Catch me tomorrow on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Edition

20 October 2014 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Assuming reading all my exciting opinions isn’t too much for you, tomorrow you’ll get the chance to hear me ramble incoherently, too – I’m going to be appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Edition to talk about US TV shows that are heading towards your screens very, very soon, as well about a bit of UK TV for a change.

Up for discussion are:

I’ll be there from about 3pm. Wish me luck!

US TV

What have you been watching? Including Strange Empire, Coverband, Electra, The Flash and Doctor Who

20 October 2014 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 – they’ll even email you a weekly schedule.

You may have noticed I was playing epic catch-up on Saturday, in contravention of my normal rule of weekend blogging. So on top of Friday’s all out efforts and a couple of extra ones today, I’ve reviewed the following new shows, some of which have already been acquired for Blighty’s viewing pleasure:

Yay, me. No back log now. Time to have regular weekends again. Phew.

In fact, so ahead of myself am I that I’ll point out that ages ago, I reviewed NBC’s Constantine, which starts on Friday. Okay, it’s changed a bit since the pilot but you’ll get the general point.

But I’ve not stopped there. Oh no. Because I’ve also watched a New Zealand and a Canadian show just for luck. Okay, I was a bit behind on all of them, so I’ve only seen the first episode of each, but honestly, that felt like enough.

Strange Empire (Canada: CBC)
Set in the 1860s on the Alberta-Montana border, this sees three women (Cara Gee, Tattiawna Jones and Melissa Farman from Lost) band together for survival after virtually all the men in their town are murdered and those remaining behind battle for power. Very nicely made and already being described as the saviour of CBC, it’s historically interesting but about as tedious as any other western, and none of the characters really grabbed me.

Coverband (New Zealand: TV One)
A one-hit wonder band reunite back in New Zealand years after they were famous. Unfortunately, the female lead singer was the one who was a success, leaving the terminally unsexy rest of the band to make it by themselves, something at which they fail miserably. Now having to deal with the pressures of normal lives and forced to do cover versions of other bands’ records, they suck completely until they stagecrashed by Laughton Kora, who shows them what rock charisma and singing really are, so they hire him. Kind of.

It’s an amiable and accurate enough show, based on cast member Johnny Barker’s own experiences as an Auckland cover band musician, and were there enough time in the world, I’d probably tune in for a few more episodes. But the show’s not so inspiring that I’ll throw something else aside for it and I’ve already seen The Wedding Band crash and burn, so I don’t think I need to see that happen again.

Unfortunately, New Zealand doesn’t want to produce any globally available videos of its own shows, apparently, so here’s a picture of the cast to tide you over.

Coverband

That’s it for new new shows, but after the jump, I’ll be running through: Arrow, black-ish, The Blacklist, Doctor Who, The Flash, Forever, Gotham, Homeland, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Plebs, Scorpion, Selfie and The Walking Dead.

But hey! Before you go, I should mention I went to the theatre, too!

Electra (Old Vic)
Kristin Scott Thomas as Electra, a new translation of Sophocles’ original text by Greek tragedy stalwart Frank McGuinness, music by PJ Harvey – what could go wrong? Well, not much actually, beyond a certain staticness to the direction, a slightly weak performance by Jack Lowden as Orestes and a very strange performance by Tyrone Huggins as Aegisthus. Other than that, a fine piece of work, surprisingly faithfully staged (although that’s not quite how Greek people prayed), with an outstanding performance by Thomas and a surprisingly funny text by McGuinness – in part to cover up for casting slightly older than originally written, but also to hide the unlikelihood of Electra not recognising Orestes. Liz White (Life on Mars) gives the best performance I’ve ever seen from her as Chrysothemis, Electra’s sister.  

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Strange Empire, Coverband, Electra, The Flash and Doctor Who”

Arrow Films launches Criminale Italia range of Italian TV shows

20 October 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Fed up with Northern European TV? Then how about some Southern European TV? Arrow Films, which pumps out lots of Nordic Noir titles in the UK, has just decided to launch an Italian range called Criminale Italia. First up are Gomorrah, Inspector Nardone and Fogs And Crimes, coming out on October 27th.

Arrow Films’ Noir label continues to scour the globe bringing UK viewers the very best in foreign language film and television. Following the incredible success of Danish dramas The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge, and French title Braquo, Nordic Noir are pleased to announce the arrival of a host of new Italian shows to their roster of Noir titles.

Such is the strength of Italian crime television that Arrow Films have launched Criminale Italia, an exciting new subsidiary of their Noir label. Alongside the upcoming and acclaimed modern-day Italian gangster epic Gomorrah, the label will release the hugely popular Italian shows Inspector Nardone and Fog & Crimes on DVD from 27th October.

Inspector Nardone
Post-war Milan is the ideal breeding ground for a new wave of criminal activity. A crime-scene that is very different from what we are used to today: an old-fashioned system of organised crime, made up of thieves and outlaws who share a specific moral code, which absolutely condemns homicide. A new chief officer is assigned to the Milan Police Department, as if to settle a score for having exposed his corrupt colleagues. This is just one of the various difficulties that Mario Nardone, an authentic Neapolitan, must face in the sophisticated and urbane Milan. A city which, nevertheless, Nardone loves unconditionally, and where he plans to bring up his beloved, albeit somewhat neglected, children.

