The Best TV Series - GUEST POST

If you ask film scholars what was the golden age of cinema, you are liable to get differing opinions, but those opinions will be split into two camps for the most part: Defenders of the 40s and defenders of the 70s. Indeed, good arguments can be made by both sides. One side has "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" as prime examples, but the other side has "The Godfather and "Taxi Driver." There’s not going to be these kind of factions when pondering the golden age of pop music. A minority of hipsters may say the 90s, but the general consensus seems to be the 60s. It really is hard to top the era of The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan, Hendrix and Joplin. Literature is such an old art form that to pinpoint any one specific golden age would be simply impossible. Television is not such an old form. There really aren’t any regularly scheduled television shows that predate the 50s. In the time that’s spanned since the advent of the tube, there have obviously been many exceptional shows, like "MASH," "Mary Tyler Moore," "Hill Street Blues" and "Seinfeld" to name a few. But many critics argue that chronic television surfers should be happier than ever, and have ascribed our modern times as the golden age of television. While it’s hard to fathom such a merit because of deplorable reality shows like "Jersey Shore," the fact of the matter is that there are so many spectacular shows on the opposite end of the spectrum. Here are the best of the crop as far as I’m concerned.

Mad Men

Many critics would contend that the departed HBO show "The Sopranos" was the forerunner to this supposed golden age, so it’s only appropriate that the best show on television right now was created by a writer from that show. Week after week, Matthew Weiner and crew produce a rich, riveting and always surprising program. This AMC show, about employees in an advertising agency in 1960s New York, candidly depicts the era, an era that played host to much social change. The ensemble quite simply ranks as one of the greatest ever assembled for a television show, and the production values are nothing short of impeccable. This show has style to burn.

Breaking Bad

Remember Hal, the goofy, eccentric father from "Malcolm in the Middle?" Bryan Cranston, the actor that portrayed him, seems to not. At least there are no shades of him in Cranston’s current role as beloved high school teacher cum tenacious meth kingpin Walter White on the AMC show "Breaking Bad." Cranston is the MVP of modern television. He displays the brutal avarice of man, but he continually finds tender moments to make us empathize with his situation. Apart from him, the show is still pretty phenomenal. The other cast members are uniformly excellent, and the writers seem to possess an endless amount of surprises up their sleeves. Whenever this show is on, I become well-acquainted with the edge of my seat.

Modern Family

Yes, there are great shows that are not on AMC, and yes, some of these shows aren’t so, um, depressing. ABC’s "Modern Family" is the prime example. This uproarious sitcom, about an extended family in southern California, is wickedly clever, expertly performed and oftentimes as touching as it is funny. The writers of this show are famous for using incidents from their lives and translating them to the weekly scripts, which provides for family dynamics that feel very real. And given the hijinks that can occur on this show, it makes you wonder what kind of lives these writers lead.

As I said, this is arguably the golden age of television, so there are wonderful shows aplenty, many of which get rewarded at Emmy time and by critics on top ten lists. These three just happen to be the most golden of this golden age in my opinion.

Author bio: Zack Mandell is a movie enthusiast and owner of www.movieroomreviews.com and writer of movie reviews. He writes extensively about the movie industry for sites such as Gossip Center, Yahoo, NowPublic, and Helium.

TV Review: AWAKE - Slack Water 1.10

I may as well start by telling you that this is going to be a pretty short review, without doubt this is the worst episode of Awake yet. The show has been frustrating me in recent weeks with nothing of any real significance happening, there are only three episodes left in this debut season now and what started off as a promising new show has quickly gone down hill for me. I would say so far "That's Not My Penguin" has been the best episode, it was certainly the last one which seemed to give us any sort of answer. You may have caught the previews earlier this week and in all honesty Awake looks like it will be brilliant on Thursday night, I'm just not holding my breath.

I said a couple of weeks back following another poor episode that I want the answer to two things. Firstly, the conspiracy surrounding Michael Britten's car accident and secondly, the answer to which dream is in fact not a dream. If anything "Slack Water" gave us a little more info regarding the conspiracy as we now know that it has something to do with a rather large amount of Heroin that someone wants out of L.A. Problem is they can't move the Heroin until Michael Britten moves to Oregon, that's all going on in the red dream which this episode seemed to concentrate on.

The conspiracy was only touched upon briefly and the rest of the episode remained in the red dream but concentrated on Rex's girlfriend, Emma, that's her name, didn't think I'd remember that. Emma is pregnant with Rex's baby and seems to have turned to both Michael and Hannah for support, she clearly wants to keep the baby and have the Britten's involved, however her parents have other ideas on what she should do both with the pregnancy and her life. In the red reality I think that Emma will be moving in with the Britten's, really I don't find that interesting at all, but it will be interesting (I hope) to see where they take the story.

Red seems to have become more prominent in the last couple of weeks, and after seeing next weeks preview It would seem to lean towards the red one even further. Personally, I still think Green is real, although nothing has pointed firmly in either direction. I certainly hope that this part of the story line is done with by the end of the first season because if (and it's a big if) Awake gets a second season I don't think I could take the bore of not knowing for much longer.

I really think Awake should be kicking in a bit more right now, I look at Person of Interest and don't remember the last time I saw an episode which I considered not that good, it's run in has been solid. Awake has had three maybe four episodes which really got me thinking the others just haven't quite cut it. Awake did have a lot of potential and I hope the three episodes we have coming up go up a gear and start to impress me a little.

