lmrk5705

All television shows these days are crap. They go soft because they're terrified of offending someone or a particular group. I can't remember the last time I watched a show that was even a quarter decent, until On Call.

End of Watch is my favourite movies of all time and Southland is one of my favourite TV shows of all time and On Call is a hybridised version of these two monumental achievements. The script is excellent the acting is first rate, I love the handheld camera which gives it an authentic look and it is quick and frenetic. Eriq La Salle of ER fame directs a number of episodes and does a fantastic job. I'm hoping against hope that this is the first in a renaissance of decent shows because everything is so sanitised and boring these days.

Really hoping this gets a second season because it is truly great.

The story isn't bad, but dear god, the overacting by an unrecognisably augmented Cate Blanchett is absolutely hilarious. That woman is incapable of doing subtlety. I actually found myself laughing in pretty much every scene she was in. And don't get me started on Sasha Baron Cohen. Sporting the world's worst, he looked more Borat than Borat. He absolutely cannot be cast in dramas because he can't act and it takes you out of the story particularly when he goes running through the office building looking part Ali G and part Borat.

I'm giving this three stars for the absolutely fantastic performances by Kevin Klein and Leslie Manville. I seriously didn't know that Kevin Klein was this good but I suppose having Blanchett and Cohen in the same series would make Mickey Mouse look good in comparison.

I really don't know what they the producers and directors were trying to achieve here. It's so ridiculously melodramatic . Maybe they were trying to hack back to the 1940s. I did watch all of it just because I wanted to find out how things ended but seriously I spent more time laughing than I did engrossed.

The first half of it wasn't too bad, in fact it was sort of watchable. Then they hit the seance scene, and from there it became absolutely hilarious. I seriously laughed and laughed and laughed. The psychic guy doing all the hocus-pocus rubbish looked like he just walked out of the pimp episode of Chappelle Show. He even looks like Dave Chappelle. He was dressed up like the hokiest looking stereotypical 1970's pimp. It was impossible to concentrate after that. Looks like it was made on a budget of $35. It was definitely a lost opportunity because the actors playing the mother and father were actually quite good.