Starz cancel CAMELOT

I'm actually rather surprised by the news that Starz have cancelled Camelot, their adaptation of the Arthurian legend, starring Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green. The ratings were decent (the premiere was a network record-breaker, the finale attracted 1.5 million, viewership was going up towards the end), but US reviews remained very mixed. Interestingly, the show's been received better by UK critics (well, from what little I've read), perhaps because we're more tolerant of a show's daftness? Deadline are reporting that scheduling conflicts with some of the actors also influenced the cable channel's decision. If true, I'm not sure what deal the actors had with Starz when they signed up, as it seems obvious you should keep your diary open once you make a commitment to a US TV series.

Oh well. Better shows have joined the "one-season wonder" club, so I'm not going to lose any sleep about it, but it's a shame the finale's set-up for season 2 won't amount to anything now. Then again, over 10 episodes Camelot explored most of the Arthurian legend's iconic ideas, and most of its own unique storylines were resolved, so it could have been worse.

Are you annoyed by the decision to axe Camelot? Could the show have improved, or did it deserve to be cancelled so soon?

PRIMEVAL, 5.6: tomorrow's world

This was easily the best episode of series 5 and possibly Primeval's most satisfying finale yet, despite the story feeling stretched to twice its natural length. Steve Bailie and co-creator Adrian Hodges are two of the show's best writers, and you can usually expect an increase in quality for the episodes they're behind. This was certainly the case here, as the finale delivered the action and jeopardy you demand of a monster-hunt show like Primeval, but also reduced the idiocy, delivered a few scenes of real emotion, and restored something the show lost this series: camaraderie between the characters.

Connor (Andrew Lee Potts) was last seen vanishing into Philip's (Alexander Siddig) super-anomaly, appearing in a barren future-Earth contaminated with a thin, noxious atmosphere, pummeled by erratic storms, and crawling with mutated Future Predators. Matt (Ciaran McMenemin) opted to go through the anomaly to rescue Connor, later joined by a gun-toting Abby (Hannah Spearritt), giving them both first-hand experience of his home: the dystopia Philip's "New Dawn" project is destined to cause. Back in the present, egomaniac Philip began to lose control of his man-made anomaly as it started to grow exponentially, eventually causing a bizarre atmospheric change in the skies above his facility, and a vicious Future Predator appeared in ARC for Lester (Ben Miller) and Jess (Ruth Kearney) to contend with.

There was a great deal to enjoy here, surprisingly, forgiving the fact Primeval lacks the budget to do a few ideas full justice—like the trip to the future. More importantly, I was surprised to see a genuinely good performance from Spearritt (her tearful reunion with Connor in an underground bunker was possibly the actress's best moment on this show), and even the terribly dry relationship between Emily (Ruth Bradley) and Matt was given some spice when Matt decided to sacrifice himself by altering history and potentially erasing his own timeline. The show works better, dramatically, when it’s less about wandering around trying to capture CGI monsters (that the actors can't see) and more about the characters facing things that test themselves. Siddig also looked more comfortable somehow, finally given a script that gave him something to play—as Philip realized the error of his ways and sacrificed himself to try and reverse the damage he's caused.

It's also worth mentioning the direction of Cilla Ware, who pulled off some decent sequences this week—in particular, there was a lovely shot when the camera pulled back from Lester and Jess to reveal the snarling jaws of a Future Predator before it started to prowl the ARC. Never underestimate how much a good camera move or choreographed action sequence can boost a show like Primeval, which demands a level of care and attention it rarely receives. The effects sequences of the intensifying super-anomaly, causing bizarre cloud formations and dragging entire buildings into its twinkling heart, were also notable highlights from a visual standpoint.

The story was largely unsurprising and could have ended a good half-hour early with some trimming, but overall series 5's finale was a great deal more exciting and watchable than every episode that's preceded it this year. I'm not sure what to make of the last-minute twist, however, when Matt encountered a bloodied doppelganger of himself in a darkened corridor who implored him to "go back". Primeval just broke a time-travel rule it established in series 1's finale (when meddling with history had an immediate effect on the present-day, and didn't result in an alternate timeline), so are we to assume there are two timelines now vying for existence? It doesn't make much sense right now, and to be honest I don't expect to provide a solid explanation from a show like Primeval, but I'm sure fans are just happy the ending suggests the writers expect to be recommissioned.

