TV reviews

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

US TV

Review: Heroes 2×1

26 September 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Heroes

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, NBC

In the UK: BBC2, very soon

Characters re-cast: 0

Major characters gotten rid of: Some are MIA, some are KIA

Major new characters: Three so far

Format change percentage: 20%

Number of odd faces in mirrors: 1

If humans were to live the dream while evolving through the eye of a needle into the rainbow blue sunset of Thomas Hardy’s pleasure dome… Sorry, I’ve been listening to the Heroes voiceover again.

Yes, it’s back. The breakout series of last year, a tale of everyday folk becoming superheroic and not being sure, necessarily, that they like it, is back again to frustrate, tease, annoy and excite, four months on. Or should that be 400 years off?

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UK TV

Review: The Sarah Jane Adventures 1×1

25 September 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Sarah Jane Adventures

In the UK: Mondays, 5pm, BBC1

In the US: God knows

Blimey. Don’t know about you but it’s been a while since I tuned into Children’s BBC. Okay, technically I didn’t, because Bastard, my PVR, failed to record this and I had to borrow a copy, but all the same, I feel very odd, tuning into a programme that’s put out by the broom cupboard people of yore.

The action picks up where the pilot left off, back in sunny, not too offensive BBC-land. Luke the Asperger’s wannabe (oh yes, They’ll be watching, you know They will), with his poor social skills but top notch science powers, is ensconced in Sarah Jane’s house as a surrogate son. The female neighbour is still living with her nice dad and improbably brain dead mother.

Everything is pretty much as it was before, except the intrusion of the “a little bit too inner city for our liking” female sidekick from the pilot has been rebuffed by those fearsome BBC bosses and a less gabby male sidekick from Zone 6 of the tube map has been added to the roster of alien defeaters. He’s more generic, less screamy. He’s more parent-friendly. He’s just what the Beeb is looking for.

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US TV

Review: Gossip Girl 1×1

24 September 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Gossip Girl

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, The CW

In the UK: Acquired by ITV2

From the Ratings Bible, II Teen Girls 12, verses 16-20

And lo! It came to pass that The OC did finish. The CW did look and It was pleased. For It knew that teens were Its domain, to be trespassed upon by no other, particularly not that satanic Rupert Murdoch’s Fox. 16

And at the end of this time, The CW did say to Itself, “How can We can get some of that hot teen girl viewing action? How about if we get the Creator of The OC to come up with something for Us?” 17

And The CW did wander in the desert that was Palm Springs and Hidden Palms for 40 days and 40 nights, although it felt like more like nine weeks. And there was much musing about copyright infringement and other terrible fates, if The CW did blatantly rip off The OC. 18

And at the end of that time, The CW did say to Itself, “Book adaptations. That’s where the clever money is. And we’ll set it in New York. Let’s clear that with legal, then green light it.” 19

And The CW did smile for the plan was good. 20

Actually, for all that cynicism of mine, I really rather enjoyed the second half of Gossip Girl. Which is surprising, because I really, really hated the first half.

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UK TV

Review: Commando – On The Front Line

21 September 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Commandos in the mud

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, ITV1

Bit of a yin-yang choice for me here: it was either this or Gossip Girl. I went for this.

Now, time was, ITV used to be able to do a documentary. Think World in Action. Think Survival. They were cracking.

Then they pretty much stopped doing them. Good ones, that is.

Commando: On the Front Line represents a true return to form and production values. Watching it, you’d think it was still the 80s, bar a switch to video from film. And that’s a good thing.

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US TV

Review: Kitchen Nightmares 1×1

21 September 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

KitchenNightmaresUS.jpg

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Not yet acquired, but you know E4 or More4 are going to poach it, sooner or later. Tee hee. Poach.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Sorry.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Sorry again. Couldn’t help myself.

Remember Strike!, that episode of The Comic Strip Presents in which Hollywood decides to make a film of the 1980s miners strike and casts Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill and Meryl Streep as his wife?

Well, we haven’t gone to quite the extent of recasting Gordon Ramsay here, but we have a US version of Channel 4’s Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares – in which top chef and MAN WITH BOLLOCKS! YES! BOLLOCKS! NOW WHERE ARE YOURS? YOU HEARD ME! NOW GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY RESTAURANT!, Gordon Ramsay, goes to various failing eating establishments and tries to re-engineer them back into life – that does a similar sort of thing to what was quite a low-key sort of show in Britain.

From a new title sequence where Ramsay catches knives thrown at him accompanied by the theme from Pulp Fiction, through the emphasis on soap opera histrionics instead of business management all the way, to the make-over show style additions in which Gordon buys a new kitchen for the restaurant, it’s all just so much more… American than the original series.

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