TV reviews

A complete archive of The Medium is Not Enough’s reviews of TV programmes since 2005

Homecoming
Streaming TV

Boxset Monday: Homecoming (season one) (Amazon)

12 November 2018 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Available on Amazon

TV doesn’t have many auteurs – that is, people whose work you can recognise pretty instantly simply from their ‘look and feel’. Largely, that’s because TV seasons are so long and production so collaborative that one individual, even a showrunner, is unlikely to have enough control over every episode that their ‘fingerprints’ can be spotted.

Sam Esmail seems to be one of the few who can claim to be a TV auteur. The creator and frequent director of Mr Robot, he has a distinct, innovative, experimental directorial style, as well as equally distinct thematic concerns about the nature of the reality.

Or so I’ve gleaned from Homecoming, Amazon’s new original series starring Julia Roberts as psychiatrist at a medical facility helping veterans recover from PTSD, all 10 episodes of which are directed Sam Esmail. From the opening titles of the first episode to the final post-credits scene of the tenth episode, if you’ve seen Mr Robot, you’ll never be in any doubt whatsoever that you’re watching a Sam Esmail drama. And that’s a double-edged thing.

Homecoming Pineapple

Homecoming

Back when I was reviewing Alex Inc, I pointed out that US firm Gimlet Media has discovered the only way to make real money from podcasts: get someone to adapt them as TV series. Gimlet seems to be getting quite good at this, since Homecoming is another adaptation of a Gimlet podcast, albeit a relatively loose one. Ironically, it’s also vastly more interesting for its visual style than for its actual storyline.

The show runs in two parallel timelines, each of which has its own aspect ratio. The first is set in a blurry, 1970s-style 1:1 aspect ratio 2022, when Roberts is working in a seaside diner as a waitress. Into her life comes DoD complaints investigator Shea Whigham (Waco, Vice Principals, Boardwalk Empire) who wants to know about an incident at a facility at which Roberts used to work involving Stephan James (Shots Fired), one of the ‘Homeland’ veterans in the facility’s care. Roberts denies everything and pleads ignorance.

Meanwhile, back in crisp, HD 16:9 2018, we get to see Roberts’ evolving relationship with James as she provides therapy to him in an effort to help him deal with what he’s seen while fighting overseas. We also get to see the increasingly angry phone relationship she has with boss Bobby Cannavale (Mr Robot, Antman, Jumanji), as it becomes clear that maybe Homecoming has a slightly different agenda to the one its participants have been told.

What isn’t Roberts telling Whigham and why is she now working as a waitress when she’s a trained social worker? More importantly, over the course of the season, what Roberts isn’t telling Whigham increasingly becomes less important than why… Spoilers after the jump.

Continue reading “Boxset Monday: Homecoming (season one) (Amazon)”

Tell Me A Story
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Tell Me A Story

7 November 2018 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

It’s been a bit of a slow one, this week – yes, I’m talking about myself – but it’s also been a bit quiet for TV. I’m vaguely considering watching Amazon’s Homecoming, since:

  1. It stars Julia Roberts
  2. It’s from Sam Esmail (Mr Robot)
  3. Each episode is only about half an hour long
  4. I would have watched it last weekend, but I was away (!)

But that’s more or less been it for new shows, although I’ll be taking a look at the first episode of new arrival Tell Me A Story (US: CBS All Access) after the jump.

I’m sure the weekend will bring us something new, though. Gosh, if only there were a handy feature on this ‘ere blog that could tell me when new shows were starting…

Time for the regulars, though. Black Lightning went on holiday this week, so after the jump, it’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Doctor Who, Happy Together, The Last Ship, Magnum PI, Pine Gap, Titans and You. There’s not one but two promotions in that list. Can you guess which ones will receive the TMINE blessing?

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Tell Me A Story”

The Haunting of Hill House
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Mr InBetween and The Haunting of Hill House

31 October 2018 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Not many new shows this week, so I was able to make it through the entire first season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina yesterday. I also passed verdict on Titans (US: DC Universe; UK: Netflix). I’m not sure if Netflix or Amazon have anything shiny and new for me this coming weekend, so who knows what might happen on Monday. I might even review all the films I’ve watched in the past six months in the exceptionally infrequent ‘Movie Monday’…

After the jump, we can talk about all the usual regulars: Black Lightning, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Doctor Who, Happy Together, The Last Ship, Magnum P.I., Pine Gap, and You. We can also talk about the final episode of Mr InBetween and the final two episodes of The Haunting of Hill House…

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Mr InBetween and The Haunting of Hill House”

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Streaming TV

Boxset Tuesday: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)

30 October 2018 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Available on Netflix

The long-running Archie comics have been a source of much TV, film and even music over the years. Their vanilla, 50s-nostalgia-tinged peppiness and general lack of darkness have been one of the reasons for their longevity, as have their characters, which have been reinterpreted in other media. At the movies, the most famous spin-off was Josie and the Pussycats, which some rate as one of the most overlooked and greatest movies of the 21st century.

