Category Archives: TV

Blue Lights: Series Two Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Nathan Braniff, Sian Brooke, Katherine Delvin, Martin McCann, Frankie McCafferty, Andi Osho, Hannah McClean, Joanne Crawford, Jonathan Harden, Andrea Irvine, Desmond Eastwood, Abigail McGibbon, Dearbháille McKinney, Seamus O’Hara, Craig McGinlay, Alfie Lawless, Matthew Forsythe, Chris Corrigan, Derek Thompson, Alfie Lawless, Paddy Jenkins.

We consider ourselves at the very least to be policed by consent, it is almost a statement of agreed terms and boundaries, which sometimes overlaps, sometimes moved by one faction, either in rebellion or by government insistence, but one to which for the most part the sight of Blue Lights flashing can be a comfort when we have been wronged, when another decides to not only blur the lines between criminal acts but to actively destroy your safety by setting fire to every law known.

Blue Lights: Series Two Television Review. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Superman & Lois: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Alex Garfin, Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette, Wolé Parks, Dylan Walsh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Sofia Hasmik, Tylor Buck, Daisy Tormé, Joselyn Picard, Leeah Wong, Zane Clifford, Austin Anozie, Danny Wattley, Samantha Di Francesco, Dee Jay Jackson, Pavel Romano, Michael Bishop, Chad L. Coleman, Monique Phillips, Victoria Katongo, Eric Keenleyside, Michael Cudlitz, Kelcey Mawema.

Superman & Lois: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(584 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Red Eye. Television Drama Series.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Jing Lusi, Richard Armitage, Lesley Sharp, Jemma Moore, Dan Li, Cash Holland, Tai Yin Chan, Thomas Chaanhing, Mido Hardada, Aiden Cheng, Lucianne McEvoy, Jonathan Aris, Xiangyi Tan, Steph Lacey, Parker Sawyers, Daphne Cheung, Elaine Tan.

The detective drama could be said to have eaten itself, a truth of this can be found in its ever-increasing ways in searches for a way to be unique, to have the ‘room’ in which the murder occurs be as far from the drawing room mystery of old as possible, and perhaps be almost considered at times to be more concerned with the seemingly unerring device rather than the character of the piece.

Red Eye. Television Drama Series. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

A Gentleman in Moscow. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Johnny Harris, Leah Harvey, John Heffernan, Lyès Salem, Daniel Cerqueira, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Dee Ahluwalia, Fehinti Balogun, Anastasia Hille, Anna Madeley, Lily Newmark, Alexa Goodall, Jason Forbes, Billie Gadsdon, Penny Downie, Leah Balmforth, Gabriel Robinson, Damian Rozanek, Matilda Hunt, Rob Jarvis, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Paul Ready, Beau Gadsdon.

A Gentleman in Moscow. Television Drama Review. full post

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

The Regime. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Danny Webb, Andrea Riseborough, Guillaume Gallienne, Henry Goodman, David Bamber, Rory Keenan, Louie Mynett, Martha Plimpton, Stanley Townsend, Alasdair Hankinson, Michael Colgan, Patrick Fusco, Pippa Haywood, Hugh Grant.

Regimes never fall, they just undergo a personality change.

In truth all revolutions ultimately fail because the void they leave is too immense for anything other than the status quo to fill it; it is why you arguably only ever have extremes of government in so called democratic countries, never a middle of the road leadership, a third party truly doing anything other than playing to the conscious of the crowd.

The Regime. Television Drama Review. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Shardlake. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Arthur Hughes, Anthony Boyle, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Sean Bean, Matthew Steer, Joe Barber, Miles Barrow, Babou Ceesay, Paul Kaye, Mike Noble, David Pearse, Irfan Shamji, Brian Vernal, Michael Rivers, Tadhg Murphy, Peter Firth, Alex Bhatt, Ken Nwosu, Louis Goodwin, Kimberley Nixon.

Shardlake. Television Drama Review. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Twelve. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Sam Neill, Brooke Satchwell, Kate Mulvany, Damien Strouthos, Marta Dusseldorp, Catherine Van-Davies, Nicholas Cassim, Pallavi Sharda, Brendan Cowell, Gennie Nevinson, Ngali Shaw, James Lugton, Hazam Shammas, Bishanyia Vincent, Mandela Mathia, Daniel Mitchell, Toby Blome, Lee Robinson, Warren Lee, Amy Kersey, Jenni Baird, Hamish Michael, Matt Nable, Louisa Mignone, Silvia Colloca, Ben Mingay, Alastair Bradman, Victoria Bradman, Gilbert Bradman, Sheridan Harbridge, Jade Potts, Fayssal Bazzi, Frances O’Connor, Myles Pollard, Anthony Hayes, Tasma Walton.

The Twelve. Television Drama Review. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Renegade Nell. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Louisa Harland, Frank Dillane, Alice Kremelberg, Enyi Okoronkwo, Bo Bragason, Florence Keen, Nick Mohamed, Adrian Lester, Jake Dunn, Joely Richardson, Jodhi May, Pip Torrens, Ashna Rabheru, Daniel Rigby, Joe Dixon, Ryan Gage, Mark Heap, Rosalyn Wright, Bronwyn James, John Arthur, Craig Parkinson, Art Malik, Ramon Tikaram, Ruth Madeley, Lenny Rush, Oliver Lansley.

The allure of the highway man has been such that since the tales of Dick Turpin were eulogised by the English Historical novelist William Harrison Ainsworth in the 1834 gothic novel Rookwood, the public has been entranced by the dark side of 18th Century Britain’s justice system and the inverse of the heroic story attributed to those who otherwise would have garnered the nation’s affections.

Renegade Nell. Television Series Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Professor T. Series Three. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ben Miller, Emma Naomi, Francis de la Tour, Barney White, Douglas Reith, Sarah Woodward, Andy Gathergood, Juliet Aubrey, Ben Onwukwe, Rupert Turnbull, Juliet Stevenson, Sunetra Sarker, Lee Ross, Jeany Spark, Richard Lintern, Roger Barclay.

Reason is the greatest weapon in any detective’s arsenal, the ability to see through the conflicting lies and deceit with just the use of the mind is enough to elevate any investigator in the eyes of the public. Surveillance, the reliance on electronic snooping on a suspect in any criminal case is all well and good to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in the courts of law, but it is the intuition, the logic and wit of those who devote themselves to the dogged truth that prove a lawbreaker can be caught with sound judgement at all times.

Professor T. Series Three. Television Series Review. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Shogun. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Nestor Carbonell, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka, Hiroto Kanai, Yasunari Takeshima, Moeka Hoshi, Yuki Kura, Ako, Ned Dennehy, Hiromoto Ida, Toshi Toa, Takeshi Kurkawa.

James Clavell’s seminal novel Shogun is arguably one of the reasons that the West became more than enamoured with Japan’s almost secret history, that the role played by the country in World War Two could be, if not forgiven, then explained in a deeper context of a period of time in which its present was heavily dictated to, and inspired by its honour, as well as what could be seen as its brutality.

Shogun. Television Drama Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)