Some Brief Reviews For Three New Shows...

[Lord Jim]

One I think is really well done, another I think is so-so, and another that probably belongs in The Ash Heap of Television History:

The Last Ship:

Really well cast and directed....

Based on a scifi premise that the world has been overtaken by a virus that has wiped out most of the human race, it combines that premise with the kind of suspense-action Naval scene quality from films like Crimson Tide and The Hunt For Red October...

Really good show with a lot of plot potential...

Two thumbs up.


Murder In The First:

I keep going back and forth on this one...

The central premise (it's set in San Francisco) is about a character, (who's obviously a takeoff on Mark Zuckerberg) who has murdered a young woman...

Some of it's well done, but some of it's preposterous...

Starting with the time line; everything that is supposed to have happened so far in this show is supposed to have happened in one week...(We know this because in the most recent episode, they clear the victim's ex-husband using a credit card receipt from "last Tuesday "...)

So the time line is ridiculous...(Especially when you consider the behavior of the protagonist's partner; wife dies of cancer and they have the funeral, wife's sister throws herself at him the same day as the funeral, he rejects her, but then hits on his partner...all in one week... )

But all of that having been said, it's got some well done qualities, so I give it One Thumb Up...

That brings me to...

Dominion....

The only reason we gave this one a watch is because it came on after the second season of Defiance (which is an excellent post-apocalyptic scifi show...I've read some criticism about Defiance along the lines that it's just a takeoff on "Old West" stories...well of course it is, all post-apocalyptic sci-fi is...Grant Bowler's character is clearly a takeoff on Matt Dillon; and Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz) with her "Need-Want" saloon/whorehouse is a post-apocalyptic take off on Miss Kitty... but I digress...)


But from the promos, Dominion looked like it had good special effects, and might be worth checking out...

However, the premise for Dominion is ridiculous even by sci/fi fantasy standards...

In the pilot episode, the first narration line to set the whole thing up is, "25 years ago, God disappeared"...

Okay...

Then what follows is a war between The Humans and "The Angels" (but not all of The Angels; the bad Angels are led by Gabriel, and the good, pro-human Angels are led by Michael...and the Arch Angels; the ones with the wings...all stay out of the fight but there's another bunch of Lesser Angels who are pretty much like demons...and where Lucifer is when all of this is going on is never explained... )

Then somehow, led by Michael, The Humans win the war, but now there's another war going on, as Gabriel takes a second shot...

In the meantime you've got a "Chosen One" to fight against The Bad Angels and the obligatory Neo-fascist post-apocalyptic Human Government... (Which suggests that maybe God didn't "disappear" entirely...)

It's all very confusing...It really doesn't get much sillier than this...

I don't see a second season for this show...

[BoSoxGal]

Hey LJ not exactly a reply to your reviews but just wondering, do you watch Blue Bloods? I've just seen the first 3 seasons and it struck me as a show you'd enjoy, too.

[Daisy]

The Last Ship is hilarious, not sure it's meant to be but the clunky, chunky dialogue and lazy tropes are brilliant. And I can't take Adam Baldwin seriously in anything since Chuck.

I've only seen one episode of Dominion ... Anthony Head, if you're going to cast him because he's great at playing "menacing" don't make him speak with an American accent cause that's just a big old bowl of wrong.

[Lord Jim]

Hey LJ not exactly a reply to your reviews but just wondering, do you watch Blue Bloods?

I've seen the promos for it, but we've never gotten around to watching it...

But on your recommendation, I'll make a point to check it out...

The Last Ship is hilarious, not sure it's meant to be

Well Daze, my reaction to the show is completely different...

To me the dialog seems pretty crisp and one of the best things about the show is the pacing...

One show I've never bothered to check out is the re-imagined Hawaii 5-0...

To take an iconic period piece like that and turn it into just another buddy-cop show didn't sound very promising to me...

