Bring the Fun

We're still early into the new US TV, so early that series like Lost and BSG are yet to start. However, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, there is a far greater variety of SF on offer. This post is about how some series are having more fun.

The Fun benchmark has recently been reset with ABC Family's superlative effort The Middleman. While I'm not sure of its actual success it has had some very positive critical reaction. For those not in the know this series barely avoided being buried completely, and has largely been promoted through word of mouth. It concerns the life of struggling artist Wendy "Dubby" Watson, who gets hired by a mysterious agency to train as an assistant to the Mysterious Middleman, with the help of grumpy robot Ida they fight all manner of bizarre evil, from alien boybands and gangs of lucho libre wrestlers to trout craving zombies and Gangster Gorillas. Its loaded with references to other series, comics, films etc and has a sharp bonkers sense of humour, from insisting on using TV's Stock scream at least once per episode (SO much so that I chuckle every time i hear it in other series) to the bizarre location and time references at the start of each scene. It is a Joy and while only 12 episodes long is well worth your bandwidth (Or your money if you happen to run a TV network).

Now, not Even Pushing Daises (Season 2 coming soon) is as daft and pure fun as middleman, but there are a few other series which at least have more of a sense of humour. We will be getting Both Chuck and Reaper back at some point along with Season 2 of Pushing Daises. (Ok I could be wrong about reaper) but it is nice to see they avoided the axe that looked certain after the writers strike.

Finally, and another new series, only 3 episodes in, is the new, re-vamped Knight Rider.

The pilot of this was promising, although did commit the cardinal sin of having the car being out of use for a fair chunk of its length. The series has made some tweaks, Most striking are KITT's transforming abilities, in the pilot he changed colour and had a near imperceptible high speed mode. Taking criticism for not being able to distinguish modes he has been given the ability to transform into a truck (Ford, Nacth) and a "Battle Mode" which I like the idea of a little more than some elements of the execution. Other additions are a larger supporting cast and a fixed base with repair and technicians, as well as the Hercules plane we saw in the pilot. So impressions. For the most part the series is good, episodic fun action TV. Essentially each week, much like the original series, Michael Knight (Changed from Mike Traceur in the pilot) and KITT are sent on missions by the Knight Foundation, or Knight Research as it is now. Missions inevitably involve Action, so fast driving, gunfights and spy type malarkey. In fact this series is higher on its Bond type antics than its predecessor, so they infiltrate buildings, use gadgets and do undercover work. There also is usually an excuse to look at women in Bikinis. There are underlying sub-plots, such as Mike's relationship with Sarah, KITT's ability to learn and act on his own, and his secret black ops past which even he can't remember. In truth it's been enjoyable so far, and will be fine in my book if it sticks to its fun action series, rather than getting bogged down with arc plots.

In fact Both Knight Rider and Middleman would not look out of place in the Saturday late afternoon/teatime slot that Hercules the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess occupied in the late '90s, or indeed as Knight Rider and its contemporaries occupied in the 80s. And this is a good thing as the current SF crop isn't always that family friendly or indeed nice to new watchers, and so a couple of decent action fun series could be just what the doctor ordered, particular in the coming year when he won't be about as much.