Orphan Black / Game of Thrones / Hannibal
The personal likes of a music loving, book reading, film watching obsessive geek who spends way too much time watching TV and getting emotionally attached to fictional characters.
• Aaron Paul • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.• The Americans • Arrested Development• The Avengers • Bat For Lashes • Being Human • Ben Wyatt • Boyd Crowder • Breaking Bad • British Sea Power • Bruce Banner • Bryan Fuller shows • Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers • Documentaries • Elementary • Enlightened • Fringe • Game Of Thrones • Gwendoline Christie • Hannibal • Happy Endings • Iron & Wine• Jaime/Brienne • Jesse Pinkman • Joss Whedon • Justified • Leslie Knope • Lone Wolf • Mark Ruffalo • Marvel movies • Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds • Nikolaj Coster-Waldau • Orphan Black • Parks & Recreation • Raylan Givens • Rectify• Scarlett Johansson • Science Bros • Sons of Anarchy • Southland • Spartacus • Spider-man •Star Trek • The Strokes • Tatiana Maslany • Timothy Olyphant • Walton Goggins • Yeah Yeah Yeahs • Zachary Quinto
“I’m the Doctor”
Naveen Andrews as the 12th Doctor
I know it won’t ever happen but Naveen as the Doctor would be the greatest casting decision ever.
Siblings
Rectify S1 Ep 06
![Richard: Then I never want to die…I want to live forever.Jacob:[Smiles, lays a hand on his shoulder] Now that, that I can do.
Lost S6 Ep 09 ‘Ab Aeterno’](http://25.media.tumblr.com/60926dd5067ad332fc8a9a686a15ddad/tumblr_mn9m5tAkBz1qb7unno1_500.png)
Richard: Then I never want to die…I want to live forever.
Jacob:[Smiles, lays a hand on his shoulder] Now that, that I can do.
Lost S6 Ep 09 ‘Ab Aeterno’
The island. The island brought us here. This is no ordinary place, you’ve seen that, I know you have.
Lost (2004-2010)
My annual weeping over the wonder that was Lost has begun.
Agents of SHIELD new Science Duo
Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), brilliant engineer; and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), genius bio-chemist.
Hey remind Marvel fans of anyone? Yep we possibly have a new science bro type relationship forming here.
Almost Human synopsis and promo photos
ALMOST HUMAN. Starring Karl Urban (“Star Trek”) and Michael Ealy (“Sleeper Cell,” “Common Law”), the new series is an action-packed police drama set 35 years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids. The year is 2048. Meet JOHN KENNEX (Urban), a cop who survived one of the most catastrophic attacks ever made against the police department. After waking up from a 17-month coma, he can’t remember much - except that his partner was killed; his girlfriend, ANNA MOORE (guest star Mekia Cox, “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” “Undercovers”), left him after the attack; and he lost one of his legs and is now outfitted with a highly sophisticated synthetic appendage. Suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD and the “psychological rejection of his synthetic body part,”
John returns to work at the behest of longtime ally Captain SANDRA MALDONADO (Emmy Award nominee Lili Taylor, “Six Feet Under,” “Ransom”). By mandate, every cop must partner with a robot. And despite his passionate aversion to androids, John is paired up with a battle-ready MX-43. But he abruptly terminates his partnership after the robot discovers incriminating information about him. So technician RUDY LOM (Mackenzie Crook, “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise) introduces John to DORIAN (Ealy), a discontinued android with unexpected emotional responses. Although such responses were deemed flaws, it is in these “flaws” that John relates to Dorian most. After all, John is part-machine now, and Dorian is part-human. John and Dorian’s understanding of each other not only complements them, it connects them.
As he adjusts to working with his new partner, John also must learn to get along with his new colleagues, including the eager and somewhat starstruck Detective VALERIE STAHL (Minka Kelly, “Friday Night Lights,” “(500) Days of Summer”) and the distrustful Detective RICHARD PAUL (Michael Irby, “Law Abiding Citizen,” “The Unit”), who does not welcome John back with open arms. ALMOST HUMAN will follow the week-to-week missions of John and Dorian, as they fight crime across this futuristic landscape, while the mysteries surrounding his attack and the larger mythology of this new world unfold.
