Month: September 2008

US TV

Promo for Valentine on The CW

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Valentine

The CW has been trickling its shows out this year, rather than splurging them out in one lump in September. So there are some new shows that haven’t had much publicity that are popping up next month. Valentine, previously Valentine Inc, has been hovering on the radar here for a while, since:

  1. It’s got Jaime Murray from Hustle and season two of Dexter on it.
  2. It’ll sound vaguely familiar to readers of this blog and another one not too far away…

Due to premiere on Sunday, October 5 at 8/7c, the show has the basic premise that love gods Aphrodite (Jaime Summer) and Eros (Kristoffer Polaha) are still alive in modern times with some of their entourage and fellow gods from classical Greece, and they’re busy matchmaking. Yes, it’s a rom-com or something very similar. You can find out the full plot after the jump, and from the web site, too, since it’s too long to put on the front page.

Here though is a slightly low quality YouTube promo, which also includes interviews with the cast. Notable things I’ve also learned: Holly Valance is appearing in it. I know not why or when. I’d tell you more but there’s no screener for me to scrutinise (naughty CW!).

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Harvey Keitel in Life on Mars

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Looks familiar, yet something’s different. Yes, it’s Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt in ABC’s forthcoming version of Life on Mars, although the scripts’ pretty much the same. And no, Jason O’Mara still can’t act much. Apologies in advance for the slightly weedy quality. Watch it while you can – fingers crossed, it won’t get ripped down.

[via; thanks to Toby for the heads up]

UK TV

Review: Tess of the D’Urbervilles 1×1

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, BBC1

Good old BBC. Always going off and finding some classic to lavishly adapt for a Sunday evening’s viewing. Here we have Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy’s slightly weird but eternally relevant look at the double standards relating to sexuality that British society has had almost since the dawn of time.

Now the Beeb normally goes in one of two ways with its period stuff. Either it goes all silly, gets an all-star cast and turns everything into an unrelenting series of cameos and over-the-top performances. Or it puts on its serious hat and decides to go full tilt for ‘quality mode’, hoping that it’ll get a backpack full of BAFTAs to take home from the next awards ceremony.

Fortunately, the Beeb has gone for option two with Tess, producing something that’s not 100% true to the book and that’s got more than a few idiosyncrasies of its own, but which is ultimately worth watching – so far, anyway.

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Movies you should own

Movies you should own: Manhunter

15 September 2008 Natalia Romanova 15 Comments

¡Madre Mia! I’ve finally got round to writing it. The reasons you should own Manhunter! Will wonders never cease?

As far as most people are concerned, The Silence of the Lambs was the film that introduced serial killer Hannibal Lecter to the world. Starring (Sir) Anthony Hopkins as the ex-psychiatrist and people-eater, it was one of the first horror movies to do respectably at the Oscars and catapulted both Hopkins and Jodie Foster, who played the FBI agent trying to mine him for information, into the league of A-list stars.

Since then, we’ve had Hannibal and Red Dragon, both starring Hopkins as Lecter, and young Lecter movie, Hannibal Rising – all to diminishing effect.

What not many people realise is that back in the 80s, Michael Mann, director of Heat, Collateral, The Insider and Last of the Mohicans as well as creator of Miami Vice, had already adapted the original Lecter novel, Red Dragon, as Manhunter.

Way before Millennium, Profiler and CSI made popular forensic science, psychological profiling and the idea of thinking inside a killer’s mind to catch him, it featured CSI‘s William Petersen as Will Graham, the man who caught Lecter by risking his own sanity and daring to think the same thoughts. Equally notably, it also featured Brian Cox as Hannibal – and he’s a damn sight better than Anthony Hopkins.

Which is why Manhunter is a movie you should own. Here’s the original trailer for Manhunter – forgive it for being made in the 80s.

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Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Torchwood – Lost Souls

15 September 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Lost Souls

JACK: Okay, listen up fucktards. It’s Torchwood here. We’re below the law, beside the government and over the top and we’re here to educate you about the Higgs Boson.

MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Yes, you idiots. You know nothing about CERN or the large hadron collider or really difficult science things. So Radio 4 have asked us to come and educate your asses for Big Bang Day.

MORE MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE

JACK: Shut it or I’ll make you smell my coat. I haven’t washed it since I first got it and I was buried in peat for 2,000 years.

GWEN: Ych y fi, Jack!

JACK: Right, the Higgs Boson. It’s… Hmm. Anyone know? Gwen?

GWEN (ON PHONE): Can I phone a friend? Rhys? Oh, Rhys man! What are you doing? I loves you. You knows I loves you!… But Rhys… Why her?…

JACK: Maybe not then. Tosh? Oh sh… she’s dead. Owen. Oh sh… he’s dead too. Christ, they were the only ones who knew anything. Martha?

MARTHA GIGGLES AND IMPERSONATES A PIECE OF WOOD

JACK: Ianto?

IANTO TRIES TO AVOID JACK’S EYE BY READING THE CRACK-A-JOKE BOOK AND LAUGHING UNCONVINCINGLY

JACK: Guess it’ll be me then. Erm, it’s a thing that you, like, see. Erm, inside rain drops. Protons? Are we clear yet?

MORE MURMURS, THIS TIME OF RIDICULE FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS WELL EDUCATED RADIO 4 AUDIENCE

JACK: What do you mean Torchwood know sweet FA about science, so much so it’s embarrassing? Oh…Look over there. It’s an eagle. No really. Look! Look!

AUDIENCE LOOKS STAGE RIGHT

JACK: Quick, Ianto – the rear entrance!

Excerpt from Torchwood: Lost Souls

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