Homeland

What did you watch last week? Including The Amazing Spider-Man, Arrow, The Killing 3 and Homeland

3 December 2012 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I watched in the past 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: 30 Rock, Arrow, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Falcón, Go On, Grand Hotel, Last Resort, and Modern Family.

Still in the pile to watch from the weekend: Dexter, Wedding Band and The Killing. But here’s a few thoughts on what I have been watching.

  • Arrow: I’m not sure what’s more implausible: that John Barrowman could have a grown-up son or that Tahmoh Penikett could be beaten in a fight so easily. Still, this was the first effort by DC’s very own Geoff Johns, and noticeably the first clunker of the season, despite the arrival of Helena Bertinelli – Huntress, herself. FIlled with dreadfully bad dialogue and poor characterisation, it felt like a bad Geoff Johns comic rather than a TV script. Stick to what you know, Geoff. And just to reiterate, Tahmoh Penikett!

  • Elementary: A bit more procedural than the previous week’s episode, but funnier, which the show could certainly do with. Definitely starting to feel like Sherlock Holmes, too. The one caveat: kind of demeaning to suggest that (spoiler alert)a woman in need of seed funding would become a prostitute. There’s a joke in there somewhere, possibly deliberate by the writers.
  • Falcón: Just noticed it’s got that nice Santiago Cabrera from Heroes in it. It’s also getting harder not to notice that no one – apart from Cabrera – knows how to pronounce Spanish words, and even he pronounces them in a Latin American way, rather than a Castilian way. We even had Falcón himself pronouncing General Pinochet’s name in a French style to rhyme with ‘croquet’ rather than ‘jet’, which is a little silly. Those niggles aside, it’s a compelling series, albeit quite a gruesome one, although frankly Falcón is a little self-obsessed and needs to man up. Sad to see Maurice Roëves get killed off within about two minutes, mind.
  • Go On: Oh yes. There’s an old blind guy in it. They seemed to have forgotten him for a while, but now he’s back for an episode with a reasonable amount of pathos. It also had Hayes MacArthur back and Laura Benanti had something to do for a change, which was nice.
  • Homeland: 15 minutes of probably the stupidest TV since season four of 24, followed by a decent half hour and ending. Why is it fundamentally so hard for Homeland to be consistent this season?
  • The Killing 3: So I’ll confess that I gave up after episode eight of the original – not because I didn’t like it but because two hours a week was a bit of a push for me. I didn’t bother with series 2 either. But I thought I’d give it a try for series 3. And… it’s okay. The acting’s good, the production values are good. But the plot, with the cunning kidnapper, feels very The Bridge (lite) – so much so that I started watching that again immediately afterwards – and the familial problems of Sarah Lund felt very implausible and cliched: it’s the standard trope that any woman who works hard in a police show will always lose her partner and end up with estranged kids as punishment for her transgressive ways. And of course she has to bump into her son at the station and get distracted. And of course the kidnapper has to call while she’s talking to her son and she can’t just say “It’s the kidnapper! I must take this! Lives depend on it!” But I am enjoying it and I’m going to try my best to keep up with it. BTW, is Danish politics really so low budget and amateurish that it seems more like Torquay council elections? And I’m assuming the name of the ship is a red herring, too (possible spoiler): that it’s not the mother who had her daughter abducted as punishment for the husband’s failings, as with Euripides’ Medea?
  • Last Resort: Apart from my complaint about the producers seemingly not knowing there’s a difference between the Caribbean and Hawaii, a decent enough episode that highlighted the problems of rape in the US military. Daisy Betts failed to rise to the acting challenge, however. A decent enough fight scene on the action side, but the show’s just kind of chugging along at the moment.
  • The Mindy Project: Not the funniest thing ever, but the “Iron Man novelisation” moment made me laugh out loud.
  • Vegas: The procedural was slightly duller this week, although the historical background to it was interesting. The episode did have some nice insights into Dennis Quad’s military background, with his sparring with the USAF investigator working well. Carrie Anne Moss also had a little more to do, now that the separate “Women Only” storyline is up and running, plus we have an extra female character to add to the mix, too. Needs to find some more verve if it’s to survive for a second season, though.

