancelled by the end of the season, possibly pulled off the air even sooner