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HALT AND CATCH FIRE, 3.4 – ‘Rules of Honorable Play’
This wasn’t as strong as the previous three Halt and Catch Fire episodes, but you can’t arc a season of TV without plot-building instalments like “Rules of Honorable Play”; hours that gently set new things in motion, foreshadowing better things to come. I liked how this episode spent time looking at three characters—Joe (Lee Pace), Donna…
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Six to See this September
What new movies and television shows are most deserving of your attention this month? Our editor, Dan Owen, selects his top six choices for UK audiences…
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FLEABAG – Series One
The BBC is currently celebrating televised comedy via its ‘Landmark Sitcom Season’. Amidst the remakes of popular shows—such as Porridge and Are You Being Served?—you may have missed one of its grittier new creations. Released on BBC Three to very little fanfare, Fleabag has emerged as one of the finest British comedies of recent years.…
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MR. ROBOT, 2.9 – ‘eps2.7_init_5.fve’
After last week’s excellent Darlene-focussed episode, this was more of a placeholder; a chance for Sam Esmail to get his ducks in a row ahead of the final three hours. That said, what “init_5” lacked in exposition it more than made up for in atmosphere. Most of season 2’s been as much horror movie as…
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HALT AND CATCH FIRE, 3.3 – ‘Flipping the Switch’
The difference between Mutiny and MacMillan Utility is startling, and in “Flipping the Switch” talented young coder Ryan (Manish Dayal) has walks in both worlds. Mutiny’s always been a relatively low-scale and scrappy outfit, but it’s built around real friendships and passion. Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) can offer all-night parties inside extravagant sea-view apartments, crowded with attractive people doing…
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ESCAPE FROM L.A (1996)
Snake Plissken is once again manipulated by the US government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, which has become an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.
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SUMMER 2016: WINNERS & LOSERS
The summer movie season is drawing to a close, and 2016 hasn’t been a vintage year. To put it mildly. It seems that most of the big wannabe-blockbusters didn’t make the splash the studios wanted, and many high-profile releases were savaged by critics. But which offerings from summer ’16 became hits, and which were the…
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MR. ROBOT, 2.8 – ‘eps2.6_succ3ss0r.p12’
Oh dear. For much of season 2, creator Sam Esmail’s teased us with titbits about how bad the world has become since fsociety’s hack. In this episode, the first not to feature Elliot at all (and I’m sure Rami Malek heaved a huge sigh of relief at being given a breather), he ripped back to…
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HALT AND CATCH FIRE, 3.1-2 – ‘Valley of the Heart’s Delight’ & ‘One Way Or Another’
When it began, I grew tired and frustrated with Halt and Catch Fire after three episodes, as this AMC drama felt like it just wanted to do for technology what Mad Men did for advertising. There were aspects I enjoyed about the first season, but structurally it felt very unsound, and there was an overemphasis…
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SWALLOWS & AMAZONS (2016)
A group of children travel to the picturesque Lake District, with the aim to claim a remote island for themselves.