And in movies:

  • The Amazing Spider-man: The best Spider-man movie so far – far more Nolan-esque than the previous outings – with proper acting, some deeper moments than the first three, Emma Stone (redhead going blonde)’s Gwen Stacey being far less of a cipher than Kirsten Dunst (blonde going redhead)’s Mary-Jane, and Rhys Ifans doing a wonderful job as Dr Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Some great stunt scenes and the CGI felt solid, too, like it was actually a man doing the stunts, but the film still couldn’t avoid some cheese towards the end. Could have done with being more fun and shorter, though.

“What did you watch last 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 last week? Including Grand Hotel, The Master, The Ghosts of Crickley Hall, Dexter and Vegas

26 November 2012 Rob Buckley 16 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last week?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I watched in the past 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: 30 Rock, Arrow, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Falcón, Go On, Grand Hotel, The Last Resort, and Modern Family.

Here’s a few thoughts on what I have been watching.

  • Dexter: Meh. While the show is playing all the right notes in some senses, it’s getting hard to care. Plus it looks like they’re handing over big bad duties for the second half of the season, which makes it even harder to care. But Ray Stevenson has been remarkable and last week’s scene with him and Michael C Hall was fabulous in an otherwise dull episode.
  • Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23: A delightful piece of Thanksgiving evil. The return of Michael Landes was welcome, too.
  • Falcón: Is it just me or are more and more crime dramas forgetting they need to be solved somehow? Here we have the classic cop-out of the bad guy revealing himself for no very good reason, just so he can finish the plot off quickly within the run-time. All the same, an atmospheric piece of work with a surprising bit of casting for the villain (spoiler: Alexander Siddig from Star Trek: Deep Space 9). Good to see they didn’t write Hayley Atwell out immediately the story ended, too. I’ll be tuning in this week.
  • The Ghosts of Crickley Hall: Joe Ahearne of Ultraviolet fame adapting a James Herbert novel for BBC1. Unfortunately, it’s up to Herbert’s standards rather than Ahearne’s, and everything’s a bit dull and typically BBC – period trappings, nothing too nasty. Good cast, though, even if some of the actors think they need to act spooky for things to be spooky.

  • Go On: Hang on. So John Cho and Matthew Perry are supposed to be the same age? How’s that work? Despite that niggle and the return to the somewhat duller short title sequence, this was probably the best episode so far, with Lauren Graham of Parenthood turning up as Cho and Perry’s old college friend whom they both discover they have feelings for. Getting Graham in, who’s friends with Perry now but used to date him, is a genius move, since the chemistry they have was very obvious and the whole episode worked very well. The supporting cast got further rounding out, too, although Laura Benanti could benefit with a bit more depth to her character.
  • Grand Hotel: Best described as the Spanish version of Downton Abbey and currently running on Sky Arts, it’s actually a whole lot better than that. Both a period piece and a mystery, with one young man coming to the Grand Hotel to be with his sister, only to discover that she’s disappeared, it’s wonderfully made and acted. But it’s not my thing. But if you like Downton, give this a try. More about it here.

  • Homeland: After last week’s bit of silliness, it was a welcome return to form for Homeland, with everyone acting relatively sensibly and the story picking up at last. Grown up TV, again, thank God.
  • The Mindy Project: The return of Ed Helms for a fun episode that perhaps made us like all the characters more than Mindy now. And good to see an English character amused by the US rather than vice versa for a change.
  • Vegas: Another cracker of an episode and a bit of gamechanger, too, here blending the procedural in with the main storyline. And proud deployer of the line “What do you do for a living?” “Wholesale butchery”, which was lovely.

And in movies:

  • The Master: Beautifully made, beautifully acted and a fascinating character piece, essentially about L Ron Hubbard and Scientology, with Joaquin Phoenix playing an ordinary schlub who gets sucked up into ‘The Master’s’ (Philip Seymour Hoffman) post-war craziness. But one of the most meandering, plot-free films you’re ever likely to see, it stumbles from situation to situation for no well explored reason, relying on the actors to carry the whole thing with their performances because there’s no narrative drive or coherent message beyond “Learn to love yourself so that you can love others”.

“What did you watch last 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 last week? Including Arrow, Dexter, Elementary, The Mentalist, Skyfall and Prometheus

12 November 2012 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last fortnight?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I watched in the past two weeks 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: 30 Rock, Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23, Go On, The Last Resort, and Modern Family.

Which, as long time readers may have noticed, means a few shows have left the list: Happy Endings, Dexter, Homeland, The Mindy Project and Suburgatory. More on why in a moment, but I will add that Arrow is now on the recommended list.

