Category: Season Reviews

iZombie: Seasons 1-3

On By sulkyblueIn 14-15 Season, Horror, Science Fiction, Season Reviews, TV, TV 16-17 SeasonLeave a comment

This had been on my list of things to watch for a while, but it didn’t have a UK distributor. I’m not sure when it appeared on Netflix but I only recently noticed it. On the plus side that meant I could pretty much binge watch straight through seasons 1, 2 and 3 over the course of a fairly short period of time.

The premise is fairly so-so. A doctor is turned into a zombie, but provided she gets a regular supply of brains to eat she’s pretty much normal. So she starts working in the morgue and dodging questions from her family and ex-fiance and just whines about here un-life a bit. Then it turns out that she gets visions from the brains she’s eaten, and if it’s a murder victim, that turns out to be very useful. She teams up with a cop who thinks she’s psychic, finds a purpose and we’re off and running with a fairly episodic “brain of the week” structure.

The first season or so plays to that pattern. The brains tend to have some over-the-top gimmick to them that is occasionally laugh out loud hilarious, and occasionally cringingly painful. That structure gets a bit trying when you’re binge watching, so it’s a good job that the background plots gather traction – seeking a cure and dealing with the various zombie groups that start to appear. There’s also a fair amount of relationship wrangling going on, which is again a bit tedious at times, but the characters are all likeable and self-aware enough that I didn’t get too bored of various makeup/breakup cycles.

Season 3 is where things really start to move pretty fast on the plot front. Throughout the season there’s a real sense of escalation building towards a satisfying game changer in the final episode that sets up for a very different 4th season. Some of the partnerships go through a couple more cycles that get a bit a tedious, but the development of the friendships are more nuanced and satisfying. Importantly for me, the humour is not lost with the increased stakes of the drama and there are plenty of hilarious set ups throughout the season that make this a show that I’m sure I will be happy to watch over again.

The reason that I’d wanted to watch iZombie (despite it’s frankly pretty awful name) was that it’s from the creator of Veronica Mars – one of my all time favourite shows. They share the same achingly smart dialogue, and take-no-crap characters but the sci-fi storyline of iZombie opens up even more opportunity for quirky situations and playing with genres and styles. The zombie cast wholeheartedly throw themselves into the different personalities, while the rest of the cast do a solid job as supporting straight men and women that the others can dance around. I don’t think iZombie will overtake Veronica Mars in my affections, but it’s certainly making a really good challenge.

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Modus

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Drama, Season Reviews, Subtitled, TVLeave a comment

modusI seem to have a rule that I have to watch any drama that comes along with subtitles. It’s a mixture of pure pretentiousness on my part combined with at least a small amount of logic that if it’s a show that’s good enough to get picked up outside it’s country of origin, it can’t be that bad. Modus is one of the exceptions. It really was quite mediocre.

I don’t really know where to start on explaining its mediocrity, it was pretty much consistent throughout. The plots were contrived, the characters stereotyped and the scandi-ness overdone. A few times I wondered if it was actually attempting to be a parody. Everything just felt like they’d pulled dozens of ideas off a shelf and clumsily bodged them together. Too many ideas, too little imagination. The lead actress managed to bring some life to her character, but everyone around her either couldn’t, or wouldn’t do anything with their characters at all. Not that I necessarily blame them when the script gives them nothing but dumb cliches to work with.

It took me a few episodes to realise that it wasn’t very good, and by the time I did, thanks to the fact that the episodes were broadcast in pairs and it was only 8 episodes long, I figured I may as well just keep going to the end. Even at just 8 episodes it was horribly drawn out, adding boring and repetitive loops to stretch a couple more episodes. Then to add insult to injury, by the time the crimes were untangled and the criminals unveiled I was muttering and even shouting “oh come on!” at the television screen for its dubious presentation of… well… just about everyone actually, but particularly gay people. It wasn’t really good enough to feel outraged about it, but it was quite frustrating.

