-
MAY 2016: The Best of Film & TV
Summer’s just around the corner, but the blockbusters are already here! Below, I’ve selected some of the most notable films and TV shows debuting in May 2016. If you think there’s anything missing, please mention in the comments below.
-
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS (2016)
Ricky Gervais has been walking his own path since Life’s Too Short flopped in 2011 (his last collaboration with Stephen Merchant), but his first solo effort was 2012’s unremarkable sitcom Derek—which wasn’t well-received by British critics, yet found unexpected success as a ‘Netflix Original Series’ in the US. And it’s with Netflix that the comedian’s…
-
THE AMERICANS, 4.7 – ‘Travel Agents’
There’s a moment halfway through “Travel Agents” where Martha (Allison Wright), finally, simply asks “Clark” (Matthew Rhys) what his real name is. When he responds, after a beat, that his name’s Philip, and Martha asks what his real real name is, I thought about just how layered The Americans has become. “Travel Agents” begins where last week’s…
-
Win NOW TV with ‘Entertainment Pass’
It’s competition time at Frame Rated, to celebrate the site passing a milestone in articles we’ve published since launching last summer. We have a NOW TV Box from Sky available to win, which comes with a free 14-day trial of the ‘Entertainment’, ‘Sports’, or ‘Movies’ packages. Read more about NOW TV here. In addition, by redeeming a…
-
THE ZERO BOYS (1986)
At its heart Arrow Films’ latest release, The Zero Boys, is just another straight-to-video slasher movie; of the type that dominated the 1980s home VHS revolution. However, dismissing it out of hand does it a disservice. It’s an interesting genre hybrid, morphing between action, teen romp, horror, and survival movie. The nature of the film…
-
OUTLANDER, 2.3 – ‘Useful Occupations and Deceptions’
If an episode title could some up the contrary nature of Outlander—jumping from time travel romance to 18th-century espionage thriller—then “Useful Occupations and Deceptions” would fit the bill. The series can often frustrate the casual viewer with its tendency to swerve away from the action-adventure genre and instead indulge in the emotional doubts of its…
-
GAME OF THRONES, 6.1 – ‘The Red Woman’
Forget ‘Who Shot J.R?’, the question on people’s lips since last summer has been ‘Is Jon Snow really dead?’, as Game of Thrones delivered one of its biggest shock-endings—with the Lord High Commander of the Night’s Watch knifed to death by some of his own men, then left for dead in a pool of blood.…
-
CAMPING – Series One
It’s an indisputable fact that you need a very strong stomach to watch anything written by Julia Davis. From Human Remains to Nighty Night and, most recently, Hunderby, her shows mine the most uncomfortable parts of the human psyche; refracting our most grotesque selves back at us while almost daring the audience to look away.…
-
THE AMERICANS, 4.6 – ‘The Rat’
For a series defined by restraint and deliberate pacing, the last few weeks of The Americans have seen a monumental change in the show’s status quo. I assumed that, after Nina’s sudden and shocking death, the show would retreat for several weeks, taking its time to wind up for the next big development. But no, two…
-
JANE GOT A GUN (2016)
The Western is a genre that resolutely refuses to ride off into the sunset. Despite an increasing distance from the era—when America’s west was the great frontier; a harsh and wild land, daring man to tame it—and despite many academic opinions that the genre’s grown irrelevant, it still endures. First it gained a new spin…
