HANNIBAL, 1.9 & 1.10 – 'Trou Normand' & 'Buffet Froid'

Below is a double-bill review covering the last few episodes of HANNIBAL, to prevent myself slipping too far behind NBC's broadcast. The low-rated but critically-adored crime drama was renewed last week, too, so I'm very pleased we'll be getting a second course...

written by Steve Lightfoot
directed by Guillermo Navarro

After a few weeks spent exploring the eponymous Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), criminal profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) returned to the spotlight in "Trou Normand"; an episode that also picked up the storyline with Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl). The case-of-the-week storyline was characteristically gruesome, with Graham helping Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) catch a killer who has exhumed his previous victims on a beach and assembled them into a morbid "totem pole" of limbs, heads and torsos. This show is so adept at creating striking, macabre visuals--never let it be said otherwise.

I also liked the theme of the episode being "legacy", once it became clear the serial killer, elderly Lawrence Wells (Lance Henriksen), had created this monument as part of a bizarre "retirement plan"--with a lovely twist that he'd unwittingly killed his own son, his true "legacy", in the process. A special mention must go to cult hero Lance Henriksen, who did so much with his one scene towards the end of the hour—and whose role in '90s crime thriller Millennium (itself inspired by Thomas Harris's novels) was nicely subverted from hunter to hunted.

I'm back! (Not from Spain)

I'm back in the UK. Unfortunately, I never left. If you follow my Twitter you'll know all this in greater detail, but I accidentally put my passport through the wash three days before my flight. After taking lots of advice from various people and Googling for similar travel tales, I decided to risk going to the airport to fly to Spain in the early hours of last Friday. I didn't get very far, thanks to the helpful but strict people of Thomas Cook.

So, I've spent the past five days of my "holiday" here in the UK visiting some family. It's been a week of needless expense, stress, and ultimate disappointment, but I have the rest of the week in unusually clement British weather (19c where I live today) to get over it. It also means I can begin a catch-up of the TV shows I missed, which in blogging terms means Hannibal and Mad Men. I'm always in two-minds about how to do these, but will most likely approach them with the intention of being 'brief', only to watch the word-count grow to 900-1000 words. That's usually what happens! I also managed to watch all of Arrested Development, so some form of review will be along this week--although, again, I'm more than aware the internet went Bluth bananas at the end of May and you're all probably sick of it now.

Anyway, that's my vague plan. Not sure when DMD will be back to 'normal service', but I'm definitely here and able to post stuff. Anyone interested in Community and Doctor Who thoughts, regarding the news last week? Or are we all fed up reading about that now, too?

MSN TV: ITV's THE AMERICANS

Over at MSN TV today: I've reviewed the UK premiere of FX's 1980s espionage thriller THE AMERICANS, which is ITV's first US acquisition in five years.

Summer holiday

I'm off to sunny Spain for a few weeks soon, so my absence will obviously impact updates. Don't expect much blogging until 30 May, and then there'll be no updates until 10 June. Yes, even the TV Picks will be missing for the next three weeks!

I won't apologise about this, because everyone needs a break, and it's rare enough for DMD to 'go dark'. Feel free to check out the blog archives, and discuss things I'm missing in appropriate comment areas (like here).

When I get back to the UK, I'll try to clear the backlog of Mad Men and Hannibal reviews, and there's also the start of my Buffy S4/Angel S1 catchups to look forward to. I will probably use my Netflix free trial to mainline Arrested Development in June, too, but I have a suspicion the internet will be exhausted by discussion of that show by the time I get back! Oh, True Blood's sixth season will also be days away when I arrive home... so, lots of things on the horizon... see you in a few weeks!

Letterboxd: FRANKENWEENIE & TAKEN 2

I've started using Letterboxd to post short reviews of films, which will be linked to in this blog's sidebar. I'm also going to 'mirror' a selection of DMD film reviews over there, and vice versa here. So starting from now, the past two or three Letterboxd entries will be collated into an occasional blog post...

