Wayward Pines S01E01–07 (Fox, 2015)

"Wayward Pines Intertitle" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

A Secret Service agent awakens in a Twin Peaks-vibe rural town where All Is Not What It Seems: people won't give him a straight answer, there's all sorts of strange and suspicious behaviour — you get the deal.

By the fifth ep, All Is Revealed, and our protagonist — for Very Good Reason — becomes that which he loathed and struggled mightily against at the beginning of the show. So far, so so, with intriguing themes of surveillance state, conformism, and the greater good underlying the action.

And then ham-fisted execution, sub-sub-sub-Hitchcockian left-hand-not-knowing-what-the-right-hand's-doing bullshit, stupid stupid stupid character u-turns, and — ah, fuck it.

Confidence was never high for this show.

Terminator: Genisys (2015; Alan Taylor / Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier)

The trailer didn't really set me aflame.

Game of Thrones helmer Taylor and the original Terminator hisself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, were big enough drawcards to not overly worry about the casting of Jai Courtenay (from the execrable A Good Day to Die Hard), Emilia Clarke (replacing the irreplaceable Linda Hamilton), and Jason Clarke (who does great work in straight drama like Zero Dark Thirty but somehow manages to be awkward and unconvincing in genre pieces like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).

So. Genisys didn't suck as much ass as the slavishly PG-13 Rise of the Machines or the clusterfuck of Salvation, but Jesus H Fucking Christ did it feel like it was written by committee. The dialogue was flat with exposition. The plotting was tepid. The logic — oi vey — was non-existent. I actually began to feel sorry for all involved when I was watching this.

I'm glad the rights revert to Mr Cameron after this instalment. 

The Americans (FX, 2013–)

The Americans is a period drama that takes its time to build characters and relationships, benefits from production design that silently and completely builds worlds, and is founded on writing that is just awesome in its understatement.

For a show that is set in the 1980s and begins with the almost risible situation of an FBI agent innocently moving his family into the same street where deep-cover Soviet agents are already well established, this is — according to an entry in my viewing diary — gut-churningly awesome.


Like any reasonably successful television show, it uses the ideas of family, relationships, and character to tell good stories. Where it differs from most others is — aside from its engine and setting — in how it uses those same ideas for its own ends: family —the Soviet agents' teen children are unaware they are part of their parents' cover; relationships —when the FBI agent turns a Russian embassy employee by having an affair with them, is he working an asset or is he being unfaithful to his wife? and character —how does each Soviet agent hold onto his or her core values after years of living in a democratic and capitalist environment?

Heavy stuff, I know — there's guns, sex, and spy stuff if you really only want that kind of stuff — but there's so much more to savour and enjoy.

The best drama really is on the box these days.

Essential viewing.

Powers S01E05

It's the Game of Thrones season finale tonight but the Better Half is out and since my box-watching plate is a little light, I thought, “Was Powers really as shit as I thought?”

I could've tolerated its anaemic 37-minute running time, forgiven how it reused footage from the previous and current ep several times over in some kind of present-day-flashback-suspenseful-character-dynamic-building narrative device, and waited out a pace as slow as a well-meaning am-dram parlour piece. (I've been here before: I watched all 800 fucking hours of The Cult so I'm a goddamned TV watching badass.)

So when two female superheroines arrive to rescue our mere mortal protagonist, and the first one — having been expressly warned to never turn her back on the superpowered antagonist —turns her back not once but twice and is swept aside, and the second one has a glass jaw, I'm like, “Yeah, this is shit, alright.”

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015; Matthew Vaughan / Jane Goldman and Vaughan)

After watching Samuel L Motherfucking Jackson's villain defeated by Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Michael Caine as the eponymous Kingsmen I couldn't help thinking: If you're a gazillionaire with the resources and willingness to save the planet, and you happen to be a person of colour, a bunch of honkies with delusions of knights and chivalry will stop you and protect the status quo.

Chappie (2015; Neill Blomkamp / Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)

District 9 just fuckin' rocked, didn't it? Social commentary as sci-fi action film, it had awesome, eye-popping tech, smart, adaptable and resourceful villains, and a protagonist that was classic Joe Campbell.

The long-awaited Elysium had a jaw-dropping trailer and premise but the final product was really just District 9 on a bigger scale. I hoped it was just a sophomoric misstep.

Watching Chappie is like watching a very expensive assembly of the dumbest parts of Star Wars Episodes I–III, Return of the Jedi, and Robocop 2 and 3: a tedious asssult of infantile characterisation and insulting story-telling that no amount of action can save.

Meh.

Daredevil S01 (Netflix, 2015–)

The casting is what got me interested: the always — always — awesome Vincent D'Onofrio as the villain, and the ever underrated Scott Glenn as a crotchety ol' cuss of a mentor. A wonderful surprise is Rosario Dawson who has the best lines and chemistry with lead Charlie Cox who inhabits the character well enough but is surprisingly the least interesting thing in Daredevil.

Overall, the show hits the right notes, taking cues from each of the Frank Miller and Brian Michael Bendis runs that respectively humanised and grounded the character in the comics, and efficiently builds a world — nay, an arena — for hours of future fun.

Recommended.

Arrow S03E10

There’s a first time for everything: the moment I recognised Vinnie Jones voice, followed by the reveal of his mug, I thought, Yeeesssss.

Justified — Series End

After six seasons, Justified called time on its run, and it's a damn' cryin' shame, too.

Better to quit while you're ahead, but. Seasons one and two remain the standouts, with this final season a not-all-that-close-but-still-decent third. A bit like its sidewindin' dialogue, the other seasons meandered a little, even repeated itself some, but Harlan County was always a welcome place to spend thirteen hours each year.

