TV or not TV

Top 5 Denman Races

2011-12-15T15:46:00.001Z

There’s nothing sadder than realising that the immortal are just as fallible as the rest of us, and last week Horse Racing was forced into that uncomfortable realisation.

One of the kings of a golden era of staying chasers, the mighty Denman, was unfortunately pushed in to early retirement by injury and with that news came the horrible reality check that we would never again get to see ‘The Tank’ relentlessly galloping his rivals in to the ground.

Denman’s rapid rise to the upper echelons of jump racing coincided almost completely in sync with my ever increasing interest in the sport of Kings and along with his majestic stable mate and great rival (and friend) Kauto Star, he helped to ensure that I fell completely in love not only with these two beautiful equine creatures but also the sport that I now call a very healthy obsession.

With Denman now competitively off the track for good we’ll not have the opportunity to see him blaze any new trails round the great race courses of the UK & Ireland, but we all still have our memories, and Denman is certainly responsible for his fair share of unforgettable moments over the last half a decade.

His 2007 RSA Chase victory at the Cheltenham Festival heralded not only his arrival as a major force in the 3m chasing division but also an incredible run of Festival appearances that saw him win one Gold Cup and finish 2nd in a further three. Interspersed with those incredible efforts at Prestbury Park were equally as impressive exploits on both sides of the Irish Sea, including several Herculean efforts in a race that will forever be associated with this monster of a race horse – the Hennessy Gold Cup.

Denman’s influence on National Hunt racing and the horse racing world in general has been colossal, so to celebrate what will hopefully be a long and happy retirement for the old war horse I wanted to remember his five greatest races from a career overflowing with them.

5. Cheltenham Gold Cup 2009 - 2nd

It may seem somewhat odd that for a horse who won 14 of his 24 starts some of his greatest efforts have come in defeat, but for me, and I know a lot of others as well, a large part of what made Denman such a giant of the turf was his never say die attitude.

He was as gallant in defeat as he was in victory, if not more so, and the 2009 Gold Cup is the most wonderful example of that incredible characteristic.

A year earlier Denman had firmly cemented himself as the undisputed champion of the division by putting every one of his rivals, including Kauto, to the sword in an unrelenting display scarcely seen in the sport when winning the Gold Cup.

Twelve months on it was a different story though and having missed the Hennessy earlier in the season after being diagnosed with a defibrillating heart condition Denman had flopped spectacularly on his return and seasonal bow being beaten by an almost embarrassing distance by the useful-on-his-day-but-hardly-in-Denman’s-league Madison Du Berlais in the Aon Chase at Newbury.

Denman it seemed was a shadow of his former dominant self and was sent off at almost insulting odds as he bid to retain his crown.

Always prominent but never getting into that unstoppable rhythm he had 365 days earlier Denman looked good if not spectacular as the race reached its business end. Turning for home it was Denman and his old adversary Kauto Star that kicked clear of the remainder of the field and went on.

In the end it was Kauto Star who cemented himself into the Gold Cup record books by becoming the first horse to lose and then regain a Gold Cup but Denman gave every fibre of his being chasing home his stable mate for what must be one of the great comebacks of the game.

This would not be the last time Denman would find only one horse too good in a Gold Cup, going on to incredibly finish second for the next two years as well, grabbing the Ditcheat bragging rights back again in the process.

Cheltenham Gold Cup 2009 - Video

4. Hennessy Gold Cup 2007 – 1st

If Denman’s RSA victory in 2007 fired a warning shot that he was on his way to shake things up in the stayers division then his 2007 Hennessy win was the equivalent to laying an all out assault on the established order.

Never once looking anything less than the winner, Denman lumped top weight round Newbury and truly pulverised the opposition. Looking back it might not have been a vintage renewal (Dream Alliance was second) but winning the Hennessy under top weight is an impressive achievement by any standard and when it’s done with such power you just couldn’t help but feel you were watching a very special race horse indeed.

The race was put to bed a long way from home as Denman cruised round the turn with almost everything behind him off the bridle and struggling to just stay in The Tank’s slipstream. Sam Thomas had a couple of cheeky glances through his legs to see if there were any dangers but there were no challengers this day to even make the run in even slightly competitive.

2007 was by all accounts Denman’s least emotional Hennessy performance when compared to what would come later, but visually it was by far his most impressive.

3. Hennessy Gold Cup 2010 - 3rd

It’s almost unthinkable that a third place performance could possibly be considered greater than a veritable smorgasbord of victories or even at a push second place finishes in the sports blue ribbon race, but last year Denman managed to make coming third a more impressive performance than the one by the poor horse that actually won the race.

You’ve got to feel for Diamond Harry, the horse had just won the biggest race of his career yet in the winner’s enclosure the spot where the third horse would take up position was packed out.

After his awe-inspiring 2009 performance, Denman returned to Newbury in 2010 after yet another Gold Cup second to once again attempt the seemingly impossible and lug a welter burden round the Berkshire course for a third record-breaking time.

This time though his challenge was even more unimaginable than the previous two attempts as his presence in the race alone had effectively destroyed the handicap meaning that all but a few of his rivals weren’t running off their true marks.

Giving weight away in the Hennessy had become Denman’s speciality but giving a full 2 stone away to some talented unexposed up and coming chasers was in most people’s eyes a step too far for The Tank.

For a while it looked like Denman would prove them all wrong though as he vied for the lead but as the race got serious the young legs free of any sort of weight on their back got the better of the champ and Denman finished a well beaten third behind two very good horses in Burton Port and Diamond Harry (both on 10st).

Let’s not forget the horses that still were left trailing in his wake though, all getting lumps of weight from him – even in defeat Denman still destroyed most of his rivals and I have to say the emotional satisfaction I got from seeing him still plug on for a place has rarely been rivalled.

It would have been nice for his last Hennessy attempt to have ended in victory but somehow defeat only served to increase Denman’s popularity amongst his legions of fans.

Hennessy Gold Cup 2010 - Video

2. Cheltenham Gold Cup 2008 - 1st

Some will no doubt argue that this was Denman’s greatest performance and it’s hard to argue with that sentiment, for me though an afternoon at Newbury in November 2009 remains not only my fondest memory of Denman but also of this great sport to date.

That is a matter of personal preference though and no one can deny that on Gold Cup day in 2008 Denman delivered a devastating performance that you rarely see in such a competitive and gruelling race.

Some say he broke Kauto Star’s heart that day but one thing is for sure, he annihilated those that he left toiling away behind him up Cheltenham’s famous hill, including his illustrious stable mate, and I dare say there isn’t a horse in the annuls of history that would have beat him that day.

On this day he was just that good – unrelenting, unstoppable, uncatchable – Denman took up the running on the second circuit and from that point it was almost cruel to watch him gallop the opposition in to submission.

Kauto would get his revenge one year later but it was nowhere near as emphatic as Denman’s toppling of the then reigning king in 2008, in spite of what the distances may show, in fact I don’t think I’ve seen a more out and out rout of the field in a Gold Cup as I saw in the 2008 renewal.

We may have been robbed of ever getting the rematch in which both horses arrived at the bout in their peak form, but this race was the Ali-Frazier showdown some of their other encounters were later billed as and it was Denman that landed one devastating knockout blow to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had the class to match that unparalleled power and uncanny ability to carry weight and demolish handicap fields.

Cheltenham Gold Cup 2008 - Video

1. Hennessy Gold Cup 2009 - 1st

No other horse race continues to electrify and give me goosebumps like this one – Kauto Star’s recent master class at Haydock came damn close, but Denman’s roaring success in 2009’s Hennessy remains my favourite horse race of all time and it will take something pretty special to ever dethrone it from that position.

Denman arrived for his second attempt at slogging round Newbury under 11st12 having looked almost back to somewhere near his best following all manner of health issues following a remarkable second in the Gold Cup earlier that year.

Still the naysayers threw cold water on his chances though and few truly believed he could emulate some of the greats – Mandarin & Arkle and win a second Hennessy.

Not only did he do it though, as Simon Holt said on the Channel 4 Racing commentary it was “another demolition job from Denman”.

Rousted along at the start by Ruby Walsh so as to get a position at the head of affairs, Denman tanked along just off the lead throughout, taking up the race in front of the stands in a manner that almost suggested he knew how to get the crowd roaring him on – it was incredible to hear a horse being cheered like that so far from home but Denman was certainly good for their support.

With every imperious leap on that second circuit he took another length out of his opponents – no slouches in their own right and one by one they fell away unable to mix it with The Tank. The only one to put up any sort of resistance to him was stable mate What A Friend, ironically ridden by Sam Thomas on this occasion with Ruby on board Denman. Once the Sir Alex Ferguson-owned horse got level with him and Denman caught sight of him it only spurred the big horse on even more though, pulling out more and leaving the toiling What A Friend trailing in a soundly beaten and uncomfortable-looking second.

The atmosphere at Newbury that day and around TV screens across the UK was electric, Holt’s commentary for Channel 4 that day is etched in my memory and when he suggested that “you won’t see scenes like this at Newbury for quite some time” he was right. No horse, with the possible exception of Kauto Star, from this generation of jumpers could possibly have even come close to lighting up a track like Denman did back in 2009.

For the purists yes his Gold Cup was the standard by which all his and his peers’ performances must be measured, but for the sentimental amongst us, no one could failed to have been moved by this display of heart, courage and raw power that Denman became synonymous with and will always continue to be remembered for.

Hennessy Gold Cup 2009 - Video

Glee 3.6 'Mash Off'

2011-11-18T17:57:00.000Z

“You’re skinny, like all the crops failed on your family’s farm” - Rory

Mash Off managed to showcase both everything that is wrong with Glee and everything that is right with the show in one overloaded, disjointed episode.

The aforementioned good is that the episode focussed most of its attention on the best characters, Puck, Santana, Brittany and Sue all got to reel off some great one-liners with some even getting the sort of attention usually only reserved for Kurt and Rachel.

The bad however was that the episode felt like every currently running storyline had been thrown into a centrifuge and amalgamated in to one overblown mash-up, as the show itself would no doubt label it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to complain when one week a storyline that was heavily focussed on the previous week is dropped completely and not even referenced – like Puck and Shelby’s kiss was last week – but there is a balance to find between continuing to address all of the ongoing threads each week without giving each so much attention in one turbo-charged week that you don’t know where to look.

Mash Off also marked a return to the ridiculous Mash ups that the show seems obsessed with. Although I don’t see the need for merging two songs together in this way other than to no doubt flog a load more downloads, I did kind of enjoy the cheesy element to the Hall and Oates mash up and the girls did give a rousing rendition of Adele’s ‘Rumour Has It’ and ‘Someone Like You’ to close the show.

After a strong build, at least by Glee standards, Santana’s outing felt kind of thrown out there though unfortunately, especially when compared with the way Kurt’s own coming out was handled so delicately way back when.

Sure they’d built her up prior to Finn outing her as being even meaner than usual, so it would almost kind of justify what Finn did, but he still came over as being way out of line for his reaction when compared to what she had actually been saying to him and his new protégé Rory.

However, as much as I like Santana she was being nothing more than a bully to Finn and Rory, yet by having Finn out her and the way it all subsequently played out the sympathy immediately shifted to Santana in spite of all her previous indiscretions.

That’s always been a problem I’ve had with Glee, as much good as its portrayal of gay relationships and issues must do, the way in which the gay characters almost get away scott free with bad behaviour just because they’re gay is pretty shocking and to me almost undoes all the good the show does by sending out such a negative message.

They did it with Kurt back when he manipulated all around him to get Finn close to him as he had a crush on him, and then they turned Finn into a villain when he had the outburst in which he used the term “faggy”, and now I feel they’re going down the same route here, making Finn look like a bad guy when he had been pushed as far as someone can be pushed before snapping, admittedly in an unpleasant way – but everyone has their limits.

Sure it was wrong for him to do what he did, and in they way he did it, but Santana is hardly blameless in all this, yet by the end of the episode you felt nothing but Santana’s pain and all the pain she’s caused others in the past was practically forgotten.

All that said however, Naya Rivera sold the hell out of Santana’s torment, first when it seemed that world stood still around her when Finn said what he said, even though no one really heard – or so it seemed. Then her breakdown when she was shown she’s been used in a smear campaign against Sue by one of her opponents and finally the pain on her face as she performed that Adele number all the while looking longingly at Brittany.

And of course there was the show closing slap which played up Santana’s own inner insecurities spectacularly. I personally thought that slapping Finn was a bit of an under-reaction given that Finn basically outed Santana to the world, but the way in which everyone reacted and the fact it was used as the cliff hanging moment would seem to indicate the slap was a bigger deal in the world of Glee than it probably should be. Knowing Glee we’ll probably have Santana being charged with assault next week or something as equally inexplicable.

It is great though how far the show has brought along former supporting players like Santana and Brittany because they are far more interesting than obnoxious featured players like Kurt and Rachel. When asked to shine these often underused actors certainly do, it’s just a shame that after a sterling effort like this by a Naya Rivera or a Mark Salling that next week they’ll no doubt be ignored in favour of more Rachel guff.

In addition to the Santana storyline and the mash offs the main focus of this episode was the belated follow up to Puck and Shelby’s kiss.

As the episode began it looked as though they were going to play the whole incident off as a bit of a joke and have Puck just lusting after Shelby in some sort of school-boy crush. First we had him perform Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ which whilst extremely corny was one of the more enjoyable performances on the show for a while. Then we had him flirting outrageously with Shelby which whilst planting the seeds for a potential relationship between the two that just can’t happen in my mind, as much as I’d kind of like to see it, also came across as played for laughs.

Later though we got to see the two of them together with Beth and it was quite a sweet, albeit dysfunctional, family dynamic. Although given how almost forceful Puck had been earlier it seemed odd that a) Shelby would even allow him back into her apartment and b) that there was no further tease of sexual tension between them.

As with Naya Rivera, Mark Salling has been so criminally underused on Glee up until now that it really is quite satisfying to see him really thriving given a greater share of the spotlight and hopefully he’ll continue to be featured on a more regular basis in to the future.

Other noteworthy moments in Mash Off included Rachel withdrawing from the student president election, supposedly for Kurt’s benefit but surely she could have done it in a way that put less focus on her self. At least she did have the self-awareness that she was a drama Queen to the end, it still makes her no less an appalling human being though.

Speaking of Kurt’s campaign, he bizarrely decided to run on a platform of banning dodgeball which he likened to the modern equivalent of “stoning” and associated the sport with bullying because of course Kurt is ever the victim.

Finally, the episode was frequently broken up by Sue’s ridiculously slanderous ad campaigns accusing Burt of having a baboon heart and marrying a donkey amongst other outlandish claims.

I’ve already discussed how this came back to bite her in the ass in a way as Santana became the unwitting focus of a rival ad but these ads, whilst funny in a non-sequitar Glee sort of way, just felt too out there to even be taken seriously.

Given the current Republican nomination race going on in the US, I’d guess that this was Glee’s attempt at lampooning the ludicrous and at times out and out nasty campaign ads and videos that one increasingly comes across in modern politics. That sentiment is fine and Glee deserves praise for trying it, but the execution was way off in my book, in spite of the throwaway comment that polls showed certain Lima residents believed some of Sue’s blatant lies about Burt, are we really supposed to believe anyone is stupid enough to buy in to Burt marrying a donkey, no matter how much a of a backwards place they paint Lima.

Much like the majority of the songs performed in the episode Mash Off ultimately became a mash up of the two sides of Glee and although the good was quite pleasing the bad was too much of an obstacle to overcome and ultimately left Mash Off feeling like one of the unchecked clusterfuck episodes that populated season two.

As much as I loathe how the groundswell of characters introduced to the show has bloated Glee to levels that make it almost impossible to give each character a fair crack of the whip each week, when they attempt to do just that, like they did here with Mash Off, it just all becomes structurally corrupt and damn near impossible to watch like one would a regular TV show.

At times like this Glee becomes akin to a child with attention deficit disorder –jumping around from play thing to play thing without ever really exploring each in enough detail to appreciate what they actually have with each unique individual element.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I’d certainly vote for Rick the Stick.

- The political ads were all ridiculous but I did find it funny that the Reggie ‘The Sauce’ Salazar’s ad which made Santana collateral damage had the number for his pizza joint and ‘free delivery’ written in the bottom corner. Nice to see where his priorities lie.

- Speaking of the campaigns, does anyone else find it odd that Burt couldn’t find anyone more qualified than Will to be his campaign manager? I fail to believe that a high school Spanish teacher is really the best option to run a political campaign.

- The ‘Hot For Teacher’ performance offered us a chance to see that rare Glee sighting – the kids in an actual lesson. It’s good to know that even though they might be imagining having sex with the teacher that the kids at McKinley High actually do attend lessons from time to time and don’t just do glee and the school musical.

- We get it, Rory’s Irish. Enough already.

- Since when has dodgeball been used to settle arguments?

- I might’ve known Rachel Berry would still be on Myspace.

- ‘Hot For Teacher’ was great but I can’t help but feel they missed a trick here by not having Puck perform the Busted, ahem, ‘classic’ ‘What I Go To School For’, the video for which, if you cast your mind back, featured perhaps the most unappealing teacher ever as the object of Charlie Simpson et al’s affections.

- Puck in the Hall and Oates wig was a nice sight gag, and of course any excuse to embed this video…

Community on Hiatus

2011-11-15T19:11:00.000Z

The critically-adored (and rightly so) Community has been put on hiatus by NBC in the last twenty-four hours as the network announced its mid-season schedule.

The show, one of the best comedies around at the moment (although I’m still currently working my way through the season two DVD I got from the US) has been on a hiding to nothing this season unfortunately, tangling with the likes of the bombproof Big Bang Theory and American Idol/X Factor on Fox.

Community looks seriously in danger now of becoming this decade’s Arrested Development, a critically beloved show with a small but rabid fan base that ultimately just doesn’t pull in enough viewers to viably be kept on the air.

Make no mistake, the show, only a handful of episodes into its third season, isn’t cancelled – well not yet anyway – and will be back at some point for a bunch of episodes.

It certainly is ominous foreshadowing of what lies ahead for Community though and I for one will now be very surprised to see the comedy get a fourth season.

Stranger things have happened though, and there is precedence at NBC for doing a u-turn with veteran shows when a debutant bombs, but I’d be very reluctant to put any money on Greendale opening its doors again when this current term comes to an end at this stage.

How I Met Your Mother 7.1 'The Best Man'

2011-11-04T18:45:00.000Z

“Get ready Cleveland, the last man to screw you this hard then disappear was LeBron James” – Barney

I appreciate that the nature of How I Met Your Mother is the slow reveal of facts and information that lead to the big teases that have been dropped as the show has progressed.

The use of ellipses allows the writers to keep the viewer hanging with revelations from the future, but after six seasons the lack of any sort of any real progression is starting to get frustrating.

I know that the whole notion of the ‘mother’ mystery is nothing more than a MacGuffin to allow the telling of these tales but it does feel more and more as though the writers are taking the Lost approach and rather than building up to the big reveal as the show, inevitably, starts to wind up they are giving us more questions than answers.

The season seven opener ‘The Best Man’ was another example of this technique.

After ending season six on the somewhat of a cliffhanger that Barney gets married at some point in the future – not that much of a cliffhanger when you really think about it – the season seven premiere picked right back up there only to then jump back to the present day and almost entirely ignore the big cliffhanger.

I’m not interested at all, at this point, in who Barney marries unless it’s Robin, as much like Ted’s eventual wife we have no reason to care about whoever it is, should it be someone as yet unseen.

I personally felt though that the scene at the end of the episode with the bride at Barney’s wedding asking to see Ted was the strongest indication yet that the bride was Robin.

It seemed odd that the bride would want to see Ted unless it was one of his best friends. I could of course be way off with that theory, and that could be a trap they wanted viewers to fall in to, as given the time between where we are in the present with the series and the point at which the wedding occurs down the timeline, Ted could very well have become close with the bride. It might even simply be an innocuous meeting as she needs to get a message to Barney but isn’t able to see him.

The amount I’m reading in to that shows how fans of the show will dissect even the smallest line of dialogue so I guess in that sense the show is still doing what it does well.

It doesn’t make the lack of answers any less frustrating however and if I am right about Barney and Robin then putting Barney and Nora together now is just a stalling tactic to maybe pad out the season a bit more.

Given how short Barney and Robin’s previous relationship was there is a lot that could be done with the two of them together so I don’t personally believe that they now need to be kept apart with the end for the show surely looming on the horizon.

‘The Best Man’ did a good job in other quarters of seemingly setting up the season’s main elements – Ted’s increased frustration with being unlucky in love, Robin’s unrequited feelings for Barney and Marshall & Lily’s pregnancy.

For the most part it was a pretty unspectacular episode of How I Met Your Mother. As one would expect, Barney got several decent one liners including the one above about LeBron James, which whilst clichéd was still very funny, and drunk Marshall making an appearance is always welcome.

Other individual moments that I thought worked well were Barney and Robin’s dance number to Deee-Lite’s early 90s classic ‘Groove Is In The Heart’, which was fun, even if it does seem like more and more comedies are calling on elaborate dance sequences for laughs these days.

The teases of how Marshall ruined the wedding were also well done, even if they did make the way he actually ruined it seem kind of lame in comparison.

And I Liked Ted and Robin’s heart to heart on the balcony outside the wedding, as it reminded me of several similar instances from the show’s history, including the wedding at which they ended their relationship at the end of season two.

As I’ve said, ‘The Best Man’ did its job in setting up the general direction of season seven and in doing so provided us with an episode that wasn’t necessarily big on laughs but featured a great deal of the heart and soul that has always been at the core of the show.

Although the more human element underpinning a lot of the ridiculousness on the show stands How I Met Your Mother apart from a lot of other shows of this ilk, with the likes of Happy Endings, which is going from strength and is undisputedly the best new comedy out there, snapping at its heels I certainly feel that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas need to up their game.

That said, even in its less fine hours How I Met Your Mother is still one of the best comedies on TV and I’m glad to have new episodes back on our screens after E4 decided to turn it in to the new Friends by bombarding us with repeats.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Barney’s ‘plays’ in this episode were ridiculous, even by his standards. At least some of the stuff he’s pulled in the past had a modicum of believability, but in what world would “patient zero” or “the escaped manslaughterer” work?

