WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN? WE DO! HBO ORDERS LINDELOF’S SERIES
It took a while, but HBO has officially ordered Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen. I actually thought it had already been ordered to series, but it seems not even Damon's name is enough to greenlight a whole series, and it took a pilot to impress HBO execs. Since there's been...
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ANDREW SCOTT’S HAMLET COMING TO BBC2 NEXT WEEK
Andrew Scott’s Hamlet arrives on our screens next week and, as the Irishman is one of the most gifted and exciting actors of our generation, I can’t wait!
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WILD, WILD COUNTRY: IS THIS DOCUSERIES 2018’s MAKING A MURDERER?
Every once in a while, a documentary comes along that literally drops your jaw. Wild, Wild Country is one of those documentaries, and like Making A Murderer before it, it’s not necessarily the quality of the filmmaking that leaves you reeling… it’s the real life events.
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DECEPTION S01E01: ABC’s BONKERS CRIME MAGIC SERIES IS FINALLY HERE!
When a superstar magician career is ruined by scandal, where does he practice his art of deception, influence and illusion? At the FBI… of fucking course!
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JESSICA JONES S02E01: WILL FEMALE-LED SEASON TWO FIX MARVEL’S PROBLEMS?
Jessica Jones S02E01 has landed on Netflix today along with the other twelve episodes to complete a female-centric second season of Marvel’s best show
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“THANK THE MAKER” JON FAVREAU’S NEW STAR WARS SERIES IS A NEW HOPE
Swingers and Iron Man director Jon Favreau is to write and produce a new Star Wars series and, after a swathe of bad decision-making, this means finally… “There is another.”
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EKO’S WARGAMES TV SERIES: WILL INTERACTIVE TV BE THE C21ST DEFINING ART FORM?
1983’s Wargames ushered in a new era of hi-tech spy thriller and now, as cybersecurity rules the world, British game designer Sam Barlow brings us a Wargames TV series.
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WACO S01E06 “DAY 51” WHY IT’S A WRITERS JOB TO TELL THE TRUTH
After a meandering start, Paramount Network’s six-part mini-series, Waco really kicked into gear once the actual siege began to play out. The series went from strength to strength, culminating in a powerful finalé entitled Day 51.
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SCIENCE, BITCH! IS JESSE PINKMAN RETURNING IN BETTER CALL SAUL?
When we last saw Jesse Pinkman speed off into the night, we may not have seen the last of the character. Vince Gilligan, the creator behind Breaking Bad and spin-off series Better Call Saul revealed that he’s open to bringing Jesse back.
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MIRROR WORLD-BUILDING: WHAT’S WRONG WITH COUNTERPART’S UNIVERSES?
When Counterpart launched its first episode two full months before we'd get to see the second, it seemed a fresh and original concept. A gripping idea of an alternate universe accessible only from a subterranean door under a grey, Kafka-esque Berlin government...
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THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS: BRYAN CRANSTON RETURNS IN AMAZON SERIES
The Dangerous Book for Boys, Conn and Hal Iggulden’s famed 2007 how-to guide is coming to Amazon Prime and its bringing Breaking Bad’s Walter White with it.
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BETTER CALL SAUL SEASON 4: VINCE GILLIGAN SHARES SOME WRITING TIPS
“No man is an island,” they say. Except for one man – Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator, Vince Gilligan. He’s an island… Gilligan’s Island.
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FULLER EXITS YET ANOTHER SHOW: WILL HOLLYWOOD STOP EMPLOYING THE SHOWRUNNER?
Writer and producer Bryan Fuller leaves Amazing Stories is the news coming outta Hollywood. While it’s a shame, it’s hardly surprising news, given that the showrunner also left two other shows in the past year.
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AMC’s THE TERROR TRAILER:SHALL MAKETH YOU SHIT ICICLES, DEAR READER!
AMC is delving into the Victorian era to bring us The Terror; a horror story that is so much up my street that I’m a-gonna have to be careful I haven’t already unknowingly plaigarised it… before having even seen it!
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ASH vs EVIL DEAD S03 TRAILER: ASH IS BACK, BABY!
Starz brilliantly over-the-top and camp series Ash vs Evil Dead is right around the corner and it’s sending Bruce Campbell back to his roots.
