Frame Rated: THE X-FILES - 'My Struggle II'

Yesterday at Frame Rated: I reviewed the terrible finale to THE X-FILES' revival, "My Struggle II", which capped an inconsistent and frustrating comeback.

While not as distasteful as "Babylon", the finale of The X-Files' so-called 'event series' was a preposterous mess that bit off more than it could chew. Maybe if this had been a two-hour film (possibly as intended, as Chris Carter once admitted writing a third movie on spec), it perhaps would have had the necessary time and budget to do justice to some of its ideas, although brevity and lack of money wasn’t the main problem. Continue reading...

Frame Rated: THE X-FILES - 'Babylon'

If you missed it yesterday, I reviewed the penultimate episode of THE X-FILES event series, "Babylon", over at Frame Rated. It was... not good.

Where to begin? I’ve perhaps been too kind to The X-Files this year, because it was a formative television show for me as a teenager, so I was prepared to cut it some slack. All of the episodes this series have had problems (with the exception of "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster", which wasn’t originally intended for the show), but this penultimate instalment is hard to defend. "Babylon" was a bizarre, tonally awkward, often rather embarrassing mishmash of ideas, and something I'd rather forget happened. The X-Files delivered far worse during its original run in the '90s, and I’m aware that only have six episodes means a bad hour seems much worse (as it drags the overall score down by 16%), but that’s no excuse for something this shoddy. Continue reading...

Frame Rated: THE X-FILES event series (2016)

Yesterday at Frame Rated, I reviewed the first two episodes of THE X-FILES 'event series' ("My Struggle" and "Founder's Mutation"). Did the long-awaited return of Mulder and Scully meet expectations? Or was it a mistake to try and revive this seminal '90s hit?

"For any millennials reading, it must be hard to appreciate just how much of a phenomenon The X-Files was in the 1990s. Here was a television show with a beautifully simple concept (two FBI agents—one a sceptic, one a believer—investigate the paranormal) that worked for mass audiences and geeks alike. It paved the way for much of today’s pop-culture, too, advancing what was possible on the small-screen and spearheading the use of serialised 'mythologies' that are now so popular. 19.8 million Americans were tuning into the exploits of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) at its peak, and even during its twilight years The X-Files was capable of reaching 13.9m viewers." Continue reading...

Fox officially announce 24: LEGACY

It's 2006, right? No, it's 2016. I've checked my watch. But that hasn't stopped Fox turning back the clock today. They've announced the return of two defunct shows from their recent past, which we've been expecting to hear official confirmation of for many months now...

Pilot watch: Fox's SCREAM QUEENS

★★★☆☆

What's the premise? Scream Queens is a new horror-comedy anthology series from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, who between them created Glee and American Horror Story. This first season concerns a serial killer targeting university students; particularly the young ladies of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority.

Frame Rated: 5 New U.S TV Shows to Watch this Autumn

A few days ago, over at Frame Rated: I wrote a rundown of the 5 New U.S TV Shows to Watch this Autumn: BLINDSPOT, ASH vs EVIL DEAD, THE MUPPETS, SCREAM QUEENS and SUPERGIRL. Please check it out and share with your friends, family and followers!

Pilot watch: Fox's MINORITY REPORT

★☆☆☆☆

What's the premise? Minority Report takes place in the mid-21st century, where crime was once prevented before it was even committed thanks to three "Precogs" (psychics who can predict the future). 15 years later, one of those Precogs, Dash (Stark Sands), returns from exile to help Detective Lara Vega (Meagan Good) tackle crime using his amazing gift of clairvoyance, while searching for his fellow Precogs (twin brother Arthur and foster sister Agatha).

Pilot watch: Fox's LUCIFER

★★★☆☆

What's the premise? The Devil, 'Lucifer Morningstar' (Tom Ellis), abandons his responsibilities in Hell to run a nightclub in Los Angeles, before deciding to punish city criminals with the help of LAPD detective Chloe Dancer (Lauren German).

TV Pilots I Want to See: 2015-16

It's time for the return of my annual feature that lists the 2015/16 U.S pilots I have an interest in. This year, to make it a bit more fun, I've split these potential new shows into loose groups with similar themes. Also, each one has a coloured star that denotes its development status:

★ = not picked up

★ = in development, or under consideration

★ = officially becoming a new series

As always, if you spot any errors, notice that something needs updating, or would like to recommend a glaring omission to my list, please let me know in the comments below. This post will update over the next few weeks, as the networks announces each pilot's fate and start releasing trailers/photos. And now, onward!

Review: Fox's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

★★★☆

There have been many stories about post-apocalypses, but they're usually action-packed ways to examine an irreversibly altered civilisation (I Am Legend), or sombre human sci-fi dramas (The Quiet Earth). Fox's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is an outright comedy, about a man called Phil Miller (Will Forte) who's the lone survivor of an unspecified event that's resulted in the disappearance of every other person on the planet—or at least the U.S, which Phil's toured in his desperate search for companionship.

Fox order a LUCIFER pilot, changing it into ANOTHER cop show!