- I mentioned above that the wedding scenes on the balcony had an air of familiarity to them, that’s because it’s the same set right?

- It felt a little shoehorned in, because surely Ted’s wedding breakdowns would have been big news within the gang as well, but did the auto-tune remix of Ted’s breakdowns fail to make anyone laugh? Hats off to Punchy, who’d have thought he had such a creative streak?

How I Met Your Mother Season Seven continues in the UK Thursday @ 9pm on E4

Californication 4.4 'Monkey Business'

2011-10-29T12:24:00.000+01:00

“Dead monkeys and auto-erotic asphyxiation, that’s my cue.” – Stu

I’m a little torn over ‘Monkey Business’, on the one hand it had some of the biggest laughs of this season so far, mined a really dark brand of comedy – which I dug – and had some genuinely great little moments.

On the other hand though, a large section of the episode was devoted to gags derived from an obscene monkey, which firstly felt distinctly cliché and secondly straight out of someone like The Farrelly Brothers playbook.

Californication should be, and is, capable of much better than cheap laughs from Charlie (who else?) getting monkey faeces thrown at him.

The majority of the episode was spent with Hank, Charlie and Stu at the Fucking and Punching movie’s sugar daddy Zig’s house. Zig of course was about the most off the wall character the show’s ever depicted and was no doubt a swipe at Hollywood big wigs that live these abnormal lifestyles.

After a meeting at a bar where we got a flavour of Zig’s eccentricities – “I haven’t had an erection in the past decade but that’s another story” – it was back to his mansion for a reading. Cue surreal humour, a barrage of one liners and an asphyxi-wank death.

The banter at the mansion and the dark, surreal laughs drawn from Zig’s lifestyle and unfortunate demise were the episode’s best bits and anything away from there felt decidedly weak, even if both major storylines away from the party actually advanced the season considerably.

First the worst kept secret in TV land, Marcy’s blatant pregnancy, was finally confirmed and then we had Karen meeting a brooding love interest in Michael Ealy’s Ben – the father of one of Becca’s band mates.

Events at Zig’s mansion did also serve a purpose to advance the most predictable storyline in TV land as lady-lawyer Abi seemed to be warming up to Hank’s charms considerably. She appears to have a begrudging respect for Hank’s life as well as a morbid curiosity in to how one man can fuck up so much.

For such a raucous episode it all ended quite sombrely though with Hank driving off in to the night after spotting Karen getting flirty with Ben.

I almost feel bad for being negative about an episode I genuinely laughed quite hard at but my expectations for my favourite shows are often far too great.

For one reason or another, season four hasn’t quite clicked for me just yet in the way that season three did almost instantly.

A Hail of Bullets:

- At first I thought that they could have got someone bigger to play the role of Zig, a name actor who could have really sent themselves up and chewed the scenery. However when I saw his death and the fact his corpse remained hung on the back of a bathroom door for so long it became apparent why the role might not have been that appealing.

Kudos to Fisher Stevens though for really attacking the role with such vigour, he really was fantastic. Stevens is probably best known to audiences for playing George Minkowski on Lost but he also won an OSCAR in 2010 for his documentary The Cove.

I did at one point feel that Zig may have been a Charlie Sheen parody with his two woman-servants but this episode would have aired in the US just before Sheenmania kicked off earlier this year. Still Zig had most of the episodes best lines, asking Hank “You’re quite the cocksman no?” and then hilariously telling one of his “sister wives” “you give lousy head, you’re timid and you lack focus, we gotta get you some Ritalin”.

- Charlie also got a great line in this episode, remarking “that monkey was a deviant and a cockblocker”.

- Other nice moments/lines included the monkey raising his hand along with everyone else when the group was asked “who wants to get baked?” and the ‘sister wife’ Charlie tried to have his way with telling him that the monkey “tried to finger my friend Jess one time”.

I also loved the whole scene in which Hank found Zig’s body, first him singing “eat my peach baby blow on my dice” which was a nice call back to last season. Then his understatement of the year telling Charlie “we’ve got a bit of a predicament in here” and finally his good advice that you should “always use the buddy system” when attempting a “choke and stroke”.

- Bizarrely Zig appeared to have a penchant for 80s UK electro music with Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ & Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ soundtracking the weirdness at the mansion.

- Anyone else think Hank probably shouldn’t have been driving his car after telling Abi that he was “significantly” high?

Californication Season 4 continues in the UK Thursday @ 10pm on 5*

The Walking Dead 2.1 'What Lies Ahead'

2011-10-25T18:55:00.000+01:00

“It’s all about slim chances now.” – Rick

Zombie epic The Walking Dead’s TV return has been one of the most hotly anticipated events of the year, and not just amongst fellow geeks – the series really seems to have captured the imaginations and attentions of the wider public in a way I personally would have never expected.

A lot of that has to come down to the fact that this isn’t just a show about a zombie apocalypse, in the same way Lost was much more than a show about some plane crash survivors on a mysterious island, this is a character piece seasoned with a variety of social, psychological and spiritual themes.

Of course we can never totally relate to what these people are going through, but everyone knows how they would deal with adversity and the side of them that brings out – some lead, some follow and some go through a crisis of the soul that changes them for either the better, or tragically the worst.

The characters in The Walking Dead are facing an impossible situation but they are all real people and even those who may seem the strongest are struggling to come to terms with a world that no longer resembles anything even remotely like what they are used to.

The first season of the show was at times slow but for the most part having only a six episode season pushed things along at a quicker pace than perhaps the writers would have liked. It certainly would have satisfied action-junkies’ appetites, but as a result there felt like a lot of dead weight being dragged around by the surviving group in terms of character development – a lot of that got trimmed as the season progressed but many characters outside the main family dynamic felt under-developed.

‘What Lies Ahead’, like it’s season one counterpart, premiered at a feature length running time but felt decidedly less epic in scale than the series premiere but that wasn’t a bad thing necessarily.

The slow pacing of ‘What Lies Ahead’ allowed several characters to really get some spotlight and served to only exacerbate the tensions within this motley crew.

The pacing may have felt more pronounced in this season-opener but at no point did the episode feel like it was dragging and there was certainly enough of what makes the show popular to appease both fans of character and gore.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t highlight just what an exceptional scene that entire highway encounter with the walkers was, from the moment Dale spotted that first walker through his binoculars the entire scene was a master class in tension.

I did, if I’m being completely honest, take issue with some of the logic and continuity in that scene however. First of all I’m pretty sure it was established in the first season that the zombies weren’t capable of much more than shuffling along, yet here we saw them opening a door and crouching down to look under the car.

If I was being cynical I’d say this was just down to continuity errors in the writing, which would be understandable given all the behind the scenes turmoil the show went through during its hiatus, but instead I’m going to sum this up by theorising that the walkers are actually evolving, which if correct can only be a bad thing for our merry band of survivors.

The same can’t be said for the fact that they didn’t detect most of the group when they were hiding. The episode ‘Guts’ in season one was almost entirely centred around Rick and Glenn having to coat themselves in the remains of dead walkers to blend in with the pack as they could smell humans.

Even here we saw Daryl hiding himself and T-Dog under bodies, yet the majority of the group just hiding under cars went undetected, until those final moments of course when Sophia was discovered and ran off in to the woods.

Little pedantic issues such as the above aside, that highway scene was one hell of a set piece.

As good as that stretch was it was the character work that really jumped out of the screen at me in ‘What Lies Ahead’ though.

Andrew Lincoln has always been one of Britain’s finest young actors and he was great as Rick last year, but here he seemed to bring a whole new level of fatigue to this man who is clearly a born leader. The burden of being the man everyone looks to in a world so far beyond his control is now visible not just in Rick’s increasingly questionable choices but also written all over Lincoln’s face, in much the same way that another talented British actor Charlie Hunnam etched Jax’s grief over his missing son all over his face in season three of Sons of Anarchy.

Rick’s increasing sense of desperation and that feeling of being lost were never more evident than at the church – in the past we’ve seen Rick talk to ‘Morgan’ in that walkie-talkie almost like a God-type figure but here we saw him clearly asking the big man upstairs for help and admitting it was something he’d never done before.

Shane meanwhile continues to effectively be devil’s advocate, the ying to Rick’s yang. It’s a tough call to really make the case for whether he’s doing this out of friendship, and trying to help his best friend make the right choices or just to undermine Rick out of spite due to resentment.

Shane is clearly a man who resents Rick uncontrollably but there has also been enough evidence for me that the bonds of friendship still remain strong in spite of what has happened.

Shane’s love for Lori and Carl is still a major element of his current mindset, as evidenced in his chats with Lori in which he revealed he was going to leave the group just to get away from having to see the woman he’s fallen for with his best friend.

Another character broken by a recent loss, Andrea, overheard the second pow-wow between Shane and Lori and now too wants out of the group that is increasingly fracturing further and further apart.

Andrea calling Dale out on his on holier than thou attitude was a tough watch, poor Dale was in his mind, and probably a lot of other people’s minds, only trying to look out for Andrea but his almost dictator-like actions at times are only ever going to cause dissension in the ranks.

The friction between these two characters is fascinating stuff but a little sad all the same as, although Andrea was quick to dismiss it here, they did have a father-daughter dynamic going on for a lot of last season.

Another character getting a bit of a more developed identity is Daryl, who although they appear to be softening him up a little already this season, is still my favourite character on the show.

Bringing us back to those questionable decisions Rick was making that I talked about before, letting Carl even be out there in the woods with them was a big one, but then allowing him to stay on with Shane and he was a sign that this man’s danger-compass is way out of sync at the moment.

Carl taking a stray bullet, from someone we can only speculate is a hunter at this stage, was the ultimate punishment for letting his normally steadfast discipline slip but it will no doubt serve as a reminder to Rick that the world they occupy is now fraught with danger at every possible turn.

The idea of that deer in the woods sums up the new world so beautifully it was almost too perfect a symbol – any fleeting moment of beauty in this apocalyptic world is now almost universally immediately followed by a harrowing moment of grim reality to bring you right back in to the hell on earth you are now calling your life.

I guess the question now for all our survivors is whether Rick is still the man to lead this group after not only overseeing the loss of Sophia but also his own son taking a bullet. Lori was vocally supportive of her husband but will she still feel the same way about Rick as she did in that speech when she finds out Carl was shot?

A Hail of Bullets:

- In case anyone had forgot that tease of Jenner whispering something to Rick before they left the CDC at the end of the season one finale there was a reminder in that pre-credits Rick monologue that whatever it was certainly carried quite a bit of weight.

- The shots of the abandoned highways never cease to amaze, that one of the outskirts of Atlanta as the group headed away from the city was incredible.

- The Walking Dead is a show, quite rightly, that is low on laughs but there were a couple of moments that had me chuckling in ‘What Lies Ahead’. First Glenn’s face, when he was assigned his weapon from that butcher kit Carl found, which was pricelessly like a child on Christmas morning.

And then Daryl, who usually gets most of the best one-liners, remarking to the crucifix statue at the church: “…Yo JC, you taking requests…?”

- Speaking of the church, having some walkers sat there certainly opened up a new can of worms about the mental faculties of these creatures – do they still have some recollection deep down of their former life? Why else would they be sat there in a church rather than out shuffling around looking for another woodchuck to devour?

- Rick and Daryl’s autopsy was perhaps the episode’s most stomach-churning moment (sorry couldn’t resist) but there were plenty of other gruesome shock-value moments, Andrea’s screwdriver through the eye and Rick’s rock to the head the two that immediately spring to mind.

It says a lot about the way in which these walkers have been created that I almost don’t even flinch now when I see something like a screwdriver being repeatedly jabbed through an eye socket – had that been on a living person I dare say we’d have all been wincing a lot more than we were.

The Walking Dead Season 2 continues in the UK on Friday @ 10pm on FX HD

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.6 'The Hero'

2011-10-25T15:15:00.000+01:00

“I wonder what Sully would have done if he was in my shoes…” – Larry

The subject of far more hype and advertising than Curb usually gets on these shores due to the Ricky Gervais guest appearance, ‘The Hero’ was probably the most anticipated episode of Curb’s eighth season on both sides of the pond, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The episode kicked off where we left off at the end of last week’s episode, with Larry on the plane opposite Jeff and Susie shovelling fro-yo in to his mouth. Predictably, at least in the post divorce era, for Curb who should end up sat next to Larry but an attractive woman who, again predictably, he didn’t exactly hit it off with straight away.

I love the fact that even when presented with a beautiful woman, Larry won’t let something as trivial as her drink being on his half of the arm rest slide.

Coupled with his ice-breaking discussion about his long shoe laces, Larry wasn’t exactly winning over his glamorous seat neighbour; that is until he went to the toilet and ended up inadvertently tackling an abusive drunken passenger.

How else would Larry end up doing something that heroic other than by tripping over his aforementioned shoe laces? Of course Larry was then revered by the passengers and the stewardess as a hero and as one would expect, he milked it for all it’s worth.

Donna, his seat neighbour suddenly found Larry a lot more appealing and once they touched down in New York they began seeing each other. It’s kind of wrongly appropriate that Larry was being hailed a hero in the city that has seen thousands of them.

The remainder of the episode was filled with Larry clashing with Ricky Gervais, playing an even more pretentious version of himself than the one he often portrays during interviews and the like.

Jeff was keen to sign Gervais but Larry and then Susie managed to conspire to ruin his courtship with a little help from a nosy waiter played by ex-Daily Show correspondent Dan Bakkedahl.

The scenes with Larry and Gervais were just great and the instant spark in their verbal jousting was a joy to watch. Of course everyone knows that Gervais holds Larry David as one of his all time heroes so hearing him call Seinfeld “broad comedy” was very funny.

Gervais appeared to be channelling a bit of David Brent as he and Larry constantly clashed over money, with Gervais brilliantly telling Larry at one point “you gave me wine, I gave you art” after Gervais made Larry pay for his ticket to the play he was in.

As soon as the waiter appeared next to Larry and Jeff as they talked about disturbing Gervais during his play it was obvious it would be him who informed Ricky and scuppered Jeff’s chances, but although that felt like the end the actual end was one of those surreal moments of genius that make Larry David the comedy God that he is.

Spotting Gervais out with Donna, Larry followed them clutching the Italian bread that everyone, especially Gervais, had previously mocked at Susie’s dinner party. Upon seeing them being mugged what else could Larry possibly have used as a weapon to fend off the mugger than the hard bread?

It would have been wrong for any episode of Curb to end with Larry getting the last laugh though so as he stood proud talking down to a cowering Gervais it felt kind of poetic that his shoelace was caught in the subway car door.

‘The Hero’ was another fantastic episode from a season Curb that has largely been nigh on perfect.

Ricky Gervais was a brilliant guest star, throwing himself in to the role of the accentuated version of himself with great gusto and really proving a worthy adversary to Larry.

It’s good to finally see Larry in New York, and with regular characters like Jeff and Susie also there, having pretty much destroyed LA over the previous seven and a half seasons there are surely a plethora of new people for him to offend in the Big Apple.

If episode one of the Curb New York run is anything to go by then this relocation for Larry David could incredibly make season eight even better than it already is.

A Hail of Bullets:

- A lot of people would have obviously been excited to see Ricky Gervais in this episode, and great as he was, I was actually more excited to see Chris Parnell show up.

Unfortunately though Parnell was given very little to do and I felt more could’ve been built on his and Larry’s interaction at the dinner party other than having his wife yell at Larry for his inappropriate questions.

- In addition to Gervais, Parnell and Dan Bakkedahl, other notable guest stars in this episode were Michael Mulheren who used to play the chief on Rescue Me and Samantha Mathis as Donna who was in Broken Arrow and played Princess Daisy in the dire Mario Bros. big screen adaptation.

- Larry’s social rule enforcement wasn’t that strong in this episode really. I appreciated his correction of the location of Donna’s drink when she “encroached” on to his side of the arm rest and he was right to pick holes in the logic of Susie’s pretentious dinner party but beyond that it was really only his battle of wits with Gervais that occupied his time.

As covered above, Gervais was the perfect foil for Larry and Curb excels when everyone on the show can’t see Larry’s problem with something but as an audience we can. Gervais was clearly in the wrong socially right from the start, but as the antagonist he has to be; Larry being right but unable to convince everyone else of it is the comedy utopia the show strives for and it works so well when they get it right.

- How awesome was that view of New York’s famous skyline from Larry’s bedroom window? That’s a view I dream of having from my property one day.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8 continues in the UK Sunday @ 11.05pm on More4

30 Rock Season 5 on Comedy Central

2011-10-24T18:02:00.000+01:00

There are a lot of fans of the brilliant 30 Rock in the UK, in spite of the abhorrent treatment the show has received from UK broadcasters thus far.

To be fair to current broadcaster Comedy Central, since they picked up the show they’ve actually showcased the show in a fashion befitting a show of such quality, which is something Channel 5 never did when they had the rights.

That’s why it was so disappointing when part way through its airing of season 5 of 30 Rock, Comedy Central suddenly pulled the plug with barely an explanation as to why.

It later became apparent that the flawed logic behind this move was that as season six had been delayed in the US due to Tina Fey’s pregnancy, that Comedy Central had decided that rather than have a gargantuan gap between seasons five and six, they would break up season five into two parts thus closing the gap between the end of season five and the start of season six. Somewhere, to someone, that logic does actually make a modicum of sense.

All that is ancient history now however, as Comedy Central have finally announced a return date for the second part of season five of 30 Rock and it’s as close as next week! Rejoice!

30 Rock Season Five will return on Friday 4th November 2011 on Comedy Central UK.

Alphas 1.1 'Pilot'

2011-10-20T20:58:00.000+01:00

“Like a Peyton Manning, with a gun…?” – Bill

Given the subject matter, fairly or unfairly, Alphas was always going to draw comparisons to Heroes.

With Tim Kring’s show losing its way so spectacularly in later seasons, it doesn’t feel like we’ve been over-saturated by a ‘people with abilities’ show, so there is still a lot to be explored in this genre, hence why I had high hopes for Alphas.

Alphas feels more like a TV X-Men though than Heroes, with an older scientist (Dr. Rosen) helping a young group of people with abilities to harness their power in the best way and also discover themselves along the way. Of course being a TV show there is the obvious air of Heroes about Alphas, but it’s X-Men that I would really draw the most comparisons too.

The problem with being so derivative of other high profile series’ is that Alphas comes across as a cheap knock-off, if Heroes was a blockbuster then Alphas feels like the B-movie rip-off.

The cynic in me can’t get past the fact that the heroes on Alphas all have abilities that don’t really look that visually impressive, as opposed to say flying or shape-shifting, which means they can be filmed cheaply.

Coming from a smaller network like Sy-Fy it’s hard to shake the feeling that had this show been made by a Fox or an NBC that maybe the Alphas would have had far more impressive-looking abilities than the power of suggestion and enhanced senses.

In case it hadn’t become clear by now I was left feeling quite disappointed after watching the show and I had been really excited for it, even going as far as to flag it up last week right here on TV or not TV.

You know I don’t like to be negative for the sake of being negative though so what worked in this extended pilot?

Well I particularly enjoyed the opening as Hicks was influenced to kill the prisoner with everyone on the street seemingly telling him to “kill” and “pull the trigger”.

The reveal of how he managed to kill the prisoner and the visual of the shot hitting him from inside a sealed room was also pretty cool, even if that section did feel a little like CSI: Superhero.

The file graphics that accompanied the introduction of each Alpha were also a really nice expositional tool, as it quickly and clearly established not only who each character is, but also what they can do and why. Too often on Heroes I thought it was unclear what abilities certain people had and why, and they seemed to just change their minds about characters and their abilities on a seasonal basis, I’m hoping Alphas will have a more rigid structure on that front.

David Strathairn as expected is fantastic in the Professor X role and is by far the best thing on the show, pretty much acting everyone around him off the screen, though I do feel the Oscar-nominee deserves a bit better than this really.

I also liked the end of the episode as ‘the ghost’ seemed to blur the lines between good and evil with his dying words by telling Hicks he’s “on the wrong side of this”. It’d pretty much been taken as a given, at least by me, during the episode that the Alphas were helping the good guys by siding with the Feds but, as both X-Men and Heroes have done in the past, there seemed to be the indication that maybe Red Flag aren’t all bad. This may again be a derivative angle to explore – the war between ‘specials’ and humans – but it at least gives the show an added depth that for the large majority of what preceded that tease was sorely missing.

Sadly though there was a lot that didn’t work and by the time a ‘standard’ episode would have concluded I was actually willing the show to wrap things up.

In addition to the bigger problems facing the show such as the cheap knock-off feel and the plodding nature of the pilot (hopefully fixable once the show reverts to standard running time) there were also a number of smaller individual problems that conspired to leave me feeling somewhat apathetic to Alphas.

It must’ve been clear during production that inevitable comparisons were going to be drawn between the show and other productions within this genre, Heroes being the most prominent, so in that case you would think the writers would go to great lengths to differentiate the show from its peers.

Yet a lot of the abilities displayed in the Alphas pilot are lifted straight from Heroes – super-strength, the ability to influence other’s thoughts and the ability to control others to name but a few. I appreciate there are only so many abilities a show can work with and at its worst Heroes had some pretty shoddy abilities but I’d have expected Alphas to have been a little more creative on that front.

Then we have the characters themselves, of course everything David Strathairn does as Rosen is great and carries a degree of gravitas, but his underlings left a lot to be desired which is surprising given that the extended length of the pilot felt like it was being justified by through some early character development.

Gary the young autistic lad is supremely annoying and brought practically nothing to the table and actually felt like the most clichéd character – hasn’t the autistic child prodigy been done to death in TV and film by now?

I really wanted to like Malik Yoba as Bill going in and early on it looked like he’d be the character you gravitate to most, he’s the group’s de facto leader as he’s former FBI and the others don’t have his discipline and sense of danger which is quite an interesting way to approach things, with him teaching the inexperienced members of the team how to perform in the ‘field’.

Yet as the episode progressed for some reason he was made to look cartoonishly piggish, intentionally winding up the autistic Gary and then being overly rude to Rachel; it seemed like a bizarre tangent to take him down and just didn’t work for me.

Overall Alphas certainly has a lot of promise and there’s so much room for the show to grow but vast improvement is definitely needed to keep the show around for any sort of extended period and if I’m honest to also keep me tuning in for the remainder of this season.