ALMOST HUMAN is produced by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The series is created by J.H. Wyman, who wrote the pilot. The series is executive-produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk and Wyman. Kathy Lingg (“Person of Interest,” “Revolution,” “Fringe”) and Reid Shane (“Fringe”) are co-executive producers. Brad Anderson (“Fringe,” “The Killing”) directed and served as co-executive producer on the pilot.
I’m in love with Aden Young’s performance as Daniel Holden in Rectify so much. I could watch him react to the modern world for 22 episodes and be perfectly content, sadly just get 6 this season but this show I am so addicted to it and its odd because very little actually happens but it is beautifully filmed and I am so engrossed with the character.
Why ain’t you dead Daniel Holden? Why ain’t you dead?
Rectify S1
The recently concluded and utterly superb Top of the Lake has a partner well in crime in the form of Rectify which formally starts on Monday 22 April but the first three episodes have found their ways onto the Internet.
Like Top of the Lake, Rectify is magnificently acted and directed and both concern how crime can affect a community. Rectify deals with an issue I have been fascinated with for some time and that is people being wrongly accused of a crime and sent to prison. Only instead of showing us the legal wrangles the family and lawyer would have to go throughRectify picks up when Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released after new DNA evidence throws his case out. Daniel has served 19 years on Death Row for rape and murder and now has to adjust to coming up and living with his family again.3
One of the genius things about the show is whilst the evidence gets Daniel out of jail it doesn’t necessarily prove his innocence and he could face a new trial. Also as an audience we really don’t know if he is guilty or not, even three episodes in I have no clue if he was involved or just the two males we saw briefly in episode one.
Daniel is a bit strange, a bit weird but is that just an effect of 19 years shut away in a cell or was he always like that? Does it mean he has a hidden more sinister agenda? Or perhaps just a little eccentric?
Most of the town seem to think he is guilty including the State Senator and the Sheriff. His family or at least his sister Amantha (Abigail Spencer) is convinced of his innocence, I think his half brother Jared (Jake Austin Walker) does as well. Meanwhile step brother Ted, Jr. (Clayne Crawford ) seems to care more about how it will affect the family business than getting to the truth whilst his wife Tawney (Adelaide Clemens) seems to have formed a touching connection to Daniel. As for the mother Janet (J. Smith-Cameron), she is just overwhelmed by the entire situation.
Rectify was originally developed by Ray McKinnon for AMC with the intention of Justifiedactor Walton Goggin playing the role of Daniel. Whilst I would loved to have seen his take on the character I have to say Aden Young has impressed me so much in the role I can’t imagine anyone else now. Daniel has this awkwardness about him which is natural after being away from the real world for so long and Young brings to the character this mesmerising charm. You can’t help but listen to what he has to say, listen to his experiences and life view.
Whether or not Daniel committed the crime isn’t really the central point to the show, it is about how prison changes a person, about how life moves on for everyone else and how they have to deal with his return. How victim’s family have to cope when the justice they thought had been served perhaps hadn’t been.
Rectify is every bit as good as dramas airing on HBO, AMC and Showtime. I can’t wait to see where Rectify ends up and the other intense beautifully filmed dramas Sundance Channel commissions.
Crossposted to The Idiot Box
Most cops manage to stay sane despite the chaos around them, but in their hearts they know everyone has a breaking point
Southland S5 Finale
I’m still trying to process this episode, still trying to take it everything that happened, still trying to accept that it may well have been the series finale of the show. If it is in a way it is fitting.
We saw the once rookie cop Ben finally show his true colours to his partner, that he is an asshole and is to a certain extent corrupt.
We saw the former Gangs detective Sammy who went back on the beat to try and make a different realise that isn’t possible, you can help some people but not everyone.
We saw the once really irresponsible douche Dewey do all he could to track down the killers who dared to hurt his long time friend on the force Cooper.
The two characters they got some kind of happy ending were Ruben and Lydia. After years of Lydia finding it hard to accept help and people into her live this season she finally opened up more to Ruben and then reconnected with her former partner Russell. Ruben also got a moment to shine at the press conference and it was good to see that because what follows was brutal.
