University Challenge Still Hits the Button

Jeremy Paxman is a clever cloggs but doesn't quite know the answer to every or even most questions on 'University Challenge' (BBC2). As a host, he can be hectoring, boorish, patronising and a total pain in the arse. But he brings the best out of the real clever clogsses, who have been 'reading' English, Science and Law since 1962 and have been amazing viewers with their arcane and astonishing knowledge and memory. Quizzes are a dime a dozen but 'thetvreviewguy' has always had time for this particular programme ever since he made a couple of ill-fated appearances on the now discontinued Irish equivalent 'Challenging Times'. It's particularly impressive that students have a broad range of reading and knowledge in this 'google' age of transient news and information overload. For 'thetvreviewguy', original quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne will always be the 'Guvnor', one of the original 'telly dons' (even if Gazza wasn't a lecturer as such, he came across as one, and a brainy one to boot). Of course, 'University Challenge' flatters this viewer's ego whenever he answers a few questions during an episode - but unfortunately, barely any of the science ones; 'UC' shows the audience and critics alike that 'high-brow' and 'tv' don't have to be exclusive of each other. There are, in Donald Rumsfeld's phrase [former Chief of Staff in the Ford Administration, became associated with the strategy of 'shock and awe' and later 'extraordinary rendition'] lots of unknowns out there. A programme like 'University Challenge' reduces the unknowns for 'thetvreviewguy' somewhat; it still leaves him knowing how much he doesn't know. Who'd have thought something that makes us feel smart can make us feel dumb at the same time?

Return of the Mack

Lee Mack is one of the funniest British comics around at the moment. His timing, his wit, exuberance and Northerness make him an entertaining and personable guy. While 'thetvreviewguy' so wanted his flagship Saturday night vehicle to succeed, 'Lee Mack's All Star Cast' (BBC1) doesn't quite gel, despite Mack's winning personality. The show is an obvious mix of concepts from Graham Norton audience participation and web-cam links, to regular chat show and comedy stand-up. Mack seemed atypically hesitant on his first outing and this is probably down to the constant jumping in format that he has to somehow make seem as original and a draw for the fickle, flicking viewer. Fern Britton and Frank Skinner did their best as guests to keep the show moving along and their obvious respect for the host was evident but as a spectacle, it was just too messy and frenetic. Now 'thetvreviewguy' knows that if you're stuck watching TV on a Saturday night, you're either broke, married/partnered up or single but that's no excuse for watching any old iron. 'All Star Cast' deserves better production; Mack is fast on the way to becoming the thinking man's Michael McIntyre, i.e. funny as well as popular and the BBC should really be making better use of his talents. Now, if only they'd line up Tim Vine as part of a double header variety show; the BBC could have another Baddiel and Skinner hit on their hands. Instead, you can watch Áll Star Cast' safe in the knowledge that it's the best of a not-great bunch on a Saturday night.

New York's Finest?

There's no shortage of TV po-po shows these days and quality-control needs to be rigorously applied. 'Blue Bloods' (RTE2), a much-trailed NYPD cop drama, revolves around the Irish-American Reagan family, three generations of Poh-Lease, with Tom Selleck as the current Police Commissioner. Donnie Wahlberg plays a distinctly Republican Bull he is counter pointed by his liberal, college-man brother, also a cop. Throw in an Assistant DA sister and 'Cut-me-and-I-bleed-Blarney' ex-cop grandfather and you have the makings of an interesting family dynamic. Sadly, the family scenes are the only original and compelling parts of the programme. Otherwise, 'thetvreviewguy' finds it to be a mish-mash of 'The Wire' without the swearing and the realism and 'Law and Order', without the Order and with 'whodunit' scripts that are clichéd and pat. It's a pity because the family plot-line to 'Blue Bloods' looks like being a real grower (there's been a recent commissioning of a second series). Selleck is watchable and can really act; while 'Magnum' was fun, it could never be accused of gravitas and moral integrity, both of which the actor brings to his role in 'Blue Bloods'. Still, thankfully, it's not CSI - there's no techno or forensics BS. Instead, the writers try to meld to stories into one; the family tale and the shooty, crimey stuff; the joins are by no means seamless. Wahlberg may be role- limited but he does chippy Micks down to a t. 'Blue Bloods' is better than a lot of the garbage out there but it ain't no David Simon show; for 'thetvreviewguy', it ain't no thing.

Dinner, Dinner, Dinner, Dinner...

