Film reviews

An archive of The Medium is Not Enough’s film reviews

What have you been watching? Including The Ground Floor, The Tunnel, Kick Ass 2 and Now You See Me

23 December 2013 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. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV.

Not much airing at the moment, this close to Christmas. However, there’s been a little at least:

Almost Human (Fox)
Shown out of order, this was the second episode filmed and the first episode since the pilot to show any real promise. You can see why they moved it to the end, since it involved a second Dorian android and without having had any time to get to know the first one, this wouldn’t have been as emotionally interesting and to compare the differences. But it does, in retrospect, show how the writers have moved away from certain ideas, such as giving Minka Kelly anything to do.

The Ground Floor (TBS)
I can’t quite be bothered to do an nth-episode verdict on this. It’s chugging along reasonably nicely, but clearly has a far better grip on rich people than blue-collar workers, which it appears to assume are a bunch of slackers compared to those hard-working rich people. On the other hand, it clearly also believes that women haven’t got what it takes to be salespeople, judging by the complete lack of them on the sales floor (maybe they should have a word with the producers of Work It?). It’s losing a lot of its veneer, its obsession with Skylar Astin’s singing is getting annoying, and Briga Heelan is clearly finding it hard operating at 150% every episode so her performance has been losing energy. But its charming enough in a low-key 90s sitcom sort of way.

The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+)
And so it ends. Largely, I’d have to say this was the best version of The Bridge, with most of the original’s flaws polished and fixed, giving a thematic unity to ’TT’ and his actions that didn’t exist in either the original or the US remake; the stupider things were changed; the dialogue was improved; and Stephen Dillane was marvellous. Even though I’d seen the original and this largely followed its various plot twists and turns, it was genuinely thrilling, too. It wasn’t perfect, however. Compared to Sofia Helin’s Saga Norin, Clémence Poésy’s Elise Wasserman was a much duller, less charismatic character, albeit one who Asperger’s was for more useful and far more plausible than Norin’s more teenage Aspieness. The French side of things was more or less ignored in favour of the English side and when it was dealt with, the show demonstrated far less of the nuance and understanding it did with the English. But a genuinely good show that made me hope for not just a second series, but more dramas from Sky Atlantic.

And in movies:

Kick Ass 2
While not quite as good as the original, a sequel with a lot to offer. As well as doing with super team-ups what the original did for superheroes, Kick Ass 2 essentially switches from being a fantasy for geek boys – wouldn’t it be cool to dress up and be a superhero for real? – to being one for geek girls, giving us the ever-popular Hit Girl teaching mean girls a lesson, training up a geek boy and making him buff, and getting a first kiss from an older boy. It also gives us ‘Night Bitch’ and ‘Mother Russia’, who have their own female takes on superheroism (and villainy).

Now You See Me
Four hot young – and not so young – magicians unite on stage to rob a bank, and with the FBI in pursuit, continue to commit crimes. Why are they doing it? How are they doing it? It doesn’t matter, because the answer is utterly ridiculous and stupid, the dependency on special effects instead of genuine magic robs it of any real fascination, and it all boils down to a lot of chases, bad dialogue and things that wouldn’t work like that in real life. Perhaps its biggest mystery is how it got Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Isla Blair, Michael Caine, Woody Harrelson and Mark Ruffalo to star in it. Watch The Prestige instead

“What have you been watching?” 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?

What have you been watching? Including The League, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Homeland and The Tomorrow People

25 November 2013 Rob Buckley 7 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. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV.

Elsewhere, you can find my reviews of Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor, and Fox’s Almost Human. Still in the viewing queue are the latest Serangoon Roads, as well as last week’s Y Gwyll and The Tunnel.

Last week gave us as a one-off Doctor Who – An Adventure in Space and Time, which was a really rather lovely depiction of the creation of Doctor Who by the BBC in the 1960s. Essentially a more watchable The Hour with nicer characters, it’s a little too long in the wrong places and a little clumsy in the obvious dialogue, but the cast was excellent, there were some cool Who cameos and I have to admit to having almost cried a bit. Probably Mark Gatiss’s best ever work and if The Hour had been like it, I would have watched it.

