Film reviews

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

What did you watch this fortnight? Including Banshee, The Americans, Mr Selfridge, Hitchcock and Silver Linings Playbook

18 March 2013 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

It’s “What did you watch this week fortnight?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched this week fortnight 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:

  • The Americans (FX/ITV)
  • Archer (FX, 5USA)
  • Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
  • Banshee (Cinemax/Sky Atlantic)
  • Being Human (US) (SyFy)
  • The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries (ABC1/ITV)
  • Cougar Town (TBS/Sky Living)
  • Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
  • Go On (NBC)
  • House of Cards (Netflix)
  • Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
  • Mr Selfridge (ITV/PBS)
  • Shameless (US) (Showtime/More4)
  • Southland (TNT/Channel 4)
  • Spartacus (Starz/Sky 1)
  • Engrenages/Spiral (BBC4/Netflix)
  • Top Gear (BBC2/BBC America)
  • Vegas (CBS/Sky Atlantic).

These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can’t be sure which.

Surprising, despite my time away, I’ve actually managed to get my viewing queue down to more or less nothing: last night’s Shameless (US) and This Is Kevin. I’ve even found time to watch some more House of Cards, which I note is now available to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray. Buy it, it’s really good. 

Admittedly, to get back on track, I’ve had to drop Red Widow (ABC), Lightfields (ITV) and Broadchurch (ITV) from the viewing queue before I’d even started watching them, and Shetland (BBC) didn’t even get a look-in, but such is life.

Now, some thoughts on some of the regulars (fingers crossed, reviews of the final four episodes of Spiral – bloody BBC4 – tomorrow):

  • The Americans (FX/ITV): The first of the two episodes since last entry was actually the first rubbish one so far: it was entirely obvious what the twist was and the counter-trap laid by the FBI was clumsy. The second was much better, showing us for the first time what Matthew Rhys’ character gave up and that no spy can truly be trusted to tell the truth. The Russian dubbing was a bit poor, though.  
  • Banshee (Cinemax/Sky Atlantic): A strong finish to the season with the typical violence we’ve come to expect and virtually all the loose plot threads brought together at the end. Add on some creepy Amish incest and Banshee season two (coming 2014) looks like it’ll be worth watching. Not quite sure why that video didn’t go viral, though.
  • Being Human (US) (SyFy): Zombies are so hot right now. But I think it’s a misstep. Plus that vaccine was remarkably easy to come by.
  • Cougar Town (TBS/Sky Living): Good to see the Travis/Lori relationship being developed. And the Alanis Morisette episode was a nice callback to the cast’s previous work and the Cox/Springsteen episode.
  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries (ABC1/ITV): Two eps, the second of which was a little bit blah, beyond the continuing development of Blake’s moving relationship with his housekeeper. The first was a more intriguing piece dealing with the death penalty and featured some early forensic science. I like how Blake isn’t afraid to proclaim himself a scientist, a period statement if ever there was one.
  • Elementary (CBS/Sky Living): Features a The Wire reunion. Otherwise, same old, same old.
  • Mr Selfridge (ITV/PBS): A slightly limp ending to the season, with Jeremy Piven not proving up to the challenge of delivering lines in anything less than a Barnum style and far too much time spent over the season on soap opera intrigues. All the same, the play at the end was a welcome bit of acid to the normal proceedings and David Calder, whom I almost didn’t recognise, was fantastic as the King. Will I watch if Gregory Fitoussi isn’t back next year, though? I think not.  
  • Shameless (US) (Showtime/More4): Fiona’s speech last week was a powerful moment, whereas this week’s episode is far more comedic (in a good way). 
  • Southland (TNT/Channel 4): Odd how unlikable Sherman has become. That’s good character development for you. Mind you, my mother in law has given up watching it now because it’s making her sad to see what’s happening to all the characters she liked.
  • Spartacus (Starz/Sky 1):Tying into history well and good to see Romans who aren’t complete idiots for a change, particularly Caesar. Not long to go now, but we all know where it’s heading, so it should be an interesting few episodes. Hopefully, not more ‘rape as a character point’, though, please?

