The Wrong Other Woman

A rundown of some of the most recent shows I've caught ...

A Touch Of Cloth: Charlie Brooker's cop spoof trilogy finally came to it's conclusion with the airing of the third installment during the Bank Holiday Weekend. While the first one remains the best of the three, this final chapter was a marked improvement on the second with Karen Gillan's Kerry Newblood being a fun addition to the series. While the reveal of who Gillan's character was managed to be predictable, it still led to a great confrontation between her and John Hannah's always reckless Jack and the ends credits for this one were pretty cheeky - in the literal sense of the word.

Devious Maids: Finale time and the end to this second season managed to set up some interesting plotlines for next season - someone got shot, Rosie/Spencer got married as it was revealed the former's first husband was actually still alive, Zoila ended up pregnant, Marisol realised her husband killed the Powells son, Carmen slept with a married man (is Gilles Marini in every show nowadays?) and er, Valentina did something, didn't she? As a finale, it certainly packed a lot into it and it'll be interesting to see where this soapy show can go in it's third run.

Scandal: I won't lie - I've only gotten into this show more recently but having watched the first three episodes of the third season, courtesy of SkyLiving (and catching with the main points of previous seasons), I really do get why there's so much fuss behind this show. The fallout of Olivia and Fitz's affair took a surprisingly unpredictable (if slightly frustrating) turn of events while the further backstories of both Eli and Huck have been fascinating to watch. I'll definitely be watching the rest of this season and hope that the fourth season also airs pretty sharpish over here as well.

The Vampire Diaries: A hundred episodes later and this show is still here (okay, I know production for the sixth season has begun) but to celebrate it's landmark episode, the show brought back several characters (Klaus, Rebekah, Tyler etc) and had Katherine decide that she didn't want to go quietly into the night by swapping bodies with Elena during her dying moments. It's a good enough way of keeping onto Katherine for a tiny bit longer and for a prominent episode, it was also highly enjoyable too.

Utopia: A good finale but not as great as the previous series. I did like that they bumped off a few more characters and Wilson's increasing dark turn has been more riveting than anything concerning Ian or Becky and Jessica certainly had her moments in the last two episodes. With ratings being low though, it'll be a miracle if the show gets picked up for another run and I don't know how much longer they can sustain the threat of the virus but it would be a shame for Channel 4 not to give it another series too.

- Colin Woodell will be appearing in the second season of The Originals, playing a werewolf named Aiden.
- Outlander has already been renewed for a second season.
- Bex Taylor-Klaus has replaced Amy Forsyth for the upcoming Scream series.
- Mike Birbilglia has joined the cast of Orange Is The New Black.
- Derek Hough will be appearing in multiple episodes of Nashville's upcoming third season.
- Jyoti Amge and Patti LaBelle have both joined the cast of American Horror Story: Freak Show.
- The Leftovers has been renewed for a second season. SkyAtlantic will be airing the first season shortly.
- Mary McCormick and Josh Randall will be playing a power couple in the upcoming season of Scandal.
- Michael C. Hall will be returning to television in a mini-series called God Fearing Man. The project is currently being shopped around to networks at the moment.
- Homeland's fourth season will receive a two hour premiere. The series returns to Showtime from October 5th. Channel 4 will air it shortly afterwards.

Benevolent Lesbians?

It's a provocative title but if you've seen one of the five programmes I'm talking about here, you'll get the joke, lol. Here goes nothing ...

A Touch Of Cloth 2: Undercover Cloth: I know I dedicated a blog to the first two parter last year but while I enjoyed the second two parter almost as much (mainly for Anna Chancellor's delightful villainous lesbian mayoral candidate, Hope Goodgirl), I just felt I should talk about it here for now. It was fun enough two parter with Cloth going undercover to stop a nefarious plot surrounding a Telethon for Blameless Kids and there's no denying that both John Hannah and Suranne Jones are excellent but at times, it did feel a little too similar to the first two parter, especially with the ending. Still, I am looking forward to the third installment with Karen Gillan in 2014 though.

Orange Is The New Black: By watching two episodes a week, I've gotten at least halfway through the season with six episodes now watched. Each episode has managed to be better than the last with backstories for Sophia, Miss Claudette, Daya and Nikki as well as the further developments between Piper, Alex and Larry and the former's survival in prison as well. If I had to pick a favourite episode at the moment, then it's obviously going to be the one with the chicken. The last five minutes of that particular episode were some of the funniest I've seen in any show this year.

Orphan Black: It might be coming soon to BBC3 but I'm six episodes in and man, this show has been a gripping watch. The government conspiracy plotline with the clones might not be particularly original but the interactions with Sarah, Alison, Helena and Cosima and the more they invade each other's lives has certainly been fantastic to watch over the last few episodes. Tatiana Maslany really has managed to make each of her roles as different as the other and while she's been a revelation in all of her parts, I also have to praise Felix as well. As right hand men go, he's also been a joy to watch as well. I can't believe I've only got four episodes left to watch. I really don't want this show to end.