I also gave The League a go, which somehow I’ve been missing all these years. Airing on FXX, it’s about a bunch of friends in play in a fantasy sports league. I was only really watching it because Ali Larter was on it, so I probably won’t watch it again because although it had some smart lines, the characters just weren’t engrossing and it wasn’t that funny either.

On top of that, I gave Scots Gaelic channel BBC Alba a try during Friday primetime. What did I find? 1982 nature documentary Track of the Wild Otter, narrated by Philip Madoc in English. What’s the point of that then?

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
Two strong eps, particularly the second, which gave us Peter MacNicol as (spoiler alert)an Asgardian. But the ‘Tahiti is a magical place’ line is getting tedious, and Sky and co still don’t have enough personality to really keep the show afloat.

Ground Floor (TBS)
Becoming more amusing as it becomes more like Scrubs and less about the class divide. But the spark between the two leads is slowly evaporating and I could do without the singing.

The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
You’d have thought that with all the sex, the high school shenanigans, the mind reading and a serial rapist that it would still have been an interesting episode. Except it wasn’t, largely because of the flat, uncharismatic performances from most of the cast. Oh well.

Recommended shows
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Americans – what accent do you hear when Count Vertigo speaks? Do you hear English or very poor, deliberately effected fake English? The return of an old face lifted the episode, but made it a tad soap opera-y, and Laurel’s getting progressively worse, but with the flashbacks becoming more pertinent, overall it was good.

Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
This week, it was the turn of The Valley of Fear to provide some inspiration, but it was an otherwise original episode with a different slant from usual that worked quite well.

Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Brodie’s back. A little bit of a flounder in last night’s episode, where a very dodgy plot point was glossed over with a montage, but at least the direction the show is heading in looks interesting. A lot of potential for cock-ups en route though.

Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
Two strong episodes in a row.

And in movies:

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Katniss has to go back to the Hunger Games, but this time she has to fight past victors” doesn’t really do the film justice, but without giving lots away, that’s about the best that can be done. Although structurally it’s almost identical to the first movie, to say it’s the same would do it an injustice also, since this obvious transposition of Roman society and bread and circuses into a futuristic America has a lot to say in its first half that it didn’t in the first. It’s also a lot better directed, nastier and now has Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. I wouldn’t say it’s definitely worth watching, though, but if you want to watch a modern day remake of Rollerball, this is the movie for you. You’ll probably need to watch the first movie to have a hope of understanding what’s going on, though.

“What have you been watching?” 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?

What have you been watching? Including Y Gwyll, Ground Floor, Thor 2, Gravity and Homeland

18 November 2013 Rob Buckley 9 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. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV.

Sorry for the long delay in posting this but holiday and the resulting workload meant I didn’t have time to do it properly. Obviously, it might be a bit tricky for y’all to remember what you’ve been watching in the past three weeks, but if you let everyone know, I’m sure they’ll be grateful.

Elsewhere, you can find my review of the first episode of Ground Floor (more on that in a bit), my fourth-episode verdict on The Tunnel/Tunnel and my mini-review of the first episode of Dracula. The latter proved so bad that I couldn’t even countenance the idea of watching any more episodes, although I hear it might have picked up with episode four on Friday – although, given it’s only six episodes long, that might be leaving it a tad late. Also abandoned on the general grounds of life being too short is Atlantis – and the more I read recaps of the episodes as they air, the happier I am I’ve done that.

Still in the viewing queue are last night’s Serangoon Road, Almost Human and Homeland, as well as last week’s increasingly tedious Agents of SHIELD – let’s hope this week’s Thor 2 crossover is going to give it a boost.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
FitzSimmons get some characterisation, another call back to The Avengers and Coulson gets trauma counselling. And I just don’t care. Much. When will the TV curse of Jeph Loeb be lifted?

The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
We’ve now had ‘evil Wilson’ (House’s Robert Sean Leonard) doing evil doctor things, thus proving my theory about the casting decisions going on. Last week’s episode, however, excitingly dumped a big bunch of story on us, revealing (just about conclusively) that James Spader is indeed (spoiler alert) Megan Boone’s real father and her hubbie probably is more than he seems. Quite impressive for a show that’s not even cracked 10 episodes yet. Throwaway above-average fun so worth watching if you have an idle hour.

