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OUTLANDER – Season One
Starz Network, wanting in on HBO’s success with Game of Thrones among others, has invested heavily in adapting Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book cycle. Having previously inspired a graphic novel and a musical album, the books have been brought to the screen by Ronald D. Moore (best known for his producing and writing stints on Star…
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YOU, ME & THE APOCALYPSE – ‘Episode One’
So what kind of a show is this anyway? Good question. Initial reactions to Sky1’s You, Me and the Apocalypse (which we all know should have kept its original, absolutely brilliant title, Apocalypse Slough) was mixed, with some online commentators questioning whether this was even a comedy. For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the…
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THE MARTIAN (2015)
If you’re going to entrust any director with the task of delivering a gripping film about loneliness in the vast emptiness of space, surely you go with Ridley Scott. His 1979 masterpiece Alien carried the famous tagline “in space no one can hear you scream”; he’s got a knack for creating unusual, distinctive sci-fi worlds;…
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BROOKLYN (2015)
Brooklyn is a period drama adapted from Colm Tóibín’s novel of the same name that follows Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish woman who leaves her quiet seaside town on the Emerald Isle for the brave new world of America to make a new life for herself. After finally settling across the Atlantic, Eilis…
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THIS IS ENGLAND ’90 – ‘Autumn’
Sunday night, 9pm, is a TV timeslot made for the warm bubblebath that is Downton Abbey. It’s a time of the week that demands comfort and distraction in equal measure. “Keep me warm! Don’t remind me of what’s really out there!” Before you roll into bed, the flickering screen should make you crave the kind…
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DOCTOR WHO, 9.2 – ‘The Witch’s Familiar’
Perhaps it was inevitable that Missy (Michelle Gomez) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) would escape the ‘maximum extermination cliffhanger’ by using those vortex manipulators so kindly pointed out with alacrity last week. What I wasn’t expecting was a monochrome flashback where Missy showed how clever The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is at getting out of impossible situations.…
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Trailer: POINT BREAK (2015)
People always have the same conversation whenever a beloved film or cult hit gets remade: why redo something that wasn’t bad to begin with? It’s a silly question. Nobody complains when a Shakespeare play is re-staged or re-interpreted, and some films almost demand to be remade every 20 years because they play differently with other political and social backdrops.…
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5 New U.K TV Shows to Watch this Autumn
The British television industry doesn’t work to the seasonal schedules of our American cousins, strictly speaking, but it remains true autumn is a time when lots of new drama and comedy tend to debut. It’s much trickier knowing exactly when new shows are due, because UK television’s not very willing to ‘plant a flag’ in the schedule…
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EVEREST (2015)
When a film’s based on a true story, it often means it’s telling such an incredible story that it’s hard to believe it’s actually true; or it can occasionally mean it’s tragic and sad enough to remind you about the harsh realities of our lives. Everest is the latter kind of true story. This is…
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THIS IS ENGLAND ’90 – ‘Summer’
It couldn’t last, could it? The relative breeze that was the opening episode of This is England 90 has proved, as expected, to be a false flag—making way for something altogether more familiar and frightening in this compelling second episode. Now in the summer of 1990, this instalment sent the young and reckless members of the gang—Harvey…