TV Previews: GAME OF THRONES - The Old Gods and the New 2.6, NYC 22 - Lost and Found 1.4, AWAKE - Say Hello to My Little Friend 1.11 and PERSON OF INTEREST - No Good Deed 1.22

Movies Music & Television here as always with all your favourite US TV show previews in one place, don't bother re-typing everything with YouTube when everything is here in one place for you and make sure sure you don't miss out on all the latest by following us on Facebook or Twitter, on with the promo's now;

Game of Thrones is the first one up as always, without doubt one of the best shows on TV right now. Like I said last week the only reason I stopped reviewing it was the fact that there is so much going on, so many different people involved and I really didn't feel like I could give it a fair write up. Things have certainly become more interesting in the last couple of weeks when that lady who was wondering through the red wasteland has shown up in one of the kingdoms. Looking at this week that story is no different and Game of Thrones seems on it's way back up as all the Kings and Queens look to stake their claim on the Iron Throne.

NYC 22 is a show which dropped majorly in my estimation during it's second episode, if you caught last weeks preview of "Thugs and Lovers" then you'll know I said things were looking a little better there, having said that I still haven't watched that episode yet and I'm struggling to find a decent enough reason to put it on, was it any good? Maybe if someone fills me with some confidence regarding it I could tolerate 40 minutes or so, if not then I think NYC 22 may just fall by the wayside for me. Take a look at the latest promo for "Lost and Found" and see what you think, It's only had 647 hits on YouTube (at the time of writing) which really does not speak volumes.

Onto Awake now a show which has been disappointing me recently, I do think it has a great concept but I feel like its stepped away from that recently, Now I'm going to have to get on and watch the previous episode "Slack Water" as this most recent preview of "Say Hello to My Little Friend" really does look impressive. Awake seems like it's finally going to start giving us some answers whilst the plot also thickens at the same time. I did try to watch "Slack Water" last night but fell asleep but be assured I'll be on it tonight and will have the review for you tomorrow, in the mean time enjoy this weeks promo.

Person of Interest for you now, the show which just keeps getting better and better with Last week's "Many Happy Returns" being one of my favourite episodes yet. We know that POI will be rolling into a second season which will probably start around September time along with Dexter, Homeland and The Walking Dead so you can be sure that in this the penultimate episode "No Good Deed" that J.J. Abrams will be packing a punch. Yet more character development seems to be afforded to the machine here as Reese and Finch fight to protect everything they have built up , enjoy.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Many Happy Returns 1.21

Ok, so we should start by saying "Many Happy Returns" Mr Reese, for this week it was everyone's favourite kick ass hero's birthday and he was due to celebrate in some style as Person of Interest delivered one of it's most powerfully emotional episodes yet. In fact I will go out on one here and say again that this episode has been the best one yet, last week Ruben and I had a discussion in the comments about John Reese, is he good or bad? "Many Happy Returns" proved once and for all that he is a good guy who lost the love of his life to an abusive husband whom he swiftly dealt with. Person of Interest has delved into so many layers since it's "Pilot" and it's really done a great job of removing itself from the normal mondaying cop show, every character has a purpose, a backing story and even when there not involved in the weekly episode their story continues to fizzle in the back ground.

Reese going rouge was equally as satisfying as seeing him sitting in the dark watching the love of his life marry another man, the same man who accidentally killed her and then staged a car crash to make it all look legitimate. We never actually saw Reese kill him but it goes without saying that although we didn't see anything we know exactly what happened. What worked great this week was the fact that Reese himself became a Person of Interest to us and more importantly Detective Carter, who finally done some decent detective work after the the FBI found Reese's blood in the house of his ex-girlfriend, that story of Reese being careless enough to slip up and leave some evidence was the backbone for the POI story in the modern day as Reese got to grips with another abusive man who was treating his wife Kara (Dagmara Domniczyk) the same way Peter Arndt treat Jessica, behaviour like that just doesn't seem to sit well with John Reese and everyone got to find out just what he is capable of when he "loses it".

"Many Happy Returns" has to be one of the tightest episodes I have seen, what I mean by that is there really wasn't much else going on, it was indeed many happy returns to John Reese who was the centre of attention both in flashbacks and the modern day. Even when Finch gave him the day off, Reese couldn't help but tail him as he knew he was lying about the fact there was no number. And let's face it, Lionel wasn't exactly up to the job of tailing Kara, she was onto him in no time and Reese's day off lasted all of fifteen minutes.

This week kind of served up a little what would you do question, one of morality. Yeah, it's not right to kill people of course but "Many Happy Returns" allowed you to see that the abusive ex-husbands were in fact complete dicks, personally I didn't care that Reese killed Peter Arndt (that's how it looked), nor would I have cared if he had killed US Marshall Jennings because like Reese explained to Carter there are things he can do that she simply cannot and one of those things is make sure that Jennings gets the punishment he deserves. I was actually expecting another ass kicking here but Reese went that extra mile to prove to Crater and probably himself that he is a changed man, it was far more satisfying to see Marshall Jennings fitting up with 10 keys of Heroin and receive a lenghly prison sentence.

I remember saying a while back that we never see John Reese go home, where does he live? We got a little glimpse of his basic apartment in New York at the start of his day off, he really seems to like looking out of windows, doesn't he? Like "Many Happy Returns" wasn't good enough already we were treated to yet another brilliant ending one which I thought why are we going back to? We've already seen Reese in the hospital and bump the wheelchair. Only this time it was the reveal that it was Finch in the chair who replied to Reese's apology as "no, I'm sorry John",  brilliant finish before we saw Reese enjoying his birthday present of a brand new apartment thanks to Finch.

Really up there with the best of the best POI episodes, two left now and surely some answers to come as to who Finch really is, a great season cliffhanger possibly? Not only was the finale of the episode brilliant but as always POI ramps up the emotion with a brilliant soundtrack one which I know you will all be looking for this morning, for you the song is by Dangermouse & Sparklehorse and is titled "Revenge", I put the video below, enjoy and I'll be back with more POI next week.

