30 Rock

US TV

What did you watch last week? Including The Almighty Johnsons, Dirk Gently, Shameless, The Mechanic and The Thin Man

19 March 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Tom Cruise running in Cougar Town

It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched last week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: The Almighty Johnsons, Archer, Being Human (US), BeTipul, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Happy Endings, House, Modern Family, Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory, 30 Rock and Top Gear. Assuming they’re on where you live, of course.

The observant will have noticed that I’ve promoted The Almighty Johnsons to the A-list there. I’ve caught up to those lovely New Zealanders now and I’d have to say that the first season is really good and really takes over from about episode eight onwards; the second season is a lot darker though, has some holes in the cast that the show really feels, as well as some changes to the set-up and general approach to the show – away from gods v goddesses to gods v (spoiler) Loki – that make it weaker. But it’s still a good show and the signs are that subsequent episodes will repair some of the damage. But what’s with Anders’ beard and all the rubbish new haircuts for everyone?

Now, some thoughts on the regulars:

  • Being Human (US): a slightly obvious twist last week that was still a good change for the show. Much better than the UK version now
  • Community: As close to normal as Community gets, and fabulous.
  • Cougar Town: Not just the Scrubs crossover to end all crossovers but we got ‘Tom Cruise-running’ as well. Excellent work all round.
  • Dirk Gently: Different in tone from the first episode, with Matt James (Doctor Who – The Impossible Planet) on scripting duties. Less a holistic mystery than an actual mystery, it was easy to guess the very sci-fi explanation for what had happened, but that didn’t actually matter. It was even surprisingly touching. One complaint: St Cedds (good), not filming in Cambridge (bad).
  • Happy Endings: A bottle episode, but a well-handled bottle episode, particularly the body swap at the end. Yes, you read that right.
  • Kung Fu: Second season now. The fighting’s getting better. The scripts aren’t getting faster, though, even with ninja.
  • Modern Family: Meh. So so.
  • Ringer: What? I mean seriously, what? Those flashbacks to Siobhan and Andrew made literally no sense within the context of the first two episodes of the show. But it’s Ringer, so what was I expecting?
  • Shameless: Heart-rending two episodes in which to see dreams crushed by other people. One that Ayn Rand-ists should watch.
  • She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens: Didn’t actually watch this one, but my lovely wife did and she reports that it’s quite good in and of itself, but if you know anything about the period before Elizabeth, it’s very basic and you won’t learn much.
  • Southland: Wow. What an episode. This week’s the finale. This should be traumatic.
  • Spartacus: Really very awesome (haven’t watched Friday’s yet), thanks to an influx of Germans, although the constant use of rape as a way to elevate the danger levels is getting very tired. I’m now almost used to Liam McIntyre as Spartacus, even though he’s still not up there with Andy Whitfield.
  • Suburgatory: a bit more drama than comedy, but good to see Robin Givens still getting work.
  • 30 Rock: The return of Dennis! Yey! And “You Soloed me” – a classic line.

And in movies:

  • The Thin Man: a classic Dashiell Hammett story, while the plot is typical 1920s/30s intricate murder-mystery, it’s absolutely worth watching for possibly the first depiction of a modern marriage in a film:

  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Despite the presence of Terry Gilliam behind the camera and Johnny Depp in front, absolutely not a patch on the book and curiously uninvolving.

  • The Mechanic: Jason Statham takes on the Charles Bronson role in this unspectacular remake of the 70s movie about a professional hitman who takes on an assistant. A few good set pieces, but lacking the humour of the average Statham film, as well as the characteristic fight scenes, this is basically a movie by the numbers but with a few elements that take it above the normal. Reasonable enough, but don’t expect to see anything new.

How about you?

“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

US TV

What did you watch this week (w/e February 24)?

27 February 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

It’s "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), Cougar Town, The Daily Show, House,  Happy Endings, Modern Family, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week). The Almighty Johnsons is still in my view pile and there are a couple of other things that I’m going to be reviewing in the next day or so, including Those Who Kill (aka Den Som Dræber) and Justice League: Doom

