Continuum

What did you watch this month? Including Homeland, Low Winter Sun, Chickens, Strike Back and Elysium

5 September 2013 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

It’s “What did you watch this weekmonth?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched last month while I was away on holiday that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

First up, 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.

In my preview queue is a couple of shows, including ABC’s Trophy Wife, which I hope to review for you properly on Tuesday. But I have tried a couple of new things, despite the summer TV quiet.

New shows I tried this week
Chickens (Sky 1 HD)
Some of the cast of The InBetweeners try to write a First World War comedy about a bunch of guys left behind during the Great War, who have to deal with being accused of cowardice, etc.

Anyway, it’s 10 minutes of my life I’m not getting back.

Low Winter Sun (AMC/FOX)
A remake of the Channel 4 mini-series of the same name set in Edinburgh, the show had relocated to Detroit to retell us the tale of a good cop who commits a revenge murder with the help of another cop and thinks he’s got away with it. Except things start to unravel.

It sounds good and given it’s remarkably managed to get the star of the original – Mark Strong – to repeat his performance but with a US accent, with fellow stalwart Brit Lennie James joining him for the ride, you’d think it would be good. But effectively, it’s a season-long episode of Columbo with the guy who played Daniel Hardman on Suits as a less well written Columbo. I stuck it out for four episodes before the plot got so thin that I decided not to bother with it any more.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Under The Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
Just rubbish. I’m only watching because I’ve got this far and there’s nothing else on.

Under the Dome TV Schedule

The Bridge (US) (FX)
We’re nearing the end and it’s definitive now that it’s simply not as good as the original, despite sticking more or less to exactly the same storyline. Problematically, the show has removed a lot of the strengths from the Saga Norin/Sonja Cross character and pushed them onto the male characters, making her more of a liability and one who’s stuck in the office most of the time. But the show did drop one particular, ridiculous twist, which I’m thankful for, anyway. The Annabeth Gish storyline is looking more and more pointless, though.

Strike Back (Cinemax/Sky 1)
The return of the modern day Professionals, this time with the assistance of former SAS dynamo… Robson Green (who, of course, was in Soldier Soldier but never did much fighting). Strong female characters keep cropping up to get shot and killed or go mental, which isn’t very helpful, and having Brits like Martin Clunes turn up is very distracting. But the action sequences are as impressive as ever, as is the camaraderie and the cross-Atlantic strafing.

Recommended shows
The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Really pushing ahead very strongly now, and getting some of its darker edges back, without going to season 2 extremes. Lovely use of myth, as well.

The Almighty Johnsons TV Schedule

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
A much better second half than first half to the season, with all the budget saved up for the end this time. Some good twists and revelations, as well. But it’s in extreme danger of disappearing ourobouros style up in its own arse with the rapid development of unnecessary mythology.

Continuum TV Schedule

Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Not yet back, of course, but I’ve had a gander at the first episode of the third season and I’m glad to report that it’s remembered it’s an adult show, rather than simply 24 on cable TV. Carrie’s still unbalanced and there’s no sign of you-know-who yet, with most of the first episode looking at the fallout from the bombing at the end of the last season and the political ramifications and changes in the US that have resulted. Impressive, but Brodie’s family is really starting to irritate now.

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
Better than the first season and the season arc is a lot stronger and more interesting, as well. Sorkin and co have also gone to quite extreme lengths to ditch virtually every romantic storyline possible along the way. But it’s now so plot-focused, it’s lost all sense of character, making it less engaging. Plus Olivia Munn is being criminally under-used and where they are using her, it’s entirely inappropriately. Only one appearance by Jane Fonda this entire season, too.

The Newsroom TV Schedule

Perception (TNT/Watch)
Overall, a disappointingly formulaic season that ended on a low and lost the show a lot of its unique characteristics along the way.

Perception TV Schedule

Satisfaction (CTV)
Still funny, but I’m giving up on it because, like many, I want to punch most of the cast, now.