It had to happen. 'Come Dine with Me Ireland' (TV3) has arrived and it doesn't disappoint, whatever your expectations are. If you're looking for cringe-worthy, face-palm tv, then you've got it by the bucketful - it copies earlier versions, except, this being Ireland, the guests seem to drink even more ('thetvreviewguy' is Irish, he's allowed say things like that); and, if the indications of the first few programmes are correct, they don't mind making complete numpties of themselves either. 'Reality' TV has always been about the selection process; who the producers pick is essential to the ingredients of the show. Naturally, if for you have a dinner party with clashing personalities who all happen to be annoyingly 'me-pointing', you'll be hitting telly jackpot. Now ‘thetvreviewguy’ knows all about the fleeting moment of fame that comes with appearing on the box; he twice captained his college in the not-much lamented 'Challenging Times' (for his US friends that was an Irish version of 'College Quiz Bowl'). So he can understand why mass media exposure has appeal (okay, in the case of 'Challenging Times', a bit less of the 'mass'). But he really doesn't want or need to make a complete tool of himself on national television (having perhaps done so in the past ). 'Come Dine with Me Ireland' hits the high tide mark in reality telly but reaches down to the lows when it comes to LCD entertainment. Not that funny, not that charming, 'Dine with Me' is like a passable but ultimately fruitless first date which won't have you rushing back for a second; more in the 'just good friends' category.

A Bit of a Domestic

'Life of  Riley'(BBC1) follows in the trail of 'Outnumbered' and other domestic, suburban, half-hour long, nuclear/step-family sit-coms.Of course, family life is mostly a round of domesticities, laundry baskets, dinners and humour but the tv portrayals of the family tend to concentrate on the first three items and are slim on the last. Caroline Quentin ('Men Behaving Badly') as the mother/wife 'Maddy Riley' is a fine comic actress and Neil Dudgeon ('A Touch of Frost', 'Midsomer Murders') plays a daft Dad deftly. You won't die laughing but you will smile; 'Life of Riley' never challenges the genre, preferring the comfort of a traditional sit-com structure. There's some good studio audience chuckles coming from intra-generational generated laughs. (Dad is rubbish with new technology, Mum unsuccessfully tries to use her kids argot). Sunday afternoon fare that has 'thetvreviewguy' thinking he could write this kind of stuff if he really wanted to and maybe he should. In the meantime, he'll have to be happy with a lot of mildly-amusing comedy shows and unearthing a few gems here and there. 'Life of Riley' is passable, and in someways, ideal viewing for overcast weather days. If  it gets stressed-out parents some peace for a while then that makes it even better.

It's a Fair Cop Gov

'Scott & Bailey' (ITV) is a passable female buddy-buddy cop show set in up North of Watford. Both characters are modern women who have lives outside of work and the programme jogs along at a medium pace ('Morse' being slow, any 'CSI' being quick).  Both Bailey (Susanne Jones) and Scott (Lesley Sharp) are played well and we have a rolling plot line with a one-off whodunit each week. The detective unit is run by the no-nonsense Inspector featuring a scene-stealing Amelia Bullmore. It's a demographic box ticker - single 30s woman? Check. Working mother? Check. And there's little of the mortuary chic that we get in most cop shows these days (although there is the obligatory post-mortem shot). Pluses: the characters are kind of convincing i.e. not totally incredible and the production values look good. Minuses; no one swears strongly and 48 minutes worth of telly detective investigation time barely opens a murder case book. Perhaps the biggest minus, and concessions being allowed for this being the scene-setting first episode, is that 'Scott & Bailey' is a character, not plot-driven story. And it's distinctly not cerebral, not the 'Wire', not even 'Cagney and Lacey' - which was one of 'thetvreviewguy's favourite eighties tv shows. 'Scott & Bailey' (the ampersand seems very important here) doesn't hit the Sunday night 'murther' vacuum left by 'Taggart'. May be a grower but 'thettvreviewguy' can take or leave it - cop show junkies wil get their fix though.

Miami Prison Blues - Louis Theroux Checks In

Louis Theroux, chronicler of the bizarre and outrageous, scores once again in 'Snitches Get Stitches' (BBC2), a fly on the wall, documentary in the savage hell that is Miami Mega Jail. Technically, all these prisoners are innocent; it's a remand prison. But there's little innocence in an environment where victimisation, stabbing and beatings are common and the guards look on and do little to intervene to prevent this feral culture from thriving. Theroux has matured over the years; previously, he may have once looked like a sensation-seeker, showing us freaks and misfits. But now, you really get the impression he cares. He cares about an obviously disturbed inmate accused of shooting his girlfriend; he never stops asking 'why?' though. The western world is by and large a civilised place; Theroux shows us places where the usual rules don't apply, where when someone asks you 'what shoe size are you?' (as these remand prisoners do), you know you're in for a vicious, senseless beating to take the shoes from your feet. 'Snitches Get Stitches' reminds 'thetvreviewguy' of how thin society's veneer of civilisation can be; how brutality can become common place; how prison, may work as punishment but not as rehabilitation. Most of the prisoners featured in 'Snitches Get Stitches' accept the twisted logic of the inmate code in Miami Mega Jail. Louis Theroux makes a great documentary and he is rapidly developing into an acute observer of society; 'thetvreviewguy' is happy watching Louis documentaries from the safety of his couch.