The Mandalorian (Season Two). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Katee Sackhoff, Giancarlo Esposito, Temuera Morrison, Mercedes Varnado, Misty Rosas, Omid Abtahi, Ming-Na Wen, John Leguizamo, Timothy Olyphant, Richard Ayoade, Simon Kassianides, Titus Welliver, Carl weathers, Michael Biehn, Rosario Dawson, Diana Lee Isosanto, Bill Burr, Mark Hamill.

There was a time when a graphic novel adaption, or a spin off from a much-loved film would be met with the mixture of apathy and delight. Apathy because there was only so much that television could do in terms of making the programme accessible and in keeping with the character’s back story.

The Mandalorian (Season Two). Television Review. full post

(501 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Soo Line Loons. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The world says, “Be true to yourself”, and the spoken message that goes unnoticed after whispers, “and hang the consequences”.

The problem with passion and talent is that on occasion those that urge you to succeed, often feel neglected by your absence when you start making headway into your chosen field of creativity. It is the one direction railroad that takes you far from home, leaving the past, quite often, behind and wondering where you moved on to.

Soo Line Loons. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Grace: Dead Simple. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: John Simm, Rakie Ayola, Alisha Bailey, Richie Campbell, Alexander Cobb, Tom Weston-Jones, Silas Carson, Matt Wakeford, Maggie O’Neill, Adrian Rawlins, Matt Stokoe, Charlie Suff, Rupert Holliday-Evans, Cian Binchy, Catherine Bailey, Tiana Khan, Brad Morrison, Laura Elphinstone, Amaka Okafor, Vinny Dhillon, Natasha Joseph, Tim Treloar, Rebecca Scroggs, Diarmaid Murtagh.

Dead Simple, life certainly isn’t; especially when there is money and power involved.

Based on the novels by Peter James, Grace is the latest detective offering by ITV to give insight to the viewers of how police investigations often need a maverick to take risks when it comes to closing a particularly distressing murder or a case that baffles the sense of order.

Grace: Dead Simple. Television Review. full post

(491 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Thunder, All The Right Noises. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Making All The Right Noises means nothing if you cannot deliver upon your actions. You can create a sound that stimulates your own imagination, but if you dare not bring it to the people, then like the untethered thought, it will just fly off into the ether, disappearing quicker than a ripple of polite applause at a talent contest that nobody wanted to attend.

Thunder, All The Right Noises. Album Review. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

SAS: Red Notice. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Sam Heughan, Hannah John-Kamen, Ruby Rose, Andy Serkis, Tom Hopper, Tom Wilkinson, Owain Yeoman, Ray Panthaki, Noel Clarke, Anne Reid, Jing Lusi, Sarah Winter, Caroline Boulton, Richard McCabe, Douglas Reith, Dylan Smith, Attila C. Arpa, Aymen Hamdouchi, Grant Crookes, Tim Fellingham, Roderick Hill, Ty Hurley, Martin Angerbauer, Kevin Ezekiel Ogunleye, Karoly Baksai.

In the best laid traditions of James Bond, Her Majesty’s Government, and the Secret Services, it takes a psychopath to catch a psychopath, however the instrument of such bluntness is a cold steel walnut going up against a fragile glass hammer when it comes to penetrating the exterior of the film lover, especially when such a tale is presented without the humour of 007 or the best laid plan of a worthy adversary.

SAS: Red Notice. Film Review. full post

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

Legends Of Tomorrow (Series Two). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Caity Lotz, Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Arthur Darvill, Franz Drameh, Matt Letscher, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Amy Pemberton, Nick Zano, Dominic Purcell, Neal McDonough, John Barrowman, Wentworth Miller, Stephen Amell, Christian Westerveld, Rebecca Eady, John Rubenstein, Christina Jastrzemska, Patrick J. Adams, Matthew MacCaull, Srah Grey, Kwesi Ameyaw, Dan Payne, Lance Henriksen, Andre Eriksen, Mel Melancon, Sab Shimono, Jack Turner, Melissa Benoist.

To earn the right to call yourself a successful show or series does not always depend on viewer ratings or how it is talked about in the world of social media, it can also earn the distinction by its character. Like a human being, it is not what is talked about, but underneath that matters.

Legends Of Tomorrow (Series Two). Television Review. full post

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

Stephen King. Later. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There is nothing wrong with an author plying their trade and their name across more than one genre, in fact, it should be urged of them frequently less they become comfortable in their approach, and stale in their delivery.

Variety is not a spice of life, it is the very condiment to which inspires and keeps the writer echoing the likeness of death, and if you can’t change the scenery that you physically see because you are forever tapping away behind a desk, your fingers becoming numb, your mind racing with words, then the least you can do is alter the perspective of the narrative, vary the image, take part in your very own revolution from a foot away from the screen.

Stephen King. Later. Book Review. full post

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

Henry Bateman, Seinfeld Street. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

An anthem for the lonely, at any other time in history it would have sounded as if the narrative had come of the pages of one of the great American novels, the protagonist of the piece finding their way through the wilderness to great acclaim, and which stood for an allegory of the way the nation had come through its own trials and tribulations. Yet like so many unique experiences during a time that we dared to believe would never be, it is a fitting reminder of the sheer agony and pain, the dashed hope, and the seizing of beauty in even a drop of rain, that is exemplified by Henry Bateman in his new single, Seinfeld Street.

Henry Bateman, Seinfeld Street. Single Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Dorothy Bird, Kaleidoscope. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The patterns may change, the colours remain vibrant, but our daily lives, our hopes and desires are held hostage by the ones who makes the Kaleidoscope turn, and what we are left with is the maze of mirrors that create arrangements by design but never giving the whole picture; like the person who shares only success but never failure, the object is skewed in the favour of the turning and twisting the machine.

Dorothy Bird, Kaleidoscope. Single Review. full post

(338 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Marcella. Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Anna Friel, Amanda Burton, Aaron McCusker, Hugo Speer, Ray Panthaki, Martin McCann, Kelly Gough, Michael Coglan, Laurence Kinlan, Valerie Lilley, Emily Flain, Eugene O’Hara, Paul Kennedy, Jorin Cooke, Orla Mullan, Julia Dearden, Mary Moulds, Zahra Ahmadi, Hayley McQuillan, Daniel Abbott.

A more contained, streamlined approach, does not always leave the viewer with the comfortable feel of having been enlightened, educated, or entertained. If anything, often less, can be just that, less than entertaining, less than sincere, less than remarkable.

Marcella. Series Three. Television Review. full post

(523 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)