As mentioned in my asides, I didn't have much time for blogging last week. Sorry about that. But here's a round-up of a few of my TV thoughts:

Survivors
Pretty rubbish. Couldn't even be bothered to watch episode two. Interestingly, probably the only instance of a TV show adapted from the novelisation of an older TV show, and there was the name-switch of a couple of characters to fake out the seven people who could remember the original series/novel and who lived/died.

But still very tedious, with no really interesting characters and no real sense of disaster or tragedy. "Oh my God, I've had to burn the body of my dead husband. Right, anyone for chips?"

To a certain extent, the problem is with the format, since although it's got a great starting point - almost everyone in the world dies so how will the survivors manage to eke out an existence? - invariably it descends into decisions about crop rotation, government structures and population stabilisation systems that somehow manage to avoid discussing or depicting sex since it's mainstream BBC.

But the original series still managed to make the characters interesting so clearly not everything can be blamed on Terry Nation.

Knight Rider
We've stopped watching it. It really is very, very bad.

Odd BBC2 links
We were watching Top Gear yesterday when up pops a trailer for Louis Theroux's programme following the police in Philadelphia. Two things:

1. Theroux needs a different act if he's going to do serious journalism. To policeman: "What would have happened if he'd drawn that gun?" "He'd have been shot." "Who by?" Erm… Are you mental?
2. The BBC2 announcer then said "It's just like an episode of The Wire". So now we're trailing BBC2 programmes with references to a show that's only on FX and gets about 36,000 viewers. That's a bit niche, isn't it?

24: Redemption
God. Hasn't television moved on since the last series of 24. That felt ridiculously antediluvian. Can 24 only thrive when there's a Republican presidency - discuss?

Heroes
Getting bored now, mainly because Ali Larter isn't in it enough, but also because of all the ridiculous personality switches, the fact there are so few characters who act like grown-ups, general inconsistencies, lack of logic, etc. Sigh. Roll on volume four (hopefully) although some of the spoilers I've heard don't fill me with much enthusiasm. How would you fix the show?

Dexter
Told you you have to wait for a while to see if it gets good. Always around the seven or eighth episode.

The Unit
Why aren't more people watching it? It's brilliant.

The IT Crowd
Thank God it's back. Officially the only comedy show in which Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade have ever appeared in that's funny. Katherine Parkinson's great - and a redhead again. Yey! And that magician was great. If only bluffball.co.uk were a real site…

Thanksgiving
Is all good television banned on Thanksgiving in the US?

Read other posts about: 24, Dexter, Heroes, The IT Crowd, The Unit, The Wire, Top Gear

Film

• Martin Campbell to direct Nagasaki Deadline
• Uwe Boll loses lawsuit
• Ridley Scott to direct film based on Monopoly
• Pic of the new USS Enterprise

Theatre

• Who's going to be in the Old Vic's 24 hour plays

British TV

• Motive to make first TV comedy show shot on a mobile phone for MTV1
• Virgin to axe 2,200 jobs
• Live at the Apollo to fill Jonathan Ross's slot
• Ashley Highfield quits Project Kangaroo for Microsoft
• Tranter warns drama budgets have been cut back to breaking point
• Jeff Stelling to host Countdown

• HBO orders pilot based on fantasy book Game of Thrones
• The Ex-List still filming episodes for DVDs and international sales
• Breaking Bad's Mark Johnson working on legal drama for AMC
• Fox to take first look at Living With Abandon
• Casting on Nurse Jackie and Defying Gravity
• HBO readying 80s magazine comedy
• Dexter's Desmond Harrington to join Gossip Girl
• Kevin McKidd to join Grey's Anatomy as regular

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Read other posts about: Dexter, Gossip Girl

Film

• Four RKO horror movies to be remade
• Daniel Craig turned down Thor
• Trailer for Transporter 3

Theater

• Dirty Dancing moving to Broadway?

British TV

• Jo Brand to star in BBC Four comedy about nurses
• Another episode of Extras?

US TV

• Two more seasons for Dexter
• Casting for Boldly Going Nowhere
• Casting for White Collar and The Amazing Mrs Novak
• Private Practice picked up for full season
• Teri Polo to guest in Ghost Whisperer and CSI: Miami
• More scripts ordered for Worst Week
• Bridget Moynahan to co-star in Bunker Hill

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Read other posts about: CSI, Dexter

In the US: Sundays, 8/7c, The CW

Valentine is one of those high concept shows that could, depending on how they're implemented, turn out to be fundamentally excellent or fundamentally awful. "The Greek gods are alive and well and living among us". Brilliant, hey? I'd buy that book/watch that TV show, because it's a great idea.

But, and here's the problem, if the gods just sit in front of the TV all day, it's going to be very dull; if they demand human sacrifices or set nation to war with nation to reduce the excess population, it's going to very dark and scary. So pitch is very important.

US TV tends to go for light and/or fighty when dealing with the Greek gods. Hercules (yes, I know he's Roman) and Xena (completely made up) went for light and fighty on the few occasions when they went modern-day; Cupid (also Roman and coming around for a new series some time soon, despite having been cancelled once) went for light. They were all fun in their way, sometimes extremely imaginative, but generally nothing to make you mourn their passings too much.

Valentine (yes, not even Roman but early Christian), in which Aphrodite, Eros, Hercules/Heracles and other gods try to fix mortals up with their soul mates, goes for light in a big way. Starring Jaime Murray (Hustle, Dexter) as Aphrodite aka Venus aka Grace Valentine, it's imaginative, quite fun, but at times excruciatingly bad - as well as instantly forgettable.

