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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…
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TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.3 – ‘Maybe Tomorrow’
We were firmly in David Lynch territory this week on True Detective, as a blue-lit dream sequence paid direct homage to Twin Peaks; with Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) hovering unconscious on the floor, having an existential dream conversation with his father (Fred Ward), who also turns out to have been a cop. And almost certainly…
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HANNIBAL, 3.5 – ‘Contorno’
A while ago, I chimed in on a Facebook debate among friends about whether Anthony Hopkins or Mads Mikkelsen is the better Hannibal Lecter (I don’t recall any Brian Cox loyalists weighing in). I argued that the two actors are essentially playing different characters; not only because of the differences between episodic and feature storytelling,…
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TERMINATOR GENISYS (2015)
Fairly early into Terminator Genisys, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pops utters this line to Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor: “This is a meaningless gesture. To hold onto something when you know you must let it go.” The cyborg’s expressing his confusion at the human act of hugging, but he could just as easily be talking about this sequel’s endeavour. Genisys…
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JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL (2015)
A seven-part adaptation of the acclaimed fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is, by all accounts, an impressively faithful rendering of the source material. Yet therein, perhaps, lies the problem with this frequently laudable yet essentially uneven and frustrating miniseries. Though I’ve never read the 2004 book myself, I’m aware of…
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HUMANS – series one, episode three
After two very strong openings, the third instalment of Humans sees a few cracks in the veneer, and a few contrivances starting to creep in. The hour picks up with the Hawkins family reacting to Laura’s (Katherine Parkinson) decision to return their otherworldly synth Anita (Gemma Chan), with young Toby (Theo Stevenson)—who’s taken a shine…
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THE AVENGERS – The Complete Series Five
Patrick Macnee was The Avengers. He was there at the very beginning when Sydney Newman, ABC’s Head of Drama, cancelled a crime drama starring Ian Hendry, called Police Surgeon, and asked its producer Leonard White to concoct a new drama from a simple title… The Avengers. White and Macnee knew each other from mutually nurturing…
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TRUE DETECTIVE, 2.2 – ‘Night Finds You’
Oh, Ray, say it ain’t so! Just as I was beginning to warm to the depressed Detective Velcoro (Colin Farrell), with his vulnerabilities and self-loathing and interesting ideas about what passes for polite car conversation between partners (“I want you to know that I support feminism”), he apparently got himself offed by a creepy Birdmask-wearing…
