FX considering some odd shows

5 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

US male-oriented network FX is considering some odd shows for its new season. We have Courtney Cox as the editor-in-chief of two celebrity tabloids in Dirt. Sounds a bit like Just Shoot Me played straight, although Ian Hart as a schizophrenic photographer? What’s going on there?

Weirder still is Lowlife, starring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as a pair of married con artists. It’s a mesmerising concept, but I’m not sure if it has potential either to be picked up or to be good. Two British, not very hard leads in an FX show? Maybe not.

Ian Fleming’s BS continued

2 June 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Stu and I were having a nice little chat about Ian Fleming’s capacity for BS, back on my earlier laugh at the psychology in The Man with the Golden Gun. Stu you are so right. Fleming was the king of BS.

I’m working my way through Goldfinger now, having previously only thumbed through it a couple of times in a book shop, and came to this cracking piece of martial arts BS. The Korean Oddjob, Goldfinger’s chauffeur, has just smacked his way through some oak bannisters on a staircase as a demo of his fighting power.

Bond: I was very impressed by that chauffeur of yours. Where did he learn that fantastic combat stuff? Where did it come from? Is that what the Koreans use?

Goldfinger: Have you ever heard of karate? No? Well that man is one of the three men in the world that have achieved the black belt in karate. Karate is a branch of judo… Karate is based on the theory that the human body has five striking surfaces and 37 vulnerable spots…

Wow. That man can really tell porkies. I’m in awe.

A celebrity deficit?

2 June 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

So I’m walking down Harrow-on-the-Hill high street when I spy a great big picture of Paris Hilton. Or is it Chantelle? Or is it Paris Hilton? Or is Chantelle?
My thought processes continue in this binary fashion for a while, before I realise I have absolutely no idea which it is.
What’s more worrying?

  1. That I can’t tell the difference
  2. That I should care about this
  3. That there is apparently such a shortage of celebrities that we’re having to clone existing ones to make up the numbers?

Learn to be an editor for free

2 June 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

If you’re in ‘the biz’ or you just happen to have a day or two free around the 20th, Broadcast Live looks like it could be interesting, if only because they’re offering some free training sessions. Fancy being an editor or a camera-person? Now’s you chance to learn some of the basics.

Anyway, register now and you’ll avoid having to paid £20 on the door. Sounds good to me. Hell, I might even take an actual day off work for that one. Oh. To do more work. That’s not good planning, is it? What’s the number for Workaholics Anonymous?

US TV

Season finales: Numb3rs and Medium

2 June 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s the last of the finale guides for this year (unless I missed a show) and so it’s time to deal with everything that didn’t fit into any neat categories.

Numb3rs

Numb3rs

After a pretty insipid season that lost most of the things that made the first season so good, we have… a pretty insipid finale that veers into even worse territory. Don’t fret since there’s no real cliffhanger, other than the possibility that we won’t bother tuning in next year.

Tension factor: 2/10.

Mediumfinale

Medium‘s had a pretty dull season, too, this year, lacking the sparky dialogue and situations that gave it such a good start. The finale does at least give us a good ending to the season, thanks to an alternative universe episode in which Allison burns her arm on an oven grate and winds up married to David James Elliott from JAG. It has some nice moments and is more of a paean to married life than a finale, but it was still nicely heart-warming. No tension whatsoever to affect the nerves once we get into alternative universe territory, although the opening suggests that something more drastic is going to happen. The episode, however, is more the visual equivalent of a mug of Ovaltine than a thrill ride at Thorpe Park. On the other hand, it did feature Peter Wingfield as a baddie with no dialogue. Since you just don’t get Peter Wingfield in to sit there and say nothing, this suggests he might be back in a recurring role next year, which is probably enough to make most people tense.

Tension: 1/10-7/10