The Avengers

Wednesday news

17 January 2007 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Doesn’t jury service ever end? Fingers crossed, very soon…

Doctor Who/Theatre

Film

British TV

  • Life on Mars is back next month. Spoilers aplenty. I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to know that Torchwood‘s exec producer Chris “Cyberwoman” Chibnall is one of the writers again.
  • For some reason, UKTV History has chosen Alan Titchmarsh to host a show in which the public can nominate their favourite historical sites.
  • Lizzy “Most evil woman in Britain” Bardsley from Wife Swap is up in court on child cruelty charges.
  • Ricky Gervais denies calling British viewers idiots.
  • Complaints about racism in Celebrity Big Brother have almost reached the 10,000 mark [registration required]. Keith Vaz is to raise the matter in Parliament. Further coverage at Organ Grinder, including clarification of just how insulting Jade’s mum was to Shilpa. It also includes this class quote from Shilpa’s publicist: “Shilpa is God’s child. Jack is God’s child. All human beings are ultimately connected by a single abounding energy. So, how does it matter who belongs to what race, religion, country, colour or creed?” You just don’t get that from British PRs.

US TV

News

News from the weekend

8 January 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

David Tennant on the Friday Night Project

Film

Music

British TV

US TV

Film

Robert Downey Jr: superhero

29 September 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Iron ManAnd lo, the rehabilitation of Robert Downey Jr did continue. It’s just been announced that everyone’s favourite former junkie and top-grade actor is to be Tony Stark in the new Iron Man movie, which is being directed by Jon Favreau. The project’s already had Tom Cruise’s name hanging from it, an idea that didn’t exactly endear itself to Iron Man fans, but Downey’s a pretty good choice, I reckon.

For those of you not in the know, Iron Man features a billionaire industrialist who fashions himself an iron weapons suit as a means to keep himself alive from a terminal heart condition and to escape a prison camp (I’m précising here: there was a weird amount of Vietnam-era propaganda in the origins story). In common with all comics these days, there are attempts to inject some depth into the character. So there’s a fair amount of angst by Stark over his weapons-manufacturing past and he later descends into alcoholism.

Who reckons Downey can do that?

UK TV

Set the video: The Champions

17 August 2006 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

The ChampionsThey don’t make them like The Champions any more. A classic ITC show from the 60s, it featured three agents of the international ‘Nemesis’ organisation travelling around the world fighting dastardly evil-doers. And good old ITV4 is repeating it again, starting at 6pm tonight.

What lifted The Champions out of the ordinary and made it just so fun to watch was its premise. You’ll need to being sitting down for this one.

Our three heroes’ plane crash-lands in Tibet during the first episode. On the point of death, they get rescued by a lost civilisation, which saves their lives. But their rescuers do more. They ‘enhance’ them to the limit of human abilities. They make them as smart as Einstein, as strong as Olympic champions, able to hear the slightest sound, see in the dark and more; they even get a form of shared ESP.

I told you you’d need to be sitting down for it.

Continue reading “Set the video: The Champions”

US TV

Preview: Runaway

17 July 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Runaway

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, The CW, starting 18th September

In the UK: Starts in 2007 on Channel 4 and E4

As we saw on Friday with Shark, once US networks spot a hit, they all try to recreate it for themselves (or even try to do it again). It’s a trend we’ll see tomorrow with The Nine, but today we’re going to be looking at Runaway.

Runaway essentially wants to be Prison Break, but without the tiresome need for everyone to break out of jail first, so just kicks off with everyone on the run. Lawyer Donnie Wahlberg has been accused of murdering someone. Surprise twist: he hasn’t. Oh wait – that’s not a surprise.

Anyway, after escaping from jail, he, his wife and family sneak away, running from town to town to avoid the authorities. Like The Fugitive before him, Wahlberg inveigles himself into the hearts of the townsfolk wherever he goes, mainly by offering to do odd jobs. Yet all the time, he’s really looking for ways to prove his innocence, using Internet access at his new jobs to remain in contact with friends and helpers in his home town.

Meanwhile, his kids and wife try to build normal but temporary lives wherever they go. This isn’t helped by the fact that they have to have new names and identities in every town and the police are in hot pursuit.

That’s the plot, guys. Nothing more to see here. Move along.

Runaway hit? No

Despite the central idea of the show, Runaway‘s not actually very exciting. There’s the usual techniques of such dramas, such as the police raiding a house you’re supposed to think is the Wahlberg family residence, when it’s actually someone else’s; there’s the usual pissed off teenage children you’d expect from a show that will be airing on the successor to The WB. There’s also the usual poorly defined threat that we’re just supposed to take on trust, rather than actually see do anything nasty.

But the family are pretty uninteresting and uninvolving. There’s no main cop character to really get to grips with. The real murderer is never seen, only issuing threats by text, post and instant message. There’s no deadline to beat, as with Prison Break. Nothing, basically, to really involve you in the chase and evasion, other than the excitement of a chase/evasion.

How will they avoid the cops this time? Ooh, lying and watching old episodes of The Incredible Hulk.

It’s a less auspicious start than Prison Break‘s, which itself had a pretty laughable opening episode, but Channel 4 and E4 both seem persuaded of its merits. I’m not convinced this is going to go the distance, but as with all serial dramas, once you’re drawn in, it’s hard to stop watching.