Lucy

Basically this show was Blackadder for children, and definitely helped form my sense of humour growing up! A very well written comedic show, full of a range of humour and some cracking songs too. Really loved all the characters and how the show didn't take itself too seriously - there were a huge array of modern inventions slipping into the medieval storylines.

Possibly the standout episode is the one where Robin Hood recreates the entire Crystal Maze with a range of medieval contraptions to trap King Jon's guards - absolutely mad, but brilliant fun!

After the joy that was Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes was a welcome return to the screen. It’s not quite as tightly written as it’s predecessor, and the main format is largely unchanged, but it’s a fun show led by large, loveable characters filled with a great 80′s soundtrack and the plots of each police case are varied enough to keep you guessing, just a little bit, each week.

Ashes to Ashes follows a similar plot line to Life on Mars in that Alex is searching for the reasons why she has been transported back in time, and how she could get back home to the present day. Unlike Life on Mars however, Ashes to Ashes focuses more on the revolution of the police force to a ‘modern’ force in the 80s as well as many of the social movements and changes happening around that time. It’s certainly interesting to see big events from the early 80s in dramatised form, and the team’s reactions to the events were wonderfully acted and scripted.

Alex and Gene Hunt have a great relationship, full of grudging respect, banter and comaraderie as well as an underlying attraction for each other. They tackle cases with a two pronged approach that always seems to meet nicely in the middle and certainly care about the police force and their fellow officers, both calling them their “family” throughout the show. I’m always a fan of a solid police partnership and although this one was different to Gene and Sam’s, Alex and Gene made for a likeable, solid team to get behind each episode.

Ray and Chris from Life on Mars make for a welcome return, with their story arcs mainly being becoming more of his own kinder man (Ray) and standing up for himself and others (Chris). Good to see such likeable characters getting their backstories expanded and characterisations fleshed out over the course of the show. Shaz and Viv are great supporting characters added to the police ensemble and they provide plenty of wit and drama to the proceedings.

Ashes to Ashes combines police cases with the mystery of Alex’s apperance in the 1980′s and the changes taking place during that time period very well, balancing each element across the series as well as during individual episodes. Gene Hunt’s swagger and gusto combined with Alex’s more refined approaches to cases makes for entertaining viewing and the stakes are often high for the police team as there is a significant lack of technology to help them out! Relying on old fashioned police work, research, contacts and luck keeps the audience guessing, and sometimes the outcomes aren’t favourable for all characters (RIP Viv).

Season 3 focuses on the inspection of the police unit and Alex uncovering more about how and why she came to be in the 1980s, adding a more mystery and supernatural element to the show. The biblical references and imagery of heaven and hell become more and more clear towards the season’s finale the the reveal of a police purgatory was a fitting (if a little too neat) end to the whole Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes universe.

I certainly will miss seeing Gene Hunt on my screen, may there forever be more anti-heroes like him making the world a better place, one questionable deed at a time.

Mitchell and Webb certainly had fun producing this sketch show. Lots of different sketches, some more successful than others, and reoccuring gags/sketches over the seasons are definitely worth watching. Some gags do run on for a bit long, or have a very niche audience that they would appeal to, however in almost all episodes there's a laugh out loud moment for everyone watching and the pair have enough quick wittedness about them to keep you guessing until the end of each sketch.

Reoccuring sketch highlights include Numberwang, The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar and The Helivets. My absolute favourite however are any sketches feature James Bond characters/villians. Mitchell and Webb manage to nail the characterisations and cliches of the spy genre so well and turn famous Bond scenes into absolute hillarity!

This is a really insightful, brilliant documentary series following the East Mississippi Community College football team and the journey several of their key players make over the course of a season. Even though I barely know anything about Aerican football, I was drawn in to the training, tactics and football games just as much as the backstories and character driven pieces. The docu-series was well filmed and had superb storytelling that brought not only the players, but the teachers and coaches to life too.

Unusually for a documentary, there is no narrator for the series, all the players, coaches and staff narrate when necessary which gives the whole season an intimate feel - as if each person is talking directly to you. I love how the film crew allowed the players to be themselves and get some honest and heartbreaking truths from all the players, helping us understand the journey and sacrifices they were making.

The show focuses on four main players and how they grow over the football season. Roland, Wyatt, DJ and John all have issues, difficult home lives or less than favourable upbrinings that are discussed during the show. Last Chance U doesn't shy away from thug/redneck culture or issues of race and poverty and hearing from the individuals to which these issues affect really grounds the series and makes it impactful in a way a narrated docu-film never could. It was refreshing to hear from locals from Mississippi and what the team meant for them and their community, highlighting how important sport is in changing lives of not just players, but of whole groups of people for the better.

