Archer

What did you watch this week (w/e February 3)?

6 February 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

(Belated again) time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this 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), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Ringer, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Spartacus, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them (if you can and they happen to be on TV this week).

Not a huge amount of new stuff to talk about, but my review of the first episode of The Almight Johnsons will be going up tomorrow.

Here’s what I did watch:

  • 30 Rock: Funnier than most of the previous two seasons.
  • Shameless (US): Lacking some of the edge of the first season but still good.
  • Ringer: Back and as silly and mental as ever. Nice to see evil villainness Siobhan being given a human side at last.
  • Top Gear: Haven’t seen this week’s yet, but the opening episode was a return to form and actually funny.
  • Braquo: Finally got around to watching episodes two to four of this French show, which I reviewed before Christmas. Not as OTT as the first episode and very compelling, but the whole show makes you think "My God, French police are perhaps the most colossally stupid people on Earth." Braquo‘s lot make the ones in Engrenages look competent. Was Inspector Clouseau onto something? They alll seem to turn up without the slightest hint of a plan, do something mentally stupid and then realise afterwards that maybe they shouldn’t have done it. You know, like accidentally murdering the suspect. Or those drug dealers they were going to give the drugs, too. What’s even worse is the show’s continual suggestion that these cops are "the best of the best", cops should stick together no matter what and internal affairs officers are pure evil with bad haircuts.
  • Portlandia: Starting to edge away from ‘funny’ towards merely ‘clever’.

And in movies:

  • What’s your Number? An attempt at a clever, edgy rom-com, in which Anna Faris decides she’s slept with too many men already (20), so hunts down old boyfriends, hoping that one of the ones she’s already slept with will turn out to be the one and she’ll not have to sleep with yet another one. Largely dedicated to getting Chris Evans (The Fantasic Four, Captain America) to spending as little time as possible in clothes, the movie is utterly predictable and has only about three funny bits, but has cameos from Martin Freeman, Eliza Coupe (Scrubs, Happy Endings) and Zachary Quinto (Heroes, American Horror Story), and is quite pleasing, subversive and romantic in its own way. But you will be watching the clock a lot during 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 (w/e January 27)?

30 January 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

(Belated) time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this 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), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them.

Deleted from the viewing queue from last week is Eternal Law. Life’s too short.

But here’s what I did watch:

  • Are You There, Chelsea? Episode two veered straight into utterly unfunny CBS comedy territory within five minutes so promptly got switched off.
  • Arctic Air: A Canadian show all about an airline company in a small, northerly part of Canada that expects to be up-and-coming very soon. A new pilot gets recruited, except he used to live there and it stirs up all kinds of former rivalries and problems. Starring every Canadian actor you’ve ever seen in bit parts in other shows, including Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica, it’s about as soporific and unremarkable as they come.
  • Archer: Burt Reynolds – awesome, that’s all I can say.
  • Borgia: Thanks to the mighty power of Netflix, which I’m sure I’ll review some time this week, I’ve managed to watch this Canal+ drama about the Borgias before a UK network acquires it. Okay, having watched it, I’d be surprised if any UK network acquired because it turns out that yes, there is a worse version of the Borgias’s story than The Borgias. While the latter is full of pasty Brits with the sex appeal of kippers and Borgia features a cast of pan-European (relative) hotties in various states of undress, this is a dreadfully written show, with every line of dialogue reeking as though it came from the hand of James Thackara. And it has John Doman from The Wire as Rodrigo Borgia. Fine he may be as a politicking Baltimore cop, but Jeremy Irons he is not and neither is he an Italian pope in waiting.
  • The LA Complex: Still relatively fun. Still quite soapy. You can slowly watch everyone’s careers plummetting into Hell. But this really isn’t for my age group, so I’m giving up.
  • Mad Dogs: Series two of this Sky show starring John Simm, Philip Glenister, Marc Warren and Max Beesley makes even less sense than the first series, is even less action-packed and riveting, and hasn’t even got the benefit of Ben Chaplin this time. But it does look gorgeous in HD.
  • Shameless: still excellent, but has lost some of the relationship detail of the previous series that gave the show a heart.
  • Spartacus: Vengeance: A pale shadow of the previous series. Andy Whitfield is much-missed but several actors have also recast so I couldn’t remember who anyone was and the new actors didn’t leave much of an impression. The absence of John Hannah’s character is leaving a huge whole in the show, too. Liam McIntyre really isn’t any good as Spartacus, unfortunately, lacking the depth and vulnerability of Whitfield, and (spoiler) Lucy Lawless’s character has gone off at the deep end so can’t do much that’s useful. The ultra-violence and nudity are still there, of course, but as of yet, the plotting has yet to take off.
  • 30 Rock: God bless Kelsey Grammer. A couple of genuinely funny episodes.