And in movies, which I saw a few of on a teeny tiny screen in the back of a chair:

  • Lincoln: Essentially two and half hours of historical talking that’s less exciting than an episode of The West Wing. A brilliant performance from Daniel Day Lewis and eye-opening in terms of the legal manoeuvers that Lincoln and others used to indulge in back then, but not as involving as it should be.
  • Silver Linings Playbook: Good central performances from everyone (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Julia Stiles and even Chris Rock), with Cooper and Lawrence two mentally damaged people who offer to help each other on the road to recovery. But it’s an unempathising, predictable movie with the standard message that crazy is more interesting than normal and that leaves you cold beyond the normal romcom parameters. Plus Cooper and Lawrence is a little bit too May to December to avoid a certain amount of queasiness.
  • Hitchcock: Surprisingly jaunty for a movie about the true story of the making of a movie based on a real-life serial killer and in which the director has a peep hole into his leading ladies’ dressing rooms. Anthony Hopkins is surprisingly light as Hitch compared to Toby Jones in The Girl, Scarlett Johansson is aces but perhaps a little too self-possessed as Janet Leigh while Helen Mirren is great as Hitchcock’s real-life partner in crime Alma, who was as much responsible for the success and quality of his movies as her husband was. Nice touch to have it book-ended in the style of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, too. 
  • Van Helsing: Possibly the worst movie ever made

“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?

What did you watch this week? Including Django Unchained, Last Resort, The Wedding Band and Mr Selfridge

25 January 2013 Rob Buckley 6 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, Suits and The Wedding Band. These are all going to be on in either the UK or the US, perhaps even both, but I can’t be sure which

More temporal casualties, with Hard, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, Utopia and Spies of Warsaw all being purged from the Sky+ box, thanks in part to Guy’s time-saving recommendations (see? There is a point to this feature). I’ve also still got to watch this week’s Carrie Diaries, Archer, Suits, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Yes Prime Minister, the penultimate episode of 30 Rock, and Bob Servant Independent, which started on Wednesday. But I think I’m getting back down to manageable levels now.

Now, some thoughts on the regulars.

  • Archer: I neglected to mention the return of this last week – foolish me. As always, thoroughly recommended as the funniest thing on TV at the moment.
  • Arrow: Another decent episode. Nothing spectacular or unpredictable in the A-plot, but the flashback B-plot continues to impress.
  • Being Human (US): A slight return to the humour of early episodes as the series continues in its unpredictable new direction. The arrival of Xander Berkeley heralds good things, I suspect, too.
  • Go On: I can watch a show with Piper Perabo in that isn’t the tedious Covert Affairs – woo hoo! Pulling a Southland, the show is also now having swearing but bleeped out and pixellated nudity, which is somewhat surprising. Not the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, though.
  • Last Resort: Both a surprising ending and an unsurprising ending for the show. Some things were a little rushed, some things didn’t make a whole load of sense but virtually all the plot strands got wrapped up, some of them unpredictably. The action scenes were there, but not as tense as in previous weeks, and the drama didn’t quite work in the ways they intended. But generally, a good way to end the show and reassuring that they didn’t try to hold out for a pick-up by another network by leaving everything open-ended. At 13 eps, too, it feels like they mined the idea probably as much as they could have sustained it, anyway.
  • Mr Selfridge: Parallel universe time. A flagship ITV show that has a French character (played by Spiral‘s Grégory Fitoussi no less) who’s becoming practically as important as the lead, he gets to meet other French characters, also played by French actors and they get to speak in French. With subtitles. How very, very weird. So much to love, but the plot is slowing down a little now, with evolution rather than revolution being the name of the game. Some characters are getting less interesting, some more. Still worth watching.
  • Shameless: A thrilling antidote to the typical US drama (cf Arrow), this week focusing on how fathers can suck completely and ruin your life, and giving the moral that if you’re poor, the only way to stop being poor isn’t following the American dream, it’s stealing or scamming. Indeed, Fiona’s storyline this week was all about the poverty trap and how when someone tries to escape their life, they can end up worse off than if they’d stayed where they were
  • The Wedding Band: And so it ends. Oh well. But the penultimate episode did feature not only James Marsters using his Spike from Buffy accent to play an aging English rock star but an actual English actor playing an English character who instantly identifies him as coming from Merseyside. When the band question how he knows, Marsters replies: “Any Englishman can instantly spot from another Englishman’s accent where he’s from to within 10 miles.” I’m assuming they were taking the piss out of Marsters there, either with or without his cooperation. The show ended with a minor emotional cliffhanger that will now never be resolved, unfortunately. Shame, it was a pretty good show that could have developed over time, but now TBS is going to focus on half-hour comedies and Big Bang Theory re-runs instead.

