Year: 2017

Sky Atlantic's Riviera
UK TV

Third-episode verdict: Riviera (UK: Sky Atlantic)

10 July 2017 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Sky Atlantic

When Sky Atlantic started out making drama, it seemed like little more than an advert for the virtues of HD TV. While plots have improved since then, Riviera still feels like one of those early Sky Atlantic shows – all glossy locations, famous actors and glorious colours designed to show off what an improved Sky subscription package has to offer.

Since its first episode, Riviera has at least improved from merely giving us the likes of Julia Stiles, Lena Olin, Adrian Lester and Anthony LaPaglia marching from rich, plush location full of rich, plush people to another, with Amr Waked running around a lot and the occasional bit of sexy fun time thrown in for good measure. Episode two managed to up the IQ quotient a bit while adding the slightly less glamorous Phil Davis to the cast as an Interpol officer investigating financial dodginess in the family Stiles.

However, despite having a psychotic drowned prostitute going around murdering everyone she comes across, episode three has been light on thrills, intelligence or much else, preferring instead to have Stiles walking around gibbering to everyone she comes across while pointing a gun at them, whether they’re genuine crims, slightly poncy sculptors or innocent deer, which feels a bit of a cheap way to bring in even more excitement. Most scenes involve one or both of Stiles’ step-sons (Iwan Rheon and Dimitri Leonidas – the only cast member Greek enough to be a ‘Clios’)  being mean or nice to either Stiles or the other brother, or Stiles and Lester snapping at each other. And Davis only serves to make everything seem artificial and fake, rather than highlighting the differences between the very rich and the rest of us mere mortals.

There are precious few thrills in this thriller, but if you want to know how pretty HD can be or if Rheon can actually be anything other than a bit slimey, then Riviera is at least a break in watching Blue Planet on continual loop.

Barrometer rating: ‘4 or about as good as John Barrowman’s appearance in Shark Attack 3‘

The Barrometer for Riviera

Patrick McGoohan as The Prisoner in Portmeirion
Events

Celebrate The Prisoner’s 50th birthday at Portmeirion

10 July 2017 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

Network DVD, which releases all manner of archive DVDs, is celebrating the fact it’s the 50th birthday of The Prisoner this year with a very special event in the village itself – Portmeirion.

The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan’s visionary television series, reaches the half century of its first UK transmission in September. In celebration, Network is returning to the place where it all began – the village, aka Portmeirion, to host a one day event for the launch of our new feature-length documentary plus a brand new Blu-ray and DVD edition

This unique day will bring together surviving cast, crew and other special guests alongside screenings of key episodes from brand new 35mm prints, Q&A’s, installations and more.

The centre piece will be the world premiere of Chris Rodley’s new feature-length documentary In My Mind, followed by a very special 35mm presentation of Arrival at 7.30pm, 50 years to the minute of its UK premiere.

The new edition of our Blu-ray and DVD set is included in the ticket price for those attending the event, ahead of the official release date. All 17 episodes feature brand new detailed text commentaries and a wealth of newly produced special features, including the documentary feature In My Mind, unseen footage and much more.

This deluxe edition also includes an updated edition of Andrew Pixley’s definitive and highly-regarded book on the series, lavishly illustrated with rare and unpublished photographs and a newly remastered 6-CD soundtrack of the specially composed music scores by Albert Elms, Wilfred Josephs and Robert Farnon, Ron Grainer’s themes and the Chappell music library pieces altogether in one set for the first time.

Tickets are available to purchase from today but places at this unique event are strictly limited, and offered on a first come, first served basis. Tickets are priced at £135, which includes admission to the premiere, all episode screenings, Q&As and events around the village throughout the day plus the new deluxe BluRay or DVD box set.

A very limited amount of overnight accommodation for 28th and/or 29th September in Portmeirion itself is available to purchase separately. Please email [email protected] with your details and PRISONER50ACCOM as the title for further details.

Kim's Convenience
US TV

Kim’s Convenience writer sings a rap dedicated to Hawaii Five-0’s departing stars

10 July 2017 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Kim’s Convenience is big in Canada, but nowhere else yet, so you might not have heard of its writer Ins Choi. You’ll probably have heard of Hawaii Five-0, though, although you may not have heard that stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park are leaving the show, allegedly because they’re not being given the same salaries as their white co-stars (CBS, of course, denies it).

Anyway, during a performance of the original stage play at New York’s Signature Theatre Center this Saturday, former actor Choi dedicated a rap to Park and Kim about the problems that face Asian actors.

[via]

ABC's Somewhere Between
US TV

Promo for ABC’s Somewhere Between – a Groundhog Day murder-mystery

10 July 2017 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Not content to leave summer completely at the mercy of CBS, ABC is also launching its own sci-fi (ish) limited series this month. Somewhere Between is based on SBS (Korea)’s TV series God’s Gift: 14 Days and sees Paula Patton playing a mom whose eight-year-old daughter is kidnapped and murdered… except Patton discovers she can roll time back 14 days and perhaps save her daughter, with the help of ex-cop PI Devon Sawa (Nikita).

Now ABC has form for limited series about Groundhog Day-style crime stories with the Taye Diggs’ starrer Daybreak – which it cancelled after about seven episodes, releasing the rest of the episodes online, so whether this will be more successful or whether ABC will be more benevolent with Somewhere Between is going to be interesting to watch. The show itself? Well, here’s a promo…

CBS's Salvation
US TV

Watch the first 15 minutes of CBS/Amazon (UK)’s Salvation

10 July 2017 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s summer time and with it comes the now-traditional CBS summer show. In previous years, we’ve had Extant, Zoo, Under the Dome and Brain Dead, and now comes Salvation, a suspense thriller that centres on MIT grad student Liam Cole and tech superstar Darius Tanz, who bring Pentagon official Grace Barrows a staggering discovery – an asteroid is just six months away from colliding with Earth. The show starts Wednesday July 12 at 9pm ET/PT in the US and four days later (allegedly) on Amazon in the UK. I doubt it’ll be as romantic and fun as No Tomorrow, and it doesn’t exactly say summer fun, but you can at least watch the first 15 minutes below to see if you might want to watch more…

[via]