Category: TV Shows

Best recurring shows of 2020


Following on from my post last month covering my favourite new shows of 2020, here are the recurring shows that continued to impress with their later seasons in 2020.

Kim’s Convenience, Season 4 (13 episodes, Netflix): I almost never watch comedy shows although I grew up loving classic UK sitcoms like Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em and Mind Your Language. By some unexplainable impulse early last year, I clicked on Netflix’s recommendation to watch Kim’s Convenience and was hooked. I started with Season 1 and raced my way through 52 episodes to the end of 2020’s Season 4 in the space of a few weeks. It was the perfect stress reliever in the early days of the pandemic lockdown. Based on creator Ins Choi’s 2011 play of the same name, the show is set in Toronto and features a middle-aged Korean immigrant couple who run the eponymous convenience store and manage a sometimes-thorny, but always well-intentioned relationship with their estranged son and college-going daughter. The show insightfully and compassionately addresses themes of love, familial duty and integrity through the relational dynamics of the family members and their friends. All six regular cast members representing the Kim family – “Appa” (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), “Umma” (Jean Yoon), Janet (Andrea Bang) and Jung (Simu Liu), as well as Jung’s best friend “Kimchee” (Andrew Phung) and his boss, Shannon (Nicole Power) are at the top of their game and hilarious in their own way. Fans of The Mandalorian would have rubbed their eyes in disbelief to see Paul Sun-Hyung Lee pop up in a couple of episodes in Season 2. And Simu Liu will next be seen in the lead role of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings. Season 5 of Kim’s Convenience (which will be its last) has just aired in Canada and I’m looking forward to it arriving on Netflix for international viewers.

(from left to right) Simu Liu, Jean Yoon, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Andrea Bang are the Kim family in Kim’s Convenience

The Boys, Season 2 (8 episodes, Amazon Prime): Based on Garth Ennis’ irreverent and violent graphic novel series, this small-screen adaptation by Eric Kripke stays true to its source material and provides a hard-hitting deconstruction of the superhero genre and a scathing commentary on corporate greed. The show portrays a world filled with superheroes, most of whom are employed by the corrupt Vought International conglomerate, which manages (i.e., controls) their public profiles, private lives, assignments and team affiliations, while exploiting their monetary potential through celebrity endorsements, reality shows and movies…imagine an extreme version of Hollywood studios in the 40’s and 50’s. Most of the superheroes are hooked onto the power and influence, willingly cynical and corruptible. A small group of vigilantes, armed only with determination, cunning and a sense of righteousness, take it upon themselves to bring down Vought, specifically targeting their A-list superhero group The Seven, led by the psychopathic Homelander (played by Anthony Starr). The vigilantes themselves carry deep emotional scars resulting from the collateral damage of past actions by Vought and the superheroes. The show grabs the viewer by throat and never lets go, every episode a roller coaster of graphic violence, elements of the blackest comedy, unsettling scenes and shocking plot twists…this is not a show for the squeamish. Season 2 raises the stakes for the vigilantes, particularly team leader Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and team noob Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid, son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), while The Seven’s newest team-member Stormfront (Aya Cash) turns out to be just as much an evil sociopath as Homelander. The season ends with another cliffhanger, revealing a new threat to The Boys. Filming for the third season is scheduled to end in September 2021, so I’m hopeful we will see it on screen by the end of the year.

The Chef Show, Season 2, volume 1 (5 episodes, Netflix): This cooking show is a must-watch for fans of Jon Favreau’s 2014 film Chef, in which he played a washed-up chef who re-discovers his love for cooking and reconnects with his young son while on a road trip in a refurbished food truck. Favreau’s co-producer and food consultant on that film was Roy Choi, a Korean-American who created Kogi, the highly celebrated fleet of Korean-Mexican gourmet food trucks that operates in Los Angeles. Favreau and Choi teamed up to produce and host this good-natured and highly watchable cooking show that premiered on Netflix in June 2019. Season 1 was split into 3 volumes totaling 20 episodes, and ended in February 2020. Season 2 aired its first volume of 5 episodes in September 2020. Season 1 episodes notably featured Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth Rogen, the cast of The Avengers, director Robert Rodriguez, restaurateur David Chang (who hosts Ugly Delicious on Netflix) and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. In Season 2, the focus shifts to pure-play chefs such as Christina Tosi, Jessica Largey, Chad Robertson & Chris Bianco and Nina Subhas. What’s really enjoyable besides watching the food being cooked and eaten with great relish, is the close camaraderie between Choi and Favreau – master and padawan – with Favreau showing an immense natural ability, especially with food preparation. Also, look out for the eye-popping stop-motion animation used for the show’s intro and to illustrate the ingredients of each dish.

The Mandalorian, Season 2 (8 episodes, Netflix): Speaking of Jon Favreau brings me to The Mandalorian, which headlined the launch of the Disney+ streaming service at the end of 2019. It quickly became popular for the achingly cute little creature nicknamed “The Child” or “Baby Yoda” (his true name was revealed this season). Season 2 continued the adventures of Din Djarin, the permanently masked Mandalorian (played by Narcos and Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal) as he seeks to return Baby Yoda to the Jedi community that he was stolen from. Besides the cuteness of Baby Yoda, I love this show because it harks back to the classic TV shows of the 60’s in which the heroes are good and villains are bad, with no irritating types thrown in. Din Djarin is driven by a pure instinct to protect The Child and is assisted by various people with similar good intentions. Guest stars in Season 2 include Timothy Olyphant, Rosario Dawson, Michael Biehn and Katee Sackhoff. The show uses a cutting edge technology called Unreal Engine to create virtual backgrounds on high-res LED screens that are indistinguishable from the real thing, eliminating costly outdoor location shoots. After the disappointments of recent Star Wars feature films, this show is a welcome return to form for the franchise, with hard-core fans getting their kicks every now and then through the appearance of well-known characters from the Star Wars canon.

Westworld, Season 3 (8 episodes, HBO): I missed the boat on this high profile show when it kicked off in 2016, but started watching it last year soon after the third season aired. Produced by Jonathan Nolan (Christopher’s brother) and Lisa Joy, it’s an extraordinary achievement with a vast and ambitious narrative scope, employing a talented, high profile cast and cutting edge visual effects. While it’s based loosely on the 1973 scifi thriller written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton, this version has been updated for the AI age and at its heart, questions what it truly means to be a human; some of the androids in the story exhibit greater humanity than the real people who run the theme park. The show really challenged me to keep track of the narrative twists and turns, the time jumps and eventually, even who was human and who was android. I’m thankful that I watched all the episodes in quick succession, otherwise on a regular release timeline, I would have struggled to keep up. Season 3 jumps the shark a bit, and I confess, I lost momentum after the first 2-3 episodes, but I intend to go back and finish it, given it’s highly likely there will be a Season 4 (although that’s not official yet and may take a couple of years to complete).

