Australian and New Zealand TV

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Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: The Doctor Blake Mysteries 1×1 (ABC1/ITV)

6 February 2013 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

The Doctor Blake Mysteries

In Australia: Fridays, 8.30pm, ABC1
In the UK: Will air on ITV
In the rest of the world: Not yet acquired

If you’re from the UK and of a certain age – your 30s or 40s – you’ll remember Craig McClachlan: he was Henry on Australian soap opera Neighbours, back when anyone who was anyone watched it.

So popular was he in the role, that he was enticed over to the UK to star in BBC1’s Bugs, a fun bit of escapism masterminded by The Avengers‘ Brian Clemens that was thoroughly enjoyable until a bunch of people who’d written some Doctor Who New Adventures novels decided they wanted to make it proper sci-fi and robbed it of any or all enjoyable qualities in its second series.

One thing that McClachlan didn’t really demonstrate in either of those two shows was the ability to act. In fact, he was largely only notable for his haircut and huge pectoral muscles, and that was about it.

Craig McClachlan in Neighbours

So colour me surprised by The Doctor Blake Mysteries, a new Australian crime series set in small Victoria town in 1959 and which stars McClachlan as the eponymous Doctor Blake. Because not only is the show itself really rather decent, but McClachlan – as well as not taking off his top once – seems to have matured into “one of Australia’s favourite and most versatile actors” during the past 20 or so years.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: The Doctor Blake Mysteries 1×1 (ABC1/ITV)”

What did you watch this week? Including The Following, Spartacus, Mr Selfridge, Being Human (US) and Arrow

1 February 2013 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

It’s “What did you watch this week?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: 30 Rock, Archer, Arrow, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Cougar Town, Elementary, Go On, Last Resort, Modern Family, Mr Selfridge, Shameless, Spartacus and Suits. These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can’t be sure which.

Being added to the list this week after rather a long time hovering close to the qualifying bar is Vegas – it’s not an absolute must-recommend but it’s about as good as network TV is probably ever going to be able to do with a period gangster show set in Las Vegas and it did have a cracker of an episode this week that managed to mix comedy with the nasty to great effect.

I’m also sticking Banshee on, even if it’s going to be a bit too ultraviolent for a lot of people and doesn’t exactly aim for verisimilitude a lot of the time. Spartacus is back and so is Top Gear: strange how the three presenters are great when they’re together, merely bearable when there’s two of them, and unbearable when it’s just one of them.

Some new shows started this week, none of which I had a chance to watch: The Americans, which has started on FX and has been acquired by ITV, which looks good but at two hours, was just a little bit too much for me to have caught in time; last night’s Do No Harm, which is a modern Jeckyll and Hyde story on NBC; BBC2’s Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe and Channel 4’s Derek with Ricky Gervais. I’ll review them all (or the first two at least) when I’ve had a chance to watch them, probably on Tuesday. Oh yes, and Netflix has the whole of the new House of Cards for us to watch, too.

Also in the viewing queue: this week’s episodes of Suits, 30 Rock and Yes Prime Minister. But that’s it.

Now, some thoughts on the regulars.

