Is Timeless... Well, Timeless?

*Spoilers for Timeless*

Yes, I had to use that title. It's a shame I can never be a father because I could tell some killer dad jokes.

Timeless is a science fiction drama that follows historian Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) and programmer Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett) travelling through time in search of the villainous Garcia Flynn (Goran Višnjić). Flynn had previously stolen a time ship and decided to alter history for unknown reasons, the teams job is to prevent any changes from occurring and to eliminate the threat to history. They are aided in their mission by Connor Mason (Patterson Joseph), who's company Mason Industries created the time machines, and Agent Denise Christopher (Sakina Jaffrey), a homeland security agent tasked with stopping Flynn and recovering the stolen tech.

Who's Left Standing In The Walking Dead?

*Spoilers for The Walking Dead*

A few months ago I wrote a post about how The Walking Dead had lost it's stones and needed to man up and at the end of that post I said that I hoped to write a retraction following the sixth season finale. Due to my frustrations I didn't bother because it wasn't warranted but now I've watched the seventh season premiere I am ready.

The sixth season finale saw the introduction of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a character who had loomed over the entire group (and the audience) during the latter half of the season. Negan and his group had threatened and bullied existing colonies in the area to do their bidding but Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his tribe weren't willing to give in to any sort of intimidation by him. Before their formal introduction Rick and his group, as well as the Hilltop Colony that we'd met earlier, decided to neutralise the threat by exterminating what they believed was the whole of Negan's crew while they slept. Unfortunately for them Negan is well organised and didn't leave all his eggs in one basket and he decided to let them know that he wasn't to be trifled with. He intercepted Rick's group as they were on their way to Hilltop to get medical care for a sickly Maggie (Lauren Cohan), the finale ending with a Negan speech and his bat (Lucille) getting acquainted with one of their skulls.

Designated Survivor: Will It Survive The Season?

*Spoilers for Designated Survivor*

If you scroll through the posts of this blog you'll probably realise that I love Kiefer Sutherland/Jack Bauer/24 so it should come as no surprise that I sampled Designated Survivor, Sutherlands latest outing on the small screen. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't enthused when I first heard about it. It's not often that someone comes off a successful television show and jumps straight into another, Sutherland attempted to do so with the two season Touch which I didn't hate but I was put off by the network meddling which changed the show completely in its second season. The premise of Designated Survivor didn't quite appeal to me, we already have an entertaining enough real life presidential school fight going on so do I need to waste a part of my week to watch this?

Yes. For now anyway. Designated Survivor follows Tom Kirkman (Sutherland) as he is thrust into the role of being the president of the United States following a catastrophic attack during the State of Union address. Most of the members of the cabinet were present with the exception of Kirkman, the Secretary of Housing and Urban development, who was named designated survivor. A designated survivor is something I knew nothing about but it is a member of the line of presidential succession who is forced to sit out in group meetings and in the case of an event that would wipe out the heads of state they would take on the presidency and make efforts to rebuild the cabinet. I did kick myself for believing that this wouldn't be of any interest to me, it may be because my expectations were low but I enjoyed almost every minute of the first couple of episodes.

The Night Of: Satisfyingly Unsatisfying?

*Spoilers for The Night Of*

A while back I had the experience of being underwhelmed by Jason Bourne and not even just a little underwhelmed, wholly underwhelmed. Normally it would annoy me a great deal knowing that I'd wasted two hours of my life but I'm glad I endured it because the film featured Riz Ahmed. I loved him in Shifty, Four Lions and much more and was glad that he was getting some love from Hollywood so I was eager to find out what else he was up to lately. Then I found it. The Night Of.

The Night Of follows Nasir "Naz" Khan (Ahmed), a Pakistani-American who is arrested for the brutal murder of Andrea Cornish (Sofia D'Elia). He spent the night with her but due to his drug addled state he has no recollection of the evenings events, making him the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. He may have had no priors, motive or blood on his person but he did have what could possibly be the murder weapon and that was apparently enough for the police to arrest him and not chase down other leads or suspects. John Stone (John Turtorro), an ambulance chaser-esque lawyer, stumbles upon him mistakenly believing he has been arrested for a minor offence, soon discovering that he has taken on more than he bargained for. Thrilling drama ensues.

An Amazon Future Hit: The Last Tycoon

I have recently stated that streaming media is the way forward and one of the companies that are capitalising on the phenomenon is Amazon. The way they're doing it is more ingenuous than the others, by giving viewers the options of watching all the pilots they order and asking them to leave feedback so essentially they choose what the viewers want. This is great because the studio manages to engage viewers even before a show officially launches and if a show is a dud then they find out before they waste time and resources on it. Its such a simple idea and I find myself wondering why more studios and television networks don't do this. This first look is one of the reasons I enjoy using Amazon Instant Video, even more so than Netflix. Yes, I said it. Flame me.

