TV reviews

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

UK TV

Review: The Peter Serafinowicz Show 1.1

5 October 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Peter Serafinowicz

In the UK: Thursdays, 9.30pm, BBC2
In the US: Not yet acquired

Peter Serafinowicz has been quietly lurking, almost invisibly, within many of the good British comedy shows and movies of the last decade. He’s been in Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Look Around You, Little Britain, I’m Alan Partridge, Black Books and more. He’s also king of the voiceover: you may remember him from such shows as South Park, The IT Crowd and Hippies, as well as, most famously, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in which he played the voice – but not the body – of Darth Maul.

Despite this, he doesn’t get the name-check recognition of the likes of Simon Pegg, Matt Lucas et al. Is this about to change, now he’s got his own show, thanks to the all-powerful YouTube?

Er, maybe. Or, at the very least, more people will try to pronounce his name…

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US TV

Review: Carpoolers 1.1

4 October 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Carpoolers

Once upon a time, I imagine this was a cracking idea. Something like The Smoking Room or Phone Booth. “Imagine a low-budget comedy set entirely in a car being driven down the freeway by a bunch of guys in a car pool,” the idea probably went. “They’d talk about life, their lives, their feelings. It could be an illustration of the ordinary working man’s lot in life in the early 21st century.”

I imagine then that some network suit thought that a bigger budget and a bit more activity was needed or else no one would watch, certainly not during primetime.

And thus this version of Carpoolers was born. It is, in a sense, the partner programme to ABC’s Big Shots. While Big Shots is about rich idiots who are supposed to represent men but who are in fact misogynistic morons, Carpoolers is about middle class idiots who are supposed to represent men but who are in fact misogynistic morons.

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US TV

Third-episode verdict: Gossip Girl

3 October 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Carusometer for Gossip Girl1-Caruso-Free

Oh dear. I’m a girlie wuss. I’m a mental feeb.

I’m addicted to Gossip Girl.

This everyday tale of irritating rich kids, narrated by an equally irritating blogger obsessed with Upper East Side rich kids (thank God someone finally had the guts to expose those evil bloggers for what they are in this week’s CSi: Miami) is as powerful as crack cocaine.

Fundamentally, I love a good romance and this is a traditional romance – rich girl meets poor boy and two worlds collide – with a Web 2.0, cell phone-enabled polish. The leads are all very appealing and endearing, the baddies are suitably mean but sympathetic. The plots are light and fluffy without much realism.

It’s all so marvellous.

It might not appeal to adults that much, but if you can tolerate near-teen angst and rich-kid anxieties, you’ll enjoy Gossip Girl as of holiday, chick lit reading for the small screen.

The Medium is Not Enough declares Gossip Girl to be 1 or “Caruso free” on The Carusometer quality scale. A one on The Carusometer corresponds to “a show in which David Caruso might try to appear, claiming to be the best actor to play the part of a mid-30s father of an early-20s ‘teen’. Despite brushing down his hair to cover his bald patches and ostentatiously listening to ‘young people’s music’ such as Led Zeppelin, he’ll fail to get the part and be forced to lurk around at the corner of party scenes, glowering.”

Review: Big Shots 1.1

1 October 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Big Shots



In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC

In the UK: Not yet acquired

It’s hard to work out what kind of hate drives this “Sex and the City for men”. It’s clearly misogynistic: it has an extremely low opinion of women, thinks they’re all cheats or stupid or sex objects. But despite supposedly being pro-men, it’s clearly misandristic (is that even a word?), arguing we’re all cheats or stupid or put upon wimps. Misanthropic, maybe, since it must think we’re all rubbish, but with different reasons for hating each group, is it really the blanket hatred misanthropy suggests?

Whatever the hate, Sex and the City for men it is not. After all, Sex and the City was about four relatively likeable, initially single women trying to find love/sex/initmacy. They had interests of their own, talents, sense of humour and more.

Here, we have four “big shots” – CEOs and high flying execs of various companies – who are married or formerly married, all being extremely rubbish to everyone around them. Their one common interest appears to be being bitter and being pampered at a club for rich people.

Prepare to hate them back.

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