Tag Archives: Drama Television

TV Review – Picnic at Hanging Rock

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TL;DR – A surreal experience that plays on the power structures of the time, an important retelling of an Australian classic that everyone should watch.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Picnic at Hanging Rock banner

Review –

“What happened to the girls at the Hanging Rock?” It is one of the most famous questions in Australian mythology. Was there foul play, did they run away, was it something out of this world? The book by Joan Lindsay and the fictional yet presented as the real account is one of the most important works of literature to out of this fair country, and it was turned into a very successful film in 1975. Well, that was over forty years ago and today we have a new take at adapting the classic book into a mini-series format. Today we take a look at the world at the turn of the twentieth century, a world of pomp and ceremony, and a world of oppression and conformity.

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TV Review – The Rain: Season One

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TL;DR – An interesting take on the post-apocalyptic genre from Denmark, which blends a number of common elements to make something quite interesting, if not that unique.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Rain

Review –

The Post-Apocalyptic genre is one of those settings that can either be gold or a complete drag or in the case of one current series on TV at the moment, it could start off as gold and then drag into oblivion. At the heart of what makes these settings work is the focus on the characters and the human stories among the devastation. This is why films like Mad Max, The Matrix and shows like Jericho, and even video games like Fallout are so evocative. Today we are looking at another entry into this genre from Denmark with The Rain.

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TV Review – Westworld: Reunion

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TL;DR – This first episode is like watching an oncoming storm approach. It is beautiful but also full of trepidation as it unleashes its torrent.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Reunion

 

Review –

What is life? It is a question as old as time itself. Were we created? Did we evolve? A little of both? Well in this week’s episode we take a look at some of those questions when the created become the creators and the created fight back. While Journey into Night (see review) had to do a lot of setting up to get the season started again, Reunion doesn’t have that baggage and as such it barrels full steam ahead into the season.

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TV Review – Westworld: Journey into Night

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TL;DR – This first episode is like watching an oncoming storm approach. It is beautiful but also full of trepidation as it unleashes its torrent.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Journey into Night

Review –

I didn’t get the chance to see Westworld Season One when it first aired because it was locked away on the only cable provider here in Australia and I just simply couldn’t afford to access it. So for me, it was just this show that was rumbling across the internet each week. Well a year later, and that same provider finally had to compete with something and they put out a half-ass streaming service for Game of Thrones (see review) and one of the bonuses was Westworld was watchable for the first time. So I sat down to see what it was all about and I was entranced. There were these fascinating stories that encapsulated you and that is before you realise that we are dealing with different timelines. There is the look at what makes something alive and how far you will go to make something sentient. There was a hunt for a child that you can’t remember, the greed of corporations, nudity that is first used for titillation but then used to make you deeply uncomfortable with the whole scenario. Now all of this was captivating but then that episode happened and everything changes, and at that point, I knew I was hooked. Well, today Season Two starts and I happy I get to see them live with everyone else, so let’s go back to the universe of Westworld and deal with the fall out of The Bicameral Mind.

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TV Review – Jessica Jones: Season 2

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TL;DR – Season Two has some moments of great introspection, and deals with some interesting themes like contrasting motherhood, but ultimately it feels like we’ve been here before.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Jessica Jones

Review –

Motherhood, it is a concept that is woefully analysed in cinema, and yes you can easily point to numerous roles in film and TV where characters are mothers. However, very few really analysis the role, the ramifications, the drives in a really in-depth way. I open on this because if you could distil Season Two of Jessica Jones into one theme it would be the role of mothers and the legacy they leave. So today we are going to break down Season Two of Jessica Jones, looking at the things that did work and the things that didn’t.

