Television reviews – Page 36

“The Big C”– Memento Mori or “Remember You Shall Die”

Written by diana on June 12, 2013. Posted in Television reviews.

The last stages in the cycle of life and death have finally attracted film and movie producers. I am talking about the formerly taboo twin topics of aging and death. Perhaps as we baby boomers and our children, the “echo boomers”, see that the inevitability of death needs to be part of our cultural conscience, movies that...

“Orphan Black”–Adopting a New Model

Written by diana on May 8, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound.

This new BBC America television series premiered on March 30, 2013. In the opening scene the camera zooms in on Sarah (played by Tatiana Maslany, a Canadian newcomer to television), a grifter desperate to escape her drug dealer boyfriend. Seizing an opportunity to escape her past, Sarah watches as her doppelganger jumps in front of a subway to...

“Top of the Lake”–A Top Notch Thriller

Written by diana on April 29, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound.

While some cable and television distributors fund their own productions (note the excellence of “House of Cards”, the final season of “Damages”, and the forthcoming “Arrested Development”), Sundance is in the enviable position of previewing thousands of entries for their annual Sundance Festival. “Top...

“The Following” Redux–Not Going There Again

Written by diana on March 18, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “The Following” Redux–Not Going There Again

In February I reviewed and recommended “The Following”, a Fox television drama series starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. There have been a total of nine episodes so far, but this past week’s episode has made me recant my earlier review. How disappointed I am in this series! The story is focused on two main characters: ...

“Parade’s End”–An Historian’s Downton Abbey?”

Written by diana on March 5, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 3 Comments on “Parade’s End”–An Historian’s Downton Abbey?”

The five-part BBC/HBO miniseries “Parade’s End” premiered on HBO last week (February 26) and is also available on video-on-demand. The playwright Tom Stoppard has adapted Ford Madox Ford’s monumental 900 page, four-novel series “Parade’s End” for television: the intellectual’s Edwardian-era...

“House of Cards” — A Bulimic Buffet for Couch Potatoes?

Written by diana on February 11, 2013. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 6 Comments on “House of Cards” — A Bulimic Buffet for Couch Potatoes?

Why wait a week to watch another episode when an entire buffet is available? A lot has been written recently about “binge-watching” the practice of sitting on the couch or in bed to gorge on an entire season or a majority of episodes of a television series in one batch. The bulimic viewer was not possible before Tivo, DVRs and Netflix video...