LETHAL WEAPON, STV, 9pm
I’VE never seen Lethal Weapon so the phrase “buddy-cop film” was new to me, but when you throw a young, maverick cop together with an older, weary one and then they embark on big fiery adventures together, it seems you have a “buddy-cop film”. It’s especially effective when one is black and the other white. It’s a formula but it seems to work.
This new series is based on the Lethal Weapon films which is a nice gimmick and is sure to pull in the fans plus those who’re simply curious, like me.
Riggs has suffered a bereavement and joins the LAPD to start a new life. He is paired with veteran detective Murtaugh who’s back on the job after sick leave.
Riggs is gung-ho and reckless and Murtaugh is the weary voice of reason.
TRACEY ULLMAN’S SHOW, BBC1, 9.30pm
I THOUGHT I’d do an experiment: I’d watch this show with an open mind and a straight face and see if it could make me laugh. It did, once and once only. Yet again I’m left wondering why Ullman is so rich, famous and lauded.
She mocks daft TV shows again this week, with a miserable pathology drama called Winter at the Morgue, and later shows us a woman on her deathbed wishing she’d watched more structured reality shows. Really, Tracey, people in glass houses… My one laugh came from a coffee shop sketch where the insistent barista asks for the customer’s name for the cup, plus shoe size, best lover and “least favourite kind of deciduous tree.” It was a little snort of a laugh, but still counts.
And we get more Jerry Hall being a swishy-haired gold-digger, and more Nicola Sturgeon who swears she won’t rest until Donald Where’s Your Troosers? is the worldwide national anthem. Yawn.
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