The Medium is Not Enough

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, CBS

Here are some interesting facts about Hostages.

1. It stars Toni Collette, Dylan McDermott and Tate Donovan
2. Toni Collette is a top-flight surgeon, asked to operate on the President
3. ‘Unconventional’ FBI agent Dylan McDermott takes her family hostage, including cheating hubby Tate Donovan, in an attempt to get her to kill the President
4. Jerry Bruckheimer is the producer
5. It’s based on an Israeli series.

I put those facts there up front because I had to make this review interesting in some way, and that’s about as interesting as the show gets. It’s not exciting, it’s not original, it’s not got anything to say, it’s not got any surprises. It’s DULL.

McDermott and his fluffy hair are as implausible in the FBI as they were in the police in Dark Blue. Collette may be a successful woman, but that brings with it all the usual penalties for being a successful woman that US TV brings (cheating husband, children mocking cooking skills and the frequency with which they are deployed – nothing mentioned about Donovan’s cooking, of course).

Even Kidnapped was more interesting than this, and it was on NBC. Skip it.

In the US: Mondays, 9.30/8.30c, CBS

There comes a point in virtually every modern Chuck Lorre sitcom – usually pretty soon on – where you start to despair at the show’s cynicism. People are bad. They’re mean. They’re cruel to each other. The audience laughs.

Then there’s the show’s misogyny. Women are held up for ridicule, told they’re bad for having sex, drinking alcohol or going to parties.

The audience laughs.

Mom doesn’t so much change this as take it to its logical conclusion. Here, Anna Faris is a waitress who once wanted to be a psychiatrist but never quite made it, in part because she had two kids to raise by herself, in part because she drank too much, took other substances and generally enjoyed herselfdid Bad Things.

To be fair, though, she’s a better mother than her mother (Allison Janney) was. Indeed, once Janney shows up you realise that this has stopped being a sitcom and turned into something actually quite upsetting and devoid of laughs. Because it’s surprisingly hard to laugh at characters you genuinely feel sorry for.

Here’s a trailer:

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