The Difficult Second Album

Jerry Seinfeld dressed as Elvis, and "The Death of Rwanda" talk about mixed tones

If the rumours are to be believed; this man could very well be coming back to our screens with a new project at NBC. But how do you follow something as big as Seinfeld? Larry David managed it beautifully with the magnificent Curb Your Enthusiasm and it's that show that Jason Alexander and Julia Louis Dreyfuss have done their best work, neither being able to hit the comedy heights they reached with Seinfeld in their own sitcoms. So can Jerry manage it? I certainly hope so, I love the guy, I even risked being put on a register by turning up to see his kids film Bee Movie in the middle of the afternoon. So best of luck Seinfeld, don't let us down.

Two other big stars who have recently embarked on new projects are Peter Krause and Kelsey Grammer.

Krause was really the main star of the fantastic funeral director drama Six Feet Under (although he also plays Jim Carey's boss in The Truman Show!) and Dirty Sexy Money is really his first drama show since the beautiful season finale. and it's pretty good. Of course, from the opening scenes, I did worry that Krause is carving out a market in playing the man who doesn't want to be like his father but ends up doing his job. But Nick (his character in this.) is a lot more grounded than Nate Fisher, he is a happily married lawyer (Presumably setting up a dramatic fall from grace.) and does a lot of charity work but is seduced into working for the extremely rich family his father spent his life working for, covering up for them etc. The family themselves have a dark secret that we discover at the close of episode 1, forming the driving force of the series; one of them may just very well have killed Nick's dad. It's delightfully trashy, and hugely entertaining and has Donald Sutherland as the patriarch of the family, the scenes between him and Krause are excellent. Dirty Sexy Money hits Channel 4 quite soon, by which time I hope to have watched it all!

I bigged up Frasier last week, and rightfully so, and its star Kelsey Grammer is finally back on TV in Fox's new sitcom Back To You. Grammer plays Chuck Darling, a former local news anchor who has to return to the network that made him a star after a meltdown live on air. This sort of plot could be done in the non-laughter track, meta-tv style of The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm or Extras or any number of pretenders to the throne of Gervais and David. Thankfully, the script doesn't allow it, this is traditional live studio audience stuff and is actually very very funny. The supporting characters are all excellent, (especially the fantastic Fred
Willard as sports anchor.) and the running will they-wont they? plot between Chuck and co-anchor Kelly is actually engaging much like early Niles and Daphne. It's really refreshing to have a traditional sitcom back on our screens, which doesn't mind a laughter track (Something new BBC sitcom Empty is sorely lacking.) and equally refreshing to have one that's genuinely funny. I leave you with a picture of the legend that is Mr Fred Willard. See ya real soon, ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Spin City

I've been watching a lot of Frasier recently, on account of having a lot of work to avoid and having the Paramount Comedy Channel in my room. Now, Frasier is perhaps the single greatest example of a spin-off; a completely different sort of show from Cheers, and running for the same time, it is a show that you can enjoy without ever seeing the original show from which it was er...spun(?) A shame then, that the most recent examples of the spin-off haven't quite learned this lesson; The Green Green Grass relies mainly on the fact you're only watching it because you want to see characters from the perrenial classic Only Fools and Horses. I can't think of one person who would watch it for any other reason. The CSI franchise depends more on the fact that people want to see the same grisly murders and forensic investigation in a variety of different locations, fair enough I suppose.

A desire to see favourite characters and the 'same thing, different place' are the problems that Life on Mars 'sequel', spin-off, Ashes to Ashes certainly suffers from.Say what you like about it's ending, but Life on Mars was a fresh, original take on the cop show. It gave us Gene Hunt, and a Camberwick Green episode about a nonce bashing. Then, unlike most shows these days, it knew when to wrap things up and answer our questions. Only it didn't, fair enough we knew that all of it took place in Sam's head, but they didn't let it lie. The BBC demanded more Gene Genie; and after a presumably short tone meeting they went: "Gene Hunt in the 80s?" and lo, we have Ashes to Ashes. Now, shows like 24 and Lost have annoyed me in the past, but I stick with them because I want to find out what the hell is going on. I have no such compulsion with Ashes, don't get me wrong, I fancy Keeley Hawes and I love Gene Hunt, but that isn't enough is it? We know exactly what's happened, she's in a coma and has taken Sam's characters into her consciousness...and Alex Drake doesn't let us forget it, constantly referring to everyone as constructs. If she knows what's going on, and we know what's going on, then where the hell is the entertainment? Oh, right, shallow "I Heart 1980's" style references to pop culture. According to Matthew Graham, there are answers about Gene Hunt, but surely the whole 'I read Sam's report and have taken those characters into my consciousness.' is answer enough?

"He came and went" F-nar F-nar

Remember this? Ah those heady early days of "Adult" spin-off Torchwood with it's "Nymphomaniacs from Space!" plotlines and casual but really forced use of the F-word. It's got better this year, but it's still not without its problems. Consistancy is certainly one of them, we only seem to be getting about 2 episodes in a row that are actually any cop. And I am starting to like and care about the characters, especially after this weeks Owen-centric episode, so I would probably watch it if it wasn't a spin-off from my beloved Doctor Who.

So what have we learned? That the spin-off relies on the familiarity with an aspect of it as a hook, but should really present you with something a bit different at the same time. This is of course hardly fresh and new insight, but the fact that Cleveland from Family Guy is said to be getting his own show, suggests that maybe TV Land needs a refresher course in spin-offs.