ITV green lights: series of psychological thriller Cheat, starring Katherine Kelly and Molly Windsor, with Tom Goodman-Hill, Adrian Edmondson, Peter Firth et al
Few people can have come out of cinemas having watched Jumper thinking “Gosh, I’d really love to see another movie set in this universe.” Indeed, so unmemorable a movie is it beyond its awfulness, you probably barely remember it and are probably already mixing it up mentally with the far superior Looper.
To refresh your memories, Jumper was the movie in which Hayden Christiansen turns out to have the ability to teleport. Unfortunately, there’s a secret society, whose number includes the stupidly haired Samuel L Jackson, dedicated to killing ‘jumpers’. Oh noes.
The film was something of a disaster and more or less killed off the career of director Doug Liman, which given he revolutionised spy cinema with The Bourne Identity shows you just what a rubbish movie it was.
Since then, Liman’s directing career has been a bit more low-profile and tethered to Tom Cruise’s whims, so Liman has done well as a producer on the likes of Suits instead.
So it’s something of a surprise that he’s attempting to resurrect his career with a return to the Jumper universe. It’s even more surprising that it’s actually really good.
Missi Pyle and Maddie Hasson in Impulse
Impulse
Impulse is based on the third of the Jumper novels by Steven Gould, but is as much of a departure from its raw material as Jumper was. It sees Maddie Hasson playing mardie teenage girl Henrietta (aka Henry) who’s moved to the small town of Weston in New York state with her single mum (Missi Pyle). Dad left years ago and now commitment-phobe Pyle moves from guy to guy looking for ‘the one’ who might be good to both her and Hasson. She’s found a possible keeper – widower Matt Gordon – who has his own teenage daughter (Sarah Desjardins) and all would be fine, were it not for Hasson’s extreme mardiness and the fact she’s starting to have fits that doctors are finding hard to diagnose.
Hasson hooks up with local sporting hero Tanner Stine, but when things start moving too quickly for her, she asks him to stop… but he won’t, causing her to fit again. However, this time her fit somehow crushes the truck they’re in, paralysing Stine and instantly transporting Hasson back to her bedroom, along with bits of the truck. What’s going on? What will happen to Hasson? What will happen to Stine? And how will Hasson’s new ability evolve?
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
The LA Screenings have gone and gone. That means that a lot of UK networks are currently mulling their options about what to acquire, rather than actually buying things – where do you think we live? Canada? – which means it’s been a bit quiet this week for US pick-ups.
But we do have least have Netflix to tide us over. Oh, and although I don’t normally bother with second and third seasons airdates, it’s probably worth mentioning (via Fans of European and World TV Dramas) that season 3 of Le bureau des légendes (The Bureau) is finally now available on Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, it’s through the Sundance Now channel, which will set you back £5.99 a month, although there’s a week’s free trial. Cheaper than Blu-Ray, mind.
Premiere dates
La balada de Hugo Sánchez (The Ballad of Hugo Sánchez) (Netflix)
Premiere date: Sunday, June 17
Spin-off from Netflix’s Club de Cuervos featuring the Hugo Sánchez character, who’s taking the Cuervos to a tournament in Nicaragua called “Duelo de las Aves”. For the first time, Hugo leaves his comfort zone to take charge of a team and his own life.
Nit i Dia (Night and Day) (Spain: TV3; UK: Channel 4/All4)
Premiere date: Sunday, July 1, 10pm
Picked up all the way back in April 2017 by our Walter, this “realistic” Catalan series sees happily married forensic pathologist Sara’s life go a bit pear-shape when she starts investigating an unidentified man’s body and it turns out he has a skull tattoo, just like the one a previous one-night stand had.
All About The Washingtons (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, August 10
Autobiographical scripted comedy that follows Joey Washington (Rev Run aka Joseph Simmons) and his wife Justine Washington (Justine Simmons), playing fictionalised versions of themselves raising a family. After Joey decides to retire from a long career as legendary hip-hop royalty, his wife Justine, takes advantage of the opportunity to pursue a career of her own now that Joey is available to focus on raising the kids and keeping the house in order.
Feel-good procedural, from Monk creator Andy Breckman, that centres on Tony Danza, a lovable, yet not exactly honourable, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules, and his son, Josh Groban, a brilliant, straight-laced NYPD detective who makes a point of always following the rules. The ‘odd couple’ become unofficial partners as Danza offers his son blunt, street-wise advice.
