Bron/Broen/The Bridge/The Tunnel

What did you watch this month? Including Homeland, Low Winter Sun, Chickens, Strike Back and Elysium

5 September 2013 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

It’s “What did you watch this weekmonth?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched last month while I was away on holiday that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

First up, 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.

In my preview queue is a couple of shows, including ABC’s Trophy Wife, which I hope to review for you properly on Tuesday. But I have tried a couple of new things, despite the summer TV quiet.

New shows I tried this week
Chickens (Sky 1 HD)
Some of the cast of The InBetweeners try to write a First World War comedy about a bunch of guys left behind during the Great War, who have to deal with being accused of cowardice, etc.

Anyway, it’s 10 minutes of my life I’m not getting back.

Low Winter Sun (AMC/FOX)
A remake of the Channel 4 mini-series of the same name set in Edinburgh, the show had relocated to Detroit to retell us the tale of a good cop who commits a revenge murder with the help of another cop and thinks he’s got away with it. Except things start to unravel.

It sounds good and given it’s remarkably managed to get the star of the original – Mark Strong – to repeat his performance but with a US accent, with fellow stalwart Brit Lennie James joining him for the ride, you’d think it would be good. But effectively, it’s a season-long episode of Columbo with the guy who played Daniel Hardman on Suits as a less well written Columbo. I stuck it out for four episodes before the plot got so thin that I decided not to bother with it any more.

Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Under The Dome (CBS/Channel 5)
Just rubbish. I’m only watching because I’ve got this far and there’s nothing else on.

Under the Dome TV Schedule

The Bridge (US) (FX)
We’re nearing the end and it’s definitive now that it’s simply not as good as the original, despite sticking more or less to exactly the same storyline. Problematically, the show has removed a lot of the strengths from the Saga Norin/Sonja Cross character and pushed them onto the male characters, making her more of a liability and one who’s stuck in the office most of the time. But the show did drop one particular, ridiculous twist, which I’m thankful for, anyway. The Annabeth Gish storyline is looking more and more pointless, though.

Strike Back (Cinemax/Sky 1)
The return of the modern day Professionals, this time with the assistance of former SAS dynamo… Robson Green (who, of course, was in Soldier Soldier but never did much fighting). Strong female characters keep cropping up to get shot and killed or go mental, which isn’t very helpful, and having Brits like Martin Clunes turn up is very distracting. But the action sequences are as impressive as ever, as is the camaraderie and the cross-Atlantic strafing.

Recommended shows
The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Really pushing ahead very strongly now, and getting some of its darker edges back, without going to season 2 extremes. Lovely use of myth, as well.

The Almighty Johnsons TV Schedule

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
A much better second half than first half to the season, with all the budget saved up for the end this time. Some good twists and revelations, as well. But it’s in extreme danger of disappearing ourobouros style up in its own arse with the rapid development of unnecessary mythology.

Continuum TV Schedule

Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Not yet back, of course, but I’ve had a gander at the first episode of the third season and I’m glad to report that it’s remembered it’s an adult show, rather than simply 24 on cable TV. Carrie’s still unbalanced and there’s no sign of you-know-who yet, with most of the first episode looking at the fallout from the bombing at the end of the last season and the political ramifications and changes in the US that have resulted. Impressive, but Brodie’s family is really starting to irritate now.

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
Better than the first season and the season arc is a lot stronger and more interesting, as well. Sorkin and co have also gone to quite extreme lengths to ditch virtually every romantic storyline possible along the way. But it’s now so plot-focused, it’s lost all sense of character, making it less engaging. Plus Olivia Munn is being criminally under-used and where they are using her, it’s entirely inappropriately. Only one appearance by Jane Fonda this entire season, too.

The Newsroom TV Schedule

Perception (TNT/Watch)
Overall, a disappointingly formulaic season that ended on a low and lost the show a lot of its unique characteristics along the way.

Perception TV Schedule

Satisfaction (CTV)
Still funny, but I’m giving up on it because, like many, I want to punch most of the cast, now.

