European TV

News and reviews about European TV

Jodie Whittaker's new Doctor Who costume
News

Star Wars TV series; Hotel Beau Séjour renewed; Channel 4 is Shamed; Jai-Alai crime drama; + more

10 November 2017 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Internet TV

Australian TV

  • Ten green lights: inept criminals comedy Street Smart, WAGs drama Playing for Keeps and It’s A Date spin-off How to Stay Married

European TV

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US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

  • Benedict Wong, Benjamin Wadsworth, Lana Condor et al join Syfy’s Deadly Class, Henry Rollins to recur
Strike Back: Retribution
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Strike Back: Retribution and Spider-Man: Homecoming

7 November 2017 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you each week what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently and your chance to recommend anything you’ve been watching. TMINE recommends has all the reviews of all the TV shows TMINE has ever recommended, but for a complete list of TMINE’s reviews of (good, bad and insipid) TV shows and movies, there’s the definitive TV Reviews A-Z and Film Reviews A-Z. 

We’re now entering mid-mid-season in the US, that time when a number of shows have their November finales and a new set of somewhat lesser shows get ushered onto the scene to fill the airwaves. It beats alternating new episodes with re-runs I guess, but it does mean I had to endure S.W.A.T. (US: CBS) this week. Young Sheldon (US: CBS) has also made its return – but more on that later – and there are more to come now the likes of Will & Grace have bowed out.

Elsewhere, I reviewed Babylon Berlin (Germany: Sky 1; UK: Sky Atlantic) and the whole of Stranger Things 2 (Netflix), but there are a few new shows floating around the airwaves that I’ll be looking at later in the week. CBC in Canada has decided to staple The Murdoch Mysteries onto Miss Fisher’s Mysteries to give us (you guessed it) the ubiquitous Lauren Lee Smith in The Frankie Drake Mysteries, so I’ll be letting you know what I think of that in the next couple of days. Sperm-crimes drama Sisters (Australia: Ten) has somehow been slipping by me over the past couple of weeks, so I’ll try to play catch-up with that, assuming it’s any good.

After the jump, then, the latest episodes of the regulars: The Brave, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Great News, Marvel’s Inhumans, Mr Robot, Professor T, Star Trek: Discovery, Travelers, Will & Grace and Young Sheldon. 

I’ll also be casting my eye over one new show, Strike Back: Retribution, as well as a movie: Spider-man: Homecoming. See you in a mo.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Strike Back: Retribution and Spider-Man: Homecoming”

Babylon Berlin nightclub scene
TV reviews

Review: Babylon Berlin 1×1-1×2 (Germany: Sky 1; UK: Sky Atlantic)

2 November 2017 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In Germany: Fridays, 8.15pm, Sky 1. Started October 13
In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, Sky Atlantic. Starts November 5

Ask any Brit who didn’t take GCSE or A-level History what Germany, particularly Berlin, was like during the inter-war years, they probably won’t have much of an idea. Chances are that if they have a clue at all, that clue is going to be based on the movie Cabaret.

It’s a movie that subtextually looms over Babylon Berlin, Sky Deutschland’s epic new attempt to break into the international TV big leagues, following the success of Deutschland 83 and Amazon’s You Are Wanted. Yet while it fleshes out that cinematic snapshot of a society, Babylon Berlin is very much its own beast and owes as much to that other staple of German fiction, particularly TV fiction, the ‘Krimi’.

Based on the books of Volker Kutscher, Babylon Berlin is set in Berlin in 1929 and follows young police inspector Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) after he arrives from Cologne to investigate a porn ring.

Volker Bruch as Gereon Rath in Babylon Berlin
Volker Bruch as Gereon Rath in Babylon Berlin © Frédéric Batier:X Filme

However, as the deaths begin to mount up, it soon becomes clear that the pornographers have connections to more dangerous people. On top of that, there’s a revolutionary band of Poles and Russians in town (the Fourth International), about whom the Bolsheviks, now led by Stalin, might have something to say, too. Needless to say, Bruch is on the case, even if it takes him to those debauched nightclubs you might have heard so much about…

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The Letdown
US TV

What have you been watching? Including The Letdown and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

1 November 2017 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you each week what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently and your chance to recommend anything you’ve been watching. TMINE recommends has all the reviews of all the TV shows TMINE has ever recommended, but for a complete list of TMINE’s reviews of (good, bad and insipid) TV shows and movies, there’s the definitive TV Reviews A-Z and Film Reviews A-Z. 

 

As mentioned yesterday, thanks to my having to deal with the antics of some customer service reps at Three (“Sure we can add that number to the new phone on your business account” – no, not my phone, that phone. Please don’t change my number) and Amazon (“Sorry, we’ve lost your order. It’s gone missing in transit.”), I didn’t have time to do “What have you been watching?” yesterday. But never fear, here it is.

Although I managed to review both of YouTube Red’s new shows, Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television* and Lifeline, Boxset Monday took a bit of a back seat this week, since I was away at the weekend and BBC America decided it would be a chuffing good idea to air three episodes of the new season of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Agency (about which more later). Still, I’m now about halfway through season 2 of Stranger Things (Netflix), so Boxset Monday should be back on… Monday.

I had actually planned a replacement Boxset in case I didn’t manage to watch all of Stranger Things, but I only managed to watch two of the six episodes of 4 Blocks (Germany: TNT Serie; UK: Amazon), since it’s impossible to watch it on a commute (or even a weekend train journey next to a devout Muslim woman and her four-year-old daughter), given the number of scenes set in a strip club and/or porn cinema. Still, that’s in the pipeline, too.

Coming up in the next few days, a review of S.W.A.T. (US: CBS) and a preview of Berlin Babylon (Germany: Sky Deutschland; UK: Sky Atlantic). And maybe some other stuff.

But after the jump, I’ll be running through those new episodes of Dirk Gently, as well as the latest episodes of the regulars: The Brave, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Great News, Marvel’s Inhumans, Mr Robot, My Myself and I, Professor T, SEAL Team, Star Trek: Discovery, Travelers, and Will & Grace. On top of that, I also watched the first episode of new Australian ‘comedy’ The Letdown. All of that after the jump.

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Babylon Berlin
Airdates

When’s that show you mentioned starting, TMINE? Including Valor, Babylon Berlin and The Sinner

27 October 2017 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Every Friday, TMINE lets you know the latest announcements about when new imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens – assuming anyone’s bought anything, of course

So I missed a premiere date. Sorry about that. It might have come out while I was on holiday. Anyway, just in case you want to experience what it’s like to be Australian and constantly see Rebecca Gibney whenever you turn on your television set, Netflix UK is now carrying Wanted, in which Gibney and Geraldine Hakewill go on the run after witnessing a murder involving dirty cops. I didn’t get much further than the first episode, but YMMV.

Amazon’s autumn pilot season is set to begin on November 10. That’s going to include Sea Oak, Love You More and The Climb, but I haven’t seen any of those and there are no trailers, so you’ll just have to read this article to find out what they’re going to be about.

In terms of acquisitions, Channel 5 picked up Speechless (US: ABC) this week, but we don’t even know which of its various channels that will air on, let alone have a premiere date. I’ll let you know when they deign to tell us.

After the jump, though, some honest to goodness UK premiere dates and details about The Sinner (US: USA; UK: Netflix), Babylon Berlin (Germany: Sky Deutschland; UK: Sky Atlantic) and Valor (US: The CW; UK: Netflix). See you in a mo.

Continue reading “When’s that show you mentioned starting, TMINE? Including Valor, Babylon Berlin and The Sinner”