Throughout the show we also learn about the history of EMCC, football scholorship process, the fans and their passion for the team. the operations of running a community college team and tactics that make a great football player. Lots of content and a great range of individuals are interviewed to provide their expertise which was wonderful to hear from.

However, Ms Wagner is the real star of the show as the players academic supervisor/mum to them all, giving them stability, encouragement and being there for them constantly throughout their highs and lows of the football season as well as the academic year. The boys all respected her and she had a great relationship with everyone. Seeing her break down in tears when the players graduated brought tears to my eyes.

Season 2 features more of the same as season 1; lots of personal stories from players, lots of learning and growth (both academically and athletically) and lots of excellent football games to watch. The impact of the first season being shown on Netflix was prominent this series, but coaches and players still but heads and there's plenty of drama to go round.

I love getting to know several key players, their motivations, aspirations, footballing dreams and backstories. This season featured a lot more from the coaches and their families too - giving a great picture of what makes EMCC and the EMCC family. It was great to catch up with a few of the guys from the previous season and see where they were (thankfully all still in school!)

Each episode in season 2 had a focus/theme and the ones about the role of religion, the importance of family and taking a look at other football playing schools in the league were very interesting and showed the complexity of being a football player and the expectations/pressures that the football business has on everyone involved.

But the biggest change in season 2 was the impact of Buddy on the players. He's got a very aggressive coaching style, which can get results on the football field, but how does it affect the young men when they're not football players? I felt that the wider issues of growing up, becoming an adult and leading a positive life where more the focus of season 2 and it was interesting to explore the people behind the players as it were.

As usual Ms Wagner is the best of the best and I love her dedication to the young men. She really cares, about all of them and their futures. So pleased she decided to do something for herself at the end of the season! I hope there's a season 3, but without a huge portion of the staff returning, it may be tricky. Either way, I would like to see a new head coach take over the role at EMCC and see what that brings to the team.

Iron Fist is quite a mis-match of a show where too many things are thrown into the story line, and too few of them actually taking root and developing well. It features three main story lines: a grieving young man finding his place in the family company, a martial arts/superhero mythology origin story and a corporate buisness scandal with warring board members trying to stab each other in the back. None of these stories fully come to fruition, and none of them link well together, producing a rather jarring first season.

The season starts off very s l o w l y - its takes 2 hours before the other characters realise/accept Danny is back from the dead; something they could have resolved in 20 minutes. Although key characters are introduced earlyish, it feels like it takes an age to actually get to know them. By episode 5, I was more on track with the show and the pace had picked up a wee bit (thanks to Claire Temple, always a solid addition to the storyline) but it had taken almost 5 hours to get only a bit onboard with the show.. much too long really. Pacing was something this series relaly struggled on and 13 episodes was waaay too long, the whole plotline could have fitted into 8-10 episodes easily and would have cut out lots of the show's weaker moments.

Danny Rand, explores his grief, anger and confusion in a 'fish-out-of-water' style for most of the season, which doesn't set him up to be a 'superhero', rather highlights his immaturity and doesn't fit into this mystical defender of K'un-Lun persona which the show shoves down your throat at every oppotunity. The writing for Danny isn't exactly great - he veers from being a whiny child tone minute to a wise proveb sprouting oracle the next. It would have been far better to either have Danny discover his powers in New York, through his grieving process or have Danny be more of a Batman businessman who wants to do more for the world and aquires his powers whilst doing so. Either way, the Iron Fist orgin story didnt slot in well with the action in New York, which was disapointing.

There were too many 'big bad' characters in the show as well, which although gave more of an impending sense of doom, just meant that everything was rather 'bitty'. Harold was an obvious villian posing as a nice guy, Madam Gao of course wasn't on Danny's side, the Hand and Bakuto's faction of the Hand as well as Davos and Danny's strict upbringing were all up against Danny and Colleen and they all jumbled together to provide the 'enemy' but not a force to be reckoned with. Danny and Colleen were able to take down their enemies far too quickly and easily - even when they were constantly outnumbered and outgunned! It was have been forgiveable once, but every fight scene like it did get tiring after a while.

I’m sure I’m not the first to comment on the fight choreography in general in Iron Fist, it was passable but Daredevil was a lot better. The show really was its own worst enemy, telling us repeatedly what a great martial artist Danny was, and then not following this up with Finn Jones actually showcasing top notch martial arts! With a longer amount of training and preparation, I’m sure the fighting style could have been resolved.

