Community

What have you been watching? Including Remedy, Spun Out, W1A and Ender’s Game

21 March 2014 Rob Buckley 10 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.

New shows I’ve already reviewed this week:

I’ll be getting round to The CW’s The 100 either today or early next week, but I did try a few other new shows, too: two Canadian, one British.

Remedy (Canada: Global)
Dillon Casey is a doctor who comes from a family of medics, all of whom work at the same hospital for some reason. After cocking up something chronic, he’s forced to come back as a porter and we get to see hospital life from the viewpoint of everyone who works there who isn’t a medic. Which might be interesting and different (at least, if you’ve never watched Casualty), except it’s so self-consciously quirky and ‘family’, it’s practically unwatchable, so I gave up. Only really notable for Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint).

Spun Out (Canada: CTV)
For reasons best known only to Canada, they’ve decided to produce a totally unrequested response to CBS’s The Crazy Ones that’s even worse. Starring Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall fame, it’s a multi-camera sitcom about a PR agency run by Foley, together with his daughter, and all the highjinks they get up to once newbie Billy from BSG turns up. All the same, it’s possibly one of the least funny things TV has ever produced.

W1A (UK: BBC2)
A follow up to BBC4’s cult comedy 2012, this reunites Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes as the former Olympic organisers now recruited by the BBC to handle sensitive issues. I’ve not worked an awful lot for the BBC but it is recognisably accurate but exaggerated as a piece of satire. How funny it is for people who don’t work in television, I’m not sure, although parallels with any large organisation no doubt abound. Most of the humour, though, comes from wordplay, mostly provided by narrator David Tennant, and in the cameos by famous people, such as one by Alan Yentob and Salman Rushdie that’ll send your eyebrows through the roof. 

Bonneville is, of course, the hapless sensible everyman, dealing with a quagmire of neverending meetings with ‘timewasting morons’, trying to use common sense of all things to deal with problems. However, the show has a slightly dodgy edge, with Bonneville fighting against the excesses of liberal political correctness so the show also treads a slightly tricky path around things like the Countryfile age discrimination suit. Generally, a promising start, so I’ll be tuning in next week.

I also watched a movie:

Ender’s Game
Evil insect aliens attack the Earth and 50 years later, we’re still preparing in case they come back by training kids in war planning, in the hope their brains will be flexible and fast enough that they’ll make great generals. Essentially, Harry Potter in space school, right down to its own version of Quidditch, but with a pleasingly darker, smarter, nastier edge, our hero essentially someone who can outstrategise his bullies rather than who spends the whole time feeling put upon. The final battle is a big intense surprise; Ben Kingsley’s awful New Zealand accent is not a surprise. 

After the jump, the regulars, with reviews of Believe, Enlisted, Resurrection, 19-2, The Americans, Arrow, Banshee, The Blacklist, Community, Continuum, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Hannibal, Line of Duty and Suits

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Remedy, Spun Out, W1A and Ender’s Game”

US TV

What have you been watching? Including Growing Up Fisher, Secrets and Lies, Red Road, Suits and Agents of SHIELD

14 March 2014 Rob Buckley 12 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.

Despite my having been away for a while, I’ve managed to catch up with many of the regular shows and even tried out plenty of new shows. Although I’ve now got three episodes of new Canadian medical show Remedy to wade through, I’ve been able to post reviews of:

I did also try one other new show:

Growing Up Fisher (US: NBC)
DJ Nash’s semi-autobiographical series, in which the Fisher family – blind attorney JK Simmons, mother Jenna Elfman and son Eli Baker – surprisingly grow closer after the parents get a divorce and Simmons finally gets a guide dog called Elvis. It’s nice, it’s got Jason Bateman doing the voiceover for that Arrested Development feel and David Schwimmer from Friends is an exec producer, too. Elfman and Simmons are both good. However, it’s not very funny, just mildly uplifting, and most of the humour revolves around Simmons’ blindness. If you find people being blind and trying to do things funny, it might be more up your street.

But after the jump, reviews of Agents of SHIELD, Helix, Red Road, Secrets and Lies, 19-2, The Americans, Banshee, Community, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Elementary, Hannibal, Line of Duty, Suits and True Detective.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Growing Up Fisher, Secrets and Lies, Red Road, Suits and Agents of SHIELD”

What have you been watching? Including Community, 19-2, Arrow, Hannibal and The Doctor Blake Mysteries

6 March 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

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.

Typical, isn’t it? No sooner have I just about caught about with my previous backlog of viewing then I have to head off again, so I’m predicting a whole new backlog next week. Ho hum.

But after the jump, reviews of Almost Human, Enlisted, Helix, 19-2, The Americans, Arrow, Banshee, The Blacklist, Community, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Hannibal, The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, Moone Boy, Perception and True Detective.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Community, 19-2, Arrow, Hannibal and The Doctor Blake Mysteries”

A trailer for Harmontown starring Community’s Dan Harmon

4 March 2014 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Dan Harmon is best known as the creator of Community. He’s probably second-best known for getting fired from Community and having fights via voicemail with Chevy Chase.

