on HBO and DVD

Never has a TV show made me feel like such a jerk for being such a sarcastic jerk – but I just can’t help myself when the dialogue of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency gets so simple (seriously, most conversations consist of “He sounds like a good man”, “He is a good man”, “Perhaps a bad man is making him do bad things” “Mma, a very bad man”… and on and on). But still, the show is quite charming in its way, despite the inherent condescension in the script that tends to over simplify its characters.

It’s like an updated Murder She Wrote re contextualized in the incredible, and incredibly shot, location of Botswana. The show was directed by the late Anthony Minghella, and his deep love of warm, epic landscapes is intact; and the costumes are quite inspiring and breathtaking as well. No women can mix pattern, shapes, and looks like the ladies presented here – I started re-mixing and matching my wardrobe in my head as I was watching.

Jill Scott is a sweetheart and one of the few women with girth on television who has a healthy body image, but the real star of the show, as far as I’m concerned, is the sassy wide-eyed little errand boy, Wellington.

It’s not edgy viewing and if you’re an asshole like me you might even find it grating at times, but some night it’s great to tune into a simple mystery show nset in a world few of us are familiar with.

Click here to see the rest of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency

Holiday of Nightmares

Creepy wet lips, monstrously erect nipples, blood sucking choir boys, voodoo dolls, flying bunny eyeballs, and Papa Lazarou… if you’ve taken my advice before and watched previous seasons of The League of Gentlemen, this will all sound like business as usual – if not, be prepared for the Christmas special of your worst nightmares!!

If you’re the squeamish type and prefer your head filled with sugar plum fairies and such, you may want to skip the stills below/after the jump.

Click here to see the rest of The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special

Lifetime Movie Network Gold

Well, hello there sugar. You in the mood for the kind of scenery chewing actin’ that the lil’ old Lifetime Movie Network was made for? You just itchin’ for the kind of yarn that’s hotter than a junebug on Georgia asphalt? Well, then pull up a chair and grab yourself a glass of sweet tea (something that I’ve learned from both this miniseries and NBC’s To Catch a Predator is always a trap) and settle in for Ann Rule’s Everything She Ever Wanted – a series that begins with a genuine Gone With the Wind-themed weddin’.

Gina Gershon smacks her lips around the role of real life sociopathic southern belle Patricia Allanson (who in reality bears very little resemblance to Gershon) like some sexed up, large titted dog might around a badly written bone. It makes for a much better viewing experience than Ann Rule’s other recent Lifetime event, Too Late to Say Goodbye, where Rob Lowe plays a seemingly perfect husband, but is actually a wife killer.

So imagine my surprise and horror when, after watching for two hours (gathering as many screen shots as possible), the show ended with Gina injecting an old woman in the mouth with poison followed by a “To be continued…” message – and I didn’t record the second half! Lifetime, shame on you for not re-airing this glorious heap of camp and trash. What do we pay you for?! If you think it’s just for the Reba re-runs (now airing in the morning) and decades-old Tracey Gold amnesia dramas (The Perfect Daughter, aired Wed 25th at 2:00), you are sorely mistaken.

Click here to see the rest of Ann Rule’s Everything She Ever Wanted

written by Peter Berry (2008)

I wrongly assumed this available-on-Netflix-instant BBC miniseries would be boring and dry, but The Last Enemy is a taut thriller set in a slightly altered modern day where surveillance in the name of protection has become sci-fi-ishly all encompassing.

While the reluctant hero is such a cliche at this point, the archetype is masterfully written and played by Benedict Cumberpatch (a British name if I ever heard one) as an uptight, anti-social germaphobe – perhaps the least likely person to become embroiled in the political mess that his recently killed brother has left behind.

Small mysteries lead to larger ones, and while the series has a bit of a hard time making all the answers satisfying and sustaining the suspense of the first part, it’s over all a truly smart and compelling piece with layers of surprises and intrigue. It’s quite long, so it works perfectly for a hung over Sunday, so long as you have the brain power to follow the action and plot twists.

Click here to see the rest of The Last Enemy

Here's what I wrote back on November 11th: 11/17/08

Getting into The Wire is like joining a cult, anyone whose been there knows that once you tap into season one, hours, nay weeks – even months – of your life will be devoted entirely to the world of Baltimore's rough streets. It's riveting drama and the perfect argument against those people who refuse to watch TV, claiming it's nothing but crap. It's?a show entirely worthy of its hype and word of mouth.

