Category Archives: TV

The Goes Wrong Show: The Nativity. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Charlie Russell, Dave Hearn, Bryony Corrigan, Nancy Zamit, Greg Tannahill, Chris Leask.

In extraordinary times we are shown the way forward, or at least the way to continue what we do best with alterations to the way we produce it.

One of the television comedy hits of 2020 has surely to be the team behind The Goes Wrong Show, a team honed by theatre, and offered to a larger audience in the same time-led fashion that saw some of the greatest stars of vaudeville become legends of early cinema, and to whom the slapstick mayhem is as every bit as demanding and superbly presented as anything you would want to watch today.

The Goes Wrong Show: The Nativity. Television Review. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Upstart Crow, Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow: A Lockdown Christmas 1603. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Mitchell, Gemma Whelan.

Satire begs no mercy, and when it is aimed quite rightly at those to whom are pompous enough to believe they are untouchable, then the joke is made sweet, it pricks the conscious and deflates the ego to the point where rarely does the subject recover from the blow inflicted.

Upstart Crow, Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow: A Lockdown Christmas 1603. Television Review. full post

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

Supergirl (Season One). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, David Harewood, Calista Flockhart, Laura Benanti, Dean Cain, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Peter Facinelli, Brit Morgan, Glenn Morshower, Grant Gustin, Emma Caulfield, Italia Ricci, Helen Slater.

Whilst Marvel has done a sterling job in promoting the female superheroes of its comic book archive, it perhaps has not done quite enough to capture the same feeling of warmth and inclusion generated by the television shows that house the most valued possessions of it main rival, D.C. Comics.

Supergirl (Season One). Television Review. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Prodigal Son (Season One). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Payne, Michael Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage, Aurora Pettineau, Frank Harts, Keiko Agena, Bellamy Young, Esau Pritchett, Kasian Wilson, Molly Griggs, Anna Eilinsfeld, Charlayne Woodard, Giuseppe Ardizzone, Dermot Mulroney.

The life of the murderer has always intrigued the armchair detective to the point where it can blind them to a truth when the presence of a serial killer becomes aware to them. There is after all a fundamental difference between a one off taking of life to that of wilfully continuing the senseless slaughter of people, and whilst murder should never be condoned, never be seen as anything abhorrent, the armchair detective and the scandal magazine readers almost salivate over every detail of the serial killer’s purpose and belief, forgetting that underneath it all, are the victims, the stories behind the death.

Prodigal Son (Season One). Television Review. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

The Twilight Zone: You Might Also Like. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Gtretchen Mol, Greta Lee, Gil Bellows, Colleen Camp, Donna Dixon, Jordan Peele, George Takei, Karly Warkentin, Eric Halliburton, Tara Pratt, Johannah Newmarch, Emmett Lee Stang, Emilie Taylor, Connor Sage, Charlotte Kavanagh, Shevi Ryane, Oz Perkins, Kirk Thomas, David Coakley.

We have all said it, all perhaps thought it at some point or another, and some more than others, a throwaway line in which we enslave ourselves to consumerism, in which we slowly erode the soul and fill our homes with the useless and the impractical, “If I can buy that my life will be complete, if I possess that which is on offer, I will be happy“.

The Twilight Zone: You Might Also Like. Television Review. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Brave New World. Television Review.

Liverpool sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Nina Sosanya, Joseph Morgan, Kylie Bunbury, Sen Mitsuii, Hannah John-Kamen, Sophie McIntosh, Matthew Aubrey, Ed Stoppard, Kate Fleetwood, Stuart Walker, Ann Akin, Sophia Naziris, Sally Kennington, Demi Moore, Naomi Yang, Lara Peake, Ian Whyte, Rich Hall.

Brave New World. Television Review. full post

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

The Twilight Zone: Try, Try. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Topher Grace, Kylie Bunbury, Jordan Peele, Logan McInnes, Bruno Rudolf, Kelly Ann Woods, Kam Kozak, Jina Anika, Mark Chavez, Marc Williams, Britney Mocca, Leo Chiang.

There is surely no denying that Groundhog Day is one of the classic American comedies of the last 40 years, not only does it see Bill Murray at his best, a tall feat when you consider just how influential he has been throughout his entire career, but the premise of the film is charming, beguiling and one that captures the idea of persistence and change right down to its very core.

The Twilight Zone: Try, Try. Television Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Undoing. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Noah Jupe, Donald Sutherland, Edgar Ramirez, Lily Rabe, Matilda De Angelis, Edan Alexander, Michael Devine, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Jeremy Shamos, Madeline Faye Santoriello, Irma-Estel LaGuerre, Noma Dumezweni, Billy Lake, Douglas Hodge, Fala Chen, Tarik Davis, Maria Dizzia, Vedette Lim, Janet Moloney, Jason Kravits, Matt McGrath.

If the year has taught television audiences anything it that the court room drama, if handled and written with care and objectivity, can still grip the viewer and have them on the edge of the seat; and if you can get past the search for the face of the suspect and concentrate on the why rather than the who, then the investment will have been worth it.

The Undoing. Television Review. full post

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

Tin Star: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tim Roth, Genevieve O’Reilly, Abigail Lawrie, Christina Hendricks, Sarah Podemski, John Lynch, Jenessa Grant, Anamaria Marinca, Brendan Sunderland, Oliver Coopersmith, Ian Puleston-Davies, Ryan Kennedy, Lynda Boyd, Michelle Thrush, Matt Willis.

There was always, and will always be, a sizeable section of society that looks at a drama series, whether it is in the realm of the soap opera, quick turn- around scripts and Hollywood smiles and devil may care attitude, or in the arguably more serious vane to which the whole household gives there time to across a select number of episodes, and to which the conversation will inevitably turn, of just how much can actually happen to one person, that to a cross section of society an adventure is a one off, that the protagonist, the anti-hero, surely cannot have that type of complicated life.

Tin Star: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

The Twilight Zone: A Small Town. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Damon Wayans Jr., David Krumholtz, Natalie Martinez, Paula Newsome, Keegan Connor Tracy, Andrew Alvarez, Jordan Peele, Steel Bey, Jason Asuncion, Marc Gaudet, Peter New, Michael P. Northley, Linda Darlow, Patrick Keating, Christina Jastrzembska, Tim Zhang, Krish Lohtia, Kelly Richard Nelson, Jeremy Arnold, Kristina Arnold.

If we could look down on creation and find a way to change all that is bad, all that is annoying, bothersome and frustratingly simple to fix, if we could do this, would we do it in full glare of the watchful eye of all who have their own agendas, or would we solve the problems anonymously, in quiet contemplation and never take a single word of praise for doing the right thing.

The Twilight Zone: A Small Town. Television Review. full post

(672 words, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)