One of the latest offerings the service has is The Last Tycoon which is based on an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Last Tycoon follows Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer), a film producer, as he tries to make creative and innovative cinema following the death of his actress wife Minna (Jessica De Gouw). The only issue is that it's 1941 and around then there was a little movement called the Third Reich, and during this period they made attempts to interfere with Hollywood productions. As Hollywood was in the midst of it's golden age and other countries weren't focusing on output in entertainment because they were suffering through a war. Hollywood films were what the majority had access to so of course the Nazi's attempted to filter it by making sure nothing defaming about them and their 'cause' was put in the films. They also wished to cleanse the work force in Hollywood of Jews and a lot of studios relented, including Monroe's.

UnREAL: Addictive Behind The Scenes Drama

In my adolescence I ingested various different reality television series like Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! but I've matured over time and that type of drama doesn't appeal to me, the only reality-eqsue show I watch avidly is The Apprentice. Due to this I found it surprising just how much I enjoyed UnREAL. First of all it's on Lifetime and in England the only exposure we usually get of their offerings is television films that are on weekdays on Channel 5. Nobody watches Channel 5. Secondly, it follows the cast and crew of a reality dating television show that is eerily similar to The Bachelor (so I've heard). Lifetime/Channel 5 and The Bachelor were never even on my radar, the closest I had ever gotten to a dating show was Beauty And The Geek, and even then it was just a few moments, yet UnREAL has become must see television for me.

The show follows Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby) who is a producer on the fictional reality television show called Everlasting. Rachel previously had a breakdown whilst working on previous seasons of the show due to the pressure placed on her to create drama for the series, exposing the truth of what sane human beings already knew. Reality television is fiction. Rachel works under Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) and Chet Wilson (Craig Bierko) who are the executive producers and show runners of the series and has to deal with the demands from the two as well as their constant bickering and struggle for control. She works alongside (more like competing against) other producers including Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) as they each manage a group of contestants, manipulating them into following Quinn's story for the season, making them become a "villain" or "wifey" for the male suitor.

The Pill: Unlikable, Yet Likable

A few years ago I found myself watching The Pill, a romantic comedy that was released in 2011 starring Noah Bean and Rachel Boston. The film followed Fred (Bean) and Mindy (Boston) as they engage in unprotected sex on the night of their meeting and the following morning Fred has to convince Mindy to take the morning after pill. As the morning after pill consists of two pills, the second to be taken 12 hours after the first, Fred has to spend the day with Mindy to ensure she takes the second pill. I bet you all think you know what will happen. In my initial viewing of it I thought it was a fairly decent film, I didn't hate it but I also didn't believe that I would make an effort to watch it again. That was until Z Nation planted a sour taste in my mouth and I found The Pill on Netflix and decided that a second viewing of that might make me feel better. It did, but not because I was watching idealistic characters play out a love story that we'd all dream of.

Why Is Z Nation Not Dead In The Water?

*Spoilers from the first episode of Z Nation*

Z Nation has been on my watch list for a while and after watching the first episode last night I can swiftly remove it.

Z Nation takes place during a zombie apocalypse and initially follows Lt. Mark Hammond (Harold Perrineau) as he transports Murphy (Keith Allan), who may be the only person that can save the human race, to a lab in California with the help of Citizen Z (DJ Qualls). Along his travels he encounters a group of survivors including Sergeant Charles Garnett (Tom Everett Scott) and Lieutenant Roberta Warren (Kellita Smith) who decide to aid him in his quest. If you hadn't already noticed I love zombie fiction and even the stuff I admit isn't quite good *cough*Fear The Walking Dead*cough* I make attempts at watching more than one episode. That isn't the case with Z Nation. I did wonder if it was because The Walking Dead has ruined any zombie show for me but I've come to the realisation that that is not the case, Z Nation is just plain bad.

The Path May Lose Its Way

*Spoilers for season one of The Path*

Streaming media seems to be where it is at these days, auteurs are given greater creative freedom and aren't bogged down by the standard run time and censorship that conventional television stations have to adhere to. Some of the shows that they come out with are great, some are more questionable, but one thing that is certain is that viewers are lapping it up. When you think a streaming television service everyone's mind jumps firstly to Netflix and secondly to Amazon Instant Video, especially in the UK because they seem to be the only two major ones we have access to. There are actually others out there, including Hulu and I heard about one of it's latest offerings and was intrigued. The Path starring Aaron Paul, Hugh Dancy and Michelle Monaghan to name a few premiered in March and was quickly renewed so I had to check it out.

