US TV

In the US: TNT, some time in the Fall. No airdate set

Lawyers, hey? Always such curmudgeonly old types, their actually having to know things n’all. So unphotogenic. Ugh.

Wouldn’t it be just the coolest thing, though, if we could have a TV show about young lawyers who were all really pretty? No, not like Shark. Absolutely no old folks around – you know 35 or even 40 – to mess things up. We want pretty, pretty, pretty.

But wouldn’t they all be a bit rubbish?

Maybe. But we could make that a virtue. How about they’re all a bit rough and ready and make mistakes? They’d screw up – and each other – because they wouldn’t know better.

They’d need practice and training before they could handle tricky things well. We could call it something like Law Squad? No? How about Training Briefs?

I know. Raising the Bar. That’ll do.

Continue reading “Preview: Raising the Bar”

In the US: TNT. Coming in the Fall (no airdate or slot yet)

There are very few films that have essentially relaunched entire genres. Ocean’s 11 is one of those few. It managed to cause an outbreak of ‘cool criminal’ films and TV series, the effect of which is still being felt. Some of these have been successful (Hustle), some unsuccessful (the remake of The Italian Job, Smith).

Leverage is the latest TV series to take the idea of the caper movie and run with it. Starring Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, Angel‘s Christian Kane (without an evil hand) and our very own Gina Bellman (Coupling), it’s actually very good.

Continue reading “Preview: Leverage”

In the US: Fox, Wednesdays, 9.30pm ET/PT. Starts September 10th

There is a strange astral body that orbits the Fox network in the US. It’s called the "Galactic Ball of Sitcom Suckiness". It purges any Fox sitcom of even the slightest trace of comedy and makes you wish for the cold release of death as you watch it.

Look at Back To You or Til Death. They’re just awful. Even The Loop, which almost managed to achieve single-camera escape velocity in its first season, got pulled back into purgatory for its second.

Now we have Do Not Disturb, which while initially sounding like a comedy about an intrepid working party looking at the small print of the Lisbon Treaty, is actually set in a hotel. Starring Jerry O’Connell (Jerry Maguire, Sliders, Carpoolers), one of the funny ones from The Class and no one else of real interest, it is exactly the same as every other offensively poor Fox sitcom you’ve ever seen.

Continue reading “Preview: Do Not Disturb”