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TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Booked Solid 2.15

2013-02-19T10:08:00.000Z

So, in last week’s Person of Interest we enjoyed a little social networking and all round geek-ness, this week it would seem that we were back to our usual turn with “Booked Solid”, a good episode with plenty of twists and turns with one final revealing moment which left us all wanting more. Reese was back to doing what he does best this week, kicking ass is his thing and boy did he get some action in during this episode. “Booked Solid” also welcomed back one of our other favourite characters, Zoe Morgan who we first met back in season 1’s “The Fix”, however she also starred in one of my favourites of this season “The High Road”, so from the moment I saw her on screen I had high hopes and it seems they were justified because I wasn’t disappointed at all.

What I really liked about this episode was the competition on offer for Reese, let’s face it he’s normally way to clever for the people they normally pit against him, however this week it was a group of trained assassins who, ok didn’t quite come up to scratch but at least they carried some sort of menacing threat towards the weekly POI (don’t remember her name). Although Reese was working in an environment he’s not familiar with, he was very aware of the situation and the tactics on offer from the “hit squad”. As good as this story was I do feel they spoiled it a little towards the end, almost cheesing it up if you like when Finch bought the hotel off the corrupt manager and made Mira (Oh, that’s her name) the new manager, why? Pretty much like Russia last week I felt that was rather unnecessary.

It was also nice to see a real threat back in the menacing government hitman who Reese first met a few episodes back in Rikers prison. Am I the only one who thinks this? But who does this guy actually work for? I seriously have no idea who the guy on the end of the phone is. It seems that this guy only has a vendetta against Reese and maybe only his boss knows about the existence of The Machine. Why didn’t Reese kill him though? After all, the guy managed to get to the hospital and yeah he’s been called back to Washington for what Spartacus would call “more pressing concern” I’ve no doubt he will be back for another shot at Mr Reese. That probably won’t go in his favour though, as did this week because let’s remember here when he beat up on Reese in Rikers, Reese was purposefully not fighting back in order that the FBI didn’t make him as the man in the suit.

It seems that this is one part of the story line which is going to become more prominent towards the end of this second season as there little office chat was met by one big surprise at the end of this episode. That surprise might just be the one season 2 needs as it was the reveal that Root (Amy Acker) has worked her way into whatever government department these guys work for, now as you know for me season 2 has not been as good since she disappeared from our screens in “Bad Code”, she clearly has another master plan at work to get back at Finch here. Of course little does the guy know that Root actually knows more about the man in the suit, Finch and The Machine than he does. Was it that big of a surprise though? Once I heard the voice of the female assistant I knew it had to be Root, we didn’t need to wait and see her face.

I really enjoyed “Booked Solid” it was solid in pretty much every aspect right from the weekly procedural through to the big reveal in the end. At least we know that Carter won’t be going off and joining the FBI any time soon, that’s good, but I think Reese’s time may be taken up with Zoe. Even Fusco got in on the action this week, convincingly too, as he kicked the asses of those hitmen. All in all I think this was a pretty good effort and I’m really looking forward to seeing where the story takes us from here.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - One Percent 2.14

2013-02-13T14:55:00.000Z

Apologies fist off, for I have not wrote anything in a while, yeah, you may have caught yesterdays Breaking Bad update but I actually wrote that ages ago and only found the time yesterday to add pictures, proof read and spell check it, I've been busy I guess. Anyway enough of my whining and on with what I, and many others regard as the best show on TV right now Person of Interest (although The Walking Dead did start again this week). So far POI's second season has been full of ups and downs for me, it was brilliant to start with the episodes involving Finch's computer hacking foe Root, then things went sour for maybe four or five episodes, still enjoyable but not up top the usual standards. It got itself back in the last couple of weeks thanks to the capture of Reese and Detective Carter by former CIA operative Kara (killed off to take her more prominent role in Kevin Bacon's disappointing The Following). What has also been brilliant about the last couple of episodes is the backing story of Finch and the Machine, it's something that "One Percent" stuck with (a little) as well as delivering another potential threat for Mr's Reese and Finch.

I have read a few reviews of "One Percent" as always, and it seems like a pretty mixed bag on this occasion. Some say that this is the worst Person of Interest episode of season 2, I have to disagree with that, I'll give you that it was not as good as "Dead Reckoning" but for me their have been far worse episodes this season. I don't think this was just another "filler" type episode for us to just watch and forget about the next week, this may just have been an introduction to a new character who like Root could return to wreak havoc on Reese and Finch's little vigilante adventure. Logan Pierce was his name and actor Jimmi Simpson (Breakout Kings) done a great job of making this guy semi likeable and somewhat interesting. It's the first time that a weekly POI has ever figured out that Reese wasn't who he said he was, and Pierce had started doing background checks on Reese from the moment he met him, so much so that he even figured that Reese could not be working alone.

So, would he come back for another go at Reese and Finch? I think he's just crazy and wild enough to do that, he made it his business this week to meet Finch and question him on how he manages to do what he does without leaving a digital footprint, the episode was also left with Reese's "present" from Pierce being smashed into pieces by Finch who just so happened to discover a GPS tracking chip inside it, not a mistake that Reese would normally make, but maybe it was in operation just long enough for Pierce to figure out where their hideout is. I guess like many things in Person of Interest we will just have to wait and see what happens on that front, but potentially there are a lot of "bad guys" mounting up this season who may need to be dealt with. Although, would you say Pierce is a bad guy? I think his interest in Finch maybe more his computer geek side than anything else, but with a loud mouth like him knowing where you hang out you can be sure it won't be to long before other people get to find out.

Friendczar.com? Now that's not an easy URL to remember is it? The episode acted as a little nod towards real computer geniuses like Facebook's (rolls a little easier off the tongue) Mark Zukerburgh, who himself allowed his website to go public just last year in what may have been the biggest whatever to hit the stock market in like ever. That's exactly what was happening with Friendczar.com in this episode and just like the afor mentioned Zuckerburgh, Logan Pierce had his fair share of enemies. If I were to liken this episode to anything, humour not included then it would be the Facebook movie "The Social Network", "One Percent" did have it's moments of humour as always, I just didn't find them quite as memorable as I usually do.

I really didn't get why they needed a location change in this episode, as Reese and Pierce flew off to St Petersburgh, Russia, Why? It really wasn't needed and was only used maybe to make us dislike filthy rich Logan Pierce a little bit more, who knows?

There wasn't much for Carter or Fusco this week, but there was enough to suggest that Fusco's years of corruption could be coming back to haunt him. Carter informed him that should any of his past misdemeanours come back to fruition then she will not back him up no matter how much he has helped her recently, that of course has the potential to blow back in her face as I can think of at least two occasions already in this season where Fusco has saved her ass from what would most likely have been the sack. I think all in all "One Percent" was a good episode, yeah not as good as some of the others, but certainly not as bad as others, for me it served as a little introduction to what just might be another neat little story twist, how about you? What did you think of "One Percent"?

TV Review: BREAKING BAD – One Minute 3.7 & I See You 3.8

2013-02-12T16:07:00.001Z

I just love this show, and finally after us reckoning for long enough now that Tio “Don” Salamanca is a psychotic maniac we have finally had it proven to us as Breaking Bad showed us just how ruthless this guy is. In the backing story to “The Cousins”, possibly the best bad guy double act I have seen on TV we got to see them as kids playing in the garden of their family villa, however one is tougher than the other and breaks his brothers toy, the weaker brother heads to “Don”, crying saying he wants his brother dead, what proceeds is nothing short of edge of your seat stuff as Don Salamanca dumps the weaker brothers head into a tub of water holding it to the point where he almost drowns. It sets up the story as to why the two “cousins” are so tough themselves now, and really shows how ruthless they can be.

Just how ruthless they can be came to a climax finally in this episode as their search for Tuco’s murderer had them on the path of Hank (Dean Norris) who was just sublime throughout this entire episode. It opened brilliantly involving Hank who thought Jesse was responsible for the phone call about his wife, the punishment? He proceeded to beat Jesse to a pulp. Hank has really been struggling in recent weeks and this was just the weight off the shoulders that he needed, although it served the opposite as Jesse put in a complaint and he was suspended from duty. Hank knows things haven’t been going his way lately and his coming clean without even trying to lie was the lift he thought he needed to help him get through. Thanks to Walt though Hank can breathe a sigh of relief as on the promise that Jesse will come back as 50/50 partners with Walt in the Meth cooking business he has dropped all the charges.

I’ve read many reviews of this episode and many say that it is the best episode of Breaking Bad so far, the finale if you like to all of the happenings in season 2. The ending of the episode could not have been any better with the cousins showing up in the parking lot to take out Hank, killing them was the only thing that would stop them and a terrified Hank done a brilliant job during this act. It’s a shame to see the cousins go but I agree that this is probably up there with the best of the episodes and with six left to the season 3 finale I’m sure were in for a thrill ride.

“I See You” is an understandably slower episode as you would expect, they can’t all keep up with the pace of the previous episode. It started off well as Jesse was released from hospital only to see Hank being rushed in with four bullet wounds courtesy of the cousins, one of whom is now dead however the other one is still hanging in there along with Hank on the ward and his presence at the hospital has people wanting him dead for all different reasons. You have Walt, he wants him dead because he has figured the guy was probably sent to kill him, the DEA want him dead as he shot their hero Hank and probably the most dangerous of them all, Gus wants him dead before he blabs to anyone about the chicken shop owners real identity.

It was nowhere near as good as “One Minute” but it was still a gripping forty five minutes of must see TV, who’d have thought that a bunch of people sitting around and waiting in a hospital would be so gripping, from the gripping moments there are a couple of notable nods that I feel should be mentioned here. Firstly it’s the living cousin who caught a glimpse of Walt looking at him through the door, recognising him immediately as Heisenberg the cousin, even with his legs amputated leaps from his bed to try and get to Walt, now that shows just how much they want the guy dead. The next would be the coming together of Walt and Gus at the hospital, with Walt now knowing possibly just how dangerous Gus is and that he kept him in the dark about knowing his family connection with the DEA. It didn’t need to be said by Gus, but it was a very deafening “get back to cooking my meth” from the mild mannered drug lord.

