Dear faithful readers,

I wanted to do a quick round of new UK shows that you might be interested in. There is some crime and drama and then there should be (at least in theory) plenty of comedy.

Come Dine with Me – now for a bit of an exciting news BBC America has started airing Come Dine with Me. I absolutely love this program because a) the narrator is hilarious (Dave Lamb by the way) and this particular episode had me in stitches. Absolute stitches. I mean you can’t make stuff like this up. Anyhow if you fancy a good giggle Come Dine with Me airs on BBC America every Thursday at 10/9c.

Another bit of good news comes courtesy of TV Scoop – Sky1 commissioned a number of big names to boost their comedy rating (sort to speak). Our lovely Mr. Fry will appear alongside Dawn French and Victoria Wood in series called Little Cracker that will feature a number of short autobiographical films depicting events that happened in their past. Hmmm that should be interesting. Also Ruth Jones is getting her own show called Stella. And speaking of Dawn French…

Roger and Val Have Just Got In Dawn French is getting her own sitcom. Produced by BBC Two it stars Dawn French as food technology teacher Val, while Alfred Molina plays her husband the botanist. If French’s previous work is anything to go by this should be interesting. The series will air in 2010.

Above Suspicion – ITV’s franchise Above Suspicion is back for another season. I quite enjoy ITV’s crime drama offerings and this one is just as good as the usual ITV fare. Based on Lynda Le Plante’s fourth novel about a rookie police officer Anna Travis it once again stars Kelly Reilly as Anna Travis and Ciaran Hinds as her superior Detective Chief Inspector Langton. This time the team investigates a murder of one of their former colleagues who seems to connected with a World famous drug trafficker. Above Suspicion is currently in production and should premiere in 2011. You can check out the trailer below.

The Oaks – new supernatural drama for ITV it features Alex Kingston (of ER fame) and Jodie Whittaker and follows the story of 3 families living in the same house in the 1960s, 1980s and in the present day. The house is haunted by the spirit of a young girl, daughter who lived with the family in the 60s but died under mysterious circumstances. The series will have 5 episodes and it is currently in production.

Dear faithful readers,

have you ever watched Dawson’s Creek? Ah you must have, everyone was watching it at one point or another.

I will always have a soft spot for Dawson’s Creek because a) Rob Thomas who worked on Dawson’s Creek created one of my favorite shows ever – Veronica Mars and b) because of Joshua Jackson. LOVE. him on Fringe.

And this video gave me the snorts. Also I want to go to Comic Con something bad next year.

Image: BBC

Dear faithful readers,

yesterday new Sherlock Holmes series debuted on BBC One. And well after I got over my initial shock I kind of want to see for myself if it is any good.

Yes it’s all modern and shit. BUT before you turn you nose thinking it some silly attempt of old aunty Beeb of being all hip and modern (which is partly true) the series has been created and written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (of Doctor Who fame). And it stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Given I don’t think I’ve seen Cumberbatch in anything that I can remember but Freeman was in both The Office (the original), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Shaun of the Dead.

So let’s try and not be judgy beforehand. I was all judgy about Guy Ritchie’s version and it turned out pretty darn great.
You can check out the trailer below.

* And before someone gets on my case that the phrase Elementary my dear Watson was never used in any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, I am well aware of that. I just thought it’d be nice for a title. So there.

Image via Columbia Pictures

Dear faithful readers,

the new trailer for Social Network has been released.

It is the newest movie directed by David Fincher. And I heart me some Fincher. Some of my all time favorites were directed by him. The script was based on book by Ben Mezrich called The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. And it was adapted for screen by Aaron Sorkin (in case you are wondering although if you watch telly you should know this, the dude behind the West Wing).

So when I’ve read about that yes, I thought my head might implode. Not so much because I am particulary fascinated by Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook. In fact I dislike Facebook with fiery passion. But Zuckerberg story is an interesting one and to see it adapted on big screen by Fincher and Sorkin, well hello.
Movie is due to premiere in October and the buzz has been steadily building over the last few months. So far the trailers released didn’t really release anything. But finally we have something concrete to get us through until then.

Check out the trailer below. The title song is Radiohead’s Creep performed by Scala Choir and Kolacny Brothers (movie’s score is created by Trent Razor and Atticus Rock).

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Image via Outnow.ch

Dear faithful readers,

yesterday I saw Inception. Almost suffered a sun stroke while doing it, but that’s another story. But you know what? It was soooo worth it.

Given I was a bit prejudiced since I don’t really like Leonardo di Caprio. You can’t deny his talent but he is just not my cup of tea. But I am huuuge sucker for anything made by Christopher Nolan.

To give you a brief outline – di Caprio stars as Dom Cobb, highly skilled Extractor, a man who invades your head while you sleep and steals secrets buried in the subconscious. This particular technique is mostly used as means of corporate espionage. But then a businessman Saito hires Cobb to pull an Inception – a process that is essentially reverse and almost impossible to pull off – to plant an idea into a subject’s head so he/she will think it originated from them rather then by an outside influence.

Trust me it is best if you know as little as possible about the plot. And this comes from someone who abhors going into movies without knowing what to expect. But it is best that way as it will give you an open mind to gorge on the intricate details of the plot. And it is intricate. For 2 and a half hours you are forced to pay attention. Because details are important. Until the last second before the credits role you have to focus because you might miss something. Kind of like Lost just on the movie screen. It’s layer upon layer upon layer and just when you think there couldn’t possibly be more off you go even deeper. It’s intricate and fast and bizarre. And it will challenge your brain. And yes you are forced to think.

The cast is superb – Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Marion Cotillard – all have delivered brilliant performances and are little cogs in the wheel of plot.

While I love the whimsy of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland I found Nolan’s dream world equally compelling – vast, stark and the rules of physics do not apply – it will take your breath away. I also loved the score by Hans Zimmer.

