Well, he is just an actor, no Sherlock Holmes or anything.
Month: February 2014
News: Scrotal Recall, more House of Cards and Lex Luthor is Agent X’s president
Film casting
- Matthew McConaughey to star in Gus Van Sant’s Sea of Trees
International TV
- Michael Nyqvist and Dominic Monaghan to star in Swedish-set Merrick adaptation 100 Code
New UK TV shows
- Channel 4 green lights: series of Raised by Wolves and Scrotal Recall
UK TV show casting
- Ian Lavender, Michael Jibson and Dorothy Atkinson join BBC2’s Tubby & Enid
US TV
- Netlfix renews: House of Cards (again)
- Monday ratings
US TV show casting
- Alexandra Daddario to guest on New Girl
- Eddie Cahill and Karla Crome join Under The Dome
- Judy Davis out of 24: Live Another Day
New US TV shows
- CBS green lights: geniuses drama Scorpion
- The CW green lights: apocalyptic drama The Messengers
New US TV show casting
- Franka Potente, Amaury Nolasco et al join Cinemax’s Blanco
- Candide Patton joins The CW’s The Flash
- Linda Cardellini joins Netflix thriller
- Ryan Phillippe to star in ABC’s Secrets and Lies
- Jake McDorman to star in ABC’s My Thoughts Exactly
- David Strathairn to star in ABC’s Clementine
- Mather Zickel joins NBC’s Bad Judge, Lilli Birdsell joins ABC’s Sea of Fire
- John Shea joins TNT’s Agent X
Third-episode verdict: The Musketeers (BBC1/BBC America)
In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, BBC1
In the US: BBC America. Will air in late Spring
So we’re three episodes into The Musketeers, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic The Three Musketeers so embarrassingly low in its ambitions, it decided to leave out the ‘Three’ in case people were confused by there being four heroes. Originally aimed at filling the gap in between seasons of Doctor Who, it’s had all the narrative sophistication of Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds without the charm, characterisation, acting talent or fidelity to the original.
For the first two episodes at least, we’ve been treated to junior league antics, with a collectively poor bunch of actors (honourable exceptions: Peter Capaldi and Santiago Cabrera) prancing around Prague in leathers, sword-fighting like they’re still seven and playing at being Jedi in their back gardens. You’d have been hard-pushed to distinguish most of the characters from one another, such was its bland uniformity, and without their names, the occasional reference to France and the musketeers, you’d have been even harder pushed to realise what the source material for the series was.
Things changed considerably for the better on Sunday, though, where despite the presence of Gaius Baltar himself (James Callis), hamming it up something chronic as a pirate/trader, the show decided to take a turn for the serious and to dust off its moth-eaten copy of Dumas’ original to actually flesh out some of the characters, as well as do some of its own inventing. So at last we get some of Athos’ back story and Cabrera gets to show off his Spanish. The history of the period became something more than just a head-nod in between anachronisms and actually got to be an important plot and character point: Porthos, whose non-whiteness had until now been ignored and used mainly as a combination of colour-blind casting and an acknowledgement of the non-white Dumas, was revealed as the son of a former slave and his experiences of slavery were used to good effect to contrast with the then-legal practice of slavery that even a cardinal of the church could indulge in.
Unfortunately, despite the general hugely improved script quality of the episode compared with its predecessors’, the show’s structural flaws were still there for all to see. As well as the blatant fact the show isn’t filmed in France or have any real French qualities at all, the poor acting, and everything else, it’s about 20 minutes too long per episode. So even though the show was allowed to breath a little and to actually give some qualities to the musketeers for us to care about them, after a while, every scene ended with the surprise that there was yet another scene afterwards that you’d have to sit through to get to the end of the episode.
It’s not a great show – indeed, in combination with the likes of Atlantis and other “original British dramas” (which all seem to be adaptations, incidentally), I’ve been getting conditioned of late to hate anything that’s British and a drama, knowing it’s largely going to be a waste of my time and an insult to my intelligence – but this third episode did make me think there was hope in sight and the show might be worth watching by the end of the season. However, the fact they’re now going to have to write Peter Capaldi out of the series for the second season makes me think that even if I do get to the end of this season, there won’t be much point.
Barrometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will probably get another season but no more, and the departure of Capaldi might be sufficient pretext for the BBC to cancel the show if ratings continue to drop.