The Path follows the exploits of a "religious" movement *cough*cult*cough* called Meyerism, and although the creator has denied that Meyerism isn't inspired by Scientology it seems an awful lot like Scientology. Go ahead, flame me Scientology interweb dwellers. The protagonist Eddie Lane (Aaron Paul) begins to have doubts about his faith following a religious retreat in Peru, this is a complicated matter because his "religion" doesn't take kindly to people that doubt their faith, dubbing them deniers and ostracising them. Due to this he has a fear of speaking out as his devout wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and children also belong to the "religion" and leaving the movement would mean also leaving his life with them, and this is the only life he knows. If matters weren't worse already he also has to tend with the cult leader Cal (Hugh Dancy) who has feelings for his wife and would do what he can to plant a wedge in between the two.

When Marnie Was There

Over the weekend I had a tough choice to make, I'd received a voucher for 50% off at Odeon and I had to decide what film I wanted to watch. I've started to favour a small Odeon in Covent Garden, it never seems too busy even with big blockbusters but because it's smaller it means fewer screens and less choice. My options were The Nice Guys, X-Men: Apocalypse and When Marnie Was There. All I knew about The Nice Guys is that it's a crime comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe but I wasn't prepared to waste a voucher on a film that could be stupid funny rather than genuine funny. The obvious option with me would be X-Men: Apocalypse, I ingest a lot of comic book adaptations and this would just be adding to the list but something put me off. Probably the fact I knew it would be absolute rubbish. When Marnie Was There was the winner.

When Marnie Was There is a animated Studio Ghibli film that was originally released in 2014. I've never been inclined to watch the work of Ghibli, not because I'm not a fan but because I've never been that interested in animated features. Whenever I did watch them it was usually in passing, I never actively sought them out. Other than Finding Nemo. And Toy Story. Tears. After watching When Marnie Was There I had to message an array of people to recommend the film and they in turn recommended other Ghibli flicks to me so if I don't post for a while it's because I'm hoarding Ghibli works and locking myself away with them. I've been late to the game before (a lot) but I've never regretted it this much, I wish I had gotten into it earlier because the film was superb.

I Really Wanted To Love The Strain

I have stated my adoration with Guillermo del Toro before, I think I fell in love with his work even before I knew I loved film. Even though I have an obsession for him I put off watching the 2014 adaptation of his co-written novel, The Strain. I did still purchase the season one DVD when it was released and ever since then it has been gathering dust sitting atop my shelf, but the summertime slump in television got to me so I picked it up and binged. I almost loved it for a while there.

The Strain follows Dr. Ephram Goodweather (Corey Stoll), a doctor for the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and prevention), and his merry band of misfits as they fight a growing strain of a vampire virus that it sweeping over New York. Eph's group includes colleagues Jim Kent (Sean Astin) and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) who have made the discovery of the virus with him and are attempting to find a cure for it. Others adopted into the fold include Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand), a rat catcher with an admiration for dynamite, and hacker Dutch Velders (Ruda Gedmintas) who inadvertently aided the vampires to take over New York and has now switched over to the good side. The group are aided in their quest by the ever watchable Professor Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley), a holocaust survivor who has an in depth knowledge of the virus and has a long standing grudge against patient zero and the loyal servant that aids him, Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammal).

AMC's Preacher Would Make Me Go To Church

If you've been living under a rock then you might have missed the onslaught of comic book and graphic novel adaptations that have been taking over the big screen as well as the small. This year we've already had four Marvel and DC releases in theatres with another two yet to arrive, as well as The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On television Marvel and DC have a combined total of eleven on going series, not including shows that are yet to premiere as well as numerous others originating from other publishing houses. Preacher is a new edition to that list and as of right now it seems like a cut above the rest.

It has only aired three episodes so far and it already stands out from it's peers. It's in the Deadpool section of this comic book adaptation craze, it isn't shackled by political correctness or a younger skewing target audience. I was unfamiliar with the comic book series and only initially heard about it through Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who were tapped to adapt it. I essentially grew up with the two and their stoner comedies, loving most of their efforts so much that I managed to write a six thousand word essay on drug comedies. No, I did not tell my tutor that they were the inspiration. The duo adapting the series intrigued me and I was looking forward to checking it out. It wasn't what I expected.

Any Human Heart: Mini-Series Vs. Novel

*Spoilers for for the novel and the mini-series of Any Human Heart*

I recently professed my new but undying love for the novel Any Human Heart which is a compilation of fictional journals by Logan Mountstuart, a novel that proved that "every life if both ordinary and extraordinary". I had purchased the mini-series prior to the novel and it's been sitting on my shelf gathering a large amount of dust and after reading the novel I was quite happy for it to gather even more. Although I was aware that there was some critical acclaim for the series I was afraid that my love for the novel would make my opinion about the series biased, I would feel that the series paled in comparison. I had nothing to fear.

