Category Archives: TV

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: David Mitchell, Gemma Whelen, Liza Tarbuck, Harry Enfield, Paula Wilcox, Helen Monks, Tim Downie, Dominic Coleman, Mark Heap, Rob Rouse, Steve Spiers, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Adam Harley.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Ben Elton, one of the prestigious and prolific comedy writers of his generation, was asked to step in and take what was a perhaps seen as a series that confused some, baffled others and had those who had the wherewithal to not only admire Rowan Atkinson but who also understood the intricacies of historical comedy, heavily borrowing dialogue from William Shakespeare, to the absolute heights of the British comedy mountain.

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Strike:The Cuckoo’s Calling. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger, Martin Shaw, Davis Avery, Leo Bill, Tara Fitzgerald, Kadiff Kirwan, Kerr Logan, Natasha O’Keeffe, Killian Scott, Bronson Webb, Elarica Johnson, Amber Anderson, Brian Bovell, Adelle Leonce, Kevin Fuller, Greg McKenzie, Jazz Cartier, Tezlym Senior-Sakutu, Suzanna Hamilton, Callie Coke, Sian Phillips.

There is always a detective waiting in the wings, a shadow waiting to emerge and be able to save the day with cunning, remarkable insight and the odd quirk to their name; in an age where television and arguably literature seems to have cornered every possible way to portray the down at heel gumshoe or detective with a flaw, along comes Cormoran Strike to add another dimension to the armchair detective’s televised alter ego.

Strike:The Cuckoo’s Calling. Television Review. full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Quacks. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Rory Kinnear, Lydia Leonard, Mathew Baynton, Tom Basdon, Rupert Everett, Marcia Warren, Lisa Jackson, Kayvan Novak, Georgie Glen, Milly Thomas, Andrew Scott, Miles Jupp, Fellena Woolgar, David Bamber, Ben Willbond, Geoff McGivern.

 

Every profession has the pop stars of their day, the showmen and women, the extroverts and the gregarious who live for the acclaim, the prestige and the privilege it brings. The artist, the poet, the actor, the musician and the surgeon, all have their theatres, all have one person who plays to the crowd and relishes the sense of power it brings.

Quacks. Television Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Fargo: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Goran Bogdan, David Thewlis, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Scott McNairy,  Andy Yu, Mark Forward, Olivia Sandoval, Russell Harvard, Mary McDonnell, Hamish Linklater, Scott Hylands, Graham Verchere,  Linda Kash, Caitlynne Medrek, Sylvester Busch, Thomas Mann, Fred Melamed, Riger V. Burton, Rob McElhenney, Francesca Fisher, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Ray Wise, D.J. Qualls, Billy Bob Thornton.

 

Fargo: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

In The Dark. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: MyAnna Buring, Ben Batt, David Leon, Emma Fryer, Jamie Sives, Clive Wood, Pearce Quigley, Jessica Gunning, Georgia Tennant, Ashley Walters, Sophie Bloor, Matt King, Tim McInnerny, Lee Boardman, Alice May Feetham, Fisayo Akinade.

There is always a police drama in which to rifle through, to borrow, sometimes wonderfully well, from literature; yet somehow television and film always seem to rely heavily on certain authors the vast majority of times without searching beyond the known and easily marketable. For every Christie there should be someone of unequal note, for every Ian Rankin there should be a new novelist writing with clarity and sensitivity of plot being given their chance to have the characters they painfully created, up on the screen.

In The Dark. Television Review. full post

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

Ill Behaviour. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Chris Geere, Tom Riley, Jessica Regan, Christina Chong, John Gordon Sinclair, Anjana Vasa, Sanchia McCormack, Mark Asante, Lorna Browne, Tom Bell, Simon Meacock, Andrew Bennett, Wendy Meredith, Kellie Blaise, Joey Akubeze.

Mortality and comedy can live together in a secret harmony, the gallows humour employed by many when they know they are under the sentence of death, be it at the hand of state or by their own body fighting a war against them, from within the enemy is the hardest to reason with and win over.

Ill Behaviour. Television Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Occurrence Reports. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Jerome Flynn, Killian Scott, Jonas Armstrong, Anna Burnett, Anna Koval, Clive Russell, Matthew O’ Brien, Joseph Harmon, Lydia Wilson, Joseph Mawle, Patrick Drury, Kye Murphy, Kahl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Matthew Lewis, Sarah Vaughn, David Dawson, Marko Leht, Jennifer Aries.

 

Ripper Street: Occurrence Reports. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street: A Last Good Act. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Jonas Armstrong, Anna Burnett, Gerry O’Brien, Joseph Harmon, Lydia Wilson, Joseph Mawle, Kye Murphy, Kahl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Matthew Lewis. Clive Russell, Anna Koval, Ruairi Heading, Matthew O’ Brien, Patrick Drury.

Ripper Street: A Last Good Act. Television Review. full post

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

Ripper Street: The Dreaming Dead. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Jonas Armstrong, Anna Burnett, Gerry O’Brien, Joseph Harmon, Ellie Haddington, Lydia Wilson, Joseph Mawle, Kye Murphy, Kahl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Matthew Lewis.

The varying degrees of right and wrong quite often bleed in to each other like a sauce splitting in the pan, you can see where the line is drawn, the thin blue marker but quite often we all over step it and find only the act of redemption comes to save us when we do one good thing despite of deep we have gone.

Ripper Street: The Dreaming Dead. Television Review. full post

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

Lethal Weapon, Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Damon Wayans, Clayne Crawford, Keesha Sharp, Kevin Rahm, Michelle Mitchenor, Jonathan Fernandez, Jordana Brewster, Chandler Kinney, Dante Browne, Richard Cabral, Floriana Lima, Tony Plana, Hilarie Burton, Andrew Patrick Ralston.

There are few films that truly capture the sense of the damaged and emotionally injured as the Lethal Weapon series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The first one especially was one of huge importance to the idea of the buddy movie, the two detective scenario which has by and large worked across the board since both television and film cottoned on to its appeal and the psyche in which such premises work.

Lethal Weapon, Series One. Television Review. full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)