The Medium is Not Enough

It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

The usual recommendations from the first-run shows are: The Almighty Johnsons, The Apprentice, Awake, BeTipul, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, House, Mad Men, Modern Family, Ringer, and 30 Rock. Hunt them down.

You may have noticed that “What did you watch last week?” is a little later than usual this week, since I’ve been away for a few days – the short answer to “What did you watch last week?” would have been “Not a lot,” if I’d answered it yesterday. Anyway, after a catch-up last night, I’m ready to reveal all, although I’ve still got the second episode of Magic City to try, the first episode of Bettany Hughes’ Divine Women, as well as the latest episodes of House and Touch.

First, though, a look at some shows I’ve tried this week:

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – yes, the DVD box set came out and I watched a few episodes for the first time in – OMG – nearly 30 years. Marvellous stuff, although the casting of Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia didn’t ring true, and it makes me realise how close the BBC’s Sherlock actually comes to the original in tone.
• Best Friends Forever: The first episode wasn’t too bad, but I managed five minutes of the second before my brain tried to end my life, so I had to give up on it. Sorry, but that’s a definite “don’t watch”.

And a few thoughts on the regulars:

• Awake – loving how they’re starting to mine the unreal qualities of both realities for storylines (I’m not sure any explanation of how all this is happening will now work). Stupidly, I’ve only just noticed how different the colour palettes are for each reality (yellow for wife alive, blue for son alive). I just hope the conspiracy theory story arc doesn’t mess it all up.
• Being Human (US) – Interesting to see them dovetailing back towards the UK original with Sally’s storyline, but staying completely separate with Aidan and Josh. Indeed, one thing that’s notable about this season is how little interaction there’s been between the regulars, with each essentially having his or her own plot complete with supporting characters, and very little to do with the others’ stories. Never quite hits the highs of the UK original, but far more consistent and with its own strengths.
• Community – More sad than funny, I thought, but some spot-on moments and characterisation
• Mad Men – A slightly rubbish fight scene (although an excellent idea in theory), but Mad Men‘s really firing on all cylinders now and the new Joan, Don, Lane and Betty are all endearing themselves to me considerably. The dream sequence with Mädchen Amick was completely mental, though, and the pill-taking was another of those glorious WTF? moments that make Mad Men such a watch.
• Missing – a drop back in quality after last week’s recovery, but still not bad. Quite a decent bank heist, altogether, too.
• Ringer – It was only a matter of time before Jaime Murray lezzed up, wasn’t it? But a good way to tie up a whole load of storylines.
• Suburgatory – a nice nod to Dodgeball with a semi-pirate costume for Alan Tudyk’s character, as well as one of the most heinous bits of Prius product placement I’ve ever seen. But the bizarre cameo appearance of James Lipton really made the episode.
• 30 Rock – Middling.

“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. 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?