The TV Set: The Top Five Shows We Should Be Watching

13 May 2013 | 12:14 pm | Andrew Mast

5 Shows We Should Be Watching - The Checkout is as funny as Today Tonight; The Office is still on; And Hannibal is artful serial killing.

The last edition of The TV Set featured a look at 5 Shows That We Should Not Be Watching. So, to prove that The TV Set is not the domain of a "sour cunt", as one reader commented, this week TV guides were scrutinised for the good that is available to be beamed into your loungeroom/study/train ride to work/office computer. It's not a list of the Best That Is On, just a list of shows that maybe need more attention then they are getting.

The Checkout

1. THE CHECKOUT

Ratings: This new diffusion range by The Chaser is a Thursday night hit for ABC1. Since the comedic consumer affairs half-hour landed in March it's spent most weeks amongst the top ten shows of the night, a few weeks ago peaking at 912,000 viewers (with time-shifted numbers added in, it came close to the magic million mark). It wins a slot against Gourmet Farmer on SBS1 (less than 400,000 viewers) and Jamie's 15 Minute Meals (struggling around the half-mill mark); it's also hurting 9's Top Gear (668,000 last week) and 7's Border Security: International (about 50,000 Checkout).

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The Good: It's a hit. Back in the '80s, ABC-TV ruled at consumer awareness with Helen Wellings being all Miss Fisher about warranties and scams. But since then, consumer scam TV got mired in a cesspool of foot-in-the-door gotcha moments, overdue bill montages and overweight-tradies-running-down-driveways-in-shakey-handheld-cam-chase-scenes.

The Bad: Some of the skits have less comedic value than a Today Tonight party drug expose. Last week's film noir Chinese animal testing piece took five minutes, and probably the whole week's budget, to make a point that could have been made more succinctly - and with better comedy performances – using a one-minute collage of cute kitten clips sourced from YouTube.

The Not-Ugly-At-All: Kirsten Drysdale. While Chaser lads Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel are the faces that Middle Australia know, Drysdale is the breakout star. She's paid her dues on The Gruen Transfer, Hungry Beast and The Hamster Wheel but here she gets to drive segments that mine the information for humour rather than trying to make the story fit the skit (see above). Her takedown of the milk 'permeate scare' cut through all the industry jargon with ease and the comic timing of a pro. Drysdale could easily walk from this into a faux reporting job on America's Daily Show.

What To Switch Off: If you work at Swisse or admire Nicole Kidman, switch this show off.

 Note: The Checkout is off air this week but returns to ABC1 on May 23 - with only two episodes left in this series.

Hannibal 

2. HANNIBAL

Ratings: In Wednesday's 10.30pm slot, obviously 7 were hoping this could retain the viewers that tune in earlier for long-running US police procedural Criminal Minds. However about half-a-million viewers bailed ahead of Hannibal (on May 2, 735,000 folk were in front of Minds at 8.30 but only 203,000 remained for Hannibal). But it's up against low expectation shows on rival networks: Lateline (ABC1); Late News (Ten) and whatever filler 9 can scramble together (“encore screenings” of early evening hits or UK reality shows left over from Channel 4 packages brought on the cheap for their $2 networks – Go! and Gem).

The Good: Its creator Bryan Fuller crafted great US noughties TV – Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. He casts his shows with care, allows the art direction to be as thoroughly evolved as his characters (objects can have back stories too) and the cinematography is… cinematic.

The Bad: You just know 7 are going to Amazing-Race this show and re-schedule it, unannounced, to Wednesday afternoons on 7Mate (there are only so many Pimp My Ride eps to go round) .

The Not-Ugly-At-All: Getting to see cast from Wonderfalls (Caroline Dhavernas is Anna Bloom), Dead Like Me (Ellen Muth to guest soon) and Pushing Daisies (Molly Shannon was the serial-killing child-collector) back in action.

What To Switch Off: As Hamish Macdonald's role in Hollywood blockbuster Olympus Has Fallen proved, he's got a long career of newsreader cameos ahead of him. So you can skip Late News and catch him later at your local multiplex.