Whether the show deserves to come back after this frustratingly limp series is another matter.

Asides

• I never did understand Helen Cutter's motivations, or have forgotten whatever we learned over three years, so WHY did she manipulate Philip into causing the end of the world with his New Dawn project? How is causing the apocalypse in her interest?
• I seem to always mention this whenever the Future Predators make an appearance on the show, but they really are a great creature design. If you enlarged them, you almost end up with the Cloverfield monster, a good few years before that Lovecraft-inspired beast was conceived. The mutated versions here were perhaps even creepier because they sometimes moved around with a more human posture.

written by Steve Bailie & Adrian Hodges / directed by Cilla Ware / 28 June 2011 / Watch

Coming Soon: BEAVER FALLS, E4

E4 have a brand new comedy-drama on the way, which they're hoping will replicate the success of The Inbetweeners. Beaver Falls is the story of three British friends—Flynn (Coronation Street's Samuel Robertson), A-Rab (Four Lions' Arsher Ali) and Barry (Lark Rise To Candleford's John Dagleish)—who graduate from university and decide to travel to the US for a carefree holiday working for an elite summer camp called Beaver Falls, full of beautiful and rich Californian teenagers.

It's certainly a premise that sounds fun on paper. I just hope the writing and performances are as sharp as The Inbetweeners, because a British teen-comedy set in the US (probably involving an Anglo-American culture clash) is definitely something that appeals to me—despite the fact I'm now in my early-30s!

To celebrate the show's premiere, there's also a competition to win the Ultimate USA trip for a total of three people, who will flown out to the US with £1500 spending money and seats on a RoadTrip American tour from San Francisco to New York City. To be in with a chance of winning, just head over to Beaver Falls' Facebook site and collect "badges" by playing games on the show's official app. Each of the potential 24 badges to win equal an entry into the competition, where the winner will be chosen at random. Hurry, because the contest closes on 27 July. A full list of Terms & Conditions can be read on the E4 site.

A mock promotion for the Beaver Falls summer camp can be seen below:

Beaver Falls will premiere on E4 sometime in July.

This is a sponsored post.

LUTHER, 2.3: the diceman cometh

The final two-part story began on a riveting note, with an attack on a petrol station's forecourt by a fair-haired weirdo (Steven Robertson), brandishing a bat and acid-filled water pistol, as the frightened customers watched from inside the adjoining shop. It was easily the show's most tense and gripping sequence yet, putting viewers immediately on the edge of their seats as the creepy stranger smashed windows and sprayed graffiti on a car roof, before clubbing one man to death on the ground. Indeed, this episode's highlights are the moments of violence and intimidation, when this week's villain reappears to chill the blood: shamelessly shoplifting from a small shop, jumping all over parked cars, or (in another bravura sequence) posing as a motorcycle courier to access an office building and indiscriminately bludgeon employees with a hammer.

It's a shame the actual storyline was even thinner than usual for Luther, as the investigation into catching this violent menace was almost comically sketchy. Luther concludes the man's using role-playing dice to determine his actions as a guess based on his hunched posture on CCTV footage, and the police essentially caught their man by waiting for the day's most bizarre crime-in-progress and blindly hoping the perpetrator's the man they're after. I don't expect intricate, watertight plotting on Luther, but the way the story unfolded was rather imprecise, even for this show.

As usual, a lot of slack was taken up with a subplot involving Jenny (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), as Luther was forced to steal confidential police data and deliver it to Toby (David Dawson) to keep her safe, which aroused the suspicions of DS Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) after she saw Luther sneaking around the offices during a fire alarm she reasons he triggered to empty the building of prying eyes. I'm still not wholly convinced by this storyline, as the show's done a poor job explaining it (perhaps because it's had to cut corners because there are only four episodes?), but the situation with Gray beginning to suspect Luther of something criminal is an interesting one. Unlike in series 1, when Luther was framed for a criminal act (killing his wife), this time he's genuinely at fault—even if his actions are understandable because he's trying to protect someone he cares about.

