 |
|
Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall
Posted on Monday January 16, 2012, 14:53 by Stephen Carty
| | | | 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 Top
Back To Top
|
My Problems With Sherlock
Posted on Thursday January 5, 2012, 11:00 by Ali Plumb
| | | | 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 Top
|
Sherlock: A Reaction
Posted on Thursday January 5, 2012, 10:38 by Stephen Carty
| | | | 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 Top
|
What's The Best Show On TV Right Now?
Posted on Tuesday October 11, 2011, 16:38 by Stephen Carty
| | | | 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 Top
|
The Inbetweeners - Best Bits Of The Series
Posted on Wednesday August 17, 2011, 10:52 by Jodie McEwan
| | | | 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 Top
|
Doctor Who: Smith & Moffat: The Dynamic Timey-Wimey Duo
Posted on Monday June 6, 2011, 15:34 by Stephen Carty
| | | | 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 Top
|
The Smallville Finale: The End's Not Near, It's Here
Posted on Thursday June 2, 2011, 13:42 by Stephen Carty
| | | | 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 Top
|
Why The US Office Is Undeniably Better Than The Original
Posted on Wednesday April 27, 2011, 17:48 by Ali Plumb
| | | | 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
|
House: The Episodic Exception To A Serial Rule
Posted on Wednesday March 9, 2011, 16:47 by Stephen Carty
| | | | Recently, I've been catching up with the brilliant House (or, depending on how anal you want to be, House MD) and I realised something. Unlike my other cherished favourite TV shows, this one's very much a same-set-up-each-week episodic effort. What in the name of Blu-ray am I talking about? Well, allow me explain. In broad terms, TV shows can be split into two types: serialised (one big arc story) and episodic (a new adventure each week). Now, obviously many programmes overlap (hold on, we'll get to that), but personally I prefer serials. Big time. And yet House snuck under the radar, onto my considerable DVD shelving unit and into my heart...
Before we go any further, let's clarify what's what. Serialised is when you have a larger plot that spans the entire season and unfolds over each episode: commentators talk about "arc episodes" that deal with this larger, overarching theme or plot. This is the kind of show that always starts with a long "Previously on..." clip reel: ... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (24 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
Dexter: Better To Burn Out Or Fade Away?
Posted on Wednesday January 19, 2011, 10:23 by Stephen Carty
| | | | Having just finished Dexter’s lukewarm fifth series, I got to pondering the show’s future. You know, after sitting there for a few minutes wondering if that was it. No shock? No bombshell? No tantalising, potentially game-changing cliffhanger to bait our breath? Nope, negative and zilch.
Though recent news that Showtime are renewing their flagship serial killer-thriller for a sixth year is obviously good stuff, I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t confirmed as the last. Don’t get me wrong: I love Dexter as much as the next TV obsessive with good taste. Michael C Hall remains flawless as our eponymous stalking-slasher, his sardonic voiceovers are still a sharply-observed joy and there’s been some brilliant villain casting (Jimmy Smits; John Lithgow, step forward). But while the inky, high-concept premise hasn’t outstayed its welcome yet, it’s hard to see much mileage left.
Whilst the show bounced back from a polarising third season with the ... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (30 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
Smallville: The End Is Upon Us
Posted on Friday January 14, 2011, 11:55 by Stephen Carty
| | | | Over a decade since it debuted on the WB way back in 2001, Smallville is finally coming to an end. But after ten seasons and 211 episodes of consistent inconsistency is anyone still watching? And does anyone still care?
Well, as an ardent fan of the Man of Steel, I’m still tuning in. But only just. When the show began to wobble around the fifth year, I kept watching. When series six saw a further decline, I held fast. But sometime soon after the original showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar left and the quality descended faster than a speeding bullet, my interest severely waned. Nowadays, I’m watching purely in an ‘I started so I’ll finish’ kind of way.
It’s a tragic shame too, as it began so well. Undoubtedly, the first season was mired by silly, Buffy-type villains of the week (a girl who can control bees; really?), but there was much to love. The character work was great, we got plenty of well-measured in-jokes (“Blue’s a good colour o... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (63 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
Back To Top
|
Boardwalk Empire: When alcohol was outlawed, outlaws became kings
Posted on Sunday September 19, 2010, 20:33 by James White
| | | | If the latest show to saunter down the pipeline from US network HBO had an actual canine pedigree, it would probably be strutting around the show ring at Crufts, lumbered with a name like Prince Masterson Von Bonio, known to his over-enthusiastic owners as Matty. You want to talk pedigree? How about the fact that Boardwalk Empire comes from the brain of Terence Winter, one of the select few that Sopranos creator David Chase treated as one of his capos. More? Try the fact that the show has recruited a cast that includes the likes of Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg and Kelly Macdonald, not to mention a roll call of actors from other great shows such as The Wire (OMAR!)