Ground Floor (TBS)
Episode two was marginally better than the first. Some additional maintenance workers showed up; Skylar Astin mysteriously turned into JD from Scrubs; there have clearly been some wardrobe decisions with respect to Briga Heelan, who’s getting some more practical outfits appropriate for a support worker; and it’s also making some good points re: class. However, it does feel a lot like an Ayn Rand diatribe at times, with the blue collar guys essentially ‘where they belong’ because they’re slackers who don’t work all day and are a bit dumb, whereas the guys on the top floor are hard-working bastards who get up before 5am every morning and leave work at midnight. Rather than, say, the blue collar workers having to hold down two jobs to make ends meet and the rich guys essentially having got lucky and blowing their ‘because it’s Monday’ bonus on cocaine, champagne and lap dancers when they’re ‘working’ with clients.

The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
About a gadzillion times more interesting and better than the original, but really starting to feel like a never ending series of episodes where people run around and get chased down corridors a lot, with baddies introduced then killed a couple of weeks later. Still, they’re up the diversity count, they’ve finally given some back story and character to the Asian guy, and there has been some plot advancement so at least they’re heading in the right general direction, albeit slowly.

Recommended shows
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Some terrible acting and borderline racism in the ‘black hoodlums’ episode, but the Black Canary storyline has seen the show firing on all cylinders, there’s been some fun stuff between Felicity and Oliver, and the fight scenes have been as good as always. You can see how they’re starting to set up the arrival of The Flash in the background of the stories, too, and seeing Amanda Waller from ARGUS turn up (albeit the nu52, slimmed down version) was a fun shout out to DC fans. Strange how little screen time Laurel’s getting though. I wonder what’s up there?

Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
Two references to The Adventure of the Silver Blaze in two weeks, including one story outright based on the original was interesting, as was a guest appearance by Olivia D’Abo from The Wonder Years, who turns out to be English-American. Well I never. The show’s also finding its feet with respect to the characters, although the Gerard backstory episode was a little perfunctory on that score. Some fun Englishisms coming in (‘bell end’ and ‘gits’, I’ve noticed) and of course we’ve had the joy of Mycroft showing up to create a New York Diogenes (club). The end of last week’s episode made me wonder if (spoiler alert)Mycroft is working for the British government, as per the books, and we might still learn that he’s as good at deduction as Sherlock, but has been hiding it.

Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Has been treading a dangerously thin line these past few weeks, retreading first season storylines that made me wonder why I’m bothering watching the show. But it’s gradually metamorphosed in the past two weeks into a musing on the nature of modern day spying: is there a point to it, is human intelligence really still better than machine-gathered intelligence, does spying do more harm than good? Indeed, Carrie and her bipolar problems are starting to look like relics from another series, as Saul and F Murray Abraham give us a better series altogether back at Langley. Also, Carrie and her pregnancy: is that really the fate of every woman in these stories if they dare to have sex – accidental pregnancy? It’s punishment for pointless drama. Nice Romeo and Juliet reference, a couple of weeks ago, mind.

Serangoon Road (ABC1/HBO Asia)
Developments aplenty here, with MI6 being trotted out as the evil spiders in the web, and the chief Chinese baddie getting some nuances. Last week’s ending showing us that love may be one thing, but follow your heart and things tend to go pear-shaped, was a nicely cynical spin on the piece.

The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+)
It’s surprising how much I’d forgotten of the original series, now I watch this. The US adaptation, I now belatedly realise, didn’t even touch the surface of the mental illness politics of the ‘Truth Terrorist’, whereas The Tunnel has resurrected it. Highlight of last week’s episode: Caroline Proust from Engrenages/Spiral turning up in an odd wig. I wonder if she’ll get to speak English this week?

