TV Treats

Review of Top Gear (Autumn 2007)

Top Gear (Autumn 2007)

It's a kids programme for adults. I've loved it since it was serious and boring. Hate to miss it now

What can you say about Top Gear? Back in the old days, it was for anoraks who loved cars and was presented by men in flat caps. Every car they showed had to have its bonnet opened so you could look and admire the engine bay. But I still loved it.

Now it's a silly bit of nonsense and better for it. Of course Clarkson and Hammond annoy lots of people, that's their job. They admitted on the Top Gear blog that they felt last season had too much silliness and not enough cars. You can see they are trying to redress the balance.

Tonight's episode had the smallest car ever made - the Peel P50 from the Isle of Man in 1962. Absolutely brilliant vehicle with a hilarious piece involving Clarkson driving it around the inside of the BBC building.

The bit with Hammond racing in a Bugatti Veyron against a EuroFighter Typhoon was a pretty standard cookie-cutter routine but impressive all the same.

The convertible Rolls Royce was ok and May presented it well, I just find them terribly boring.

Highlight of the night was the Ronnie Wood interview followed by his lap in a reasonably priced car. What a character, what a life! Clarkson clearly idolised him.

The only major criticism I can make of the show is that they have done nothing to mark the terrible death of Colin McCrae. They appear to have an enormous aversion to rally racing in general but ignoring his tremendous career and ability is an insult and I hope they have just delayed because they are preparing a special piece on him.

Sure they have become formulaic but it's a solid formula. Long may they continue.

Rated 4/5 on Oct 28 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: automobile, car, cars, entertainment, humour, kids, tv, uk
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Review of Californication Season 1

Californication Season 1

Pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable, fun , leightweight comedy with a little bit of bite. Duchovny is back!

I'm always wary of new series that are hyped by the TV stations. They make you wonder why all that effort has to be spent. If the programme is good, viewers will generally (but not always) follow. As a result I avoided Californication for a few weeks. Silly me.

I checked it out last week and have to say I loved it. It's pretty standard slacker humour but done with enough cutting lines by good actors that it rises above the crowd.

Duchovny plays an author who lives alone, drinks a lot and screws a lot. He has a strange relationship with his ex-partner and accidentally slept with the 16 year old daughter of her new partner (if you follow me).

He has obvious "commitment" issues and it looks like we'll see a parade of girlfriends as the series progresses. I heard it is quite graphic but saw nothing in that one episode. Damn :-)

The interchanges between him and his daughter, ex-partner and friends make it very watchable. He's just a likable guy and obviously they have a decent bunch of writers doing the humour.

Well worth a look.

Rated 4/5 on Oct 28 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: comedy, drama, humour, series, sex, tv
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Review of Bionic Woman Season 1

Bionic Woman Season 1

I really do want to like this but it is just so weak. Episode 5 was a welcome improvement but it needs more.

As I explained in my first review of this, I loved the old 70's series so I'm willing to give this a lot of slack. Sadly it just is not impressing. I think the core problem is that they have actually managed to spend less money making it than they did on the original.

Special effects are few and far between in each episode which is ok but the fight scenes are truly awful. They feel rushed, amateurish and lacking in any sort of punch (pun intended).

This week's episode had Jamie going undercover in a University to find out how brain implants were being used to control soldiers and make them kill their fellow soldiers. The twist was that she had to speak with a British accent. Oh dear, I'm sure it was funny on paper - British accent plays American putting on a British accent. It just annoys.

However, the addition of some romance with a CIA agent actually worked quite well with some decent interplay and sexual tension between the characters. I can only hope that he becomes a regular.

The geek back at HQ has potential too and the blonde lesbian is always good for a laugh. The storyline involving the "first" bionic woman seems to be going nowhere and is getting repetitive.

I'll give it a few more weeks as it is not grossly annoying like so many other new series.

Rated 3/5 on Oct 28 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: adventure, fantasy, nbc, sci-fi. action, series, spy, television, tv, usa
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Review of Heroes Season 2

Heroes Season 2

It's not getting any better, possibly even worse. The Darby O'Gill and the Little People story line has to end soon, please.

How can a TV series go from being my favourite to nearly being dropped by me in such a short period of time? Sure the finale of the first series was weak but they had so many directions they could go in to keep it compelling.

They've obviously decided that "more of the same" will do just nicely. So far the only person to kick the bucket is DL and to be honest I fully expect him to appear alive and well in a later episode. The survival of Sylar is just a bad joke. The hot chameleon chick from the first series turned out to be a fatty. Quelle surprise.

The Hiro story line in ancient Japan is just on the edge of acceptibility and I liked the fact that Takezo Kensei turns out to have the same ability as the cheerleader. Will we discover they all share a common ancestor.

The cheerleader finds out that her new buddy can fly. C'mon, have they run out of abilities already? The scene of him carrying her was so reminiscent of Superman 1 era special effects, it was painful.

But the one that just drives me insane and annoys me for every second it is on the screen is Peter Petrelli and the Leprechauns. Could they not have found one actual Irish person to play the roles? Their accents are unbearable, the plotline risible and you just hope and pray that a truck falls on earnest whiny Peter and puts us all out of our misery.

I'll give it two more episodes and if it doesn't improve then I'm done. 

Rated 2/5 on Oct 20 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: comedy, drama, fantasy, sci-fi, tv, us
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Review of The Riches (Season 1)

The Riches (Season 1)

Probably pitched as The Grifters meets The Beverly Hillbillies but it's just a bunch of thieving gyppos doing uninteresting things.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall at the planning meeting for this TV series. They probably figured they were making the next Sopranos. What they have actually made is a nonsense mish-mash of melodrama and pseudo-comedy.

