Category Archives: TV

Doctor Who: Last Christmas. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Nick Frost, Samuel Anderson, Dan Starkey, Nathan McMullen, Faye Marsay, Michael Troughton, Maureen Beattie, Natalie Gumede.

Ever since Doctor Who was bought back with a blaze of undeniable glory in 2005, the Christmas special has been a much look-forward to event, on the whole it has delivered, sometimes, thankfully not often, it has been a major let down, like finding out there are no roast potatoes on offer at your in-laws house but they spent all year preparing a room full of stinking and putrid sprouts.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(735 words, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)

Babylon, Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brit Marling, James Nesbitt, Bertie Carvel, Paterson Joseph, Ella Smith, Jonny Sweet, Nicola Walker, Cavan Clerkin, Jill Halfpenny, Adam Deacon, Nick Blood, Stuart Martin, Andrew Brooke.

There are times when the continuous stick against the back of the collective head is not enough, sometimes it takes cleverly written satire and drama with very well hidden comic undertones to get the message across that in 21st Century Britain, the apparent message is all consuming and powerful. The message is as loud and perhaps as obnoxious as its counterpart and sometimes occasional lover, the economy. If listened too very carefully, the two words can be interpreted as one and the same and the mantra gets repeated over an d over again like a man finding out that raw onions is bad for his digestive system but carries on believing that they are doing him good just because it helps expel wind.

Babylon, Series One. Television Review. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan, John Lynch, Bronagh Waugh, Niamh McGrady, Sarah Beattie, Aisling Franciosi, Emmett J Scanlan, Archie Panjabi, Stuart Graham, Gerard Jordan, Bronagh Taggart, Valene Kane, Richard Clements, Jonjo O’Neill, Kelly Gough, Orla Mullan, Colin Morgan, Ruairí Tohill.

The Fall of humanity is a precarious downward path and it can start with a single dominant voice whispering in the dark, it soft murmuring causing a fuse to blow somewhere and in which starts the domino like destruction wrought on society is one that should be investigated more and evidence found in which to support the afflicted in the future. What happens before then though can be seen a terrorizing game between two people and in The Fall that game is played out with the severest of consequences.

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Black Mirror, White Christmas. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jon Hamm, Rafe Spall, Oona Chaplin, Natalie Tena, Janet Montgomery, Rasmus Hardiker, Dan Li, Ken Drury, Zahra Ahmed, Verity Marshall, Ian Keir Attard, Grainne Keoah, Robin Weaver, Simon Noch, Diveen Lenny, Esther Smith, Beatrice Arkwright, Liz May Brice, Nicholas Agnew, Gavin een, Sukh Ojla, Leanne Li.

 

For all the bright lights ever offered Humanity of a future world, it somehow is never as intriguing a prospect to write about a society that has a dystopian angle to it.

Black Mirror, White Christmas. Television Review. full post

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

Remember Me, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Michael Palin, Mark Addy, Hodie Comer, Julia Sawalha, Jamie-Rooney-West, Tony Pitts, Eileen Davies, Mayuri Boonham, Kate Dobson, Mina Anwar, Noreen Kershaw, Kirsty Hoiles, Ubayd Rehman, Aqib Khan, Sheila Hancock, Rebekah Staton, Rita May, Marcus Garvey, Richard Lumsden, Orla Cottingham, Gary Pillai, Roger Grainger, Tony Monroe, Indra J. Adler, Hilly Barber, Garry Marriott.

Remember Me is the first outing in dramatic role for what seems an interminable age for one of Yorkshire’s favourite sons Michael Palin. It is a role that perhaps offered so much to one of the absolute greats of British comedy but ultimately fell flat with little hope of being considered one of the giant’s great visual feasts.

Remember Me, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(576 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

RWBY, Season Two. Web Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lindsay Jones, Arryn Zech, Kara Eberle, Barbara Dunkelmen, Miles Luna, Jen Brown, Samantha Ireland, Michael Jones, J.J. Castillo, Adam Ellis, Gray G. Haddock, Shannon McCormick, Katie Newville, Jessica Nigri, Mounty Oum, Patrick Rodriguez, Kerry Shawcross, Kathleen Zuelch.

From, the very first episode, from the very first minute the fans of the RWBY are not disappointed. The creator Monty Oum has thought out this season very well and with a story to tell about the others as well as the main characters, the audience is now given further insight into each of the member’s back stories and what they are fighting for and that is only to the benefit to Monty Oum and the production team.

RWBY, Season Two. Web Series Review. full post

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

Under The Dome: Season Two. Television Review. Channel 5.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Mike Vogal, Rachelle Lefevre, Dean Norris, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford, Mackenzie Lintz, Eddie Cahill, Grace Victoria Cox, Max Erich, Dale Raoul, Sherry Stringfield, Dwight Yoakam, Brett Cullen, Aisha Hinds, Nicholas Strong, Britt Robertson, Natalie Martinez, Jolene Purdy, John Elvis.

What makes Stephen King’s Under The Dome so special that it has deserved more airtime than any of his other passages of American horror literature? It is a complex question that deserves answers, however there are but a few that present themselves adequately enough.

Under The Dome: Season Two. Television Review. Channel 5. full post

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

Lewis: Beyond Good And Evil. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Susan Wooldridge, Priyanga Burford, Alec Newman, Richie Campbell, Clare Holman, Rebecca Front, Robin Weaver, Tom Davey, Patrick Walshe Mcbride, Joe Dixon, Gruffudd Glyn, Emily Houghton, Martin Chamberlain, Paul Lacoux, Holly Blair, Sean Murray.

It is the terrifying grip that a mesmeric individual can wield over the thoughts of another that makes copy-cat killings so repellent. The mimic or the ventriloquist doll in the skin of a human being so transfixed by the evil in one person’s demeanour and plausible words that they lose sight of themselves, they lose their humanity to the point where they are actually more than an impersonator, they take on the residue of evil themselves in the final episode of the last series of Lewis, Beyond Good and Evil.

Lewis: Beyond Good And Evil. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death In Heaven. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Chris Addison, Jemma Redgrave, Sheila Reid, Andrew Leung, Nigel Betts, Joan Blackham, Sanjeev Bhaskar, James Pearse, Antonio Bourouphael, Shane Keogh-Grenade, Katie Bignell, Jeremiah Krage, Nicholas Briggs, Nick Frost,

The small signs have been there all season, the small nuggets of information that have filtered through should have been heeded. In their place, in one episode across 45 minutes they were easily ignored, a small rip in the fabric that not even the pickiest of fan would care too much to worry about. However as season closers go, it has to be said that Dark Water and Death In Heaven were easily the most frustrating of all since The Twin Dilema saw the beginning of Colin Baker’s era in the blue box in Doctor Who.

Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death In Heaven. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(718 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Lewis: The Lions of Nemea. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whatley, Laurence Fox, Rebecca Front, Angela Griffin, Clare Holman, Clive Merrison, John Light, Ian East, Kitty Rich, Sian Brooke, Jason Done, Jessica Henwick, Andrea Lowe, Rosie Cavaliero, Jenny Howe, Michael Ryan.

Heracles would have perhaps laboured in vain to understand to the 21st Century condition of false self pride and murderous intent that seems to be more prevalent than at any time in history, especially it seems in the academic halls of Oxford, to the point where he might have got in touch with Sisyphus and asked if it was possible to balance a collection of rocks on top of Everest for a while, than ever help the Thames Valley Police solve crimes in the area.

Lewis: The Lions of Nemea. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(474 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)