TVOD (19.3.07)
So here we are again, for our weekly look at what you can point your eyes at this week. I did want to do some more posts at some point this past week but, hey, it didn't happen alright. I haven't actually had a lot of time to watch TV, which is kind of important when you're writing a TV blog.
Anyway, enough chit-chat, what's on telly?
MONDAY: There's the obvious triumvirate of US behemoths tonight with The Sopranos (11.05pm, Channel 4), Prison Break (10pm, Five) and Heroes (10pm, Sci-Fi Channel or an hour later on their time-shift channel, if you so wish). In The Sopranos, Tony's still in a coma and there's a cameo from Steve Buscemi as Tony's cousin, Tony Blundetto (deceased) to liven things up. Also, there's an absolutely fantastic scene with Chris (Michael Imperioli) trying to get a near-catatonic T to sign off on his film idea. Better than last week, but this sixth season doesn't pick up for a while yet.
Meanwhile, on Prison Break, we should find out what happens to Lincoln and LJ after they were caught by the fuzz last week and also whether Sara and Michael manage to meet up. What's she doing?! She tried to commit suicide because of him! I have no idea what is happening in Heroes tonight and I want to keep it that way until I see it. The element of surprise is one that this show has used to its advantage so far. Did you see Nathan fly away from Dr. Bennett last week? Awesome! High five!
BBC3 unleashes a new sketch show tonight - Rush Hour (10.30pm) - and, although I haven't seen it, you can guess what it's going to be like from the ads. All flash, gross-out and no subtlety. I'll be the first to admit surprise if it isn't, but c'mon, they didn't learn from Man Stroke Woman, so what makes you think they'll start now?
TUESDAY: Not to sound like a broken record but The Wire (10pm, FX, Sky Channel 179) is on tonight. I'm starting to think that this is the best season to date, especially after last week's storming episode. Choosing to run multifarious story strands at once and gently nudging them towards each other or sometimes colliding them in shocking ways has proven to be a masterstroke. As has the decision to pretty much ditch Jimmy McNulty, as the character was starting to become a little broad. It's allowed the writers to flesh out the characters of Marlo (Jamie Hector), Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), Mayor Royce (Glynn Turman) and the four new adolescent characters and, in doing so, they've just cast the net that little bit wider, throwing light on some of the more shadowy corners of Baltimore (the scene with Dukie, Randy and Michael searching one of the abandoned rowhouses for bodies was a masterpiece).
Also tonight is the second episode of new US drama, Kidnapped (10pm, Channel 4). Last week's first ep was unremittingly classy but it knew this. It was like being hit over the head by a hammer that was cast by Junie Lowry-Johnson. Delroy Lindo oozed gravitas and easy charm but the rest of the cast seemed to struggle to make their characters believable. For instance, you could tell that Jeremy Sisto wasn't going to be your average kidnap investigator because he had stubble. He's edgy, you see! I'm probably being a little harsh but you can kind of see why it was cancelled. Mind you, much more offensive shows have thrived. Sex In The City, for example.
Elsewhere, Roger Daltrey puts in a cameo role on CSI (9pm, Five). Supposedly he's going to actually do more than go "'Ere! That's moi song!" in a mockney accent over the credit sequence. Bet it's not a patch on his cameo in The Mighty Boosh though.
WEDNESDAY: Fuck all on tonight. Seriously, if you were going to pick one night to, say, read a book, spend quality time with loved ones or go out and get tore up, tonight's the night. If you absolutely, positively must watch something, then there's a promising looking documentary on BBC4 at 9pm, entitled Racism: A History. Watch and feel ashamed at your heritage, white folks.
Oh and, of course, there's always Friday Night Lights (8pm, ITV4, Sky Channel 120).
THURSDAY: I said it last week and I'll say it again until you get it into your thick heads, but you have to check out FX's hour of comedy power from 10pm, featuring the gut-bustingly hilarious Lucky Louie and Chappelle's Show. You need them in your life!
Other than that though, Five airs the opening episode of the new series of House at 9, before following it up with an encouraging-looking American import (because we really need another right now), called Shark (10pm). James Woods plays a brilliant criminal prosecutor who goes over to 'the dark side' (ie: he becomes a defence attorney). It looks like standard legal drama stuff but, hey, James Woods! On TV! And Spike Lee directs! Did I mention that James Woods is in it?!