One more thing, John Reese's Beard;

Did anyone think that Mr Reese looked a little like Jack from Lost with that beard of his?

TV Review: AWAKE - Game Day 1.9

Did you get anything out of Awake this week? I really didn’t, I’ve seen a mixed bunch of reviews some good, some bad and I have to agree with the bad ones. Awake lost my interest a couple of weeks ago, following “That’s not my Penguin” I was really expecting Awake to kick it up a notch, I really haven’t seen that and like last weeks “Nightswimming” I really found “Game Day” to be boring, uneventful and of no use what so ever to anything I want to know about this show. Will that do for you? Of course not so let’s continue.

“Game Day” is the first episode in a few weeks which has afforded equal amounts of time to both realities, as always there were two separate cases to be solved both of which cantered around a football game between L.A and Seattle, in one reality L.A won the game and in the other they lost. That resulted in a gambler having his business burnt to the ground by his wife and a fan being killed by his brother. Really, I didn’t care about either case I felt no investment to them at all and can only think they were there to serve as a filler to the story as always.

I suppose the main story this week was that of Rex and Emma (Daniela Bobadilla), who we found out was pregnant before the Britten’s got into the accident. A neat little twist that I didn’t see coming, probably because I’ve lost interest, I really find myself now just wanting to know which the reality is. There is probably some message there for the audience with the story in both the red and green dreams, the most pertinent of which belongs to the red one, where Michael lives with wife Hannah. The pregnancy of Emma will keep Hannah in L.A instead of moving to Oregon, remember during the early episodes she wanted another baby, so maybe having a grandchild will serve as the replacement for that.

What do you think of that storyline? For me I would rather have seen them move away to Oregon as that would have provided some answers – I think. Had they moved away and then Michael fell asleep and woke up in the green reality (the one which I think is not a dream) then that would be it, case closed. Of course at the end of this episode Michael didn’t tell Hannah, we are just to presume that is what he was going to tell her (unless I was asleep at that point), who’s to say that it will change her mind? They might still move to Oregon. I really don’t know, which is good I suppose, it keeps us guessing but I’m just not sure that I’m interested anymore.

I hear that the ratings on this show are low enough to suggest that it might not be picked up for a second season, personally I can see why as I don’t feel invested at all. I really hope that Awake can deliver some answers in the next couple of weeks and maybe even give us some bigger clue (unless we’ve had one I missed) as to which dream is real. I put a theory forward a couple of weeks back that both of these worlds we see now are dreams and that we are yet to see the reality, I’ve took a look at what the show creators and NBC say on that matter who confirm that one of them is not a dream, so what’s your vote red or green?

How you doing with Awake? Do you still think it’s full of mystery, are you still invested in the weekly lack of clues, or like me have you just about given up on what promised to be a very intriguing show that has failed to hold its audience base?

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Matsya Nyaya 1.20

This really is the best show on TV right now isn’t it? Person of Interest was back from a three week break which in all honesty felt like a life time given the other garbage we have on TV right now. Following “Flesh and Blood” you were left wondering who the enemy would be now for Reese and Finch, question answered still Elias really as he runs the corrupt sector of the police force know as HR. There are of course other enemies and possibly a new HR leader now, “Matsya Nyaya” dealt with all of this brilliantly whilst also providing the story arc which will surely flow into the second season.

One of the best things about Person of Interest for me is the realism and believability, ok some of the stories are a little far fetched and the lines of dialogue between Reese and Finch are at times cheesy, but it’s the action which does it for me. John Reese is a guy like anyone else, yes he can kick ass but he isn’t invincible and when he gets kicked punched or indeed shot it hurts and Person of Interest doesn’t shy away from showing us that.

“Matsya Nyaya” translated to English means “law of fish”, the meaning in this episode, there is always a big fish and big fish live by laws. That brings me to the biggest fish of them all Elias, who you would think will run his criminal empire from prison, he still might, but clearly when he is away Captain Lynch is the head of HR. Not now as Fusco killed him, could Fusco be a bigger fish than we first thought? I think maybe he can, let’s not forget before Reese got into him Fusco was into all kinds of corruption, during that time I’ve no doubt that he worked himself up the ladder in someway, maybe even as Elias’ inside man. Honestly, I wouldn’t rule that out.

The main story this week was really entertaining, that isn’t always the case. The vast majority are procedural and pass us by as we watch the main story unfold in the background. I suppose the same could be said for this procedural as it did pass by whilst all the excitement happened in the background, but this one had a few unexpected layers and this weeks POI was in fact the victim and the perpetrator, you knew that Reese would win the day but it did add an extra dimension.

The flashbacks on Person of Interest are always so well handled and this week was no different as we were taken back to 2010 when Reese was sent with partner Cara to China in order to protect some genius computer software (any guesses) which needed to be extracted from a no go zone. So this was Reese’s first involvement with “the machine”
although he didn’t know at the time what he was getting into, it also delivered to us the reason the CIA want him dead.  Did you recognise the female CIA boss? Yeah, she is the one who met with Will Ingram a while back in New York, a pretty hard nosed woman you would think, yet she didn’t know how quick to get out of there when Harold Finch’s name
was mentioned. Yet another nod to fish, Finch is clearly a bigger fish than that of a geeky software engineer.

Just when you are sitting thinking to yourself that “Matsya Nyaya” is one of the best episodes yet, the final scene throws in another brilliant story arc, Reese’s partner Cara alive and well in New York eliminating the very CIA agents who tried to kill her. That’s good news for Reese in my opinion as Cara and him didn’t have any beef with each other they were simply carrying out an order from the CIA, who let’s face it wanted neither of them to return. So, now you would think that Cara will track down Reese and she can join his ever growing team.