Inception has the speed of Dark Knight and if you pardon my French WTF?! of Memento. And I’d love for it to be hugely successful because we need more movies likes this one. We’ve got lazy. You get your tickets, get your popcorn, go in on auto pilot and want to have things explained to you in simplest terms possible.
Inception is anything but simple. It would be nice to stop with the dumbing down and just roll with something that yes might be complicated to the extreme but to have a sort of vision and creativity like Nolan does? That does not come by very often so let’s enjoy it while he is willing to share it with us.

Image: Syfy

Dear faithful readers,

we have debated the merits of seeing Stephen King’s works on the screen. And while movies can be quite good, the TV adaptations can be well… not so. Remember Tommyknockers? It? The Langoliers? While I appreciated the stories and while I can understand why King’s work would be ideal for television (since his books can also be used as door stops because they are that thick* it only makes sense to make it into a mini series without omitting any important information) the listed series fell sort of flat. The acting, the special effects, it was just well a bit cheesy to be honest. So Stephen King and television is not always the most fortunate of combinations.

BUT Syfy… I know, I know. Just ignore the name, I try to. Although the person who thought that the name change from SciFi Channel to Syfy was a good re-branding idea should really get his/hers examined… Where was I?

Yes Syfy premiered new series called Haven. It is very loosely based on King’s novella the Colorado Kid. It stars Emily Rose as an FBI agent Audrey Parker who is sent on a assignment in Haven, Maine. But when the fugitive she was looking for ends up dead Parker’s investigation takes a turn in an unexpected direction. And relatively soon it also turns out Haven, Maine is anything but your regular small coastal town.

Emily Rose has a long list of TV credits to her name, I remember her best from Jericho. Cast also includes Lucas Bryant and Eric Balfour.

I have to admit I quite liked the pilot. Dialogue was a bit uneven at certain points but overall as pilots go this one was far better then average – well put together, with strong cast and offering nuggets of information to leave you hooked for more. And it has that vibe – foggy, cold and creepy – that I have come to associate with King’s work. I will definitely tune in to see how the story develops. And apparently Stephen King himself enjoyed the pilot. So there’s that as well.

Do check out the trailer below and if you’ve seen Haven, do let me know what you thought in comments below.

*I’m not being sarcastic, I actually love that about his work.

Image credit: Stock.xchng

Dear faithful readers,

my apologizes for not posting at all this week. My ass kind of got kicked by work stuff but hopefully once the World Cup is out of the way, it will be back to normal.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share this tidbit with you – you know how I love documentaries since I’ve mentioned it time and time again. The clip you see below is for a documentary called Life in A Day that will premiere at 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Film producer is Ridley Scott. The film will be directed by Kevin Macdonald. So far it does sound quite impressive, no?

But here is the catch. Macdonald and Scott have collaborated with YouTube to create a documentary that will take user generated footage and combine it into a feature long film. The footage will be filmed on July 24th and 20 people who have submitted their footage to be include will be flown in to attend the premiere in Sundance. All of the people who submitted their footage will be named as co-directors.

Macdonald said:

Life in a Day is a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. It is a unique experiment in social filmmaking, and what better way to gather a limitless array of footage than to engage the world’s online community.

Now I think this will be all down to edit. And since Kevin Macdonald will be the one doing the editing there isn’t a doubt in my mind it will turn out awesome. It’s nice to see that social media can be used to create something that has the potential to be extraordinary. Rather then just trolls and whatnot. You can check out the clip of the project below.

On a side note – for people who love documentaries, I’ve found this link a while back. This is where you can legally download a number of documentaries, there is quite a selection available so do check it out.

Source: Independent.co.uk

Image via TNT

Dear faithful readers,

we all know that majority of shows that are any good can be found on cable nowadays. Treme, True Blood, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter – well you get the gist.

And now TNT have a new series out called Memphis Beat. It stars Jason Lee as Dwight Hendricks, Memphis police detective who also does Elvis impersonations on the side. Mind you if you are expecting white jumpsuits and bushy side burns, you might have to look elsewhere. His new boss at MPD is Tanya Rice, played by the excellent Alfre Woodard and she likes to do things her way, while Dwight… well Dwight seems to be Dwight. Good cop, solid, with a sense of right and wrong. And it does seem like there are some really hidden depths to Dwight but I guess I will have to tune in again to see whether I was right or wrong. I liked the pace of it, I like the writing and I liked the fact we get to see this dude again.

I do have to admit since Memphis Beat is also narrated by Jason Lee I had a bit of My Name is Earl flashback. But otherwise I quite liked the show. It is written by Liz Garcia and Josh Harto and produced by George Clooney.

You can check out the trailer below.

I DIE! Oh they better stick with the book this time around.

Dear faithful readers,

since TV shows are few and far inbetween at the moment and my standards are slipping a bit. So I saw a trailer for this show the Gates and I thought to myself well how bad can it be?

Oh heavens. Well it wasn’t too good, that’s all I can say. It’s been dubbed as Desperate Housewives meets Buffy. Although I would say they’ve added a dash of Twilight for a good measure. Honestly sometimes you have to wonder if these show runners go into meetings and throw out random ideas until something sticks. Although you can’t complain because well… at least it’s scripted, no?

Anyhow The Gates are a private community in Chicago, looking all typically suburban and whatnot. But as the new police chief Monahan moves in with his family and they settle in it soon becomes apparent that the Gates is not as perfect as it seemed. Yeah and there are vampire and werewolves – that I’ve seen so far. Honestly I didn’t find it one bit intriguing. Maybe I’m mistaken and it gets better with the second episode but seriously (and unfortunately) nowdays you don’t have much time to fuss about and find your groove in television.

The trailer is below, see for yourself.