  • Yes, Prime Minister: Not a patch on the original, either in terms of the writing or the cast, but not without funny moments. Sir Humphrey is the biggest problem, since he comes across less as part of the establishment, more an odious selfish scheme; Bernard is now just an idiot; and Hacker is a blowhard, rather than a politician out of his depth. But I’ll be watching episode two at least – when I have the time.

And, in movies:

Django Unchained
Way too long and not quite up to the standards of previous Tarantino movies in terms of dialogue, but still a really good and very surprising movie. Surprising in terms of how unflinching it is in dealing with the incredibly insane nature of 19th century American slavery, but also in having a humorous German character as a hero (the always incredible Christoph Waltz) and having segments of the movie in German. Samuel L Jackson gives one of his best ever performances and is practically unrecognisable, while Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his best performances in years as an evil plantation owner. Definitely worth watching, perhaps more at home than in the cinema, though.

“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?

What did you watch this week? Including Quartet, Blandings, Father Brown, Being Human (US), Suits, My Mad Fat Diary and Way To Go

18 January 2013 Rob Buckley 8 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, 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, Suits and The Wedding Band.

With more than a few shows already in the watch queue and the return of the likes of Shameless, Arrow, Suits and Being Human (US) expanding it vastly, I had to take take executive action and (based in part on some of your recommendations or lack thereof) decided I wasn’t going to bother either starting or continuing with Ripper Street, Restless, Borgen, Cracked, Deception, and 1600 Penn. Life’s too short. Despite that, Hard, A Young Doctor’s Notebook and Spies of Warsaw are still sitting on the Sky+ box, waiting to be watched, I haven’t even started on Channel 4’s Utopia (no one else has either, apparently, judging by the ratings) and the penultimate The Wedding Band is waiting my perusal. The Carrie Diaries – the prequel to Sex and the City set during her high school years and featuring Freema Agyeman of Doctor Who – is awaiting my wife and some stiff drinks. Hopefully, I’ll get round to new Yes, Prime Minister, too, although everyone says it’s rubbish.

I did give a few new shows a try though:

Blandings
Based in part on the rather funny PG Wodehouse novels and starring Jennifer Saunders, Mark Williams and Timothy Spall. Now, the books themselves aren’t exactly hard-hitting bits of realism, but there’s nothing worse than a comedy in which everyone involved (with the exception of the above-mentioned) is grinning and acting like idiots because they know the whole thing is silly. So I gave up after 10 minutes. Absolutely horrendous and twee.

Father Brown
Mark Williams again, this time starring in another series of adaptations of classic novels: in this case, GK Chesterton’s Father Brown stories about a vicar who investigate crimes in his parish. This is being stripped five episodes a week by BBC Daytime and has all the qualities of a Radio 4 afternoon play (I guess the same sort of people will be watching as listen to those): it’s dull, badly acted, poorly characterised and has as ‘issue’ that needs to be dealt with, in this case homophobia. Didn’t make a lick of sense either and there was surprisingly little Father Brown in it, who showed very little of the “steel trap” mind for which he was so notable. One for if you’re stuck at home during the day and have nothing else to watch, I think. Here’s the first episode to try, just in case it might float your boat.

My Mad Fat Diary
Growing up in the 90s must have been hard if you were a mentally ill, overweight teenage girls. Apparently. Ian Hart’s good as the girl in question’s therapist, but I didn’t get further than 10 minutes through this to find out if it had any other redeeming qualities.

Way To Go
Three down-at-heel, down-on-their-luck blokes decide to set up an assisted suicide business. In common with a lot of shows on BBC3, it’s not very good at all, despite having been written by US-writer Bob Kushell (The Simpsons, Third Rock…) and featuring Blake Harrison of The InBetweeners, but that’s largely down to both the filming and the cast, which both work against any actual comedy occurring. It also falls victim to the other “US writer discovers British creative freedoms” syndrome – a substitution of things that would be banned on US TV for things that might be funny.

