The Medium is Not Enough TV blog

Tuesday's "Mia Maestro to star in The Strain and NBC heads for Siberia" news

Rob Buckley — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:17:47 +0000

Film casting

Kate Hudson joins Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here
Liam Hemsworth to star in Aurora Rising
Anthony Hopkins joins Gotti

Trailers

Trailer for Cool As I Am with Claire Danes, James Marsden and Sarah Bolger

UK TV

Daniel Mays et al join BBC1's Common

US TV

Clip from Holliston, season 2
Trailer for Teen Wolf, season 3
Trailer for The Glades, season 4

New US TV shows

NBC green lights: Siberia
Trailer for Showtime's Ray Donovan

New US TV show casting

Mia Maestro to star in FX's The Strain

Review: Doctor Who - 7x13 - The Name of the Doctor

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:12:27 +0000

In the UK: Saturday, 7pm, 18th May 2013, BBC1/BBC1 HD. Available on the iPlayer
In the US: Saturday, 8pm/7c, 18th May 2013, BBC America

Ian: Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman.
The Doctor: [To himself.] Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about…?

- from Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child

Doctor Who's name has been a subject of considerable interest, ever since the first episode. Whether it was Ian Chesterton's misnaming of him as Doctor Foreman in the very first episode or the more recent Steven Moffat antics regarding River Song, the Doctor and their wedding, everyone's wanted to know what his name really is. Doctor von Wer, Dr John Smith, Theta Sigma - Who knows, ho, ho?

This season has, in fact, been building on this, with Clara mid-runaround…

…stopping off in the TARDIS library to find out the Doctor's real name. So it all looked like we were about to get some big revelation in the appropriately named The Name of Doctor, the season finale, billed as revealing 'his secret'. And revelations we did get, just not the ones we were expecting. Let's go chat about The Trouble with Clara after the jump.

(continued)

And now NBC's Believe has a trailer, too…

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:38:25 +0000

Following on from Crisis this morning, NBC has unveiled a trailer for Believe, JJ Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron's new show about a girl with supernatural powers. More details on the NBC Upfronts page and the trailer is below.

Review: Jo (Fox) 1x1

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:33:28 +0000

In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, Fox

Over the past few years, a new trend has started to emerge in television drama: the overseas cop show. Now, in a sense this is nothing new: The Persuaders! and other shows all filmed in exotic locales in the 70s and even earlier shows such as The Man From Interpol had been set overseas, even if they'd never actually gone there for filming.

But the new trend, seen in the likes of Wallander, Zen and Falcón, has English-speaking actors playing other nationalities in overseas locations. Wallander had Ken Branagh, Tom Hiddleston and sundry other Brits being quintessentially British while pretending to be Swedish, while Rufus Sewell got to drink lots of espressos in Italy in Zen, and Marton Csokas and Hayley Hatwell were as English-sounding as can be while solving crimes and romancing each other in Barcelona in Falcón.

France's TF1, meanwhile, is looking to be a bit of an international player at the moment and, taking this trend on board, has gone one step further: rather than wait for some foreign broadcaster to start shooting a French cop show with English-speaking actors, it's decided to do it itself and get a whole bunch of international actors over to Paris, get them all to fake American accents (except for the Americans, obviously) in a 'quintessentially French' cop show, and then sell the results to the rest of the world through the Fox International channel. It also managed to recruit famous French film star Jean Reno (The Professional/Leon) in his first lead TV role as the eponymous Jo of the series' title – a cop in the famous Brigade Criminelle (what Spiral calls 'the crime squad') with more than a few issues. On top of that, they got in as show runner René Balcer, the creator of TF1's late 90s cop show Mission Protection Rapprochée and Paris enquêtes criminelles, the French version of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Unfortunately, they also got French production company Atlantique Productions to make it. To be fair, Atlantique has been around for 30 years, making English-language productions such as Deadly Nightmares (aka The Hitchhiker), Death in Paradise and Counterstrike, not to mention Borgia for Canal+ and Transporter: The TV Series. What TF1 failed to notice was that largely, these programmes are all rubbish.

Here's a trailer for Jo. We can talk more after the break – spoilers ahoy!

(continued)

Preview: The Goodwin Games 1x1 (Fox)

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:16:16 +0000

In the US: Mondays, 8.30/7.30c, Fox. Starts tonight

And so it begins – the summer burn-off of all those shows the US networks thought they might need as mid-season replacements but didn't. We've Save Me on NBC this week as well, but on Fox, we've starting with The Goodwin Games, a sitcom from the makers of How I Met Your Mother that has some of that show's charm, but lacks its sparkle or any real hook.