I recently had a birthday and rather than be fun and celebrate I decided to take a few days off of work to stay at home. I planned on it being a lazy few days where I'd accomplish something which I love, mass procrastination. It was not to be, I saw a light shining on the DVD and for some reason I couldn't resist. I popped it in the player and sat atop my bed for several hours ingesting the mini-series in one binge watch session. I've already lived with Mountstuart, loved with him, grieved with him and died with him so what impact could the mini-series really have for me? I feared that it would dilute the events that happened in the novel but it didn't, it opened my eyes a little more.

The Flash Just Messed Everything Up

*Spoilers from Arrowverse/Flarrowverse/IDon'tCareWhatIt'sCalledVerse below* 

Season one of The Flash was amazing and although season two has its qualities (mainly E2 Harry Wells and Cisco) it isn't in the same league. This season the writers showed us that they don't have a story they are following, they are just making it up as they went along. Season two brought us a dull villain who had no reasoning for being other than conquering Universes, which we didn't see a motivation for other than him being a psycho who had the mannerisms of a regular man. The series also tossed around with the mythos it had established early on in the series and bought in time remnants and time wraiths which don't make any sense to me. Killing your time remnant should kill you in the present and the time wraiths should make Legends of Tomorrow obsolete. The biggest error in season was the last few moments of the finale, the events that should have widespread repercussions.

All Hail The New Spider-Man!

I will go on record to say that I adored Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, it was a far more light hearted portrayal than that of Tobey Maguire who always seemed abnormally sullen. I understand that the character has been through a lot of upheavel in his short life but he was always known to be a wise cracker with an infinite amount of youthful energy and Garfield's version of him seemed more in line with the character that people have spent decades falling in love with. I may be biased as I was a fan of Garfield before and I love Emma Stone in whatever she's in so there was no way I wasn't going to love the reboot and I was saddened with the news of another reboot. Then I watched Captain America: Civil War.

Is it wrong that in the third solo Captain America film, integral in the ongoing MCU story line, the most exciting part was a glorified cameo? Seriously, Tom Holland's Spider-Man was one of the most enjoyable parts of the film. It helps that we bypassed the origin which we've already seen twice in the last 15 years and see him after he's lost uncle Ben and gotten his powers. One of the things that was off-putting about another reboot was the thought of having to sit through that again because at this point it probably wouldn't have any emotional effect. It would be like watching Thomas and Martha Wayne die, I know it happens and at this point I don't actually care. Skipping this part of his origin story also means skipping the grief that comes with it so the character can be fun which is what he should be. I may have liked Garfield's version but he still had his mopey moments, I've heard significant people in your life dying can do that to a person.

Dumplings: The First Horror Movie To Scare Me

*Spoilers for Dumplings below*

I wrote about how Kill List had frightened me and hailed it for doing so as I am a psyc normally don't scare easily. The moment I published that post I had flashbacks of various Japanese and Chinese horror films I'd seen over the years that had me quaking and one film in particular had me punching myself for forgetting that I had known fear. The fear wasn't due to shocks and the grotesque which we normally see in more conventional horror, the scares came from the storyline itself, the kind of storyline that puts me off of my food. Watching the film while I was on the way to get food wasn't a good idea. That film was Dumplings.

The Man in the High Castle: TV series Vs. Novel

I have recently taken up reading again and one of the novels that I tackled was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, originally published in 1962. I was unaware of the the writer but unbeknownst to me I was well aware of his work because adaptations of his bibliography boast the likes of Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau as well as many others. The were a couple of reasons that I chose this novel, one of which was the fact that I wanted to spend £20 on Amazon to get free delivery, the other being the Amazon Instant Video adaptation of the book which I devoured over the course of a couple of weeks.

I fell in love with the series during the first episode, the alternate universe truly captured me. The Man in the High Castle TV series followed what life would be like if the USA had lost against the Nazi's and Japanese, leading them to divide the country and ruling over their respective territories. The US is now a society where fascism is rife and conformity is the key to the citizens survival, denouncing their faiths, loved ones and in some cases their whole personalities. The setting is intriguing and daring because of peoples sensitivity towards the wars. What makes this a riveting tale is the uprising against the totalitarian governments, with members getting inspired by videos which are depicting an alternate lifestyle where the US won the wars. The members of the resistance strive to collect as many of these videos as they can on behalf of a man known only as "The Man in the High Castle" in the belief that these videos mean something and could somehow change the world.

Kill List: The Horror Movie That Scared Me

*Slight spoilers from Kill List*

I have discussed this numerous times on The Dorks Deduction Podcast but I don't scare as easy as sane human beings. I was desensitised to gore and violence at quite a young age, having older siblings I often watched whatever they watched instead of the usual Disney animated films which would have been more appropriate. In theory the lack of fear would seem to be a good thing but it's truly not, I see what people go through when watching a film they deem scary. The shock, the awe and the excitement in their faces wasn't something I remembered experiencing, instead all I did was think about how it wasn't scary in the slightest. Then Kill List happened.