Yellowstone, Season 3 (10 episodes, Paramount): I wrote about this show when it first came out in 2018 and the stakes just keep getting higher for John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his family in seasons 2 and 3. Although Kevin Costner is the headline actor on the show, the majority of the screen time is taken up by the next generation of Duttons, the fiercely protective, but emotionally volatile daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly), idealistic younger son Kayce (Luke Grimes) and his native American wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille), politically ambitious but spineless older son Jamie (Wes Bentley). Other standout characters include loyal ranch foreman Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser, in the role of a lifetime) and Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), the politically astute leader of the native Americans living on the adjacent reservation. When a family owns the largest contiguous ranch in the US, you know that the plot is always going to be about people wanting to take the land away from them. After facing off challenges from real estate moguls, property developers and white supremacist groups, Season 3 finds the Dutton family up against a ruthless equity firm that wants to buy up a big chunk of the ranch for an airport; it ends with an explosive finale and a cliffhanger to set up Season 4. Meanwhile, I’m excited about the prequel series named Y: 1883 that creator-writer Taylor Sheridan is developing, which will be on the newly launched Paramount+ streaming network some time in 2021.

Call My Agent!, Season 4 (6 episodes, Netflix): This wonderful show can be considered the French equivalent to HBO’s Entourage. It chronicles life at a fictitious talent agency, Agence Samuel Kerr (ASK), in Paris which manages a number of top French movie stars. The storylines focus on the four talent agents, their assistants and the agency’s CEO. A key feature is the appearance in every episode of a well known French star playing herself or himself. The storylines provide plenty of opportunities for high drama, and the talented ensemble cast are equally adept at subtle expressions and over-the-top histrionics. The show is created by Fanny Herrero, with celebrated director Cédric Klapisch playing a key role as co-producer. It’s great fun to see stars playing themselves, sometimes in pretty ridiculous storylines which poke fun at their own quirks and foibles…among my favourites were Cécile de France and Audrey Fleurot in season 1, Fabrice Luchini, Isabelle Adjani and Juliette Binoche in season 2, Jean Dujardin and Monica Bellucci in season 3 and Sigourney Weaver in season 4.

The only recurring show on my wishlist that I haven’t been able to watch yet is the second season of His Dark Materials on HBO; I look forward to catching up with that soon. That about covers it for 2020 in terms of my favourite mini-series, newly launched shows and this latest post on recurring shows. The new year has kicked off on a promising note with second seasons of Snowpiercer (Netflix) and For All Mankind (AppleTV+) respectively. I’m also looking forward to watching the new show Lupin on Netflix.

Best new shows of 2020


Following on from my post last week covering my favourite one-off shows of 2020, here’s a look at new shows launched in 2020 that have either been renewed, or left the door open for a second season.

Lovecraft Country (10 episodes, HBO): Is it a coincidence that the two most viscerally entertaining shows of the past two years combine horror-tinged sci-fi with searing commentaries on the history of racism? HBO’s limited series Watchmen broke new ground in visual storytelling in 2019, and a year later, the channel delivered another reality-bending gut-punch with this adaptation of Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel. It’s very difficult to describe the plot in a single sentence, but suffice to say the story combines diverse genres – road trip, Lovecraftian horror (shoggoths!), time travel, Korean folk mythology, family drama – and is set during the 1950’s Jim Crow era of racial segregation. Brought to life by 36-year-old showrunner Misha Green and backed by executive producers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele, it’s the explosive on-screen pairing of Jurnee Smollett and Jonathan Majors, along with the standout supporting cast of Aunjanue Ellis, Wunmi Mosaku, Michael K. Williams and Courtney B. Vance that make this show special. Misha Green’s screenplay provides every member of the cast an opportunity to show off their acting chops, resulting in a number of intense scenes. There is a fair amount of graphic violence and sexual content, and every episode brings a new shocking moment or revelation, but it does take some effort to keep track of the convoluted plot that progressively reveals the connections between the key characters. Although the final episode ends the narrative arc of the novel, Misha Green has indicated she is open to creating more stories in this universe. The 8th episode of the show, Jig-a-bobo, one of the scariest, was directed by Green and she now makes her feature film directing debut on the Tomb Raider sequel starring Alicia Vikander.

from left to right: Courtney B. Vance (as Uncle George), Jonathan Majors (as Tic) and Jurnee Smollett (as Leti) face human and supernatural monsters in HBO’s Lovecraft Country, produced by Misha Green

Raised by Wolves (10 episodes, HBO): Legendary British director Ridley Scott is the executive producer behind this sci-fi show created by Aaron Guzikowski. In the far future, Earth has been laid waste by a terrible war between the religious Mithraic order and pro-science atheists. The atheists send two androids – named Mother and Father – on a spaceship containing several embryos in stasis to a distant planet to start civilization anew. After several difficult years, one child, Campion lives a seemingly peaceful life with his android parents. Their equilibrium is shattered by the arrival of a Mithraic colony ship, bringing to them the very conflict they sought to escape from. As with all Ridley Scott productions, the visual design of the show is stark and stunning; the science is highly advanced but entirely plausible; however none of the characters are particularly appealing (human and android alike), which makes it challenging to truly “enjoy” the show. Having said that, the intriguing storyline and taut pacing led me to virtually binge-watch all 10 episodes over a couple of days. Danish actress Amanda Collin is the star of the series, displaying incredible acting range as Mother, complemented on-screen by Abubakar Salim as Father. Of particular note is the fact that these androids have milky blood, the same as the androids in Ridley Scott’s Alien series of films. My only complaint was with the horrendous mullets sported by the Mithraic…is this really the future of humanity?

Abubaker Salim and Amanda Collin are ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ on planet Kepler-22b in Raised by Wolves, created by Aaron Guzikowski, with Ridley Scott as executive producer

Snowpiercer (10 episodes, TNT/Netflix): The last remnants of humanity – rich and poor, good and bad – are cocooned into a high-tech train, 1000 cars long, that circles the globe every 133 days, speeding through an ultra-frozen wasteland, needing to keep running in order to generate power. This is the premise of Snowpiercer, the TV adaptation of the 1982 French graphic novel, which was previously brought to the big screen in 2013 by Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho. Ruled with an iron fist by the mysterious billionaire Mr. Wilford, the train is a microcosm of the real world, with the passengers segregated by class; the rich ones who paid a fortune for the tickets live up-front in First Class, eating food freshly grown in the agricultural section, waited on by the Hospitality division, and free to go “downtrain” to the Nightcar in Third Class for entertainment and other diversions; the people with specialist skills earn their place on the train by providing the various services (doctors, teachers, engineers) and occupy the middle cars; in the Tail are those who boarded the train without tickets or skills, and are now crammed into a few cars, living in unhygienic conditions and being fed blocks of protein gel while brewing resentment and rebellion. The show is part soap opera and part social commentary, filled with fascinating characters, both noble and repulsive. The first season has head of Hospitality Melanie Cavill (played by Jennifer Connelly) locked in a battle of wits with ‘tailie’ Andre Layton (played by Daveed Diggs), as they jointly try to solve a murder.

Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly face off in Snowpiercer

I watched three other shows that debuted in 2020, but didn’t really spark for me. These included the Steve Carrell comedy Space Force and the mission to Mars drama Away, starring Hilary Swank, both on Netflix. The latter was cancelled at the end of the first season. Also debuting in 2020 on Disney+ was The Right Stuff, an adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s chronicle of the early days of the US space program, which was made into a critically acclaimed film in 1983. I can never tire of this slice of human history, but somehow the show lacked the gravitas of the source material and tended to drift into daytime soap territory. The season ended with the first set of manned US space flights and if renewed, season 2 would focus on the race to the moon.

2020 was a great year for shows in their second or later seasons, and I hope to cover my favourites in a future post.

Best mini-series of 2020


This recap of my favourite mini-series of 2020 should have come out a month ago, and with January now coming to any end, I figured I better write this before 2020 becomes a distant memory!

For the past few years, the mini-series format has yielded entertainment to rival the quality of the best feature films, in terms of production design, scripts and acting. In fact, with a narrative duration of typically 250-400 minutes, mini-series have room for superior character development and better constructed plots.

My favourites from 2018 were all BBC productions – the true-life dramedy A Very English Scandal, the urban terrorism thriller Bodyguard, the Agatha Christie adaptation Ordeal by Innocence and the John Le Carré spy novel adaptation The Little Drummer Girl.

In 2019, my top mini-series were Chernobyl and Watchmen from HBO, Years and Years which was a joint BBC-HBO production, Giri/Haji from the BBC, and not surprisingly, Netflix entering the mix with Unbelievable and The Spy.

Here are my 5 noteworthy mini-series from 2020:-

Devs (8 episodes, FX): Alex Garland has established himself as one of the most talented creators of “intelligent sci-fi/horror” over the past two decades, scripting or directing acclaimed films such as 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Dredd, Ex Machina and Annihilation. Last year’s sci-fi thriller on FX marks his first foray into an event series. Garland brings back actress Sonoya Mizuno (can’t forget that dance routine with Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina) as a young developer working at a secretive tech company who gets sucked into a conspiracy with world-altering consequences. Comedian Nick Offerman is pitch perfect as the billionaire founder-CEO of quantum computing company Amaya, a man whose god complex is fueled by his virtually unlimited access to money and technology. His inner circle includes two other power-obsessed characters, the head of security and head of technology, played superbly by actors Zach Grenier and Allison Pill respectively. The plot becomes quite mind-bending and requires the viewer to pay careful attention (maybe even take notes!). Available on Amazon Prime.

Sonoya Mizuno plays software engineer Lily Chan, working at quantum computing company Amaya,
in Alex Garland’s Devs.

The Plot Against America (6 episodes, HBO): Based on the Philip Roth novel, this alternate history set in the early 1940s, shows what might have happened if Charles Lindbergh, the real-life American aviator and national hero had become US President in 1940. Lindbergh was a Nazi symphathizer and in Mr. Roth’s novel, his isolationist, populist policies with undertones of white supremacy (sound familiar?) hold America back from joining the war against Nazi Germany. In fact, Lindbergh’s appeasement of the Nazis means that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor never happens in December 1941. Meanwhile, his new domestic policies including the creation of an Office of American Absorption plays havoc with the lives of American Jews, who increasingly feel alienated and targeted in their own country. All this unfolds through the eyes of a middle class Jewish family living in Jersey City, nearly tearing them apart. The outstanding cast includes Winona Ryder and John Turturro, as well as several other character actors from TV and the stage. This is a slow-burn narrative that uses the events taking place on the national stage as a trigger to explore family dynamics between husband and wife, parents and kids, and siblings young and old.

The Queen’s Gambit (7 episodes, Netflix): Perhaps the best event series of 2020, this show is based on Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel and helped to revitalize global interest in chess with its dramatic portrayals of the many strategies used in the game. Centered on the character of Beth Harmon, the show charts her eventful journey from an orphanage in Kentucky in the 1950s to global fame as a female chess prodigy, culminating in the high stakes Moscow Invitational tournament against Russian world champion Vasily Borgov, at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s (the period detail is exceptional). During this time, she battles her own personal demons including substance abuse and PTSD resulting from the circumstances of her mother’s death. Anya Taylor-Joy, who broke through in 2015-16 in the horror-thrillers The Witch and Split, delivers a nuanced performance as Beth Harmon, supported by an eclectic group of young actors who portray the various chess players she encounters, antagonizes and befriends over the years. Special mention also for director Marielle Heller, appearing as Beth’s personable step-mother Alma Wheatley. The show is written and directed by Scott Frank, following on from his outstanding 2017 limited series Western Godless, also produced for Netflix.

The Undoing (6 episodes, HBO): Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant are absolutely irresistible in the murder-mystery/legal drama The Undoing, written by David E. Kelley and directed by award-winning Danish director Susanne Bier. Kidman and Grant play the Frasers, a professionally successful, high profile New York couple – she’s a psychologist, he’s an oncologist. Their seemingly perfect lives are upended by the brutal murder of a beautiful young artist, whose son attends the same exclusive school as their young son. The subsequent police investigation reveals an unsettling connection between the Frasers and the murdered woman. Did either of them play a role in the murder and what is it that the couple aren’t telling each other? The show is perfect for binge-watching, as every episode ends on a cliffhanger; it goes slightly off the rails and over-the-top in the final act, but is nevertheless very entertaining.

from left to right, the cast of The Undoing: Hugh Grant as Dr. Jonathan Fraser, Noma Dumezweni as their lawyer, Nicole Kidman as Dr. Grace Fraser, Noah Jupe as their son Henry and Donald Sutherland as Nicole’s father Franklin

Mrs. America (9 episodes, FX): This mini-series provides an unprecedented insider look at the turbulent years of the mid-70s, when the feminist movement became a significant player in American politics, as it battled with male politicians and an unheralded but determined cohort of conservative WASP housewives, over the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Each episode focuses on the big names of that time, including Democrat congresswomen Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisolm (the first black candidate to stand for nomination for US President), feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Brenda Feigen, Republican activist Jill Ruckelshaus and of course the star of the show, Phyllis Schlafly (played by Cate Blanchett), the wealthy Missouri housewife, whose intelligence, determination and organization skills led to the founding of the “Stop ERA” campaign. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (the duo behind Captain Marvel), this is such a relevant story for our times, showing that the more things change, the more they remain the same in terms of women’s and minorities rights. Particularly insightful is Blanchett’s portrayal of Mrs. Schlafly, the anti-feminist who is intelligent enough to recognize the holes in her own logic and the hypocrisy of her stance, but is nevertheless trapped in a narrative of her own making and must see it through at all costs…tragic in so many ways. The show is already picking up a host of acting nominations, and I especially hope it will win the Best Ensemble Performance at the SAG Awards. And how about that choice of Walter Murphy’s disco hit A Fifth of Beethoven for the title sequence!

from left to right, the supporting cast of Mrs. America: Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus, Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Ari Graynor as Brenda Feigen, Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Sarah Paulson as fictional composite character Alice Macray and Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan

There are two other mini-series on my watch list that I haven’t yet made time for; the coming-of-age drama We Are Who We Are from Luca Guadagnino (the director of Call Me By Your Name) and the British-American psychological thriller The Third Day.

