Phoo Action

Time for a new series on BBC3, London 2012 Japanese kung-foo cop Terry Phoo joins up with Budha's pants-wearing teenager Whitey Action to foil the plans of the mutant Freebie gang. Yeah seriously.

Based on a comic strip that ran in the now defunct The Face magazine it's difficult to determine what demographic this show is aimed at. The opening sequence with the obvious Power-Ranger style make-up of the mutants, and the obvious 'plot' seems to place this firmly in the children bracket, but it's on too late at 9pm. Mix that though with the loud music, quick cut-shots, and 'street-talk' it gets pushed into the teenage stumbling home drunk category except now it's on too early. In either case I'm obviously not a part of the targeted audience

It felt odd too, like they'd screwed up the budget somehow. Blown the money on Phoo's car and some of the sets then had to film part of it using their mate's camcorder in the first empty warehouse they could find. The acting was... overblown - hi I'm a Big Black American Cop, I'm an Angsty Teenager and I'm a Quiet Japanese Guy; all rented from Stereotypes Am We. Sure it matched the comic book style with the lack of depth, and indeed any form of explanation of anything, but that just emphasized the feeling that you'd just jumped into the series half-way.

It may get better, but so far it has the feel of a one-trick pony that doesn't know which way to stagger home.