TV Review: BBC America's ORPHAN BLACK

I wasn't expecting to enjoy Orphan Black quite as much as I did, perhaps due to residual feelings of disappointment in last year's similarly-themed Ringer. However, this pilot episode did a terrific job of laying out the concept and getting the audience involved in the story and mystery at its heart. Orphan Black concerns streetwise Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany), a young woman who witnesses her doppelgänger jump in front of a moving train. Having left the station with her double's handbag, Sarah makes the decision to assume the identity of the deceased Beth Childs--which results in her obtaining a $75,000 bank account, plush apartment, and a hunky boyfriend called Paul (Dyan Bruce). Unfortunately, it also means Sarah's thrown into the deep end when she realises Beth was a tough detective, and throws up difficulties for her eccentric foster brother Felix (Jordan Gavaris) and her insecure ex-boyfriend Vic (Michael Mando)...

Final series of MISFITS

The superhero drama Misfits is coming back for 8 hour-long episodes, but this fifth series will be its last.

Murray Ferguson, Clerkenwell Films' Chief Executive, says the show "... was a bold and confident commission that backed original ideas and new talent, quickly becoming a hit with its audience on E4 and around the world. It's been great to produce a show that has been able to innovate on screen and online, and that broke new ground premiering with huge success on Hulu in America. Misfits has been an exciting and rewarding ride for us all and we now look forward to ending the show with a bang!"

Did ANYONE spot my April Fool?

The saying about a lead balloon springs to mind, because I didn't get any feedback about my April Fool's Day joke yesterday. Huh. Maybe it was TOO subtle, which kind of says everything about the state of television today...

If you aren't aware, yesterday's weekly TV Picks weren't wholly accurate. There was misinformation, lies, and some fake TV programmes -- including Christina Hendricks in a Murder, She Wrote remake for the internet-age called Murder, She Blogged. You can click here to read the others.

Oh well, maybe I'll have to be less subtle next time and sledgehammer some nonsense home. The important thing is, I had fun...

MSN TV: Sky Atlantic's GAME OF THRONES (season 3 premiere) & BBC1's JONATHAN CREEK - 'The Clue of the Savant's Thumb'

Today over at MSN TV: I've reviewed the season 3 premiere of medieval fantasy epic GAME OF THRONES on Sky Atlantic with "Valar Dohaeris", and the Easter Monday special of BBC1's long-running murder-mystery drama JONATHAN CREEK.

I found Games of Thrones' first season a tough nut to crack, having never read the books it's adapting. There were so many characters and locations (each with a rich and detailed history) that it took me seven episodes to get a grasp of everything. The second season had a choppier narrative style, but less exposition made me appreciate things more, despite the fact it swelled its ranks with extra characters and new places to explore. But I'm glad I put the work in and stuck with Game of Thrones through some weeks of confusion, because it's become a firm favourite.

Continue reading 'Game of Thrones' at MSN TV...

It's hard to believe Jonathan Creek's been going since 1997, even if instalments since 2009 have slowed to irregular holiday treats. David Renwick's popular sleuth returned for a feature-length mystery in The Clue of the Savant's Thumb, and the first half of this story certainly entertained and bamboozled in equal measure. Renwick took great delight in filling the plot with bold genre clichés (some of which Scooby-Doo wouldn't dare touch), but it's hard to deny there's something comforting and pleasurable about a hammy mix of Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders.

Continue reading 'Jonathan Creek' at MSN TV...

Audioboo: DOCTOR WHO's 'The Bells of Saint John'

I'm often asked about maybe recording a podcast to accompany DMD, but I'm not comfortable doing that. Writing's more my medium, because putting something on the internet in audio/visual form is more permanent. (I can easily rewrite and fix a blog post's text, but a podcast is less changeable once it's published.)

But hey, it's Easter Weekend and I had a few minutes to kill this afternoon, so I recorded an Audioboo about Doctor Who's "The Bells of Saint John". Consider this an unlikely experiment...

So.. click here, then hear me try to marshal my thoughts on the fly (unscripted), with a time-limit in the back of my mind. Can you feel the mild sense of panic?

You can even follow my Audioboo feed here, should I perhaps do more of these. Feedback welcome, but be kind.

