It’s been the big hit in the US, and was once again a masterstroke by Five to acquire the rights to this. Production values similar to House and CSI, Violence similar to OZ, Premise similar to Buried. Yet despite those comparable elements in play, it is more refreshing when placed back to back against established medical drama ER.
Michael Schofield (Wentworth Miller) deliberately gets himself incarcerated (like Lennie James in Buried) and by some stroke of luck (or plot device) he winds up at the very prison his brother is, who set to be executed for killing a senator’s son.
a model for his and his wife’s anniversary. He manages to end up working close to his brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) thanks to Abruzzi, and clues his brother in on his plan to break out, revealing the firm he was partner in ghostwrote the plans for the prisons, and had them tattooed on his body in magic eye style design. Thus the backbone of the series is born.
Just over a third of the way into the season, there has been the obligatory set-backs, a questionable involvement from the Secret Service, the legal team set out to prove Lincoln’s innocence, meanwhile more cellmates become embroiled in the plot. At present the escapees are Schofield, Lincoln, Abruzzi and Sucre. You can expect by season 3-4, half the prison will
be breaking out with the bosses oblivious.
Created by the man that wrote the Vin Diesel flick “A Man Apart” and produced by Brett Ratner. It is surprisingly gripping, smart, and addictive. The obvious payoff is there - it’s called Prison Break, it should lead to success. Only time will tell when and how it happens and can they save his brother in time?
Hill Street Blues (More4, Weekdays)
I have had the unfortunate, but gratifying pleasure of watching this re-run on More4 mid afternoon, and it still holds up as a benchmark to what a cop show should be about.
Every character has a depth to them - a strength. Captain Frank Furillo was a recovering alcoholic who showed great composure when dealing with daily crises. The late Sergeant Esterhaus had a wonderful delivery and respect of all officers on the Hill, and the differences between the lieutenants, detectives and officers gave the show a vibrant spectrum of character and appeal.
Having gone through the episodes surrounding Michael Conrad’s untimely passing, the handling was superlative. Writing Esterhaus’ final words in the form of a letter, complemented by the grief of the normally angst-ridden, snarling, vociferous aggressors like Mick “Dogbreath” Belker was undeniably powerful. The Show must go on, and inevitably did when
Robert Prosky took the helm of roll call (minus the hooky catchphrase), his humour
certainly lightened the mood of the precinct.
Channel 4 should switch this with Hollyoaks and let a new generation witness its brilliance.
The Apprentice (BBC2, Wednesdays)
One of the most gripping franchises of last year returned this week, and had lost none of its drama. 14 applicants began a 12 week interview with only one candidate able to deem themself worthy of a place in Sir Alan Sugar’s corporation.
Assessing the sexes, the girls seem stronger this time around. There may be differences in personality but the cohesion was there for all to see - if choosing a team name is anything to go by. The girls’ choice of Velocity was received with mass approval fairly quickly, whilst the boys toiled, with Syed laughingly rooting for “The A Team”, perfectly suited to his meterosexual machismo (sleeveless tops and gung-ho attitude) but as a team name, they couldn’t be expected to be taken seriously.
The burning questions immediately where not the skills of each candidate, but who would be this year’s Saira, Paul, or ultimately Tim. There’s certainly more vocal people in general this year that could be attributed as disciples of Saira, but the obvious two are Ruth and Jo, whose ‘oh my god’ when something as trivial as the phone ringing would drive you to distraction - despite wearing her heart on her sleeve in the board room.
For the boys the over-inflated self-assuredness of Paul is clearly evident in Syed, whose relentless pursuit of a daft team name already has his pegged as a comic character. Given the opening task was about fruit and veg, they could have gone into the warehouse and built a cabbage projector. The task itself proved to be class in Carry on for the girls, selling their ‘juicy melons’ to pervy punters. Kudos, and a strategy that would not have worked for the boys, although flogging juicy plums might have worked on those of a certain persuasion.
The masterstroke was getting their produce for virtually nothing, they used street smarts and understated tactics, out-performed the boys. The lads by contrast were professional and honest under the leadership of straight-laced nice-guy Ben who illustrated he had the staying power required by beating cancer. Sadly, results matter, and being nice does not save your job. Rather than do what Saira did, and forcefully defend and deflect blame convincingly onto one of the other candidates, he was stunned at the criticism. He should have gone at Sam; he contributed less than nothing and despite Syed’s clash with Ben, he was moderately successful.
This year’s Tim could actually be called Paul. The youngest of the candidates, the headhunter has series 1 Paul’s sales excellence but at this moment, none of the self-serving ego. If he keeps performing and stays out of board-room scraps with Syed, he could be the next Apprentice. Of the Girls, Sharon, Karen et al all did the job, but lacked any individual positives making them frontrunners from the pack.
