TellyViews

Reviews of TV shows shown on UK TV

[tellyviews]

Terra Nova

The second of Steven Spielberg's sci fi series this year is by far the better of the 2.  There's still a bit too much sappy family stuff but there's plenty of action and tension.  It also looks pretty good where Falling Skies looked like a slightly dirty school (because it was stuck in a dirty school).

There are some similarities with Outcasts - a colony in a brave new world with threats lurking outside the gates (including a group of renegades).  But Terra Nove is much slicker and has more drama in one episode than a whole series of Outcasts.

[tellyviews]

Fringe 4.2

New series, new credits, new universe...

At the end of series 3, a permanent bridge was built between the 2 universes of Fringe and this episode started to explore the possibilities that opens up.  A criminologist from 'over here' was taken on a trip to 'over there' to profile a serial killer - who just happened to be his double.  Some typical Fringe style icky science involving drilling into brains and freezing them to extract memories led to the moral of the story: some people are so important that their influence will linger even if they are erased from memory - or even existence.  This paves the way for the return of Peter who has vanished from the universes but is appearing to Walter and now speaking too.

There have been other changes to the timelines of both universes, mainly to even things out a bit.  Both sides now have a Broyles again (theirs was killed last series but is now back) and over here now has an Agent Lincoln Lee (he appeared once last series but that meeting seems to have been erased).  Its all very confusing!

[tellyviews]

Glee Series 3

I'm still not sure what this programme is about.  As far a I can make out the main character is Sue Sylvester, a successful cheerleading coach at an Ohio high school.  She is straight talking and very funny with political ambitions.

Against Sue there is a group of hideously self obsessed schoolkids who have formed a Glee club.  This seems to involve breaking into song at inappropriate times, like during lunch, which annoys the other kids so much that they often feel compelled to throw drinks in their faces.  The Glee club is led by Mr Schuster, a washed up wannabe musical theatre star who seems to abandoned his day job of teaching Spanish.

Sue's mission this series is to get elected to some political office or other so that she can save the school from being financially drained by the Glee club's lavish performances of popular songs (mostly sung in an over the top musical theatre style).  The glee club is actually pretty poor, routinely getting beaten in regional and national competitions by far superior groups from other schools.

Will Sue triumph in the end?  We can only hope so!

[tellyviews]

Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song

Everyone thought it would be a ganger Doctor; or time would be changed; or it would be robot duplicate.  In the end, it was the robot, but with the Doctor inside.  But not before time was changed.  That caused a parallel timeline to engulf the Earth and all sorts of weirdness to break out.  A bit like last year's finale then.

All of history happening at once was an interesting idea and allowed some decent cameos from famous people and some old friends such as Churchill and Dickens.  Much better than the days where they would cram in someone from EastEnders.

The actual wedding was over pretty quick and didn't even happen in the real timeline but there is presumably more to come in River Song's story.  And there were plenty of new hints about the Doctor's future to keep us all watching next year.

[tellyviews]

Spooks 10.3 vs Strike Back 2.7

2 British drama series.  Both with an American style gloss, fast paced and action packed. Both suffering from the loss of Richard Armitage who has been killed off in each series.  Both going out at 9pm on Sunday.  This week they even shared the same actor as the villain.

So which one is better?  Well, in its prime Spooks would have wiped the floor with Strike Back - tense, action packed, well acted and usually bang up to date.  But the latest series of Spooks is far from its best.  Most of the competent spooks have been killed off or turned traitor (or both).  There's only 6 episodes this series instead of 10 (Strike Back has gone the other way).  The budget has been slashed and it looks like it now has the same budget as Doctors or other daytime dramas where everything happens in cheap locations like houses and offices.

Strike Back on the other hand is making the most of foreign locations and is filmed in HD.  The plots are simpler but at least they make sense.  The most recent Spooks storylines are unrealistic and full of plot holes.

In a few weeks Spooks will be gone for good.  Hopefully we'll at least get a third series of Strike Back

[tellyviews]

Spooks 10.2

Spooks has always operated on a 1 in, 1 out basis. Adam for Tom, Fiona for Zoe, Zaf for Danny etc. So when Calum  came in at the start of this series, it looked bad for Tariq who himself replaced Malcolm a couple of series ago. Sure enough, a case of Chekov's umbrella has seen him join the ranks of ex-agents.

This weeks plot was fairly ridiculous. A laptop with the identities of the 3 undercover MI-5 agents who aren't the main cast (but were all recruited by current or past cast members) was stolen and hacked (have they never heard of McAfee Safeboot, it is even available on those funky Macs they use).  One of the spies was instantly killed by the world's fastest hit men but another walked right past security with a flash drive full of secrets.

[tellyviews]

Doctor Who - Closing Time

So far, all series of new Doctor Who have started with single part stories and ended with a big 2 part finale. This year has been different, starting with a 2 part story in which we see a future Doctor die.  Therefore the finale is only 1 part and we get a comedy episode to lead into it. And it was a funny episode, showing how good James Cordon can be.  The Doctor's farewell tour and the whole plot of knowing he is soon to die is very similar to the 2009 specials however.

Next week looks great though!

[tellyviews]

Strike Back: Project Dawn

The first series of Strike Back was quite good, so can this new series match it?

