Murder By Rote, Thus Step In The Bland-as-stone Cops
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday June 12, 2008
THE GIL MAYO MYSTERIES 8.30pm, ABC1: The first mystery demanding solution is why this sub-standard BBC detective series was given the go-ahead, let alone made and put to air. It is desperately ordinary - a slab of formula contrivance so bereft of originality or credibility that watching it can only increase depression about the dwindling of originality in the medium. Peak oil and creative perigee? Crimes of the kind that have contributed to the rapid depopulation of Midsomer are thrown across the desks of an unlikely detective unit headed by Detective Inspector Gil Mayo (Alistair McGowan). Slightly rumpled, overly pedantic and given to wisecracking, Mayo's personal life is dysfunctional enough to affect his professional career and to create friction (how tremendously novel) with his offsider, Detective Sergeant Alex Jones. Jones (Jessica Oyelowo) is a glamourchops and Mayo's former girlfriend. You can smell the rancid non-conformity of this weary conceit, which is shamelessly exacerbated by the behaviour of other squad members. They include Detective Constable Martin Kite (Huw Rhys), your bumbling Welsh boyo who fecklessly imagines himself as one of those suave babe-magnet sleuths he has long admired in dozens of B-grade TV dramas, and "Anorak" (Loo Brealey), the brilliant lab chick eager to display her forensic skills - be it making rudimentary cocktails from lab alcohol or pinpointing the origin of a sliver of stained glass. Mysteries are dexterously unravelled by Mayo's anal retention and logic plus Alex's intuitive deductions. This convergence of reasoning is balanced by Anorak's nit-picking analysis of evidence and the speculative nature of Martin's enthusiasm. Then there's Mayo's neglected teenage daughter, Julie (Lucy Evans), who brings neither comedy, drama nor even teenage angst to proceedings. Dead ordinary meringue suitable only for those too weary or weak to refuse trifle.
CATALYST 8pm, ABC1: Brandishing a flagon of Belinda Neal Snowcap hock, a fruity little libation with a radioactive half-life of 50,000 years, Dr Norman Swan asks: How much alcohol is too much? Judging by the demeanour of assorted rugby league fans I saw lurching home from the boozer last night (them, not me) tew mush is never efriggin nuff, eh?! Go the Blues! (regurgitating noises off). While Inspector Mayo and his associates delve into puzzling contemporary homicides, a find of human remains at an archeological site in Ireland initiates an unusually intense retro-investigation.GRAND DESIGNS 6.05pm, ABC1: Yuen Chew owns a one-bedroom flat in London and reckons the Zen/pop retro style would suit his plans for renovation to a tee. As is usual with the spatial dreams examined in this series, the cost blows out ferociously. Yuen's budget of #20,000 ($41,400) ratchets up to more than #100,000. For a one-bedroom flat!? Along the way, Kevin McCloud and Yuen travel to the Hempel Hotel - a triumph of East-West fusion - and enjoy an exhibition of work by the influential Danish designer Verner Panton, the guru of '60s and '70s fluidity.THE AMAZING RACE 9.30pm, Seven: Is it possible to run and conduct a domestic dispute simultaneously? Eleven teams congregate at the architectural folly of Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills 90210 and, having just missed Mr Hefner's close companion, Shannon Tweed, fly to Shannon in Ireland to begin their adventures on bicycles. One of the more unpleasant couples reveal it is possible to squabble and jog simultaneously. Unedifying, at best.RADIOTHE MEDIA REPORT 8.30am, Radio National: Sometimes a picture of an anonymous human being in distress is all it takes to create empathy and practical response. Images of disasters - man-made and natural - prompt us to react. NGOs, which frequently provide the link between need and reaction, have become aware of the power of IT and media techniques in expanding their donor base. Today's program examines the concept of altruistic networking.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald