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Both Revolution and Beauty and the Beast were confirmed for renewals this week, and since Elementary was renewed a while back, all 3 new fall shows that I picked up and am still watching are renewed. This is a first for me.
Beauty and the Beast 1.18-1.19:
( spoilers )
Continuum 2.1:
( spoilers )
Defiance 1.1-1.2: NO ONE TOLD ME STEPHANIE LEONIDAS WAS IN THIS SERIES. EVERYONE IS FIRED. (And with a wig and makeup that makes her look like Jool's extra temperamental younger sister.)
Actually, playing "spot the Farscape makeup" while watching is pretty fun. It wasn't quite as much fun to wonder if I was watching a reworking of the Eureka pilot in large parts of the pilot, though. (I guess the Eureka writers had to go somewhere? Good thing I liked Eureka.)
I give it 1 1/2 thumbs up. Half a thumb is denied because I find the two main male characters, Nolan and Datak, annoying and uninteresting and can tell that (A) they'll be everywhere and (B) I'm supposed to find Datak complex and fascinating, and Nolan roguish and charming (which I might, if they dial back the "chauvinism is cute and charming if it's coming from a scruffy white dude" bit a lot. I did start liking Jack Carter and Pete Lattimer after a little while, though, and all 3 are that same type of "all American white dude who isn't booksmart but has great instincts" thing SyFy seems to required almost all their main characters to have. I suppose I may eventually like Datak, too.) I do appear to be invested in their respective family dynamics, though.
I think this is connected to a video game, but i know little about that.
( spoilers )
Elementary 1.20: Wow was this episode potentially triggering on various levels. (Though i liked the episode overall, but what a mystery plot to have for one of the few episodes I manage to catch live, and so not hear rumblings about beforehand.)
( spoilers )
Foyle's War: Series 8: Set in 1946, the "final" (look, this is I think the 3rd time BBC has said "no more Foyle ever," so I figure there's a 50/50 chance they'll just keep cancelling it until Michael Kitchen says he's too old to keep this up) series starts with Foyle returning to England from America after the events of Series 7, and promptly being recruited by the foreign office (and then promptly recruiting Sam). The series largely focuses on the beginnings of the Cold War and England's post-war political and economic condition, and spymistress Hilda Pierce shows up and runs everything in every episode. Though overall feel is shaken up from previous series, a little bit closer to The Hour and The Bletchley Circle at times, but still excellent. Fair warning: the last episode deals fairly heavily with war crimes and PTSD.
Person of Interest 2.20:
( spoilers )
Revolution 1.14:
( spoilers )
I think I'm current on everything but Bomb Girls, Nikita, and The Borgias. The first 2 only have a couple more episodes to air this season( or ever in one case, possibly in both) so I might as well wait, and I just haven't been in the mood for The Borgias.
Beauty and the Beast 1.18-1.19:
( spoilers )
Continuum 2.1:
( spoilers )
Defiance 1.1-1.2: NO ONE TOLD ME STEPHANIE LEONIDAS WAS IN THIS SERIES. EVERYONE IS FIRED. (And with a wig and makeup that makes her look like Jool's extra temperamental younger sister.)
Actually, playing "spot the Farscape makeup" while watching is pretty fun. It wasn't quite as much fun to wonder if I was watching a reworking of the Eureka pilot in large parts of the pilot, though. (I guess the Eureka writers had to go somewhere? Good thing I liked Eureka.)
I give it 1 1/2 thumbs up. Half a thumb is denied because I find the two main male characters, Nolan and Datak, annoying and uninteresting and can tell that (A) they'll be everywhere and (B) I'm supposed to find Datak complex and fascinating, and Nolan roguish and charming (which I might, if they dial back the "chauvinism is cute and charming if it's coming from a scruffy white dude" bit a lot. I did start liking Jack Carter and Pete Lattimer after a little while, though, and all 3 are that same type of "all American white dude who isn't booksmart but has great instincts" thing SyFy seems to required almost all their main characters to have. I suppose I may eventually like Datak, too.) I do appear to be invested in their respective family dynamics, though.
I think this is connected to a video game, but i know little about that.
( spoilers )
Elementary 1.20: Wow was this episode potentially triggering on various levels. (Though i liked the episode overall, but what a mystery plot to have for one of the few episodes I manage to catch live, and so not hear rumblings about beforehand.)