Continue reading "Review: Valentine 1x1"

Read other posts about: Dexter

Doctor Who

• Deeply implausible Patrick Stewart rumour clearly made up by fans to see if The Sun would publish it

Film

• Brandon Routh, Gil Bellows, Martin Donovan and Carrie-Anne Moss join Unthinkable
• Under Siege 3. In space. With aliens. Hmm.

British TV

• ITV acquires rights to new seasons of Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl and Dexter
• BBC4 gets record ratings
• Wallace and Gromit: the exhibition
• RTL gets the green light to put in bid for ITV
• Mark Gatiss writes a ghost story for the Beeb
• QI daytime spin-off planned

• CBS orders pilot for domestic comedy Big D
• Kevin Bacon to exec Showtime series about John Wilkes Booth and his brothers
• Will and Grace spin-off back on
• A chat with Life on Mars exec producer Josh Appelbaum

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Read other posts about: Dexter, Gossip Girl, Life on Mars

Film

• Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro to work on mafia movie I Heard You Paint Houses
• Hayden Christensen signs three-picture deal with Screen Gems

Theatre

• Lenny Henry to play Othello

Music

• Dirty Pretty Things to split

British TV

• Janice Hadlow to be the new controller of BBC2
• Female Peep Show spin-off planned
• Five picks up rights to The Mentalist

US TV

• Dexter premiere gets 1.2m viewers
• Fox picks up Fringe for a full season
• Partridge Family to be remade by NBC
• Chuck and Life ratings awful

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Read other posts about: Dexter, Peep Show

Getting people to watch your shiny new show (or returning old show) is always tricky. Billboards are among the main media you can use to get people to tune in, provided you create enough impact.

Here's a shiny collection of billboards (and a couple of magazine spreads and covers) for the current and returning shows in the US, as featured by The Hollywood Reporter, complete with rating. Where I've reviewed the show, I've included a link to the review

• Gossip Girl : A (first series review)
• Fringe : B (my review)
• Heroes: C+ (my review)
• Pushing Daisies : B (first series review)
• Entourage : C
• Chuck: A- (first series review)
• House : B+ (my review)
• 90210: B+
• Knight Rider: B (review tomorrow!)
• Privileged : C- (first episode review; third episode verdict on Monday)
• CSI: NY : C+
• America's Next Top Model : F+
• My Own Worst Enemy : B
• Dexter: A (my preview)
• Worst Week: B- (my review)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles : A- (my review)
• Grey's Anatomy: B-
• Simpsons/Family Guy/King of the Hill: B
• Eleventh Hour: B- (UK series review)
• Desperate Housewives: B
• Californication: B (first series review)
• The Ex-List: B
• Lipstick Jungle: D+ (first series review)
• The Shield: A

Read other posts about: CSI, Dexter, Gossip Girl, Heroes, House

The CW has been trickling its shows out this year, rather than splurging them out in one lump in September. So there are some new shows that haven't had much publicity that are popping up next month. Valentine, previously Valentine Inc, has been hovering on the radar here for a while, since:

1. It's got Jaime Murray from Hustle and season two of Dexter on it.
2. It'll sound vaguely familiar to readers of this blog and another one not too far away…

Due to premiere on Sunday, October 5 at 8/7c, the show has the basic premise that love gods Aphrodite (Jaime Summer) and Eros (Kristoffer Polaha) are still alive in modern times with some of their entourage and fellow gods from classical Greece, and they're busy matchmaking. Yes, it's a rom-com or something very similar. You can find out the full plot after the jump, and from the web site, too, since it's too long to put on the front page.

Here though is a slightly low quality YouTube promo, which also includes interviews with the cast. Notable things I've also learned: Holly Valance is appearing in it. I know not why or when. I'd tell you more but there's no screener for me to scrutinise (naughty CW!).

Continue reading "Promo for Valentine on The CW"

Read other posts about: Dexter

In the US: Showtime, Sundays, 9pm. Starts September 28
In the UK: Probably FX again, some time next summer

It can't have escaped many people's notice that the story-telling structure of intelligent – and unintelligent – American television has changed substantially over the last few years. As well as the impact of 24, which has made serialised television possible again, The Wire's use of Shakespearean rather than Aristotelian storytelling techniques has spread to other dramas, while premium cable channels and DVD box sets have made “slow burn” TV shows viable.

All of which makes reviewing just the first episode of a new series a pain in the arse – or ass – particularly with something like Dexter. One of the first shows to demonstrate there was life on cable outside of HBO, it's now on its third season and continues to demonstrate that some TV shows can't simply be judged on their first episodes, since all the goodies are in the evolving plot still to come.

Continue reading "Preview: Dexter 3x1"

Read other posts about: Dexter

Film

• Trailer for The Spirit

British TV

• ITV2 commissions drama Trinity…
• …and cancels Jordan's chat show

Australian TV

• Big Brother cancelled

US TV

• Fringe episodes will be 50 minutes long
• The first of the Heroes webisodes [video, US only]
• Christina Ricci joining Saving Grace for three episodes
• Crash won't be depressing or about race much
• Christopher Gorham leaving Ugly Betty
• Casting for Valentine Inc, plus Dexter and The Unit

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Read other posts about: Big Brother, Dexter, Heroes, The Unit, Ugly Betty