Shameless (US)

What did you watch this week (w/e January 27)?

30 January 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

(Belated) time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, House, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them.

Deleted from the viewing queue from last week is Eternal Law. Life’s too short.

But here’s what I did watch:

  • Are You There, Chelsea? Episode two veered straight into utterly unfunny CBS comedy territory within five minutes so promptly got switched off.
  • Arctic Air: A Canadian show all about an airline company in a small, northerly part of Canada that expects to be up-and-coming very soon. A new pilot gets recruited, except he used to live there and it stirs up all kinds of former rivalries and problems. Starring every Canadian actor you’ve ever seen in bit parts in other shows, including Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica, it’s about as soporific and unremarkable as they come.
  • Archer: Burt Reynolds – awesome, that’s all I can say.
  • Borgia: Thanks to the mighty power of Netflix, which I’m sure I’ll review some time this week, I’ve managed to watch this Canal+ drama about the Borgias before a UK network acquires it. Okay, having watched it, I’d be surprised if any UK network acquired because it turns out that yes, there is a worse version of the Borgias’s story than The Borgias. While the latter is full of pasty Brits with the sex appeal of kippers and Borgia features a cast of pan-European (relative) hotties in various states of undress, this is a dreadfully written show, with every line of dialogue reeking as though it came from the hand of James Thackara. And it has John Doman from The Wire as Rodrigo Borgia. Fine he may be as a politicking Baltimore cop, but Jeremy Irons he is not and neither is he an Italian pope in waiting.
  • The LA Complex: Still relatively fun. Still quite soapy. You can slowly watch everyone’s careers plummetting into Hell. But this really isn’t for my age group, so I’m giving up.
  • Mad Dogs: Series two of this Sky show starring John Simm, Philip Glenister, Marc Warren and Max Beesley makes even less sense than the first series, is even less action-packed and riveting, and hasn’t even got the benefit of Ben Chaplin this time. But it does look gorgeous in HD.
  • Shameless: still excellent, but has lost some of the relationship detail of the previous series that gave the show a heart.
  • Spartacus: Vengeance: A pale shadow of the previous series. Andy Whitfield is much-missed but several actors have also recast so I couldn’t remember who anyone was and the new actors didn’t leave much of an impression. The absence of John Hannah’s character is leaving a huge whole in the show, too. Liam McIntyre really isn’t any good as Spartacus, unfortunately, lacking the depth and vulnerability of Whitfield, and (spoiler) Lucy Lawless’s character has gone off at the deep end so can’t do much that’s useful. The ultra-violence and nudity are still there, of course, but as of yet, the plotting has yet to take off.
  • 30 Rock: God bless Kelsey Grammer. A couple of genuinely funny episodes.

And in movies:

  • Ip Man: Donnie Yen in a lavish periodical about Bruce Lee’s wing chun instructor Ip Man. Good fight scenes, although nothing you’d call climatic, and intensely reverential to Man to the extent that no one can get a punch in at any point, even when it’s 10 against 1. Although it’s understandable given the history involved, the film also lacks the even-handedness towards the Japanese of films such as Jet Li’s Fist of Legend, leaving a nasty taste in the mouth.
  • The Change Up: Ryan Reynolds and Justin Bateman swap bodies and lives in a comedy from the writers of The Hangover. While not the funniest film ever committed to celluloid, it does have some laugh out loud moments and there is a weird almost rom-com element to it involving Olivia Wilde. It feels better overall, in fact, than the individual elements.
  • Primer: Again, I watched this courtesy of Netflix, and it’s a low-budget movie about a group of scientists who accidentally invent a time machine. However, the first 15 minutes are almost entirely wiring and soldering, by which point I lost the will to watch the rest of the movie. I will probably watch the rest of it at some point, though, since it’s supposed to be good. Just not yet:

"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?

US TV

What did you watch this week (w/e January 20)?

20 January 2012 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

Time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

First, the usual recommendations: Archer, Being Human (US), The Daily Show, Modern Family, Happy Endings, Portlandia, Royal Pains, Shameless (US), Southland, Suburgatory and 30 Rock. Do watch them.

Still in the viewing queue from last week are Eternal Law, The L.A. Complex and Arctic Air. I get the impression I won’t watch any of them. As predicted, I deleted Borgen from the viewing queue since I’m now four episodes behind. I’ve now got the second episodes of Are You There, Chelsea? and Shameless (US) to get through, too, as well as the first episode of Smash and the first episode of the new series of Mad Dogs.

But I did manage to watch the first episodes of a few new shows:

  • Rob: Rob Schneider (yes, Deuce Bigalow himself) plays an OCD guy who marries a woman virtually on impulse and gets to meet her extensive Mexican family, including her dad, played by the 1970s’ Rob Schneider, Cheech Marin. I was expecting to absolutely hate it, but it did display at least a few signs of intelligence and originality… for all of 10 minutes, after which the ridiculous farce and extensive Mexican stereotypes kicked in and I switched off. So better than Mike and Molly but not as good as 2 Broke Girls then.
  • The Finder: A spin-off from the tepid Bones, in which a man (and two sidekicks, including Michael Clarke Duncan) who can find things… finds things. Exciting, huh? Watched the first five minutes, during which our hero was shot at with an automatic while running down a narrow corridor, yet survived to tell the tale, and figured I’d pretty much got the measure of the show. An affable enough dramedy, but in no sense remarkable at all.
  • Stella: Sky 1’s new comedy-drama starring and written by Ruth Jones of Gavin & Stacey fame. Now, we were a little divided about this one, because I didn’t think it that great, while my lovely Welsh wife said it was almost exactly like being back home: even if it wasn’t necessarily funny all the time, it was always incredibly well observed. However, we stopped after 10 minutes of episode 2, since it just started to get a bit miserable and unenjoyable. It should also be pointed out this had the worst title sequence of any UK TV show since 1985.

A few thoughts on some of the regulars:

  • Portlandia: after the fabulous first BSG sketch from this episode, expectations were high for the follow-ups. The next wasn’t as good, and neither was the final sketch, but it saw a reunion of James Callis, Edward James Olmos and Ronald D Moore so was worth it all to see them watching Doctor Who together at the end. 
  • 30 Rock: Slowly decreasing in funniness, but a couple of good moments.
  • Royal Pains: back and starting to feel a little less like it’s treading water than it did over summer. Signs of plot progression? We can only hope.
  • Being Human (US): the first episode is doing a repeat of series 1, by starting the same way the UK series did. But this time, lessons appear to have been learnt. While a little darker and less engrossing than it was towards the end of series 1, the episode picked up after the first 15 minutes or so to give us a better version of the original. Sally’s plotline was fun without the comedy overkill of Annie’s, and Nora is essentially a pleasant but still sparky version Nina, which means she’s actually watchable (ditto Josh v George and Tovey’s over-acting). We also had some great vampire moments and fights courtesy of Sam Witwer’s Aidan. On the whole, I’m looking forward to this series much more than I am to series 4 of the UK original.
  • Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville – dreadful, illogical and obvious; The Reichenbach Fall – much better, although dragged in the middle. Looking forward to the next series!
  • Suburgatory: Sweet, and an interesting ending.
  • Southland: As usual, cast changes aplenty. We have Lucy Liu making a surprisingly good street cop; Arija Bareikis seems to have disappeared, as has every detective who isn’t Regina King (or her new partner). It basically feels like a slight retooling to focus on the best bits of the show – the beat cop side – away from the detectives. A little bit bitty as an episode, but with a cracking firefight and some great moments. Welcome back Southland!

And in movies:

  • Paradox: An odd little movie that you can find on SyFy now and then. Based on a comic book, it stars Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, himself) as a detective who lives in a world much like our own but that uses magic the way we use science. Winston Churchill helped to defeat the Germans in World War 2 using the power of Excalibur and is still alive; wizards run the government and coroners bring people back from the dead to answer questions about their murders. Except there’s crossover between the two worlds and Sorbo has to learn how to deal with science and technology. Let down by the gimmicky addition of comic book artwork in between scenes, it’s quite fun, although never going to win any awards.

"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?

US TV

Review: Are You There, Chelsea? (NBC) 1×1

12 January 2012 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Are You There Vodka?

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30pm EST, NBC

The big four American TV networks have something of an alcohol problem. Or at least a problem with alcohol. In any given TV show, anyone shown to be drinking a lot or generally having alcohol-related fun must have a problem and they need to give up alcohol ASAP if they’re to get their life into gear.

Who knows what would happen if they ever remade Inspector Morse.

