Year: 2013

What did you watch this week? Including How To Live Life With Your Parents…, Corleone, The Raid and The Americans

7 April 2013 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

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.

First, the usual recommendations:

  • The Americans (FX/ITV)
  • Archer (FX, 5USA)
  • Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
  • Being Human (US) (SyFy)
  • The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries (ABC1/ITV)
  • Cougar Town (TBS/Sky Living)
  • Doctor Who (BBC1/BBC America)
  • Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
  • Go On (NBC)
  • Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living)
  • House of Cards (Netflix)
  • Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
  • Plebs (ITV2)
  • Shameless (US) (Showtime/More4)
  • Southland (TNT/Channel 4)
  • Spartacus (Starz/Sky 1)
  • Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic).

These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can’t be sure which.

I’m adding to the recommended list both Plebs (ITV2) and Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living) (hopefully, I’m not being too quick off the mark there).

Still in the viewing queue: Jonathan Creek, last night’s Orphan Black, Arne Dahl and Rogue. I’ll be reviewing last night’s Doctor Who on Monday, when I’ve woken up. But I’ve tried a few new shows this week:

How To Live With Your Parents For The Rest of Your Life (ABC)
In which Sarah Chalke (Scrubs, Mad Love) is once again wasted, this time in an incredibly bland sitcom with an almost zero joke count. The story, for what it’s worth, is that Chalke splits up from her no-hope, but good-hearted husband and takes her kid with her to live with her parents. Six months later, she’s still there. Everyone, including Elizabeth Perkins as Chalke’s mother, tries really, really hard to make this work, but i’s just utterly bland.

Corleone (Sky Arts)
2007 Italian crime drama aka Il Capo dei Capi based on the life of real-life gangster Salvatore Riina, aka Totò u Curtu, growing up in post-war Sicily. Surprisingly well made for Italian TV, it is, nevertheless, completely unremarkable and lacking in interest for anyone who doesn’t know about said gangster. Trailer over here, for those who want one.

I’ve also been watching a few things on Netflix, just to mix things up a bit:

Black Books
Yes, I never watched Black Books. Treat me like the leper I am. The first episode wasn’t bad and it surprised me to see Martin Freeman in it as a doctor, doing the exact same Martin Freeman routine he’s apparently been doing for the last 12 years now. Still feels like a slightly less funny cousin to Spaced, Hippies and The IT Crowd. But I’ll keep watching when I have time.

House of Cards (remake)
I finally got to the end of it. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger. Yes, that cliffhanger is not the same as the BBC original’s cliffhanger. Yes, nothing much at all is resolved. But it’s still magnificent.

Spiral (season 1)
Yes, I know I’ve watched it already, but I thought I’d give season one a re-watch, since I’m now horrified to discover it was filmed in 2005 (although I think it took BBC4 a couple of years to pick it up). It’s remarkable to see what’d different and what’s changed. The directorial style, with the CGI zoom and crash zooms with sound effects are just weird; the swearing was considerably less than it is now; it’s filmed in Summer, so everything looks sunny for a change; Laure’s happy; Karlsson’s still learning how to be evil from the drunk struck-off solicitor; Clement’s still a magistrate; Romanians are the ethnic enemies; Pierre and Laure are shagging like very French bunnies. It’s all just so fascinating to watch and fun to see how the Spiral formula is still being worked on.

Now, some thoughts on some of the regulars and some of the shows I’m still trying:

