US TV

It’s been a little while since the last one, but it’s time for "What have you been watching this week?", your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

My usual recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure are: Archer, Being Human (US), Community, The Daily Show, House, The Killing, Modern Family, Shameless (US), Stargate Universe and 30 Rock. Watch them (and keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well) or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff.

• Chuck – an okay episode this week, but it’s still miles away from entertaining. I keep saying this but I might be giving up on it soon.
• House – rewatched a season one episode the other day, and again, here’s a show that’s forgotten what made it so good in the first place. It needs to recover its edge. It’s still above average TV, but it’s a shadow of its former misanthropic self.
• Shameless (US) – has slowly been becoming must-see TV, despite William H Macey’s slightly implausible performer as Frank. Emmy Rossum is fantastic though.
• White Van Man – BBC3’s sitcom starring Will Mellor. I say ‘sitcom’ but it’s not actually funny. I tuned in this week because our Joanna Page was on it as a Star Trek-obsessed single mum and web designer and while she did raise the comedy level considerably, everything else about it was horrid. The cast – with the exception of the slightly bland Georgia Moffet – are fine. It’s the script, which just isn’t funny. Poor.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Chloe for pointing out that the new series of Engrenages (Spiral) starts on BBC4 next Saturday! Tune in, everyone!

But what have you been watching?