I liked it overall, though the actor playing Palmer felt much too young. Lucy Boynton was very good, although as is to be expected these days this aspect of the story was much more evident in the TV series than than in the book or the 1960s film.
I agree Joe Cole is ridiculously unbelievable as the world-weary war veteran/contraband smuggler. He looks like he just got out of the academy. I think Boynton and Hollander carry the show personally. Good to see Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in a part that requires other than an Irish accent. His American one is a bit meh, but not too bad in fairness.
Finished. It was... okay I guess. Again, these things never grip me sufficiently, and again, Cole being too young sort of spoiled it. Moving on now to a three-part BBC crime drama called The Control Room.
Halo was a very strange attempt at a game adaption. There are a couple of episodes with 0 action scenes, which just blows my mind for a series based on a first person shooter game. My reason for watching this was primarily for mindless cool action scenes and they were far too few IMO.
I'm currently watching Steins;Gate anime series. The extravagant Japanese anime entertainment is not my cup of tea under normal circumstances, however this one interested me, and seems cool so far.
The Control Room turned out to be very good. Only three episodes with a pretty clever double-twist at the end. I have a few problems with the writing, but overall very original and gripping. Recommended. Now what? Okay well a slew of FBI programmes kicking back onstream today: FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and a new one, FBI International (huh?) - they're dumb but sure fun.
Dumb but fun?
I am rewatching the first episodes of X-Files & Star Trek The Next Generation.
I am struck by how well the writing meshed with the acting, particularly w. the X-Files. Now my wife and I are watching true horror. The House hearings on the Capitol invasion.
Dumb but fun?
I am rewatching the first episodes of X-Files & Star Trek The Next Generation.
I am struck by how well the writing meshed with the acting, particularly w. the X-Files. Now my wife and I are watching true horror. The House hearings on the Capitol invasion.
Fun can be dumb. I mean, let's face it: when they can't even be bothered to come up with a proper title for the show you're not going to expect much are you? Think CSI but with marginally better and more believable writing, but don't expect 24 or Spooks or Criminal Minds...
Have to be fair: first episode of FBI was pretty good, and it looks like they're going to leave it open-ended as a kind of ongoing story arc about this rich cabal who pay underage girls for sex. Also, the girl died, which rarely happens in shows like this, so that was a shock. Maybe they're going to be more realistic this season. A good start, certainly.
One more FBI note: I have to take part some of the sneer. This story arc actually played out over the three series, moving smoothly from one to the other and was concluded very satisfactorily in the new FBI International. I'm impressed, won't lie.
Watched most of The Lazarus Project. I was enjoying it but it quickly went dark (which is ok) and then the underlying selfishness of the protag pissed me off. I mean, when he actually
set off the bomb so he could get his girl back by killing the world (ha ha didn't work you prick!)
I decided I could no longer take him seriously and began to hate him, so it was delete for the series.
On a happier note, Sky Arts started showing Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and like Twilight Zones without spacemen or robots or people going back/forward in time, or meeting other versions of themselves or doing deals the the Devil, really entertaining. Hitchcock was an underrated comedy genius: his intros can be virtually side-splitting at times - "This is for the man with everything" (showing a gun) "So that you can take it from him." Watched all of season one, but there are ten in all, so I had to cut it at that or I'd be watching it for months.
Also watched The Newsreader, Aussie drama about, funnily enough, a newsreader. Very good. Enjoying season four of Westworld, an Irish light-hearted-ish crime drama called Harry Wild (think Murder She Wrote, but nowhere near as annoying) with Jane Seymour in the title role, about to watch Irma Vep (anyone?) and that's about it for the moment.
Dark Winds. A riveting police procedural where the cops work for the Navajo Tribal Police. It streams on AMC.
Watched 3. Four have been broadcast so far.
As well done as the series is, I do have a problem with the it because it uses bits and pieces of the plots of several of the original books by Tony Hillerman, but the characters -although they share names with those in the books, - are significantly different. Not a problem for those who come to the broadcast series fresh.
Landscape, riveting actors, both the good and bad guys, The cast and all of the writers are almost entirely first nation, although not necessarily Navaho. The plot is deliberately convoluted, but the series is only half done. It is much better than the couple of TV movies made previously from Hillerman books. The fact that Robert Redford and George RR Martin are executive procedures may have something to do with the quality.
Highly recommended.
After no small amount of foot dragging and pure procrastination (from yours truly mostly...veteran Luddite & curmudgeon ) we've finally given our cable provider the boot and signed onto a pure streaming provider.
And found the Comet Channel on Sling. Now watching old re-runs of Farscape, Buffy & the X-Files nightly. Who knew?
First...An Iphone (still don't text), the Kindle, now a streaming service...what next as I'm dragged kicking and screaming into the future?
Watched the last (for now) episode of Orville.
For those of you not familiar, it's a weird encomium to Star Trek which plots and casts a far future whose characters and behaviors are deliberately contemporary with today.
Initially I was put off by the somewhat cheesy knockoff aspects of the show, but eventually was carried by the successful attempts at humour and the good nature of it.
The future placement and some characters are pretty outré, but all in all generally contemporary even in their exaggerations & use of salacious humor.
The last episode was an obvious attempt to tie up threads and not that good.
Seth McFarlane is the producer, head writer ,lead actor, and inspiration for the show and even though there are rumors of possible future seasons, he is now busy elsewhere and the actors have been released from their contracts.
