Saturday 31 August 2013

Video: IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME


I don't usually post short films, but wanted to draw your attention to Matt Spicer's black-comedy It's Not You, It's Me. This 9-minute short stars Gillian Jacobs (Community) and Fran Kranz (Dollhouse) as a couple whose relationship's going through a bad patch, culminating in a shock. Warning: contains a few gruesome scenes.

[via Film School Rejects]

Friday 30 August 2013

Question: do you jump into serialised television shows late?


We all have our little rituals and rules when it comes to watching television. You may like to watch something at a particular time, or with a particular person. Or perhaps you insist on complete silence to soak in every utterance? Anyone who goes against your "personal code" will most likely have other habits to make you chew your knuckles. I'm quite an empathetic person, so my biggest gripe is people refusing to watch something from the start, and often ruining a good experience by curtailing.

Thursday 29 August 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.11 – 'Doomed' & ANGEL, 1.11 – 'Somnambulist'

Buffy (to Riley): I thought a professional demon chaser like yourself would've figured it out by now. I'm the Slayer. Slay-er. Chosen One. She-who-hangs-out-a-lot-in-cemeteries? You're kidding. Ask around. Look it up: "Slayer, comma, the."

After the illustrious "Hush" ending 20th-century Buffy the Vampire Slayer on a high, it was almost inevitable the next hour wouldn't be as imaginative (with yet another attempt by demons to usher in the end of the world), but "DOOMED" succeeded because the characters and their individual storylines continue to be a lot of fun. I particularly like the new dynamic between Riley (Marc Blucas) and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) now they know each other's secret; with Riley excited about the prospect of starting a relationship with someone he has something in common with (demon-slaying), and Buffy uncertain she wants to risk a repeat of what happened with her ex-boyfriend Angel. The episode also did a good job of showing how different Buffy and Riley's approaches are as linchpins of their respective "Scooby Gangs": best demonstrated with a clever cut from Buffy's clique reading an ancient mystical text about the creatures they're after, while Riley gave his 'monster squad' a pre-mission briefing in a far more pragmatic way.

Tuesday 27 August 2013

DEXTER, 8.9 – 'Make Your Own Kind of Music'


written by Karen Campbell | directed by John Dahl

It isn't helping matters that Dexter's final run of episodes air the same night as Breaking Bad's own, because these shows couldn't feel more different in terms of how well the writers are bringing their stories to a close. Dexter's final season has failed to feel climactic in any particular regard, as you could imagine the show continuing for another season or two—even with occasional mentions that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is serious about leaving Miami with Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Harrison (Jadon Wells) as a happy ending nobody expects to come true. The stakes of the show are largely the same every season (somebody discovers Dexter's secret; someone's plotting to kill him), so season 8's just going through the motions with a few changes to that formula.

BREAKING BAD, 5.11 – 'Confessions'


written by Gennifer Hutchison | directed by Michael Slovis

I loved how this episode's title, "Confessions", led you to believe it would be Jesse (Aaron Paul) squealing to Hank (Dean Norris) about his role in Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) drug empire, but the truth of the matter was more complicated. The great thing about this final batch of episodes has been how the story twists and turns, finding unexpected ways to deliver what in retrospect seems inevitable. However, the one thing I simply didn't see coming was Walt's master-stroke in keeping Hank and Marie (Betsy Brandt) at a safe distance and unable to act, after a face-to-face meeting on neutral ground at a restaurant didn't do the trick: with Walt handing Hank a video confession, which turned out to pin the blame entirely on Hank. If Hank makes a move on Walt, this DVD will undoubtedly find its way to the DEA—and, at face-value, given how everyone still perceives Walt as a milquetoast chemistry teacher and lung cancer survivor, it's hard to see people refusing to believe Walt's account of the year's events.

