Category Archives: TV Reviews

Population 11: Outback UFO Tours – TV Review

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TL;DR – This weird and wonderful first episode hooked me in to see what wild ride we are about to go on.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the STAN service that viewed this series

A tree in the outback at light.

Population 11 Review –

If there is one thing that Australia does very well, it is the mystery set in the Outback. Indeed, some of my earliest TV memories are of the wild and wonderful Jeopardy, which, if you are Australian or British of my age, you will know well. But in the world of Scrublands and Deadloch, we get a new entry today with Population 11.

So to set the scene, on a quiet night in the Outback surrounded by stars and termite mounds, a man stands alone, looking at a giant tree. That is, until a light appears from the heavens shining down on him, and while he runs, he is not quick enough. Sometime later, a strange American man from Cincinnati, Ohio, arrives in the town of Bidgeegud, which is so tiny that the pub and the church are in the same building. The man Andy (Ben Feldman) is here for the UFO tour led by Hugo (Darren Gilshenan), but maybe that is not the only reason he is there. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Gentlemen: Season One – TV Review

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TL;DR – While the characters are a delight in this wacky world, the story struggles in the end.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Eddie looks out on his estate.

The Gentlemen Review –

It wasn’t all that long ago that I sat down to watch a truly bonkers yet very rough film called The Gentlemen. I hadn’t thought in a while, but as I was watching, snippets came back to me, and I remembered how genuinely wild it was. Well, the first episode, Refined Aggression, worked very well.

So the question is, can this promise last the whole season?     So to set the scene, we find ourselves on the Türkiye/Syrian Border at a United Nations manned checkpoint. It is just an ordinary day until the Unit Leader Eddie (Theo James) discovers that his father is gravely ill and he is needed at home. A world of luxury awaits, a far distance from the rural Middle East. It should be a short trip because 600 hundred years of tradition means that the title and lands go to the first-born son, Freddy (Daniel Ings), which makes the will reading all that more perplexing. I sure hope no one has any significant debts that could complicate things. Nor what Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) is doing under the stables. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Halo: Onyx – TV Review

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TL;DR – Alas, we have started to fall back on some of the previous problems that plagued the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

John stalks his prey.

Halo Review –

If there is one thing this new season of Halo has done, it has been to refocus what was a pretty meandering Season One. There were some series highs in both Visegrad and Reach that had me profoundly happy that the show had found its feet. However, since then, alarm bells have been ringing, and I am afraid that this week will be no different.  

So to set the scene, we open with Talia Perez (Cristina Rodlo) as a new recruit to the next wave of Spartans as she jumps out of a transport with her team to take down a Covenant Cruiser. Everyone dies, but thankfully, this is just a simulation led by Kai (Kate Kennedy), who we discovered last week threw her lot in with Colonel James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi). But while they hide away on Onyx, a ship flies through their detection network, a ship with Dr Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Natascha McElhone) and a giant of a man full of scars (Pablo Schreiber). Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Gentlemen: Refined Aggression – TV Review

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TL;DR – This was a weird, odd, yet profoundly compelling opening to a series.  

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Eddie Halstead meets Susie Glass.

The Gentlemen Review –

It wasn’t all that long ago that I sat down to watch a truly bonkers yet very rough film called The Gentlemen. I hadn’t thought in a while, but as I was watching, snippets came back to me, and I remembered how genuinely wild it was. The question then becomes, can you improve on the first by transforming/ spinning it off into a television series on Netflix? Well this is the question that I find myself asking today.   

So to set the scene, we find ourselves on the Türkiye/Syrian Border at a United Nations manned checkpoint. It is just an ordinary day until the Unit Leader Eddie (Theo James) discovers that his father is gravely ill and he is needed at home. A world of luxury awaits, a far distance from the rural Middle East. It should be a short trip because 600 hundred years of tradition means that the title and lands go to the first-born son, Freddy (Daniel Ings), which makes the will reading all that more perplexing. I sure hope no one has any significant debts that could complicate things. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Halo: Reach – TV Review

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TL;DR – The Halo series has done something I never thought it would or even could do. It made me care.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Warning – This episode contains scenes that may cause distress.

The fall of Reach.

Halo Review –

When I think back to the first season, sure, there were the significant changes everyone talked about, Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) taking off his mask and all that. But that never bothered me because adaptation to a new medium necessitates making changes. After all, it is a new context. My biggest problem was that the story, while satisfactory, did not make me care all that much about the characters in the show. Well, if nothing else, Season Two has fixed that problem.  