In a future post, I hope to also write about three new recurring shows that kicked off in 2020 – Lovecraft Country, Raised by Wolves and Snowpiercer.

BBC vs. Fox/StudioCanal: Who wins The War of the Worlds adaptations?


I recently wrote about my favourite TV shows of 2019, yet another year in this continuing Golden Age of TV. One of the mini-series I hadn’t yet seen but was looking forward to, was BBC’s The War of the Worlds adaptation, starring Eleanor Tomlinson, who I’ve been a fan of after seeing her in the mini-series Ordeal by Innocence and 5 seasons of Poldark. While searching for articles about the show, I was surprised to find a Wikipedia link for another adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic space invasion novel that had come out a few months earlier. Titled La Guerre des Mondes, it is a co-production from Fox TV and France’s StudioCanal. It ran for 8 episodes, was bi-lingual (French and English) and had an ensemble cast including Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Crowley from Downton Abbey), Lea Drucker and Stephane Caillard, among others.

At the time, my main focus was on the BBC adaptation and I thought that perhaps I would sample the first episode of the Fox/Canal version if I had the time. Well, two of the three episodes of the BBC version have aired already and I caught up with both over the weekend. Each episode clocks in at about an hour and a half, so watching this mini-series is effectively like watching three movies. The first episode fulfilled all my expectations, with the producers able to bring something fresh to a story that pretty much every viewer would already be familiar with. Although set at the start of the 20th century, there is an element of ‘wokeness’ in the show, with the main protagonists Amy and George depicted as a young couple ‘living in sin’ (George is already married) in a small town in Surrey. They have befriended a local astronomer Ogilvy who in his own words “is also a pariah, like them” (it is implied that he is gay). The early stages of the invasion are by turns engrossing, tense and eventually terrifying as the meteor that lands in the forest nearby draws large crowds who eventually pay a terrible price for their curiosity. In an interesting departure from the source material, the narrative occasionally flashes forward a few years into the future to show the bleak scenario of an England that has apparently been terraformed and is starting to resemble Mars. The second episode continues the action as the infamous tripods make their appearance and the attack spreads to London. And then half way through the second episode, the pacing grinds to a virtual standstill. The narrative bogs down in lengthy conversations among the characters, in a way that neither moves the plot forward, nor reveals anything interesting about their personalities or backstory. It’s really not easy watching a feature-length episode when nothing much happens for several minutes other than characters engaging in pointless discussions. I am now waiting to see how they tie up everything in the third and final episode airing on 1st December.

Eleanor Tomlinson on the run from a Martian tripod in BBC’s The War of the Worlds three-part mini-series

Naturally, with this experience, I was truly intrigued to see what Fox/StudioCanal had done with their version. I have watched 4 episodes so far. What a difference in the way scriptwriter Howard Overman has tackled the concept here! Altogether, La Guerre des Mondes with 8 episodes running for a relatively crisp 48 minutes each totals up to about 380 minutes as compared to the BBC production’s 315 minutes. But each episode crackles with a sense of urgency. Set in the present day in both London and France, the production makes some smart plot decisions in order to create narrative tension (cellphones and cars stop working after the invasion). It delves much deeper into human behaviour and several times I found myself wondering how I would behave in situations that those characters were facing…would I do whatever I could to save my own skin, or would I help a fellow human? How do you live with yourself when you accidentally kill someone in a moment of panic and confusion? How does one find the courage to live on when everyone you love has died? Instead of the giant tripods towering over buildings, the creative team have come up with alien machines that present a much more immediate and proximate threat. Some of the scenes are truly chilling. The way the aliens use their tech and the way it affects human beings is really interesting. I was watching a version without subtitles, so I had to guess what was going on in the few scenes where characters speak to each other in French…not a big issue (hopefully I haven’t missed any major plot points!). The show has been released in most parts of the world already and will come to Epix in the US in Feb 2020. Not to be missed!

Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern walk among the dead in Fox/Studio Canal’s 8 episode La Guerre des Mondes

I’ll still tune in for the final episode of the BBC production and hopefully they can redeem themselves after the snooze-inducing 2nd episode. After all, they have a whole movie-length to play with! But the undisputed winner in this war is Fox/StudioCanal.

Post script: I finished the remaining 4 episodes of the Fox/Canal+ series. The show maintained the level of intensity and continued to explore the human condition in uncomfortable ways. But I was mistaken in thinking this was a self-contained mini-series, as there is no resolution at the end and it’s clear the producers are expecting to continue the story into another season (which I see myself investing in). I also watched the third and final episode of the BBC production; the pacing was no better in the finale and although the ending attempted to align with the original story’s plot hook of germs being mankind’s saviour, it was too little too late.

Enjoying the Golden Age of TV: Gems of 2019


Twelve months ago, I published a 3-part post about my favourite TV shows and mini-series of 2018. It’s that time of the year again to look back at my top shows of 2019, a few of which I’ve just started on.

In 2018, I discovered two great new shows – Yellowstone and The Terror – and one that was in its fourth season – Poldark.  So my hopes were high for a similarly bountiful 2019.

The year didn’t start off that well.

  • First, I bailed on Star Trek: Discovery midway through the 2nd season, just unable to deal with the immaturity of the lead characters.
  • Then in April, I started off on Netflix’s scifi/superhero black comedy, The Umbrella Academy. Although I liked the premise and tone of the show, the characters didn’t really appeal to me. So after watching the first two episodes, I skipped straight to the season finale, which admittedly was pretty epic. But I’m still not sure if I will watch the remaining episodes or invest in season 2 when it comes along in 2020.
  • By the end of May, my 8-year journey with the Game of Thrones was complete, but my personal enjoyment of the final season was dampened by all the negative social media reaction.

At this stage, I was starting to wonder when I would get to watch something that gave me unadulterated satisfaction. Well, my prayers were answered and I had a great run from June to September:

  • Soon after, a wave of positive buzz led me to watch the HBO/BBC One co-production – Years and Years – which unspools a very believable (and tumultuous) future history of the UK as experienced by the middle-class Lyons family over the next 15 years. The only quibble I had was how so many members of this ordinary family all got personally involved in some extraordinary events through the course of the show…a bit too much action for one family!
  • In June, I returned to the Dutton ranch in Montana to catch up on the latest scheming and wheeling-dealing in season 2 of Yellowstone. The second season really dialed up the stakes, with more melodrama and violence on show and I find that I’m now fully invested into this world of dusty cowboys, crooked politicians and ruthless billionaires. In particular, I loved the story arc of loyal ranch foreman Rip Wheeler, played with brooding intensity by Cole Hauser.
  • In July/Aug, it was time for the fifth and final season of BBC’s period drama Poldark, a very satisfying end to a beautifully photographed show with an engaging cast. This show is really my guilty pleasure, not high concept or weighty like a lot of the stuff I usually watch. I’ve now read the first of the Winston Graham books, I’ve definitely got Cornwall penciled into my list of places to visit in England and of course, I’m a big fan of series leads Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson. I am looking forward to seeing Ms. Tomlinson in the upcoming three-part BBC adaptation of The War of the Worlds later this month. And in 2020, we will see her in Joss Whedon’s new HBO scifi series The Nevers, set in Victorian England about a group of women with special abilities.
Eleanor Tomlinson and Aidan Turner in Poldark
  • Around this time, I also watched the critically acclaimed 2018 German-language World War II thriller Das Boot, a sequel to the award winning 1981 film of the same name. Starring Vicky Krieps (Daniel Day Lewis’ co-star in The Phantom Thread) and Tom Wlaschiha (who played assassin Jaqen H’ghar in Game of Thrones), the show switches between the claustrophobic confines of a German U-boat and the cat-and-mouse game between the French resistance and the Nazis in the seaport of La Rochelle in occupied France.  
  • In September, Netflix released Gideon Raff’s intense 6-episode mini-series The Spy, featuring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. I loved the period setting and the depiction of society in the Middle East during the 60s, not to mention the outstanding acting from the entire cast, especially Sacha Baron Cohen, who is utterly spellbinding as a real-life Israeli spy Eli Cohen, whose dedication to his task draws him deeper and deeper into his enemy’s world.
Israeli spy Eli Cohen (Sacha Baron Cohen, 2nd from right) infiltrates the highest levels of the Syrian political establishment in Netflix’s The Spy

