Every Friday, TMINE lets you know the latest announcements about when new imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens – assuming anyone’s bought anything, of course
Nothing much in terms of premiere dates this week, I’m afraid. However, Walter has acquired the show that got him into the whole Presenting lark in the first place: Hořící keř (Burning Bush)(Czech Republic: HBO Europe). Says Wikipedia:
Burning Bush is a 2013 three-part mini-series created for HBO by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Based on real characters and events, this haunting drama focuses on the personal sacrifice of a Prague history student, Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in the previous year. Dagmar Burešová, a young female lawyer, became part of his legacy by defending Palach’s family in a trial against the communist government, a regime which tried to dishonour Palach’s sacrifice, a heroic action for the freedom of Czechoslovakia.
Walter reckons it’s the best thing he’s ever seen, so it might not be too bad. Starts some time this month, allegedly, but no firm date from Mr Iuzzolino yet.
Also due on Walter Presents before the end of the year are the following shows, it turns out:
De prooi (The Prey) (The Netherlands: VARA)
De Prooi tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch banker Rijkman Groenink and the fall of ABN AMRO Bank. It is based on the acclaimed novel by research journalist and professor Jeroen Smit.
De Zaak Menten (The Body Collector) (The Netherlands: Omroep Max)
The story of Dutch journalist Hans Knoop’s 1970s struggle to uncover the truth about World War II war criminal Pieter Menten.
Der kalte Himmel (Frozen Sky) (Germany: WDR Fernsehen)
Germany, 1967, a time of growing social unrest, as hard-dying prejudices collide with new, revolutionary, liberal views. Deep in the rural farmlands, a young wife and mother of three, Marie, is about to undertake an incredible adventure to help her six-year-old son Felix, a “problem child” whose introverted, anti-social behavior is becoming increasingly difficult for the family to support. When the primary school refuses to accept Felix, only Marie unwaveringly stands by her child, who is a genius with numbers and clearly prefers them to people. With her husband’s farm nearly bankrupt and her mother-in-law organizing an exorcism, Marie finds understanding only in Alexandra, called Alex, the unconventional new choirmaster from Berlin. She introduces Marie to her friend Niklas, a young Berlin child psychiatrist who believes he might be able to help Felix. In spite of the family’s crushing financial situation, Marie sets off for Berlin with Felix.
In Berlin, Marie learns that her health insurance won’t pay for Felix’s therapy. Determined to go through with it anyway, she finds a job as a waitress in a night club – and a place to stay with Alex, who has returned to Berlin. The chaotic, devil-may-care, free-loving lifestyle in Alex’s commune in itself proves therapeutic to Felix, who is accepted by the commune dwellers’ children. Soon, Niklas also gains the trust of his little patient, who begins to reveal the full extent of his mathematical and musical gifts. Yet although Felix is responding well to the therapy, Niklas is forced to be brutally direct with Marie: Felix is autistic and will never function the way “normal” people do. He recommends that Felix be sent to a special psychiatric clinic. Marie and her husband have reached a crossroads: if they help Felix, they will destroy their family. But just as Marie begins to lose hope, an unexpected solution awaits her and Felix on their return..
Le vol des cigognes (Flight of the Storks) (France: TF1)
Jonathan Anselme, a young English academic, teams up with Max Böhm, an amateur ornithologist, to follow storks on their migration from Switzerland to Africa. Max wants to find out why some birds never return from this journey. However, after Max is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Jonathan decides to make the trip alone, never suspecting that he will find himself caught up in an international web of intrigue. While the Swiss detective Dumaz investigates Max Böhm’s murky past, Jonathan is forced to confront his own troubled history. He uncovers a trail of grisly murders travelling through Bulgaria, Turkey, the Middle East, the Congoalong the pathway of the migrating storks and their deadly secret.
Yes, it’s Weekly Wonder Woman – keeping you up to date on pretty much anything involving DC Comics’ premier superheroine, including what she wore for Halloween
There’s been a slight gap between WWWs. Sorry about that, but work annoyingly got in the way last week. But we’re back, ready to let you know the news and review everything Diana-ish of the past two weeks. Assuming you’ve managed to free yourself from your Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn Halloween costumes – they were the most popular outfits for girls this year.
Movie news
Gosh. What a lot of movie news there’s been, thanks to the imminent arrival of Justice League – aka Wonder Woman 1.5.
None of us knew exactly, exactly, what’s the backstory of Wonder Woman. And once they decided to shoot the solo movie, [the] Wonder Woman movie, and we started to dig in and understand the core of the character, we realized that actually there is no way that Wonder Woman will EVER give up on mankind. The reason why she left the island was because she wanted to make their life better and safer. They are her colleagues, so I’m giving you a very honest answer, that it was sometimes, you know, creative processes establish something that is not necessarily the right decision. But then you can always correct it and change it. So Wonder Woman will always be there as far as she [has] concerns for mankind.
On top of that, there’s this new DC video explaining Wonder Woman’s background in the comics and the movies:
And super-exciting for Londoners! The Justice League experience opened today at The College in Southampton Row, with rooms dedicated to each of the league’s members. Gal Gadot even paid a visit recently.
TV news
Yep, this is a new one. Don’t have TV news much in WWW, do we? But Robert Kirkman – creator of the comics that were the basis of The Walking Dead and Outcast – has a new TV series starting on November 12 on AMC in the US. It’s called Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics and one episode, Wonder Woman, traces our Diana’s story from her early origins to Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter will be on it and everything. Here’s a trailer for you Americans [sorry everyone else].