American Horror Story: Roanoke (Season 6)

On By sulkyblueIn Horror, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

American Horror StoryI’m currently tracking 4 for 6 on American Horror Story. I liked seasons 1 (Murder House), 3 (Coven) and 4 (Freak Show), gave up on 2 (Asylum) after a couple of episodes and didn’t even make it 20 minutes into 5 (Hotel) before deciding I didn’t like it. The great thing though is that it doesn’t matter at all. While there are very minor crossovers (practically easter eggs), each season is entirely independent and enjoyable (or not) in isolation.

Roanoke has a very interesting structure that cleverly solves one of the biggest problems the series sometimes has – how do you maintain the tension and pace if you need to stretch the story out over 10 episodes? In effect Roanoke has 3 sections, the first of which was easily the best and most original, which I guess is best as if it had started with the second style then I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it.

The first 5 episodes are presented as a television show – direct to camera interviews with ‘real’ people describing events, and a dramatic reconstruction using actors. I can’t think of something that’s really taken that approach before. It was easy to get lost in the reconstruction, but having the interview sections added even more depth to the events. I thought that knowing which people definitely survived (and who didn’t by implication of who was absent from the interviews) might undermine the drama, but it really didn’t. The gradual build up of the story of Roanoke and the horrific events were nicely delivered and both scary *and* creepy.

The next 4 episodes were a nice idea, but just didn’t work quite so well. The utterly over-the-top producer of the TV series manipulates everyone (real people and their corresponding actors) to return to the house, which is kitted out with cameras. He’s set everyone up for confrontation and faked scares, but of course it doesn’t go entirely to plan. The set up just didn’t feel realistic (why would these people go back there?!) and because it committed to doing everything as found footage you had the ridiculousness of people picking up cameras while running for their lives. The actors ironically lacked the depth that they’d brought to their characters, each coming across as painful stereotypes, hamming it up and lacking any form of subtlety. It was far less creepy and relied too much on gore and jump scares.

The final episode sees yet another set of film makers arriving at the house to “uncover the truth”. It did tie one element of the story up nicely, but it mostly felt like a tacked on epilogue. The mostly new characters had no time to form any kind of personality and were blatantly going to just be fodder, so it was a lot of quite tedious jumpy camera to just get to the juicy bits of the story.

I remain impressed that American Horror Story manages to do something different each season. Taking fairly standard horror tropes and adding enough originality to make it fresh, while also referential. Not all of the choices this season worked for me, but they ere ambitious and well committed to. The ensemble cast moves between roles wonderfully, particularly those that this time played both the actor, and the actor playing a character, a character who was a dramatised version of other onscreen characters – a mind-twisting set up that seemed entirely natural until you think about it too much. As always, I look forward to what comes next.

The Expanse: Season 1

On By sulkyblueIn Science Fiction, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

exp-titlecard1-thumb-400x211-204818Being a science fiction fan is what made me a television fan. It was great science fiction series that turned me into someone who compulsively watches series from start to finish and then starting over again, obsessing over details and characters. I do feel that when science fiction is at its best it is in an entirely different league to even the best of “non-genre”, because it’s not only telling compelling stories about interesting characters, but it’s creating whole new universes for you to lose yourself in. When I think about the great science fiction series like Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Babylon 5, Firefly, Doctor Who, and the whole Star Trek canon (although admittedly not all Star Treks are created equal) I immediately want to throw myself back into the series at the beginning and immerse myself all over again.

The Expanse is sadly not going to be added to that list.

In conception it’s got a lot to admire and that would qualify it for consideration amongst the greats. It is certainly epic, with multiple locations across the solar system. It is immediately gratifying to see space ships, space stations and… welll just space in general on a television show. The stories span the big to the little, interplanetary politics forcing local events and changing people’s lives regardless of whether they want to get involved or not.

