Category Archives: TV series

Apr 09 2022
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Art, Crime, Television, TV, TV series, Uncategorized

Pieces of Her (2022) defines derivative.

A well-acted shitter (Toni Collette is marvellous in everything) but this descended into farce after about 30 unexpectedly disturbing minutes – I thought this was meant to be one of those quirky coming-of-age dramedies which can be quite therapeutic on occasion. The horrific MacGuffin had me almost turning the show off, such was its realism and relevance. I give it some kudos for that.

Things got messy thereon, however, and I’m referring to the script. It wasn’t going anywhere and I was losing interest with every gnawingly predictable moment, a pile-on of scenes from other thrillers. By the second episode I was lost in the world of far superior stuff demanding a second viewing.

I pulled the plug.

I hope you follow my lead (see what I did there?).

Rubbish.

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Jan 29 2022
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Art, Britain, Cinema, Film, Monarchy, Scotland, TV, TV series, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004) is Robert Carlyle at his most Robert Carlyle.

For the exposition, I thought this one of the worst performances I’d ever seen. It was like Carlyle watched Richard III – play or any movie – and decided to limp about like Crookback for the duration of a gunpowder plot. And spice it up with a bit of Begbie. His James VI/I is a foul-mouthed little bastard with no grace or manners, an opportunistic cockroach who would murder an OAP for a bag of sugar.

I was thinking this and then I thought: this is 1603+. These creatures chucked one another onto bonfires and ripped their entrails apart. And the same sort would do the same today if they could. And then I got the genius of the performance.

Carlyle is keeping it real.

This is the only place I could find it. It’s very good, and with a young(ish) Michael Fassbender as Guy Fawkes:

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Jan 26 2022
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Television, TV, TV series

Kramer’s coffee table book about coffee tables is the only coffee table book I ever want on a coffee table.

Just to be postmodern and stuff.

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Jan 15 2022
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Technology, Television, TV, TV series, United States

Cobra Kai season 4 bored me.

This season is unfortunately a bit stale and diluted, and the elements which could have salvaged it – the first season’s unrelenting reverence for the ’80s and its accompanying cheese, the dark humour and the amusing SJW bashing – are in short supply. Johnny Lawrence is just not as interesting as an upstanding nice guy as he is as a fish-out-of-water shambles lost in the wrong century. The staid version of Johnny is one without an edge, and it’s as if the show has been robbed of its biggest star.

Other things are annoying, from the constant switching allegiances, the pointless cameos from past characters that go nowhere, and the moments of catharsis that are simply not earned. It had some decent craic in it and the choreography was great as always, but this show should probably end now.

And I’m probably taking it all a bit too seriously.

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Oct 21 2021
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Architecture, Germany, Munich, TV series

Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood. Meh ….

Certainly ambitious in conception, but it all feels so rehashed and by the numbers, kind of half-baked and jaded by its own pretensions.

There are moments when you think it’s finally going to throw off the shackles and descend into proper depravity and capture the macabre, but it never does, like it’s constrained by committee. And there’s not enough of a portrait of Oktoberfest or Munich or … Germany in general, and those times were wicked times.

I was expecting a Bavarian Red Wedding. It never happened. Plenty of beer, but not enough blood.

Oh well, the intention was there.

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Mar 18 2021
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Art, Television, TV, TV series, Uncategorized

Rome (2005-2007) really should have been given another season.

It’s your classic HBO series that deals with the upper echelons and the gutter, the senate and the Aventine, Caesar, Pompey, Mark Anthony, Octavian – Roman Republic to Empire and buttressed perfectly by the characters Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, these based on two centurions mentioned in Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War. James Purefoy especially excels here as the dashing and charismatic Anthony. He’s Bond material (he did actually audition twice for the role and almost got it).

Rome doesn’t skirt from the depravity, the rituals and religious sacrifices of the era, and the creative use of naughty language is funny as hell. It succeeds so well at building a world and bringing that period to life, but these people also talk like we do; there’s none of this long-winded theatricality to the wordplay. The spectacle and ambition of the show is unrivalled for its time. The first season is nigh on perfection yet the second so very rushed; they were clearly tying everything together and trying to end the story in a satisfying way.

Apparently they just didn’t have the money to make any more of them which is a shame because it’s rather great.

And what an opening title sequence:

Further reading/viewing:

Rome: The Long Road of the Original HBO Epic

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/rome-season-1-review/

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Jan 09 2021
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Television, TV series, Uncategorized

Cobra Kai season three.

The nostalgia trip is strong with this one, and it is done in such an artful way that it builds upon the 1984 … middling flick and goes into new directions that feel organic and … well, correct. It’s such an entertaining show at times and only today would it get made. The wait has been worth it, and I feel there is a benchmark quality here, a premonition of other ’80s movies getting the TV treatment.

I want to see Flashdance (1983) given the treatment.

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Dec 13 2020
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Cinema, Film, Game of Thrones, Monarchy, TV series, Uncategorized

Stannis could have been up there with the gods.

But they ruined him. It’s another example of writing ‘jumping the shark/sofa’. He did a terrible deed – burning your kin is not the best move – and no one believed the sincerity of it for a second. It sums up how appalling Game of Thrones got in its last two pathetic seasons. It was ghastly, infected with bizarre vignettes that went NOWHERE.

The actor Stephen Dillane is the best in the show and he nails the character – absolutely and totally miserable, consumed with hatred. Even if he sat on the Iron Throne I can imagine he’d be bored to death and questioning his life role. That’s my kind of human. His quotes are incredible.

The crème de la crème: “A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad the good.”

Fucking hell. Fancy a pint?

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Aug 26 2020
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Britain, Television, TV, TV series, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

The Office is still pure cringe.

More Netflix throwback viewing brought me to The Office, the early nougthies apotheosis of workplace ennui, inanities, and bury-your-head-in-your-hands moments of embarrassment. Your everyday office environment is so well portrayed that I actually know these people: the delusional ‘boss’ who’s been there for two decades and whose work defines his/her life, the go-getter who thinks they’re in the FBI or something, the joker who isn’t funny, and the roughly 50% of them who know it’s just a job so get on with it.

The most striking aspect of the show is how it highlights the existential funk of the vast majority of workplaces – what we do isn’t particularly important to anyone, and a monkey can perform most tasks if you train it correctly. One looks for meaning in the wrong places. I’ve always been dubious of folk who proudly announce, “I love my job.” They have to be either psychologically pumping themselves up to cope with the pain or are putting on a show, or have to be burdened with actual real-life mental issues.

Unless they have an interesting job. Which is a rarity.

Anyway, The Office defines life.

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Jul 29 2020
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Internet, Television, TV, TV series, Uncategorized

How Better Call Saul got great.

Better-Call-Saul-Season-4

This show took a LONG time to get going but bloody hell once it did … oaft!

It finally shrugged off the tedious, totally unnecessary and frankly plodding shite with Saul’s brother, and now Saul is firmly in the criminal underworld (rather than dipping in and out) things have been much more tasty. There is also another reason for its current awesomeness: Lalo Salamanca.

He is by far the most charismatic ‘villain’ from both Saul and Breaking Bad, and the proof that moustaches aren’t just for novelty value. The bloke needs a spin-off show from this spin-off show. It’s an obvious statement, but characters make shows. And the lack of them in their dimensions is why most of the stuff out there is garbage. Stringer Bell in The Wire, Ralph Cifaretto in The Sopranos, Lalo is up there.

I think I am in love.

download (2)

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