TV Review – Skins – Series Three

I have finally finished watching series three of Skins, one of the best shows on TV. I’m pleased to say that despite some of my initial misgivings, the show ended up being every bit as enjoyable and absorbing as the first two series.

Almost the entire cast of series one and two were written out at the end of series two. I was surprised by this move when I first heard about it, but the rationale for it seemed reasonable. It did leave me concerned about what the new cast might be like.

At first I wasn’t terribly impressed by the new cast, though on a visual level, yeah, I’d still hook up with all of them. They did grow on me, but it took longer than it did with the first cast, and I still don’t feel quite the same level of connection with them that I felt with the likes of Sid and Chris. On the other hand, I’ve had only one series with Freddy, JJ, Cook and the like, and two with the first cast, so possibly by the end of series four, they’ll gel better.

The writing was quite superb for series three. True, the Effy/Cook/Freddy love triangle was basically the Sid/Tony/Michelle triangle, but it was still interesting. Plus it says a lot for the show that even I can get caught up in a love story between two teenage girls.

The original cast really hit their stride with series two. I’m hoping this cast will do the same in series four. On the other hand, even what they have now is pretty good, so if nothing changes, I’ll still be pretty pleased.

News Worth Watching

I’m pretty hard on TV news on this blog, especially local news, and, lately, CNN. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, and recommend four really good news programs.

60 Minutes – The great workhorse of the Tiffany network. It’s been informative and entertaining for about 40 years now and is still worth seeing, even though it’s more like 42 minutes and not 60.

Fareed Zakaria GPS – Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN has been airing every Sunday morning for about a year now. It’s great watching!

Amanpour. – The other great Sunday morning TV news program on CNN, featuring Christiane Amanpour and a great analysis of the week’s major news stories.

BBC World News America – Great in-depth coverage of world and American news. The best daily news program, bar none.

A Vast Improvement

After wandering in the desert for the last year, the show At the Movies has finally returned to its previous strengths (ie: really well-educated, well-respected critics talking about the movies with a real sense of film criticism). The previous version with Roger Ebert and either Gene Siskel or Richard Roeper had been a very good show, and was respected by Hollywood as well as enjoyed by audiences. The most recent prior version, hosted by Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz, wasn’t liked by anyone.

I watched the newest hosts, A O Scott and Michael Phillips last night, and, oh, it’s good to have the show getting back to its roots. Gone is the stupid “Critics Roundup” segment and the yellow sets. Back are the more subdued sets and hosts that don’t distract from the purpose of the show.

Hopefully we’ll see a return to better ratings for the program. I do hope so. It’s nice to have reviews where I can actually see clips from the film, pleasurable though reading online reviews are.

Jumping the Shark

There’s a term out there. It’s “Jumping the shark”. It refers to an old episode of Happy Days where the Fonz had to jump a shark on water skis. Now it’s a general term that’s used to describe that one moment when you are watching a TV show and you know, right then and there, that the show’s glory days are behind it and from here on out, it’s all downhill.

The best example I can think of with this is the episode of Roseanne
where the Connor family won the lottery. From there until the very last episode, when the show jumped back, it had jumped the shark and was just not good.

Sadly, back on Thursday night (yes, I know, this isn’t the most timely blog entry), one of my favorite shows, My Name is Earl
, jumped the shark and jumped it big time. It did so with an entire episode that seemed to be built around nothing but product placement for some bit of jewelry being sold by the kind of jewelry store you see in malls. Please note, I’m not mentioning names, because they don’t deserve to be mentioned.

Last year the show aired an episode during this “Green Week” thing NBC was doing. The episode centered around Earl, in prison, putting on a talent show. The warden was saying to him he had to work in a green theme to it, and Earl tried to explain that it didn’t really match the kind of show they were attempting to put on. It was a great little moment of the show thumbing their nose at the network.

Sadly they did not do that during this bit of obnoxious product placement and so I am sad to say, My Name is Earl has jumped the shark. With luck, it will jump back, but for now I’m very disapointed.

Mad, Beautiful… Series One of Skins

Series one of Skins has just finished airing on BBC America here in the USA. What a hell of a show.

I haven’t seen anything quite like it before. It’s intelligent, it’s well-acted, wonderfully written and generally enjoyable. It’s also given to several of what one of my friends describes as “omgwtfbbq” moments. For example, consider the following video, which finished out series one. It takes place right after a: one person gets hit by a bus, b: one person gets into a fight at his birthday party, c: one person breaks up with his teacher (!), after finding out she’s engaged to a gay man (?!), d: one person figures out he’s in love with someone and e: the someone he’s in love with is planning to leave. After all that setup, this is how they ended the last few minutes of the episode:

Mind you, the show is not a musical. It’s mad, it’s beautiful, and I love it! Light up a spliff, knock back a pint and have a bit of a wank while watching one of the best shows I’ve ever seen! Bring on series two!