Monday 26 August 2013

Review: Sky1's A TOUCH OF CLOTH II: UNDERCOVER CLOTH


written by Charlie Brooker, Daniel Maier & Boris Starling | directed by Jim O'Hanlon

What's essentially the British version of The Naked Gun trilogy returns for its second two-part special (with a third, filmed simultaneously, hopefully due to air sooner than next summer). It's alarming we've had to wait so long for A Touch of Cloth II, but that perhaps demonstrates how busy writer Charlie Brooker is juggling other projects. However, the slow drip of Cloth is perhaps for the best, as this quick-fire style of comedy overstays its welcome once it starts to feel gruelling—like watching a long weekend of Tim Vine stand-up. For that reason, I'm grateful A Touch of Cloth: Undercover Cloth is now airing across two Sundays, rather than two consecutive days...

TV Picks: 26 August – 1 September 2013 (Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Celebrity Juice, Doctor Who at the Proms, Stepping Out, Through the Keyhole, Wentworth, X Factor, etc.)


Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV shows, premiering/returning to UK screens...

Saturday 24 August 2013

LUTHER won't return to television

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Luther creator Neil Cross confirmed the hit BBC crime drama won't return for a fourth series: "... the show's finished. Idris [Elba], as he should be, he's gone on to be a big movie star." However, plans for a Luther movie are apparently still very much alive...

I'm sad the show won't be returning (mainly because it's one of the few BBC dramas I wholeheartedly enjoy), but in some ways it's hard to see where the show could have gone. There are only so many freakish villains you can dream up before it gets a little deadening, and the personal stories for John Luther always involved tragic romances and the possibility of being exposed as a dangerous maverick by suspicious bosses. That was already getting tired after three series, so maybe it's wise to end the show and give fans a cool feature film to look forward to instead?

Friday 23 August 2013

Trailer: India's 24


It's the trailer for the Indian remake of Fox's iconic action-thriller TV drama 24, which is itself coming back as an 'event series' next summer. Bizarrely, this Hindi-language remake stars Bollywood legend Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) in Kiefer Sutherland's lead role; an actor who played President Omar Hassan in the original's final season. I don't speak Hindi, but the embedded trailer appears to be a straight remake of 24's first season -- right? I wonder if the long-term plan is to continue in that vein, or if they'll create their own original stories going forward...

Anyway, I just thought it was worth highlighting this promo. It's surprisingly rare that a big-budget US drama gets remade in this way; as most English-speaking countries see little need to create a native version of a US hit, or don't have the finances to do a comparable version, and non-English viewers are accustomed to dubs or subtitles on imported entertainment.

The Indian 24 premieres on the country's Colors channel later this month. I'm hoping Kiefer Sutherland will be persuaded to cameo as a US Ambassador one day, or something...

Letterboxd: EVIL DEAD (2013), THE WATCH & WRECK-IT RALPH

★★★½ (out of five)

Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD is a horror touchstone and infamous piece of '80s cinema (partly down to its 'video nasty' reputation), and led to two jokier sequels that made a cult hero of Bruce Campbell as wisecracking, resourceful demon-slayer Ash. There's been talk of a fourth movie for many years, which I don't see happening now Raimi's in the upper echelons of Hollywood, so it makes perfect sense to let another new director take a crack at rebooting the whole shebang. Enter Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez, who made an alien invasion short called PANIC ATTACK! that went viral in 2009, who also co-writes the remake and finds a number of ways to subtly improve Raimi's formula...

Perhaps the best decision EVIL DEAD makes is to avoid having its own variant of Ash, and to remember the original was never overtly comedic. The premise remains largely the same (a group of friends travel to a remote woodland cabin and accidentally summon Evil forces after reading a cursed book they find in the basement), but Alvarez's reboot approaches the material in a more interesting way. This time the gang are there to support Mia (Jane Levy), a young woman trying to beat a drug addiction by going 'cold turkey'. This is immediately more interesting and original as 'spam in a cabin' set-ups go, but also means the film's craziness works as a warped realisation of Mia's mental state as she suffers withdrawals. Even better, when Mia starts trying to convince her friends about what's happening, for once it feels plausible how dismissive they are of her disturbed warnings.

Thursday 22 August 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.10 – 'Hush' & ANGEL, 1.10 – 'Parting Gifts'

Little Girl: Can't even shout, can't even cry / The gentlemen are coming by / Looking in windows, knocking on doors / They need to take seven and they might take yours / Can't call to mom, can't say a word / You're gonna die screaming, but you won't be heard.