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WACO S01E03 OPERATION SHOWTIME: WRITING & DIRECTING ARE 2 VERY DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES
Further to my recent post about it taking a hell of a storyteller to both write and direct a TV series, I thought I’d try and back it up with some evidence from the show-in-question; Waco.
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“WE’RE DOOMED” WHO ARE THE NEW STAR WARS WRITERS?
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a galaxy far, far away, Kathleen Kennedy has announced that Game of Thrones head writers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.
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WESTWORLD SEASON 2 TRAILER: SUPERBOWL AD CONFIRMS LAUNCH DATE
The New England Patriots might have lost Super Bowl 52 but amongst all the spectacle came trailers for Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, J.A Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Avengers: Infinity War and Westworld.
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AMERICAN GODS NEW SHOWRUNNER: AND IT AIN’T WHO YOU THINK
American Gods looked to have become less American and less godly when showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green walked away after the first season wrapped and Starz CEO, Chris Albrecht suggested creator Neil Gaiman would take up the reins.
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WHO DIRECTS THE WATCHMEN? LINDELOF ALWAYS GETS HIS MAN
Damon Lindelof has found his man to direct the pilot of his new show, HBO’s adaptation of Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal graphic novel… and it’s not a man, it’s Nicole Kassell.
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HBO ORDERS DEMIMONDE SERIES: JAR JAR ABRAM’S SCI-FI FANTASY FINDS A HOME
From one Lost alum to another as J.J. Abrams’ finds a home for his epic sci-fi fantasy series Demimonde at HBO meaning he and my other hero, Damon Lindelof (currently penning Watchmen for HBO) may share nearby office space and cross paths again.
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DIG IN, WACO SETS UP ITS STALL: IT TAKES A HELL OF A STORYTELLER…
The problem with historical dramas like Paramount Network’s Waco is you already know what’s going to happen – The Titanic will surely sink taking sprout-faced Leonardo DiCaprio with it and Apollo 13’s astronauts will, malheureusement, survive. Therefore, it is vital to find an intriguing aspect of the story that hasn’t been told before.
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WHAT’S PAST IS PROLOGUE: THE BEST STAR TREK: DISCOVERY EPISODE SO FAR
Star Trek: Discovery, why can’t you be like this all the time? This episode was thrilling, breathless, warp factor 10 ride through everything Star Trek should be every week.
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BETTER CALL SAUL S04 NEWS: GOOD & BAD NEWS, WHICH DO YOU WANT FIRST?
Better Call Saul S04 news has arrived from the ether, and it will leave you cold, shivering, naked and digging your own grave in the New Mexico desert.
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DAMN YOU TO ALL TO HELL! USA NETWORK HAS CANCELLED DAMNATION
USA Network announced yesterday that it has cancelled its depression-era strikebreak drama Damnation due to low ratings.
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FARGO SEASON 4 REPORTS OF FARGO’S DEATH HAVE BEEN EXAGGERATED
You may have been as dismayed as I was when writer-producer Noah Hawley said that with writing duties on season two of Legion and a feature film in the works, Fargo’s third outing may have been its last… but there’s good news on the snowy, North Dakotan horizon
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DAMNATION SEASON 1: SHOWS EXACTLY HOW TO BUILD YOUR TV WORLD
After the pilot episode aired in November, I laid out my hopes that Damnation would be the spiritual successor to Deadwood. Though its execution didn’t live up to the promise of the pilot, Tony Tost’s tale of a preacher and his strikebreaker brother remains a blueprint for any budding writers on how to set out your characters and themes.
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J.J. ABRAMS’ DEMIMONDE SCRIPT IS WRITTEN & BEING SHOPPED TO HBO & APPLE
After dominating the silver screen by rebooting the two greatest sci-fi franchises, über-talented writer and director, Jar Jar Abrams is heading back to the small screen with Demimonde.
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ATLANTA SEASON 2 TEASER CHILDISH GAMBINO WILL SPIN YOU RIGHT ROUND
Hollywood’s best looking and most talented man, Donald Glover returns to FX with a second season of his acclaimed, innovative and frankly brilliantly weird series Atlanta.
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GARETH EDWARDS’ MONSTERS IS MAKING THE JUMP TO CHANNEL FOUR
Gareth Edwards’ 2010 indie sci-fi movie, Monsters is being made by Vertigo Films for Channel 4 and the man behind 2014’s Godzilla and Star Wars: Rogue One is “likely to be involved behind the scenes with his full involvement determined when the project has been fully greenlit.”
