First, the usual recommendations, which are somewhat dwindling now 'summer' has arrived:

• Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
  
• The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
• Don't Trust The B---- (ABC)
• The Fall (BBC2/Netflix)
• Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living)

These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can't be sure which.

I tried a few new shows this week. I'll save my thoughts on NBC's Save Me for a full review, but here's what I thought of the others:

The Fall (BBC2/Netflix)
Gillian Anderson in what is essentially Prime Suspect 20 years on – writer Allan Cubitt also wrote Prime Suspect 2 – and, for my money, almost as good. Anderson plays a Met police detective superintendent who goes to Belfast to audit an investigation into a murder. However, she quickly realises that she's chasing a serial killer (Jamie Dornan). Rather than this being a whodunnit, we know from the beginning of Dornan's culpability – instead, this a dual character piece that examines the equally cool, equally focused killer and cop. The investigation, which also touches on the different and highly political nature of policing in Northern Ireland (the police are all armed and the police station is more like a fort), is handled as realistically and as sensitively as can be, but there are disturbing scenes, despite the overall lack of any blood or violence.

Anderson is great as the cop, who unlike Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison, doesn't need to convince anyone of her abilities and is happy to have casual sex with whomever she pleases without apology, rather than agonise over relationships; Dornan's equally good as the killer, who blends right in and even has a young daughter to care after. The writing's first rate, although there are a few slaps-forehead moments and obviously, it's yet another serial killer show. There's also lots of good roles for both men and women. Weirdly, Archie Punjab from The Good Wife shows up as a motorcycle-riding pathologist.

Definitely one to watch – it's going on the recommended list. American readers – this has been acquired by Netflix and shoot be available from the 28th of this month, but you can watch the first episode below.

Harry (TV3)
A six-part New Zealand series about a widowered cop with a teenage daughter and who's doing his best to hunt down some violent robbers in a poor community. He has to work against the higher-ups, who are more concerned by headlines that the communities they police and against the demands of his job in raising his daughter. So far, so ordinary, you might think, and largely it is, despite the presence of Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) as Harry's boss, complete with his normal NZ/Australian accent. What's more interesting is that Harry is co-written by the star, Oscar Kightley, a Maori actor, and the show is bilingual and set largely in the Maori community. It's got more in common with UK police shows than with US shows, although there are interesting differences, but beyond the cultural issues and twists, there's not much here that you won't have seen before.

Now, some thoughts on some of the regulars and some of the shows I'm still trying:

• Arrested Development (Netflix): In preparation for the fourth Netflix-exclusive season, I'm trying once again to get into the original series. I'm up to about episode 13 and there have been a couple of episodes where I've 'got' what everyone loves about the show, but it's not as funny as it should be.
• Don't Trust The B---- (ABC): The final batch of episodes are now available to stream from the ABC web site. Such a disappointment that the show was cancelled, since there's some real dark originality in these episodes.
• Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living): Superbly featuring a cameo by Lance Henriksen (Millennium), this week's episode minimised the normal body horror slightly in favour of one of its other themes: the horror of madness, with Will becoming increasingly unhinged and worried for his own sanity. However, the most disturbing revelations are another character's and left until last. I'm still deeply impressed by the show, and if NBC cancel it, they deserve everything they're going to get. I've also just realised that Caroline Dhavernas (Dr Bloom) was the star of Bryan Fuller's Wonderfalls, which shows you just what a loyal guy he is.

And in movies:

The Rum Diary
Directed by Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I), based on a novel by Hunter S Thompson, starring Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and Aaron Eckhart, it should all be great, huh? The novel certainly has an interesting story: Thompson wrote it in the 60s but it was never published until Depp found it lying around and persuaded Thompson to unleash it on the world. To be honest, it's not a great novel: set on Puerto Rico, it lacks voice, although you get some of the hints of Thompson's future themes (substance abuse, misogyny), and is really a mood piece about a journalist finding his way on the island.