  • The Americans (FX/ITV): Just keeps getting better every week, blurring the boundaries between who’s good and who’s bad in the cold war between the KGB and the FBI. The separation was unexpected, as was the final killing, and while the show obviously amps up the intrigue beyond what the KGB would have allowed their sleeper agents to do, it’s all done in as unshowy a manner as possible. A regular must-see.
  • Arrow (The CW/Sky 1): Despite the presence of Count Vertigo, this episode surprisingly didn’t suck and was actually quite good. Nice to see that they’re making the Chinese woman Oliver’s flashback mentor, rather than Deathstroke.
  • Being Human (US) (SyFy): Another US TV season ends with an overly sentimental wedding. Quelle surprise. But despite some good jokes in this final episode, it’s largely been a bit of waste of a season, offering no real plot advancement, with everything that happened in the first few episodes effectively reset by the end of the season. There have been a few changes and clearly a whole lot of things are being set up for next season that might pay off. But unlike the British original, it’ll probably still be worth watching. UPDATE: Duh! Obviously, it wasn’t the season finale. Silly me…
  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries (ABC1/ITV): A decent 10 episodes of intelligent TV period crime drama. It became a little formulaic towards the end, with less of the period commentary than before, but the story arc about Blake’s family was very well handled and moving, and the ending only promises good things for the future.
  • Elementary (CBS/Sky Atlantic): Surprisingly close to a genuine Sherlock Holmes mystery, although Jill Flint was badly unused. The addition of Doyle’s Hudson to the roster of characters was very welcome, changing the Watson/Holmes dynamic in useful ways, and well handled, too, given the changes made by the producers. The story was also a good way to capitalise on New York’s recent weather ‘issues’.
  • It’s Kevin (BBC2): Cameos from Stewart Lee, Peter Serafinowicz, Matt Berry and more show how respected Kevin Eldon is. Definitely getting better but a little bit of an acquired taste. The Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber sketch was marvellous though.
  • Parks and Recreation (NBC/BBC4): Six episodes into the second season and I’ve finally see a funny episode that didn’t entirely depend on Ron Swanson for the jokes. And that’s after an episode that didn’t have Ron in it at all, and so was virtually unwatchable.
  • Plebs (ITV2): While largely The InBetweeners in Roman times, it’s surprisingly clever and this week’s “role reversal” episode where the hero and his slave swapped jobs for day and the two cousins who shag were interesting marriages of laddish humour with Roman cultural differences. If you watch one ITV2 show, this is the one to watch.
  • Shameless (US) (Showtime/More4): Surprisingly, not the final episode of the season, despite the apparent resolution of so many plot threads, including an unexpected act of kindness by Frank. What they do tonight should be the last thing we expect then.
  • Southland (TNT/Channel 4): More or more like a series of vignettes, rather than an actual drama, with our characters almost aware that their television time is drawing to an end and looking for personal closure. A great couple of cameso this week for long-time fans of the show, which I’m hoping will lead to more by the end of the season.
  • Strike Back (Sky 1/Cinemax): I’m finally catching up with this, which has been sitting on my Apple TV for months now. Funny to see Tim Piggott-Smith running around with a sub-machine gun, Charles Dance being an arms dealer, and
  • Spartacus (Starz/Sky 1): We’re on the home straight of the season, the traditional time for the show to really dig into the politics and intrigue. An almost nostalgic episode, where the gladiators return to the ‘arena’, various characters get the vengeance they want and deserve, and with the arrival of the third member of Caesar/Crassus triumvirate, Pompey (if not yet in person), it’s starting to feel more and more like a prequel to Rome as well as decent ending for one of the most surprising shows on cable TV in years.
  • Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic): Finally realised that the FBI guy is Shawn Doyle (with US accent and black hair) from Endgame. An odd little procedural about an under-age prostitute, with a somewhat surprising, feminist conclusion that once again shows what a standout Sarah Jones is. That, and the addition of a new title sequence, suggests the producers have been having a slight rethink in the show’s extended absence. Needs a little more umph, but still a good drama and a cut above the standard CBS procedural.

And in movies:

No Country For Old Men
An excellent movie with a great cast. Josh Brolin finds some money, Javier Bardem chases him with a bad haircut, Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones wanders around cluelessly. It’s quite a scary movie, in some senses, where the moral of the story is that even if you are a Vietnam vet and a hunter, there’s always someone deadlier than you out there, and beyond that is God/Fate who can kick that person to the kerb, too. It’s ending defies analysis, too, although it’s efforts to defy the standard Hollywood traditions of how plots must be resolved, particularly violent plots, is welcome.

The Raid
An elite Indonesian SWAT team have to take in a crime lord who lives at the top of a building. To get to him, they have to shoot, punch, stab, kick and beat everyone they come across along the way, in what is largely a demonstration of the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat, starring some of the art’s greatest living practitioners. Not exactly the most plot-driven or character-rich movie out there, but a cracking action film, incredibly shot on a ridiculously low budget, that’ll be too violent for a lot of people. Came out at the same time as Dredd 3D, to which it bears such a similarity that it largely (unfairly) killed that movie’s box office.

Bad Boys 2
Dreadful, even by Michael Bay standards. Shame, because Bad Boys was actually quite good.

“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?

The pilot for Daria

5 April 2013 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Remember Daria, the Beavis and Butthead spin-off, featuring the smart and ever-sardonic Daria? Well, turns out there was a five-minute line art pilot for her show and it’s mysteriously materialised on YouTube.

Enjoy!

US TV

Review: Hannibal 1×1 (NBC/Sky Living)

5 April 2013 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

Hannibal

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC
In the UK: Acquired by Sky Living
In Canada: Thursdays, 10pm, CityTV

Serial killers, the doyennes of 90s cinema and TV largely thanks to a little known movie, Silence of the Lambs, that featured an equally little known character called Hannibal Lecter, are back with a vengeance this year. Although Criminal Minds has been chugging along for God knows how long, giving us deranged, implausible serial killer after deranged, implausible serial killer, and obviously Dexter has now been doing his thing for eight seasons, apparently this isn’t enough serial killing for TV because this year we’ve already had the debuts of The Following, Cult, and Bates Motel, a prequel to 1960s horror classic and original serial killer movie, Psycho.

