24

What have you been watching? Including Extant, Tyrant, The Last Ship, Suits, 24 and Halt and Catch Fire

18 July 2014 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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.

Oh, why do they do this? The rest of the week is a gaping hole of misery, reality shows, American Ninja and God knows what else, yet come Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday, suddenly it’s all systems go and the US networks chuck everything they’ve got at the schedules.

I’ve tried my best and this week, I’ve managed to review the following new shows:

But still in the first-run viewing queue are USA’s Satisfaction, El Rey’s Matador, and The Divide. The latter’s from WE tv, which doesn’t even make scripted drama, and it aired two hour-long episodes in one go. What chance does that give me? It’s like they’re doing it deliberately to annoy me, now.

Fingers crossed, though, I’ll be able to play catch-up over the weekend and review them all on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Anyway, after the jump, a round-up of the regulars that I did watch, with reviews of 24, Extant, Halt and Catch Fire, The Last Ship, Suits and Tyrant.

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What have you been watching? Including The Lego Movie, The Bridge (US), The Leftovers and Halt and Catch Fire

11 July 2014 Rob Buckley 4 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.

The fourth of July weekend hasn’t stopped American unveiling a slew of new shows this week, so elsewhere, I’ve reviewed:

I also managed to squeeze a movie in this week, too:

The Lego Movie (2014)
Not a 100% slam dunk and the live action bit towards the end felt a bit uncomfortable, but a very funny movie overall, in which an average Lego construction worker (Chris Pratt) must save the Lego world from the oppressive regime of President Business (Will Ferrell). Featuring slews of in-jokes and classic Lego sets (yes, I did have the blue space Lego in the 70s), the best bits are nevertheless the cameos from licensed characters such as Superman and Green Lantern, and especially Batman and certain characters from Star Wars. Definitely worth a watch.

After the jump, a round-up of the regulars, with reviews of 24, Halt and Catch Fire, The Leftovers and Suits, as well as the returning The Bridge (US).

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including The Lego Movie, The Bridge (US), The Leftovers and Halt and Catch Fire”

US TV

Review: Extant 1×1 (CBS/Amazon Prime)

11 July 2014 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Extant

In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, CBS
In the UK: Available on Amazon Prime

Of all the many, may influences that are obvious in Extant, CBS’s new ‘limited series’ in which Halle Berry plays an astronaut who may have been impregnated by an alien pretending to be her dead former lover, Doctor Who and Sherlock are probably the hardest to spot. Solaris, yes. Gravity, yes. Moon, yes. Rosemary’s Baby, yes. AI, yes.

But Doctor Who and Sherlock? Nope. Can’t see ‘em.

Yet writer/showrunner Mickey Fisher actually had “What Would Steven Moffat Do?” stuck to his computer while writing the scripts, which is odd, because if you were going to characterise Steven Moffat’s writing, it would largely be multiple layered, complex plots, with different arcs that interact and come together at the end, filled with characters with nifty lines in dialogue.

And that’s not Extant. Clever? Ish. Complex? Not really. Good dialogue? Not even slightly. It’s more an exercise in futurology than anything that Steven Moffat would put together. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad.

Here’s a trailer.

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What have you been watching? Including Reckless, The Last Ship and Crossbones

4 July 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.

Despite the fact that a few shows have finished and I’ve decided to drop a few others from my regular viewing, I have a wee backlog of NBC’s new comedy-action show Taxi Brooklyn to get through. Fingers crossed, a review of the first two episodes of that later. I’ve already reviewed some new shows elsewhere, though:

I’ve also given another new show a try:

Reckless (US: CBS)
Absolute bobbins. As soon as you say the word ‘southern’ to an American from one of the northern states, apparently, through some form of word association, ‘sexy fun times’ is the first thing they think of, because what we have here is a desperate attempt to get in predominantly female viewers with a cop show set in the south that sees lots of cops and lawyers having sex and flirting with each other. Being CBS, though, it’s so tame and old hat that when people start sexting pictures of themselves, they still use email and no naughty bits are exposed, yet despite that, the female cop in question (Georgina Haig) gets fired. She decides to sue and hires lawyer Anna Wood to prosecute the police department; the PD hire her flirt partner Cam Gigandet (The OC, Never Back Down, Twilight), prompting muchos sparks. Except it turns out that another cop might have been raped by a bunch of other cops and things take a serious left turn.

There’s a good cast, including Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami), Shawn Hatosy (Southland) and Gregory Harrison (Logan’s Run). But the script is dreadful, perhaps even knowingly so at times – legal eagle Gigandet sails a motor boat to work in the morning, wearing his suit under his waders the whole time – and the gang rape of a woman by police officers after they’ve drugged her doesn’t exactly equal the sexy fun times the producers are after.

After the jump, a round-up of the regulars, with reviews of 24, Crossbones, Halt and Catch Fire, The Last Ship, Murder In The First, Old School, Penny Dreadful and Undateable.

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US TV

Review: The Leftovers 1×1 (HBO/Sky Atlantic)

2 July 2014 Rob Buckley 2 Comments


In the US: Sundays, 10pm, HBO
In the UK: Aquired by Sky Atlantic. Will air in September

TV is filled with death. For many shows, it’s their staple. What would 24 or Banshee be without their epic body counts? Would everyone love Game of Thrones as much were it not for its regular game of ‘Guess who’s going to pop their clogs this season’? Probably not.

In the real world, though, death generally isn’t quite as desirable, even if it is inevitable. The effects of someone’s death are almost always huge, traumatic and life-changing for those who know them. Religion can provide some comfort for the bereaved. It can even provide some answers as to why death happens at all. TV shows that remember this are few and far between.

So in many ways, The Leftovers is unusual and innovative. Adapted by Tom Perrotta, Lost‘s Damon Lindelof and Friday Night Lights’ Peter Berg from Perrotta’s book of the same name, it takes the Christian concept of the Rapture – in which the true believers in Jesus are taken up into the sky to be with God, leaving behind everyone to be judged before Jesus’s second coming – and gives it a slight twist. What if 2% of the world’s population just vanished, leaving everyone else behind, with no explanation for their departure? What would those remaining behind do? How would they feel? And without angels coming down to explain everything and given that some of that 2% include some very bad people indeed, not just the blessed – I mean, Gary Busey was one of those who disappeared. Gary Busey – could people even be sure it was God and not aliens or some bizarre space-time accident that caused the disappearance?

The answer to this existential dilemma, it appears, is be largely miserable, dull and nihilistic. Strangely, in fact, it seems like the animals have a better idea about what’s going on than the humans do.

Here’s a trailer. If you’re in the US, though, you can watch the whole of the first episode over on Yahoo.

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