Satisfaction TV Schedule

Suits (USA/Dave)
Same problems as The Newsroom – strong plot, less involved in the characters. The fact the show has focused on more or less a single case the entire season has also robbed it of a lot of variety. And no matter what, I still can’t see Max Beesley as a Cambridge lawyer. Sorry.

Suits TV Schedule

And in movies

I Give It A Year
Another tedious attempt to capture the magic that was Four Weddings and a Funeral in another Brit rom-com, this time with Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne getting married against everyone’s recommendations. Nine months later, they’re having problems. Generally, despite the presence of Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Anna Faris, Olivia Colman and Simon Baker, a pretty miserable movie, bereft of laughter but full of misery. So steer clear of it – all the good jokes are in the trailer.

Elysium
Neill Blomkamp tries to repeat the success of District 9 but with a much bigger budget. Set in 2154, it sees Matt Damon as a blue collar worker trapped on the over-crowded earth with all the rest of the poor, while the rich all life on a space-station called Elysium that fixes all their problems and even cures all their diseases – except the rich don’t care enough to offer the same facilities to the poor. Now, in many ways it’s a very clever film with lots to say. The imagination that’s gone into the weaponry, set design and future tech are all superb. It’s just the plot and the characterisation that are mundane, with Damon having less personality than an implanted Total Recall Arnie and everyone else painted so thinly, they’d disappear if they turned sideways. It actually makes for quite a boring movie and yet again, despite it being 2154, you’d be hard-pushed to spot even 25% of the main characters being female, let alone women with power (baddie Jodie Foster and that’s it). Disappointing, despite all the imagination that went into 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?

What did you watch this week? Including The Booth At The End, Orange is the New Black, The Almighty Johnsons, Satisfaction and Suits

26 July 2013 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

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

First up, 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.

Still in the viewing queue: Kerry Packer…. But otherwise I’m up to speed again, just in time to disappear for a fortnight on holiday. Oops.

New shows I tried this week
Orange is the New Black (Netflix) 
Netflix’s comedy-drama from the creator, based on a true story about a woman sent to a correctional institute. I only watched half an episode, but it was pretty good albeit with a little too much female nudity, so I reckon I’ll be jumping back in at some point.

The Booth At The End (Netflix/Hulu)
At Mark’s suggestion, I decided to give this one a bit of a whirl. And actually, it’s quite good, if a little frustrating. Essentially, each episode sees an unnamed man (Xander Berkeley) sitting in a both at the end of a diner. People come to him who want things, sometimes trivial, sometimes seemingly impossible. And the Man looks in his book and tells them what they need to do to make that thing happen: it can as simple as making a phone call; or it could be to murder a child or set off a bomb, although he’s at pains to state that he doesn’t actually make these things happen and they may happen anyway. In In Treatment style, a lot of the plots of the characters mingle and part of the fun is guessing how they’ll all mesh together, and it’s also pleasantly theatrical, since nothing is ever shown, just described by the Man’s various supplicants, so it relies a lot on your imagination.

The frustration is two-fold. The first is that there are very few answers and if you hang out to the end of the first season of five, 22-minute episodes, you still won’t really get any gratification on that score. The second is that Netflix in the UK only has the first season, the second season being available exclusively to Hulu in the US – although since this aired on FX in the UK at one point, too, it might come round again.

But I asked a man with a book how to overcome that problem, and I’m currently in the middle of the first new episode, which has new characters and a new diner, so far. I’ll report back once I’ve watched the rest.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Ray Donovan (Showtime/Sky Atlantic)
Actually, I’m not watching this, since I gave up midway through the latest episode. Just not something in which I’m interested.

Ray Donovan TV Schedule

Under The Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
Still no explanations for anything, and it’s now starting to look like a 1980s Stephen King adaptation. Too many plot convulsions required to get the particular moments we saw by the end. But it’s oddly compelling, despite being massively ordinary.