The last time the networks had a go at a show about people who quite liked drinking, it was Showtime’s Shameless remake, in which Frank’s drinking is the root of all evil (although he’s not much better off the sauce, addmitedly). And before that, it was the “anything but” Happy Hour on Fox.

Now NBC is trying to make a comedy based on talk show host Chelsea Handler’s autobiography, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. And that’s what the TV show was called until very recently, until it was nonsensically renamed Are You There, Chelsea? (because having vodka in the title would put off viewers, apparently.) In it, a thinly veiled version of Chelsea Handler (who actually plays Chelsea’s born-again Christian sister in the show) works in a bar and tries to navigate through the complexities of work, boyfriends, friends and family while repeatedly getting rat-arsed – and everyone telling her she has a drink problem.

Here’s a trailer. It’s from the now almost-completely reshot pilot. If you’re in the US, you can view a proper trailer after that, too. Neither will make you laugh.

Continue reading “Review: Are You There, Chelsea? (NBC) 1×1”

News

Tuesday’s “is there anyone left on Being Human?” news

10 January 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Being Human season 4 cast

Film

British TV

US TV

US TV

What did you watch this week (w/e December 23)?

23 December 2011 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff

Time for "What did you watch this week?", my chance to tell you what I watched this week that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case we’ve missed them.

Last one of these before Christmas and the New Year, so get your recommendations in now, since there are people out there with time on their hands and awkward conversations to avoid and some decent TV might be a lifesaver.

  • American Horror Story: End of the season and it’s all change. Overall, a very silly show that was never really scary, just gory when it chose to be. Right, who’s going to give Alex Breckenridge a job?
  • The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff: Essentially, Radio 4’s Bleak Expectations transposed to the small screen as a single-camera comedy and with a very famous cast (Mitchell and Webb, Stephen Fry, Katherine Parkinson). The trouble is it doesn’t work as well. The same verbal jokes are there but they flutter by quickly without an audience to laugh at them and give time for gaps in the dialogue. There’s CGI for some of the more outlandish fantasies (none of them as outlandish as radio can conjure up though) and the whole thing feels like 300 thanks to the copious amounts of green screen, but none of that was actually funny, and was again largely about verbal puns. And at an hour, the run-time of the story was far too long. All the same, it raised at least the regulation amount of laughs, which is more than you can say about Life’s Too Short and Rev these days.
  • Dexter: An episode marginally better in quality than the previous ones, but largely because of the ending, which should have been how the previous season ending. Overall, a very disappointing season that together with last season’s finale burnt up most of the goodwill and excitement surrounding the show. Fingers crossed next year will be better and at least there’s something interesting for the show to address.
  • Homeland: By turns, exactly what I expected, yet also surprising. Given the plot mechanics needed for a second season, it was obvious what was going to happen, but I was hoping for (spoiler) Brody to trigger the bomb. But beyond that, there were enough twists that I didn’t see coming and enough overall intelligent writing to satisfy me. However, the finale, together with a few of the preceding episodes, also showed the programme’s roots in 24, with many of the same tropes, just approached differently and slightly more realistically.
  • Life’s Too Short: Finally caught some of this. Pretty much exactly like every other Ricky Gervais-scripted show, particularly Extras, but without the laughs.
  • Misfits: Better than series two, with some real standout episodes, but another season that didn’t really go anywhere with the characters, even though they developed slightly. Season four really needs to start heading in a different direction and start fleshing everything out more.
  • Rev: The Christmas episode and just miserable.
  • Shameless: Yes, I’ve seen the first episode of the second season, and beyond a slightly worrying trend towards making Fiona more of a ‘winner’, this is still excellent stuff and Emmy Rossum is great. They’ve also recast Jane Levy’s part, since she’s off starring in Suburgatory now.

And in movies:

  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: Not as good as the first Robert Downey Jr movie. Stephen Fry is oddly unsuited to the role of Mycroft, it turns out and the replacement of Rachel McAdams with Noomi Rapace from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo robs the movie of a vital element as well. But Kelly Reilly’s back, Jared Harris makes a fabulous Moriarty, the script is actually quite good, Jude Law is better than in the first movie and the ‘fight scene’ between Moriarty and Holmes is memorable, as is the coda at the end. Silly, but enjoyable and smarter than many a blockbuster, even if this is less detective story than action adventure movie.

"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?