Episode 3 was chock-full of intense moments that played to Luther's strength as a larger-than-life cop thriller, and that alone nudged this episode's rating up by a half-star. It also offered a great setup for the finale, with Jenny having killed the amoral Toby in self-defense when he attempted to rape her (will Luther dispose of his body?), and the twist that the madman has an identical twin and partner-in-crime was exactly the kind of oddness this show delivers so efficiently. It walks a fine line between brilliance and preposterousness, but for the most part Luther gets the balance right. It's just a shame series 2's a mere four hours long, with only enough time to tell two stories, as some of the subplots could have done with more time to develop.

Asides

• This was the first episode of series 2 that didn't feature Paul McGann or Ruth Wilson. In the former's case, it appears to prove the character of Mark North wasn't actually deserving of a return this year. Even his role as Jenny's "babysitter" didn't last long! In the latter's case, I'm surprised Alice hasn't been anywhere near as involved in the show as before. Hopefully she'll return for the finale to help Luther with the mess he's found himself in, but if Luther returns for a third series writer Neil Cross will have to come up with a good reason to keep her around. Alice is a terrific character, but at the moment it feels like she was brought back because she was popular and fun to write for, and not because there was a story worth telling.
• Pam Ferris had better return next week, too—because casting Miss Trunchbull as an underground porn baroness demands more than one short appearance over four episodes.
• Did you notice the nudge in the ribs about comics (or "graphic novels", according to Jenny)? A sly reminder that Luther is effectively a live-action comic-book, which some people don't seem to grasp.

written by Neil Cross / directed by Sam Miller / 28 June 2011 / BBC One

FALLING SKIES, 1.3 - "Prisoner Of War"

Falling Skies is already higher up in my estimation than The Walking Dead ever was. It helps that an alien invasion is more interesting than a zombie apocalypse—because zombies represent a decay that can't be reversed, only halted. There aren't many examples of a zombie story with a truly happy ending, or much to say about zombies themselves once you've established the rules governing them and pondered their allegories for the millionth time. Aliens are a different matter entirely because they're intelligent beings we can communicate with, and there's more hope in a situation where humanity's been ostensibly overcome by extra-terrestrial invaders. It's just a broader canvas to paint on, basically—even if a great many artists have already tackled that particular painting. But you could say the same thing about the zombie genre, too...

"Prisoner Of War" was a very decent follow-up to the two-part premiere, where ordinarily you'd expect a drop in quality. In this episode, Dr Michael Harris (Steven Weber) joined the 2nd Mass, claiming he has the expertise to safely remove (or "unharness") the lobster-like devices the alien "skitters" attach to the spine of human children in order to control them. Naturally this inspired great hope among parents of children who are currently enslaved—in particular Mike (Martin Roach), whose son Rick (Daniyah Ysrayl) was eventually recaptured from the enemy and underwent the procedure. It was a high-tech process that involved, um, a blowtorch.

As I said in my review last week, the only problem facing Falling Skies is that it's hard to hit a wellspring of ideas that haven't been done before in some way. The creepy notion of brainwashed children doing the alien's bidding is the show's only unique aspect to Falling Skies, so far, and easily its silliest. Do advanced aliens from another world really need children to work as slave labour? I hope the show has a good explanation for this. Still, it gives the majority of Skies' characters something to fight for (they even made a Battlestar Galactica-inspired wall of missing kids), and it's a mission that doesn't feel almost impossible when compared to defeating an alien occupier.

In its favour, I'm enjoying how the show doesn't shy away from giving us a good look at the District 9-esque aliens (in both their "mecha" and "skitter" forms), and each episode has so far delivered enough surprising moments. Here, the aliens made it clear they'll ruthlessly slaughter a gang of children every time one is successfully rescued, by demonstrating that fact in front of Tom's son Hal (Drew Roy). And the later reveal that Dr Harris effectively let Tom's wife die during the alien invasion was also nicely handled, with Wyle and Weber proving to have a good rapport together.

I'm not sure what to make of wily Pope (Colin Cunningham) just now; the scumbag leader of the street gang encountered in episode 2, who's become a prisoner of war. He reminds me of Lost's Sawyer, if Pauly Shore had won the role—which really shouldn't work, but somehow it does. The guy has a fun, roguish charisma. Even the discovery that Pope's a trained chef whose culinary skills can be used to provide the survivors with quality food somehow wasn't as stupid as it sounds when written down.