A Hail of Bullets:

- One other positive in the pilot was the great music on show. First T-Rex’s 20th Century Boy and then David Bowie’s The Jean Genie, it also looked like they were giving Rosen a ‘cool’ edge with his taste in music, hopefully that will be a running theme throughout the show.

- Callum Keith Rennie was great as always as the group’s FBI patron Don Wilson. Obviously as the guy’s biggest fan I’m a little biased, but the show would certainly benefit from his charisma on a regular basis. The verbal jousting between Rennie and Strathairn was also one of the best things on show in this pilot episode.

- This pilot was directed by veteran Lost director Jack Bender (snigger) and there were certainly some nice shots and moments in there that you could tell had come from a TV director of his stature.

Alphas continues Tuesday @ 10pm on 5* in the UK.

Justified Season 3 Casting News

2011-10-19T13:17:00.000+01:00

The casting news for Justified’s impending third season has been coming thick and fast in the last week, and from what we know thus far it should ensure the show has a great chance to build on the success of its break out, Emmy-nominated, second season.

Last week we learnt that Boomtown alumni Neal McDonough and Mykelti Williamson had joined the show to play season three’s antagonists, who I’m sure everyone will admit have a less than enviable job trying to follow in Margo Martindale’s footsteps.

Both actors have good resumes though and should bring a different kind of opponent to the table for Raylan this season.

McDonough is probably better known for his film work, which includes Minority Report, Walking Tall and most recently Captain America; but he has also starred in a recurring role on Desperate Housewives.

McDonough will play Quarles, a mobster who comes to Harlan with bad intentions, his acting style should ensure that Quarles is a more cool and collected enemy than Raylan is used to doing battle with in Kentucky.

Williamson who will undoubtedly be known to most as Bubba from Forest Gump, has also starred in Con Air, Heat and Three Kings on the big screen; whilst his small screen credits include CSI: NY and the final season of 24, in which he played CTU director Brian Hastings.

Williamson will play a character called Limehouse on Justified who sounds more akin to the sort of criminal Raylan is used to on the show, though he could be one to blur the lines between right and wrong a little.

The latest announcement is perhaps the most exciting though, as Carla Gugino, currently being seen in the UK as Hank’s lawyer on season four of Californication, has now been added to the cast for season three as Karen Goodall a D.C.-based assistant director of the Marshals Service who used to work with Raylan back in Miami.

Goodall reportedly comes to Kentucky to help keep hidden witnesses safe who have become endangered after the murder of a U.S. Marshal.

Obviously there will be history between Raylan and Goodall and given Gugino’s looks one would assume she could be the source of numerous headaches for Raylan with the women in his life.

As well as Californication, Gugino has also recently been seen in Entourage, and has previously starred on Sin City as well as playing the titular character in the Karen Sisco TV series, coincidentally also based on an Elmore Leonard character. Whilst on the big screen she’s been in everything from Sin City to the Spy Kids movies.

Gugino is not only sexy but she always plays strong women who usually give the men in their life more than as good as they get, so she should be a perfect sparring partner for Raylan Givens.

In terms of returning characters, Dickie Bennett (Jeremy Davies) last seen being hauled off by the Marshals after the deaths of his mother and brothers at the end of season two, will be back for season three, although he will remain behind bars.

Justified’s third season is expected in early 2012 on FX in the US and hopefully not much later on FIVE USA in the UK if history is anything to go by.

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.5 'Vow of Silence'

2011-10-18T15:31:00.000+01:00

“…This is chaos, society can’t function like this…” – Larry

It’s taken half the season but finally it looks as though Larry is off to New York in the much anticipated move a lot of this season’s hype centred around.

And in typical Larry David fashion his trip to New York is born entirely out of a lie and his attempt to avoid a charity event, so instead of giving up one afternoon of his time he’s having to alter three months worth of plans and relocate – that’s our Larry.

Larry’s willingness to take his lie to the extent he did may seem unreasonable but for the most part during the rest of the episode Larry made a lot of sense.

His frustration at a driver parking over two spaces I think everyone can empathise with as that is also a pet hate of mine. His analysis of a woman performing a “cut and chat” at a buffet line was spot on and evoked brilliant memories of the “stop and chat” Larry coined back in the show’s infancy; and his irritation with Lewis for insisting on a confirmation even though they’d made plans seemed completely justified.

Of course there was also his inappropriate line of questioning to Jeff’s vet’s wife, the fact he and Jeff made Jeff’s poor dog Oscar miss his last meal and ultimately driving Vance to break his vow of silence, so I guess these things kind of balance out in the end.

Everything came together spectacularly in those final few moments yet again as every one of the episode’s threads knotted together and really elicited a big laugh which made the episode end on a high that it never really got close to previously.

We’ve been spoiled so far with a couple of outstanding episodes such as ‘Palestinian Chicken’ and last week’s ‘The Smiley Face’ but ‘Vow of Silence’ was quite low on the laughs for the most part until those closing scenes.

Maybe that’s because the episode did have a job to do, unlike most Curb episodes, as circumstances had to conspire to get Larry on that plane to New York with Jeff and Susie and perhaps mapping that progression out took away a few opportunities for jokes and punch-lines.

When a show has maintained a level of consistency like Curb has for so many years your expectations are obviously sky high every week but it also means you can also forgive the odd blip, such as a largely laughless episode like this.

Given the episode’s title and the time spent establishing his vow of silence it was clear Vance would be integral to the episode in someway as it reached its climax and it didn’t disappoint. I would’ve never pegged him as the offending parker but it all tied together beautifully as he took great delight in breaking his vow to grass up Larry and Jeff for eating Oscar’s last meal.

All of which was followed by a great cut from Susie expressing her relief that moving to New York would mean no Larry for three months to Jeff and Susie on the plane with Larry – eating another tub of Oscar’s beloved Pinkberry no less – sat directly across from them.

As if that wasn’t enough the final shot of the episode was Richard Lewis sat alone in the restaurant stood up by Larry after being promised of Larry’s attendance.

New York next week then, it may have taken a while but surely Larry’s return to the Big Apple will be worth the wait.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Always great to see the legend that is Michael McKean in anything but it’s especially great when it’s something as fantastic as Curb.

I like it how they brought back the Tessler character without bothering to dole out loads of exposition to remind you who he was, it felt like a nice way to reward long term fans of the show.

It certainly felt like Tessler knew Larry was lying to him and was intentionally sticking it to him by renting Renny Harlin’s apartment to him for his stay in ‘New York’, which is not only a satisfyingly karmic way of getting Larry to NYC, but a nice nod to the show’s long history as well.

- Also guest-starring in ‘Vow of Silence’ was Rich ‘Harry Crane from Mad Men’ Sommer, although he didn’t really have that big of a role in the episode which surprised me. The way he was introduced seemed to suggest that he’d be a big part of the episode but ultimately didn’t appear much at all.

- I’m going to have to agree with Larry in questioning how Sammi managed to get in to Juilliard – I certainly haven’t forgotten that performance in season seven’s ‘The Hot Towel’.

- No Leon again in this episode and he didn’t appear to be on the plane with Larry at the end of the episode – I certainly hope that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of him this season.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8 continues in the UK Sunday @ 11.05pm on More4.

FX Renews Sons of Anarchy for Season 5

2011-10-17T20:00:00.000+01:00

I don’t think it was really ever in doubt, but FX has just announced that Sons of Anarchy will be back for a fifth season next year.
Season four of the biker drama is currently airing in the US and season three has just finished its run in the UK.

Sons continues to be a huge ratings winner for FX and remains the channel's highest-rated series, thus far season 4 is averaging 5.8 million viewers.

FX president John Landgraf said in a statement following the announcement: “Everyone at FX is very grateful to Kurt Sutter, his many writing, directing and producing collaborators and his masterful cast for making such a compelling and beautifully crafted show… It is no small challenge to bring the themes of a great, ancient play like 'Hamlet' into a wholly original television setting and to tell this complex story in a way that is both riveting and accessible to a broad audience. The fans know how beautifully 'SOA' meets this challenge, and we thank them for their loyal and passionate viewership.”

Kurt Sutter has previously stated that he has envisioned a seven season run for the show and one would assume that is very likely to happen at this point with Sons of Anarchy remaining as popular and brilliant as always.

Californication 4.2 'Suicide Solution'

2011-10-15T12:45:00.001+01:00

“...I saw a girl I defecated on in Palm Springs once. I should go apologize.” –Eddie Nero

I was a rather vocal fan of Kathleen Turner’s stellar contribution to Californication’s third season. As Sue Collini, Charlie’s randy boss, Turner practically stole every scene she was in and chewed the scenery like nobody’s business every chance she got.

I had hoped Turner would return for season four, but as yet there’s been no indication she’ll be back, which makes Rob Lowe’s debut as actor Eddie Nero all the more fantastic.

There wasn’t much else to dissect in ‘Suicide Solution’ that wasn’t covered in my review of the premiere last week, but Lowe’s incredible performance as Nero guaranteed this was a great episode of Californication.

Every moment of that scene with Charlie and Hank at the bar was brilliant and every line of dialogue out of Nero’s mouth was borderline genius. Lowe is clearly having the time of his life playing the ridiculous Nero but it works in an even more spectacular way than Turner did as the sex mad Collini last season.

Judging from this episode’s title it would seem that Hank’s booze and prescription meds binge that ended with him passing out is going to be viewed as a desperate cry for help by those closest to him.

I can’t say I’m really digging that as an idea though because although Hank is one of the most tortured souls on television he doesn’t strike me as the sort who would even consider suicide, and you would think his nearest and dearest would also feel that way too.

Obviously the writers have painted themselves in to a corner with Karen and Becca’s resentment towards Hank meaning they want nothing to do with him. The show is always at its most heartfelt when Hank is dealing with the two women that mean more to him than anything in the world, so with them unwilling to do anything other than show him how much he’s hurt them the show is suffering.

It would be unrealistic for them both to suddenly forgive him though, so a suicide attempt is an event that could feasibly make them warm to him again and get the show back to it’s more touching side.

David Duchovny was on directorial duty in this episode as well and really put together some nice moments between Hank and his family. That shot of Karen and Hank leaning against the wall so far apart was really great and the whole end scene with Hank typing a letter to Becca – no doubt to be viewed as a suicide note – and his dream-like visions of a young Becca was quite haunting. That final moment as the waves crashed over Hank’s body on the beach causing him to disappear was quite a strong visual representation of the internal trauma this man is suffering.

Beyond the Hank downward spiral there wasn’t anything new that warrants in depth study going on in ‘Suicide Solution’ so anything else of note will be covered below in my ‘hail of bullets’ section.

As always though a highly quotable and ultimately enjoyable episode of Californication, though I am conscious that as yet season four has yet to grace the heights achieved by season three, which was almost universally fantastic, but there’s still plenty of time yet.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Marcy is quite blatantly pregnant, the question there I guess is whether or not the baby is Charlie’s.

- Charlie didn’t really have much of a storyline in this episode but his seasonal arc of trying to boost the number of notches on his bedpost got a little air time as Hank looked in to his room and Charlie indicated “fifteen” to his friend whilst having sex.

- Sasha’s depiction as “America’s sweetheart” last week continues to seem utterly ridiculous as she continues to behave like a sex-mad nympho, once again inexplicably throwing herself at Hank whilst wearing little to no clothes. I appreciate looks can be deceiving and you never quite know what’s going behind closed doors but I doubt one of America’s actual sweethearts like say, Reese Witherspoon (I don’t actually know if she’s ever been referred to as such, but you get my point) behaves like that at home.

- Is anyone in any doubt that Hank and “lady-lawyer” will be doing the no pants dance within a few episodes?

- Hank’s card being declined at the guitar store meaning he couldn’t even buy Becca off without embarrassing her was a cruel blow to not only Hank’s ego but to his almost non-existent relationship with his daughter. I love Hank-Becca interaction though so I do hope that they can go someway to reconciling soon, I can’t imagine a season devoid of the witty repartee they have going being much fun at all.

Californication Season 4 continues in the UK Thursday @ 10pm on 5*

Sons of Anarchy 3.13 'Ns'

2011-10-13T19:19:00.000+01:00

“…There’s no trust… something will go wrong… somebody will get hurt… I promise you, it’ll end badly.” - Gemma

Where do you start with what can only be described as a near perfect episode of television?

Sons of Anarchy’s third season may have been the show’s most divisive yet, but even the show’s harshest critics surely had to acknowledge that ‘Ns’ was just superb from start to finish.

Book-ending the season perfectly with the premiere ‘So’ (‘So’‘Ns’), ‘Ns’ felt like a natural ending, not just to the season but also to this chapter in the show and its history and mythology.

The only reason I’m not giving this episode my first ever five star rating is because of the fact that the big twist didn’t catch me by surprise.

It may be unfair of me to try and blame that on the writing and the acting because given how far behind we are in the UK compared to the US, the ending of season three had already been sort of spoiled for me.

I know that Jax is still with the club in season four, so not for one minute did I believe that the club were going to want him dead for making a deal with Stahl.

I actually really loved the ‘long-con’ aspect of the Jax-Stahl machinations, but even had I not known the outcome in advance, I still don’t think I’d have fallen for the rest of the club’s poor acting when Stahl proudly announced she’d been getting intel from Jax.

Had the club really been surprised by that revelation the reaction would have been far more vehement and possibly violent than it was, and it’s kind of hard to believe that Stahl, knowing all we do about her would have bought it either.

You could argue she was blinded by her success in finally being the one to bag Jimmy-O and that she was so pleased with her self for sticking it to the club and Jax that she let her guard down. Given how paranoid she’s been and the extent to which she’s covered her own ass to this point though it just seemed she was duped a little too easily here. As I said though, it’s easy for me to say that knowing what I knew going in to the episode.

Given how many of the club were privy to this whole scheme it does seem odd that they would keep Gemma and Tara in the dark, the former especially. She’s not been well anyway and has also suffered the trauma of her grandson being kidnapped and putting her father in a home.

She was so concerned for Jax’s well-being that she was willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths, so I can’t believe it didn’t get to a stage where they felt they needed to bring her in to the loop, at least when you consider that less prominent members of the club such as Happy and Juice seemed to be in on it.

With my one criticism of ‘Ns’ out of the way I can now wax lyrical about the myriad of greatness that was on display throughout the rest of this delicious televisual feast.

We all know that Kurt Sutter and Sons of Anarchy love a good montage, and although I’ve never quite been able to look at a montage the same since Team America’s song of the same name, Sutter is a maestro at doing both touching and dramatic ones that are equally emotive and visceral.

Virtually everything in those last ten minutes of ‘Ns’ was brilliant, I particularly loved the voiceovers from Jax and John in the two letters and the merging of the two, showing the difference between these two Teller men now, the next shot as Jax and Clay’s eyes met in the police van seemingly indicating that Jax had now fully embraced Clay’s rule and abandoned his father’s ideals.

All these wide-ranging emotions and ideas were presented with little to no actual properly spoken dialogue and it’s a huge credit to Sutter and his crew that they were able to do so much with so little.

Of course there is a very large elephant in the room now though to possibly disrupt Clay and Jax’s new found harmony because John’s letters are now in Tara’s possession and they seem to hint very strongly that Clay, and possibly Gemma, were complicit in his death in some way.

Whether it was always the intention or whether the writing just ended up setting it up that way, it was kind of poetic which members of SAMCRO ended up not going to jail.

If anyone was ever going to kill Jimmy it had to be Chibs and the same goes for Stahl and Opie.

Both Tommy Flanagan and Ryan Hurst haven’t had much to do this season but in one scene the two of them gave us enough emotion and catharsis to last a season.

First as a brief aside, how awesome was Chibs drinking a juice box on the school bus on the way to intercept Stahl and Jimmy!? There was something so very wrong, but so very right about that shot.

Chibs returning the favour and slashing Jimmy’s face before he killed him was brutal but there was a brief moment between the two men when Jimmy told Chibs to take care of their girls that felt begrudgingly respectful.

Jimmy seemed resigned to his fate from the moment he was handed over by the Russians and at least took his death like a man, going out with a quiet dignity.

It must have been emotional for Tommy Flanagan to do that scene given what he has been through himself receiving similar injuries and he sure as hell sold the shit out of it.

If Jimmy went out true to character: calm and collected even when staring death in the face, then so did Stahl – begging, pleading and desperately trying to survive.

Ryan Hurst was very prominent in both season one and two but sadly has been reduced to the background for quite a lot of season three, however with just a few lines of dialogue he delivered one of the most memorable moments of the show so far.

Making Stahl sit in the driver’s seat of the car and shooting her in the back of the head with a machine gun to make her feel “what she felt” was so tragic yet satisfying and Stahl’s reference to him having had mercy before was a nice call-back to Opie’s “the outlaw had mercy” from a while back. Opie’s response “now I don’t” was one of those wow moments you so rarely get from TV and Ryan Hurst cemented himself as one of my favourite actors in the world in that moment.

Opie may now been engaged again but Donna’s death and Stahl’s role in that are undoubtedly going to haunt him forever, finally seeing Stahl brought to the ultimate justice has to go someway to helping him get a degree of closure though.

‘Ns’ was a nice showcase for so many of the show’s characters – Chucky, Otto, the prospects (more on most of those later) and Unser in particular got a chance to shine a little.

Unser’s relationship with the club has always been quite sweet really, almost like he would have rather gone down that route than that of law enforcement. He has obviously seen Stahl’s dark side first hand, so blatantly had no quibbles helping them finally take her out, and doing so without his badge and gun seemed to signify that his reign as chief has now finally come to an end.

With the majority of the club off to jail for a reduced fourteen months and big changes afoot in Charming, the Sons of Anarchy we’ll return to for season four will be taking place across a very different landscape.

As long as the show remains at this kind of level though we will be in for another season of some of the best drama on television.

The Irish stuff this season might not have worked entirely but with these last two episodes Sons of Anarchy has reminded all of the doubters just why our expectations for the show were so high in the first place.

If it’s possible for a finale to make a season then ‘Ns’ might have done just that.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Who didn’t get a kick out of seeing poor Chucky finally getting to be a hero!? Why he hadn’t spoken up sooner I don’t know, but that was a nice moment as Tig celebrated with him offering to lend him his hand and Chucky got to trot out his trademark “I accept that” catchphrase.

- It’s always great to see Otto (Kurt Sutter) in an episode and for once he wasn’t getting dumped on from a great height. His comment about being on death row soon though seemed to indicate he may not be around much longer.

- As always there were some really fantastic shots in this episode, the camera whipping round Jax & Stahl as they talked after the Jimmy exchange was really nice and the ‘ns’ ring on John’s grave next to Jax’s ‘so’ one – a call back to the pilot – was a great mirror not only of the two titles but also of that same scene in the premiere.

- Again as always great music throughout, with both montages soundtracked by very fitting songs - Battleme's cover of Neil Young's “Hey Hey My My” hauntingly brilliant over the closing scenes and the more upbeat “This Charming Life” by Joan Armatrading over that opening ‘happy’ montage to name just two.

- One last thing, Sons has always struck me as quite a gritty and ‘real’ show but that first post-recap shot of Jax in bed with Tara showed them sleeping mere centimetres from each other. That’s about the most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen – no one sleeps that close together in real life!

Hell on Wheels Preview

2011-10-12T19:21:00.000+01:00

The hype machine for the return of AMC’s zombie epic The Walking Dead is rightly in overdrive at the moment (not least here at TV or not TV).

With so much focus on The Walking Dead at present though it’s easy to forget that just a few weeks later a brand new original series will also debut on the channel that is also responsible for two of the most critically acclaimed drama series of all time – Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

The immense looking Hell on Wheels will depict the construction of the transcontinental rail road in the 1860s; the title refers to the lawless ‘moving town’ that followed the rail road as it was built.

Hell on Wheels will premiere on AMC on 6th November 2011 in the US, and although no official word has yet been spoken on its UK home (if it will even get one) with Endemol being heavily involved in the show’s development one would assume that given their relationship with Channel 4 it could end up on More4, or even the main channel should it perform well in the US.

Anson Mount, doing a good job of making amends for co-starring in the God awful Britney Spears movie Crossroads once of a day, will play the lead character Cullen Bohannon.

Mount will get stellar support from the likes of Common and Brit Colm Meaney – who now, in spite of his body of work, I can only picture as Aldous Snow’s Dad in Get Him to the Greek.

A two minute teaser trailer for Hell on Wheels is embedded below, and although the quality is more Zapruder than high definition, it still gives you an idea of the epic scale on which this show looks set to operate.

Having missed Deadwood first time around, I for one cannot wait to have a western to follow from the beginning and coming from AMC this can’t be anything other than superb… Can it!?

Glee Adoption Storyline Controversy

2011-10-12T12:45:00.000+01:00

In its three seasons to date Glee has tackled a number of serious issues, ranging from homophobia to racism, and has been applauded by most for the way in which it has handled them and for bringing them to the attention of a mass audience.

There’s one issue the show has recently been catching flak for though and that is its unrealistic depiction of adoption.

Since Quinn told Puck that she intended to get daughter Beth “back” from adoptive parent Shelby in the ‘I Am Unicorn’ episode over a thousand people and counting have signed this online petition which respectfully asks show creator Ryan Murphy to produce an adoption public service announcement to balance out the way in which the show "perpetuates myths about adoption that harm adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth parents alike."

The petition, created by Amber Austin, states that “In real, legitimate adoptions, a birth mother cannot simply take a child away from their family or pop back into a child's life, however this is one of most pervasive and harmful myths about adoption. Furthermore, most adoptions in the US are open to some extent, so these dramatic scenes with birthmothers never take place because a relationship exists from the start. For adopted children, the show raises the fear that they may be taken away from their adopted families. And for adoptive parents and birth mothers, the show creates confusion about the nature of adoption - confusion and mistruths that proponents of adoption constantly work to dispel. And for young women facing unplanned pregnancies, many of whom are in Glee's target demographic, the show may give the inaccurate impression that adoption is a temporary solution, not a permanent one.”

Ryan Murphy has reportedly not yet responded to the petition, but judging from this promo for the first episode back after the show’s current break, this storyline doesn’t look like getting any better any time soon...

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.4 'The Smiley Face'

2011-10-11T15:33:00.000+01:00

“I will shit where I eat… Or eat where I shat.” – Larry

After a few episodes without the usual colliding storylines, ‘The Smiley Face’ saw Curb revert back to classic Larry David influenced writing, with several threads all intertwining for maximum David destruction.