Under the Dome TV Schedule

Recommended shows
The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Hooray! What looks like the final episode for tying up all the loose second season plot threads, this was also half about setting up new plot threads. Looks like we’re getting more storylines that are goddess-oriented, too. Yay!

The Almighty Johnsons TV Schedule

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
A slightly unconvincing alliance at the end. But a good episode.

Continuum TV Schedule

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
I spoke too soon. While this episode was definitely less chaotic than the first episode, we had a return to the same weaknesses as season one, particularly the sexism, with pretty much every scene failing the Bechdel Test. Still, at least Aaron Sorkin is trying to engage with and understand the Internet now, even if he hasn’t quite got the hang of it.

The Newsroom TV Schedule

Perception (TNT/Watch)
Perception catches up with Second Life how many years after it was trendy? Oh dear. And certainly on a TNT budget, it’s not going to be able to recreate The Cell, despite its best efforts. The procedural was also completely loopy and implausible. But it did have some fun moments about the problems for our hero in distinguishing between reality and fantasy.

Perception TV Schedule

Satisfaction (CTV)
Not quite as good as normal, but there’s still not many sitcoms that feature polyamory as a plot point. 

Satisfaction TV Schedule

Suits (USA/Dave)
A slightly unconvincing ending – and indeed main story. But it would take a hard-hearted viewer not to be moved by Louis’s fate at the end of this.

Suits TV Schedule

“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? Including The Newsroom, Suits, The World’s End and Continuum

22 July 2013 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Slightly later than usual, it’s “What did you watch this week?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched thislast week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

First up, 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.

Summer has arrived though and started to fill up my viewing queue with new shows. I’m continuing to watch Under the Dome, but it’s getting close to being edged out of the viewing pile, what with it been the standard Stephen King fare. But it has its moments, so I’m sticking with it. The Bridge (US) is proving slightly inferior to the original, despite following largely on the same path, except the Aspie detective in this one is clearly more of a hindrance than an asset at this stage, and a lot less an unapologetic force of nature than Saga Norin was.

However, I’m on holiday in a week’s time, so with all the new stuff I’ve had to drop Being Mary Jane from the viewing queue and my plans to keep watching Crossing Lines have been dropped because there are now much better shows to fill my time with. I’ve also abandoned Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake, on the general grounds that it’s Jane Campion and the trailer makes it looks dreadful.

Kerry Packer… is still in the queue though, since I might just about get around to watching it at some point, and Orange is the New Black, Netflix’s new comedy-drama from Weeds‘ creator set in a women’s prison, will be available forever so I’m not rushing into it. I’ve also got last night’s Newsroom and Ray Donovan to work my through as well, although the latter might not last long if the queue fills up any more.

I did have a little time to try out some new shows though:

Room 9
The Africa Channel’s Torchwood-esque (it’s even got a Captain Harkness in it) import from South Africa. That turned out to be cock, though, with poor acting and over the top humour  – not so much X-Files as Miracles, with lots of ghosts and the like to investigate, and the production standards of 1980s Canadian syndicated TV to make it all seem realistic.

Count Arthur Strong
BBC2’s adaptation of the Radio 4 comedy about an old music hall comedian turned out to be paralysingly unfunny, despite Rory Kinnear doing his best.

But here’s what I thought of this week’s recommended shows:

The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Another ‘re-orienter’, with various new directions set up for characters, although good to see a certain regular character returning. Stronger on laughs than previous eps, weaker on plot drive. Also seemed to be a lot less for the female characters to do. They need to start plotting a course for a stronger story arc soon, too.

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
The budget that the producers had been saving up at the start of the season is now being spent well, with two episodes of strong sci-fi fun in a row, some surprise returning characters and the series arcs now tying together nicely. It still has a little something missing – the tight plotting of the first season – but it’s about an episode or two away from having that and more again.

