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I told you Killing Eve was good...
Bodyguard - BBC1
I haven't seen any of the Bodies or Line of Duty series, so this is the first Mercurio series I think I've seen. There are clunky bits - like the explanation of why the bomb was not detected, or why a screen couldn't be recorded - where it's not brave enough to handwave the plot holes away, but it's set up and performed very nicely and the ending is still very open.
Vanity Fair - ITV1
I bet someone at ITV regrets the scheduling... The opening shots with Michael Palin and the roundabout nicely establish that this is a fun ride, and it is indeed a fun watch, if you can take the deliberate anachronisms.
Vanity Fair drinking game: take one every time there's deliberate lens flare on screen or those same six soldiers. Pass out midway through ep1...
Trust - BBC
I've only seen the first episode, but this is looking great in more ways than one, even if the historical accuracy is very dubious in places. Ah, the second one makes it clearer that they're going for style...
Better Call Saul - a Netflix not-original
The main problem is that at this rate, it looks like there could be only one or two more series of this before we hit the Breaking Bad timeline. Quite wonderful: just see the opening split screen montage of the latest episode, showing the evolution of a central relationship over a few months.
Upstart Crow - BBC2
The laughter put me off when I first saw some of series one, but it's apparently 'live studio audience' time rather than canned. It's become even more of a mix of admiration for Shakespeare while pointing out the problems with his plays, and assorted anachronistic jokes, including being rude about Ricky Gervais.
Plague - BBC4
A very dark series in more ways than one! It's the photography that was the main appeal for me: showing what life was like before gas / electric lighting, even they milked it a bit through how much happened at night. I'm not convinced by the plot, and I don't think the writers were either. L gave up halfway through, and apart from a couple of set pieces, I wouldn't have lost much if I'd done so too.
Speaking of BBC4...
Black Lake - BBC4
Recorded last October and only just watched. A two hour suspense film is stretched into eight 50 minute episodes as a bunch of mostly Swedes turn up at an almost abandoned ski resort miles from anywhere that one of them wants to buy. It's got a Past, and a present, but do any of them have a future...?
Most of the fun is predicting the plot: that door is going to open as the very last shot of ep1, and having done the realistic ending in ep7, ep8 is going to do the mystical one...
If you didn't see it, you don't need to.
Black Earth Rising - BBC2
Need to start this, even though it should be a tougher watch than Plague because it's more recent. In both cases, religion does (should not) come out well: do a search for 'nuns petrol Rwanda' if you want one particular horror story.
Bodyguard - BBC1
I haven't seen any of the Bodies or Line of Duty series, so this is the first Mercurio series I think I've seen. There are clunky bits - like the explanation of why the bomb was not detected, or why a screen couldn't be recorded - where it's not brave enough to handwave the plot holes away, but it's set up and performed very nicely and the ending is still very open.
Vanity Fair - ITV1
I bet someone at ITV regrets the scheduling... The opening shots with Michael Palin and the roundabout nicely establish that this is a fun ride, and it is indeed a fun watch, if you can take the deliberate anachronisms.
Vanity Fair drinking game: take one every time there's deliberate lens flare on screen or those same six soldiers. Pass out midway through ep1...
Trust - BBC
I've only seen the first episode, but this is looking great in more ways than one, even if the historical accuracy is very dubious in places. Ah, the second one makes it clearer that they're going for style...
Better Call Saul - a Netflix not-original
The main problem is that at this rate, it looks like there could be only one or two more series of this before we hit the Breaking Bad timeline. Quite wonderful: just see the opening split screen montage of the latest episode, showing the evolution of a central relationship over a few months.
Upstart Crow - BBC2
The laughter put me off when I first saw some of series one, but it's apparently 'live studio audience' time rather than canned. It's become even more of a mix of admiration for Shakespeare while pointing out the problems with his plays, and assorted anachronistic jokes, including being rude about Ricky Gervais.
Plague - BBC4
A very dark series in more ways than one! It's the photography that was the main appeal for me: showing what life was like before gas / electric lighting, even they milked it a bit through how much happened at night. I'm not convinced by the plot, and I don't think the writers were either. L gave up halfway through, and apart from a couple of set pieces, I wouldn't have lost much if I'd done so too.
Speaking of BBC4...
Black Lake - BBC4
Recorded last October and only just watched. A two hour suspense film is stretched into eight 50 minute episodes as a bunch of mostly Swedes turn up at an almost abandoned ski resort miles from anywhere that one of them wants to buy. It's got a Past, and a present, but do any of them have a future...?
Most of the fun is predicting the plot: that door is going to open as the very last shot of ep1, and having done the realistic ending in ep7, ep8 is going to do the mystical one...
If you didn't see it, you don't need to.
Black Earth Rising - BBC2
Need to start this, even though it should be a tougher watch than Plague because it's more recent. In both cases, religion does (should not) come out well: do a search for 'nuns petrol Rwanda' if you want one particular horror story.