  • Caerdydd: Slowly catching up on this about a year (or two) since we recorded it. Not as good as the previous series, but still great fun.
  • Modern Family: Very sweet
  • Ringer: Nice guest cameo by Misha Collins from Supernatural, and thankfully the whole thing was as ludicruous as always.
  • Royal Pains: Ah, the never-ending slow progress of the plot. And for a finale episode, incredibly badly written – bad dialogue, obviously plotting and no real draw for the next series and that might work in a lazy summer show, but in winter, you need to be a whole lot sharper.
  • 30 Rock: Great cameos by Jim Carrey and Andie MacDowell. But very strange.
  • Southland: I could see the cliffhanger coming a mile off, but still great work. Whoever does the trailers for TNT needs to be shot, since they give away the resolution to the cliffhanger.
  • Spartacus: Back on track now, with a very well paced and plotted episode, although the crunch moment (ho, ho) was an obvious twist. Good to see the return of Gannicus, too. Pondering Spartacus, it amazes me that it’s so popular. Although there’s the obvious, nudity, swearing and massive violence, complete with bloody entrails, we’re talking about a historical story, set in a foreign country, with no Americans (obviously) in the cast, people talking in pseudo-Shakespearian language, gay men front and centre, full frontal male nudity and the whole thing largely filmed and staged like theatre. It breaks all the rules, but yet people love it. Isn’t cable great?

And in movies:

  • Real Steel: Rocky with robots and Hugh Jackman. Surprisingly fun and not awful, although Evangeline Lilly is very much lost in a somewhat tedious "deadbeat father and son work out their differences by building and training a boxing robot" story that has no room for women unless they’re dead or wearing Gucci cocktail dress with cut-outs. But some great robot boxing, including a final homage to Ali’s rope-a-dope trick against Foreman. Wonder if they’ll turn ‘Zeus’ into a lean, mean fat-reducing machine.

"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

What did you watch this week (w/e February 17)?

20 February 2012 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Time (well, let’s pretend it is) for “What did you watch this week?”, my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week).

  • Archer: Back on form this season
  • Modern Family: A very good episode this week. Worried that lovely wife and I are now this close to being Claire and Phil.
  • Modern Family: Access All Areas: A Sky exclusive documentary. Interesting only to hear what everyone sounds like normally. Otherwise, cringe-making awfulness.
  • Royal Pains: Ooh. Surprising ending. Normally the show’s so fluffy. And it’s good to have Boris back after all this time away. Not sure about that ‘Swiss French’ accent and unless Boris was making a racist joke, Campbell Scott’s pronunciation of Frankstein needs some work.
  • 30 Rock: Funny again! Yay! And good Batman episode too.
  • Southland: I think we can conclusively assume now that everyone in the last three seasons who wasn’t a patrolman or Regina King has been fired so the producers can afford Lucy Liu. Also a very sensitively handled ‘coming out’ episode for Cooper.
  • Spartacus: Far less attention-grabbing than before and it’s hard not to imagine every scene improved by Andy Whitfield.

And in movies:

  • Inception: Still awesome
  • Heat: Still awesome
  • The Dark Knight: Better than I remember.

“What did you watch this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

What did you watch this week (w/e February 3)?

6 February 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

(Belated again) time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week).

Not a huge amount of new stuff to talk about, but my review of the first episode of The Almight Johnsons will be going up tomorrow.

Here’s what I did watch:

  • 30 Rock: Funnier than most of the previous two seasons.
  • Shameless (US): Lacking some of the edge of the first season but still good.
  • Ringer: Back and as silly and mental as ever. Nice to see evil villainness Siobhan being given a human side at last.
  • Top Gear: Haven’t seen this week’s yet, but the opening episode was a return to form and actually funny.
  • Braquo: Finally got around to watching episodes two to four of this French show, which I reviewed before Christmas. Not as OTT as the first episode and very compelling, but the whole show makes you think "My God, French police are perhaps the most colossally stupid people on Earth." Braquo‘s lot make the ones in Engrenages look competent. Was Inspector Clouseau onto something? They alll seem to turn up without the slightest hint of a plan, do something mentally stupid and then realise afterwards that maybe they shouldn’t have done it. You know, like accidentally murdering the suspect. Or those drug dealers they were going to give the drugs, too. What’s even worse is the show’s continual suggestion that these cops are "the best of the best", cops should stick together no matter what and internal affairs officers are pure evil with bad haircuts.
  • Portlandia: Starting to edge away from ‘funny’ towards merely ‘clever’.

And in movies:

  • What’s your Number? An attempt at a clever, edgy rom-com, in which Anna Faris decides she’s slept with too many men already (20), so hunts down old boyfriends, hoping that one of the ones she’s already slept with will turn out to be the one and she’ll not have to sleep with yet another one. Largely dedicated to getting Chris Evans (The Fantasic Four, Captain America) to spending as little time as possible in clothes, the movie is utterly predictable and has only about three funny bits, but has cameos from Martin Freeman, Eliza Coupe (Scrubs, Happy Endings) and Zachary Quinto (Heroes, American Horror Story), and is quite pleasing, subversive and romantic in its own way. But you will be watching the clock a lot during it.

"What did you watch this week?" is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV and films that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

Monday’s “Borgen 2, Lilyhammer 1, musical Back to the Future, How To Live With Your Parents and the Columbine massacre” news

6 February 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

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