Television Review – Skins

Oh, my, my, my.

So BBC America has begun showing this new program, Skins. Well, it’s new to us, anyhow. The third series will be starting up soon in the UK. It’s a series about a group of teenage friends and the various things they do, like sex with various partners and genders, lots of drugs and lots of partying. Needless to say, it’s generated a bit of controversy across the pond.

Controversial Skins promo poster... I wonder where I can get a copy?

The show is also very good. I’ve only seen the first episode so far and, like all first episodes, it suffers from the problem of having to introduce everyone on the show in the first few minutes. They do this surprisingly well by having one of the main characters (Tony), calling all his friends on their cell phones.

Most of the plot of the episode centered around Tony’s efforts to get his friend Sid’s virginity gone, a notion which young Sid wholeheartedly supports. He’s somewhat disapointed when he finds out the girl Tony has in mind isn’t Tony’s girlfriend (who Sid has a massive crush on), but instead a girl who is best described as a few monoliths short of a Stonehenge.

I'd shag the lot of them. Does this make me a bad person?

The acting and writing were both top-notch in this episode, which several moments that had me laughing out loud. I’m sure it will probably have its more dramatic episodes as it goes on, and that’s fine with me. Life is comedy, drama and tragedy all rolled into one, after all.

Those who know me well enough will be unsurprised to hear that I’ll be watching the second episode tonight, and unless it’s really vomitizingly awful, I’m sure I’ll come back for more. I mean, how could I not, being who and what I am? I also look forward to the series being released on DVD here in the states (not surprisingly, there’s a lot of stuff that gets censored for broadcast here, since we’re a nation of whinning little babies).

One funny note: this may be the first time I’ve seen a TV series with characters speaking English and that English being frequently subtitled. Ah, the British. They may have invented the language, but they sure can’t speak it.

Battlestar Revisited

As I have mentioned before, Battlestar Galactica is one of the best shows on TV (it’s also the cousin to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which is worth catching up on, if you haven’t seen it). It’s very true, and last night’s episode proved this with several Emmy-worthy performances and an ending that will have people buzzing for months to come!

Avast, ye scurvy dogs! There be spoilers ahead! Arr!
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I have one thing to say about last night’s episode: “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!”

Actually, I find myself wondering if we are indeed where we appear to be, geographically. Is it the planet we all think it is, or is the Galactica crew in the wrong place? We didn’t see anything that would obviously indicate they are where they think they are, so perhaps they aren’t? I know that sounds vague, but even in a spoiler review, I’m trying to be careful.

Also, how incredible was Edward James Olmos last night? His performance has constantly been one of the highlights of the show, and it’s a real crime he hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy yet. Perhaps this episode will change that? Emmys for James Callis, and the actors who play President Rosylin and Colonel Tigh (I’m sorry; I don’t remember their names).

Now some words on the Sci-Fi Channel’s scheduling. We aren’t going to see anymore new BSG episodes until the first quarter of 2009. That means anywhere from 6 – 9 months from now. How much does that blow? Apprently it’s due to the WGA strike having delayed production for so long. Ok, I can accept that.

What I cannot accept, however, is the way the Sci-Fi Channel broadcasts BSG. They basically show each episode once, period. Then they take the show off the air for months at a time. Then before the new season, they run all the previous seasons episodes in a row. And they wonder why the show has such lousy ratings?

Most TV programs are shown with a block of six or seven new episodes, followed by six or seven weeks of reruns, and then another block of new episodes. This keeps the show reasonably fresh, and it means that if you miss an episode, you can see it in just a few weeks when they show it again. The Sci-Fi Channel does not do this, and I wonder why. It can’t be a scheduling issue. After all, they seem to have plenty of time for low-budget crap movies with one word in their title. Oh, well. Once they’re done showing BSG and the latest season of Doctor Who, I won’t be watching the channel for another few months, and it’s entirely their fault.

But that said, BSG is an incredible show, and if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and go pick up the first three seasons on DVD. It is worth every penny!

The End of the Affair

You know who I like? Gordon Ramsay. You know what I don’t like? His show, Hell’s Kitchen.