Southland has never really had a main character in theory at least but its been clear for the past couple of seasons that John Cooper is the lead of the show. He has the most interesting storylines and due to the acting of Michael Cudlitz every scene he is in has been mesmerizing. John Cooper has been a man on the edge for some time now, he has had a lot of bullshit to handle over the years but lately things have just been reaching tipping point. He had to deal with his former training officer’s alcoholism he messed his back up again, oh his boyfriend left him at the start of the season, did I mention he was kidnapped last week and watched his partner get killed? Yeah life is horrible and brutal for Cooper but he has always soldiered on. Until now.
I guess seeing Cooper on the ground with a couple of bullets in him as the final shot of the season (and possible series) shouldn’t really be a shock when you look back at it. He has been looking for a way out and thought he had a chance with his ex-wife and a possible baby or maybe even through retirement. But his plans for a child is rejected and Cooper is too embedded in the force to ever quit. Do I see his final actions in this episode as a way for him to get out? I think it can be read that way, as soon as the cops turned up he should have shouted out who he was and dropped the gun but he didn’t. I think he wanted a way out. I think he had not only reached his breaking point but the end of the road completely.
What Southland has taught us is being a cop becomes who you are, it changes you for better or for worse and unless you make the decision to just get the hell out you will reach that breaking point and you will fall.
If this is how the show ends then its a brutal way to go but if it isn’t and we get another season then maybe just maybe Cooper can find a life outside of the force. Maybe he can realise that the job will kill you if you let it. So don’t let it win.
Some thoughts on the state of sci-fi on TV, new show Defiance and a possible brighter future for the genre.
I can be incredibly picky and quick to judge when it comes to new TV shows. I watch a lot of television and therefore can’t stick with shows that I only mildly enjoy or which may get better given a season. Nope I need to see potential straight away.
I have found it particularly quite difficult to get into any new sci-fi shows lately, a genre that I adore - that contains some of my all time favourite shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Lost and Fringe mainly because sci-fi has been pretty dead. Even at a time where the genre is doing incredibly well at the box office, it seem like on TV the networks have veered towards more fantasy/horror/supernatural series and whilst they don’t always work they have often proved a huge success especially The Walking Dead and American Horror Story for cable and Once Upon A Time for network.
This though seems to have been at the cost of good sci-fi series, ones that can last more than a season or two. Look at The Event, Flash Forward and V as recent examples of how badly the genre has been doing. I think these shows have failed for a couple of reasons; they all tried to be the next Lost instead of something new, something different and forgot one of the reasons why Lost was successful was because audiences loved the characters. Also these shows seemed focussed on present day events instead of exploring the wider possibilities of the genre.
When Fringe ended in January I realised the only sci-fi show I am currently watching is Doctor Who. That since SyFy canned Stargate Universe (a series I admittedly didn’t like much but at least was in space) and scrapped the plans to bring BSG: Blood and Chrome to a full series that there were no sci-fi shows set in space or even involving space ships.
Now of course sci-fi can come in many forms like with Fringe it was more science based but growing up with shows like Star Trek, Farscape and countless others it seemed weird to me that no show was currently exploring that side.
New SyFy show Defiance doesn’t really rectify that as its based on Earth but it does add another staple of sci-fi that has been missing from TV shows as well and that is different alien races living together. I like that a lot, also it gives us space ships in the skies and possibly alien technology and well for the first time in years SyFy is embracing sci-fi again and that can only be a good thing.
Their recent pilot announcements including shows by Bryan Fuller and Ronald D Moore give me hope that the genre can come alive again on TV and that it can be successful by you know actually giving audiences alien races and space instead of present day settings and a purely human cast of characters.
Defiance as many people have already pointed out is hardly original, it does contain a lot of well known sci-fi tropes and can sometime be predictable because of that but and this is high praise from me I didn’t hate it, it has a lot of potential and like I said I just need to be able to see that in order to give a show a chance.
I hope it becomes part of a new set of shows willing to embrace all the wonder and weirdness sci-fi can show us.
Defiance observations
+ I have a thing for scheming power couples so I love the Tarrs and their devious plans to marry their son off and gain control of the mines.
