Sex and the City

US TV

Did Aaron Sorkin really just comment on a Slate article about The Newsroom attacking Sex and the City?

29 August 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Maggie in the Newsroom

So Slate’s just published a mini-takedown of the first season finale of The Newsroom for its supposed attack on Sex and the City. I won’t spoil anything for you, but here’s the scene in question in case you want it:

Now I think the author might have misinterpreted at least one scene, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about. Reading the comments of the piece – which is usually a bad idea, since male Slate commenters tend to make me ashamed of my entire gender – I came across this:

Aaron Sorkin comments on a Slate article?

Now, it seems to me unlikely that Aaron Sorkin – well known lover of both the Internet and Internet commenters – would comment on a Slate article to defend his show against the heinous charge of hating Sex and the City, but I throw it out there. What do you think? Sorkin or not Sorkin? Sex and the City lover or hater?

PS And yes, they really do have those bus tours. They’re rubbish, though.

Arrow
US TV

The CW’s upfronts 2012-3 – a rundown and clips from the new shows

18 May 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Green Arrow

Time for the last of the upfronts. Okay, USA did its first upfronts yesterday, but didn’t really announce anything new, so let’s end with the traditional way to end the upfronts: following on from the main broadcast networks NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS, today we’re going to be looking at the ‘young female adult’-skewed The CW and what it has lined up for us for the 2012 to 2013 season.

The CW didn’t have much success last year with its new scripted shows: only Hart of Dixie survived, while Ringer and The Secret Circle both got cancelled. Meanwhile, some of its older shows are now limping alone, with Gossip Girl nearing the end, Supernatural‘s end date being eyed and Nikita looking as poor as it always did. The experiment of The LA Complex fell apart, leaving just 90210 to keep the network’s scripted dreams alive.

But CW president Mark Pedowitz promised more original programming when he joined the network, so this year, The CW is trying to give itself a shot in the arm with… more of the same. Yes, time to cash in on some past glories as well as emulate some other networks. Lined up for 2012-13 are:

  • Beauty and The Beast: based on the 1980s CBS show with Linda Hamilton, but starring The CW’s Smallville‘s Kristen Kreuk as the beauty in question
  • Arrow: Bourne-esque adaptation of DC’s superhero the Green Arrow, but not starring Justin Hartley who was the Green Arrow in Smallville. But that’s because of…
  • Emily Owen MD: …in which a new doctor discovers that hospital is no different from high school. Co-stars… Justin Hartley
  • Carrie Diaries: HBO’s Sex and the City‘s Carrie, when she was a teenager. Notably features Freema Agyeman from Doctor Who, though.
  • Cult: starring one of the guys from The CW’s Vampire Diaries and one of the girls from The CW’s Melrose Place, and sees the fans of a TV show recreating the on-screen crimes.

After the jump, the run-down, trailers for the Fall shows (Carrie Diaries and Cult are mid-season – sorry) and a schedule.

Continue reading “The CW’s upfronts 2012-3 – a rundown and clips from the new shows”

US TV

Review: Girls (HBO) 1×1

17 April 2012 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

In the US: Sundays, 10.30pm, HBO

And so HBO’s quest for the new Sex and the City continues. Take four women, stick them in a city, let them talk to each other a lot, particularly about sex. Hey presto! You have a new Sex and the City. Magic or what?

Clearly, it’s not as easy as all that, though, or Cashmere Mafia, Lipstick Jungle, Women’s Murder Club, and all the other SatC knock-offs US TV has thrown at us over the past half-decade or so all would be hit TV shows and movies by now.

However, HBO’s Girls has a lot better chance of being the new Sex and the City. I think. Trouble is, unlike Sex and the City which really was a truly universal show (if you took the trouble to watch it), Girls is a show that maybe only girls will watch. And I mean girls – or at least young women, here – because this is a show that (probably) has its finger so close to the pulse of young American women’s lives (or at least East Coast, white, straight, middle to upper-middle class women’s lives) that if it gets any closer, there’ll be arterial spray hitting the walls in thousands of houses. And by girls, I also mean girls who love indie movies since this is effectively Sex and the City if it had been written by Ibsen on one of his cheerier days.

But I’m not a girl, so how should I know?

If you’re in the US, you can see for yourself with the whole of the first episode on YouTube:

Otherwise, you’ll have to make do with this trailer:

Continue reading “Review: Girls (HBO) 1×1”

Film

Question of the week: what adaptations do you think are better than the originals?

12 March 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Sex and the City

Many films – and TV series – are, as you’re probably aware, based on books and comics these days. As a rule of thumb, most of these adaptations aren’t as good as the originals, and there’s many a group of fans who will decry what their beloved book/comic becomes when it gets adapted (The Vampire Diaries especially comes to mind, here).

But sometimes, just sometimes, the adaptations are better than the originals. The TV version of Witchblade was leagues ahead of the comic; Colossus: The Forbin Project is a classic sci-fi movie of the 70s, whereas the book itself is fairly dreadful; I find The Walking Dead to be significantly better than the comic it was based on; and even Sex and the City is better than Candace Bushnell’s original book.

So today’s question is:

What TV and movie adaptations do you think are better than the original books or comics?

Answers below or on your own blog, please