This far too serious remake of CSI has just served to make me like the original series much more. I had so much time for David Caruso back in his NYPD Blue days, but here he just looks bored or grumpy, and the tone of the whole show is too grim and over grave, and it lacks pretty much any humour. There’s just no need for it to exist really, and unless it improves hugely over the year, I doubt if it will for too much longer.
Jonathon Creek (9.05pm, Saturdays, BBC1)
At the same time on BBC1 as CSI is yet another detective show, the ongoing and increasingly repetitive adventures of Mr Creek. Unlike CSI Miami, it attempts humour throughout, though rarely hits the mark, and this time around it was ridiculously obvious from the first five minutes who the murderer was. Julia Sawalha seems stilted and out of place here, almost making me long for the return of Caroline Quentin, and there’s just no chemistry between them at all. Ultimately, Creek’s been going on for too long now, and it’s really time the mystery of why the BBC continue to commission it was solved.
NYPD Blue (11.35pm, Tuesdays, C4)
A welcome addition to any TV schedule, New York's finest make a long over-due return to Channel 4. Rick Schroeder has at this point solidified his role as Detective Danny Sorenson, with Dennis Franz remaining the star of the show as Andy Sipowicz, and Kym Delaney remaining as conifident as ever as Diane. A great supporting cast, and once the jargon and pace of language gets acclimatised, you are watching great TV even on it's bad days.
The All New Harry Hill Show (10.35pm, Sundays, ITV)
Whilst it’s nice to see Harry return to stand up in a prime time slot, this latest series only half works. The main problem is the injection of c-list guests in to some of the routines, and The Hamilton challenge was amusing in the first episode, but, like the couple themselves, has quickly become tiresome and annoying. ITV have scheduled it hideously as well, so it’s doubtful it will return, which, despite all the above criticism, is a shame as it is the one of only a few show’s worth watching on the channel.
The Whistle Test Years.(BBC 2, Weekdays)
Hurrah! A classic look into the archives of a show that is revered by
your parents, and the format is sadly overlooked by most shows with the possible exception of later...Already we have seen the likes of Curtis Mayfield, David Bowie, Roxy Music, the Beach Boys, and hopefully other seminal artists to broaden your musical horizons following the release of the DVD last year. A must see for any fan of quality music at all.
Part of the problem is that Chris Carter has an almost Lynchian method of never giving away all of the answers – but whereas Twin Peaks was delightfully obscure and surreal, provoking the audience in to coming up with there own theories over what’s going on, Carter is simply frustrating – every time he’s ever given answers, he’s always then gone and made the storyline all the more complex and annoying. Part of
But post Season 7, after Duchovny had all but left (his brief all too mundane cameo’s in Seasons 8 and 9 really weren’t needed and only left the audience longing for the days when he was one of the central characters), the series mostly went back to square one, with Scully now as the believer in all things supernatural, and Agent Doggett refusing to believe, week in and week out, despite the fact that he was always proved wrong. Robert Patrick’s really struggled with what must be one of the dullest characters ever to be committed to the tv screen, his agent Doggett was the complete opposite of what we wanted to see too. It’d taken Scully seven years of witnessing unexplainable events to finally admit that, well, yes, she had been wrong all along and that some goddamn strange events were taking place here, only for the series to sideline her character and introduce another non-believer, only this time he was even more frustratingly stupid than Scully ever was. And a lot less pretty to look at too.
Agent Rayes (Annabeth Gish) is of little interest, pretty identical to Scully in her beliefs, and presumably just around to provide Doggett with a suitable love interest, and there relationship echoed that of Mulder and Scully’s so tediously that I doubt if anyone would have cared whether they got together or not. Skinner (Mitch Pillegi) has also had little to do recently, and all of the character development he’s been through has been forgotten, and in most episodes all he’s had to do is look grumpy or angry, often for no reason. And killing off The Lone Gunmen seemed a pedantic move, made to presumably just upset loyal fans of the series, and the way it was done seemed sadly annoying.
The series really went downhill when it tried to involve spirituality and religious beliefs too, whilst they’d always had a place in the background, but rarely explored in such tiresome seriousness. The introduction of Scully’s baby sidelined her to a supporting role in most episodes, turning up at the end to save Doggett and Reyes but rarely having anything to say, and even the more whimsical episodes of the last two series were misjudged, lacking the surreal edge and sense of writer’s playing around with the show’s format that made seasons five and six so great.
