US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

Thursday’s “hi ho and ahoy Silver” news

25 September 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Film

Art

Comics

Theatre

British TV

US TV

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Fringe

24 September 2008 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Time for a third-episode verdict on Fringe, JJ Abrams new show for Fox about investigations into the weird areas of fringe science. After a first episode that was really rather good indeed, we’ve had a severe drop-off in quality. The problem is that although we have the fantastic John Noble as the equally fantastic Dr Walter Bishop, a mad scientist to whom all other mad scientists should bow down to and worship as their god, everything else is a little dull.

While Joshua Jackson as Bishop’s son is almost interesting, Anna Torv’s FBI heroine is about as involving as a 700-page instruction manual on repairing a steam iron. Even the magnificent Lance Reddick can’t rescue her boss from mere stern untrustworthiness. 

The plots and direction have also lacked all the promise of the pilot, with the Cronenbergian coldness and body horror now MIA, replaced with simple weirdness and an X-Files-esque conspiracy theory of outstanding tedium. Those stupid location-naming graphics are irksome, too.

On the whole, probably not worth sticking with, even though there are hints that there’s more plot to come. I might well keep watching, just to see if I’ve been proved wrong – I’ll let you know if I have.

So The Medium is Not Enough has great pleasure in declaring Fringe a three or ‘Minor Caruso’ on The Carusometer quality scale.

US TV

Review: Worst Week 1×1

24 September 2008 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Worst Week

In the US: Mondays, 9.30pm ET/PT, CBS

What’s the lowest form of wit or comedy? Some say sarcasm, but clearly they haven’t read anything by Charlie Brooker. Maybe it’s any studio-based comedy about ‘friends’ or work colleagues where the dialogue consists solely of people making increasingly unpleasant remarks about each other in an attempt to get a laugh. That’s pretty low down the list, I would have thought.

But, no, the answer is obvious. Farce is the lowest form of comedy. It consists entirely of utterly implausible situations and ridiculous coincidences and elicits laughs purely through embarrassment.

And Brits are to blame for it. It’s our fault. Can I just say sorry to the rest of the world for that?

Sorry.

If we’d kept it to ourselves, maybe we wouldn’t have so much to answer for. But now we’re exporting it to the world. The Worst Week of My Life was a pretty dreadful BBC1 farce starring the normally talented Ben Miller and Sarah Alexander. The Beeb/Hat Trick sold the format to Germany – twice – and now CBS in the US has remade it as Worst Week.

And it’s absolutely dreadful. Should I apologise for that, too?

Continue reading “Review: Worst Week 1×1”

Wednesday’s soap stars on the farm news

24 September 2008 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

Art

Music

Theatre

British TV

US TV

US TV

Review: Heroes 3×1-3×2

23 September 2008 Rob Buckley 15 Comments

Heroes 3x1

In the US: Mondays, 9pm, NBC
In the UK: Mondays, 9pm, BBC2. Starts October 1st

Heroes was the show everyone loved during its first season. The one real breakout hit of that year’s new entries, it was an ensemble Unbreakable for the small screen: ordinary people suddenly find they have superpowers and have to work out what to do with them.

Then came its second season and then it wasn’t quite as loved as it was before. Apart from its crimes against Ireland and the disappointingly unsuper finale to the first season, the second season just plodded along like it was Lost or something. Bah. Where were the superfights and the superpowers? Why did we have to deal with all these rubbish new heroes when the old ones didn’t have enough screen time as it was?

Fortunately, along came the writers’ strike in the US and curtailed the second season, forcing it to speed up and giving the writers more time to think of a decent third season.

So now, it’s back, finally, after a hell of a wait. The writers have regrouped. Have they managed to fix their mistakes and return Heroes to the glory of the first season?

And more importantly, since it’s the only really important question in the whole of this introduction and perhaps even the world, is there any point to life any more or is Ali Larter definitely still in the cast list?

Continue reading “Review: Heroes 3×1-3×2”