Larry was like an octopus of chaos in this episode, with his numerous tentacles reaching out and damaging several innocent people’s lives, in other words exactly what we’ve all come to expect, and love, about the Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The several threads in this episode all frayed off Larry with him locking horns with his new office neighbour over their shared kitchen, inadvertently causing long-suffering assistant Antoinette to not be at her father’s death bed, insisting his new girlfriend Heidi not use the titular emoticon in text messages, slandering a dermatologist, causing friends to suspect Jeff was having an affair and remaining determined to, as the opening quote suggests, return to the restaurant Heidi works at after the inevitable break-up.

Not bad for one episode really is it? It’d take most men a lifetime to create so much turmoil, but not Larry. I genuinely think Larry David should be incorporated in to chaos theory and the infamous ‘butterfly effect’ somehow, if a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado somewhere else in the world then imagine what Larry just opening his mouth can do…

Larry’s determination, even before things started to go wrong with Heidi, to “shit where he eats” and then “eat where he shat” had all the hallmarks of a Larry David social experiment. As beautiful, sexy and way out of his league as Heidi was I genuinely wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that the whole relationship had just been Larry testing whether he could in fact “shit where he eats” and get away with it.

There seemed to be no real affection for Heidi and, although we know the most minor of offenses can cause Larry to make a snap decision about someone, the smiley face did seem like a very minor irritant to let set the wheels in motion for the end of the relationship, even by Larry David standards.

At least Larry clearly had the self-awareness that the relationship would end, most likely at his own hands, and quite humorously seemed already prepared for it – what a great way to live.

As someone who for years was staunchly anti-emoticons, but has recently fallen in to the habit of using them, I really enjoyed Larry’s indignation at someone using them. After now falling in to a bracket of people that Larry David considers to be “idiots” I don’t think I’ll be using an emoticon again now for quite some time, especially a smiley face.

I’ve often thought of Larry as something of a kindred spirit, albeit a rather extreme one, and I usually agree with all of his little social rules, so to find myself having done something that irks him so much was slightly disheartening!

It was blatantly obvious a mile away that poor Antoinette’s father would die the moment Larry guilted her in to returning to work for the day, and although his feud with ‘dog’ in the office next door was probably the weakest of the storylines it ended on such a great punch-line that all that went before it was easily forgivable.

One of the things that make Curb great is that usually the people with whom Larry is having a dispute have done something so minor it’s almost hard to empathise with Larry’s passion for proving them wrong, almost.

Here though, Dog was so blatantly in the wrong with how he took over the kitchen there was no moral or social analysis needed and Larry’s suffering felt unwarranted which isn’t what we want from Curb.

Of course you could argue that this inconvenience was karma for the ways in which he upset people throughout the rest of the episode but this storyline still felt too one-sided.

Having Susie mistake Antoinette’s mother as the woman Jeff was supposedly having an affair with though and that ultimate pay-off was worth the somewhat predictable way that we reached that point and all the disappointing Dog business before it… I bet Susie has a hell of a punch on her.

Elsewhere, Larry’s lie about the dermatologist and how that spiralled out of his control you could again see coming a mile away but it was very funny in it’s execution, as anything with Richard Lewis involved usually is.

Lewis seemed to instantly suspect Larry was lying, the running gag about the use of high-pitched inflection to the voice when lying making its first appearance of the episode, so it did seem slightly unbelievable that Lewis, without any evidence other than the word of a renowned liar, would go round town badmouthing the poor Doctor.

Larry having to sneak out in the middle of the funeral and then causing the Doctor to miss playing ‘Danny Boy’ on his flute as Antoinette’s father was buried were both really nice moments though.

All in all, although the pacing and the structure of ‘The Smiley Face’ were probably an improvement on last week’s episode, ultimately I don’t think this episode quite achieved the same level of greatness that last week’s season high ‘The Palestinian Chicken’ did, but when the show as a whole remains this damn good that’s a very minor gripe indeed.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Boy, that smiley face Heidi drew on Larry’s head with the sun cream was pristine wasn’t it?

- There were a number of notable guest stars in this episode, at least to me anyway.

First off we had Rebecca Creskoff, last seen as the manipulative coal mining company representative on Justified’s brilliant second season, as Heidi; the second sexy woman in as many episodes to be on Larry’s arm. Is this David sowing some long standing wild oats in the wake of his both on and off screen divorce?

Then we had Patrick Fischler from Lost and Mad Men as the annoying and overly huggy Stu, who read too much in to the high inflection in Larry’s voice and there was also Michael Gross of Family Ties fame as the poor dermatologist whose business Larry seemingly ruined, Gross may be more familiar to people these days for playing Ted’s dad on How I Met Your Mother.

- I had a feeling that the scene with Heidi’s niece was setting something up for later and that she would somehow gain revenge on Larry for his rudeness, but surprisingly there was no follow up – it’s unlike Curb to not have every scene and interaction Larry has be important later on.

- I loved Larry’s explanation of the smiley face on his head at the funeral – “I believe they refer to that as a smiley face, they’re frequently used by idiots at the end of emails and text messages, such as ‘I miss you, smiley face’” and the fact that he wouldn’t wear a Dodgers hat to cover it up because he “hate[s] the Dodgers”.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8 continues in the UK Sunday @ 11.05pm on More4

The Walking Dead Season 2 UK Air Date

2011-10-10T18:11:00.001+01:00

It’s nearly that time of year again when the streets are filled with people dressed as flesh-hungry zombies – No, I’m not talking about what will no doubt be everyone’s Halloween costume this year, I’m talking about the much anticipated return of the smash hit The Walking Dead to TV screens across the globe.

Season 2 of the zombie apocalypse show begins in the US this Sunday, 16th October 2011 and it will debut in the UK the same week on Friday 21st October at 10pm on FX.

Season 2 will air for, in what is more akin to a ‘regular’ US drama series season run, thirteen episodes as opposed to the six-episode debut season we got last year.

I’ve already written quite extensively about some of the news about season 2 of The Walking Dead here but since that post further nuggets of information about the new season have been doled out.

Most excitingly for me is the news that Rescue Me’s Michael Zegen has been cast in a recurring role as a new character called Randall. Zegen was great as Damien on the fire-fighting drama and was often the source of some hilarious moments, I doubt The Walking Dead will give him the same opportunities Rescue Me did to flex his comedic muscles but he’s a great young actor and I’m looking forward to seeing him in such a huge show.

Suffice to say the season two premiere of The Walking Dead is probably one of the year’s most eagerly awaited TV events the world over.

The Walking Dead Season 2 UK Premiere – Friday 21st October 2011 @ 10pm on FX UK.

Whilst on the subject of TV premieres in the next two weeks, I also just wanted to give a bit of promotion to a show called Alphas that will be premiering on 5* next week as well.

The show, billed as the next Heroes, centres on a group of people with special abilities and stars the brilliant David Strathairn as well as a recurring guest role for one of my favourite TV actors Callum Keith Rennie.

The show has already been renewed for a second season in the US so one would assume Alphas is actually half decent. It’s never going to attract the sort of fanfare and media attention that The Walking Dead will but it certainly sounds on paper like a show worth checking out, you can view a trailer for the show below…

Alphas Premieres in the UK on Tuesday 18th October 2011 @ 10pm on 5*

Californication 4.1 'Exile on Main St.'

2011-10-08T17:11:00.000+01:00

“…You smell like you’ve just walked out of a fisting contest.” – Abby

It was kind of hard to believe when Hank sauntered out of jail at the start of ‘Exile on Main St.’ that only seventy-hours had passed since those gut-wrenching events at the end of the season three premiere.

It’s been over a year since UK viewers last saw Hank Moody, and with so little time having passed on the show in the break between seasons, the lengthy ‘previously on Californication…’ montage at the start was a welcome, and probably necessary, inclusion.

Much like the finale that preceded it, ‘Exile on Main St.’ – the show’s fourth season premiere, began with no title sequence, hinting that perhaps what was to follow was going to be more serious in tone than we’ve come to expect from the show.

Unlike last season’s finale, that didn’t transpire to be the case though and although Hank had some serious music-facing to do in this episode, there was still some of Californication’s hilarious bawdy humour and one-liners on display throughout.

‘Exile on Main St.’ began with Hank being released from jail following his assault on Mia’s scumbag manager/lover at the end of last season.

It had been unclear when season three ended whether the cops who Hank ended up brawling with were coming for him because of the assault or because his tryst with an underage Mia had finally become public knowledge.

I’d speculated at the time that it seemed too soon for anything to have happened over the statutory rape so it seemed likely they were only there due to the brawl and thus Hank would no doubt be out soon and that was exactly what happened.

As Charlie greeted Hank outside the jail, it was made to look like Hank had been inside years, so when the revelation he’d only done a weekend inside came out it seemed a bit surprising. This is coming from someone who has never been in jail though, and has no intention of going, because if I did I’d probably last all of five minutes.

Hank being Hank of course wanted to go home and face Becca and Karen but Charlie was under strict instructions not to take him home, under duress though Runkle crumbled like we all knew he would, but not before showing Hank that the word was well and truly out now about who really wrote ‘Fucking & Punching’ – “a lot can change in a weekend”.

Karen predictably wanted nothing to do with Hank and insisted he leave before Becca got back. Marcy immediately warming back up to Hank after he turned on the charm seemed to suggest that the world hasn’t completely turned on him in light of these unsavoury revelations though.

However Hank’s next stop on his post-jail tour proved that quite a few people do think he’s a “piece of shit” as his sexy (what else?) lawyer Abby put it.

Abby apparently had no time for Hank’s witticisms and juvenile behaviour – even enquiring whether he was “retarded” at one point, which clearly means that by mid-way through the season she’ll be sleeping with him.

Abby is played by the impossibly sexy Carla Gugino, who just gets better with age and she’s going to be a very welcome addition to the cast this season.

With Hank effectively now homeless, his day was spent being dragged round with Charlie – who next had a meeting with a team about production of a ‘Fucking & Punching’ movie.

The whole meeting scene was great, if a little ridiculous, and ended with Hank being coerced into rewriting the script that had already been doing the rounds that “America’s sweetheart” actress Sasha Bingham wanted to make but only with Hank’s stamp on the script.

Bingham as a character was somewhat of a contradiction, in the one breath we’re being told how popular she is with the general public and that she won’t be doing any “gratuitous nudity” and the next minute she’s whacking her “bodacious ta-tas” out at the table.

Of course this inevitably meant Hank ended up sleeping with her within a couple of hours, in spite of her early protestations. There’s got to come a point where Hank isn’t able to literally seduce everyone woman that he even looks at. Yes, that is part of Californication’s charm but in the state he was in it’s too unbelievable that a sexy young actress like Sasha would be unable to resist a man that as Abby fantastically summarised smelt like he’d “just walked out of a fisting contest”.

Addison Timlin who plays Sasha is no doubt going to be this season’s Eva Amurri – a gorgeous young actress who consistently ends up naked, not that I’m complaining but part of me wonders how much of her casting was down to her looks rather than her talents.

Hank and Sasha spent the night re-enacting that infamous night with Mia in Sasha’s hotel room, with Hank clearly subjecting himself to punishment on purpose as he feels he deserves it.

He had such a tortured look on his face as he insisted Sasha punch him harder whilst they had sex it was quite tough to watch, as this young girl clearly seemed oblivious to the internal struggle this man was going through.

Bodacious ta-tas aside, it was probably the most powerful scene of the episode.

The episode ended with Hank getting the good news that the assault charges had been dropped, only to then get the cuffs slapped on him as he was being prosecuted for statutory rape. To paraphrase Abby in that moment, things are about to get “a lot more interesting” for Hank Moody.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Any hope of Charlie getting a half-serious arc this season has now been dashed by his decision to pursue triple digit figures in his list of women with whom he has slept.

Given that he’s currently only on eleven (twelve by the episode’s close) I’m guessing this will mean that we are going to witness him in several embarrassing sex scenes as has become the norm for poor Evan Handler.

- Stephen Tobolowsky didn’t get much to say during that meeting about the ‘Fucking & Punching’ movie but hopefully he’ll be more prominent as the project develops and we’ll get to see proper use made of the great man.

- Hank’s dream scene in which he imagined Karen & Becca reacting to his misdemeanours wasn’t quite as creepy as some of last season’s eerie dream sequences but was still pretty heart-breaking stuff.

Obviously it wasn’t actually happening, but just the fact that Hank’s subconscious can craft such an accurate depiction of how he makes his family feel is sad, because he not only knows deep down how awful his actions make his loved ones feel but he seems incapable of stopping it and has to live with that burden.

Californication Season 4 continues in the UK Thursday @ 10pm on 5*

Touch Trailer

2011-10-07T21:10:00.000+01:00

Fox have finally released the first trailer for the upcoming drama Touch from Heroes creator Tim Kring which will star the mighty Kiefer Sutherland in his first post-Jack Bauer TV role.

No specific air date has been confirmed for Touch yet but it is widely expected to air in Spring, probably March and speculation suggests it will fill 24’s old slot of Monday at 9pm on Fox

Sutherland will play a widower whose mute 11-year-old son has the ability to detect patterns that connect seemingly unrelated events.

The trailer, which makes the show look pretty awesome, is embedded below

Glee 3.3 'Asian F'

2011-10-07T19:03:00.000+01:00

“And yeah, Kurt looks like Jimmy Fallon’s butch daughter…” – Santana

Well spank my ass and call me Charlie, an honest to goodness decent episode of Glee.

I’m not quite prepared to hail ‘Asian F’ as the show’s second coming as some people have, but there was certainly more good than bad in this episode, and it was quite a drastic improvement from a show that had lost its way quite spectacularly.

Back story, character development and plot progression – you’d have been forgiven for thinking you were watching another show when watching ‘Asian F’ but no you weren’t mistaken, this was actually an episode of Glee.

Just in case anyone wasn’t sure, writer Ian Brennan quickly reminded everyone it was Glee we were watching by completely ignoring nearly all last week’s big storylines. There was no follow up on Puck & Quinn’s baby situation with Shelby, nothing further on Sue’s congress bid and who Will had in mind to oppose her and little to no fallout from Blaine impressing more for the lead in Westside Story than Kurt.

‘Asian F’ must’ve been good then because none of that bothered me too much – I accepted a long time ago that with the bloated size of the Glee cast now we should just be grateful for any screen time that any of the less prominent characters get, as hoping for them to be heavily featured week in, week out is just a recipe for disappointment.

And if you can get to a place of tranquillity like that, where you just enjoy those rare moments that the more interesting, and likeable, characters get some spotlight over the likes of Rachel, then Glee gets a whole lot less frustrating as a viewing experience.

And when that spotlight on the underused characters shines as brightly as it did in ‘Asian F’ then that’s when the show itself really shines to, hence the numerous plaudits being hurled at this episode.

The title of the episode refers to the A- that dance-master Mike Chang got in chemistry – apparently an A- is an Asian F in one of those casually racist stereotypes that Glee seems to be able to get away with relatively scot-free.

His cartoonishly disciplinarian Father insisted that his sudden school failings were due to the amount of time he spends in the glee club and helping Mr. Schuester teach his booty camp.

If I was Mike Chang’s Father, the impossibility of that statement aside, I’d just be pleased he’d maintained such high grades this long, given that we’ve never seen him in a lesson and teaching seems to be secondary to extra-curricular activities at that school.

I had to laugh as Rachel desperately searched for something to make her stand out from the crowd on her college applications, when little to no mention has been made of whether any of these kids have good enough grades to even get in to their chosen schools.

But that’s Glee for you, what subject does Mr. Schuester teach again…?

At least Mike Chang’s ‘Asian F’ indicated that Glee isn’t a universe where grades don’t matter and no matter how small it might have been it was a nice, and necessary, acknowledgement of how almost implausible the kids on this show’s schedules are. This might not matter to the more rabid gleeks out there, but to pedants like me it at least gives the show that little bit of realism that keeps it at least partly orbiting in the same atmosphere as we do.

Mike Chang has been royally underused on the show up until now, unless dancing was called for of course, so Asian F was a nice look at both his family life and gave his relationship with Tina some actual substance rather than just being a slightly racist running gag.

His casting in Westside Story fit in nicely with the show’s follow your dreams and be what you want to be not what others want mantra, although it did feel a bit convenient that his Mother had given up on a dream of being a dancer in a past life.

I just have to point out as well that had I ever given my Mother a dancing lesson in a classroom at my school with the door open that I’d have probably gone home wearing my lunch as a hat, yet on Glee no-one bats an eyelid. Maybe that says more about my school than anything else though…

Moving on, something that didn’t quite fit in with the show’s usual be who you are manifesto was Will singing, and ruining I might add, Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ to Emma.

I get the OCD is an illness but rather than just embracing who Emma is, the song almost made it feel like Will has taken it upon himself to change Emma, which is at odds with almost everything else in this episode tonally.

Her parents being “ginger supremacists” was good for a cheap laugh but did feel a bit of a silly way to get to quite a serious moment, and did anyone really believe for a moment that Will was so insecure that he thought Emma was embarrassed of him?

After two and a bit years of seeing Emma’s OCD, the reveal of how she became that way kind of came out of nowhere and didn’t feel as emotional as it could have done with the right exposition.

Rachel meanwhile was as obnoxiously selfish as always, first assuming she had the lead role in the musical locked up and then, without even hearing the casting, deciding to run for student president against her new BFF Kurt to beef up that college application.

I honestly can’t believe how awful they write this girl when she’s supposed to be the show’s leading lady and an example and role model to millions of young girls across the world. If my, as yet unborn, daughter ever grew up to behave like that I’d punch her in the face.

The episode’s other big positive, in addition to Mike Chang getting some actual character development, was Mercedes returning to prominence after being nothing more than an after thought for pretty much all of the last season and a half.

Her new boyfriend may look closer to 40 than 14 but his motivational speeches to her lit a fire under her that she took too far, but allowed her to be the voice of many by drawing attention to how unfairly the spotlight is shared on the show in favour of Rachel.

The Dreamgirls performance kind of went over my head a little having not seen the film, but I kind of dug seeing all the cast involved in it and her performance of Jennifer Hudson’s ‘Spotlight’ wasn’t just a great performance but very, very apt not only in the context of the episode but the show as a whole.

It’s these kinds of songs that enhance the show rather than take you out of the moment, last year had too much of the latter but this year they’ve really stepped up their game with the former. Even though I hated Will’s performance of ‘Fix You’ it didn’t feel out of place given what had just preceded it.

Some of you may think that only giving ‘Asian F’ three stars seems harsh given how much more positive I’ve been about this episode than the previous two but I have to grade shows on a universal scale not one for each show.

In terms of the usual Glee output this was probably closer to five stars, but I recently reviewed an episode of Sons of Anarchy that I only gave three and a half stars and that was infinitely better than ‘Asian F’.

The content and nature of Glee will probably never allow it to get to the upper echelons of my star ratings, but in terms of where Glee sits on the TV show spectrum, ‘Asian F’ might just be about as good as it gets for this show.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Santana back in the glee club with no real fallout from her having left the week before last is indicative of the show’s lack of long term storytelling. The way in which she was unceremoniously booted out in the premiere looked to have set up something juicy down the line but no here she is back two weeks later with only one throwaway line of exposition to explain her sudden return.

- I wrote last week about how season three thus far had featured more show tunes than chart songs, well ‘Asian F’ certainly readdressed that balance. With the Westside Story arc being so prominent this season show tunes are obviously always going to be frequently performed but in this episode alone we also had covers of Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce and I’d dare to venture that downloads also went up in the week following this episode when compared to last week.

- Speaking of Beyonce, Brittany’s flash mob performance of ‘Girls (Run The World)’ more than made up for a lack of Brittany one-liners this week as Heather Morris looked exceptionally hot in that scene and male cheerleading fantasies aside, boy can that girl move. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, every episode should feature at least one Brittany dance number.

- At the inception of Shelby’s rival glee club last week I wrote that it undoubtedly set the stage for defections between the two clubs, but that I hoped it wasn’t done gratuitously. Here we are one week later though and one of New Directions’ main voices has already defected, though under the circumstances I’m kind of okay with it, and in fact I hope it allows Mercedes to shine more than she clearly ever could in Rachel’s irritating shadow. I just hope that every other week they won’t be trying to wring some cheap drama out of ‘will they/won’t they’ defections.

- With a surprising lack of Brittany one-liners in this episode it was left to Santana with that brilliant opening quote and Bieste to get the best lines this week.

Bieste’s “ I kicked a fire hydrant when I found out Ace of Cakes was cancelled” and “It’s one of the hardest decisions of my life and that includes when I had to sell one of my prize donkeys to pay my gas bill… I sold Kim, but I kept Khloe” were very funny, especially once I realised her prize donkeys were named after two of the Kardashian sisters.

- My lovely other half Tanya commented during this episode that Harry Shum Jr. (Mike Chang) would have been a good candidate to appear in the gash-looking Footloose remake about to pollute cinemas world wide.

She must have some sort of E.S.P. because within seconds, Chang was having an angry ‘punch dance’ trying to forget his troubles which is lifted straight out of Footloose, but was also spoofed in several moments of unparalleled genius within the magnificent film Hot Rod…

Any excuse to post this clip really…

Strike Back Renewed

2011-10-06T19:43:00.000+01:00

It’s been announced that, the far better than I think anyone expected, Strike Back will be returning for another season.

I say another season because depending on how you look at it, the new season could be classed as either season two or season three.

In its current incarnation this would be the second season of the show, but Strike Back did originally exist with Richard Armitage in the lead role as a lone Sky production in the UK, technically making a new season the show’s third.

Confused? I thought so.

Strike Back (or Strike Back: Project Dawn as it’s known in the UK), currently airing on both sides of the Atlantic – Cinemax in the US and Sky1 in the UK – is a joint production between Cinemax/HBO and Sky/Left Bank.

Continuity-wise nothing much changed in the UK with Project Dawn, Armitage’s John Porter returned for the first episode only to be unceremoniously executed in the first fifteen minutes and a new cast of characters were quickly ushered in.

Cinemax, or ‘Skinemax’ as it had previously been dubbed for its high proportion of sex and nudity (Strike Back doesn’t really do that reputation any favours though to be fair) aired ‘Project Dawn’ as a stand alone season as its first primetime drama.