Overall, Falling Skies is basically The Waking Dead with a more involving milieu (minus that AMC show's budget), with a pleasing emphasis on character, but never at the expense of giving us explosions, spaceships and aliens. It's the occupation of Caprica in Battlestar Galactica, but transposed to present-day Earth, borrowing elements from all manner of sci-fi properties. It consequently doesn't score highly for originality, but it's doing a sharp job for a show so young (they've already captured an alien for interrogation), and even managed to give us a decent cliffhanger ending.

written by Fred Golan / directed by Greg Beeman / 26 June 2011 / TNT

Review: TRUE BLOOD, 4.1 - "She's Not There"

The third season of this vampire drama was a sprawling, undisciplined clutter of malformed ideas. It survived on the captivating performance of Denis O'Hare (as vampire king Russell Edgington) and a regular dose of signature what-the-fuck cliffhangers, but it wasn't enough to prevent the season being a misfire. The majority of its distended cast were trapped in tedious storylines, the addition of werewolves didn't add anything worthwhile, its big reveals were disappointing (Sookie's half-fairy?), and a feeling of desperation smothered the whole venture. I know season 3 has its supporters (mainly people who prefer gore, sex and nudity over plot, character and common sense), but for me it was a disastrous year of a show whose erotic trashiness I really enjoyed in its infancy. Consequently, I approached the premiere of True Blood's fourth season with great caution and lowered expectations...

Interestingly, True Blood picks up both immediately after Sookie (Anna Paquin) was spirited away to Fairy Land by her "Fairy Godmother" Claudine (Lara Pulver) and, upon her swift return, thirteen months later for the residents of Bon Temps. The opening scenes are both absolutely awful and awfully wonderful, as Sookie mingles with the clichéd faeries (who dress in white and eat glowing orange fruit), before meeting her long-lost Grandpa Earl Stackhouse (Gary Cole), who doesn't even realize twenty years have passed on Earth as he's only spent an hour in this idyllic realm. Of course, trouble's afoot, as Sookie deduces the serenity of Fairy Land is an illusion, as the sweet faeries are actually demonic creatures who inhabit a barren, rocky wasteland. And their Queen Mab (Rebecca Wisocky) has ambitions to enslave humanity, forcing Sookie and Earl to go on the run, chased by fireball-flinging Fae—narrowly managing to return to Earth through a canyon portal, resulting in Earl's death in a Bon Temp graveyard because he made the mistake of eating some luminous fruit.

It's utterly bonkers. In these opening scenes, True Blood becomes Charmed with a budget, and it's a far cry from the days when the show apparently wanted to explore what humanity would do if it had to co-exist with vampires. The emergence of so many supernatural species (vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, were-panthers, fairies, witches) has given the show a different feel in recent seasons, and it's not one I'm especially keen on. It can be fun, sure, but too often it feels like True Blood's less interested in characters and story than it is delivering cool moments and monsters for us to gawp at. Still, this premiere got one thing right over the majority of last year's episodes: the pace wasn't so hectic that it felt like you were beaten into submission, but instead took time to setup various changes to the characters.

Jason (Ryan Kwanten) has become a cop, modeling his look on Scream's Deputy Dewey, and is taking care of his absent girlfriend Crystal's urchin family; Tara (Rutina Wesley) has found work as a New Orleans cage fighter and, naturally, this means she's turned lesbian; Sam's (Sam Trammell) hanging around with a shape-shifting support group, helping him deal with the fact he shot and injured his own brother; Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) has grown a "gay Mr T" mohawk and is being introduced to the world of witchcraft by boyfriend Jesus (Kevin Alejandro), who takes him to a séance; Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Hoyt (Jim Parack) are struggling to adjust to domestic life together, with Pam (Kristin Bauer) suggesting Jessica abandon monogamy during her "date night" to Fangtasia; Arlene (Carrie Preston) is convinced her baby's inherited his biological father's "evil", when she notices he's decapitated some dolls (why are they buying him dolls?); Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) is helping restore vampire-human relations in a "post-Russell Edgington world" by filming a commercial for PR hotshot Nan Flanagan (Jessica Tuck); and Bill (Stephen Moyer) has become a respected politician and Vampire King of Louisiana.