Y Gwyll/Hinterland (S4C)
Now being shown on S4C in Welsh with English subtitles. After the pretty good first story, the second was something of a stonker that landed the show straight on the recommended list, despite being a seemingly dull story about farming boundary disputes. Some excellent direction made one chase scene particularly tense. Dave the Coach from Gavin and Stacey did a good turn as a solicitor, too. Last week’s was less impressive, being far less of a crime investigation than the second story, and more a case of Mathias getting all emotional and harassing a guy who lives in the woods. This week’s is the last story, I think, so catch it while you can before it airs in English on the BBC.

And in movies:

Thor 2
The Dark Elves (particularly Christopher Eccleston, clearly in it for the money) want to end the universe so give Asgard a kicking after they find out Natalie Portman has a secret weapon up her sleeves, so Thor has to release Loki and get him to help stop the Elves. But can Loki be trusted?
Directed by Alan Taylor, who’s directed six episodes of Game of Thrones, this was a far more matter of fact sequel than the original, which saw everyone more iconically: Thor gets to wander around in a cape and hang around in retro Norse taverns with Heimdal; Sif gets a nice furry dress suit; and more. Just about all the characters from the original get good service; mothers and women, particularly Frigga, are given far more significance than the father-obsessed first movie; and there’s a surprising amount of comedy even in the final fight scene. We also got to see more of Odin’s ravens, which was nice. Traumatically for me, the University of Greenwich gets a severe kicking at the end – even the Painted Room – which had me far more upset than the ending of The Avengers which levelled New York. And as I’m sure just about everyone from London said when they watched, it’s not three stops from Charing Cross to Greenwich on the Underground – you either need to get a train from Charing Cross overground, or get the jubilee line to North Greenwich and then get a bus or go to Canary Wharf and then get the DLR. Hope that helps, Thor.

Gravity
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are astronauts fixing the Hubble Telescope when fragments of a satellite destroy their spaceship, forcing them to find some other way to get back to Earth. Slightly perfunctory characterisation and a plot more suited to a theme park ride, but that’s not what this movie is: it’s the 2001: A Space Odyssey or Superman of its age, a visual treat that finally gives us a 3D movie that’s not only more than just a series of ViewMaster slides and things being thrown out the screen at us but which is genuine 3D and absolutely pointless to watch in anything except 3D. Absolutely staggering in IMAX 3D, a brilliant soundtrack and although you can quibble with the science, it’s based enough in fact that the terror comes from knowing just how difficult and dangerous everything is in space.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Brother and sister Hansel and Gretel (Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arteton – yes, there’s over a decade’s age difference between them) grow up and make it their mission in life to kill witches, including chief witch Famke Janssen. A film that makes no sense and is colossally stupid, but knows it, given Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the producers. However, that knowing comedy just isn’t enough to make this a decent film, although it’s still about 1,000 times better than the similar Van Helsing.

“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?

What did you watch last week? Including Isabel, Mysteries of Lisbon, Agents of SHIELD and Atlantis

7 October 2013 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last week?, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I watched last week 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. 

With the US fall season upon us, naturally there’s a lot of new shows for me to review. Last week’s bonanza includes:

I also started watching the second episodes of several shows. Unfortunately for them, they were less than engrossing or funny, so I also stopped watching the second episodes of Trophy Wife and Back In The Game.

The first episode of Betrayal – ABC’s tale of rich professionals feeling unsatisfied with their lives so cheating on/murdering their partners – was just dreadful so not even worth a review. Hello Ladies, in which Stephen Merchant chats up lots of American women badly, was very well written but was distilled essence of Merchant’s brand of cringe comedy so I just found it unpleasantly unwatchable. 

Still in the viewing queue are: the third episode of the rather good Serangoon Road and Witches of East End, both of which I should be reviewing in full tomorrow. 

Other shows I tried
Mysteries of Lisbon (Sky Arts)
Acclaimed Portugese period drama, involving a school, a locked-up noblewoman and a lot of people describing things in flashback and then other people saying how interesting that was and then describing some other things in flashback. Very melodramatic in the truest sense of the world, so more for those with greater patience than I have.