Even with all these more negative attributes, there are some good elements to the show. Colleen Wing was a great character, who did show some martial arts ability and could perform her fight scenes well. The highlights of the entire season were her cage fight scenes, very well acted and choreographed, it definitely got me watching! It was good to see such a strong, determinded and assured character as Colleen in te Marvel tv universe, she knew exactly what she believed in and stayed true to her martial arts philosophy and upbringing, which was good to see.

Claire Temple is always a highlight of the Marvel tv universe, and she had the best one liners of the season by far. Great to see her and Colleen being such gal pals - that’s certainly a draw for me! I even (dare I say it) really liked Colleen and Danny’s relationship, it grew from friendship and companionship in the martial arts to something more romantic pretty fluidly and I did feel like they worked well together (even if they have a long way to go).

I did enjoy Joy Meachum being a strong businesswoman, until her character development crashed and she was too dependent on abiding by her father’s wishes and wanting to kill Danny for changing things too much. A very poor ending for what could have been a great female character in te business world, and definitely could have been on par with Hogarth if circumstances were different. Ward was set up too much to hit rock bottom and have a redemption/venegence arc for me and felt a bit fake. Although I was happier where he ended up by the end of the season, it was a bit too cliched.

All in all I wouldn’t watch the show again, but I am to some extent, glad I did watch Iron Fist - it’s certianly good homework before The Defenders and the mostly strong female characters were a welcome addition to the Marvel universe.

The absolute pinnacle of nature documentaries, this captivating exploration of our home planet goes to extraordinary lengths to find and film natures' wonders. Everything from the animals, to the plants and even the weather has been captured at its absolute finest and is narrated wonderfully and unobtrusively by David Attenborough. The breathtaking beauty of Earth is presented in such stunning visual splendor that, at times, you forget you too are a part of life on this planet.

An absolute gem of a sci-fi show, with twisting plot lines, well rounded characters and an unsettling look at what actually could happen in the very near future - Continuum makes you think, feel and think again about the larger society and ethics of technology.

I can’t fault much with this Canadian sci-fi; the city of Vancover is used beautifully, the ‘heroes’ and ‘villians’ are all shades of grey and most go through substantial genuine character development, the early seasons full of police cases are executed well (if not amazing, they cover everything needed), the main story arcs for each season are substantial and paced fairly well plus the show is not afraid to pull punches with characters making big decisions long before each finale or characters dying unexpectedly (but inkeeping with the show’s premise and story line). It’s a great sci-fi/crime drama with enough flair and originality to make it different and stand out a bit amongst its peers.

The main plot line follows Kiera Cameron after she unexpectantly goes back in time 60 years. She is soon joined by tech whiz-kid Alec and police detective Carlos who for series 1-2, help her stop Liber8 from destorying society, corporations and spreading their anti-capiltalist message. Kiera, Alec and Carlos form a great three pronged team, each with the different skill sets to get results and deal with the terroist threat from Liber8.

I was very pleased that the writers didn't go to the usual infatuation between Kiera and Carlos because it really allowed the story to move with credibility. After all, people can love and work with each other and not be in a relationship! Their buddy cop friendship and mutural trust was a powerful force and really impressed me as the season's went on as both Kiera and Carlos test each other's friendship and partnership to the limit. Kiera and Alec have a more big sister/little brother type relationship, which comes with all the highs and lows of sibling camaraderie. A great bond between these three characters formed a strong set of perspectives for the show to approach challenges and different events from, and definitely kept it interesting!

Each character in the trio, and the members of Liber8 went through quite the character development, especially Kiera, Alec and Kellog. They all realised that the future is not written, they can be guided by others actions and they are in control of change. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse (e.g. Kellog got too big for his boots by the end). The show deals with big questions such as the freedom of choice, free will, fate, destiny, ambition, sacrifice andth greater good with startling realism and a, not perfect, but good exploration of these themes with Kiera and Alec’s characters.

Continuum is full of great characters and well fleshed out backstories, often skipping backwards (or forwards) in time to explain why certain characters behaved the way they did. Although the flashforwards/backs were a little shoe-horned in at times, they did allow a larger perspective on certain events in the series and gave the time travel series an actual sense of time travel.

The time travel elements of the show are not truly explored until season 3 and 4, and they always seem to follow rules that are internally consistent (e.g. the show ignores paradoxes) Thankfully the 3 different timelines/time continuums featured in the show are explained well, with science jargon hiding the technicalities of some things, but in most respect the sci-fi elements are plausible and add excitement to the VPDs cases and credibility to Kiera's quest to return home. Also the future technology featured in the show was awesome, who doesn’t want Kiera’s super suit or her collapsable gun?!