As usual, this was less an episode and more an hour's worth of random subplots—some of which are appealing, most of which aren't. It remains a key problem that True Blood has far too many characters, and the silly proclivity to give everyone something to do from the start. It would make more sense to prune the ensemble down to a more manageable size, or temporarily write a few characters out of the show for awhile, but this never seems to happen. It seems to me that Alan Ball and his team are aware that most of their characters aren't strong enough to carry a show themselves, so they need to always be reacting to horrors, dealing with tragedy, or trying to negotiate their way through a supernatural world. It's all very busy and breathlessly told.

So the idea of jumping forward in time by a year was a good one (even if it means last season's situation with Jason and a young pretender using V to improve his athleticism has been brushed aside) because the chronology of True Blood is abnormally compacted. I don’t think more than a month has passed since the day Sookie met Bill in Merlotte's bar three seasons ago. So at least the show's now found a way to give us some distance, so various off-screen changes could take place that might otherwise have taken years to get to at the show's usual pace. It just strikes me as strange the show didn't use that opportunity to cut loose the show's dead weight (characters who served their purpose and are now just hanging around for plot scraps).

Overall, "She's Not There" was largely business as usual for True Blood, if slightly more restrained than normal (even the cliffhanger felt very reserved, given this show's standards). I also enjoyed seeing Sookie's tearful reaction to finding and losing her grandpa, which delivered a few moments of emotion from Paquin that felt convincing and from the heart. (Although there was a very unfortunate cut from Paquin sobbing over the death of Earl, to her leaving the graveyard with a spring in her step!) I just can't believe they cast the outstanding Gary Cole (who has form with Southern horror with American Gothic) but gave him a role that amounted to an extended cameo, so I have my fingers crossed for an Earl Stackhouse return at some point. The show worked better when Sookie and Jason had their Gran to go to for advice in season 1, and she anchored that family unit, so it would have been nice to get another Stackhouse adult like Earl into the show full time.

We'll have to see how most of this premiere's events pan out across season 4 (the witches could be a great addition or clichéd nonsense), but True Blood has something to prove because its last few seasons spluttered to disappointing endings. What they really need to do is put the emphasis back on the characters, have a less slapdash attitude to plotting, cut back on the stupid or tedious subplots, lose a handful of characters, and remember its real strength lies in showing the ways human and vampire societies clash...

Asides

• Earl's pocket watch must have some greater significance. Is his soul trapped in there? Does it have the ability to reverse time, so Jason can save his grandpa's life? Too silly? I wouldn't put anything past True Blood these days! They have fanged fairies who throw fireballs now, did you not see?
• How did Bill become the Vampire King? And how does Eric feel about that, as a vampire who's considerably older and more experienced? Do people even know Bill's the King? It was presented as a surprise to the viewers, but is everyone else aware of Bill's new position?
• So now we know for sure: vampires have no need for toilets.
• Look, how long are we going to suffer Arlene's behaviour around her baby son? Where's this headed exactly? There seems to be only two options, both bad: she'll realize the error of her ways and get over it, or the baby really will become some kind of pint-sized sociopath.
• You can avoid police interrogation by claiming you've been gone over a year on "vampire business"?

written by Alexander Woo / directed by Michael Lehmann / 26 June 2011

Coming Soon...

Trailer: BOARDWALK EMPIRE, season 2

HBO have released a great trailer for the second season of their gangster epic Boardwalk Empire, and it all looks extremely promising. I enjoyed the first season, but it seemed to lose focus in the middle-section and, at times, felt like they were telling a six-part story over an indulgent 12-hours. This trailer appears to promise more action, rivalries, crime and drama, but then again those are the kinds of things that always make it into trailers. Still, I'm optimistic Boardwalk Empire will learn from its mistakes last season, and obviously maintain its many good points--such as the wonderful performances from Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Pitt and Michael Shannon.

Boardwalk Empire is expected to return to HBO this September.

Poll: who is your favourite chat show host?

This week, I want to know who your favourite chat show host is. The only stipulation is they need to have fronted a chat show within the past two years, so you can't choose past masters like Michael Parkinson or Johnny Carson.

I've prepared a list below that covers most of the major chat show hosts in the UK and US. You can choose ONE from my list, or vote for your own as the "other" vote. (And yes, I've included Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, even though their shows only include a chat show element, because I know they'll be popular.)

