Monday, June 29, 2015

The Selfie Culture

With some shows yet to return and others I'm doing more extensive reviews for, here's another look at some of the other series I'm watching at the moment.


Humans: For US viewers, they got the first episodes of this on AMC but on Channel 4 for UK and Irish viewers, we're nearing the halfway point and it's picking up rather nicely. While I still don't greatly like Laura or Matilda as characters, I do like that through their own methods, both are attempting to learn more about Anita and Synths going off script in general. I'm also liking the more volatile Niska, the continued partnership of Max and Leo as well as George doing his best to keep Odi while having to tolerate the rather strict Vera. Some things don't quite work though - mainly the sour faced detective and his personal life but overall, the series has continued to impress so far.


Orange Is The New Black: With the usual Netflix binging of sorts, I've now watched as far as episode six of the third season. At this point, I've seen Piper and Alex reconnect, Red use her charms on Healy to get her kitchen back, Nikki get transferred to another prison, an interesting aptitude test scene as well as backstories for Big Boo, Flaca and Chang and of course, the rather brief introduction of Stella. I'll admit this season isn't as great as the previous two have been but it's still making for some rather enjoyable television nonetheless.


Selfie: This show might have been dropped after thirteen episodes courtesy of ABC, but it found a home for Irish viewers on RTE2 this month. Now I love Karen Gillan as much as the next person and while her and John Cho have an excellent rapport in the series, it's not a surprise this show got cancelled. Not only was the premise somewhat restrictive for a long term sitcom but a lot of the writing in the first two episodes alone is genuinely horrible I'm afraid. No matter how good Gillan/Cho are with each other, neither of them can elevate the pure dreck of this show. I've heard from some people that the show gets better and there's at least one episode where Gillan gets to showcase her vocal talents but I'm not sure I want to continue to watch to find out really.


True Detective: I enjoyed the first season of this show quite a lot, though at times the Breaking Bad style hype it generated was a little tiresome. On the plus side, the complete cast/location/story change for the show's second season so far has worked. I've only seen the first episode but already I'm enjoying Rachel McAdams hard bitten Ani and Taylor Kitsch's sheriff, Paul while both Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn (especially the latter) have been a pleasant surprise too. Unlike the first season, I think there's going to be less supernatural/occult elements to it but with a striking new theme tune, great cast and a nice sense of California Noir, I'll be sticking with this.


- Charisma Carpenter and Roger Bart will be playing the parents of Ariana Grande's character in Scream Queens.
- Emma Roberts will be returning for the last few episodes of American Horror Story: Hotel.
- Hannibal has been cancelled by NBC after three seasons.
- John Barrowman will be back as Malcolm Merlyn for Arrow's fourth season.
- Contrary to recent rumours there won't be a Hawkgirl TV series. The character however will be a regular on Legends Of Tomorrow though.
- Aisha Tyler has joined Criminal Minds for it's 11th season.
- Penny Dreadful has been renewed for a third season of nine episodes.
- Sinqua Walls is returning as Lancelot for Once Upon A Time's fifth season.
- Aquarius has been renewed for a second season.
- Chris Rock will play an inmate as well as a person from Lucious' past in the second season of Empire.

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