Person of Interest really is bubbling towards an immense finale and I’m really looking forward to the second season, I've never known a show which give such depth to a machine, one which it would seem everything revolves around. I have some more questions that I would like answers to now. Is John Reese really a bad guy? He didn’t shoot Cara after all. Just who is Harold Finch? And, why are the CIA so frightened of him? Is Fusco a major fish? Or just caught up in a situation he can’t control? And finally is Cara the mysterious computer hacker Root? I suppose will have to wait and find out.

TV Previews: GAME OF THRONES - The Ghost of Herrenhal 2.5, NYC 22 - Thugs and Lovers 1.3, AWAKE - Slack Water 1.10, PERSON OF INTEREST - Many Happy Returns 1.21

All of the latest trailers for your favourite US TV shows as always here at Movies Music & Television.

Game of Thrones 2.5 – The Ghost of Herrenhal

Oh, ok so I finally know who the blonde lady walking through the desert is, she is air to the Throne, or at least that’s what she says anyway. She will have to join the que, which incidentally is quite long right now. I stopped reviewing Game of Thrones for one reason,
there is just far to much going on for a newcomer like me so I made an informed decision to keep watching but stop reviewing. I will probably do some sort of season review when it wraps, as for “The Ghost of Herrenhal” I really could not tell you what’s going on in this clip.

Awake 1.10 - Slack Water

Just a quick note on Awake this week, I haven't watched "Game Day" yet I plan to do that tonight. For that reason I haven't watched this preview yet so let me know what you think.

NYC 22 1.3 - Thugs and Lovers

I didn’t review the second episode of NYC 22, reason? Well I just didn’t really find it any different from the “Pilot”, which was procedural but good. I really wasn’t excited about anything last time round so decided not to bother. The latest offering of “Thugs and Lovers” looks ok in this thirty second or so clip where the rookies help stop a bank robbery. It looks good but weather my opinion changes from the second episode will depend on weather I review the episode or not.

Person of Interest 1.21 – Many Happy Returns

Following what was one of Person of Interest’s best episodes in “Matsya Nyaya” (review coming tomorrow) I got to thinking on what they could follow it up with, we are on the run to the season finale now and this show really does just get better and better, never failing to disappoint and “Many Happy Returns” doesn’t look like it will change that anytime soon. The machine pumps out yet another SSN for the team to deal with, but this one’s different and Reese feels the need to go rouge in order to show the guy “what a real monster looks like”.

TV Review: DEXTER - Waiting to Exhale 2.1

This season of Dexter really is shaping up to show the promise everyone has been telling me, I thought the season premiere “It’s Alive” was good, but this served up better again. Kind of like the first episode this one saw a couple of loose ends which needed to be tied up (literally) from the premiere. The episode still served as a little bit of a continuation for me as everyone was still getting over their various encounters with Rudy (Christan Camargo), The Ice Truck Killer. That was until FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy showed up in order to setup a joint task force with Miami Metro to catch The Bay Harbour Butcher.

Lundy is famed throughout the FBI for his investigation skills into serial-killers, but has he got what it takes to match the skills brought by Dexter, The Bay Harbour Butcher, a title he seems quite proud of. I don’t know but I’m inclined to think that maybe Special Agent Lundy might get somewhere near to Dexter Morgan in this case, but I’ve no doubt that our favourite blood spatter lab geek will have some brilliant way of tampering with the evidence to point in some other direction.

Rita started to get into a bit more of the mood I was expecting her to with Dexter, her ex Paul was killed in a prison fight in the previous episode and she did listen to what he had to say about Dexter. Although she didn’t admit it to Paul she had followed things up and
finally started to ask Dexter some serious questions, the kind of which have backed him into a bit of a corner where he has had to admit to being an addict, really Dexter was using this as a way to get something off his chest, he is addicted to killing after all, but Rita took it in the opposite way and thinks her new perfect man is actually a Heroin addict and forced him into rehab.

Now to one of those loose ends, and the part of the episode which intentionally or not provided me with a little light relief. In the previous episode a young gang banger was killed by a dude named Little Chino, a man who it would appear runs Miami with an iron fist, or maybe a machete, however you look at it. That forced Dexter into a decision in “Waiting To Exhale” and very early on he shot up “not so” Little Chino with a double dose of M99 before strapping him to the table, however indecision was about to get the better of him and Huge, sorry Little Chino escaped. Dexter now has a problem, he needs to find
Little Chino before he finds him.

Dexter is left feeling guilty when a woman who came forward as a witness is murdered by Little Chino, something which wouldn’t have happened if Dexter hadn’t been indecisive. Thing is Dexter is now paranoid that Little Chino will be following him which leads him to a confrontation with Sgt Doakes who he mistakes for muscle-bound Chino. “Who else you got following you” asks Doakes. Dexter gets his man eventually though and with the extra tape in place he finally breaks his season 2 duck whilst Doakes is none the wiser.

Another brilliant episode and I particularly enjoyed the battle between Chino and Dexter, his size alone was an issue no matter how quick you are, he took some dumping too. Roll on Dexter, bring on Lundy.

TV Review: AWAKE - Nightswimming 1.8

I do really enjoy this show but since the episode which featured the penguin a few weeks back I’ve become a little disheartened. From that point I really expected things to be ramped up a bit, instead what we have had are two boring weeks in my opinion. Nothing has really happened other than police procedural drama with a view into what life is now like for Michael Britten in either of his dreams or reality’s. Following “Nightswimming” I stand even more by the point I made last week that both red and green are merely dreams and we as the audience are yet to see the reality.