Satisfaction TV Schedule

Suits (USA/Dave)
Same problems as The Newsroom – strong plot, less involved in the characters. The fact the show has focused on more or less a single case the entire season has also robbed it of a lot of variety. And no matter what, I still can’t see Max Beesley as a Cambridge lawyer. Sorry.

Suits TV Schedule

And in movies

I Give It A Year
Another tedious attempt to capture the magic that was Four Weddings and a Funeral in another Brit rom-com, this time with Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne getting married against everyone’s recommendations. Nine months later, they’re having problems. Generally, despite the presence of Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Anna Faris, Olivia Colman and Simon Baker, a pretty miserable movie, bereft of laughter but full of misery. So steer clear of it – all the good jokes are in the trailer.

Elysium
Neill Blomkamp tries to repeat the success of District 9 but with a much bigger budget. Set in 2154, it sees Matt Damon as a blue collar worker trapped on the over-crowded earth with all the rest of the poor, while the rich all life on a space-station called Elysium that fixes all their problems and even cures all their diseases – except the rich don’t care enough to offer the same facilities to the poor. Now, in many ways it’s a very clever film with lots to say. The imagination that’s gone into the weaponry, set design and future tech are all superb. It’s just the plot and the characterisation that are mundane, with Damon having less personality than an implanted Total Recall Arnie and everyone else painted so thinly, they’d disappear if they turned sideways. It actually makes for quite a boring movie and yet again, despite it being 2154, you’d be hard-pushed to spot even 25% of the main characters being female, let alone women with power (baddie Jodie Foster and that’s it). Disappointing, despite all the imagination that went into 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?

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 2

Third-episode verdict: The Bridge (US) (FX)

26 July 2013 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US/Canada: Wednesdays, 10pm ET/7pm PT, FX
In the UK: Acquired by Fox, but probably won’t be broadcast

So double déjà vu time. We’ve been here before with the original The Bridge and three episodes into The Bridge (US) and we’re in almost identical places again – except this place isn’t quite as good as the original’s. 

In and of itself, The Bridge (US) is actually a pretty good show. Dealing with an apparent serial killer looking to make political points about immigration and poverty and inequity in the two countries, it sees an American detective (Diane Kruger) and a Mexican detective (Demián Bichir) investigating a double-murder on their US-Mexican border. It makes points and shows you situations you don’t normally see made in US shows. It also sees characters you don’t normally see in US shows: a female detective with Asperger’s and a Mexican detective who can do his job and isn’t on the take.

The trouble is it’s not quite as good as the original. In some ways, it’s an improvement. The political points made in the original didn’t work as well in two countries as relatively rich and egalitarian as Sweden and Denmark. Some of the plotting was looser and various threads also got dropped or introduced unnecessarily. Secondary characters in the El Paso police department are also better developed than those in Malmö’s.

But it falls apart slightly elsewhere. ‘Sonja Cross’ is no ‘Saga Norin’ – while Norin strode about unapologetically, a force of nature, an open-eyed innocent whose Asperger’s traits could cause her and others bafflement but that were also assets, here we have a character with few assets beyond being able to spot teeny tiny beads at a distance and who screws up constantly and knows it. The script is also clumsier in its efforts to show her Asperger’s, adding to the original lines that make no sense in someone her age. This is Asperger’s as disability rather than point of difference with potential strengths. It doesn’t help that Kruger can’t maintain the traits she’s chosen, alternating between avoiding eye contact and over-doing it in the first episode, then having normal eye contact in subsequent episodes.

The show also lacks the visual beauty of the original, the director and DOP being more interested in showing the squalor of Mexico, the expansive vistas of Texas and the clinical nature of the El Paso police station than bringing out the most from the characters. Our prime suspect so far doesn’t feel like a real person at all as a result, more a collection of studio make-up tics. Annabeth Gish’s sub-plot, while better and more plausible than the original’s, is also longer and duller so far.

Nevertheless, this is a good, solid cop show that’s unique and different in the world of US cop shows. How long will it last? Well, the ratings have been very good, so I can’t see any problems with it getting renewed. Trouble is, the original’s ending was very silly, so we could end up with a similar situation to The Killing (US)*, with a show renewed but people so annoyed with the ending that they don’t watch the next season. 

