Review: Crusoe Premiere

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
So Crusoe premiered last week on NBC. I’d posted a review as written by some cynical yahoo – that was my assumption at least, having not seen the show yet myself. Now I have – and yeah, he was a bit of a yahoo. Two men being friends and living on an island together (hardly by choice, mind you) does not a gay duo make. And just because a pirate is a girl pirate does not make her a Keira Knightly wannabe.

BUT, that doesn’t mean this show was great, exactly. It would have been great – had it been broadcast in 1985. Crusoe’s gadgetry seems straight out of MacGuyver or the A-Team, especially when Crusoe and Friday start prepping for an upcoming invasion – I could hear the A-Team soundtrack in my head the whole time. Continue reading

‘Crusoe’ faces challenges in quest for ratings – BostonHerald.com

‘Crusoe’ faces challenges in quest for ratings – BostonHerald.com.

OK, I don’t have high hopes for this series, simply because when it comes to television and movies, high hopes need to be earned with a steady barrage of decent previews and news. To just hear, “ooh, pirate show” and get all excited that it will rock is naive. So no, I don’t have high hopes for Crusoe – but I’ll watch it and see.

That said, I do sense a little bit of over-abundant cynisism from this reviewer. His comments about homoeroticism, a Keira-Knightly wannabe, and suggestion that the show is canceled before it’s begun all sound to me like he was inclined to hate Crusoe before he even viewed it. Personally, my first concern about the Robinson Crusoe story as a series was how to make it ongoing without stretching it as thin as Lost, so limiting its run would actually make sense. True, the US doesn’t do that hardly ever with a show, but I understand it’s a technique that’s been put to good effect overseas. But I also know that thinking the studio had the forsight to create a limited run series is itself wishful thinking, so perhaps I’m naive afterall.

Maybe this bloke is right on all accounts and Crusoe is a debacle looking to milk a little advertising time off the Pirates of the Caribbean coat tails – it’s surely possible. But his tone leads me to believe he’s just had it with pirates and views anything that’s not Johnny Depp as a mere shallow ratings grab regarless of individual quality or value. I’m sure we’ll all judge for ourselves. It premieres tomorrow (October 17, 2008), by the way.

Crusoe on NBC

Crusoe

I’d heard rumors of this, but only just now came across the official website. NBC is going to release a series about Robinson Crusoe, permiering October 17th.

Having never read the book, and only seen one movie on the subject of Crusoe (and a rather bad one at that), I think I’ll be able to watch this with fresh eyes and determine it’s suck vs. awesome factor on its own merit. TV doesn’t really have a great track record when it comes to pirates, but we’ll see.

From the preview, I gather this much – Crusoe is an ordinary bloke who’s been torn from his boring existence and forced to live upon a tropical paradise where he’s hunted by pirates and gets to flirt each day with a hot pirate chick. And dispite this incredible turn of fate, he still morns for the loss of his old life. There’s no pleasing some people.