Wow. This looks good. Bit of a gamble for Marvel releasing this a week before Thor 2, which looks decidedly less exciting by comparison. And Robert Redford as the baddie, essentially the Richard Nixon of the piece? How marvellous.
The Avengers
What did you watch last week? Including The Tomorrow People, The Blacklist, Isabel, Arrow and Elementary
It’s “What did you watch last week?, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I watched last week 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.
Things are calming down a bit in terms of new launches so the only dedicated review I put up last week was a third-episode verdict on the dreary Atlantis. Still in the viewing queue are last night’s Serangoon Road and Friday’s Strike Back.
I did start watching The CW’s Reign with my lovely wife, who loves all things Tudor. It’s the story of the return of the teenage Mary Queen of Scots to the French court, which confusingly has everyone French or Scottish speaking in English with an English accent. However, we had to stop 15 minutes into the show because after an exciting start, we were subjected to such a plot and character dump that even my wife couldn’t cope. So we’ll probably watch it tonight or later in the week when our brains can catch up.
Also still in the viewing queue are last night’s Serangoon Road, Saturday’s Atlantis and Friday’s Strike Back.
Shows I’m watching but not necessarily recommending
Agents of Shield (ABC/Channel 4)
The dullest ep so far – although it was far from being a washout – yet also the first that’s really established the show as a series in its own right, rather than merely a spin-off from the movie series.
The Blacklist (NBC/Sky Living)
Tom Noonan guest stars as a list member – cue one of the biggest Manhunter tributes in living memories, right down to making him a dentist who collects teeth. Megan Boone is now pretty superfluous to requirements, beyond being a damsel in distress. All the same, probably the best episode so far.
Isabel (Sky Arts)
Still good fun, even if I am a couple of episodes behind now. Can’t help but notice but for a prestige production, there are only about five sets being used.
The Tomorrow People (The CW/E4)
Basically the same episode as the pilot episode, just with less excitement.
Recommended shows
Arrow (The CW/Sky 1)
The return of China White, a new recruit, making sense of why we’re still getting flashbacks to the Island and more. A pretty good second episode in fact, with a killer of a cliffhanger.
Elementary (CBS/Sky Living)
Is it my imagination or is Watson now making more and better deductions than Holmes? Quite a fun episode hugely off-canon but with a nice guest turn by Laura Benanti (The Playboy Club, Go On) as an important figure from Holmes’ past. Quite touching in its own way.
Homeland (Showtime/Channel 4)
Erm, what? Actually, the surprise twist to proceedings didn’t seem that surprising, even though it didn’t make much sense. Brody’s fun in Venezuela last week made even less sense. And the Dana interlude is incredibly dull and pointless. But I’m enjoying this far less explosive season more than than the second 24-lite season. It doesn’t half feel like there are a bunch of characters still hanging around for no good reason, though.
Modern Family (ABC/Sky 1)
A lot funnier than some recent episodes, but with the usual fixed gender conclusions and stereotypes.
“What did you watch last 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?
Tom Hiddleston decides to impersonate Owen Wilson playing Loki
Now here’s something you don’t see every day: it’s Tom Hiddleston doing a pretty good impression of Owen Wilson if he’d been asked to deliver Loki’s dialogue in The Avengers. Why he has this talent, I don’t know, but it’s a talent nonetheless.
[via]
Full season and a returning agent for SHIELD, and Richard Belzer leaves L&O:SVU
The Daily News will return on Wednesday. Or Thursday. It depends how tired I am
Doctor Who
- Nine missing episodes recovered, now available on iTunes
Film casting
- Kristin Chenoweth and Katrina Bowden joins Hard Sell
- Sophie Turner joins Barely Lethal
- Elizabeth Peña joins David Mamet’s Blackbird
Trailers
- Trailer for Ambushed with Dolph Lundgren, Vinnie Jones and Randy Couture
Canadian TV
- Sci-fi show Echoes in development
- Trailer for Bitten
New UK TV shows
- Trailer for BBC2’s autumn/winter dramas
US TV
- Agents of SHIELD gets a full season
- The Originals, The Tomorrow People and Reign gets orders for more scripts
- Wednesday ratings: Super Fun Night and Ironside drop, The Tomorrow People starts okay
- Wednesday cable ratings
US TV casting
- Richard Belzer leaving Law & Order: SVU
- Lots more guest stars for Community
- Titus Welliver to reprise Agent Blake for Agents of SHIELD
- Chris Elliott to guest on Hot In Cleveland
New US TV shows
- NBC acquires: time travel dramas Lighthouse and Timeless…
- …is developing: Justin Long comedy and Bert Kreischer comedy
- ABC developing: Bright Young Things
- CBS acquires: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s More Time With Family
- A&E red lights Occult, Comedy Central red lights Schlub Life and Bad Advice
- Fox adapting: Turkish drama The End
New US TV show casting
- Natalie Zea to star in Amazon’s Outlaws, Peter Jacobson to recur on Lifetime’s HR
- Ray Liotta and Mamie Gummer join HBO’s The Money
Third-episode verdict: Agents of SHIELD (ABC/Channel 4)
In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
In the UK: Fridays, 8pm, Channel 4
Three episodes into Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and it looks like the show is finally finding its feet as a show separate from The Avengers/Avengers Assemble and the rest of the ‘Marvel Universe’. Episode one was a derivative affair, no different from Knight Rider and NCIS in set-up but with even prettier casts and Whedongags and constant references to the movies to differentiate it from other ensemble action shows that deal with the hunting down of ‘terrorists’.
With Joss Whedon apparently absent behind the scenes of episode two, taking his jokes with him (although rumours are they he did do some re-writes on it), the show made an unfortunate shift sideways in the direction of Torchwood, giving us a rubbish, bickering team, trying to save the world from alien artefacts, while making yet more references to the movies. And we just don’t need another Torchwood – one was enough.
Episode three was considerably more pleasing, though, giving us some juicy flips of a standard plot, some actual personalities for the prettier members of the cast and a guest appearance by an accent-laden Ian Hart. While still not quite up to Whedon-standard, there were better gags than before and the laying down of some new mythology for the show so it doesn’t have to keep drawing on the Marvel movie universe. It did have some weird ideas about Malta, though, and some pretty poor fight scenes, so let’s not get too carried away.
Agents of SHIELD is clearly a show finding its way. It’s not trying to be as clever or off the wall as previous Whedon efforts, and while its playing with the tropes of mainstream action and comic-book shows gives a certain edge on the po-faced likes of Criminal Minds and NCIS, it doesn’t yet have good enough writing or a good enough cast for it to quite get by without the goodwill brought about by the movies.
But it’s got enough good things about it and enough strengths that given time, it will be a decent enough show and could possibly grow into something innovative. We can at least keep our fingers crossed.
Barrometer rating: 3
Rob’s prediction: Will last at least one season, but needs to find its own place in the Marvel and TV-viewing universes for it to go beyond that.