Here’s “What have you been watching this week?” your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week.
After the jump, The Apprentice, Being Erica, Better With You, Chuck, Community, Cougar Town, Dexter, Hellcats, Help, My House is Falling Down, Life Unexpected, Mad Men, Modern Family, No Ordinary Family, Running Wilde, Smallville, Southland, and Stargate Universe.
Can you work out which one I’m going to drop from my viewing list? I’ll give you a clue – it’s definitely not this one:
Back to its regular Friday slot, here’s “What have you been watching this week?” your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week.
As usual, not completely up to date with everything, with this week’s late arrivals being Community, the live episode of 30 Rock, Cougar Town, Modern Family, Hellcats and Being Erica. But that ain’t bad, huh? Oh, and I’ve given up on Parenthood. Sorry, Monica and Erica, but that show really isn’t going anywhere with your characters so I’m out.
The Apprentice: So this week’s it’s the women’s turn to be cocks. Nice to see that bit of equal opportunities. Now Karren Brady is someone who I’ve had a little bit of time for in the past, given she was the youngest woman to become the MD of a public limited company and she used to be quite funny on Baddiel and Skinner’s Fantasy Football League. But she was a bit blah on Junior Apprentice and hasn’t done much to shine compared to the wonderful Margaret in this series of The Apprentice. Until the boardroom, this week, that is when the women all decided to have a major bicker-fest and our Karren interrupted them to tell them they were not only being absolutely unemployable morons, but they were bad representatives of business women and were probably putting off young girls from wanting to go into business. Karren Brady is now an official Heroine of Britain – cherish her.
Being Erica: I’m an episode behind, but I quite enjoyed the last episode, which had all sorts of revelations about Erica’s brother. Okay, they were so cryptically done that we actually had to rewind the episode to work out exactly what had happened, but it was interesting to see them raised. Couldn’t quite see how Erica had managed to get through life (and the previous two seasons) with a mindset that the only choices she could see for her situation were either do nothing or go nuclear – when clearly blackmail was a good option as well – but hey ho, it was fun.
Boardwalk Empire: I’m on episode two now (so that’s only two eps behind). The revenue agent investigating Nucky is awesome, as are the writing, Gretchen Mol and Kelly Macdonald. Still not quite feeling the love, though, but I’m getting there.
Chuck: They should really just make this the Awesome show, because he really is awesome. Otherwise, so so and very silly.
Dexter: Ah, that’s more like it. After two eps treading water, we’re finally getting to the good stuff (which includes Julia Stiles, obviously) and with the kids largely out of the way, we can explore this month’s real plot: will Dexter finally get caught?
House: Better this week, a bit more like the House of old, and good to see they’ve realised their woman-deficit. I also guessed the mysterious illness, so I’m feeling well chuffed with myself.
Life Unexpected: This week, the One Tree Hill crossover episode. I’ve never seen One Tree Hill (despite my namesake’s presence in the cast), but judging from the characters that I guess are from One Tree Hill, it involves an awful lot of very dull ballad singing. Can’t believe that Baze and Cate would allow Lux to go to a concert dressed like that, particularly if they’re there, too, but hey ho. Also can’t believe that Ryan is still with Cate, given the amount of crap-dumping she’s performed on him. We also got our first Roswell reference of the series, which I’m sure about 10% of the audience got, given the demographic. Nice to see Cate’s mum back. Now where’s Abby. Come on. Where is she?
Mad Men: Another excellent episode, filled with a surprising amount of tension as well. What will happen in the finale on Sunday? Can’t wait.
Rubicon: Awesome. As I’ve remarked elsewhere, Rubicon has very much been like a crossword puzzle. For the first nine or ten episodes of clue-filling, it’s been slow and frustrating. But now we’re in the end stretch, the glittering jewel that Rubicon has revealed itself to be is finally exposed. If you’re waiting for it on BBC4, all I can say is stick with until the end, since it’s probably the only realistic spy show the US has yet produced and it’s very much worth watching – once you’re over the slow beginning. Incidentally, this is mostly because of the change in showrunner and not how the show was originally going to run – which just goes to show you that sometimes a show’s creator is the worst person to actually write it.
