Endgame (2011)

This offering from the Canadians is about Arkady Balagan (Shawn Doyle) a russian champion chess player. When his wife is murdered he becomes unable to leave his hotel spending his time playing chess and drinking vodka. The plot: Balagan is a grand chess master, he solves crimes by looking at all the angles with his genius brain. He sends his offsiders to gather information and basically processes the information and solves the crime.

Its not a bad show, its just short of something I want to watch regularly. Balagan is the only reason i’ve hung in for four episodes that and the tragic tv dry spell at the moment. The characters are interesting, the crimes are interesting and its believable. The offsiders Sam (Torrance Coombs) who researches in return for Balagan playing chess with him and Alcina (Carmen Aguirre) the cleaning lady are entertaining and apple pie sincere.

The main issue for me is the flashbacks, OMG the flashbacks. For the first three episodes they replayed the same flashback of his wife over and over which was unnecessary and mind numbingly repetitive. I was starting to wonder if they only managed to film one scene with her. Then in ep four they started using different flashbacks. Sigh.

Anyways the show is enjoyable enough, its in there with Numbers and White Collar, solid but nothing brilliant.

New Tricks (2010)

Wiki says this:

New Tricks is a BBC television drama series which follows the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). Led by Detective Chief Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes. The series title is taken from the popular expression “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. The “old dogs” are successful in adapting their skills and experience to modern policing, with their knowledge of past cases proving especially useful.

Eskimo says:

This is flat out the most boring show on tv, worse than The Bill, worse than Paradox, worse than the most slow boring English show you can imagine. OMG boring, slow, obvious, don’t even think about it unless you’re over 60.

Terriers (2010)

Hank (Donal Logue) is an ex cop with the obligatory alcohol problem. He sobers up and starts an unlicensed private eye business with his mate Britt (Michael Raymond-James) a former criminal. Set in California in Ocean Beach these classic down and outters provide some good laughs.

The pace is slow and laid back, often taking a while to get to the point which fits the characters as they’re laid back and slow paced so everything happens in their sweet time. I really enjoyed the show. Its funny, clever and entertaining. The characters get paid what their clients can afford in ep 1 its free dry cleaning despite the fact that they don’t own anything that would need dry cleaning.

Top 5 Crime TV Shows

Veronica Mars (2004) – You have to love this show! Veronica teenage detective sounds cliched but the acting, plot and characters made it a brilliant show.
Witchblade (2001) – Balsy female cop finds a mysterious ancient weapon and wields it well.
Hustle (2004) – English show about a group of con artists.
Psych (2006) – A guy fakes being psychic and scores a job helping the cops solve crimes, very funny and for the whole family.
CSI (2000) – The original one was great when it first started, its wearing a bit now, but I felt it should still be honored.

Hustle (2004)

This British offering was kicking around a while before it came to my attention earlier this year and once I found it, I was hooked. Meet the charismatic, intelligent and charming Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester) and enter his world of the long con where unfortunate marks find themselves caught up in a meticulously planned con. Mickey and his team find marks, create worlds of opportunities and fleece their victims of their worldly goods. Albert Stroller (Robert Vaughn) is the Roper, sourcing victims from all walks of life, if they have money, are greedy and dishonest they are on Alberts radar and he draws them in. Stacie (Jaime Murray) is beauty and brains, filling in with her feminine wiles as needed. Ash (Robert Glenister) has the job i’d like if I was a grifter. He sources equipment, locations, falsifies documents and does all the cool behind the scenes stuff to create the world the mark has fallen for. Eddie (Rob Garvis) is the long suffering bar tender of their favorite haunt who may or may not one day get paid for all their drinks. Danny Blue (Marc Warren) is the newcomer who works short cons and wants to step up and make a mark in Mickeys. Is the world of the long con big enough for the both of them?

The show changes it up cast wise in season 5 with the addition of Sean and Emma Kennedy (Matt Di Angelo and Kelly Adams) and the loss of a few faves. It doesn’t affect the show at all as the Sean and Emma are engaging and their characters well written. This show is engaging, interesting and very entertaining. You don’t always know whats going on, a refreshing change from American tv which gets nervous if it looks like the audience will need to think for themselves.