FRIDAY: What I said about Wednesday could equally apply to tonight, but at least Channel 4's flagship music show, Transmission (11.40pm) is back on. When I say flagship, I mean that they've dumped it in the netherworld of post-pub scheduling. Still, tonight's show looks like it could be intermittent fun. We've got Joss Stone (boo!), Mika (double boo!), The Twang (who?!), Mark Ronson (why?!), Maximo Park (yay!), Bright Eyes (could go either way!) and Peaches "Fuck off!" Geldof (fuck off!).
You know that you'll stumble in at 1am, start watching Out Of Sight on ITV2, get to the sex scene part, remember that Jennifer Lopez/George Clooney don't actually get their respective kits off and doze off with the telly on full blast. Oh, what delightful fun!
SATURDAY: Football fans, shake off that hangover and make it a day of footy! Start with the institution that is Soccer A.M. (9am, Sky Sports One, Sky Channel 401), with Tim, Helen, Sheephead, Tubes and the rest of the crew for football-related hijinks. There's no Gilette Soccer Saturday today as there's a crapload of internationals for you to be bored by. First up, there's the first game from the new Wembley, an Under-21 international between England and Italy (12noon, Sky Sports One). Cue thousands of punters sitting down very gingerly lest the stand collapse underneath them.
Then it's a toss-up between Republic Of Ireland V Wales (2.30pm, SS1) or Scotland V Georgia (3pm, SS2). The choice, as they say, is yours! Have fun picking! Of course, then there's the obligatory letdown of an England Euro qualifier. We're playing Israel (5.30pm, SS1), which on the face of it should be a walk in the park. You just know it isn't going to be though. Might as well play some kind of drinking game to make it pass quicker. Make up rules like drink two fingers whenever the camera lands on Steve McLaren and he's doing that face that makes him look like he's staring directly into the sun while trying to force out a zeppelin-sized shit. Or how about drink a whole glass whenever Frank Lampard tries a hit-and-hope from forty yards only to watch it sail over the bar? Or here's one; take bets on how long it is before England fans get involved in some crowd hubbub with the local police. The winner gets to have his head shaved and an endless supply of patio furniture to lob at passing riot vans.
Not a sports fan? Well there's TV Burp (6.10pm, ITV1), which is still the most consistently funny show on TV. David Quantick really earns his money on that one. Also, The Arcade Fire, Rowan Atkinson and violinist, Maxim Venegrov are all on The Culture Show (7.10pm, BBC2), though not all at the same time, I hope, Channel 4 are showing The Shawshank Redemption (9.25pm) for what seems like the millionth time (maybe this time we find out just how Tim Robbins managed to put that poster back up from inside the tunnel) and Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil - a mesmerising yet didactic audio-visual collage of those turbulent late-60s, intercut with The Rolling Stones recording the title track in the studio - is on Sky Arts (10.25pm, Sky Channel 267), for those with their minds on higher things.
SUNDAY: Heart-stopping television on Sky One from 9pm with 24, followed immediately by Lost. Actually, we're so used by now to 24 being so goddamn adrenalised that its taken on an almost zen-like quality. We're watching high-octane stuff where nukes go off, people are tortured and heads of state have a long-standing bounty on their heads, but six seasons in and there's a kind of comforting familiarity about the whole thing. "Oh look, Jack's just cut off one of the Russian consulates fingers. Go and put the kettle on dear".
With every passing week, Lost gets closer and closer to describing just what state the viewer is in. You're less likely to care now whether Jack will find his way back to camp or whether Charlie will reverse his death curse and more likely to forget about the plot completely and just chuckle at whatever nickname Sawyer comes up with for Hurley this week. Still, at least it's more plausible than Castaway (9pm, BBC1).
TV ON THE INTERNET
The Onion A.V. Club has an excellent feature entitled 22 TV Opening-Credit Sequences That Fit Their Shows Perfectly, with embedded YouTube vids for all the featured shows. Why no The Prisoner though?
Following on from last week's mention for Tim And Eric's Awesome Show! Great Job!, here is the full first episode for you to view at your leisure. Part 1/Part 2
Watch a brief preview of FX's forthcoming pitch black comedy-thriller, Dexter, which stars Six Feet Under's Michael C. Hall. Looks good.