As the year draws to a close, my viewing prospects appear to be very promising:

  • I’ve just finished watching the 3rd episode of HBO’s Watchmen, Damon Lindelof’s sequel to the seminal graphic novel from the 80s (also adapted to a pretty good movie by Zack Snyder in 2009), which arguably raised the superhero genre from the realms of pulp fiction to literary legitimacy. Of course, based on my past experience with Lost and The Leftovers, I know that Lindelof is unlikely to provide any convenient closure at the end of this one-and-done season. But the show is so good that I couldn’t care less. Powerhouse performances from Regina King and Don Johnson light up the first two episodes, but episode three belongs entirely to Jean Smart who plays hard-as-nails FBI agent Laurie Blake, a key character from the original comic book. And while it’s possible to enjoy the show without having read the book, the true rewards come to those familiar with the source material, as the characters and their connections to each other and to the graphic novel become progressively clear. Six episodes to go and assured joy till the 15th of December.
  • Apple TV+ launched last week and I promptly signed up just to watch Ronald Moore’s alternate history drama, For All Mankind. Set at the end of the 60s, the show is based on the premise that the Soviet Union continued to lead the space race, which then required the Americans to make some fundamental changes in their space program. Ronald Moore won accolades for his writing work on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spin-offs and also for the reimagined Battlestar Galactica (2004-09). His work is notable for its innate belief in the ability of humankind to persevere and overcome obstacles. It seems fitting then, for him to be the showrunner on a show which reaches for the stars. For anyone who has enjoyed watching Apollo 13 or HBO’s 1998 series From the Earth to the Moon (which incidentally I am re-watching as a counterpoint to this show), this is just right for you! As with Watchmen, I have six episodes to go and guaranteed entertainment until 20th December.
The Soviets get to the moon first in For All Mankind available on Apple TV+
  • I am currently reading The Secret Commonwealth, the 2nd novel of Philip Pullman’s new Book of Dust trilogy, which is linked to his signature work, His Dark Materials. How timely then, that the 8-episode HBO/BBC co-production of His Dark Materials has just launched this week. I watched the first episode last night; the first thing that hit me was the ‘rightness’ of the casting (Dafne Keen from Logan as Lyra, the adorable Lewin Lloyd as Roger, James McAvoy as Lord Asriel and a rather creepy Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter) and the visualization of the daemons, especially the oh-so-cute Pantalaimon, Lyra’s daemon. There are seven more episodes, which will keep me happy till 22nd December!
  • Last but not the least, I finally started watching Amazon’s highly rated (and R-rated) deconstruction of the superhero genre, The Boys, which premiered in July. The show can be described as a black comedy and is set in a world where superheros are popular in public but morally corrupt in private. “The Boys” refers to a group of vigilantes who try to take down the worst of the superheros; Karl Urban is their leader, Billy Butcher and Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) is the ‘noob’ who becomes part of the group. Since the show is based on Garth Ennis’ comic book series, I am well prepared for the sex and graphic violence. Seven episodes to go, and since they are already available on Amazon, a high likelihood of binge-watching it one of these days!

Coming later this month are two more shows to look forward to.

  • The Mandalorian, produced by Jon Favreau, headlines the launch of Disney’s streaming service Disney+ and extends the Star Wars universe into live action TV for the first time. The show is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi and is headlined by Pedro Pascal (who played Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones) and mixed martial artist Gina Carano.
  • And after a seemingly never-ending wait, we return to Buckingham Palace for season 3 of The Crown, this time with an all-new cast, including award winner Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth, Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip and Helena Bonham-Carter as Princess Margaret. This season will cover the period between 1964 and 1977.

So that’s the full stack of my 2019 TV viewing experience. Given I prefer to watch movies to TV shows, this is the most packed TV viewing schedule I have had in years. But as everyone knows, in the Golden Age of TV that we’re currently living in, the budgets, the talent and the production values for a lot of TV shows are at movie scale.

HBO’s Chernobyl mini-series – A real-life horror sci-fi story


Anyone who lived through the 80’s would remember 1986 for the twin disasters of the Challenger space shuttle explosion and the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which took place within 4 months of each other. The Challenger explosion was seen again and again on TV and was therefore much more dramatic, the twin forks of smoke from the still-firing boosters seared into our memories. Chernobyl took place behind the iron curtain which kept a tight rein on information and pictures shared with the outside world. By the time the Soviet Union had dissolved five years later, the reactor was already entombed in concrete and there was nothing to see.

HBO and SkyUK ’s new 5-part mini-series Chernobyl, chronicles the hours leading up to the explosion (via flashback scenes in the final episode) and more importantly, the valiant efforts of a wide group of scientists, firemen, soldiers, engineers and even coal miners to contain and mitigate the radioactivity in the hours, days, weeks and months following the accident.

The mini-series is created by American screenwriter, Craig Mazin, perhaps the least likely person one would expect subject matter like this from, having previously written a couple of the Scary Movie spoofs and the two Hangover sequels! Director Johan Renck from Sweden is also a relative unknown; he has directed three episodes of Breaking Bad and one of The Walking Dead, but he has spent most of his career making music videos for the likes of Madonna, Kylie Minogue and David Bowie. This unlikely duo has created an instant classic, equal parts human drama and history lesson, delivering a commentary on the tragic consequences of human negligence and deceit by the State.

The scenes detailing the immediate aftermath of the explosion in the No.4 reactor at the Chernobyl Power Plant play out like a sci-fi horror film. The radiation causes skin burn and internal organ collapse for the initial responders and honestly, the only thing missing from these scenes is a monster or a supernatural creature. Likewise, the view of the burning station and the blue shaft of sparkling Cherenkov radiation shooting straight up into the night sky look like it could have been a scene from an Avengers movie. In later scenes, seeing machines breakdown instantly in the vicinity of the reactor core truly brings home the destructive power of radioactivity and makes one wonder at the arrogance of humankind in believing we can successfully tame this kind of lethal energy.

