TV reviews

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

US TV

Preview: Runaway

17 July 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Runaway

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, The CW, starting 18th September

In the UK: Starts in 2007 on Channel 4 and E4

As we saw on Friday with Shark, once US networks spot a hit, they all try to recreate it for themselves (or even try to do it again). It’s a trend we’ll see tomorrow with The Nine, but today we’re going to be looking at Runaway.

Runaway essentially wants to be Prison Break, but without the tiresome need for everyone to break out of jail first, so just kicks off with everyone on the run. Lawyer Donnie Wahlberg has been accused of murdering someone. Surprise twist: he hasn’t. Oh wait – that’s not a surprise.

Anyway, after escaping from jail, he, his wife and family sneak away, running from town to town to avoid the authorities. Like The Fugitive before him, Wahlberg inveigles himself into the hearts of the townsfolk wherever he goes, mainly by offering to do odd jobs. Yet all the time, he’s really looking for ways to prove his innocence, using Internet access at his new jobs to remain in contact with friends and helpers in his home town.

Meanwhile, his kids and wife try to build normal but temporary lives wherever they go. This isn’t helped by the fact that they have to have new names and identities in every town and the police are in hot pursuit.

That’s the plot, guys. Nothing more to see here. Move along.

Runaway hit? No

Despite the central idea of the show, Runaway‘s not actually very exciting. There’s the usual techniques of such dramas, such as the police raiding a house you’re supposed to think is the Wahlberg family residence, when it’s actually someone else’s; there’s the usual pissed off teenage children you’d expect from a show that will be airing on the successor to The WB. There’s also the usual poorly defined threat that we’re just supposed to take on trust, rather than actually see do anything nasty.

But the family are pretty uninteresting and uninvolving. There’s no main cop character to really get to grips with. The real murderer is never seen, only issuing threats by text, post and instant message. There’s no deadline to beat, as with Prison Break. Nothing, basically, to really involve you in the chase and evasion, other than the excitement of a chase/evasion.

How will they avoid the cops this time? Ooh, lying and watching old episodes of The Incredible Hulk.

It’s a less auspicious start than Prison Break‘s, which itself had a pretty laughable opening episode, but Channel 4 and E4 both seem persuaded of its merits. I’m not convinced this is going to go the distance, but as with all serial dramas, once you’re drawn in, it’s hard to stop watching.

US TV

Preview: Shark

14 July 2006 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

James Woods and Jeri Ryan in Shark

In the US: Thursday, 10 pm, CBS. Begins in the fall.

In the UK: Acquired by Five, with UKTV picking up basic pay rights

Opening summary

There’s nothing quite like a successful show on another network to make US television execs wonder how exactly they can have some of that ratings goodness, too.

Look at House. It was a surprise success for Fox that took everyone by surprise. CBS seems to have taken one look at it and said to themselves, “Hey, we should do a show like that, except not about doctors or else we’ll get our asses sued.”

As ever, though, the carbon copy is always a pale imitation of the original.

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Watch some shows for free over on Sci Fi Pulse: Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, The Amazing Screw-On Head

14 July 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

US cable network The Sci Fi Channel is giving us all (for some reason, they haven’t banned British viewers like they normally do) the chance to watch a couple of TV shows streamed over the Internet in not very high quality. Hoozah.

The first is Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, a Channel 4 series that starred Richard Ayoade of The IT Crowd among others. It’s a parody of just about every 80s sci-fi/horror anthology series and serial going, with references to The Twilight Zone and The Ray Bradbury Theater in the opening titles alone, although the likes of Stephen King and Shaun Hutson are the main victims.

It’s not actually very funny though. It’s like something a bunch of students put together to show how clever they are (I, erm, wrote similar things when I was 16…): yes, you can see exactly what they’re satirising, but it doesn’t make you laugh, only go “Oh yes. Very clever.”

Also appearing in stream-o-vision is The Amazing Screw-on Head, a pilot for a new animated series based on a comic book of the same name. Not too great either, but you can vote on it at the end to decide whether it should be made into a series.

While you’re about it, if you decide to watch anything on the site, you’ll get the SciFi video player and be able to watch interviews with the Doctor Who team. It has Eccles-cake in full humourless mode, sucking the fun and joy out of the atmosphere. But it’ll make you all nostalgic for 2005.

US TV

Review: Brotherhood

13 July 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Jason Isaacs in Brotherhood

In the US: Sunday, 10 pm ET/PT, Showtime

In the UK: Not acquired yet

Jason Isaacs likes to do hard. His first big UK role was in Civvies, Lynda La Plante’s everyday story of former paratroopers trying to get jobs that don’t involve breaking and entering. He’s over in the US now in Brotherhood, a Showtime drama about two brothers, one on the right side of the law, the other on the wrong side.

Guess which side Jason’s on.

At first glance, Brotherhood isn’t particularly inspiring. Isaacs is a serious crim who’s been missing for seven years. Australian actor Jason Clarke plays his brother, who’s now a respectable politician. Brotherhood ostensibly looks at how you can have a family member you want to love but who will ruin everything you’ve done if you allow them to get close to you.

But there is a slight twist to this. Clarke isn’t actually very respectable. His vote is buyable, he’s in league with all sorts of bad elements, including corrupt unions (oh what a surprise. A US drama series where a union is corrupt). He only wants Isaacs out of his life so that people don’t realise he’s actually about as criminal as they come, too. The show’s most interesting moments deal with the corruption of the political process.

Isaacs’ character isn’t as evil as everyone thinks though. Although a ‘three-in-one’ hit man (judge, jury and executioner), not adverse to extreme amounts of brutality and mutilation, he’s all doing it with the best intents: he takes action against a man who threatens to rape a woman by cutting of the man’s ear and sending it to her as a gift along with some new earrings (it’s supposed to reassure her); instead of killing people, he pays them to disappear so he won’t have to.

And the ‘brotherhood’ of the title doesn’t just mean the two Jasons’ brotherhood; it also means the brotherhood between criminals in the same gang.

At the moment though, Brotherhood is pretty unappetising. There’s none of the great writing of The Sopranos. There’s no character – major or minor – who isn’t criminal or unpleasant in one way or another, right down to Clarke’s nine-year-old daughter.

It’s heavy going and not especially enjoyable. The strength of Isaacs’ and Clarke’s performances make it an interesting character piece, but there’s going to need to be more plot and development to make it more than just a tale of two brothers – something we’ve seen many times before.

US TV

Review: Psych 1×1

12 July 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Psych

In the US: USA Network, Fridays, 10/9C

In the UK: Acquired by Hallmark and the BBC. Hallmark has the first-run rights, the Beeb second-run. No air date yet.

There’s something a little eerie about the USA Network’s new series Psych. I’m not talking about the fact the main character is a psychic with an uncanny gift for solving crimes. For one thing, Shawn Spencer (James Roday) isn’t a psychic. He was just raised by his cop father (Corbin Bernsen) from a very early age to be extremely observant. Every time they’d go into a diner, his father would make his shut his eyes and answer questions about things he’d seen (‘How many people are wearing hats?’ ‘What’s the manageress’s name? She greeted you on the way in and it was on her name tag’). Now Shawn just has to observe a crime scene and the behaviour of the suspects to know exactly what’s been happening.

No, the eerie thing is James Roday: he is a homeopathic Will Ferrell.

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