ABC green lights: pilots of family comedy The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport…
…and criminal law and media drama Notorious, wedding toast flashback comedy Toast, adaptation of Austrian fake miracle comedy Braunschlag as Hail Mary, lesbian/straight mail dating comedy, driver at home comedy The Fluffy Shop…
…and HG Wells time machine drama Time After Time, divorce attorney and sister drama, sexy supernatural revenge drama The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez, and steampunk soap Spark
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.
It’s been another huge week, full of new shows, continuing shows and returning shows. I’ve struggled manfully with them, but despite delaying WHYBW to Saturday to give me a little extra time to get through everything and then write about them, I’m still to cover three new series:
Mad Dogs (Amazon Instant Video): Shawn Ryan’s US remake of the Sky 1 original brings back Ben Chaplin in a different role but none of the other cast for this relocated show about a bunch of old friends (in both senses of ‘old’) who reunite for a plush holiday in the middle of sunny nowhere. Before you know it, everything ends up going a bit criminally pear-shaped and holiday heaven becomes holiday nightmare. I haven’t even watched the pilot of this, which has been sitting on Amazon for a while now, but given the original didn’t overly impress me and I gave up after about three episodes, I’m not sure I’m going to be in much of a rush to watch this version either. I do hope they explain why it’s called Mad Dogs, given the lyrics are ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun’.
Baskets (US: FX): Co-created by Louis CK, Zach Galifianakis and Jonathan Krisel, this sees Galifianakis playing dual roles as twin brothers, one of whom aspired to clown school in Paris, but who ended up becoming a rodeo clown. It’s apparently a bit Marmite, but I’ll try to review it in the first half of next week.
Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (UK: Sky 1): Marvel’s Stan Lee gives us James Nesbitt as a Brit cop, down on his luck, who gets a magical bracelet that reverses his fortunes. It’s Stan Lee, so could be fun, but it’s also Sky 1 so could be stupid/mediocre beyond belief. Again, first half of next week for this one.
Despite those three failings, I have managed to cover rather a lot this week already, with reviews or previews of the first episodes of:
The meat of the week’s viewing has, however, been continuing and returning shows, so after the jump, you’ll find reviews of the latest episodes of (deep breath): 100 Code, American Crime, Arrow, Billions, Byw Celwydd (Living A Lie), Colony, Endeavour, The Family Law, The Flash, Grandfathered, Limitless, Man Seeking Woman, Occupied (Okkupert), Rebellion, Second Chance, Les hommes de l’ombre (Spin) and Supergirl. Oh yes, and the two-hour premier of the new season of Marvel’s Agent Carter. Pardon me if you were hoping I would carry on with Idiotsitter, but no thank you.
I’m pretty sure something’s going to have give on that list soon, but I’m not quite sure what yet. Pity the first show to turn in a duff episode.
This week, I also moseyed on down to the cinema to watch a movie:
Room (2015) Adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s book of the same, which sees five-year old Jake (Jacob Tremblay) discovering that the small room he’s lived in his whole life may not be the extent of the universe and that his mother (Brie Larson) has been keeping some important and very disturbing details from him. While that scenario (inspired by real cases) doesn’t sound like a very enjoyable subject matter, both the book and the movie quickly switch things around and give us a genuinely moving tale of parental love, the adaptability of children and finding hope in extremis, so if you think it’s not your thing, you might find you’re completely wrong.
Not quite as initially claustrophobic as the book, the movie is still a magnificent piece of work, with Larson and Tremblay justifiably getting all kinds of award nominations. William H Macy appears for almost no good reason, except to remind you of all the roles he used to get before he ended up doing Shameless (US). Recommended – you won’t even be able to watch the trailer again afterwards, without wanting a cathartic little cry.
So for a long time now, this ‘ere blog has had a USP in terms of recommending shows: The Barrometer, which itself replaced The Carusometer. This takes the long view, requiring a minimum viewing of three episodes before it’s willing to give a cheesy grin and a rousing showtune – and the all-important thumbs up or thumbs down to the show.
But I often wonder if that’s too much or even few. Some shows you sense are never going to be good from the outset, while others genuinely do take a long time to get to the point (I’m looking at you here Rubicon – 10 episodes before you reveal your brilliance? Really?).
All I can do is guess. However, Netflix knows better. Apart from its top secret way to covertly view your every move as you sit in front of your TV screen or monitor (shh, don’t tell anyone), it also can analyse exactly how far you get into a show before you decide you’ve got to watch the rest of it or abandon it altogether. And they’ve just released the results in a shiny infographic (click it to make it bigger):
There’s also a list:
Arrow — Episode 8
Bates Motel — Episode 2
Better Call Saul — Episode 4
Bloodline — Episode 4
BoJack Horseman — Episode 5
Breaking Bad — Episode 2
Dexter — Episode 3
Gossip Girl — Episode 3
Grace & Frankie — Episode 4
House of Cards — Episode 3
How I Met Your Mother — Episode 8
Mad Men — Episode 6
Marco Polo — Episode 3
Marvel’s Daredevil — Episode 5
Once Upon a Time — Episode 6
Orange is the New Black — Episode 3
Pretty Little Liars — Episode 4
Scandal — Episode 2
Sense8 — Episode 3
Sons of Anarchy — Episode 2
Suits — Episode 2
The Blacklist — Episode 6
The Killing — Episode 2
The Walking Dead — Episode 2
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — Episode 4
Although it’s worth remembering that the Netflix viewing experience is different from watching TV weekly, as you can see, it’s never the pilot episode that grabs virtually anyone, so clearly I’m onto something there.
But there are a few surprises in there. Eight episodes before being grabbed by Arrow? Who waits that long? And episode five for Marvel’s Daredevil, rather than the bravura episode 2? How odd.
Oddest of all: how can anyone get addicted to Sense8?
