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

So David Tennant's heading off for pastures new. Come 2010, we're going to need a new Doctor in the TARDIS.

Current favourite for the job is Paterson Joseph, best known from Peep Show, at 3-1 odds, but David Morrisey is close behind at 5-1 (and there might be a revelation or two in the Christmas special to look forward to there), James Nesbitt is at 6-1 and John Simm (weirdly enough) is at 8-1.

Question for the day though: who would you like to be the next Doctor. It might be an outlandish suggestion that would never ever happen in real life, but this is Fantasy Doctor League so name your personal fave right now.

I'm currently being persuaded that Idris Elba (of The Wire and Ultraviolet) would be a great choice, although maybe one that wouldn't actually come about in real life. What do you think?

Read other posts about: The Wire

Film

• Michael Peña offered role in The Green Hornet
• Rachel McAdams to play Irene Adler, Mark Strong to play Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes
• Will Smith to star in I Am Legend prequel
• Johnny Depp to play Tonto in The Lone Ranger
• Anne Hathaway to star in Opposite of Love
• National Treasure 3 given the go
• Cars 2 set for 2011
• John Travolta to star in From Paris With Love

Art

• 15 Rothko paintings reunited for Tate Modern exhibition

• Steven Colbert to appear in Amazing Spider-Man

Theatre

• Graham Norton to make West End debut in Cage Aux Folles

British TV

• The Queen to host 50th birthday party for Blue Peter
• James Corden and Ruth Jones pull out of Comic Relief panto writing job

• Knight Rider producers love Torchwood
• CBS options Hounding the Pavement
• HBO eyeing Tom Wolfe novel I Am Charlotte Simmons
• Tuesday night ratings
• The Wire's Amy Ryan to guest in The Office
• Four clips from the third episode of Heroes

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Heroes, The Wire

Doctor Who

• A chance to win a trip behind the scenes, plus the title of the Christmas special
• RTD turned down George Lucas

Film

• Billy Crystal joins The Tooth Fairy
• Bruce Willis to make his directorial debut
• Unbreakable 2?
• Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine to join Scarlet Johansson's Brilliant?
  

Art

• Edvard Munch's 'The Vampire' to be auctioned

Music

• A Kinks reunion?
• One-off show for the Killers to launch new album

• American Psycho: The musical!
• Sunday openings for all London theatres?

British TV

• Matt Lucas and David Walliams back UK version of Will Ferrell's Funny or Die comedy web site
• Lipstick Jungle premiere gets 198,000 viewers on Living
• Second series of Shaun the Sheep commissioned
• Final episode of The Wire gets just 36,000 viewers
• Amanda Donohoe and Maxwell Caulfield join Emmerdale
• Channel 4 to fire staff, cut budgets
• What's this? An original ITV drama? No it's Britannia High

US TV

• Promo for Little Britain USA
• Heroes' ratings down 25% on last year
• TNT commissions a crime micro-series to air during Law & Order
• Lisa Kudrow to star in web series for Lexus
• Karate kid Ralph Macchio to appear on Ugly Betty

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Read other posts about: Heroes, The Wire, Ugly Betty

We have a little dilemma for The Carusometer here. Generation Kill, the Iraq war mini-series from the creators of The Wire, started well, scoring probably a 1 or a 2 on the Caruso scale. Since then, each episode has been better. The Carusometer doesn't believe in half marks, so it's finding it tricky to know how to score the series. I'm sure it'll work something out by the time I've finished writing.

Three episodes in, it's becoming clear that this really is The Wire of the Iraq war - not necessarily in terms of "showing it how it is", but in terms of message. Those who have been parsing the text, so to speak, will know that The Wire's message is that a lot of people in organisations are rubbish; there are a few good ones but there attempts to change the status quo or affect their superiors' decisions will be quashed by politics; and that the higher-ups will give orders that are as much - or more - about their attempts to climb up the hierarchy or maintain their position than what's actually right on the ground. In essence, nuance and practicality will be crushed by politicking and ideology.

And this is what we have with Generation Kill. The US Marines depicted are very well trained and good at what they do. But their natural organisational inclination to kill anything that moves isn't necessarily a good thing when you're trying to win hearts and minds. The love of medals and the need to win generals' approval means bad decisions are made and often praised. The man on the ground isn't given the resources he needs to conduct the war properly. And those few that use their brains to inform their decisions with the wider picture are often penalised.