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
The return of Aaron Sorkin’s somewhat chaotic attempt to do the fun and import of The West Wing, except in a newsroom. Far less preachy than last year, more interested in talking about how journalists get stories than about how they should be covering them, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. There’s also far less outright sexism: everyone’s about the relationships still, but the women are now allowed to be interested in work, too, and not be hopelessly incompetent at it. Having said that, Olivia Munn’s character is now being called ‘Money Skirt’. Still not quite the quality it should be, but not hitting anywhere near as many of the bum notes as it was hitting last season.

Perception (TNT/Watch)
A great big kick in the gonads for any shippers out there and contained some of the worst ‘Tourette’s’ acting ever committed to video. However, a decent enough procedural.

Satisfaction (CTV)
A good, funny episode, dealing with the problem facing any young couple that settles down: the loss of cool.

Suits (USA/Dave)
The return of the best lawyer show on TV. Dramatically, it’s still doing very interesting things, and the Machiavellian manipulations are still excellent. But, as well as the slightly suspect English stereotypes, the show is playing up the comedy angle more and more, which is in danger of destabilising the show. Definitely still recommended, though.

And in movies:

The World’s End
The third of the Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright trilogy that started with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Pegg is a high school rebel who never grew up and wants to get the old gang back together for a 12-pub crawl in Newford Haven, despite their being in their late 30s now and all deeply in hate with him. Except problematically, most of the inhabitants of Newford Haven have been replaced by alien robots.

It has quite a lot going for it and will make you laugh a lot, since it is essentially the closest you’re going to get to a Spaced movie. The ending really isn’t what you’re expecting and there’s an element to the storytelling that doesn’t appear in the trailer that will make you think you imagined it the first time you saw and will then turn out to be awesomely cool when you realise it’s going to be repeated throughout the movie.

But it does have one colossal problem: the massive lack of decent female roles in the movie. Where Jessica Stephenson/Hynes should be, instead, we have nothing but men as far as the eye can see – Rosamund Pike, the main female character in the movie, gets minimal lines or things to do and like most of the (largely dialogue-less) women who feature in the story, she’s there as an object of male desire rather than as a character in her own right. To a certain extent, it’s justifiable in the sense that it’s about boys who’ve never really grown up, but it’s still a big problem with the movie.

Flawed but fun.

“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? Including Camp, Ray Donovan, Perception, Under The Dome, The Almighty Johnsons and Continuum

12 July 2013 Rob Buckley 14 Comments

It’s “What did you watch this week?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched this week 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, although I haven’t had time to add Satisfaction to the mix, yet. I’ll hold off adding The Bridge (US) to the mix as well, since although the original was recommended and this sticks pretty close to the original’s plot, there’s always a chance it’ll go off target.

Still in my viewing queue: Being Mary Jane, which I never did get around to watching this week; Room 9, The Africa Channel’s Torchwood-esque (it’s even got a Captain Harkness in it) import from South Africa; Count Arthur Strong, BBC2’s adaptation of the Radio 4 comedy about an old music hall comedian; and Orange is the New Black, Netflix’s new comedy-drama from Weeds‘ creator, set in a women’s prison.

I did manage to try NBC’s Camp, a comedy-drama starring Rachel Griffiths that’s set in a summer camp for teenagers:

While there were a few laughs to be had, although not many, in the first 10 minutes or so, as well as a certain fascination in trying to see if Rachel Griffiths’ Australian accent would slip out in conversations with fellow Aussies (the whole show was filmed in Australia), by about the 15 minute mark it became obvious that a large portion of screen time was going to be filled with teenagers in bikini and that it was therefore utterly inappropriate for me to be watching it. So I switched off.

Here’s what I thought of this week’s regulars:

The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Quite a dramatic episode in some regards since we saw the (probable) departure of a long-running and integral character. It was quite an artful way to write them out, given how important they are, and handled very impressively. That said, with no strong series A-plot, outside of this manoeuvring, we were left with various couples trying to establish or maintain relationships. This major plot development now out of the way, this does leave the show’s ducks lined up for next week to forge forward, fingers crossed. Some fine acting by Keisha Castle-Hughes, incidentally.