Based on a real figure, Mario Nardone was a true legend in Milan during the 50’s and 60’s. Straightforward, persistently stubborn but also endowed with a strong moral code and a great sense of humanity, Nardone has deep loves; including his long-suffering family, good cuisine and cracking jokes at every opportunity.

Fogs and Crimes
Inspired by the four famous novels by Valerio Varesi, each episode follows an investigation by Soneri, Ferrara Police Chief. He works with a faithful squad on a series of crimes, each hiding a disturbing mystery, with the startling and grotesque undertones of the apparently calm world of the wealthy countryside.

Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: Party Tricks 1×1 (Australia: Ten)

20 October 2014 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Party Tricks

In Australia: Mondays, 8.30pm, Ten

Politics is an area rife for fictionalisation – indeed, some would argue that it is already largely fictional – and some of the best TV comedies and dramas around the world have been set in the world of politics: think The Thick of It and Yes Minister in the UK, The West Wing and House of Cards in the US, Borgen in Denmark and Spin in France.

Australian politics is no less entertaining than the politics of any other country and Australian TV is now getting in on this act with shows such as ABC’s The Code. However, more traditional but equally innovative is Ten’s Party Tricks, which sees Victoria’s incumbent State Premier and Labor politician Kate Ballard (Asher Keddie from the much-loved Offspring) going up against Liberal politician and former journalist David McLeod (Rodger Corser). The slight hitch is that Ballard and McLeod had an affair several years previously and Ballard is worried that McLeod is going to drop this particular bomb at an inconvenient moment, despite the widowed McLeod playing the family card in his own campaign.

Ten’s supporting the show with extensive fake social media activity, from Twitter feeds to web sites and campaign videos, which is a relatively innovative touch. Unfortunately, as with all this kind of ‘360º work’, more attention should have been paid to the script than to how many people get fooled by a fake Tweet and then smile wryly to themselves.

Party Tricks is ostensibly a comedy drama and while the show starts off pleasantly enough with a bewigged flashback to when McLeod and Ballard first met – and hated each other – slowly the corners of my smile descended as it became clear that was the best bit. It doesn’t help that Ballard’s main helper Wayne Duffy (Angus Sampson) is effectively just a gay Chris Addison in The Thick Of It, from lines through to delivery, making anyone who’s watched similar shows feel like they’re watching a re-tread of better things.

Lots of it play well, though, with Ballard and Duffy’s rewriting of statements to blur the truth a particular highpoint, and there are some genuinely funny physical comedy moments, such as Duffy’s dealing with the security systems at the Victorian government offices. But this is more a story about relationships than politics, and the relationship in question was between the frosty Ballard and the ‘big giant twat’ McLeod, and by the end of the first episode, I didn’t feel inclined to get to know either of them any better.

<INSERT JOKE HERE ABOUT THEIR NOT GETTING MY VOTE>

US TV

Review: Kingdom 1×1 (US: Audience Network)

20 October 2014 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Kingdom

Mixed martial arts aka MMA is one of the fastest growing sports in America, and despite having come about thanks to the Ultimate Fighting Championship back in the 90s, it’s had relatively little fictional attention, bar Never Back Down, which is notable only for featuring both Amber Heard and the entire script for the Karate Kid but with karate crossed out and MMA written in instead.

Now we have Kingdom from the DirecTV-exclusive but generally unknown Audience Network, which despite only being two episodes in has already been renewed for two seasons, so clearly is doing something right. I’m not sure what though.

It stars Frank Grillo (best known now for Captain America 2, but previously the only normal person in monsterville in The Gates) as the owner of a Venice beach gym and a pro MMA fighter. He’s moderately pleased when former partner Matt Lauria gets out of jail and comes to train again and tries to help Grillo’s son and heroin addict Jonathan Tucker (The Black Donnellys) – only moderately, because Grillo’s now going out with Lauria’s ex-girlfriend Kiele Sanchez (The Glades). Cue much manly tension and bro-talks.

The best that can be said about Kingdom is that it’s competently made and not as meat-headed as you might think. Most of the show is about MMA training, with the now-compulsory monster truck tyres and sweat suit scenes, but the few proper MMA fights are pretty well handled. Being a jiu jitsu person at heart, they all seem a bit limited and silly to me but YMMV. The dialogue is bland and I doubt a single line registered as being interesting or insightful the entire time, with most being nondescript or occasionally offensive. Appropriate for the kinds of guy involved? Possibly. But this isn’t a realistic show so that’s not really an argument that passes muster. Either way, it’s certainly no Rocky, but it’s nowhere near as toxic as Never Back Down’s dialogue.

But against even those minor positives, I have to say it has a lot of flaws, including a whole set of characters whose appeal for most people is going to be extremely limited, as well as a massive woman-problem, with women only there as girlfriends, sex objects and plot motivators/characterisation tools for the men, rather than because the producers seem to think they have any intrinsic worth. I think I did manage to spot a couple of women in the gym who weren’t there serving a purely decorative function, but they didn’t get any lines, so I’m not sure they count – and they were largely offset by the naked, equally dialogue-less women elsewhere.

The ending (no spoilers) showed the programme’s other big problem: how it deals with the few blacks and Latinos it has. Despite the Los Angeles setting, there are no black characters in the cast and the only Latinos I spotted were women-abusing, murderous criminals. Lovely.

Oh well. Maybe someone else can come up with a decent MMA series instead. Because this isn’t it.