Telly Thursday has been suffering this week. Remember an Board Snip? It’s finally hit us and it’s chopped some of our words off. As a result, this week sees a gap in the space where we usually put our feature review (though in hindsight, there hasn’t been much on this week anyway…)
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However, rather than lie down and die. Rather than let Snip keep snipping like an ADHD teenager with scissors, we’re going to tell you a few TV things to keep you going until what will hopefully be a re-established Telly Thursday column next week.
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For now though, we’re just going to dish out some recommendations.
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A Royal Pain In The A*?!:
This is a series that largely slipped under Telly Thursday’s radar. So far under it in fact that it recently aired its Season 1 finale (which faithful TV Guide alerted us to) and all we could say was ‘where the hell did this come from?’ and ‘how the hell did we miss it?’
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Simple answer to all of these questions is that it’s on something like Living or Hallmark or some of those other stations that you bypass on the Sky menu because it’s usually reruns of thing you’ve seen a hundred times before.
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Well…we won’t make that mistake again. No sir. Casting a quick reviewing eye back over the series, it seems a clever, quirky kind of series if a bit soap like in its execution. Telling the story of Hank, a disgraced doctor from New York, the series follows his move to the Hampton’s where he becomes a doctor to the rich and famous with much trouble ensuing.
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Worth a look and you’ll surely catch a repeat.
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Trevor Brennan Punches Telly Thursday:
We can’t say we blame him. We are an intrusive lot after all…
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In Ireland over the last few years we’ve all gone a bit sports mad. Probably because we started winning things…
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New RTE series This Sporting Life (robbing its title from a Richard Harris movie about rugby) explores the lives of some of Ireland’s famous and infamous sports stars, from Trevor Brennan in this first episode to Tony Cascarino and Paul Carberry.
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Worth a look if you, like me, assimilate sport.
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Would I Lie To You? Pobably, Yeah:
Rob Brydon is a funny man. And while we have countless numbers of panellist comedy shows like Mock The Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats, the general consensus seems to be that there never can be enough of them.
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Would I Lie To You works in much the same way as all the rest of them except the panellists come in, tell a brief anecdote about themselves and the other team have to figure whether it is true or false. It sounds silly and, well it kind of is but with the right panellists it can also be very funny.
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Brydon’s always good for a laugh in the middle too.
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Keeps Getting Better and Better:
In most cases of reviewing for Totally Dublin, I rarely find myself following series that I review, either because I don’t have time or because I’m just not that enamoured with them. In a few cases though, I do follow them and am happy to report that there are a number of them that just keep getting better and better.
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Rev: The quirky church comedy is beautifully paced, witty and at times very funny. Boasting a great performance from Tom Hollander (who is also the co-creator) this is one to rival the sitcom giants over at Channel 4. In the latest episode, Adam competes with a fellow media savvy vicar while fellow parishioner Colin discovers the Rastafarian movement.
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Identity: This series started off promising enough and has continued that way despite being highly formulaic but then again most crime dramas are. The fact that I would pretty much watch Keeley Hawes read the phone book does help its case. This week, a woman in witness protection has her identity revealed on the internet and the gang are called in to sort out the mess. As usual Aidan Gillen’s John Bloom gets himself into trouble then around the 41 minute mark has an epiphany and figures out the answer. (I NEVER have those epiphany moments, but it seems you can’t avoid them on TV…)
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Lie To Me: I must admit, this is my favourite series at the moment. Everything I can say has already been said in my original review, but needless to say, Fox seem to have made the right call commissioning a third series (currently filming). After all, what’s not to love about Tim Roth being a smart-arse? This week, Lightman helps employee Torres figure out her lying delinquent sister while love interest Foster gets a beating and a date. (Not at the same time. Although…)
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Off-Road SAT-NAV 
Posted on July 25, 2010
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