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Review: UnREAL 1×1 (US: Lifetime)

3 June 2015 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

UnREAL

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, Lifetime
In the UK: It’ll be on Lifetime or Living, you know it

It hopefully won’t have escaped the attention of regular readers of this ‘ere blog that I haven’t covered reality TV shows since its very early days, back when Big Brother was still a novelty. I just ain’t got the time… and I don’t watch it any more.

It has, however, escaped the attention of lots of PRs, who despite claiming to be ‘huge fans’ of TMINE, still want to know if I’ll cover reality show x, game show y or reality game show z.

Invariably, I tell them that I only cover ‘scripted comedy and drama’, but perhaps I should consider a different response. After all, look over the credits of even something like American’s Next Top Model and you’ll discover a host of writing credits; there’s also a genre known as ‘constructed reality’ that encompasses shows such as The Only Way is Essex in which although the responses of the participants are genuine – or as genuine as they can be on a TV show – the situations in which they’re involved are set up by the production teams.

Oftentimes, it can be hard to tell apart the true reality show from the constructed reality show and Lifetime’s new comedy-drama UnREAL hinges on just such a problem – the nature of truth and reality in supposed reality shows, as well as the symbiotic relationship between those performing for the cameras and the need of reality TV producers for them to perform in order that they can produce ‘interesting’ television that fits comfortable, stereotypical conventions.

Shiri Appleby (Roswell, Life Unexpected) is Rachel, a freelance field producer for a very Bachelor-like reality show called Everlasting. After a breakdown on camera the previous season that ended up with her becoming indebted to the amoral and immoral producer of the show Constance Zimmer (Love Bites, House of Cards), she’s forced to return to the job she hates – manipulating potential and current contestants into doing what Zimmer needs them to do and fitting into their pre-determined roles, all while she pretends to be their friend.

That includes dealing with the supposedly gentlemanly but actually womanising English heir to a hotel chain (Harry Potter’s Freddie Stroma) who’s really using the show to rehabilitate his public profile; Breeda Wool (Betas), a shy Christian woman and virgin who’s intended to be the show’s ‘joke’; Ashley Scott (Birds of Prey, Jericho), the ‘desperate MILF’ who’s going to be dumped by episode three; Arielle Kebbel (90210), the ‘bitch’ who’s the intended villain of the show; and Christie Lang (Arrow), the talented violinist and scholar who’s unfortunately too black to win.

Except Appleby is the kind of woman who goes around wearing a T-shirt saying ‘this is what a feminist looks like’ and faced with pumping out stereotypes that are demeaning to women and betraying her sisters, she decides to do all she can to rewrite the show’s narrative – all while trying to avoid being sent to prison if Zimmer finds out what she’s up to.

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US TV

Preview: Supergirl 1×1 (US: CBS)

22 May 2015 Rob Buckley 32 Comments

Supergirl costume

In the US: Mondays, 8/7c, CBS. Starts November
In the UK: Not yet acquired

Is there truly no such thing as bad publicity? That is what George Schweitzer would apparently argue, based on how many hits the trailer for Supergirl got – 10 million.

Never mind that a lot of those who watched the trailer thought that it was nothing more than the Saturday Night Live spoof Black Widow sketch actually turned into a real TV show, with horrific cliches oozing from every pore. They watched it and for Schweitzer that’s all that counts. Presumably that’s what he’s paid to do and whether people subsequently tune in and enjoy the show is the purview of someone else.

But can a trailer truly convey what a show is like? Or by judicious editing can you make it seem like a completely different show? Even if that show is terrible and your show is actually quite good?

Someone needs to find out. That someone is me. Brace yourself – I’m reviewing the pilot after the jump.

But in case you haven’t watched it, here’s that trailer.

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What have you been watching? Including Birdman, The Blacklist, Arrow and American Crime

15 May 2015 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

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 – they’ll even email you a weekly schedule.

Elsewhere, I’ve already previewed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and reviewed Grace and Frankie, which is all the new shows I’ve had time for this week (so far…). But it’s winding down time for a lot more shows this week, so after the jump, as well as the latest episodes of Community, The Flash, Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley, a look at the season finales of American Crime, Arrow, The Blacklist and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Some of these I won’t be returning to next year, some I will.

I have, however, watched a movie. Well, half of one.

Birdman (2014)
Michael Keaton is a washed up actor who once played a superhero. No, that’s his role in this, which is as meta as it sounds. Here, he’s trying to put on a Broadway play to revive his career. Unfortunately, while Naomi Watts is great, the male lead isn’t, but when an accident puts him out of the running and Ed Norton volunteers to replace him, Keaton finally has a chance at success. Except Norton’s a flake and producer Zach Galifianakis won’t let Keaton fire him, because they can’t afford to.