As for Ben, he did make an error (which he would have stuck with by his own omission) in keeping too many team members in one place, and missed other opportunities and you could understand his reluctance to be team leader (you automatically sign your own warrant to be fired), considering they hadn’t really got to know each other’s strengths and weakness in the time.
There is no room for sentiment in business, and this on-screen persona of Sir Alan’s as the Victor Meldrew of the business world - a cantankerous ogre who describes himself as ‘the most belligerent person you’ll ever meet.’ goes some way to reinforce a feeling of respect for what he’s accomplish, but a burning hatred for his treatment of people. Question is, How much of this is the on-screen persona, and how much is for real - the problem he had
with blagging free stock didn’t ring true (I bet he wished he thought of that), nor the fact that it was ready for day of purchase only. I mean, isn’t that how Wetherspoons operate to charge low priced beer?
The controversy will know doubt continue, and audiences will be glued to the screens to witness all the twists and turns.
American Dad/Family Guy (Sundays, BBC2)
Much like Arrested Development before it, these Seth Macfarlane animations are unceremoniously buried in late night Sunday evening slots, whilst over-rated tripe like the Simpsons continues on prime time. Fortunately Family Guy gets decent attention on digital channel FX, but both comedies are incredibly funny; full of in-jokes and surreal situations.
Family Guy takes the formulaic My Family sitcom and puts in toff toddler Stewie Griffin, who sounds like an upper-crust Rik Mayall or an anarchic Rex Harrison, and talking deadpan dog named Brian who seems to be the serious tone, but then gets involved in odd escapades himself - becoming a porn director in Hollywood being the obvious one.
American Dad puts the same family formula into a CIA environment, together with a John Waters style alien called Roger, and horny goldfish with the mind of a German Olympic swimmer in Klaus.
Both brilliantly send themselves and their weekly theme up with absolutely no regard for who they offend.Criminally under-rated and BBC 2 should be flogged for putting these on AFTER petrolheads.
The Apprentice: Tim in the Firing Line (BBC Three)
Last year, most of us witnessed East Londoner Tim Campbell realise his aspiration of winning the £100,000 contract to work for Sir Alan Sugar’s multi-million pound corporation Amstrad. With series two imminent, we are offered insight into Tim’s first year with the company, and see if he is up to the job.
Thrown in at the deep end in a cut-throat world is not a particularly pleasant atmosphere to be thrust into his face, but there is clearly no room for sentiment in business (particularly Sugar’s), and Campbell is presented with the daunting task of re-launching a Health and Beauty product that failed to sell in its previous launch, so it is being relaunched. He has a
month’s deadline to repackage, reproduce, promote, and design and organise a website (it will only be sold online).
Teething problems aside, Tim appears a conscientious amiable person with workaholic tendencies. Were it not for a supportive partner and child, the prospect of 70-hour weeks would be strain on family relations; especially the lost time treasuring his young son.
In assessing his year, Sir Alan had problems with Tim’s strategy which would be understandable when getting a product back off the ground using the bare bones. An expensive model to promote the product using expensive components was perhaps not the perfect way to impress. But Sir Alan’s criticism of the poor publicity due to the Fashion week clash was harsh; from the way the show was presented, it was the understanding that the deadline date was predetermined for that week, and any suggestion to have it re-arranged in the early stages could have been seem as cowardice, no matter how smart.
As for his annoyance at there being more about Tim than of the product is purely down to press’ interests. From experience papers are not keen on offering free advertising or publicising sales items. They were keen on human interest stories as they sell newspapers, and Campbell’s rise would be true marketable asset in this story.
That said, the poor promotion cost the product a substantial amount of sales, and Sir Alan (presumably reluctantly) decided to renew Campbell’s contract, but intimated it would not be for £100,000. Whatever Sir Alan decide to pay, he has the potential of a vibrant individual. One imagines his salary will grow with the experience gained at Amstrad.
Craig Aston.
Agree / Disagree with this review? Click here to have your say on the forum.
Want more tv comment? Then click below for reviews from:
November - December 2005
September - October 2005
July - August 2005
May - June 2005
March - April 2005
January - February 2005
November - December 2004
September - October 2004
July - August 2004
May - June 2004
March - April 2004
January - February 2004
December 2003
October 2003 - November 2003
August 2003 - September 2003
June 2003 - July 2003
April 2003 - May 2003
February 2003 - March 2003
December 2002 - January 2003
October 2002 - November 2002
August 2002 - September 2002
June 2002 - July 2002
April 2002 - May 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
June - July 2001
January - May 2001
July - December 2000
January - June 2000
July - December 1999
Contact Us - About Us - Recommended Links - More Links - Forums - Search This Site