Month: May 2010

UK TV

Review: Doctor Who – 5×6 – The Vampires of Venice

10 May 2010 Rob Buckley 22 Comments

Vampires of Venice

In the UK: Saturday 8th May 2010, 6.25pm, BBC1
In the US: Saturday 22nd May 2010, 9/8c, BBC America

So you want a Doctor Who story that’s funny, about relationships and involves vampires? Well, the obvious choice is that bloke who wrote School Reunion way back when, isn’t it? I mean that had flying thingies and monsters and a bit of banter between the Doctor, companions, blokes, women et al, didn’t it?

Not seeing it yet?

Then let me put it to you another way: so you want a Doctor Who story that’s funny, about relationships and involves vampires? Well, the obvious choice is Toby Whithouse, creator of 20something vampire/werewolf/ghost flatshare comedy-drama Being Human, isn’t it?

You’re seeing it now, aren’t you?

Spoiler and more after the jump.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 5×6 – The Vampires of Venice”

Monday’s secret spy news

10 May 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

British TV

US TV

Dick Heads

Review: Chris Ryan’s Strike Back 1×1-1×2

7 May 2010 Rob Buckley 17 Comments

Chris Ryan's Strike Back

In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, Sky 1/Sky 1 HD

It’s easy to forget that while Armando Iannucci and co urge the BBC to set up its own subscription-only version of HBO in the UK, one company is already in the fledgling steps of doing just that: BSkyB. Sky have one mission in life and that’s to sell subscriptions and Sky boxes – in particular HD Sky boxes and HD subscriptions (an extra £10 a month). After years of assuming that buying lots of US TV was the way to attract subscribers – to diminishing returns – the last few years has seen a change of strategy: a concerted effort to create home-grown, quality drama, usually based on Terry Pratchett books, in an attempt to get the viewing public to hand over the cash.

Chris Ryan’s Strike Back is the latest part of this strategy. Starring everyone’s favourite Dick Head, Richard Armitage – the actor on everyone’s speed dial when they need to cast an SAS soldier – Strike Back sees Armitage’s down-and-out MI6 security guard (and former SAS soldier) go back to Iraq to recover a kidnapped reporter, who might be in the hands of the Iraqis he fought in his last mission. His MI6 handler: the army intelligence officer who accompanied him back then (Andrew Lincoln).

And you know what? Despite being on Sky 1, it’s actually very good.

Continue reading “Review: Chris Ryan’s Strike Back 1×1-1×2”

What have you been watching this week (w/e May 7)

7 May 2010 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

A quick return of Tuesday’s late showing, but I’ve watched a few things since then:

  • Channel 4’s Alternative Election Coverage: as this week’s QI also proved David Mitchell is obviously one of the smartest, if not the smartest and funniest men on TV at the moment, and is probably the inheritor of Steven Fry’s mantel. So what the hell was he doing on this? Charlie Brooker was great, of course, as was Mitchell, but Jimmy Carr filled time by making jokes about Gordon Brown’s eye and Lauren Laverne was just using up valuable oxygen the whole time. Oh dear.
  • Chuck: I was expecting some Hart to Hart style fun, but this wasn’t it. A bit dull really, and Chuck’s now too much of a spy for my liking. On the other hand, Sarah’s actually getting a personality of her own and it’s good to see Ellie and Devon haven’t been forgotten, too.
  • House: Blah bar the last minute.
  • Lost: Shocking yet not shocking since who knows how much of this is going to stick, with the flashes sideways? Talking of which, they’re now the most interesting part of the show. But Smokey’s machinations were a joy to watch
  • Outnumbered: Tried to watch it again. Still hated it – again. Clearly not the show for me, thanks to my loathing of every single member of the family, particularly the adults.
  • Party Down: Still absolute rubbish. Why do people love it so? I say people. I mean 120,000 or so of you in the whole of the US.
  • Watchdog: Ha ha ha ha ha. Where else can you see famous Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins going out to Afghanistan to investigate the terrible mobile phone networks for forcing members of the armed forces to pay their phone bills when they’ve been deployed at short notice on the front line and haven’t got a letter of proof from their commanding officers – and then finish the report with “and since that report was made, all the mobile phone companies have changed their policies on this”.

But what did you watch?

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).