So to set the scene, in last week’s Visegrad, we discovered that not only does The Covenant know where Reach is, and that the authorities know that The Covenant knows where Reach is, but they are already on the planet and their main invasion is imminent. Queue the explosions. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender – Aang – TV Review

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TL;DR – While it had its clunky moments, the first episode does a good job of setting up this world that we are about to dive into.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Southern Air Temple.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Review –

Today, we are looking at an interesting show because I feel that it has all the cards stacked against it. It is a live-action remake of a beloved property made by Netflix, and there is a graveyard behind us of failed attempts at this. Then there were the original creators leaving because of some pretty significant creative differences before we got one of the most ill-fated press campaigns, which was probably only tempers because Madame Webb was happening at the same time. However, a rocky production does not mean the end product is not great, and this is what we are looking at today.  

So to set the scene, in the world of Avatar, there are four elements that people can bend: Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. However, only the Avatar can bend all four elements and use this to keep the peace between the different tribes. However, while the world waits for the next Avatar to come from the Air Tribe, the leader of the Fire Tribe, Fire Lord Sozin (Hiro Kanagawa), uses the moment of Sozin’s Comet’s appearance to attack the Air Temples all he has to do is kill the Avatar before they are announced, the only problem is that no one knows who it is, so they have to kill all of them. But they were not ready for the rambunctious Aang (Gordon Cormier), who had different ideas that fated night.

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This fascinatingly compelling series that took the essence of the film and then turned everything up to eleven while providing a slightly more plausible scenario.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.

End Credit Scene – Infidelity & A Breakup have mid-credit scenes.

Donald Glover & Maya Erskine

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Review –

If you are of my age, then you know about the cultural moment that was Mr. & Mrs. Smith even if you never watched the film. I did get to watch the movie at the time, and it was funny, entertaining, and incredibly hot. However, that was such a moment in pop culture history that, understandably, no one has attempted to take another stab at it before now. But after a troubled production, can the show reach the heights of where it came from? I would say yes. 

So to set the scene, we open in a small house in the middle of nowhere. It is here where John Smith (Alexander Skarsgard) and Jane Smith (Eiza Gonzalez Reyna) are enjoying a glass of wine until an unannounced car arrives and kills the both of them. Later, we see two anonymous people going through the application process to join an independent spy agency. This application process is about finding a compatible partner as well as seeing if they are a good fit for the agency. But as John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) Smith settle into their new brownstone in New York, they soon discover just how intense this job can be. We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Halo: Visegrad – TV Review

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TL;DR – In what might be the best episode of the series so far, we ratchet up the tension, and give some real danger.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Warning – This episode contains scenes that may cause distress.

Reach before the fall.

Halo Review –

When you have a whole galaxy to play in, it can be hard to find your focus. You have so many competing demands on your story where you want to give it depth, but then all you do is bring complexity. Science Fiction shows can very much fall into this trap, but when it all fits together, well, you get today’s episode.

So to set the scene, in last week’s episode, Sword, we discovered a genuinely horrific fact: not only do The Covenant know where Reach is, but they are already on the planet. Given that The Covenant has been glassing every planet they find with humans on it, this is a bad, bad, bad thing. Thus, we find John-117 (Pablo Schreiber), Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac), Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu) & Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy) making their way through the Visegrád Sector to a comms relay that has gone dark, hoping to find the Cobalt team alive. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Halo: Sword – TV Review

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TL;DR – A more contained story that was slightly frustrating until you understood its context.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

The green mountains of Reach.

Halo Review –

We are making a splash with the second of the two-episode opening for Halo’s second season. The first episode showed a bit more focus than we saw in Season One, and that intrigued me. More than anything, I want to see if this was a blip or if this is a new direction for the series.  

So to set the scene, we open with Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Natascha McElhone) in a beautiful room, getting all her favourite things, which, of course, means that she is in prison somewhere. It is a nice prison, with pomegranate, but a prison nonetheless. Meanwhile, on Reach, John (Pablo Schreiber) is struggling to find himself now his team has been grounded by Ackerson (Joseph Morgan), and the lies continue to build. On Rubble, Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) discovers that their precarious position might be even more perilous than they thought. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Halo: Sanctuary – TV Review

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TL;DR – It’s an intriguing start to the season, even if it flounders a bit in the middle.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Master Chief gets Cortana removed from his head.

Halo Review –

Back in the first season of Halo, we got an interesting story that actively went in different directions from the Halo series it was adapting. Some of it worked, some of it was a mess. I was not all that attached to the original story, so I didn’t mind the story changes. However, since then, while I might not have a greater love of the story, I have found a great love of the Halo games itself, which made me wonder how they would take the story from there.

So to set the scene, on Sanctuary in the Branta System, a platoon of Spartans are helping with a particularly difficult civilian evacuation. This is made even more so when a Covenant cruiser is spotted on an intercept course. It should be a routine evacuation mission, bar the fact that maybe the Covenant are already on the planet, and maybe Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) is all by himself outside of comms range. Well, it is a good thing he is a super soldier. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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