Film reviews

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

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e October 28)?

1 November 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Batman Year One

Time for “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Dexter, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Homeland, Suburgatory and Community.

Things you might enjoy but that I’m not necessarily recommending: Being Erica, House, Chuck and Ringer.

In the backlog: Friday’s Boss, Sunday’s Walking Dead, Braquo and Dexter, and last night’s House. I’ll be reviewing Grimm later today.

A few thoughts on the regulars:

  • Dexter: most seasons of Dexter don’t really get interesting until episode seven, which is probably why I’m feeling very bored watching it at the moment, despite the presence of Edward James Olmos in a show set in Miami. I’m hoping it’ll kick off soon.
  • Chuck: boring. Sorry, I’m still not sure why this show is still limping on. It’s vaguely amusing, has a couple of fun pop culture references each episodes, but I’m struggling to work out why I’m still watching it, beyond “because it’s on its final season and you’ve been watching it for four years”. Except there’s talk of possibly another season after this, so messed up are NBC’s ratings at the moment.
  • Happy Endings: has entered the “season 2 of Friends” paradigm in which the characters get a little broader and a little more stereotypical, while the plots get sillier. But it was good to have an episode in which Alex got to shine – imagine that: a show in which Elisha Cuthbert is actually good.
  • Homeland: after nothing but brilliance since the first episode, this week’s was the first episode that felt a little disappointing, just because it didn’t feel like anything had actually been achieved by the narrative that wasn’t obvious and predictable. It’s still the best drama on TV though.
  • American Horror Story: a simple formula – no Alex Breckenridge, no watch. She wasn’t in it this week so I didn’t feel compelled to watch it, which should tell you something about the show.
  • Community: loved Abed’s Halloween story – you can tell Dan Harmon is almost as Asperger’s as Abed is – and it’s great to see the show on form again.
  • Suburgatory: still great, so clearly I’m going to have to revise my rule from “only great when Emily Kapnek writes it” to “only great when women write it”
  • The Walking Dead: more engrossing and scary than previous episodes, but has a treading water feel to it.
  • Strike Back: Project Dawn: the final episode managed to ditch its trademark female nudity in favour of ludicrous plot revelations. If you were expecting an explosive conclusion, you’d have been surprised, since there were few set pieces. On the whole, a largely ridiculous season in terms of plot and very misogynistic, but absolutely far and away the best action show on British TV: no other show, not even Spooks, comes close to being able to shootouts, car chases, et al as well Strike Back.
  • Once Upon A Time: Largely the same as the first episode except more boring. A few nuggets of interesting ideas in there, but the show still has the big problem that the baddies are the only interesting characters in the whole thing and most of the show is dedicated to them and explaining their motivations. Also, when your idea of an action sequence is chopping down a tree, you really need to up the ante on the excitement levels.

And in the movies section was Batman: Year One (available on DVD/Blu-Ray from Amazon as well as from the iTunes Store), which was based on Frank Miller’s legendary graphic novel (parts of which were used for Batman Begins), this was a surprisingly faithful adaptation, not just in terms of plot and text, but also in terms of art. Some of the darker edges were removed – the insanity of “Yes, father, I will become a bat” got expunged – as well as some of Miller’s more misogynistic tendencies – the Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle fight is a draw in this rather than an easy knockout for Bruce. The animation was also a little cheap at times, at least with things like moving cars, which looked very CGI. But really good, if a little inconclusive (for obvious reasons) and a surprising but effective choice of vocal cast (Ben McKenzie from Southland as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad as Jim Gordon, Katee Sackhoff from BSG as Sarah Essen and Eliza Dushku from Dollhouse as Selina Kyle).

It came with a Catwoman short movie that’s not only exploitative but boring and with Dushkua clearly as bored as we are, so best ignore that. Makes you wonder, though, given the quality of the main feature, why the cocked up so badly with the Wonder Woman animated movie they did a few years ago, which managed to mangle not just the characters and WW’s origin, but also managed to make WW a largely unpowered, unlikeable misandrist. If they can be this faithful to essentially a non-canon 20-year old graphic novel, why not do a better job with Perez’s WW origin series?

“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?

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e October 14)?