Unfortunately, this is dull stuff. We managed to get halfway through before we lost interest completely and if you were expecting anything really to riff off Keaton’s Batman credentials in that time, you’d be wrong, beyond a couple of jokes and occasional voiceover – I believe ‘Birdman’ turns up later. Instead, it’s largely about the relationships between the film’s slightly tedious, annoying characters (including Andrea Riseborough and Emma Stone). Maybe it gets better in the second half but the first lost us.

The film’s most notable feature, though, is director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s decision to shoot the entire movie to make it look like a single continuous take. While it’s fascinating to watch (and to see if you can spot the joins), it’s more an intellectual puzzle rather than anything involving.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Birdman, The Blacklist, Arrow and American Crime”

News: Amazon’s new pilots, ITV’s Peter Pan, True Detective trailer, Kate Beckinsale returns to the Underworld + more

15 May 2015 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Film casting

Film trailers

Internet TV

UK TV

New UK TV shows

  • ITV green lights: Peter Pan adaptation Peter & Wendy, with Paloma Faith, Stanley Tucci et al…
  • …and period drama Jericho, with Jessica Raine, Clarke Peters, Hans Matheson et al

US TV

US TV show casting

What’s The CW going to be giving us in Fall 2015-16

14 May 2015 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

It’s the turn of the last of the main broadcast networks to show us what’s up its sleeves for the 2015-16 season – yes, here comes The CW! Now, if you’ve been paying attention over the past few years, you’ll have noticed three things:

  1. The CW, which was traditionally a network intent only on serving teenage girls and young women the likes of Gossip Girl and vampire things, has slowly been trying to get boys to watch as well, with shows such as Supernatural*.
  2. It’s been doing big ratings with DC superhero shows.
  3. It still does the girl-thing really well*

So you shouldn’t be too surprised to see among The CW’s three new shows (yes, just three) a DC superhero show, a scary show, and a show for girls that’s also a bit for boys, too, and is pretty well done.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
A group of heroes and villains from The CW’s other big DC superhero shows, Arrow and The Flash, spin off and form their own group in order to save the world from the immortal Vandal Savage and his army. They know they have to because Rory from Doctor Who comes back from the future to tell them they have to.

Among the line-up are Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, who have been playing brothers again over on The Flash, albeit villainous, very camp ones; Victor Garber (Alias, Legally Blonde, Deception, Eli Stone, Justice), who’s another Flash escapee, having played one half of Firestorm, although his other half (Robbie Amell) is noticeably missing here; and Brandon Routh – Superman in Superman Returns – has of course been doing sterling work as The Atom over on Arrow for the past season and actually now has his miniaturisation abilities.

More interestingly, Caity Lotz is back (yay!) as a Canary – the White one this time – despite having been killed off quite seriously at the start of Arrow’s third season and we have the completely new addition of Golden Age Hawk Girl (Ciara Renée). Arthur Darvill’s quite fun as ‘Rip Hunter’, and the villain is Vandal Savage, who’s a big name in both the comic books and the DC animated movies but so far hasn’t shown up in a live action piece.

Overall, it’s clear there’s been a marked progression over the years with the three series, from quite dark with aspects of fun in Arrow to cheesy fun that’s occasionally dark in The Flash to pretty much full on high comic book camp here. I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Containment
Based on the Belgian TV series Cordon (coming to BBC4 soon), this sees a lethal virus break out in the US, resulting in a huge urban quarantine in Atlanta. Except – because it’s originally Belgian (cf Salamander) – there’s also a government conspiracy. Mostly, all a big soapy drama of not much excitement, in which everyone has to decide whether to do the right thing or not by their family, the law, little Timmy the cat, et al.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Following on from the success of the format-busting and decidedly meta Jane The Virgin, we have Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, in which 10 years after a girl is dumped by her boyfriend, she bumps into him in New York and, deciding she had the happiest time of her life with him, follows him as he moves to Los Angeles, hoping to rekindle their romance – while ignoring a far more obvious and more suitable guy right in front of her. Except her ex really just isn’t that into her and has a girlfriend anyway, but that’s not stopping her.

Coming from the director of 500 Days of Summer and with animated sequences, musical numbers and more, this is actually quite a funny, innovative-looking little piece that could go pretty much anywhere, so I’m certainly going to be giving it a try.

*Yes, I know that’s stereotypes – and I did watch Gossip Girl, myself – but if you look at the demographics, that’s what was happening on average.