TV reviews

In the US: TNT, some time in the Fall. No airdate set

Lawyers, hey? Always such curmudgeonly old types, their actually having to know things n’all. So unphotogenic. Ugh.

Wouldn’t it be just the coolest thing, though, if we could have a TV show about young lawyers who were all really pretty? No, not like Shark. Absolutely no old folks around – you know 35 or even 40 – to mess things up. We want pretty, pretty, pretty.

But wouldn’t they all be a bit rubbish?

Maybe. But we could make that a virtue. How about they’re all a bit rough and ready and make mistakes? They’d screw up – and each other – because they wouldn’t know better.

They’d need practice and training before they could handle tricky things well. We could call it something like Law Squad? No? How about Training Briefs?

I know. Raising the Bar. That’ll do.

Continue reading “Preview: Raising the Bar”

In the US: TNT. Coming in the Fall (no airdate or slot yet)

There are very few films that have essentially relaunched entire genres. Ocean’s 11 is one of those few. It managed to cause an outbreak of ‘cool criminal’ films and TV series, the effect of which is still being felt. Some of these have been successful (Hustle), some unsuccessful (the remake of The Italian Job, Smith).

Leverage is the latest TV series to take the idea of the caper movie and run with it. Starring Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, Angel‘s Christian Kane (without an evil hand) and our very own Gina Bellman (Coupling), it’s actually very good.

Continue reading “Preview: Leverage”

In the US: Fox, Wednesdays, 9.30pm ET/PT. Starts September 10th

There is a strange astral body that orbits the Fox network in the US. It’s called the "Galactic Ball of Sitcom Suckiness". It purges any Fox sitcom of even the slightest trace of comedy and makes you wish for the cold release of death as you watch it.

Look at Back To You or Til Death. They’re just awful. Even The Loop, which almost managed to achieve single-camera escape velocity in its first season, got pulled back into purgatory for its second.

Now we have Do Not Disturb, which while initially sounding like a comedy about an intrepid working party looking at the small print of the Lisbon Treaty, is actually set in a hotel. Starring Jerry O’Connell (Jerry Maguire, Sliders, Carpoolers), one of the funny ones from The Class and no one else of real interest, it is exactly the same as every other offensively poor Fox sitcom you’ve ever seen.

Continue reading “Preview: Do Not Disturb”

In the US: Thursdays, 10pm, ABC. No start date yet

Ah, Life on Mars. Everyone’s favourite BBC show about time-travelling cops who are really stuck in a coma (there’s more than one, you know). Harking back to bygone days of politically incorrect cops shouting "Gov!" and beating up crims before going to the pub for a swift pint or seven, it gave us lovable rogue Gene Hunt to grudgingly admire while we simultaneously gloried in nostalgia and looked at the recent past with just a touch of smug superiority.

But, oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth when it was heard that US network ABC was going to remake it. "Bloody yanks. They’re just not going to get it," screamed a thousand armchair and pub xenophobes around the land. And when that trailer came out, many a person could see their point.

Even ABC saw their point after giving the pilot a look-over. At the moment, it’s busy relocating the whole thing to New York from Los Angeles and is recasting.

So what, you might ask, is the point of reviewing this, the original pilot? Well, I think it’s instructional. Firstly, given the script itself probably won’t change that much, it’s interesting to see what changes have been made and will probably make it through to the series proper. Secondly, it’s interesting to see whether the trailer made the pilot look better or worse than it actually is. And thirdly, is Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt anywhere near as good as Philip Glenister, assuming he doesn’t get recast?

Continue reading “Preview: Life on Mars (US)”