On TV, however, we’ve had Riverdale. When that show was first mooted, the immediate question was how it would work, particularly on young adult-focused network The CW. The short answer was very well, since its creators basically decided to do their own version of Twin Peaks, with murder-mysteries and more. It wasn’t what people expected, but it was… good.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Sabrina

Riverdale‘s been doing quite well for itself since, so naturally, a spin-off was suggested based on another Archie character: Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Of course, there’s already been a movie adaptation followed by a rather famous, long-running TV adaptation, Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

Fully in keeping with the comic, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was a light-hearted sitcom all about a teenage girl’s struggles to go to a regular US High School and have a regular mortal life while juggling the fact she’s a witch with two equally witchy aunts and a talking cat. It was… nice.

So again, given the Twin Peaks-isation of Archie in Riverdale, everyone wanted to know what the new Sabrina show would be like – particularly once The CW rejected the spin-off and Netflix picked it up instead.

Whatever you guessed, it almost certainly wasn’t Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I don’t think anyone expected this. Spoilery discussion after the jump as we discuss the entire first season…

Continue reading “Boxset Tuesday: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)”

Brenton Thwaites as Robin in DC's Titans
Streaming TV

Third-episode verdict: Titans (US: DC Universe; UK: Netflix)

29 October 2018 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In the US: Fridays, DC Universe
In the UK: Acquired by Netflix. Will air in 2018

Genre mash-ups can work. And sometimes they don’t. Titans is an interesting example not just of sub-genre mash-ups but of how they can go both right and wrong at the same time.

A sort of Lower Decks/The Zeppo for superhero shows, it sees a bunch of also-rans and sidekicks grouping up together to fight crime, evil and maybe even the Apocalypse. The first episode introduced us to all our main characters – Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven, each of whom belongs to his or her own genre. Robin is all gritty shakycam, ultraviolence and Batman Begins, as he struggles to strike his own path as a detective away from Batman’s influence; Starfire is an odd sci-fi Bourne Identity, an alien princess who’s lost her memory and is on a quest to find out who she really is; Raven is The Exorcist, the daughter of a demon, and a potential threat to all humanity if she’s not careful; and the shape-changing Beast Boy… remains to be seen, given he’s had a grand total of five minutes’ screen-time over the first three episodes.

All separate, these worked very nicely. Surprisingly, even when they’ve come together over the three episodes to greater and lesser degrees, those genres have been able to survive contact. The plots have worked, the characters have complemented each other, nothing’s made the other seem too silly or too serious.

Titans

Hawk wind-up

The trouble, however, arrived in episode 2. In part, Titans is designed to launch other superheroes and other TV shows, with Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol set to appear next year. Episode 2 gave us Hawk and Dove and quickly exposed the fact that superheroes in silly costumes don’t look good next to grimdark – and vice versa. It also showed that Titans needs to have a good ensemble onscreen in each story: with just Robin, Raven and Hawk and Dove in the episode, it felt flabby and in need of the variety the other characters bring.

Indeed, when everyone’s united in the third episode and Hawk and Dove are still present but downplayed, Titans continues to be compelling view, as you’re never quite sure which direction it’s going to go in next. Demons? Sci-fi incinerations? Exorcisms? Detective work? Your guess is as good as mine. Even when the stupid villains of episode two, the Nuclear Family, show up again, somehow they’re more palatable.

At its best, then, Titans is a ready-made Avengers – what Justice League should have been if there hadn’t been such problems behind the scenes. There are hints at a large universe, such as Robin’s nonchalance when he realises that Starfire is an alien (I’m guessing knowing Superman might help on that score) and the presence of Donna Troy in his address book. There’s the different take on Batman, a figure who’s never actually seen in full even as Bruce Wayne, but whose mentally dodgy presence is felt throughout. There are some surprisingly good fight scenes, smart looks at what it is to be a mortal superhero who grows old and needs to wash their costume at night. It can be funny, thrilling and can evoke pathos.

However, when the show steers away from its core mix, it risks disrupting this delicate chemistry and looking downright ridiculous. If it can stay focused, Titans will be a definite keeper. But if it gets its genre mix wrong, it’ll be off the viewing queue before you can say Gotham.

Barrometer rating: 2

The Barrometer for Titans