The show has far exceeded expectations and has received wide-spread praise from a lot of influential critics for its brash, take-no-prisoners nature.

Another ten episodes is the order for the new season and filming will begin early next year.

Interestingly for fans of the show, Cinemax has declined to announce the cast for the new season, in a press release which does name several other crew members for the season, apparently “due to plot spoilers in upcoming episodes”.

From this one would assume that means there are some big deaths coming up in the final episodes of this season and whilst I’d be disappointed to see either lead actor - Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester - killed off, given the show’s track record thus far I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both ended up dead before the final credits roll.

If you haven’t already checked in on the show, the season thus far has tended to be two-parters that work both as standalone episodes but also advance the season’s long-running arc of the search for terrorist mastermind Latif played somewhat inexplicably by Jimi Mistry, a guy who twelve months ago was on prime time TV in a very different capacity – dancing the Cha Cha Cha wearing a sequined shirt.

The show has really been a revelation, and whilst there isn’t much to delve in to in terms of reviewing each episode, it’s a hell of an entertaining ride each week and I’m genuinely thrilled we’ll be getting more of the same next year.

Sons of Anarchy 3.12 'June Wedding'

2011-10-06T19:02:00.000+01:00

“I’m a Puerto Rican from Queens… I speak better Yiddish.” – Juice

‘June Wedding’ didn’t quite have the epic feel of a season finale, but it almost felt like a finale in many other ways.

A lot of loose threads were tied up in this episode and having the Sons back in Charming certainly made me realise how much the Irish detour outstayed its welcome this season.

With the whole club, and most importantly baby Abel, now back on US soil, Jax wasn’t able to relax just yet as Tara was still being held hostage by the worst criminal ever Hector Salazar. A pre-credits tease that maybe Salazar had killed Tara failed to convince, and well before the end credits rolled Tara was safe and Salazar was dead.

Salazar in his most boneheaded move yet holed up at Hale’s offices and added Jacob to his collection of hostages. Cementing his reputation as a complete waste of space Salazar was undone by Hale stabbing a pen in to his leg before Jax, in an incredibly pig-headed and selfish move, stabbed the unarmed Salazar to death with his own knife.

There wasn’t really any justification for why Jax felt so strongly that Salazar had to die, unless it was just simply the fact the man had kidnapped his old lady and unborn child. But after being warned of the consequences for Charming PD, were they not able to prove Hale was dirty, it seemed like the sort of impulsive, short-sighted move that it had appeared Jax had grown out of. The repercussions of Jax’s actions here will no doubt be felt by the club for some time to come and the VP will have brought it all on himself.

I’ve always found Jax to be quite a sympathetic character in spite of all the horrible things he’s done, but as much as I loathed Salazar as a character this needless murder really made me lose a lot of respect for Jax.

Away from the Tara rescue, the episode mostly focused on the long-running Stahl issue. Stahl became such an extreme caricature of a human being a long time ago that anything she does now fails to surprise me, but killing her own partner - and lover – just to save her career seemed ridiculous even by her own unhinged standards.

The whole Stahl character is just so insane now it doesn’t really feel based in any sort of reality – at what point do the ATF stop and think “everything this woman gets involved in ends in bloodshed” and look in to her doings a little more closely?

Of course the positive here in terms of building a long term story is that when Stahl does eventually get her comeuppance, one would assume at the hands of the Sons, it will be very sweet for viewers after seeing this twisted woman ruining countless lives for nothing more than a career bump.

The episode was peppered with a few sweet moments to counteract the deaths of two of the season’s recurring characters and the tone and balance of the show as a whole felt a lot more well-rounded than any of the episodes in Ireland.

I didn’t hate Ireland as it sometimes may seem in these reviews, it’s just that Charming is such a vibrant place full of a plethora of potential irritants for the Sons that taking them out of this environment in to the big wide world, so to speak, made the show lose a little of the appeal that drew me to it originally.

I love shows that create their own world, and although Ireland helped expand the mythology of the show, Charming is as much a character in this show as Jax, Clay or anyone else for that matter and Sons of Anarchy as a whole suffered when one of its best characters was absent for such a large chunk of the season.

You only have to look at Unser’s emotional breakdown in that quite touching scene with Gemma to see how much Charming means to so many of these people.

‘June Wedding’ was definitely the strongest episode for a number of weeks from this season and not just because of the return to Charming.

I don’t quite know how the season will end now with a lot of big arcs wrapped up or clearly teed up for season four, but one would assume that with the over-focus on Jimmy pretty much doing nothing of merit in this episode, that his escape to South America won’t quite go as planned in the finale.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I really loved Titus Welliver’s work as Jimmy last season but in spite of appearing more this season he’s not really had that much to get stuck in to. If next week is his last appearance on the show I hope he gets to go out chewing the scenery like we all know he can.

- The Tig & Kozik saga rumbles on and although it was nice to see them seemingly getting along for a while, Tig once again refused to vote Kozik in.

The revelation later that their beef was over a dog rather than a woman, as we’d been led to believe, should have made the whole feud seem stupid and cheapened our investment in it but somehow I actually thought it worked.

Although we don’t know too much about Kozik, we know Tig well enough now to know that he really would take something so trivial to heart.

- Opie & Gemma’s little chat about his future with Lyla was another of a cluster of touching little moments in the episode – further proof that Gemma isn’t just the matriarch of her family but also the club.

Never one to mince her words, her matter of fact analysis of Lyla’s profession - “she earns her living catching cum in her mouth” was just great.

Sons of Anarchy Season 3 concludes in the UK Wednesday @ 10pm on FIVE USA

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.3 'The Palestinian Chicken'

2011-10-05T18:15:00.000+01:00

“...Get the fuck out of my driveway you bald prick” – Sammi

‘The Palestinian Chicken’ was probably my favourite episode of this so far sublime season of Curb; it really had me laughing from start to finish.

The individual stories didn’t quite collide in the clever way that they normally do on Curb, but given that they were all quite closely linked anyway that’s understandable.

I’m actually a little surprised it’s taken them this long to specifically point out Larry’s knack for being “a social assassin” as Jeff puts it, but it worked well even if his actual assassination attempts were quite tame given his track record.

One thing that does frustrate me sometimes with Curb is that we are quite often introduced to new characters just for one episode who are supposedly great friends with Jeff & Larry, such as Larry Miller’s character Eddie here.

You’d think that given Larry & Jeff’s love of golf that we would have seen the other members of their team before. Miller in particular was great in this episode but I’ll be surprised if we see him again and thus a lot of what happened, whilst very funny, didn’t quite mean that much as we didn’t really know anything about any of the characters involved other than the regulars.

The affair would have meant a lot more had we discovered it was someone we know well such as Funkhouser that was stepping out – obviously Funkhouser is a bad example though as he’s just left his wife. Maybe that’s why they had to bring in new characters though, as all the Curb men are now either single or cheat that often (Jeff) that we’ve become desensitised to it.

The whole Israel-Palestine metaphor of the chicken place and the Deli was a very nice way of adding some very mild political commentary to the show and that final shot of Larry stood in the middle of the two warring factions was a great little moment.

I did think that the episode would end with him joining the Palestinians and choosing sex over his religious ties, but the ambiguity kind of worked well and didn’t make him look a complete pig by turning his back on Susie and the reformed Funkhouser.

The Funk man had some great moments in this episode, in particular his reaction to hearing Larry having sex with Shara and her anti-Semitic dirty talk – “fuck me like Israel fucked my country”.

Having so much Funkhouser almost made up for no Leon this week… almost.

There were so many great moments in this episode it really was Curb at its wonderfully uncompromising best.

I feel as though the season has gradually improved with each episode so far, so if the trend continues, by the end of the season we could be looking back on a run that manages to top the previous Seinfeld reunion season.

In the early days Curb seemed to be more about the everyday irritants that everybody could relate to, and whilst these days the storylines are more cartoonish and unlikely to affect ‘normal’ people, David does such a great job with them that it’s hard not to call Curb the best comedy on TV.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Oh… My… God! It was great seeing Maggie Wheeler a.k.a. Janice from Friends back in a big comedy role even if her “LOL” was nowhere near on a par with some of Janice’s annoying habits.

Wheeler always amazes me when I see her, as she doesn’t seem to have aged a day from her debut on Friends, if anything she looks better now than she did back then.

- On the other hand, how quickly has Sammi grown up!? Although I loved her channelling her inner-Susie with that opening quote, it did feel a little out of nowhere that she would suddenly go from sweet little girl to blackmailing Larry.

Speaking of which, it did feel a little silly given all of Susie’s annoying habits that they would invent one specifically for this episode for Sammi to take umbrage with. We could have all empathised with her plight a lot more had it been her vicious temper and profane vocabulary that embarrassed her daughter so much.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season continues in the UK on Sunday @ 11.10pm on More4

Arrested Development New Season!

2011-10-03T18:45:00.000+01:00

In what is quite possibly the best news I’ve heard in a long time, it’s being reported that the long-touted Arrested Development movie will not only happen, but it will be preceded by a new ten-episode season!

Many of the cast, and show mastermind Mitchell Hurwitz, were part of a mini-reunion at the New Yorker Festival over the weekend and the revelation came straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak as Hurwitz dropped the pleasing bombshell on those in attendance.

Many fans of the show, who have long suffered from premature announcements of a return of one of the greatest TV comedies ever made, were cautious at first as there have been such agonising teases in the past.

News soon hit the web and it was Will Arnett that initially sent fanboys crazy when he tweeted “I'm peeing with @batemanjason at the moment..and we can confirm that we are going to make new AD eps and a movie”

With social media outlets blowing up, Bateman himself poured fuel on the flames by then tweeting “It's true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early '13. VERY excited!”

Obviously after years of hurt and disappointment at the long-rumoured movie never getting off the ground I too was sceptical at first, but Bateman has been keen to keep fans updated ever since the show ended and I can’t see him blowing smoke up our collective asses.

Since the tweets some eighteen hours ago, more official outlets have also confirmed the news. TV Line reported that Hurwitz is planning a 9 or 10 episode mini-season with each episode focusing on an individual member of the family, which should hopefully keep scheduling issues to a minimum given the stature some of the show’s stars have gone on to achieve in the years since it ended.

The new season will supposedly bridge the gap between the end of season three and the long-awaited film.

Well-respected Deadline then further confirmed things by stating that the new season a 20th Century Fox, Netflix and Showtime production.

Although we’ve been burned in the past, this genuinely does seem like legitimate news and I’m beyond excited about the return of one of my favourite shows of all time.

Keep an eye on TV or not TV for any further breaking news on the return of Arrested Development…

Glee 3.2 'I Am Unicorn'

2011-09-30T14:50:00.000+01:00

“You look like a real housewife of Reno.” – Puck

After seemingly realising the mistakes made throughout season two, the season three premiere of Glee last week looked to have a renewed focus and dedication to the core characters, however the third season’s second episode ‘I Am Unicorn’ abandoned that and instead spent much of its running time featuring Idina Menzel’s returning Shelby.

There was no need to bring Shelby back, but I’ve got to give credit to them for not completely ignoring the fact that she adopted Puck & Quinn’s baby – which I wouldn’t have put past them.

Shelby’s return at least gives Quinn and more importantly Puck something meaningful to do on a show they’ve both drifted to the periphery of recently, but the way in which she returned felt convoluted and wholly unnecessary, at least at such an early juncture in the season.

Shelby’s return served as a means of getting Quinn to revert back to being in New Directions again, though it does seem slightly at odds with the message of the show that just because she dyed her hair back to blonde, removed her piercings and put on her virginal white clothes rather than her skank black outfit that she was suddenly back to her old self.

You’d have thought that Mr. Schuester especially would have paid more attention to how she was feeling on the inside, because whichever way you dress it up, she’s clearly very unhappy.

If Shelby, and baby Beth’s return had contributed to Quinn finding the error of her ways after a season of going off the rails it would have been quite emotional, but to have it happen after all of two episodes of this new Quinn meant that there was no emotional reward for her change of heart.

Whether she’s actually had a change of heart though is another story as she indicated to Puck at the end of the episode that she would try to gain custody of the baby, much to Puckerman’s dismay.

I still can’t imagine why Shelby would return to Lima when there was so much history there, she did say something to Will about making amends, but surely having finally got the baby she always wanted why would you return and tempt fate by parading her in front of the emotionally immature parents – at least in Quinn’s case anyway.

Puck on the other hand displayed more maturity than we’ve ever seen from him on the show and gave Mark Salling more dialogue than he’s had in as long as I can remember.

When there was that knock at Shelby’s door I hoped it would be Puck rather than Quinn (it was obvious it was one of them) and the scene that followed didn’t disappoint.

It was both sweet and funny – exhibit a. being Puck’s drawing of a “clown pig” with ‘to Beth’ spelt wrong as well as having some memorable lines - “I have friends in law enforcement”. It was probably one of my all time favourite Glee scenes and this scene alone almost lifted the rating for this episode.

However, the reason that the rating didn’t improve is that in addition to the unnecessary Shelby return which felt like a step backwards from last week’s strong premiere, there was also too much time spent on Kurt feeling sorry for himself because this sense of entitlement he has and his inflated opinion of himself had set him up for a fall.

Throughout The Glee Project Ryan Murphy commented about knowing “how to write” for people, but the way that Kurt, and Rachel, are portrayed on Glee makes me wonder whether he does know how to write for people.

Because in those two characters, arguably the show’s two most heavily-featured, Glee has two of the most unlikeable characters on television. Rachel in particular is thoroughly self-centred and unreasonable – I had to laugh when Finn referred to her as “the best girlfriend ever” because I can’t think of a worse person to date than a self-obsessed ego-maniac like Rachel.

And Kurt, no matter how much of a victim they made him last year, I find extremely hard to feel sorry for. He has no divine right to the lead role in the school musical or to be class President, yet the way the show played it was almost as if we were supposed to feel like Blaine and Brittany were betraying him by opposing him. Brittany in particular had every right to go up against him after he treated her efforts to help him with complete disregard.

There’s no excuse for how selfish Kurt was painted in this episode but I can forgive the return of Shelby for that lovely scene with Puck and the baby and should her return actually lead to good things down the road, then looking back I may feel I’ve been a little harsh on ‘I Am Unicorn’. If that does transpire to be the case then I’ll hold my hands up, but if we’re in for weeks of Quinn battling for custody, then although Dianna Agron is a good actress who is mostly wasted on Glee, I may feel I was actually overly generous.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Was that look Will had on his face when it was suggested they need someone who was the “Anti-Sue” to run against her because he knew someone who could run against her or because he was thinking of running himself? I really hope it’s the former…

- I’d be really interested to see how the download figures were looking for Glee this season now the show seems to be focussing on show tunes more than chart hits. I don’t know whether it’s a conscious decision, or whether the first two episodes have just been show tune heavy but one would think that show tunes would be far less popular downloads than chart music.

Personally I don’t mind this change as the show tunes feel more organic within the show, too many times last year it felt like the show was written around covers they wanted to do, so having the music take a step back can only improve the overall quality of the show.

- There were further references to the prior to this season non-existent clarifications of who’s a junior and who’s a senior in this episode. Given what we already know, one now must assume that a large proportion of the original cast will be graduating at the end of the season, hopefully shaking up the show for the better.

- The idea of two rival show choirs in the same school is ridiculous, but at least makes the whole subplot with tone deaf Sugar from last week not a complete waste of time. I’m guessing that we’ll now be in line for some future drama with people defecting between the two clubs, which will no doubt be as void of tension as any of the show’s other dramas.

- Brittany was once again in sparkling form in ‘I Am Unicorn’ first answering that the capital of Ohio was “O” and then offering “Will.I.Am” as her answer for who is President.

Those two one-liners were the sort of scatter-brained genius we’ve come to expect from Brittany but her finest moment in this episode was her “I hate you” to Rachel as the egomaniacal Rachel wrongly assumed Mr. Schuester was asking her to direct the musical.

Later in the episode she also got another great line in telling Kurt “the poster that you wanted gave me crippling depression”.

Brittany’s partner in crime Santana also got a great line off in that scene as well, when Kurt said he wanted it toned down, Santana replied “this is toned down, in the original the unicorn was riding you”, which I thought was brilliant.

It was nice seeing Brittany and Santana interacting closely again, albeit briefly, as there has been zero follow up on their potential romance from last season thus far. I’m really hoping that Santana being out of glee, at least for the time being, doesn’t mean that this storyline is being ditched after we spent so much time with it last season.

Naya Rivera and Heather Morris are great together and the seeds, for once, have been planted that should they end up in an open relationship it would be one hell of a reward for long-term fans of the show.

Glee Season 3 continues Tuesday @ 8pm on FOX in the US and Thursday @ 9pm on Sky1 in the UK

Happy Endings 1.3 ‘Your Couples Friends & Neighbor’

2011-09-30T12:47:00.000+01:00

“What if you were like stuck in a trap in the woods and, like a cougar was trying to eat you, would you date then…?” - Penny

In their post-Friends landscape, E4 has been quite blatantly, and from the looks of it desperately, trying to find a show to fill the void.

In a way it kind of makes you wonder why they opted to finally bring the curtain down on Friends, when all they seem to have done to try and replace it is buy up every new American Friends rip-off and hope one becomes as incredibly popular as the mighty Friends.

People look at Friends so fondly no one is ever going to accept an imitator as an acceptable substitute so E4 would have been far better getting a US comedy that is critically adored but in a different mould to Friends – Parks & Recreation or Community immediately spring to mind.

E4 already had the most natural successor to Friends within its ranks with the brilliant How I Met Your Mother, which for me – and to many of you I’m now going to sound like a heretic – is actually a far funnier show than Friends and has maintained a level of quality that Friends never did.

E4 clearly also think along similar lines on this front in a way, as once Friends ended its run on the channel, repeats of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory increased dramatically.

Rather than just relying on repeats, in a drastic change of policy for the channel, E4 have actually spent some of the cash they had lying around from Friends on new shows which were clearly pitched as ‘the new Friends’ when they were conceived.

Inexplicably, one of these, the truly dire Perfect Couples, had already been cancelled in the US when E4 secured the rights to it but the other, Happy Endings had enjoyed a bumpy but successful first season and had been renewed for a second season.

Both shows, like Friends, feature an ensemble cast of six twenty-somethings but in the case of Perfect Couples, even in spite of the presence of the very funny Olivia Munn – who is so horribly used on that show it’s almost unbelievable – the show is so void of laughs you’d be hard pressed to even call it a comedy. It’s commissioning in the States is a head-scratcher in itself, but its purchase by E4 is nothing short of bewildering.

Happy Endings on the other hand is a show that has real potential and reminds me more of How I Met Your Mother than Friends. From what I’ve read online, the first season only gets better as it progresses and the season two opener, which premiered this week in the US, has received mostly positive reviews all round.

That’s not to say Happy Endings isn’t without its problems, Elisha Cuthbert has all the comic timing of a flaccid penis, Brad & Jen just don’t seem to click as a couple at all for me and the tinkering with the running order of the first season by ABC (and subsequently E4) has left me slightly confused as to how and when certain developments have occurred in the show’s timeline.

ABC obviously saw problems with the first season of the show, hence the rearrangement, but the reported reason for the changes was to make the first few episodes more standalone than serial and it just hasn’t worked. The continuity is all at sea and the relationships seem to flip-flop back and forth from week to week as a result.

All that aside though, I’m really starting to enjoy the show and there is a lot more to like than dislike from what we’ve seen thus far.

The pop culture references, coining of ‘showisms’ and use of flashbacks does echo How I Met Your Mother quite greatly, but Happy Endings feels a little cooler, probably due to being fresher, than HIMYM.

The cast is great, even if Cuthbert, and to a lesser extent Zachary Knighton, aren’t exactly comedy superstars. The lack of comedic pedigree from the two characters who you would arguably call the leads is more than made up for by the rest of the ensemble though, in particular Damon Wayans Jnr. who is just great as Brad.

Wayans reminds me so much of his father that it’s actually a little scary, but in being a Wayans – no matter how much stick they get in Hollywood – you know you’re going to get laughs from him no matter what.

His portrayal of Brad is really fantastic though and very non-Wayans, in a good way. Brad, however comes across strangely camp to say he’s a married man on the show – if you were told one character on the show was gay you’d undoubtedly gravitate towards Brad – but given that he’s married to a neurotic, control freak it’s probably an element of being emasculated by Jane.

Camp or not, Brad is probably the best character on the show and Wayans is definitely a scene-stealer.

His on-screen wife Jane is played by Scrubs’ Eliza Coupe who I really loved in the latter seasons of that show and although you can tell she’s a gifted comedic actress, I much preferred the tough, no-nonsense Denise from Scrubs to the ridiculously high-maintenance Jane.

The other characters – Penny and Max – are played by less well-known actors Casey Wilson and Adam Pally.

Penny is somewhat irritating as a character though does mine a number of laughs from her desperate persona and Wilson’s willingness to look a fool but Max on the other hand is another great character who steals a lot of the show’s best lines and more bizarre moments.

Openly gay, yet about as blokey as you can get, Max goes against the usual TV and film stereotype of a gay man which is refreshing, but I do feel that the show really pushes the whole ‘look how much of a pig this guy is even though he’s gay’ aspect a little too far.

There’s nothing major going on here in terms of narratives, the whole premise of the show is that Alex (Cuthbert) left Dave (Knighton) at the alter and now the group struggle to all remain friends, but beyond that it’s just story of the week and how the various friendships deal with an issue each week.

In this third episode of the season (though the fourth broadcast, after episode eleven was bizarrely shown last week) Max suspects sleepwalking Dave of stealing his food, Brad & Jane befriend a more sophisticated couple and Penny tries to push Alex back in to the dating world.

Brad & Jane’s story was the main focus of the episode and for me only served to strengthen my argument that the two of them are a terrible couple as Brad’s happy-go-lucky, laid back nature is continually eroded by Jane’s neuroses.

Brad had no desire to make new friends but Jane pushed them in to their new double dating regime and then insisted on revealing intimate details about their marriage to their new friends in order to ensure they hit it off.

It was obvious that Dianne & Carl were going to be harbouring some sort of secret that meant they weren’t as perfect as Jane wanted them to be, and even before Carl showed his hand – they were swingers – I suspected it was going to be some sort of sexual deviancy that would make uptight Jane run a mile.