Now, some thoughts on the regulars.

  • Arrow: A bit of a return to form, although a somewhat predictable A-plot, dealing with our hero’s case of the yips. Quite why a (spoiler)fire-damaged fireman in a protective suit should be more handy in a fight than Arrow, I don’t know. I do have to wonder when Dinah Lance is going to Black Canary up (or do anything exciting), too, since she’s not got much to do at the moment.
  • Being Human (US): the original British show is now just a dot in the distance as its Canadian/US cousin strikes off in completely differently directions. There were three cliffhangers at the end of last season and thankfully they’ve all been resolved in completely unpredicted ways. While’s Aidan’s resolution is both a gamechanger and convenient, Sally’s is going to be interesting and Josh’s could go anywhere. Certainly a step above season three of the British series by several miles.
  • Cougar Town: What can I say? It’s on, it’s comfortable, it’s basically the US version of Last of the Summer Wine, just 20 years earlier and with more wine.
  • The Daily Show: Any particular reason why, when The Daily Show decided to visit The Newsroom, that they didn’t speak to former correspondent Olivia Munn? Conspiracy theorists: on your marks, get set, go…!
  • Don’t Trust The B—-: Thankfully, ABC is ending its policy of showing two episodes of the show a week. While not a bad idea in theory, the problem is that the Sunday episodes were all unaired episodes from season one, which meant that almost two different shows were airing: one in which our heroines are barely friends, nice girl is still working at the coffee shop and Chloe the bitch is actually still quite evil, the other in which we catch up to a less edgy but somewhat nicer show that seems more comfortable in itself.
  • Go On: Welcome back Chandler Bing. I wondered how long it would be before they gave our supposedly alpha male sports fun a few more ‘feminine’ traits and here we’ve hit pay-dirt. A few twists on relationships that I wasn’t expecting, and I have to ask: where does US TV keep finding these attractive yet incredibly wooden British actresses with cut-glass accents?
  • Last Resort: All very exciting and such, but a bit less daring than I expected and they seem to have left a lot to be crammed into the finale. I do hope this isn’t going to be a rush job.
  • Modern Family: Starting to find its mojo again and featuring some lovely moments, particularly between Hayley and Phil.
  • Mr Selfridge: Mercifully shorter than episode one and with more for Grégory Fitoussi to do as well, beyond the usual problem of dodgy acting, another pretty much perfect episode.
  • Suits: Hooray! One of the best shows on TV is back. The starts of some decent plots here, but I do worry that Louis is getting a little too silly to be plausible.
  • Shameless: A little too comfortable a start for the show, which was a bit edgier in previous seasons, but some standout moments, especially those relating to Jimmy/Steve and (spoiler)his father in law.
  • Vegas: After dragging its feet into a proper serial story, things are starting to speed up now. Virtually all the cast, including Carrie Anne Moss, now have something to do, too. One more good ‘un and it’ll be on the recommended list.

And, in movies:

Quartet
Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, set in a retirement for musicians. Into the home comes the ex-wife of one of the residents and all hell breaks loose. An impressive cast that includes Tom Courtenay, Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly, as well as Sheridan Smith as the manager of the home and Andrew Sachs as another of the residents, the film is beautifully shot and despite a few good lines, also quite astonishingly dull. My mother-in-law turned to me halfway through, almost in tears at how dull it was. Still, it does have a few things to say about old age and it not being the end of everything.

However, I will confess that when the credits rolled and youthful pictures of everyone in the movie – it’s populated by actual musicians and singers who were in very important productions and orchestras in their heyday – rolled past, emphasising that for most of them, this would be the last thing of renown they would ever be involved in (slightly neutralising the message of the movie), I did blub rather a lot.

“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?

What have you been watching since Christmas? Including Mr Selfridge, End of Watch, The Hobbit, Premium Rush, Doctor Who, Elementary and Last Resort

11 January 2013 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

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

Now that Christmas is out the way and I’m back from my holidays, hopefully this will once more be a weekly feature, hopefully always on a Friday, but what with work n’all, maybe on Monday, instead. But weekly.