17 October 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

Enlightened HBO

Time for “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Dexter, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Homeland, Suburgatory and Community.

Things you might enjoy but that I’m not necessarily recommending: Being Erica, Strike Back: Project Dawn, and Ringer.

A few thoughts on some of the regulars:

  • Community: Crisis over! Excellent third episode last week. Phew!
  • Dexter: It’s basically season one again, but not quite as good. Not bad though
  • Being Erica: It’s basically season one again, but not quite as good. Not bad though
  • Strike Back: Project Dawn: The amount of female nudity in this is getting ridiculous.
  • House: New doctor isn’t a patch on Amber Tamblyn, a nice twist with Foreman, but sadly missing Chase, Taub and 13 at the moment.

A few things I’ve given a try this week:

  • Enlightened: Appropriately paired with Bored To Death, this sees Laura Dern get a rage attack at her workplace, leave, go off to an anger management enlightenment retreat, then come back and try to get her life back. Possibly the dullest, most pointless TV drama since… oh, Pan Am, but even less happens. Laura Dern’s really pulling out all the stops, though, to give it credit. One episode was enough and so little is happening in it, that I couldn’t even work out what I’d put in a full review. So this is all it’s getting.
  • Spy: A Sky 1 foray in comedy, starring Darren Boyd as a computer geek who quits his job and ends up in MI5. No, not a total Chuck rip-off. Unfortunately, it was so unfunny that we gave up after 15 minutes so never actually saw what happened what he joined MI5 and met up with Robert Lindsay. We’re going to give that second half a try when we’re in a more charitable mood.

I didn’t watch any movies this week, I’m afraid.

The movie I watched this week was Source Code, which wasn’t bad but felt more like the pilot of a TV show (namely Seven Days, but with a few differences). Complicated, but still easy to follow, and the ending made no sense. As, actually did the mechanism for all the time travel.

“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?

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e September 28)?

3 October 2011 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Time for "What did you watch last week?", my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: The Daily Show, Doctor Who, Modern Family, Happy Endings and Community.

Things you might enjoy but that I’m not necessarily recommending: Strike Back: Project Dawn, Ringer, Up All Night.

Now, normally, of course, after the first episodes of all the new series have aired, I stick around for the second and third episodes of all the shows that are promising. Unfortunately, this year, there’s been a whole load of second episodes that have been so unbareably painful to watch, that I turned off halfway through them. So, don’t, whatever you do, bother with:

  • Revenge: ridiculously stupid and pretentious.
  • Whitney: cutting-edge relationship observations such as "It’s hard for two people to take a shower at the same time" and "Maybe go on a date together to re-kindle the romance – except you know it’ll go wrong". Oh dear
  • 2 Broke Girls: badly written, not funny and even more racist than Sex and the City 2
  • Charlie’s Angels: The Angels go undercover as fashion models. FRO.
  • Unforgettable: even more generic than the first episode.

I also tried the first episode of Hart of Dixie with Rachel Bilson – ridiculously attractive, brilliant neurosurgeon ends up having to take a job in the Deep South – which was on a par with 2 Broke Girls for relentless stereotypes and equally relentlessly cliched dramatically. So I turned that one off pretty quickly.

But there were a few second episodes that were tolerable at least:

  • The Playboy Club: settling down into more of a soapy groove and starting to plays to its stars’ strengths while steering them away from their weaknesses. So Eddie Cibrian’s character took a turn for the slimey. Amber Heard’s character stopped being quite so wet and became a lot more assertive and sexier, allowing her to remember how to act. The supporting cast all got a lot more to do as well. However, all pretence that the show was in any way about empowering women disappeared, with the main plot revolving around the bunnies having a competition to pose for the front cover of Playboy. Oh dear.
  • Prime Suspect: A big drop-off in quality from the first episode, but at least this one was genuinely about a ‘prime suspect’. Largely by the books procedural, but a relatively good one.
  • Person of Interest: Something of an origins story, but still much less interesting than the first episode because of the reduced violence levels.

Still in my viewing pile: last night’s Dexter and Friday’s A Gifted Man. I should have a review of How To Be A Gentleman up later.

