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A UK media blog with daily news, views, exclusive reviews and good conversation. There's a bit of a bias towards the latest and greatest US TV, but we also cover British TV. Add in film, theatre, art, books, events and media journalism and you've (hopef
Recent Posts Tagged With 'reviews'
Review: Doctor Who - 127 - Castle of Fear
Big Finish seem to have a new plan: trilogies. We've had the Key2Time season followed by three Seventh Doctor stories. We've just had another trilogy - the jettisoning of Charley Pollard from the mainstream Doctor Who Big Finish universe, except in C...
Review: Doctor Who - The Lost Stories - 01 - The Nightmare Fair
Over the years, there's been a surprising amount of Doctor Who scripts that were never made: stories that fell afoul of budgetary and logistical issues; stories that were too similar to others; stories that were too awful for human consumption – th...
Review: Heroes 4x12 - The Fifth Stage
In the US: Monday 30th December 2009, 8pm, NBC In the UK: Oh, you know, some time round March or April. Or May This is the last episode of Heroes before it goes away for its Christmas break, and comes back in its old time slot, 9pm. It's another Tim...
Review: Heroes 4x11 - Thanksgiving
In the US: Monday 23rd November 2009, 8pm, NBC In the UK: Oh, you know, some time round March or April It's Thanksgiving in the US right now, where no doubt millions of families are busily having icy conversations and fights amongst each other. Well...
Review: Doctor Who - 126 - Blue Forgotten Planet
After 10 years (or whatever), it's time for Charley Pollard to leave the Big Finish range. The premier eighth Doctor companion (and possibly best companion of all, depending on who you talk to), with The Condemned she became the premier audio sixth D...
Third-episode verdict: V
In the US: Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC In the UK: SyFy, 2010 Time for one of these third-episode verdict things on V, ABC's remake of the 1980s mini-series/series. I've not really much further to report since the first episode, other than the fact I'm gettin...
Review: Heroes 4x10 - Brother\'s Keeper
In the US: Monday 16th November 2009, 9pm, NBC In the UK: March/April 2010, BBC2 Remember the best feature of season one of Heroes? Okay cool powers are, indeed, cool, but the best bit was the way all the various disparate, separated characters woul...
Review: Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars
In the UK: Sunday 15th November, 7pm, BBC1/BBC HD In the US: Saturday 19th December, 9 pm ET/PT, BBC America Best nu-Who episode ever. Probably. Spoilers lurking ahead under the surface. (continued) ...
Review: CSI/CSI:Miami/CSI:NY crossover
In the US: Monday 9th, Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12th November 2009, CBS In the UK: Five, 2010 So this week has been ratings stunt week over in the US, thanks to it being sweeps time, and CSI, CSI:Miami and CSI: NY have pulled off the biggest sweeps ...
Review: Doctor Who - 125 - Paper Cuts
Can I ask a quick question? How valuable are these reviews of Big Finish plays to people? The reason I'm asking is that I'm rapidly running out of patience with them. There are far more misses than hits – which are only really relative hits – and...
Season finale: Mad Men (season three)
In the US: Sunday 8th November, AMC In the UK: BBC4 still haven't bought it… That's it. It's over again for another year. Damn those AMC people. But 1963 and season three of Mad Men have ended, and we're going out on a high. (continued) ...
Review: Heroes 4x9 - Shadowboxing
In the US: Monday 9th November 2009, 8pm, NBC In the UK: March 2010, BBC2 Bit of a mixed bag this episode, with unexpected moments and twists aplenty, but with a few hints of dullness here and there, most of them being Peter and Emma. ...
Third-episode verdict: White Collar
In the US: Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network Three episodes into White Collar and I haven't changed my mind much about the show since I previewed the first episode. In fact, it's gone slightly down in my estimation, not by being worse per se, but by becomi...
Review: Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
In the US/UK: Sometime in 2010 Available from Amazon.co.uk on BluRay import The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a p...
Review: V 1x1
In the US: Tuesdays (for four weeks, resuming in 2010), 8/7c , ABC In the UK: SyFy, 2010 Way back in the 80s, aliens came among us, some time during the Los Angeles Olympics, in fact. They looked like us, they pretended to be our friends. But they t...