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

Second, a new recommendation: Mr Selfridge, which is an ITV period piece written by Andrew Davies that looks at how American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge came to found his Oxford Street department store and how various women’s lives were changed by the freedoms it offered them. I really liked it – beyond an occasional bit of woodness from a few of the younger cast members and Piven, who’s otherwise superb, the first episode was pretty much perfect, I thought. Yes, an ITV drama that’s actually good. Surprise 1. Secondly, a Jeremy Piven drama that’s good. Surprise 2. No surprise that Spiral‘s Grégory Fitoussi, who plays the store’s chief window dresser, is good, though.

And here’s a few thoughts on what else I’ve watched. There’s more than a few shows in the pile still to watch, thanks to my extended absence, including Ripper Street, Restless, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, Hard and Spies of Warsaw, as well as the return of Cougar Town and Modern Family. Let me know if any of those are/aren’t worth the effort. But here’s what I have seen:

  • Borgen: I’m midway through episode one of the new series. Please tell me it gets better, because it’s even worse than The Killing 3 at the moment. Confusingly, it even has the Danish PM from that show playing another character who isn’t the Danish PM. But I am liking the lead (Sidse Babett Knudsen) a lot and the switch into English whenever anyone foreign turns up is pleasing.

  • Doctor Who: Yes, the Christmas episode, which I think was probably the best Matt Smith one so far. Funny and fun, with just a hint of intriguing tragedy, too. The links to good old Troughton villain The Great Intelligence were lovely, too.

  • Don’t Trust The B—-: Two unremarkable episodes for the show, but they’re still a cut above most comedies and a lot darker than you’d expect from a network show.
  • Elementary: Despite the presence of Vinny Jones, who was actually pretty good as (possibly) Moriarty (spoilers: not actually Moriarty but the famous Colonel Sebastian Moran, Moriarty’s helper monkey from the books), probably the best episode so far. Quite why Vinny was such an Arsenal fan and quite why Arsenal were playing so many games that week, I don’t know, though.

  • The First Family: Essentially, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air but in the White House and not funny.

  • Go On: Good to see them moving away from everything being Ryan-centric now, with various characters interacting and having storylines without him.
  • Last Resort: Well, it looks like they’re actually going to wrap this baby up in two episodes’ time, and things are progressing apace. As always, anything naval is superbly handled and tense, anything domestic is dross.
  • Little Crackers: Various semi-autobiographical pieces by stars including Sharon Horgan and Dylan Moran. Like a lot of Sky comedies, not as funny as they should have been, and obviously in need of an edit or two, but all had odd merits.

  • The Mindy Project: And I’m giving up. Only a few chuckles per episode now – the switch away from rom-com to office comedy has been a real let-down after such a great start. Oh well. More time to watch other stuff, then.
  • Vegas: You know, I only noticed this last episode but Sarah Jones from Alcatraz is the new lady in town, isn’t she? Well, she’s far more versatile and chameleonic than I realised. Glad she’s moved onto a better show, too, because she was wasted there. This week’s episode, getting back on topic, was a big uptick in quality, getting away from the episodic crimes in favour of more serial story-telling, with an almost Wire-like attempt to show that the system can’t be changed. Carrie Anne-Moss actually had something to do, too, and Michael Ironside even got to appear. Keep it up, Vegas, and you’ll be promoted to the recommended list, soon.
  • The Wedding Band: The first excellent episode of the show so far, despite starting with the tired old “all Indians have arranged marriages” cliche. As always, surprisingly sensitive and sophisticated, despite the guyisms, and there’s not many shows that can have you sniffling from the romance of a plotline and then end the episode with a cover version of ’99 points (but a bitch ain’t one)’. Good use of soccer rules in it, too.

And, as you can imagine with my being on two transatlantic plane flights, I saw a lot of movies:

End of Watch
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña find themselves in a slightly implausible episode of Southland. Probably one of the best cop movies you’ll ever see, but the demands of the A-plot swamp most of the virtues of the movie, which are the everyday small talk between Gyllenhaal and Peña and the encounters they have with normal LA citizens.