The show captured Elmore Leonard's ear for dialogue and eye for character, the guest and supporting characters often stealing scenes and hearts with their tiny and often tragic arcs. I'll miss Damon Herriman's little-boy-lost Dewey Crowe, Duke Davis Roberts' Forrest Gump-gazzumping Choo Choo, and Ron Eldard's foggy-stoner-killer Colt just as much as Marshall Raylan Givens and his nemesis, Boyd Crowder.

Good enough to buy and add to the collection.

Better Call Saul S01E10

… Is that it? A season ender that is more well-uh…-okay than gosh-gee-I-can't-wait-for-season-two? What just happened? Do I care?

Powers S01E03

What makes the comic so much fun (and damned good) is the chain-linking of fully realised characters cracking wise as their actions propel the plot.

What makes the small-box adaptation such a disappointment is the absence of believable characterisation (thanks in large part to shit dialogue) and plotting that makes each forty-minute-plus ep feel like eight fucking hours.

Sheeeit.

Dirty? Never.

On the local rag was this sissy pants apologising for exercising choice.

When the choice is between Telecom Spark's Lightbox (hey, you remember when you fucked your customers over when you had a monopoly?), or Sky's Neon (why would I give my hard-earned money to this fuckin' cable monopoly?) or Netflix (bringing you Netflix content… except that which has already been licensed by Sky or Spark or whoever the fuck), I'll make my own way, thank you very much.

Because I has internet.

Powers Pilot (Playstation Network, 2015)

Ten minutes in and they've repeated the backstory for our lead character Detective Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley) what feels like four fucking times.

The dialogue is — there's no other way of putting it — shitty boring-arse exposition, the pacing is slow and meandering, the actors are game, the casting is interesting — besides Copley there's Noah Taylor and Eddie Izzard — and blah blah blah snoooore.

I've read that things don't improve until ep three but ten minutes in, my love for the comic may not be enough to wade through this rubbish.

… I've watched worse, but.

Bosch S01E01–03 (Amazon Studios, 2014)

The guy who played the antagonistic D.A. from The Good Wife. The guy who played the up-and-coming kingpin from The Wire. The kid from Iron Eagle. A truckload of faintly recognisable character actors. Even behind the camera there's heavyweights from Wire, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Law & Order.

So why is this procedural so goddamned boring? Lead Welliver is stoic in his portrayal; sidekick Hector has fun being a clothes-horse detective partner; Gedrick shines with an understated performance as a serial killer. The supporting characters provide welcome moments of levity and wit that are sorely lacking from the eponymous lead's interactions with everyone.

Could it be I'm so used to Welliver playing dicks that I'm just having trouble buying him as a hero? Or could it be his channelling of Gary Cooper's High Noon performance is just one-note and tiresome?

Guh.

The Flash S01E01-02 (The CW, 2014)

The Flash has things I hate in a network show: men with square jaws and women with coltish figures, their average age suggesting recent graduation from the Mouseketeers; and childhood flashbacks requiring child actors to emoting loss, grief, and rage.

And yet…

The lead is disarmingly clumsy and charming while his supporting cast is intelligently characterised, subtly acted, and sharply defined. And those flashbacks… they gave me a lump in the throat, goddammit.

There's honesty in the writing that's connecting with me. Where Arrow is all shadowed clenched jaws and adrenalised high drama, The Flash, with the lightest of touches from the its makers, seems to have really captured lightning in a bottle.

Penny Dreadful S01 (Showtime/Sky, 2014–)

I've hung in here to the final ep — it's still playing as I type this — while the Better Half cut her losses after the second ep.


At first I had the very unrealistic hope that it could be some kind of not-quite adaptation of this:

But no.

Oh well.

Can someone —

— please fucking explain how shit like Longmire, Major Crimes (a spin-off from the cold ashes of The Closer that was so stupefying that I didn't bother posting about it), and Hell on Wheels (90210 playing cowboys 'n' Injuns) can be in their second or even third seasons when actually entertaining and intelligent telly like Vegas and Last Resort aren't renewed beyond their maiden seasons?


Motherfucker.

Jack Irish: Dead Point (ABC1, 2014)

2012's Jack Irish instalments, Bad Debts and Black Tide were very pleasant, staunchly Ozzie, and surprisingly intelligent telemovies that I enjoyed so much I even considered buying the DVDs (the moment passed). They were good: casting, acting, directing, writing — they were all the shit, man, and when wiki said there were more to come, anticipation was high.

And then Dead Point arrived this month and boy did it suck: blegh acting, stale plotting, plodding dialogue, a snail-like pacing. The Better Half looked at me balefully afterwards and I'm like, Hey, I'm as disappointed as much as you, yo.

What the heck happened?

Death Comes to Pemberley (BBC, 2013)

Not my cuppa, really, but hey — Anna Maxwell Martin from The Bletchley Circle is in it. Ooh, and Matthew Rhys from The Americans.

And buckets of wonderfully English faces, almost all of them familiar but according to IMDb this is the first time I've seen them.

Oh yes, and horses for the wife. And dresses. And period interior design.

An entertaining three hours in Austen-land.

True Detective S01

Great cast. Nimble, understated direction. Plotting and characterisation that was familiar yet compelling.

This would've been a keeper except for the final ep. Too many questions were raised, topmost among them: does one paint one's ears when painting a house?  And the ending in which we see what happens after the climax — not a noir convention, I believe.


But still: what a show in those first six and three-quarter eps.

Bring on season two.