But while the local stories were interesting, I thought it was a mistake to try and directly tell the political story by spending time with the politicians. The strength of series like Babylon 5 and Star Trek were that we were focussed on the ‘little guy’, the people who had minimal influence and just had to deal with the situations they found themselves in, while politics happened elsewhere. You knew about the bigger stuff because of the ripples it had, not because you had it explained to you directly from the politicians mouths. I found it hard to connect the stories and events up in my head, Earth and the characters there felt a long way from the events on the stations and ships and hence every time we went to Earth, I felt it slowed everything down and felt as if we were being pushed out to a bigger picture.

I would have been able to get over that though, it would have been a minor niggle, but the bigger problem is that The Expanse just isn’t very good. The script, the direction, the cast, the effects… they all felt rather second tier. Everything feels like it’s forced and hard work, nothing really flows or feels natural. Whenever effects are involved it looks more like a computer game than the level of quality that we’ve come to expect from HD television these days. Accents and styles felt like they’d been designed to be different for no reason other than to make sure we didn’t forget we were watching science fiction.

Worst of all, and hardest to say is that I think the cast is a little disappointing, the majority of the main cast are relative newcomers and the lack of experience really showed. The series really needed a couple of heavy hitters in there to just anchor it. This was particularly evident when about half way through the series Jared Harris (The Crown, Mad Men) turned up and immediately elevated each scene he was in despite a ridiculous accent (ditto for The Walking Dead’s Chad Coleman). The script they were all working with wasn’t exactly giving them much help, but I think more experienced actors would have been able to elevate it to something greater, or at least made me want to watch them while they delivered the dribble.

I did make it all the way through the 10 episode season, and I’m not sure why I stuck with it really. I think it was probably the ideas behind it that I wanted to see through despite the poor execution, the glimmers of interesting characters and groups. My desperation for some proper sci-fi overcoming my disappointment at the quality. But I rather wish that I’d just gone and dusted off the Babylon 5 dvds instead.

Orphan Black: Season 4

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Families, Science Fiction, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

orphanblackThis was the penultimate season of Orphan Black and I need to make a mental note to re-watch the series from the beginning as it’s increasingly evident that I’ve no idea what on earth the plot is on about. Given that condition, it’s quite impressive how much I still enjoyed the season!

There is a huge amount of plot going on, conspiracies within conspiracies, groups within groups and double crossings going around in circles. I’m not absolutely certain that the audience is actually meant to follow it at all. I think it just about manages to not be repetitive or too frustratingly going down repeated dead ends, but given that I’d very little recollection of what happened in previous seasons, and rapidly lost track of what was going on in the current episodes (despite watching them all over just three days) I can’t really guarantee that the whole thing wasn’t just a giant nest of incoherence.

But where the plot does succeed is in generating scenarios for playing with the characters. Each of the clones and the surrounding characters gets a chance to shine with their strengths and struggle outside their comfort zones. Serious characters get to let lose a little, those that are more often the light relief get to show some emotional depth and those that are usually in control get their turn at being out of the loop.

There are lots of connections between the characters that continue to delight. The relationships between the sisters themselves is lovely. These women who share a complete genetic identity, yet are so different and got thrown together. They bicker away, but they truly care for each other, worrying for Cosima, taking care of Helena even when she scares them, the flashbacks showing Beth as part of the original family, even the exasperated response to Krystal. There are some equally lovely relationships in the extended family too – straight laced Alison’s unlikely friendship with Felix, Scott’s partnership with Cosima, Art’s with Sarah, Donnie’s nervous connection with Helena, the clone’s odd relationships with Kendall, and Mrs S’s contrasting relationships with each clone. But I did think a couple of balls were dropped. There was an interesting set up for conflict between Sarah and Felix, with him looking for something for himself, but that challenge just sort of fizzled out.