Single Father: It’s David Tennant! He’s playing a photographer whose wife gets killed in a car accident. He does it very well, and the rest of the (adult) cast is good, too. But it’s all very muddy. Having four kids, one of whom isn’t his means too much time is spent trying to give each kid a background and character. Is Suranne Jones supposed to be his ex-wife (we thought someone say she was but did we mishear?)? The time-jumping narrative makes it hard to follow as well. As a result, what could be a clear and tragic story seems to have decided to veer into some very odd areas and even if SJ is supposed to be his ex, I’m not convinced that DT and she would end up doing that (you know what), just as he’s breaking down over how much he misses his wife. The episode also failed to allow DT to really express himself, with no real sensation that he’s truly destroyed by this until the end – it’s more like a logistical problem for most of the story. All the same, a decent enough drama and I’ll be sticking around for episode 2.
Stargate Universe: Another good one. I do hope that the ending is final for that character, since it would be nice to see SGU taking that kind of risk (just like BSG), but I can’t help but feel they might bottle it. Fingers crossed though. Not quite sure why no one’s worked out Rush is keeping a very big secret, though – he’s not behaving in a way that makes you think “Yes, I’ll trust that man.”
thorne: sleepyhead: The first of Sky’s three-part adaptation of the novel, which sees David Morrissey as a police officer investigating what looks like a serial killer. I’m actually watching it right now, so I’m only 15 minutes in (and Sky+, that miracle of technology, chopped the first couple of minutes off as well), but it’s only sort of grabbing me. It looks good, if a little over-stylised at times. The story’s interesting. Morrissey’s good. But it’s too early to say whether this can actually differentiate itself from other cop shows, since so far, it’s not done anything too extraordinary. I’ll let you know next week (or in the comments) whether it gets better.
But what have you been watching?
As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).
A little later than normal, but it’s here at last, your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week.
Lovely wife is back and we’ve managed to catch up on the backlog almost. Still got this week’s episode of Being Erica to watch, but otherwise, we’re sorted.
The Apprentice: Well, it’s back – Britain’s biggest collection of complete cocks has expanded once again. This year, the BBC is slightly taking the piss since although there are a few female cocks (that blonde one with the glasses) and a few female incompetents, all the men are absolute cocks – or at least, all the ones they decided to put on screen, since there were a few who apparently didn’t say so much as a word. Still, if you want a slightly upmarket version of The X-Factor to shout at, you can’t really do better than this, and thankfully, the biggest cock of the entire episode was thrown off.
Being Erica: Episode two felt a bit more like Being Erica of old, despite the new format, with Erica having to deal with the fallout of her relationship decisions at the end of season two. Dr Tom’s back to his old self, too, with no hint of all the politics suggested by episode 1. However, just in case you thought that it was male writers who had the monopoly on being unable to write unconvincing dialogue for the opposite gender, this week, not one male character, gay or straight, had a convincing line of dialogue. I don’t think it’s because they’re Canadian.
Boardwalk Empire: I’m finally working my way through these and am on to episode two. For the uninitiated, this is a 1920s gangster story set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Steve Buscemi is the city treasurer. He’s half-gangster, half-legitimate town figure and boy is he glad that prohibition has set in. Episode 1 was directed by exec producer Martin Scorsese and was as beautiful a piece of work as you’re going to find on TV – wonderfully evocative of the era and an interesting contrast to the austerely beautiful aesthetics of Mad Men. It was also one of the bloodiest pieces of work I’ve seen for a while, with a full-on shot of someone getting their face blown off with a shotgun. With a supporting cast including Gretchen Mol (Life on Mars US), Kelly MacDonald (State of Play, Trainspotting), Michael K Williams (The Wire) and Dabney Coleman (Major Dad – tee hee), it’s very much must-see TV but despite that, it’s actually not that enjoyable yet. I hear it’s a bit like The Wire, in that it builds over the season, so I’ll be sticking with this for a while at least. Oh, in case you’re wondering UK readers, yes, it had been acquired, and it’s going to be one of the flagship programmes on Sky’s new Sky Atlantic TV channel.
Chuck: More guest stars again this week, with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Nicole Ritchie returning. Okay as they go, good to see Chuck flashing again, but nothing remarkable, and mostly about getting everything back to the status quo at the Buy More.
Community: Last week’s was good, but okay, despite the double cameo of Drew Carey and Rob Corddry: some individually great moments (the chloroform scene), but as a whole, nothing too special. But this week’s was the first truly awesome episode this season. Most of this is down to John Oliver (of The Daily Show), who’s going to be pretty much a cast regular this season as the anthropology lecturer, despite being a psychologist and not knowing anything about anthropology. Every single line, more or less, particularly when dealing with “Señor Chang”, was comedy gold, and Britta and Annie’s bickering, Pearce’s neo-Buddhism and even Betty White’s cameo were excellent. By the way, UK viewers, season one has finally started airing on the Viva channel in the UK. No, I have no idea WTF that is, but at least it’s on Freeview.
