Here’s Gerard Butler pretending to be American and discovering it’s true.
To be fair, Butler is Scottish so probably thinks it really is true for Londoners at least.
Year: 2016
Yes, Spain does do science-fiction: meet El ministerio del tiempo
Although it always seems to be about time travel…
The latest Spanish sci-fi show is La 1’s El ministerio del tiempo (The Ministry of Time). I don’t speak Spanish, but as far as I can tell, it’s about a Spanish government ministry that tries to stop other countries from changing history to benefit themselves at the expense of Spain.
The show focuses on the ministry’s newest ‘patrol’ – Army of Flanders soldier Alonso de Entrerríos, 19th century student Amelia Folch and 21st century Samur paramedic Julián Martínez – who as well as avoiding the temptation to kill Hitler, et al, before the Second World War starts, frequently have to stop artistic works from being stolen/destroyed/never created, with everything from Don Quixote to Guernica needing to be rescued.
Currently airing its second season, it looks a lot of fun and won last year’s Ondas Award for Best Spanish TV series. Perhaps most interestingly for TV nerds like me, there’s an episode in which Michelle Jenner plays Queen Isabel I of Spain, who was the first to establish the Ministry back in 1491 – Jenner, of course, played Isabel in soapy biopic Isabel, which aired over here on Sky Arts. Nice crossover work, guys.
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News: Audrey Fleurot joins Les Témoins; Iceland’s Last Vikings; + more
Film
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt exits Sandman
Film trailers
- Trailer for The Adderall Diaries with James Franco, Amber Heard and Ed Harris
Australian TV
- Nine renews: Here Come The Habibs!
- Casting on Nine’s Doctor Doctor
French TV
- Audrey Fleurot joins Les Témoins (Witnesses)
Scandinavian TV
- Iceland’s Truenorth developing: adaptation of The Sturlunga Clan Trilogy as The Last Vikings
New UK TV shows
- Playground developing: migration drama based on The New Odyssey
- Channel 4 greenlight: CCTV neighbour drama The People Next Door
US TV
- Freeform cancels: Kevin From Work
- Friday’s ratings
US TV show casting
- Rob Thomas (no, not that one) to guest on iZombie
- Michael Cristofer and Stephanie Corneliussen promoted to regulars on Mr Robot, Joey Bada$$ and Chris Conroy to recur
New US TV show casting
- Gina Torres to star in ABC’s The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez
- Wanda Sykes to co-star on ABC’s Dream Team
- Retta and Sarah Baker to co-star on ABC’s Hail Mary
- Brian Howe and Jayne Taini join ABC’s The Jury
- Kathleen Rose Perkins and Richard Masur join ABC’s Pearl
- Diedrich Bader to star in ABC’s The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport
- Blair Underwood to star in ABC’s divorce attorney drama…
- …Charity Wakefield and Thad Luckinbill to be regulars
- Kelli Goss to be a regular on CBS’s Furst Born
- Matt Cook and Grace Kaufman joins CBS’s Matt LeBlanc comedy
- Mädchen Amick joins The CW’s Riverdale
- Dan Bucatinsky, Coral Pena and Charlie Hofheimer join Fox’s 24: Legacy
- Ryan Hansen to co-star on Fox’s The Enforcers
- Monique Coleman and Noel Fisher to be regulars on NBC’s Miranda’s Rights
- Patrick Fischler and David Dastmalchian join Showtime’s Twin Peaks
What have you been watching? Including Ófærð (Trapped), The Shannara Chronicles, Lucifer and The X-Files
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 – they’ll even email you a weekly schedule.
I’m back. You may have noticed at least some stirring of activity from TMINE this week, following my return, with a third-episode verdict on 11.22.63 (US: Hulu; UK: Fox), but the trouble with going away for a bit is that you have to catch up with all the things you should have been doing while you were away.
But I have. Just about. Okay, I didn’t make it more than 10 minutes through Netflix’s Love, despite Gillian Jacobs being in the cast. I will try to remedy that next week, although there’s a whole bunch of new shows just beginning right now, including Hap and Leonard, Damien, Slasher and The Family, that will warrant some of my time, too. I can’t imagine myself trying to watch Netflix’s Fuller House, though.
After the jump, the regulars, some of them getting a double helping of reviewing: American Crime, Arrow, Billions, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Flash, Limitless, Lucifer, The Magicians, Man Seeking Woman, Okkupert (Occupied), Second Chance, The Shannara Chronicles, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man, Supergirl, Vikings and The X-Files. I’ll admit now that I might be a bit hazy about some of them.
As well as all of those, I managed to watch the first three episodes of…
Ófærð (Trapped) (Iceland: RÚV; UK: BBC Four)
Small-town Icelandic police officer (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) has to deal with winter and his personal problems, as well as the bigwigs of Reykjavik and a ferry full of annoyed passengers, when a chopped up body is found in the sea. Is the murderer one of the passengers, who is the victim and is it all linked to something in town?
Thematically, the show has a lot in common with Fortitude (although without the horror/sci-fi twist) and not just the location of the filming. It’s all about the claustrophobia of an artic island in winter, people having to get on with one another because there’s nowhere else to go, and quirky police who’ve never had to deal with anything except parking tickets and stolen cameras having to deal with people trafficking, gangsters and vicious murders. There’s also the inevitable concern of not wanting foreign investors to be scared off by the crime.
Ólafsson is a strong, bear-like presence against the beautifully photographed and breathtaking Icelandic landscape. The characters are interesting and the show avoids the dramatic absurdities of Den Som Dræber (Those Who Kill), 100 Code, etc, in favour of a far less flashy telling of a plausible story. And there’s fun Icelandic-Danish conflicts, too. So far, it’s shaping up to be my favourite Nordic Noir after The Bridge.
At least for the first three episodes. I’ll let you know if that changes…
Learn to speak Geordie the Castle way
It’s basically a foreign language, dontcha know? And judging by the incidental music, Newcastle is in either Scotland or Ireland now.
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