She’s a big fan of Homeland… but hadn’t seen the third season (allegedly).
Homeland
What have you been watching? Including Kirstie, Getting On, The Tomorrow People, The Tunnel and Homeland
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.
As it’s nearly Christmas, US TV has been both slowing down and speeding up: shows are going on their holiday hiatus or even ending their seasons, leaving us with cliffhangers and plot resolutions aplenty. Nevertheless, there have been a couple of new shows, although I’ve still got BBC4’s Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves in the viewing queue.
The first is HBO’s remake of BBC4’s Getting On, which tried to give a semi-comedic, semi-realistic examination of life as a nurse, but didn’t quite have the acting chops or writing to make it work:
TV Land’s Kirstie, aimed presumably at people who were already old in the 80s, reunited Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman from Cheers and added Michael D Richards from Seinfeld to the mix as an actress, her PA and her driver respectively, who have to deal with her life issues, which include a son she’d put up for adoption when younger and who now re-enters her life as a grown adult. It’s all multi-camera, shot with a studio audience and I would rather stab myself in the eye and the ear, repeatedly (in either order, I don’t mind) than have to watch another episode. Great cast, terrible, terrible scripts.
Now let’s look at the usuals.
Shows I’m watching but not recommending
Almost Human (Fox)
A sudden recollection by the writers that women exist turned out to be the worst thing possible, since despite this being 40 years from now, apparently any woman in a position of power will have had to have sacrificed a personal life to do so and really just want to be told how pretty they are and to land a guy. FFS. This week’s sci-fi idea: clones.
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
Lots of storylines dovetail and J August Richards returns, bringing back the charisma he apparently stole from the younger regular cast. But it all hinges on a woman with only one dress and the Agents of SHIELD not having any proper procedures in place for some of the most obvious situations possible. Daft as brush and not as exciting as that.
The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
A guest appearance by Nicholas Young of the original Tomorrow People that probably had all the young cast snivelling in despair (“yes, you lot, cameos in remakes of this show is all you can expect by way of an acting career in 40 years time”) helped to liven up the show, which while still not anything truly remarkable is now finding its feet. Perhaps too much pointless sci-fi though I hate to think what they’ll find when they go looking for (spoiler)dad’s body. Just noticed that the ‘Founder’ is Crassus from Spartacus, who up until that show was a jobbing UK soap opera actor. Shows how far you can go with an English accent as a baddie in the US, doesn’t it?
Recommended shows
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Deaths galore, an epic baddie reveal, a new superhero is in town (well, left town to be exact), Ra’s Al Ghul is around and Arrow gets his mask at last, all in a subtle nod to A Christmas Carol. Top stuff.
The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
A clever change in format for the show, with most of the show’s tropes now dead, burned or destroyed. Even the big question – is James Spader Megan Boone’s father – seems to have been answered. Looking forward to seeing what they come back with in January, since it’ll be a relatively different show, I suspect. Nice to see Alan Alda getting a chance to be evil for a change, too.
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
As well as giving producer Liz Friedman a chance to channel her years on House, the past couple of episodes have either fleshed out Bell’s role or written him out (I’m not sure which, yet. It might even be both), either of which would be a good move. Not sure about the ‘sponsor’ thing and the sheer lack of any decent deduction by Holmes is getting silly.
Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
A combination of the sublime and the ridiculous last week, but it was still immensely thrilling, flashing back to the ‘will he, won’t he’ of the first season. This week, however, we had the season finale, and it left me wondering what the point of the past two seasons were, other than to course-correct from what happened in the first season. Overall, though, a much better third season than second season. Where the show will go from here, though, I don’t know, since it’s going to be pretty much starting from fresh with its fourth season.
