Fazzinchi

Leaving Ladies

Primeval drew to an end a few weeks ago and it took the Other Viewer and I a while to get around to watching it. The delay was not because the show was bad (it wasn’t really) but we weren’t really excited enough about finding out how things would pan out.  In the end, the final half of the season was pretty solid, although there was a touch of monsters-by-numbers about it, moving as it did through “big, scary ones”, “insect ones”, “swimming ones”, “cute but (more…)

New Kid On The Block

The tragic death of John Thaw five years ago came just a couple of years after the broadcast of the final episode of Inspector Morse and, in the eyes of the ardent fans of the show, all but signalled the end of that particular chapter of their devotion. However, in not so much a flood of publicity but more of a trickle, it was announced that devoted sidekick Seargeant Lewis was to get a promotion and a series of his own. Lewis is certainly hewn from the same rock as Morse, (more…)

One For The Future 

Another quality drama from ITV came along last week in the guise of Instinct, which starred the really rather good (and worthy of noting for future reference), Anthony Flanagan.  He has already played parts in Cracker, Life On Mars and Vincent but I hope he gets to spread his wings away from gritty crime drama soon.  The main conceit of this tale was that Flanagan’s character, DCI Thomas Flynn, was a bit of a wunderkid who had an uncanny capability to assess information and (more…)

Comic Relief

Primeval is continuing apace on Saturday nights and it continues to be a bit of a mixed bag.  I’ve just watched last night’s “Episode 3″ (Oddly, they don’t seem to do episode titles, although a Friends-like approach of “The One With The Mososaur” might suffice).   Following the hocum of “The One With The Giant Creepy-Crawlys” last week, I was quite enthused by the underwater antics this time out and the Walking With Dinosaurs special effects continue to be a very high standard. (more…)

Coelurosauravus… “Rex” To His Friends 

If Primeval is the answer, it must have been a very peculiar question. ITV launched its “Doctor Who-beater” last night and reviews have been mixed, from the not so bad to the not so good. I was generally entertained throughout the whole hour by a fairly typical “premiere episode” storyline: lots of different people from different backgrounds who are drawn together (in this case, to the Forest of Dean) to investigate the strange goings on. There are nods to, and obvious comparissons (more…)

Retrospective Review #4 of 5

You’d thought I’d forgotten this mini-series of reviews, hadn’t you?  Well, the Other Viewer and I finally got around to watching one of ITV’s two-hour dramas that were on over Christmas-time and we got to see a really great story played out in the form of Perfect Parents.  The production reunited writer and directer, Joe Ahearne with lead actor, Christopher Eccleston, who had worked together on five episodes of 2005’s Doctor Who.  Beefing up the cast even further were David Warner (more…)