The focus this week shifted to the red dream/reality where Britten was trying to relocate a couple in the witness protection program, that situation was happening in the green dream though and served only as a way to cross over the story of police procedural and Britten’s life with his stunning wife Hannah. It was all about how their life is now, Britten was working with a couple in the other reality who had a relationship similar to his, although they love each other they needed reminding of what life was like when the first got together. What is there to say really?

There is nothing here for me to even guess at or make me come up with a new opinion. I have stated a couple of times recently that I thought this show could finish up by the end of this first season, eight episodes in with five left and we are really no further forward. Still, if Awake just continues in this form as police drama would it even get a second season? I’m not so sure it would and I’m guessing that a lot of people may have stopped watching it already.

We have mentioned before about how stunning Michael Britten’s wife Hannah is, “Nightswimming” could have worked a lot better had the Director not tried so hard to cover Laura Allen up, I certainly wouldn’t have minded seeing any of that, wouldn’t you agree? In fact if Laura would like to go skinny dipping on a weekly basis I see no good reason to object.

No Rex again this week, not that I missed him. I can see why he didn’t feature here as it wouldn’t have added as much weight to the scenes between Britten and Hannah, but it seems when they are both involved that there is a little more mystery to be had. I’m sure that next week Rex will be back in the mix and hopefully Awake will deliver us a little more mystery and get us back to where we expect to be by now.

I really can go no further than that this week, again I found myself bored. There are plenty police procedural’s to choose from and Awake should concentrate more on it’s mystery for me.

TV Previews: GAME OF THRONES - Garden of Bones, AWAKE - Game Day 1.9, NYC 22 - Firebomb 1.2, PERSON OF INTEREST - Matsya Nyaya 1.20

As always all the TV previews and trailers for your favourite US TV shows here at Movies Music and Television, enjoy.

First up it's Game of Thrones, a show which I have just got into but am really enjoying. I reviewed the first couple of episodes but following last week I found myself lost off thanks to a few new characters being introduced. In "Garden of Bones" the lady walking through the red wasteland is back so, maybe I'll find out some more there. A battle commences between the Starks and Lannisters and boy King Joffrey chops someone up, love it.

I have the review of Awake's "Nightswimming" coming for you tomorrow, I wasn't that impressed the best part was almost seeing Laura Allen naked but unfortunatley it didn't come to anything. in "Game Day" it would seem that the mystery of the two dreams is going to take centre stage, it looks to involve a Football game so if anything else I shouldn't find myself bored this week.

I really enjoyed the "Pilot" to NYC 22, there was a certain air of freshness about it and it came with a killer soundtrack. It's your standard cop procedural but I really think it's worth your time if you can get into it. Check out the trailer for the second installment of the thirteen part series named "Firebomb" and let me know what you think.

I can't find the promo for Person of Interest on YouTube this week so you will have to cope with me throwing you over to the CBS website to check that out. In "Matsya Nyaya" the machine spits out yet another SSN which sees Reese going undercover as part of an armoured truck crew, a move which gives him painful memories of the last CIA job he was involved with. Take a look over at CBS for the trailer. Let me know what it's like as being in the UK I can't watch it.

TV Review: NYC 22 - Pilot 1.1

NYC 22 is the latest in the huge line of police procedural drama's to hit our screens, premiering on CBS Sunday 15th April 2012, thing with this police procedural it comes with a twist. NYC 22 is produced by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Productions, not only that but the show is written by Richard Price who wrote the movie Clockers produced by Spike Lee, it's one I've never seen but have read very impressive things about. On the face of things NYC 22 looks ok, I liked the "Pilot" and was hooked right from the intro with the 6 new rookies making their way for the first day at work to the beat of "New York Groove" before breaking into Jay-Z's "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)".

The "Pilot" was very procedural as you would expect but I still enjoyed it, NYC 22 is very bright very refreshing and this opener showed us a little promise as maybe something like The Wire, don't get to excited NYC 22 on face value is nowhere near as good as the Wire, at least that's what's "real" critics will tell you, I'm not a real critic nor did I enjoy The Wire all that much, probably due more to the fact that I was a few years to late catching on. For that reason and as a non critic I'll say that I enjoyed NYC 22 more, what can I say, this is the kind of show I like. NYC 22 has got legs I'm pretty sure on that and from what I've read it's a very mixed bag of reactions.

Ok, so NYC 22 is not Person of Interest which is my favourite show on TV right now, nor will the twists and turns be as good the characters probably won't be as deep either but I still think this looks like a good show, you can tell from the out-set that NYC 22 has had plenty money spent on it not only in production but also in recruiting it's potential stars. That's one thing you can say for Robert De Niro, he's not going to put his name to something which he doesn't think is any good and with NYC 22 he brings a certain essence of cool without doubt, that can be seen from the music in the beginning, that same beat of street rap rolls right through the episode probably due to the fact that the week's story was based on a potential gang war which eventually went off half way through the episode but was brought to a very uneventful conclusion.

The uneventful conclusion is probably because the show is based on the rookies and their experiences of life on the beat so, with that in mind let's roll through the characters first off Jennifer "White House" Perry (LeeLee Sobieski), a former US Marine MP who worked on security at the White House, Tonya Sanchez (Judy Marte) the daughter of a criminal family who has become a cop to clean up her family name and just happens to look very much like Jennifer Lopez, Ray Harper (Adam Goldberg) a former news journalist who lost his job after 14 years due to budget cuts, Kenny McLaren (Stark Sands) a 4th generation cop who was all but expected to become one himself, Ahmad Khan (Tom Reed) a refugee from Afghanistan who just wants fair play, Jayson "Jackpot" Toney (Harold House Moore) a former college basketball star who never quite met his potential and finally Daniel "Yoda" Dean (Terry Kinney) the boss in charge of all the newbies. 

