Month: January 2018

The Shannara Chronicles
News

The Shannara Chronicles cancelled; 9-1-1 renewed; + more

17 January 2018 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Internet TV

German TV

UK TV

  • Syfy acquires: lone survivor with magical powers drama The Outpost

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

  • Idara Victor, Tyrone Brown, Kadeem Hardison et al join OWN’s Love Is____
Netflix's Dark
News

Dark seems to be a hit for Netflix

16 January 2018 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Since I do loves me a chart, I thought I’d flag up this exciting bit of news. Dark, which is Netflix’s first German-language show and has already been renewed for a second season, seems to be Netflix’s biggest European hit so far:

Global demand for Dark

The quick demise of Marseille isn’t a big surprise, particularly to anyone who tried watching it, since it wasn’t much cop, but the fact Dark is doing so well is surprising, albeit less so when you think that genre shows tend to get a certain level of built-in popularity.

Global demand for Dark

More surprising is that Dark was more popular than cartoon Castlevania. That’s the kind of thing you expect to do well, don’t you think?

[via]

Le bureau des légendes (Le Bureau)
French TV

Totally Serialized: Le bureau des légendes (The Bureau) – saison 3

15 January 2018 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Although I’m not 100% sure it’s still running its Totally Serialized events, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni is still being very marvellous and running French TV events in London. To save me some hassle, let’s pretend it’s still called Totally Serialized so I don’t have to rename this section.

Office admin out the way, appropriately enough, the first ‘Totally Serialized’ of 2018 is a showing of the first two episodes of the third season of Le bureau des légendes (The Bureau) (France: Canal+; UK: Amazon), as well as a Q&A with producer Alex Berger.

Le Bureau des Légendes

FRA | 2014 | Series 3, episodes 1&2 | 2×52 mins | showrunner Eric Rochant | directed by Samuel Collardey | with Mathieu Kassovitz, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Léa Drucker cert. tbc | in French with EN subs | UK Premiere

If you were hooked by The Bureau, rejoice, here comes the UK premiere of the new season! Based on real-life accounts by former spies, this French addictive series depicts a branch of clandestine undercover agents, dispatched in key and hostile locations around the world. Offering a new perspective on intelligence agencies and intricate geopolitical issues, this third season centres on “Malotru” (Mathieu Kassovitz), who is taken hostage by ISIS.

Followed by a Q&A with Alex Berger, Producer of The Bureau

It’s taking place on Wednesday 24th January at 8.30pm at the Institut in London and you can book tickets online – seats are still available.

Incidentally, I don’t know if the Institut is misspeaking or not, but the Tweet I spotted about the event talks about it being a preview, suggesting that the full season might finally be coming to Amazon…

UPDATE: Turns out there’s also a debate the next day about politics on TV, chaired by Walter of Walter Presents fame:

Power and Politics: The Hottest Genre in TV Drama

22:45-23:45

Chaired by Walter Iuzzolino, the curator behind global drama channel, Walter Presents, ‘Power and Politics: The Hottest Genre in TV drama’ will lift the lid on some of the most popular recent hit thrillers and royal dramas. Why have they struck such a chord with international audiences, and what successful formulae do they share? Meet the producers, writers and actors behind blockbuster hits like Spin, The Crown, Victoria, and The Bureau, and explore the line where fiction and reality meet. Who is manipulating whom, and to what extent is fiction shaping real life politics and public opinion? Mathieu Sapin, author of comic books on politics will also join the debate.

Speakers
  • Alex Berger, Producer of The Bureau
  • Gregory Fitoussi, Actor in Spin series
  • Daisy Goodwin, Creator and Writer of Victoria
  • Andy Harries, Executive Producer of The Crown (season 2)
  • Mathieu Sapin, Political Comic Book Author and Illustrator
Chair
  • Walter Iuzzolino, Global Drama Curator
Mackenzie Crook and Kelly Reilly in Sky Atlantic's Britannia
UK TV

Boxset Monday: Britannia (UK: Sky Atlantic; US: Amazon)

15 January 2018 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

In the UK: Available from Thursday on Sky Atlantic
In the US: Will be available on Amazon

What is Sky Atlantic’s new show Britannia all about? The obvious answer is that it’s about the second Roman invasion of the British Isles (aka Britannia), way back in AD43. David Morrissey (State of Play, The Walking Dead) is the Roman general in charge of the invading legions who thinks that he can do better than Caesar did 90 years earlier. The tribes of native Celts who once lined the shores to repel Caesar’s invasion are now led by Ian McDiarmid and Zoe Wanamaker, who are at each other’s throats thanks to a wedding ceremony gone wrong as the results of a bit of treachery, so seemingly no obstacle to Morrissey. Around them are other Celts vying for power, including McDiarmid’s son Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing, Hippies); meanwhile, McDiarmid’s warrior princess daughter Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes, Black Box, Above Suspicion) wants nothing but peace and her father’s approval.

However, it wasn’t just the Celts that helped repulse that first invasion. It was the druids and their genuine magic that sent Caesar running back to Rome in a tizzy. And it’s that magic that’s the real reason for Morrissey’s desire to lead Claudius’ legions to victory – he wants to visit the underworld to meet the dead and he needs the help of the druids, including their chief the 10,000-year-old Mackenzie Crook (The Office, The Detectorists). That’s something ‘outcast’ druid Nikolaj Lie Kaas wants to stop as he thinks Morrissey might be a demon from the equally demonic Rome.

But underneath that literal explanation of the plot, there is as the title suggests a deeper introspection of the nature of Britain, Britishness, change and immigration fit for our post-Brexit world. Plus a little bit of ultra-violence.

Continue reading “Boxset Monday: Britannia (UK: Sky Atlantic; US: Amazon)”