I’ve extended the blog’s handy guide to religious shows again, this time with a collection of Christian shows that somehow escaped the list the first time round: Save Me, Angels in America, Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes and Miracles. More details at the guide itself, obviously.
US TV
Review: Crossing Lines 1×1 (NBC/TF1)
In the US: Sundays, 10/9c, NBC
In France: TF1. No air date yet
Crime, these days, is global. In Europe, which doesn’t have an equivalent to the FBI specifically tasked with investigating ‘federal’ crimes, if you’re a computer hacker in Poland, you can steal money from a French bank as easily as if you were in Paris and the policiers will have a devil of a time bringing you to book. If you’ve killed someone in London and are looking to avoid the police, a quick trip on the Eurostar over to Brussels and even if the Met know you committed the crime, getting the Federale Politie/Police Fédérale/Föderale Polizei to not only talk to each other but find you and arrest you will be far more challenging for them than getting the South Tyneside police to do the same.
My, if only there were some kind of pan-European bunch of cops tasked with investigating crimes that cross EU state boundaries, able to skirt these kind of jurisdictional issues so they can bring to heel criminals who have escaped justice because of lack of co-operation between forces.
Well, there isn’t, but Crossing Lines, a US-French-German co-production, imagines such an elite group of cops, albeit one that needs an American lead for in-story reasons that are a little opaque and for real-world reasons that are far more explicable.
It stars William Fichtner (Prison Break, Invasion, MDs) as a crippled New York cop who’s moved to the Netherlands and become a garbage collector for reasons that are initially inexplicable but become clearer by the end of the pilot. He’s recruited for his deductive powers (and American-ness) by a French detective (singer and occasional actor Marc Lavoine) who heads up an elite team of cops at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The team also includes a British interrogation specialist (Genevieve O’Reilly), a Northern Irish weapons specialist and former traveller (Richard Flood), a German technology expert (Tom Wlaschiha from HBO’s Game of Thrones), an Italian undercover specialist (Gabriella Pession) and a French crime analyst with an eidetic memory (Moon Dailly from France 3’s Commissaire Magellan). Together with the help of an ICC inspector (Donald Sutherland – do I really have to tell you who he is?), the team can investigate crimes other groups can’t touch.
Their first case? Well, given the series was created by one of the show runners of Criminal Minds, despite the shiny international cast, the numerous glossy European locations, relatively high budget and a surprising nose for local cultural differences, would it surprise you if I told you it was a relatively dull, tedious, cliched affair involving an American serial killer? Probably not.
Here’s a trailer:
Classic TV
Nostalgia Corner: The Mary Whitehouse Experience (1991-1992)/Newman and Baddiel in Pieces (1993)/The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show (1994-1995)
Tracing the origins of modern ‘lad’ culture isn’t easy. Some cite James Brown’s launch of Loaded – the magazine for men who ‘should know better’ – while others point to the arrival of competitor FHM as its more definitive arrival in society.
However, I think you have to cast your mind back a little earlier to the late 80s and early 90s to first radio and then to TV with a comedy show called The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Originally airing on Radio 1 before moving over to BBC2, the show was the first real sign that the politically correct 1980s stand-up and alternative comedy scene was about to be taken over by ‘lad’ humour.
Do you want half an hour of previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Of course you do
This was taken by the Buffy season 2 stunt team and includes such sights as David Boreanaz learning how to throw, James Marsters getting a haircut and Sarah Michelle Gellar ice-skating and doing a chicken dance.
[via]
An interactive trailer for series 3 of Luther
I’m not a big Luther fan – in the sense that I didn’t like it much and gave up after the second or third episode. However, you might be and as series 3 is on the way, I thought I’d give you this shiny trailer to whet your appetite. More interestingly, it’s an interactive trailer, so if you click in particular areas, you’ll get extra video.