( spoilers )
Foyle's War: Series 8: Set in 1946, the "final" (look, this is I think the 3rd time BBC has said "no more Foyle ever," so I figure there's a 50/50 chance they'll just keep cancelling it until Michael Kitchen says he's too old to keep this up) series starts with Foyle returning to England from America after the events of Series 7, and promptly being recruited by the foreign office (and then promptly recruiting Sam). The series largely focuses on the beginnings of the Cold War and England's post-war political and economic condition, and spymistress Hilda Pierce shows up and runs everything in every episode. Though overall feel is shaken up from previous series, a little bit closer to The Hour and The Bletchley Circle at times, but still excellent. Fair warning: the last episode deals fairly heavily with war crimes and PTSD.
Person of Interest 2.20:
( spoilers )
Revolution 1.14:
( spoilers )
I think I'm current on everything but Bomb Girls, Nikita, and The Borgias. The first 2 only have a couple more episodes to air this season( or ever in one case, possibly in both) so I might as well wait, and I just haven't been in the mood for The Borgias.
Danger UXB
Aug. 22nd, 2012 09:17 pm
Speaking of WWII (which we weren't, but pretend we were) Danger UXB is a 13 episode series from 1979 starring Anthony Andrews, about London's Royal Engineers' UXB unit, the soldiers responsible for finding, disarming and disposing of unexploded bombs dropped in air raids during WWII.
It's very interesting but also very stressful to watch (fitting considering what the characters spend half their time doing) and it doesn't spend any time reassuring the viewer or letting you feel secure in expecting any characters to survive-I spent a lot of it figuring they'd just kill Andrews at the end because it liked to break your heart that way-and uses silence and the absense of much of a soundtrack almost disturbingly well. I went in expecting it to be a bit like Foyle's War in showing everyday life during the war, but aside from a few of the soldier's personal relationships, there isn't much of that, and I actually surprised myself a bit by being considerably more interested in the military details and bomb information than the rest.
It's not for the faint of heart (I had to watch it in small doses because, SO STRESSFUL-lot's of "don't get blown up you're going to get blown up aren't you no camera don't pan away I know that's your code for blowing things up ok he didn't get blown up oh wait now someone is getting blown up..." on my end.) but definately interesting and a bit different from most of the other fiction about WWII that I've encountered.
BTW, speaking of Foyle's War, there will be a new series in 2013. Which I am very excited about even though I have no clue what they'll do or if they'll even have any of the regular cast besides Michael Kitchen back after the end of the last series.
(no subject)
Jul. 1st, 2010 07:47 pm39 x Allison to Lillia (Allison arc)
27 x Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
45 x Fairies of Liao Zhai/ Liao Zhai Qi Nu Zi (Lian Cheng arc)
19 x Florence Nightingale (biopic)
27 x Foyle's War (series 7)
30 x Ryoko's Case Files
30 x St. Trinian's School For Bad Girls
48 x St. Trinian's: The Search For Fritton's Gold
the rest at my lj
viewing catchup
May. 24th, 2010 09:49 pmPlaying catchup with the last few months of viewing.
Movies: Ballet Shoes, The Court Jester, Court Jester, The Flame and the Arrow, Florence Nightingale, Glorious 39, Mean Girls, On Guard/Le Bossu
( movies )
Tv: Foyle's War: Series 7, Gossip Girl: Season 2, Larkrise to Candleford: Series 1 & 2, Little Dorrit, Pushing Daisies: Season 2
( TV )
Movies: Ballet Shoes, The Court Jester, Court Jester, The Flame and the Arrow, Florence Nightingale, Glorious 39, Mean Girls, On Guard/Le Bossu
( movies )
Tv: Foyle's War: Series 7, Gossip Girl: Season 2, Larkrise to Candleford: Series 1 & 2, Little Dorrit, Pushing Daisies: Season 2
( TV )
Foyle's War through the end of series 4
Jul. 12th, 2009 08:57 pmExcept I think that the end of the US series 4 is actually the UK series 5. Anyway, I completely forgot what the last Foyle I posted on was, and I’m too lazy to check.
This is a series I love, I just don’t have a whole lot to say on it.
( spoilers )
Foyle's War: The French Drop
May. 16th, 2009 10:06 pmSo, Netflix, in its infinite wisdom, interpreted my carefully spacing out the third season of Foyle’s War so that it would last me a while as “please send me the first three discs at once.” Hmph.
Anyway, this episode focused on a man who supposedly committed suicide, but was possibly murdered, the investigation of which eventually leads to Foyle learning about England’s new division of government spies. One thing I like about the pilot episodes of each season of this series is how they set different tones for the seasons. In the first season, Foyle has to choose between arresting a killer because he’s a murderer, or letting him go because the victim was a German, and the killer in a position to help England with the war. In the second, he learns that people more powerful than him won’t always make the same choice, even if it’s wrong. Here, he has to choose between principles of another sort and what might be a greater good.
