TV reviews

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

US TV

Preview: Kidnapped 1×1 (US: NBC; UK: Channel 4/E4)

7 August 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Kidnapped

In the US: NBC, Wednesdays 10/9c. Starting September 20th.
In the UK: Acquired by Channel 4/E4 for transmission in 2007

Until now, NBC has more or less resisted the temptation to steal other networks’ ideas for programming. Until now.

Here’s its attempt at 24. It’s actually not half bad. They’ve captured (I’m good with me puns, aren’t I?) most of the things that make Fox’s Jack Bauer power hour so good: the tension; the serial aspect, with each episode following on from the previous; the “police procedural” tone that in no way comes close to the actual way police do work; and the utterly ridiculous plots. But it doesn’t quite have the edge required to make it unmissable.

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UK TV

Review: Time Trumpet

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Time Trumpet

In the UK: Thursdays, BBC2, 10pm

I had high-ish hopes for this. It comes from the House of Armando Iannucci for one thing. It satirises modern news and televisual trends by pretending to look back on them from the perspective of 2031. It could have been The Day Today of our day.

But it wasn’t. It was kind of funny. It was clever. It made you wonder just how much time they’d spent trawling through the archives for clips they could doctor with CGI. But it wasn’t the side-splittingly funny show I was hoping for.

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US TV

Preview: The Knights of Prosperity

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Knights of Prosperity



In the US: ABC, Wednesdays, 8pm. Starting January 3rd.

In the UK: Not yet acquired, and I suspect never will be

Knights of Prosperity? Dumb name for a show, huh. Very dumb given the previous name of the show was Let’s Rob Mick Jagger.

Now that’s a name I can work with. After all, it’s almost impossible to look at Mick Jagger and to avoid thinking, “You know, I’d really like to rob him.”

But Knights of Prosperity? It means nothing. As a result, I’m predicting a great big floparoo.

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US TV

Preview: Friday Night Lights

3 August 2006 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Friday Night Lights

In the US: NBC, Tuesdays, 8/7c. Starts October 3rd.

In the UK: Not acquired (and probably won’t be cos it’s about American football)

Ah, the TV series of the film of the book. Always a heady combination. And it’s all about sport: (American) football, to be exact. Who can resist?

Okay. I’m being sarcastic. Plus ça change, and all that. But actually, despite being a notorious (any) football hater, I really kind of enjoyed Friday Night Lights. It wasn’t totally captivating, but it had ‘qualities’.

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Third-episode verdict: Eureka

2 August 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

By a piece of extraordinary timing, this third-episode verdict arrives just as episode one of Eureka arrives in the UK. Now re-titled A Town Called Eureka for British audiences, it’s airing at 9pm on Sky One. Is it worth adding your diary?

Probably not.

It’s amiable enough. The characters are amiable. The plots are neither too rubbish nor too interesting. As I mentioned in my review of the pilot, it’s basically just an acceptable hour-long filler.

If you’re a real hardcore sci-fi fan, you’ll probably tune in every episode. Otherwise, give it a miss unless you’ve nothing better to do.