[Reality Bytes]

The first 2 seasons of the new Hawaii 5-0 are actually not too bad I enjoyed them, the 3rd season was OK a little hit and miss but still enough to keep me enjoying it, unfortunately the 4th season was disappointing. I wasn't sure I was going to like the series at all so was "won over" by the first few seasons and then they decided to bump up the "love interest" for McGarrett and frankly she is bloody awful as an actress and as a character, any story line she's involved with is frankly ludicrous (mind you several of the story lines need you to just suspend reality and just enjoy the buddy buddy stuff) there is actually great chemistry between McGarret & Danno and some good humour. I also have enjoyed them introducing Chi McBride's character and am pleased that Catherine has gone and Grover is now a member of 5-0 - I have hopes that season 5 will see a return to the early feel of the show. Personally I don't think they write good female roles for the show but over all it is worth giving it a try and see how you like it.

I must admit I am starting to get very fed up with the way American TV works - I'm at the point now where I don't think I will bother watching the first season of any show until I know it's getting renewed and to be honest given that an awful lot of shows get cancelled after season 2 I may even leave it until they have secured a 3rd season. To me it seems counter productive of these networks - people are just not going to bother to get "invested" in the shows when they cannot be sure of a renewal - I was furious (still am) over the Stargate Atlantis debacle thoroughly enjoyed Revolution only for that to get cancelled with NO wind up episode, same for The Tomorrow People, Hellcats and dozens of other shows - wtf is the point in watching something that they can just end mid story arc?

[Daisy]

Alphas
Touch
Believe
Almost Human

I emotionally invested in all these and the US Networks dropped them, all good shows with a decent premise, especially Almost Human. Like you RB I'm at my wits end with shows being cancelled after one season. You're right though it's a self perpatuating cycle. Shows sometimes need a couple of seasons to really find their feet. Fringe could have easily gone that way as it had some hokey episodes early on, I'm grateful that they gave it chance because the denouement was the finest bit of telly I've seen in a long while.

Thankfully Blacklist, Suits and Orphan Black have all been renewed.

I do have one guilty pleasure show that is so awful it's good. Under the Dome, the entire population of that town are as thick as a whale butty and deserve to be locked off away from the rest of the world. I actually cheer when people get killed in that show

[Reality Bytes]

Oh I have a few guilty pleasure shows - one of which was Hellcats - it wasn't exactly mentally taxing to watch and boy was it over acted but somehow had me completely hooked - ffs I watched a show about cheerleaders LOL Tomorrow People was preposterous and I really should not have liked it since I grew up hooked on the original and this is NOTHING like the original but it really grew on me - and then they cancelled it arrrrggggggg

Just watched the first 4 episodes of The Last Ship back to back I liked it - hope they'll do a bit more with Adam Baldwin as they are under using him at the moment, I could cheerfully smack the Mountain team alpha leader guy upside the head with a 2x4 though ffs all that soulful puppy eyed baloney uggggg man up fer fucks sake!

[MajGenl.Meade]

I've stopped bothering with new shows. There's so much on Netflix that all these new ones will be available long before I've finished watching Spooks, Midsomer, Morse, Endeavour, Red Dwarf, Allen, the one that's not Firefly, Fry&Laurie, Little Britain and so on and on and on and on.

As to the Hawaii 5-0 remake, I watched the first 20 mins of episode 1 and turned it off. Wouldn't want to have any of those people along for a road trip - asshats all. The criminals were all right though. (In comparison)

[Guinevere]

I watched some of the first few seasons of the new Hawaii 5-0, and I liked it ok. Nothing can touch the old Jack Lord series, and the best way (I think) to enjoy it is to not think of it as a remake, but let it stand on its own. I think the two main characters are OK. Scott Caan is pretty funny, and Alex O'Laughlin is hot hot hot (not to mention plays as a Naval officer and triathlete, so totally up my alley).

[Big RR]

On the commercial network drams, I've watched many of the Hawaii 50 episodes and find it watchable, although becoming prettu predictable. And Meade, if you found the criminal interesting, I'd bet you wouldn't like it now as they are all defeated by about the 50th minute (they're more inept than the villains of the movie serials of yesteryear) leaving time for kibitzing in the last 10. Blue Bloods is another show that started around the same time as Hawaii 50, but is starting to show its age as well.

