Television | the m0vie blog

The Thick of It – Series II (Review)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

The wonderful folks at the BBC have given me access to their BBC Global iPlayer for a month to give the service a go and trawl through the archives. I’ll have some thoughts on the service at the end of the month, but I thought I’d also take the opportunity to enjoy some of the fantastic content.

My expert would totally disprove that.

Who is your expert?

I don’t know, but I can get one by this afternoon. The thing is, you’ve been listening to the wrong expert. You need to listen to the right expert. And you need to know what an expert is going to advise you before he advises you.

– Malcolm explains how advisers work to Hugh

In its sophomoric three-episode season, The Thick of It remains a shrewdly-observed and immensely funny political satire. It’s a very British send-up of the sort of idealism inherent in drama like The West Wing, a show where everything is so murky and uncertain that the script is highly improvised and even the camera wobbles. While it’s still as funny as it was in its first season, though, I have to confess that the second season didn’t quite grab in the same way. The first season represents one of the most cynical explorations of mainstream politics that I have ever seen, but it actually seems relatively optimistic when measured against this much more scornful second cluster of episodes.

The series that coined the phrase “Malchiavelli”…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Abnett, art, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, Government of the United Kingdom, Harvey Weinstein, kenneth branagh, Malcolm, Malcolm Tucker, Minister, Television, The Thick of It, the west wing, Thick of It, West Wing | 2 Comments »

Gideon’s Daughter (Review)

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Darren

Stephen Poliakoff’s companion piece to Friends and Crocodiles, airing just a month after that original drama film, Gideon’s Daughter feels like it owes a lot to a bunch of fascinating central performances. While Robert Lindsay provides the only on-screen evidence of a link between the two projects, reprising his role as an embittered old writer here, Poliakoff’s two stories are thematically linked, as the author focuses a lot of his frustrations on meaningless celebrity culture. This time, however, he sets the stories in the late nineties, allowing him to explore what he undoubtedly sees as the vulgarity of the millennium celebrations and to subtly examine the national outpouring of grief offer the loss of Princess Diana, while telling a rather simple story of a father and his daughter.

All tied up...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Arts and Entertainment, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, bill nighy, britain, Diana Princess of Wales, Emily Blunt, Gideon, ITunes, kenneth branagh, Mark Thompson, Nighy, novel, Poliakoff, Robert Lindsay, Stephen Poliakoff | Leave a comment »

Friends & Crocodiles (Review)

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Darren

Stephen Poliakoff is regarded as one of the best British film, theatre and television writers working today. In 2006, the writer and director produced two television movies linked by character and by theme. While Gideon’s Daughter is perhaps the more successful of the two, Friends & Crocodilesremains an interesting – if not consistently satisfying – viewing experience. While it doesn’t have as strong a cast as its companion piece, I think it covers more interesting ground, and feels a tad more ambitious, even if it does succumb to the same awkwardness in places.

Dealing with his inner Damians...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Barack Obama, bbc, BBC iPlayer, books, Chih-Yuan Chen, Crocodile, Crocs, Cuba, Damian Lewis, David Cameron, E-book, Great Britain, Great Gatsby, Guji Guji, Helen McCrory, Michelle Obama, Paul, Poliakoff, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Shopping, Stephen Poliakoff, The Selfish Crocodile, Venture capital, white house | Leave a comment »

The Thick of It – Series I (Review)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Darren

The British sure know their political comedy. The Thick of It is something like a spiritual successor to the cult British political comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, from the mind of creator Armando Iannucci. Iannucci is perhaps best known for his work with Steve Coogan on the character of Alan Partridge, and there’s a lot of the same awkward comedy here. Perhaps it’s best to describe The Think of It as the ideological opposite of The West Wing, a bucket of cold British water chucked over America political idealism. It’s crass, profane, cynical, sly and absolutely brilliant.

Thick and thin...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Alan Partridge, Armando Iannucci, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, Department of Social Affairs, iraq war, kenneth branagh, Mark Thompson, peter capaldi, Prime Minister, Sidetracked, steve coogan, Television, The Thick of It, the west wing, Thick of It, Tucker, Wallander, Yes Minister | Leave a comment »

Moses Jones (Review)

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Darren

The thing about Moses Jones is that it, quite simply, blaxploitation. I don’t mean that’s a comedy or a wry deconstruction, the BBC equivalent of Black Dynamite or Undercover Brother. It’s a modern example of blaxploitation rather than a post-modern examination. It offers serious issue-based drama, playing its subject matter with complete seriousness and utter respect. For most of its runtime, it actually works quite well as an attempt to pull the conventions of blaxploitation narratives into the twenty-first century and transport them from the mean American streets to inner-city London. While the ending falls apart under its own weight, and a desire to wrap up absolutely everything in a neat little bow, there’s quite a bit to like about this BBC detective show.

