Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
It’s the last What time, TMINE? before TMINE’s August break and naturally, since August is going to be a bit light for TV in general, there haven’t been too many new premiere dates announced or acquisitions made.
Ratched is a suspenseful drama series that tells the origin story of One FlewOver The Cuckoo’s Nest’s asylum nurse Mildred Ratched. In 1947, Mildred arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind.
On a clandestine mission, Mildred presents herself as the perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be, but the wheels are always turning and as she begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and those within it, Mildred’s stylish exterior belies a growing darkness that has long been smouldering within, revealing that true monsters are made, not born.
Stars: Sarah Paulson, Cynthia Nixon, Judy Davis, Sharon Stone, Jon Jon Briones, Finn Wittrock, Charlie Carver, Alice Englert, Amanda Plummer, Corey Stoll, Sophie Okonedo and Vincent D’Onofrio
Every weekday, TMINE brings you the latest TV news from around the world
French TV
Trailer for France 2’s La Garçonne (it’s a bit hard to translate this one. It can mean ‘boyish’, but it’s really the feminised form of ‘the boy’ and since it’s about a woman who pretends to be a man to escape from the police in the 1920s, you get the idea of what they’re going for here), with Laura Smet, Grégory Fitoussi, Tom Hygreck et al
UK TV
Sky Witness acquires: Fox (US)’s 9-1-1: Lone Star and CBS (US)’s FBI: Most Wanted
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Netflix’s The Stranger
This week’s reviews
Netflix decided to unleash a slew of new shows on us last week. Elsewhere, you’ll have seen TMINE’s verdict on The Stranger, thanks to Boxset Monday. Onisciente managed to keep me interested for one episode at least, and you can read about that after the jump.
But I’m still working my way through Ragnarok, which is going to be next week’s Boxset Monday or Boxset Tuesday, and I didn’t get a chance to look at Luna Nera (Black Moon) – I’m not convinced about its chances, given what’s coming over the next week.
Meanwhile, in the film world, Orange Thursday covered The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
What’s coming next
It’s Part II of Spring 2020 in the US. Over the next week, we’ll be getting more than a few new shows, including Briarpatch, Indebted, Interrogation, Katy Keene, For Life, and Tommy.
Meanwhile, from Friday, we’ve got Locke & Key on Netflix and Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet starting on Apple TV+.
I doubt I’ll be able to give everything my undivided attention, but I hope to give at everything a first glance at least – hopefully more.
Meanwhile in movies, tomorrow’s Orange Thursday will be reviewing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2020) and… something else. I knew my Christmas viewing would run out some time.
The regulars list, which is already pretty small, is going to start getting even smaller soon, since this week, I’ll be covering the season finales of both Evil and Stumptown. However, that still leaves 9-1-1: Lone Star, Avenue 5, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, The Outsider and Star Trek: Picard, the latest episodes of which I’ll also be covering.
I wonder if I’ll be dropping any of them, too, making the list even smaller. Let’s find out… in just a moment.
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
Star Trek: Picard
This week’s reviews
Week four of Spring 2020 was a little quieter than the previous one, but we had three new shows launch. You can read the TMINE reviews of Outmatched(US: Fox) and Star Trek: Picard (US: CBS All Access; UK: Amazon) elsewhere, but we can talk about Awkwafina is Nora from Queens (US: Comedy Central) after the jump.
Meanwhile, in the film world, Orange Thursday took in Knives Out (2019) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).
Ragnarok
What’s coming next
Starting in the next week are Onisciente (Omniscient) (Netflix), The Stranger (Netflix), Luna Nera (Black Moon) (Netflix) and Ragnarok (Netflix). Yep, while others sleep, Netflix triumphs. I’ll pick one of those to watch over the next week and hopefully, it’ll be your Boxset Monday, but more likely your Boxset Tuesday.
Tomorrow’s Orange Thursday will be reviewing The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). One of those is significantly better than the other.
Daredevil
The regulars
The regulars list is smaller even than normal this week, since both Evil and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector took a break and Lovely Wife has decided she’d quite like to watch Avenue 5, so we’ll be watching episode 2 tonight.
Anyway, that just leaves 9-1-1: Lone Star, Stumptown and The Outsider. Still, it isWhat have you been watching? so now’s your chance to recommend some shows. Even Doctor Who. I hear there was a surprise guest ((spoiler alert) Captain Jack) and a massive development ((spoiler alert) another Doctor Who/alternative Doctor Who). Still not bothering with it.
In case you’ve been wondering what TMINE has been doing with itself, given such a lack of viewing options, the answer is simple: I’ve been rewatching the entire first season of Marvel’sDaredevil. It’s been an interesting experience, since clearly I was in a grumpy mood when I reviewed the first few episodes and still quite grumpy when I didn’t include it in my Top 9 (would have been 10 with Daredevil) shows of 2015.
Because it’s brilliant. Really sublime stuff – possibly my favourite season of all the Marvel shows, even more so than the first season of Iron Fist. It verges on the out and out sadistic at times, sure – you can tell showrunner Steven S DeKnight had just come off Spartacus – but despite having already watched it, I zoomed through all 13 episodes in about three days flat. Even the underwhelming costume reveal at the end was fine and Stick and the Hand didn’t irk me so much this time round.
The scripts explorations of the characters are almost lyrical at times, plus I really enjoyed some of its side-themes more, such as its study of the (diminishing) importance of journalism. There’s some real detective work/journalism going on in the investigation. And even when you know what’s coming, there are still some genuinely surprising choices by the writers, such as Melvyn’s reaction to losing a fight. Of which there are many, all so beautifully choreographed and directed – even Wu Assassinscouldn’t quite match it.
Plus there’s the general tone of the whole season, with some actually thought-provoking discussions of good and evil, morality, vigilantism, killing, rich and poor, Catholicism and more. Properly adult stuff it is.
Lastly, having watched all the other seasons and Netflix Marvel shows since, it’s really surprising to see how much everything fits together and was set up from the beginning. Yep, all that building-buying for the Japanese had a point and Madame Gao really did have to travel further than China to go back to her homeland.
So, if you’ve already watched Daredevil, give it another go, as it might surprise you. If you’ve not, you should definitely try it – provided you’ve got a strong stomach.
