Never let it be said that “What have you been watching this week?” has no effect. Last Friday, MoreTears pointed out that a new Canadian show called Good Dog had escaped my notice (I was on holiday when it started, to be fair) and I should give it a try. Well, I have, so here’s a review of the first episode at least.
Now Ken Finkleman is probably a name you won’t know unless you’re Canadian. Amongst other things, he was the creator of CBC’s The Newsroom, which first aired in 1996 and was revived nearly a decade later in 2004. A sort of cross between Larry Sanders, The Office and Drop the Dead Donkey, The Newsroom was a darkly satirical show looking at TV news broadcasting and starred Finkleman as a slightly mild-mannered TV producer called George.
Well, George is back – although this might be a different George altogether, even if he is played by Ken Finkleman and is a TV producer who’s obsessed with ratings – in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hang on, it’s not Curb Your Enthusiasm. Maybe it’s Lead Balloon?
Because we have here something that’s suspiciously like both – so suspiciously, that most of the first episode is about how similar the show is to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Because we’re in meta-land here.
See, George the TV producer has this great idea for a reality TV show in which he and his 30-year-old model girlfriend (Lauren Lee Smith – Riley from one season of CSI, as well as things such as The Listener and Mutant X) are the stars. It’ll follow him and her around, doing their thing. And that’s about the extent of his idea.
As a result, the network is worried. They don’t even live together, so how’s that going to work? Of course, she can’t move in because she has kids and he hates kids, which makes the network worry their relationship won’t last. So to get the show on the road, George proposes to his girlfriend and she – and her kids, her dog, her Austrian nanny and her furniture – all move in.
That causes George all manner of grumbles.
If you’re in Canada, you can watch some clips of it over here, but if you’re not, here’s Ken Finkleman talking about the news for 15 minutes, instead.
Chicago’s rapidly becoming a town where TV shows want to shoot. It’s been a while since The Loop and Prison Break‘s first season shot there, but The Chicago Code‘s there right now and a couple of pilots are shooting there as well. Cooper and Stone, starring Alex Breckenridge and Vanessa Ferlito (one of the original stars of CSI: NY), is randomly annoying the Chicago neighbourhood of Ravenswood Manor:
“Go back to L.A.,” one resident complained
Meanwhile, The Playboy Club – NBC’s female-oriented answer to Mad Men that’s set in a 1960s Playboy club just as women’s lib and the Pill are about to hit the world – is currently giving the city a make-over. Eddie Cibrian (who, continuing the CSI theme, was in CSI: Miami for all of a season) is running around Chicago in a whole load of Jon Hamm’s cast-offs:
Since the show’s aimed at women much more than men, I imagine this will be happening a lot:
However, given the setting of the show and since Amber Heard’s in it, I imagine men* will want to watch it, too:
You may ask where randomness comes into this. Well, guess where Amber gets her style advice from:
Yes, well known Mad Menenvier and Lucky magazine’s “old reliable“, Ali Larter.