The Dave & Max plot was merely a light-hearted distraction but I did enjoy how it ended up tying in with Alex’s attempts to get back in to the dating world.

I’m really hoping for some good things from this show as the season progresses and you never know, E4 might just have found a show that can go some way to filling that void left in their schedules.

A Hail of Bullets:

- Malcolm, the squatter in Dave & Max’s crawl space who Alex ended up on a date with was played by Michael Mosley, an actor I really like.

He’s previously starred opposite Eliza Coupe on Scrubs: Med School and was also recently seen in Justified’s second season. Every time I’ve seen him in these guest roles I’ve thought how good he would be in a starring role, so I’m really pleased to hear he is starring in ABC’s new period drama Pan Am, soon to be seen on BBC2 in the UK.

- I loved the sly nod to Elisha Cuthbert’s past life as Kim Bauer and THAT storyline in the woods when Penny uttered the opening quote, but after a little wink to savvy viewers they had to then completely run the joke in to the ground by carrying on with the not-so-subtle 24 references.

- It may be as a result of the episode continuity being askew or my lack of attention but when did Dave move in with Max? I thought Dave had his own place, or was that his and Alex’s place that she now has, hence why he’s rooming with Max? I’m confused… Either way, having him living with Max should allow for some great male camaraderie scenes, now if we could only just get Brad in there as well…

Happy Endings Season 1 continues in the UK on E4 Thursday @ 9.30pm

Sons of Anarchy 3.11 'Bainne'

2011-09-29T17:05:00.000+01:00

“I’ll never let anyone take you from me again” – Jax

‘Bainne’ may have been an episode in Ireland too far for the Sons from a pacing perspective, but when the content is this good you can’t really complain too much.

‘Bainne’ was a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous; there were two or three fantastic scenes that had a raw visceral nature to them that you couldn’t help be affected by. There were also a few moments that left you rolling your eyes though – the main culprit of the latter was the pre-credits scene with Jimmy-O as blood splattered across a crucifix on the wall.

Sons has always been big on symbolism, and that’s a part of the show I really love, but it’s usually done in a more subtle way, and having that religious imagery so in our faces really felt like we were being beaten over the head.

But when you have scenes such as Jax’s stalking of Abel and his new adopted parents at the market, the scene in the hotel room with Jax and Opie after the corpses of the aforementioned parents had been found and Jax and Gemma when Jax informed his Mum of his decision to let Abel go, you let the more ridiculous elements (Gemma holding a gun to a baby) go.

‘Bainne’ was relatively action free after a few episodes quite heavy on dramatic moments, instead this final instalment in SAMCRO’s Irish vacation created drama far more emotive without the need for big explosive impacts.

That scene with Jax at the market was dialogue-free, just a musical accompaniment scored that entire scene, but it was one of the most heart-wrenching things I’ve seen on television in quite some time. Charlie Hunnam has become a master this season at conveying raw emotion simply through a look and he was nothing short of fantastic here.

Abel finally being returned to Jax felt somewhat anti-climactic in a way though, I’m relieved that this chapter has now been concluded, but given how much of the season has been devoted to the hunt for Abel when he was finally reunited with his Dad it felt a little more low-key than I expected. That is who these people are though I guess, SAMCRO aren’t really in the business of throwing a party with balloons and welcome home banners are they?

Whilst Jax was being reunited with one child in Ireland, unbeknownst to him, another was being taken further and further away from him back in Charming.

If SAMCRO’s stay in Ireland had maybe outstayed its welcome by one episode, then Tara’s kidnapping by one of the series’ most inept and least intimidating villains: Salazar has dragged on by about three.

What should have really been a one episode arc has now dragged on for four, but at least now they are out of that damn loft, although with his impossibly irritating girlfriend now dead, Salazar has nothing to lose really.

With SAMCRO due back in Charming in the next episode I guess this Tara storyline will be resolved pretty quickly, though whether Unser will get his wish for Salazar to be taken alive remains to be seen.

Of course we all assume that is how this will play out, there’s no real sense of jeopardy for Tara, they aren’t, after spending one season reuniting Jax with one child, going to then kill of the mother of his unborn child the following week, which has been my issue with this development all along.

At least when Margaret was in captivity as well, there was the sense that she may take a bullet, but with Tara now having secured her release the tension in this storyline has all but fizzled out.

Things are certainly set up for SAMCRO’s return to Charming to be quite explosive though, now Jax knows not only about Tara’s pregnancy but also of her kidnapping. And there’s still the small matters of Gemma’s charges, the charges hanging over the club, the club’s instruction to kill Jimmy and Jax’s deal with Stahl which is directly linked to the other three.

Welcome home boys.

A Hail of Bullets:

- They’ve had Gemma do some pretty crazy things over the years on this show, even more so lately to drive home the whole losing her mind trait, but that scene where she threatened to shoot the baby was about the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t think anyone believed for a minute that she was going to do it and the look on Jax’s face seemed to be more embarrassed than concerned.

- I’m guessing there are some revelations in Maureen’s letters that may make Jax rethink his whole “I’m done listening to dead men” mantra, or why would she go to the trouble of hiding something that clearly means a lot to her in his luggage?

- It seemed odd that the club would go along with Stahl’s offer to help them so easily, but soon things reverted to the natural order after the drop went wrong and Tig tried to get at the ATF bitch. That whole drop scene was also quite ridiculous and felt more slapstick than anything and thus at odds tonally with the rest of the episode.

- Margaret mentioned a husband and kids to Tara when they were still tied up – I wonder what they make of that ink on her back?

- There wasn’t much humour to be found in ‘Bainne’ but Jax telling Bobby that he was “twice [Trinity’s] age and three times her weight” was pretty funny.

Sons of Anarchy Season 3 continues in the UK on FIVE USA Wednesday @ 10pm

State of the Blog Address – Star Ratings & Navigation Improvements

2011-09-28T17:26:00.001+01:00

You may have not noticed a few changes to the site in the last day or so – nothing as drastic as last year’s whole scale revamp – just a few little tweaks to hopefully improve the site and the time you spend here.

The main change already implemented is the numbered page navigation you will find at the bottom of the homepage, making it very easy to now scroll back through the TV or not TV archives and dig out old posts should that be what your heart desires.

The archives of course go all the way back to January 2009 and the post that started it all Prison Break Straps on the Water Skis.

The navigation is pretty straight forward, each page shows ten posts, and you can use the numbers at the bottom to jump back ten posts at a time, whichever number page you are on in the sites archives you will also have the option to see the next five pages either side as well. This feature also works for the popular tags you will see down the left hand side of the page, but doesn’t work on the yearly/monthly pages further down the left hand side unfortunately – but given that you can use the drop down facility on these to find the exact post you’re looking for I don’t know why you’d want to use it on there anyway.

The other noticeable changes to the homepage are the positions of the widgets down the left hand side of the site, these have simply been reorganised to hopefully make the site more user friendly.

A major change that will be occurring from this point forward however, is the introduction of a star rating system (see image above for how these will look) for reviews. You’ll no doubt already be familiar with this sort of thing from other sites, as they are quite common across the blogosphere.

Well I am now, after almost three years, also joining the ranks of the raters and will be introducing a star rating system out of five for all fictional TV reviews. I emphasise fictional there because I won’t be utilising star ratings for the rare factual show reviews I do, such as my recent look at Billy Connolly’s Route 66.

The ratings will range from half a star to 5 stars and incorporate half marks across that scale, so obviously 2 and a half stars would be average and anything above would be better than average and below worse.

I sincerely doubt I’ll be throwing out five star reviews every week as I feel that this sort of praise should be reserved for truly outstanding pieces of television. If and when I do give a show a 5 star rating though I intend to tag it with ‘5 Star Rating’ in the tags section, which will then hopefully allow both you and I to quickly jump to all the episodes deemed worthy of this high praise. Hopefully this system will then also allow me to easily announce the best episodes of television from the past year etc. as and when required.

Keep an eye out for my first star-rated review coming in the very near future, but for now if you have any thoughts or feedback on any of the above just let me know…

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.2 'The Safe House'

2011-09-27T18:17:00.000+01:00

“I think all – computers – look alike…” – Larry

If the season premiere’s twists and turns were easy to telegraph then ‘The Safe House’ more than made up for that as the second episode of Curb’s eighth season delivered brilliantly hilarious developments round every corner.

The main three storylines in the episode were Larry discovering his, and Leon’s, new home was a couple of doors down from a battered women safe house, Larry thinking a black man had stolen a computer he’d been tasked with watching in a salad bar and Lewis dating a rather buxom burlesque dancer.

In classic Larry David style all three storylines intersected with each other brilliantly in the final act to deliver a very strong all round episode.

I touched on Larry’s new ‘boys club’ a little in my review of the premiere and it was in full force here as Larry, Leon, Jeff & Funkhouser went to Lewis’s girlfriend’s club to see her dance. The banter and dynamic between the male characters on the show has always been a highlight for me so with Larry, and Funkhouser, now divorced season eight should hopefully allow for more of that.

Leon was heavily featured in this episode which is always great and that entire scene in the hospital was note-perfect from start to finish.

Larry, having already argued with Leon about how much Leon knows about Larry’s personal life, deflects the Doctor’s comments about how he got his black eye (asking too many questions of the safe house’s rather butch inhabitant) but in doing so sounds like a stereotypical battered wife would defending her pig of a husband.

Leon then comes over demanding money from Larry and the Doctor assumes Leon has beaten Larry, Leon making the whole thing worse by repeatedly hitting a vending machine in the background as Larry and the Doc talk.

I was literally laughing throughout that entire scene and the way it played in to the episodes theme of middle class white people’s casual racism, as well as the link to the suffering of the women from the safe house, was just great.

As was the cops mistaking the black guy returning the computer to Larry’s house for Leon by saying he matched “the description” of the domestic abuser the Doctor had reported at that address.

Of course, it’s Curb so everything was done for maximum laughs, but even in one of its most brilliant best episodes the show was able to hold a mirror up to some people and hopefully make them rethink the way they treat different races on a daily basis.

The stuff with Lewis’s new girlfriend felt a little old hat if I’m honest – haven’t we seen him only dating a woman for her breasts before!? – but it facilitated that great boys’ night out and Larry proclaiming he had “breast vision” so I’ll let it go. Plus getting Richard Lewis in to any episode is always a welcome surprise, if only just for his and Larry’s unscripted banter.

Larry, for the most part, surprisingly wasn’t that unreasonable in this episode; the women were in the way at the supermarket, the dog was repeatedly fouling on his lawn, it did look as though the guy had stolen the laptop and he was just trying to help out Lewis’s girlfriend, but of course it all came back to bite him in the ass, just not as spectacularly as usual. That unfortunate comeuppance was reserved for Lewis – getting crushed in a freezer by butch Dale at the supermarket and the poor laptop guy getting wrongly arrested for domestic abuse.

I really can’t say enough good things about ‘The Safe House’, in spite of how ridiculous it may seem that anyone would allow Larry David anywhere near a woman’s refuge!

A Hail of Bullets:

- There isn’t usually much to pick out in terms of direction in an episode of Curb but in ‘The Safe House’ director Bryan Gordon had two really great little shots that I loved.

The first was Larry’s reaching hand appearing the freezer behind the two women after they blocked his path to the ice cream, and the second was that great slow-motion shot as Larry and Lewis’s cars passed each other outside the burlesque club – the look on Lewis’s face in particular was priceless.

- I’m a big fan of tying all the threads together at the end of an episode but it did feel a bit contrived to have Lewis end up at the supermarket at the exact time the two women from the safe house were in his way, although I did enjoy the irony that he too was going in to a freezer and he echoed Larry’s comments about Dale looking like she could “take care of herself”. Plus, seeing him with both hands in casts at the end so he couldn’t enjoy his last night with his girlfriend’s breasts was worth the journey to get there.

- “So there be a motherfucker out there cutting titties now?” – I love Leon’s astonishment at certain things most people would already be aware of; his disgust that someone would even reduce the size of a breast was genius.

How J.B. Smoove has not won award after award for his performance as Leon is beyond me; I’m so glad that he is inexplicably still living with Larry after all this time.

- So many good lines in this episode but I really got a kick out of the exchange between Larry and the “Marm” from the safe house, when Larry remarked “maybe I could drum up a date over there” after being invited to meet the women and the response from the “Marm”: “let’s remember boundaries”.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8 continues in the UK Sunday @ 11.10pm on More4

Luck Teaser Trailer

2011-09-26T20:22:00.001+01:00

It seems like I’ve been waiting a lifetime for HBO’s Luck – a drama series that will combine my two greatest passions in life: TV and Horse Racing; but now it’s almost here, and the first teaser trailer, which you can view below, has just been released.

Unlike the Game of Thrones season two teaser that also aired on HBO during the Boardwalk Empire season two premiere, Luck’s teaser gives us a fairly informative glimpse in to what we can expect from the show, as well as the tone and style David Milch and Michael Mann will be going for, even if it only clocks in at a measly 45 seconds.

Luck stars legendary actor Dustin Hoffman, in his first regular TV role, as well as Nick Nolte who’ll be playing a veteran trainer known as ‘The Old Man’. Dennis Farina, Gary Stevens, John Ortiz and Jill Hennessy also feature in a very impressive-looking cast.

If I wasn’t already practically salivating with excitement at the imminent arrival of Luck, then this trailer has now got me masticating like a mad man over the potential of the show, as the trailer really makes everything look quite fantastic.

Expect Racing and gambling clichés and puns galore from TV critics when Luck gets under starters orders in 2012…

Californication Season 4 Uk Air Date

2011-09-25T12:43:00.000+01:00

Long term readers will know what a huge Californication fan I am, and if my traffic stats are anything to go by so are a lot of you.

It’s been unbelievably frustrating how this sublime show has been treated by Channel 5 over the last four years, but I guess we should at least be grateful that they’ve stuck with it and allowed UK-based fans to see the show how it should be seen.

With season four having been and gone in the US over 6 months ago, the wait for it on these shores has been palpable, but finally now after an excruciatingly long wait it’s here.

Anyone who watches any of Channel 5’s channels may have caught promos for season four stating that it is ‘coming soon’, well I can reveal that the air date is closer than you might think, and season four of Californication will actually begin its UK run in a little over a week and a half on Thursday 6th October at 10pm on 5*.

Season four sees Hank bogged down in legal matters after the truth about his relationship with Mia came out in that gut-wrenching season three finale.

Coming off what I would call the show’s strongest season to date, season four looks to have the potential to be even better still and like many of you as well no doubt, this premiere is more exciting for me than all of the new shows debuting at the moment combined.

Californication Season 4 – Thursday, 6th October 2011 on 5* @ 10pm

Modern Family 3.1 / 3.2 - 'Dude Ranch' / 'When Good Kids Go Bad'

2011-09-24T12:09:00.000+01:00

“Only we touch our women when they don’t want us to” – Phil

Critical darling, and now multiple-Emmy winner, Modern Family returned for its third season this week with a premiere that took the extended family on a vacation to a ranch in Wyoming.

‘Dude Ranch’ didn’t really stray too far from the usual Modern Family formula even if the family were far away from home but still served as a quick reminder of why this is one of the best comedies on television at the moment.

The second episode of the double-header ‘When Good Kids Go Bad’ was more of a conventional episode in the sense of location and felt more strongly written as the various storylines between the three families all came to a head in one revelatory scene at the episode’s climax.

There isn’t much to analyse from the two episodes in terms of long term development beyond Dylan deciding to become a stable hand and remain in Wyoming in the opener – but he and Haley have now broken up and got back together that many times I doubt it’s the last we’ve seen of him.

The major point of note to take away from this opening double bill was Cameron and Mitchell’s decision to begin the process of adopting another baby, this time an American boy.

This led to Mitchell questioning his manhood in the opener as he worried whether he could teach a son the more masculine elements of being a man, and then both prospective parents worrying that they had influenced Lily negatively in the second episode as she made it clear she didn’t want anyone encroaching on her turf.

Emmy-winners Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell were both heavily featured in both episodes, with Burrell’s Phil stealing the show as always. The more I see Bowen playing Claire as such a control freak the more I dislike the character and question how she managed to beat the altogether more likeable Vergara to that Emmy.

The opening episode didn’t give Vergara much to do other than be loud and shrill, something the writers seem to find hilarious but is really starting to get old. The second episode gave her much more to work with though as she used her questionable past to her advantage by helping Manny out of a jam and then helping him avert Jay’s line of questioning.

Surprise star of both episodes though has to be Nolan Gould as Luke, who is rapidly becoming one of the highlights of the show after the writers seemingly decided to stop painting him as dumb, just different.

Gould himself, so good in his brief role in Friends with Benefits recently as well, brings a wisdom to Luke far less obvious than Manny’s old soul routine but still just as effective on his older family members.

Two seasons ago he wouldn’t have even realised Alex and Haley were playing him by convincing him how great the attic would be to sleep in, but now he not only acknowledges that he knows their game but has an agenda of his own.

The converging of the three storylines at the end of ‘When Good Kids Go Bad’ was really well done as both Claire and Mitchell realised where their negative personality traits originated from when Jay gloated about busting Manny and Gloria’s lie and Cam still attempting his ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ announcement in spite of the argument going on was a great little touch to end the episode – I got a bigger laugh out of Phil asking enthusiastically “Is that from Footloose?” though.

Modern Family continues to not really offer anything genre-redefining but remains perhaps the strongest all round sitcom there is at the moment and is more than deserving of its numerous accolades, which is very rarely true of award-bogarting shows.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I’d read that there was going to be a new Lily this season, but I wasn’t quite prepared for her to have gone from baby to three year old over summer. It makes sense in terms of the show’s timeline as she would now be three but the jump up from still being carried everywhere to now talking seemed a bit extreme.

- They’ve explored and seemingly resolved Phil and Jay’s relationship, or lack thereof, so many times now that I’ve lost count, but it always offers some of the best laughs of an episode it is featured in. In ‘Dude Ranch’ I loved the whole “Phil is” running gag, especially Phil even saying it himself later on.

- The Alex-first kiss plot in the premiere seemed a bit rushed and out of left field but it was refreshingly non-Hollywood and, I hate to use the word, ‘real’ which I thought worked well as a contrast to the more ridiculous Dylan-Haley proposal.

- I was convinced that when Mitchell and Luke blew up the birdhouse that they’d realise they’d killed/injured at least one bird, making Mitch rethink his attempts to be a man’s man but instead his first act of destruction seemed to push Mitch the other way as he enthused Cam should take pictures of him “blowing up stuff”.

- Two of my favourite lines across the two episodes were Luke’s “If they had this during the war, right now we’d all be knee deep in Strudel” about his German fire cracker and Cam’s “you might say we’re buying domestic” about their potential adoption of an American baby.

Modern Family continues Wednesday @ 9pm on ABC in the US and Friday @ 8pm on Sky1 in the UK

Glee 3.1 'The Purple Piano Project'

2011-09-23T18:27:00.000+01:00

“They have credits… In utero credits!” – Rachel

In between looking like a camper version of REM’s Michael Stipe (if that’s possible), writing new show American Horror Story and making weekly appearances at the end of each episode to crush another precocious kid’s dreams on The Glee Project, it would seem that Ryan Murphy also took the time to listen to the myriad criticisms that were hurled at season two of this unrelenting phenomenon of a show.

Because although the season three premiere was by no means perfect, it was a marked improvement on almost everything that preceded it in Glee’s sophomore year.

Wisely the show seems to have ditched a lot of the unnecessary distractions on the periphery and got back to focussing on the core group of students that everyone actually cares about.

Gone are club members such as Sam and Lauren, whose recurring roles last year helped see the cast bloat up to True Blood style volumes, and very sensibly, if poorly executed, Kurt’s boyfriend Blaine has transferred to McKinley High and is now part of the glee club, meaning we won’t have to take a detour off to another school each week now to get a taste of his brand of male vocal harmony.

Plot-wise the theme of the episode, which may be a precursor to the direction of the season, was deciding what you want to do with your life, and for the most part all of the major arcs in the episode played in to this idea and the songs, for once, actually seemed to compliment the writing rather than the other way round. The performance of the Hairspray song ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’ that concluded the episode was a nice way of saying that although there will be obstacles in their way in life the Glee characters will still always have the music. Saccharine – yes, but a nice sentiment nonetheless.

Kurt and Rachel, now best friends it would seem somewhat inexplicably, faced an unexpected roadblock in their dream to go to college in New York as they discovered that even in their own little town they aren’t unique. This was largely thanks to the first appearance by a Glee Project kid, as Lindsay made her debut as Rachel-esque singer Harmony. I found Lindsay quite irritating on The Glee Project but she was actually very good in her role here, it will be interesting to see how the other contenders from that show fit in to their roles as this season progresses.

Santana also had a decision to make as she was forced to decide whether she was loyal to glee or the cheerleaders, ultimately plumping for the latter it would seem. Quinn meanwhile, who has inexplicably gone from chairing the abstinence club to becoming a “skank” with pink hair, an “ironic Ryan Seacrest tattoo” and a cigarette in permanently in her mouth, was faced with the decision of whether she wanted to return to glee or continue her new found route in life as a rebel. And Sue got back to what she does best: attempting to destroy the glee club, this time by deciding to run for congress on a platform of anti-arts in schools, which of course drew Schuester’s ire.

That’s the basic gist of the premiere, which was padded out by some fluff involving some of the lesser characters, some mediocre (by the usually lofty standards) Brittany one-liners and far too much Lea Michele singing.

‘The Purple Piano Project’ might not have broken any new ground for Glee but if the show is going to continue to be as incredibly popular as it no doubt will be, at least it would seem that the writing is starting to get back on track to at least make the show feel worthy of such fanfare.

A Hail of Bullets:

- It never ceases to amaze me how much ease these kids change schools with, and the logic they use to do so. Last year Kurt flip-flopped between McKinley and Dalton Academy like they were social clubs and now we have Blaine leaving the, if I remember correctly very expensive, private school Dalton to come to public school McKinley just to be close to his boyfriend.

Okay, it makes sense from a show perspective to have him at McKinley, but could we not have at least had a scene of him convincing his parents it was a good move. Surely if his parents had invested so much in private school they wouldn’t be thrilled at the thought of him moving to public school for his senior year at least when it was done for such a frivolous reason.