I recently professed my burgeoning obsession with the work of Ben Wheatley which started off with my viewing of his 2011 film Kill List. I knew almost nothing about it before watching it other than it's name and from that I assumed that it would be a thriller because what else would it be? I'm happy to say I was incorrect. Kill List on the surface seem like another British gangster flick, following two contract killers on assignment. If it had followed that format it would have been far less interesting and my jaw wouldn't have dropped so low that I had to have it wired shut, it was that shocking.

Spoiler Or Not A Spoiler, That Is The Question

I recently wrote about The Night Manager that aired in the UK earlier this year and it's starting up on the other side of the pond so I decided to investigate what the Americans think of it. When I say investigate what I mean is that I was procrastinating at work and wandered onto IMDB. I didn't end up getting much information about their thoughts and feelings towards the series but what I did witness was a lot of people complaining about the amount of spoilers on the boards. I've had this discussion with friends extensively in the past and actually wrote about it a little in regards to Game Of Thrones, but can you really call information about something that has aired/been released a spoiler?

In the past regions have had to wait months/years for foreign television shows/films and we've come a long way since then, sometimes we only have to wait a day after the country of origin airs it. It may not seem like a long time but that's still an extra day for the episode to be spoiled with memes, message boards, friends Facebook posts etc. but do you have a right to get mad because it's spoiled the episode for you? In short, no. When an episode/film/book has aired or has been released all the information is out there and no longer a spoiler. It may not feel fair that you don't have access as early as others to eliminate the reveals you wanted to wait for but sometimes it can be avoided so the threat of spoilage can be diminished.

Any Human Heart Makes Me Realise I Have One

*I'll try not to spoil anything because I actually want you to go and read it*

Short stories, poems, novels, the back of a cereal box. It didn't matter what it was, I used to devour them over and over again. I even used to spend my Saturdays at the library, not for the internet but for the numerous books they had at hand. I don't quite know what happened, some say I got lazy, some say it was the fact that we no longer needed dial up so I had the freedom of going onto the internet whenever I liked. I think it's because the literature that seemed the most popular seemed completely awful. No, it didn't just seem completely awful, it was completely awful. Up until a couple of years ago the last books I had read for pleasure were the Harry Potter series and even though they had a fantastic story line even I can admit they weren't the best written books.

I love watching television and films and this whole blog is proof of that, but I also loved having stories play out in my head. I enjoyed inferring meanings from writing and building up my own version of the characters from the information given. I missed just sitting back in a quiet room reading a book for a few hours, I got more satisfaction out of it than staring at a glaring screen under my duvet. Fortunately I have an Amazon account, unfortunately I don't know when to stop buying so I now have a lot more books than I had six months ago and I'm almost finished with them. Up until a few months ago I would have said my favourite book was The Great Gatsby and why wouldn't it be? It's set in my favourite era and although the novel is short and the story line isn't too complex there is so much to it. It has some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen in a novel and so vivid, I still haven't watched the film because it feels like I have already watched it all.

I never thought The Great Gatsby would be displaced in my heart but then Any Human Heart by William Boyd came along. Any Human Heart is a compilation of fictional journals and an early quote from it has stuck with me:

Supernatural Is Back On Top

*Spoilers for season 11 below* 

I am aware that there has been a decline as there is with any show that has been on as long as Supernatural has but I didn't notice the effect it had on me until the last episode. For years I was watching episodes of Supernatural whenever I could get my hands on them, sometimes waking up at the crack of dawn to put myself in a state of awe before going to school/college/university/work. Yes, I've been watching that long. I've had a longer and more loving relationship with Supernatural than I've had with living beings and I didn't regret it. In the last couple of years I seem to be watching the show at a delay which I didn't have a problem with, I wasn't getting angsty waiting for my fix, I was just carrying on with life and watching the next episode when I could.

Then the last episode happened. "Don't call me Shurley" marked the return of Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict). Also known as Carver Edlund. Also known as God. The person I will refer to as Chuck Shurley initially entered the show in the season four episode "The Monster at the End of This Book" as a writer chronicling Sam and Deans lives in a cult book series titled 'Supernatural'. He is then revealed to not only be a writer but also a prophet of the Lord sent to aid Sam and Dean on their quest to stop the impending apocalypse. Rob Benedict was brilliant at portraying the troubled man with dreams of Sam and Dean that haunt him both day and night, but he's also an incredibly humorous character. It is later revealed that he is God and has seemingly abandoned the universe he built, either hoping they will learn to fend for themselves or not caring either way.

Peaky Blinders Almost Lost Me

*Spoilers for series three of Peaky Blinders*

I've been a huge fan of Peaky Blinders ever since it's initial outing in 2013 for a multitude of reasons. It's period setting in the 1910s and 1920s of Birmingham following a gangster family through the excitement of their daily perils, as well as their need for wanting better for themselves was one of the reasons it captivated me. The show is incredibly well written and looks incredible which is likely the reason that it's managed to attract a steller cast in Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Sam Neill, not to mention their recurring cast which includes Tom Hardy who is a joy to watch, even if we're watching him watch pain dry. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two series of the BBC show but during the first episode of the third run I almost lost interest. Almost.

