Bron/Broen/The Bridge/The Tunnel

Question of the week: what was your favourite show of 2013?

6 January 2014 Rob Buckley 19 Comments

Lots of TV blogs and sites have top 10s and 20s of the year’s programmes. Not wishing to be left out of the crowd, I thought I’d do one, too. But in my usual chaotic fashion, I decided to just list as many as I remember liking and then turn to you, my lovely readers, in the hope you’re more organised. And that you’ve nothing to do.

Anyway, this is really just the new shows that I loved in 2013. Feel free to list old shows, new shows or even DVDs you enjoyed last year.

The winner by a mile for the coveted top slot was:

Hannibal (review)
Elegant horror of the finest order, a simply sublime season that instead of being built around gore (although there was some incredibly disturbing imagery), hamminess and archness à la The Blacklist gave us a true horror: the fear of going mad, with FBI investigator Will Graham slowly beginning to doubt his own sanity. With a season-long arc that was hard to perceive until the final episode, it ended with a single image that made the whole thing worthwhile. Astonishing TV in almost every sense, from the dialogue to the visuals to the acting to the soundtrack to the throw-aways at the end of episodes that will haunt you for a long time after viewing.

Having said that, they cast Eddie Izzard in a key role so it wasn’t entirely perfect.

The runners up (no particular order)

  1. The Americans
  2. Serangoon Road
  3. Anno 1790
  4. The Tunnel
  5. Y Gwyll
  6. Engrenages/Spiral
  7. The Almighty Johnsons (season 3)
  8. Banshee
  9. The Blacklist
  10. House of Cards

But how about you?

What have you been watching? Including Doctor Who, Sherlock, Elementary, Community, The Bridge and The Ground Floor

6 January 2014 Rob Buckley 20 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.

There have been lots of Christmas specials and few regular TV shows over the holiday period, some of which I watched, some of which (thanks to the iPlayer’s one-week cut-off) I didn’t:

Doctor Who (BBC1/BBC America)
Bye bye Matt Smith, hello Peter Capaldi. A little bit of a smorgasbord of things here, with Steven Moffat once again reverting to usual form following The Day of the Doctor, particularly poorly thought-out, identical female characters (although Clara had a personality for once, which was nice). Stevie hates having to do anything that feels like a sequel so he injected as much original but meaningless and silly stuff into The Time of the Doctor as possible. It also meant he glossed over really, really important things (the Doctor dying, the conspiracy of Silence) in mere minutes that should have kept him in episodes for months but would have required that dreaded sequel word again. Even the cameo from Karen Gillan was a poor idea (poor Clara). But bits of it worked quite well, loose ends were tied up and there were some touching moments (the death of Handles) and good ideas (wooden Cybermen). It wasn’t quite the proper send-off we’d hoped for Matt Smith, but it wasn’t the worst Doc send-off we’ve ever had and we now have 13 more Doctors to look forward to.

But back in the world of regular TV, I saw:

Ground Floor (TBS)
Possibly the best episode so far, since, for a change, it focused on the Ground Floor and how undouchy they are compared to the Top Floor. Briga Heelan got her groove back and we saw that at least one woman works on the top floor. We also got our first Doctor Cox Scrubs joke – eight episodes they managed before slipping one in. And then there was the HR video…

And in the recommended list:

Sherlock (BBC/BBC America)
The Empty Hearse
Well, I say recommended but… Okay. In many ways it’s brilliant, but this season has effectively seen the show shift from being an innovative take on Sherlock Holmes and crime dramas, with a hint of comedy, to being a fully fledged comedy with implausible characters (well, one anyway). The New Year’s Day episode was written by Mark Gatiss who chose for his pastiche genres: Sherlock Holmes (the Robert Downey Jr movie) and… Steven Moffat. Strange it was indeed to see Gatiss emulating his co-writer, but it was like a bad carbon copy of Stevie’s finer season 2 moments. Overall enjoyable, with plenty of wry in-jokes (Martin Freeman’s wife playing Watson’s fiancé, Mary Moran; Benedict Cumberbatch’s parents playing Holmes’ parents; Cumberbatch re-using his dodgy Cabin Pressure French accent), but lacking in self-discipline – if it has just dialled itself back a bit, taken a deep breath and remembered what reality looks like, it would have been really good. As for the lack of true explanation for how Sherlock survived despite the multiple explanations that we did see, I did quite like that, even if it we ended up going through numerous levels of meta to get there.

The Sign of Three
Then there was last night’s episode. Now, the second episode of every Sherlock season is usually almost irredeemable sh*t and last night’s was no exception. In its defence, it was supposed to be a complete change of pace, a comedy character piece all about Holmes and Watson, rather than a proper crime story. It also had a pretty good plot structure, with several unsolved crime stories told in flashback that are eventually solved at the end of the episode (although if you didn’t see that coming, frankly, I’m surprised you even know what drama is, let alone what a TV looks like). But the trouble was it was 60 minutes of the utterly ridiculous and insultingly poor – and worse still, dull – before a final 15 minutes that tried to redeem what had come before and could only do so partially. It also had to twist Sherlock’s character into all sorts of weird knots to make him fit the script. How can a man who doesn’t understand human emotions at all be able to make deductions the way he does? To say he may lack empathy is one thing; to say he has no comprehension is quite another. And frankly, the hints at the stories we didn’t get were far more fun than the ones we did get.