And in movies:

  • Ip Man: Donnie Yen in a lavish periodical about Bruce Lee’s wing chun instructor Ip Man. Good fight scenes, although nothing you’d call climatic, and intensely reverential to Man to the extent that no one can get a punch in at any point, even when it’s 10 against 1. Although it’s understandable given the history involved, the film also lacks the even-handedness towards the Japanese of films such as Jet Li’s Fist of Legend, leaving a nasty taste in the mouth.
  • The Change Up: Ryan Reynolds and Justin Bateman swap bodies and lives in a comedy from the writers of The Hangover. While not the funniest film ever committed to celluloid, it does have some laugh out loud moments and there is a weird almost rom-com element to it involving Olivia Wilde. It feels better overall, in fact, than the individual elements.
  • Primer: Again, I watched this courtesy of Netflix, and it’s a low-budget movie about a group of scientists who accidentally invent a time machine. However, the first 15 minutes are almost entirely wiring and soldering, by which point I lost the will to watch the rest of the movie. I will probably watch the rest of it at some point, though, since it’s supposed to be good. Just not yet:

"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?

US TV

What did you watch this week (w/e January 20)?

20 January 2012 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this 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), The Daily Show, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them.

Still in the viewing queue from last week are Eternal Law, The L.A. Complex and Arctic Air. I get the impression I won’t watch any of them. As predicted, I deleted Borgen from the viewing queue since I’m now four episodes behind. I’ve now got the second episodes of Are You There, Chelsea? and Shameless (US) to get through, too, as well as the first episode of Smash and the first episode of the new series of Mad Dogs.

But I did manage to watch the first episodes of a few new shows:

  • Rob: Rob Schneider (yes, Deuce Bigalow himself) plays an OCD guy who marries a woman virtually on impulse and gets to meet her extensive Mexican family, including her dad, played by the 1970s’ Rob Schneider, Cheech Marin. I was expecting to absolutely hate it, but it did display at least a few signs of intelligence and originality… for all of 10 minutes, after which the ridiculous farce and extensive Mexican stereotypes kicked in and I switched off. So better than Mike and Molly but not as good as 2 Broke Girls then.
  • The Finder: A spin-off from the tepid Bones, in which a man (and two sidekicks, including Michael Clarke Duncan) who can find things… finds things. Exciting, huh? Watched the first five minutes, during which our hero was shot at with an automatic while running down a narrow corridor, yet survived to tell the tale, and figured I’d pretty much got the measure of the show. An affable enough dramedy, but in no sense remarkable at all.
  • Stella: Sky 1’s new comedy-drama starring and written by Ruth Jones of Gavin & Stacey fame. Now, we were a little divided about this one, because I didn’t think it that great, while my lovely Welsh wife said it was almost exactly like being back home: even if it wasn’t necessarily funny all the time, it was always incredibly well observed. However, we stopped after 10 minutes of episode 2, since it just started to get a bit miserable and unenjoyable. It should also be pointed out this had the worst title sequence of any UK TV show since 1985.