Cougar Town: Just chugging along. The funniest thing about it is the constant renaming of the show in the titles (this week “(badly titled) Cougar Town“). But it’s enjoyable, both textually and actually like hanging out with a group of drunk 40 year olds who like to play games with each other.
Dexter: Hmm. Dexter struggles with family. Dexter’s out hunting. Been here before. Enjoyable enough, but needs a little something more.
Detroit 1-8-7: I got about 20 minutes into episode one of this fake dramedy documentary cop show with Michael Imperioli (of The Sopranos and Life on Mars US) set in Detroit before quitting. Southland does the whole “fake documentary” thing far better, and this was actually quite tasteless (not in a good way, unless you find cellphones with inappropriate ringtones going off during “your daughter is dead” scenes entertaining), unfunny and uninvolving, with nothing new to say or do (Look, guys, it’s the rookie detective being sick at his first murder scene. Seen that before?). Weirdly, do you find it slightly offensive that the hero of the piece is the only white person in the cast?
Hellcats: The fourth episode of the series was a little bit on the rubbish side and oh no, no, no, no, no, ended with a goddamn music set piece to show off Aly Michalka‘s musical skills. Really, we don’t need that: that’s so early 2000s (cf Buffy, Charmed). Even Smallville ditched the Talon music scenes by season three. Episode five was more interesting with Christian judgementalism being dolled out by in great big ladles by Teryl Rothery at Ashley Tisdale and Marti going off to do a less comedic Legally Blonde against Gale Harold’s orders. It seems to have settled down into a Fame thing, with a bit of relationship soapiness and a dance routine each episode, the near-journalistic quality of the first eps a distant memory. But it’s still a good show. One thing I have noticed though: for cheerleaders, they don’t seem to spending a whole lot of time around football matches, do they?
House: Has now turned into fan fiction. Ugh.
Life Unexpected: How many of you are roughly 30 years old like Baze and Cate? How many of you reckon you’re a tad more grown up them then? Oh, practically all of you then. Really, could we have a bit more adult behaviour from the adults, please? Even Emma Caulfield’s acting like she’s 21 again. Paige, at least, is growing on me (particularly now I realise she’s scream queen Arielle Kebbel), but the absence of Abby is getting more and more glaring. But, at least the last episode remembered that Lux used to be a foster kid and brought back Tash to rub in the fact that life is usually pretty sh*te for foster kids.
Mad Men: A good episode as always. A nice illustration of how expectations of the behaviour of expectant fathers has changed and a good character piece for everyone from Roger downwards.
Modern Family: The earthquake episode was pretty funny, particularly thanks to the guest cameo by Nathan Lane. But can we have a non-camp gay man in this, just for a change? They do exist you know. Oh, and could Phil stop being such a dick? Thank you.
No Ordinary Family: Another piece of semi-family fun that never quite hits any highs but never really gets to any lows. Our family is busy adjusting to their new powers, with teenage boy revealing that he’s now got a super brain (or at least can spout math mumbo-jumbo that’s entirely irrelevant to the actual problem being solved, but it sounds good) and everyone else working out how to control their own powers. Some good bits with both Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz and a surprisingly nasty ending to the episode. This might just turn out to be the second decent new drama of the season.
Outsourced: Well, I made it through to the episode two and not only was that completely bereft of humour, it was about an offensive as episode one. Given that this is actually the most successful of all of NBC’s new shows so far this season, and it isn’t exactly storming the ratings, it does make you wonder if anyone’s sorry they jumped the gun and cancelled Heroes now. I’m out anyway, so no ep three for me. Avoid this, if possible, because even though the characters are sympathetic, everything else is dire.
Parenthood: I’m not exactly sure why I’m watching this beyond an admiration for the house-husband character and a general liking for both Monica Potter and Erika Christensen. I feel a ruthless streak coming on, to be honest, since there’s not really much here anymore, and all sorts of season one plotlines seem to have been dropped (Christensen’s battle with the hot housewife after her husband, grandfather’s investment cock-ups, etc).
Rubicon: OMFG. Something happened! Awesome! At last, we have some action, we finally know what this whole conspiracy is about and the bad guys have finally bought themselves a clue. If this were 24, all this would have been in episode 1, rather than episode 11, but at least we know now.
Smallville: In episode 2, Michael Shanks as an expert on ancient Egypt. Typecast, much? In episode 3, the return of Supergirl – better! Lots of in-jokes to the comics, which, let’s face it, is what the whole point of Smallville is, and everything does seem to be developing in pleasing directions as well. I’ll stick with it for Supergirl for now.