The Hobbit
So incredibly dull for the first hour, I actually fell asleep twice. However, once the trolls turn up and it becomes a lot more Lord of the Rings, then it becomes a far more enjoyable prospect. Richard Armitage does a decent job as Thorin, Martin Freeman boggles the mind by being Martin Freeman… but not, and it’s nice to have the return of all those Rings actors – it brought a little tear to my eye. Even Sylvester McCoy works in context. However, it’s still fundamentally a story for kids rather than for adults, with a lot more fart gags than the previous movies had.

No Strings Attached
An interesting attempt to do a gender-reversal rom-com, with heart-on-a-sleeve, IQ-challenged Ashton Kutcher hooking up with the emotionally stunted brainiac doctor Natalie Portman, who wants a no-strings attached sex-only relationship. At one level, it works quite well, with Portman having to go through all the emotional and physical challenges the heroes of romcoms normally go through. But despite being written by New Girl-creator Elizabeth Meriwether and starring most of the casts of Fox’s current shows, including The Mindy Project‘s Mindy Carling and New Girl‘s own Jake Johnson, it’s not actually funny. Rom but no com isn’t great. Also, when did people stop doing foreplay?

Percy Jackson
Harry Potter meets Greek myth… badly. Strictly for the kids.

Premium Rush
When you think about it, there are surprisingly few movies or TV shows about people who ride bikes (remember ITV’s Streetwise with Andy Serkis, anyone?), which is what makes Premium Rush so refreshing. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a cycle courier in Manhattan who has to deliver a package before 7pm or else bad things will happen. Except Michael Shannon from Boardwalk Empire wants to stop him. Very indie, with a non-linear timeline, elements of Witness and more, probably the worst thing about it unusually is Shannon, who goes for comedic when he should be threatening. But if you’ve ever ridden a bike seriously, the adrenaline surge you’ll get from the racing scenes will be something chronic. Loved it.

Ruby Sparks
Writer imagines a perfect girlfriend and Weird Science-like, she comes to life. So painfully twee, though, I lost all patience with it within about 10 minutes.

The Social Network
David Fincher is back on form. Hooray! With this, Aaron Sorkin takes the plunge and decides to deal with this new-fangled Internet thing – specifically, how Facebook was created. Horribly misogynistic, both in the attitudes of the people involved and in Sorkin’s authorial choices, but Jesse Eisenberg is fantastic as Mark Zuckerberg, a man who apparently has the most obvious case of Asperger’s superiority complex since the dawn of time. Great movie (apart from that annoying misogyny).

Unknown
Well, I guess if you’re going to do a Euro spy thriller, Liam Neeson is the person to call. Here, he plays an academic who wakes up after a car accident to discover no one knows who he is, not even his wife, and someone else has taken his place. A sort of combination of Taken, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Identity (indeed, in some ways it’s more The Bourne Identity than The Bourne Identity was), it’s surprisingly better than you’d think, playing with cinematic conventions to make you think it’s one thing when it’s really another. When the explanation comes, it’s not as deep as you think it’s going to be, but in some ways that makes it better. Worth a try, but January Jones is incomparably bad in this, though, and the trailer gives everything away, so don’t watch that if you actually plan on seeing the movie. Oddly, German actress Diane Kruger (currently playing the US version of Saga Noren in the remake of The Bridge) is here playing an East European immigrant.

“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?

What did you watch this month? Including The Killing 3, Arrow, The Wedding Band and The Hunger Games

21 December 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

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

As you can probably tell from the temporary retitling of this feature, it’s been a busy old time for me of late, which is why I haven’t been updating you on shows and why I haven’t been watching as many. Oh, and the Sky+ box as been doing lots of “PART-REC” and “RECORDING FAILED” and even deleting things I have recorded, including Young Doctor’s Notebook. That’s helpful, huh?

But since a load of shows have had their finales, now seems a good time to give my thoughts on those, at least.

First, the usual recommendations: 30 Rock, Arrow, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Go On, Last Resort, Modern Family and Peep Show. I’m adding Elementary and The Wedding Band to the list as well – more on that in a moment.

And here’s a few thoughts.