Happy viewing!
Anyway, enough chit-chat, what's on telly?
MONDAY: There's the obvious triumvirate of US behemoths tonight with The Sopranos (11.05pm, Channel 4), Prison Break (10pm, Five) and Heroes (10pm, Sci-Fi Channel or an hour later on their time-shift channel, if you so wish). In The Sopranos, Tony's still in a coma and there's a cameo from Steve Buscemi as Tony's cousin, Tony Blundetto (deceased) to liven things up. Also, there's an absolutely fantastic scene with Chris (Michael Imperioli) trying to get a near-catatonic T to sign off on his film idea. Better than last week, but this sixth season doesn't pick up for a while yet.
Meanwhile, on Prison Break, we should find out what happens to Lincoln and LJ after they were caught by the fuzz last week and also whether Sara and Michael manage to meet up. What's she doing?! She tried to commit suicide because of him! I have no idea what is happening in Heroes tonight and I want to keep it that way until I see it. The element of surprise is one that this show has used to its advantage so far. Did you see Nathan fly away from Dr. Bennett last week? Awesome! High five!
BBC3 unleashes a new sketch show tonight - Rush Hour (10.30pm) - and, although I haven't seen it, you can guess what it's going to be like from the ads. All flash, gross-out and no subtlety. I'll be the first to admit surprise if it isn't, but c'mon, they didn't learn from Man Stroke Woman, so what makes you think they'll start now?
TUESDAY: Not to sound like a broken record but The Wire (10pm, FX, Sky Channel 179) is on tonight. I'm starting to think that this is the best season to date, especially after last week's storming episode. Choosing to run multifarious story strands at once and gently nudging them towards each other or sometimes colliding them in shocking ways has proven to be a masterstroke. As has the decision to pretty much ditch Jimmy McNulty, as the character was starting to become a little broad. It's allowed the writers to flesh out the characters of Marlo (Jamie Hector), Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), Mayor Royce (Glynn Turman) and the four new adolescent characters and, in doing so, they've just cast the net that little bit wider, throwing light on some of the more shadowy corners of Baltimore (the scene with Dukie, Randy and Michael searching one of the abandoned rowhouses for bodies was a masterpiece).
Also tonight is the second episode of new US drama, Kidnapped (10pm, Channel 4). Last week's first ep was unremittingly classy but it knew this. It was like being hit over the head by a hammer that was cast by Junie Lowry-Johnson. Delroy Lindo oozed gravitas and easy charm but the rest of the cast seemed to struggle to make their characters believable. For instance, you could tell that Jeremy Sisto wasn't going to be your average kidnap investigator because he had stubble. He's edgy, you see! I'm probably being a little harsh but you can kind of see why it was cancelled. Mind you, much more offensive shows have thrived. Sex In The City, for example.
Elsewhere, Roger Daltrey puts in a cameo role on CSI (9pm, Five). Supposedly he's going to actually do more than go "'Ere! That's moi song!" in a mockney accent over the credit sequence. Bet it's not a patch on his cameo in The Mighty Boosh though.
WEDNESDAY: Fuck all on tonight. Seriously, if you were going to pick one night to, say, read a book, spend quality time with loved ones or go out and get tore up, tonight's the night. If you absolutely, positively must watch something, then there's a promising looking documentary on BBC4 at 9pm, entitled Racism: A History. Watch and feel ashamed at your heritage, white folks.
Oh and, of course, there's always Friday Night Lights (8pm, ITV4, Sky Channel 120).
THURSDAY: I said it last week and I'll say it again until you get it into your thick heads, but you have to check out FX's hour of comedy power from 10pm, featuring the gut-bustingly hilarious Lucky Louie and Chappelle's Show. You need them in your life!
Other than that though, Five airs the opening episode of the new series of House at 9, before following it up with an encouraging-looking American import (because we really need another right now), called Shark (10pm). James Woods plays a brilliant criminal prosecutor who goes over to 'the dark side' (ie: he becomes a defence attorney). It looks like standard legal drama stuff but, hey, James Woods! On TV! And Spike Lee directs! Did I mention that James Woods is in it?!
