Autumn 2015 TV - Part Two

It's the second half of my feature, alphabetically listing all the TV shows I've been watching this autumn, with thoughts on how they're developing...

'The Knick' (season 2) - Cinemax.
It's another great year for this period medical drama, so far, which too many people are overlooking. I'm not sure why that is. The subject matter? Its wintry 1900s setting? The stigma of Cinemax? It's their loss. The Knick is amazing. Boardwalk Empire with stethoscopes. Gruesome surgeries. Genuinely insightful stuff about turn-of-the-19th-century medicine and social norms. Clive Owen as a coke-addict genius surgeon. Andre Holland stealing the show with a raised eyebrow. And it's all directed with surgical precision by Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies & Videotape, Ocean's Eleven), every single week. I feel blessed it exists.

Sponsored Post: FEAR THE WALKING DEAD on UK AMC with BT TV

★★☆☆☆

What's the premise? This is the spin-off prequel to AMC's phenomenally popular horror drama The Walking Dead, dramatising the same zombie uprising from the perspective of a family dealing with the immediate aftermath in suburban Los Angeles.

Sponsored Post: 5 Hopes & Desires for FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

It's odd to remember the idea of putting zombies on television was non-commercial just a decade ago, as the brain-eating dead were deemed too extreme for home audiences. The millennial success of zombie films like Resident Evil, Shaun of the Dead and the Dawn of the Dead remake paved the way for AMC to risk commissioning The Walking Dead in 2010—a weekly drama based on Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's 2003 comic-book series. It's a horror drama that regularly attracts 15 million viewers in the U.S, on a cable channel that would otherwise class 3 million as a big hit.

Teaser: AMC's FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

Do we really need another Walking Dead show? The unimaginatively titled FEAR THE WALKING DEAD spin-off will take place in Los Angeles and revolve around a family, both before and after the zombie uprising its parent show glossed over. This is a shameless cash-in, with AMC hoping to fill the summer months of 'walker'-less programming with a spin-off based on U.S TV's biggest ratings-grabber.

Infographic: Create Your Own Van Art

Do you own a van? Is it dull and white in colour? Would you love to 'pimp it up' with a television themed makeover? If you're a fan of The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, or The Big Bang Theory, this infographic from Van Monster will see you right:

THE WALKING DEAD readjusts (again), but I'm still dead-eyed...

I'm still watching THE WALKING DEAD after five years, but only for the entertainment-value of its action sequences and the impressively-staged violence and gore. There are no characters that appeal to me in any meaningful way, and heaven knows its story arcs are incredibly hit-and-miss. Over time, I've distilled exactly why this AMC drama feels overrated to me, and it's very simple: there's no actual goal to achieve, as the show seems determined to nix any possibility of a zombie-cure or impregnable sanctuary being discovered. (And yes, even taking into account what happened in the latest episode, "The Distance", I don't envisage there being a happily ever after until AMC announce The Walking Dead's cancellation.)

Why is there a WALKING DEAD spin-off?

Answer: $$$$$. AMC have a phenomenon on their schedule, but the cash cow only produces 16 episodes a year, which they split into two batches to try and make it feel more substantial. A spin-off (sorry, "companion" series) will help keep THE WALKING DEAD universe on-air for twice as long, while benefiting from fresh characters and a different location. It also helps that this new series (codenamed COBALT) won't be following an established comic-book's lead, which will mean no spoilers and a less predictable direction. Here's what we know:

Mini-Reviews: THE AFFAIR, AHS, CONSTANTINE, THE FLASH, SLEEPY HOLLOW, WALKING DEAD, etc.

Reviews of television shows have been sparse over the past few weeks (apologies), so this little batch of mini-reviews will have to suffice...

THE AFFAIR (season 1). I fell behind the U.S airings on Showtime, so I'm playing catch-up now. I'm still enjoying this relationship drama a great deal, although a part of me's beginning to wonder if the narrative gimmick's more trouble than it's worth. It was a fun idea to split each episode into two halves (each from the perspective of Dominic West or Ruth Wilson's character), but I find myself more invested in West's "angle"... and yet it could be the "wrong one". But is there a singular truth? Maybe both versions of the story works of fiction and the truth's an amalgamation? Sometimes there are differences in the story that make me scratch my head, because there's no point in either character intentionally lying about certain things (like whether their interviewing cop's married or separated). And the cop stuff's happening in the present, so it's not even a case of the characters remembering the past wrongly, which I thought was partly accounting for the differences in their recollections... so the show itself has two separate outlooks. Weird. ★★★☆

THE WALKING DEAD, 5.3 – 'Four Walls and a Roof' – rolling in the aisle

★★★☆

Who are the good guys? It's all a matter of perspective, although the poor explanation for the Terminus "hunters" becoming cannibals means we're still on grizzled Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) side, despite the fact he brutally murdered someone with a machete in the aisle of a church. But what do churches represent these days? Can there be a God if he's allowed this zombie apocalypse to happen? Father Gabriel's (Seth Gilliam) appalled Rick's group slaughtered people in the Lord's House, but for Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and the others it's just "four walls and a roof". A place of momentary sanctuary on this journey with an unclear destination; although Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) kindly left Rick with a map to Washington D.C, having now departed on his mission to cure the world with half of Rick's team.

TV I've been watching lately...

We're fast approaching November and most of the new autumn shows have begun, plenty of old favourites are back, and the summer shows are a memory. But what am I enjoying watching every week, finding time to write about, or have given up on completely? Read on!