I can't say I was disappointed with any of the performances, I've seen a few criticising Leelee Sobieski but hot blonde chicks sit fine with me no matter how wooden they look, anyway my eyes were drawn in the direction of Latino Lopez lookalike Judy Marte, what can I say I like dark hair. We found out enough about everyone here in order to move forward with what looks like it will be a weekly storyline as apposed to something that continues, what may continue is relationships between the rookies and their seniors and for me a few of the rookies are certainly open to corruption, you just have to look at their backgrounds. Although "Jackpot" did talk his best friend into handing himself into police and Tonya certainly seems committed to cleaning her family name, former journalist Harper is also very disgruntled towards newspapers. Maybe the most likely one to stray would be 4th generation cop McLaren, his eyes were certainly drawn to the sister of that little gangster, you know what some men would do for women.

In essence NYC 22 is no different really from all the other police procedural's we see on TV, although unlike say CSI (New York or Miami) I think NYC 22 may require more of your attention, you couldn't get away with just watching this every now and again. I really enjoyed it and I will be back for more. What are your thoughts on NYC 22? Will you be back for more like me? Or are you writing it off as just another police procedural?

TV Review: AWAKE - Ricky's Tacos 1.7

I really don’t have that much to talk about with Awake this week, would it be wrong of me to say that I found it a little boring? I suppose it’s not, but that is what I felt like this week, maybe it was the fact that none of the cases really crossed paths, but then again when it came to the shows main plot, what happened to Michael Britten? The cases did cross and the conspiracy grew some more. For me Awake has two questions that I want answered (well three actually, but the third may or may not be relevant, I’ll get to it shortly) I want to know which reality is real and what the conspiracy against Britten is?

I suppose with all the twists and turns in which reality is real I’m not going to get an answer to either of those questions any time soon, although I would still say that Awake could be wrapped up in one season if everything is revealed in the next four episodes. It may well go on longer, who knows? The show could give us the answer to which reality (green/red) is real then roll into a second season with the conspiracy storyline. It really does have potential.

One thing I want to touch on, it’s something I’ve noticed before but never really paid that much attention too. Awakes slogan “Two dreams, one reality”, is it just me or would that suggest Britten is dreaming two dreams and as the audience we are yet to see the reality, say maybe he is in a coma or something like that and before he wakes up he is solving all his cases. It maybe is a little far fetched but to suggest that one of the dreams is a reality shouldn’t the slogan say “Two dreams, one is reality?” This could well be the reason I don’t
work in TV, am I missing something?

The Westfield Distribution case is seemingly going to be the main focus of attention as to where this conspiracy actually lies, does that mean the red world is real? I honestly don’t know and the more I think about it the more I seem to confuse myself. Whatever Westfield Distribution has to do with things then certain people including Britten’s boss Captain Harper don’t want him digging to deep, it may also have something to do with “Ricky’s Tacos” or was that just helping out with a clue in the blue world? It’s Ricky’s Tacos where Britten hallucinated this week believing the ordering machine told him to go check out Westfield Distribution. That really is all I got from this episode.

Maybe like I said above we haven’t seen the reality yet, he is in a coma and before the accident he knew people were conspiring against him, it will all build to him figuring out all the clues in a coma and the season finale will see him “Awake” and bring down his foes. That is possibly completely ridiculous speculation but at least it’s a thought, I don’t really know where Rex or Hannah would fit into this scenario, maybe they are sitting at his side when he comes around.

Lastly, that third question I mentioned above, does Michael Britten ever change his shirt? It would seem that he has a vast selection of ties yet only one blue shirt, is that something the writers have done on purpose or am I just not paying enough attention? Or on the other hand to much attention?

TV Review: DEXTER - It's Alive 2.1

The story picks up thirty eight days after Dexter saved his sister and killed his brother Rudy, The Ice Truck Killer. Thirty eight days is a long time for Dexter to go without killing anyone though and he has his next target in his sights, problem is ever since the conclusion of The Ice Truck Killer case the suspicious and frankly hilarious Sgt Doakes has followed Dexter’s every move when not on duty. In order to prove or at least try to convince Doakes that he’s normal Dexter has took up bowling to surpass his murderous desires until one day the opportunity presents itself and Dexter finds himself unable to quench his thirst.

“It’s Alive” dealt very much with the fall out and aftermath of season ones stunning finale, not only was Dexter in quandary trying to kill someone but his sister Deb has all but convinced herself that returning to work so soon after her ordeal is a good thing, whilst
back at home for Dexter, Rita is still facing a hard time from ex-husband and convict Paul who's trying to convince her that Dexter is not the man she thinks and she should be in the yard looking for a shoe which will see him released from custody.

It’s probably Dexter’s problem which was the best bit of this opening episode, not only does he have Sgt Doakes on his back but Deb has also moved in with him and is slowly grinding further and further on his nerves, turns out Dexter has a slight OCD when it comes to his apartment being clean and tidy whilst Deb really doesn’t seem to concerned with anything like that. Finally with the chance to kill again Dexter’s problems race to the surface and he finds himself riddled with guilt over killing the biological brother who helped open his eyes to where he came from and the lies Harry had kept from him for years, it’s a strange affection for Dexter as he loves Deb dearly but she is not blood and he choose to protect her over Rudy.

Doakes chips in with another brilliant one liner in this opener, but you have to ask if you were trying to get rid of a sergeant’s attention would you really be opening a titty site at work? Doakes blazes in “what’s that a titty site?”, you surely wouldn’t dare look at anything like that at work, but you have to admit it adds to the dark humour of Dexter.

