McDonald & Dodds: Wedding Fever. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jason Watkins, Tala Gouveia, Claire Skinner, Victoria Hamilton, Jason Hughes, Bill Bailey, Richard Harrington, Esme Coy, Lucinda Dryzek, Holli Dempsey, Charlie Coombes, Piotr Baumann, Charlie Jones, Bhavik C. Pankhania, Misha Domadia, Isaura Barbé-Brown, Joy Richardson, Akshay Sharan,

To the non-romantic, or even those that care little for social construct surrounding over-priced and over exaggerated declarations of love that come with the almost hysterical belief tied in with the convention of Wedding Season, the abuse of want and need, the sense of installing jealousy in a setting where good will should flow is enough to put some over the edge, to see marriage not as a union, but as a chance to even the score.

McDonald & Dodds: Wedding Fever. Television Drama Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Georgia Thunderbolts: Rise Above It All. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Album artwork for Rise Above It All by The Georgia Thunderbolts

F.E.A.R. as an acronym works well in our current state of human existence, and yet most will see it as an instruction to turn tail, to quit when the going has not only gotten hard, but more challenging a period of instability and cruelty of spirit than perhaps we have faced in the last 80 years; instead the approach, which is just as difficult, even as testing, but ultimately more satisfying, is to rise and meet the gruelling tasks head on.

The Georgia Thunderbolts: Rise Above It All. Album Review. full post

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

Danni Nicholls: Under The Neem Plum Tree. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Inspiration is such a gift that invariably the best kept preserves that we squirrel away in our minds come from those we are often closest to, in spiritual deed, in family pastimes.

Danni Nicholls exemplifies the almost delicate way in which a family’s influence during play can stimulate a love for certain kind of groove in the young, the experience introduced at an influential stage will bind them to the beauty, to the desire of exploring, changing, altering in style that which catches their ear; and in her wonderfully composed album, Under The Neem Plum Tree, Ms. Nicholls sharply focuses on the artistic inheritance handed down from her Grandmother and the songs that made the family sing with joy.

Danni Nicholls: Under The Neem Plum Tree. Album Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Vienna Blood: Mephisto Waltz. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Ration 9/10

Cast: Matthew Beard, Juergen Maurer, Luise von Finckh, Charlene McKenna, Amelia Bullmore, Conleth Hill, Raphael von Bargen, Josef Ellers, Simon Hatzl, Miriam Hie, Robert Reinagl, Leonie Benesch, Ulrike Beimpold, Maria Köstlinger, Johannes Zeiler, Johannes Zirner, Stipe Erceg, Murathan Muslu, Stefan Pohl, Tobias Resch, Hagen Dürre, Larissa Fuchs, Rainer Galke, Rainer Wöss, Harald Taschner, Andreas Lust.

There should be mandatory lessons in the science and application of psychiatry to all as they turn to an age where they could be found being used by the system, by the covert machinations of the state and by the narcissistic intent of those seeking an agenda in which, if pushed, could see those same young people sent to a war they had no idea they were signing up to.

Vienna Blood: Mephisto Waltz. Television Drama Review. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

McDonald & Dodds: Jinxy Sings The Blues. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Watkins, Tale Gouveia, Claire Skinner, Hugh Quarshie, Charlie Jones, Bhavik C. Pankhania, Sophia Myles, Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran, Charley Webb, Will Young, Zaquis Riddick. Jared Garfield, Enzo Squillino Jr., Robert Goodman, Don Gallagher, Roy Smiles, Bill Blackwood, Simon Markey, Matthew Wynn, Michael Howe, Melanie Marshall.

The argument can often be discussed that a social myth or legend can enhance any story that it is placed into, that the subject matter held within the past experience can, and often will, benefit the lore even further.

McDonald & Dodds: Jinxy Sings The Blues. Television Drama Review. full post

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

McDonald & Dodds: The Rule Of Three. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Watkins, Tala Gouveia, Claire Skinner, Charlie Jones, Bhavik C. Pankhania, Ace Bhatti, Daniel Lapaine, Lydia Leonard, Pixie Lott, Dipo Ola, John Gordon Sinclair, Toby Stephens, Rico Canadinhas, Siobhan O’ Carroll.

A return to the screens for a detective series that has grown with stature as it progresses to exemplify the sense of charismatic fortitude required when placing two oddly matched people together in order to solve a murder, is as welcome as a sunny, cloudless day after a month of constant storms that threaten to overwhelm the population with a sense of permanent gloom and floods of grief.

McDonald & Dodds: The Rule Of Three. Television Drama Review. full post

(425 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

House Of The Dragon. Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Glynn-Carney, Fabian Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Sonya Mizuno, Matthew Needham, Jefferson Hall, kurt Egyiawan, Eve Best, Paddy Considine, Paul Kennedy, Phil Daniels, Harry Collett, Max Wrottesley, Bethany Antonia, Anthony Flanagan, Phia Saban, Phoebe Campbell, Nicholas Jones, Vincent Regan, Freddie Fox.

It’s never what was is in the presentation, it is always what is excluded that leaves the viewer, the expectant fan aghast at the omission of what could have been, and the counter narrative that suggests a different conclusion to those paid, employed to deliver the freedom of the story in the best way they see fit.

House Of The Dragon. Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Deadpool & Wolverine. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corin, Matthew Macfadyen, Dafne Keen, Jon Favreau, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Channing Tatum, Chris Evans, Henry Cavill, Wunmi Mosaku, Aaron Stanford, Tyler Mane, Karen Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Shioli Kutsuna, Stefan Kapicic, Randal Reeder, Lewis Tan, Greg Hemphill, Aaron W. Reed, Blake Lively, Nathan Fillion, Ray Park, Matthew McConaughey.

Deadpool & Wolverine. Film Review. full post

(614 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

The Great. Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Gwilym Lee, Adam Godley, Belinda Bromilow, Bayo Gbadamosi, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Julian Barratt, Freddie Fox, Emily Coates, Florence Keith-Roach, Sacha Dhawan, Jane Mahady, Alistair Green, Grace Molony, Henry Meredith, Ali Ariaie, Dustin Demri-Burns, Richard Pyros.

Viewers of the off-beat comedy drama starring Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, and Pheobe Fox, The Great, will have much to cheer as the tales of Russian Court life under the rule of Catherine II finds its final series to be one of absolute integrity to the alter of satire and invective wit.

The Great. Series Three. Television Review. full post

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Interview With A Vampire. Season 2. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles, Bally Gill, Ben Daniels, Suzanne Andrade, Esme Appleton, Jake Cecil, Christopher Geary, Khetphet Phagnasay, Yung Nguyen, Andrew Van Wilpe, Matej Strunc, Jan Hofman, Ben Bradshaw, Jordan Unachukwu, Genevieve Dunne, Sigismund Häggkvist, Rebecca Riisness, Roxane Duran, Luke Brandon Field, Justin Kirk, Ed Birch.

Interview With A Vampire. Season 2. Television Review. full post

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