Have you noticed how much US network TV is like Las Vegas? As soon as one Las Vegas hotel gets something (e.g. an IMAX 3D ride), suddenly every Las Vegas hotel has to have it?
So stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A cop show on CBS (why haven’t you stopped me yet?) all about rookie cops (why haven’t you stopped me yet?), their love lives (why haven’t you stopped me yet?) and the thorny dilemmas they face on the streets that academy hasn’t prepared them for (why haven’t you stopped me yet?).
Do you see where I’m going with this? I hope you do. Because I have to ask myself, you and CBS: Do we really need another Rookie Blue? Do we really need a show that isn’t even half as good as Southland, simply because these shows aren’t on CBS and CBS is the home of the procedural?
No, it doesn’t matter that Robert de Niro is one of the producers, or that this features a surprisingly diverse cast, including Adam Goldberg (Friends), Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc) and Brit actor Tom Reed. Why? Because ultimately, despite a slight hint of the Southland in terms of detail, this is no better and no different than any other generic cop show, put together because all the other networks had one and CBS wanted one, too.
It’s "What did you watch last week?", my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.
First, the usual recommendations: The Almighty Johnsons, Archer, Being Human (US), BeTipul, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Happy Endings, House,Mad Men, Modern Family,Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory,30 Rock and Top Gear. Assuming they’re on where you live, of course.
Now, some thoughts on the regulars, apart from Mad Men, which I’ve still to watch:
The Almighty Johnsons – I’m now on New Zealand time, BTW. The darkest episode yet but signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Loki’s getting irritating and the goddesses are getting maltreated. Not much Axl this week either, and very little Anders, too, but he’s off filming The Hobbit, so what can you do?
America’s Next Top Model – is now being officially boycotted in this house for anti-Scottish racism
The Apprentice – the same old, same old, but don’t you just love it?
Archer – the finale wasn’t as funny as the first part, but it was still a pretty good episode
Awake – again with the dull procedural. Stop it. More fleshing out of secondary characters is needed, but it’s still intelligent, moving and insightful. It needs more on why this is all happening though.
Being Human (US) – Good to see that Sally now effectively has an addiction like the others, putting her on an equally monstrous footing with the others
Community – classic Community in that it was dark and weird but not hugely funny. But some character moments of joy, including Jeff and Britta, and the return of dark Abed.
Cougar Town – a lovely get out for a thorny dilemma that’s plagued the show for a while, plus a return of the Travis-Laurie dynamic
Dirk Gently – Probably the best of the bunch: funny with decent characterisation. Still not loving it, but it’s now not bad
John Bishop’s Sport Relief Hell – I only watched a minute of it and nearly cried.
Missing – Jesus of Montreal himself Lothaire Bluteau made an appearance to not much effort. More preposterous than the opening episode, with linguistic tricks around the phrase ‘hard drive’ needed for a very uninteresting reveal. The break-in was silly, the whole Netleaks thing was even more ridiculous and the narrow squeak at the end preposterous. But still a tense hour.
Ringer: Juliette still can’t act, but last week’s episode made slightly more sense than the previous week’s
Southland – an anti-climatic ending to the season, which overall was very strong.
Spartacus – phenomenal: shocking, surprising and finally we get to see the Romans as something less than cannon fodder and more the most powerful fighting force in the world (cf Rome).
30 Rock – quite the best season since the first, I think. Some wonderful cameo appearances, including one of the Baldwins doing a great impression of Alex, and a vast amount of almost Community-level meta-ness, particularly the part where Tracey comes off his meds and (spoiler) thinks he’s in a show within a show and his real name is Tracey Morgan. Even Kristen Schaal is just about funny for once.
Touch – basically an episode of Highway to Heaven. Nice to have a mini-24 reunion, with Jude Ciccolella, even if the show does all it can to avoid the memory of Jack Bauer by having Kiefer Sutherland get his arse kicked in fights. Danny Glover basically did nothing, as did Guru M-R. The lack of regular characters also makes it hard to care about the show. But at the end of the day, despite all those caveats, quite heart-warming.