This show really just gets better week on week and I’m really enjoying both watching and doing the double edged reviews on it. I’ve had to wait a little while to this point as I had a week off from watching (for some reason) but I’m looking forward to getting through the final five episodes which I have no doubt will be building towards a brilliant season finale.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Dead Reckoning 2.13

2013-02-05T12:33:00.000Z

So, following a couple of weeks on the side lines after an impressive return with “Prisoners Dilemma” Person of Interest was back with what for me was maybe it’s most impressive episode since the season two opener and maybe the second episode, both of which just happened to have the added element of danger in Root. In “Dead Reckoning” it was time for us to be delivered another return, that of Kara Stanton, Reese’s former CIA partner who up until the afore mentioned episode thought she was dead. It was a welcome return in my opinion and something which the show has been lacking in the weeks since Root left our screens. Like the episodes involving Root, this week there was no actual Person of Interest (unless you count Kara as one) another move which I like because that always means that the show will be moving us on with the actual “meaty” part of the story line.

As always when there is no weekly Person of Interest I found myself highly entertained whilst at the same time slightly bemused by some of the things which happened. Like I said above this was by far my favourite episode since “The Contingency” and “Bad Code”, but it was missing something for me. That “missing” ingredient would have to be the danger to either Reese or Finch, although kidnapped by his seemingly “nuts” former partner I never felt like Reese was in any real danger of being hurt or killed during this episode, the most obvious factor there would be that without him there is no show and there are still plenty of episodes left to fill this season as well as a third which will no doubt be commissioned. I never felt like Kara would cause any harm to Reese, even when she fired up their vests with the five minute countdown. I did believe she would kill agent Snow, but then again given half the chance I’m pretty sure Reese would have done the same.

I’m a little surprised that the writers have chosen to kill Kara off so quickly, not only did I think she would have Reese for more than one episode but I also thought she, like Root would make a clean getaway, living to fight against them another day. I guess that mantle is now going to be picked up by the posh guy in the suit, you know, the one who looks a little like Ian Mckellen? Yeah him, actually his real name is John Nolan and he’s the uncle of Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan and has also starred in background roles for his and brother Christopher’s Dark Knight movies. Seemingly he is the head of whatever organisation was pulling Kara’s strings from the Far East. He done a good job of being pretty mysterious here and I’m pretty sure that we will be learning more about this guy before the season is done. Quite why this company want to start cyber warfare with America is yet to be seen but I guess we will find out, I’ve no doubt that Finch will be monitoring their activities over the next five months.

Speaking of Finch, it was nice to get some more not so innocent background on the guy, this is where my slight gripe comes in this week (well one anyway). I don’t feel that I needed it spelt out to me that Finch was the guy who sold the laptop to this organisation which resulted in Kara and Reese almost killing each other, the moment the guy mentioned it to Kara in hospital and the camera panned to Finch you knew. It was like the episode a couple of weeks back with that kid genius computer hacker, we knew they were talking about Finch, it didn’t need to be spelt out to us. However on this occasion it was whether that was just for us to be sure we knew what they were getting at, or maybe just to prove that Kara was actually dead, I don’t know. Either way I don’t think it was needed. And, why would Kara want to kill the guy who sold the laptop to that organisation? From what we know of Finch this far he is kind and considerate, not the sort of person to kick off international cyber warfare. Finch may have sold the laptop but who says that he knew what they were planning with it? Maybe that’s why he’s so protective of “The Machine”, he has seen his programs used for bad in the past and doesn’t want to see it happen again. I’m pretty sure there is still a whole lot of deeper story to Finch just yet and I’m excited to see how this unfolds, probably rolling into another season??

I enjoyed Person of Interest this week, I really, really did and I feel like the show is getting back to its best in the last couple of weeks following a little bit of a lull in my opinion. I’m pretty sure that from here we will be back to weekly procedurals and wise cracks from Reese (love them though) whilst the main story goes onto the slow burn before really kicking into action running up to the season finale. I mentioned a gripe above, and I have another to mention now. If Kara Stanton was so “bad ass” to kill an FBI agent on the spot, why would she risk leaving a witness in Detective Carter? Surely she would have killed her too? Of course, I’m pleased she didn’t and I’ve no doubt Reese is too, I’m still thinking these two may hook up at some point. Your thoughts are welcome in the comments as always.

TV Review: THE AMERICANS - Pilot 1.1

2013-02-03T12:22:00.000Z

I finally got around to watching The Americans Starring Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings two sleeper KGB agents living in 80’s suburban New York City. The new espionage thriller/drama premiered on America’s FX network January 30^th to an impressive audience of almost 4 million, a good start from a show which will be hoping to come close to the success of Homeland. The Americans is the story of two seemingly everyday Americans Philip and Elizabeth who live in the States with their two kids, both of whom have no idea that their parents are in fact KGB spies and not married at all. Set in the 80’s during the Cold War it follows the couple on their “mission” and we’ll join them for all the bumps and scrapes along the way. The show is created by Joseph Weisberg (Falling Skies) who is a former CIA officer turned writer, so realism shouldn’t be a problem here giving that he probably served in the CIA during the Cold War (one can only assume).

I found this “Pilot” episode quite intriguing in that it really has a lot of similarities to Showtime’s Homeland. For a “Pilot” episode which ran for almost an hour and a half there was certainly a lot going on here and I’d be lying if I told you I could remember all of the names. The most important ones for now would of course be Philip and Elizabeth as well as their two kids, we got to learn an awful lot in this opener about the “couple”, how they came together and what resulted in them living undercover in the US, I’ve no doubt that will be built upon in the episodes to come. Other than that I don’t remember many of the Russians names.

Like Homeland it makes us root for the so called “bad guys” given that the main focus is the KGB agents seemingly running amok in the United States, just like Nick Brody in the afore mentioned Homeland though, one agent is having doubt’s about his loyalty. I’d say from the “Pilot” I feel more for Philip right now than I do for Elizabeth, but she did show some signs of cracking under the pressure during this episode. One thing I would say regarding realism is the times Philip or Elizabeth meet up with superior commanding officers, I think it would be more interesting if they spoke Russian and gave it to us through subtitles, I’m not a massive fan of those but it works well in other shows, plus I should probably just wait and see if there is a reason behind that.

From this opening episode there are still multiple ways The Americans may choose to go with its story line. Philip and Elizabeth are Russian of course but they have been living in America so long it would be crazy of us to think that their heads had not been turned in some way. It was evident in this opener that Philip has already considered becoming a “traitor” to his nation for the $3m on offer from the American government, and was it just me or at one point did Elizabeth see his point? Communication from the Kremlin is at a stand still and they feel like they have no support. If the show decides to go that way, maybe in a second season then I think we could be in for a thrill ride.

I wasn’t too struck on the 1980’s setting, it’s obvious that’s when it had to be as the story line is concerning things which happened either during or directly following the Cold War. For me I think The Americans could have worked set in the modern day just as Homeland is, let’s face it we’re not unfamiliar with the story of the Russian spy ring that was caught living in America just the other year, proving that this sort of thing still goes on in this day in age.

Music was provided in the way of Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”. The Fleetwood Mac music was brilliant, so much so that is seemed to come and go without me even noticing much, maybe I was so engrossed with what was going on, on screen. But, then…Phil Collins! Huh, a strange choice in backing music in my opinion and I didn’t feel like it worked during the scene it was used, still, what do I know?

The Americans seems like it will be a pretty promising addition to the Mid-season schedule, it was one of my top picks back in January when I put out the coming offerings and based on trailers all that would have come close was probably The Following, I didn’t, nor do I intend to review the second episode of that show. I’m not going to sit and promise weekly reviews of The Americans just yet, but I will definitely be back for more. How about you? What did you think of the Americans and its one hour twenty run time “Pilot”?

Worthy of note;

Who thinks Keri Russell and her steely eyed KGB agent character would have been suited perfectly to the female Terminator role in Rise of the Machines?

Since in real life and on TV female Russian KGB agents are always hot, Can we assume that’s par for the course?

What are the chances of an FBI agent moving in across the road from a couple of KGB spies and immediately having his suspicions roused?

TV Review: BREAKING BAD - Mas 3.5 & Sunset 3.6

2013-02-01T11:50:00.000Z

I actually found “Mas” a little slower than I expected it to be, I thought things would have kicked on a bit quicker following the developments during “Green Light”, but I suppose Breaking Bad is all about the slow burn and that’s what I love about the show, the way it delivers a brilliant story at a brilliant pace. No matter how slow an episode is you simply can’t take your eyes off the screen as you know things are never far away from being utterly brilliant. We had “No Mas” a while back meaning no more in Spanish, a signal that Walter White would be cooking his legendary blue meth no more, “Mas” of course means more, and as expected Gus Fring needs more meth and the services of chemistry genius Walt for the next three months, before handing him on to the Mexican “cousins” for the hit.

Now, as I thought during the last couple of episodes Hank turning his job down in El Paso and staying on the Heisenberg case is going to prove problematic. Walt and Jesse have gone their separate ways for now, with a wedge forced by Gus. Jesse as we know is sloppy and there was a great flashback at the beginning of this episode as to how Jesse came by the RV which would become their meth lab. He stole it, would you believe it? Walt gave him $7,500 to buy an RV, most of which Jesse spent on champagne and women in a local club, before stealing his friends mothers RV. That’s the first mistake, next was his mistake last week when he exchanged blue meth for gas, said blue meth has now found it’s way into the hands of Hank who attends the gas station and has been able to recover the CCTV from an ATM machine which will surely give him a lead.

Elsewhere Gus has offered Walt $3m for three months of his time, and it won’t be spent in some RV meth lab, it’s a state of the art lab where Walt will be teamed up with a fellow lab geek who knows a lot more about chemistry than Jesse. Walt is finding it hard to refuse, even more so now that Skyler and him are back living under the same roof. It seems that Skyler may have just come to accept Walt for who he has now become, maybe she gets a sense of power form the money involved and the lifestyle she can lead. She is having serious doubts about why she is having a relationship with Ted, and maybe that’s because she has tasted a little bit of the luxury that money can afford, let’s face it, Walt’s meth scheme is going to earn a lot more than whatever Ted Beneke is into.

I may have found “Mas” a little on the slow side, but I have to say as always Breaking Bad didn’t half make up for it in “Sunset”, a seemingly frantic (towards the end) episode which really did have your heart pounding as to whether Heisenberg was about to be made. There really was plenty going on here, and to top it all the Mexican “cousins” were back. I have to say again, that although one of them actually spoke during this episode, although only a couple of words, this duo have to two of the most convincing bad guys I have seen on TV. They could employ these two to walk through a burning hot desert silently with an axe and I’d still watch to see if anything happened.