The film, however, takes all of that and runs with it. Sharing little of the plot or dialogue, and losing a lot of the characters, it's essentially a prequel to Thompson's line, reconstructing the whole story so that it's about how a journalist finds his voice in fighting against rich interests. With minor elements of the novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and even Withnail and I, it's a whole lot better than the book, too, ditching the misogyny and aimlessness in favour of a much stronger narrative drive, although it still shares some unwelcome elements, including a rape scene (mercifully different from the book's deeply unpleasant version). Johnny Depp returns to form as Paul Kemp, while Heard is clearly a little out of her depth at this stage in her career. There are some funny moments, but it's not a movie to go out of your way to see, and doesn't come close to the best of any of those involved.

"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid - and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I've watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you've seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

[via @AlexRomeo @mpphillips @gideondefoe @richmurkin]

You can, if that's whet your appetite, watch the first episode as well:

• Evans Peters joins X-Men: Days of Future Past as Quicksilver
• Paddy Considine joins Child 44

Trailers

• Trailer for Ron Howard's Rush with Chris Hemsworth and Olivia Wilde

• Kudos signs first-look deal with Chris Chibnall
• ITV green lights: Tommy Cooper drama with David Threlfall
• BBC4 acquires: Belgium's Salamander

US TV

• ABC, CBS and Fox tie in May sweeps
• Wednesday ratings

New US TV shows

• Steven Soderbergh developing The Knick for Cinemax, Clive Owen to star

• David Boreanaz, Minka Kelly, Kate Walsh, Julian McMahon et al to star in DirecTV/Neil LaBute's Full Circle

• Time Cop reboot planned

Trailers

• Trailer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon, with Scarlett Johansson
• Trailer for We're The Millers, with Jennifer Aniston, Ed Helms, Jason Sudeikis et al
  
• Trailer for Delivery Man with Vince Vaughn

Canadian TV

• CBC green lights The Best Laid Plans, renews Cracked, Republic Of Doyle, Murdoch Mysteries…
• …and Crossing Lines

• BBC3 renews: In The Flesh
• BBC to charge Sky for content?
• Tuesday ratings

US TV

• Tuesday's ratings

US TV casting

• Billy Baldwin to recur on Copper
• Emma Roberts join American Horror Story
• Rumer Willis to guest on Pretty Little Liars
• Casting on Homeland

• CBS green lights: Bad Teacher
• FX green lights: The Comedians, with Billy Crystal
• USA green lights: Divide & Conquer

New US TV show casting

• Logan Marshall-Green to star in Cinemax's Quarry

[via]

• Sympathy For Mr Vengeance to be remade

Film casting

• Zac Efron to star in Narc

Trailers

• Final trailer for Man of Steel
• New trailer for The Wolverine
• New trailer for The Lone Ranger
• Trailer for Byzantium with Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton
• Trailer for Ben Wheatley's A Field in England

UK TV

• Monday ratings: The Fall steady

US TV

• Netflix acquires Derek
• Teaser for season 5 of Royal Pains
• Monday ratings: Motive and The Goodwin Games start low
• Monday cable ratings: Bates Motel up

New US TV shows

• Microsoft and Steven Spielberg developing live-action Halo

New US TV show casting

• Jonathan Hyde and Richard Sammel join FX's The Strain

• Kate Hudson joins Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here
• Liam Hemsworth to star in Aurora Rising
• Anthony Hopkins joins Gotti

Trailers

• Trailer for Cool As I Am with Claire Danes, James Marsden and Sarah Bolger

• Daniel Mays et al join BBC1's Common

US TV

• Clip from Holliston, season 2
• Trailer for Teen Wolf, season 3
• Trailer for The Glades, season 4

New US TV shows

• NBC green lights: Siberia
• Trailer for Showtime's Ray Donovan

• Mia Maestro to star in FX's The Strain

In the US: Mondays, 8.30/7.30c, Fox. Starts tonight

And so it begins – the summer burn-off of all those shows the US networks thought they might need as mid-season replacements but didn't. We've Save Me on NBC this week as well, but on Fox, we've starting with The Goodwin Games, a sitcom from the makers of How I Met Your Mother that has some of that show's charm, but lacks its sparkle or any real hook.

The idea here is that Beau Bridges, patriarch of the Goodwin family and bad father, comes into a sizeable fortune – more than $20 million. He also knows he's going to die, so before his death, he creates a series of games and videos through which he can get his three estranged children (Scott Foley, Becki Newton, TJ Miller) to come together again and parent them from beyond the grave, the lure of all that money being what keeps them playing his games.