But above all else, surely the biggest fish hooked on this particular line is Martin Scorsese. Returning to television in a directorial (and non-documentary) position for the first time since a 1986 episode of Amazing Stories, Scorsese agreed to produce the show and step behind the camera for the pilot, ... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (10 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
Nikita: The Premiere
Posted on Wednesday September 15, 2010, 17:46 by Phil de Semlyen
| | | | When a dossier thumps onto your desk last week with the word ‘confidential’ embossed across the front and an unusual request within, your interest is bound to be piqued. “I have recently escaped from a secret organisation that brainwashed me and trained me to become an assassin,” read the dodgy dossier. “I need you to help me bring down this corrupt organisation.” Hmmm, curious. What organisation could I, a humble hack who often struggles to tie his own shoelaces unassisted, possibly bring down?
As it turned out, my reverse-Apprentice skills weren’t called on. The reality – the world’s first iPad premiere, showing off the first episode of CW’s new miniseries Nikita – was no less exciting, not least for the possibility that they might forget to collect the iPads afterwards*. Held in the kind of cavernous, brick-walled edifice Jack Bauer would feel at home being tortured in, magically comfy-ed up, the event was like the TV equivalent ... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (2 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
Metropolis: It's Great, But Is It Good?
Posted on Friday September 10, 2010, 16:48 by Helen O'Hara
| | | | This week sees the reissue of the remastered, restored, spiffed up and super-duper Metropolis. If you like to call yourself a movie fan, you should go see it. If you like science fiction, you owe it to yourself to go meet one of Star Wars, and Avatar's, and Blade Runner's, ancestors. Since I am both a movie lover and a sci-fi nut and since, to my shame, I'd never seen it, I took the opportunity to go along last Friday to a press screening - and I have a few quick warnings for those of you headed to Metropolis.
First and foremost, this is two and a half hours long. Don't do what I did and blithely assure your website creative director that, "It's old; I'll be back in 90 mintes". An epic failure to check the press release on my part? Certainly. Still, I have visions of people making the same mistake. People with dinner reservations.&n... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (27 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
Back To Top
|
Emmys 2010: Something Old, But Something New Too
Posted on Monday August 30, 2010, 07:17 by James White
| | | | The Emmy Awards rolled around again in the States on Sunday and there were actually a few surprises dotted among the expected winners and repeat… well, I wouldn’t call them offenders, since there were some deserving choices.
The biggest news is that media sensation Glee and big US comedy hit Modern Family did decent business, with Modern Family scoring Comedy Series and the Writing for a Comedy Series award, plus a Supporting Actor win for the always funny Eric Stonestreet. Glee, meanwhile, walked away with a well-deserved win for Jane Lynch (who is one of the few characters to really bring the funny on the series) and a Directing for a Comedy Series gong that went to the show’s co-creator, Ryan Murphy.
The surprises also came from elsewhere, with Kyra Sedgwick snatching an unexpected first award as Lead Actress in a Drama for cop show The Closer. And there was a rousing cheer when Jim Parsons scooped his first win as Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang The... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now | | | |
Back To Top
|
Sherlock Holmes And The Curious Case Of The Princess Bride
Posted on Monday July 26, 2010, 10:10 by Helen O'Hara
| | | | So I rather enjoyed the first episode of Sherlock last night on BBC1, the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman-starring update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective stories. And that, for those of you who didn't see it, doesn't mean a Guy Ritchie-style all-boxing, all-running about style take on the 19th century. It means that this Sherlock comes all the way forward to the 21st, with a Dr Watson who was wounded in Afghanistan and a Sherlock who's an expert phone hacker.
Let's start with the non-spoilerific stuff: returning veteran John Watson (Freeman) is wounded in body and mind and less than convinced that writing a blog about his experiences, as his therapist suggests, is the way to get his life back on track. Sherlock Holmes (Cumberbatch) is a flamboyant criminal expert, developer of the "science of deduction" who is never happier than when called in by the police to solve the cases that they can't. In the words of one policewoman, he's ... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (43 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
True Blood: Bad Blood
Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 05:21 by James White
| | | | “This episode contains violence, nudity, language and adult content. Viewer discretion is advised.” Welcome back True Blood… I’ve missed you.
The title card that US cable channel HBO throws up before screenings of the show to warn unsuspecting parents and, one suspects, to entice entirely suspecting teens into watch the thing is usually viewed as a gauntlet by show runner Alan Ball, who likes to take the Southern Gothic flavour of writer Charlaine Harris and add in a liberal sprinkling of extra gore, skin, sizzle and sin. Not that the books necessarily went wanting in that department, but the TV series has ramped everything up.
I’ve always wavered back and forth in my appreciation for the show. I nearly gave up early on, turned off by the overwrought turns of Anna Paquin as Sookie and Stephen Moyer as Bill. And while I still find their story of love across the boundaries of death and slightly wonky Southern accents frustrating at times, they’ve slowly... | | | Continue reading... Comment Now (7 comments) | | | |
Back To Top
|
|
|
|
Follow us on Twitter | 
Follow us on Facebook | RSS | Empire iPad Edition