Comics news
Remember that Mercedes cash-in I told you about? Here’s the Diana one, in which she and the Flash change an old man’s tyre.
However, the most important announcement of the fortnight is that we’re getting another new Wonder Woman comic! Even more importantly, it’s the first ever comic to star just Batman and Wonder Woman, and is appropriately entitled Batman/Wonder Woman. The icing on the cake? Liam Sharp is doing the artwork.
Issue #1 is due out on February. Not long now then and given a whole bunch of people will buy pretty much anything with the Bat logo on it, I’m pretty sure it should sell well.
Comic reviews
Justice League Day #1 came out yesterday, but that’s just a reissue of the nu52 Justice League #1, so you can safely skip it.
After the jump then, a stupid Elseworld invades DC Prime in Justice League #32 and Diana finally meets her brother Jason in Wonder Woman #34. The slight catch? More lies. Oh dear. I thought Greg Rucka was off the title?
In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, USA
In the UK: Will air on Netflix
Over the past decade or so, ever since the arrival of Mad Men on our screens, the US has shown that not only does it have an appetite for home-grown period dramas, it can do them very well. Sure, there have been stumbling pointsalong the way but you can usually guarantee now that any given US period drama is going to be well made and feel authentic.
At the moment, the 80s is very much en vogue in US television programming, but globally, with the likes of Babylon Berlin, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and now Frankie Drake Mysteries, the 20s is where it’s at right now. So kudos to the US for bucking all the trends by giving us Damnation, a co-production between USA and Netflix that’s set in the 1930s.
Unfortunately, despite a very strong cast, Damnation‘s not only quite dull, it also wants very badly to be a western, even though it’s set in the 30s. That shouldn’t surprise you too much, though, given it’s created by Tony Tost (Longmire).
Tarnation
The show is billed as “as an epic saga of the secret history of the 1930s American heartland, chronicling the mythic conflict and bloody struggle between big money and the downtrodden, God and greed, charlatans and prophets.”
Our quasi-hero-prophet is firebrand faux preacher Killian Scott (the Jack Taylor movies, Ripper Street, Strike) who’s going around the mid-west stirring up trouble. It’s the Depression, farmers are having a hard time of it and the banks are squeezing them, so Scott’s trying to start a genuine proletariat uprising against capitalism. Together with wife Sarah Jones (Alcatraz, Vegas, The Path), he’s publishing pamphlets encouraging a violent revolution. Or is he? Because Scott lacks a basic understanding of market economics whereas Jones is smart and very good at typing…
Needless to say, capitalists don’t like the idea of a Soviet United States, whoever’s idea it is. First among the defenders of the free market faith is professional strike-breaker Logan Marshall-Green (Traveler, Dark Blue), who’s brought his Quarry moustache along for the ride. He’s a somewhat lethal, murderous individual who’s willing to do what it takes to stop the revolution before it starts, whether it’s framing someone for a murder he himself committed or getting the only literate prostitute in town (Chasten Harmon) to stab him. However, he has something of a conflict of interests when it comes to Scott (spoiler: (spoiler alert) Scott is his little brother) so can’t quite bring himself to go all the way with him.
But also new in town is fellow strikebreaker Melinda Page Hamilton (DeviousMaids, Mad Men) who’s handy with a rifle and quite happy to stir up trouble between the farmers and the police if it means the end to the agrarian rebellion. She’s also a nifty singer and a bit miffed that her husband’s dead thanks to Scott.
Last of all, we have small town sheriff Christopher Heyerdahl – no stranger to modern westerns thanks to Tin Star – who’s trying to keep the peace but might be out-gunned and too soft for the dangerous individuals he’s up against. He also might have a few fingers in a few pies of his own.
Sarah Jones as Amelia Davenport — (Photo by: Chris Large/USA Network)
Poetry
TIf you read Tony Tost’s Wikipedia page, you’ll find that he’s principally a poet, which is Damnation‘s biggest problem – it’s trying to be soaring poetry when actually it needs to be a tight, taut drama.
There’s nothing especially wrong with it in terms of production: it’s got a great cast (Scott is a fine replacement for original choice, Rectify‘s Aden Young), with Marshall-Green and Jones as good as always; the period detail is exquisite; dialogue is fitting for the time; the characters (bar Page Hamilton) are well drawn; nothing is given away too quickly; and the action is good, once it starts.
But everything takes about twice as much time as it needs, as though it’s following some kind of weird meter, with Tost expecting mood to be bursting out of every frame of the show while eagles soar over the biblical metaphors underlying the piece. He’s certainly not putting in any real communist thinking into the story to give us a genuine examination of the pre-New Deal system of capitalism and its flaw, for example.
Instead, we have something a bit more squalid, a bit more interested in what life was like being poor when the poor had to steal to even be able to eat, a bit more fascinated by a lack of civilisation, than something with an interesting story to tell.
It’s all a bit of a waste, really. An intriguing, failed experiment and a window onto a generally unobserved time and place that still has a lot going for it in a lot of areas, but not something that’s either ground-breaking or exciting in its own right.
Here’s a trailer. You know that earlier spoiler? It’s in big red letters in the trailer, too (do you think “from a co-executive producer of Game of Thrones” is a big selling point? I’m not sure it is)