And while it's a moderately intriguing idea – I'd be happy to see The Game as a TV series or a US version of The One Game – the show has only a few innovations in an otherwise ordinary sitcom. And it also has TJ Miller. Sigh.

• Steven Moffat returns for season 8…
• …with Matt Smith

Film

• Red 3 in the works
• Plans for Marvel Phase 3, including new characters for Avengers 2

Film casting

• Marton Csokas to be the villain in The Equalizer
• Dev Patel to play Srinivasa Ramanujan
• Olga Kurylenko joins Pierce Brosnan in November Man

• Teaser for Anchorman 2

French TV

• France 2 renews: Candice Renoir

• Vincent Kartheiser to play Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice in Minneapolis

• Trailer for BBC1's The White Queen
• Friday ratings: Life of Crime gets 3.23m viewers

US TV

• Teaser for Dexter, season 8
• Mark Roberts leaving Mike & Molly
• The CW to stream shows to Apple TV
• Thursday ratings
• Friday ratings

• Cristin Milioti to be a regular on How I Met Your Mother [spoilers]

First, the usual recommendations:

• Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
  
• Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
  
• The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
• Doctor Who (BBC1/BBC America)
• Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
• Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living)
• Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
• Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic)

These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can't be sure which.

Still in the viewing queue: new show The Goodwin Games, which I'll be reviewing on Monday, and I'll be playing catch up with New Zealand show Harry, too.

I did give Life of Crime a go, too, in which Hayley Atwell plays a cop in three different time periods at different stages of her career. Entirely fits the template of ITV crime dramas and you could predict virtually everything that happened in each time period, with the corresponding Attitudes written in neon lights all over every character.

Now, some thoughts on some of the regulars and some of the shows I'm still trying:

• Arrow (The CW/Sky 1): No League of Shadows, surprisingly, but everything played out in the finale pretty much as you'd expect, beyond the final twist. Overall, a very decent season, although it started to lost its edge and become a tad more Smallville than Batman Begins by the end. One to look forward to next season, certainly.
• Continuum (Showcase/SyFy): There I was complaining there wasn't enough cool sci-fi in the show, when up it pops in spades. For my next trick, can we have some more intelligent schemes from the terrorists, please. 
  
• Elementary (CBS/Sky Living): Everything played out pretty much as I expected in terms of revelations, but in many ways better than Sherlock's handling of similar Sherlock Holmes facets. I also liked the fact they made Irene Adler and Moriarty one and the same. It'll be great if they bring her back and make her a maths professor, too. A good explanation for an in-story bad accent, too. PS, New York can try to pass itself off as London, but it will always fail.
• Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living): I'm not convinced that Hannibal should be that good in a fight, particularly not up against Demore Barnes who was in The Unit. All the same, another fascinating episode, Gillian Anderson getting more to do this week. What surprises me is that the show, which I'm thinking more and more of as a cross between Touching Evil (US) and David Cronenberg's oeuvre, is actually capable of instilling dread in me, which is a very novel emotion of a TV show to be able to create in its audience. Magnificent, but its fate is in the balance at the moment. Please renew it, NBC.
• Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic): And so it's gone, in a somewhat underwhelming finale that mostly just tied up loose threads, left a couple dangling and let everyone pat each other on the back and say goodbye, all while Carrie Anne Moss had nothing to do, which was par for the course. A shame, since it started off with so much fire.

"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid - and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I've watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you've seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

It's the end of upfronts week for the major networks now, with "oh yes, we forgot about them" The CW rounding it all off yesterday. The LA Screenings start today and buyers from around the world, including the UK, have descended from all the major networks to see these pilots and decide whether to buy any of them.

Last year, The CW decided to end its policy of targeting almost exclusively young women with a collection of new shows that included the rather good Arrow and the rather poor Cult, as well as the more traditional for The CW The Carrie Diaries, Beauty and the Beast and Emily Owens MD. It was a strategy that was only partially successful, with Arrow getting renewed for a second season along with The Carrie Diaries and Beauty and the Beast, but Cult dying a death with Emily Owens.