+ Doctor Yewll is sarcastic and fun and I hope we see more of her (I’m assuming her because of the actress but not sure if the race actually has genders)
+ I didn’t see that twist at the end coming; the devious former mayor is more than an old woman looking for retirement. Watch out.
+ Unlike a certain other sci-fi show set in the near future (Revolution), I didn’t outright hate any of the characters! A good sign.
+ The music! Bear McCeary is a god in my eyes, his work on BSG is absolutely stunning and you can hear that shows influence on some of the score.
+ I really hope they don’t go down the love triangle route with the Mayor, her sister and Nolan. Love triangles are the worst.
+ Nothing like a bit of Johnny Cash, that scene immediately made me smile and interested in the characters.
Defiance is currently airing on Mondays at 9/8C on SyFy
Crossposted to The Idiot Box
Turn and face the strange - Orphan Black takes us on a fun ride with a twist
Orphan Black follows the story of Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) who after seeing someone who could be her twin jump in front of a train decides it would be a swell idea to assume her life.
Now this makes it seem like Sarah is the Queen of Bad Decisions but she really isn’t, she just sees opportunities and goes for it. She needs money to start a new life with her daughter Kira and her best friend come foster brother Felix (Jordan Gavaris). So taking on the identity of Elizabeth Childs to achieve this is meant to be a short term solution. Elizabeth was well dressed and clearly had a lifestyle which could help Sarah out quite nicely. So she adopts an Canadian accent and dresses smartly and draws a huge amount of cash out of an account. So far everything is going fine, she even fools Elizabeth’s boyfriend.
Then things start spiralling out of control and with it the show becomes one hell of a ride. Sometimes it is really fun to watch characters get themselves out of impossible often crazy situations. Also as Alias and most recently The Americans has taught us it is also fun to see characters dress up as other people and go undercover.
But there is a twist in this tale, one which hasn’t been explicitly stated in the show yet but if you have seen the trailers is clearly spelled out and one which if you realise what genreOrphan Black is classified as becomes pretty clear early on. Orphan Black is a sci-fi series.
You see Elizabeth really did look like Sarah and Sarah is as the title of the show implies an orphan, so who knows maybe she does have a twin she didn’t know about . How though would that explain the crazy German she finds in her car who also just so happens to look like her or the Soccer Mom who lives in suburbia?
Clones.
Yep that sci-fi classic trope is back on TV and right now we don’t know the full extent of why there are clones or what their purpose will be but if it is like the rest of Orphan Black it is going to be fun finding out.
Because we are seeing many versions of the same character the casting is vital and Tatiana Maslany does a fine job as the many different clones. She hasn’t reached Anna Torv levels yet, in which she played a least half a dozen different versions of Olivia Dunham in Fringe but I already love the differences Maslanybrings to each new clone we meet. She also has great reactions to every mad thing happening, often it is just one or two words muttered to herself but the way she incredulously says “Soccer Mom??” in episode two had me in stitches.
Sarah is constantly struggling to catch up with everything that is happening around her. She thinks taking on Elizabeth’s life will be fairly simple until she finds out that Childs was a Detective currently suspended for killing an unarmed civilian. Then the money Sarah desperately needs is being kept by her partner until he can be certain she has convinced the inquiry board that the killing was an accident. She has no idea about the whole clone situation and why there are people going around looking like her whereas it seems the other clones are more clued in.
There is still quite a way to go in this first season and I have no if a second season is on the cards but I am certainly on board with the show at this point and enjoying watching Sarah figure out what the hell is going on.
Other obversations
+ I love Sarah’s relationship with Felix - he helps her fake her death and is part of her plan to start a new life. They have a nice sibling relationship and he often provides comic relief as well as asking the questions the audience are asking. Everyone needs a side kick.
+ The killing of the civilian clearly has a bigger role to play in the story, could it be linked to the clone plot?
+ Sarah’s ex (and abusive) boyfriend Vic (Michael Mando) attempts at befriending Felix and pretending he was such a great boyfriend to Sarah is interesting and I do wonder what his role in the show might become.
+ So Mrs S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) the foster mother of Sarah and Felix took the pair from the UK and moved to Canada, that seems like a big thing to do. Does she know about the clone situation and is that why she is protective of Kira?