But I guess we’ll cross that bridge we come to it. Ho ho.

Barrometer rating: 2
Rob’s prediction: Should get a second season at least

* Also like The Killing (US), we’ll probably end up with a mirror situation in terms of the stars, with the original’s female stars getting all the kudos, while the US remake will make (more of) a star of the male lead.

What did you watch this week? Including The Newsroom, Suits, The World’s End and Continuum

22 July 2013 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Slightly later than usual, it’s “What did you watch this week?, my chance to tell you what I movies and TV I’ve watched thislast 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 up, 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.

Summer has arrived though and started to fill up my viewing queue with new shows. I’m continuing to watch Under the Dome, but it’s getting close to being edged out of the viewing pile, what with it been the standard Stephen King fare. But it has its moments, so I’m sticking with it. The Bridge (US) is proving slightly inferior to the original, despite following largely on the same path, except the Aspie detective in this one is clearly more of a hindrance than an asset at this stage, and a lot less an unapologetic force of nature than Saga Norin was.

However, I’m on holiday in a week’s time, so with all the new stuff I’ve had to drop Being Mary Jane from the viewing queue and my plans to keep watching Crossing Lines have been dropped because there are now much better shows to fill my time with. I’ve also abandoned Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake, on the general grounds that it’s Jane Campion and the trailer makes it looks dreadful.

Kerry Packer… is still in the queue though, since I might just about get around to watching it at some point, and Orange is the New Black, Netflix’s new comedy-drama from Weeds‘ creator set in a women’s prison, will be available forever so I’m not rushing into it. I’ve also got last night’s Newsroom and Ray Donovan to work my through as well, although the latter might not last long if the queue fills up any more.

I did have a little time to try out some new shows though:

Room 9
The Africa Channel’s Torchwood-esque (it’s even got a Captain Harkness in it) import from South Africa. That turned out to be cock, though, with poor acting and over the top humour  – not so much X-Files as Miracles, with lots of ghosts and the like to investigate, and the production standards of 1980s Canadian syndicated TV to make it all seem realistic.

Count Arthur Strong
BBC2’s adaptation of the Radio 4 comedy about an old music hall comedian turned out to be paralysingly unfunny, despite Rory Kinnear doing his best.

But here’s what I thought of this week’s recommended shows:

The Almighty Johnsons (TV3/SyFy UK/Space)
Another ‘re-orienter’, with various new directions set up for characters, although good to see a certain regular character returning. Stronger on laughs than previous eps, weaker on plot drive. Also seemed to be a lot less for the female characters to do. They need to start plotting a course for a stronger story arc soon, too.

Continuum (Showcase/SyFy)
The budget that the producers had been saving up at the start of the season is now being spent well, with two episodes of strong sci-fi fun in a row, some surprise returning characters and the series arcs now tying together nicely. It still has a little something missing – the tight plotting of the first season – but it’s about an episode or two away from having that and more again.

The Newsroom (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
The return of Aaron Sorkin’s somewhat chaotic attempt to do the fun and import of The West Wing, except in a newsroom. Far less preachy than last year, more interested in talking about how journalists get stories than about how they should be covering them, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. There’s also far less outright sexism: everyone’s about the relationships still, but the women are now allowed to be interested in work, too, and not be hopelessly incompetent at it. Having said that, Olivia Munn’s character is now being called ‘Money Skirt’. Still not quite the quality it should be, but not hitting anywhere near as many of the bum notes as it was hitting last season.

Perception (TNT/Watch)
A great big kick in the gonads for any shippers out there and contained some of the worst ‘Tourette’s’ acting ever committed to video. However, a decent enough procedural.

Satisfaction (CTV)
A good, funny episode, dealing with the problem facing any young couple that settles down: the loss of cool.

Suits (USA/Dave)
The return of the best lawyer show on TV. Dramatically, it’s still doing very interesting things, and the Machiavellian manipulations are still excellent. But, as well as the slightly suspect English stereotypes, the show is playing up the comedy angle more and more, which is in danger of destabilising the show. Definitely still recommended, though.