The idea here is that Beau Bridges, patriarch of the Goodwin family and bad father, comes into a sizeable fortune – more than $20 million. He also knows he's going to die, so before his death, he creates a series of games and videos through which he can get his three estranged children (Scott Foley, Becki Newton, TJ Miller) to come together again and parent them from beyond the grave, the lure of all that money being what keeps them playing his games.

And while it's a moderately intriguing idea – I'd be happy to see The Game as a TV series or a US version of The One Game – the show has only a few innovations in an otherwise ordinary sitcom. And it also has TJ Miller. Sigh.

(continued)

A meme begins: Photoshop Clara into every Doctor Who story

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:40:21 +0000

Over on Gallifrey Base, a new meme has emerged – add Clara to every previous Doctor Who story. If you've seen Saturday's episode, you'll understand why. Here are some of the best. Can you do better?

NBC's Crisis has a trailer

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:30:17 +0000

Unlike the other major networks, which all managed to get trailers and clips for their shows sorted out in time for the upfronts, NBC was a bit slack and only released a few. But it's slowly making up for it and has just released a trailer for the implausible Crisis, starring Gillian Anderson, in which all the US's most important children get abducted while on a school trip. Oops. Full details of the show back at the NBC Upfronts page.

Since you all were so good, here's a video of Matt Smith and David Tennant

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:25:26 +0000

Whoops. As you might have heard, the Beeb cocked up and accidentally sent out the Blu-Ray release of this half-season of Doctor Who before the finale aired. That meant 210 fans had the potential to spoil everything on web sites, Twitter, et al. But they didn't. Even though John Hurt had already spoiled most of it himself. Well done them.

To reward them, the BBC has released this shiny clip of Matt Smith and David Tennant chatting away about the anniversary special, due on November 23rd. I wonder what David Tennant's advice was.

Monday's "Matt Smith, Steven Moffat back for season 8, Marton Csokas to fight The Equalizer and Marvel Phase 3 update" news

Rob Buckley — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:20:25 +0000

Doctor Who

Steven Moffat returns for season 8…
…with Matt Smith

Film

Red 3 in the works
Plans for Marvel Phase 3, including new characters for Avengers 2

Film casting

Marton Csokas to be the villain in The Equalizer
Dev Patel to play Srinivasa Ramanujan
Olga Kurylenko joins Pierce Brosnan in November Man

Trailers

Teaser for Anchorman 2

French TV

France 2 renews: Candice Renoir

Theater

Vincent Kartheiser to play Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice in Minneapolis

UK TV

Trailer for BBC1's The White Queen
Friday ratings: Life of Crime gets 3.23m viewers

US TV

Teaser for Dexter, season 8
Mark Roberts leaving Mike & Molly
The CW to stream shows to Apple TV
Thursday ratings
Friday ratings

US TV casting

Cristin Milioti to be a regular on How I Met Your Mother [spoilers]

What did you watch this week? Including Life of Crime, Elementary, Arrow, Vegas and Hannibal

Rob Buckley — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:39:13 +0000

It's "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I've watched this week that I haven't already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I've missed them.

First, the usual recommendations:

Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
Doctor Who (BBC1/BBC America)
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living)
Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic)

These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can't be sure which.

Still in the viewing queue: new show The Goodwin Games, which I'll be reviewing on Monday, and I'll be playing catch up with New Zealand show Harry, too.

I did give Life of Crime a go, too, in which Hayley Atwell plays a cop in three different time periods at different stages of her career. Entirely fits the template of ITV crime dramas and you could predict virtually everything that happened in each time period, with the corresponding Attitudes written in neon lights all over every character.

Now, some thoughts on some of the regulars and some of the shows I'm still trying:

Arrow (The CW/Sky 1): No League of Shadows, surprisingly, but everything played out in the finale pretty much as you'd expect, beyond the final twist. Overall, a very decent season, although it started to lost its edge and become a tad more Smallville than Batman Begins by the end. One to look forward to next season, certainly.
Continuum (Showcase/SyFy): There I was complaining there wasn't enough cool sci-fi in the show, when up it pops in spades. For my next trick, can we have some more intelligent schemes from the terrorists, please.
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living): Everything played out pretty much as I expected in terms of revelations, but in many ways better than Sherlock's handling of similar Sherlock Holmes facets. I also liked the fact *SPOILER*. All the same, another fascinating episode, Gillian Anderson getting more to do this week. What surprises me is that the show, which I'm thinking more and more of as a cross between Touching Evil (US) and David Cronenberg's oeuvre, is actually capable of instilling dread in me, which is a very novel emotion of a TV show to be able to create in its audience. Magnificent, but its fate is in the balance at the moment. Please renew it, NBC.
Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic): And so it's gone, in a somewhat underwhelming finale that mostly just tied up loose threads, left a couple dangling and let everyone pat each other on the back and say goodbye, all while Carrie Anne Moss had nothing to do, which was par for the course. A shame, since it started off with so much fire.