A few thoughts on some of the regulars:

  • Portlandia: after the fabulous first BSG sketch from this episode, expectations were high for the follow-ups. The next wasn’t as good, and neither was the final sketch, but it saw a reunion of James Callis, Edward James Olmos and Ronald D Moore so was worth it all to see them watching Doctor Who together at the end. 
  • 30 Rock: Slowly decreasing in funniness, but a couple of good moments.
  • Royal Pains: back and starting to feel a little less like it’s treading water than it did over summer. Signs of plot progression? We can only hope.
  • Being Human (US): the first episode is doing a repeat of series 1, by starting the same way the UK series did. But this time, lessons appear to have been learnt. While a little darker and less engrossing than it was towards the end of series 1, the episode picked up after the first 15 minutes or so to give us a better version of the original. Sally’s plotline was fun without the comedy overkill of Annie’s, and Nora is essentially a pleasant but still sparky version Nina, which means she’s actually watchable (ditto Josh v George and Tovey’s over-acting). We also had some great vampire moments and fights courtesy of Sam Witwer’s Aidan. On the whole, I’m looking forward to this series much more than I am to series 4 of the UK original.
  • Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville – dreadful, illogical and obvious; The Reichenbach Fall – much better, although dragged in the middle. Looking forward to the next series!
  • Suburgatory: Sweet, and an interesting ending.
  • Southland: As usual, cast changes aplenty. We have Lucy Liu making a surprisingly good street cop; Arija Bareikis seems to have disappeared, as has every detective who isn’t Regina King (or her new partner). It basically feels like a slight retooling to focus on the best bits of the show – the beat cop side – away from the detectives. A little bit bitty as an episode, but with a cracking firefight and some great moments. Welcome back Southland!

And in movies:

  • Paradox: An odd little movie that you can find on SyFy now and then. Based on a comic book, it stars Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, himself) as a detective who lives in a world much like our own but that uses magic the way we use science. Winston Churchill helped to defeat the Germans in World War 2 using the power of Excalibur and is still alive; wizards run the government and coroners bring people back from the dead to answer questions about their murders. Except there’s crossover between the two worlds and Sorbo has to learn how to deal with science and technology. Let down by the gimmicky addition of comic book artwork in between scenes, it’s quite fun, although never going to win any awards.

"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 last week (w/e October 7)?

10 October 2011 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Time for "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.

My recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Archer, Dexter, The Daily Show, Modern Family, Happy Endings and Community.

Things you might enjoy but that I’m not necessarily recommending: Being Erica, Strike Back: Project Dawn, and Ringer.

Since last week, we’ve had a few cancellations, so I’ve delayed watching the remaining episodes of The Playboy Club and How To Be A Gentleman because there’s not much point.

We’ve also had another attack of "second episode-itis", in which a number of new TV shows with almost acceptable first episodes had second episodes too dreadful to carry on watching. The culprits were:

  • Pan Am: despite the lovingly recreated New York of the 60s, the complete absence of interesting plot or characters meant I was practically catatonic within the first 10 minutes.
  • Terra Nova: has mysteriously turned into Star Trek: The Any Series That Had Brannon Braga as a Showrunner. While better than the first episode, it was still deathly dull with a plethora of Wesley Crushers in desperate need of being eaten by dinosaurs and a great big chunk of technobabble being used to save the day. It did give us a visual nod to The Birds, but that’s as interesting as it got. If you’re a teenage boy, you’ll probably love it. Everyone else, stay clear.

Shamefully, Suburgatory, the big new comedy surprise, had a very poor second episode, totally lacking in the satirical bite and laughs of the first episode. It’s on the watch list now. Up All Night‘s fourth episode was dreadful so I’ve crossed that off the viewing list.

A few thoughts on some of the regulars:

  • Community: in the last two weeks, might actually have passed over from being funny into the realm of "too weird and too dark". Worrying.
  • Modern Family: Starting to feel a little tired, now. It needs to start being original again, rather than retreading old ground.
  • Being Erica: If you were expecting any big changes of format with the first episode of the new season, now that Erica’s become a doctor, think again. It’s gone back to the first season formula. Oh well. But let’s see if episode two perks it up.
  • Strike Back: Seriously, is there something in the contract that stipulates there should be one topless woman per episode?

Still in my viewing pile: last night’s Dexter, episode two of Being Erica, the third episode of Prime Suspect, the first episode of the very NSFW American Horror Story, and episode two of Homeland.

I didn’t watch any movies this week, I’m afraid.

But what have you been watching?

"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?