I know, I know. What a long time since the last one of these. Sorry, which appears to be my new catchphrase. Anyway, it’s here now, just in time for summer when there’s hardly anything worth watching on. Good timing, Rob.
Nevertheless, let us all know what you’ve been watching, because if there’s good stuff on, it’s going to be in short supply. I’m still working my way through this week’s episodes of Royal Pains and Burn Notice, with Pretty Little Liars and Persons Unknown still to be digested and reviewed but here’s what I watched:
- Atlantis: The Evidence: Another great Bettany Hughes documentary, this time on the BBC and benefiting considerably from her having written it as well as presenting it. Basically, her theory (not just hers – it’s a very popular one) is that the explosion of the volcano on Santorini in the 18th century BC was the inspiration for Plato’s story of Atlantis. It’s hard not to be convinced by the evidence, which did all add up nicely, but I don’t know enough about Atlantis to judge. But for anyone interested in Bronze Age Mediterranean history, it was a bit of treat, particularly since it included recent discoveries that aren’t well known. Weirdly, lovely wife and I spent the entire time going “Been there!” whenever Bettany changed location, the one exception being Akrotiri on Santorini, where we went “Wish we’d been there!” since it’s closed off to the public right now.
- Burn Notice: The US’s number one cable TV drama is back and I’m feeling a bit “meh” about it. If we were hoping for anything different this season, given the ending of season three, well, clearly we’re not used to being bluffed. It’s basically business as usual, and I was bored by the biker gang plot. Michael’s continuing issues with the Burn Noticers were more interesting, and his breakdown with his mum at the end was compelling. But really, we need some forward motion on plot development, more spies, more character development and less “client of the week” stuff, please.
- Royal Pains: It’s back and it’s just as good as it was before. Woo hoo! We’ve even got Henry Winkler as Hank and Evan’s dad which has got to be a bonus and Jill has a new enemy at the hospital, which is a good development for her character. The medical mystery of the week was easily guessable, but the charm of the show is still there, but Hank’s negligence with Boris’ file was a very unlikely twist. It’s just a shame that the filming schedules meant that the greyish skies indicating it was clearly heading into the Fall at the end of the first season have been replaced by bright blue skies for the second season. But what you going to do?
- Stargate Universe: Ooh. An invasion – the arrival of the Stargate SG-1 crew, including Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping, to be exact. Boy do they stick out like a sore thumb now, with the writers either having to change the characters to fit in with the SGU universe or leave them as is and looking a bit lily-livered in comparison to the Destiny team. The other issue is Young’s decision to be nice and not vent the gate room, which seemed both out of character and odd in context. Still, the dovetailing of story arcs, the revelations about Lou Diamond Phillips’ character, and the secrets of the Destiny (I wonder if the chair had anything to do with the mysterious disintegrating man this week) have all made the episodes worth watching. One thing I do like about SGU is the ‘previously on SGU‘ bit at the beginning which always contains more backstory than is needed for the episode, so you never end up thinking “Oh, well he’s going to be in it then. That’s that plot revelation ruined.”
- 24: Bit of a “meh” ending to the series, with rabbits pulled out hats to save Jack. I was hoping for something a bit more explosive. The second half of the season was definitely better than the first half, but it was still a week final season overall.
- 30 Rock: Matt Damon, and a stout rejoinder to Tina Fey critics. Plus Michael Sheen is brilliant.
- Women: Finally started watching that BBC4 documentary on the history of feminism from the 1960s/70s onwards. My brain and body almost sighed with relief as I found that yes, there are still intelligent documentaries being made at the Beeb and I wasn’t going to be talked down to. Definitely worth watching, if only as a reminder (in case you’ve not been watching Mad Men) of what women had to go through before women’s liberation came along. Oh, and to see the clips from old chat shows: it’s unbelievable, looking at them now, just how smart they seem in comparison to modern day chat shows. Interesting guests, people talking about complicated subjects. What happened?
But what have you been watching? Anyone watch Father and Son? Pulse and those other BBC3 pilots from last night any good?
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).