One of the central storylines in the series is the relationship between Tommy Shelby (Murphy) and Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis). In the first series Grace was an undercover agent tasked with infiltrating the organisation and against all odds (even though it was still quite predictable) she managed to pierce Tommy's guarded heart and they fell in love. The relationship was rocky at best because of their differing morals but eventually, with the aid of an unplanned pregnancy, the two found their way back together with most of the events of the first episode of series three taking place at their wedding.

Will 24: Legacy Live Up To Its Predecessor?

I'm a huge fan of 24 and have been since it started. I remember staying up late on a Sunday night to watch it on BBC2 and being exhausted the next day, but not caring because I'd had 40 minutes with an amazing show. I recall the heartache I felt with the news that it was moving to Sky One, a channel we didn't have and one that my parents weren't planning on paying for. Eventually we managed to procure the series before getting with the times and abandoning free-view for Sky. That roller coaster was nothing compared to the show actually being cancelled. Done. Vamut.

Then something beautiful happened, something that used to be a rare occurrence. It came back. 24: Live Another Day arrived on our screens in 2014, four years after the show was originally cancelled. As with the original run I was enthralled and others seemed to be too, it did well in the ratings as well as critically. The limited run ran for only 12 episodes rather than the usual 24 episode format, condensing all the drama and removing the filler that we'd usually get (e.g. Kim and the Coyotes). The series finished off open ended so there was room for another series a few years down the line which is what was I was expecting (or hoping with all my heart), so the news of 24: Legacy was initially an unwelcome one.

2016 Ruined Game Of Thrones

*Spoilers for Game Of Thrones. If you're not caught up please don't be silly and decide to read this post*

Game Of Thrones has always been a type of show (and series of novels) that shocks an audience. This started off from the very first episode with Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) walking in on incest and being pushed out of a window. Then the first season ended with the beloved protagonist being beheaded. Then we had the ever so romantic weddings. Then we ha Lets not get into all the other many events that made my jaw drop because the list fill several books. There is one thing in particular that I would like to talk about in this post which is the death of Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) in the season five finale. Jon Snow, originally the bastard of Winterfell, rose through the ranks of the Nights Watch and eventually became the Lord Commander. His tenure as Lord Commander seemed to be short live after he was fatally stabbed by that bastar Olly (Brenock O'Connor) because Jon decided to be a leader and make tough decisions.

*Seriously, don't read whats below if you haven't caught up*

The Indian Doctor Leaves Me Wanting More

Full disclosure, the reason I am writing this post today is because I don't wanted be disappointed when googling recent posts about The Indian Doctor.

The Indian Doctor is not normally the type of drama I go for but I was absolutely enthralled by it. The premise was so simple, it followed Dr. Prem Sharma (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and his wife Karmini (Ayesha Dharker) who have left their home in India for a job in a Welsh village in the 1960s. The show explores the clash of cultures in the 60s between the couple and the citizens of the town that they are now inhibiting and how the public have to begrudgingly accept them into their community as the doctor is an integral member of it. In time the townsfolk grow to embrace them and their culture, not out of necessity but out of choice. The drama also portrays topical issues of the time including the health of miners, a small pox pandemic as well as property development threatening the town.

So, How Shocking Was That Arrow Death?

*Spoilers from Arrowverse/Flarrowverse/IDon'tCareWhatIt'sCalledVerse below* 

I feel like readers of this blog probably think I'm sadistic because I keep discussing the demises of characters, or the yearning for their deaths. This post won't help. The season four opener of Arrow that aired last Autumn featured a flash forward to funeral of a main character, and now we've just about caught up to that flash forward. The viewers had been kept in the dark about who might be keeping the casket warm, with writers teasing the audience and ruling characters out but alas we have figured out who has bitten the dust.

Please don't read any further if you're not all caught up.

Why I Just Can't Like Fear The Walking Dead

*Spoilers from Fear The Walking Dead*

Despite the recent criticism I had of The Walking Dead I do love the show, not as much as I used to but I never miss an episode. When the spin off was announced I was eager to watch it, hoping to recapture the feelings I had when I started watching The Walking Dead. I'm sad to report that although I stuck through the first season of Fear The Walking Dead I was mostly bored and I find it hard to remember moments I liked. That's a lie, I struggle to remember any moments. Even when a TV show is bad you can remember some bits and pieces about it but I have trouble remembering anything. All I know about it is that there was a woman that died and some teenager with a drug habit. No memorable deaths, no memorable characters.

How Marvelous Is Deadpool?