Two and a Half Men – Only watching it because Sophie Winkleman (Big Suze from Peep Show, but also Charlotte from NBC’s 100 Questions) is on it. Has to be said – not a great show and the usual American TV problem of being mildly bemused and unable to cope with the existence of foreigners, but she’s good.
The Voice – I don’t normally do reality, but with Tom Jones on it, how could we refuse? Actually quite enjoyable, although Reggie Yates and Holly Willoughby were entirely superfluous. Surprised will.i.am didn’t get more people, though. And Tom really did seem unimpressed to discover one of his was gay.
And in books:
The Go-Between by LP Hartley: bored me rigid. Sorry.
"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?
It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.
First, the usual recommendations: The Almighty Johnsons, Archer, Being Human (US), BeTipul, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Happy Endings, House,Modern Family,Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory,30 Rock and Top Gear. Assuming they’re on where you live, of course.
The observant will have noticed that I’ve promoted The Almighty Johnsons to the A-list there. I’ve caught up to those lovely New Zealanders now and I’d have to say that the first season is really good and really takes over from about episode eight onwards; the second season is a lot darker though, has some holes in the cast that the show really feels, as well as some changes to the set-up and general approach to the show – away from gods v goddesses to gods v (spoiler) Loki – that make it weaker. But it’s still a good show and the signs are that subsequent episodes will repair some of the damage. But what’s with Anders’ beard and all the rubbish new haircuts for everyone?
Now, some thoughts on the regulars:
Being Human (US): a slightly obvious twist last week that was still a good change for the show. Much better than the UK version now
Community: As close to normal as Community gets, and fabulous.
Cougar Town: Not just the Scrubscrossover to end all crossovers but we got ‘Tom Cruise-running’ as well. Excellent work all round.
Dirk Gently: Different in tone from the first episode, with Matt James (Doctor Who – The Impossible Planet) on scripting duties. Less a holistic mystery than an actual mystery, it was easy to guess the very sci-fi explanation for what had happened, but that didn’t actually matter. It was even surprisingly touching. One complaint: St Cedds (good), not filming in Cambridge (bad).
Happy Endings: A bottle episode, but a well-handled bottle episode, particularly the body swap at the end. Yes, you read that right.
Kung Fu: Second season now. The fighting’s getting better. The scripts aren’t getting faster, though, even with ninja.
Modern Family: Meh. So so.
Ringer: What? I mean seriously, what? Those flashbacks to Siobhan and Andrew made literally no sense within the context of the first two episodes of the show. But it’s Ringer, so what was I expecting?
Shameless: Heart-rending two episodes in which to see dreams crushed by other people. One that Ayn Rand-ists should watch.
She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens: Didn’t actually watch this one, but my lovely wife did and she reports that it’s quite good in and of itself, but if you know anything about the period before Elizabeth, it’s very basic and you won’t learn much.
Southland: Wow. What an episode. This week’s the finale. This should be traumatic.
Spartacus: Really very awesome (haven’t watched Friday’s yet), thanks to an influx of Germans, although the constant use of rape as a way to elevate the danger levels is getting very tired. I’m now almost used to Liam McIntyre as Spartacus, even though he’s still not up there with Andy Whitfield.
Suburgatory: a bit more drama than comedy, but good to see Robin Givens still getting work.
30 Rock: The return of Dennis! Yey! And “You Soloed me” – a classic line.
And in movies:
The Thin Man: a classic Dashiell Hammett story, while the plot is typical 1920s/30s intricate murder-mystery, it’s absolutely worth watching for possibly the first depiction of a modern marriage in a film:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Despite the presence of Terry Gilliam behind the camera and Johnny Depp in front, absolutely not a patch on the book and curiously uninvolving.