If you remember I read a spoiler accidentally whilst watching season 1, and I thought Dexter’s first victim of this season would be Paul Bennett when he was released from custody, but I got that wrong. Stuck in a federal prison which is admittedly way out of his league he is killed in a prison fight, argh, to bad, but lets face it the prick had it coming for long enough, and it’s one less problem for Dexter to deal with, although Rita is not going to follow up anymore of Paul’s claims thankfully for Dexter, and I have to mention seeing Julie Benz wearing little to no clothing certainly wasn’t a low point in this episode.

It all builds towards a brilliant episode with lots of things set in place, and then just when you think things can’t get any better two treasure hunters diving off the Miami coast uncover the bodies which Dexter has buried there, that leads to a massive police operation and the beginning of a hunt for a new Miami based serial-killer dubbed “The Bay Harbour Butcher”, or Dexter as we all know him.

TV Previews: GAME OF THRONES - What Is Dead May Never Die 2.3, AWAKE - Nightswimming 1.8, DEXTER Season 2

As always here at Movies Music & Television here are all the latest previews and trailers for your favourite US TV shows.

Firstly its Game of Thrones, a show which I have become a very big fan of. It's not my usual squeeze but this is very good indeed, I'm not really there yet on who everyone is or what they are all fighting for but I am hoping this week may shed a little more light on the subject. Check out the trailer and let me know what you think, other than that why not take a look at last week's review and fill me in on the blanks.

Onto Awake now, another very good show. This really isn't the best preview week for me there is very little on and I haven't seen the previous episode "Ricky's Tacos" just yet, I will be watching it tonight but in the interest that I give something away that will spoil my viewing I haven't watched this preview yet, take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

No Touch this week, I don't feel any desire to watch this show, I watched the first two episodes and thought they were ok but in all honesty I was just a little bored, I don't think Keifer Sutherland and his on screen son linking peoples life's together for a happy ending every week is all that enjoyable so for that reason I have stopped previewing and reviewing the show. This gives me even less to review so if you have any suggestions on something I should check out old or new then let me know.

As you know I'm a big fan of Dexter, I'm currently making my way through season 2 so, why not put out the trailer? That way you all know what I'm watching. As well as this I also have a new writing gig coming off which I'll let you know about in due course, I'm just busy deciding how much time to offer the opportunity.

Note: I would have done individual episode trailers for Dexter's second season but they don't have any from back then so you will have to do with the whole of season 2 trailer.

TV Review: BREAKOUT KINGS - Pilot 1.1

Breakout Kings is a show that’s a little late getting to the UK audience, it premiered in the US on the A&E Network back in March 2011. Eventually it’s rolled its way over the Atlantic and landed on obscure digital channel Universal HD, the same channel which seems to be buying up a lot of old and new US processed junk TV right now. I didn’t actually know Breakout Kings was premiering and only set it to record by chance as I’d flicked for the first time ever (I think) onto Universal HD to check out Enrico Colantoni’s (Elias from Person of Interest) performance in a slightly more successful show called Flashpoint.

Breakout Kings was quite a highly anticipated show, mostly due to the fact that the writers/creators are Nick Santora and Matt Olmstead, these are the guys who brought us the hugely successful Prison Break for four seasons. Not only that, the show came with a bit of a star casting including The Wire’s Domenick Lombardozzi and Avatar’s Laz Alonso.

The show is based mainly on the two characters above, both of whom work for different sectors of the police, they don’t particularly care for each other but are offered the opportunity to set up a task force which chases escaped convicts. Not wanting to do it alone, they come up with a slogan of “It takes a con to catch a con” and recruit some
prisoners from various prisons around the US in order to help them catch escaped convicts, in return the prisoners are offered a reduced sentence of a month for every escapee they help apprehend, and this time will be served in a minimum security prison.

It’s a slightly different twist on the standard procedural crime police drama, and one which I didn’t think would work to bad. The Pilot was ok, nothing great but it served it’s purpose of introducing us to all the characters, at least on the surface and it delved pretty quickly into the action, I suppose you could liken it to Alcatraz, just without the budget. The released cons consist of a genius gambler (Jimmi Simpson as Lloyd Lowery), a con woman (Nicole Steinwedell as Philly, Pilot only), an ex gang leader (Malcolm Goodwin as Shea Daniles) and briefly a bare knuckle fighter who you don’t really need to know about.

Breakout Kings is set up like Person of Interest and Alcatraz in that there is a different story or prisoner every week, that guarantees you one thing, you will get thorough the story pretty quick but from the Pilot it looks like it will get very boring, basically like Alcatraz someone will escape every week this team will hunt them down and return them
to prison, simple. I think you could basically describe this as popcorn TV, no need to watch intensely and no need to worry if you miss a couple of episodes as it won’t be to hard to catch up.

I don’t think it helps that we are introduced to five leading characters in the Pilot, meaning we only really get to know them on the surface with only really one exception in Lloyd Lowery the gambler who seems to do quite a lot of talking, which for me came across quite hammy. That would go for Lombardozzi to, I can’t say that I was all that impressed, especially given the calibre of TV show he was in before this. Laz Alonso as the boss fared a little better for me, but all in all I think it might be ex gang leader Shea Daniels who turns out to be the star of this show, other than the two cops he is the only one who strikes me as street wise and tough enough to deal with murderous escaped cons.

I will be back for more next week, hoping that maybe we will start to see characters develop beyond face value, I enjoyed it but I’m not so sure that I can come back week on week and review it unless there is something particularly good or bad that I feel should be mentioned. What are your thoughts’s on Breakout Kings? Did you catch this in time
with the US? Or like me have you tuned into Universal HD earlier this week hoping to catch a show which resembled Prison Break?

Note;

*A ten part second season to Breakout Kings has just started airing in the US last month*.