The Mexican’s decided this week that waiting three months was going to be a bit of a stretch for them, as usually the job would have been completed already. They seem to be watching Gus’ every move as they seemed to know that Walt was yet to accept the job offer, meaning if he doesn’t they will kill him now before going back to their homeland. It was brilliant how they just walked into Gus’s Pollas restaurant and sat amongst all the paying customers, families and all, to say they looked out of place is an understatement especially as they didn’t even order food, can’t do that when you don’t speak I suppose. Thing is they didn’t only put Gus’ staff on edge they also put Gus seemingly on edge, is that because he simply wants the two business interests kept strictly separate? Or is it because he knows what they are capable of and fears for his own safety?

Luckily for Walt he has accepted the job offer now, buying him time, although he doesn’t know that at this point. Walt has been granted with a state of the art lab as well as Gale Boetticher (David Costabile) his new lab assistant. It was great to see Walt back in the lab with a seemingly straighter head thanks to advances at home and I’ve no doubt that this will be built upon in the coming episodes.

The best bit of the night would have to go to Hank, who last week got the lead on the RV, and as guessed, that lead had brought up the name of Jesse Pinkman. Now who better to gain information on Jesse but your brother-in-law and his former teacher Walt? A brilliant moment when Walt got the call coming to realise that he was on the brink of being caught before his blue meth adventure had really got started. That lead to some frantic moments between Walt and Jesse who needed to destroy the lab, however Hank was already watching Jesse and followed them to their location, before they knew it they were trapped in the RV with Hank outside. It was brilliant to see and I’ve no doubt that some more close scrapes will come the way of Jesse, especially now as he has no ties with Walt.

So, it didn’t start great but if finished brilliantly with “Sunset”, I can’t wait to see where they go from here with the story, the RV will be destroyed so no more leads for Hank, but I’m sure he won’t let Pinkman out his sight. Will Walt invite Jesse back into the game, he seemingly has no need right now, but I’m guessing it will end up that way especially if he keeps himself clean. I definitely want to see more of Gus as his character is just brilliant, his “cleaner” is also an intriguing character, and to finish as you’ve probably guessed I can’t wait to see more of the Mexican “cousins”.

TV Review: BREAKING BAD - I.F.T 3.3 & Green Light 3.4

2013-01-27T09:01:00.001Z

Is it just me or are two mute Mexicans possibly the most interesting characters on TV? I find myself glued every time they appear and it would seem with good reason as "I.F.T" took us on a little flashback to season 2 showing us exactly what the "cousins" are capable of. Remember when Danny Trejo guest starred last season? He was the guy who's head was cut off and left to roam around the desert on a Tortoise's shell. We now know that it was the "cousins" who were responsible for that and they are clearly not to be messed with, the axe seems their preferred method of decapitation, not nice I'm sure. Thing is when your a DEA informant like Tortuga was then that is the way this Mexican drug cartel will deal with you, worse than being an informant the "cousins" and their cartel boss El Jefe (Javier Grajeda) believe that Walter, or Heisenberg is responsible for the death of Tuco.

The Mexicans are a really interesting bunch here actually, not only are the "cousins" very entertaining in their silently threatening manner but it seems that Tio (Mark Margolis) is clearly some sort of cartel boss, an elder if you like. Don Salamanca was his name and I've no doubt that cantactras old bell ringer Tio was some what of a crazy Don in his days, maybe just like his nephew Tuco. El Jefe also seems like he's going to be an interesting instalment, clearly the boss but with a seemingly longer fuse than that of the young "cousins".

More interesting than any of them could well prove to be Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), a local cartel boss who seems to have the respect of El Jefe, so much so that he has been able to buy time on the hit on Walter whilst he uses him for his own personal needs. Gus is no doubt a big fish in the drugs business, but I have to wonder whether it's beneficial to him that Walt is killed? You would have to say no. The guy who cooks the best crystal meth in the world, I'm pretty sure that it's in Gus' interests to keep Walt around and onside for as long as he can. Maybe Gus could even help Walt and Jesse kill off the Mexicans, who knows?

It would seem that “Green Light” is going to be the turning point in Breaking Bad’s third season, “Green Light” simply meaning that Walter almost has the go ahead to start cooking meth once again. Problem is his young understudy and former junkie Jesse has already got in on the action cooking up a batch of meth using Walt’s recipe without asking his permission, now he wants Walt to put him in touch with Gus in order that he can distribute the drug nation wide. That would probably be fine, but Walt is not happy that his product is being “ripped off” by Jesse, and a lesser product is going out with the name Heisenberg attached. Second to that Walt’s life is seemingly falling apart, last episode Skyler admitted to her fling with boss Ted Beneke and Walt is loosing control.

Jesse got his way in the end, taking the inferior product and approaching Saul to get in touch with Gus, a move which Gus wouldn’t normally have gone for as he doesn’t do business with junkies, but this is the perfect way for him to reel Walter’s services back in, as he says he doesn’t believe in violence being a motivator. Gus’ plan worked out brilliantly as he paid Jesse half and then just as Walt was at a “green light”, some dude in a car pulled up and threw a wad of cash through his window, “your half” he said with Walt knowing instantly what he was referring too. Money is the best motivator I suppose so I’ve no doubt that Walt will be back to cooking meth in the next episode or two.

Of course Walt cooking meth again does not come without it’s problems, Jesse has already started and made mistakes in leaving “samples” in exchange for gas, those samples found their way to local police and then of course to Hank who was supposedly on his way back to El Paso for a position which would really benefit his career. Problem is Hank is terrified of El Paso, he’s happy being the boss where he is in somewhat of a safe environment, rolling over junkie wannabe meth dealers, with the emergence of Heisenberg’s blue meth Hank has the perfect excuse not to go meaning we should see some great scenes in future episodes between the two.

I really think Breaking Bad will be kicking into action from here, as if the first four episodes have not been good enough. I’m really hooked on this series right now and with Person of Interest failing to fill me with confidence lately Breaking Bad is definitely the program I’m enjoying most right now.

TV Review: THE FOLLOWING - Pilot 1.1

2013-01-23T17:05:00.001Z

Earlier on this month you may remember I put out a post concerning 2013's most anticipated TV shows, topping that list was a show originally billed to be coming in the 2012 fall season starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. That never happened, but we soon heard that The Following would be starting on US network Fox January 21st, along with that came some good news for fans in the UK, Sky Atlantic would be showing the "Pilot" episode the following night, not just good news for fans but also good news for UK TV networks who for once won't buy a big US drama which has been downloaded by everyone in the UK. Anyway, The Following would certainly have gone down as maybe this years most highly anticipated show (mid-season), especially given the heavyweight Hollywood casting of A-Lister Kevin Bacon.

If you haven't watched any of the earlier trailers released for The Following then you may well have thought at the beginning of this episode that a prison guard had just finished his shift, you will have quickly got to grips with the fact that the guy is Dr. Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) a psychotic serial killer with a love of Edgar Allen Poe. Carroll has escaped prison for one reason to finish the job he started ten years previous, his "unfinished business" being Sarah Fuller (Maggie Grace). Quickly the FBI bring in the man who caught Carroll ten years previous, the now medically retired (because of Carroll) Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon). That sets us up for what Director Kevin Williamson has called "part procedural, part soap opera, part horror" It doesn't sound all that great, I'll be honest, but I think the "Pilot" done a decent enough job to have me back next Tuesday for more.

The "Pilot" certainly didn't let me down in anyway, I feel it was very good in every way. At one point I did think that things were being rushed through a little, that was maybe 30 minutes in when I sort of guessed that we would be catching up with serial killer Dr. Joe Carroll pretty quicK, I'll give you that was in the trailer but I didn't think they'd catch the guy in the first episode. The "Pilot" has certainly supplied the springboard as to where we will be going from here, Carroll is finished with his killings and now encouraging his "followers", or as Ryan Hardy pointed out his "cult" to go do the same, make a name for themselves in the world, well, I think that's his idea behind it. After all no one knew who he was when he was a professor.

Looking any further than Bacon and Purefoy the cast have not really been introduced to us yet, yeah we know their names but I'd be lying if I said I remember what they are. Most notable of the two leading FBI agents is the guy, Dexter's Billy Brown, I liked the guy in Dexter and I'm hoping he has a bigger part to play here. Other than him there is a guy who I guess is some sort of FBI criminal profiler, he looks about 15 and a little like Justin Timberlake, he may convince me otherwise in the coming weeks. There are of course going to be a whole host of serial killers for us to be getting our heads around too. The gay (or not) couple who live next door, Carroll's son's nanny and most notably the former prison guard who I think the next episode "Chapter Two" will be focusing on.

All in all I think The Following is looking like it will be quite a promising show, I think it's majorly helped by the fact that it has Kevin Bacon as it's star and that he's backed up brilliantly by James Purefoy. If those two weren't involved I'm not sure it would have quite the same appeal. It looks like it may go down the weekly procedural route of tracking a different member of Carroll's "following" every week, but I can take that, I'm not sure it will have the legs to get past one season thought. How about you? Your comments are welcome as always.

Random Thoughts

You would think by now that actress Maggie Grace would be having a word with her agent, other than Taken where she starred with Liam Neeson I'm pretty sure she has been killed off in every other TV show or movie, she didn't even make it past the "Pilot" on this occasion.

Review: NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS International Magic Live at the O2, London

2013-01-20T11:05:00.000Z

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds are currently rounding up their seemlesly never ending world tour which has gone on for almost 15 months now, Noel and his backing group have just finished up in North America where they have been supported by Snow Patrol and 18 year old Country and Folk music sensation Jake Bugg, they are currently heading back over to London where they will be joined by one of my other favourite bands Reverend and the Makers. As you know I went to see Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds on this current world tour when they stopped by my local Metro Redio Arena in Newcastle, it was brilliant and I got some great footage which can be checked out on my YouTube Channel. Now though to cap off their world tour Noel has released a Blu-ray and DVD named International Magic Live at the O2 through his Sour Mash record Label. The DVD and Blu-ray feature the full concert filmed at the O2 Arena London, Noel Gallagher live at The Virgin Mobile Mod Club, Toronto, which is an acoustic set featuring Noel and his guitar, there is also Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Live at the NME awards as well as a video compilation called Ride The Tiger, and that's only disc 1. On the second disc are all of the demo recordings from Noel's number 1 self titled debut album. I'm going to review them all seperatley with this little piece concentrating on International Magic Live at the O2, which pretty much follows the same set list which I saw in Newcastle.