A soldier prepares to go out onto the rooftop of the power plant, to clear out radioactive pieces of graphite – due to the high radiation, he can only be outside for 90 seconds

The shock and initial denial of the plant supervisors and bureaucrats is difficult to comprehend, until one remembers that this was the Soviet Union of 1986, locked in an ideological war with the West and with the inability to admit failure of any kind – even to oneself – ingrained deeply in the psyche of both bosses and subordinates.

The three main characters in the story are Boris Shcherbina (played by Stellan Skarsgård), the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, chemist Valery Legasov (played by Jared Harris) and a fictitious scientist Ulana Khomyuk (played by Emily Watson), whose character was created to represent the many scientists who helped out in the wake of the disaster. I think all three will receive acting nominations at the next Golden Globes and Emmys. Besides these three, we also see the points of view of many other characters, such as the wife of a first responder fireman, and these ordinary people bring the true impact of the human disaster to life for the viewers. There is a heart-breaking sub-plot involving actors Fares Fares (watch him in the Arabic thriller The Nile Hilton Incident) and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) playing soldiers who are tasked to put down pets who have been abandoned in the exclusion zone and now contaminated with radioactivity…almost unwatchable.

The final episode uses the mechanic of a courtroom drama – specifically the prosecution of the officials who were in charge of the power plant – to piece together the series of unfortunate events which culminated in the explosion on the night of 26th April 1986, which at one point risked the lives of 50 million inhabitants across Belarus and Ukraine.

It is generally acknowledged that the Chernobyl disaster and the realization of how far the Soviet Union had fallen behind the West in technological prowess was a key factor in Mikhail Gorbachev’s decision to double down on the path of perestroika and glasnost, which eventually led to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. That makes the events depicted take on even more significance.

Star Trek Discovery has ‘jumped the shark’ and I should have realized that back in Season 1


I’ve watched 7 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 2 and have finally decided to call it quits. My heart has accepted what my brain realized back in season 1, which is that Discovery is a TV show with great production values featuring strong performances delivered by some charismatic actors, but it ain’t the Star Trek that I have known and loved for four decades.

I had already gone through one round of ‘realignment’ with JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot in 2009; those familiar characters were new being played by new actors, but to a large extent they all stayed true to the personalities established in the original show. The only exception in my view was Chris Pine’s rendition of Capt. James T. Kirk, as he came across as rather adolescent and reckless in his behaviour (even if his ‘seat of the pants’ decisions always ended up being the right ones in comparison with Spock’s logic-based recommendations). But all the other characters were rendered so faithfully (particularly Karl Urban as “Bones” McCoy) or dare I say, improved upon ( Zoe Saldana’s Uhura) or tweaked to make the younger version more endearing (the late Anton Yelchin’s Pavel Chekov) and the chemistry between these actors was so good, that I instantly loved the movie and its two sequels, even accepting the alternative timeline approach as a necessary evil.

So, the 2015 announcement that a new prequel show was being created for CBS All Access with all new characters on a different ship, got me all excited, with good reason. First of all, there’s never been a bad Star Trek TV show. Even though the film franchise flip-flopped between good and forgettable with every alternate release through the 80’s and 90’s, each of the TV shows – the widely celebrated and much loved Next Generation, it’s smaller scale spin-off Deep Space Nine, the progressive Voyager and the gritty Enterprise – had all the elements that constitute “great TV”…likeable characters whose behaviour remains consistent through the length of the show but also evolves with time and experience, a natural chemistry among the actors, standalone episodes that fit into a larger story arc and writing that finds the balance between pure entertainment and socio-cultural relevance. This track record, combined with the quality of the concurrent movie series led me to believe that this show would be the nearest thing to a “sure bet”!

My first point of disconnect with Discovery was the Klingon re-design. Although there is a history of Klingons being redesigned, moving from a human look in the original series to the popular and widely known “ridged forehead” look from the 1979 feature film onwards (the change subsequently explained through the concept of the Augment Virus), I still feel the redesign of the features and clothing for Discovery was unnecessary and jarring. Just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done. The prosthetics and the costumes just make the characters stiff and behave like a completely different kind of species.

The next disconnect was with the immaturity of some key characters. It’s not that silly people don’t exist in the Star Trek universe (I’m thinking Q and Harry Mudd), just that it’s difficult to understand how such people could get through Starfleet Academy and be placed on a flagship vessel in positions of authority and responsibility. I am specifically referring to Chief Engineer Paul Stamets and Ensign Tilly. I can understand and welcome the fact that both characters are the embodiments of inclusiveness, in terms of Stamets’ sexuality and Tilly not being physically fit. Why does that mean that they have to be immature, impulsive and irresponsible?

Even more jarring than the new characters like Tilly and Stamets who are immature by design, is the change in the portrayal of known characters like Amanda Grayson. What a world of difference between the poise and grace of Winona Ryder in the 2009 reboot and the capricious version played by Mia Kershner in Discovery.

The two-dimensionality of the bridge crew was also really surprising for me. It felt like they were part of the furniture. There were no names and there was virtually no interaction with each other throughout season 1. And then suddenly at the start of season 2, it looked like the writers remembered this and made some half-hearted attempts to fix the oversight.

I don’t even know where to begin with the so-called Spore drive. Another case of an unnecessary inclusion into the canon of the show. And the heights of ridiculousness came in episode 5 of season 2 with the visualization of the “half jump”, which showed the Discovery like it was half submerged in water.

Another area of discomfort is with how the Federation’s Section 31 “black ops” unit has been made a centerpiece of the narrative in season 2. Although conceptualized years ago for an episode of Deep Space Nine (as a counterpoint to the Utopian Federation) and referenced a couple of times in the Enterprise TV show and in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, this unit is really the anti-thesis of everything that makes the Star Trek universe appealing to its fans. And making Section 31 even more difficult to digest is Michelle Yeoh’s “alternative universe” Philippa Georgiou, who is increasingly behaving like a vamp from a daytime soap.

In spite of all the above issues, I stayed with the show as long as I did because of two actors – Sonequa Martin-Green and Doug Jones. The amazing Martin-Green convincingly plays the primary protagonist Michael Burnham, a character who survived the murder of her parents as a child, was raised by a Vulcan foster family in a radically different culture leading to unresolved issues with her foster brother, committed mutiny in a moment of impulse, experienced the emotional trauma of the dire results of her actions and then was given an unexpected chance for redemption. Her relationship with First Officer Saru, played by the Doug Jones, has been the emotional core of the show for me. Jones has made a career out of acting behind prosthetics and I believe that he and Andy Serkis should both receive some sort of lifetime achievement award for their work in bringing non-human characters to life. Burnham and Saru have individually and collectively shown extraordinary character development through the show and many of their scenes together are truly memorable, particularly in season 2, episode 4 when it appears for a time that Burnham will have to commit an act of mercy killing on Saru.

(l-r): Doug Jones as Lieutenant Saru; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. Photo Cr: Jan Thijs/CBS © 2017 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.