Isabel (Sky Arts)
Game of Thrones but in Spanish and based on the real-life Queen Isabel I of Castile, one of the most important women in Spanish history. A lot more fun than I was expecting, although the subtitlers seem to get a bit confused by gender (“Isabel and Alfonso are his brothers” and when discussing a chess game, “If the queen is so important, why can she only move one square at a time?”, being some of the most amusing). Definitely one to try.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Agents of SHIELD (ABC/Channel 4)
Not even a cameo by Samuel L Jackson could enliven this extremely dull affair, which lacked Joss Whedon’s gift for dialogue and was basically an episode of Torchwood. In fact, worryingly, this is now almost exactly Torchwood and I’m not sure the world is ready for another one. Channel’s 4 re-editing of the episode to shift Jackson’s cameo to before the end credits was enjoyable hilarious, though. First episode review.

Atlantis (BBC1/BBC America)
Even more like Merlin than the first episode, right down to some distinctly British forest scenes. Even more liberties taken with myth. Jemima Rooper’s turned up, but even she – and some surprisingly good fight scenes – can’t lift this into the level of decently good. First episode review.

The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
A good second episode for NBC’s most promising new drama. A bit of back-pedalling from the pilot and some fun duplicity from Spader’s character. Megan Boone’s character could do with some more personality, but enjoyable disposable tatt. First episode review

The Bridge (US)
Essentially, an episode designed not to wrap up ends but to ensure the series gets a second season. Not much that was good about the episode, though, and to be honest, it’s a minor echo of the original, so I’ll probably drop out for season two. Looking forward to seeing how Sky and Canal+ handle things when The Tunnel starts this month.

Strike Back (Cinemax/Sky 1)
Lots of soft-corn porn, some involving Stuart Sullivan shagging a Russian woman, the rest involving Philip Winchester running around naked in a medical experimentation unit, which I’m pretty sure happened two seasons ago, too. Some fun fire fights, although baddies can’t appear to shoot straight, but overall, this is turning into a distinctly less impressive season, buoyed up only by constant deaths.

Recommended shows
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
Back to the regular routine for Elementary, which was a somewhat mundane tale, enlivened only by having its entire plot ripped off from Sneakers and making mathematical problem P vs NP the centre of the action.

Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
A decent enough set of three episodes to start the season with, the gay marriage episode being particularly good. But it’s basically business as usual here, without much innovation.

And in movies….

Agent Carter
Not technically a movie, being a bonus 15-movie Marvel One-Shot on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray, but an enjoyable enough period romp with Haley Atwell reprising her role from Captain America, Carter now a spy for the US in post-war America. Unfortunately, her boss (Bradley Whitford) thinks that women shouldn’t be doing men’s work, now the men are back from war, so Carter has to prove her worth. 

I really do hope this becomes a TV series, as rumours are suggesting, since it shows more promise than both episodes of Agents of Shield and has as many fun cameos (keep watching until after the titles…).

“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?

What did you watch this month? Including Homeland, Low Winter Sun, Chickens, Strike Back and Elysium

5 September 2013 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

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

First up, 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.

In my preview queue is a couple of shows, including ABC’s Trophy Wife, which I hope to review for you properly on Tuesday. But I have tried a couple of new things, despite the summer TV quiet.

New shows I tried this week
Chickens (Sky 1 HD)
Some of the cast of The InBetweeners try to write a First World War comedy about a bunch of guys left behind during the Great War, who have to deal with being accused of cowardice, etc.

Anyway, it’s 10 minutes of my life I’m not getting back.

Low Winter Sun (AMC/FOX)
A remake of the Channel 4 mini-series of the same name set in Edinburgh, the show had relocated to Detroit to retell us the tale of a good cop who commits a revenge murder with the help of another cop and thinks he’s got away with it. Except things start to unravel.

It sounds good and given it’s remarkably managed to get the star of the original – Mark Strong – to repeat his performance but with a US accent, with fellow stalwart Brit Lennie James joining him for the ride, you’d think it would be good. But effectively, it’s a season-long episode of Columbo with the guy who played Daniel Hardman on Suits as a less well written Columbo. I stuck it out for four episodes before the plot got so thin that I decided not to bother with it any more.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Under The Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
Just rubbish. I’m only watching because I’ve got this far and there’s nothing else on.

