TV reviews

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

UK TV

Review: Harry and Paul 2×1

8 September 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Harry and Paul

In the UK: Fridays, 9pm, BBC1

Ruddy hell! It’s not Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul. It’s just Harry and Paul now. How confusing. Were you confused by the original title? Me neither. Maybe it was just too long for the Sky EPG.

Anyway, they’re back: Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, former young Turks of comedy, are once again on primetime BBC1, shoring up old comedy and helping to showcase new talent.

But as always, the question is, are they funny?

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US TV

Review: Sons of Anarchy 1×1

8 September 2008 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Sons of Anarchy

In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm, FX

FX has backed itself into something of a corner. With a reputation for being a manly channel for manly men who like programmes about even manlier men, pretty much everything they do now has to fit this remit.

I imagine that much like a war of escalation, each new FX show’s going to have be manlier than the previous ones. There’s going to come up a point where it commissions a show about ex-marine lumberjack bodybuilders on steroids who have John Woo shoot-outs and punch-ups during bank heists, before returning home to drink 17 kegs of beer each in front of cable porn – all without saying more than five, four-letter words each.

Sons of Anarchy isn’t that show, but it’s the closest yet. Set in a fake motorcycle gang chapter in California, it traces the fortunes of a family of bikers who are involved in guns, drugs, murder, robbery, and book-writing. Really.

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UK TV

Review: Lost in Austen 1×1

4 September 2008 Rob Buckley 18 Comments

Lost in Austen

In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, ITV1

What’s that? Is it the sound of something precious and beautiful being trampled underfoot by philistines and idiots?

Erm, no. Surprisingly, it’s not and we have yet another miracle of the post-Grade age: an ITV1 primetime drama that doesn’t suck, doesn’t insult the intelligence and actually makes you hunger for more.

Any more of this and it’ll almost become ordinary, expected even, that ITV1 dramas won’t make you feel like you’ve been hit on the head by a six-pack of Kestrels on a night out in Malia.

Anyway, it is a truth, universally acknowledged, that all women of a certain temperament love Pride and Prejudice, particularly that bit with Colin Firth in the water. Many are the women who know it almost word for word; and no doubt there are many who wish they could be in it, particularly during that bit with Colin Firth in the water.

So Lost in Austen is quite a clever idea, even if sounds a bit daft at first: what would happen if somehow you ended up in the novel Pride and Prejudice, having taken Elizabeth Bennet’s place. You’re a big fan, you know what’s supposed to happen, who’s supposed to end up with whom and how.

But what if you ballsed it all up?

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The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: The Cleaner

31 July 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Time for a third-episode verdict on The Cleaner, A&E’s attempt to kickstart a new habit among viewers of watching original shows on its network. Starring Benjamin Bratt, it’s about one man (and his team of former addicts)’s mission to get drug users clean.

Although dealing with an interesting subject matter, The Cleaner is surprisingly uninteresting, as is populated with not desperately exciting characters. Bratt spends all his time bickering with his family who, of course, don’t understand his new compulsion and why they come second to it. Couldn’t have a happy family, could we? That might be too original.

Very little time has been spent fleshing out the supporting characters or indeed what Bratt actually does as a Cleaner, other than follow people around to prove that, yes, indeed they are addicts. It seems he basically palms them off on rehab clinics then follows them around afterwards to make sure they stay clean. 

There have been a few decent guest stars – Annabeth Gish and Tate Donovan in the latest episode, for example – and the situations involved are different and unusual. It’s just the format itself that’s preventing the show from becoming something more than ‘druggy of the week’.

 

US TV

Review: Mad Men 2×1

29 July 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment



 

In the US: Sundays, AMC, 10pm/9c
In the UK: Acquired by BBC4 to air in 2009

Mad Men was something of a surprise for everyone when its first season arrived. Not only was it made by AMC, a network not really known for much – certainly not original dramas – it was very good indeed.

A period piece about Madison Avenue advertising men of the early 60s, it was stylish, clever and eye-opening, and spent considerable time demonstrating how much attitudes to just about everything have changed.

Unsurprisingly, it won a whole raft of awards. Now, here comes the second season, with much to prove. Yet set two years on, it’s appropriately relaxed and cool – it has nothing to prove.

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