August 2014 Highlights - DOCTOR WHO, INTRUDERS, THE KILLING, MASTERS OF SEX, OUTLANDER, A TOUCH OF CLOTH...

It's August! Summer's still here, but there's lots of good reasons to stay indoors with the television on. Below are my prime picks of shows hitting US and UK screens over the next four weeks, so read on if you need to plan your TV month...

My Television Disappointments of 2013

There were lots of bad television shows in 2013, as there are ever year, but the truly hopeless ones didn't hang around long enough to bother me. Or I managed to avoid the absolute worst of the worst thanks to good judgement. So this list is more about disappointment, not abject terribleness... although, sure, many of my choices are terrible shows, too. Below are the 10 shows that let me down, tricked me into expecting greatness, or were simply made by people who can do better. And in the interest of fairness, I watched either all or the majority of their seasons/series this year—but if you want to defend anything on the list because it got better at some point, be my guest...

UNDER THE DOME, 1.4 - 'Outbreak'

#UndertheDome is becoming its own 'jump the shark'-style idiom for a TV show that aims high but is restricted by a creative glass ceiling.
— Dan Owen (@danowen79) July 16, 2013

UNDER THE DOME, 1.3 – 'Manhunt'

written by Adam Stein |
directed by Paul Edwards

I'm not done watching Under the Dome yet, but the third episode confirmed my suspicions that weekly reviews would be both tedious and fruitless.

When you have a great concept like UtD's (a small town finds itself trapped under an impenetrable bubble), the joy as a viewer is seeing something so extraordinary given life in a credible way. I haven't read the Stephen King novel, but if the television series is a fair reflection then UtD isn't doing a very good job. Nobody behaves as you'd imagine any sane person would. Why is nobody already thinking ahead about air supply, fuel, food, and water? I know this is only episode 3, but those are the big things any sensible person would be asking questions about. And why is there no sense of mass panic? If nothing else, the fact the people on the outside of the dome are ignoring the trapped townsfolk would be a very frightening thing. It suggests guilt and a cover-up. But nobody seems to mind too much on this show. People are still eating at the local diner, skateboarding, walking their dogs, etc. It's madness.

UNDER THE DOME, 1.2 – 'The Fire'

written by Rick Cleveland |
directed by Jack Bender

This is a show I was planning to review every week as summer treat (similar to Persons Unknown), but I don't think Under the Dome is good enough to warrant that kind of attention. I wasn't entirely sold on last week's pilot, which I found half-decent with cool imagery, and this follow-up hour was (inevitably?) less interesting. There doesn't seem to be any sense of the panic and large-scale chaos this bizarre situation would most definitely create in a close-knit town, and I'm not invested in any of the characters just yet. (Although Rachelle Lefevre's red hair needs its own show.) The writers have also included a storyline where a lovestruck teenager's using the dome as an excuse to imprison his ex-girlfriend, which is really uninspiring because we have no connection to those characters or their relationship. Did Stephen King's book handle it better?

Review: CBS's UNDER THE DOME

written by Brian K. Vaughan (based on the novel by Stephen King) | directed by Niels Arden Oplev

There are two Stephen King's occupying my mind-space: the justly renowned author of horror classics Carrie, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining; and the originator of corny screen adaptations like The Tommyknockers, The Night Flier and Dreamcatcher. There are notable exceptions to the tendency for King adaptations to be useless or forgettable, of course: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is my favourite movie (although King hated it), Misery and Carrie were terrific, Pet Sematary's pretty good, the It miniseries contains the scariest villain ever, Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption's a masterpiece, and the same director's The Green Mile was also rather good. I even enjoyed The Mist. King has a chequered history with film and television, let's put it that way, but I was still optimistic when I heard his 2009 novel Under the Dome was being turned into a CBS TV series.

Trailer: CBS's UNDER THE DOME

CBS have released a full trailer for their summer series Under the Dome, and it looks pretty good. I have serious doubts about its longevity, even over a self-contained 13-episodes, but it's hard to argue with the talent here: Neal Baer (ER, Law & Order) is the showrunner, comic-book maven Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) is an executive-producer, and the pilot's directed by Niels Arden Oplev (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). I don't doubt Under the Dome will have a fun pilot, when the small town of Chester's Mill finds itself inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by a gigantic dome-shaped invisible barrier, but how long can you make that interesting for? Even if the characters are well-written and engaging, once the initial intrigue has faded... will you be quite so taken with this miniseries by episode 5 or 6? That will be the real challenge here, but I have a soft spot for US miniseries based on Stephen King books, even if most don't achieve the gold standard of It. I just hope this isn't another Tommyknockers.

UNDER THE DOME premieres 24 June on CBS.

Teaser: CBS's UNDER THE DOME

#UndertheDome teaser, you stand accused of gross overused of the #Inception BRRRRRAAAWWRWRMRMRMRMRMM youtu.be/JTqtPVHXBgo

— Dan Owen (@danowen79) May 1, 2013

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