The series finale (which I caught when it was first shown on Sky and is due to be screened in the next few weeks on BBC2) brought back Mulder for one final time, and relegated Doggett and Reyes to supporting roles, but even then the all too downbeat tone and only partially resolved storylines really frustrated. The Cigarette Man returned for one final death, but considering how many times he’d been killed off before, it really was hard to care, and, well, after nine years, and 202 episodes, we really deserved more than this. Another movie is promised, but hell, unless Chris Carter realises exactly how much he’s fucked up, and gives the fans what they really want, I doubt if I’ll bother watching it.
Alex Finch.
The Book Group (9.30pm, Fridays, C4)
The first series was granted, a hodge-podge of different styles; moving from comedy drama to situation comedy to dream-sequence enhanced farce, to this series, which started off a bit too Sex and the City for my taste.
I was losing interest, waiting for some of the classic lines from the first series, but the beauty of episode 14/11, has tied a lot of stories together. The ongoing chemistry between Clare and Kenny lost a bit, with the introduction of Lachlan (the seemingly sex obsessed brother of Barney), and Carol Ann (Kenny's disabled girlfriend), plus the inclusion of Clare's sister has added another dimension and prevented the show from being too focal to the characters that began the show.
The only downside is that the show seems to have veered away from insightful comments about books that may be ironically witty, or profound, and centred on just trivial observations based on the selfish opinions of the characters own lives. Maybe that is the point: Maybe they're living as if they were in a book, and can only identify according to their own experiences.
In short, this series has only begun to produce some of the magic that made the first series so endearing, and hopefully will redeem itself during the coming weeks.
Craig Aston.
24 (10pm, Sundays, BBC2)
So Jack Bauer’s back for what will presumably be the second worst day of his life, unless daughter Kim or Jack himself buys it this time around, and I’m not too sure whether it’s a good thing or not.
I had a lot of time for the first series, though it did lose it’s way a little during the final few episodes (and a couple in the middle which mostly seemed to feature Kim and Teri wondering around lost in a strangely deserted Californian countryside) but mostly it was pretty gripping, unpredictable, and enjoyable viewing, with some superb performances too, especially from Keither Sutherland and Dennis Haybert.
But the second series seems to have an even more sombre tone than the first, and a slower pace too. Despite the supposed threat of a nuclear bomb going off within the next 24 hours, unless producers are planning on killing off every single cast member then it’s pretty unlikely that this is going to happen. Unlike the potential assassination of David Palmer in the show’s first series, much of the suspense is lost because of this, and it seems more like an episode of Columbo, where we watch Jack deduce just how to catch the criminals. Which isn’t a good thing in a series this long. And once again Kim’s in danger, running around the city without screaming for help, and it feels a little tacked on, as if the writer’s didn’t know what to do with her character and so gave her a subplot of her own, which I worry will somehow be connected rather conveniently with what is happening to her dead old papa.
Some of the new additions to the cast aren’t too convincing either - Sara Gilbert (best known for playing Darlene in Roseanne) looks out of place here, and Michael Michele (Dr Finch in ER) does little than sit around looking concerned - in ER she never convinced me that she was that great an actress either and I’m not sure she ever will judging by this. Penny Johnson Gerald (Palmer’s wife in season one) is much missed too, and I just hope the rumours are true that she’ll soon make a reappearance.
For credibility’s sake, I hope that a third series doesn’t take place, or at least not in this format. It’s already feeling a little exhausting watching what is basically an eighteen hour film, and knowing that there’s still twenty one weeks to go before we reach its’ climax. So it’s really going to have be consistently good to be worth sticking with. Still, these are early days, and I’m more than willing to give the series a chance. But for how long I’m just not so sure.
Alex Finch.
The Second Coming (Sunday, Monday 9pm, ITV)
The most thought provoking drama ITV has produced in years. Queer as Folk creator surely must love the controversy, as this story of a messiah who encourages a new testament to be written by the common man really becomes a philosophical debate on religion, and must have those devout followers reaching for their remotes in disgust. The idea behind it is brilliant.
Imagine, if you will, all conflicting religions being removed in order to be replaced by a universal religion to follow, with no distortions or loopholes for anyone to break free of, as it is decided by the people that matter; the people themselves. This all of course has to be delivered to the messiah by Judgement Day.
Christopher Eccleston once again turns in a marvellous performance as the messiah Steven Baxter, but I feel the production values of ITV make this look like any other vehicle ITV has produced this, or last year. Stick Robson Greene, Ross Kemp, Martin Kemp etc in the lead, and the style and hype would be the same. The performance, however, would not. If only Channel 4 had said yes.
Craig Aston.
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