Every year we have more and more comic book films arriving in our cinemas and I believed that audiences were getting bored of them. I have in the past discussed my affliction with comic book movie fatigue and that remains unchanged. Yes, I still watch every film that Marvel releases but at a significant delay. Yes, I am prejudice against DC films but not because I'm in camp marvel but because their cinematic universe is affecting the television one, and also because they aren't actually at all good anymore. Apparently not everyone is fed up with the realm of comic book movies because when Deadpool was released everyone seemed to go nuts over it, and I know this will not be a popular opinion but I don't quite get it.

Is The 100 Is Batting 1000?

*Spoilers for season 3 of The 100*

A few years ago the only show on The CW I would rave about was Supernatural as it was the only show that wasn't directly targeted at teenage girls (although a lot of the fan base seems to be just that). It wasn't marred with frenemies and love triangles to keep the viewers on their toes, it's about a brotherly bond and how blood isn't the only thing that makes you family. And killing monsters, mustn't forget the killing monsters part. It stood out amongst all the other shows on the network such as Gossip Girl and 90210 but then something glorious happened, they got a new CEO who decided just because the shows and the people looked pretty didn't mean they deserved to be on the air. In 2011 Mark Pedowitz took the reigns of the network and decided to branch out in regards to their programming because he realised people other than teenage girls watch television. From that ground breaking thought his predecessor didn't think of came the likes of comic book adaptations Arrow, The Flash and iZombie, critically acclaimed Jane The Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as well as The 100 which is the subject of this post.

Are You Satisfied With Life In The High-Rise?

*Minor spoilers from the novel and the film below*

I've been eager to watch High-Rise ever since it was announced as I'm a fan of J.G. Ballard's dystopian outlook on life. I must admit I hadn't read the novel of High-Rise but I picked it up as soon as the movie was announced and was absolutely engrossed, finishing it within a couple of weeks. Who doesn't like to read about an idyllic society living high in the sky yet descending into the chaos of  class war, leading to the residents partaking in rape and murder? Americans apparently as my computers language is set to American English and 'dystopia' isn't in the vocabulary, but fortunately Britain loves doom and gloom so this movie was made. Prior to the film being green lit I hadn't gotten to know the work of director Ben Wheatley but I certainly do now and I will forever be grateful. I should probably discuss the film as it will be more topical than the novel that was released decades ago and don't worry, Wheatley's previous films will most definitely be a post for another day.

The Walking Dead Needs To Man Up

*Spoilers for The Walking Dead below*

That's right, I said it. The Walking Dead has built a reputation for scripting the most graphically gruesome ends for beloved characters and I watch every episode on tenterhooks. That's what I thought anyway. A couple of weeks ago I decided to re watch the pilot episode just to feel the first time viewing rush again and naturally I continued watching until I'd caught up to season six. Watching that body count soar once again made me realise something, I don't actually fear death on the show anymore. I thought my lack of empathy in recent episodes was because I had become desensitised to death which was quite unsettling but I was wrong, it's because the deaths no longer matter. 

Will Lucifer Go Down In Flames?

Any satanists that clicked on this post can turn around and leave because I doubt anything I write below will appeal to you as this post is about Lucifer the television serial, not Lucifer your saviour. The series is based on the DC comic book of the same name which I haven't read so I'm sure I'll be incredibly analytical and be able to cross reference the comics with the show. That was sarcasm, I'm not going to even try to compare the two because I don't want to flaunt my lack of knowledge about DC and get flamed by diehard fans so I'll do what I do best and rant about the television show while everyone rolls their eyes.

Lucifer follows the exploits of Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), the former ruler of Hell, as he abandons his post and decides to live the high life in Los Angeles. While on vacation from Hell he meets Chloe Decker (Lauren German), an LAPD detective, and decides the rush he gets from helping her capture criminals with his power of compulsion is just what he needs in his life. In theory this seems like a show I would be eager to watch, something slightly procedural with supernatural elements but somehow I just can't enjoy it. A police detective with a supernatural sidekick is not exactly a new phenomena, we've seen it quite recently in the last few years with shows including Forever and Sleepy Hollow which both do it a hell of a lot better than we see in Lucifer.

Does The Night Manager Have Longevity?

*Minimal spoilers from the novel and TV show*

The BBC made a splash earlier this year with the premiere of sleek new espionage drama The Night Manager. The miniseries is based on a novel by the God of all espionage/cold war dramas John Le Carré, if you don't know the name you will definitely know his work. From Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which I misspelled throughout a three thousand word essay) to A Most Wanted Man he has cornered the market in thrilling spy drama and his works have seen numerous adaptations over the years. In my opinion The Night Manager seems to be one of the better page to screen adaptations his novels, possibly one of the better adaptations I've seen in recent years full stop.

Why Do People Watch Suits?

