The Wire

Monday’s I, Claudius, You, Claudius, We, Claudius news

13 June 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • Punchdrunk to make The Crash of the Elysium theatre show

Film

Theatre and Books

British TV

  • Adam Curtis to make Wire-inspired documentary series
  • Sky Anywhere renamed Sky Go [subscription required]
  • BBC2 and HBO to make I, Claudius mini-series

US TV

UK TV

Review: The Shadow Line 1×1

7 May 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

The Shadow Line

In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, BBC2. Available on the iPlayer

Writer/director/producer of BBC2’s new thriller The Shadow Line, Hugo Blick, would have us think of BBC2 as the UK’s version of HBO. Aside from the fact that there aren’t nearly enough repeats or boxing on BBC2 for that to be true, I’m not entirely convinced that just looking at drama – or even just as The Shadow Line – that you could make that mistake.

Sure, it’s got a good cast, including Christopher Eccleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lesley Sharp. It’s beautifully directed and concerns the kind of difficult subject matters that HBO used to be associated with, including drug dealing and contract killing. There’s the occasional bit of swearing, too, although nowhere near the levels of The Wire or Al Swearengen in Deadwood.

One might even stretch a point and say that although HBO doesn’t really do “Lynchian weird”, the general weirdness of The Shadow Line pales into insignificance compared to the weirdness of John from Cincinnati, even if that show was somewhat unique in HBO’s history.

But arguably, as a drama, The Shadow Line is so slow-moving, so off the wall and so anti-realistic, “BBC2 is the UK’s AMC” would be more accurate.

Here’s a BBC clip, because the BBC in their wisdom haven’t bothered to stick any decent trailers on YouTube. Sorry, US readers.

Continue reading “Review: The Shadow Line 1×1”

UK TV

Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 3×7-3×8

29 April 2011 Natalia Romanova 6 Comments

Laure in Spiral

In France: Some time last Summer
In the UK: Saturday 23rd April, 9pm, BBC4. iPlayer: Episode 7, Episode 8

Never distrust Spiral. That appears to be the moral of this week’s episodes. After my doubts last week, episodes seven and eight seemed designed purely to make me feel a little silly in all my reservations, those crafty writers.

Let’s talk about bluffs, double bluffs and general wheels within wheels after the jump – and a gratuitous picture of Karlsson.

Karlsson

Continue reading “Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 3×7-3×8”

US TV

Compare and contrast: The Killing and Forbrydelsen

23 March 2011 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Forbrydelsen

Over here in the UK, the Engrenages (Spiral) and The Wire-deprived portions of the population searching for decent crime TV (or indeed decent TV) have been eagerly watching Danish thriller The Killing (aka Forbrydelsen) on Saturdays on BBC4. Not that we’re behind the times, but it was actually made in 2007. Ho hum.

Anyway, airing in two-parts on Danish TV (two blocks of 10 episodes), Forbrydelsen details the police’s investigation of the murder of a school girl, with each episode showing a day’s worth of investigation. And although I’m only up to episode five, I’d have to say it’s damn fine TV and you should all watch it if you can. If you can’t, it’ll be out on DVD from April 4th.

Since that first series, it’s gone on to have a sequel series and a third series is in production right now, but hey, guess what, AMC in the US (home of Mad Men, Breaking Bad et al) is remaking it and is going to air its version from April 3rd. So you can compare and contrast, here’s an English language trailer for the Danish version and a trailer for the US version. If you’ve seen the first few episodes of the Danish version, you’ll be able to see they’re making it very, very similar to the original, don’t you think, right down to the music?

US TV

Review: The Chicago Code 1×1

9 February 2011 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

The Chicago Code

In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, Fox
In the UK: Acquired by Sky 1/Sky 1 HD. Coming soon

‘Gritty’ seems to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To many, it means ‘realistic’ – that it depicts the seamier, less pleasant parts of life. To others, it just means ‘looks a bit grimy’.

The Chicago Code – formerly called Ride Along – is gritty. A cop show set to a backdrop of corrupt Chicago city politics, it wants you to believe that it’s gritty in the sense of realistic. But to be honest, although it has Shawn Ryan (The Shield, The Unit) as show runner and principal writer, in a post-Wire, post-Southland world, it doesn’t really succeed – it just looks a bit grimy.

It’s not half-bad and it features the likes of Jessica Beals, Jason Clarke (Brotherhood) and Delroy Lindo, but it’s not as cutting edge as it likes to think it is. Here’s a trailer, followed by a featurette in which you get to hear Clarke’s normal Australian accent.

Continue reading “Review: The Chicago Code 1×1”