"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid - and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I've watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you've seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

The CW's upfronts 2013-4 - a rundown and clips from the new shows

Rob Buckley — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:57:20 +0000

It's the end of upfronts week for the major networks now, with "oh yes, we forgot about them" The CW rounding it all off yesterday. The LA Screenings start today and buyers from around the world, including the UK, have descended from all the major networks to see these pilots and decide whether to buy any of them.

Last year, The CW decided to end its policy of targeting almost exclusively young women with a collection of new shows that included the rather good Arrow and the rather poor Cult, as well as the more traditional for The CW The Carrie Diaries, Beauty and the Beast and Emily Owens MD. It was a strategy that was only partially successful, with Arrow getting renewed for a second season along with The Carrie Diaries and Beauty and the Beast, but Cult dying a death with Emily Owens.

Nevertheless, The CW is pressing on with its gradual expansion into (what it thinks are) male realms this year, while continuing to provide (what it thinks is) young female-friendly output that falls into roughly the same areas as its existing programming, with just a hint of originality in there, too.

Here's the line-up:

The Originals: A Vampire Diaries spin-off
Reign: Mary Queen of Scots as a young woman
The Tomorrow People: Beauty and the Beast style remake of the old paedo-friendly ITV show, with the mandatory two white guys, one BME guy and a white girl + Mark Pellegrino
The 100: 100 young people return to a devastated Earth
Star-crossed: Romeo & Juliet + aliens

After the jump, summaries, trailers, clips and a schedule.

(continued)

More religions added to the blog's handy guide

Rob Buckley — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:45:40 +0000

Last week, I unveiled this 'ere blog's handy guide to all the Western, English-language TV shows that have portrayed particular religions to be true in some way. At the time, I said it was a work in progress, and I've already separated the original entry out into separate posts, mainly to avoid crashing browsers with too many videos.

Anyway, following various people's suggestions that my memory is full of holes…

…I've added a few new shows to the various pages.

Judaism and Christianity: Afterlife, Quantum Leap, Being Human, Joan of Arcadia, Eternal Law and Apparitions
Buddhism: Monkey
Hellenism and Religio Romana: Spartacus and Cupid

Friday's "BBC2's Cold War, Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut and Warehouse 13 and Nikita to end" news

Rob Buckley — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:16:53 +0000

Film

Scarlett Johansson to direct adaptation of Truman Capote's Summer Crossing

Film casting

Amber Heard and Zac Efron to star in Autobahn
Michelle Yeoh joins Crouching Tiger 2
Anna Kendrick joins Wish I Was Here

Trailers

Trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim
Trailer for Last Vegas, with Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas

UK TV

BBC2 working on Cold War season

US TV

SyFy red lights: Warehouse 13 with six-episode final season
The CW red lights: Nikita with six-episode final season
BSG's David Eick joins Falling Skies as new show runner
Amazon gets streaming rights to NBCU shows
Samantha to appear in second season of The Carrie Diaries
Wednesday ratings

New US TV shows

USA green lights: Sirens remake and Playing House to series, pilot of Love Is Dead
HBO green lights: Mike Judge comedy
Amazon red lights: Zombieland
Aron Eli Coleite replaces Allan Heinberg on The CW's Amazon
Josh Friedman joins Crossbones
Teaser for CBS's Under The Dome

Vikings invade London

Rob Buckley — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:55:55 +0000

Normally I wouldn't bother with a press release like this, but they went to such an effort and, you know, VIKINGS!

VIKINGS RETURN TO LONDON
For the first time since the original 842 AD London invasion, a 35-foot Viking longboat complete with fifteen Viking raiders sailed down the River Thames today.

Two replica boats used in the critically acclaimed US TV series VIKINGS were sailed along the Thames and parked up alongside iconic London landmarks including Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament to mark the UK release of the show on Amazon’s LOVEFiLM.

The company struck the landmark broadcasting deal with MGM Television late last week (Friday 10th May), which sees all nine episodes of the Norse action-drama released exclusively at once in full high definition through the LOVEFiLM Instant online streaming service as opposed to traditional terrestrial and satellite broadcasting channels.