Of the major commercial network dramas, the only one I almost always catch is Criminal Minds; it doesn't always succeed on every episode, but when it does it's dark and creepy with some good plot twists. The joking around of the characters (a bane for most shows IMHO) is kept to a minimum, which enhances its appeal to me, as is the fact that it is more story than character driven. Not many shows like this left.

Other than the commercial networks networks, I enjoyed this (half?) season of mad Men more than I have in a while, and the Borgias were a guilty pleasure when I had Showtime (through a special deal by Verizon). I've also seen a few episodes of Turn, but am withholding my opinion until I see a few more.

[Guinevere]

I love Tom Selleck, and he has "definitely" held up well. Blue Bloods is formulaic, but almost always entertaining.

I like those Wahlburg boys, too -- although their A&E series needs to stop, it's way too painful (although I am a regular at both of Paul's restaurants, and have loved his cooking since he got his start as an exec chef at a place in my own town). It's made for lines out the door at Wahlburgers.

And YES Mad Men is/was back! Although this half season/wait a year for the second half crap must end.

[Guinevere]

And, I'm about to subscribe to my first "premium" channel ever -- Starz, so I can watch Outlander, beginning August 9th! The books are fantastic, and the series is being directed by Ronald Moore (Battlestar Galactica), so you know it will be well done.

http://www.starz.com/originals/outlander

[Daisy]

Actually there is one show that I do want to rave for AMC's Halt and Catch Fire, a great piece of work that really captures the era and frantic nature of the race to beat Big Blue.

Maybe it's just one for geeks like me.

[Gob]

same for The Tomorrow People,

Please don't tell me they "Americanised" The Tomorrow People??????

[Reality Bytes]

I have been watching Mad Men on Catch Up TV box sets - have to say it hasn't grabbed me and I don't think I'll even see out season 1 - on the other hand I have loved Desperate Housewives which I had some how missed/over looked so have been watching it almost daily so am now up to about season 4 I think.

I haven't missed an episode of Criminal Minds since it started, and I was very disappointed that they cancelled the spin off Criminal Minds Suspect Behaviour as that was really getting going and that was that. I'm completely addicted to NCIS ( love Michael Wetherley)and NCIS Los Angeles (Chris O'Donnel) also haven't missed an episode of either of them - I'll give the new one a go but I didn't think much of the Pilot/crossover intro episode so I'm not sure if I'll get into that one as much. Castle is another of my won't miss shows though they are testing my patience a bit especially with the finale to this last season ....

Brahms and I love Suits and The Newsroom so we watch those together whereas he wouldn't know his Gibbs from his Hotchners

The latest thing I've found in the Sky boxsets is Lewis - I never really watched much Morse I was always a Taggart girl lol so I never watched Lewis either - but I'm enjoying it now.

[Reality Bytes]

same for The Tomorrow People,

Please don't tell me they "Americanised" The Tomorrow People??????

Oh in a very BIG way LOL however, its one of those shows where I really wanted to hate it, the only reason I watched the first episode was so I could have ammo for a rant about it - and despite the fact its utterly reinvented the whole flipping thing and Americanised it to the nth degree and despite the fact that these are the oldest looking "teenagers" I have ever seen I found myself liking it quite a bit. It is totally over the top completely unbelievable but it has/had "something" and I think they had started to find their feet a bit just in time for the ax to fall.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660734/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[Gob]

I'm very into "Cabin Pressure"at the moment, I wish they'd to a TV series.

[Daisy]

Hahhh, I love Cabin Pressure.

I'm just not sure about a TV series, I like my imagination doing some of the work.

[Gob]

I'm moving onto "Hut 33" next, heard that Daisy?

[Daisy]

It was a bit before my R4 days, I'll keep an eye out for it on the downloads.