+ Clones don’t happen by accident, so whoever is behind this all has some kind of evil plan right?
+ “Rock ‘n’ Roll” might become my standard reply when I don’t know how to get out of a situation or somehow forcing myself to vomit.
Orphan Black is currently airing on Saturdays on BBC America 9/8 C
Crossposted to The Idiot Box
The intense power of Southland the the brilliance of Michael Cudlitz
I watch a lot of TV whilst on the train to work, mainly because if I didn’t use that 40 minute journey I would always be in constant danger of falling far behind on shows. So I imagine my fellow commuters probably catch a glimpse of me every so often and wonder what the hell has happened. There has been a few times (OK many times) when I’ve held back the tears usually when watching an episode of Parks and Recreation, sometimes I’ve tried not to laugh out loud especially when watching Happy Endings. Then there are the times when my jaw has dropped and I am speechless. This happens pretty much on a weekly basis with Southland.
Just last week there was the attack on Sammy’s home which was shocking enough quickly followed by the revelation that Ben had been involved. Other instances include the death of Nate in S3 and Cooper getting attacked zombie style in S4. This week’s episode though possibly tops all of these incidents.
From the press release I knew that John Cooper and Hank Lucero were going to be kidnapped and that all the main characters would work on the case, something rare in the world of Southland which usually separates the pairings into their own storylines. So things were clearly going to be brutal but ‘Chaos‘ was more than that, it was an episode that was so intense that afterwards I had to immediately watch a comedy to try and get back to a happier place.
Michael Cudlitz has been bringing it to every episode of Southland since S1, his performance as John Cooper is not only consistently good but elevates the entire show to a whole new level. There is a subtly in his work, it’s not like Cooper is this intense menacing psychopath like Walter White in Breaking Bad, nor is he struggling with a duel life like Brody in Homeland. Cooper is the kind of cop you would want by your side if something awful had just happened to you. He is firm but fair to the criminals and reassuring to the victims. His scene in ‘Bleed Out’ where the girl was trapped under the bus is a fine example of how he deals with dangerous and intense situations.
The thing is about Cooper is that he is also gay, something that has been part of the show since the beginning but never overly explored not because they are scared to go there but because it is just what he is, he doesn’t let his sexuality define him and doesn’t want others to either. That is because Cooper is a very private person and yes he listens to his partners go on about their personal lives but doesn’t feel the need to share his.
This week though after weeks of Lucero making gay jokes Cooper finally decides to share who he is with his partner. The scene in the gay bar is at first awkward, Lucero thinks Cooper is just messing with him and then realises he isn’t and doesn’t really know how to act. The next scene however is the two leaving the bar and joking around and everything seems ok. Until it’s not. They start messing around and play wrestling in that way that men like to do but it goes on just a little too much and Lucero freaks out and shouts a homophobic slur at Cooper. It’s not completely out of character but like many moments in Southland it takes a fun harmless moment and suddenly jolts it into a something darker and tense. The look on Cooper’s face says it all.
The next day they are riding around once again but unlike their usual shifts together there is silence between the pair. Then they get a call to check out a abandoned building and the tension eases a little, they joke about the dumb meth head they caught in the act. It’s a routine call, until it’s not. Until Lucero is knocked out and the pair of them are kidnapped.
What follows is brutal and horrible, from the confusion they face handcuffed together in just their underwear in the back of the van, to the realisation that the men who have kidnapped them may be dumb but may also actually cause them harm. Lucero getting dragged into the bathroom only to emerged bloodied and beaten, his constant screaming and near hysterical state is contrasted with Cooper’s near silence. Cooper is trying to keep it together, trying to be dependable like he always is and trying not to freak out. It nearly works. They nearly get the phone and call for help. They nearly get out of it alive.
Until the quieter seemingly out of it kidnapper suddenly shows his true colours and shoots Lucero dead. Wham Bam. Another Southland shocker.