Still in the viewing pile: last night’s Misfits, Bomb Girls and Red Fern Now, which is an Australian show. But here’s a few thoughts on what I have been watching.

  • Arrow: While episode four was possibly the most Smallville-like of the series so far, episode five more than compensated with thrills galore. John Barrowman seems to be acting again, which is weird, and even Deathstroke’s mask worked well in context. Added to the recommended list.
  • Dexter: Last week’s episode had possibly the worst ending of any Dexter episode ever. And that’s up against some stiff competition. This week’s episode did slightly redeem things, but the entire Yvonne Strahovski storyline is ridiculous and it doesn’t help that she gives exactly the same performance as she gave in Chuck, just with more nudity. Ray Stevenson is great, though, but the show has lost its recommended status, all the same.
  • Don’t Trust The B—– in Apartment 23: Doing well. The Happy Endings ‘crossover’ last week was very odd, but so’s the show, so I guess that kind of worked.
  • Elementary: The episode a couple of weeks ago was probably the worst so far, but last week’s properly felt like a Sherlock Holmes story, with proper mysteries and deductions. Roger Rees did well – will we see more of him, I wonder? – and, of course, there was that name at the end, which made my day…
  • Happy Endings: Suffering from “difficult third season” syndrome. It’s just not funny any more, entirely implausible, and Elisha Cuthbert and her goofiness are the only thing worth watching.
  • Homeland: Last week’s episode had an ending made of pure 24 and this week’s episode was full of people doing stupid things in stupid, implausible ways, too. You could guess pretty much everything that was going to happen. Such a shame, because it was so good last season.
  • The Last Resort: The first downright poor episode so far, although it did have a good pay off at the end. What are they down to now? About five crew members left?
  • The Mentalist: Well, I haven’t watched it since the first season, but I thought I’d tune in for its 100th episode, which was a flashback to how all the characters first met and Simon Baker started solving crimes. Well done, as always, and Baker’s great, as always, but absolutely identical to all the other episodes of the show that I’ve seen, which is why I gave up on it in the first place.
  • The Mindy Project: Off the list. As the show accelerates rapidly away from being the anti-romcom romcom towards being just another workplace comedy, so it stops being funny. There were more than a few good moments, but I’d not say I’d actually recommend it any more.
  • Misfits: Obviously just passing time now, rather than telling any proper stories. You’d think with only one surviving character from the original cast, they’d make more of Curtis, but apparently not. Plus its attitude to women isn’t improving much, either. But not without some good qualities.
  • Modern Family: A slight reset of the show, but I liked it.
  • Red Dwarf X: Quite a decent ending, actually, albeit one that threw most continuity out of the window. Probably the best season since either two or three.
  • The Secret State: Channel 4’s remake of A Very British Coup, with Gabriel Byrne. I watched about a minute before I started laughing, which clearly can’t be good for a show that thinks it’s Very, Very Important. I’ll try watching the rest later in the week if I can.
  • Suburgatory: Off the recommended list. It’s just too silly and too many men writing episodes (as we discovered last season, Suburgatory is only funny when women write the episodes).
  • Vegas: Unmemorable.

And in movies:

  • Skyfall: Didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to, but that might have been down to the constantly chattering teenagers next to me. It also doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense? What was Javier Bardem’s plan? Why Scotland? Why go to Skyfall? Why Bond, rather than the SAS? It’s also a tad sexist (really? Bond? The shower? And the ending). Having said that, it was almost as good as Casino Royale – it does need a proper Bond woman now to give it some romance for a change – it had some great individual moments, it’s all worth for the back story and the last five or 10 minutes, Ralph Fiennes is really good and in this 50th anniversary and Olympic year, it’s appropriate that one of the exotic locales for the film should be London.

  • Prometheus: Absolutely dreadful. While all the Alien prequel elements were a treat and the body horror stuff actually grows in retrospect, the plot and story are just dreadful and mostly just set-up for a much better planned sequel. Looks great, boring to watch. And frankly, it rips off a lot from Hangar 18, which was twice as entertaining.

“What did you watch last fortnight?” 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?