Poor Eddie Izzard does his best but his randomly changing accent really doesn't help. He is the light entertainment in the show whilst Minnie Driver provides the junkie drama angle.

The plot is risible. They are a family of con-artists (a nice way of saying thieves) who belong to that strange "sect" of Irish derived itinerants who live in the Southern US states and move around. I only heard about them for the first time last year. Possibly a bit like the Amish but with no redeeming qualities.

Mom has just got out of jail after two years and Dad plus kids collect her in their big old RV. This is obviously the US equivalent of a shiny caravan parked on public land in Ireland. They head back to the "camp" where the king of the gyppos (or whatever) is dying. Some fights ensue. No sign of any slash-hooks unfortunately but I'm sure there be a feud a-brewing.

Dad decides to get out of this life, steals a ton of money and exits stage left in the RV. After travelling for a while they meet more tinkers who they fight with (so no surprise there) and then race down a small road. An oncoming car crashes trying to avoid them. Other knackers keep going but heart-of-gold-Dad stops to make sure they are alright.

In fact woman is dead and man dies in front of them. Dad checks wallet etc and discovers they are moving to new house in new town. Dad decides to take their identity.

They move into a high-end estate and immediately put the RV up on blocks, start buring tyres in the garden and offer to tarmac their neighbour's driveway.

Lots of "humourous" situations for Dad like golf outings. Poor Mom addicted to cough medicine and heroin. Yawn.

Of course this review is offensive. So is the TV show. Avoid avoid.

 

Rated 1/5 on Oct 06 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: comedy, drama, racism, tv
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Review of The Tudors (Season 1)

The Tudors (Season 1)

An enjoyable historical romp with plenty of welcome nudity.

I think this has been on for quite a while but I only recently found out about it. After four episodes I am enjoying but not loving.

This first season is basically about Henry VIII in the early days when he is married to Catherine of Aragon and bedding anything that moves. The character is played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers who I normally dislike as an actor but who is perfect for this role. The arrogance, nastiness and flair that pours from his eyes and his sneer works wonderfully here.

Most of the characters are well rounded with a few of the women only there to be rogered senseless. Sam Neill as Cardinal Wolsey has found one of his best roles ever and revels in the political intrigue of the Catholic Church at that time.

Jeremy Northam plays Sir Thomas More and I feel the writing of this character is a little one-dimensional. He really is too nice/good for words. Ok ok he's a saint now but even saints have bad sides. I assume his eventual execution will be a climax in a future season.

I wonder if part of the reason that it has not become must-see TV is the historical accuracy. As many of the character appear you know their eventual fate (even with my poor knowledge of history).

I'll stick with it since it is quality TV with high production values and great acting.    

Rated 4/5 on Oct 06 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: drama, england, europe, historical, history, tv, uk
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Review of Bionic Woman (2007) Premier

Bionic Woman (2007) Premier

An odd mishmash of other TV series with only a weak link to the wonderful 1970's original. When will I overcome my Zoe Slater bias?

I heard a lot about the new series of The Bionic Woman over the summer. Initially I was very excited since the original was one of my favourite programs as a kid (along with the awesome Six Million Dollar Man). However, when I heard they were using an actress from the UK Soap Opera, Eastenders, I was troubled.

I watched the premier last Thursday with as open a mind as I could. What I found was an OK program with plenty of potential but which really didn't get me excited.

First off, apart from the name Jamie Sommers and the fact that she has bionic implants, there appears to be zero similarity between this and the original. I think that is a big mistake. I know they are trying to get a young audience but they shouldn't just discard the older viewers.

The plot this time round is that Jamie is dating a professor and they are in a horrible car crash which was not an accident. He actually works for a secretive organisation which does research on enhancing soldiers. He isn't badly hurt but she is, so he ignores protocol and rebuilds her two legs, right arm/eye/ear using nano technology.

This is the weakest part of the whole idea and smacks of money saving. What was wonderful about the 70's originals and movies like Terminator was seeing the mechanical parts under the "skin". It was proper cyborg stuff. These nanobots or nanophages just made her skin shimmer initially and are now indistinguishable from her normal limbs.

She wakes up, obviously freaked and distraught and it looks like she may be terminated. However, boyfriend helps her escape and she runs into the forest whilst being followed. This leads to the next huge disappointment, the running. I always considered it a stroke of genius in the original Six Million Dollar Man that they actually slowed down the footage to indicate that he was running quickly. We all bought into it 100%. Sadly the new producers have no balls at all and just use bog-standard speeding-up. Guess what? It looks ridiculous, like something out of a bad cartoon.

Of course there has to be a twist. It transpires that she is not the first bionic woman, there already is one, who was supposed to have been terminated as she was crazy. But she has actually escaped too and was the one who caused the car crash. The original had Jamie going nuts which has more potential for depth.

I guess she needs a nemesis for those weeks when they can't think of a decent plot-line. So the two Bionicles meet and fight and leap and do the usual martial arts (amazing that the nanobots were trained in Karate). Amazingly, Jamie survives.

The series it most reminds me of is Alias but with a sprinkling of RoboCop, Battlestar Galactica (Bad Blonde Bionicle) and Buffy. It really isn't as good as any of them right now. However, I'll give it more time since there are some nuggets of good ideas in there.   

Rated 3/5 on Oct 01 2007 by TV Treats
Review Tags: action, drama, nbc, sci-fi, series, tv, us
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