Psych (2006)

James Roday plays Shawn Spencer a hyper-alert thirty something who can’t hold down a job. When he solves a robery by watching 30 seconds of file tape on tv the cops bring him in for questioning and he convinces them he’s psychic. Having found his true calling he sets up a business and settles in as the new psychic for the Santa Barbara Police Department (thats SBPD for cool). He convinces his best friend Burton Guster (Dule Hill) to ‘assist him’ and Gus takes on a sidekick role.

This show is really fun! The cast is nicely rounded out with Maggie Lawson as detective Juliet O’Hara, Timothy Omundson as detective Carlton Lassiter, Kirsten Nelson as the Chief of police and finally Corbin Bernsen as Shawns dad. Its an entertaining show the family can enjoy together.

Dexter

I think I know what this show was trying to achieve but I don’t think it achieves it.  Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is the stereotypical charming, charismatic, guy next door, good cop type etc, who also happens to be a vigilante killer who takes extreme pleasure in torturing his victims.  Thus the amazing twist (SARCASM) of a man who himself becomes the enemy he is hunting.  I think it tries too hard to be grim and gruesome and instead of being intriguing or clever it just comes off as being fake and not believable.  He can be crazy as long as he’s believable.  I think this will struggle to find an Australian audience.

Perfect Creature

This film is set in the 1960′s in an alternative steam punk era.  It offers up a different take on Vampires – Vampire babies are taken in by the Church and are raised as part of ‘The Brotherhood’.  Vampires coexist with humans and they knowingly donate blood to the church.  The co-existence is threatened when a rogue Vampire starts preying on humans.  Dougrey Scott gives his most wooden performance yet, repeatedly pulling a serious face and cocking his head to one side.  The annoying look lasts only a few seconds but is repeated with such frequency I wanted to put him in a neck brace.  He’s flat and uninteresting to watch.  All the characters are relatively two dimensional but the other actors (Aussies and Kiwis) did a much better job at giving their characters more depth then was perhaps offered by the script.  Saffron Burrows is strong, vulnerable and everything you want from a semi damsel in distress.  Her efforts are believable, convincing and she’s compelling to watch – making her character the most interesting.

A Vampire movie with a steam punk twist, fun holiday viewing!

The Number 23

When my movie guru friend put me on to this she prefaced it by saying, “It’s not a horror and Jim Carey looks hot”.  So it definitely peaked my interest, I have to say she was right on both points.  This is a very clever, bizarre and intriguing story.

Jim Carey plays Walter Sparrow a dog catcher whose life gets messed up when he reads a self published book called ‘The Number 23′.  The more he reads the more similarities he finds between himself and the main character and his life takes a turn.  Watching this you feel like you are on a journey with him and as the story continues to unfold you realize you have as much idea as he does about where its going and what will happen next.

Carey is extremely engaging and though some of his former comedy self is included, it adds rather then detracts from the story and it keeps a realistic tone about it.  Virginia Madsen as his wife Agatha is a bit forgettable but you get the feeling that Carey is the main character and everyone else has slipped into a lesser, supportive, background role.

Upsides – Very enjoyable, solid plot, good twists, great performance from Carey.

Downsides – After watching it you start to add your phone number, letter box number and favourite colour, Red.  23, 23, 23…

What does it mean?

Womens Murder Club

Okay the main character from Crossing Jordan could stand in for Angie Harmon if she’s ever sick and no one would notice the difference.  Having said that this show isn’t all bad I fail to see how it could possibly find a male audience, but it is entertaining and full of Schmaltzy girl power for the ladies.  So the club – there’s the sassy, complicated, angry-but-in-a-cute-way, brunette detective, with a dislike for authority figures.  There’s the cuddly and supportive mothery ‘strong African American woman’ who is the coroner.  The heartless cutie pie Blonde who works in the DA’s office and finally the wannabe – a young niave hungry reporter.  Count the cliches – it plays well to the stereotypes without being completely mind numbing.