Stargate Universe:Ah, now that’s more like it. After last week’s disappointing start to the first season, we have Stargate Universe‘s patented “whatever can go wrong absolutely definitely will go wrong” school of drama, with deaths, murders, and everyone being self-serving and calculating exactly who to screw over. One slight disappointment is the easy way in which Rush solved the master code problem in between episodes, but it has given us the return of Louise Lombard. Also a little disappointed with how quickly they gave up on the possibility of having Lou Diamond Phillips as a spy in the Alliance Camp. But a good episode all the same.
30 Rock: Last week’s was a bit daft, but still fun and did at least have Elizabeth Banks in it. This week’s was the first edgy show of the season, with a big send up of NBC’s lack of diversity that gave us a shout out to Community star Donald Glover (former writer for 30 Rock) but singularly failed to mention Undercovers. I wonder why that is, apart from Undercovers being dreadful. Some great moments.
But what have you been watching?
As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).
Cripes, there’s a lot of new TV to watch – and let’s not forget the old TV, which is returning en masse – and I’ve reviewed quite a lot of it. But there’s so much TV, in fact, that I’ve already decided to drop Nikita, Terriers and Lost Girl (which is now so just for kids). I’ve got last night’s new stuff to wade through now (Community, Shit My Dad Says – no euphemisms on this blog, Outsourced, 30 Rock, My Generation, Better with You) as well as Detroit 1-8-7, Modern Family (watching it with the mum in law on Sunday), Lone Star (which is going to be cancelled any minute, so I probably won’t bother, even though I hear it’s good), Hellcats (I might have to face up to fact that I’m never going to watch this, given we’re three episodes in now) and Boardwalk Empire (Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, 1920s gangsters: it’s good so far, but I’m not gripped). But here’s what I have watched this week:
Being Erica: It’s back! It feels like it’s back-pedalled a bit since last season in terms of where Erica was in her life, but the new innovations, expanded cast, etc, are innovative and making this a must-watch again. Woo hoo!
Chuck: Woo hoo! Linda Hamilton! Dolph Lundgren! Olivia Mann! The Buy More! Oh. Scratch the last one. Not bad, some fun moments, but nothing exceptional – just like every other Chuck premiere episode in living memory. Dolph could have been used a whole lot better – a Dolph/Adam Baldwin face-off would have been awesome. Talking of which, where was Captain Awesome? I miss him.
Cougar Town: Mildly entertaining fun. But one thing’s for sure: Jennifer Aniston’s movies may suck, but she’s a great TV actress. Really, she needs to be on tele instead of cinemas.
The Gates: Turned out to be really quite a good series. Nothing totally outstanding, but a regular weekly bit of dark, supernatural fun. It ended well, too, with most of the story arcs dovetailing together quite nicely, but then leading naturally to a series of new plot threads that serve as a good cliffhanger – for a second season that’s probably never going to come, given the ratings. But you never know.
House: All change here, with Olivia Wilde off filming movies left, right and centre and of course Huddy. Good to see enough of a change in the format that the medical mystery wasn’t the centre of the episode and wasn’t exactly life threatening. Not sure about Cuddy’s new assistant but he could prove fun. And I’m definitely not sure about Huddy either – but that was well enough handled that I’m prepared to give it some time. Oh, more Wilson, please.
Life Unexpected: So much forced change here, too! Redundancies, new characters, explosions, slightly icky storylines lifted from Pretty Little Liars. Abby’s MIA and Erin Karpluk is, too, which means the show is going to have to work harder to grab my attention. Oh, hello, here’s Emma Caufield from Buffy and a new blonde barmaid – that’ll help ease the pain, anyway. Not remotely plausible in any aspect, but fun.
Mike and Molly: Switched it off after two minutes of terrifyingly bad jokes, most of them about fat people. Just don’t watch it.
Parenthood: Seems to be settling down – I’m not sure in an especially good way. Dax Shepherd’s storyline is just going all over the place (let’s move to New York. No, let’s stay in California. No, let’s tour the country. No, let’s stay in California). Erika Christensen’s storyline has yet to materialise. Monica Potter’s storyline is all about her being a bit mental. The kids aren’t really up to much. Only Lauren Graham and Peter Krause are really getting anything to do, and I’m not sure I actually like their characters. The resemblance (physically and in terms of voices) of William and Adam Baldwin is actually quite spooky, too.
Rubicon: Ooh. Sex. Still not sure what’s happening though. And I use the word “happening” loosely.
But what have you been watching?
As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).