( mild b plot spoilers )
Foyle's War: War Games, The Funk Hole
Apr. 18th, 2009 01:58 amI watched War Games at my parents’ house before heading out of town Easter weekend, and then completely forgot to post on it when I got home. This has nothing to do with the quality of the episode, and probably a good bit to do with the fact that I read several good books in the car and after everyone went to bed in between watching it and getting home.
That said, though good, I wasn’t as interested in the main mystery plot of the episode as I usually am. It dealt with a company entering into a contract with Germany so that they’d still be the major manufacturer of their product no matter who won the war. I think I’m just more interested in the impact on people’s day-to-day lives in this series, and not as much on the big picture stuff. This is probably best evidenced by the fact that, even though it was fairly standard, I was utterly charmed by the subplot involving a group of children who were salvagers who Foyle had Sam take control of since they were breaking into places in their eagerness. I think the reasoning there went along these lines: “I do not know what to do with children, even though I raised one. However, Sam is a woman, and they automatically know what to do.” “I have no idea what to do with children, but I do know soldiers, so I will turn them into half-sized soldiers. And feeding them will give me an excuse to have snacks, too.”
( spoiler )
On the other hand, I loved all levels of the plot in The Funk Hole which involved a shop owner stealing rations so that he’d have food to sell to his village, plots and secrets at a local “guest house” where people who had lost their homes were staying for the duration of the war, and Foyle being accused of sedition.
The last results in his being forced to employ Andrew’s old method of sneaking through a window and using a tree to escape through the neighbor’s yard. Sadly, we are deprived of actually seeing that. Andrew assures us that it was an amazing sight, though.
In addition to Foyle being under house arrest and having to solve both a murder and a plot against him while Milner also tries to do the same alone, my favorite nits were the mystery surrounding the owner of the guest house and her gardener (not what you’d expect) and an authoress who was rather bitter that she couldn’t write about all the events at the house, since she was there secretly and supposed to be somewhere else.
( spoiler )
Up until The Funk Hole, the individual episodes could be watched independent of each other as long as you understood the basics. Said basics being that the lead is a police superintendent in Hastings in 1940, his son is a pilot in the war, his assistant lost a leg in the war and uses a prosthetic (actually not made a big deal of after the beginning, but important for Milner’s personal life) and his driver is a chatterbox who sometimes helps them. At this point, however, elements are introduced that look to be continuing plot elements that will influence the series in future installments.
That said, though good, I wasn’t as interested in the main mystery plot of the episode as I usually am. It dealt with a company entering into a contract with Germany so that they’d still be the major manufacturer of their product no matter who won the war. I think I’m just more interested in the impact on people’s day-to-day lives in this series, and not as much on the big picture stuff. This is probably best evidenced by the fact that, even though it was fairly standard, I was utterly charmed by the subplot involving a group of children who were salvagers who Foyle had Sam take control of since they were breaking into places in their eagerness. I think the reasoning there went along these lines: “I do not know what to do with children, even though I raised one. However, Sam is a woman, and they automatically know what to do.” “I have no idea what to do with children, but I do know soldiers, so I will turn them into half-sized soldiers. And feeding them will give me an excuse to have snacks, too.”
( spoiler )
On the other hand, I loved all levels of the plot in The Funk Hole which involved a shop owner stealing rations so that he’d have food to sell to his village, plots and secrets at a local “guest house” where people who had lost their homes were staying for the duration of the war, and Foyle being accused of sedition.
The last results in his being forced to employ Andrew’s old method of sneaking through a window and using a tree to escape through the neighbor’s yard. Sadly, we are deprived of actually seeing that. Andrew assures us that it was an amazing sight, though.
In addition to Foyle being under house arrest and having to solve both a murder and a plot against him while Milner also tries to do the same alone, my favorite nits were the mystery surrounding the owner of the guest house and her gardener (not what you’d expect) and an authoress who was rather bitter that she couldn’t write about all the events at the house, since she was there secretly and supposed to be somewhere else.
( spoiler )
Up until The Funk Hole, the individual episodes could be watched independent of each other as long as you understood the basics. Said basics being that the lead is a police superintendent in Hastings in 1940, his son is a pilot in the war, his assistant lost a leg in the war and uses a prosthetic (actually not made a big deal of after the beginning, but important for Milner’s personal life) and his driver is a chatterbox who sometimes helps them. At this point, however, elements are introduced that look to be continuing plot elements that will influence the series in future installments.
