And so the third series of Sky1’s man-fuelled drama – starring John Simm (Doctor Who), Philip Glenister (Ashes To Ashes), Max Beesley (Survivors) and Marc Warren (Hustle) – comes to an end, in typical Mad Dogs style with thrills, laughs and a Dwarf Zombie.
Last week The Returned felt like a police procedural with a David Lynch haircut. This week it has the aura of a soap opera wrapped about it. A weird soap opera but a good one, similar in result to if Rod Serling wrote an entire week’s worth of Neighbours. ‘So Paul Robinson’s cursed false leg was an allegory for America’s relationship with Communist Cuba? Wow…’.
Here at CultBox we’re hoping that “Dwarf Zombie” got trending during the latest instalment of the Sky1 drama starring John Simm (Doctor Who), Philip Glenister (Ashes To Ashes), Max Beesley (Survivors) and Marc Warren (Hustle).
Just two episodes in and we already love The Returned.
Like a master vintner blending the best grape varieties to make a great bottle of Bordeaux, so The Returned mixes the ripe genres of Scandinavian crime, American mystery, and French drama, into a multinational melange that appeals to the taste buds of those of us who like to get telly drunk on a Sunday night.
The obvious and inevitable comparison to BBC One’s The White Queen is that of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
Effy, arguably the most iconic character of the Skins saga as the whole, and the only one to bridge two generations of characters, is the first of three old characters to be re-visited in this “where are they now?” final series.
Set two years on from their separation in last week’s opening episode of Series 3, the four men – Baxter (John Simm), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Woody (Max Beesley) and Rick (Marc Warren) – have been exiled to South Africa under new names, and out of touch with their friends and family.
So now we know why the BBC was so quick to announce a second series. It was a warning shot, to prepare us for the idea that the momentum of The Fall would carry on past 5 episodes, and that we’d all be left craving some more of that sweet sweet darkness like the Monday night drama masochists we are.
Episode 9 of Game of Thrones has traditionally been the episode where – for want of a better phrase – shit goes down. The first season’s ‘Baelor’ saw the show’s central character and biggest star lose his head, while Season 2’s ‘Blackwater’ saw the astonishingly mounted battle of the Blackwater. This season’s ninth episode is titled ‘The Rains of Castamere’, and, well, with pun well and truly intended; this might be the most significant Game-changer yet!
Regret resonates across the fourth episode of The Fall like the sound of a gunshot down the corridors of Belfast’s police station.