(Belated again) time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.
First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week).
Not a huge amount of new stuff to talk about, but my review of the first episode of The Almight Johnsons will be going up tomorrow.
Here’s what I did watch:
- 30 Rock: Funnier than most of the previous two seasons.
- Shameless (US): Lacking some of the edge of the first season but still good.
- Ringer: Back and as silly and mental as ever. Nice to see evil villainness Siobhan being given a human side at last.
- Top Gear: Haven’t seen this week’s yet, but the opening episode was a return to form and actually funny.
- Braquo: Finally got around to watching episodes two to four of this French show, which I reviewed before Christmas. Not as OTT as the first episode and very compelling, but the whole show makes you think "My God, French police are perhaps the most colossally stupid people on Earth." Braquo‘s lot make the ones in Engrenages look competent. Was Inspector Clouseau onto something? They alll seem to turn up without the slightest hint of a plan, do something mentally stupid and then realise afterwards that maybe they shouldn’t have done it. You know, like accidentally murdering the suspect. Or those drug dealers they were going to give the drugs, too. What’s even worse is the show’s continual suggestion that these cops are "the best of the best", cops should stick together no matter what and internal affairs officers are pure evil with bad haircuts.
- Portlandia: Starting to edge away from ‘funny’ towards merely ‘clever’.
And in movies:
- What’s your Number? An attempt at a clever, edgy rom-com, in which Anna Faris decides she’s slept with too many men already (20), so hunts down old boyfriends, hoping that one of the ones she’s already slept with will turn out to be the one and she’ll not have to sleep with yet another one. Largely dedicated to getting Chris Evans (The Fantasic Four, Captain America) to spending as little time as possible in clothes, the movie is utterly predictable and has only about three funny bits, but has cameos from Martin Freeman, Eliza Coupe (Scrubs, Happy Endings) and Zachary Quinto (Heroes, American Horror Story), and is quite pleasing, subversive and romantic in its own way. But you will be watching the clock a lot during it.
"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?