Frankenweenie (2012)

Tim Burton's best film in years is also his biggest commercial failure, despite being a "remake" of exactly the sort of thing that gave him his big break in the 1980s. It seems big audiences don't like pure Burton—or at least not in animated, monochrome form, without Johnny Depp lending his vocals. I'm glad Burton appears to have used his post-ALICE IN WONDERLAND cachet to make something as personal and non-commercial as FRANKENWEENIE, but it'll only really be loved by dyed-in-the-wool fans who don't feel it's a backwards step. Still, at this point in Burton's career, a backwards step to try and recapture former glories is perhaps better than dancing in circles with CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY or DARK SHADOWS. I just wish SWEENEY TODD didn't feel like such an aberration, when it should have heralded a fresh start.

The CW's ARROW: did the first season hit the mark?

Warning: contains major spoilers. I didn't expect to watch all of Arrow's first season, but this ersatz Batman was surprisingly entertaining—although, like many US network shows, it began to test my patience with an inexcusable 23-episode run. The second-half was consequently much weaker and you could feel the writers filling time, but it helped that Arrow had built itself a large world of characters, relationships, and storylines.

There was also the clever idea of telling two distinct stories: the present-day crusade of wealthy playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) cleaning up his city as vigilante 'The Hood'; and how he was reborn as said superhero after years stranded on an island. I actually preferred the island storyline most of the time--despite the fact we know where everything's headed and that Oliver's life is never in danger--although that storyline was a victim of the season's length.

The big finale, "Sacrifice", ended the show's inaugural season on a high-note; with fisticuffs and city-wide destruction. The show has borrowed many elements from Batman and Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy (in particular), so it was only right the finale involved the destruction of a suburban district—echoing the scenes of chaos from the end of Batman Begins. We even had some old clichés like a device to disarm by cutting some wires, although I appreciated it being an Ocean's Eleven-esque "earthquake device" instead of a bomb.

MAD MEN, 6.8 – 'The Crash'

written by Jason Grote & Matthew Weiner | directed by Michael Uppendahl

It seems like Matthew Weiner so enjoyed "Far Away Places" from season 5, which featured hilarious scenes of Roger Sterling (John Slattery) getting high, that he couldn't resist co-writing an episode where almost every character was on amphetamines—prescribed by a doctor, at the behest of the firm's new partner Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin), to inspire increased creativity and productivity in the workforce. I may be in the minority with this, but I found a great deal of this episode too self-consciously ker-azy for its own good, and consequently had a tough time really caring about some of the serious issues and sub-plots that were part of the mix.

A&E's BATES MOTEL: was the first season worth checking in for?

Warning: spoilers for season 1, which hasn't aired in the UK (at time of writing).

I reviewed the pilot of A&E's Bates Motel, which had promise but didn't 'wow' me, then recorded an audioboo after episode 4 to admit things were improving. Now the entire first season of 10 episodes has aired in the US, so I thought I'd pitch in with some cumulative thoughts. Firstly, the show does itself no favours with its association to Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho, and I still don't quite understand why A&E couldn't have ordered an original serial killer/mystery drama that doesn't sit in this shadow. Still, considering its iconic pedigree, I don't think Bates Motel is a bad show or a lazy cash-in; occasionally it's even pretty good, at least as something unchallenging but fun to watch.

How to Watch Television Properly

Television's big business. Millions are spent creating content for people to sit down and watch. So the least you can do is watch it properly. And yes, that means not on your iPhone, while on a train, with headphones stuffed in your ears. I watch television semi-professionally, so here are my tips for how to watch it best...

TV Picks: 20-26 May 2013 (Arrested Development, Eddie Izzard's Mandela Marathons, Nina Conti: Talk to the Hand, Towns, The Vikings, etc.)

Below are my picks of the week's most notable new shows premiering/returning to UK screens; and as further proof TV's undergoing radical changes, two are online streaming exclusives...