Phil Newton casts an eye on the TV scene letting you what you've missed and gives also give you the heads up on what to look out for.
 

No. 5 - 3rd June 2008.

Welcome back. It's a bumper time for telly at the moment with plenty of our favourite genre series back on our screens before the Summer break. I've spent most of the past month pre-occupied with my work at Brighton Festival so my SKY+ box has been working overtime and I'm still weeks behind with some programmes, frantically trying to catch up!

First up this month we have a bit of original programming from the Beeb who've been showing 6 Films To Keep You Awake (BBC Four), a series of one-off dramas from the biggest names in Spanish horror. Running at no more than 70mins each, each film is tightly plotted with a simple idea at its core, and I feel the results have been more successful than the similar US anthology series Masters Of Horror. The season kicked off with Mateo Gil’s Spectre, a fairly humdrum tale about a witch who seduces the menfolk of a tiny village. Much better were the episodes directed by the [Rec] duo of Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero.

Plaza’s A Christmas Tale was an affectionate, nostalgic yarn about a group of kids who find a fugitive female dressed in a Santa costume stuck down a hole. She escapes and gives chase and the kids – clearly influenced by the B movies they’ve been watching at home – assume she’s some sort of zombie, with disastrous consequences for them all. By contrast, Balaguero’s To Let was a harder, more intense affair about a young couple who are invited to view a flat and then held captive by the crazy landlady. Both bloody and at times scary, this is exactly the sort of drama us FrightFesters want to see on our screens! I’ve yet to see the remaining three episodes but hear that The Baby’s Room from director Alex de la Iglesia (The Day Of The Beast) is one to watch.

Moving onto some established shows, Doctor Who (BBC One) returned last month with a new companion for the forthcoming season, Catherine Tate reprising her role as Donna from the 2006 Christmas special. There's been much debate amongst fans over her casting and I have to say that I remain unconvinced thus far. Too many times she makes a quip like one of her comedy characters - "Do I look single?" - and she's also got a terrible habit of yelping over-excitedly every time she comes across something new or different. On a more positive note I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with David Tennant who's finally settled in to his role as The Doctor and is now making it his own.

The stories have had mixed success as always; the season opener is traditionally one of the weaker episodes as it has to set the tone for the series ahead, but Partners In Crime featuring the Adipose creatures culled from people's excess fat was simply dreadful. Thankfully The Fires of Pompeii by our very own James Moran redressed the balance with an emotional story which questioned The Doctor's stance on meddling with historical events, yet was still laced with his trademark humour. The two-parter involving the Sontarans was another triumph even though I wasn't over-keen on the updated design of their suits; kudos to Christopher Ryan (The Young Ones) for making a gleefully evil Sontaran leader in the shape of General Staal.

The return of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) was also welcome and her performance in The Doctor's Daughter, and in particular her friendship with one of the Hath creatures, was outstanding and served to show exactly what's been missing since Tate took over as the lead companion. As for the aforementioned daughter (Georgia Moffett – who is actually Fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s daughter in real life), her appearance was less spectacular than I'd been anticipating and I was a little disappointed by the cop-out ending - even if it does suggest she'll be back for more adventures in the near future. Is that really what the series needs, a father and daughter pairing?

A few moans aside, I'm still a huge fan of the show and I remain optimistic about the remaining episodes; we've a two-parter by Steven Moffatt (responsible for the excellent Blink and due to take over as executive producer from 2010), the return of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and a new Dalek story still to come which – if the rumours are true – will feature the reappearance of Davros. Stay tuned!

Staying with the Beeb we also have Waking The Dead (BBC One) back for its seventh series, a stalwart of the channel yet often overlooked by the critics. Each two-parter sees the cold case squad led by Detective Boyd (Trevor Eve) trying to piece together an old crime when new evidence comes to light, but this series has also featured an overlying story arc involving Boyd tracing his missing son who's been living rough on the streets. Always a solid watch, it's a show that's anchored by a heavyweight performance from Eve whose moody, taciturn character is a pleasure to watch, and he has a great ensemble cast to support him made up of Sue Johnston, Tara Fitzgerald, Wil Johnson and Felicite Du Jeu.