I’ve said before that I watch television for the characters not so much for the plots and Orphan Black is basically the key proof of that. The fact that I can’t or don’t follow the plot doesn’t really matter as I just want to see all that extended ensemble play together (while remembering of course the incredible acting achievement of half of the ensemble being played by the same actress). The plot is of course necessary as a catalyst for those characters and relationships, but I do wish a bit that it wasn’t so convoluted and could give a bit more time for more character exploration. I’m not saying that I want it to just be a soap opera style show about the average day-to-day lives of a group of people who happen to be clones, but a bit simpler might not hurt.

Orange is the New Black: Season 4

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Drama, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

Orange_Is_the_New_Black_Title_CardI reviewed the previous three seasons in a block, and so have only actually talked about the show in broad terms before, never getting into specifics of storylines or characters. That makes this season a little harder to review, separating out a block of episodes from the rest, not least by time. It’s almost exactly a year since I watched the previous two seasons almost on top of each other (I watched season 1 a little earlier but didn’t review it separately) and I struggled to get back up to speed. It’s easy enough to look up some of the key facts of the previous seasons, but really getting back into the characters is hard, particularly when there are so many of them and the focuses are constantly shifting.

I think season 4 does stand out from the rest. The writers seem to be moving away from the use of flashbacks with a different character each episode and I think that’s a shame. I like the little snapshot of someone’s previous life that you get, not answering all the questions, but giving them backstory, emotional foundations and a look at what they’ve lost and what their lives could have been. The flashbacks were much shorter or even absent altogether and the choices of characters weren’t so good and I think that really impacted the depth and flavour of the show. I also think there was a move away from really showing that these people are criminals. Yes there are some cases of mental illness, bad luck or just stupidity, but most of them are genuinely guilty and fairly imprisoned and losing track of that is a mistake I think.

I don’t know whether the corporate overlords and irritating Linda-from-Procurement were an attempt to bring some comedy to the show again, but it didn’t work. Caputo has always been a borderline believable character for me, so on the plus side the ridiculous corporate politics made him seem a little more human, but only in comparison to their cliché ridden stereotypes, which isn’t really much to be thankful for.

The real problem is that the stupid characters (and I’m afraid I frequently have to include Piper in that category) play completely at odds with the seriousness of the situations unravelling in the prison. I have a horrible feeling I’m being entirely naïve that people running prisons couldn’t be so stupid and irresponsible as to allow these situations to develop, but by making some of the characters deliberately extreme and unbelievable, it undermines the serious point if that’s what the writers were actually trying to do.

This is the problem Orange is the New Black has again, and again – the uncertainty about whether it wants to be funny or serious. The subject matter covered this season (and also in previous ones) is horrific. Dealing with brutal emotional and physical issues. The way people treat each other (prisoners, guards, family in every combination) is horrible. You cannot and should not make light of that. There can be funny moments, everyone makes jokes in difficult circumstances and laughs at the insanity of situations, that’s what keeps people sane. I’m not saying I don’t want there to be laughter and humour, but it has to come from within the characters and situations, not introduced from outside artificially.

When this show plays it straight as a drama, it is incredibly good. The final hour, even just the final 10 seconds of the season is heart-stoppingly good. The quality of the acting, the intertwining of characters and storylines and the overall pacing of the plots are superb. The moments of genuine love and happiness among the prisoners are wonderful, the failures and hopelessness are heartbreaking. The show is so good, it’s only when it tries to be something that it doesn’t need to be that it really lets itself down and that’s just frustrating.

American Gothic: Season 1

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Drama, Families, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

american-gothicThis is proper escapist television, pretty much completely rubbish, but just absorbing enough to keep you from any risk of thinking about the ironing that needs to be done, or the stupid meeting you have to go to. Sometimes I want to watch something meaningful, with plot and character arc and sense, other times I really do just want to watch barely believable tosh. American Gothic thoroughly obliges on the tosh front.

I’m going to assume that the writers were aiming for that, making a deliberate choice to embrace the mediocre, rather than trying to create something smart and missing by a country mile. The Hawthorne family and their close associates are a bunch of either morons, or manipulative assholes, or sometimes both at the same time. Pretty much no one is innocent or really terribly likeable, so there’s not really much chance of getting emotionally engaged.

