It’s “What did you watch this week?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.
Perception (TNT/Watch)
Last summer’s slightly surprising combination of dull old procedural and interesting examination of psychology and mental health returns with a new character, the probable loss of at least one character, the surprising return of another character and the same old dull procedural. However, as well as the usual mind-bending issue with the show that you’re never sure what’s real and what’s hallucination, we have a possible slight departure from format – this first episode was less concerned with investigation and more concerned with the philosophical question of whether someone who’s had a brain injury and resulting personality change is still the same person they were before the injury. It’s a question that other shows probably wouldn’t touch with a barge pole but the show was all the better for it. Rachael Leigh Cook is still the least plausible FBI agent in TV history, though.
Under the Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
Based on a Stephen King novel, this mini-series sees a small town full of Diverse People With Issues And Secrets suddenly enveloped by a forcefield dome that blocks everything from sound and cars through to radio signals and electricity. Why’s it happening, who’s behind it, what’s going to happen next and will everyone sort out their issues before their secrets are discovered? Probably.
Full of people who’ve never been the stars of things but you’ll have seen being really good in loads of other shows – Rachelle Lefevre (Life on Mars, The Deep End, Twilight), Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) and Mike Vogel (Bates Motel, Pan Am) – as well as Britt Robertson (The Secret Circle, Life Unexpected), this is very odd flashback to the 80s, when Stephen King mini-series were all the rage. As back then, you’ll spend all your time working out who’s going to end up dead next and what precisely is going on. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d think if you’ve seen any such mini-series before, with dodgy dialogue, stock characters but an intriguing central idea. It’s also surprisingly gruesome at times.
With ratings of 12m, hopefully it’ll boost the careers of at least Lefevre, who’s needed a breakout role for ages and was unceremoniously dumped from the third Twilight movie in favour of the somewhat inferior Bryce Dallas Howard, and Norris, now that Breaking Bad is leaving us. I could do without the dodgy stalker bloke, though.
And in movies:
World War Z
Brad Pitt travels the world looking for a way to fight the zombie plague that’s broken out. Taking in Korea and Israel, he eventually finds his solution is… Torchwood. Well, maybe. You’ll get that joke if you ever watch the movie.
Not great, doesn’t make huge sense, Mireille Enos (The Killing US) is largely wasted and as in movies such as Contagion, a plethora of stars turns up for five minutes only to disappear almost as quickly. But it’s tense all the way through and has a few funny moments. Better than the average zombie movie, anyway.
A Good Way To Die Hard
Bruce Willis goes off to Russia when his wayward son shoots someone in a nightclub and is put on trial. However, all is not what it seems and soon Willis and Willis Jr are double-acting their way through numerous shoot-outs and car chases around Russia.
The best that can probably be said about this is that it’s probably the second-best of the Die Hard movies, with at least some intelligence on display in places throughout the movie. But it shows nowhere near the level of human involvement and innovation of the original, and the constant CGI effects mean that nothing feels real enough to care about.
“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?