Southland has always struggled with its ratings and this season could very well be its last and so when Lucero was killed all I could think of was “Cooper could be next”. Unlike other shows where you know the main characters will never get harmed or in the case of Supernatural will be killed only to be revived again and again, Southland opened up the possibility that one of its main characters might not make it out alive. Which made the remaining minutes of ‘Chaos‘ incredibly hard to watch. Cooper is forced to dig a grave then drag his partner’s body into it before being pushed into the ground. His time could very well be up, especially as only last week he was attempting to find some kind of happiness by having a child with his ex-wife. We all know what happens when someone tries to get their happy ending.
Thankfully though Cooper lives another day, at the last minute the other kidnapper realising just how much trouble they are in bolts and his partner chases after him. We see Cooper drag himself out of the grave, stumble across the barren land and find himself at a gas station where he pounds on the glass asking the attendant for help. As he falls to the ground holding onto the badge of his partner, he finally breaks down. It isn’t an over the top performance, there is no screaming and smashing things. Cudlitz plays it how he always does, subtle, heartbreaking and beautiful.
Next week is the season and possible series finale of the show and no doubt there is more pain on the horizon for all of the characters the show follows, but if this is the last time we get to see them it is going to be a real shame to lose Cooper. Cudlitz and indeed the whole cast are a pleasure to watch and I don’t want to say goodbye to one of TV’s greatest cop shows and with John Cooper one of the best characters.
Southland’s season 5 finale airs Wednesday 17 April 10/9C
Crossposted to The Idiot Box
The Devil and I last night were alone in my house // He laughed at my jokes, struck a match, burned the place to the ground.
A week since the Justified finale and I missing the show a whole lot. Thought I picspam my favourite episode o S4 the simply wonderful Decoy.
We shall seek our destiny together. Whatever the cost.
Spartacus (2010-2013), 39 episodes 4 seasons
Like many I was a latecomer to Spartacus. Like many I dismissed it early on with its over the top graphic violence and constant orgies. But then like many I realised my foolish ways and fully embraced the show. After giving up after the pilot episode I checked back in on the show after Vengeance had finished after hearing many good things about that season and being intrigued by all the characters and their relationships. This time I managed to see past the slow motion fighting sequences with the epic rock music, I managed to stop giggling every time a character shouted “Jupiter’s cock!” and I started seeing what long term fans of the show knew all along.
Spartacus was well written, well acted and there was a reason for its portrayal of sex, violence and language It wasn’t just because it was on a cable channel and could push the boundaries, it was because it was showing the lives of these characters. These passionate hate fuelled Romans and Rebels. There is no room for apathy among these people; passion, desire, rage, revenge, power raged through them all.
What was also so good about the series was the decision to spend time with both sides, whilst I imagine it would have still be a good show if we just had the view point of Spartacus and friends it became an exceptional story but giving us a chance to see what made the Romans tick. Their messed up power struggles and mind games were as equally as compelling as the battles of the slaves and rebels.
Death came so often in Spartacus but it was always such a blow when it was someone that mattered to the story or to the characters. I think the moment that still stands out to me is the death of Varro. It was shocking, it was horrible, it packed an emotional punch.
Here is the thing, the heart of what makes Spartacus so fantastic. History has already been written. For every victory we have seen our fearless worthy leader make we all know how it ends and yet it doesn’t take away from the show, this inevitably doesn’t make the deaths less shocking or heartbreaking because such is the bravery of the Rebels, such is their intent you can almost believe they can grasp victory. You can almost believe a happy ending is possible, that Rome will fall at the feet of Spartacus and his friends.
One day perhaps people will learn to look beyond the violence and the sex and see the hidden depths of this wonderful show.
Crossposted to The Idiot Box
In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That’s the place where I trace my bloodline
And it’s there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan aliveJustified 04x13 ‘Ghosts’
Another incredible season of Justified concluded last night, once again with terrific often subtle performances from its leads Walton and Timothy. The little nod that Boyd gave to Wynn Duffy in the bar just broke my heart as did his return to the dream house he may never have with Ava. Then we have Raylan, who didn’t go full outlaw but certainly allowed a man to be killed and what is he left with? Just the graves of his family. Can he put to rest the ghost of his father when he becomes one himself or is he like Boyd doomed by the weight of his actions and past? Can they leave Harlan alive or is that an impossible dream?