The Americans: As finales go, the first season ender to this mostly enjoyable show was a good way of ending things. The cliffhanger route is always a good way of getting audiences to come back, especially when the show itself is coming back and having both Philip and Elizabeth meeting the Colonel worked as an ending too. I've enjoyed this show a lot but I've hated the timeslot and I still think ITV have been a bad fit for the series overall. Also the cynical part of me won't be that surprised if the second season is relegated to the digital equivalents as well. It's a shame because had ITV had more foresight, this easily could've been a success for them like Homeland has been for the UK. At least RTE2 in Ireland treated the show better.

The X Factor: Don't expect this in every TV blog jumble but yes, I am watching the 10th series of ITV's mostly ratings juggernaut. So far, the new series seems to be doing better than the previous year and Sharon Osbourne so far has been far less annoying than expected but having it on two nights from the start seems like too much overexposure and the talent so far is hardly inspiring stuff. Once again, there's too much of an unhealthy emphasis on sob story and while the likes of Sam the prison officer do have talent, I wouldn't hold my breath on her winning it though. Bieber tribute act, Luke was surprisingly decent though. As for The Xtra Factor - still amusing, though I'm not sure of new presenter Matt Richardson just yet.

- Demi Lovato will be playing a character named Dani, in six episodes of Glee. Her character will be a love interest for Santana.
- JJ Abrams will be remaking Westwild as a series for HBO.
- Les Miserables could be a legal drama. It seems that Rob Thomas is spearheading the project. Ugh.
- A&E have axed The Glades after four seasons.
- Leslie Jordan will be appearing in American Horror Story: Coven.
- Bethany Joy Lenz will be appearing in the 300th episode of CSI.
- Channel 5 have bagged the rights to upcoming ABC drama, Betrayal.
- Lisa Kudrow will play a powerful politician in the new season of Scandal.
- David Morrissey will play the lead role in AMC's sci-fi series, Line Of Sight but will still be committed to the upcoming season of The Walking Dead as well.
- Alexis Denisof has joined the cast of Grimm, playing the cousin of James Frain's character, Eric Renard.

A Touch Of Cloth - Episodes 1 & 2

Well, this was something of an unexpected delight. Nice to see Sky1 pushing out something as ludicrous and funny as this spoof series.

Charlie Brooker has been on something of a roll for a while with his satirical take on the TV formats in both previous hits such as Dead Set and last year's Black Mirror (a second series due for 2013) and with A Touch Of Cloth, he didn't hold back when it came to highlighting the sheer silliness that most cop shows seem to have nowadays and this opening two-parter (the first of a planned trilogy with Brooker and co-writer, Daniel Maier) certainly delivered.

John Hannah and Suranne Jones, both known for their history of appearing in police shows themselves made for a fun duo of maverick cop, Jack Cloth and bisexual partner, Anne Oldman (pronounced Old Man) as the pair cope with their partners dying/leaving them, their not remotely subtle UST as well as a blind justic killer bumping off jurors and no, I'm not going to spoil who the killer is but within five minutes of watching the first episode, you'll figure it out without much effort.

The two-parter moved a breathless pace with plenty of easy jokes and a few less obvious ones and while it might not be as subversive as some of Brooker's previous efforts, A Touch Of Cloth is never boring. Hannah and Jones are particularly excellent with one another and some of the dialogue is genuinely funny in it's delivering ("I haven't laughed since my wife died", "bi, jack" "It's Old Man"/"Whatever" for example) and there's a great supporting cast with Daisy Beaumont as an innuendo laced pathologist, Julian Rhind-Tutt as a grouchy boss and even Todd Carty gloriously sending up himself as well. Definitely worth giving a watch to and for Doctor Who fans, you can also expect to see Karen Gillan in one of the stories due for transmission next year, if you need an extra incentive to watch it.

New TV Gigs

Well, both Karen Gillan and John Barrowman have snagged some interesting TV gigs and when I say interesting, I mean more so than the US Office and The Carrie Diaries (sorry Catherine and Freema).

Karen Gillan will be appearing in the third story of A Touch Of Cloth, the spoof cop show, due to air on SkyAtlantic, created by Charlie Brooker and starring Suranne Jones and John Hannah. The first one is due to be aired during the August Bank Holiday Weekend with the second also filmed. Gillan's story will be filmed soon but won't air until 2013. Details in relation to her character have not been released but nice going, Karen. I wonder if we'll get another companion on the second series of Black Mirror then. Go on, Charlie - you know you want to.

Meanwhile John Barrowman might not have his ABC pilot made into a series but he will be guest appearing in the upcoming CW series, Arrow. Barrowman's character will be playing a rich man, with connections to the Queen family as well as being a prominent person in Starling city. Now this does sound like a rather interesting role. Good luck to Barrowman in this one.

A Touch Of Cloth News: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-08-15/karen-gillan-to-appear-in-charlie-brooker-cop-spoof-a-touch-of-cloth
Arrow News: http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/08/15/arrow-john-barrowman/