To stoke discussion in the comments: what actually makes a good chat show host? Do you like the serious approach of a Piers Morgan or his predecessor Larry King, or do you prefer the playfulness of Graham Norton and Paul O'Grady? Do comedians make the best chat show hosts, or journalists? Why are there so few female hosts? Do you think the US have this format down to a fine art, or do you think the likes of Letterman and Leno stagnated long ago?

It seems to me that most US chat shows are very rehearsed (rarely are a guest's anecdotes impromptu), whereas British chat shows seem to ply the guests with booze and have fun. I've lost count of the amount of times a big American guest looks genuinely delighted by the lack of restrictions placed on them during their UK appearances—and not just in terms of our relaxed attitude to profanity. They can honestly kick back and have a laugh, assured that the host will find time to plug their wares, and they'll come across as likeable human beings in the process. Is that fair to say?

Also, do any Americans here watch Graham Norton on BBC America? If so, what are your thoughts on that show and the difference in style between someone like Norton and someone like, say, Jimmy Fallon?

Vote below!




This poll will close on 1 July. The results will be made available here shortly after. To ensure good results, it would be helpful if you could help this poll go viral using Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Google+1, etc. This is a direct link to the poll itself.

TV Picks: 27 June – 3 July 2011 (Burn Notice, One Tree Hill, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA, Secrets Of The Pop Song, Sirens, etc.)

Pick of the Week: SIRENS - Channel 4, Monday, 10PM

Every Monday I browse the UK television schedules for the coming week, selecting each day's best new TV shows. Below you'll find the result of that work...

MONDAY 27th

Babies Behind Bars (ITV1, 9pm) Documentary about a 31-year-old imprisoned woman who's pregnant with her eighth child.
Guilty Pleasures (BBC4, 9pm) As part of the "Luxury" season, this series investigates how Greek society managed the wealth of its country. (1/2)
One Tree Hill (E4, 9pm) Season 8 of the teen drama. Starring Sophia Bush, James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Galeotti & Robert Buckley. (1/22)
Sirens (Channel 4, 10pm) Brand new comedy about three paramedics. Starring Rhys Thomas, Kayvan Novak, Richard madden & Amy Beth Hayes. (1/6)

TUESDAY 28th

Perfume (BBC4, 9pm) Series going behind-the-scenes of the perfume industry. (1/3)
Burn Notice (5*, 9pm) Season 3 of the US drama. Starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell & Sharon Gless.
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA (Channel 4, 10pm) Season 4 of the show where chef Gordon Ramsay tries to help struggling restaurants.
Imagine (BBC1, 10.35pm) Return of the arts, science and culture series. This episode focuses on clinical neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks. Hosted by Alan Yentob. (1/5)

WEDNESDAY 29th

Afghanistan: The Battle For Helmand (BBC2, 9pm) Programme looking into UK force's five-year war in the region. Presented by Mark Urban.
World's Strictest Parents – Australia (Watch, 10pm) Reality show where unruly teens are sent to live with strict parents, in an effort to change their behaviour.

THURSDAY 30th

Dance! The Most Incredible Thing About Contemporary Dance (BBC4, 8pm) Documentary about modern dance. Presented by Charles Hazlewood.
Polar Bear: Inside Nature's Giants Special (Channel 4, 9pm) Science special where experts dissect a dead polar bear.
The Big Bang Theory (E4, 10pm) Season 4 of the US geek-com continues. Starring Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons & Simon Helberg. (13/24)
When I Knew (Sky Atlantic, 10.15pm) Documentary interviewing gay men and women across the US about their sexuality.

FRIDAY 1st

The Most Incredible Thing (BBC4, 8pm) Contemporary dance based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, with a score by Pet Shop Boys.

SATURDAY 2nd

Secrets Of The Pop Song (BBC2, 9.45pm) Insider's guide to writing a modern pop hit. Presented by Guy Chambers, who wrote many of Robbie Williams' hits, including "Angels".

SUNDAY 3rd

Nothing.

Video: Vince Gilligan, BREAKING BAD season 4

Collider have a great 18-minute interview with showrunner Vince Gilligan about the upcoming fourth season of Breaking Bad. There's not much in the way of huge revelations and spoilers (which is fine by me), but there's plenty of interesting insights into the creative process. Gilligan also confirms that he believes season 5 should be the show's last, which I hope is something AMC respects.

Breaking Bad returns to AMC on 17 July.