Tuesday’s “Homeland’s 3rd season, Arrow’s full season and Stephen Colbert’s Hobbit cameo” news

23 October 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Film

Trailers

Canadian TV

UK TV

US TV

US TV casting

New US TV shows

  • CBS developing comedy Smells Like Teen Spirit
  • Fox buys comedy The Commuters…
  • …and The B Team from New Girl‘s Jake Johnson
  • A clip from Mockingbird Lane

New US TV show casting

What did you watch last fortnight? Including Dexter, Homeland, The Last Resort, Nashville, The Thick of It, Suburgatory and 30 Rock

22 October 2012 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

It’s “What did you watch last fortnight?”, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I watched in the past two weeks 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: 30 Rock, Dexter, Go On, Homeland, The Last Resort, The Mindy Project, Modern Family, Red Dwarf X and The Thick of It.

So here’s a few thoughts on what I have been watching – a bit of pruning with the viewing schedule this week, but also a few changes to the recommended list:

  • 30 Rock: We’ve only watched the first episode so far, and while it’s definitely as funny as always, the gamble that NBC’s entire season was going to do terribly in the ratings, which might have seemed a good bet a couple of months ago, is now looking like a complete misfire. As a result, 30 Rock‘s satire is now wildly off target, even if it’s still accurate about the actual quality of NBC’s programming.
  • 666 Park Avenue: Tried watching the second episode, but that was as dreadful as the first, so I abandoned it. Don’t watch.
  • Beauty and the Beast: See 666 Park Avenue
  • Dexter: And it’s a return to form for our old pal, Dexter, which although as ludicrous as it always has been, hasn’t been anywhere near as stupid as it was last season and now has the wonderful Ray Stevenson from Rome/Punisher: War Zone to improve everything. It’s also very tense as well. It’s also got bland woman from Chuck, but you can’t have everything. Back on the recommended list.
  • Go On: Promoted to the recommended list, because although it’s a pale shadow of Community, it now has enough going for it that it’s worth watching.
  • Homeland: After two absolutely ridiculous episodes in a row, episode four thankfully has restored sanity to the show and had some marvellously unexpected twists and turns.
  • Hunted: See Beauty and the Beast.
  • The Last Resort: Promoted to the recommended viewing list, because it’s a real cracker. Some tense fight scenes and submarine scenes and the Washington antics are starting to become less ludicrous. One to watch, particularly in the UK now Sky1 has acquired it.
  • Lie To Me: Went onto Netflix to watch the episode where Lennie James turns up. Just horrifying watching him and Tim Roth outclass the other ‘actors’ in every possible way. Practically a cruel and unusual punishment.
  • Nashville: Like having bleach poured in both ears. Couldn’t even make it through the first episode. Just dreadful.
  • The Neighbors: While the second episode was a distinct improvement on the first and there were some surprisingly decent moments from the alien side of the cast, this is still a pretty dreadful show. Don’t bother with it.
  • Red Dwarf X: Episode three wasn’t as good as the previous two, but otherwise a welcome return to season 1/2 form after a few series of complete dross.
  • Royal Pains: Finally watched the season finale, which was terrible. We’ll probably catch the Christmas movie, but I think we’ll be dropping this from the viewing schedule afterwards.
  • Suburgatory: It’s back with a surprisingly awful first episode, so awful that I’ve removed the whole show from the recommended list. Let’s be cautious embracing this season.
  • The Thick Of It: a lovely Leveson spoof to round off what has probably been the best season of the show so far. Surprising way to end it if it is the last episode, as suggested, but brilliant nevertheless.

And in movies:

  • Dark Shadows: The Tim Burton remake of the 70s soap opera. A weird mix of humour and horror, mostly relying on odd-colourings, particularly of hair, and the usual Tim Burton suspects (Johnny Depp, Helen Bonham-Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer) as well as a few newbies (Chloe Moretz, Jonny Lee Miller, Eva Green) for any real interest, since the script is largely a bore. Surprisingly okay, though, given how bad it could have been, but not exactly a movie I’d recommend to anyone.

  • Taken 2: Although not as bad as a lot of reviews would suggest, and although several elements of it are basically just retreads of the first movie, it’s actually not that bad. Not as much action or depth as the original, but it has a few good scenes and the first half hour is dedicated to characterisation rather than fist fights, which is unusual. All the same, there are some absolutely ludicrous elements, largely involved a sealed room and some hand grenades, and Liam Neeson is clearly getting too old for this shit.

“What did you watch last fortnight?” 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?