What Are You Currently Watching (on tv/dvd)?

[Ian]

The Bill: Cast No Shadow/Betrayal. Investigating an attempted abduction leads DS John Boulton and DC Jim Carver to a crime syndicate in Manchester - where Carver is decidedly surprised to find that one of the top men in the organisation is his former DI, Frank Burnside (Christopher Ellison). Has Burnside really gone to the bad? Or is his current position somehow connected to the mysterious overnight secondment he was pulled from Sun Hill for five years earlier? The Bill's most iconic character returns to the series in this excellent two-parter.

[Ian]

Watching season 1 of The Returned again. Still excellent. Season 2 is out on Blu/DVD in the UK next month.

[DMt.]

Very much looking forward to that, or rather the Les Revs S1&2 compilation.

I watched a Cumberbatch Sherlock episode from the current series at my Ma's, and really enjoyed it. So nice not to be treated like a moron by the [Gatiss] scriptwriter! I could happily watch it again, just to catch the bits that were too fast for me.

[fish]

...the Les Revs S1&2 compilation...

Yeah. Looking forward to that.

[Ian]

Decided I wanted to try something new so I picked up the first season of Person of Interest on DVD the other day and started it last night. The premise sounded interesting, it's got Michael Emerson (creepy Ben from Lost) in it, it's got a good few seasons under its belt and Angel's Amy Acker comes in it later on. So why not?
Anyway watched the first two episodes last night and... pretty good so far actually. Honestly, for all the post-911 surveillance paranoia stuff, it comes across like a modern-day Quantum Leap more than anything else, with a super-computer aiding two guys (one of whom is considerably more physical than the other) trying to stop terrible crimes that haven't happened yet and protect the innocent. Granted, Jim whateverhisnameis is a bit more violent than Sam Beckett was, but still.

[Ian]

Really enjoying Person of Interest, going to finish season 1 tonight and have already ordered season 2.

[Ian]

The Bill: Badlands/Eyes Everywhere. DS John Boulton puts off his leave (much to the disappointment of his colleagues) to try and catch a brutal pair of burglars who are terrorising the elderly. When his investigation clashes with an operation being run by DS Jeff Daly and PCs Dave Quinnan and George Garfield, Boulton steamrolls over it - but his bull-in-a-china-shop methods result first in the compromising of an informant, and then in Quinnan being caught in a terrifying ambush that leaves his life hanging by a thread... This gripping and dramatic two parter sees Boulton's popularity dropping to new lows and the shocking assault that will impact on Quinnan's character for his remaining years on the show. Great stuff.

[Ian]

Person of Interest. Mid-season 3, and the "cabal of corrupt cops" storyline that has been running since the first episode of season 1 reaches a spectacularly intense and bloody climax. Wow. This multi-episode climax, with real series-shaking consequences, is the kind of thing most shows would do for a season finale, or even a series finale. They just toss it in the middle of the season! Edge of the seat stuff.

[Ian]

Finished Buffy season 7 (the last) again. It's a curious season; 6 and 7 are probably the weakest of the whole series (and I can't quite tell which of the two I prefer, they're both flawed). There's generally a lot to like, with a very strong central arc (much stronger than 6) and some very good individual episodes and characters (Nathan Fillion all but steals the last 5 episodes as super-powered psycho preacher Caleb), yet a lot of the regulars seem ill-served (Xander and Dawn in particular) while Spike gets arguably too much attention. As a result the character development of most of the regulars seems far more lax than ever before, and even Willow (who gets more attention than, say, Xander) still seems ill-served; the initial fall-out of her going batshit nuts at the end of season 6 is well enough handled, but her relationship with Kennedy is very poor indeed, with almost no build-up (Kennedy flirts with her maybe twice and then in one episode they're suddenly a couple) and basically zero attention (aside from a couple of snogging scenes) afterward. Compared to her relationships with Oz and Tara, it all feels very lukewarm indeed, and the fact that Kennedy is not a particularly likeable character (or well-suited to her) doesn't help either. So it's a strange season, though I think the positives probably just about outweigh the negatives. Far prefer seasons 1-5 though.

[Ian]

Not watching but listening to...

Some of the "Lost Stories" Big Finish Doctor Who stories (audio adaptations of stories that were nearly made for the TV show but then fell through).

The Nightmare Fair (possibly the most famous missing story, set to be the first story of Colin Baker's second season and just weeks away from production when the whole season got canned ). Great fun. It's something of a pity they didn't choose to do these earlier, though, as they inevitably had to recast Michael Gough. Not the greatest story ever but a lot of fun and a shame it didn't get made.
Mission to Magnus on the other hand... listened to about 20 minutes and turned it off. What crap!

Happily I'm halfway through Leviathan and that is absolutely excellent so far. The Doctor and Peri land in a medieval village where the mythical Herne the Hunter is all too real and has the locals running for their lives. Fantastic story so far with an awesome cliffhanger and I've still no idea WTF is going on!

[Ian]

Finished Season 3 of Person of Interest. Amazing! The first two seasons were great but the third took it to another level. From the gripping climax to the long-running "cabal of corrupt cops" storyline to the rise of a new, potentially malevolent, all-pervasive AI surveillance network (oh crap, it's Skynet!) this season was a phenomenal ride!
Best show of the 2010s bar none.

[Ian]

Halfway through the Peter Davison Doctor Who audio Iterations of I and really enjoying it so far. Textbook Doctor Who, with an isolated island, spooky old house, strange scientific experiments (a cult obsessed with the idea that, if everything in the universe ultimately can be reduced to numbers, that must mean God is a number) and bad things a-go-go. Hope the second half lives up to the first, though endings do have a habit of not being as strong as openings. Still, great so far, digging the sinister atmosphere.
"If God is a number... maybe the Devil is too."

Well that can't end well, now can it?

[Ian]

The X Files: Brand X. Mulder and Scully find the road to Hell is paved with good intentions in this gruesome episode, one of the best of the rather weak season 7. A tobacco company trying to make a "safer cigarette" by genetically engineering tobacco plants cause the unintentional effect of side-engineering the tobacco bugs that live on them, making their eggs survive the transformation into cigarettes as spores... and infesting anyone who smokes or is even in whiffing distance of said cigarettes. You can probably guess the rest. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

[DMt.]

The Princess Bride - a wonderfully silly, ironic and witty piece of adventure/romance nonsense, set in a faux-mediaeval context.

[Ian]

There are about 250 major cast members in the new series of Twin Peaks, including the great majority of the original cast (including guest actors like David Duchovny and Alicia Witt) and hoards of new major stars including Laura Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Cera, Monica Bellucci and Amanda Seyfried.