I also love the opening credits and the way in which the theme composed by Jeff Russo integrates into the original show’s iconic theme. Gets me goose bumps every episode.

But the good just isn’t enough to outweigh the bad. I’m done with the show and have left it with the last 4 episodes unwatched. I nearly did this towards the end of season 1, but then went back for closure. This time around, I’ll just read an online summary rather than waste my time when there are so many other shows out there that are much more engaging – such as Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, Fox’s The Passage and of course HBO’s upcoming final season of The Game of Thrones.

Enjoying the Golden Age of TV: Gems of 2018, Part 2


Moving on from the 4 new TV shows that I watched and got hooked onto this year, let’s talk about the stuff that I really keep an eye out for – TV movies and mini-series.

I’ve had a fantastic strike rate with mini-series in particular over the past couple of years, the notable ones being The Night Of (written by Steven Zaillian, starring the now famous Riz Ahmed), The Night Manager (based on the John Le Carré book, starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie), Godless (from Steven Soderbergh) and The Cuckoo’s Calling (the adaptation of JK Rowling’s mystery story written under the name Robert Galbraith).

I’ve watched acclaimed mini-series this year, all British and produced for the BBC.

  • A Very English Scandal (3 episodes): This superb mini-series tells the story behind a scandal that rocked British politics in the late 1970s, which traces its roots back to a homosexual affair between British MP Jeremy Thorpe and Norman Scott, a stable boy he met in 1960. After an initially passionate relationship, Thorpe tired of Scott and tried to push him out of his life. After having Scott paid off for his silence through an intermediary for several years, Thorpe eventually conspired to have him murdered. The attempt failed, Scott went ballistic and went public, leading to a “very English scandal”. If all this sounds ridiculous, that’s exactly how celebrated director Stephen Frears has chosen to tell the story…as a biting satire of English manners and the British political establishment. Hugh Grant, who has played his share of over-the-top characters over the years is unbelievably good as the entitled upper class politician Thorpe, who rose to become the leader of the Liberal party and then fell from grace (with his head still held high, one might add). Ben Whishaw plays the equally entitled Norman Scott, whose pride seems eternally wounded by the lack of respect he receives. Truly entertaining and a must watch!
  • Bodyguard (6 episodes): Without doubt, this is the breakout TV hit of 2018 in the UK, written and produced by Jed Mercurio, the man behind the hit police procedural Line of Duty. The mini-series stars Richard Madden (Robb Stark from Game of Thrones) in the lead role as war veteran turned police sergeant David Budd, who foils a suspected terrorist bombing attempt while traveling on a train with his kids. His heroic actions land him with the plum job as personal bodyguard to the Home Secretary, Julia Montague. What follows is a densely plotted web of political intrigue, conspiracy theories and personal turmoil. Some scenes are so tense, they are almost unwatchable. It’s unbelievable how good every aspect of this mini-series is – acting, production values, music and editing.
  • Ordeal by Innocence (3 episodes): This adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1958 novel, has some of the most gorgeous cinematography I have seen in recent times, having been filmed near Glasgow at the Ardgowan House by the River Clyde. Bill Nighy and Anna Chancellor (“duckface” from Four Weddings and a Funeral) are the two well-known faces playing the wealthy couple Leo and Rachel Argyll. The other characters in the story are their adopted children and their housekeeper. Since I haven’t read the original novel, the fact that this adaptation controversially changed the ending had no effect whatsoever on me. I thoroughly enjoyed the classic Agatha Christie plot twists and at various points, virtually everyone on screen is suspected of having committed the murder. It is however, a very dark story and made all the more jarring by the beauty of the surroundings.
  • The Little Drummer Girl (6 episodes): I just finished watching this over the weekend. Directed by acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), this is another of many great recent John Le Carré adaptations for both cinema and TV. Michael Shannon is amazing (as usual) playing Israeli spymaster Martin Kurtz, who cooks up a plan to get an actress to infiltrate a Palestinian extremist cell and get access to the mastermind behind a series of bombings of Jewish targets in Europe. Set during the turbulent 70s, Kurtz and his hand-picked team of Israeli agents (including Alexander Skarsgard as Israeli intelligence agent Gadi Becker) operate with the grudging cooperation of European allies to recruit radical left-wing actress Charlie Ross as their double agent. The heart of the story lies in how they convince (brainwash? coerce?) Charlie into taking on this assignment, at great risk to her life and her sanity. And herein lies the tragedy of all secret agents (including even James Bond), who ultimately are just pawns in the hands of the people who really pull the strings. While the story was engaging and thought-provoking (credit to Le Carré), it’s on-screen realization was a bit over-stylized and arty for me, especially the relationship between Charlie Ross and her handler/lover, Gadi Becker. The real discovery of this show is actress Florence Pugh who plays Charlie Ross. Much has been written of Pugh’s performance in 2016’s period drama Lady Macbeth, which I now definitely have to watch. This 22-year-old actress is someone who is going to dominate acting for years to come. Truly amazing talent.

So those are my chosen TV mini-series of 2018 and I would pick the first two as absolutely must-watch for anyone. That leaves just the TV movies, which I’ll cover in my next post.

Enjoying the Golden Age of TV: Gems of 2018, Part 1


It’s a generally accepted fact amongst TV critics and viewers that we are living in a “Golden Age of TV” for the past few years, with a wealth of densely scripted, lavishly produced, intensely acted TV content running on cable channels like HBO and AMC Networks and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. It’s extraordinary that this description covers not just conventional dramatic shows like House of Cards but also genre fare like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead; with rare exceptions, sci-fi, fantasy or horror shows rarely ever attracted top drawer writing and acting talent until the 90’s when we got The X-Files. Since then, and particularly in the past 7-8 years, we have had several long-running shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead that have consistently picked up awards in acting and technical categories year after year.

I typically prefer one-off TV movies and short mini-series as there is a guarantee of a definite end vs. the risk of meandering plotlines, lack of closure (The X-Files and Lost) or “jumping the shark” (season 4 of Falling Skies). Among the multi-year shows, I have limited myself to just a handful – Game of Thrones, House of Cards, The Crown, Madam Secretary and The Leftovers (which I started watching only after learning that season 3 was its last, as I previously feared it would go on and on like Damon Lindelof’s other creation, Lost).

Having said that, 2018 has been a particularly good year as I tried my luck with four new TV shows, all of which were worth the investment in time and have been renewed for a second season.

