More TV than Movies

Rogue  season 1

Staring Thandie Newton, this Movie Channel original held its own. It took most of the first episode to wrap my head around the sultry Dame Vaco as a "gritty undercover cop", really wanted to see her smoldering eye liner...  ...that said, characters are set up quickly, and the story draws you in to care about what will happen next. 

One or two strong supporting roles, at least as many really flimsy ones too. Kavan Smith plays the non dimensional pointless husband of Newton's Grace Travis. Wow, not only is he as convincing as a bag of crap, he manages to draw out the worst acting/over acting from everyone around him. 

Conversely, anyone playing a character with the last name Laszlo does a pretty convincing job of it. Not afraid to whack an important player just to twist the plot, Rogue is worth a look. The fix is in place for season 2, should be great. 

Rome  season 2

Free to take even more liberties now the play "Caesar" is over, season two carries us toward a series wrap up that doesn't disappoint. Characters from season one are slightly more flawed, believable, and endearing. 

SoA  season 6

Man, please.  Can we possibly cram more montage scenes into so few shows?  Did you just get tired of writing the monotonous dialog and decide to go without?  Go make a friggin rock opra - like Cop Rock maybe. 

If anyone knows where I can find a by-episode or by-character body count for SOA, I'd love to see it. I'm sorry, I know there are people who live outside the law - but leaving a trail of corpses this wide is going to get on someone's radar. 

The best thing about season 6?  They finally killed off the most (one of the most) annoying cast members. Halalooya.

Dead Set

You'll be surprised to learn that I have a ridiculously extensive collection of zombie movies and TV shows. Zombie movies were the only thing that ever gave me bad dreams as a kid - well, the only form of entertainment to do so anyway. So there is a tendency to gut one out now and then just to see if I can handle it. 

They say that zombie movies reflect the "political mood of the nation", I think the allure is much simpler. In many movies you see extraordinary people in extraordinary situations (action heros, super cops, the unselfish unrequited love, etc...). In zombie flicks you see basically ordinary people (with defined roles and no back story needed) in horrific situations. It's easy to think "I would do this", and "I'd find one of those", and put yourself into the picture. There are always characters who do stupid stuff (and get eaten) so you can think "that was stupid, I wouldn't have done that".

So the premise of Dead Set is that a typical inexplicable zombie outbreak engulfs the UK - while the cast of the Big Brother reality show goes on unknowingly. So they make the basis of the survivors cadre. 

This is 5 shows about 23 min each, and plays like a made for TV movie. No huge surprises, though it ends predictably it also ends very abruptly. 

Enemies Closer

After "6 Bullets" I thought "I must have judged JCVD unfairly, maybe his movies are worth while". 10 minutes into "Enemies Closer" and I was sure my original hypothesis was correct. This guy is the ultimate magnet for craptastic writing and mediocre acting. 

BINGE WATCH!!   Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Entourage

Too much time at the lake house.