FRIDAY: What I said about Wednesday could equally apply to tonight, but at least Channel 4's flagship music show, Transmission (11.40pm) is back on. When I say flagship, I mean that they've dumped it in the netherworld of post-pub scheduling. Still, tonight's show looks like it could be intermittent fun. We've got Joss Stone (boo!), Mika (double boo!), The Twang (who?!), Mark Ronson (why?!), Maximo Park (yay!), Bright Eyes (could go either way!) and Peaches "Fuck off!" Geldof (fuck off!).
You know that you'll stumble in at 1am, start watching Out Of Sight on ITV2, get to the sex scene part, remember that Jennifer Lopez/George Clooney don't actually get their respective kits off and doze off with the telly on full blast. Oh, what delightful fun!
SATURDAY: Football fans, shake off that hangover and make it a day of footy! Start with the institution that is Soccer A.M. (9am, Sky Sports One, Sky Channel 401), with Tim, Helen, Sheephead, Tubes and the rest of the crew for football-related hijinks. There's no Gilette Soccer Saturday today as there's a crapload of internationals for you to be bored by. First up, there's the first game from the new Wembley, an Under-21 international between England and Italy (12noon, Sky Sports One). Cue thousands of punters sitting down very gingerly lest the stand collapse underneath them.
Then it's a toss-up between Republic Of Ireland V Wales (2.30pm, SS1) or Scotland V Georgia (3pm, SS2). The choice, as they say, is yours! Have fun picking! Of course, then there's the obligatory letdown of an England Euro qualifier. We're playing Israel (5.30pm, SS1), which on the face of it should be a walk in the park. You just know it isn't going to be though. Might as well play some kind of drinking game to make it pass quicker. Make up rules like drink two fingers whenever the camera lands on Steve McLaren and he's doing that face that makes him look like he's staring directly into the sun while trying to force out a zeppelin-sized shit. Or how about drink a whole glass whenever Frank Lampard tries a hit-and-hope from forty yards only to watch it sail over the bar? Or here's one; take bets on how long it is before England fans get involved in some crowd hubbub with the local police. The winner gets to have his head shaved and an endless supply of patio furniture to lob at passing riot vans.
Not a sports fan? Well there's TV Burp (6.10pm, ITV1), which is still the most consistently funny show on TV. David Quantick really earns his money on that one. Also, The Arcade Fire, Rowan Atkinson and violinist, Maxim Venegrov are all on The Culture Show (7.10pm, BBC2), though not all at the same time, I hope, Channel 4 are showing The Shawshank Redemption (9.25pm) for what seems like the millionth time (maybe this time we find out just how Tim Robbins managed to put that poster back up from inside the tunnel) and Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil - a mesmerising yet didactic audio-visual collage of those turbulent late-60s, intercut with The Rolling Stones recording the title track in the studio - is on Sky Arts (10.25pm, Sky Channel 267), for those with their minds on higher things.
SUNDAY: Heart-stopping television on Sky One from 9pm with 24, followed immediately by Lost. Actually, we're so used by now to 24 being so goddamn adrenalised that its taken on an almost zen-like quality. We're watching high-octane stuff where nukes go off, people are tortured and heads of state have a long-standing bounty on their heads, but six seasons in and there's a kind of comforting familiarity about the whole thing. "Oh look, Jack's just cut off one of the Russian consulates fingers. Go and put the kettle on dear".
With every passing week, Lost gets closer and closer to describing just what state the viewer is in. You're less likely to care now whether Jack will find his way back to camp or whether Charlie will reverse his death curse and more likely to forget about the plot completely and just chuckle at whatever nickname Sawyer comes up with for Hurley this week. Still, at least it's more plausible than Castaway (9pm, BBC1).
TV ON THE INTERNET
The Onion A.V. Club has an excellent feature entitled 22 TV Opening-Credit Sequences That Fit Their Shows Perfectly, with embedded YouTube vids for all the featured shows. Why no The Prisoner though?
Following on from last week's mention for Tim And Eric's Awesome Show! Great Job!, here is the full first episode for you to view at your leisure. Part 1/Part 2
Watch a brief preview of FX's forthcoming pitch black comedy-thriller, Dexter, which stars Six Feet Under's Michael C. Hall. Looks good.
Happy viewing!
Labels: Dexter, footy, James Woods, The Onion, Tim and Eric
posted by James at
12:12
<< Home