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COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS HALLELUJAH! THE DECADE’S BEST DOCUSERIES RETURNS
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is hopping back aboard his silver spaceship to bring us a second seeason of his acclaimed science-philosophy series, this time subtitled Cosmos: Possible Worlds.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER ONE: THE LEFTOVERS
You may have noticed that, after an enthusiastic effort, I stopped posting The Leftovers reviews about half way through season three. This is because I get so involved in Damon Lindelof shows that I cannot write subjectively.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER TWO: BETTER CALL SAUL
I wrote back in April, when the show returned to our screens that Better Call Saul was “both such a delight to watch and the antithesis of America right now…” going on a long rant about The Greatest Country on Earth’s love of style over substance…
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER THREE: MINDHUNTER
David Fincher's Mindhunter came out of nowhere to arrive on Netflix and instantly wrote itself into my top five shows of 2017. Based on the book Mind Hunter: Inside FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, the brutal series tells the tale of two FBI agents Holden Ford...
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER FOUR: MANHUNT UNABOMBER
The Discovery Channel’s Manhunt: Unabomber shouldn’t be in my top five shows of the year. If you need a clue as to why, well the clue is in the words “The Discovery Channel.”
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER FIVE: FARGO
Fargo’s third year may not quite have had the suspense of last season but season three of Noah Hawley’s show was the best so far for exploring what’s really going on in America.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER SIX: GODLESS
In my endless pursuit of the perfect TV show, one of the long lost brothers I search for is a successor to Deadwood. Twice this year I thought I might have found it, first in Damnation and soon after, in Godless.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER SEVEN: DAMNATION
USA Network’s Damnation takes the oldest story in the book – the little man against The Man and updates it to dustbowl Iowa, landing it in at number seven on my list of favourite shows of 2017.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER EIGHT: TIN STAR
Sky Atlantic and Amazon Prime’s Tin Star was one of the unexpeted surprises of 2017. We all know Tim Roth is a great actor, but rarely have I seen such naturalism in a TV show.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER NINE: THREE GIRLS
I tend to watch and write about American drama and while I know it inside out, I honestly don’t know if America produces drama like Three Girls, or whether I just never see it because it’s, quite rightly, un-exportable.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER TEN: FEAR THE WALKING DEAD
I’ve talked about it so often that I hardly need to mention how Fear the Walking Dead went from one of the worst shows on TV into my Top Ten shows of 2017.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER ELEVEN: STAR TREK DISCOVERY
Star Trek: Discovery is an odd show; its may delays and staff reshuffles have had a detrimental effect and we’ve ended up with a product that is hugely uneven… but I have faith it will find its feet in the latter half of the first season.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER TWELVE: BLACK MIRROR
One doesn’t really need to talk too much about why Black Mirror is one of the best shows of 2017. The thing is, great as the episodes were, they didn’t leave me challenged and unsettled as presvious seasons.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER THIRTEEN: AGENTS OF SHIELD
Yes, folks – you read that right – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – that low budget, watered down, but always fun Joss Whedon side-project for his family – makes it into my Top Twenty list as it became one of TV’s most well-told and compelling shows.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER FOURTEEN: LIAR
With Chris Chibnall jumping ship to showrun Doctor Who and ending his Dorset coast-set detective series Broadchurch earlier this summer, ITV were looking for a natural successor. Enter Harry and Jack Williams, whose psychological thriller, Liar takes up the reins with aplomb.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER FIFTEEN: OZARK
Jason Bateman as a money laundering anti-hero in a Breaking Bad meets Fargo slow-burn thriller shouldn’t have hit written all over it, but after one intense hour of Netflix’s Ozark, I was hooked!
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER SIXTEEN: THE DEFIANT ONES
The Defiant Ones; HBO’s story of the rise of Doctor Dre and Jimmy Iovine conquering the music world should be the blueprint for how all documentaries are made.
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TOP TWENTY SHOWS OF 2017 NUMBER SEVENTEEN: 8/10 CATS DOES COUNTDOWN
So far, all of my choices from numbers twenty through seventeen have been English shows and number sixteen is no exception. For the amount of joy that 8/10 Cats does Countdown brings me, it probably deserves to be higher, but I feel I should concentrate on drama…
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