A complete archive of The Medium is Not Enough’s reviews of TV programmes since 2005
Just in case you’re interested, a somewhat old review of mine covering the Five documentary The Man Whose Arms Exploded has just gone up at Off The Telly. It’s also below the fold.
We’re starting a new thing here today: the ‘Fall premiere’ reviews. Often, producers will decide to tinker with a returning series over the summer break. They’ll tweak the format, kill off old characters, bring in new characters and do all sorts of things to the show. The problem is that typically, not all of these changes are for the good. So is the show returning in the fall (aka ‘the autumn’ aka ‘2007 by the time the UK networks have got round to broadcasting them’) the same show but better, or the show in name only?
These spoiler-free reviews will let you know whether to brace yourself or get excited. I hope.
Let’s start with Prison Break.
Here’s a quick thought experiment for you. The moon comes out at night, right? When we see it, we know that bedtime is coming soon. Beautiful, blissful sleep. But if there were three moons, would we be three times sleepier?
This particular experiment doesn’t need to be a thought experiment any more. The practical version is here: Three Moons Over Milford. The results?
Having three moons in the sky would make us all absolutely soporific. We’d fall into a deep, deep coma in just a few minutes.
Three Moons Over Milford: don’t watch it while operating heavy machinery.
In the US: Wednesdays, Fox, 9/8c. Starts August 30th.
In the UK: Airing on Living TV, starting in 2007.
Remember when CSI first came along? Wasn’t it revolutionary? Didn’t it change cop shows completely? I think Justice is going to do the same for lawyer shows. And surprise, surprise, it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production.
In the US: Fox, Monday 9/8c. Starts on Monday.
In the UK: Acquired by Five. Will air in 2007.
I moaned at them and wow, here’s the screener. Of course, the show’s airing on Monday in a double-bill with the premiere of Prison Break, but here it is nonetheless.
Vanished is interesting because it embodies that other network trend: the coincidentally identical premise. Remember when Robin Hood and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves both came out at the same time? And last year, when Threshold, Surface and Invasion all slammed into our screens (and out the other side eventually)?
We’ve got a similar thing going on here with NBC’s Kidnapped, since we’ve got two kidnapping shows at the same time. Vanished has a bit of a march on Kidnapped, but will the better show win? And which is the better show?
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