Aisha Tyler (Friends, 24, Archer) has recently been abused for her recent appearance at the E3 gaming show. Now, she hits back in a very interesting way.
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,Mad Men, Modern Family,Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory,30 Rock and Top Gear. Assuming they’re on where you live, of course.
Now, some thoughts on the regulars, apart from Mad Men, which I’ve still to watch:
The Almighty Johnsons – I’m now on New Zealand time, BTW. The darkest episode yet but signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Loki’s getting irritating and the goddesses are getting maltreated. Not much Axl this week either, and very little Anders, too, but he’s off filming The Hobbit, so what can you do?
America’s Next Top Model – is now being officially boycotted in this house for anti-Scottish racism
The Apprentice – the same old, same old, but don’t you just love it?
Archer – the finale wasn’t as funny as the first part, but it was still a pretty good episode
Awake – again with the dull procedural. Stop it. More fleshing out of secondary characters is needed, but it’s still intelligent, moving and insightful. It needs more on why this is all happening though.
Being Human (US) – Good to see that Sally now effectively has an addiction like the others, putting her on an equally monstrous footing with the others
Community – classic Community in that it was dark and weird but not hugely funny. But some character moments of joy, including Jeff and Britta, and the return of dark Abed.
Cougar Town – a lovely get out for a thorny dilemma that’s plagued the show for a while, plus a return of the Travis-Laurie dynamic
Dirk Gently – Probably the best of the bunch: funny with decent characterisation. Still not loving it, but it’s now not bad
John Bishop’s Sport Relief Hell – I only watched a minute of it and nearly cried.
Missing – Jesus of Montreal himself Lothaire Bluteau made an appearance to not much effort. More preposterous than the opening episode, with linguistic tricks around the phrase ‘hard drive’ needed for a very uninteresting reveal. The break-in was silly, the whole Netleaks thing was even more ridiculous and the narrow squeak at the end preposterous. But still a tense hour.
Ringer: Juliette still can’t act, but last week’s episode made slightly more sense than the previous week’s
Southland – an anti-climatic ending to the season, which overall was very strong.
Spartacus – phenomenal: shocking, surprising and finally we get to see the Romans as something less than cannon fodder and more the most powerful fighting force in the world (cf Rome).
30 Rock – quite the best season since the first, I think. Some wonderful cameo appearances, including one of the Baldwins doing a great impression of Alex, and a vast amount of almost Community-level meta-ness, particularly the part where Tracey comes off his meds and (spoiler) thinks he’s in a show within a show and his real name is Tracey Morgan. Even Kristen Schaal is just about funny for once.
Touch – basically an episode of Highway to Heaven. Nice to have a mini-24 reunion, with Jude Ciccolella, even if the show does all it can to avoid the memory of Jack Bauer by having Kiefer Sutherland get his arse kicked in fights. Danny Glover basically did nothing, as did Guru M-R. The lack of regular characters also makes it hard to care about the show. But at the end of the day, despite all those caveats, quite heart-warming.
Two and a Half Men – Only watching it because Sophie Winkleman (Big Suze from Peep Show, but also Charlotte from NBC’s 100 Questions) is on it. Has to be said – not a great show and the usual American TV problem of being mildly bemused and unable to cope with the existence of foreigners, but she’s good.
The Voice – I don’t normally do reality, but with Tom Jones on it, how could we refuse? Actually quite enjoyable, although Reggie Yates and Holly Willoughby were entirely superfluous. Surprised will.i.am didn’t get more people, though. And Tom really did seem unimpressed to discover one of his was gay.
And in books:
The Go-Between by LP Hartley: bored me rigid. Sorry.
"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?
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 Scrubscrossover 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?
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: Archer, Being Human (US), BeTipul, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Happy Endings, House,Modern Family,Portlandia, Ringer, Shameless (US), Southland,Spartacus, Suburgatory,30 Rock and Top Gear.
Still in the backlog: the second episodes of Awake and GCB. But largely, the regulars are chugging along, doing their regular thing, and I’ve not much to say about them, except to say keep watching them, particularly Archer which had a very odd homage to Midnight Cowboy last week.
But I have also been watching:
Kung Fu: Slowly watching the first season again on CBS Action. Because everything is very slow on Kung Fu in a way that’s surprising for US TV. Fights, despite the title, are a bit dreadful, and you can tell the stunt guy actually only knows judo; Carradine’s take on being half-Chinese is also borderline racist. But it’s a lovely lyrical show, almost fairytale in its way, that makes it virtually unique in the annals of US TV. Go watch it on CBS Action or investigate the pilot movie over here.
And in movies:
Colossus: The Forbin Project – One of the first of the decent sci-fi movies of the 70s, nevertheless, it has dated quite a bit. But it’s still really good, and you have to love a downbeat ending and a German lead.
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?
