Small Screen: Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall
Posted on Monday January 16, 2012, 14:53 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
It returned to our screens a mere three weeks ago, but that’s it for season two of the Beeb’s utterly-brilliant Sherlock. Mirroring the superlative first season, the second began with a dizzying, Moffat-written opener, dipped slightly in the middle with a self-contained mystery and finished with a tantalising, event-packed finale which will have us formulating theories in our mental palaces until next year. Although for all the high-functioning sociopaths reading the following should be obvious, it goes without saying that this article will contain spoilers…
Admittedly, I was a tad anxious regarding this one since writer Steve Thompson was responsible for last season’s weakest instalment and a duff recent episode of Doctor Who (Curse Of The Black Spot, more commonly known as ‘the Pirate one’) – but he really pulled it out the bag here. Whilst Moffat’s Irene Adler-focussed opening was an ingenious, frequently-dazzling Russian doll of plots-within-des... Continue reading... Comment Now (35 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: Sherlock: The Hounds Of Baskerville
Posted on Tuesday January 10, 2012, 14:01 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
So last week I thoroughly enjoyed the marvellous season two opener of Sherlock, which welcomed the Beeb’s modern day story of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary sleuth back to our screens with assurance. Like the first season’s opening instalment, it was penned by co-creator Steven Moffat and offered a frequently-breathless plate-spinning act of knotty plotting, dazzling dialogue and Watson-impressing deductions. Admittedly, there were one or two niggles (as Ali Plumb pointed our in his well-reasoned blog piece), but on the whole it was sufficiently superior viewing to result in many critics and industry bods gushing with enthusiastic praise via Twitter and elsewhere.
The problem was, as I sat there afterwards trying to collate my thoughts and play mental catch-up, I began to anticipate what lay ah... Continue reading... Comment Now (10 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: My Problems With Sherlock
Posted on Thursday January 5, 2012, 11:00 by Ali Plumb in Small Screen
 Back at uni, I studied the Sherlock Holmes stories as part of a module on Crime Literature. Raffles The Gentleman Thief was also on the reading list, as were Father Brown, Lord Peter Wimsey, Poirot and Miss Marple. If you consider yourself a Sherlock fan, I heartily recommend them all, especially Lord Peter Wimsey. Start with The Nine Tailors, you won’t regret it.
I'm not calling myself an expert here – far from it – but I mention all this because although I’ve studied Conan Doyle's work, I don’t think of myself as a Holmes purist, and I genuinely enjoy the new Guy Ritchie films and the Moffat / Gatiss TV shows. This includes the latest episode, A Scandal In Belgravia, which despite the problems I mention below, I genuinely did enjoy. But after looking forward to seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman return for so long, I can’t help but feel slightly disappointed – even t... Continue reading... Comment Now (48 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: Sherlock: A Reaction
Posted on Thursday January 5, 2012, 10:38 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
 Even though Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes sequel A Game Of Shadows has been receiving positive-enough word of mouth, for many of us the real return of literature’s most iconic sleuth was always going to be the second season of Sherlock. Co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it was an intelligent, playful and brilliantly-written take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories which seamlessly transplanted the high-functioning consulting detective from the Victorian era to the modern day. Although the middle instalment was comparatively average, the opening episode (penned by Moffat) of the three-part first season was sparkling, top-class television and the finale was a dizzying, often-dazzling affair which left us begging for more.
Picking up exactly where we left off – a tense stand-off between Holmes, Watson and Andrew Scott’s brilliantly-impish ‘Jim’ Moriarty – the Moffat-written season opener was a confident, fun and head-spinningly twisty return... Continue reading... Comment Now (3 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: What's The Best Show On TV Right Now?
Posted on Tuesday October 11, 2011, 16:38 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
 Last year, we bid farewell to the mysterious hatch-filled island of Lost. Year before that, we waved goodbye to the good ship Battlestar Galactica (so say we all) for the last time. And, in the three years prior to that, The Wire, The Sopranos and The West Wing all exited stage left on an annual basis. So, with all the heavy-hitters having packed up their bags and marched off to immortal glory like an outnumbered Spartan, what is now the best show on television?
For sure, this is no easy question. No doubt, debate will be sparked and cans containing worms will lay open everywhere. Certainly, there's no definite right or wrong answer (aside from anyone voting Hollyoaks; that is wrong). But with the throne arguably vacant just now since all the televisual game-changers of recent years have departed, let's debate anyway.
My criteria are these. The show needs to still be currently airing, so ones that are shown as repeats obviously don't count. It needs to have been running for a reasonabl... Continue reading... Comment Now (102 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: Supernatural Vs. The Vampire Diaries: Battle of the Buffy Successors
Posted on Tuesday September 27, 2011, 15:20 by Helen O'Hara in Small Screen
 As our forumites will know, I've been into Supernatural for some time now. And just recently, I've been attempting to get into The Vampire Diaries as well. What I've discovered are two very different contenders to Buffy's throne, so let's discuss their similarities, their differences, their strengths and weaknesses, shall we? Before we start: I'm deliberately not counting True Blood here because it's openly aimed at a different, older, less geeky demographic, nor am I considering the cancelled likes of Moonlight, Blood Ties or whatever. This is about ostensibly-at-least teen-friendly shows wherein improbably good-looking folk encounter supernatural creatures.
