US TV

An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.

Who are you? Oh crap, you’re real

7 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Imagine this. You’re a kid in a Florida High School. Your teacher has a jolly wheeze. Why don’t we go on a CSI field trip? We’ll dig up stuff – planted of course – and you’ll have to work out what happened using forensic science.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Now imagine you’re out in the field, the sun beating down as you gently brush away the dirt and the grime from the artfully placed props. Is this what it’s like for Gil, Sara and Catherine? Wow. This is great. I’m going to be a real CSI when I grow up (good luck kid. The pay’s rubbish, the courses over-subscribed, applicants-to job ratios massive and people have to make do with a magnifying glass and an old distilled water bottle to do anything, most of the time, the budget’s are so tiny).

But what’s this? It’s a hand. Cool. It’s so real-looking. But you can tell it’s fake.

Oh bugger. It’s not. It’s a dead homeless guy.

How much would you sue for?

A new channel just for me

5 June 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Five have finally revealed their new free-to-view digital channels: Five US and Five Life. I’ll be ignoring Five Life since it’s basically Living TV in disguise (“Five Life will be aimed at women, with soaps and lifestyle programming as well as an extension of the channel’s children strand, Milkshake” – where are the psychics then?), but Five US is going to be all-US programming.

Well, that’s the power of blogging for you. They’ve finally developed a TV station just for me. Hooray!

FX considering some odd shows

5 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

US male-oriented network FX is considering some odd shows for its new season. We have Courtney Cox as the editor-in-chief of two celebrity tabloids in Dirt. Sounds a bit like Just Shoot Me played straight, although Ian Hart as a schizophrenic photographer? What’s going on there?

Weirder still is Lowlife, starring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as a pair of married con artists. It’s a mesmerising concept, but I’m not sure if it has potential either to be picked up or to be good. Two British, not very hard leads in an FX show? Maybe not.

US TV

Season finales: Numb3rs and Medium

2 June 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s the last of the finale guides for this year (unless I missed a show) and so it’s time to deal with everything that didn’t fit into any neat categories.

Numb3rs

Numb3rs

After a pretty insipid season that lost most of the things that made the first season so good, we have… a pretty insipid finale that veers into even worse territory. Don’t fret since there’s no real cliffhanger, other than the possibility that we won’t bother tuning in next year.

Tension factor: 2/10.

Mediumfinale

Medium‘s had a pretty dull season, too, this year, lacking the sparky dialogue and situations that gave it such a good start. The finale does at least give us a good ending to the season, thanks to an alternative universe episode in which Allison burns her arm on an oven grate and winds up married to David James Elliott from JAG. It has some nice moments and is more of a paean to married life than a finale, but it was still nicely heart-warming. No tension whatsoever to affect the nerves once we get into alternative universe territory, although the opening suggests that something more drastic is going to happen. The episode, however, is more the visual equivalent of a mug of Ovaltine than a thrill ride at Thorpe Park. On the other hand, it did feature Peter Wingfield as a baddie with no dialogue. Since you just don’t get Peter Wingfield in to sit there and say nothing, this suggests he might be back in a recurring role next year, which is probably enough to make most people tense.

Tension: 1/10-7/10