Now onto the concert at the O2

As always with Noel Gallagher concerts this one is opened with one of my favourite songs, and it’s not even a new one. “(It’s Good) To Be Free” is a song which Noel wrote when he was still in Oasis and they have previously performed it as a band, always with Noel singing though. I love this song but have to be honest I prefer the acoustic version to the more beefed up concert version which is on this Blu-ray, but I have to admit, like Noel himself, its still brilliant.

like I said above the play list pretty much follows what I saw when Noel appeared in Newcastle with a few extra’s thrown in thanks to the bigger crowd and of course bigger production. For this performance Noel had with him the Crouch End Festival Chorus Choir, now normally that’s not my sort of thing and in all honesty it’s probably not Noel Gallagher’s either but they feature quite heavily on this record as a whole and they bring that extra bit of magic to what is one of my favourite Noel Gallagher songs – In the video for you below, “Everybody’s on the Run” from International Magic Live at the O2, enjoy.

Now that was impressive right, don’t worry I have plenty more for you. Now we’ve already gone over one former Oasis song, but as always Noel mix’s it up a bit, he did write them after all. Thrown into this set was an acoustic version of the very guitar driven (and Liam singing in Oasis days) “Supersonic”, it would rank up there with my favourite from the days when the band were together, but stripped back here in such a big arena Noel shows that not only is he a lyrical genius but also a pretty decent guitar player and singer when the massive crowds joins him in singing what was one of his biggest hits – I don’t have footage from the O2 but the video below is from this years V Festival which Noel dedicates to British Olympic hero Mo Farah, check it out as everyone does the Mobot and sings along.

Now I don’t want to waffle on for ages so I have one more video for you now, it’s a new song of Noel’s which I hadn’t really listened to in any great depth, to hung up on the other ones I guess but at this show this song really stood out as one of the best for me and has been a regular in my car since I heard it cranked up to the max. For “Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks” Noel introduced a Jazz trio onto stage, now I’m the last one who likes Jazz music but again like the Choir above the breakdown into the trumpet here is brilliant and it brings a real difference to the song, again I was unable to get the performace from the O2, but check out the best one I could find.

Now as always Noel finished off the set in style, and what better way to finish than with some guitar anthems which helped make Oasis the best band in the world, leading out the set started with the “Whatever”, followed by another personal favourite of mine “Little by Little”, Noel then moved onto the “The Importance of Being Idle" before capping off a brilliant hour and a half set with the biggest guitar anthem of them all “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. Needless to say I loved this concert and my latest Blu-ray will be taking pride of place in my collection for quite some time. I’ll leave you with some footage of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” which I took in Newcastle back in February, enjoy. And excuse my shaky hand, I had been drinking.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Prisoner's Dilemma 2.12

2013-01-16T22:03:00.000Z

I've certainly done plenty complaining about Person of Interest in recent weeks, and I think that complaining was due with the show seemingly taking more of a procedural route as apposed to sticking to it's story. In "Prisoner's Dilemma" I'm pleased to report that Person of Interest is back to where it should be with it's story line, new stories look like there about to be added and I'm confident that this brilliant TV show is going to deliver some great episodes towards it's finale. Last week Reese was locked up in prison but POI decided to plough on without him, that didn't work and this week they went back to what they should have done, delivered us a character driven episode which mainly focused on Reese, The Man in the suit and Carter.

Firstly I want to visit the funny part of the episode, as you know the Machine does not stop giving out numbers. This week Finch was delivered the SSN of a very hot model (Karolina Kurkova, playing herself). With no Reese around to look after her and Carter busy interrogating him the burden was this week left with Fusco who got maced in the face for his trouble, no worries though as Fusco quickly became the hero, saving the day trying to look like Clint Eastwood with two guns. Rather than mace at the end of the day Fusco got himself a kiss and a telephone number for the girl who was way out of his league, she even told him to call her!! The lucky b**stard, I hope he takes her up on the offer, I know I would.

Now onto the serious stuff, the interrogation of Reese and the other 3 suspects, well actually 2 suspects, one was quick to hang himself after a little bit of his secret life was exposed whilst Carter made quick-ish work of proving the other to be a liar, whilst pinning the blame on one of the other dudes. It was great to see the interrogation between Carter and Reese, at times it was difficult to figure who was questioning who as Reese seemed to reveal just as much about Carter than she did about him. As guessed there really wasn't a lot given away by either of them, other than the fact they have both killed people for their country. That will probably aid in bringing them closer I would guess, Reese will feel like he can trust Carter with even more now and that's probably a good thing considering what happened at the end of the episode.

Reese being in prison, Rikers's I believe was also a good little story because it brought Elias back into the fold, the gangster head of New York City who never seems too far away from our TV screens. What is he though? Friend or foe? He was useful to Reese in the prison and he had no choice but to trust him, I can't think that would be the same out on the street and I also can't help think that Elias must be working all of this to his own agenda. If he had an inkling of what Reese and Finch are able to do with the Machine I'd say he'd want some part or maybe all of that, imagine what someone like him would do with that power.

Now to what was probably the best part of the episode, the return of Kara, Reese's former CIA partner who he believed to be dead. Revealed during flashbacks that her and Reese were maybe somewhat of an item during their time in the field. I'm guessing that Kara is no longer in the CIA, so what exactly is her agenda? I can't think that she would know about the existence of The Machine, unless I missed something, Reese certainly never knew anything about it before he met Finch. I also don't think Kara has anything against Reese, I know they didn't exactly part on the best of terms during their time in the CIA, but they were sort of forced into the situation as apposed to wanting to kill each other. Anyway, were back next week to Reese being a prisoner, and Carter too, probably.

I have read a few reviews on this episode as always, believe it or not I actually wrote most of this last Sunday, I've just not had time to finish it. The reviews I've read claim that this is the best episode of the second season so far. I agree that "Prisoner's Dilemma" was right up their with what I have come to expect from Person of Interest, but for me the couple of episode which kicked off this second season slightly edged this one. How about you? Let me know in the comments below.

TV Review: TRANSPORTER: THE SERIES - Trojan Horsepower 1.1

2013-01-13T09:32:00.001Z

Now I know what you’re thinking, what’s this? Transporter: The Series, I’ve never even heard of it! Don’t worry your not alone there, as I would be amongst the people who hadn’t heard of this show when it aired during the 2012 Fall TV schedule in Canada. My first sniff that it even existed was when I rolled past a review of the “Pilot” episode named “Trojan Horsepower”. The review was no all that graceful of the show, but being a reviewer myself I felt it only right to give it a go. I’m a fan of the Transporter movies starring Jason Statham, they are what they are and watching Statham kick ass is usually a good couple of hour’s entertainment.

The TV show version stars Chris Vance (Prison Break) as Frank Martin and also welcomes back Francois Berleand as Inspector Tarconi, a man who is quite a funny instalment to the film franchise. Also as you’d imagine Luc Besson who created the movies has had a creative hand in the TV show which has reportedly cost $4 an episode. For that I was expecting pretty much what you get with the movies, a lot of action, a lot of car chases and not much story that you couldn’t guess within ten minutes. Guess what? That’s exactly what I got, having only watched the “Pilot” up to now I can report that Transporter: The Series is enjoyable enough, the story is predictable, the action is plentiful, the are a load of car chases and any further than Chris Vance you are struggling for any decent acting talent, especially from the so called “bad guys”.

The movies are predictable so it goes without saying that the TV show would be too, it’s throw away TV which you could watch one week and miss the next without having to worry about catching up with things. Thing is the movies have one major factor going in their favour, a bonified Hollywood action star in Jason Statham, a man who we all know can kick some serious ass. Chris Vance is no slouch in this episode though, he does well in the fight scenes, and deals with “bad guys” in a suitable wise cracking and self confident way. During the fight scenes though it is noticeable that Vance is not quite as agile as Statham, but he still does a job impressing the ladies.

The show looks like it will take a Person of Interest type procedural story in that Frank will deal with a different package to transport every week, which of course brings new bad guys to the fold. If those bad guys are anything like the ones during this “Pilot” then I’m not so sure they will be all that convincing. The story shown in this first episode is one which could quite easily have been adapted into a fourth movie should Besson wanted to have done that but this is the way he has chosen and the money spent on the series does show in the finished article, at least with the action anyways.

Transporter: The Series was enjoyable, throw away TV which you can stick on and enjoy whilst also having a couple of laughs along the way. I enjoyed Chris Vance in Prison Break and he is one of the reasons I decided to give this a go, Jason Statham and James Bond he ain’t, but he’s convinced me that his role as Frank will suit him quite fine giving a couple of episodes to grow. As for the rest of the cast, other than Inspector Tarconi they are likely to change week on week, so we’ll have to wait and see. Did you catch Transporter: The Series? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Bu-ray Movie Review: DRIVE (2011) Starring Ryan Gosling

2013-01-09T09:24:00.001Z

“One of the coolest movies I’ve ever seen”

So, it’s Saturday night and the wife is out. I have a few movies which I need to catch up on including The Bourne Legacy and The Dark Knight Rises, my attention is turned however to this week’s LoveFilm rental Drive, it’s a movie which I saw the trailer for some time ago now and have just never got round too, as I always say, when your paying to rent it, then your hand is kind of forced into watching, right? I’m pleased I did though because the reviews I had read on this movie were right on, it was brilliant.

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Albert Brooks, Christina Hendricks and Oscar Isaac

The Plot

Ryan Gosling plays Driver, a man with no name who works a few jobs, by day he’s a part time mechanic whilst also pulling stunt man jobs in movies. By night, he’s a wheel man for criminals, the best get away driver in town and he’s paid top dollar for the trouble. Driver falls in love with his next door neighbour Irene (Mulligan) and when her husband returns home from prison still in trouble with some heavies he agrees to do one last drive that will set Irene free of the gang land threats. Of course things don’t go to plan and what is up to that point a pretty slow drama Drive descends into an ultra violent movie which I’m sure guys will love.

The Verdict

Drive is probably not what you would expect at all when you take a look at the Blu-ray or DVD cover, a seemingly Steve McQueen look-alike in what is sure to be a movie about some guy who drives cars for criminals before making it to the big time in racing. Oh no, that’s not what you get at all here Drive delivers way and above your average Fast & Furious type movie, with hardly any dialogue from main man Ryan Gosling he some how manages to make you feel that he is a decent guy trapped between a rock and a hard place. That is until a “drive” goes wrong and Gosling’s mild mannered character Driver quickly descends into a psychotic ultra violent individual mirroring De Niro’s Travis Bickle.

“One of the coolest movies I’ve ever seen” is no understatement, and I have to be honest Drive is not typically the type of movie that I would go for, the thing that swayed me on this night was that I couldn’t be bothered to sit and watch Christian Bale for three hours and I’m pleased about that now. I really could not have asked for any more from a movie on a Saturday night. It’s easy to see why so many Oscar nods were put towards this movie and Ryan Gosling, its slick, brilliantly directed and the scenery used is so L.A Noir it’s almost retro.

