It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
The US fall season started in earnest this week – no more previews, just plain old new episodes of new series in their regular time slots. Since the last WHYBW, we’ve had – and TMINE has reviewed – I Feel Bad (US: NBC), Magnum P.I.(US: CBS) and Manifest (US: NBC). Joining them are New Amsterdam (US: NBC) and FBI (US: CBS), which I’ll review after the jump.
The Internet streamers have been keeping up, too – as has TMINE – with the likes of season two of Ozark(Netflix) and after the jump, The First (US: Hulu; UK: Channel 4). Netflix also gave us Maniac over the weekend, but I’ve not had a chance to watch that, so here’s a trailer in lieu:
Meanwhile, the plucky Australians have decided to give us their own version of Footballers’ Wives (Aussie rules, of course) in the shape of Playing for Keeps (Australia: Ten).
Needless to say, I won’t be bothering with that. Maybe you will.
I’ll be trying to keep up with the rest of the new schedule (I hope) so expect all manner of new US TV shows to be reviewed by the next WHYBW, although my work schedule looks a bit crazy for the next week, TBH, so I can’t promise nowt, I’m afraid.
After the jump, on top of those new shows, I’ll be casting my eye over the latest episodes of the regulars: Forever, The Last Ship and You. See you in a tick.
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest TV shows from around the world will air in the UK
This week, all the acquisitions have premiere dates so let’s just get right down to it – especially since practically everything starts in the next week, so we’ll need to get a move on.
Cops sit around on a stakeout, during which nothing much happens apart from them talking a lot. I’ve only watched the US remake, so I can’t really advise you on whether the original is any good, but co-creator Patrick Brammall stars in both and he’s usually pretty reliable.
Video-game playing loser is recruited by kick ass soldiers from the future to stop the world going to pot. A mish-mash of explicit references to every 80s sci-fi movie you might care to mention – The Last Starfighter, The Terminator, Back to the Future – that will probably be funnier if you watch it stoned.
Multi-season anthology series based on the real-life escapades of the somewhat eccentric and rich Getty family. Excellent cast and Danny Boyle behind the scenes, but the rich twats tried my patience so much I couldn’t even get to the end of the first episode.
British spy Sandra Oh tries to catch glamorous international assassin Jodie Comer, but generally makes a mess of things. Excellent and stylish when the episodes are written by Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, distinctly not excellent the rest of the time.
Counterpart (US: Starz; UK: StarzPlay on Amazon Prime)
Premiere date: Friday, September 28
A cold war between two opposing superpowers who face off against each in Berlin. The twist? The two superpowers are parallel Earths and everyone has a ‘counterpart’ who’s just like them, including mild-mannered JK Simmons. Or are they identical? Have the two universes diverged? If so why? And if we could meet each other, would be our own best friend or our own worst enemy?
Generally superb bit of spying that has a bump in quality in episode two, but is otherwise excellent. Give it a whirl, assuming you can get through all the hoops needed to watch it.
Spanish Netflix original, so I haven’t seen it. But here be the plot:
When three working class kids enrol in the most exclusive school in Spain, the clash between the wealthy and the poor students leads to tragedy. Starring: Danna Paola, Miguel Herrán, María Pedraza.
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week/month
I’m calling it – summer season is dead. It has ceased to be. It is an ex-season.
Before TMINE went away on its holidays, I pointed out how quiet July had been worldwide, but while I was away, the number of new shows has been small. Very small. Castle Rock (US: Hulu) and Dead Lucky (Australia: ABC) were released and Netflix gave us Insatiable, but that was basically it.
Sure, there have been returning shows, but new shows haven’t had a look-in and a lot of shows that used to air over July and August have postponed their returns until the end of the month or September. That even includes the final season of The Lost Ship, which was filmed a year ago, so production concerns clearly weren’t stopping it from being aired in its usual slot.
I’m guessing that ratings haven’t held up for any TV shows. Probably because everyone’s been on holiday. Or maybe it’s because of my fearsome “if it starts in August, I won’t review it rule.” That’s probably it, isn’t it? Still, it does make my life easier.
Thankfully, new shows have already started coming online. Netflix has this very day given us Ghoul, The Innocents and Deadwind, while Amazon has woken up again and is giving us Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan next week. I’ll try to watch some, if not all of them, and give you at least one Boxset next week. After that, I’ll be struggling to catch up with the release schedule, with new Iron Fist coming, The Last Ship back, and season two of Ozark due on 31st.
In the meantime, I’ve been continuing with the usual viewing queue, although that’s now down to just Shooter, given Condor and Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger finished their runs while I was on holiday. All of them I’ll discuss after the jump.
I also scoured around for new shows to watch, as well. Of the shows I mentioned last time, I could never quite bring myself to watch the rest of Jongo but I made a brave stab at the properly subtitled second season of You Are Wanted. I also managed to catch the movie version of Stargate: Origins, and started a new French show: Au service de la France (A Very Secret Service). But we can talk about all of those after the jump.
