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Month: October 2011
Tuesday’s “hopefully more accurate” news
Doctor Who
- Steven Moffat doesn’t like Doctor Who Confidential being cancelled
Film
- John Cusack joins The Numbers Station
- Jason Sudeikis joins Will Ferell and Zach Galifianakis in Dog Fight
- Michelle Monaghan joins Fort Bliss
- Ben Affleck to direct Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in Whitey Bulger mobster story
- Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Durand and Deborah Kara Unger to star in The Truth
- Principal photography finishes on Jess Whedon‘s unexpected Much Ado About Nothing
Theatre
- Tom Stoppard adapting Shakespeare in Love for the West End
British TV
- Being Human‘s Jason Watkins joins Dirk Gently
- Being Erica censured over ice penis
- Pan Am press pack
- Spooks finishes with 5.1m viewers
- FX acquires Leverage (subscription required)
- Syfy acquires Persons Unknown
US TV
- NBC ratings in key demos down 9.3% on this time last year, Fox up 11%
- Shameless teaser
- Scott Baio to star in Nick At Nite’s Daddy’s Home
- John Hannah and Jenna Elfman join Damages
- Tom Hanks developing Players for HBO
- Hunter‘s Stepfanie Kramer joins The Secret Circle
- Boss gets 1.7m viewers
- ABC buys Tracy McMillan’s Why You’re Not Married
- NBC adapting The Infidel with Omid Djalili
- Casting on TBS’s Sullivan and Sun
- Sunday ratings: Once Upon A Time starts well, while Pan Am sinks again
BFI events
December 2011 at the BFI
It’s a marvellous smorgasbord of TV in December at the BFI. Hoorah! The preview of Sherlock that was supposed to be on last month is showing on the 6th. There are previous of BBC2’s adaptation of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood as well as an Arena documentary about Dickens adaptations. There are two more archive recoveries from the Library of Congress, as well as the yearly ‘Missing Believed Wiped’ featuring a ‘treat for sci-fi fans’. There’s also a Peter Kosminsky season, including Britz and The Project (although unfortunately no Shoot To Kill), as well as two episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas, including the marvellous The Signalman.
But best of all, there’s a reshowing of 80s children’s drama Moondial (tagline: ‘What happens when the moon shines on a sundial?’)
I should also point out that in December, the BFI Mediatheque will have (free to view) 10 episodes of A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious, Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman, Stigma, The Ice House, A View From A Hill and Number 13. Go watch them – they’re blinking marvellous.
Third-episode verdict: American Horror Story
In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm, FX
In the UK: Mondays, 10pm, FX UK. Starts November 7th
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how you can have all the elements of a scary story – haunted house, ghosts, demons, murders, possessions and more – yet not have something that’s actually scary.
So it is with American Horror Story, which since its first episode has settled down into something a bit more subdued, a bit more thoughtful, a bit more like it’s taken its Ritalin. But is it any cop yet? Not really.
The basic problem, apart from the lack of scariness, is that there’s so much going on in every episode, it’s hard to become too attached to any one element of the story and focus on it. Now, obviously, focusing on Alex Breckenridge as the youthful version of the house maid is what a lot of guys are doing when they watch the show, and since she is the most interesting part of the show, it was good to see episode three focusing on her. But we also had to deal with McDermott’s affair again, his daughter, the melty man, the arrival of the 1920s woman, Jessica Lange being way too big for the small screen and possibly the world’s fastest impromptu construction of a gazebo.
Yes, a gazebo. Or it might have been a very small bandstand: as I’ve remarked before, it’s hard to take American Horror Story too seriously, particularly when it doesn’t (or at least it isn’t sure if you should or not so hedges its bets).
We are at least getting answers to questions, but those answers aren’t exactly original – they’re exactly the answers you’d expect in any horror story, so possibly the show should be called Archetypal American Horror Stories – but we’re also getting new questions, the answers to which already don’t look any more interesting. And the questions in the first episode that were at least a little “on the edge” – who was the guy in the gimp suit? – appear to have been forgotten about for now.
As a show, it’s not bad and I’ll probably keep watching for Alex, but it really hasn’t found its feet yet and I’m not sure if it ever will. Not as cutting edge, scary or funny as might have been hoped, but not so badly made you want to switch off.
Carusometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Should last a season; might even hit two seasons. But no more than that.
US TV
The first two of this season’s Cougar Town cameos
Cougar Town isn’t back until mid-season, so to bide their time, the actors from the show are trying to cameo on as many other shows as they possibly can. Ian Gomez is first up with cameos in Grey’s Anatomy and The Middle:
Don’t worry – there’ll be more to come.