Holy Moses...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Black Dynamite, egypt, god, Indira Varma, israel, Israelite, Joe Penhall, London, Lord, Moses, Moses Jones, Shaun Parkes, Shepherd | Leave a comment »

The Quatermass Experiment (2005) (Review)

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Darren

The Quatermass Xperiment was a very important place in the history of genre television. Originally airing as a six-part drama on the BBC, the 1953 adventure serial demonstrated that televised science-fiction could be written for adults. Written by Nigel Kneale, the show had a major influence on the genre not only at home (inspiring Doctor Who), but also internationally (allegedly paving the way for 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien). In 2005, as part of BBC 4’s “TV on Trial” season, a remake of the classic serial was commissioned, with one especially fascinating facet: it would be broadcast live.

Man of science...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, david tennant, Jason Flemyng, live television, quatermass, quatermass experiment, quatermass experiment (2005), quatermass xperiment, science fiction, Television | Leave a comment »

Wallander: One Step Behind (Review)

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Darren

And so we reach the end of the first season of the British adaptations of Henning Mankell’s acclaimed Swedish crime novels. Wallander is a series that is probably much stronger than it really should be, offering ninety-minute-long mysteries that are produced the standards of feature films. Director Philip Martin returns after directing the first episode to helm the final in the first trilogy of adaptations. (There would be a second set of three broadcast in 2010 and another set of three to be shown in 2012.) Strangely enough, this final episode actually manages to give a significant amount of depth to the title character, finally suggesting a role worthy of the depth Branagh imbues into it.

We've got a hit on our hands...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Arts and Entertainment, bbc, BBC iPlayer, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Henning Mankell, kenneth branagh, Kurt Wallander, One Step Behind, Sky Arts, Sweden, tom hiddleston, Wallander, Wallander: One Step Behind | 8 Comments »

Wallander: Firewall (Review)

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Darren

Firewall feels a bit more like a conventional little mystery thriller, especially measured against Sidetracked, the pilot episode of Wallander. It’s very much a conventional television “whodunnit” (or, perhaps, a “whydunnit”), with our lead character opening an investigation into a fairly simple case, but asking a series of questions that point towards something all-together larger. It does feel a bit lighter than its direct predecessor, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, it retains the two key virtues of the series. Kenneth Branagh is still on fine form as the eponymous detective, while the Swedish scenery is still absolutely haunting.

Hitting a brick Wallander...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: art, bbc, BBC iPlayer, Firewall, Firewalls, Henning Mankell, IPod, kenneth branagh, Kurt Wallander, Maryville Tennessee, Niall MacCormick, Organization, Organizations, Philip Martin, Recycling, Sheriff, United States, Walland Tennessee, Wallander, Wallander: Firewall | 2 Comments »

The Sopranos: 46 Long (Review)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Darren

With the second episode of the show, we can see things beginning to settle into place a bit. While David Chase did a phenomenal job with the pilot episode – introducing threads that would pay off years down the line – here we get a chance to see The Sopranos settle into its groove. The series has been praised, quite rightly, as one of the great and defining television series, and many writers have echoed the claim that the series is effectively a “televised novel”, wherein each episode could be considered a chapter as part of a greater whole, with small patterns becoming evident once the viewer pulls back far enough. I’m not sure I entirely agree – I think that each episode does a phenomenal story covering its own ground while playing into larger themes and that each fifty-five minute show is more than just an idle chapter.

Mommy issues...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: american dream, arts, bbc, Carmela Soprano, David Chase, drama, hbo, Italian American, Livia Soprano, Programs, Soprano, Television, Television program, Tony, United States | 4 Comments »

Wallander: Sidetracked (Review)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Darren

In hindsight, it’s very hard to divorce Wallander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Both are Swedish murder mysteries exploring the darker side of what one character here terms “the great social experiment”, both involve uncovering old secrets buried in the past, and both are adapted by the production company Yellow Bird. In fact, the BBC adaptation of Henning Mankell’s novels actually debuted a year before the theatrical release of that other hugely influential Scandinavian thriller. Featuring a blistering centre performance from Kenneth Branagh and absolutely superb production, I think that the BBC’s production of Wallander actually stands in fairly good company.