TV reviews

Runaway, aka “The Fugitive and his family” has been bumbling along for three weeks or so now: time for third-episode verdict. I’m going to stamp it with an almighty “average”.

It’s improved slightly since the distinctly unimpressive first episode, but it’s still failing to come up with any interesting story thread, unlike Vanished (for all that show’s silliness), and the characters aren’t desperately involving either. Oh no, little Jimmy is going to have to flunk the Spelling Bee or else his photo will be taken and they’ll be caught! How awful.

I’m predicting a slow, lingering death for this one, unless someone puts it out of its misery. Don’t get caught up in it.

One of this year’s few break-outs, Ugly Betty deserves its much-praised status, I reckon. It’s actually one of the very few shows I’ve seen recently that I would describe as “charming”.

Betty Suarez’s continuing exploits in the world of fashion magazines are like bedtime stories for kids made into glossy, primary coloured television. Little that transpires has much to do with reality, particularly the reality of magazine publishing, but it doesn’t really matter in this fantasy world.

The show knows it is simplistic fare at heart and winks at the audience at opportune moments, but it avoids post-modern irony and simply embraces the good-natured Betty and her desire to get on in life through hard work and kind thoughts. Even the villains of the piece have their softer sides, with broken homes and broken hearts inspiring their random cruelty only until they become aware of what they’re really doing.

It’s soulful, fun and lovely basically. Avoid it if you’re looking for something deep and meaningful that says something about the grittiness of existence. But it’s an absolute must if you just want to watch something nice.

PS FYI, Ashley Jensen from Extras continues to amuse as Betty’s only real work friend, while another Gervais-collaborator, Lucy Davies from The Office (she also appears in Studio 60), is equally amusing in guest appearances as a fashion TV news anchor.

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30//7.30c, NBC

In the UK: No one’s bought it yet

Every once in a while, network executives have a sudden epiphany. They’ll suddenly remember that although the 18-24 demographic is pretty cool and all, there’s a whole load of older people, some of them retired, with oodles of spending money and time on their hands. So they commission a programme or two to take advantage of this demographic. But you know, they’re old people. They’re going in the head. What will they know or care about quality?

While’s it’s been a long time since the halcyon decade of greying TV power that ran from the mid-80s to the mid-90s and gave us never-ending episodes of Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Matlock, and Burke’s Law, the idea still comes back occasionally. So here we have 20 Good Years, the theme being that “60 is the new 40” and post-retirement, you’ve 20 years left in which you can seriously enjoy yourself again. Nice idea though that is, it’s seriously lacking in actual laughs.

Continue reading “Review: 20 Good Years”

I must confess I’ve been dreading this one. Episodes two and three of Brothers and Sisters have been sitting, winking at me for ages (it airs Sundays in the US), going “You’ll to have to sacrifice two hours of your life to watch us”.

It’s not that it’s a desperately bad show. It’s reasonably well written and the cast is to die for.

It’s just I hate every single character with a fiery passion. All of them. They’re all evil scum who should be put on a Viking longboat, towed out to sea and then burnt in their boating outfits, sweaters still slung nonchalantly over their shoulders.

They’re the kind of people who say things like “I’d rather trust your gut than my MBA right now”. Or complain about how terrible their lives are because their adulterous, pension-fund robbing dad gave them a trust fund instead of direct access to their millions in inheritance. Or because they cheat on their husbands and wives. Or because they’re smarmy, sanctimonious conservative talk TV hosts – who cheat on their fiancés with whoever happens to be nearest to them at the time.

Or… Or… Or. It just goes on. They’re all evil, cheating, backstabbing, self-centred rich people who get kicks out of screwing up their own lives and watching other people get destroyed by the fallout. If all of this in some way had some depth that illustrated something about “the human condition” (ooh, I’m treading a dangerous course towards the Sea of Pretension here), fair enough. It’s not exactly The Great Gatsby of our times, but probably has ambitions in that direction.

But it doesn’t have any real depth or message: at least nothing we haven’t seen countless times before. Ooh, cheating on your partner messes things up: amazing. Embezzling is bad: astounding. Brothers and sisters might argue about things and have chips on their shoulders: searing and penetrating insights. Thanks for that.

Now, if that’s your kind of thing – hey, guess what, it’s not mine – then this is the programme for you. Otherwise, avoid it.