I used to like it. I used to like it a lot! I also like his other shows, like The F-Word and Kitchen Nightmares. But I only like the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares. The American version is watchable, but it suffers from a lot of the problems the current season of Hell’s Kitchen suffers from.

What are the problems? Well, firstly, I don’t care about any of the competitors. The only one I thought was even vaguely interesting was Louross and that was because I’ve a fetish for Asians. Plus the show is just more of the same from the last season. Chefs screw up. Gordon yells at them. Chefs get sullen and snipey. Repeat as needed.

But what really annoys me at about the show at this point is the checklist of reality TV cliches they’re using on it. The show suffers from some of the worst editing I can imagine. It’s very clear that some scenes are taken out of squence while others are taken out of context. And the way they break for commercials? Argh.

Here’s a breakdown of what happens when we go to commercial.

Step One: Gordon Ramsay yells about something.
Step Two: Cut to shocked look on face of chef.
Step Three: Cut to shocked looking customer reactions (if the resturant is open, otherwise go to Step Four)
Step Four: Dramatic music!
Step Five: Go to commercial!

Now this can happen on virtually any quote at all. You might have Ramsay yelling, “You donkey!” or “Where is the sauce?!” or, “What the hell has happened to my career?!”

Basically the show has degenerated into being nothing but a big shout-fest. This is the same problem I have with the American version of Kitchen Nightmares. The British version is more about cooking and the things it really takes to run a restaurant. The American version is about shouting and semi-clever editing tricks.

I dunno. I used to like the show, as I said, but now it’s frankly unbearable. I’ll check the first couple episodes of the next season of this and Kitchen Nightmares, but I think that henceforth, if I want to see one of Gordon Ramsay’s shows, I’ll stick to the ones on BBC America.

The Best Show on TV

Galactica does Leonardo!

Battlestar Galactica is, hands down, the best TV show on the air today, and one of the best of the decade.

This is a pretty impressive thing, actually. Usually, let’s face it, science fiction sucks. For every Foundation, Duneor Star Warsout there, there’s about a hundred really bad movies or books. TV series are even worse. Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Doctor Who are about it for good television sci-fi. Even the original Battlestar Galactica really sucked ass, and don’t get me started on crapfests like Andromeda, Buck Rogers or the most recent version of Flash Gordon. Actually, pretty much everything broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel is really, really awful.

Battlestar Galactica, is, however, a major exception. This is a TV series that is, more than any other sci-fi show and more than most other dramas, very much about our world. True, it takes place in a far distant part of the galaxy, where humanity is fighting a war for survival against robots of their own creation, but despite that, it’s our world the show really focuses on, and not just because humanity is trying to reach Earth.

Through the first three seasons we saw episodes dealing with religion, abortion, labor disputes, an insurgency against an invading army (something Slate.com described as “Battlestar Iraqtica”), terrorism, civil rights issues and election fruad. People in this series don’t fire phases or photon torpedoes; they use bullets and nuclear missles. They don’t get Tarkelean flu, they get breast cancer. Nothing about the series seems unduly futuristic or alien. It’s all very easy to relate to, and very real on many levels.

Even the very scenes themselves are evocotive of our world. When President Rosylin is sworn into office, the scene is a direct homage to the swearing-in of President Johnson. A corridor filled with pictures of missing and dead people puts one in mind of the fences outside Ground Zero right after 9/11. Baltar leaning back with arms outstretched, his eyes facing skyward, can’t help but bring to mind the Crucifix.

The acting and writing on the series are also incredibly good. Edward James Olmos impresses me every time he is on screen, as do the other actors. The FX are mind-blowing (Galactica dropping like a stone inside the atmosphere of a planet while launching Vipers before it jumps away remains one of the best visuals in a series full of great eye candy). The characters on the show have layer upon layer of great depth. Even the villain of the series, Gaius Baltar, is not so much evil as just simply very selfish, and certainly quite complex.

Now, one problem with a show like this is its serial nature. Really, you can’t come into this, the fourth and final seasons, without knowing what has gone before. So I tell you all now; go to Netflix and rent all the previous three seasons, or go buy them. Then watch them. Then start watching the current season. You will be happy you did!

Television Reviews – John Adams

For those who are not already doing so, please start watching John Adams on HBO. It’s a mini-series based on the book of the same name, and is about the life of our second President.

The production values are high, and the performances are excellent, especially by Paul Giamati as Adams, Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin and David Morse as George Washington. With the three episodes that have aired so far, HBO has managed to more than live up to their usual standards of amazing television. I strongly suggest watching the series, even if your only option is to wait for it to be on DVD. You will not be disapointed.