Paradox, BBC1

The Beeb's latest attempt at science fiction - at least I think it was supposed to be sci-fi. Somehow, a chap who's apparently doing space research starts picking up messages from the future. But, although what he gets are quite high-definition images whoever is sending them has a weird sense of humour and makes sure not to send anything that is actually useful - but just hints at foreboding. This chap, who's only job in the series is to look glum, speak in riddles and exude an air of resentment is a scientist. We know this because he talks about worm-holes and has a massive computer screen in his "lab" (though anyone who's ever been in a real-life laboratory would not recognise the BBC's version of one).

Somehow, a group of police people get assigned to solving, or better: preventing the bad things that magically appear on space-guy's screen: leaving no trace of how they got there. They do all the usual police things: looking stern, acting focused, strutting around issuing orders and acting with a sense of urgency that you only see on real officers when their shift is about to end and they still have a pile of paperwork to complete. As is usual and entirely predictable, space-guy initially rails against the "authority figures" in a passive-aggressive manner, but since he adds nothing to the plot pretty much everything he says and does (or doesn't do) can be ignored. Same with the cops: for all their running around and decisive action, they achieve remarkably little until the last 10 minutes of each episode.

As a show full of caricature characters it's great. They each do what you'd expect them to ans as individual episodes they engage on a basic level - provided you aren't expecting depth, or revelations as when it comes down to business it is still really just a cop show. Will it get a second series? Who knows. Who cares. It filled a bit of time and now it's gone: the televisual equivalent of popcorn.