Joss Whedon's "HUSH" is so fantastic that it frustrated me Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn't achieve anything close to this level of quality more often, while also making you realise the standard of its Rogue's Gallery is oddly limp—content to simply throw cannon fodder vampires Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) way for easy-staking, in-between the occasional demon with varying coloured make-up jobs.

The sublime villains of "Hush" (levitating, be-suited ghouls known as 'The Gentlemen', who steal voices and harvest hearts) were mesmerising and genuinely terrifying creations, but they worked so well because they tap into so many basic human fears: primarily the inability to communicate. I hope this episode means more imaginative monsters will be along soon, because the creativity of The Gentlemen puts all the others in the shade.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.10 – 'Radioactive'


written by Kate Barnow | directed by Scott Winant

I was in a minority hating the penultimate episode, but that's possibly because most sane people reviewing True Blood online are dyed-in-the-wool fans willing to defend the indefensible. I was expecting the finale to be just as atrocious, but to my surprise it was an acceptable way to end this season—although there were still lots of bumps along the way. I used to hate how True Blood would spent a large portion of its finales setting up the next season, but these days I'm usually glad the current storylines are over and something new and shiny is being dangled at us. If nothing else, the writers provided a mildly intriguing "reboot" of the show for season 7...

Tuesday 20 August 2013

DEXTER, 8.8 – 'Are We There Yet?'


written by Wendy West | directed by Holly Dale

There was a lot wrong with this episode, but there was also enough good to pull me through to the end. What I didn't like was just how clunky the story was, which is something Dexter as a whole suffers from. It doesn't have much finesse these days and the way each episode offloads exposition can be terrible—usually Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) internal monologues and his discussions with ghost Harry (James Remar). But then "Are We There Yet?" threw in a road trip discussion where Dexter filled Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) in on the season's events she wasn't present for, which also worked as verbal notes for lazy viewers. Is there a genuine belief at Showtime that Dexter's viewers just dip into the show occasionally, so need catch-up conversations between characters? It's a little exasperating to watch a show discuss itself so much, wasting time in the process, when it should be trusting its audience to keep up.

BREAKING BAD, 5.10 – 'Buried'


written by Thomas Schnauz | directed by Michelle MacLaren

After last week's scintillating episode where Breaking Bad once again managed to throw viewers a delicious curveball by having Walt (Bryan Cranston) confront Hank (Dean Norris), rather than vice-versa, many episodes earlier than expected, "Buried" was another very strong hour. What I love about Breaking Bad is how it tries to stay one-step ahead of its audience, while occasionally embracing the fact everyone knows certain things have to play out a certain way. And while a lesser show would devise a ridiculous way to zag when everyone expects a zig, sometimes Breaking Bad just ensures the zig's so elegantly played that you really don't mind.

Monday 19 August 2013

TV Picks: 19-25 August 2013 (Celebrity Big Brother, Chickens, Great British Bake Off, Top Boy, Touch of Cloth II, Trollied, Under the Dome, etc.)


Below are my picks of this week's most notable shows, returning/premiering on UK screens...

Sunday 18 August 2013

Question: do pioneering TV shows lose their impact with newcomers?


A mutual Twitter follower was tweeting his thoughts on the first season of 24 last night, which he'd just finished watching. I haven't seen that Fox classic's first year since it aired 12 years ago, but was surprised he didn't seem very keen on the first half—which I recall being the strongest part because the writers hadn't fully plotted beyond then. The show's ratings success pushed them to continue past the story's natural end-point of Jack Bauer rescuing his kidnapped wife and daughter from terrorists.