Not only is Gosling on fire here he is supported brilliantly by his small time crook boos Shannon (Breaking Bads Brian Cranston) who has Mafia connections, Cranston puts in a brilliant performance and who would expect anything else? Also there playing head Mobster Nino is Ron Perlman, those who have seen Sons of Anarchy know he needs no practice at being a bit Gangsta! Throw in Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks and Christina Hendricks and you’re on a winner.

A brilliant movie which I just loved, it was just so seriously cool. If you like lots of explosions, lots of talking and lots of Expendables style action then Drive is definitely not the movie for you, but if you’re in the mood to think about something and concentrate then in my opinion you won’t go far wrong with this brilliant drama.

Would I watch it again?

Yes absolutely, I may be adding this to my Blu-ray collection.

The Soundtrack

Now with such a cool movie it goes without saying that you need an ultra cool soundtrack and don’t worry because Drive does not let you down on that point either. There is some brilliant music on offer here all of which sits perfectly with the style of this movie, you can pick it up on Amazon for around £10. I’ve included a melee of the songs in the video below, enjoy.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - 2 Pi R 2.11

2013-01-06T10:59:00.001Z

Just before the holidays Person of Interest was really starting to bore me a little, a run of about four episodes following "The High Road" didn't really fill me with any confidence, I still think it's a great show but I just feel like I don't know where it's going right now. Following the Christmas holidays POI returned with "2 Pi R" and although I can't report that I was bored I can still say that this episode is nowhere near as good as some of the shows earlier offerings. Problem is, in "Shadow Box" Reese got himself busted by the FBI along with three other guys who all just happened to be wearing suits, that presented a problem for this episode, none of the usual ass kicking and wise cracks from Reese, instead he found himself held in prison for the entire hour making I think two appearances at the most. I appreciate that this has to be done in order to make things realistic, but he was missed this week. I think the episodes to follow this should get more entertaining, especially as the FBI now have more time to question Reese and they want former army interrogator Detective Carter to do that for them. This could prove gold, can Reese keep quit? Or will we get to see more of the backing story behind one of the shows main characters?

This week was essentially the Finch show as the writers needed to figure in a POI who wouldn't require ass kickery of the nature that Reese can hand out. Step up Caleb (not the lead singer from Kings of Leon!) a computer genius who has secretly been working on a code which will be groundbreaking in search algorithm, look out Google huh! At first with Caleb things seemed very complicated but it became apparent quick enough that the only person that wanted to do him harm was himself, nothing a few wise words from Master Finch couldn't sort who this week booked himself in at the local high school as a substitute maths teacher. The kids in the class kind of reminded me of my high school maths lessons, no interest in maths at all. Now I must say that it would have took a lot more than some genius to start explaining PI in order for my class to pay attention, but Finch seemed to prove a bit of a hit.

I wouldn't say that I was bored with the weekly procedural side of things, it definitely kept my interest however that was only when Finch and Caleb were on my TV screen. Fusco and Carter kept things ticking along nicely but I can't say that I was particularly interested in anything that they did, even down to Carter gaining access into what is supposedly the most secure FBI facility in New York to swap the DNA sample which had been taken from Reese. I have started to get the feeling recently while watching this show that I could be just sitting watching any cop drama about two people who do things off their own back, kind of like vigilante's without capes and masks, I won't stop watching of course, but Person of Interest needs to get back to it's "Root" if you get my drift.

The best scene of the night would have to be handed to Finch in the train station, and possibly the last part of the episode. Finch managed to talk Caleb from throwing himself in front of a train and in the process let us learn a few home truths about the man himself, did you see it when he stared into the CCTV and claimed it was the biggest mistake of his life? What was he referring to though, the fact he developed such a super genius computer, or what he had to sacrifice in order to afford people protection? The end of the episode was also brilliant when Finch explained about the super computer hacker who to this day has never been caught, of course I knew in the beginning of the episode when they were talking about it in computer science class that it was finch, but it was great to see Caleb come back with "how did you know the guy used a home computer?" Finch replied "just a hunch I guess", a clear admission and one which I'm sure Caleb is clever enough to work out for himself. Let's see if he decides to give Finch a call in the coming episodes!

So, for me "2 Pi R" was not really that great of an episode, filler if you like until the FBI release Reese or Finch figures some genius way to break him out of prison. Carter and Fusco proved that they can handle their end of the bargain yes, but for me they are not interesting enough. Like I said above I think the coming episodes will be very good, remember in season 1 things rocketed from about the fourteenth episode "Wolf and Cub", from their it was non stop thrills to the finale , I just hope J.J. Abrams and his team have a similar vision for this second season.

TV Review: DEXTER - Our Father 3.1

2013-01-04T13:34:00.000Z

Dexter - "I'm entirely confident you've earned the privilege of being re-purposed as fish food"

As promised along with season 3 of Breaking Bad, last night I decided to crack open the box of Dexter's third season. I haven't heard a lot about it as a whole and have actually been quite looking forward to getting into it, I figure there can only be two reasons that I haven't heard a lot about it, either it's a really poor season and is generally not talked about in the blogosphere or it's really good and no one wants to give it away. One thing I did know about season 3 was that it involved some guy named Freebo (Mike Erwin), now I thought Freebo was the serious looking gentleman in a suit due to tid bits I have read, turns out I was wrong Freebo is seemingly just some punk kid who deals in drugs that Dexter is going to dispatch of in the first couple of episodes, meaning the seasons big bad void will be filled by Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits). I'm kind of pleased about that actually because from what I seen in "Our Father" Freebo is not the most convincing bad guy in the world.

I talked a lot in the season 7 reviews about how edgy Dexter was getting, especially in relation to his "code", that being he only kills people when he has concrete evidence that they actually deserve to be "fish food" as he mentioned above. There was an outside the "code" kill in this episode when Dexter went to take out Freebo, he ended up killing another guy who was in the house seemingly to warn Freebo off from selling drugs to the kids he teaches. Now, as it turns out it may not be a strictly outside of the "code" kill as he may not be all he seemed on the surface, but Dexter would have always done more snooping on his background. The kill has set up what I think will be the season 3 story line, the guy he killed was Miguel Prado's brother Oscar and needless to say Miami's Assistant District Attorney wants some justice. I'm just guessing here but I think Miguel Prado is going to learn Dexter's secret and will have to be dealt with.

So far right from the first episode of Dexter he has always claimed that he could not lead a normal life, he has no feelings for anyone, that started to change a little during season 2 with his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and it now seems to have come full circle. Dexter is now a happy family man living (most of the time) with Rita and her children Astor and Cody, it's another great cover for a serial killer really, as his work colleagues all think he is a happy family man who goes to work as a blood spatter analyst before returning home.

There was a very good scene when Miguel Prado called Dexter personally wanting the story of how his brother was killed, again this scene reminded me of season 7. Dexter was explaining to Prado exactly how he killed his brother, not saying he was responsible of course but it reminded me of the dead guy in Issak Sirko's apartment when Dexter was explaining exactly what had happened with Issak sitting and stating that it sounded like Dexter had been there. I don't know if it was just me, but I saw a glint in Prado's eye that tells me he already does not entirely trust Miami Metro's Dexter Morgan. I think Miguel Prado is definitely the season 3 "big bad".

A couple of random thoughts I had whilst watching, the first is something I have mentioned time and time again. Dexter is always doing his "research" into his victims on his work computer, never once with all the suspicions has anyone ever ran an audit trail on his account. Finally he was asked the question in this episode by Miguel Prado as to why he was looking into the history of both Freebo and Oscar Prado, this may well be the reason that Prado does not fully trust Dexter. I had to have a laugh when Dexter ran to get his cell phone too, it's 3am in America and he gets a sales call from India, nothing to do with the show or the story (I think), but it's refreshing to see that here in the UK we are not the only ones who are hounded by sales calls from foreign country's.

I thought "Our Father" was a good season opener for Dexter and it's set things up nicely to roll from here. I don't think its as good as Breaking Bad's third season has been so far, and I think that may be something to do with predictability. I feel like I know where the story on Dexter will go from here, I may be wrong of course but I'll have to wait and see. I look forward to rolling on with the second episode "Finding Freebo".

TV Review: BREAKING BAD - No Mas 3.1 & Caballo Sin Nombre 3.2

2013-01-03T10:27:00.001Z

As promised during the Christmas and New Year break I have started my catch-up TV schedule, I pondered for a while deciding which would be best before coming to the conclusion that Breaking Bad would be the first box that I cracked open. Armed with the DVD and some beers left over from the holidays I got back into the events which followed Breaking Bad’s brilliant season 2 finale. “No Mas” was the season 3 premiere, meaning “No More” in English the episode dealt very much with the fallout of season 2 and the fact that Walter White wanted to deal drugs “No More”. It opened with what seemed a quite bizarre sequence, in a Mexican village with people crawling along the floor. Those people were quickly met by two dudes in a very flash Mercedes and dressed in very sharp suits, the two “cousins” joined the local residents in crawling along the floor. I don’t know about you but this immediately grabbed my interest, you always know with Breaking Bad that the opening sequence will have a part to play in the bigger story, a point proved when the “cousins” entered a shrine paying their respects to a skeleton, next to that skeleton a picture of Walter, or Hesinberg as they probably know him. A brilliant set up, I’m sure you’ll agree.

In season 2 Skyler left Walter taking Walter Jr and their new born baby with her, in this season opener there was a brilliant scene where Skyler went to see Walt in the apartment he has now been forced to rent. She came to serve divorce papers on Walter and had brought herself to a fascinating conclusion, accusing Walt of being a drug dealer. A position he could hardly deny, however it’s far worse than she had imagined, cannabis? Cocaine? No, meth amphetamine and Walt has a half million dollars sitting in a bag which you know nothing about. I had to laugh when Hank came to help Walt move out the family home, asking what was in the heavy bag Walt replied with the truth, “half a million cash”, no point lying to the DEA I suppose, and anyway, Hank didn’t take him seriously.

It was a brilliant start to a brilliant TV show, Jesse came out of rehab and is actually a far more reformed character than Walter is likely to be, at least Jesse can admit that he’s “the bad guy”. It will be interesting going forward from here, as well as the very interesting Mexican cousins seemingly looking for Walter’s blood, “No Mas” also welcomed back Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), the man who helped Walter’s meth distribution go nationwide. In this episode he offered Walter 3 months work, in return he would receive $3m cash, this far Walter has said no, but I can’t help but think that Gus will not be accepting that as his final answer, and the financial rewards will prove far too tempting for Walter to ignore for any length of time.