TV Review: GAME OF THRONES - The Night Lands 2.2

Oh, so that's a girl. I'm pleased I found out this quick she had me completely fooled last week thinking she, or he was in fact in line to take Joffrey's throne as king. I did think on watching last week that Ari (actually Arya) was slightly effeminate, as you know I didn't watch the first season so this is all new to me. I have to say I enjoyed "The Night Lands" better than last weeks "The North Remembers", more things started to fall into place for me this week and I think that maybe I'm starting to grasp what is actually going on.

One thing I forgot to mention last week was the killing of the "bastards", I know it's not real but I did find that very uncomfortable to watch, or listen to as the case may be. You think that maybe they would leave it there, but no. Game of Thrones was just as daring and outrageous this week as it was last. Firstly we were treated to the scene in the brothel with the lady who had clearly just finished servicing some guy, I'm presuming that wasn't milk he was wiping from her chin, then we got some very wrong brother sister action which quite frankly was just creepy.

I wouldn't let any of that put you off though, yes the nakedness was there for all to be seen, but again, I didn't see the first season so I don't know if that's how it was, nor have I read the books, so maybe it was taken from those. Game of Thrones is still a brilliant show and and the brilliant acting, clever story and hint of the big battle which is going to commence at some point in this season all ramps up to keep you coming back week on week.

I actually laughed this week too, that's twice, remember Awake? Yeah, well Game of Thrones was actually pretty funny this week with the best laugh coming from that guy (I don't know his name) who told the Gold Cloak that his sword had just been sharpened that morning, and it was so sharp he could shave a spiders arse, what can I say it doesn't take much to make me laugh, maybe it's the way "that guy" delivered his line. My other moment of laughter came just before Ari turned out to be Arya with the kids washing pots, again, I don't know who the kid was but it was a funny little chat about how he knew someone was a Knight because they wore body armour.

Although I'm getting there with the characters I still have plenty to learn, this week Joffrey didn't make an appearance but I was introduced to so many other people, supposed kings and their teams (is that the right word?) that I kind of feel back to square one, I think I get a little more on what they all want, and now I know that Tyroin is attempting to keep all of these people from passing his, well Joffrey's walls and getting into their kingdom, please correct me in the comments if I have that wrong. I thought that I pretty much met everyone in the opening episode but it turns out not, I was introduced to the house Greyjoy, you know the creepy brother sister bit? I take it he was in the first season and sent away his son who he now despises to fight with the Stark's. I still need to know who the lady in the red land's is, someone was obviously sending her little crew a message this week sending one of her Bloodrider's back minus his head.

Before I sum up, where were they taking that baby at the end of this episode? And what was that thing which picked it up? The shadow on screen and heavy breathing leads me to think it's some kind of man wolf

I still have plenty to learn about Game of Thrones but I really did enjoy this episode, as with last week the person I was most impressed with was Peter Dinklage, when this guy is on screen he completely owns it and from what I have heard he will be taking more of a leading role in this season. Another brilliant episode and I can't wait for next week's.

TV Review: AWAKE - That's Not My Penguin 1.6

For me this was the best episode of Awake so far, I have really enjoyed the series but so far it's been more procedural crime drama rather than explaining what the Sci-Fi mystery twist is. This far two things have ran constant in Awake that we want answers to, firstly is the police conspiracy side of things which up to now is pointing towards the fact that the Britten's car accident maybe wasn't so much of an accident, and then you have the which reality is real question, the main focus of everyones attention. "That's Not My Penguin" is the first episode which has started to deliver answers to one of those questions, or maybe the writers are just throwing us a curve ball to keep us off the scent.

Every little clue thrown in so far has pointed towards the fact that the blue/green reality where Martin lives with his son Rex is the real one, "That's Not My Penguin" certainly didn't do anything to change my opinion on that, it only served as more concrete evidence that everything in the nice glossy red reality is in fact a dream, a world built by Michael Britten to help him come to terms with the fact he lost his wife. By this reveal, if it is a reveal can we presume that the writers are looking to wrap Awake after one season? Let's face it that's the whole mystery and if Britten is going to start putting together the pieces six episodes in I think he may well have solved it by the time we are at the season finale.

"That's Not My Penguin" focused on a young guy named Gabe who just happened to be holed up in a psych hospital in the red world. Gabe believed that his sister who had died some years earlier had been kidnapped and the nurses on the ward were hiding her from him so, he decided to lay siege to the ward held the staff captive and wired up some explosives. That put Michael in kind of a predicament, he faced a hostage negotiation with a mental patient who possibly has the same condition as him, but that made gripping TV for us as this is where all of the answers came.

I think this is possibly the first episode where I have laughed, up to this point there really hasn't been to much to laugh about but when that Penguin showed up in the psych ward I had to have a little chuckle to myself. That penguin was of course the first of two hallucinations that Michael was about to have, it didn't escape from the zoo section of the hospital, it was never there and only present in the mind of Michael. I'm not sure on this but I have to ask the question, can you hallucinate in a dream? I would say the answer would have to be yes, as the writers wouldn't have done that otherwise unless of course it's not a dream.

Lets say it is a dream, it's a pretty elaborate one, it's a whole other world and the hallucinations seem to point to the other world being the real one. The Dr (B.D. Wong) in the red reality showed up in that psych ward I was thinking this is a bit of a twist, I didn't pick up right away that it was just Michael hallucinating, it really was brilliant at the end of the episode when you find out that he was never there in the first place, Michael Britten's mind sending him a message possibly?

I'm really enjoying this show, it is brilliant and I have no doubt that some twists and turns will be coming our way, but for now I stand that the blue/green reality is the real one, the rest is just a dream, however, I'm still aware that this show could throw us a massive curve ball, we often thought that Lost might provide answers, they never came so why should we think any different in Awake, this show really is that good and I can't wait to see more.