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PENNY DREADFUL – Season Two
Penny Dreadful’s second season opener “Fresh Hell” effectively restates the show’s modus operandi. The snowbound confrontation between its two female leads, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green, enthralling as ever) and Evelyn Poole (the brilliantly matched Helen McCrory), immediately established this year’s arc. Using the reappearance of Evelyn—formerly known in her professional guise as spiritualist Madame Kali in season one—creator John…
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HUMANS – series one, episode five
Week five of Humans is very much a holding episode, but that’s not to say it doesn’t boast some knock-out scenes. Principal among them were the discussions between George (William Hurt) and Niska (Emily Berrington), with the latter hiding out with the amiable doctor while the authorities searched for the perpetrator of the violent attack…
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Trailer: SUICIDE SQUAD
What’s it about? A key cog in DC Comics’ shared cinematic universe ambitions (which began with Man of Steel), Suicide Squad will directly follow Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice next year. For the uninitiated, the Suicide Squad are a ragtag team of anti-heroes blackmailed into doing black ops missions for the U.S government, in exchange…
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TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.4 – ‘Down Will Come’
We’re half way through this second season of True Detective, and one of my biggest problems remains the constant line it walks between addictive drama and outright parody. It’s an issue that largely stems from a tendency to be too on the nose. Thus, it’s not enough for Ray (Colin Farrell) to astutely note that he,…
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HANNIBAL, 3.6 – ‘Dolce’
“If I saw you every day, forever, I’d remember this time.” That could be a line from, say, The Notebook, but it’s actually delivered by Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) during his overdue reunion with Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) in this week’s episode, “Dolce”. In an excellent hour full of gory bits and major plot developments, one of…
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Trailer: BATMAN v SUPERMAN – DAWN OF JUSTICE
What’s it about? Take a wild guess. The Caped Crusader has a score to settle with the Man of Steel, after the latter’s ruckus in Metropolis with General Zod resulted in citywide destruction and untold thousands of deaths. Who’s directing? The so-called “visionary director” Zack Snyder, returning from Man of Steel, who’s also brought us…
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THE VOICES (2014)
Thoroughly bizarre from start to finish, The Voices is the brainchild of screenwriter Michael R. Perry (whom I’ll always respect for writing Millennium episode “The Mikado”), and Iranian-born French director Marjane Satrapi, who wrote the autobiographical comic-book Persepolis (which she later co-adapted into an Oscar-nominated animation). It stars Ryan Reynolds as Jerry Hickfang; a cheerful oddball working…
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ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK – Season Three
And now for something a little different. Orange is the New Black’s showrunner Jenji Kohan set herself a tough task following up the first two seasons, but season three of her prison dramedy matches their highs while cleverly subverting expectations. Though Kohan stops short at reinventing the wheel, this season she cannily shifts the show’s focus—it’s less…
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KNOCK KNOCK (2015)
With Knock Knock, director Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) progresses from “torture porn” to psychological torture, but with a premise straight out of porn. Set in Los Angeles, the plot has family man Evan (Keanu Reeves) welcoming two drenched party-going girls into his home during a thunderstorm, so they can call a taxi and dry off.…
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HUMANS – series one, episode four
After last week featured a few sloppy moments creeping in, episode four tightened things up brilliantly, pulling several of the show’s strands together and perfectly judging the slow-drip of answers and reveals. Leo (Colin Morgan) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) have been the least compelling aspect of Humans thus far, but here they finally cross paths with…