“Caballo Sin Nombre”, Spanish (of course) for “horse with no name” was exactly how this brilliant instalment of Braking Bad opened up, with Walter White driving through the Albuquerque desert singing along to a song which anyone would sing along too, America – A Horse With No Name, before going absolute crazy on the cop who fined him for having a smashed window screen. That particular effort warranted a pepper spraying and two very puffy looking eyes for our law breaking hero Walter White. This episode followed on brilliantly from the season opener “No Mas” and answered a couple of questions whilst also asking some new ones.

It was great to see Tio (Mark Margolis) back, the silent Mexican who answers questions by ringing his bell, in this episode we finally found out who the two Mexican cousins are, relatives of Tuco, the man gunned down in a battle with the DEA after he kidnapped Walt and Jesse. His death however has landed at the feet of Walter and the brilliant Tio spelt it out for his two young relatives brilliantly, letting us know once and for all that the two Mexicans are looking for revenge from Walter. Revenge that was seemingly coming very quickly until Gus text them to call off the “hit”, now that was brilliant in itself as we don’t really know who we can trust here and Gus has proved that he is in fact a huge drug kingpin and a man to be feared.

Walt’s extremely corrupt solicitor Saul (Bob Odenkirk) had also sent his own private eye to do a little snooping on the White household setting up covert camera’s, it just so happened when he was there that Saul’s PI also knows Gus very well, I wonder if Saul knows that, I’m guessing he doesn’t. It would seem that Walter was in line for the axe, literally before the “cousins” received Gus’ text with his code word “Pollos”. As I said during the first episode “No Mas”, it won’t be long before Walt is back to doing what he does best, cooking meth for Gus, but will that see the “hit” called off or simply prolong it?

There really is plenty going on at the beginning of this season for both Walt and Jesse, a character who I haven’t mentioned much just yet. Thing is he hasn’t done much yet but I’m sure that’s about to change. Both Walt and Jesse are facing the prospect of people talking about them to authorities, with Skyler now knowing the whole truth about Walt but deciding that she has too much too loose from telling Hank, whilst on Jesse’s side I’ve no doubt that his now extremely pissed parents will want to know where there drop-out junkie son got $400k cash in order to buy their house. The whole season has had a brilliant set up and I can’t wait to keep going with the episodes to come, I have to remind myself that I have Dexter to watch too.

TV Trailer: SPARTACUS: WAR OF THE DAMNED

2013-01-02T12:37:00.000Z

Now, as you know I’m a massive fan of hit Starz TV show Spartacus, I watch every episode but I don’t always write about it. The reason? Well, it’s simple really, we all know what the story is. If you didn’t learn anything about the Roman Republic and Spartacus at school then all you need to do now is type Spartacus Wiki into Google and the whole story is there to be had, along with Wikepedia trying to scrounge a donation or two out of you. Speaking of which, I’m sure the guys at Wikepedia are a lot better off than me, you can donate here too, if you like. It all goes towards running costs for Movies Music & Television, I promise, there is no Ferrari fund.

Spartacus will premiere on January 25^th 2013 on Starz, and probably a couple of weeks after that on UK’s Sky One. As you know Spartacus was successful in fighting off Gauis Cladius Glaber, this season will see Spartacus meet his match in Marcus Crassus, now like I said above we all know the story and you will probably know what that means. If not then take something away from the fact that this will be the last season of Spartacus, I don't think the writers will stray to far from histrical fact but I guess we will have to wait and see. Check out the trailer and let me know what you think.

My Catch-up TV Schedule for 2013 With Trailers DEXTER Season 3, BREAKING BAD Season 3 and SONS OF ANARCHY Season 2

2012-12-29T12:12:00.003Z

As you know there are a whole host of TV shows I watch throughout the year, but as well as all the new ones that are starting I’m lucky enough to have a few gems to get through of the box set variety. The beginning of 2013 will be no different for me, there are a host of good looking new TV shows coming our way towards the end of January and I have a list compiled of what I want to watch on Catch-up, just how much catching up I get done depends largely on how good the new TV shows are and wheather or not they are worth reviewing weekly, so I guess we will have to wait and see but listed below are the shows I plan to be watching on Catch-up.

I should probably say I am also watching season 1 of The Walking Dead, but I decided to squeeze that in between Christmas and New Year, it's only six episodes after all, I will review it once I’m done.

1. Dexter Season 3

The best show on TV and one of my personal favourites, season 7 has just finished with a roller coaster and I loved it. If you’ve been reading this blog long enough then you’ll know that I only started watching Dexter during season 5, I have already caught up with seasons 1 and 2 reviewing every episode and now that season 7 has finished my weekly Dexter fix will come courtesy of season 3. I would say that season 3 of Dexter is the one I know the least about, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing but I’m looking forward to letting you know what I think of the episodes. I will be reviewing every episode of season 3 as I have done with seasons 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7. Take a look at the trailer below.

2. Breaking Bad Season 3

Again I love this show, I watched season 1 and season 2 earlier this year, season two was absolutely brilliant and I’ve got a feeling that Walter White is just at the beginning of his drug kingpin days. I’ve heard that season 3 is a lot slower than the second but for me this show can be as slow as it likes because you know it is going to build to something brilliant, Ideally I would like to be fully caught up with Breaking Bad for the summer as the second part of it’s fifth and final season will be airing and I would quite like to watch it along with everyone else. I couldn’t help but take a sneak peek at the first episode but quickly switched it off before I got too glued to my TV. I think I will double up my reviews of Breaking Bad, covering two episodes in each review.

Sons of Anarchy Season 2

I had heard loads about Sons of Anarchy and decided one day to put my LoveFilm streaming service to good use and give the “Pilot” episode of this show a go. I was hooked following that episode and ended up watching the rest of the season via my online streaming service, that’s what I will be doing for season 2 also and I can’t wait. In season 2 it looks Like Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) will be taking over as the head of SAMCRO, that’s Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original, with Clay Morrow (Ron Pearlman) taking more of a back seat. Like the other two shows I can’t wait to get watching this again and will quickly be moving on to the third following season 2. For SOA I will probably do a season review, just like I did with season 1.

So that’s pretty much everything I will be watching on catch-up, providing I have time of course and that the New Year TV schedule isn’t too hectic. Dont forget to go check out all the new shows starting in January all of which I will be watching and reviewing at least the “Pilot” episodes.

My New TV Show Schedule 2013 With Trailers

2012-12-28T12:01:00.000Z

As you know there are always new TV shows coming your way in January and as always I will be taking a look at them all and letting you know what I think. Listed below are all of the new TV shows coming up in the new year which I will be taking a look at, what will I be reviewing and how I think they will go. With them being new what I will be reviewing is up in the air depending on how good each of them are but this will at least serve as an idea of the TV you have coming your way.

The Following

I actually talked about this show a while back as it looked like Fox would be attempting to put it into their Fall TV lineup, for one reason or another that never happened but we at least have a date now, it will premiere on Monday 21^st January 2013 and it stars Hollywood A-lister Kevin Bacon who plays a retired FBI agent. He is brought out of retirement when a serial killer (played by James Purefoy) who he put behind bars escapes from prison, the guy is massive on the internet and has a mass of followers all willing to do anything he tells them. It looks like a brilliant show, it has two powerhouse names attached to it as well as starring the very attractive Maggie Grace (Lost) and Natalie Zea. I will be reviewing the “Pilot” episode and probably each one after it.

Disclaimer: If your are under 15 years old please do not watch this, go to YouTube and watch the all audience trailer.

The Americans

I actually only heard about The Americans a couple of months back when I caught the trailer on YouTube. It stars Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich and looks to be based on something very real. Remember that super hot Russian who had been living in America? The one who turned out to be a KGB sleeper agent? Yeah, well that’s exactly what this show is and looks very similar in story to Homeland. It see's Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys living together in 80’s suburban New York, the seemingly perfect American couple who just happen to be KGB agents. I’m actually really excited about this one, I think it could be just the right flavour for those of us who like Homeland. I will be watching and reviewing the “Pilot” episode and probably covering the whole season. The American's will premiere on FX Wednesday 30^th January.

Zero Hour

Again, I only heard of this show maybe a month or so a go and as yet I haven’t really made up my mind on it, the trailer looks quite good but the story line does not fill me with confidence. Zero Hour stars Anthony Edwards, Scott Michael Foster, Addison Timlin and Jacinda Barrett. The story follows Edwards as his wife is kidnapped for some clock which she owns that was apparently made by the Nazi’s, I imagine that from there it will be a search for his wife with some sort of treasure seeking German history mystery tour. Like I say I don’t really know what to think, it will probably be not that good, the story all seems a little to National Treasure for me. I will take a look at the “Pilot” and if I continue to watch following that then I don’t think I will be writing about it every week. Zero Hour premieres on February 13^th on ABC.

Defiance

I hadn’t heard of Defiance until I actually came to write this, I haven’t fully decided whether I will be watching it or not just yet, it all seems a little SyFy for my liking, watching space ships and stuff is not really my thing, I’ve never been a fan of Star Wars or anything that remotely resembles those movies. Matt Le Blanc in that stupid Starship Troopers shit has never been my thing but I took a look at the trailer for this and it looks like I may give the “Pilot” a go but wanted to get your opinions. It seems to be pretty big budget for TV, generally that doesn’t work out too well (Terra Nova?) but take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think, we can discuss it in the comments below, oh one thing I should mention, it stars Julie Benz, formerly of Dexter.

Continuum

This starts on SyFy January 14^th and I’ve stuck it on here as a last minute thought. I really don’t know too much about the show other than it’s about this really hot cop from the year 2077, she is sent back to help stop some criminal mastermind change something that happens, or something like that. It’s all in the action packed trailer below, the show stars Rachel Nicholls, Victor Webster, Erick Knudsen, Stephen Lobo and Roger Cross, it has already aired in Canada and various other networks, I think it was even on here in the UK. Now, the American's have bought it because apparently it’s really good. Take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think.

Red Widow

This will premiere on ABC March 3^rd and I actually heard about it a while ago now, it is a little like The Killing in that it is based on a foreign TV show and has been adapted otherwise known as re-made for an American audience. It stars Melissa Rosenbourg and Radha Mitchell who is left to investigate her late husband’s life, turns out he was involved in the Mafia. I’ve not heard of the foreign version, but this looks like it may be worth taking a look at. Take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think. The original Dutch show this is based on is called Penoza and is about the Amsterdam underworld, apparently it’s very popular, especially if you can speak Dutch!