THE AFFAIR (Showtime, season 1). It's been a great two-episode start to this new Showtime drama starring Dominic West and Ruth Wilson as extra-marital lovers, with a unique flashback format that also bisects each episode into opposing perspectives on the same events. Even without those narrative devices, I'd like this The Affair in terms of the basic story and performances, but the twists are what makes this feel so compelling. And I was pleased the second episode didn't beat around the bush, so we already have an idea about why the main characters are being interviewed by cops a year after their affair began. My only vague concern is that it's hard to really side with West or Wilson's character, as each "part" of the tale casts one or t'other as the more dominant, mildly unlikeable one. Not knowing who to believe or trust is part of the show's mystery, of course, but it does mean the viewer's constantly unsure about anything... which makes it hard to settle into. ★★★☆

THE WALKING DEAD, 5.2 – 'Strangers' • the last good man alive

★★★☆

The premiere was thoroughly enjoyable, but had modest aims and was perhaps impossible for THE WALKING DEAD to get wrong after so much practice. The follow-up, "Strangers", was a better indication of what this fifth season's going to bring viewers, but obviously things are at a very early stage... although it's very promising that creepy Gareth (Andrew J. West), together with some of the other cannibals, survived last week's onslaught of walkers and Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) violent escape from their Terminus home. They're even scarier in the woods, stalking Rick's group and looking for vengeance...

THE WALKING DEAD, 5.1 – 'No Sanctuary' • end of the line

★★★★

I'm not surprised THE WALKING DEAD is a hit. What surprises me if how much of a hit! An astonishing 17.3 million people watched its AMC premiere, and that figure is predicted to rise to around 22m when repeat airings and catchup is included. The show even gave Fox a ratings boost here in the UK on Monday (helped by the less-than-24-hour later scheduling?), by achieving an overnight audience of 824,100 viewers. So was the fifth season premiere worth all the attention?

October 2014 Highlights - ARROW • CONSTANTINE • THE FLASH • GRACEPOINT • HOMELAND • THE WALKING DEAD • more!

It's October. Officially autumn. So what treats does the television have in store for UK and U.S viewers from now until Halloween? Let's look at the most notable highlights...

Digital Spy: 12 Fantasy Television Crossovers

Over at Digital Spy today, it's my latest article. This one fantasises about 12 "crossover" episodes of past and present TV shows, that would be extremely unlikely but incredibly fun to watch. Dexter meets Hannibal? Sherlock travels to Fargo? Justified visits True Blood? Click through to read more, and remember to share if you enjoy it!

SDCC 2014's Friday panels: ARROW, GAME OF THRONES & THE WALKING DEAD

Yesterday was the second day of San Diego Comic-Con, and below are fan-filmed videos of three panels for ARROW, GAME OF THRONES and THE WALKING DEAD. Friday also contained panels for Sleepy Hollow and BBC America's new sci-fi drama The Intruders, but those haven't sneaked online yet.

Trailer: THE WALKING DEAD – Season 5 (SDCC 2014)

AMC's first trailer for the fifth season of survival horror hit THE WALKING DEAD was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, during the cast and crew's panel. If you're a fan of rotting zombies being stabbed in the head through chain-link fences, mark 12 October in your diary.

Fans of numerical birthmarks, rejoice! THE OMEN is coming to television...

Glen Mazzara (The Shield, The Walking Dead) is developing a television drama based on the 1976 horror film The Omen, entitled DAMIEN.

The series will tell the story of Damien Thorn, adopted child of two American diplomats, who is actually the Antichrist. Unlike the 1976 movie (which formed part of a trilogy and was remade in 2006), Damien will introduce its eponymous villain as an adult haunted by his childhood and grappling with his macabre destiny. (So it's actually more a remake of Omen III: The Final Conflict?)

It seems horror is the "big thing" in television, following successes like True Blood, American Horror Story and The Walking Dead. Studios seem particularly keen on remaking existing horror franchises; with sequels, prequels, or remakes of Psycho (A&E's Bates Motel), The Silence of the Lambs (NBC's Hannibal), El Ray's From Dusk till Dawn, and NBC Rosemary's Baby miniseries. Interestingly, Mazzara is also writing a film prequel to The Shining called The Overlook Hotel.

Damien will be broadcast on Lifetime, a channel not best-known for such grisly fare, although it has made inroads with Witches of East End and an upcoming dystopian thriller called The Lottery.

It's April, and I'm watching...

It's impossible to review everything I watch on a daily basis these days, so here are my broad thoughts on the TV shows I'm still watching every week, have started queueing on my TiVo, or have sadly dropped from regular viewing, as of 2 April...

Finale review: AMC's THE WALKING DEAD - season 4

The Walking Dead still isn't a show I feel compelled to write about episodically, but it's much better than it used to be. Every season of the show has improved the formula in certain areas, and this fourth year certainly delivered more zombies and stronger character moments. The mid-season finale found a way to (almost literally) explode the close-knit community of the prison, spitting the characters off into different storylines. This certainly helped put a spotlight on faces desperately in need of care and attention, who were suddenly able to get it thanks to having whole episodes focusing on less people. There was even a period of time when the show's hero, grizzled Sheriff Rick (Andrew Lincoln), was absent for many weeks, which came as a welcome respite.

It's March, so I'm watching...

It's impossible finding time to review everything I watch on a daily basis, so here are my broad thoughts on the TV shows I'm watching every week, started queueing on my TiVo, or have dropped from viewing, as of 3 March...