In fact, word of mouth and the release of all the seasons on DVD is what's made this series, which began it's run way back in 2002 so popular lately. More and more people are discovering what at least someone at HBO knew all along. Sure they failed to gain a huge audience for the hailed program, but they did allow it to go on for five years – all of which I am excited to watch. (Like I said this show can take months of your life from you.)

Former homicide detective, Ed Burns and his co-creator (and former journalist) David Simon were clearly inspired by their real life experiences and have written three dimensional characters who feel nothing like the expected television versions of themselves. No cop is on a vengeance kick after losing his wife to a bad guy, even the bad guys aren't bad guys in the typical sense. Some have more honor than the police officers, others are just kids stuck in a losing cycle.

The women are given equally complex and dignified roles. No where is there a boring twenty year old blond girl in charge of a crack team of detectives, a TV trend I've already railed against. Sadly, despite critics constantly calling this one of the greatest television shows ever created, if anyone in the networks saw it, they took no notes from it except that it wasn't an instant success, because nothing since has come close to the complexity, sophistication and greatness of The Wire.

Each season focuses on a different aspect of the city of Baltimore: the projects, the docks, politics, schools, and media, which maintaining some central characters like Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell – the top men in a drug ring, Detective McNulty and Detective Greggs who try to catch them, and characters like the drug addicted Bubbles and the Robin Hood like Omar who are just trying to make it in a crazy world.

To get into the plots would be unfair to you that have yet to watch it and simply too much to get into here (I recently finished an explosive season three), but I can say that this is a thought provoking and worth while journey with some of the best characters put on the small screen.

RUNNERS UP:
Summer Heights High
Planet Earth
Poirot
Trial and Retribution
Thundarr The Barbarian
Silk Stalkings

Even with the prestigious name of Lynda La Plante attached to Trial and Retribution (she is behind the absolutely amazing Helen Mirren series Prime Suspect), I didn't know if I could expect much more than a Law and Order with accents. I was so wrong. Each episode is about four hours long and explores the emotions, investigation and the prosecution of a single crime exhaustively. Compellingly, you're never quite one hundred percent positive of the suspect's guilt or innocence until the end.

So far we've only seen the first series, starring Danny Deckchair (AKA Rhys Ifans) as a drunken weirdo who quickly becomes the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a young girl. The violence both implied and shown is a bit much for the weak-stomached, but it doesn't feel gratuitous; though the recurring split screen technique kind of does at times. Sometimes it works, but often it doesn't add anything to the story.

As with most BBC shows, the acting is great and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this intelligent series.

It's pretty rare, but even in the world of network television, justice is occasionally served. I'm not sure if you're aware, but At the Movies recently underwent a tragically “hip” makeover when two morons replaced Ebert and Roper and I thought my lazy Sunday ritual of getting somewhat intelligent movie reviews were over… Out of desperation, I turned to the dumb Current channel to watch the frequently annoying Rotten Tomatoes Show to get my fix. (Which, to be fair, did grow on me)

Well, all is right with the world, (except for days when sports games run long and interrupt the show) and At the Movies now features reviews and commentary by two of the better guest reviewers who filled in for Roger Ebert: Michael Phillips from the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott from the New York Times. I'm thrilled.

Community is by no means a perfected stroke of television genius, but with a cast that includes Chevy Chase and Joel McHale, it was the new show I was the most hopeful and curious about.

I have to say I laughed several times and even though the pacing was off – it seemed like the makers were forced to cram the events of an hour into a half hour – or at least has stopped a few classes short in their script writing workshop, I think the show has great potential once it finds its stride. Many great sitcoms have started far weaker than this one.

McHale is almost comfortable as a douchey lawyer forced to attend community college along side a ragtag group of misfits like Danny Pudi as Abed, who for better or worse makes asperger syndrome extremely funny and Ken Jeong who was not even featured in the pilot, but made me excited for his introduction based on commercial clips. Chase is fairly subtle and might has actually chosen wisely for his small screen return. I hope so, because I'd love to add another enjoyable comedy to my weekly viewing, especially one with such a great cast.