The Unit

US TV

Review: Lie To Me 2×1

30 September 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US: Monday September 28, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Thursday October 8, 10pm, Sky 1/Sky 1 HD

As you can imagine, with so much TV for me to watch and review, there’s a certain discipline involved if I’m ever going to have a life (arguably, I still need to get one). Thankfully, chez moi, the Carusometer is in charge, and once it’s passed its third-episode verdict, I abide by its ruling decision and ditch a programme it doesn’t rate.

Lie to Me I dropped after the third episode, on the general grounds that while the Carusometer loved Tim Roth, it thought the rest of the cast rubbish, the format ludicrous and too much an obvious copy of House‘s and Bones‘s, and the plots mediocre.

But Shawn Ryan, former exec producer on the now-defunct The Shield and The Unit, took over as show runner for this season. He’s been making interesting noises during interviews, that suggested he could see the flaws in the show, too. So I decided to leap back for the premiere episode of the second season to see if there are notable improvements.

It’s definitely better, but there are still serious flaws. Good old Carusometer. It’s always right.

Continue reading “Review: Lie To Me 2×1”

Wednesday’s slash and burn news

20 May 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

  • CBS cancels Without A Trace, Worst Week, renews Numb3rs, cancels Eleventh Hour, renews How I Met Your Mother, Gary Unmarried, Rules of Engagement and Old Christine
  • The CW drops Privileged, Reaper, Everybody Hates Chris, picks up Melrose Place 2.0, Beautiful Life and Vampire Diaries, but not the Gossip Girl spin-off
  • NBC cancels My Name is Earl and Medium; CBS picks up Medium and cancels The Unit
  • NBC to rotate shows around the year – Chuck to follow Heroes in the Monday 8pm time slot mid-season
  • ABC cancels Cupid, According to Jim, The Unusuals
US TV

Season finale: The Unit (season four)

12 May 2009 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Unit‘s a strangely schizophrenic show. On the one hand, it tries its level best to be realistic about the US special forces, its procedures, what it must be like to be married to a special forces soldier and so on. It’s quite conservative – about the only conservative show on mainstream TV other than 24 and maybe 30 Rock (debate anyone?)  – yet will quite happily have a Latino president. It’s also quite ruthless, with our heroes frequently making quite nasty decisions (yes, we will sell you, helpful lady, into prostitution) to get the job done.

But it’s also depressingly escapist and silly at times, with this season’s David Mamet cluster-f*ck of the Unit being forced to retrieve the spear that was used to stab Jesus, and being visited by the spirit of departed Unit member Hector.

I kid you not.

So was the finale of season four one of those times when silliness outweighed true grit?

Continue reading “Season finale: The Unit (season four)”

What have you been watching this week (w/e 8 May)?

8 May 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Seen anything good? Seen anything bad? Let your fellow blog readers know, so they can spend their viewing time wisely.

We’ve caught up with House in the US. Last week’s episode about the deaf community nearly caused my wife to turn into She Hulk and start to smash things – particularly the bits about cochlea implants – but this week’s seemed better, and head Amber’s as fun as the original so it’s been nice to see her again.

Life’s a bit duller without Heroes though, 24 has fallen right through the floor and David Caruso trying to interact with children on CSI: Miami was one of the scariest things on television since Ghostwatch. I think I almost fell asleep during The Mentalist, at times, but nice to see a female near-rival to Jane’s talents – will she become his Irene Adler for season two?

The Unit managed to mess up what had been a previously promising story arc with a dumb twist. Stupid Unit.

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!

US TV

Season finale: Chuck (Season two)

30 April 2009 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Chuck in Chuck vs The Ring

For me, Chuck‘s been an “if there’s nothing else on, I’ll watch it” kind of show. I watched the first few episodes of season one and thought that while it was okay – the idea of a nerd being accidentally turned into a spy not exactly being a new one (eg Jake 2.0) – it wasn’t really for me and gave up on it. Then lovely wife started watching it on Virgin 1 and before you know it, we’re watching it every week.

Season two has been okay. With Chuck, there’s a hell of a lot of water being tread – it’s always reasonably good, just never excellent. Chuck never leaves his job at the Buy More to get a new life, or if he does, he’s back within an episode. He and Sarah, his secret agent handler, never get together, except if they do, they have to return to a platonic status quo within an episode. The ‘top’ spies, even the guest ones, are never that good and would get turned into mincemeat by the guys of The Unit, Michael Westen on Burn Notice or Daniel Craig as James Bond without too much of a problem. And even the few revelatory bad things in Chuck or Sarah’s past (Stanford, Jill, his father, her father, Bryce) turn out to be not as bad as previously though, depriving the show of any true edge.

Okay, so there’s a place for “not too much thinking after a hard day at work” escapist television and to a certain extent, this is more of a show about camaraderie, family and disappointment in life than about spies, but it’s not without reason that even lovely wife is saying things like “something had better happen soon”.

Whether Chuck will get that option, since it still hasn’t been picked up for a third season, is a tricky question. But although it looks like there’s a real risk of a return to something like the status quo if it does come back, the season finale – really a two-parter in disguise if you include the preceding episode – is something of a game-changer, at least in some ways.

Spoilers ahoy.

Continue reading “Season finale: Chuck (Season two)”