Scrubs

Things I learnt from television last week

12 February 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

24: There is a law of the television universe called the “Conservation of Family Goodness”. The total net goodness of any TV family must be 0. The more good one family member is, the more evil the other ones must be. If a family member disappears for some reason, their goodness or evil must be redistributed among the remaining family members.

The Class: There really is nothing funnier to American sitcom writers than English people. Or English people faking American accents. Or Americans faking English accents.

CSI: All the best ones die young.

CSI: Miami: No matter how stupid you think the show is right now, it just keeps getting stupider. David Caruso can heal people now, just by touching them.

Heroes: If you need a load of superheroes, in-breeding seems to be the way forward.

House: Sometimes, it’s the simple explanations that are the most interesting.

Lost: When Lost dawdles, it’s rubbish. When it starts explaining stuff, it’s great

My Name is Earl: No matter how good you think the show is right now, it will just keep getting better.

Prison Break: All cabals and conspiracies require a cigar-smoking room for their headquarters.

Smallville: Lana Lang is the western world’s biggest stalker magnet. She should be stuck at one end of Hollywood Boulevard to draw out the crazies.

Supernatural: After a while, the phrase “yellow-eyed demon” stops being scary and starts to become a bit funny.

Scrubs: Developing characters in a long-running show is a good idea.

Studio 60: Aaron Sorkin really can’t write women well. Also, after a given point in any Sorkin show, it will actually become impossible to work out what characters are talking about.

The Unit: A show, no matter how good, automatically jumps the shark as soon as the psychics episode arrives.

Things I learnt from last week’s television

23 January 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

It’s a new thing, this. I should have started it yesterday, but I was a bit busy. And I forgot.

Anyway, the general idea is it gives me a way to talk about last week’s US and British TV without spoiling anyone on the other side of the Atlantic who hasn’t seen it yet. It’ll probably evolve over time as I get the hang of it. Let’s see how it goes.

  • Scrubs: I really, really hate musicals. I feel like one of the Martians in Invaders from Mars by the end of them.

    What I learnt: I still really, really hate musicals. Musicals are dull.

  • Battlestar Galactica: Still a million leagues ahead of most shows, but getting a bit wearisome at times.

    What I learnt: Sooner or later even the best shows start to get weighed down by their own mythology. Standalone episodes are not the work of the Devil and arcs need to be drip-fed into shows, not dumped onto your plate like a load of creamed potatoes in a school canteen.

  • The Unit: If you’re not careful, even shows that try to be hard-hitting and realistic start to succumb to “fictionitis”. This is a disease in which writers, instead of looking to reality for inspiration, look to other TV shows and everything starts to become just that whole lot less likely.

    What I learnt: If you’re going to base a crack army unit on Delta Force, make sure you call it Delta Force or else writers will start to get imaginative.

  • Celebrity Big Brother: My wife loves the ice-skating reality show, too, so we’ve been watching that instead of CBB for the most part. However, when we have tuned in, we’ve not felt particularly edified by the whole thing.

    What I learnt: Americans and Indians are far better mannered, smarter and gracious than most Britons; it’s possible to call an Indian poppadom, think she should “f— off home”, take the piss out of her accent and still think you’re not a racist.

  • My Name is Earl: The last four or five episodes have been absolute crackers, particularly the Cops one. So tune in now if you haven’t already.
    What I learnt: Rednecks – or is Earl technically not a redneck but white trash? – apparently can’t use computers. I’m not sure this is true, though. Maybe there’ll be something in Wikipedia about it.
  • 30 Rock: I’d already learned in a previous week that Alec Baldwin is a comedy god.
    What I learnt: Tina Fey is a comedy goddess. This, I had not suspected previously.

Tuesday’s news update

16 January 2007 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Film



British TV



US TV

Catch up with the weekend’s news

15 January 2007 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Heroes

The trials continue, but here’s the latest news all the same. And there’s plenty of it.

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

BFI events

New Year news

2 January 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

DT looking somber



The last week’s news in review.

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • There’s a Green Wing special event at the NFT on the 17th January. There will be an on-stage interview with creator Victoria Pile and “(we hope) cast members Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt”.

US TV