But that’s Glee: after school clubs first, education a distant second... What subject does Mr. Schuester teach again?

- I know that Lima, Ohio is supposed to be some sleepy backwoods town but do they not at least have internet access? How ridiculous was it that Emma had to break the news to Kurt and Rachel that there was no musical theatre department at Juilliard!?

If those two were really so sold on the New York fantasy, surely their entire summer would have been spent looking in to this dream school they were so enamoured with.

- It’s only early days in the season but Brittany could have a rival for most ridiculous non-sequiturs in Sheila from Quinn’s skanks group, who made quite an impression with her “I once ate cat poo” line and her preference for The Bangles over The GoGo’s.

- Even if they made Rachel the lead singer on every performance on Glee I could deal with it, as long as the trade off was Heather Morris’s Brittany dancing for every performance.

Glee continues Thursday @ 9pm on Sky1 in the UK and Tuesday @ 8pm on Fox in the US

Sons of Anarchy 3.10 'Firinne'

2011-09-22T20:30:00.000+01:00

“Unless we want a three-headed grandchild, looks like we’re gonna have to share some family history” – Gemma

With Liam and McGee’s duplicities exposed, Jimmy outed as having his own agenda to the IRA and the truth about Jax and Trinity’s relationship finally revealed by their respective mothers ‘Firinne’ felt like it should be the end of the Sons’ little jaunt on the “moss-covered shit hole” – as Opie referred to it –that is Ireland.

With Abel still M.I.A. though and Father Ashby laying some knowledge on Jax about his Father’s wishes for his future it seems like Ireland hasn’t quite finished with SAMCRO just yet.

‘Firinne’ certainly upped the ante in the action stakes as both Liam and McGee met their maker, the former in a lot grislier way than the latter, and the Sons finally came face to face with Jimmy in an incendiary gun fight.

In spite of all that though, by the end of the episode I could finally start to see why so many people were critical of this season of Sons of Anarchy when it went out in the States a little under twelve months ago.

Don’t misunderstand me, this was still a terrific hour of television and Sons remains one of, if not the, best drama on television at present, and it’s only because people expect so much I think that they are sometimes critical of the show.

My frustration now though is that, as I said in that opening paragraph, it feels like SAMCRO’s reasons for being in Belfast are now, with the exception of the reason they are there in the first place – Abel, all tied up.

Finding Abel shouldn’t have really taken this long and it does feel like the return of Jax’s son to him is being strung out to fill the episode quota. I don’t think for one minute that it is actually the case, but it looks like Kurt Sutter and the writers mapped out the season but realised too late they didn’t have enough material to fill thirteen episodes.

The Irish detour has been a fun aside to this season, and I’m glad Sutter did it and I respect the hell out of him for trying something different with the show but ‘Firinne’ felt like the natural conclusion to the Irish arc and we now need to get SAMCRO back to Charming with Abel in tow.

The lone Charming storyline in ‘Firinne’ was Salazar blackmailing Tig, Kozik and Piney – the only remaining patched members of the club in the US – in to killing Alvarez and delivering him the Mayan President’s supposed stash of $250,000.

The leverage Salazar has over the MC is of course that he has Tara and Margaret held hostage.

Again this whole storyline also feels like its gone one longer than it should; a one episode plot that would normally be resolved within the hour – how long can Salazar and his old lady really keep the two hostages prisoner? But because of the slow pace of developments across the Atlantic this one arc for the Charming boys seems to also be outstaying its welcome.

We did get some exposition from Margaret though as she and Tara lamented their situation and discovered the origin of that tattoo on her back, which had kind of come as bolt out of the blue in the last episode.

It might have seemed somewhat inexplicable that this straight-laced administrative type was once a heroin-addict biker groupie but it does at least make sense of why she’s taken such a vested interest in trying to steer Tara away from club life.

I’m guessing Jax’s reunion with Abel is episode-closing fodder so regrettably it would appear we have at least one more week of SAMCRO on tour before we get everybody back to Charming and some semblance of normality back on the show.

Again, I do respect what Sutter has tried to do sending the club to Ireland, but it does feel like it’s taken too much time up now and wasted a lot of great actors in the process.

I don’t even think I saw Theo Rossi in this episode, Opie and Chibs got a smattering of lines and even poor Bobby was reduced to nothing more than a very hairy extra.

These remaining members of the club could have been far better utilised back in Charming in terms of storytelling, but in trying to keep the realism in the show I get that although Ireland has mainly been about Jax, Clay and Gemma – with Chibs getting a bit of inevitable rub from being so close to home – there is no way that SAMCRO would send two if it’s own in to volatile unknown territory unaccompanied.

Hopefully once the Irish elements of season three are resolved though, the final couple of episodes will have some big, far-reaching developments for the club going forward.

Just to confirm one final time though, I’m only critical because my expectations are so high. If this had been an episode of any other show I’d have been hurling superlatives at it left, right and centre, because even if it’s not at its brilliant best, Sons of Anarchy is still about the finest hour of television there is anywhere.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I meant to comment on the Irish-tinged theme tune remix the other week when I last reviewed the show but it slipped my mind.

I do find it a bit much to be honest, and by the time the opening credits reach the end you’re half expecting the SAMCRO reaper to be holding a shamrock rather than a scythe.

- Anybody else catch Happy’s face as Liam was tortured? The rest of the Sons looked quite sombre at the sight of a club member being subjected to quite medieval forms of interrogation, but old Hap’ had a look on his face that one could only describe as unbridled joy.

- Clay’s kiss of death to McGee before he shoved him off the roof of the building would have been a lot more poignant had I not been distracted the whole time by the quite awful green screen that was blatantly behind them. It goes back to my point last time out about them not actually being in Belfast, but costs, practicalities etc. I know, I know.

- Nice to see Cherry hasn’t been completely forgotten, but her presence didn’t really add anything in to the mix in this episode I’m afraid; I’d completely forgotten that she was involved with Liam, so it just shows how little of an impact she’s had this season.

- I didn’t think they’d actually let Jax and Trinity get as far as they did with each other before dropping the reveal about their blood relationship. Trinity seemed rightly irked by the revelation when it finally came but Jax seemed far too casual about the whole thing for me. That said, I did enjoy his “two minutes later I’d have been dancing in Tig territory” line.

Sons of Anarchy continues in the UK Wednesday @ 10pm on FIVE USA

Curb Your Enthusiasm 8.1 'The Divorce'

2011-09-22T16:07:00.000+01:00

“You are a colossal prick” – Funkhouser

I know I’m very late with this post given that the episode in question aired Sunday night here in the UK, but given the quality of this episode I just had to briefly wax lyrical about how great this premiere was.

I do sometimes worry you know that I’m blinded when it comes to Curb premieres, because I’m that grateful and relieved that Larry David has decided to give us another season of his great comedy that I think every Curb premiere is fantastic.

I can say with some degree of confidence though that this season eight premiere truly was a great episode of TV comedy, irrespective of the sentimental influence.

We picked up exactly where we left off at the end of season seven with Cheryl realising she’d made a huge mistake reconciling with Larry, after he keeps on about her leaving a ring on the table with her drink.

Wisely, in terms of mining the most laughs out of Larry’s newly found singledom, we then leap forward a year and find Larry meeting with his divorce lawyer; encountering Cheryl outside along with her bald lawyer, something Larry gets a kick out of, we see that the Davids are on good terms and that Larry may now be single but he still has all the same foibles as before.

The rest of ‘The Divorce’ was a lot more predictable than Curb used to be in its infancy – I knew the Jewish lawyer would turn out to be useless and it was obvious the girl scouts would enact some sort of revenge on Larry – but that didn’t make any of it any less funny.

I loved it how Larry’s divorce inspired Funkhouser to also get a divorce from his long-suffering wife and how that made Jeff jealous. Larry has a proper little boys club going on now with Leon, Funkhouser and himself all single.

Leon was of course in fine form throughout the episode, especially in his telling Funkhouser that he’d run his wife’s “ass in to the ground”.

Thanks to his pettiness, Larry ended up losing a lot more in the divorce than he needed have as his new Jewish lawyer may have been great at putting a snooty maitre d’ in his place, but seemingly wasn’t that strong on divorce hearings, not only losing Larry the house but also Gary Cole’s Dodgers owner his beloved team.

The full circle irony of Larry using a tampon to stem the bleeding from his nose after Cole’s character decked him was a nice touch.

Although more predictable than we’ve been conditioned to expect from Curb ‘The Divorce’ was still very well written and has only served to increase my anticipation of the rest of the season, if that was even possible.

Where Larry, and Leon, go from here now they’re soon to be homeless can only be a delightful adventure to be part of.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I had a hard time buying Justified’s Kaitlyn Dever as a girl struggling with getting her first period after seeing her so tough and old-beyond her years on Justified this season just gone.

Larry could perhaps carve out a nice niche for himself though with his matter-of-fact teaching of how to use what must be an embarrassing subject to learn for most girls. I genuinely thought that when the other girl scouts turned up they were going to ask him to teach them as well – but that’s probably a bit too dark, even for Curb.

- Great seeing Gary Cole guest-starring. I was a bit disappointed he didn’t really get to showcase his fine comedy skills more, but any Gary Cole appearance is alright with me.

- I don’t think he actually said it, but Larry’s attempt to get Cheryl to have sex with him one last time had to have been born out of seeing her hire a bald lawyer hadn’t it? In Larry’s mind that was too significant of a coincidence and it was probably Cheryl admitting she still had feelings for him, at least in that twisted commode Larry calls a brain it was anyway.

Curb Your Enthusiasm continues in the UK Sunday @ 11.10pm on More4

Comedy Central's Roast of Charlie Sheen

2011-09-22T10:37:00.000+01:00

“Charlie, you’re the black sheep of a family that produced three Mighty Ducks movies.” – Jeff Ross

I’ve always been a little surprised at how long they string these roasts out for, surely there are only so many jokes you can tell about the same person.

Okay Charlie Sheen, given the year he’s had, is a goldmine of material, but it seems the roasters here felt the same as I do about this type of performance as the majority of them spent much of the time taking shots at either rather than the “rock star from Mars” sat front and centre.

Family Guy mastermind Seth MacFarlane hosted proceedings and did a good job, his jokes, whilst close to the bone, were very funny and were just on the right side of offensive. Making jokes about the various presenters/performers and the variable success rate of said jokes is how I usually grade big show hosts and MacFarlane definitely fared well on that front, as you would expect given the nature of the show he was presiding over.

The Family Guy supremo also took his various abuse well, as did everyone on that stage to be fair – you have to really to be part of it and come away with your respect still in one piece, and came out with a lot of credit, and for the most part his dignity intact.

The roasters themselves were, in no particular order: Jon Lovitz, Kate Walsh, Jeff Ross, Mike Tyson, Steve-O, Patrice O’Neal, William Shatner, Anthony Jeselnik and Amy Schumer.

Lovitz, who took to the stage first was disappointingly lacklustre, although I did appreciate the fact that he didn’t seem to have anything overly prepared and actually knew Sheen so spent most of the time just waxing lyrical about his friend.

Mike Tyson babbled incoherently for five minutes and generally just looked confused about what was going on. Steve-O and Kate Walsh did fine to say that they aren’t comedians, but neither was especially funny.

Patrice O’Neal who went last, I had been expecting to really hit it out of the park after being forced to take quite a bit of abuse all night without the chance to retaliate, but he too was actually a little disappointing when he finally got his chance. Although he does get points for not spending the whole of his section getting revenge on those before him who’d took shots at him, as I would have tried to do in his position.

Comedians who I’m not familiar with, Jeselnik and Schumer, were probably the most controversial performers with some quite strong and shocking material. Schumer in particular had some really over the top material, including a gag about Jackass star Ryan Dunn who died this year that seemed to shock Steve-O silent, and this is a man who we’ve seen drink horse semen.

I’m a great believer in nothing being too sacred when it comes to comedy and that without freedom of speech we have nothing, but even I thought Schumer went too far with some of her stuff. I can’t fault her for having the metaphoric balls to say what most people probably wouldn’t have had the stomach to say but there is a line and she did go over it quite a few times.

It must be hard being the relative unknown on a show like this so maybe she felt the need to really make a name for herself by being controversial, and she certainly succeeded if that was the case. You can’t be easily offended at a roast though so some of the reaction to her jokes has been way over the top.

Yes, she was out of line and it stopped being funny it was that offensive, but without people to really push boundaries like that we’d have a world of Michael McIntyres and no one wants to live in that world.

Performers of the night though were The Shat and Jeff Ross; the latter bizarrely dressed like Colonel Gaddafi for some reason. Shatner, a roast veteran himself, made a mockery of his eighty years on this, or some other, planet by showing more energy and exuberance than half of the other performers combined and his mix of one-liners and anecdotes about his career and the similarities, or lack thereof, to Sheen’s career was really great to listen to.

Ross on the other hand, delivered nothing more really than a string of brilliant one-liners, but easily had the best gags of the night. Ross had supported Sheen on his much maligned comedy tour earlier this year and you could tell there was some genuine affection there.

After taking the jibes in good humour all night it was finally time for “The Warlock” to speak and Sheen really put his tormentors in their places with a brilliantly observed rambling monologue that he undoubtedly didn’t write but was still uproariously funny.

Perhaps my favourite moment of the night came at the end though as Steve-O, for a second time, tried to get a black eye from Iron Mike my diving in to his fist. After failing the first time, second time was sort of the charm as the Jackass man broke his nose on Tyson’s fist. As blood streamed out of his nose, Shatner simply stood dumbfounded shaking his head disapprovingly and saying “Steve-O, Steve-O” over and over again, as Tyson left the stage apologising to Sheen who reassured the former champ “it wasn’t your fault” – a bizarre end to a bizarre night.

Overall I can’t say I laughed as much as I did at the only other one of these roasts I’d stuck with to the bitter end which was the Denis Leary instalment a while back, but that roast was aided greatly by the fact that the majority of the roasters were comedians Leary had worked with over the years so there was a great deal of familiarity and although there were some shocking jokes you got the sense that they were all done with great love and affection.

With the exception of a couple here, it certainly seemed the roasters didn’t know Sheen that well and a lot of the gags therefore felt mean for the sake of being mean.

All that said though I came away with a slight aching in my chest from laughing throughout so there are certainly worse ways one could spend ninety minutes of one’s time.

If anyone has followed Sheen’s antics this year and has more than a passing interest in the man himself I recommend checking out a repeat of the roast if you can catch it, but be prepared to leave your moral compass at the door.

No matter how offensive people may have found parts of Comedy Central’s Roast of Charlie Sheen it was still infinitely funnier than the Two and a Half Men that premiered that same night.

Two and a Half Men 9.1 'Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt'

2011-09-21T16:23:00.000+01:00

“…Who tries to commit suicide in a wet suit…?" - Walden

The more things change the more they stay the same for poor Alan Harper. Not long after the funeral of the brother who constantly made him feel inferior and inadequate with women he encounters his replacement; who also makes him feel inferior and inadequate with women.

I’d read quite a bit online after this much-anticipated season premiere went out in the States and there seemed to be a lot of people who felt as though Chuck Lorre and the writers went out of their way to bad mouth Charlie Harper (and by association Charlie Sheen) in this episode. Many commented that the episode devoted too much time to slating Sheen and desecrating Charlie’s memory and thus didn’t have enough time to give us any reason to invest in Ashton Kutcher’s new character.

Of course with all the bad blood between Sheen and the ‘Men’ camp there had to be some sort of karmic payback from the side that for the most part had kept a dignified silence through the summer of madness as Sheen went to town berating them with disparaging remarks every chance he got. But from the initial reaction I’d assumed the whole episode was devoted to some petty revenge attempt by Lorre et al.

The opening funeral was a little over the top it has to be said. Yes, funerals on comedies are always shaky ground, but it really was done in such a slapstick way that it felt completely ridiculous and out of context with the remainder of the show.

Of course ‘Men’ is renowned for it’s quite broad, childish humour, but after eight seasons fans must’ve detected that beneath all the sarcasm, one-liners and name-calling that the Harper family did really love each other. Tender moments on the show were rare but they did exist, and by writing Charlie out in such an undignified way with his family really not seeming that broken up about it, it soiled all those previous moments of heart.
They did redeem themselves somewhat later on as Alan spoke to Charlie’s ashes and offered a more heartfelt goodbye to his brother, but the funeral scene did feel a little unnecessary, especially as Rose practically admitted to murdering Charlie and no one seemed too concerned.

The Charlie-bashing was mainly kept to that extended pre-credits funeral scene though, and although Ashton Kutcher’s character didn’t appear until just before the ad break, the reaction I’d seen to the episode and its Sheen-dissing does now seem slightly over the top.

The episode has reportedly done record numbers, with people obviously tuning in for one of two reasons, a – to see how they wrote Charlie out or b – to see how they wrote Kutcher in.

I have to be honest though, I can’t see many casual viewers sticking around beyond this opening episode now all the intrigue is gone, there was nothing to really make you want to tune in again next week, even with the episode ending with a ‘To Be Continued…’ caption.

There was no explanation for how Alan and Walden come to be a big part of each other’s lives here so presumably after the revelation that Walden was going to buy the house at the end of the episode, those answers will come in part two.

Kutcher was fine in his role as the recently dumped billionaire and we all know that he’s a fine comic actor but there was just so little to really latch on to with his character here, all we found out was that he’s “hung like an elephant”.

By the end of the episode Walden had seamlessly filled the Charlie role on the show though by having a threesome whilst Alan masturbated alone downstairs.

The remaining cast members were given very little to do here as Kutcher’s introduction largely dominated proceedings. Jake was reduced to simply farting a few times, Judith and Herb made fleeting appearances and Berta & Evelyn were just their usual selfish selves on a smaller scale as well.

If the Two and a Half Men crew are going to prove that this has always been a bigger show than Charlie Sheen then they really are going to need to pull out all the stops from this point forward, otherwise I have visions of this being not only Ashton Kutcher’s first season, but also his, and the show’s, last.

A Hail of Bullets:

- The parade of angry ex-girlfriends at the funeral was odd to me. Yes it seemed natural that there’d be some scorned women at Charlie’s funeral, but the ones who got to speak (the recognisable stars) mostly had decent relationships with Charlie if my memory serves me correctly and I don’t remember the likes of Mia and Chelsea ending up hating him enough to want to “spit” on the body.

It was in this sense that I thought the funeral was a bit cheap, but it was still and impressive line-up of some very sexy women: Jenny McCarthy, Jeri Ryan, Tricia Helfer… I know he was dead but Charlie must have been smiling at that line-up, I know I was.

- I enjoyed the John Stamos cameo – this is obviously where the rumours that Stamos was Sheen’s replacement originated from, or a play on them – but it wasn’t quite clear whether he was playing himself or just an acquaintance of Charlie’s.

Either way he got one hell of a reaction from the studio audience when he rocked up at the door and any John Stamos appearance is good with me.

- I also got a real kick out of the appearance of Jenna Elfman & Thomas Gibson in their old Dharma & Greg guises. I always loathed Dharma & Greg and found their relationship to be one so inaccurate it actually physically irritated me, so to see them now bickering and on the brink of divorce after years of opposites attracting but not really working together in a long term relationship was really satisfying.

How the straight-laced Greg put up with all Dharma’s new-agey, hippy bullshit always baffled me, so although this appearance obviously destroyed any lasting memories fans of the original show may have had, it at least felt more real than anything that actually went down in that show when it was on the air.

I won’t even open the can of worms that is Jenna Elfman having previously played a character on Two and a Half Men because let’s be honest, when has that sort of continuity issue ever bothered this show?

- Good to see Joel (Freddy Rumsen) Murray make another appearance as well as the courier that delivered Charlie’s ashes. I make that three appearances by Murray on ‘Men’ now but it’s never been established whether he’s playing the same character or a variety of different ones. Given how similar his demeanour is each time, I’ll go with the former, in which is case it’s kind of cool that he recurs in such a small role each time.

- I’ve just realised I didn’t stay with the credits long enough for the now traditional Chuck Lorre Productions title card at the end of the episode, boy I bet that was an interesting read…

Billy Connolly's Route 66

2011-09-20T18:06:00.000+01:00

You can’t really call this a review because how do you go about reviewing; at least in the style that I tackle shows normally, a travel show?

All I wanted to do was briefly just talk about this lovely little show and extol its virtues.

Billy Connolly’s Route 66 crept into the schedules with little to no fanfare from ITV; I’m guessing it was publicised on the channel itself but being someone who doesn’t watch any of ITV’s channels its imminent arrival passed me by.

You’d have thought that ITV might have pushed the boat out a little for a show that I think has quite broad appeal and attempted a bit of external promotion for the Billy’s road trip, but given that I was first alerted to the show by spotting it as I trawled through my Sky planner ten minutes after it started I’m guessing they thought better of it.

Route 66 is for all intents and purposes a loose sequel to 2009’s Billy Connolly: Journey to the Edge of the World, in which Connolly travelled around the frozen north of North America.

Edge of the World was a show I enjoyed but sometimes lost a little bit of interest in as Connolly’s explorations took him to places that were often more miss than hit.

Route 66 on the other hand, I had high hopes for, as it has been a long-standing dream of mine to travel along America’s historic highway; I have actually briefly visited a stretch of the highway already so I was hoping for more of an affinity with the show this time around.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed, and as Connolly began his journey in Chicago and explored some of the city’s great locations within five minutes I knew that this show was going to real add fuel to the Route 66 flames burning within me.

Chicago is a city I really want to visit and Connolly did a great job of selling it, heading up to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) America’s tallest building, visiting a speak easy and taking in some of Chi-town’s breathtaking architecture.

He was soon out on the road though on his awesome three-wheeler and visited a myriad of interesting and quaint towns throughout Illinois presenting a real slice of Americana rarely seen on television these days.

His visit to Abraham Lincoln’s home was a particular joy as Connolly visualised the man widely considered as America’s greatest President using the out-house wearing his trademark tall top hat.

Connolly as always was infectious in his enthusiasm for almost everything he came across, having lived in the US for a number of years you could tell he really knew his stuff and loved to talk about it.

I really found him a fascinating tour guide and genuinely feel he could carve a great niche for himself doing this sort of thing more permanently a la Michael Palin. His anecdotes, both personal and about others were a mixture of humorous and poignant and always captivating.