Saturday 17 August 2013

MSN TV: BBC1's BIG SCHOOL


Over at MSN today: I've reviewed the premiere of BBC1's new sitcom BIG SCHOOL, starring and co-written by David Walliams, joined by Catherine Tate, Philip Glenister and Frances de la Tour.
The great thing about a sitcom in a school is that everyone has first-hand experience of that setting; in later life, one can start seeing things from the teacher's perspective. However, audiences are so attuned to this environment it's hard to do much that feels fresh and different. There are so many clichés in education-set programmes that they're hard to avoid, mostly because they're oddly alluring. Big School, BBC1's new Friday night sitcom, fell into a number of traps in terms of lazily-written characters: the obstinate headmistress, the nerdy science teacher (a virgin, at that), the "games teacher" with an eye for the ladies. All your favourite stereotypes are present, although that in itself lent a feeling of comic strip-style nostalgia.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

Friday 16 August 2013

My never-ending catch-up pile


I've scaled back blogging to spare my sanity in the past year, but I'm actually watching more TV than ever before. How ironic! The shows I review weekly are either long-standing favourites I can't bring myself to stop writing about after so many years, or things that are just fun to let off steam about (True Blood). There aren't that many new shows that have become regular fixtures for review this year, actually—beyond Hannibal. But I still manage to review lots of US pilots and premieres along the way, so things will get much busier in the autumn. However, I thought I'd quickly go through some of the shows I am watching but haven't blogged about much, if at all...

Thursday 15 August 2013

Video: GAME OF THRONES – season 3, visual effects showreel


If you're a long-term reader of this blog, you'll know I love these special effects showreels for Game of Thrones. A new one's been released covering the third season's work by SpinVFX, and it's as enlightening and beautiful as ever. I'm amazed by how many shots involve some degree of trickery and digital augmentation, like extending landscapes and sets. This video's a wonderful way to spend four minutes of your day, although I guess you could extrapolate a few spoilers if you haven't seen the third season yet. Fair warning.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.9 – 'Something Blue' & ANGEL, 1.9 – 'Hero'

Buffy: Spike and I are getting married.
Xander: How? What? How?
Giles: Three excellent questions.


I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer's generally at its best when it's being silly and playful, which is a big reason "Something Blue" entertained me after threatening to break my spirit with an earnest story tackling Willow's (Alyson Hannigan) post-Oz heartache . It's not that there isn't a place for BtVS to tackle serious issues in a level-headed way, but it's not one of the show's core strengths. Thankfully, Willow soon accidentally gave herself the ability to impose her will on people, which transformed the episode into something much more fun...

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Trailer: WHITECHAPEL - series 4


ITV have largely shoddy promos for their home-grown dramas (maybe because few UK shows come with enough 'trailer-bait' moments?), but they appear to have put effort into this tease of WHITECHAPEL IV. It's much less generic than we've come to expect from ITV, at any rate. There's a bit of thought and creativity evident here, even if the pay-off to Steve Pemberton's speech isn't all that strong.

As for Whitechapel itself: I still find it odd a miniseries about a modern-day Jack the Ripper copycat was tweaked to become a horror-themed crime thriller, but series 3 was much better than that horrendous 'Kray Twin clones' idea behind series 2... so I'm interested in another trip to Whitechapel with odd couple detectives Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Miles (Phil Davis). Are you?

Tuesday 13 August 2013

MSN TV: AMC's BREAKING BAD, 5.9 - 'Blood Money'


Over at MSN today: I've reviewed the incredible mid-season premiere of BREAKING BAD's fifth season, "Blood Money", which is streaming on Netflix UK and Blinkbox soon after its US transmission on AMC.
One of the great television injustices has been Breaking Bad's treatment by UK broadcasters, with Fox (formerly FX) and 5USA doing a poor job publicising it when the series aired here years ago. It's quite simply one of the best TV shows of the past decade, and arguably one of the all-time greats. More accessible than The Wire and more riveting than The Sopranos, Breaking Bad has at least achieved cult status on British shores (thanks to the online community's adoration), and I'm overjoyed Netflix and Blinkbox secured deals to stream the last episodes so close to US transmission. What's more, it has blasted its way back on to AMC, its US cable network home, with record ratings of nearly 6m viewers.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

TRUE BLOOD, 6.9 – 'Life Matters'


written by Brian Buckner | directed by Romeo Tirone

This was one of the worst hours of television I've seen this year, and quite possibly the stupidest True Blood episode ever made. A travesty on so many levels, it left me embarrassed for everyone involved, while offering irrefutable evidence the writers don't have the vaguest idea what they're doing now. Admittedly the mid-season change of showrunner may not have helped things this season, but that's probably letting them off the hook too much. How else do you explain the insertion of flashbacks that tried to develop the back-story of a character who's dead, that took up almost half the runtime?

