Australian and New Zealand TV

News and reviews of Australian and New Zealand TV

News: Tyrant cancelled; Jessica Biel is The Sinner; new Wake In Fright adaptation; + more

8 September 2016 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Internet TV

  • David Cronenberg to co-star in Netflix’s Alias Grace
  • Nia Jervier and Wyatt Nash to recur on Netflix’s Dear White People
  • O-T Fagbenle to recur on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Hulu developing: adaptation of Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series as Queen of Shadows

Australian TV

Scandinavian TV

New UK TV shows

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

  • NBC developing: adaptation of Jeremy Blachman and Cameron Stracher’s The Curve: A Novel
  • FX developing: AI horror Basilisk
  • USA green lights: pilot of adaptation of Petra Hammesfahr’s The Sinner, with Jessica Biel

New US TV show casting

News: animated Power of the Daleks; Picnic at Hanging Rock, Heathers series; Narcos, Queen of the South renewed; + more

7 September 2016 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • BBC to animate The Power of the Daleks

Internet TV

Australian TV

New UK TV show casting

  • Tom Burke to star in BBC One’s Comoran Strike

US TV

US TV show casting

  • Victor Ortiz and Jasmine Tookes to guest on Life In Pieces

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

What have you been watching? Including Mr Robot, Marco Polo, The Last Ship and Outcast

18 July 2016 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

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

The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. 

Today’s is going to be the last WHYBW for quite some time now, since I’m off on my traditional summer break from next week. Whether I’ll take all of August off remains to be seen, but let’s not start promising anything at this point.

Before then, I’ll be reviewing the first episode of Vice Principals (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic) and I’ve got plans to have a look over a couple of French shows on Netflix and Amazon, too. I might even have a look at Netflix’s Stranger Things, which debuted on Friday.

I’ve already reviewed the first episode of Barracuda (Australia: ABC), but after the jump, I’ll be looking at the latest episodes of 19-2, The Kettering Incident, The Last Ship, Outcast and Preacher, as well the return of Mr Robot and the rest of season two of Marco Polo. Given that I’m going to be away on holiday, will I employ my usual July ruthlessness and purge from the viewing list any that I can’t be bothered to catch up with? It’s a possibility…

At this point, I’d normally tell you about the movies I watched last week. Unfortunately, despite my best intentions, we couldn’t get through either Joy or Hail, Caesar!, since they were both a bit dull. That might be the closest I ever get to reviewing them, but you never know.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Mr Robot, Marco Polo, The Last Ship and Outcast”

Australian and New Zealand TV

Mini-review: Barracuda 1×1 (Australia: ABC; UK: BBC Three)

15 July 2016 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

In Australia: Sundays, 8.30pm, ABC
In the UK: Acquired by BBC Three

There’s a worrying trend developing in television drama, one that I heartily disapprove of: drama about sports. It’s coming to us from the US, with the likes of Ballers, Pitch and Kingdom; meanwhile, Australia’s already given us tennis players in The Beautiful Lie, and now we’ve got to put up with swimming with ABC’s Barracuda. I’m guessing with the Olympics on the way, there may be even more sports shows to come. Tsk. There’s really no need for it, though, is there?

To be fair, Barracuda is more an excuse to look at the issues around sport and at young men in speedos, than it is all about the glories of swimming, no matter how many dodgy poems Hungarian swimming coaches read to their youthful charges in their homes. Set in 1996, it sees newcomer Elias Anton playing a working class Olympian hopeful winning a scholarship to a prestigious private school that trains swimming champions. But there, as well as having to shave his chest and dive into water a lot, he has to navigate class boundaries, bullying and racism, in order to make it to the top. But what price does it come at and is it all worth it?

If you’ve watched any kind of sports drama and any kind of drama set in a school, particularly a private school, you won’t be surprised by much of what Barracuda has to offer, although what it does, it does very well. The young cast is decent and look the part; Matt Nable (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Gallipoli) is suitably inspiring as the coach, even if he sounds more South African than Hungarian; and the talented Rachel Griffiths (Brothers and Sisters, Very Annie Mary, Camp, Deadline Gallipoli) mysteriously shows up as one of the mums of the swim team.

It’s all beautifully shot and there are some good moments, even some involving sport, particularly when the reason for the show’s name gets revealed. But ultimately, even at just four episodes, you have to give a monkey’s about swimming for Barracuda to be worth your time.