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
After playing around with a bunch of other plots for a few weeks, Continuum returned to its main plot: Theseus, Alec, Liber8 and how much of the future is pre-determined. Interestingly, this episode saw Keira become more of a baddie, more in keeping with the evil future cop she should be in some senses, which was a fun twist in what was actually quite a dark and in some ways uncomfortable episode. More, please.

Perception (TNT/Watch)
A slightly inferior episode, with a very dodgy plot hammered onto a somewhat interesting psychological ‘trick’, familiar to anyone who’s ever seen videos like this. The eventual reveal is ridiculous, but no much more so than in any other procedural.

Ray Donovan (Showtime/Sky Atlantic)
A marked improvement over the first episode, thanks to the slower pace and fewer elements being thrown in the maelstrom of the plot. Donovan’s ‘fixing’, however, has stopped being clever and has instead turned into simple gangsterism, making that less interesting, although his treatment of the trans prostitute was a sympathetic character note. There was also more comedy, making it a slightly easier viewing experience. But it’s still not pleasant or that enjoyable.

Under the Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
More of the same. I’m really just watching for Rachelle Lefevre’s hair now.

“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? Including The White Queen, The Returned, Man of Steel, Continuum, Hannibal and Graceland

21 June 2013 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

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

First, the usual recommendations:

  • Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
  • The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
  • Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living)

And here’s what I thought of them and others:

  • Continuum (Showcase/SyFy): The action is definitely amping up now, even if the amount of sense the show is making isn’t. Some surprises to be had, some revelations that weren’t, and some weird twists that were probably just there for weirdness’s sake. Nevertheless, it’s definitely getting back on track as a show.
  • Graceland (USA): I’m still watching episode three, which is a marked improvement on its predecessors (full third-episode verdict on Monday). But episode 2 was soporific, derivative rubbish.
  • Hannibal (NBC/Sky Living): An exquisite end to a fabulous season. Always surprising, always keeping you guessing, with some astonishing moments along the way from writing staff, directors and cast alike. The final scene was just perfect, too. Why do we have to wait for a year for it to come back? Sigh.
  • The Returned (Canal+/Channel 4): A bunch of French people in a small town who have all been bereaved – for better or for worse – wake up one day to find their dead loved ones are back. Then they have to adjust – and find out what’s happening, and potentially kill off some of the dead people. So far, a bit lightweight but a couple of interesting episodes establishing the main characters, and there’s a very creepy kid called Victor. I’ll probably stick with it, just for the music which oddly enough is by Mogwai.
  • The White Queen (BBC1/Starz): To me, a very dull historical potboiler, with surprising additional witchcraft. To my lovely wife, a brilliant, faithful adaption of a great book. Therefore, YMMV. Will air on Starz in the US in August with more sex. Quelle surprise.

And in movies:

Man of Steel
A reboot of the Superman franchise, with an origin story that sees Russell Crowe as Superman’s real dad, Kevin Costner and Superman’s adoptive dad, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General “Kneel Before” Zod, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and some bloke called Henry Cavill as Superman. On many levels awesome in its more literal sense, with some astonishing action set pieces and effects that finally do justice to the entire range of Superman’s super-powers. On the other hand, a very bitty, very nerdy story that only really works when it’s all about hitting people very hard, bar a few isolated moments, most of them involving Kevin Costner, only one or two of them involving Lois Lane. A little bit too po-faced, too. But a lot better than you might have thought of Zack Snyder, not as good as you’d have thought of Christopher Nolan and about right for David Goyer. The cast are all great, and there’s a good kick-ass female baddie, too, which makes a nice change.

Lovely wife found it astonishingly boring, though, although she hates anything by Christopher Nolan.

“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?