  • Archer: Timothy Olyphant from Justified is gay for Archer. As fun as always, with a great ending that used silence to maximum effect.
  • Arrow: I appreciate that the producers would probably rather be making ‘Batman: The Early Years’, but did they have to take an existing Green Arrow villain (Count Vertigo) and basically turn him into the Joker, even getting the actor to do an impression of Heath Ledger? Good ep though. The flashbacks could do with advancing the story a bit faster, now, and when are they going to make the IT/general purpose science girl a regular?
  • Being Human (US): Curious how they’re shifting the show’s power dynamics to make it more female-centric. Where once it was all about Aidan and Josh with Sally a bit of an after-thought (a bit like the original then), it’s now all about Aidan, Nora and Sally instead. Everything’s in flux though, so let’s see if they can stabilise with the new dynamic.
  • Bob Servant Independent: Tried watching it, but despite Brian Cox’s best efforts it’s the usual “small man in a small town trying to be big” stick that huge chunks of bad British comedy are based on. So I gave up.
  • The Carrie Diaries: Got about 10 minutes into episode two before we completely lost the ability to concentrate. We’ll try again but I suspect this is a definite dud.
  • The Following: Well, what an amazing turnround. After a deeply nasty first ep that was empty and full of misogyny, it’s like the producers have sat down, asked “What’s wrong with this show?” and done as much as they could to fix it. So they’ve amped up the characterisation, dropped a lot of the sadism, dropped the rubbish female character and added a couple of good and interesting female characters, added in some Scream meta-ness, and focused a lot more on character relationships. Don’t watch episode one, if I were you, but start watching from episode two instead. Assuming you fancy watching a show about Edgar Allen Poe-inspired serial killers, that is.
  • Go On: A good Lauren episode and a good expansion of the set up with some more incidental characters. But it really needs to get funnier if it’s too avoid cancellation, as well as drop a few of the more rubbish characters that are hogging up the screen time.
  • Mr Selfridge: The first downright poor episode of the show, more soap opera than drama, and with some terrible acting in some quarters. But still enjoyable and had a few interesting historical notes about ‘the rational dressing’ movement.
  • Spartacus: Usually, it takes the show two or three episodes before it settles down and stops being all about the swearing, sex and violence, and gets on with the plot. This season, they’ve leapt straight in with plot and characterisation. Yes, it’s still a blood-bath and there was an orgy or two – it is still Spartacus – but some clever plotting and writing and actually not much by way of ornate swearing for a change. Also featured Ty from The Almighty Johnsons in a bit part, which was odd.
  • Suits: A decent Louis episode but not as clever as in previous weeks.
  • Yes, Prime Minister: Episode two was a marked improvement on episode one, but watching re-runs of the original, it’s clear just how inferior the new version is, both in terms of writing and performance, and it’s actually a little offensive at times. All the same, it does have some insight and good qualities, so if you’ve nothing better to watch, try it.

“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

Dick Heads

Dick Heads: The entire cast of the Hobbit

28 November 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

The cast of the Hobbit

He may be playing a dwarf in The Hobbit, but you can probably tell that wasn’t typecasting for Richard Armitage, given how tall he is in comparison to the rest of the cast. See how many you recognise in this slightly blurry cast photo: I’ve spotted Sylvester McCoy, Andy Serkis, him off The Almighty Johnsons, him out of Being Human and Peter Jackson. Can’t see Sir Ian, Christopher Lee, Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, him off The Matrix or Liv Tyler (is she even in this one?), but maybe they’re hiding behind that plane.

Don’t forget to write a haiku if this inspires you in some way.

Got a picture of Richard Armitage’s head, preferably wearing a hat? Then leave a link to it below and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Dick Heads” gallery.

What did you watch last week? Including Argo, Bomb Girls, Redfern Now, Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2 and Men in Black 3

19 November 2012 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I watched in the past week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: 30 Rock, Arrow, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Go On, The Last Resort, and Modern Family.

Still in the viewing pile: this weekend’s Dexter and The Wedding Band, and a queue of Strike Back and 30 Rock that’s as long as your arm. But here’s a few thoughts on what I have been watching.

  • Arrow: A bit of a down-tick in quality, the show essentially being about why the Arrow starts fighting ordinary crime, rather than just rich people, and largely suffering from a whole heap of silliness as a result. But even bad Arrow episodes are still quite good.
  • Bomb Girls: A Canadian period series set in World War 2 in Canada. Currently airing on ITV3. I missed it when it aired in Canada, but I’m not that fussed, since although it seemed a reasonable show of its type and it had James McGowan from The Border in it, there weren’t many characters to draw me in.

  • Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23: A topical one this, tied into People’s Sexiest Man of the Year issue. The first episode in a while to tie back into the idea that the B—– is a con-woman, not just insensitive, it was another fun watch.
  • Elementary: The first of the Keith Szarabajka projects of the week, this went largely in the directions expected of it, although with a few twists here and there. The show’s largely finding its feet now and remembering it’s Sherlock Holmes, not just a procedural. Separating up Holmes and Watson so Watson could investigate Irene Adler was a bold move, but it worked. Not sure about the ending, but it would fit in nicely with the idea that she is one of the only people capable of fooling Holmes. Or he could be lying.
  • Go On: Has acquired a new title sequence for no good reason. It’s not the worst title sequence ever – The Mindy Project has that – but it’s odd that it’s now getting one after all this time. A well-handled episode that possibly introduced a new character, but nothing extraordinary.
  • Happy Endings: Sad to say, but I’m giving up on this. It’s just not funny any more and they’ve messed around too much with Max, so I’ve deleted it from the queue.
  • Homeland: Not quite as ridiculous as last week, but it’s now so 24-ish, it’s impossible to take seriously. Plus it has one of the daftest sex scenes you’ll have seen in a while.
  • The Last Resort: The first episode without much action fun to keep things going, it also buckled a bit under the strain of the smuggler narrative.
  • The Mindy Project: Getting funnier again, but it does have the worst title sequence ever. Hard to tell if this was shown out of chronological order or not, because there were lines in it that didn’t make sense this late in the run.
  • Misfits: Off the viewing list as well. It’s lost its purpose now, not having any particular story to tell or any particularly interesting characters to tell it with. The cast try their best, but it’s not fun and it’s quite misogynistic.
  • Modern Family: A good one. Matthew Broderick did well.
  • Redfern Now: A The Street-like Australian show that Jimmy McGovern had a hand in shaping and featuring an Aboriginal cast and set in a Sydney suburb. While the first episode, which dealt with one woman’s attempts to look after her mentally ill sister’s children, did have its bleaker moments, this was more a look at triumph in adversity. Not something that’s really up my street (ho, ho), but a decent enough show for what it is. Worth a try if you’re looking for something a little different.

  • Suburgatory: Off the viewing list. Not really satirical or even funny any more.
  • Vegas: The best episode since the first one. Carrie-Anne Moss finally got something to do and with the introduction of Michael Chiklis’ wife, there’s almost a separate female narrative that runs parallel to the main male one, which is an interesting historical twist. The original theme of the different shades of grey of the two protagonists got a re-viewing as well and I liked the obvious parallels to the original JFK election debate, too. Perilously close to the recommend list, now.

And in movies:

  • Argo: The second Keith Szarabajka project of the week, this one a tad more appropriate to a former star of The Equalizer. Here he plays a smaller part in a film based on the true story of how the CIA extracted six Americans from Iran during the 1979 Revolution by faking a science-fiction movie called Argo. Beautifully directed by the lead, Ben Affleck, it’s tense and funny in equal measure, with some frightening scenes of crowd violence and some wonderful recreations of LA in the 1970s that actually make you wonder “how did they do that?” more than most CGI in sci-fi blockbusters. The 1970s Warner Bros logo is a delight and they even get Jimmy Carter at the end, but the fact that practically everyone in it has been in a TV show I’ve watched at some point was distracting (Oh, it’s her from Homeland… Breaking Bad… The Mindy Project… Alias… Damages…!). Recommended, though.

  • Men In Black 3: A real surprise. While it takes a while to really get going and it lacks the energy of the previous two, it’s certainly a whole lot more original than the second one. Josh Brolin is great as young Tommy Lee Jones. There’s also some real pathos at the end. If you’ve given it a miss since you think you know what it’ll be like, give it a try – you might be surprised.

  • Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2: While it suffers largely from the same problems as the previous movies in the franchise – too long, not much happening, not enough time spent on developing the secondary characters – this does at least have a decent, extended fight scene and Bella changes from being a wet domestic abuse victim to something a whole lot more kick ass, thankfully. I watched this in a screening packed full of teenage girls and it turns out that teenage girls en masse have forgiven Kristen Stewart for whatever ‘sins’ she might have committed, and that not only do they like ‘an eye for an eye’, they’re also partial to a decapitation or two, judging by the whoops and cheers. That might be just a SE London thing, though. They also get a bit embarrassed by on-screen sex. Possibly the most gruesome of the movies, it’s also slightly spoilt by Michael Sheen going colossally over the top, but otherwise, it’s surprisingly not bad.

“What did you watch last week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?