He’s back on the show now, but between his firing and his return, he went on a live tour of the US to discuss lots of things, including the death of television, and play Dungeons and Dragons. For some reason, there’s now a documentary about this called Harmontown, in which everyone from the cast of Community to Sarah Silverman and Jack Black do their very best to be nice about him, although sometimes that best isn’t good enough.

[via]

What have you been watching? Including Black Sails, Broad City, White House Down and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

28 January 2014 Rob Buckley 7 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.

The January TV deluge is dying down, mostly in preparation for the February TV deluge, but also because of the Winter Olympics. Nevertheless, I’m still a little bit behind, with a Helix, Archer and The Three Musketeers to watch, so to cut my losses, I’ve abandoned attempts to watch:

  • Mr Selfridge, largely because I’d have to deal with the atrocious ITV Player but also the first season got too soapy for my liking and the fake cockney/posh accents started to grate after a while.
  • House of Fools continued in much the same vein as the first episode – surreal and a bit sexist, but not quite as funny as you’d hope.
  • Being Human I’m abandoning after three and a bit seasons, because it’s not going anywhere especially interesting and where it is going is too far removed from where it started (three supernatural flatmates). The second episode was better than the first, though.
  • Looking – I suspect this is not a show for me.

My third episode verdict of True Detective should be up tomorrow.

This week, I have managed to watch a couple of new shows, though.

Black Sails (Starz)
A prequel to Treasure Island that shows us the young, handsome Long John Silver in action on board a pirate ship in the Caribbean. And that sentence is probably the most interesting thing about the show, because despite the fact I love things maritime (Greenwich, Portsmouth, Master and Commander, the Aubrey and Maturin series, et al) and despite the pirates, the surfeit of female full frontal nudity, the exotic location, the boats, Mark Ryan from Robin of Sherwood and the occasional sea battle, this was possibly the most boring show I’ve watched in a long time, as it was largely about pirate bureaucracy. Plus pirates were gits, not nice guys. Dull, dull, dull.

Broad City (Comedy Central)
Based on the web series, this sees two female friends in dead end jobs trying to get by in life. Desperately tries to be fun and funny, while commenting on life at the crap end of the labour market for young people, but never actually manages to be funny.

Shows that I’ve been watching but not really recommending:

The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
Evil street Tomorrow People show up and beat up our nice Tomorrow People, requiring the new leader to deal out some punishment. Okay as episodes go, but this one’s close to getting dropped, too.

And in the recommended list:

Archer (FX/Channel 5)
Not where I thought that reboot was going. Some great individual moments.

Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
Full on Deathstroke! This is what we want!

Banshee (Cinemax)
A very much better return to normal, although more soft porn sex that we could have done without. Strangely, Sheriff Hood seems to be getting beat up a lot these days, despite being number one bad ass last year. Interesting to see an episode focusing on the native Americans rather than the Amish for a change.

The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
This year’s seen an odd focus on “black list” members, this episode dealing with – I’m not joking – an evil adoption agency. However, evil adoption agency turned out to be very creepy indeed and Campbell Scott was great, as was the continuing James Spader ‘vengeance’ sub-plot. In true NBC “we don’t really want any success” style, we now have to wait until after the Winter Olympics for the next episode. Weird note: odd references to Greek myth, with a fertility clinic called Galatea (the statue brought to life by Pygmalion) and an employee who works there called Nestor (the old warrior in the Trojan War).

The Bridge (BBC4)
Some weird, sometimes unpleasant sex things are going on and I’m wondering if we’ve been given another red herring to deal with. The usual excellence of The Bridge.

Community (NBC/some random UK channel)
Another one of Community’s traditional pan-college games, this time: keeping your feet off the imaginary lava. Very funny and a lovely send off for a certain character. Made Abed look a bit crazy, though.

And in movies:

White House Down
Channing Tatum wants a job on the Secret Service and while he’s at the White House, baddies take over and try to kidnap president Jamie Foxx. A stupid film, but one that knows it – essentially, it’s Die Hard in the White House but with the President blowing things up with a rocket launcher – and it’s got James Woods, Maggie Gyllenhaal and a whole host of people you’ll recognise off minor TV shows (Jason Clarke from Brotherhood/The Chicago Code, Jimmi Simpson from Breakout Kings, Lance Reddick from The Wire and Fringe, etc). Yet it’s also cleverer than you might think. Worth a try if you’ve nothing else to watch.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
A surprisingly not-awful origin story for Tom Clancy’s hero (this is his fourth movie), with Chris Pine adopting the mantel of the dull but earnest all-American brainy marine hero, recruited to the CIA by Kevin Costner. Here he also has to defend America from being destroyed by evil Russian Kenneth Branagh, while trying to keep his relationship with Keira Knightley together. Surprisingly competent, it falls between two stools, not quite being pure spy realism but not being very escapist either and trying to homage the 60s, the 80s and modern day spy thrillers. There are also bits that don’t make a lick of sense, either. Intriguingly, as with most Clancy things, it’s all about Americans working together as a team, all being good at their jobs but nuts in the overall awesome US spy machine. Pretty good overall.

“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?