The twisting and turning of the plot is actually pretty engaging. I guess some will get bored and frustrated with the endless stream of red herrings, dead ends and endless layers of motives. It’s a show that for once these days probably doesn’t work so well if you try to watch the whole thing as a box set, you become a bit resigned and disengaged as the sheer number of twists fall over themselves in a rush. But watching one or two episodes at a time fits the more soap opera style of the story. I felt like I was guessing each reveal only slightly ahead of the characters, which was enough to feel slightly smug, but not so much as to just shout at them for being so dim.

This is like Downton Abbey, or a soap opera – entertaining and diverting. It’s not quite mindless, there’s enough plot to actually keep you listening and paying attention, without really requiring you to engage your brain or get too emotionally connected. That doesn’t sound like very high praise, but it seems to be a rather tricky balance to find on TV with too many just ending up mindless and boring.

Braindead: Season 1

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

braindeadThis is easily the most unexpected show I watched this year. It’s one of those times that I wish I could just tell people “watch this” without having to explain why, as it’s just so much better an experience if you have absolutely no idea what it is going to be. I don’t think anyone would regret watching this show, it’s one of my favourite shows of the year and one of the most original things I’ve seen in ages. Go on, give it a try. But for those of you that either won’t listen to me, or have already seen it and just want to know what I think, I guess I’d better expand a bit.

The premise of Braindead is incredibly, perfectly current – why is politics suddenly so nuts? How come everyone seems to be turning into idiots and fighting? The idea that it’s some sort of brain eating alien is really actually no more stupid then some of the things our politicians are actually coming up with. So let’s run with that and do The West Wing with… I dunno, Mars Attacks? That’s probably the closest I can think of in terms of wacky, slightly gross insanity.

There are moments in this series that are just jaw droppingly unexpected. Some of that stems from the ridiculousness of the plot, the pretty disgusting shock moments or fairly horrific implications of what’s happening. But actually, there are just as many moments of “I can’t believe you just did/said that” which are really about politics in 2016. Sharp observations of current events which are beautifully summed up in cutting lines of dialogue.

Individual lines of dialogue that perfectly cut through to the heart and true insanity of modern politics, shock moments of pretty disgusting gore,

Ok, so it does occasionally get a bit bogged down. The politics angles are definitely latter series West Wing with a lack of any real depth or teeth to it. This is by the people that brought you all the seasons of The Good Wife, and there were plenty of occasions there where complexity of arguments was abandoned just to get the plot moving along in the direction they wanted. So there are also few loops of plot that just draw things out a couple of episodes longer, while some plot threads are just abandoned or side-lined until needed. Oh and the romance elements are a bit tedious and high school and the budget was clearly underwhelming.

But, I don’t care. Do you know what I’m going to use to sum up how good this show was – the “previously on” segments. Yup, you know those bits that are really tedious on a weekly basis and even more pointless when you’re powering through a box set watching episodes back to back? The “previously on”s on Braindead should win awards. They’ve managed to make the most fast forward-able part of the show the bit that I actually rewound to watch again and again. I found one that was relatively spoiler free (don’t focus too much on the opening pictures). Seriously, Jonathan Coulton is a genius and if this is how good the “previously on” is, just go and see how great the rest of the show is.

Penny Dreadful: Season 3

On By sulkyblueIn Drama, Horror, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

pennydreadfulIt turns out this was the final season of Penny Dreadful and I am not 100% certain how I feel about that.

Each season of the show has been something best approached in big chunks, and I think actually the whole series would probably be served well by just watching the complete thing in one thread. Episodically it doesn’t really work that strongly, and even though each season does have a marked start and end point, it’s really the slow burn of the entwining characters and relationships that are the meat of the show.

