Every month, TMINE lets you know what TV the BFI will be presenting at the South Bank in London
February’s a pretty full month by the looks of it at the BFI, with a couple of impressive seasons, as well as two TV previews. The main attraction is a season of programmes directed by Waris Hussein – best known as the first ever director of Doctor Who, but who’s built up an impressive portfolio of shows from both sides of the Atlantic over the years, including a rare acting foray by Barry Manilow in Copacabana. There are also showings of Ingmar Bergman’s original versions of Face to Face and Scenes from a Marriage from Swedish TV.
The two previews? The sequel to Kenneth Clark’s original Civilisation, Civilisations, and the return to British TV of John Cleese and Alison Steadman in Hold the Sunset. All that after the jump, where we can merengue and do the cha-cha.
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK
Christmas hasn’t stopped the acquisitions staff at various UK networks from rushing through some acquisitions, and the schedulers aren’t taking a break, either.
This week, 5Spike picked up History (US)’s inferior SEAL team drama Six, for broadcast in early 2018, while Channel 4 (and Walter) have picked up TV4 (Sweden)’s Rebecka Martinsson, which will air… some time.
Meanwhile, most of last week’s new acquisitions now have airdates, as do a few other shows that had already been acquired:
America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) is a supervisor in a hypermarket and Ben Feldman (A to Z) is the new employee with airs and graces who finds her attractive but makes an immediate bad impression on her, which leaves her with little patience for him. The result is that he keeps making costly mistakes, such as marking everything as costing $0.25 rather than 25% less, resulting in Black Friday levels of customer in-fighting.
Without jokes, a comedy show is for naught, and while frequently it’s smart and comes perilously close to being funny and sometimes even witty, nothing ever really lands home, bar a joke about a cubic zirconium knock-off. Still, it’s better than Sky’s Trollied.
An everyday tale of an inbred family of Southeners, sticking by their own kind, obeying a stern family figure, living by their own rules, drinking moonshine, racing all over the place, breaking whatever laws they want while the cops try and fail to catch them. About as smart a drama as you can make about a family of 200 or so cousins, only one of whose members can read.
A look at the ‘underground railroad’ that helped slaves in the US to escape to freedom, usually in British North America (aka Canada). On the one hand, the show takes great pains to be as realistic as possible. On the other, it also takes great pains to be as ‘with it’ as possible, with flashy camerawork, a modern soundtrack, time jumps, slow motion, and dialogue that’s often no more than a decade old. I lasted an episode.
Mash up of of Murdoch Mysteries and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries that sees Lauren Lee Smith (CSI, Good Dog, This Life, The Listener) playing the only female private detective working in 1920s Toronto. Jaunty fun, with the likes of Ernest Hemingway dropping by for a bit of flirtation, interspersed with female-empowering historicity, but let down by the singularly wet Lee Smith.
Seven Seconds (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, February 23, 2018
In a society fraught with racial tension, sensational headlines, and an audience who would rather be entertained than informed, seven seconds can mean life or death. The new Netflix original series Seven Seconds gives viewers a glimpse into the human stories behind the headlines.
In an instant, life is forever changed for Brenton Butler and his family. After a white cop accidentally hits and critically injures a black teenager, a northeastern city explodes with racial tensions, an attempted cover up and its aftermath, and the trial of the century. From creator and executive producer, Veena Sud (The Killing) comes Seven Seconds – a thrilling new anthology crime drama that explores the human stories behind the headlines.
The series stars two-time Emmy winner Regina King (American Crime) alongside breakout British actress Clare-Hope Ashitey (Doctor Foster), Russell Hornsby (Fences), Beau Knapp (Sand Castle), Michael Mosely (Ozark), David Lyons (Safe Haven), Raul Castillo (Special Correspondents), and Zackary Momoh (A United Kingdom).
HBO Asia green lights: multi-country horror anthology Folklore, Japanese gender-switched Sherlock Holmes Miss Sherlock and Dutch East Indies period drama Grisse