Animated good morning Greeting card

Animated good morning Greeting card

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Animated good morning Greeting card sun bird

Jump the Blast #19 - White Collar

Laura Shumacher's eye for explosions has come in handy once again, with this submission from the season 2 finale of WHITE COLLAR. The images above highlight a situation where master thief Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and some bad guys looked inside a warehouse containing stolen Nazi art, only to find the loot's on fire and about to explode. That's some classic flame-avoidance, right there.

Have you noticed a shot in a film, trailer, advert, or TV show that features someone jumping/walking away from an explosion of some kind? If so, why not email me a screenshot and you can be credited in the next installment of "Jump the Blast".

Review: WILFRED, 1.1 – "Happiness"

A remake of a critically-acclaimed Australian series, writer David Zuckerman (Family Guy) adapts the bizarre comic tale Wilfred for American audiences. The concept is brilliantly simple: an ordinary guy realizes he's hallucinating his attractive next-door neighbour's dog Wilfred as a grumpy man in a dog costume (Jason Gann), and the pair become unlikely friends. In the original, the "ordinary guy" was exactly that, but the US remake chooses to make Ryan (Elijah Wood) into a social misfit and loner, introduced to us attempting to commit suicide after writing a fourth draft suicide note. I think it's intended to give us some form of explanation for why this fantasy's happening, as we're supposed to feel concern for Ryan's sanity, in addition to enjoying the symptom of his problem. And that's fine, I guess. It gives the show a somewhat darker edge, and Wood proved in Sin City that his feminine looks and turquoise eyes can be used for more unnerving ends. It's just a shame this one-joke comedy, for me, ran out of steam after 15-minutes.

And that's the key to this comedy. If you don't find the central premise consistently amusing, it won't be long before you're bored and wondering how they can possibly keep the ball rolling. The original series only produced a total of 16 episodes over two series (spread across three years), and FX will be producing 13 this year alone. On the evidence of this episode, I'm not convinced the show can go much beyond that time-span, as there's only so long you can poke fun at the idea of a dog that's been anthropomorphized in the head of a lcoal weirdo. It helps that co-creator Jason Gann (who played Wilfred in the original) is back playing the same character in this remake, as he knows exactly what's required and how to play a man-dog. Wilfred's essentially an Australian bloke who likes nothing more than smoking from bongs and doing typical canine things, like digging holes when he's anxious, and Gann makes for an oddly appealing co-lead. It already feels like Gann and Wood work as a double-act, but there still remains the issue of how long this concept can last...

It's essentially a pretty obvious and weak sketch idea, and even with Zuckerman in charge of the show (whose work on Family Guy is great training, as it too mixes traditional storytelling with sketch-like gags and a talking dog), I have a funny feeling Wilfred will counter problems fairly quickly. I was already over the concept's joke before this episode finished, and don't feel compelled to watch more. It doesn't take a genius to imagine the type of jokes we're going to be getting from this show, does it? Dogs have been staples of comedy for so long that we're all very aware of their foibles and areas of comic potential (peeing against lampposts, sniffing anuses, trips to the vet, neutering, burying bones, etc), and frankly I'm already bored with the idea of watching Wilfred undoubtedly tackle all of that—with the only twist being we're seeing a bearded Aussie in a silly costume as "man's imaginary best friend".

Overall, as much as I enjoyed some of the chemistry between Wood and Gann, I just can't see Wilfred becoming anything more than fleetingly amusing. Maybe it'll be worth sticking around for more, just to see how the show deals with various problems (the excuses for Wood to keep looking after a neighbour's dog, say), or if the show will be forced to become more creative and interesting once all the man-acting-like-a-dog jokes have been used up. I'm cautiously optimistic David Zuckerman has something in mind about how to prevent Wilfred becoming a repetitive bore, but after one 23-minute episode I think the joke's over for me.

written by David Zuckerman / directed by Randall Einhorn / 23 June 2011 / FX

Winter Fantasy - Winter Background

Winter Fantasy - Winter Background

Beyonce Wallpapers

Beyonce Wallpapers

Jennifer Love Hewitt Wallpapers

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt

jennifer love hewitt wallpapers

Blue Rose Wallpapers

Blue Rose Wallpapers

Birds Wallpaper, Blue Bird Wallpaper, Wallpapers Birds

Birds Wallpaper, Blue Bird Wallpaper, Wallpapers Birds