The Office 

3. THE OFFICE

Ratings: Only four networks rate lower than Eleven on Sunday nights, when this soon-to-wrap US sit-com airs: ABC News 24, ABC3, SBS2 and NITV. Eleven even failed to deliver a show into the night's free-to-air multi-channel ratings top 20 that night. That means The Office attracted less than 200,000 folk (and that's a generous low bar figure). It was cream(pied) by a repeat of Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life on 7Mate.

The Good: Calling it quits after nine seasons, means there won't be Season 12 episodes that you stumble upon in a decade when 111 rerun it and you find yourself thinking, “I don't remember Creed winning the lottery and buying the company”, “Jim & Pam joined Dwight's cult?!” or “Soooo, they all ended up working in the same karaoke bar…”

The Bad: With Steve Carrell, BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling all now MIA (and Ed Helms not full-time), many of the replacements are seat fillers. Poor old Catherine Tate looks like she's just been lingering on the set since her season 8 cameo because she's actually homeless now.

The Not-Ugly-At-All: This final season has not only given us a super-sized serving of Dwight but has also returned to the office-politics plotlines of early seasons. There has also been room for some of the support cast to do more of their schtick: Angela, Toby, Darryl and Kevin yucking it up for the show reels they'll soon be hawking about for new jobs. Hopefully there's one-last creepy Creed and dirty Meredith story before they disappear into the swinging Scranton suburbia?

What To Switch Off: If everyone got just one person they know to stop watching Two And A Half Men season 11, we could put an end to this blight.

House Of Cards 

4. HOUSE OF CARDS

Ratings: The US remake of the '90s UK political thriller debuted last Tuesday night on subscription TV's Showcase. It failed to make the night's top 20 cable shows. An old ep of The Big Bang Theory on Comedy Channel was at 20 with 39,000 viewers – so, ah, it's probably making The Office's figures look good.

The Good: A tight script makes Kevin Spacey's fourth wall-breaking narration a natural way to tell this story. Also, Executive Producer David Fincher hasn't hogged all the directing duties for himself – a few eps are helmed by James Foley, the man responsible for 1986 crime flick At Close Range (with Crispin Glover - when studios thought he might be the next big movie star).

The Bad: There have been times when House Of Cards seems to think it's The Wire seasons three (the political shenanigans) and five (the media shenanigans). It's not. It's good but Spacey is no McNulty.

The Not-Ugly-At-All: Robin Wright. She too has worked with Crispin Glover and survived. Treading water for decades, Wright returned triumphantly to TV last year in Enlightened (she was a soap actor in the '80s). Forget her previous big screen sleepwalks in UK TV adaptations (The Singing Detective, State Of Play), here Wright's bringing the elegant arrogance required for her power-digging, jogging-obsessed character.

What To Switch Off: Actually, it's more 'what to switch on'? Foxtel are using this high-media-profile series to promote its mobile and on-demand platforms. You can watch episodes weekly in blocks on TV or binge-watch all 13 episodes through other Foxtel-related formats. Make it your must-see commuting viewing.

Wentworth 

5. WENTWORTH

Ratings: Wentworth's debut on Foxtel's SoHo landed in that night's top ten cable shows… twice. That's 163,000 viewers all-up. In Foxtel terms, that's up there with AFL and NRL broadcast figures.

The Good: It's a prequel that seems determined not to undermine the mythology of the original Prisoner series it's based on. Old fans get some back story and new fans get no baggage.

The Bad: Just like the original, some of the male cast members seem stuck in soap-acting mode. Maybe they need to watch the men-in-prison Punishment made to cash in on Prisoner back in the day. One look at Barry Crocker and Mel Gibson in that and they'll be grateful for the work in a world without Underbelly.

The Not-Ugly-At-All: The prison yard location is shot in zombie-filter and it makes for spectacular blue hues that intensifies the outdoor scenes – making the original's garden location a summer camp by comparison.

What To Switch Off: Unless Rebecca Gibney snaps and goes on a stay-at-home dad killing spree that lands her a stint inside – switch off Packed To The Rafters and House Husbands.