Of course Connolly isn’t the star of the show though, Route 66 is, and the stops along the way that Connolly made really sold the dream of travelling along America’s most well-known road.

I really can’t say enough good things about the show, I’m not usually one for travel shows but I love America and its history and culture and I really enjoy listening to Billy Connolly doing anything, so for me this is a match made in heaven.

Plus the show has an incredible soundtrack, with an eclectic mix of both new and old rock n’ roll, the music is that great it almost makes the shameless cash in of advertising a CD compilation of the show’s music within the first ad break acceptable. Almost.

This week’s instalment (as I’m quite late with this review of episode one) will see Connolly heading down into Missouri, which should be a great adventure as everyone’s favourite Scot discovers what the Show Me State has to offer.

I strongly urge, as Connolly suggests at the start of the show, that you “come with [him]” too.

Billy Connolly’s Route 66 continues Thursday @ 9pm on ITV1

Emmys Odds

2011-09-15T16:51:00.000+01:00

It’ll come as no surprise to regular readers that I enjoy the occasional bet… ting binge.

So with the 2011 Emmy Awards taking place this Sunday and many bookmakers offering a book on certain categories it seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine my two passions in life: losing money and making inaccurate predictions…

The Emmys are usually a source of irritation for me as shows that I love are criminally overlooked in favour of boring and predictable winners, so if you can turn the TV Academy’s predisposition for sticking to the status quo year after year in to a money-making opportunity then that certainly cushions the blow of their stupidity a little.

Specials markets like this are always a great way of getting one over on the bookies as the odds-compilers who will have formed the market may not be experts on the field they are assessing, in this case: US television and the fuddy-duddy ways of the TV Academy.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the six big categories at the Emmys and see if my TV and gambling knowledge can mesh together and steer you in the direction of profitability…

Best Actor – Drama

John Hamm - 4/11
Steve Buscemi – 12/5
Michael C. Hall – 14/1
Kyle Chandler – 14/1
Timothy Olyphant – 16/1
Hugh Laurie – 20/1

With no Bryan Cranston this year this should be easy pickings for Hamm and to me 4/11 is a decent price for what is as close to a sure thing as you can get at one of these awards shows.

The TV academy’s love for Mad Men is well-documented and although I expect Boardwalk Empire to do well at the Emmys in general I don’t think Steve Buscemi will be taking this award home going up against a very Don Draper-heavy year of Mad Men.

The rest of the category, with the exception of Timothy Olyphant from the brilliant Justified, are the nominated every year brigade and are just making up the numbers. As much as I would love it if Olyphant won I don’t think there’s much chance and his odds certainly seem to reflect that.

Best Actress – Drama

Julianna Marguiles 4/5
Elisabeth Moss 6/4
Kathy Bates 10/1
Mireille Enos 12/1
Connie Britton 16/1
Mariska Hargitay 25/1

Much like the male equivalent of this category it is basically a two-horse race and this time rather than going for the odds on favourite, I’m going to stick my neck out and plump for the second favourite.

This could be a case of heart over head due to my lack on interest in The Good Wife but with ‘The Suitcase’ as her inevitable submission episode Elisabeth Moss will never have a better chance of victory. ‘The Suitcase’ was a magnificent episode of television and gave Moss the perfect forum to showcase her talent.

There isn’t the same ‘usual suspects’ feel to the actress category as with the men, except for perpetual nominee Hargitay, but I genuinely can’t see beyond the first two here.

Best Actor - Comedy

Steve Carell 1/5
Jim Parsons 4/1
Alec Baldwin 10/1
Matt LeBlanc 33/1
Johnny Galecki 33/1
Louis CK 33/1

As much as I’d love to see Louis CK win here for the brilliant Louie, this is undoubtedly going to be going home with Steve Carell and more out of a sense of long term reward than anything else, as he has of course now left The Office. If Carell had been continuing he wouldn’t be such a red hot favourite, but he is and thus is so ridiculously short it’s not even worth betting here.

Could anyone upset him? Jim Parsons won last year and the Academy seems to have some serious Big Bang love of late so he’s the most likely; Galecki is my preferred actor on that show though and if they decide to spread the geek love around he could be an interesting outsider. Though he should, CK won’t win, Matt LeBlanc’s nomination is a joke and Alec Baldwin will be nominated every year until Jack Donaghy or 30 Rock are no more, irrespective of the year they’ve had, and this year? Not a vintage year for Donaghy.

Carell wins but there’s not much profit to be had by backing him.

Best Actress - Comedy

Laura Linney 4/6
Amy Poehler 7/4
Tina Fey 7/1
Edie Falco 14/1
Martha Plimpton 25/1
Melissa McCarthy 33/1

This category is much more interesting than the male equivalent; though still has an odds on favourite in Laura Linney from the not-even-a-comedy The Big C. A non-comedy won last year though as Edie Falco won for Nurse Jackie and although I disagree with the notion of dramedies being classed as comedies, if the market is any indication Linney will win.

It’s a surprise to see Falco at such big odds and she can’t be ruled out at a big price; Melissa McCarthy is also a very big price. Mike & Molly might be gash of the highest order but McCarthy is currently dining out on Bridesmaids good faith and could be one to spring a surprise at a huge price as the Academy really have a thing for Chuck Lorre’s shows (see The Big Bang Theory & Two and a Half Men).

Tina Fey will, like Baldwin, continue to be nominated every year irrespective of 30 Rock’s quality and as much as I would love the brilliant Amy Poehler to win for Parks and Recreation I don’t think that shows humour will have the universal appeal needed to win voters over.

Linney will more than likely win but in an unpredictable category it could be worth chancing last year’s winner Falco, still getting a great deal of Sopranos good faith, at a bigger price; or if you’re really feeling especially lucky, Melissa McCarthy at a huge price.

Best Drama

Mad Men 8/15
Boardwalk Empire 11/4
The Good Wife 9/2
Game of Thrones 14/1
Friday Night Lights 14/1
Dexter 33/1

This is a category I can legitimately see Boardwalk Empire upsetting Mad Men in.

If I was having a bet I’d still go for Mad Men, and I do think 8/15 is value but it may be worth seeing how the night progresses before smashing in to the 8/15 with a big bet. If Boardwalk Empire has been cleaning up, as I expect it to, in some of the lesser categories then 11/4 could be a great price to upset the favourite here, but if Boardwalk doesn’t do as well as expected in other categories the award that should’ve been renamed the Mad Men award already will be staying with AMC.

It’d be a real travesty if The Good Wife won and although I wouldn’t begrudge any of the others winning I can’t see anything other than the first two in the betting.

I’m a Mad Men man and hope they do it but I’m not as confident here as I am about Hamm winning in the actor category.

Best Comedy

Modern Family 1/6
30 Rock 7/1
The Office 10/1
Glee 12/1
The Big Bang Theory 16/1
Parks and Recreation 25/1

It’s boring but there’s only one show winning here and it’s the favourite. 1/6 is no price but a win’s a win and Modern Family will win this without a doubt.

Another show adored by voters with a price to reflect as much, there’s not even anything I can offer up to upset Modern Family this year.

If you want to throw your money away you could maybe latch on to the fact that Carell’s last year on The Office could sway some voters or that Parks and Rec may finally get the recognition it deserves, but this is the Academy and they know what they like and they like what they know – as proved by Glee still retaining a nomination after a frankly abysmal second season.

30 Rock as second favourite after a poor year by their high standards shows you the lack of competition to Modern Family.

Entourage 8.8 'The End'

2011-09-13T16:22:00.000+01:00

Entourage came to an end after eight seasons with the appropriately-titled series finale 'The End' on Sunday or Monday night, depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you reside.

As always, I've reviewed the episode for What Culture! although with the show having now concluded this will obviously be my last review for them, at least covering Entourage anyway.

You can read my thoughts on the finale by following the link below, however I must warn you that if you're still mourning the show and only thinking of it in a positive light then I'd give it a bit of time before you read my review...

Entourage 8.8 'The End' - Series Finale

Sons of Anarchy 3.8 ‘Lochan Mor’

2011-09-08T15:58:00.000+01:00

“Just another vacation…” – Bobby

I’ve missed a good few weeks of Sons of Anarchy reviews now due to time constraints etc. but due to the slow-burn nature of this season there hasn’t been so many major developments that I can’t pick up where we left off.

Abel is still missing, but SAMCRO are now closer to finding him as they have crossed the Atlantic in one of Oswald’s cargo jets and landed in Belfast; and that’s pretty much all you need to know really in terms of major plot developments since I was last with you.

SAMCRO’s first experience of Ireland is a showdown with some dirty cops on Jimmy’s payroll, which quickly degenerates in to violence when Chibs takes it upon himself to call one a “dirty, loyalist bastard” and spits in his face.

It was quite enjoyable, if unbelievable, to see it all kick off between the Sons and the Irish police but would the MC have really risked getting locked up so soon after landing in Ireland by getting in to a brawl with some cops?

The whole showdown never had the feeling of true jeopardy for me, mainly because it was pre-credits and obviously nothing bad was going to happen that early in the episode, but also just how it all played out. There was no tease that there was a doubt about the cops’ motives, it was made blatantly obvious straight away that they were dodgy.

The Irish action for the most part was a bit uneventful though really, the revelation that we all know but has yet to be spoken (Jax & Trinity’s blood relationship) was further explored and went all Back To The Future incestuous and creepy as the young Irish girl seems to have an infatuation with her American half brother.

I’m pretty sure Gemma could see what was developing there so my question is just how long she’ll let things simmer before she actually is forced to tell Jax the truth? Sons has gone to some pretty dark and disturbing places previously but surely an incestuous relationship isn’t about to be on the cards.

There were some nice moments for Tommy Flanagan to showcase a bit of his actual acting talent as well in this episode, rather than just being a peripheral figure, as Chibs was reunited with his estranged wife and daughter.

The main development in Ireland came at the end of the extended running time however, as Jax finally got a sit down with Father Ashby who revealed he knew where Abel was and that he’d be returned to Jax once it was ‘safe’.

By ‘safe’ Ashby meant once Jimmy was out of the picture and suggested to Jax that were Jax to kill Jimmy that Abel would be returned to him. Ashby’s machinations have made the whole Abel saga a lot more palatable for me as it now feels like this poor baby has just been a pawn in a long-running game of chess within the IRA. Ludicrous, yes but at least the length of time it’s taking to get Abel back now seems legitimate rather than just a tactic to spread this one event out over the whole season unnecessarily.

Ashby can’t have Jimmy killed because the political ramifications would be too explosive, for want of a better word, but if an external element – Jax – were to bump off Jimmy, then Ashby would achieve his goal without having to deal with the aftermath.

Although I am a little confused as to why Ashby would give Abel up for adoption if this was his plan all along. Surely if Jax does in fact kill Jimmy as per the deal, then once he realises his child has been given to some nice Irish family, as we saw in that climatic scene, there’s going to be hell to pay for the priest.

Back in Charming SAMCRO’s troubles weren’t quite as visceral but there were still a veritable smorgasbord of issues that will no doubt have long term repercussions for the club.

Jax and Opie’s respective old ladies Tara and Lyla bonded over an unwanted baby, unbeknownst to poor Lyla was the fact that Tara was also with child and whilst not as steadfastly sure on whether she would keep the baby or not as Lyla was, events seemed to be conspiring to convince Tara that maybe it wasn’t the right time to bring a baby in to this world.

Elsewhere back on US soil, SAMCRO’s problems came in the form of long-running season enemies Salazar, the ousted former President of the Calaveras MC and the late David Hale’s corrupt politician brother Jacob.

Hale, who for reasons as yet unclear but certainly smelling property-based, needs old man Lumpy to agree to sell his long-running gym so offered the supposedly now reformed Darby another pay-day, following his intel on Jax and Tara moving the illegal scripts last time out, to intimidate Lumpy in to selling up.

When the stubborn Lumpy refuses to be intimidated Darby seemingly realises he’s on a hiding to nothing and literally throws Hale’s cash back in his face. I liked how Darby, a character I’ve always quite liked in spite of his disgusting world views, had a change of heart and refused to help Hale, although why he did that wasn’t that apparent, maybe we’ll get some sort of inclination down the line.

So when Darby refused to do his dirty work, Hale turned to another person who he thought he could manipulate in to doing his bidding on the promise of cash and sticking it to SAMCRO: Salazar.

Hale had spotted Salazar whilst at the Charming PD station chatting to Unser after the ousted President with a vendetta against the club, and Jax in particular, was arrested for trying to get the body of his former club brother released from the hospital after Tig and Kozik bumped him off.

I have to admit that this did seem a very tenuous way to keep Salazar as a thorn in SAMCRO’s side, it had seemed like he was going to target Tara previously as a means of getting back at Jax for disrespecting him, which while predictable would have been a logical way to keep him involved in proceedings as the villain of the piece. Helping Hale though just seemed a contrivance too far.

Is Hale oblivious to his own hypocrisy though? He’s supposedly out on this crusade to rid Charming of the outlaw element of SAMCRO yet he’s out there advocating a former biker gang member using violence to intimidate a senior citizen just trying to make a living. I hope some serious comeuppance is on the cards for the elder Hale brother after the smarmy way he’s operated thus far this season.

I can’t help but also wonder what would have happened in Charming had Tig not had to lead the cops on a wild goose chase to get Gemma over to Ireland, because without him it would have just been Kozik and the prospects left in the US, although Piney is kicking around somewhere but was absent from this episode’s proceedings.

Either way it was a smart move to leave Tig & Kozik behind as we finally got the tease of a revelation as to the origins of their beef and as Chucky astutely observed there was “at least one vagina involved”. I’d like to see Kozik patched in eventually as I really like Kenny Johnson, so hopefully getting to spend some quality time with Tig will help heal the wounds and we may soon get to see him as a fully fledged SAMCRO member.

A mutual respect and bond could end up developing a lot quicker than they could ever have imagined though if they continue losing prospects the way they did in this episode, as the prospect played by Leo Fitzpatrick whose name escapes me seemingly quit.

He’s actually lucky that’s as bad as it got for him because I was convinced he was going to end up dead, but in the end thanks to his cowardess he escaped harm free and left his kutte and his gun outside Teller-Morrow and scarpered leaving only two prospects remaining.

It’s a good six years plus now since The Wire ended and it’s amazing to me that Fitzpatrick actually managed to look younger, twitchier and more cowardly here than he did as Johnny on The Wire all those years back.

What will happen on the Charming front now with depleted ranks remains to be seen, but at least the club is only battling one lone antagonist. The fact that someone on their own was bold enough to do what Salazar did speaks volumes of just how stretched the club is right now fighting wars on so many fronts and how that fact isn’t lost on certain onlookers.

A Hail of Bullets:

- I recognise some of the SAMBEL members from TV appearances over the years and if my memory serves me correctly none of them are Irish!

The frizzy-haired guy who appeared to be third in command from his position round the table was the cop who helped Kim Bauer out of jail, before being killed, towards the end of season one of 24, and I’m sure the driver of the jeep at the start of the episode with the heinous cockney accent played a demon on the brilliant Good Vs. Evil back in the day.

- If there was ever any doubt that the Irish scenes weren’t actually filmed in Ireland though then that was pretty much confirmed here. It was pretty clear from the way the episode was shot that the actors never went to Ireland but the photographers did, as all the shots of the bikes on Irish roads were from a distance.

The actual sets and locations where the action has taken place in ‘Ireland’ are also so devoid of descriptive Irish imagery that they could have been filmed anywhere.

I’m not trying to pass judgement on this decision, it’s obviously born out of budget requirements and I don’t think there’s ever been suggestion from Kurt Sutter or anyone associated with the show that they actually went to Ireland. It’s just that as a fan of the show it would have been so great to actually see them on UK soil in locations I might’ve recognised and to possibly even get to see some of the great British actors we have perhaps given a role.

- Jax and Liam’s bare-knuckle boxing match was certain foreshadowing for the inevitable showdown to come when Liam is rumbled for being in bed with Jimmy.

That definitely looked like one hell of a party as well, I just can’t believe there were kids running round in the middle of all the sex, drinking and fighting!

- The scene after the party with the club playing poker was really nice and as Gemma remarked it was nice to see Clay smiling and relaxing. He’s so often the grumpy old man of the group it was great seeing Ron Perlman get to be a bit more light-hearted.

I loved Gemma’s little talk with Bobby as well, the bond between Gemma and all the club members, not just Clay and Jax, is something I particularly adore about the whole club way of life. I really hope we one day get to see Tara as bonded to some of the other guys, if not the way of life.

- I gave Salazar heavy focus above but just had to point out that the guy has the worst beard I’ve ever seen… and I look in the mirror every day!

- One final note not related to this episode in the slightest really but one that follows up on my last post about Sons of Anarchy: show-runner Kurt Sutter is now back on twitter! His hiatus may have only been for three and a half weeks but he’s still an opinionated voice that has been sorely missed in the world of twitter and it’s great to have him back.

Sons of Anarchy Season 3 continues in the UK Wednesday @ 10pm on FIVE USA

Entourage 8.7 'Second To Last'

2011-09-06T16:56:00.000+01:00

We've had the penultimate episode of Entourage this week, and therefore my penultimate review of the show for What Culture!

'Second To Last' built on last week's improvement over previous weeks and set up a number of characters with their inevitable happy endings but it also left just enough unanswered questions to make tuning in to next week's finale a must and not just for nostalgic reasons.

I've made no secret that this final season of Entourage has disappointed me in many ways but it's still sad to see this long-running show coming to an end and if the improvement the last couple of episodes have had continues in to next week then we shoud at least get a finale worthy of a show that's kept millions entertained for eight years now.

You can read my review of 'Second To Last' by following the link below...

Entourage 8.7 'Second To Last'

Glee Season 3 Promos & Cast Photos

2011-09-05T19:37:00.000+01:00

It’s nearly time for the return of the phenomenon that is Glee.

The show returns for season three in the US on Tuesday 20th September and if Sky’s heavy promotion of the show lately is anything to go by, we’ll be getting it just after that here in the UK.

With the season three premiere so close now the promotion of the show on both sides of the Atlantic has gone in to overdrive. Class photos, like the Brittany one above (incidentally the best one), playing to each character’s main character trait have just gone up all over the web, and there are two brief promos also doing the rounds (which you'll find embedded after the jump)

The first is a bit of a generic one that doesn’t really reveal too much about the new season; however the second and most recent actually features quite a bit of show footage that the gleeks have already been dissecting on forums across the internet.

I personally am not too interested in Quinn’s pink hair or the fact that we are going to be subjected to more Will & Emma bullshit this year, all I needed to know from these teases is that Brittany still has all the best one liners: check and that they haven’t written Puck out of the show again for some bullshit reason: check, or at least that would appear to be a check as you never quite know with Glee.

With dire, shameless money-making attempt talent show The Glee Project about to end on Sky1 I wouldn’t mind betting that we’ll get an ad for the UK premiere at some point during the final of that show. I already know the outcome of The Glee Project but I won’t spoil it for you completely, let’s just say it fits perfectly with Glee’s everyone’s a winner philosophy…

After the mess that was season two, hopefully season three will see a return to form for Glee. The show is so incredibly popular and successful now that they could have an episode dedicated to the music of William Shatner and his cover of Common People would still hit the iTunes top ten, and season two did feel a bit like they were fitting storylines and acting around songs.

Let’s not forget that season one of the show, at least its first half, was a pretty well-rounded show; the cast ballooning up to True Blood-esque ensemble size though and the need to have a new CD to sell after every couple of episodes have been the reasons that the show has really dipped in quality, save for a few standout characters/performances.

With season three supposedly having a feeling of finality to it for certain characters though I’m very hopeful of a greater focus on story this year, which no doubt means I’m setting myself up for disappointment.

That said, you know I’ll be watching, and no doubt ranting on here, so to get you in the mood for the new season you can view both promo clips for Glee season three below:

You can also check out the remaining class photos over at Cinema Blend I know I’m directing you away from the site but I really don’t have time, or care enough, to post all eighteen of them here individually.

The Walking Dead Season 2 News

2011-09-02T19:18:00.001+01:00

I’ve resisted the urge to discuss The Walking Dead this summer, even though the goings on behind the scenes of the zombie apocalypse show, and for that matter at its network AMC in general, have been fascinating to watch unfold.

But now rather than the negative press that came from show-runner Frank Darabont leaving, only to be replaced by Glen Mazzara, we now have some good news to focus on.

Season 2 of The Walking Dead will get an extended premiere of ninety minutes, akin to the epic opening episode of the series last year. The show returns in the US on 16th October @ 9pm on AMC.

Season 2 is also going to be split as, unlike last season; we will have a more standard thirteen episode run this year. AMC will air six one hour episodes each week before putting the show on hiatus; it'll then return on 12th February 2012 in its regular 9pm timeslot to round out its sophomore year, so expect some fireworks for that mid-season finale in December!

The 90-minute premiere is also going to launch globally on all Fox International Channels during the week following its Stateside premiere.

Season 2 is reportedly going to be seen in 122 countries and translated into 35 different languages.

No official word yet from FX UK on when it will air in the UK, they only go as far as to say ‘October’; one would guess though that it will be at some point during the aforementioned week.

Four new teaser clips have also been released for season two recently, and although they vary in quality they offer a tantalising glimpse of what is in store in the coming season, you can find all four after the jump…

Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Extended Trailer

2011-08-31T20:50:00.000+01:00

Ahead of next week’s premiere on 6th September an extended promo spot for Sons of Anarchy’s imminent fourth season has been released.

The minute long clip gives us a tantalising glimpse of what is in store this year: Guns! Drugs! Danny Trejo! Rockmond Dunbar with an axe! And the apparent return of some serious Jax-Clay tension…

Season 4 begins in the US on FX next Tuesday @ 10pm with a 90 minute premiere event.

And just whilst we’re talking Sons of Anarchy, I implore anyone on twitter to get on there and follow Sons mastermind Kurt Sutter - @sutterink.

The great man may be on a self-enforced hiatus from tweeting at the moment but he’s promised to return when he reaches 66,666 followers and at the time of writing he’s at 51,199.

So any extra followers we can get him will obviously see him back to tweeting in a shorter space of time, and that is something that I know anyone who’s read any of his tweets will know can only be a very, very good thing, unless you work for the Television Academy of course.

You can view the new season four promo discussed above below…