Veep Season 6 (2017) – TV Review

During the extra time at home provided by the lockdown, I have been using it to watch some shows I hadn’t previously got around to watching before, and the one that has been the stand out, is ‘Veep’.

It is the most genuinely laugh out loud funny, controversial, offensive, and brilliant written comedy I have seen for years, and as I have the urge to binge the whole thing, I have been taking it slow so I can try and appreciate it more.

Following the game changing end to Season 5, this season was always going to feel different to the previous seasons, and it certainly does. Season 6 suffers from a lack of urgent direction in the story, and not having all the great characters together means something will always be missing.

However, it still remains one of the funniest shows on TV and the performance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Timothy Simons, and the rest of the cast, continue to amaze, and a flashback episode in the finale providing some of the show’s funniest ever moments.

Rating = 3.5/5

Mrs. Fletcher (2019) – TV Review

This mini-series focusing on the complicated lives (and specifically sex lives) of a single mother, and her teenage son, once he leaves home for college, went under the radar last year but is one of the best shows of last year.

Kathryn Hahn is a consistently impressive and risk taking actress, and I don’t think she has ever been better than here. She is playing a woman trying to work out who she is now she isn’t defined by being ‘a mother’ and the sexual awakening that comes with that.

That is balanced out by watching her son Brendan, who was a popular kid at school, struggle at college to fit in and behave acceptably.

Both of their lives have been changed by pornography, with Brendan having no idea how to respectfully treat women due to being brainwashed, and Eve (Hahn) trying time discover her sexuality through online porn, and this leads both characters down interesting paths.

The show is daring, funny, sad, and very accepting of all people and also willing to deal with the consequences of bad behaviour. It was intended as a limited-series and has a great ending, but I would love to explore these characters and this world much more in future seasons.

Rating = 4/5

Charlie Brooker’s Antiviral Wipe (2020) – TV Review

We are only into the fifth month of 2020, but it already feels like the longest and most significant year of most of our lifetimes, and their is only one man who can sum it up perfectly, and that is writer of ‘Black Mirror’ and former star of ‘Weekly Wipe’, Charlie Brooker.

The energetic, scathing, and absolutely hilarious coverage that Brooker brings in this lockdown special is truly unique, and he manages to truly capture the failure of the government and the way the whole world has handled this crisis, without ever losing the humour.

Many people don’t want to watch TV about Corona Virus right now because it is all too real, but this is really essential viewing, mixing all the key events of the last few months with a real sense of cynical fun.

Rating = 4.5/5

Dead To Me Season 2 (2020) – TV Review

Netflix is packed full of content, much of it entertaining, and therefore some great content can be slightly overlooked, and I really feel this is one of them.

While it doesn’t quite match the heights of the first season, ‘Dead To Me’ season 2 is still a throughly entertaining and well made piece of TV, with two very strong lead performances.

The plot of this season in many ways seems a bit unsure of where it is going, but I hope that will be corrected in a potential season 3, as the world created is so good.

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini are really giving two of the funniest and most complex performances on TV right now, and they both take it another step up this season, and in a sane world, they would be strong awards contenders when the time comes.

I hope we get a season 3 for this great show as the season 2 finale was quite underwhelming and I wouldn’t want to leave it on that note.

Rating = 3.5/5

Code 404 (2020) – TV Review

Sky One’s new detective comedy, with a Sci-Fi twist, is a solid hit that replies heavily on the talent of its leading men, and they are able to deliver.

Stephen Graham is now well established as one of British TV’s finest character actors and has starred in some of the best dramas of recent years, and Daniel Mays has also built up a strong reputation over the years, but neither of them are necessarily considered ‘comedic’, but that may change after this.

Following the classic buddy comedy set up, only with the sci-fi twist that one of the detectives was brought back from the dead (this is really the only sci-fi in a other wise standard cop comedy).

The plot focuses on the detectives trying to figure out who Major’s (Mays) killer was, while Carver (Graham) tries to hide something closer to home.

The duo have really good chemistry together and it creates some string comedic moments. It’s far from a classic, but it was an entertaining few episodes to help get through this lockdown period.

Rating = 3/5

Most Dangerous Game (2020) – TV Review

Quibi is seeming more and more like a financial venture that won’t work out, and while that isn’t a great tragedy as I’m not a great fan of the ‘phone only’ streaming service, I am still making the most of my 3 month free trial to watch all of the TV shows on the service that I want to.

This was billed as the main event for Quibi at launch and I can see why. All things considered, it is a polished, well acted, and well shot action thriller. It is also packed full of cliche and some average writing, but in general the ‘cat and mouse’ plot works well with Quibi’s format.

Liam Hemsworth makes for a strong leading man, Sarah Gadon is given a very stereotypical ‘wife’ role, and two time Oscar Winner Christoph Waltz does what he does best, play a sophisticated villain.

Rating = 3/5

Brassic Season 2 (2020) – TV Review

The first season of ‘Brassic’ was a surprise smash hit for Sky last year, and following this successful follow up, it is now one of the channel’s flagship shows, and is likely to run for many years.

Joseph Gilgun stars as Vinnie, the leader of a group of working class, odd ball thieves. While we have seen many shows about the upper class, middle class, or even London gangs, we see very few shows like this about real Northern people, and it is refreshing to see.

The whole cast is great and they deliver the very sharp dialogue very well, with Dominic West continuing to steal every scene he is in and clearly enjoying playing a supporting role instead of carrying the show.

Joe Gilgun and Michelle Keegan are very much the heart and soul of this show, and the relationship between their two characters looks set to be developed even more following the cliffhanger ending.

Season 3 is already announced and I eagerly await it whenever they are able to film (and I also hear a rumour Peter Kay might be in talks to join the cast, although that is unlikely given the situation around his health and disappearance from the public eye).

Long live the Brassic gang.

Rating = 4/5

Killing Eve Season 3 – Are You From Pinner? (Reaction)

Killing Eve has always been about the complicated sexual/murderous relationship between two women; Eve Polastri and Villanelle, and in episode 5 of each season so far the two have had memorable meetings.

However, in a smart decision to freshen things up, episode 5 of season 3 is the shows first episode not to feature both leads, and in fact the only cast member it features is Jodie Comer, as Villanelle gets a stand alone episode to focus on her backstory.

While I thought many of the plot points were slightly disappointing, as the family itself and the reason Villanelle is like she is was never properly delved into, and the mother’s ‘decision’ at the end felt very rushed, the episode works on the basis that Villanelle leaves it massively changed for the rest of the show, and this will likely effect her decisions going forward.

One thing I do find amusing is how the show seems to present many Eastern European countries (Russia, Poland etc) as stuck in the olden days wildernesses (although there is nothing wrong with that), instead of modern cities, but I understand that may just be a coincidence and I love the show too much to make much of an issue out of it.

As for Jodie Comer, I believe this is arguably the finest episode of acting anyone has done in the show yet. She is vulnerable, playful, angry, and shows new sides to her character (we really see Oksana here instead of the Villanelle persona) but she also stays true to who the character is. She already won an Emmy and BAFTA for season 2, and she surely must be a huge contender again this year.

There are now only three episodes left of the season, and episode 6 seems to be a good one. Villanelle is reunited with Irina (one of the stand out relationships of season one) and Konstantin, as well as meeting the mysterious new figure from the twelve played by Camille Cottin, and even more interestingly, Eve doesn’t seem to have fallen for Dasha’s framing of Villanelle, and a bowling alley confrontation may be in order between Eve and Dasha…

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