Ah, thank heavens for cable TV. Although network TV has been producing some perfectly acceptable dramas this fall season, the miss rate has been a lot higher than the hit rate. Cable, however, with the obvious exception of Starz, has a far better success rate.
You know what else? Thank heavens for Israeli TV. Although you could argue over the merits of The Ex-List and Traffic Light for a while, they were at least a cut above the normal fare, and Israeli TV has at least indisputably given us the basis for the surefire cracker that was In Treatment. Now Israeli show Prisoners of War has given us the basis for Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis and adapted for US TV by former 24 producers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon.
Bearing more than a passing resemblance to AMC’s Rubicon, the thankfully faster-paced Homeland sees obsessive CIA analyst Danes convinced that returning war hero and former prisoner of war Damian Lewis has in fact been turned and is really working for al Qaeda. All she’s got to do is prove it, even though no one else believes her, not even her mentor, best friend and boss Mandy Patinkin. In fact, given she’s on anti-psychotic drugs, there’s a very good chance she actually is crazy. All the same, to prove her hunch is correct, Danes is going to do anything she has to – whether Lewis is innocent or not.
I was on Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition last night! Woo! Actually, I was on it last week for all of two sentences but they were good enough apparently to get me back on this week to have another go at talking about the coming season of US TV. If you want to listen to my shiny opinions of The Playboy Club, Pan Am, Castle, Parks & Recreation, Terra Nova, Falling Skies, Wilfred, In Treatment, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and – amazingly – Who’s The Boss, fingers crossed the embedded player will let you for the next week at least (don’t know if this will work in the US). My bit begins at 2h16mins in or thereabouts and lasts for about 20 minutes.
First off, above is the costume Adrianne Palicki wore at the end of the pilot for a proposed new series of Wonder Woman (thankfully not picked up). Surprisingly, worse than the other ones, I think. Poor Wonder Woman, she never gets the breaks.
Anyway, the wife and I were watching original series Wonder Woman the other night and to our surprise, up pops Drusilla, Wonder Woman’s sister aka Wonder Girl (not in the comics, where it’s Donna Troy, but hey ho). Okay, not surprised by Wonder Girl – surprised by who’s playing her.
Recognise her yet?
No? Well that would be Debra Winger, star of An Officer and a Gentleman and recently In Treatment, in pretty much her first role (they were even lining up a Wonder Girl TV series for her). How odd.
Wonder what Adrianne Palicki’s going to be doing in 35 years’ time.