  • Arrow: Slowly been declining in strength and becoming more and more comic book in its implausibility. Geoff Johns’ introduction of Huntress to the show was just dreadful, too, with bad dialogue, bad acting and a script that was actually pretty detrimental to one of DC’s best-loved female superheroines. Still, Kelly Hu got to come back for a bit at least. And then we have John Barrowman as a ‘heavy’. HA HA HA! Still, the last episode was a bit of an up-tick in quality again, so all is not lost yet.
  • Dexter – So, hang on, Dexter literally thought he had a ‘dark passenger’? It wasn’t just a metaphor? Well, that’s just bobbins. Anyway, a distinctly uninspiring finale that at least wasn’t as ridiculous as last season’s and with a big surprise (or two) to boot. And at least the first half of the season was good because of Ray Stevenson and it was good to see Dokes back, even in flashback.
  • Don’t Trust The B—-: A variable three episodes with a real clunker and a couple of very funny ones. Glad to see them remembering that Chloe is supposed to be an evil b—–, too, not just kooky and a bit of a party girl. And a head nod to The Great Gatsby – you don’t get many of those these days. As always, too, full kudos to James Van Der Beek, who is really relishing playing… himself. And Dean Cain, too.
  • Elementary: So this is more of a guilty pleasure than because it’s a great show, but I do actually look forward to it now each week. It’s still working out what exactly a Sherlock Holmes mystery should be and no matter how hard they try, Joan Watson is still incredibly dull, but it’s good fun.
  • Go On: Unlike Community, the show still hasn’t worked out how to make its individual characters gel as a group, but it’s doing some nice work with at least some of the characters by themselves.
  • Homeland: So the season finally ended with two decent episodes in a row. While it was still a little daft, the finale had the right combination of thrills, twists and developments, none of which you probably saw/will see coming. Just about redeemed itself after a season of vastly variable quality.
  • The Killing 3: So the iPlayer deleted last weeks’ episodes before I had a chance to watch them (not letting me download them didn’t help). Again, this is just one of the reasons why I’ve had a hard time watching the three seasons of The Killing. Anyway, I watched the last two and was surprised by almost nothing. Seriously, I don’t get why people love this show so much. Okay, it’s well acted, but apart from its vibe and Sarah Lund, it’s daft, stupider than an episode of season two of Homeland and is just 1001 crime drama cliches. Or at least this season has been. It would have been more of a surprise if Sarah Lund had been able to ride off into the sunset happily. In particular, the criminal’s plan four episodes ago kind of relied on the police not being able to hit him even once with 30 rounds of ammunition… as he slowly sails under a bridge they’re standing on. Just silly. Bring back The Bridge.
  • Last Resort: Talking of daft and silly, that’s Last Resort. While having a few thrilling moments each episode, it’s also had some ridiculous matte work to help some of our heroes go to ‘the Philippines’ and we have had a daft series of abduction cycles for one character that’s worse than the Perils of Penelope Pitstop. Plus the stuff with the COB has been dreadful. Shame really, but at least it looks like they’re heading towards a decent ending.
  • The Mindy Project: Interesting to see some sign of work competency from Mindy, but the Zoolander-ish attack on midwifery was just bizarre. The Christmas episode was a bit dull, but had a good final 10 minutes.
  • Peep Show: While never quite hitting the delightful depravities of previous series and while feeling a little bit like we’ve been here before, it’s still a guaranteed source of laughter each week.
  • Vegas: I’m wondering what they promised Carrie Anne Moss when they asked her to star in this, because if it was ‘a lot of screen time and a decent role’, they were lying. Ditto Jason Mara. Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve had a very clunky ‘girl power’ episode and quite a dull Christmas episode. Such a shame after the initial promise of the pilot, but it’s still a relatively absorbing weekly watch.
  • The Wedding Band: While still a bit sexist and a bit ‘male gaze’, The Wedding Band is still proving to be an interesting subversion of the ‘bro comedy’ that plays with the sexist conventions and messes around with them. It’s not outstanding, but it’s enjoyable.

And in movies:

  • The Hunger Games: Despite being loved by the same demographic as Twilight, this is a very different, far more satisfying beast – a future dystopia heavily based on ancient Rome that sees kids take the place of gladiators in a high-tech country arena where they have to fight to the death. The always excellent Jennifer Lawrence is about 1,000,000 times better – and a better role model – than Kristen Stewart’s Bella, too. Give it a watch.

“What did you watch this month?” 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?