Hey hey hey! That’s a bit more like it.
Sorry, that came out a bit more Krusty the Clown than I’d have liked.
But, Gridlock is definitely the first of this series’ episodes that I’ve really liked. Sure, if I were Ozymandias, king of lorries, I would be able to summon a vehicle that would be able to take me through all the plot loopholes, but it was still fun, emotional when it needed to be, and chockablock with continuity fun.
In the UK: Fridays, BBC1, 9.30. Repeated numerous times in the week
In the US: Nothing yet, but the new-look, redesigned BBC America might go for it
Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse have been at the forefront of first alternative and then mainstream British comedy for decades now. Well, Harry Enfield was, with Paul Whitehouse writing for him. Then Paul Whitehouse got fed up, went into business for himself, and got all famous with The Fast Show. Now they’re of roughly similar fame so they get equal billing for their new BBC1 show, Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul.
It’s a hell of a lot like their previous efforts, Harry Enfield and Chums et al, but despite the years apart and the occasional duff show between them, they’ve still got what it takes. More or less.
Doctor Who
Film
British TV
US TV
In the US: Mondays, 8/7c, Fox
In the UK: Not yet. But it’s Fox, so Sky One will probably get first stab
Each network has its own style, and producers have to tailor their projects to the networks they’re pitching to. USA Network has that “character” thing going, so it’s no use pitching a giant ensemble piece with indistinguishable, normalish people, such as Law and Order. NBC tries to go for classy and/or comedy, so don’t pitch that Jackass follow-up you’ve always wanted to do.
Fox, despite attempts to clean up its act with shows like House, is still pretty much the network that doesn’t like to confuse its audience with too many complicated thoughts. So imagine what Tim Minear, exec producer of shows like Angel and Wonderfalls, must have used as his pitch when talking to Fox about his latest project, Drive.
“It’s got lots of fast cars. And they go really fast. And they have crashes.”
Disheartening, huh?
In the US: Fridays, SciFi, 10/9c
In the UK: Not yet acquired
For at least a couple of decades now, we’ve been told that comics are a grown up, complicated medium. We have the likes of Sandman, Hellblazer, Doom Patrol, Preacher and many other fantasy titles to prove it, as well as straighter stories like Maus, a harrowing recounting of the holocaust but with rodents instead of humans.
But for every Maus, there’s ten Painkiller Janes: silly piles of sci-fi rubbish, bereft of intelligence, logic, originality and point. The SciFi Channel clearly thought mouse holocausts didn’t fit their target demographic, because now, from the star of Uwe Boll’s Dungeon Siege 2 and BloodRayne, yes, it’s that woman who played the female Terminator in Terminator 3, comes Painkiller Jane, a crippling blow to the spine in the rehabilitation of the comics medium, as well as to television sets everywhere.
© 2022 The Medium is Not Enough