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TV Review – Jessica Jones: AKA Start at the Bang

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TL;DR – This great if slow start to the season that sets everything into place for the battles to come

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

AKA Start at the Bang

Review –

All your life you have been the physically strongest person around, you can jump off buildings and not get a scratch, you bend metal if it was putty, you can punch someone across a room, but none of that protects you from the daemons that wake you in your sleep. This is the life of Jessica Jones, who depending on who you ask is a private eye, a vigilantly, a hero, a drunk or maybe a bit of all of them. With The Punisher (see review) being its own sort of side project, it is the first series of the Marvel/Netflix TV Universe to sort of deal with the aftermath of The Defenders (see review). With that in mind, today we are going to have a look at its opening episode to see how well it does setting up the rest of the season.

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TV Review – Orphan Black: Season 5

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TL;DR – Boy does it finish in a way only Orphan Black could, it has been a ride sestras, one hell of a ride.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Orphan Black: image Credit: Temple Street Productions.

Review –

Goodness, we actually got here, an end to the wonderful sci-fi series, I say this because the track record of sci-fi shows I love getting their final goodbye is not high. But today we are going to break down the final seasons and look at the things that did work and what didn’t, and take a look at how it all finished. So if you have never watched Orphan Black it is a story about clones, which is not a spoiler because you find that out in the first episode. However, because this is a story about clones it means that lead actor Tatiana Maslany plays at least five main distinct roles throughout the series, and more amazingly each of them feels like a real character. The main story revolves around Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) who has to juggle her past life and impersonating Beth Childs (Tatiana Maslany) who committed suicide in front of her, Alison Hendrix (Tatiana Maslany) who just wants to be a suburban mum and is not ready for her world to explode around her, Cosima Niehaus (Tatiana Maslany) who has devoted her life to science only to find out she herself is a science experiment, Rachel Duncan (Tatiana Maslany) who has lived her life knowing she was a clone and has a detached uncaringness towards her sisters, and Helena (Tatiana Maslany), who has been abused and tormented all her life and turned into a weapon to unleash on her sisters. The seasons revolve around trying to unpick the Dyad Institute and Neolution and more, what are their plans for the clones, and the world.  At this point just a reminder that we will be looking at the season as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – GLOW: Season 1

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TL;DR – An oddly compelling, yet still really raw look at creating a women’s wrestling TV show in the 1980s

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

GLOW

Review –

Wow, this came out of nowhere, the first I knew anything about was an odd email alert from Netflix, and even from that all you could tell was that this was something vaguely 80s related. Indeed, I didn’t even know that GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) was actually a real thing until I started doing some research for this review. So I came into GLOW with very little idea of what I was getting myself into, and now that I have finished it, well I can honestly say that this has left a lasting impression.

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TV Review – Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

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TL;DR –  Honestly it is a bit of a mess at times, but usually, that is part of the charm for Gilmore Girls, but this time round I don’t think they quite stuck the landing

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

It is one of my secrets … well not anymore … that in the late 2000s I binge watched all the episodes of Gilmore Girls over a couple of months. So while I enjoyed the series, got annoyed with the lukewarm ending, I wouldn’t say it is one of my favourites or indeed in my top 30, but it was still a TV show that I very much enjoyed. Honestly the fact that I am reviewing a new Gilmore Girls is quite a rare turn of events on many fronts, we have a series coming back from cancellation after nearly 10 years and we have the original writers and showrunners returning after leaving, something that is very rare in Hollywood. So after 10 years does the show still hold up, did bringing the creators back mean we will finally get the conclusion that we wanted … um yes and no.

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TV Review – Designated Survivor ‘Pilot’

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TL;DR –  A great opening episode, that advances the drama, grounds the show, and gives us the groundwork for an interesting mystery.

Score – 4 out of 5 Stars

Designated Survivor. Image Credit: ABC.

Review –

I’ve been looking for a while now for something to fill The West Wing sized hole in my life and lot shows have tried. Homeland is a critical darling, but I found it a bit meh, Commander in Chief had a good start, but could not escape its premise, House of Cards is brilliantly done, but too depressing for the inner optimist in me, in fact the closest I have got to this is Parks and Rec. So I was really interested to see if the new Designated Survivor could be that show, and from the first episode the signs are quite positive.

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