Foyle's War 2.2: Among the Few
Apr. 5th, 2009 10:05 amThis episode dealt with Foyle learning that petroleum was being stolen from the government, resulting in Sam eventually going undercover to learn who was behind it. The plot wasn’t as interesting as the last episode’s, but it had a lot of fun character stuff for Sam and Andrew, whose girlfriend worked for the company Sam worked undercover for.
Foyle and Milner weren’t around much (I think Andrew had more screen time than the two of them combined) but what they had was choice, especially when talking about how their temporary driver didn’t get them places as fast as Sam, but also didn’t talk as much.
I have mixed feelings regarding the resolution. On the one hand, I kind of really love how the petroleum plot turned out, and the motives of one of the “villains,” but I’m less thrilled with the resolution of the murder plot that shows up later. Like the racist man and his wife in Fifty Ships, though, it makes sense for the time period, and was handled well. And, as always, I love Foyle’s method of dealing with it.
Foyle's War: Fifty Ships
Mar. 30th, 2009 12:56 amIt was so odd seeing Amanda Root in this just after watching the second Forsyte Saga series. Elizabeth, having only a few scenes, is naturally nowhere near as developed a character as Winifred, but they were somehow both exactly and nothing alike. I really like Amanda Root, but can’t think of what else I’ve seen her in besides Persuasion, though I’m sure I have.
( spoilers )
BBC: Foyle's War: Series 1
Mar. 13th, 2009 01:19 amSet in Hastings during World War II, Foyle’s War is a collection for four made-for-TV movies focusing on Christopher Foyle, a police superindendent who wants to be transferred somewhere where he can help with the war effort, but who is kept solving crimes in Hastings. He’s joined by Samantha Stewart, a member of the MTC who is seconded to the police force to help with shortages, and is employed as Foyle’s driver, eventually becoming more of an assistant. At the end of the first movie, they’re joined by Paul Milner, a policeman who enlisted in the war, but lost a leg in battle, and becomes Foyle’s assistant.
I’m not sure I’ve encountered a BBC mystery series that I haven’t liked. There’s something extremely likable about them. I say that having seen far more of David Suchet’s Poirot series than could really be considered healthy. Foyle’s War focuses a lot-successfully so-on the frustrations and fears of the people in England who fear invasion and air raids. Most of the mysteries include the question of whether or not the “victim” is someone whose death really needs to be solved, due to their own behavior.
Foyle is very quiet and methodical, which tends to cause his foes to think he doesn’t know what’s going on. Even though he isn’t where he wants to be, he throws himself completely into his work, even when expected to him up a case because of its nature. Sam is exceptionally fun and manages to be a complete chatterbox while also being very reserved and proper. She also gets Foyle’s approval by bashing a fleeing suspect in the head with a trashcan lid. I really like the near father/daughter relationship they’re developing, though I sometimes think Foyle thinks of her more like a second son, since his is off in the war. [spoiler] Actually, as soon as they started that up, I became convinced that they’d probably start a Sam/Andrew thing if he didn’t get killed off promptly, so I chortled victoriously when he went “Guuuh” and then stuck his foot in his mouth when they met in the last episode. [end spoiler] Milner isn’t as developed as the other two yet, but is equally likable, and has plenty of potential.
I’m not sure I’ve encountered a BBC mystery series that I haven’t liked. There’s something extremely likable about them. I say that having seen far more of David Suchet’s Poirot series than could really be considered healthy. Foyle’s War focuses a lot-successfully so-on the frustrations and fears of the people in England who fear invasion and air raids. Most of the mysteries include the question of whether or not the “victim” is someone whose death really needs to be solved, due to their own behavior.
Foyle is very quiet and methodical, which tends to cause his foes to think he doesn’t know what’s going on. Even though he isn’t where he wants to be, he throws himself completely into his work, even when expected to him up a case because of its nature. Sam is exceptionally fun and manages to be a complete chatterbox while also being very reserved and proper. She also gets Foyle’s approval by bashing a fleeing suspect in the head with a trashcan lid. I really like the near father/daughter relationship they’re developing, though I sometimes think Foyle thinks of her more like a second son, since his is off in the war. [spoiler] Actually, as soon as they started that up, I became convinced that they’d probably start a Sam/Andrew thing if he didn’t get killed off promptly, so I chortled victoriously when he went “Guuuh” and then stuck his foot in his mouth when they met in the last episode. [end spoiler] Milner isn’t as developed as the other two yet, but is equally likable, and has plenty of potential.
