TV Round Up - February 2010

RETURNING SHOWS

BEING HUMAN

This continues to be the best written thing on television, picking up the the story where we left off at the end of the first season, as we follow the attempts of a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost (who co-habit), to lead a 'normal human' life. As before, the balance is beautifully maintained between humour, drama and horror. Story wise, writer Toby Whitehouse is exploring his mythology in much greater depth including the vampire society, the laws of the afterlife and the biology/psychology of werewolves. A must watch.

24



Kiefer Sutherland's long running, real-time, TV thriller hits it's 8th season with purpose, as it seems to have shaken off the bullshit factor of it's 5th and 6th year. The New York setting provides something fresh to look at, along with the swanky new C.T.U. headquarters (reminding me of the Hollywood police station in Last Action Hero). It's the same formula but it's still damn riveting. Hell, the formula is something to look forward to; who will be the traitor working inside C.T.U ? When will Jack go rogue? Which returning cast member will die brutally? At what point will the President's life be put at risk? Mint.

LOST



The mind fuck that is Lost has just returned for it's 6th and final season. Anyone expecting answers will find very few, but will instead be bombarded by a significant twist in the series storytelling format. After the cast detonated an atom bomb on the island (in the 5th season finale) in an attempt to reset 'time', and thus never go to the island in the first place, we're now faced with alternatives. Instead of having flashbacks (or flash forwards) to events off of the island, we now have two time lines; one is set on the island where the bomb didn't work. The flash forward replacement is an alternative reality where the Oceanic flight 831 doesn't crash on the island, showing what happened to our heroes if life had continued as normal.
Ahhhhh, my head!
Each season of Lost has a theme (The Others, The Hatch, Time Travel) and this season it seems to be the magical/ancient culture of the island. At least the question of what the smoke monster is has been answered. Now the question is 'who'. And 'why'.
Sob...

NEW SHOWS

HUMAN TARGET



These days most TV shows have adopted a serialised story-telling structure that plays out over a year, or several seasons. Also mainstream American TV has gained in integrity and intelligence causing many critics to dub the last decade as a 'golden age' of TV. But if you yearn for the self-enclosed plots and carefree dumbness of 80's television (The Fall Guy/ The A-Team) then you might want to check out Human Target. It's produced by McG, he of fun-but-fluff 'Chuck' and uber cinematic bullshit Charlies Angels. And it's damned good throwaway fun. Essentially Mark Valley (Fringe guest star) plays a bodyguard for hire. His business is run by the quippy Chi McBride and he's frequently helped out by shady underworld-type Jackie Earl Haley. Each episode is high concept, bringing a cute leading lady for the leading man to banter with.
Undemanding tosh with the comfort of a reset switch at the end of each episode. Now where did I but my 80's Knight Rider DVDs ?

ARCHER



A new animated comedy from MTV, Archer follows the misadventures of Sterling Archer, a James Bond wannabe; an overconfident, under-experienced stud with mother issues. It's essentially an office sitcom with espionage overtones. The flash-style animation looks good and the voice cast are excellent. It's not-gut bustingly funny but is, at least, mildly diverting humour.

SPARTACUS: BLOOD & SAND



Now this is more like it. Produced by Zena's Sam Raimi and Robert Tapart from their New Zealand stronghold (away from the Hollywood censor's prying eyes) comes a retelling of the classic Spartacus story. Imaging telling the Gladiator movie in the style of the 300 movie. Ok? Then make it 20 times more violent. Add in tons of swearing (cunt, cock, etc)...as much as you can cram in, in fact, and liberal amounts of shagging and titties. Sound good?
It is. The cast are a bit stoic, apart from slave owners John Hannah and Lucy Lawless, but frankly that's not why I'm watching this ludicrously over the top drama. Off with his head Centurion!