As I mentioned in my review of the first episode, this isn't a wholly new message. However, its slow building up through demonstration is and makes it more effective.

We have other Wire-like characteristics as well, such as the way one character can seem to be 'good' in one episode, only to be revealed as a hindrance in another is more nuanced than other war shows have depicted. And we also have the banal bloke-to-bloke dialogue that fills much of the episode, as war is shown to be mostly waiting and discussing South Park.

While it doesn't wow in the same way as The Wire, since its message isn't as new or devastating as that show's, it's certainly worth watching as a piece of intelligent drama.

Read other posts about: The Wire

In the US: Sundays, 9pm, HBO

Is there much point reviewing the first episode of a mini-series? No. With Generation Kill, there's even less point, since it's the creation of David Simon and Ed Burns, who also created The Wire – and we all know that reviewing that is like reviewing a chapter of a book.

All the same, I think it's worth giving a taster, just so you know whether to start watching the remaining six hours of the series.

Continue reading "Review: Generation Kill 1x1"

Read other posts about: The Unit, The Wire

Film

• Helena Bonham Carter joining Terminator Salvation
• Matthew Fox to play Billy Smoke?
• Naomi Watts to play another of Lear's daughters
• Another Dark Knight trailer
• 300 follow-up confirmed

Theatre

• Gillian Anderson to appear in A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse next year
• All Bob's Women to close after less than a week

British TV

• Blackpool writer turns to Iraq war for three-part drama
• Alex Kingston to play convict in Hope Springs
• Jane Tranter not leaving, honest

US TV

• The Wire's Amy Ryan joins The Office for multiple episodes
• HBO to make pilot based on bipolar Manic
• More cast for Virtuality and Inseparable
• TNT to remake Cracker again
• Jason Schwartzman to star in HBO's Bored to Death
• Neal McDonough to join Desperate Housewives

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Read other posts about: The Wire

Film

• Guy Ritchie to direct Sherlock Holmes
• I Spit On Your Grave to be remade
• Matt Damon to join Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood rugby movie

Awards

• Winners of the Glamour awards, including Joanna Page as comedy actress of the year
• Mad Men and The Wire top nominations at the Television Critics Association Awards

Commercials

• Privilege ads 'unfair' to the upper classes

British TV

• Production starts on BBC3's PAs
• More4 head leaves to set up his own indie [free registration required]
• Al Murray to create new characters for ITV1
• Simon Nye working on ITV comedy about a teenager's video diary

US TV

• Discovery launches first 'green' channel
• More casting, including Andre Braugher on Ray Romano's Men of a Certain Age
• Green Arrow back for Smallville's eighth season
• Showrunners for Lost, Mad Men, House and Pushing Daisies discuss ratings [video]

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, House, Lost, Mad Men, Smallville, The Wire

I'm still on holiday, so I'm going to be a bit slack on this one. So this is by no means full coverage of all the forthcoming HBO shows, since there's a comedy or two on the way.

Plus there's not much out of HBO about its forthcoming shows, other than a slightly old promo vid.

We've got the creators of The Wire looking at the Iraq war. We've got Alan Ball of Six Feet Under fame looking at vampires in the American South for True Blood. Deadwood's David Milch tries again after the flopparoo that was John from Cincinnati with 70s police corruption in The Last of the Ninth. 

And of course, thanks to that musical promo vid, we have clips from the new series of Entourage and Flight of the Conchords.

Continue reading "HBO's Fall 2008 shows"

Read other posts about: The Wire

It's one of those age-old dilemmas: gritty crime drama depicting something few, if any of us, have experienced – is it realistic? The Wire has a deserved reputation as being one of the most realistic shows on TV, primarily because its creators, David Simon and Ed Burns, have been there and done that. Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun while Burns was a cop and a teacher in Baltimore.

But as we learnt from the last series, times change. Both of The Wire's creators' experience was gleaned during the 80s and 90s and times move on. As a result, even the depiction of The Baltimore Sun was slightly archaic compared to where it is now. A modern newspaper without rolling Internet deadlines? Really? And indeed, the whole of the first series, in which the drug dealers used pagers, was a throwback to an investigation from the 80s that Simon had covered.

Anyway, it turns out Baltimore isn't as much of a hellhole as it's depicted – at least, not any more. Does that reduce the value and impact of The Wire? Or is it still as valid and powerful as ever?

Read other posts about: The Wire