Nevertheless, The CW is pressing on with its gradual expansion into (what it thinks are) male realms this year, while continuing to provide (what it thinks is) young female-friendly output that falls into roughly the same areas as its existing programming, with just a hint of originality in there, too.

Here's the line-up:

• The Originals: A Vampire Diaries spin-off
• Reign: Mary Queen of Scots as a young woman
• The Tomorrow People: Beauty and the Beast style remake of the old paedo-friendly ITV show, with the mandatory two white guys, one BME guy and a white girl + Mark Pellegrino
• The 100: 100 young people return to a devastated Earth
• Star-crossed: Romeo & Juliet + aliens

• Scarlett Johansson to direct adaptation of Truman Capote's Summer Crossing

• Amber Heard and Zac Efron to star in Autobahn
• Michelle Yeoh joins Crouching Tiger 2
• Anna Kendrick joins Wish I Was Here

Trailers

• Trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim
• Trailer for Last Vegas, with Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas

UK TV

• BBC2 working on Cold War season

US TV

• SyFy red lights: Warehouse 13 with six-episode final season
• The CW red lights: Nikita with six-episode final season
• BSG's David Eick joins Falling Skies as new show runner
• Amazon gets streaming rights to NBCU shows
• Samantha to appear in second season of The Carrie Diaries
• Wednesday ratings

• USA green lights: Sirens remake and Playing House to series, pilot of Love Is Dead
• HBO green lights: Mike Judge comedy
• Amazon red lights: Zombieland
• Aron Eli Coleite replaces Allan Heinberg on The CW's Amazon
• Josh Friedman joins Crossbones
• Teaser for CBS's Under The Dome

Normally I wouldn't bother with a press release like this, but they went to such an effort and, you know, VIKINGS!

VIKINGS RETURN TO LONDON
For the first time since the original 842 AD London invasion, a 35-foot Viking longboat complete with fifteen Viking raiders sailed down the River Thames today.

Two replica boats used in the critically acclaimed US TV series VIKINGS were sailed along the Thames and parked up alongside iconic London landmarks including Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament to mark the UK release of the show on Amazon’s LOVEFiLM.

The company struck the landmark broadcasting deal with MGM Television late last week (Friday 10th May), which sees all nine episodes of the Norse action-drama released exclusively at once in full high definition through the LOVEFiLM Instant online streaming service as opposed to traditional terrestrial and satellite broadcasting channels.

Starring Travis Fimmel (The Beast, The Experiment), Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing) and Katheryn Winnick (Love and Other Drugs, Bones), VIKINGS chronicles the epic adventures of notorious Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok (Fimmel), a Viking warrior who yearns to explore – and raid – the distant shores of the ocean. VIKINGS also stars George Blagden (Wrath of the Titans), Jessalyn Gilsig (Glee), Gustaf Skarsgard (The Way Back), and Clive Standen (Camelot).

Created and written by Michael Hirst – one of the most respected historical storytellers in the industry (Academy-Award® winning film Elizabeth; and the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated series The Tudors), VIKINGS is a tale of warfare, sex, bloodshed, ambition, family and brotherhood. The epic drama is the number one new cable series of the year in the U.S.

Simon Morris, Chief Marketing Officer at LOVEFiLM, said:

“Geneticists say there’s a bit of Viking DNA in all of us so we’re delighted to give our members the opportunity to indulge in first class entertainment and feast on the story of their ancestry. This is a landmark moment in the history of LOVEFiLM as it is the first time a major TV series has aired on our service before traditional broadcasting channels. We are serious about securing the best film and TV entertainment for our members and this demonstrates how content creators view LOVEFiLM as an effective broadcasting medium for high-quality and premium entertainment.”

VIKINGS will premiere on LOVEFiLM Instant in the UK on May 24th 2013 and Germany on 15th June 2013 and will be available exclusively on the streaming service in both countries. MGM Television is serving as the international distributor in all markets outside of the U.S., Ireland and Canada.

LOVEFiLM Instant is available on PC, Mac or via Nintendo Wii and Wii U, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation®3, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire, Apple iPad® and a growing number of Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players, giving members immediate access to a huge range of the latest films and premium TV shows from as little as £4.99 a month.

More vikings in Piccadilly Circus and Parliament Square after the jump. If you want trailers, boy, do I have the entry for you.