The Tunnel/Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+)
Excellent stuff that fixed most of the problems of the original Swedish/Danish scripts and gave it all a brilliant cinematic look on top. It’s a strange show for me in that it’s not a must-see since I’ve seen it before, but even though I’ve seen it before, when I watch it, it’s still intensely thrilling. People without Sky will be able to buy it on DVD and Blu-Ray in January, you’ll be thrilled to know.
“What have you been watching?” 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?
Emilia Clarke is Sarah Connor, Matthew Perry is half an Odd Couple and trailers galore
Film
Film casting
- Emilia Clarke to play Sarah Connor in Terminator reboot
Trailers
- Teaser for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar
- Trailer for A Fantastic Fear of Everything with Simon Pegg
UK TV
US TV
- Trailer for season two of House of Cards
- Two teasers for season 2 of The Americans
- Friday ratings
US TV casting
- Danny Trejo to guest on NCIS: LA
- Two Homeland regulars leaving [spoilers]
- Cheryl Hines to guest on The Crazy Ones
New US TV shows
- Matthew Perry developing Odd Couple remake for CBS
- TNT green lights: Kyra Sedgwick’s Proof
- HBO red lights: The Missionary
New US TV show casting
- David Zayas to be a regular on FX’s Saint George
- Rod Corddry to co-star in HBO’s Ballers
What have you been watching? Including Y Gwyll, Serangoon Road, The Tunnel, Almost Human and Homeland
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.
It was a bit of a slow week for tele, last week, given that America was having its Thanksgiving holiday. Apparently, American’s don’t watch TV but eat instead. How bizarre and fundamentally un-British.
So I’ve caught up with some of the shows that were in my viewing queue, although I’ve still half the series finale of Seragoon Road to watch. I’ve also started Legacy, Paul Milne’s adaptation of Alan Judd’s spy novel. So far, so good, but Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) as a Czech diplomat is singularly unconvincing.
Shows I’m watching but not recommending
Almost Human (Fox)
On the one hand, it’s nice to have a black male character who isn’t a stereotype of über-masculinity. On the other, he’s both a robot and quite dull, beyond the sci-fi things he does. Some good moments in the episode though and a good guest cast, too. But this needs to have a bit more in the human relationships department before it’s can do more than engage our brains a bit. Is Minka Kelly even in the show any more?
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
More a ghost story than anything else, it tried to give some substance to Ming-Na Wen’s character, but failed, making us hate the rest of the cast a little more instead. Fitz and Simmons are just about the only characters working so far, but largely they’re there for laughs and not to have any proper background, beyond being expelled from Hogwarts or something.
Recommended shows
The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
A two-parter and a very surprising one, with shock deaths thanks to the arrival of Red’s former partner in crime and apparent fellow understudy at a ‘cod Shakespearean dialogue for beginners’ workshop. Interesting the show also expand itself from merely organising tributes to particular actors and famous villains they’ve played to homaging entire movies, and given it’s an action show, no surprise that it should follow the aptly titled and ever-popular Buckley’s ‘Action Shows Die Hard Rule’, which states that any long-running action show will eventually do an episode that’s essentially Die Hard. They even had Megan Boone running around without any shoes on.
Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
In many ways a little magnificent, now they’ve got over the tricky problem of how to make Brodie a goodie. This week’s episode was more a look at modern special forces operations than spying (although it’s all one big melange these days, isn’t it?), but tensely handled and Shaun Toub is as magnificent as ever. Carrie’s still too much of a basket case for comfort though.
Serangoon Road (ABC1/HBO Asia)
A good balance of the personal and the action, and there was the now-obligatory episode for an Australian drama (there will only ever be one episode in said drama, though) that featured an aboriginal character. Good fight scenes, thrills and spills: why hasn’t any channel in the US or UK picked it up? Oh, the finale features Russell Wong, who was so good in The CW’s Black Sash, even if the show wasn’t, which is another good reason for watching it.