News: Scott Bakula and CCH Pounder to star in NCIS: New Orleans, a trailer for Chris Carter’s The After + more
Theatre
- Mark Heap and Robert Webb to take over as Jeeves and Wooster
UK TV
- BBC4 and BBC Scotland renew: Bob Servant
- Universal Channel acquires: Fox’s Rake
- Saturday ratings
New UK TV shows
- Trailer for Sky1’s The Smoke with Jamie Bamber, Jodie Whitaker, Rhashan Stone et al
US TV
- TV Land renews: The Exes
- Sunday ratings
US TV show casting
- Max Greenfield to guest on The Mindy Project
- Bob Newhart to return to The Big Bang Theory
- Colin Salmon joins 24: Live Another Day
New US TV shows
New US TV show casting
- Scott Bakula to star in CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans…
- …as will CCH Pounder and Zoe McLellan
- John Ducey joins NBC’s Bad Judge
- Jack Davenport joins ABC’s Vuurzee remake Sea of Fire
- Ashley Zukerman to star in WGN America’s Manhattan, Whiter Thomas joins Comedy Central’s Crazy House
- Ken Marino to co-star in NBC’s Marry Me
What have you been watching? Including Helix, Rake, The Bridge, Olympus Has Fallen and Enlisted
It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.
The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV.
I’m only slightly behind on shows now, having not found the energy to endure last night’s Three Musketeers. Apart from that, though, I’m back up to speed, which is nice.
Shows that I’ve been watching but not really recommending:
Enlisted (Fox)
Brandon Routhe arrived, which was good; the lack of true “losers triumph” ending was welcome after the pilot’s initial venture into that unwelcome terrain; a slight drop off in dialogue and laughs, though. Generally good, though.
Helix (SyFy/Channel 5)
Swiftly becoming less of a sci-fi show with horror aspects, than a horror show with sci-fi aspects, the last two episodes haven’t had the smarts of the first three episodes, but it does feel like the show is righting itself. We still largely don’t have a dicky bird as to what’s going on, but with a death rate among the regulars that’s going to leave us with a cast of zero by episode 10, I imagine secrets will have to emerge soon.
Rake (Fox/Universal Channel)
Not even the presence of Alex Breckenridge could elevate this to anything more than mildly diverting. Greg Kinnear is just so wrong for this show.
The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
Oh gods, another breakout. Just don’t care any more, so even though it’s got the girl from Spy Kids in it now (Alexa Vega, and I don’t want you to feel old or anything, but she’s 25 now), I’m giving up. Oddly, I’ve only just noticed that with Stephen’s dad being called Roger, and Jedekiah being called Price, that’s an obvious reference to Roger Price, the creator of the 1970s TV show.
And in the recommended list:
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Generally, some excellent moments, interspersed with some very stupid moments. The fights are back, too. Yay!
Banshee (Cinemax)
As with the previous week’s episode, a good look at both Amish and Native American cultures, this time giving Sheriff Hood a chance to do some proper kicking. Still a bit silly, but definitely dialling back on the more blatant and silliest bits.
The Bridge (BBC4)
Overall, a definite improvement on the second season, with some excellent character moments for the two leads, particularly Saga. The last episode did veer the show into more ridiculous, Bond villain territory, some of which made no sense at all, though, but otherwise excellent work all round. Intriguingly, Martin’s storyline has edged close to that of The Bridge (US)’s equivalent character. Looking forward to season three.
Community (NBC/some random UK channel)
Nathan Fillion turned up, to not much effect, but a funny episode with many clever moments.
Cougar Town (TBS)
Not a laugh in the entire episode. Potentially on the death list now.
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
A largely generic story. Is it just me or is Watson now more like the Sherlock Holmes of the books than Holmes is?
And in movies:
Olympus Has Fallen
Well, we watched White House Down last week and since this was on Netflix for free, we figured why not watch this, too, since it’s basically the same movie: secret service agent has to do Under Siege in the White House and save the President from a bunch of baddies. Here, we have Gerard Butler as the agent, Aaron Eckhart as the President, Morgan Freeman as the speaker of the house, having to deal with some Korean terrorists. And surprisingly, it’s a much better movie for the first three-quarters of its run, giving us better action, more excitement and more plausibility, all played straight. Unfortunately, it’s the final quarter that lets the movie down, as the action shifts from merely saving the White House to saving the entire world. A few Greek myth references (Olympus, Cerberus, Hydra) fail to help, too, and the excellent Ashley Judd gets discarded in the first 10 minutes.
“What have you been watching?” 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?