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Category Archives: TV talk
Night-mare!
So the COVID crisis of 2020 continued into 2021 but there were some TV highlights to keep me going! One of the very best was Mare of Eastown on HBO. A seven part series that was ostensibly a murder mystery – cop Mare (Kate Winslet) investigates the murder of a young woman – but was so much richers than that. Winslet played the down to earth and supr-relatable Mare, someone who has had a pretty tough time in life but whose inherent honesty and integrity make her a great cop but also a flawed one. The show’s setting, the fantastic cast (Jean Smart and one of my favourites, Julieann Nicholson, … Continue reading
Posted in TV talk
Tagged Evil, Ghosts, Gogglebox, Legends of Tomorrow, Mare of Eastown
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Long time, no see!
Since December 2017 a lot has changed…. A LOT! In terms of TV, looking at the shows I had on my list, many have ended (Halt and Catch Fire, Orphan Black, The Good Place, Game of Thrones, X Company, Mr Robot, Master of None, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Gypsy (really?), Blue Planet 2, Jane the Virgin, Imposters (I picked THAT?!) and Major Crimes. Of the remaining ones, not sure how many are still huge faves.
Posted in TV talk
Tagged Chernobyl, Dickinson, Evil, Gentleman Jack, GLOW, Killing Eve, Legends of Tomorrow, Pennyworth, Sharp Objects, the crown, The Mandalorian, The Morning Show, wynonna earp
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The Best TV Shows of 2017
It’s no coincidence that most of my choices for the best shows of the year features great roles for women. I many be biased, but there seemed to be far more nuance and complexity in many of the women on our tv screens this year than in the male roles. Finally! The women on my top 5 shows are a real mixture but each brilliant in their own way.
Posted in TV talk
Tagged AHS, better call saul, big little lies, Black Mirror, blue planet, crazy ex-girlfriend, Crisis on Earth X, fear the walking dead, Game of Thrones, GBBO, Gypsy, halt & catch fire, Imposters, Jane the Virgin, line of dute, Major Crimes, master of none, Mr Robot, orphan black, Supergirl, the crown, the handmaid's tale, the sinner, wynonna earp, x company
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Best TV of 2017: Guilty pleasures, honorable mentions and some misfires
2017 was a pretty good year for TV with some great shows coming to an end and other exciting new shows. This is the first of two posts about the shows that I can’t say were the best, but I enjoyed, plus some good ones that didn’t make my top 20. Also, a few of my let-downs from 2017’s TV year Guilty Pleasures
Posted in TV talk
Tagged American Gods, Fargo, Iron Fist, Last Tycoon, Legends of Tomorrow, Legion, Lucifer, Stranger Things, The Defenders, The Leftovers, The Orville, Top of the Lake, Twin Peaks
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Gypsy on Netflix
With so much TV around, when a show like Gypsy gets a critical kicking, you tend to think it’s not going to be much good. Ha! What do critics know! This show is my new obsession right now. Dropping on Netflix on 30th June 2017, this 10 part drama starring Naomi Watts had a strange pedigree. Yes, Watts is the main draw, plus Sam Taylor-Johnson is an exec producer and directed the first two episodes. However the show is created and mostly written by a total newcomer, Lisa Rubin.
Summer Shows Round Up
The Autumn shows have started rolling out now, but a quick look back at some of the highs and lows of the summer tv shows including the pleasant surprises of American Gothic and Braindead, a scrappy second season of UnREAL and Mr Robot continuing to baffle.
Posted in TV talk
Tagged American Gothic, Braindead, Major Crimes, Mr Robot, The Last Ship, Unreal
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Gone…but not forgotten!
This last month has seen the usual round of cancellations and there were some quite painful ones this year but also some inexplicable renewals! Cancelled and it Hurts! Agent Carter. Noooooo! Peggy, come back! Marvel’s ABC TV show never got great ratings, but was well liked by critics and its fans were very devoted. I am not sure why it didn’t do so great. The train of thought that women viewers watch shows with men and women characters but male viewers don’t like shows with female leads is a depressing thought if true. However, comic books do tend to appeal to boys more. They are written largely by men and … Continue reading
Posted in TV talk
Tagged Agent Carter, Castle, Galavant, Lost Girl, Nashville, Person of Interest, Rizzoli and Isles, Sleepy Hollow, The Family, The Good Wife
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Forget The Mentalist…Revisting The Guardian
This week I’ve been re-watching an old CBS lawyer show called The Guardian, notable for being Simon Baker’s first TV series before he hit it huge with The Mentalist. Baker is super charming, with a twinkling smile and highly charismatic as con man psychic turned crime fighter on The Mentalist, but for me the show ran out of steam very badly once they solved the Red John mystery (the man who killed Patrick Jane’s family) and followed the dull predictable route of pairing up Jane with Robin Tunney’s character. Skipping through the TV channels several years back, I came across The Guardian and immediately spotted a younger, shorter haired Baker … Continue reading
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is GENIUS!
Music, Comedy, Insanity! Crazy Ex-Girlfriend defied low ratings and an off putting title to be one of the best new shows this year. Rachel Bloom had been producing clever YouTube videos for a while before creating this show with Aline Brosh McKenna (screen writer of The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses and more). The show follows slightly insane Rebecca who quits her NYC job as a lawyer to move to West Covina, California largely because she is hung up on Josh Chan, a sort of boyfriend from her past. The above song is one of my favourites of a stellar season and like most of the songs, is clever and … Continue reading
American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson
As a non-American with no idea who OJ Simpson was apart from that guy in the Airplane! movies, the 1995 trial of OJ Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman didn’t have the impact on me here in the UK that it did in the USA. I was aware of it and the fact that he was probably guilty but got off thanks to clever lawyers was about all I remembered. However, as a Ryan Murphy fan I was interested (although all these shows with ‘America’ and ‘Crime’ in their title definitely confuses my Plex Media server!)