  • Star Trek: Discovery (season 1, 15 episodes): The first new Star Trek show in more than a decade, it started in Sept 2017 and ended in early 2018, so gets into the 2018 list. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with this ‘alternate universe’ messing around with Star Trek canon, particularly the concept of the ‘spore drive’ and the re-design of the Klingon (truly frightening and repulsive). I did however quickly become invested in the fate of the main characters – Michael Burnham played superbly by Sonequa Martin-Green, Saru (played by Doug Jones, the ‘go to’ actor for any alien character under prosthetics) and others. Michelle Yeoh had a brief but impactful role as Capt. Philippa Georgiou. As with all Trek shows, it explores some serious socio-political issues and has some of the most intense scenes of any Trek show. I really like the title sequence and the theme music by Jeff Courage which incorporates elements from the original theme. Season 2 will premiere in Jan 2019.
  • Yellowstone (season 1, 9 episodes): I have already written about this show previously. Not quite as satisfying as Taylor Sheridan’s big screen work, the writing feels hurried and less grounded compared to his movies. Like a modern version of Dallas, it looks like the characters are starting to do more and more outrageous things. Still, the powerhouse cast is eminently watchable – Kevin Costner is Montana ranch owner John Dutton, Kelly Reilly is his emotionally damaged man-eating daughter Beth, Luke Grimes and Wes Bentley are his equally damaged sons Kayce and Jamie, Cole Hauser is the fiercely loyal ranch foreman Rip Wheeler, Danny Huston plays real estate developer Dan Jenkins, the nemesis of the Dutton family and Gil Birmingham is the politically ambitious chief of the Native Americans who live adjacent John Dutton’s land. Season 2 will air sometime in 2019.
  • The First (season 1, 8 episodes): I briefly referred to this show in my post about First Man, the Neil Armstrong biopic, as I watched it around the same time and there were some parallels in terms of the themes and story beats (not tone). This is indeed a very ‘grounded’ and serious depiction of the challenges faced by the first manned mission to Mars, with my only complaint being a few self-indulgent moments which become a bit too ‘arty’ and drawn out. Sean Penn is intense and magnetic.
  • The Terror (season 1, 10 episodes): This show is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Dan Simmons, a fictionalized account of two Royal Navy ships (HMS Terror and HMS Erebus) which were lost in the late 1840s while trying to find the elusive Northwest Passage through the Arctic to Asia. Subsequent research indicates that the ships were trapped in the Arctic ice and the 129 seamen on board perished a slow and painful death over several months. The novel added a supernatural element to the story – in addition to dealing with the bitter cold, disease, malnutrition, hunger, cannibalism and mutineers, the men are hunted down by a native demonic spirit (called ‘tuunbaq’ by the Eskimo), which takes the form of a giant polar bear. I had read the book many years ago; it is bleak but engrossing. The TV show visualizes the bleakness and the harsh conditions superbly, almost unbearably. The acting is truly top-notch, the cast includes seasoned British character actors Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies (who will play Prince Philip in The Crown season 3), Paul Ready, Ciaran Hinds and newcomer Adam Nagaitis, who plays the despicable mutineer Cornelius Hickey. Although I knew the tragic fate of the men in advance, the show is still compelling because of the acting, the incredible production design, the historically accurate depiction of the inhuman conditions faced by arctic explorers of the time and the morbid fascination of waiting to see who dies next (and how!). The first season completes the story, but now the producers have decided to use the show’s title to tell a new, unconnected story in season 2, taking the same approach as The American Horror Story anthology series. One day, I must compile a list of visually striking opening sequences of TV shows; The Terror will feature in the list, I think.

In my next post, I will cover the memorable TV movies and mini-series that I watched in 2018. Incidentally, all the movies are American and all the mini-series are British!

First Man explores the human story behind a pioneering space mission


Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man has to be experienced on the big screen, ideally IMAX. Having said that, the IMAX format scenes are limited to the moon landing sequence; much of the film is shot on grainy 16mm film in a Cinéma vérité style, as if someone with a home movie camera had been in Armstrong’s home or with him inside the claustrophobic space capsule. There have been quite a few memorable films made about space exploration – The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Space Cowboys come immediately to mind – but this is perhaps the first one to give the audience a real appreciation of what an astronaut experiences durng a space flight. Being violently shaken about inside a dark metal box, on top of a rocket that is generating 7.5 million pounds of thrust is both terrifying and exhausting. One can only marvel at the physical strength and the nerves of steel that these astronauts had, especially in the early days of space exploration when accidents and fatalities were common.

Ryan Gosling is the perfect choice for this film; an understated actor to play an introverted, understated man. The cast is filled out with a host of powerful actors. The Crown’s Claire Foy plays Janet Armstrong; she had to calmly manage home and family in the glare of the public eye while keeping the fear and anxiety bottled up under the surface. Jason Clarke, one of my favourite character actors has a significant role as astronaut Ed White, a close colleague of Armstrong’s who tragically died in a fire during a systems check for the Apollo mission. Corey Stoll (the villain in Ant-Man) plays Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong’s partner on the Apollo 11 moon landing; Armstrong is a bit frosty towards the brash and outspoken Aldrin in the early stages of their association, but the two professionals work together seamlessly while on the Apollo 11 mission.

Justin Hurwitz has composed the music for all of Damien Chazelle’s films; Whiplash and La La Land were both films built around the theme of music and he was able to work with a consistent musical style throughout. In First Man, I think he had a tougher task and the 33-year-old does a wonderful job alternating between soft melodious passages for the intimate, introspective scenes at Armstrong’s home and the powerful, epic sounds needed for the moon landing.

I mentioned the cinematography earlier; once again, all credit to Swede Linus Sandgren for some truly amazing imagery. He won the Oscar for best cinematography earlier this year for La La Land and is a shoe-in to be nominated for First Man as well. One wouldn’t imagine that both films were shot by the same person; he has completely adapted the equipment and the style of photography to suit each film’s subject matter and tone.

The film was so engrossing and gripping that I didn’t realize that 2 hours and 20 minutes had gone by. There is not a single scene that seems superfluous or indulges the director’s own artistic needs. Credit for this perfect pacing must go to Tom Cross, the editor who won an Oscar in 2015 for his work on Chazelle’s Whiplash and will surely be recognized for this film as well.

A few weeks ago, I finished reading test pilot Scott Crossfield’s memoirs called Always Another Dawn. Crossfield was the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound and was the primary test pilot on the X-15 hypersonic plane which was the technological stepping stone for the American space program. X-15 pilots flew so high (above 100,000 ft) that they technically qualified as astronauts! The opening scene of First Man shows Neil Armstrong completing an X-15 flight. Both Crossfield and Armstrong worked at NACA – the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which operated all the experimental aircraft in the 1950s and 60s and was the predecessor to NASA. Reading the book has given me an additional appreciation of the men who paved the way for space flight and for much of the advances in modern day aeronautics. Many of them were qualified engineers who combined brains, brawn, personal ethics and courage in a way that I don’t think we see much of today. Truly a generation of heroes.

Coincidentally, I just finished watching Hulu’s 8-episode first season of The First, which chronicles preparation for the first manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. Starring Sean Penn and Natasha McElhone (who had 2 big movies 20 years ago in 1998 – Ronin and The Truman Show), this is a glossy narrative, visually very different from First Man, but the themes and some of the story beats are similar – administrators having to justify the enormous cost of a space mission to politicians and the public, astronauts managing personal relationships and their own anxieties prior to a voyage from which they may not return. The pacing of The First is inconsistent, but the performances from the leads are top notch, with the 58-year-old Sean Penn still playing the intense, angry man after all these years and looking incredibly fit and bulked up for the role.

In an age when we experience other worlds through the safety of smartphones and VR goggles, both First Man and The First remind us of the physical and emotional dangers associated with real exploration.