US TV

Mini-preview: Back In The Game 1×1 (ABC)

17 September 2013 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Back in the Game

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, ABC. Starts 24th September

After the past couple of years’ disastrous attempts by ABC to try to get men to watch its shows – bizarrely, through terrible programmes like Work It and Zero Hour – ABC is this year once more reverting to its two core strengths: female viewers and luke-warm comedies.

This year, apparently, women who appreciate luke-warm comedies are into domesticity. We’ve already had a look at The Trophy Wife, in which a former party girl settles down to a life of comparative drudgery, tending to the needs of three step-children; now we’re going to have a look at Back In The Game, starring Psych‘s Maggie Lawson as a woman who gets divorced from her cheating husband and together with her son Donny, move back in with her father (James Caan from Elf. Yes, that’s the credit I’m going to list him with). Caan is a former pro baseball player who ruined Lawson’s life with perpetual baseball practice and indoctrination after her mother died, so Lawson has decided never to bother teaching Donny baseball.

But now Donny wants to impress girls, so it’s time for Lawson to bite the bullet and teach him – and since the current little league coach Dick (Ben Koldyke from… shudders… Work It) thinks Donny sucks, Lawson decides to run her own team full of no-hopers (fat kids, weird kids, gay kids, etc) rejected from the main team.

And like The Trophy Wife, it’s okay. Caan’s not really trying but is fine nevertheless, funniest when he’s proposing some ridiculous piece of over-the-top violence to wrongdoers; Lawson is trying for all she’s worth and doing a good job of it. The writing plays with gender and other stereotypes and subverts them, it has a good line in putdowns and is occasionally smart. Mandatory Brit Lenora Crichlow (Being Human) hams along nicely as Lawson’s rich new best friend; Koldyke hams along more entertainingly than he did in Work It.

It’s still not exactly a laugh a minute, but it’s a lot more promising than last year’s pilots (The Neighbors, Malibu Country, Family Tools). I’ll stick with it for a while, at least.

Random Acts

Random Acts: Scarlett Johansson plays charades, Ali Larter goes boar hunting and Amber Heard… God knows what Amber Heard is up to

17 September 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Scarlett Johansson plays charades on Jimmy Fallon's show

Normally, Scarlett Johansson would clean up in the ‘random acts’ stakes by her slightly random decision to play charades with Jimmy Fallon, Tariq from The Roots and Drake. I mean, who would have seen that coming?

She even tried to do interviews in a New Jersey accent for an extra bit of random.

But surprisingly, Ali Larter came out of left field to temporarily steal the lead by talking about her experiences of boar hunting in Germany:

“It was a very traumatic experience for me. But it’s ceremonial, and they roast it and it’s a whole thing. So I did try it.”

And, again, normally that would be enough to get our Ali the title in the random prize fight. But then Amber Heard, currently here in London – Brixton to be exact, obviously relishing our delightful Autumn weather as she films an adaptation of Martin Amis’s London Fields – decided to bring along an entourage so random, it blew everyone else out of the water.

Amber Heard filming London Fields in Brixton

No, I have no idea what’s going on here.

Charley says: Learn to read with Bob Hoskins in On the Move

17 September 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

It’s not something that people talk about much these days, but not all adults can read, even those who’ve been to school. But back in the 70s, adult literacy was a pressing concern for a government concerned about social mobility and the white heat of technology.

In 1975, in conjunction with a national government campaign, the BBC did its own little bit by creating a TV show, On The Move, that starred Bob Hoskins in one of his first TV roles. Written by Points of View presenter Barry Took, the series of 50, 10-minute episodes saw illiterate removal man Hoskins driving his van around and learning to read, in various combinations, while the likes of Nigel Stock and Patricia Hayes provided the viewer with various exercises. Along the way, various other future notables, including Martin Shaw, popped up to demonstrate the value of reading.

The show spawned two sequels, Your Move, and Right Away, but you can view some of the original Hoskins show below. The catchy theme was sung by The Dooleys, in case you’re wondering.