bosporan's reviews

Deborah gets leverage over Marty to finally get her special and Ava must decide whether to support her or pluck up courage to follow her own dreams.

A beautiful bittersweet ending to a fabulous season, neatly wrapping up loose ends in lawsuits, careers and relationships. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder have again been magnificent both individually and in mutually crafting, developing and cementing the bond between these two distinctive women.

A fabulous place to leave the show going out on a high, though it certainly warrants a third outing.

Deborah's special runs into numerous difficulties, primarily finding a backer, causing her and Jimmy to rethink their strategy.

Jimmy takes an uncharacteristic risk, emerging from his customary timid and subservient self to grab the bull by the horns. Paul W. Downs is excellent, carrying the rage in a slightly slapstick, comedic manner to good effect.

Another opening scene discussing retrials and Alford pleas! The show is running in circles repeating the same material in laboriously minute detail and going nowhere.

The first half (episodes 1 - 4) is engaging, entertaining and enjoyable, but it has now gone on too long. It is like a half-baked version of Groundhog Day with a heavy non-linear, repeating loop and has become dour and dreary.

Juliette Binoche is the standout of the back half, but she is unable to rescue it from itself.

The whole thing should have been condensed to six episodes for a more compact and compelling narrative.

Despite the plot being forced and a little silly, this episode works as a unified whole. It explores control, duality, and having a voice.

Nominally Spock centric, several plot threads follow this theme. Of course Spock's inner mixed-species struggle and his betrothal to T'Pring, but also the negotiation they are managing and the relationship between Una and La'an.

Although the resolutions to both the negotiation and Spock's predicament are contrived and carry a whiff of Deus ex, this is another excellent episode, arguably the best so far.

Surrounded by corruption and not knowing in whom they can trust, Marybeth is concerned for Joe's safety and implores him to be careful. Unfortunately leopards cannot change their spots.

The Picketts continue their investigations, Joe in the field and Marybeth through the law. Another great performance from Julianna Guill, hands down the most relatable and interesting character in the show.

Marybeth's attempts to free Nate demonstrate what's good for the goose is good for the gander!

A charming, understated study of the trials and tribulations of the adoption process, its impact upon a relationship and the consequence ripples through friends and family. The central couple are delightfully portrayed by Esther Smith (Nikki) and Rafe Spall (Jason) with a deeply loving and caring relationship, but childless.

The support cast are magnificent and provide contrasting situations to Nikki and Jason. Best friend Erica (Ophelia Lovibond) is married, pregnant and struggling with both her children and her relationship. Sister Karen (Sian Brooke) is looking for love, but her boyfriend is an insensitive jerk.

This all falls together in a fabulous series of relatable, uplifting and emotional stories, all lightly dusted with humour.

Everything is teed up for this charming season closer: Will Karen marry Scott? Will Jason propose to Nikki? Will they get Princess?

In this delightful, emotional rollercoaster, these questions are beautifully answered, whilst new conundrums are born. Hands-down the best episode of the show to-date.

A fabulous finale to a strong second season, it wavered mid-way through, but delivered in spades at the end. Bring on season three!

A quirky Father Brown spin off show which is charming, has a strong cast and all the period accoutrements are as you would expect. Sadly, in this case 'quirky' is a euphemism for 'not very good'.

Some of the stories are OK, but many of them are contrived and require leaps of faith to get across the plot holes. The humour is patchy, with some of it good, subtly peeking from the background, but this is scarred by swathes of vapid slapstick.

The creator is Jude Tindall who also wrote for the 2013 remake of Father Brown, this is nowhere close in quality terms.

With the wide variety of TV available right now, this is not worth the time investment.

Seasons one to three are OK, though not stellar and season three is starting to feel the strain. Season four takes a nosedive from there and is terrible, though inexplicably this has been renewed for a fifth season.

Characters are initially well drawn and relatable, for example the initial behavioural and personality ambiguity of Coogie is interesting. There is some decent development and growth too through the first season and a positive whiff of The Wire.

Ultimately, it seems the writers ran out of ideas and the delightfully unique parts shrank. The remaining hollowed out characters lack clear motivations and direction, with the story becoming a pseudo procedural.

A thoroughly unlikeable hero with daddy issues, he is arrogant, selfish and has a massive chip on his shoulder. The premise of this show is interesting enough, but the execution is twelfth-grade writing-contest level. Everything is drawn to extremes with little subtlety - the villain is immediately apparent even without a twirly moustache.

The core story is hackneyed, with Flash Gordan level effects, over-earnest, immersion-breaking dialogue and a plot that bounces from serendipity to McGuffins and back to magic tech mumbo jumbo.

Clearly The CW is capable of good TV (Superman & Lois, Stargirl), but this has too many extraneous constraints, competing with the need to write a compelling story.