Review: Heroes 4x8 - Once Upon a Time in Texas
In the US: Monday 2nd November 2009, 8pm, NBC In the UK: March 2010, BBC2 Wow. That was a bit good, wasn't it? (continued) ...
Season finale: Engrenages (Spiral) 2x8
In the UK: Sunday 1st November 2009, 10pm, BBC4. Available on the iPlayer Well, it's over now. Time for a collective snivel by viewers of quality TV in Britain. Please, Sir, can we have some more? Etc, etc. Let's face facts, season two of Spiral aka...
Review: Heroes 4x7 - Strange Attractors
In the US: Monday 26th October 2009, 8pm, NBC In the UK: Start of March 2010, probably After all the forward progress in terms of pacing that the show has made in the last couple of weeks, it's a shame to have such a filler episode thrown in our fac...
Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 2x7
In the UK: Sunday 25th October, 10pm, BBC4. Available on the iPlayer You may have noticed last week that I was a bit worried that the final two episodes of Engrenages (Spiral) were going to be a let down. That the producers might not be sure where t...
Preview: White Collar 1x1
In the US: Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network. Starts October 23rd You may remember that while watching Chuck recently, you thought to yourself, "Why that dashing and handsome young Matt Bomer - who plays the possibly, possibly not evil secret agent Bryce ...
Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 2x6
In the UK: Sunday 18th October, 10.15pm, BBC4. Available on the iPlayer Tension mounts on Engrenages as the police close in on Aziz, we discover that French domestic violence laws need some work, and that France's witness protection programme needs ...
Review: 30 Rock 4x1
In the US: Thursdays, 9.30/8.30c, NBC In the UK: Comedy Central at some point Season three of 30 Rock felt a little off. It wasn't quite the show it used to be, which is a shame, because by season two, it had become the funniest show on TV. The prob...
Review: Heroes 4x6 - Tabula Rasa
In the US: Monday 19th October 2009 In the UK: Looks like February now Ah, if only all Heroes episodes could be this good. While not entirely faultless, Tabula Rasa had everything that made season one so good: decent characterisation, a good script,...
Third-episode verdict: The Middle
In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30c/7.30c, ABC We're in a comedy boom. Suddenly, there are decent comedies everywhere - as well as a few rubbish ones like Brothers and Accidentally on Purpose. ABC has most of them: it's got Cougar Town and Modern Family, al...
Third-episode verdict: Trauma
In the US: Mondays, 9/8c, NBC Time for a third-episode verdict on "Jerry Bruckheimer's Casualty" aka Trauma. After an opening episode that made it hard to spot the wheat (most of the writing and characters) from the chaff (the colossal, ridiculous ex...
Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 2x5
In the UK: Sunday 11th October, 10pm, BBC4. Available on the iPlayer Last week's slight holding pattern is abandoned in this week's Engrenages (Spiral) as Samy, the Special Branch officer, begins to work his magic on the investigation and Aziz comes...
Review: Heroes 4x5 - Hysterical Blindness
In the US: Monday 12th October, 8pm, NBC In the UK: The New Year It would be cruel to re-title this episode Hysterical Blandness because it's not. Well, maybe just a little bit. But the pace is perceptibly starting to pick up again on Heroes. Thank ...
Review: The Border 3x1
In Canada: Thursdays, 9pm, CBC In the US: Acquired by Ion Television In the UK: FX probably Firstly, as always, don't go to the CBC web site if you want to have any surprises this season. They give the whole game away. Secondly, where were we? Oh ye...
Third-episode verdict: Stargate Universe
In the US: Fridays, 9/8c , SyFyIn the UK: Tuesdays, 8pm, Sky1/Sky1 HDWe're three episodes into Stargate Universe (if we count the launch movie as a two-parter, which we do since the producers do), so time for a third-episode verdict. On the whole, no...
Third-episode verdict: FlashForward
In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC In the UK: Mondays, 9pm, FiveFlashForward is the new Lost. Apparently.However, I distinctly remember Lost being interesting when it started – you know, having a decent set of characters, that sort of th...
