US TV

Quite literally the stupidest bit of product placement ever

21 July 2014 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

So product placement is a big thing in US TV. In an age when ratings are dropping, Internet viewing is increasing, people skim through shows on PVR, foreign sales are a big source of revenue and boxsets are binged aplenty, the chances that anyone will even get the chance to see an ad you’ve bought during an ad break, let alone watch it, are getting smaller and smaller every day. On the other hand, stick one of your products in the show and no matter which medium the viewer uses to watch the show, wherever they are in the world, they will see that product in action at 1x speed.

Obviously, you have to spend more to get that product into the show, and such is the cash required, it’s often been able to keep afloat shows such as Chuck and Heroes that would have died sooner if they’d relied purely on ad break funding. There’s competition with other advertisers, too, since there’s only so many cars that can be driven or Subway sandwiches eaten per episode.

So spare a thought for TNT’s The Last Ship, which appears to have had the novel idea of piggybacking two product placements on top of each other. Unfortunately, I don’t think Apple are going to be very happy with them for doing that.

Here, we have a perfectly humble webcam being shown off to punters. It’s the end of the world, the captain of The Last Ship is recording possibly the most vital messages possible for his family – he’s going to want good HD quality recordings. And the webcam glows all blue, which is cool!

Last Ship's webcam

I must buy this webcam!

Except… it turns out that he’s using a MacBook Air to make his recording.

MacBook Air in The Last Ship

Cool laptop that. Problem is that the MacBook Air has a built-in HD webcam. In fact, it’s right underneath that other webcam the captain’s using.

MacBook Air webcam

So either the captain’s a technological idiot or his lovely MacBook has broken at a vital moment in world history. Not the message Apple wants to be sending out with The Last Ship.

I will not buy this MacBook Air.

Particularly since it’s very, very expensive.

Disclaimer: this post was in no way sponsored by anyone, particularly Apple or any webcam manufacturers. Of course, if they want to, I’m not going to say no…

US TV

Possibly the worst merchandising idea ever: Penny Dreadful action figures

21 July 2014 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I’m not one for an action figure myself. I’m an adult for one thing.

Okay, cheap shot. I do appreciate that some grown-ups enjoy playing with an action figure. I’m not sure why, but I’m not sure why people watch Mrs Brown’s Boys, either. It takes all sorts to make a world, I guess.

But surely, surely, there is no point whatsoever to these figures, which are going to be unveiled at Comic-Con: Eva Green and Josh Hartnett in Penny Dreadful.

Josh Hartnett/Ethan Chandler

Penny Dreadful action figure of Eva Green

I’m sure that there will be some uptake, despite the fact they’re pretty poor. But what’s the point? In a show populated by Dracula, Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, Van Helsing, Mina Harker and Dorian Gray, they’re going with “the guy who can shoot things and has a secret (that you can’t exploit with this action figure)” and “the woman who gets possessed a lot while hamming it up”? How odd.

Still, it takes all sorts to make a world, I guess.

[via]

News: The Last Ship renewed, Wentworth Miller is Captain Cold, Rufus Hound joins Cucumber + more

21 July 2014 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Film

New UK TV show casting

  • Rufus Hound, Ardal O’Hanlon and Adjoh Andoh join Channel 4’s Cucumber, Luke Newberry joins E4’s Banana

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

What have you been watching? Including Extant, Tyrant, The Last Ship, Suits, 24 and Halt and Catch Fire

18 July 2014 Rob Buckley Post a comment

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently 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 “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV – they’ll even email you a weekly schedule.

Oh, why do they do this? The rest of the week is a gaping hole of misery, reality shows, American Ninja and God knows what else, yet come Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday, suddenly it’s all systems go and the US networks chuck everything they’ve got at the schedules.

I’ve tried my best and this week, I’ve managed to review the following new shows:

But still in the first-run viewing queue are USA’s Satisfaction, El Rey’s Matador, and The Divide. The latter’s from WE tv, which doesn’t even make scripted drama, and it aired two hour-long episodes in one go. What chance does that give me? It’s like they’re doing it deliberately to annoy me, now.

Fingers crossed, though, I’ll be able to play catch-up over the weekend and review them all on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Anyway, after the jump, a round-up of the regulars that I did watch, with reviews of 24, Extant, Halt and Catch Fire, The Last Ship, Suits and Tyrant.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Extant, Tyrant, The Last Ship, Suits, 24 and Halt and Catch Fire”

US TV

Mini-review: You’re The Worst 1×1 (FX)

18 July 2014 Rob Buckley 35 Comments

You're The Worst

In the US: Thursdays, 10.30pm ET, FX

Firstly, I’d like to say that if I were American, I’d be sick of Brits by now. I like to joke about it, but we are in virtually every US TV show, either with our own accents or faking US accents. If I were an American actor, I’d probably have given up trying by now. I mean if it’s not the Brits, it’s the Aussies, so what chance would I stand?

Case in point: You’re The Worst – it’s set in LA but has Chris Geere as its male romantic lead. Chris Geere. You know, the guy from Waterloo Road and Trollied.

No? Exactly. Was there literally no one American who was better or more attractive? It astonishes me.

To be fair, he does play the dishevelled, impoverished, cynical English author very well, which is what You’re The Worst calls on him to be, but there’s no especial need for him to be English other than just because.

Nevertheless, if Marriage was a salutary example of how not to do a basic cable romantic-comedy, You’re The Worst is the counter-example, with jokes, interesting characters and situations, romance, and moments of complete unexpectedness all pushing the boundaries of what basic cable allows.

As the name suggests, the show is about two very toxic, self-destructive human beings who realise there’s a good possibility that their toxic, self-destructivenesses are highly compatible. Geere decides that a wedding is the best place to tell his ex-girlfriend, the bride, what a terrible person she is and what a mistake she’s making so gets thrown out; outside, he bumps into one of the guests, Aya Cash (Traffic Light, We Are Men, The Newsroom and the failed US adaptation of Friday Night Dinner), who’s stealing one of the wedding gifts. They hook up and after briefly returning to their individual lives, decide that actually, maybe they’re better off with each other than without.

Created and exec produced by Weeds’ Stephen Falk, the show has about 1000% times more edge than Rush, with some pretty graphic sex scenes and language, and moments of amorality Rush would sit there feeling all pleased with itself for doing but that it tosses out there with pure abandon. Both Cash and Geere have charm and charisma, both individually and together. Their characters do actually feel like real, if exaggerated people. The supporting cast don’t feel like they’re just there as plot aids or have been produced through some macro in Final Draft. The romance, twisted as it is, is romantic – you do want these people to find happiness together. And unlike Marriage, it’s funny, doesn’t offer the same trite bromides and doesn’t have complete idiots for characters.

All in all, I really liked it.

Here – watch this very NSFW trailer to see if you might, too.