DEXTER, 8.7 – 'Dress Code'


written by Arika Lisanne Mittman | directed by Alik Sakharov

The reintroduction of pretty poisoner Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) certainly perked things up, but only slightly. I'm still unsure this final season has anything up its sleeve to astonish me, but there are now four people in existence who know Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) secret: ex-girlfriend Hannah, sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), confidant Dr Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) and teenage protégé Zach (Sam Underwood). (Okay, five if you include Lumen from season 5, but I'm guessing Julia Stiles isn't going to be making a surprise comeback.) This means there are quite a few potential leaks for Dexter's serial killing to be exposed to the wider world, although only Zach perhaps stands a chance of framing Dexter and getting away with it. Or is that beyond someone like him, even with his family's fortune to help? Vogel could hardly vouch for Dexter's innocence and hypocritically oppose Zach's side of the story...

Monday 12 August 2013

TV Picks: 12-18 August 2013 (Boom Town, Breaking Bad, Crazy About One Direction, Low Winter Sun, Ramsay's Hotel Hell, etc.)


Below are my picks of the most notable shows returning/premiering to UK screens this week...

Sunday 11 August 2013

Let the fun begin: Tumblr's 'Funtitles'!

I've gone and gotten myself a Tumblr. I've called it Funtitles and it will be a collection of (hopefully) amusing 'subtitles and captions' poking fun at moments in television and film. I'll try to get as creative as possible, so it will hopefully evolve and diversify over time. Animated gifs? Maybe!

It doesn't naturally fit with what Dan's Media Digest is about, so it's just a fun diversion in a medium that suits that style of comedy better than a blog post here would. If you want to follow my new Funtitles Tumblr, I'll be very happy about that. I kicked things off with a Top of the Lake funny called 'Matt Mitcham's Perfect First Date'.

I'll link to the week's tumblings at DMD, as well as tweet them immediately on my Twitter.

Trailer: Showtime's MASTERS OF SEX


Showtime have a new drama debuting the same night Homeland returns, called Masters of Sex. It's a provocative title for what should be a provocative drama from Michelle Ashord (John Adams, The Pacific), about two sex researchers in the 1950s, played by Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) and Lizzy Caplan (Party Down), based on a biography of their real-life counterparts called Masters of Sex: The Life & Times of William Masters & Virginia Johnson.

Saturday 10 August 2013

BREAKING BAD's Walter White sings Frank Sinatra's 'My Way'


The final season of Breaking Bad resumes tomorrow (11 Aug, AMC; 12 Aug, Netflix UK), so let's celebrate with a very clever mash-up where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is made to sing Frank Sinatra's "My Way" with clever editing. I'm always amazed there are people out there with this much time on their hands, but God bless them.

Trailer: HOMELAND - season 3


Showtime have released the official trailer for season 3 of Homeland, and it's done a great job of renewing my interest in this counter-terrorism drama. I found season 2 quite entertaining, but it wasn't a patch on the fantastic first season, so I can't say I've been keen to get my next Homeland fix since it went off-air. I remain sceptical about the decision to keep Damian Lewis on the show, too, but this trailer suggests a very interesting and bleak direction for the Nicholas Brody character. Maybe season 2's explosive finale was just what this drama needed; opening the door to a whole new chapter? So many good TV shows are ending just now, so it will be nice if Homeland recaptured that first year's glory.

Homeland returns to Showtime on 29 September. Channel 4 are rumoured to have the UK premiere a matter of weeks later.

Friday 9 August 2013

Review: Channel 4's 8 OUT OF 10 CATS DOES COUNTDOWN


I don't know what to make of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, which started a full-blown series last Friday, following its success as part of Channel 4's irregular "mash-up" evenings (where presenters of popular shows on the channel relocate to other shows, for humorous intentions). The most popular entertainment chimera of said evenings was when the comedians of satirical panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats found themselves playing teatime quiz show Countdown, aided by its regular contributors Susie Dent (of 'dictionary corner' fame) and Rachel Riley (short-skirted purveyor of numbered and lettered tiles). There's really no way on earth waspish Countdown host Nick Hewer could have been persuaded to get involved, and part of me thinks legendary original host Richard Whitley is spinning in his grave faster than the climactic Conundrum letters revolve.

Letterboxd: THE WORLD'S END (2013)

The 'Cornetto Trilogy' that began with SHAUN OF THE DEAD and continued with HOT FUZZ reaches a ribald conclusion with Edgar Wright's THE WORLD'S END, again starring 'double-act' Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This time Pegg plays fortysomething wastrel Gary King, whose adult life stagnated following a 1990 pub crawl with four mates—Peter (Eddie Marsan), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Andrew (Nick Frost). 23 years after their failed attempt to complete the infamous "golden mile" of twelve pubs, Gary returns to reunite his grown-up pals and relive the best night of his life.

In many ways, it's harder to live up to expectations with the third entry in a body of work. HOT FUZZ wasn't as strong as SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but it was bigger and wisely tackled a very different genre, while maintaining the Trilogy's loose theme of male friendships and the fight against conformity. First it was suburban zombies, then a village cult, now a small town infested with doppelgängers from outer space. I'd ordinarily be mindful of spoilers, but none of THE WORLD'S END trailers have shied away from revealing the twist that the pub crawl takes place during an INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS-style scenario. It's a twist that reminded me of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN in terms of how it'll give some viewers cognitive whiplash when it happens. You'll either squeal with inner joy when a straightforward comedy-drama suddenly involves blue-mouthed robots, or you'll wonder why the SHAUN triumvirate have made a film about learning to grow-up that bows to an adolescent love of sci-fi aliens.

Thursday 8 August 2013

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 4.8 – 'Pangs' & ANGEL, 1.8 – 'I Will Remember You'

Willow: Buffy, earlier you agreed with me about Thanksgiving. It's a sham. It's all about death.
Buffy: It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham.
Willow: You're not gonna jokey-rhyme your way out of this one.


This was one of the weirdest episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I've seen in quite some time (certainly this season), and easily one of the funniest. The unfortunate trade-off was a terrible storyline, clichéd villain, and a poor use of David Boreanaz's guest-starring Angel, when it should have been more exciting to watch the first true BtVS/Angel crossover. To briefly summarise the set-up of "PANGS": Xander (Nicholas Brendan) fell into a secret underground chamber and released the vengeful spirit of Hus (Tod Thawley), a Native American of the Chumash tribe, who set about avenging his people's mistreatment across town.

Wednesday 7 August 2013

TRUE BLOOD, 6.8 – 'Dead Meat'


written by Robin Veith | directed by Michael Lehman

The Vamp Camp idea's been intermittent fun this year, but it's starting to really drag now. Maybe the writers were too quick to catch most of the vampire characters, because imprisonment has wasted Tara (Rutina Wesley), Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) in particular, and hasn't been the best means to introduce sexy newcomers Willa (Amelia Rose Blair) and James (Luke Grimes) to the True Blood family. It feels like the show's been teasing us with the imminent eradication of the Vamp Camp inhabitants for far too long, so I've just grown inured to the dramatic potential.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

DEXTER, 8.6 – 'A Little Reflection'


written by Jace Richdale | directed by John Dahl

For the majority of its hour, "A Little Reflection" did little to shake season 8 out of the doldrums, but the last quarter-hour grew more interesting once Dexter (Michael C. Hall) decided he's going to become a "spiritual father" and murder mentor to rich psycho brat Zach Hamilton (Sam Underwood). And this means the writers can explore an idea the drama's eight-season run would never allow with Dexter's own flesh-and-blood Harrison, because they've never jumped years ahead in time between seasons. Harrison's only four years old, so it would be ridiculous if he started skinning neighbourhood cats and whatnot. But with eerie teenage Zach, it's a different matter entirely, and this episode did a predictable but enjoyable job of setting up Zach as Dexter 2.0: he's already undergoing therapy with sociopath-sympathiser Dr Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), who wants to teach him Harry's Code, and managed to talk his way off Dexter's kill-table by making Dex realise they're two peas from the same pod.

Monday 5 August 2013

DOCTOR WHO meets THE THICK OF IT's Malcolm Tucker (NSFW)


It was going to happen sometime, and here it is: a very funny mash-up of Peter Capaldi as potty-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, and Doctor Who. I'm sure this kind of language won't be polluting Saturday evenings in 2014 when Capaldi becomes the twelfth Doctor, but I kind of hope he brings this level of emotion and conviction to the role. The Daleks will be trembling if they're ever on the receiving end of a Tucker-style rant. NSFW, of course.

MSN TV: Channel 4's SOUTHCLIFFE


Over at MSN today: I've reviewed the premiere of Channel 4's four-part drama SOUTHCLIFFE about an English market town struggling in the aftermath of a spree killing...
Screenwriter Tony Grisoni was behind Channel 4's award-winning Red Riding trilogy, and Southcliffe brings the same beauteous bleakness back to our TV screens -- this time courtesy of US director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene). His tale of a lonely fantasist with a gun obsession who snaps thanks to a combination of stress (nursing his bedridden mother) and humiliation (his fantasy of being ex-SAS is exposed by a friend's army vet uncle), has clearly taken a few cues from real-life tragedies.

Continue reading at MSN TV...

TV Picks: 5-11 August 2013 (Dragons' Den, Field of Blood 2, Nikita, Mob Doctor, Steve Coogan: Stand-Up Down Under, That Puppet Game Show, etc.)


Below are my picks of the most notable TV shows returning/premiering on UK screens this week...

Sunday 4 August 2013

The BBC announce Peter Capaldi as the twelfth lead of DOCTOR WHO

It's over. The tabloid columns of speculation. The fantasy casting blogs. All the offhand proposals on social media. It's all finally over. (Well, until next time.) Yes, the BBC have officially announced who's playing the twelfth incarnation of The Doctor in series 8 of Doctor Who, scheduled to make their début in this year's Christmas Special, as a the perfect way to end the 50th anniversary year. And that lucky person is: Peter Capaldi.

Of course, Capaldi had become the favourite over the past few days; especially after bookmaker's stopped takings bets on him succeeding as the Time Lord. But, I must admit, I didn't see it coming. I even tweeted a few times rubbishing the rumours; mostly because Capaldi's filming on the BBC's new Three Musketeers series and I didn't think doing both would be possible. It would be like Anthony Head from Merlin also playing The Doctor, or something. But hey, it's happening.

Saturday 3 August 2013

Letterboxd: PACIFIC RIM (2013) & THE WOLVERINE (2013)

Guillermo del Toro's name is attached to so many projects that it's just nice to see something escape development hell. PACIFIC RIM is his love letter to the decidedly Japanese Kaiju genre of giant monsters and the Mecha genre of robots. At heart it's a patently absurd and simple-minded monster movie, set in a future where gargantuan amphibious monsters emerged through an inter-dimensional portal beneath the ocean and began terrorizing the titular Pacific Rim environs. To defeat them, humanity created 'Jaegers'; similarly enormous robots controlled by two pilots whose brains are linked to overcome the troublesome mental burden.

One such pilot is Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), whose co-pilot brother was killed during a skirmish with a Kaiju. Having subsequently quit the program, he's hand-picked by Jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) five years later to end the ongoing attacks before the Jaegers are decommissioned in favour of a gigantic coastline wall, by closing the underwater portal once and for all.

Friday 2 August 2013

Teaser: SHERLOCK - series 3


The BBC have been reshowing Sherlock over the summer, and they attached a teaser for series 3 at the conclusion of those repeats tonight. You can watch the video embedded above, which doesn't give anything away about storylines or how Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) cheated death. The biggest reveal is that Watson (Martin Freeman) will be sporting a moustache for awhile. The third series of Sherlock currently has no air date, but it's rumoured to be scheduled for either late-2013 or around New Year.

Fox remaking ITV's BROADCHURCH


The murder-mystery drama Broadchurch was a huge hit for ITV earlier this year (peaking with 8.9 million viewers for the finale), which didn't escape the attention of Fox bosses over in the US. They're lining up an American remake for 2014/15, in partnership with its British production company Kudos, with the premiere written by series creator Chris Chibnall (who will also serve as executive-producer).