Cult

The CW surprised us all in the Fall TV schedule with their little hyped gem that is Arrow, seriously I’m still watching that show and enjoying it every week. I know it’s not the best but it’s a good forty five minutes entertainment. Cult is going to be their Mid-season offering premiering on February 19^th. It stars Robert Knepper (Prison Break/Breakout Kings), he is the star of a TV show which is being investigated for it’s strange cult like following. It looks like quite good fun and Robert Knepper is always convincing in what I imagine will be a bad guy role, take a look at the trailer.

So that’s all the new TV shows that I will be getting my teeth into in the New Year, some look good others will probably fall by the whey side, but you never know, some of the above my be surprising and supply me with new content to put up for you all. Any thoughts? Your welcome as always to share them in the comments below.

Merry Christmas from Movies Music & Television

2012-12-23T23:04:00.001Z

This is the third Christmas we are celebrating here at Movies Music & Television and as always on Christmas Eve I want to wish all the readers, people who comment and the contributors a very merry Christmas. It’s been another big year for this site with its new facelift earlier and then constant changes to keep up with the ever increasingly hard to please Internet giant that is Google. I seem to have done ok, the site still regularly receives around 400 page views per day and that’s even with me not updating daily like I used to. Daily updates are something that I won’t be returning to in the new year, it will be three to four times a week at most I’d imagine, the reason being I simply don’t have time to write every day, plus if I’m putting stuff out every day then my interest tends to drop in whatever it is that I’m talking about.

As you’d imagine there will be nothing going on here either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but you can be sure I will be taking in plenty of TV over those two days along with some movies which I will be reporting on come the Thursday. I don’t know as yet what they are I need to check out my TV magazine, problem is I’m at work all weekend, dayshift 10 hours a day so I’m looking forward to chilling out, kicking back and watching some TV especially when I get home on Christmas Eve.

I have some posts to keep you busy between the Christmas and New Year which I have already typed up, those include movie reviews of Drive and The Wrestler, a trailer for the new season of Spartacus, plus a music Blu-ray review of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. As well as all that I will try to get my usual posts out with what TV reviews you have to look forward to in January, which means new shows and also ones I will be watching on catch-up. Plus I will try to put something out in relation to the best movies coming out over the next year. Other than that I’ll see what I think of Christmas TV and let you know.

Again, merry Christmas from Movies Music & Television and thank you all for reading, commenting and contributing.

TV Review: DEXTER - Surprise Motherf**cker 7.12

2012-12-18T23:08:00.001Z

This is in no way a written response to TVFantaic.com writer Miranda Wicker, who in her season 7 finale review of Dexter called the show “ridiculously slow”, sorry! Miranda have you been watching the same seventh season that me and many others have this year? As someone who has not seen every season of Dexter I can’t speak for three and four, what I can say is that the first two were brilliant, five was good and six was predictable. Season 7 was “ON” in my opinion and easily one of the best I have seen. I talked about it in the season opener “Are You…?”, that Dexter is best when he is having to duck and dive, when he is close to being found out and scrambling for his life, that is what was so good about Dexter’s seventh season. There may not have been one single “big bad” but there was a brilliant story, brilliant characters and at times genuine concern that Dexter wouldn’t make it to season eight without being behind bars.

Of course we all really knew that Dexter being behind bars was never actually going to happen, just like we could all guess that there was no way other than flashbacks that Doakes could be brought back to the show. Dexter would have turned into a court room drama should it have gone that way and no one wants that. At one point this season I thought we may be following Dexter and Hannah on the run, but I got that wrong. One thing I did get right a couple of episodes back was my guess on which big character they would kill off. Yeah, I guessed La Guerta and you know what? I even said that Debra would be the one who killed her. Solving the Bay Harbour Butcher case may just have been the deal clincher for La Guerta, because correct me if I’m wrong but through the years she has not exactly been the sharpest detective in the world, she was only the Captain due to her own shady dealings and double crossing.

The stand out character this year and one of my favourite and most convincing villains ever has to go to Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson), it was a real shame to see this character killed off so early in the season and the episode which followed his demise was noticeably worse than what had previously been on offer. I read a comment somewhere saying that Ray would make a great movie villain and I have to agree, I would most certainly be going to see that movie. It’s the first time since probably Doakes that Dexter has come up against a worthy physical adversary, just how dangerous and how much of a threat Issak was became apparent when Dexter led him into the bar filled with rival gang members, he swept them aside with ease. Not only was it his physical threat that was so thrilling here but also his “chats” with Dexter, the most memorable of which came in “Chemistry” when Dexter explained how he killed Victor, “you are going to regret having ever shared that with me” was his reply, a true De Niro/Pacino moment (think Heat 1995).

Season 7 has ultimately been about Dexter and Debra, we started with those two and it ended with those two, probably no further forward with themselves than they were in the opening episode. Dexter now accepts that his “Dark Passenger” is nothing more than a made up alter ego who he kind of blamed his killing on, this is Dexter’s life and he has no intentions of running from it now, even if that means going back on everything he was ever taught and killing against the code. I always thought that Hannah would be a character who rolled into the eighth season and it looks like I was right, having her in prison seemed like a dangerous move for Dexter but the fact she escaped at the end of this episode really leaves it open for her to come back, she even left Dexter a flower, I think she may be more of a thorn in his side if anything during the next season.

Debra has pretty much only just come to terms with the fact that her step brother is a serial killer, she came to terms with things pretty quick in the opening episodes even helping her brother get rid of Travis Marshall’s body, she became an accomplice in the murder. Now, La Guerta has evidence against her and it was no surprise that Debra done the unthinkable in killing her at the end of this episode. Ultimately it was to protect both her and Dexter, as if she had arrested or killed Dexter then La Guerta still had that evidence against her, she was left with no choice really.

You have to think that its going to be hard for them both in the eighth season, how do they explain La Guerta’s disappearance, will they even dispose of her body? I suppose the idea is that they will make it look like La Guerta was killed by Hecktor Estrada. Either way I think they are going to be open to some difficult questions, the most difficult of which will no doubt come from former Captain Matthews who didn’t believe La Guerta but his suspicions are certainly going to be piqued, no doubt about that.

It has been a brilliant seventh season and I have enjoyed it immensely, everything about it has been good, even the side story with Joey Quinn. Season 8 will likely be the final one and I, like many others have no idea where they are going to take us with the story. How about you? What are your thoughts on Dexter’s season finale “Surprise Motherf**ker”?

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Shadow Box 2.10

2012-12-18T00:49:00.001Z

I find myself sitting once again and wondering what I should write about this week's Person of Interest episode “Shadow Box”, dare I say that this show is starting to bore me a little and maybe this episode being its winter finale could be just the break that I, and maybe others needs in order to regain our enthusiasm for a show that I once considered the best on TV. I love Person of Interest I really, really do but the last three episodes have failed to deliver anything near the quality that we are used too. I’ve touched on the fact before that we can’t expect fast paced excitement in every single episode, and I do appreciate that it is unravelling its background story at a very good pace, probably to the point that maybe on Person of Interest’s return we will enjoy the same run of exhilarating episodes we did during the first season.

There are things that I have enjoyed about the last three episodes, they weren’t all bad but the weekly procedural story lines have been becoming a bit monotones for me, even this week as Reese and Finch were after what appeared to be two people robbing a war veterans charity. That is something that was always going to be close to Reese’s heart but I just wasn’t feeling it. I liked the way the story panned out, a young girl and her veteran boyfriend seemingly going to rob the charity which provided him with nothing, but then, the Person of Interest weekly twist as the seemingly “big bads” were in fact the “big goods” as they were on a vigilante mission of their own to deal with corrupt business man Mr Campbell. Reese decided that stopping Abby and her boyfriend just wasn’t enough and he’d help them out on delivering the professional ass kicking, which he did and it was great but you know he’s not going to loose, even the MI-6 guy a couple of episodes back couldn’t get one over on John Reese.

It’s going to be interesting to see where they go with Fusco, is he good? Or is he bad? I’d like to think he’s actually a good guy, having spent more time than he probably cares to remember with Reese and Finch I think he now sees the error of his ways. The problem he has is that he was so deeply corrupt in the past that he simply can’t walk away from HR with the fear of exposure being too much. And, who learnt Fusco to clone a mobile phone? I thought only Reese and Finch could do that. The phone he was cloning could actually prove to be an interesting one though, it’s Carter’s new boyfriend Detective Beecher, a guy who we were introduced to a couple of weeks back now and who seemed pretty admirable. That was until we found out that he is actually the godson of the HR boss. I suppose like Fusco we will be waiting to see if Beecher is actually good or bad, but following his conversation towards the end of the episode I’m guessing bad.

Where are they going with the HR story too? I like it, don’t get me wrong but they were seemingly dealt with by the end of the first season and didn’t appear like they would be coming back until Simmons appeared on scene. With Elias in prison and wanting no further part in their organisation Simmons and the other guy (don’t know his name) are now seeking the backing of Russian mobsters to fund their underground severely corrupt police unit. That will no doubt cause problems as the corrupt cops will then be sided with Russians instead of Elias, I’d imagine there would be a lot of pre empted murders the Machine would be picking up on.

It’s been great to see everyone involved so much now they all know who each other are, even Finch has become a field operative of late this week tracking down Abby’s boyfriend and running scope to keep Reese up to date. We are being fed backing story on each character pretty slowly which is great, but what is their story going to be in the big picture? At the end of the day I’m only really interested in the backing story of Reese, Finch, the Machine and at a push Carter, they are the most interesting characters.

The Machine is probably the most interesting and season 2 started brilliantly because the episodes were focused on that story line. Root was involved and she added some intensity, those opening episodes were all about past and present, who knew about the existence of the machine and what the implications would be if anyone ever found out what Reese and Finch are using it for. I think Person of Interest needs to get back to that, because as far as I can tell HR, Carter, Fusco, Elias and the Russians know nothing of the Machine and what it can do. Get all those high up government types back in on the show who know about the machine.

In my experience with TV shows I generally enjoy the second season better than the first that happened with Dexter, Homeland, Breaking Bad, Prison Break and Lost. So far, other than the opening episodes with Root and “The High Road” I can’t really say that Person of Interest’s second season has been as good as the first for me. I will keep watching because like I said above it is a brilliant show and I hope that it will go on and deliver the good like it did in the first season.

I should probably mention;

Carter being approached by the FBI with information on "the man in the suit” could prove to be an interesting development, especially as they want Carter to join them as a Federal agent maybe that will provide the kick that I have been talking about above.