Every so often, TMINE flags up what new TV events BAFTA is holding around the UK
BAFTA’s got some interesting TV lined up for September, including previews of Killing Eve (all the episodes of which I’ve reviewed elsewhere on the blog if you do a quick search, but here’s the TMINE verdict), A Discovery of Witches, Outsiders and the third series of No Offence. Here’s what you can still buy tickets for, though (sorry – holidays!)
TV Preview: Killing Eve
Wednesday, 5 September 2018 – 6:30pm
Princess Anne Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London
A preview of the new BBC series followed by a Q&A with the creative team.
From multi-BAFTA winning writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) the eight-part series follows Eve (Sandra Oh), a bored MI5 security officer whose desk job does not fulfil her fantasies of being a spy. That is until she’s tasked with tracking down fearsome assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer), throwing them into a cat-and-mouse game that turns the traditional spy-thriller on its head.
The all-star cast includes Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter), David Haig (Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Kim Bodnia (The Bridge).
The series is a Sid Gentle Films Ltd production for BBC America, and was acquired from Endeavor Content. It will premiere on BBC One and will be made available as a box set on BBC.
Wednesday, 5 September 2018 – 7:00pm
Cineworld, Mary Ann St, Cardiff CF10 2EN
Bad Wolf Productions and SKY One present the UK premiere of their brand new TV series. Adapted from Deborah Harkness’ best selling novel A Discovery of Witches is a contemporary love story set in our world, but one which humans share with the declining species of witches, vampires and daemons – creatures existing and working amongst us, but hiding, unknown to most humans, in plain sight.
Teresa Palmer (Hacksaw Ridge) plays brilliant academic and historian Diana Bishop, a reluctant witch denying her heritage. The discovery of a manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library throws her into the heart of a dangerous mystery and into the path of enigmatic geneticist Matthew Clairmont played by Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey, The Crown), an ancient vampire hiding dark family secrets.
Bad Wolf is the result of over 15 years of creative collaboration between founders Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner and the production and creative community of Wales.
A Q&A with key cast and crew will follow the screening. Details to be confirmed nearer the time.
We have an allocation of members’ tickets available. Please email Vicki to reserve your place.
TV Preview: No Offence
Monday, 10 September 2018 – 6:45pm
Princess Anne Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London
A preview of the third series of Paul Abbott’s BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series, followed by a Q+A with creator and writer Abbott, director Catherine Morshead and cast Joanna Scanlan and Will Mellor.
This season sees the crime-fighting Friday Street team face off against their most formidable antagonist yet: the far-right. A contentious Manchester mayoral election is a tinderbox ready to ignite. And a far-right group are determinedly fuelling the chaos. When a political event becomes a flashpoint for deadly violence the team must race to catch a killer and stop an escalating reign of terror across the city.
DI Viv Deering (Scanlan) and her coppers find themselves clashing once more with the underworld and the upper brass alike. Deering’s never had it so tough and finds she must deploy every weapon in her arsenal to keep her team together and restore peace to a community wracked with political and xenophobic uncertainty.
The all-star cast includes Elaine Cassidy, Alexandra Roach, Will Mellor, Sharon Rooney and Neil Maskell.
No Offence is written and created by Paul Abbott and produced by his company AbbottVision. Executive Producers are Paul Abbott, Martin Carr and Paul Coe for AbbottVision; with Philip Leach as Producer.
Wednesday, 19 September 2018 – 6:00pm
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Tom thinks it’s time his youth group got in touch with their inner selves, outside. But when group therapy and organised fun collide, bad things happen. A new comedy drama with songs. Written by 5 new Welsh writers and starring 6 new Welsh actors/actresses, ‘Outsiders’ will be broadcast as a 30 minute TV drama on BBC Wales this autumn. A BBC Writersroom and Boom Cymru production for BBC Wales.
We’ve all got problems, but Tom has more than most as he’s taking his teen therapy group for their big summer outing. Only the venue turns out to be a bit crap and there are hours to fill until the minibus comes back to pick them up. The teenagers don’t want to be there, but Tom is sure they’ll be able to get in touch with their inner-selves, outside… without touching each other that is. There are no breakthrough, life changing moments, but as Tom attempts to keep the gang entertained – and alive – there is something resembling fun, friendship and laughter. Oh and there’s songs….
Each individual character story is written by a different emerging Welsh writer. Outsiders can be watched as five single standalone films or as one half hour of comedy drama.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the team behind Outsiders with a discussion centred around BBC Wales’ commitment to Comedy and the BBC’s Commitment to new talent in association with BBC Writersroom. More information coming soon on the Q&A panellists.
This is a post-watershed show which contains strong language and adult themes.
We have 20 complimentary members tickets available for this event. Email Vicki to reserve your place.
Public tickets are available to purchase via Chapter.
