Touching Evil

Touching Evil title sequence and theme

30 May 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

As a little treat and to give you a flavour of the show – and because I’m in one of my obsessive moods – I’m setting up a one-show, one-page rival to Brilliant But Cancelled. Here’s the opening few minutes of the pilot episode of Touching Evil. It may not instantly grab you, but as a way to establish the entire mood of a show plus the scenario behind it, it’s a remarkably economical use of three and a half minutes. But bear with it.

I’ve added the title sequence and title theme as a second video, since they are possibly one of the best combinations in TV history, even if the theme seems to have been re-used for a perfume ad. If some of the music sounds familiar, you’re probably a Nine Inch Nails fan.

Enjoy!

Continue reading “Touching Evil title sequence and theme”

US TV

Brilliant But Cancelled web site launches

23 May 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Touching Evil

Plenty of shows (particularly in the US) get cancelled before the world realises just how good they are. One of my personal favourite shows ever, the US version of the dull dull dull Robson Green show Touching Evil is a case in point: 13 episodes of brilliance that died before its time because it was marketed badly by the stupid old USA Network.

Because said shows run for so short a time, they never get a DVD release and disappear into the mists of time with no one the wiser. Wouldn’t it be good to be able to see them all, to savour those tiny jewels?

But now, building on from a cable network of the same name, comes a web site dedicated to this very concept: Brilliant But Cancelled. Unfortunately, most of the content appears only to be available to US viewers, but those with techy knowhow will be able to circumvent it. And Touching Evil is on it!

All we need now is:

  1. Access to it from abroad without proxy servers and the like
  2. A British version.

Any nominations for the British version?

ITV3: the network that doesn’t like to advertise

10 November 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

ITV3 has been around for some time, mainly in the guise of Granada Plus before it got rebranded. It now has another relative, ITV4, which is supposed to be a “man’s channel”, showing American imports among other things.

Good theory. So why is it that all the good American imports are on ITV3? You wouldn’t know they were there because there’s no advertising. Yet, Numb3rs debuted on there a few weeks ago, as did Touching Evil (the US version). What does ITV4 have? The re-make of Kojak, which was so bad I stopped watching after ten minutes.

Sure ITV3 is essentially still the home of Poirot repeats, but they should think about moving over the new US imports to ITV4 if they’re not going to waste them.

Fox now has a battle of the preposterous on its hands

10 November 2005 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Prison Break turned out to be better than expected, much to Fox’s surprise. Yet, with the juggernaut that is 24 returning in January, it looks like Prison Break is going to be pre-empted from November to May. Quite a wait, one that could get the show cancelled.

Fox isn’t exactly packed with quality programming. While Prison Break isn’t Shakespeare, it does have some nice touches. Joining the honourable ranks of Monk and Touching Evil in pointing out the flipside of mental illness, Prison Break‘s hero turns out to have both low self-esteem and “low latent inhibition” – a disorder that makes him see objects as the sums of their parts, rather than just objects. It’s a handy, escape-plan compatible condition that works well in conjunction with another that lets you get sent to prison so you can rescue your brother. Yes, the mentally ill can be heros and their disorders can be advantages.

So Fox is clearly a little loopy to think that 24 is just so great that everything else should be cleared to make room for it. At the very least, moving Prison Break to one of the prime-time slots used by the deadwood that fills most days except Monday wouldn’t be a bad idea, particularly since it is doing well in the ratings despite baseball, etc.

Touching Evil (US)

6 August 2005 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

ITV3 has just started (as of 45 minutes ago) showing the US version of Touching Evil. If you can, watch it because it’s a remarkable thing: a remake of a UK show that’s better than original. The UK version, starring Robson Green, was awful, a collection of clichés and predictability that made you wonder what could have possessed the likes of Paul Abbot and Russell T Davies when they wrote it. It so badly wanted to be a US show, but could only imitate and badly at that.

The US version, which was exec-produced by Bruce Willis of all people, took those clichés and ran with them. The throwaway “characterisation” of having the hero, David Creegan, shot in the head – something that never seemed to affect him in any way in the UK version – was a vital point in the US version.

Continue reading “Touching Evil (US)”