There has been a recent flurry of shows with teenagers exploring their familial links to the supernatural, including Locke & Key which is from the same comic book. It appears there were not enough airwaves for them both, so this was ditched, which is a disappointment, although it is the weaker of the two.

Deloris and Fred Allen are retired monster hunters who try to keep their children out of the business; inevitably this is an impossible task. The cast is strong to a good depth, the premise is solid and the writing generally well crafted. Somehow though, it lacks that 'je ne sais quoi' that Locke & Key has.

An entertaining watch, but left hanging due to cancellation.

The introduction of good actors makes a massive difference, especially the cop on the case. Jemma Redgrave is a class act and quite a few of the other guest parts are strong as well.

A pedestrian, though satisfactory case of the day, but the Sam Ryan plot is comprised of random, opaque snippets and has lost the intriguing momentum generated in the opening two episodes. The writing is struggling with balance between the two.

Genesis Lynea seems to suffer a calibration problem. Last time Simone was a broody, angry teenager, whereas in this episode she is an annoyingly positive, Butlin's redcoat.

A lot of nothing happening, presumably to develop tension, but the plot development by serendipity, stupidity and stubborn child is wearisome. A middling episode with a contrived story generating artificial jeopardy and a precocious Leia calling the shots over one of the greatest Jedi.

The final confrontation lacks credibility and peters out with a disappointing whimper and the episode cliffhanger is as predictable as it is trite.

After a strong mid-season finale, this is a little disappointing, it is not terrible, simply average.

Following Clark's reveal to Lana last time, Lana behaves ridiculously in the extreme. She exhibits as a selfish teenager not in control of her emotions, rather than the intelligent full-grown woman she is.

Emmanuelle Chriqui is a fabulous actress, but she is given a sow's ear for a script. She does as well as anyone could with it, but the silk purse was never attainable.

With Dominique's stabbing at the pigeon mask party, Lola and Jackson struggle to identify the culprit and caricature boss Susan rages at them unreasonably. Freddy and her bird have a difference of opinion which will likely lead to chaos next time.

A solid episode, it moves the plot along, but is a little contrived.

This story has been excellent up to now, but this episode is beginning to stretch the elastic of credibility. The villains are too villainy and 'in your face', perhaps because they feel over confident, but some of their behaviours are extreme caricatures and unnecessarily over the top.

I am liking Marybeth as a character, beautifully portrayed by Julianna Guill as both terrified and courageous in the face of adversity.

Having killed Clyde Lidgard, things do not sit well with Joe despite the town lauding him as a hero. He worries that there is more to what went on than he understands and that some of those around him are somehow involved. Vern, who we already know is involved, tries to gaslight him that everything is alright and that he should not worry.

Another very well done episode with good pacing and moving the plot along. Well played by Michael Dorman and Julianna Guill as the Pickets try to sift their way through the evidence to better comprehend the mystery.

Significant decisions are made, regarding the various relationship wobbles, at the pre marriage outings for Karen and Scott. It seems Jason has made a decision too following some good news and a disappointment.

A charming episode with several plotlines, hopefully the final episode will draw all these issues neatly together.

Significantly stronger than the previous edition. Complicated couples, itchy feet and spying on the competition are the key themes.

Another believable and relatable episode with several relationship implications.

Lots of things sort of half happened, but nothing follows through. Several characters look to change their situation in a rather half-hearted sort of way. Disappointingly the status quo remains unchallenged.

The opening couple of episodes are good, with a great concept, well executed. Elodie Yung and Adan Canto work well as Thony and Arman with the plot drawing me into their orbit.

As the season goes on, though, it progressively deteriorates until it becomes completely unwatchable at episode five. I confess to bowing out, so I cannot comment on the final five, but it is difficult to believe this show is salvageable at this point.

Disappointing after such a promising start, this could and should have been a good show.

The inevitable implosion and the whole edifice crashes down.

A fabulous first half to this series, the back half, though, is sluggish, half baked and not so great. It would have been better to condense everything to four episodes.

Great music, some good performances and an exhilarating story, let down by poor pacing.

The Pistols' own Yoko, Nancy Spungen (Emma Appleton) is a spiralling junkie and creates chaos with the wedge her relationship with Sid causes. Malcolm leverages the Queen's Jubilee for record release publicity.

A second scrappy episode, four and five could have been combined into one.

The dysfunctional brotherhood rolls on, offending everyone, winning and losing lucrative contracts and generally causing mayhem. This sits well with Vivienne Westwood's bellicose Boudica, burning everything to the ground fantasy until the real-world consequences hit home.

McLaren exploits the Pistols' shunned outcast status to manipulate Steve, generate viral marketing and thwart the establishment's suppression of expression.

A less productive episode than the preceding three, it nudges the timeline along with more of the same.