Possibly the most fascinating element of the show is the ambiguity of Kiera's original mission. Are Liber8 a terrorist group or a revolutionary blessing? Are Kiera’s choices helping or hindering the future? Are Liber8 campaigning for what is right or is Kiera? Do Liber8 have a better plan for the future or should Kiera try to protect the future that already exists? Lots of questions about choice and changing the course of events in the future come into play in season 3 and 4 and it’s a shame season 4 wasn’t longer as the show was really starting to get into its stride about discussing and exloring such philosophical questions.

Although the special effects were limited (the budget can't have been huge...) they were well slotted into the action and police cases, highlighting the future technology but not allowing it to take over from the crimes/police work of the VPD. Although the police department got destroyed almost every season which was always pretty realistic and full of nerve racking explosions (you'd think they would have relocated their base of operations).

Oh and I should probably mention that the show is funny; there are some fantastic one-liners in there as well as running jokes such as Kellog always eating breakfast food in season 1 (like Kellog’s the cereal company) and Kiera not being up to speed with 2010s pop culture knowledge or gadgetry.

All in all a great little sci-fi show, which although won’t make it’s mark on the genre as a whole, fills out a little niche very nicely and gives a satifying journey for all involved - characters and viewers with a good resolution to the main storyline, realistic ending and enough scope for a spin off (please please do one Syfy).

Hillarious, quick witted and focused on much more than police work, Brooklyn 99 has been an unexpected delight on Netflix and I brisked through watching seasons 1-3 in next to no time at all.

It’s hugely successful pairing of Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher are at the heart of the show and really nail their characters of a slightly immature but talented detective and a seemingly uptight captain respectively. Over the seasons, both characters take on serious, personal and downright bizarre cases and forge a respectful relationship, that remains lighthearted and comedic throughout.

The entire cast is diverse and the actors capture their characters in a very genuine way which is always true to character without becoming cliched. It’s possibly the first show since Firefly to really have me believing in the characters and knowing them inside and out so well and so quickly; by about episode 8, I knew every character well enough to predict their intentions and sympathise with their own personal battles. Having POC actors, POC women, an explicit LGBTQ character in a position of power without any of these being obviously ‘shoehorned in’ is one of the show’s/castings great strengths.

Amy, Rosa and Gina are the three brilliant ladies working in the detective department and every one of them is unique, personable and able to hold their own, in terms of story lines as well as with the guys of the department! As for the male detectives, Jake, Terry, Charles and Holt all suit their roles to a tee and have deep, multi-layered personalities that aren’t stereotypically ‘male cop’ which makes a refreshing change.

Another great change to the police procedural format is that Brooklyn 99′s episodes don’t focus on the actual crime or police work per se. It’s all about the characters working in te police/detective’s department and how they approach cases, work and personal lives as well as what happens when these all interact. Cases if solved are always done as secondary to the main plot of the episode, allowing the comedy and personal lives of the characters to strive through. However, even for police procedural fans such as myself, there are plenty of crime references and cases to be solved in each season!

Each season has a loose plot arc, but mainly it’s the reoccuring references and story lines that keep me watching. Everything from Terry being passionate about health, sensitivity and his kids to the drama with Charles’s ex wife and his dog, to Gina and her dance troupe and the brilliance of the Pontiac Bandit. Everything that reoccurs does so because it’s just so fitting and funny.

I should probably mention that the entire show itself is really funny. The cold open’s are brilliantly written, as is the whole show. Lots of current references peppered throughout and pop culture references (especially Die Hard) and quick wit, openly honest gags that few comedy/drama shows are brave enough to script in (high praise for pointing out problems in America’s own justice system, the treatment of women and highlighting LGBTQ issues in the US). I can’t think of a ‘bad’ episode or a season plot arc that I disliked - it’s rare for a show to have such a solid run of continued good form, especially now in it’s fourth season.

I could go into more detail about just how good the show is, but really it’s worth a watch just for Andy Samberg being himself and rolling with everything that goes down and Andre Braugher stealing scenes (and hearts) as possibly the best damn police detective out there. A great comedy and one that I hope will continue for a long time to come.

Short season from BBC Earth but it really captured the changing of seasons well and how the animals and plants adapted to the often harsh environment. Beautiful camerawork as always, how the BBC cameraman have the patience to film for over a year, I do not know! The series has certianly made me want to go and visit Yellowstone national park, or at least get out into the wilderness more often.

Another solid effort from BBC Earth focusing on the different organisms that inhabit the Earth, giving each group an entire programme to themselves. Althought the cinematography and narration are excellent, having an entire hour dedicated to one type of creature does the limit the series and (unless you are a fan of every animal type) can cause some episodes to drag slightly.