Trailer: TRUE BLOOD - season 6

I'm still posting trailers for True Blood, strangely. It's a sickness. As you probably know, I haven't been keen on this HBO supernatural drama since the end of season 2; and although season 5 was a mild improvement on season 4, it's become a ridiculous mess. But here's a taster of what to expect from year six, which is the first without Alan Ball as showrunner. It's not enough to form any kind of judgement, but I do like the casting of Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), and I'm intrigued about how they'll tackle the "Bilith" situation--now that Bill (Stephen Moyer) has become a naked, blood-soaked super-vampire. Will you be hate-watching this summer? Or do you still genuinely love what True Blood does?

TRUE BLOOD returns 16 June on HBO.

TV Picks: 1-7 April 2013 (Chalk N' Cheese, Find the Chair, Game of Thrones, Murder She Blogged, Once Upon A Time, Touch, United States of Cakes, etc.)

Below are my picks of the week's most notable TV shows, premiering/returning to UK screens this week...

MSN TV: BBC1's THE VOICE (series 2); BBC2's LIFE'S TOO SHORT special; Channel 4's LABYRINTH

Today over at MSN TV: there's an apt trinity of reviews for Easter, as I cover the series 2 premiere of THE VOICE on BBC1; cast an eye over the hour-long return of spoof documentary LIFE'S TOO SHORT; and assess the first part of Channel 4's fantasy adaptation LABYRINTH.

The Voice is the Netherlands television format phenomenon, once tipped to usurp X Factor as the UK's premiere reality talent show. However, while the BBC1 series premiered to critical acclaim and a ratings bonanza last year, audiences fell away once its signature Blind Auditions ended and The Voice UK's live shows could only offer tweaks on the illustrious X Factor formula. This didn't stop The Voice UK becoming the BBC's most successful entertainment series launch for a decade (with a consolidated average of 9.2 million viewers), but it was clearly a show with kinks to iron out.

Continue reading 'The Voice' at MSN TV...

I didn't particularly like Life's Too Short when it aired in late 2011, so I didn't expect to enjoy this special episode (potentially) concluding the show. However, against expectations, this Easter special was one of Life's Too Short's better episodes and provided enough laughs and fun to please most viewers. It hasn't made me reconsider the weak and dawdling first series in hindsight, but it felt like an improved pilot that fixed a few problems.

Continue reading 'Life's too Short' at MSN TV...

Labyrinth splits its story between two time periods. In the present day, ostensible heroine Dr Alice Tanner (Vanessa Kirby) is helping with an archaeological dig at the Pit De Soularac in France. Inside a cave, Alice discovers two skeletons and a strange ring engraved with a labyrinth symbol, before experiencing a frighteningly vivid hallucination of being stabbed in the abdomen. She leaves the cave to witness a mound of bodies being burned by 13th-century knights.

Continue reading 'Labyrinth' at MSN TV...

DOCTOR WHO, 7.6 - 'The Bells of Saint John'

Doctor Who's 50th years kicks off with the concluding half of series 7 (which was frustratingly put on hiatus since late-September, not including the excellent Christmas Special). Unusually, "The Bells of Saint John" was an introductory episode for a new companion, who's already been seen in two incarnations beforehand--as futuristic omelette-maker Oswin in "Asylum of the Daleks" and Victorian governess Clara in "The Snowmen".

Here, Clara's (Jenna-Louise Coleman) properly introduced in her present-day form, given another of showrunner Steven Moffat's Harry Potter-style nicknames ('The Girl Twice Dead'), but oblivious to her former adventures with The Doctor (Matt Smith). She's essentially another River Song-style intellectual puzzle for The Doctor to solve, which will most likely have a convoluted and only half-satisfying explanation come the finale. Still, at least Clara's a spirited and smart-talking companion--similar to Amy, but far less reverential of The Doctor, and more intelligent (although her computer skills come courtesy of a plot contortion, not through education). Moffat does seem to have some boneheaded ideas about women's roles--so Amy the kissogram and would-be perfume model has been replaced by a sexy nanny? I suppose that's progress, of sorts...

DOCTOR WHO: 50th Anniversary casting

Doctor Who returns tonight for the last half of series 7 (BBC1, 6.15pm), and Blogtor Who have reported casting news confirmed by Doctor Who Magazine.

DON'T continue reading if you don't want to know, although God knows how you're going to avoid this news for the next eight months...

Three famous actors will be joining Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman in the 50th Anniversary special (which is now confirmed as being 90-minutes long and filmed in 3D).

And they are...