First of all, Supernatural. When it first started back in 2005 I more-or-less instantly dismissed it as Buffy-for-boys, a cynical attempt to remove the kick-ass ladies from the vampire slaying equation in a move which I objected to on girl power principles and rejected sight unseen. My bad. It's pretty much entirely awesome. OK, season one sta... Continue reading... Comment Now (33 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: The Inbetweeners - Best Bits Of The Series
Posted on Wednesday August 17, 2011, 10:52 by Jodie McEwan in Small Screen
 One of the many films I will probably kill to see (not literally) this month is The Inbetweeners Movie, Jay’s charming ‘clunge’ catchphrase (I’ll be honest, I wince every time he says it), Neil’s Saturday Night Fever dance moves and all. How could anyone not want to fork out for this bottomless barrel of hilarious cringe? Seriously, what could be better than seeing Simon puke all over his childhood crush’s ten year-old brother or Will coming on all Yoda to try to impress a girl. “Feisty one you are!” may work in the swamps of Dagobah but it’s bound to be a disaster in a Magaluf bar. Being a girl –yes, I’m going to refer to my gender this one time - I can’t help but feel sorry for the girls on the receiving end of the, let’s say, ‘haven’t-a-clue’ chat-up lines from Simon, Will and Jay. I’ll exclude Neil – he’s the only one of the group who manages to ‘score’ with the op... Continue reading... Comment Now (16 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: Doctor Who: Smith & Moffat: The Dynamic Timey-Wimey Duo
Posted on Monday June 6, 2011, 15:34 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
 Growing up during the cult goldmine that was the eighties, I have to confess that I never watched much Doctor Who. Oh, I knew the original Star Wars trilogy word-for-word and could tell you who belted out each Bond theme tune, but I still hadn't fully come out of the geek closet. However, as a slightly older, marginally wiser, infinitely more open-minded TV viewer, I decided to give Nu Who a bash when Queer As Folk's Russell T Davies revived it for the Beeb in 2005. But whilst I enjoyed the performances of both Christopher Eccleston (who left after one season) and the now near-immortal David Tennant, I still couldn't fully get on board. Every now and then the odd episode would surprise me with how dark, complex and creepy it was (90% of the time, these were penned by one Steven Moffat) but too frequently the TARDIS-blue apple cart was upset by loose plotting, convenient resolutions and increasingly over-the-top stakes. I mean, how often can the world be on the brink of alien annihilation?
Which is... Continue reading... Comment Now (38 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: The Smallville Finale: The End's Not Near, It's Here
Posted on Thursday June 2, 2011, 13:42 by Stephen Carty in Small Screen
 So here we are, like Frodo and Sam, at the end of all things. Well, maybe not the end of all things per se, but at the climax of a journey every bit as arduous and testing - albeit in very different ways given that Smallville jumped the shark (in more than a single bound) many moons ago. Despite the steady, logic-abandoning decline though (which I've already discussed here), I was surprisingly optimistic about the farewell episodes. As Remy Zero blasted out "somebody saaaaaaave meeeee" for the last time after ten years and just as many seasons, I felt safe that the creative bods behind the show would deliver a satisfying and fitting full-stop to the modern re-telling of Clark Kent's pre-cape days.
But even though it breaks my heart to say it, they didn't. They just didn't. I really, honestly, desperately wanted to love the finale and let it metaphorically wash away all the filler fluff that&rs... Continue reading... Comment Now (16 comments)
Back To TopSmall Screen: Why The US Office Is Undeniably Better Than The Original
Posted on Wednesday April 27, 2011, 17:48 by Ali Plumb in Small Screen
It’s frustrating for any US Office fan to hear the phrase ‘The Hangover’s Ed Helms’. He’s not The Hangover’s Ed Helms, he's The Office’s Ed Helms. And sure, The Daily Show had him first, but he wasn’t that big a deal there. He is and always will be Andy Bernard, and he likes a cappella, and he’s very preppy. He's an all-round lovely guy. After the anger management courses, anyway.
So seeing him in super-friendly-cute-and-funny comedy Cedar Rapids naturally brought a smile to my face, what with him playing a naive, sweet, sincere character who works a seemingly dull job – more specifically, playing an insurance salesman called Tim Lippe. That’s right, not a paper salesman called Andy Bernard. No sir.
Anyway, walking out of the Cedar Rapids the other day, dancing embarrassingly through Soho – all movies sh... Continue reading... Comment Now (57 comments)
Back To Top
|
Follow us on Twitter | 
Follow us on Facebook | RSS | Empire iPad Edition
