In the US: Mondays, 10pm, Sundance Channel

An often-asked question these days is "Why is there so much good American TV on at the moment?" Look at Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boss, et al. Why are these shows all getting made now?

Scratch below the surface of the broadcasting schedules and you'll soon find two of the main answers:

1. Cable TV, which caters to smaller audiences and looks to differentiate itself from the mass market through quality by giving writers creative freedom, largely unfettered by the FCC rules that stifle ideas on network TV.
2. The large-scale demise of the independent American movie scene - all the writers who would normally have written intelligent, thoughtful dramatic movies have instead gone over to cable TV, where that creative freedom and the ability to study characters in long-form drama are a constant intoxicating appeal.

One of the biggest names in the independent movie scene is, course, Robert Redford's Sundance Festival, which has its own US TV channel as well. Up to now, that channel's task has been to promote and air independent movies, but it's now looking to branch out into original dramas. It’s no surprise, therefore, that for its first ever drama, not only has the channel gone to the producers of Breaking Bad for a quality product, it's commissioned possibly the most indie-est of all indie movies masquerading as a TV show.

Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released from death row after new DNA evidence shows that he might not have been the man who raped and murdered his 16-year-old girlfriend. After 19 years in jail, Daniel has to learn how to live again, his life having been on hold for so long. But having originally confessed to the crime, he also has to deal with the people in town who still believe he killed his girlfriend. Meanwhile, his family has to deal with the completely different Daniel who's returned to them.

Sound like fun? No, of course not, and despite becoming quite an incredible bit of drama, it suffers from the biggest flaw of a lot of indie movies, now stretched out and writ large over an entire season of episodes: nothing happens.

Here's a trailer.

Continue reading "Review: Rectify 1x1-1x2 (Sundance)"

Read other posts about: Mad Men, Suits

Film casting

• Ryan Reynolds to star in Tarsem Singh's Selfless
• Scarlett Johansson to star in Luc Besson's Lucy
• Jude Law to star in Kevin Macdonald's Black Sea
• Hugo Weaving to star in The Mule

UK TV

• Gina McKee, Andrew Lee Potts, Elliot Knight, Warren Brown, et al to star in BBC1's By Any Means
• Polly Walker, Aidan McArdle and Cal Macaninch join Mr Selfridge
• TLC acquires Devious Maids and Mistresses remake

• Wednesday ratings

US TV casting

• Guest stars for the finale of The Office
• Max Beesley joins Suits

• MTV green lights: Scream adaptation

New US TV show casting

• Corey Stoll to star in FX's The Strain
• Erika Alexander to recur on AMC's Low Winter Sun

Subscribe to the daily news by RSS or email, or follow me on Twitter for breaking updates

Read other posts about: Mr Selfridge, Suits

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC
In the UK: Acquired by Sky Living
In Canada: Thursdays, 10pm, CityTV

Serial killers, the doyennes of 90s cinema and TV largely thanks to a little known movie, Silence of the Lambs, that featured an equally little known character called Hannibal Lecter, are back with a vengeance this year. Although Criminal Minds has been chugging along for God knows how long, giving us deranged, implausible serial killer after deranged, implausible serial killer, and obviously Dexter has now been doing his thing for eight seasons, apparently this isn't enough serial killing for TV because this year we've already had the debuts of The Following, Cult, and Bates Motel, a prequel to 1960s horror classic and original serial killer movie, Psycho.

And I've been wondering why, because largely they've had very little to offer that's new, beyond more gore than was allowed 10-20 years ago. Lots of women getting raped and hacked up, with the writers having as much regard for the victims as their fictional sociopaths do - is this some kind of Faludi-esque backlash, a symptom of the resurgence of rape culture in society or simply a fashion, these things going in cycles?

So leave it to not quite the original but certainly one of the best serial killers to show us that there is room creatively for such shows and that they can still thrill and challenge without being exploitative. Because Hannibal Lecter is back, this time played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, in a prequel of sorts to one of my favourite movies, the much neglected cult favourite Manhunter based on Lecter creator Thomas Harris's original book Red Dragon.

The show, written by Pushing Daisies creator and Heroes saviour Bryan Fuller, looks at Manhunter's Will Graham (played in the movie by CSI's William Petersen) and his early career, putting front and centre the man with "the mind of a psychopath", who can empathise with and recreate the thoughts of serial killers in his mind. Importantly, it also expands on, changes and builds up how he first meets the man who would end up driving him crazy, whom he ultimately incarcerates and who in a sense defines him: Lecter himself. And they're going to end up working together, even if Hannibal has a little secret that he's keeping from Graham and the FBI.

Featuring a roster of fabulous actors as well as Thomas Harris characters familiar to any fan, it's also absolutely fantastic.

Here's a trailer.

Continue reading "Review: Hannibal 1x1 (NBC/Sky Living)"

Read other posts about: Hannibal, Heroes, Suits