Under the Dome TV Schedule

The Bridge (US) (FX)
We’re nearing the end and it’s definitive now that it’s simply not as good as the original, despite sticking more or less to exactly the same storyline. Problematically, the show has removed a lot of the strengths from the Saga Norin/Sonja Cross character and pushed them onto the male characters, making her more of a liability and one who’s stuck in the office most of the time. But the show did drop one particular, ridiculous twist, which I’m thankful for, anyway. The Annabeth Gish storyline is looking more and more pointless, though.

Strike Back (Cinemax/Sky 1)
The return of the modern day Professionals, this time with the assistance of former SAS dynamo… Robson Green (who, of course, was in Soldier Soldier but never did much fighting). Strong female characters keep cropping up to get shot and killed or go mental, which isn’t very helpful, and having Brits like Martin Clunes turn up is very distracting. But the action sequences are as impressive as ever, as is the camaraderie and the cross-Atlantic strafing.

Recommended shows
The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Really pushing ahead very strongly now, and getting some of its darker edges back, without going to season 2 extremes. Lovely use of myth, as well.

The Almighty Johnsons TV Schedule

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
A much better second half than first half to the season, with all the budget saved up for the end this time. Some good twists and revelations, as well. But it’s in extreme danger of disappearing ourobouros style up in its own arse with the rapid development of unnecessary mythology.

Continuum TV Schedule

Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Not yet back, of course, but I’ve had a gander at the first episode of the third season and I’m glad to report that it’s remembered it’s an adult show, rather than simply 24 on cable TV. Carrie’s still unbalanced and there’s no sign of you-know-who yet, with most of the first episode looking at the fallout from the bombing at the end of the last season and the political ramifications and changes in the US that have resulted. Impressive, but Brodie’s family is really starting to irritate now.

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
Better than the first season and the season arc is a lot stronger and more interesting, as well. Sorkin and co have also gone to quite extreme lengths to ditch virtually every romantic storyline possible along the way. But it’s now so plot-focused, it’s lost all sense of character, making it less engaging. Plus Olivia Munn is being criminally under-used and where they are using her, it’s entirely inappropriately. Only one appearance by Jane Fonda this entire season, too.

The Newsroom TV Schedule

Perception (TNT/Watch)
Overall, a disappointingly formulaic season that ended on a low and lost the show a lot of its unique characteristics along the way.

Perception TV Schedule

Satisfaction (CTV)
Still funny, but I’m giving up on it because, like many, I want to punch most of the cast, now.

Satisfaction TV Schedule

Suits (USA/Dave)
Same problems as The Newsroom – strong plot, less involved in the characters. The fact the show has focused on more or less a single case the entire season has also robbed it of a lot of variety. And no matter what, I still can’t see Max Beesley as a Cambridge lawyer. Sorry.

Suits TV Schedule

And in movies

I Give It A Year
Another tedious attempt to capture the magic that was Four Weddings and a Funeral in another Brit rom-com, this time with Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne getting married against everyone’s recommendations. Nine months later, they’re having problems. Generally, despite the presence of Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Anna Faris, Olivia Colman and Simon Baker, a pretty miserable movie, bereft of laughter but full of misery. So steer clear of it – all the good jokes are in the trailer.

Elysium
Neill Blomkamp tries to repeat the success of District 9 but with a much bigger budget. Set in 2154, it sees Matt Damon as a blue collar worker trapped on the over-crowded earth with all the rest of the poor, while the rich all life on a space-station called Elysium that fixes all their problems and even cures all their diseases – except the rich don’t care enough to offer the same facilities to the poor. Now, in many ways it’s a very clever film with lots to say. The imagination that’s gone into the weaponry, set design and future tech are all superb. It’s just the plot and the characterisation that are mundane, with Damon having less personality than an implanted Total Recall Arnie and everyone else painted so thinly, they’d disappear if they turned sideways. It actually makes for quite a boring movie and yet again, despite it being 2154, you’d be hard-pushed to spot even 25% of the main characters being female, let alone women with power (baddie Jodie Foster and that’s it). Disappointing, despite all the imagination that went into 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?