And in this week’s list of movies:

  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: certainly faster paced than the TV series, it’s a brilliant evocation of the 70s that starts off a little bit fragmented and difficult to follow but really finds its feets after about the first 20 minutes or so. A must-see.

But what have you been watching?

"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?

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e September 14)?

19 September 2011 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Time for "What did you watch last week?", my chance to tell you what I watched last week and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: still nothing, apart from The Daily Show, since everything regular has finished, although Doctor Who‘s obviously good.

  • Bin Laden: Shoot To Kill: Very gripping documentary on how Osama Bin Laden was found, with plenty of interviews involving the Americans involved, including President Obama. Well worth a watch.
  • Strike Back: Project Dawn: about the same as last week, perhaps a little less humorous. Action good, bad whenever it starts trying to give people characters, but the arrival of Iain Glen and AAA from Lost this week is welcome. Women get treated almost universally badly, a lot of gratuitous female nudity, and the American guy gets shot a lot.

And in this week’s list of movies:

  • Snatch: Surprisingly boring Guy Ritchie film. Not worth watching at all
  • Tales From Earthsea: Bizarre, low-quality anime version of various elements of Ursula Le Guin’s superb Earthsea series of books (if you haven’t read them, read them immediately). Completely misses the point of the books. You’d have thought, given it’s Studio Ghibli, that it would have been a lot better, but it wasn’t. Oh well.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean 4: Surprisingly boring, rather than bad. It’s just people running around doing stuff, really. Looks expensive though.

But what have you been watching?

"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? And keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well for British TV highlights or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff.

US TV

What did you watch last week (w/e September 7)?

12 September 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

 

Time for "What did you watch last week?", my chance to tell you what I watched last week and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: none. Sorry, but everything regular is finishing! Although Doctor Who‘s obviously good.

  • Suits: oddly low key ending to the season. Good to see Chi Mcbride doing an evil turn (is he going to be a regular next season) as well as one of the show’s few forays into the courtroom. A mini-cliffhanger to end it with and I’m looking forward to the next season, albeit worried about the change in showrunner (even if it is the show’s creator taking over the helm).
  • Burn Notice: confusingly, the previous week’s episode was a better cliffhanger than this episode’s. Good that they’ve picked up on some of the breadcrumbs laid down earlier in the season and some clever touches in the plotting, and good to see Jere Burns (Kirk in the US version of Dear John) still hard at work.
  • Royal Pains: really? That was the episode you want to finish the season on? Okay…
  • Seven Wonder of the Buddhist World: If you were expecting Bettany Hughes to enlighten you about Buddhism, this wasn’t the show for you. More a combination of travelogue and history lesson, instead, it left me feeling a little unsatisfied compared to the usual Hughes extravaganzas.
  • Strike Back: Project Dawn: a show that can only be said to be loosely connected to the original Strike Back. Largely ludicrous and with Cinemax (aka "Skinemax") now a co-funder, featuring a hefty amount of gratuitous female nudity, it’s good when dealing with action but otherwise poor. The central characters have almost no personalities or interesting qualities and the decision in the first episode to kill off John Porter (presumably because Richard Armitage is filming The Hobbit right now) was just bad. Episode 2 at least redeems episode 1, but it’s not getting that much better. Amazingly, this is mostly written by Frank Spotnitz. Nevertheless, we’re going to keep watching.
  • Chemistry: another Skinemax production, with all the scriping and production values of 80s soft porn (not that I’m an expert or anything). Attempts to have a script are painful, as is the acting.

And in this week’s list of movies:

  • Zorba the Greek: For a supposedly feelgood movie, this wasn’t half miserable. Honour killings, disasters, broken hearts, looting – it can all be fixed with some dancing apparently. But it was fun to watch all the same since it was filmed in Kokkino Chorio, which is where I went on holiday this year and some of the views and places are still the same.
  • Limitless: Actually, a pretty good film. I quite liked it. Essentially, "what would happen if you could take a pill and become a member of The Champions?" Flagged a bit in the middle, ends a bit abruptly and Anna Friel’s character could have been better served, but clever and interesting. Worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already.

But what have you been watching?

"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? And keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well for British TV highlights or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff.