Saturday, February 15, 2014

A Violent Night In

And here's a rundown of some of the programmes I've been watching over the last few weeks.


Broadchurch: Continuing to watch this at TV3's pace, I've only two more episodes to go, even if I already know who the killer is and their motives. This still hasn't stopped me from enjoying the show and getting more and more engaged with the characters. The whole conversation in relation to Paul's faith and Hardy's weary cynicism was a delightful moment and although Susan continues to give me the creeps, she didn't deserve to lose her poor dog as a result though. Is it wrong that the dog's death bothered me more than most of the anguish/secrets from most of the characters?


Girls: I'm still sticking with the third season of this risible show for the time being (having it paired with Looking factors into it) and apart from Marnie and Adam, the characters are still horrible-ish people (except Ray, he's mostly boring). Of course it would take Hannah to make her editor's death about her (even if she has a right to worry about her book's future) and Jessa being flattered that someone would go to the trouble of faking their own death just so they wouldn't have to spend time with her is rather disturbing. Then there's Shoshanna, who just seems to spout inane lines nowadays but at least Adam's psychotic sister was given the boot in one of the rare moments where Hannah did something right for a change.


Inside No 9: Sometimes it really does feel like you're never too far away from another bonkers series from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It wasn't that long ago we had Psychoville and with Inside No 9, they've certainly delivered something great. The first episode felt pretty basic but the second episode - a silent episode with the cheeky title of A Quiet Night In, featuring the likes of Oona Chaplin and Kayvan Novak was something else altogether. Probably one of the most genius pieces of comedy the BBC have done in the longest of whiles, I can't wait to see where the remaining four episodes (and commissioned second series) will go. Definitely worth a watch.


Ja'mie: Private School Girl: You know the drill with Chris Lilley by now - he does a show, it lasts a series and then it's onto the next creation of colourful characters. Except this time around, he decided to reprise his role of spoiled antichrist, Ja'mie and give her a series for herself, centering on her exploits at Hillford High and trying her best to out mean Mean Girls too in the process. Ja'mie's even got her own set of Plastics (I mean prefects) at her beck and call and her torrent of abuse is casually tossed at her family and rivals, the borders with little effort as well. It's a fun enough series but the second episode did lack some of the bite that the first one had in spades and it does make me wonder if Ja'mie and her bitchy antics are enough to sustain the remaining episodes. Other than that, pretty quiche. I'll stop now.


Line Of Duty: I didn't watch the first series of this and I'm not sure if I'll watch more than the opening episode but then again, I just might given the wealth of acting talent in this series. Keeley Hawes alone is pretty great as the surviving/possibly bad cop Lindsay Denton and it does genuinely seem to be hard to predict where she'll go in the next few weeks. Also this show's rather casual way of bumping off seemingly prominent characters like Jessica Raine's Georgia also means that no-one is safe. Yeah, I can see myself watching more of this alright.


Looking: Three episodes in and I think this show is getting it's groove. It helps that three main characters are still more likeable than the ladies from Girls but more to the point, it's also nice to see Russell Tovey make his US television debut and not play an overly stereotyped British character as well. That being said, I can't imagine that it will be too long before Patrick and Kevin actually do go beyond their working relationship though. On the flip side and maybe it's because of the general structure, it does often feel like not a great deal actually happens as well. That could also be a consequence of me perhaps watching far more fast paced shows too.


The Musketeers: Four episodes in and I'm still in that phase where I'm enjoying the show but I'm not overly in love with it either. I mean, it's hard to deny that the writing for this show is somewhat better than Atlantis (though not by a huge margin) and the last few episodes alone have actually fleshed out our leading men pretty well. Still a few more ongoing arcs (aside from the Cardinal's scheming) might actually help proceedings a bit more though.


- There are rumours that White Collar's sixth season will be it's final one.
- The CW have renewed Supernatural, Arrow, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Reign for further seasons.
- Sarah Jane Potts has joined the cast of Gracepoint as hotelier Gemma.
- Michelle Fairley will replace Judy Davis in 24: Live Another Day.
- John Wesley Shipp will appear in The Flash pilot episode in a mysterious role.
- Sunny Mabrey has been cast as Glinda for the third season of Once Upon A Time and will debut later in the year.
- Both Anna Chancellor and Richard E.Grant will appear in the fifth series of Downton Abbey.
- Juliette Lewis and Ryan Philippe will appear in upcoming ABC drama, Secrets & Lies.
- Alyson Hannigan has joined new comedy More Time With Family for CBS, which will be produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
- Channel 4 will be airing the second series of Utopia from June.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re:Broadchurch, I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure I remember that (rest of sentence is in rot13 for spoilers) gur fprar lbh'er gnyxvat nobhg vf n snxrbhg naq gur qbt qbrfa'g qvr.

Anonymous said...

Rot13 is a way some people on the Internet use to post spoilers while making it optional for others to read them. You decode rot13 text by copying and pasting it to the little text box that makes up the entirety of http://www.rot13.com