Posted on February 21, 2007 at 16:33 | |
I hated the pilot episode of Rules of Engagement. I absolutely hated it. It was the most derivative, insulting load of cobblers I'd seen in a long while.
Seems others agreed with me. Here's the original cast (men only, because let's face it, women don't count according to the show).
Here's the current cast:
Ooh, women. Plus, two out of the three main characters have been recast. There was only one good thing about the pilot – Patrick Warburton – and he's still there. But we've lost the kid from Joey and gained David Spade. Oh dear.
I refused point-blank to watch the new version of the first episode, so the second episode was the first I bothered with.
“Hmm, it seems to have improved,” I noted to myself, mentally pencilling in some sort of “don't judge a series by its pilot” message to blog about. It didn't suck completely. Sure, there was plenty of latent misogyny (Oh no! His girlfriend knows something about sex and has had loads and loads of boyfriends! That means he's inadequate and threatened, and she's an *insert anti-female insult of your choice here*), but the older couple, despite their supposed jadedness were kind of nice together, David Spade wasn't in it much, and Patrick Warburton was still great.
But this week's episode. Oh dear. All the promise of the pilot was back again. Just awful. Hateful. I would stick a burning David Spade goatee on CBS's front lawn if I could (Note to self: sounds good, not sure what it means, and it has potential to be offensive. Should I keep it? Probably not.)
Continue reading "Third-episode verdict: Rules of Engagement"
Posted on December 1, 2006 at 15:25 | |
In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC
In the UK: ITV2 at some point
Weddings can be tricky things, can't they? I don't know how yours went – or if yours went at all – but mine had a few not-so-smooth moments, even though we chose to outsource the entire process to Las Vegas to make things easier.
Now some bright spark has come up with the idea of 24 meets a comedy wedding. Yes, an entire season of shows that follow a wedding day in real-time. Feel the tension, the adrenaline, the nerves, all without having to go through the process yourself.
Wouldn't it be good if it was funny as well?
Continue reading "Review: Big Day"
Read other posts about: 24
Posted on December 1, 2006 at 12:23 | |
In the US: Thursdays, NBC, 9/8c
In the UK: In the usual places
Characters re-cast: 0
Major characters gotten rid of: 0
Major new characters: Maybe 1
Format change percentage: 10%
Number of babies due: 3
Here we are again. Six seasons of Scrubs. It's comedy, but in a hospital. As per usual, it's kind of hard to review a long-running comedy, since ultimately the only thing that's important is whether you laugh or not. Scrubs still raises a reasonable number of laughs, but there's a slightly bitter taste to the whole thing thanks to a “Braffisation” of the show.
Continue reading "Review: Scrubs 6x01"
Read other posts about: Scrubs
Posted on November 17, 2006 at 16:08 | |
In the US: NBC, 10/9c, Wednesdays
In the UK: Probably SciFi and maybe BBC1, since they've shown earlier seasons. No definite confirmation yet, though.
Characters re-cast: 0
Major characters gotten rid of: 0
Major new characters: 0
Format change percentage: 5% (Allison's haircut)
Number of dream sequences: I lost count. Sorry.
So Medium's back. I was looking forward to this, since when it's good, it can be fun and well written. With the opening episode scripted by series creator Glen Gordon and Javier Grillo-Marxuach (ex-writer for both Lost and The Pretender), it should have been good. But I think they got carried away with the two minutes of animation...
Continue reading "Review: Medium 3.1"
Posted on October 30, 2006 at 09:29 | |
In the US: NBC, Fridays, 9/8c
In the UK: Sky One. Probably January, but who knows with Sky?
Characters re-cast: 0
Major characters gotten rid of: 0
Major new characters: 0
Format change percentage: 0%
Dramatic chances taken: None
I love Las Vegas. No, not Las Vegas. Las Vegas. It's a great town. It'll be whatever you want it to be. You want it tacky? You can have tacky. You want it sophisticated? It can be that, too.
Las Vegas tries to be like Las Vegas. It has all the elements you'd expect: magic (people being shot and having heart attacks, yet coming back to life), sex (everyone shagging everyone else, whether they're married or not), gambling (having a bunch of characters that are tissue-thin and expecting us to be interested), the stars of yester-year (James Caan, Cheryl Ladd) and Elvis.
Despite all this, Las Vegas really just doesn't work on any level for me - and it's really not like Las Vegas at all. It's completely devoid of anything surprising or clever, and you're expected to root for the house. Who does that?
Returning viewers, don't be worried. Everything is sorted out nicely in this first episode, despite its being a two-parter. There are no shocks, nothing to change the format, just the same old same old.
New viewers, it's slick, it's glossy, it'll steal your time. You can join in at almost any point and you'll be able to keep up with the plot. So watch now or watch later. Or go and watch Robert Urich in Vega$ on DVD instead.
PS Message to former CIA operatives heading to Morocco: it's a lot easier to get a stolen gun in Morocco than it is to stash one in a safety deposit box in London and try to get it through airport security. Just a hint.
Posted on October 12, 2006 at 13:29 | |
In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30//7.30c, NBC
In the UK: No one's bought it yet
Every once in a while, network executives have a sudden epiphany. They'll suddenly remember that although the 18-24 demographic is pretty cool and all, there's a whole load of older people, some of them retired, with oodles of spending money and time on their hands. So they commission a programme or two to take advantage of this demographic. But you know, they're old people. They're going in the head. What will they know or care about quality?
While's it's been a long time since the halcyon decade of greying TV power that ran from the mid-80s to the mid-90s and gave us never-ending episodes of Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Matlock, and Burke's Law, the idea still comes back occasionally. So here we have 20 Good Years, the theme being that “60 is the new 40” and post-retirement, you've 20 years left in which you can seriously enjoy yourself again. Nice idea though that is, it's seriously lacking in actual laughs.
Continue reading "Review: 20 Good Years"
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