But a lovely cameo by you know who.

Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
By contrast, Elementary delivered one of its finest episodes. While it’s debatable just how much like Sherlock Holmes Jonny Lee Miller’s character is – The Mentalist and House give you better deductions and cases than Elementary – its Irene Adler/Jamie Moriarty is a tour de force in chilling evil. Or is she? This was a touching examination of the two characters’ bonds. I wonder where they’re taking this – redemption or double crossville? And what were all those hints by Moriarty that she knew she would soon be free about? Unlike Sherlock, this made me want to watch another episode.

Community (NBC/some random UK channel)
After the disastrous, Dan Harmon-less fourth season, it was a delight to watch last week’s double bill to be able to say Community is back and almost back to form. With a hell of a lot to do to reboot the show – in true Community fashion, the episode was called Re-Pilot and even referenced its own reboot as well as Scrubs‘ – the writers pulled out all the stops and by the end of the second episode, harmony was restored, cameos performed and the show was put back on the rails. Let’s see where this baby goes now.

The Bridge
And they’re back! Just as Sky’s remake finished, season 2 of The Bridge (aka Bron/Broen) returned, complete with the proper Martin and Saga. While not quite as sharp as the first season and perhaps a little more distant from reality again, it’s still an excellent piece of work, Saga Noren is still wonderful (and more plausible now that she actually knows something about emotions) and I heartily recommend it. I even managed to watch both episodes live on a Saturday night, that’s how good it is.

“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 Ground Floor, The Tunnel, Kick Ass 2 and Now You See Me

23 December 2013 Rob Buckley 2 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.

Not much airing at the moment, this close to Christmas. However, there’s been a little at least:

Almost Human (Fox)
Shown out of order, this was the second episode filmed and the first episode since the pilot to show any real promise. You can see why they moved it to the end, since it involved a second Dorian android and without having had any time to get to know the first one, this wouldn’t have been as emotionally interesting and to compare the differences. But it does, in retrospect, show how the writers have moved away from certain ideas, such as giving Minka Kelly anything to do.

The Ground Floor (TBS)
I can’t quite be bothered to do an nth-episode verdict on this. It’s chugging along reasonably nicely, but clearly has a far better grip on rich people than blue-collar workers, which it appears to assume are a bunch of slackers compared to those hard-working rich people. On the other hand, it clearly also believes that women haven’t got what it takes to be salespeople, judging by the complete lack of them on the sales floor (maybe they should have a word with the producers of Work It?). It’s losing a lot of its veneer, its obsession with Skylar Astin’s singing is getting annoying, and Briga Heelan is clearly finding it hard operating at 150% every episode so her performance has been losing energy. But its charming enough in a low-key 90s sitcom sort of way.

The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic/Canal+)
And so it ends. Largely, I’d have to say this was the best version of The Bridge, with most of the original’s flaws polished and fixed, giving a thematic unity to ’TT’ and his actions that didn’t exist in either the original or the US remake; the stupider things were changed; the dialogue was improved; and Stephen Dillane was marvellous. Even though I’d seen the original and this largely followed its various plot twists and turns, it was genuinely thrilling, too. It wasn’t perfect, however. Compared to Sofia Helin’s Saga Norin, Clémence Poésy’s Elise Wasserman was a much duller, less charismatic character, albeit one who Asperger’s was for more useful and far more plausible than Norin’s more teenage Aspieness. The French side of things was more or less ignored in favour of the English side and when it was dealt with, the show demonstrated far less of the nuance and understanding it did with the English. But a genuinely good show that made me hope for not just a second series, but more dramas from Sky Atlantic.

And in movies:

Kick Ass 2
While not quite as good as the original, a sequel with a lot to offer. As well as doing with super team-ups what the original did for superheroes, Kick Ass 2 essentially switches from being a fantasy for geek boys – wouldn’t it be cool to dress up and be a superhero for real? – to being one for geek girls, giving us the ever-popular Hit Girl teaching mean girls a lesson, training up a geek boy and making him buff, and getting a first kiss from an older boy. It also gives us ‘Night Bitch’ and ‘Mother Russia’, who have their own female takes on superheroism (and villainy).

Now You See Me
Four hot young – and not so young – magicians unite on stage to rob a bank, and with the FBI in pursuit, continue to commit crimes. Why are they doing it? How are they doing it? It doesn’t matter, because the answer is utterly ridiculous and stupid, the dependency on special effects instead of genuine magic robs it of any real fascination, and it all boils down to a lot of chases, bad dialogue and things that wouldn’t work like that in real life. Perhaps its biggest mystery is how it got Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Isla Blair, Michael Caine, Woody Harrelson and Mark Ruffalo to star in it. Watch The Prestige instead

“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 Kirstie, Getting On, The Tomorrow People, The Tunnel and Homeland

16 December 2013 Rob Buckley 4 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.

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?

Guy Pearce to romance Sean Hayes, Timothy West joins EastEnders and BBC4’s latest foreign acquisitions

12 December 2013 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Film casting

  • Simon Pegg joins Monty Python in Absolutely Anything

Trailers

  • Trailer for Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise

UK TV

UK TV casting

US TV

US TV casting

New US TV shows