On first glance this series has little in common with the first - there are no characters carrying through apart from a brief cameo where the main character gets his brains blown out. The name of the organisation is the same however - Section 20 - and the format is the same: several loosely connected 2 part stories featuring gun battles in South Africa or places that South Africa can stand in for.

The new main character is called Stonebridge and he is played by Leontes from Camelot, which may be a career ending double. Like Camelot this series is shown on a US cable channel and therefore features lots of gratuitous nude scenes.  

The first episode started with some clunky scene setting to introduce the new characters and plot but soon settled into a decent hotel under siege story reminiscent of something Spooks or 24 might do. The second part then had a plot twist on top of a plot twist.

The second 2 parter was a heist story with a bit of undercover work where pretty much everyone ended up dead.

The third story is half way through and they are already recycling cliffhangers  with token American Scott apparently dying. 

[tellyviews]

Carnivale

Its the start of series 2 and I am still none the wiser about what is actually going on.  John Connor seems to be able to heal people and is the avatar for good.  The Kurgen is the avatar for evil and is being led into temptation by T-Bag.  They all live in a travelling carnival and are looking for John Connor's dad (don't they realise he was a resistance fighter from the future?)

[tellyviews]

Spooks: Series 10 Episode 1

So, this is the beginning of the end for Spooks.  After killing off all the main characters the final series looks like it is going to focus on Harry, the one constant over the last decade.  Last year's female recruit Beth has been unceremoniously decommissioned and replaced with a new female spy who takes on the team leader role.  Dimitri has more hair and there's a new computer tech who seems a bit unlikable and possibly means that Tariq is going to meet an untimely end soon.

BBC cutbacks mean that this is a short series, back down to 6 episodes (the lowest since series 1) and it isn't in HD either.  Still the BBC needs to spend 40% of the budget on EastEnders, 40% on Strictly and the other 20% on Bargain Hunt, Homes under the Hammer and Cash in the Attic.

Anyway, all the usual sorts of things happen - some double crossing, some techy bits, a drinks reception where a foreign dignitary nearly gets killed etc.  After last year's Chinese enemy it is back to Russians again and of course there's another dodgy CIA head.

Hopefully the series will go out with the bang it deserves.

[tellyviews]

Torchwood: Miracle Day Finale

So... that was Miracle Day. Where Children of Earth was 5 hours of great TV spread over 5 nights, Miracle Day was 5 hours of plot spread out over 10 weeks.  Whole sections of the story went nowhere and the whole premise seemed to change half way through from nobody can die to people can become category 1 and incinerated.  A whole section of plot in the middle about closing down the death camps became pointless when a quick "2 months later" caption revealed that they had been reopened.

The finale wasn't as bad as all that though, with a stand off literally across the world.  All very dramatic and suitably big budget.  Some of the moments were almost moving, particularly the end of Gwen's father's storyline.  But that was offset by the quickfire killing off of most of the cast including Q, Oswald Danes, some random CIA people and the mole. Not to forget Esther's will-she won't-she death and the whole Rex is now immortal thing.  This is clearly to allow the next series to do away with Captain Jack and Gwen.

[tellyviews]

Red Or Black

I can't really review this show because I haven't watched it.  Not on principle because they gave £1m to a man who was jailed for assault (although that would probably stop me watching anyway), but because the whole premise of the show sounds completely awful!

[tellyviews]

A Question Of Sport

This show has been on for donkey's years and used to be a very serious sporting quiz.  However, nowadays it has a comedian guest, Phil Tufnell as a judge, a picture board* and a quickfire guess the sportsman round at the end.  In other words, it has turned into They Think Its All Over!

* Ok, I'll admit that the AQOS did the picture board first!

[tellyviews]

Would I Lie To You

Back for a new series, this panel game is always worth a few laughs, just for the bizarre claims and the deadpan way in which they are told.  This episode was worth it just for Nick Hewer's facial expressions and the story about him and Lord Sugar playing table tennis on the boardroom table (sadly a lie).  David Mitchell and Lee Mack have created caricatures of themselves, one very posh and one very northern.  Rob Brydon is also a much better host than Angus Deyton was.

[tellyviews]

Rugby World Cup Highlights

New Zealand 41, Tonga 10 - well that was predictable!

I hope England do as well tomorrow...

[tellyviews]

Outnumbered

One of TVs funniest sitcoms returned last week.  The kids have always been the best thing about the programme but now that they have grown up the things they say don't seem so outrageous (or maybe it is just a bit familiar now).  But that doesn't make it any less funny and this week's episode was still pretty funny.  There was a battle of the sexes thing going on - with the mother and daughter leaving the father and 2 sons to cook, clean and do the laundry after they suggested it was easy.  In retaliation the father and eldest son suggested that Formula 1 could be made more interesting if mums on the school run stopped on the chicanes.  They may have a point, but I thought that the new teams were pretty much doing that already...

[tellyviews]

Warehouse 13

What on Earth was that about?  I know this show is pretty weird normally but this week they slapped some dodgy special effects over some dodgy costumes, brought in some guest stars from Eureka and acted out a bizarre, Better Than Life style plot and came up with something extra weird!