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I think it’s taken the writers of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ a year to work out where they wanted to fit. The second season has the same likable appeal as the first, but the humour is more refined, the timing is crisper, the dialogue is a bit snappier, and overall, it just feels like a tighter show. So even though I pushed through the DVDs in just over two days, the comedy has stuck with me. I hope they can continue with this trend into the third and fourth seasons. If so they’re going to have a killer show.
It’s lucky that Top Gear started off as such a good show, because now that it’s getting a bit “samey”, it’s actually holding up well. Nothing was particularly different in season 13 (aside from a somewhat lacklustre faux-“revealing” of Michael Schumacher as The Stig in the first episode), but there were certainly highlights. Jay Leno is the pick of the guests, as he discusses his 150 cars, but just one wife. The challenges, on the other hand, start well (Clarkson shovelling coal in a replica ’49 steam train) but get more ridiculous and, unfortunately, more boring as the season progresses.
I’ll give this show one thing – it’s incredibly easy to watch. Within three days of borrowing the DVD, I’d finished the whole season. The characters are very likeable, the scripting works well (both in terms of the seasonal plot and the minute to minute dialogue), and the performances are all smooth. What it seems to lack, however, is the memorableness of some other shows. While I remember the characters and their various interactions, there aren’t many quotes there that I feel like referencing in conversation. But from my friends’ points of view, that may very well be a good thing!
I don’t know if this if how each of the shows plays out, but with only the first five minutes having any real form of “rescue”, this’d probably be more aptly titled, ‘Rescue: Picking up the Pieces’. There’s nothing specifically wrong with that; it’s just that the characters seem more suited to climbing under burning cars or hanging from balconies than they do discussing marital breakdowns with boat captains. The acting is as passable as you’d expect from an Australian series, but it seems to be the writing that’s letting the team down. Hopefully, it improves as the season progresses.
Throughout the first two seasons of ‘The IT Crowd’ most of the humour was technology related and derived from the juxtaposition of how little the employees of Reynholm Industries knew about computers, relative to Roy and Moss in the IT Department. This season, it seems they’re falling for their own joke, as the main comedy source for the show has shifted from technology to the relationships and interactions between the characters. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly a big change from how the show started and what differentiated it from the wide variety of other similar shows.
There aren’t many shows in the action-comedy-spy-drama genre at the moment, but even if there were, I think ‘Chuck’ would still be one of the best. Season two recalls the first season’s character chemistry, sharp dialogue, overblown action scenes and incredible plot twists. And by that, I mean ‘incredible’ both as ‘exciting’ as well as ‘lacking credibility’ – with brain computers and secret agent family members, it is quite ridiculous. But most importantly, this show has the amazing ability to make you care about and associate with, not just the main protagonists, but all the supporting characters, too.
Back at the start of the season when I reviewed MasterChef, I mentioned that the contestants weren’t particularly memorable. And, unfortunately, the finale last night didn’t change my mind. I couldn’t get excited about either contestant, and although, technically, they cooked some fantastic dishes, the one thing I particularly wanted to taste was judge Gary’s Beef Bourguignon which was used for the taste test. I don’t know enough about the rest of the season to know if the best person won, but I also know that I don’t think Julie has what it takes to work in a commercial kitchen.
When did The Chaser change from a satirical news outlet to a “Candid Camera” TV show? There used to be some fantastic news articles (Anyone remember the sponsorship deal that would see the MCG renamed the McG™?); now we’re stuck watching the 38th iteration of “let’s see how security reacts when we try to deliver something inappropriate”. They simply don’t have enough good material for a weekly show. 75% of their stuff is rubbish, so my suggestion is to consolidate the good quarter into a monthly show. If they could promise me half an hour of innovative material – I’d watch.
I know I shouldn’t blame Corrine Grant (the host of the debate) for the fact that the quote the debate was based around was incorrect (it’s the “love of money” that is the root of all evil – or so the saying goes), but she annoys me, so I will blame her. Maybe I’ll also blame her for the fact that neither Janeane Garofalo, Stephen K Amos nor Jason Byrne were even remotely funny. Yet, luckily the other three were, and the final result echoed the fact that one team had two amusing speakers, and the other only had only one.
Here’s another example of a premise revolving around a normal guy singled out for greatness – and it’s another one that I like. Chuck (Zachary Levi) is a very likeable nerd, and you know he’s capable of much more than he thinks. His government handlers CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski – and it’s great to see a young Aussie actress making such a break into mainstream US TV) and NSA Agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin – with his best performance since ‘Firefly’) smoothly combine action and comedy timing, and the chemistry between the three of them is really what makes the show.
