It used to be that you could rely on AMC for one thing: movies. That's what AMC used to stand for - American Movie Classics. But after it changed its name to AMC in 2003, before you knew it, it could be relied on for another thing: re-runs of The Sopranos.
Mad Men changed all that. Suddenly, AMC was in the business of making TV drama. Excellent TV drama. Slow, excellent TV drama that takes a long time to develop and in which not much happens for a long time.
Then came Breaking Bad, a slow, excellent TV drama that took a long time to develop and in which not much happened for a long time, and The Prisoner, a slow bad TV drama that took a long time to develop and in which not much happened for a long time.
Rubicon, AMC's latest TV drama, is a conspiracy theory show set in the world of American spies that echoes movies like Three Days of the Condor, Parallax View and The Conversation. It stars James Badge Dale (24, The Pacific) as an analyst who begins to see crossword clues take on greater significance - and Miranda Richardson, whose husband commits suicide after he receives a four-leafed clover.
Anyone want to guess what it's like? I'll give you a clue - you'll have to wait until episode five before you're even going to get a hint at what's going on and it gets good.
In case you're wondering where "Random Acts" was over August, well Ali Larter wasn't acting randomly. She just wasn't. What? You thought this was merely a thinly veiled excuse to publish pictures of Ali Larter every week and I was just on holiday? Wow. How wrong were you?
I mean if that's what it was all about, right about now, I'd have a picture of her running in the rain for no good reason, now wouldn't I?
Oh.
All the same, now it's September, she's being all random again.
For starters, she's got two actual movies out this month, one online, one in cinemas in 3D – yes, 3D. Did I mention it's in 3D? The first is Lemon Drop in which she randomly saves kittens. That's out on Tuesday. But she's also got Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, which is out next Friday.
Here's a featurette with her talking all about it being in 3D and kicking a really tall guy in 3D.
But now she's randomly gone to Japan for the Resident Evil: Afterlife premiere. She's there right now. She is. Look – here's a live stream.
And she's having her picture taken with random people.
Good to see the randomness back, Ali.
Have you seen Ali Larter acting randomly? If so, let us know and we'll tell everyone about it in "Random Acts of Ali Larter"
Time for our regular look at what TV the BFI is showing on the South Bank in London in October. But first, a little late addition to September's BFI programme. On the 8th of this month (that's next Wednesday), the BFI (and HBO) are presenting a preview of The Special Relationship, which stars Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton. There are still a few seats available, so get in there quickly if you can.
Now for October. It's mostly going to be the Film Festival this month, but there's also Michael Parkinson in conversation, a preview of thorne: sleepyhead that includes a Q&A with David Morrissey, as well as a season of plays directed by James Cellan Jones.
If you haven't been watching Modern Family on ABC/Sky1, you really should have been because it's one of the funniest shows around -- which is also why it won a whole cluster of Emmys on Sunday.
During said Emmys, there was this 'ere skit, in which a TV exec decides to tinker with the Modern Family format. You might spot a crossover with Family Guy as well as a guest appearance from a certain major movie star.
This is going to be the last entry on the blog for most of (if not all of) August, so it's going to be an open-ended thread for y'all to chat about what you've been watching on TV this month – assuming you want to, of course. I've a few things in my queue that I'm going to be watching on planes, including Rubicon, ep 2 of Mad Men (which is already looking better than ep 1) and the first two eps of the new Tricia Helfer-enhanced Dark Blue (I'm unsure if this is a good thing or not, but I remain open-minded).
But this week, I've been watching:
Burn Notice: Reasonably fun, but in the scheme of things, a throwaway ep, bookended with a couple of interesting character scenes.
Covert Affairs: The first really good ep of the series, with Oded Fehr as a Mossad agent. It had a real Bourne Identity feel to it, and the activities back at Langley seemed to be more coherent. Fingers crossed the rest of the season will be like this.
The Gates: Vampire fun! A good ep, but when will Nick find out about the rest of the Gates's secrets?
The IT Crowd: Nice cameo by that bloke off The Mighty Boosh and as funny as always.
Persons Unknown: Silly. But could it all be in their heads?
Rev: A nice way to end this series. Not many belly laughs since the first ep, but surprisingly deep with a knowing humour. Fingers crossed for a second series.
Royal Pains: Slightly interesting playing around with time and Fringe-esque graphics. Some decent character moments, but I'm missing Hank-Jill and the general edge the show had in season one, even if it's nice to have Anastasia Griffith around.
Scoundrels: Moderately amusing at best, but it does seem to be settling down and working out a vibe for itself.
Top Gear: A so-so season over all. It's definitely losing its appeal now it's trying to be more serious.
As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you've reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).
We had a little Covert Affairs competition running last week on the blog. Well, the Internet random number generator has spoken and the winner of the goodie bag is…
Continue reading
Can you cope? Can you bear it? Will you be flying your flags at half-mast? It's the first – and last – Sitting Tennant for August. Darn those vacations, getting in the way of things and stopping all us from going postal. So to keep those happy few of… Continue reading
It's that time of the year – summer holidays/vacations (delete as appropriate). Pretty much for the rest of this month, one of two things can be guaranteed. Either: You'll be on holiday or; I'll be on holiday; Certainly: There's not going to be a huge amount of new shows to… Continue reading
It's Monday so it's time for the Big Train sketch of the week. This week, a postman gets his revenge.
You can, incidentally, get the whole of Big Train on DVD.
Continue reading
About the blog
This is a UK media blog with daily news, views, exclusive reviews and good conversation. There's a bit of a bias towards the latest and greatest US TV, but we also cover British TV ranging from new Doctor Who to old Z Cars, Property Ladder to Big Brother, and BBC4 to S4C – yes, this blog is firmly part of the conspiracy to promote all things Welsh where possible, particularly Caerdydd.
Add in film, theatre, art, books, events and media journalism and you've (hopefully) got one of the best places on the web for media lovers. Oh yes, and there's The Carusometer, the ultimate guide to quality TV.
About me
I'm Rob Buckley, a freelance journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of. I've edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for trade magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and contributed sarcastic articles about television to the blink-and-you-missed-it "web site for urban hedonists" The Tribe. I'm freelance now and have contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly and TV Scoop. Have pity on me.
Read more on Review: Rubicon - 1x1-1x6