‘The Shadow Line’ DVD review
BBC Two’s recent The Shadow Line is a serial sodden with blood: seven hours of claret-splattered, frequently flamboyant, occasionally preposterous and completely compulsive television.
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BBC Two’s recent The Shadow Line is a serial sodden with blood: seven hours of claret-splattered, frequently flamboyant, occasionally preposterous and completely compulsive television.
Continuing directly where the explosive first episode left off, we find Captain Jack, Gwen and Rhys (and the baby!) being extradited by CIA Agent Rex Matheson and his sultry colleague Peterfield.
Timing for the BBC’s new television news-based drama could hardly have been more apposite, with the recent News Of The World and Rupert Murdoch debacle raging on.
So, by now, the whole world (well, almost) has had the opportunity to gaze upon the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, the fourth series of the Doctor Who spin-off from writer Russell T Davies.
Some programmes thrive on constantly treading the line between funny and serious without ever truly identifying which they are – Shameless did it for years before toppling over the edge – while others are content to nail their comedic or dramatic flags to the mast from the outset.
Battlestar Galactica spin-off Caprica was never going to have an easy start in life. Born in the shadow of its towering parent, it had to do justice to the elegant and complex universe of BSG while exploring the artificial-intelligence theme from a new angle that would benefit from a more earth-bound setting.
For the third time in four years, the Robot Chicken team have produced a special extended episode dedicated to Star Wars.
Based on three novels by Kate Atkinson, this recent BBC One series features the adventures of former soldier, onetime policeman and permanently good-natured private investigator Jackson Brodie, played by Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs.
There are only a few reasons why television remakes are commissioned, but the ways in which they can fail are as plentiful as there are fans to castigate a production company for daring to make such horrendous sows’ ears out of the silk purse originals.
‘This is the NHS,’ a podgy pathologist points out to Detective Sergeants Brooks and Devlin at the beginning of the episode, ‘not CSI.’ – and there’s no mistaking the warmer, more down-to-earth British cousin of the long-running, long-faced American franchise for anything more transatlantic.