*Spoilers from season 5 of Suits*

I'll start by saying that I will not be using this post to insult Suits, I am an avid watcher of it but the second half of season 5 had me wondering why. The show follows the deeds of savvy fake attorney Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) and Harvery Spector (Gabriel Macht), the man that hired him knowing he's a fraud. These are our lead characters, the ones that we are supposed to support and root for but right off the bat they are doing something both unethical and illegal. Somehow the show managed to make me pretty much forget that for 4 seasons and I stuck with them through every antagonist they encountered but I can't ignore the fact that they are in the wrong any longer.

Top Drama With Top Boy

*Possible spoilers from the first series of Top Boy below*


Top Boy has been on my watch list for a couple of years now but then my friend Lanita decided to binge watch it. This will not do, I do the binge watching in our twosome and she's the one that puts things off until I give up on trying to make her watch something that's dear to me. She clearly doesn't care for our friendship as much as I do because the night after she told me she'd finished the show I decided to watch the first series which was time well spent. I'm not going to start bashing the Harrodians or the Etonians of the world because I do genuinely enjoy watching them on our screens in quality programming but at times it does feel like that all we see on our screens is upper class people with upper class troubles. I am partial to a little bit of costume drama but I did not shed any tears when Downton Abbey ended, I don't watch Downton but I know it ended because I would have to be living in a hut in an Alpine land to avoid that news. If you like Downton fine, but there needs to be a light shone on little gems like this.

Below is the synopsis of Top Boy taken from www.imdb.com:

The Legends Of Yesterday?

*Spoilers from Arrowverse/Flarrowverse/IDon'tCareWhatIt'sCalledVerse below*

I'm a huge fan of Arrowverse or Flarrowverse or whatever the hell it's called, so clearly I was excited to hear about the development of DCs Legends Of Tomorrow or Legends Of Tomorrow or whatever the hell it's called. A joint spin off of two shows I love that are using minor characters that I enjoyed a bit, how could it go wrong? It sounded like it was going to be brilliant and the little teases that we'd recieved from The Flash and Arrow seemed promising until we reached the major The Flash/Arrow crossover event with the introduction of Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee). The dialogue, the premise, the wings, heck everything in those crossover episodes was just plain bad and it certainly didn't help that the actors that they cast to play said characters are wooden as hell.

The DVD Is Dead, Long Live The DVD

Listeners of The Dorks Deduction will already know this but I have a major thing for DVDs. My obsession with them runs so deep that I even have a spreadsheet to keep track of what they are and where they are. I also have a thing for spreadsheets but this is not the time to get into that (there will never be a time to get into that). I even know when the obsession with them started, I was 16 and researching for a piece of coursework I was doing for college so my father gave me £20 and I popped down to HMV. That day I owned my first 5 DVDs outright and it was an amazing feeling, I didn't have to share them with anyone. From then I always believed my adding to the collection was just because I was able to claim ownership over something but lately I've come to realise it's a lot more than that, the DVDs mean a lot more to me and not just items I possess. My emotional attachment to these inanimate objects has left me incredibly disappointed whenever I've purchased them within the last year.

Limited TV Shows Should Stay Limited

British television has a tendency to be short and sweet, I mean even the long running shows (not including soap operas) have an incredibly low episode count. I can see how this could be appealing to viewers, you don't have to dedicate as much time to them and the majority of the time the viewer does end up with some sense of closure when the show ends. Not always though *cough* The Fades *Cough*. To be honest I think it's quite incredible the impact these shows make, they run for no more than 8 episodes at a time and sometimes they aren't even on every year and rather than lose viewers they tend to gain them through word of mouth.

For a while I've thought that American television should do the same, having 18-24 episodes a season is a bit too much. There's only so much you can stretch a story line before it all gets repetitive and you start losing the audiences attention. Even I, a self confessed television addict, have lost the love of American television when once upon a time that was all I watched, I would get up early before school to watch episodes of Supernatural after they'd aired. Yes, I was that bad. The audiences getting tired of the show leads to problems for American networks as they rely on advertising and advertisers aren't going to pay big bucks for shows that it seems like no one watches so that inevitably leads to the shows cancellations. I was the type of that would get really invested in the shows, watch it every week and then be devastated when it was cancelled. I'm so happy we have the TV license fee here.

Well anyway, lets get down to what I've been doing the past year instead of writing for Spockfull. Limited TV shows. Networks have seen that the smaller episode count and shorter run shows are working, the most successful (both critically and commercially) American TV shows tend to be on cable which like the Brits have a shorter episode count. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's The Walking Dead that has the most episodes per season with 16 episodes but it takes such a huge break it feels like two separate seasons. So now network television shows are batting around the term 'Limited run' when advertising certain shows, and one would assume that that would mean that it's a self contained story that has a beginning, middle and end. I'd expect closure. Do I get that? No.