And I’ve been wondering why, because largely they’ve had very little to offer that’s new, beyond more gore than was allowed 10-20 years ago. Lots of women getting raped and hacked up, with the writers having as much regard for the victims as their fictional sociopaths do – is this some kind of Faludi-esque backlash, a symptom of the resurgence of rape culture in society or simply a fashion, these things going in cycles?

So leave it to not quite the original but certainly one of the best serial killers to show us that there is room creatively for such shows and that they can still thrill and challenge without being exploitative. Because Hannibal Lecter is back, this time played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, in a prequel of sorts to one of my favourite movies, the much neglected cult favourite Manhunter based on Lecter creator Thomas Harris’s original book Red Dragon.

The show, written by Pushing Daisies creator and Heroes saviour Bryan Fuller, looks at Manhunter‘s Will Graham (played in the movie by CSI‘s William Petersen) and his early career, putting front and centre the man with “the mind of a psychopath”, who can empathise with and recreate the thoughts of serial killers in his mind. Importantly, it also expands on, changes and builds up how he first meets the man who would end up driving him crazy, whom he ultimately incarcerates and who in a sense defines him: Lecter himself. And they’re going to end up working together, even if Hannibal has a little secret that he’s keeping from Graham and the FBI.

Featuring a roster of fabulous actors as well as Thomas Harris characters familiar to any fan, it’s also absolutely fantastic.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Hannibal 1×1 (NBC/Sky Living)”

Friday’s “Two plane crash TV shows, Benedict Cumberbatch joins Crimson Peak and a trailer for Endeavour” news

5 April 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film casting

Trailers

UK TV

US TV

US TV casting

New US TV shows

  • SyFy developing plan crash thriller
  • Ryan Murphy pitching Open
  • Adult Swim green lights pilot for Hole To Hole
  • Sander/Moses working on remake of Turkish plane crash thriller The End
  • Pivot picks up sexy Shakespeare drama Will [subscription required]

New US TV show casting

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: Bates Motel (A&E)

4 April 2013 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, A&E

Bates Motel is a salutary lesson in how The Carusometer and The Barrometer are vital tools in measuring a show’s worth. The simple fact is that the first episode of seemingly every new show these days is unrepresentative of how it’s going to turn out in later episodes.

The problem with the first episode of Bates Motel, ostensibly a prequel to Psycho but bizarrely set in the modern day instead, was there was actually very little to it beyond the trappings of the original movie: yes, the Bates Motel is there, Norman’s there, his mother’s there and there’s a murder in the motel. But that’s about it. Beyond a liking for some dodgy manga, there’s no sign of Norman’s incipient insanity and problems with women – in fact, implausibly for such a nerd with an over-protective mother, not one but two women are now interested in him. It’s Psycho without a psycho, livened up with a bit of violence.

Since then, the show has metamorphosed into something completely different. The second episode introduced us not only to Norman’s estranged brother, but also an unexpected mystery element for the show: what secret do the townsfolk have? Where do they get all their money from, despite largely making organic artisanal cheeses? Together with his cystic-fibrosis afflicted British gal pal from Manchester (Olivia Cooke from The Secret of Crickley Hall, nevertheless putting on a US accent, presumably because Norman himself, played by fellow Brit Freddie Highmore, is faking a US accent, too), Norman goes off investigating using the manga he’s found – which might actually tell a true story – and discovers more than he bargains for. That takes off even further in the third episode, as they heroically try to find the abducted girls depicted in the book.

On top of that, episode three gives us a mysterious illness for Norman, after which he starts to have bizarre hallucinations in which his (still living) mother gives him somewhat homicidal advice. Whether the illness caused the hallucinations or whether they’ve always been there, we’ve yet to see. The producers are also giving Vera Farmiga more of the look of a Hitchcockian blonde, just for laughs, and have dialled down the violence against women, which can only be a good thing. The relationship between Norman and his mother is becoming as unpleasantly flirtatious and close as you’d expect, too.

It’s still not a brilliant show. It’s certainly weird and has a decent cast. It can be creepy, too. It’s now well on its way to becoming a prequel to Psycho, rather than something that takes the name and little else. The tension of whether the crime committed in the first episode will get exposed does add a little extra frisson to things, too, and the character relationships are more involving than you might think, even if Norman does end up being a bit of a dick a lot. And then there’s now the question of whether anything we see can be trusted because it might all be an hallucination (although Perception does that a lot better).

But because this is a prequel to Psycho and so there are few surprises in where the show’s ultimate destination is, to string the plot out, the show has largely had to become something else completely unrelated and highly implausible. What’s being exposed isn’t that enticing and because the show is essentially about a psycho who does bad things to women thanks to schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder or some other mental health problem, the show has a central misogyny to navigate, something that it doesn’t manage without being partially voyeuristic itself.

All the same, it’s definitely improving so I’ll keep my eye on it in case the upward tick in quality continues.

Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Might just scrape a second season