A quick round up of the Stateside big hitters brings me to Battlestar Galactica (Sky One) entering its fourth and final season. The tone is darker than ever as the four crew members seek to preserve their new-found Cylon identities (with disastrous results for Tyrol's wife Cally...) and much speculation as to who the fifth and final Cylon will be. Meanwhile civil war has broken out between two opposing Cylon factions, President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is dying, and Gaius Baltar (James Callis - a dead ringer for Edgar Wright) has been taken in to lead a religious cult and found himself surrounded by nubile young devotees. The latter episodes haven't been quite as strong as the series openers, but this is still one of the most vital shows on television right now.

Heroes (BBC2) is back for its second series, another show heavily impacted by the recent US writers' strike. Limited to just eleven episodes, some of the storylines haven't been given time to breathe and mis-steps were made bringing in the Mexican duo of Maya and Alejandro (who effectively did nothing) and the cringeworthy Irish stereotypes who Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) holed up with. Sidelining the most popular character Hiro (Masi Oka) to 17th century Japan was a bad move too, and creator Tim Kring publicly apologised to fans mid-season after much criticism. Nevertheless, Heroes remains one of the most inventive genre programmes of recent years, and there's been much fun to be had with cheerleader Claire's journey plus the arrival of Elle (Kristen Bell - Veronica Mars) and Tazeko Kensei (David Anders - Alias) and credit to the writing team for at least wrapping up the season without too many unanswered questions.

Moving slightly away from the genre now I decided to give two new hotly tipped US shows a chance, both with big name Hollywood types attached. First up was Pushing Daisies (ITV1) with Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black) at its helm; Ned (Lee Pace) discovers he can bring the dead back to life for one minute by touching them, but if he touches them a second time they die and if he doesn't, then someone else expires in their place. He uses this skill to solve murders, but all gets complicated when his childhood sweetheart (Anna Friel) comes back from the dead. Coming across like Tim Burton directing Amelie, the show had potential but by the third episode I was tiring of the persistent voiceover and flashbacks, and there didn't seem to be a strong enough story arc. I also think it's a disgrace that ITV omitted to screen episode two simply because they didn’t have quite enough weeks to schedule the entire series before Euro 2008 kicks off.

Rather more enjoyable was Dirty Sexy Money (C4) with Bryan Singer (X-Men) on board as executive producer. Like a modern day Dynasty (rich dysfunctional family) by way of Desperate Housewives (murderous sub-plot and black comedy) it centres around attorney Nick (Peter Krause - Six Feet Under) who reluctantly agrees to work for the filthy rich Darling family after his father dies in suspicious circumstances. It's lightweight stuff and I'm not sure how much mileage it has, but it’s been watchable largely due to the performances of the likeable Krause and the ever reliable Donald Sutherland as the patriarch of the Darling clan. If only the producers at Fox had been able to lure Sutherland Sr. instead of James Cromwell to play Jack Bauer's father in 24 then that really would have been something to savour...

If it’s comedy you’re after then I'd recommend The Inbetweeners (E4), essentially Peep Show Jr centred around four geeky sixth formers which repeatedly had me laughing out loud. My favourite show at the moment however has to be Entourage (ITV2), currently occupying the graveyard slot along with The Office (the US version) on a Thursday night. It's a show I dipped into from time to time when it first began, but since series three and four have been airing back to back I've become addicted to the lives of Hollywood star Vincent Chase (Zach Grenier) and his bunch of hangers on. It's a wonderful satire on the industry that gets better and better with each episode and boasts some hilarious cameos - Anna Faris, Gary Busey and M. Night Shyamalan all turning up to play exaggerated versions of themselves in recent episodes.

Until next time,

Keep watching.

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