It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend anything you’ve been watching this week
Be careful what you wish for! Last week, I hoped for new TV to watch. Then it arrived en masse and I suddenly didn’t have the time to write about it all. Gah! That means I’m going to have to do it all now. Oh well.
Elsewhere, at least, I’ve reviewed both the first episode of LA to Vegas(US: Fox) and the whole of season two of The Crown (Netflix), as well as previewed Counterpart (US: Starz). But as you recall from last week’s rundown of forthcoming reviews, there was a whole lot more due. I haven’t yet managed to find a way to watch Stan’s reboot of old Russell Crowe movie Romper Stomper (I can remember Mariella Frostrup getting the horn over Crowe while reviewing it on Video View, it’s so old) without forking out money and I’m saving up Britannia (UK: Sky Atlantic) for next week’s Boxset Monday, but otherwise we’re pretty much there with the lot of them.
Sadly, no Happy! last week, but after the jump, I’ll be looking at the usual regulars: Engrenages (Spiral), Great News and Marvel’s Runaways. A bunch of old regulars are back, too, so I’ll also be having words to say about The Brave, Cardinal, Falling Water, SEAL Team, Star Trek: Discovery, TheX-Files and Will & Grace. And on top of that, I’ll be reviewing new shows Along Together, Grown-ish and 9-1-1, as well casting a brief glance at fellow new arrivals Craith and The Chi.
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK
Two premiere dates, including one new acquisition, to start the New Year, you’ll be glad to hear.
History’s Six: (l-r) Jaylen Moore, Kyle Schmid, Barry Sloane, Walton Goggins, Juan Pablo Raba, Edwin Hodge, Donny Boaz
Six (US: History; UK: 5Spike)
Premiere date: Friday, January 19, 9pm
Former SEAL Team Six troop leader Richard ‘Rip’ Taggart (Walton Goggins) is captured by Boko Haram and it’s up to his former SEAL Team Six comrades to put their differences aside to locate and rescue their former troop leader.
Not even half as good as SEAL Team or even the less SEAL-ish The Brave, it’s a show that gets by on the kudos of its subject matter, rather than any real aptitude at drama or characterisation. ISIS terrorists recruiting online from plush apartments in Dubai and communicating using video games? In English? Hmm.
The Disappearance (l-r): Aden Young, Camille Sullivan and Peter Coyote
The Disappearance (Canada: CTV; UK: Universal Channel)
Premiere date: Tuesday, February 27, 9pm
I didn’t watch this one because it’s a mini-series and started while I was on holiday (IIRC). So here’s the rubric:
The Disappearance follows the Sullivan family in the wake of a terrifying family drama. As the fractured family bands together to solve the mystery that has uprooted their lives, long-held secrets are uncovered. Driven by hope and a relentless determination to do whatever necessary to uncover the mystery, the same hidden truths that threaten to shatter this family may also be the very key to reuniting them.
The six episode drama series was created by Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard and stars Peter Coyote (ET), Aden Young (Rectify), Camille Sullivan (The Man In The High Castle), Joanne Kelly (Warehouse 13), Micheline Lanctôt (Unité 9) and Kevin Parent (Café de Flore).
TMINE’s about to take its traditional Christmas and New Year break. Normal business will resume on January 2nd with the Daily News et al.
But as usual, I’ll leave you with a specific question to keep you occupied in my absence: what were your favourite new shows of the year? Let everyone know your choices and the reasons below or on your own blog – or even on the shiny new TMINE Facebook page.
For the record, after the jump are my Top 14 shows from all over the world, in no particular order. Obviously, I’ve not watched every TV programme broadcast or acquired in the UK this year and I barely watched any live TV, so there are almost certainly some good shows that that I’ve left off the list – this is just the top “would recommend to a friend” shows of the ones I watched in 2017. Continue reading “Question of the year: what were your favourite new shows of 2017? Here’s my Top 14!”
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK
Christmas hasn’t stopped the acquisitions staff at various UK networks from rushing through some acquisitions, and the schedulers aren’t taking a break, either.
This week, 5Spike picked up History (US)’s inferior SEAL team drama Six, for broadcast in early 2018, while Channel 4 (and Walter) have picked up TV4 (Sweden)’s Rebecka Martinsson, which will air… some time.
Meanwhile, most of last week’s new acquisitions now have airdates, as do a few other shows that had already been acquired:
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) is a supervisor in a hypermarket and Ben Feldman (A to Z) is the new employee with airs and graces who finds her attractive but makes an immediate bad impression on her, which leaves her with little patience for him. The result is that he keeps making costly mistakes, such as marking everything as costing $0.25 rather than 25% less, resulting in Black Friday levels of customer in-fighting.
Without jokes, a comedy show is for naught, and while frequently it’s smart and comes perilously close to being funny and sometimes even witty, nothing ever really lands home, bar a joke about a cubic zirconium knock-off. Still, it’s better than Sky’s Trollied.
An everyday tale of an inbred family of Southeners, sticking by their own kind, obeying a stern family figure, living by their own rules, drinking moonshine, racing all over the place, breaking whatever laws they want while the cops try and fail to catch them. About as smart a drama as you can make about a family of 200 or so cousins, only one of whose members can read.
A look at the ‘underground railroad’ that helped slaves in the US to escape to freedom, usually in British North America (aka Canada). On the one hand, the show takes great pains to be as realistic as possible. On the other, it also takes great pains to be as ‘with it’ as possible, with flashy camerawork, a modern soundtrack, time jumps, slow motion, and dialogue that’s often no more than a decade old. I lasted an episode.
Mash up of of Murdoch Mysteries and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries that sees Lauren Lee Smith (CSI, Good Dog, This Life, The Listener) playing the only female private detective working in 1920s Toronto. Jaunty fun, with the likes of Ernest Hemingway dropping by for a bit of flirtation, interspersed with female-empowering historicity, but let down by the singularly wet Lee Smith.
Seven Seconds (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, February 23, 2018
In a society fraught with racial tension, sensational headlines, and an audience who would rather be entertained than informed, seven seconds can mean life or death. The new Netflix original series Seven Seconds gives viewers a glimpse into the human stories behind the headlines.
In an instant, life is forever changed for Brenton Butler and his family. After a white cop accidentally hits and critically injures a black teenager, a northeastern city explodes with racial tensions, an attempted cover up and its aftermath, and the trial of the century. From creator and executive producer, Veena Sud (The Killing) comes Seven Seconds – a thrilling new anthology crime drama that explores the human stories behind the headlines.
The series stars two-time Emmy winner Regina King (American Crime) alongside breakout British actress Clare-Hope Ashitey (Doctor Foster), Russell Hornsby (Fences), Beau Knapp (Sand Castle), Michael Mosely (Ozark), David Lyons (Safe Haven), Raul Castillo (Special Correspondents), and Zackary Momoh (A United Kingdom).