The third season isn’t the strongest unfortunately. It does have some excellent elements to it (Dr Sweet, Dr Seward, the revealed past relationship of two of the main characters) but the physical separation of many of the characters is frustrating. It deprives us of some of the key relationships and chemistry, which would have been tolerable if not for the fact it was the final season. Many of the plots felt like this was being setup as a middle season of an overall arc, before bringing everything together in a final concluding season.

But then it was like they ran out of time, and rather than a gradual build towards the climactic battle followed by a grand conclusion, there was a rush at the end to fling the characters and plots desperately to a collision. It felt a little like it came out of nowhere, going from dawdle to panic. Some of the stories were tied together in too neat a bow, others were just abandoned. I was left with a funny mix of feelings that I wasn’t really keen on the idea of more seasons of the ‘filler’ that we’d had, but also wasn’t ready for it all to be over.

Still, it was a wonderfully different and impressive show while it lasted, and maybe three seasons was exactly the right amount. The acting as always was superb. Eva Green is of course a stand-out, but Billie Piper impressed yet again with some of her monologues, even if the plot itself was a bit of. Roy Kinnear was heart-breaking as ever, and his character’s storyline was perhaps the most interesting of all of them.

It’s a shame this show never really got a wider audience, or the recognition its cast deserved. This level of creativity and style is just not evident in many shows on television today, hopefully it will find some more fans now that it can be viewed as a 27 episode whole.

The Americans: Season 4

On By sulkyblueIn 15-16 Season, Drama, Season Reviews, TVLeave a comment

americansI was so patient waiting for this show to build up on my sky box so I could watch it in big chunks, that I completely forgot about it and only just got round to watching it. Good job I had a nice run of free evenings because as usual, I just couldn’t stop watching.

The thing that makes it so completely compelling isn’t the twists and turns of the spying and investigations, but the elegant development of the characters. Frankly I lost track of half of the plots, which bits of information they were trying to get from who and for what purpose. Bah, whatever. That’s just the mechanics of getting characters to keep having to make choices, form connections and mostly, just deceive absolutely everyone, including themselves.

Season 1 of the series started out clearly focusing on the relationship between Elizabeth and Philip and the different way they felt about their ongoing mission. Many of the other characters just felt rather incidental to that, people to use and/or keep secrets from. By season 4 however, many of those characters have sneakily completely ingrained themselves into stories and lives and the web of deception has to go so much wider, with Elizabeth and Philip struggling to keep all the different lies straight, and keep themselves emotionally removed.

As each person becomes closer, the writers and actors keep everything original and fresh, it never feels quite what you’d expect it to be and it is never at all simple. Martha started out as just an unknowing asset, but somewhere along the line she became a key relationship with Philip, in turn impacting his relationship with Elizabeth. The way that story worked out over season 4 was absolutely heart-breaking and fascinating, so many different emotions being played out, so eloquent yet with so few words. Similarly the ongoing fallout of letting Paige into the secret keeps going. You never doubt Philip and Elizabeth love her and hate what the knowledge does, but they are still her parents and are disappointed and angry at some of Paige’s mistakes.

A few characters don’t land quite as well. I’m happy to see an end to Nina’s storyline and satisfied that it really was the only ending that made sense. Henry, the son, really doesn’t get much to do beyond studiously not being present for key discussions. Pastor Tim also remains tediously ‘limp’ through what could have been a more interesting storyline and Gabriel (the handler) is generically just used to move plots along without really contributing much. Most of the new characters just don’t feel like they’re worthy replacements for those that we’ve lost, with the exception of the hilarious Young Hee and her utterly charming relationship with Elizabeth.

It’s been announced that there will be two further seasons of the show before it finishes and that gives both a security in knowing it will be written to a conclusion, but also provides a ticking clock that raises the tension even more. It’s two years away, but I’m already nervous for how the story will end. These characters are so well developed that it feels like they’re absolutely real, every trauma, every stressful decision, every consideration of the consequences feels very real. It’s not exactly a relaxing show to watch, but that’s because it is one of the best shows about people that I’ve ever seen.