The Mechanic: Jason Statham takes on the Charles Bronson role in this unspectacular remake of the 70s movie about a professional hitman who takes on an assistant. A few good set pieces, but lacking the humour of the average Statham film, as well as the characteristic fight scenes, this is basically a movie by the numbers but with a few elements that take it above the normal. Reasonable enough, but don’t expect to see anything new.
How about you?
“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?
It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.
First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), Cougar Town, The Daily Show, House, Happy Endings,Modern Family,Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory,30 Rock and Top Gear.
The Almighty Johnsons: Seems to be finding its feet and the goddesses are starting to get a look in. Still not exceptional but a fun hour or so.
America’s Next Top Model: Strange to see all the Brits from Britain’s Next Top Model coming over to compete – and being nice to each other.
Archer: Yet to have a duff episode this season, although the return of Barry the cyborg isn’t especially welcome.
Being Human (US): Have been so uninterested in the UK version that I’ve dropped that altogether, particularly since the US one seems to be doing such a good job with its second season. Although the Sally stuff feels lightweight, the vampire and werewolf intrigue is infinitely superior to the UK storylines and we seem to have skipped the thankless fundamentalist scientist storyline as well. Which is a bonus
Braquo: Finally finished the whole of the first season. It continued in its usual vein of a bunch of cops doing some massively stupid things for no good reason other than to cover up the last load of massively stupid things it did. But when it did ultraviolence it was very good and the surprising ending just about justified the whole show.
Happy Endings: A surprising Colin Hanks cameo. What is more surprising though is just how good a comic actress Elisha Cuthbert is. Good to see her getting to be funny after all these years of… not being funny.
House: Billy Connolly!
Portlandia: Johnny Marr on a bike!
Ringer: The craziness continues and Ioan is a bad seed!
Southland: Slightly disappointing conclusion to last week’s cliffhanger, but a great episode all the same.
Suburgatory: Possibly the funniest dream sequence ever
“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?
It’s "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.
First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), Cougar Town, The Daily Show, House, Happy Endings, Modern Family, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week). The Almighty Johnsons is still in my view pile and there are a couple of other things that I’m going to be reviewing in the next day or so, including Those Who Kill (aka Den Som Dræber) and Justice League: Doom
Caerdydd: Slowly catching up on this about a year (or two) since we recorded it. Not as good as the previous series, but still great fun.
Modern Family: Very sweet
Ringer: Nice guest cameo by Misha Collins from Supernatural, and thankfully the whole thing was as ludicruous as always.
Royal Pains: Ah, the never-ending slow progress of the plot. And for a finale episode, incredibly badly written – bad dialogue, obviously plotting and no real draw for the next series and that might work in a lazy summer show, but in winter, you need to be a whole lot sharper.
30 Rock: Great cameos by Jim Carrey and Andie MacDowell. But very strange.
Southland: I could see the cliffhanger coming a mile off, but still great work. Whoever does the trailers for TNT needs to be shot, since they give away the resolution to the cliffhanger.
Spartacus: Back on track now, with a very well paced and plotted episode, although the crunch moment (ho, ho) was an obvious twist. Good to see the return of Gannicus, too. Pondering Spartacus, it amazes me that it’s so popular. Although there’s the obvious, nudity, swearing and massive violence, complete with bloody entrails, we’re talking about a historical story, set in a foreign country, with no Americans (obviously) in the cast, people talking in pseudo-Shakespearian language, gay men front and centre, full frontal male nudity and the whole thing largely filmed and staged like theatre. It breaks all the rules, but yet people love it. Isn’t cable great?
And in movies:
Real Steel:Rocky with robots and Hugh Jackman. Surprisingly fun and not awful, although Evangeline Lilly is very much lost in a somewhat tedious "deadbeat father and son work out their differences by building and training a boxing robot" story that has no room for women unless they’re dead or wearing Gucci cocktail dress with cut-outs. But some great robot boxing, including a final homage to Ali’s rope-a-dope trick against Foreman. Wonder if they’ll turn ‘Zeus’ into a lean, mean fat-reducing machine.
"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?
