Looks excellent at every point except the ones where our heroes try to be action heroes. Nope. Not working. Never going to convince me. But the rest of it could be good even.
[via]
Month: July 2011
US TV
Review: Wilfred 1×1-1×2
In the US: Thursdays, 10pm, FX
In the UK: Acquired by BBC3
Odds on, when you see a dog and it barks at you, you see something like this:
So spare a thought for poor Elijah Wood’s character in FX’s new show, Wilfred. When he sees his next door neighbour’s dog, Wilfred, he sees this:
Yes, a slightly menacing, crude, dope-smoking, Australian man in an unconvincing dog suit. Is it because he’s mad, because he tried to overdose on drugs or because he has an over-active imagination? Who knows, but Wilfred is about to become his new best friend – and help him to get to know his neighbour a whole lot better. At least, that’s what he thinks.
Here’s a trailer, followed by the original Australian short movie (and subsequent TV show) this is based on.
Third-episode verdict: Falling Skies
In the US: Sundays, 10/9c, TNT
In Canada: Wednesdays, 10pm, Superchannel. Starts July 6
In the UK: Tuesdays, 9pm, FX. Starts July 5
Well, we’re three episodes into Falling Skies and… it’s as dull as it always. It’s like Stargate Universe and Battlestar Galactica never happened. I’m getting a déjà vu to early Stargate SG-1 in fact, in which our plucky band of four heroes faced off against entire armies that seemed unaware of even basic military tactics and never did anything too mean, so got hopelessly slaughtered.
Here we have the intrepid Noah Wylie constantly going to find his kidnapped son whom those nasty aliens who’ve taken over the world have abducted. Off he goes against their heavily armed robots with a couple of his mates and despite his weapons never being any good, he constantly manages to kill them all. How sweet.
Meanwhile, back at base camp, a notorious criminal and rapist is being allowed to cook food for everyone, including one of his victims, because he knows about paprika and has read a book so has therefore redeemed himself. And everyone’s wondering what the hell the aliens are actually up to. Prepare to wait at least 10 episodes to find out, because there are no signs of any actual information emerging any time soon and the mystery itself is so uninteresting, so untantalising, that there’s no reason you’d want to hang around to find the answer anyway.
So don’t bother watching this last hurrah for the noble white male middle class action hero, where women are there to get captured and be doctors, but not do anything too exciting or heroic. There’s not much point unless you miss The Tripods.
Carusometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: With ratings dropping by a third from the initial episode, I’m thinking it’ll last a season at most.
August 2011 at the BFI
Time for our regular look at what TV’s on at the South Bank in London in August. This month, there’s a season of plays and movies written by Simon Gray, an event dedicated to the fantastic world of Irwin Allen, two episodes of Anthony Newley’s surreal David Bowie-influencing The Strange World of Gurney Slade and a recently recovered BBC biopic of Rembrandt.
Sitting Tennant
Friday’s Sitting Tennant (week 24, 2011)
Happy Canada Day everyone. Sorry, but no one submitted any pictures of David Tennant in a Mountie or ice hockey uniform.
- Hebbie: 160
- Sister Chastity: 135
- Erin C: 75
- Rullsenberg: 55
- Janice: 20
- esgaril: 10
- theriverlady, Toby: 5
Don’t forget Tuesday’s caption competition!
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable and doesn’t obviously infringe copyright, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.
The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Tuesday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.
You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.