Did you read the comic-book LUCIFER? Beginning as a supporting character in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Lucifer headlined his own 75-issue spin-off comic. If you don't know, the character is literally The Devil, and the gist of his storyline had give up managing Hell to instead run a piano bar with a woman called Mazikeen (a Lilim night spirit) in his earthly "retirement". Lucifer eventually decided to create his own universe, to rival God's, and this crazy endeavour saw him clash with various entities. It sounds like an epic and ambitious idea for television, so it's surprising that Fox have decided to adapt Lucifer… but, uh, they have… only, well, in their TV pilot Lucifer will be helping the LAPD solve crimes and punishing criminals. Oh Lord.

GOTHAM, 1.14-15 – 'The Fearsome Dr. Crane' & 'The Scarecrow'

★★☆☆ 'The Fearsome Dr. Crane'
★☆☆☆ 'The Scarecrow'

It's ludicrous how often The Penguin betrays his gangland bosses, then avoids whatever punishment they exact after discovering his treachery. Here it was the turn of lisping Maroni (David Zayas) to realise Oswald's a snake who's been working for his nemesis Falcone (John Doman) all along, and didn't manage to execute mutual enemy Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) as he claimed. How many times can Gotham keep doing the same thing with this character? Oswald even ended the hour back on the outskirts of Gotham, hitching a lift back into the city, in a clear call-back to episode 2.

Fox favourites 24, PRISON BREAK and THE X FILES to return! Uh, maybe.

Do you ever get the impression U.S network television wish they could turn the clock back a decade or two? Speaking at the Television Critic's Association winter press tour, Fox Television chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman announced the network was in a rebuilding mode, and have been discussing the return of some old hits...

Fox's SCREAM QUEENS casts Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis

If you haven't heard, producer-writer-director Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) has a new 15-episode horror drama beginning on Fox early next year. Entitled SCREAM QUEENS, it's another anthology show like AHS, with the first season revolving around a campus rocked by a spate of murders. Yeah, it sounds like American Horror Story: Slasher. Or Scream: The TV Series, which is actually coming next year courtesy of MTV.

Newsbuzz: CONSTANTINE cut, Netflix save Tina Fey's cult comedy, Fox adapting GLOBAL FREQUENCY

NBC have refused to give their new supernatural drama CONSTANTINE a "back nine"; additional episodes to take it beyond the thirteen hours commissioned. The show hasn't been cancelled, but it's a sign the network isn't entirely happy with its longterm prospects. Maybe they just see the benefit of a cable-length run, rather than force the writers to crank out more episodes (which does tend to mean a saggy middle, past a natural end-point, in these circumstances). The ratings haven't been abysmal (considering it's in a Friday night timeslot U.S TV abhors) and it's a very marketable show overseas, so I'm optimistic of renewal...

Fox remaking hit UK crime thriller LUTHER - and the original to return?

Despite the response to Gracepoint (Fox's remake of ITV's Broadchurch) being lukewarm, the same U.S network is pressing ahead with another adaptation of a British hit. BBC1's LUTHER has been given a pilot order, with creator Neil Cross involved with the script. Idris Elba (The Wire) won't be reprising his role as tough city cop John Luther, but he will executive-produce the new show. My thoughts below...

THE X-FILES, 1.6 – 'Shadows' • spirited office work

★★☆☆

Mulder and Scully investigate the bizarre deaths of two muggers in Philadelphia, which leads Mulder to theorise their victim retaliated using psychokinesis.

Better than "The Jersey Devil", but with its own array of flaws, SHADOWS is at least commendable for playing with audience expectations a little. Glen Morgan and James Wong return for writing duties after their home-run "Squeeze", but couldn't prevent this hour from being a disappointment. This episode was apparently commissioned because Fox wanted more stories where Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) help people, and took inspiration from 1982 film The Entity.

THE X-FILES, 1.5 – 'The Jersey Devil' • little miss mutation

★☆☆☆

Mulder and Scully travel to New Jersey to investigate a cannibalistic murder, which Mulder believes was perpetrated by an evolutionary relic...

After a run of surprisingly solid early episodes, The X-Files vomits its first dud with THE JERSEY DEVIL; a decidedly dull hour from creator Chris Carter, treading similar turf to the Sasquatch myth, but in a more absurd manner. However, there were elements of the story that worked okay, or were interesting in hindsight because the writers are still finding their way into these characters.

GOTHAM, 1.5 – 'Viper' • the drugs do work

★★★☆

The best hour of GOTHAM so far, and a sign this show could make a go of things. It's no coincidence it focused on the strongest aspect of the show (the machinations of Gotham's two biggest crime lords), and added super-powers to the equation. They even found a way to get young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) out of his mansion; although we still had Batman foreshadowing with Alfred (Sean Pertwee) commending his detective skills. I've been hard on this show, but maybe it's time to cut it some slack? The past few weeks have been fun.

GOTHAM, 1.4 – 'Arkham' • big developments

★★★☆

"Arkham" arrived in the nick of time for GOTHAM, as I was poised to cease writing these reviews. I'm still unconvinced it's rich enough to bother with for the entire season, but episode 4 was a more interesting and layered hour, with less of the silliness that unbalances the show's tone. I liked this week's villain, assassin Gladwell (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), who favours a telescopic blade to kill his prey, and the story wisely introduced Arkham Asylum as a prized real estate the city's two biggest mobsters—Falcone (John Doman) and Maroni (David Zayas)—are interested in exploiting. The twisted politics of the city are becoming quite enjoyable to watch...