Month: October 2016

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 2

Third-episode verdict: Son of Zorn (US: Fox)

4 October 2016 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

In the US: Sundays, 8.30/7.30c, Fox

As I said when I previewed the first episode of Son of Zorn, Fox’s live action/animation hybrid in which a cartoon He-Man/Conan the Barbarian type returns to California to help raise his now teenage son, it’s less about the format and more about the detail with Son of Zorn. Over its three episodes, it’s now demonstrated that it can be genuinely funny as both a parody of the likes of He-Man and fantasy in general as well as of modern manners and workplaces.

The show can excel, such as in its third-episode when Zorn declares war with a neighbouring office over one worker’s persistent theft of relishes from the communal fridge. That had consistently laugh out loud moments, such as Zorn disguising himself as ‘an old man’ to venture into the office or the ballard played over the end titles. Genuinely top comedy.

And not just from Zorn. Cheryl Hines as Zorn’s ex- got some great moments, too, as did Tim Meadows as her fiancé.

When Son of Zorn is working well, it can be funny both about fantasy and about real-life. But as we saw with episode two, that’s a delicate balance and hard to pull off. Zorn, after all, is a dick and an episode filled with him being a dick towards his son and women isn’t as enjoyable, which is what we got when he used his ‘Stone of Sight’ essentially to help his son stalk a woman.

Not without laughs for sure, but it’s clear that Son of Zorn works best as a show when it’s being downright silly and outlandish, rather than turning its acute observations too closely at its characters and their worst traits.

Those caveats aside, Son of Zorn has passed Mark Kermode’s Six Laugh Test with every episode with flying colours. While nerdy son is a bit of a waste of time, the rest of the cast, including Zorn (Jason Sudeikis in case you were wondering), are excellent and all get lots to do. As long as the writing holds up, this is going to be regular viewing for me and a quick add to the recommended list.

Barrometer rating: 2
Would it be better with a female lead? No
TMINE’s prediction: Has the potential to run for a good number of seasons

Canadian TV

Review: Aftermath 1×1 (Canada: Space; UK: 5*)

4 October 2016 Rob Buckley 1 Comment


In Canada: Tuesdays, 10e/7p, Space
In the UK: Tuesdays, 9pm, 5*. Starts tonight

Sometimes, this year has felt like the End of Days. So many famous people dying, Brexit, Turkish coups, Aleppo. The list goes on and we haven’t even reached the Trump White House yet. Or the raining fish. Or the flying zombies.

Those latter two are coming soon, though, along with meteors, earthquakes and all manner of other disasters, according to Space’s Aftermath. It stars real-life couple Anne Heche (Save Me, Hung) and James Tupper (Mercy), who met back in Men In Trees, as a couple with three kids who have to somehow survive the apocalypse. Heche’s former USAF, while Tupper is a professor of old things, the former therefore being handy at shooting the ‘skinwalkers’ that rise up, Tupper useful for explaining that all the earthquakes have freed these ancient creatures trapped under the Earth who need to possess people to interact with the world. Mayan prophecies are in there somewhere, too, and skinwalkers aren’t the only things coming their way, either.

When skinwalkers drive the family out of their house, Tupper and Heche have to go on a road trip to find their errant elder daughter, but soon discover that that’s easier said than done when civilisation is falling apart.

The trouble with Aftermath is that it’s diabolically, laughably bad. It’s stupid, cheaply made and badly directed. Skinwalkers (aka ‘fever heads’) can fly – badly. Giant meteors that should destroy everything for a good 10km only knock out a few city blocks. Civilisation may be collapsing but mobile phone networks are doing just fine. And Tupper and Heche aren’t so much terrified as ‘Huh. The end of the world? Flying zombies? Watcha gonna do, hey? Pass me the shotgun.’

I had to turn the programme off after a quarter of an hour to let the effects of the preposterous rubbish leave my system before I could continue with the rest of it. Don’t bother trying even that much of it.

The CW’s superhero fight club is back

4 October 2016 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Last year, The CW put together a nice little team-up trailer to show off its roster of superhero characters in a make-believe training ‘fight club’. Of course, that was back when the network had a mere two superhero shows to its name: Arrow and The Flash. Can you believe it was ever so superhero-poor?

Now, though, it’s not only launched DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, it’s picked up CBS’s Supergirl and made it its own. Yep, we’re up to four shows – one every weekday night, except for the desert wasteland that is Friday. That seems much more sensible, doesn’t it?

To show off the new characters, as well as the old, here’s the sequel to that trailer: Fight Club 2.0. It’s not as much fun as the original and it goes on way too long, but it’s clearly got a bigger budget and it’s nice to see nerdy Supergirl and Flash sparking off each other again.

What have you been watching? Including Ash vs Evil Dead, Impastor and The Fall

3 October 2016 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

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. 

It’s possible that Peak TV peaked last week, given how many more new shows launched, and there’s a few more coming our way this week, too. Last week, I (p)reviewed:

I also passed a third-episode verdict on Quarry (US: Cinemax; UK: Sky Atlantic).

On top of that, later this week, I’ll pretty definitely (well, you know me…) be reviewing:

  • Westworld (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic)
  • Graves (US: Epix)
  • Aftermath (US: Syfy; UK: 5*)
  • Falling Water (US: USA)
  • Deep Water (Australia: SBS; UK: BBC Four)
  • Hyde & Seek (Australia: Nine)
  • Luke Cage (Netflix).

I’ll also definitely be passing third- and fourth-episode verdicts on:

…probably on:

…maybe on:

…and quite improbably on:

Internet streaming services being a little elusive at times in terms of telling you what they’re showing, if I’ve the time (!), I might try to play catch up with Easy (Netflix) and Start Up (Crackle), too, but I suspect they’ll get pushed to next week again. For starters, there’s bound to be other new shows this week that I’ve missed, too – I’m pretty sure Hayley Atwell’s new ABC show Conviction is on the way, but I’m too lazy to check the schedule.

Before all that, though, after the jump, reviews of the latest episodes of Designated Survivor, The Exorcist, Halt and Catch Fire, Lethal Weapon, Notorious, Pitch, Speechless, This is Us and You’re The Worst – if you do a quick bit of correlation with the list of shows above, you’ll probably be able to guess which ones I’m dropping. We also have the return of Ash vs Evil Dead, Impastor and The Fall to entertain us. 

Did I mention I watched a lot of tele this week? Because I did.

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