Reese has been captured for the first time by authorities and seemingly he has no way out, let’s hope Carter comes up with something convincing enough for the FBI to let him go.

That last sequence gave me a little laugh, you knew Reese wasn’t going to be the first guy they turned around but for them all to be lined up in suits was very funny, then to cap off to the credits they play The Rolling Stones “Gimmie Shelter”.

TV Preview: DEXTER - Surprise Motherf**ker 7.12 Season Finale

2012-12-14T16:44:00.000Z

One of the best seasons of Dexter ever is about to wrap with what looks like a bad conclusion for our favourite serial killer. In kind of a reverse to the normal season finale Dexter himself will become the "big bad" as judging by this promo the whole of Miami Metro is about to learn just who Dexter Morgan really is. The season has been full of highlights without doubt, the brightest one of those would have to be Ukranian Mobster Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) it was such a shame to see the power house bow out a few episodes back but it has paved the way beautifully for the amazing story line which will now run into season 8. Remember The Bay Harbour Butcher? We're back to season 2, probably my favourite of the ones I have seen. I don't want to speculate to much as to what will happen in this last episode, I think we far better just watch and enjoy. The trailer below looks brilliant but I'm sure there will be a thing or two there to keep us guessing. Will Dexter kill La Guerta? Will Dexter get arrested? And the biggest question of them all... Is Doakes really coming back?

Surprise Motherf**kers

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - C.O.D 2.9

2012-12-14T16:20:00.000Z

My initial reaction to “C.O.D” was that its a lot better than the previous offering from Person of Interest “Til Death”, having time to reflect on the episode and do some research I haven’t changed my mind. I still think this was a better offering but I think at the same time a lot of what happened here was very forgetful. I found myself reading reviews as I always do, only this time I was thinking “what are they talking about?”, “I don’t remember that”, “or that person”. Mind you coming to write the review two days after watching it probably doesn’t help, as during that time I’ve also watched Dexter and Homeland already.

I still think this was a good episode, the weekly procedural may have been a bit of a bore but what was going on in the background was probably more important to the show. We thought at the end of the first season that we had seen the last of HR, but it seems that Simmons is eager to have them set up once again. This week he was looking for the back-up of Elias in their corrupt business venture, but he doesn’t seem interested in that right now. It’s great to see how they still use Elias in the show, although he is in prison he has featured and done something important regarding the plot in at least three episodes that I can think of. HR, of course are going to prove a problem for Fusco, the dirty cop turned clean is still a little dirty, he desperately wants to change his ways but is ultimately paying the price for things he has done in the past, for want of better words Simmons has him by the short and curley’s .

The weekly procedural side of things this week focused on a taxi driver from Cuba who wanted to bring his family into the country. An Estonian gang were prepared to do that for a certain sum of money, however when he come to drop it off wouldn’t you know? The price has gone up. Not only did he have that to contend with but someone just went and left a secretive laptop in his cab, and now the people who are after it want him dead. Step up Mr Reese for some kick ass scenes, although at the time of writing this I don’t remember them all particularly that well, but what I do remember was that Reese dealt out a healthy dose of justice as per usual.

Ok, I have left this way to long to write the review of C.O.D, I will be watching tonight's episode later and will be sure to let you know in more detail how we get on. I really have nothing more to say on this episode, the more I read the more I'm reminded that an awful lot went on, problem is non of it was all that memorable. Here's hoping this weeks offering has a lot more to offer.

TV Review: DEXTER - Do You See What I See? 7.11

2012-12-12T22:20:00.001Z

As you know I have been missing Ray Stevenson’s Issak Sirko from Dexter, last week just wasn’t the same in what has been a brilliant season so far. Turns out, we were all too quick to judge because in “Do You See What I See?” I think Dexter went about delivering us with one of its best episodes this season. I am genuinely sitting with bated breath to see what is going to happened in next week’s finale “Surprise Motherf**ker”. The seasons big bad seemed so obvious at the beginning of season 7 but now it looks like Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) will take that role as this week Dexter had her busted for the murder of Sal Price. Many think that producers have also given us a nod that a big character will be killed off by the end of this season, we know Batista will be leaving, but how?

I thought a little way into this episode that maybe the review I read last week could be right, would they kill off Debra? I suppose they still could but now that Hannah McKay is behind bars, any immediate threat to her is already quashed. Deb will be gunning for La Guerta in the season finale that’s for sure, she has promised Dexter that Harrison will not grow up without a father, that could really put her in the firing line to be either shot or arrested, she is an accessory to murder remember? Debra has also helped Dexter plant all of the evidence in the boat house to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Sgt James Doakes was the Bay Harbour Butcher.

What is going to be interested going into the season finale is seeing whether or not Hannah will keep quiet about Dexter, other than Debra she is the only one who knows who he really is. It was brilliant the way they started the episode, Dexter 15 years on living happily ever after with Hannah, whilst a teenage Harrison stepped out for Basketball practice. Dexter was allowing himself to imagine the future for the first time, a future which included he and Hannah being “normal”, a thought that Dexter has never allowed to enter his head, even when he was with Rita. I so wanted to believe that Hannah was not responsible for spiking Deb’s drink, and I still think that there will be a twist to come in the finale regarding that. Maybe Hannah didn’t do it, what do you think? As much as I didn’t want to believe she done it, I still couldn’t believe it when Dexter turned her in to police, has he gone mad? The one woman who could ruin him with what she knows, and also the one who is not afraid to do anyone over in order to protect herself, I just can’t wait to see how this pans out next week.

What has been bubbling brilliantly all season long is La Guerta’s investigation into the Bay Harbour Butcher, wanting to prove that her good friend Sgt Doakes was innocent. She brought ex Captain Matthews in on the investigation and she was very quickly amassing some very good circumstantial evidence against Dexter Morgan. Matthews sort of warned Dexter about her “crazy” theory, but I can’t help but think that Matthews has his own hidden agenda in all of this, one which could prove a massive turning point in the season finale. La Guerta pulled off a master cross over during this episode, she needed to prove once and for all that her suspicions about Dexter are true. The best way to do that, get Hector Estrada released from prison, on what Dexter thinks is the justice system being too soft once again. La Guerta new that Dexter would want him dead and she got her wish, almost catching Dexter in the act and being one of the very few people to see his kill room. Of course she didn’t catch him, but it pretty much goes to prove that her theory is correct.

There are certainly some nail biting moments to come in what looks like it will be one of the best Dexter season finales yet. Will Doakes be back? Will Dexter get arrested? Well, for Doakes to have survived that blast in the cabin would be something of a miracle and for Dexter to be arrested could prove a bit of a boring season 8. I can’t help but think that little sneak peak at the finale may just be Dexter imagining how things could go, but of course I could and probably will be wrong, to see Doakes back would be amazing, the guy is still a legend after all.

Amongst everything that was brilliant with this episode it was still good to see a little light hearted entertainment, Masuka dressed as an Elf, anyone?? He was doing the rounds in the office seeing who would join in secret Santa, a cool reminder that Miami Metro are not really that busy these days with no season serial killer to catch, as La Guerta is the only one looking into the Bay Harbour Butcher case. And what was with all of the Christmas decorations? Dexter always enjoys it’s season finale in December but I can’t remember them ever having so much to do with Christmas in the show.

A brilliant episode paving the way for a brilliant season finale which I’m sure will see Dexter collecting some of those fake passports and foreign currency before hitting the road, on the run from Miami Metro. What did you think of “Do You See What I See?”? One of the best episodes yet? Your Comments are welcome as always.

Movie Review: TED (2012) Starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis

2012-12-11T00:53:00.002Z

People have been telling me for weeks now that I need to watch and review Ted as it’s one of the funniest movies they have ever seen. My brother and brother-in-law were almost telling me the script line for line when we were doing a house move (not mine, and no, that’s not what I do for a living, you have to help out family right?) last weekend. Also I have seen a lot of comments on Facebook with various friends of mine stating that Ted is the funniest movie they have ever seen. Critics have bigged it up whilst others have panned it. I posted the trailer some time ago now and wasn’t that interested due to the Seth MacFarlane factor. Now, please join me for what will be a very short (no pun intended Ted) write up on this absolute pile of shite.

Starring: Seth MacFarlane (Voice), Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi and Bill Smitrovich

The Plot

John Bennett (Wahlberg) is a lonely kid growing up in the 80’s with no friends, at Christmas he makes a wish on a falling star that his teddy bear named Teddy would come to life. Hey presto, wouldn’t you believe it? The next morning he wakes up and the two begin a beautiful friendship before scaring the crap out of John’s parents. Jump forward fifteen years or so and Teddy is now named Ted, a washed out celebrity phenomenon bear who loves nothing better than sitting getting stoned at 9am with his best friend John, not only does he like drugs he also partakes in copious amounts of alcohol consumption, loose women and pretty much anything else you can think of that’s bad for your health.

The Verdict

Mark Wahlberg is a pretty easy going guy, and I’d say that’s a pretty good job for this movie, Ted really does just go to show that Wahlberg clearly does not need the money anymore, and maybe he just likes to indulge in his crazy side every now and again. Whalberg is a great actor in my opinion, more the kick ass type I’ll admit but personally I really enjoy the movies he does like that, most recent of which would be Contraband. Quite why he offers to star in trash like this is beyond me if I’m honest.

Maybe it’s just age, I don’t know, now I’m in my 30’s I just found this comedy totally ridiculous. I’ve no doubt teenagers or people in their early twenties (my brother) will think that this trash is utterly hilarious, a bear who swears a lot, takes drugs and makes very derogatory sexual remarks towards women, there is no real story here not least that you can’t see coming anyway. John’s girlfriend wants Ted rid off and then ultimately wants him back in their lives, I know it’s not real but come on give me a break. Who would you rather have in your bed? A foul mouthed bear who is scared of thunder or Mila Kunis? It’s a difficult decision but I know which one I’d be choosing, and it ain’t the bear.

Quite often with movies these days they say if you have seen the trailer then you have seen the movie, and they are right. Most of the time these days most of the movies best bits are in the trailer, whilst the remaing almost two hours has very little to offer the audience. I can report that unsurprisingly Ted is one of those movies, drunken sexual jokes can only go so far and all you need to do is check out the Ted Red Band trailer and you will see every joke that this bear has to offer. I will admit that during my first viewing of the trailer I laughed, even though I don’t like Seth MacFarlane. Second time I saw the trailer I still laughed, however on this occasion I simply sat and watched, bored with the comedy on offer in need of much more intelligent laughs.

Would I watch it again?

Really?? No