And in movies:

The World’s End
The third of the Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright trilogy that started with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Pegg is a high school rebel who never grew up and wants to get the old gang back together for a 12-pub crawl in Newford Haven, despite their being in their late 30s now and all deeply in hate with him. Except problematically, most of the inhabitants of Newford Haven have been replaced by alien robots.

It has quite a lot going for it and will make you laugh a lot, since it is essentially the closest you’re going to get to a Spaced movie. The ending really isn’t what you’re expecting and there’s an element to the storytelling that doesn’t appear in the trailer that will make you think you imagined it the first time you saw and will then turn out to be awesomely cool when you realise it’s going to be repeated throughout the movie.

But it does have one colossal problem: the massive lack of decent female roles in the movie. Where Jessica Stephenson/Hynes should be, instead, we have nothing but men as far as the eye can see – Rosamund Pike, the main female character in the movie, gets minimal lines or things to do and like most of the (largely dialogue-less) women who feature in the story, she’s there as an object of male desire rather than as a character in her own right. To a certain extent, it’s justifiable in the sense that it’s about boys who’ve never really grown up, but it’s still a big problem with the movie.

Flawed but fun.

“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?

Friday’s “Sam Mendes back for Bond, Kristen Bell on Parks & Rec and The Bridge starts well” news

12 July 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

Film casting

Trailers

  • Trailer for Saving Mr Banks with Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks
  • Trailer for The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan
  • Trailer for Out of the Furnace with Christian Bale

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

US TV

Review: The Bridge (US) 1×1 (FX)

11 July 2013 Rob Buckley 18 Comments

fx-the-bridge3.jpg

In the US/Canada: Wednesdays, 10pm ET/7pm PT, FX
In the UK: Not yet acquired

As I remarked at the time I reviewed its first episode last year, the superb Swedish/Danish co-production Bron/Broen/The Bridge very much had its eye on the international market when it was made. Taking elements of everything from Wallander, The Killing and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the show sees a dead body – subsequently revealed to be two halves of two bodies stuck together – left on the exact border of Sweden and Denmark. Two detectives, each playing up to the stereotypes held about their respective countries – icy Swedish female detective with Asperger’s Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) and schlubby, overly-personable Danish detective Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) – then have to investigate the crime together, which turns out to have increasingly political ramifications, as the serial killer responsible exposes inequalities in both countries.

Since then, it’s been acquired by many countries, including the UK and the US. But what I didn’t appreciate when I wrote that review was that in this age of international co-productions, The Bridge provides a surefire format for adaptation by other countries. Indeed, the UK and France are making The Tunnel together (I’m not sure how that’s going to work, given the respective national stereotypes) and now FX in the US had made The Bridge, taking the same story as the original and transposing it to the US-Mexican border.

The remake sees Diane Kruger playing Sonya Cross, an Aspie member of the El Paso police department in the US, while Demián Bichir is Marco Ruiz, a detective for the Mexican state of Chihuahua. As with the original, two halves of two women – this time a US judge and a Mexican teenager – are found on the bridge between their two countries and the two detectives have to work together to find out who’s behind the murders and what they want. Along the way, they encounter an unethical journalist (Matthew Lillard), a wealthy widow (Annabeth Gish), Cross’s helpful, Asperger’s-friendly boss (Ted Levine) and the corrupt Mexican police. All kinds of political issues are raised, too, ranging from immigration through drugs and prostitution.

Now, to a certain extent, we’ve been here before. For starters, people who’ve seen the original will obviously want to know if there’s any point watching the remake. Indeed, we’ve already seen the US adapt a Scandinavian show, The Killing, as initially a shot-for-shot remake, so there was no point in watching the somewhat lesser remake if you’d seen the original. But equally, as the show began to diverge from its source material, it ended up giving us an inferior ending that annoyed even viewers who’d never seen the original.

On the strength of this first episode, though, I’d say that largely, whether you’ve seen the original or you haven’t, it’s worth watching, since it takes many of the strengths of the original and adds its own to the mix. Here’s a couple of trailers – one in English, one in Spanish, appropriately enough.

Continue reading “Review: The Bridge (US) 1×1 (FX)”