Starring Travis Fimmel (The Beast, The Experiment), Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing) and Katheryn Winnick (Love and Other Drugs, Bones), VIKINGS chronicles the epic adventures of notorious Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok (Fimmel), a Viking warrior who yearns to explore – and raid – the distant shores of the ocean. VIKINGS also stars George Blagden (Wrath of the Titans), Jessalyn Gilsig (Glee), Gustaf Skarsgard (The Way Back), and Clive Standen (Camelot).

Created and written by Michael Hirst – one of the most respected historical storytellers in the industry (Academy-Award® winning film Elizabeth; and the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated series The Tudors), VIKINGS is a tale of warfare, sex, bloodshed, ambition, family and brotherhood. The epic drama is the number one new cable series of the year in the U.S.

Simon Morris, Chief Marketing Officer at LOVEFiLM, said:

“Geneticists say there’s a bit of Viking DNA in all of us so we’re delighted to give our members the opportunity to indulge in first class entertainment and feast on the story of their ancestry. This is a landmark moment in the history of LOVEFiLM as it is the first time a major TV series has aired on our service before traditional broadcasting channels. We are serious about securing the best film and TV entertainment for our members and this demonstrates how content creators view LOVEFiLM as an effective broadcasting medium for high-quality and premium entertainment.”

VIKINGS will premiere on LOVEFiLM Instant in the UK on May 24th 2013 and Germany on 15th June 2013 and will be available exclusively on the streaming service in both countries. MGM Television is serving as the international distributor in all markets outside of the U.S., Ireland and Canada.

LOVEFiLM Instant is available on PC, Mac or via Nintendo Wii and Wii U, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation®3, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire, Apple iPad® and a growing number of Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players, giving members immediate access to a huge range of the latest films and premium TV shows from as little as £4.99 a month.

More vikings in Piccadilly Circus and Parliament Square after the jump. If you want trailers, boy, do I have the entry for you.

(continued)

CBS's upfronts 2013-4 - a rundown and clips from the new shows

Rob Buckley — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:21:47 +0000

And thus we reach the apex of the quality pyramid with CBS, everyone's favourite purveyor of monotonous procedurals and insulting comedies that people still watch. Last year, we got the halfway decent Elementary, the pretty good but still cancelled Vegas, the pretty bad and so unsurprisingly cancelled Golden Boy and Made in Jersey, and the insulting bad and offensive 'comedy' Partners. That means that only one of CBS's new shows actually made it through to the next round - which also shows you just how many bankers CBS already had on its books.

Nevertheless, with CBS having now cancelled old faithfuls CSI: NY and Rules of Engagement, as well as those new shows, there's a little more room in the schedules for new arrivals, and so there's more to look at this year.

Now, I said that CBS was at the apex of the competency pyramid, but that's really just in terms of making TV shows that don't look like they suck. Unfortunately, this line-up proves that in terms of making TV shows with stories that don't suck, CBS is just as bad as every other broadcast network - with perhaps a couple of exceptions: can you spot them?

Here's the rundown:

New Comedies

We Are Men: Four men and their dating issues. Terrible concept, but good cast, including Tony Shalhoub and Kal Penn. However, CBS show-killer Jerry O’Connell is also in there, so it'll die quickly.
Mom: Another Chuck Lorre comedy, starring Anna Faris as a newly sober single mother. Good cast, again, including Nate Corddry) and French Stewart, but in case you missed it, it's Chuck Lorre.
The Millers: Will Arnett gets divorced, inspiring his dad to get divorced and his mum to move in with him. Two characters have already been recast, so make of that what you will.
The Crazy Ones: An advertising comedy featuring Robin Williams... and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

New dramas

Hostages: Surgeon Toni Collette's family is taken hostage by Dylan McDermott so that she'll kill the President. Let's see them eke that out for a season.
Intelligence: Josh Hollway is a spy with a chip in his brain that connects him to the Internet. No, I didn't just make that up. It'll probably do well, though.
Reckless: A 'sultry' legal drama set in Charleston, S.C., where a gorgeous Yankee litigator and a charming Southern attorney must hide their intense mutual attraction as a police sex scandal threatens to tear the city apart. I didn't make that up either.
Friends With Better Lives: Romcom about six friends at different stages in their lives - married, divorced, newly engaged and single - who are outwardly happy, but secretly questioning if their friends have it better. Does at least feature James Van Der Beek.

After the jump, full summaries, trailers for everything except the mid-season replacements, and a schedule.

(continued)