US TV

Review: The Office 3.1

26 September 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

The Office US

In the US: Thursdays, 8.30pm/7.30pm Central, NBC

In the UK: Season 2 is on ITV2, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Season three after it.

Characters re-cast: 0

Major characters gotten rid of: 0, I think

Major new characters: None as far as I can see

Format change percentage: No idea. 10%, I’d guess.

Episodes seen previously: 1

I have a disclaimer to make. Three actually. I’m not talking about the $1 million NBC pays me every year to write favourable reviews about its shows on this blog: that’s something best kept secret.

No, my disclaimers are these:

  1. I’ve only seen one episode of the US version of The Office
  2. I didn’t like it
  3. I didn’t like the UK original very much

The third sounds like heresy, I know, but I don’t like cringe comedy that much. I’ll hand in my nationality papers on the way out.

But here’s the third season of the US version of The Office and I feel like reviewing it anyway. And you know what, I kind of liked it – more than the UK version anyway.

Continue reading “Review: The Office 3.1”

UK TV

Mysterious advert explained. Boy was it rubbish

26 September 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

I was in Charing Cross train station today and I saw a somewhat offensive advert:

FIve US ad

“WTF?” I thought to myself. It was on a graphics screen, so I assumed it was going to change into something like AOL’s “Discuss” campaign.

But it didn’t. It was just that. I went away from it thinking, “What tossy Guardian-reading spanner thought that was a good idea?”, enumerating to myself all the wonderful things the US (I assumed they weren’t having a go at the Bolivians) has given the world. And I’m a Guardian reader.

Turns out it was an advert for Five’s new digital channel, Five US, which as we all know is the channel designed especially for me. There are going to be follow-up adverts that will turn the campaign into a positive one, apparently, but it’s already garnered complaints. And if I’m p’ed off with the ad, I’m pretty sure some of the rest of the target audience are going to be, too.

Whoops, Five.

US TV overkill

26 September 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I’ve got a bit of backlog on tele. Surprising huh? I’ve got to work my way through Callista Flockhart’s Brothers and Sisters and the first episode of the new series of Ghost Whisperer. Thankfully, there was nothing new in Heroes so my preview still holds.

The trouble is, I think I’ve over-dosed. I’ve just got too much tele to watch. I haven’t even looked to see what new shows are on this week, either, but I suspect there’ll be a few. And frankly, I’m not sure I can bring myself to sit through two shows starring two women so thin they make me worry about their health.

But I’ll try. It’s just going to take a while. Bear with me.

Standoff gets an Angel producer

26 September 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Variety confirms suspicions that Fox hasn’t given up the ghost on Justice and is saving it from probable death at the hands of Lost. It seems Fox execs are learning patience.

I also fingered Standoff as another possible victim of early cancellation fever. Variety reveals that Standoff is now on unofficial hiatus since scripts are taking their time coming through. They’re also adding Tim Minear as a consulting producer; Minear was consulting producer on Angel and also exec produced Wonderfalls and Firefly. Maybe he can make it interesting…

Bad news for Justice and Happy Hour fans

25 September 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Both Justice and Happy Hour have been placed on early hiatus by Fox, suggesting their time on this earth is not going to be a long one. Justice is potentially being spared the attack of Lost in a fortnight and is at least being replaced by its own re-runs. But Happy Hour is being replaced by repeats of ‘Til Death (now that has to hurt) and some people are already claiming it’s been cancelled.

Let’s wait to see which new show’s next. My money’s on Standoff.