Tag: television

More TV Shows You Might Like #2

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Welcome to part 2 of TV shows you might like. I have watched all the shows I recommend and as such I rate them 5 stars. Yesterday in my post on worthwhile TV shows I forgot some gems which I will now cover. As such enjoy and maybe you will check them out, if you do let me know whether you liked them or not!

1)Z Nation – Absolute blast of a TV series – more fun than the WD. 100% rewatchable. 5 seasons of pure fun. 5th season was the last, and wasn’t as good, but I suspect it had had enough and in my opinion peaked at season 3. Hilarious.

2)Mr Mercedes – Watched on Starzplay and reviewed a few years ago. 100% still recommend the series. Thrilling, tense, good cop chasing bad guy classic stuff based on the Stephen King novels.

3)Deadwood – Old west dramatic fun, good acting, writing and direction. Not a new show but worth a look!

4)House – Excellent medical drama, a good amount of seasons, drama and ‘action’ by way of medical emergencies.

5)American Horror Story – A show for true horror fans, be scared by a wide range of freaky nightmarish episodes and seasons. A continuing cast of excellent actors. I really enjoyed, but have to watch the rest of 1984 still!

Finally we end on a brief list of honourable mentions! Rick and Morty, The Walking Dead, Oz, Stranger Things, WestWorld. I am sure there are plenty of others I’ve missed. But oh well, enjoy!

Black Summer: Series Review

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Zombie apocalypse…again. TV series released 11th April 2019. I’ve watched season 1 around 3 times to fully grasp the plot and the story. It is well worth the watch for any true survival/zombie apocalypse fan.

The classic elements are there, with enough action, suspense and drama to keep you watching. It stuck with a fairly simple formula which works…getting from a-b, and builds from there.

Renewed for a second season, Black Summer must be pulling the fans in. Need I say the obvious? Too many zombies out there, but I love them as a plot dynamic. Black Summer gets to the root of my likes, and a lot of other peoples likes, by genuinely focusing on the dead in the terrifying manner they lurk around us with.

Recommend for The Walking Dead fans, and fans of Z Nation…another favourite of mine which was sadly cancelled…

I enjoyed this, had wanted the characters to survive and wanted to find out more about them and the plot in general…this is a good, laid back yet fully realistic approach to story telling. The direction, camera angles, lighting and general ambience are the icing to the story, being able to capture a lot of mood and emotions in each shot. Capturing the scary post apocalyptic feel.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

4 stars. Worth a watch for realism based apocalypse fans.

You See What They Want You To See

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Whether cartoon, sketch, animation or reality,

it streams directly into your subdued consciousness,

the vibrations echo through your mind,

you are blind,

they say what you like,

you can’t fight,

exuberant and magical colours,

all coursing your veins,

box brain beaten tame,

so much shame,

in this mind game,

you’ll never be the same.

Goliath: television program review

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

A legal thriller series starring Billy Bob Thornton, on top form as a down on his luck ambulance chasing lawyer. This is one of the most excellent legal series I have watched. We don’t get a nice mannered lawyer who kisses ass, we get Billy McBride, a real real person who wants to get to bottom of each case. The acting is great, the story lines good and the conclusion on each satisfying, although on the 3rd season I was hoping for a different ending!

So IMDB rates is 8.2/10 and Rotten Tomatoes rates it 82%. They are accurate, although my rating is going to be higher, because I haven’t been genuinely interested to find out more than with this series. 3 seasons and each builds on the last. There are small links throughout each, and they connect in unsuspecting ways. I found the season 3 with Dennis Quaid a real divert from the expected and it fulfilled my appetite.

Each episode feels fresh, interesting and moderately paced. As we enter the second season we start to see Billy connecting with more people and then the 3rd is Billy’s career highlight and his biggest, most dangerous case yet, literally nearly killing him. I found the characters interesting, fun and realistic! The scenes were all about the plot but of course some episodes were cut very toughly and scenes jagged cut from one to the next.

As I say this is one excellently acted series, interesting, thrilling and importantly open to a 4th season which I would love. Amazon Prime original does it again with this legal take on the run down lawyer.

My rating : 9/10

I’m a hard man to please.

Mr Mercedes: Television program review

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

This review contains spoilers

I write this review feeling pretty good about the series Mr Mercedes, a real riveting and thrilling ride and excellent adaption. It brings everything you could want to screen and more, including great acting from Brendan Gleeson, great tension and near perfect dialogue.

IMDB rates it 7.9 and Rotten Tomatoes 93%. I would say these are both accurate. I am going to do something different and give you the rating I personally think Mr Mercedes is worth first: I rate this series highly at 8/10. Not bad. It’s up there with some of the more thrilling legends of our time. It’s tense, dramatic, lovable and scary all at once. There are shocks where you least expect it.

So, Bill the retired detective is in a cat and mouse chase to find Mr Mercedes, Brady Hartfield. The series dives into the backstory of the famed Mercedes mass killings. It then soon takes a dark turn as we learn Bill now has to face off against him again, this time he is determined to catch the killer. The acting is superb and Brendan Gleeson really was terrific. Although at times, the dialogue was not my cup of tea. I was particularly fond of Bill’s obsessive compulsive sidekick, Holly. The first series takes us on a roller coaster as Bill closes in and the ends with a dramatic finale that viewers will not forget.

The second season is also a brilliant, thrilling watch as the Mr Mercedes is now in a coma and Bill is at last glad, but not convinced that Brady is gone. This is where the supernatural suspense of Stephen King’s work comes in. Brady in a coma is able to make his victims commit atrocious acts. I found this very frightening and awesome. It is a twist that has never been done before as far as I am aware. Of course, the second season is slower and I hoped that Brady would wake up sooner, but in the end, it was just as interesting as the first. I could not stop watching this, I binged the entire series in a week.

Now, season 3, still good. But instead of focusing on the Mr Mercedes, as he is gone, the show moves onto another story. One about Bill Hodges and a murdered writer. Apparently his unpublished manuscripts are worth a fortune so some crazed people want them, but a boy has taken them. I didn’t like the 3rd season as it diverted from the Mr Mercedes storyline. There was the trial throughout, whether Brady Hartfield’s killer should be imprisoned, but it wasn’t enough to make me go “wow.” That’s just television for you, starts off well and then gets worse.

I think the series is worth watching if you like thrilling detective stories and Stephen King adaptions. King features in an episode and is actually a producer I believe on the show? Correct me if I am wrong.

So there you go, 8 out of 10. That’s pretty good, so hey, if you are needing some new television this is worth the watch! I watched this on the Amazon Prime channel called Starzplay and have no idea if it is available elsewhere.