The Tunnel/Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+)
The action has now moved to France, and weirdly as soon as the show did that, it began to feel like an episode of Engrenages, right down to the music, tone, settings and Caroline Proust – except for the fact the police are moderately competent and well behaved in this show. Nice joke about Dillane’s misuse of ‘embrasse moi’ (he meant hug, he said kiss).
Y Gwyll/Hinterland (S4C/BBC Wales/BBC4)
Perhaps a little melodramatic, the finale was still beautifully shot, gripping and chock full of cliffhangers and dangling plot threads, so I’m looking forward to the second series, which has now been commissioned. I’m surprised by how little of any of the characters’ personal lives got invoked by the stories, but we’ll see where they take it next year. Or the year after. Whenever, basically. Try to watch it in Welsh on S4C, if you can, by the way.
“What have you been watching?” 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 have you been watching? Including The League, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Homeland and The Tomorrow People
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.
Elsewhere, you can find my reviews of Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor, and Fox’s Almost Human. Still in the viewing queue are the latest Serangoon Roads, as well as last week’s Y Gwyll and The Tunnel.
Last week gave us as a one-off Doctor Who – An Adventure in Space and Time, which was a really rather lovely depiction of the creation of Doctor Who by the BBC in the 1960s. Essentially a more watchable The Hour with nicer characters, it’s a little too long in the wrong places and a little clumsy in the obvious dialogue, but the cast was excellent, there were some cool Who cameos and I have to admit to having almost cried a bit. Probably Mark Gatiss’s best ever work and if The Hour had been like it, I would have watched it.
I also gave The League a go, which somehow I’ve been missing all these years. Airing on FXX, it’s about a bunch of friends in play in a fantasy sports league. I was only really watching it because Ali Larter was on it, so I probably won’t watch it again because although it had some smart lines, the characters just weren’t engrossing and it wasn’t that funny either.
On top of that, I gave Scots Gaelic channel BBC Alba a try during Friday primetime. What did I find? 1982 nature documentary Track of the Wild Otter, narrated by Philip Madoc in English. What’s the point of that then?
Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
Two strong eps, particularly the second, which gave us Peter MacNicol as (spoiler alert)an Asgardian. But the ‘Tahiti is a magical place’ line is getting tedious, and Sky and co still don’t have enough personality to really keep the show afloat.
Ground Floor (TBS)
Becoming more amusing as it becomes more like Scrubs and less about the class divide. But the spark between the two leads is slowly evaporating and I could do without the singing.
The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
You’d have thought that with all the sex, the high school shenanigans, the mind reading and a serial rapist that it would still have been an interesting episode. Except it wasn’t, largely because of the flat, uncharismatic performances from most of the cast. Oh well.
Recommended shows
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Americans – what accent do you hear when Count Vertigo speaks? Do you hear English or very poor, deliberately effected fake English? The return of an old face lifted the episode, but made it a tad soap opera-y, and Laurel’s getting progressively worse, but with the flashbacks becoming more pertinent, overall it was good.
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
This week, it was the turn of The Valley of Fear to provide some inspiration, but it was an otherwise original episode with a different slant from usual that worked quite well.
Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Brodie’s back. A little bit of a flounder in last night’s episode, where a very dodgy plot point was glossed over with a montage, but at least the direction the show is heading in looks interesting. A lot of potential for cock-ups en route though.
Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
Two strong episodes in a row.
And in movies:
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Katniss has to go back to the Hunger Games, but this time she has to fight past victors” doesn’t really do the film justice, but without giving lots away, that’s about the best that can be done. Although structurally it’s almost identical to the first movie, to say it’s the same would do it an injustice also, since this obvious transposition of Roman society and bread and circuses into a futuristic America has a lot to say in its first half that it didn’t in the first. It’s also a lot better directed, nastier and now has Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. I wouldn’t say it’s definitely worth watching, though, but if you want to watch a modern day remake of Rollerball, this is the movie for you. You’ll probably need to watch the first movie to have a hope of understanding what’s going on, though.
“What have you been watching?” 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?