Star Trek: Into Darkness Trailer

Best New Television

Alcatraz doesn't necessarily set the world alight, but this jail based mystery is still thoroughly entertaining nonetheless. On the 21st of March 1963 America's most famous prison was shut down and its 302 inmates were transported off the island. That is at least how the official version of events would have you believe. In actuality they mysteriously disappeared, but now 50-years later some of the nastiest inmates in history have suddenly started reappearing, seemingly not having aged and bent on repeating their previous crimes. A small FBI task force headed by badass Agent Hauser (Sam Neil) with a little help from detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) and Dr. Diego Soto (former Lost favourite Jorge Garcia) are tasked with recapturing the '63s' in modern day San Francisco. Featuring other fantastically nuanced characters in Dr. Sengupta (Parminder Nagra) and enigmatic prison Warden Edwin James (Jonny Coyne), Alcatraz certainly has a solid foundation. It also helps when that master of mystery J.J. Abrams is involved in proceedings.

Awake has a particularly interesting premise. After a tragic car crash which killed both his wife and son, detective Michael Britten discovers that every time he goes to sleep he switches between two realities; one in which his wife survived and the other in which his son did. Throughout, Britten is unsure which of the two realities are real, as this otherwise normally functioning man begins to wonder if he's losing his sanity. Fascinating, as well as heart-wrenching stuff.

Not exactly 24, but Kiefer Sutherland's Touch is another show which sparks one's intrigue. Left to care for his late wife's autistic son Jacob (David Mazouz), Martin Bohm finds it tough connecting with the boy - made more difficult by the fact that he is mute. However, it's not that Jacob is unwilling to communicate, but that people just don't understand him. When it becomes apparent that Jacob sees the world in numbers, Martin and social worker Clea (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) figure out that they correspond to a series of seemingly unconnected people and events yet to unfold. It's difficult to accurately describe Touch, but think something of a cross between Babel, Crash and Person Of Interest and you're some of the way to understanding what this is all about. The only problem I foresee is that Touch looks very episodic. There's no real 'hook' so to speak and it's difficult to see what direction it can go without some overall arc. Nonetheless, the pilot was impressive, and genuinely...ahem...touching.

Out of all the new shows, The River is probably my favourite. When famed TV explorer Dr. Emmett Cole (Bruce Greenwood) mysteriously disappears deep in the uncharted Amazon basin, wife Tess (Leslie Hope) and son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) mount a rescue mission. Funded by a TV network on the understanding they get no holds barred access, the search party encounter ever stranger and unexplainable phenomena as they delve deeper into the depths of the rainforest. While The River resembles elements of the found-footage genre familiar to the Blair Witch Project, it actually remains stimulating for an otherwise dated technique. This can be pointedly creepy at times which is understandable given creator Oren Peli was the man behind the Paranormal Activity movies.

New TV...

'Fall', tis the season when old and new television shows appear once again on our screens. The established stalwarts need no introduction; Breaking Bad, Dexter, Fringe and Sons of Anarchy have all inevitably raised their game, their quality unquestionable. But it is the newbies which I am concerned with in this post. What new gems are there to be uncovered? Having been on our screens for the best part of a month or two now, I shall attempt to offer a guide through the most high-profile new shows one might consider watching.

Perhaps the most intriguing out of all the new series, Homeland follows the exploits of Carrie Mathison, a CIA analyst who is warned that an American prisoner of war has been turned by Al Qaeda. When US Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody, reported MIA since 2003, is rescued by Delta Force from known terrorist Abu Nazir, Carrie believes it is he who the informant had warned about. However, everybody else believes Brody to be a war hero which complicates Carrie's ability to investigate him without drawing the attention of her intransigent boss, David Estes. Damian Lewis of Band of Brothers fame reprises his excellent American accent and it also features Morena Baccarin, and she's fit! The series has achieved almost universal critical acclaim, Metacritic giving it a whopping 91 out of 100 based on 28 critic reviews. It's incredibly titillating and at times nothing short of riveting.

Michael Emmerson, perhaps better known as Lost's Benjamin Linus, returns to our screen in the first major roll since his island getaway in Person of Interest. He plays mysterious billionaire Mr. Finch, a man who developed a computer program for the government capable of predicting terrorist threats to the United States. Ostensibly designed to prevent another 9/11 type disaster taking place, Finch discovered that the machine was also capable of predicting 'irrelevant' crime, a feature the government has no interest in pursuing. Unable to ignore the fact that domestic crimes could be prevented, Finch built a backdoor into the system allowing him to retrieve the social security numbers of those at imminent risk of either committing or falling victim of a crime. Given a disability, Finch is unable to to investigate alone and so enlists a former Green Beret and CIA operative known only as Mr. Reese to help prevent said crimes. The pilot episode brought in 13.2 million viewers - the highest number in 15 years on CBS. Tapping into that post-9/11 paranoia coupled with fantastically nuanced characters, Person of Interest continues to improve with each episode.

Terra Nova's premise held so much promise. 2149 and humanity is on the verge of extinction due to overpopulation and air pollution. No longer blue and green, Earth is covered in a thick yellow hue indicating a planet on the verge of death. Fortunately for humanity however a rift in space-time is discovered allowing for people to evacuate through a portal to the Cretaceous period 85million years ago - a time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The Shannon family escape on the tenth pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, becoming part of the first human colony on the other side of this temporal doorway. For all intents and purposes this is Jurassic Park the TV series, although a hell of a lot worse. Produced by Spielberg, it has all his paw prints of cheesy family-friendly primetime drama. Original this ain't either, 'borrowing' heavily from Lost by creating a nefarious group similar to 'The Others' whose motives are not fully understood as well as other jungle-induced mysteries. Also amusingly Stephen Lang's colony Commander, Nathaniel Taylor, is exactly the same as his grizzled Colonel Quaritch character in Avatar. As for the series' main protagonists, the Shannon family, it is not quite clear why they're so special as to warrant their meteoric climb up the social ladder to preeminence within the colony. Also, why travel back in time to a period before the dinosaurs got wiped out by an asteroid? Unfortunately the manner in which Terra Nova's material is dealt with makes it all highly improbable, which is a bit of a shame really.

Okay, it's not technically a new series, but given that season 1 amounted to a mere 6 episodes, after which the entire writing staff was sacked, I think season 2 of The Walking Dead warrants a re-examination. Picking up immediately after the literally explosive ending of the first series, we rejoin Sheriff Rick Grimes and co in their attempts to survive the zombie apocalypse. The series' main strength is its intense personal drama, however it is also part of its weakness. While incredibly suspenseful, it is likewise incredibly laborious in places which makes for a slow-paced show where nothing much really happens. Yes, it's supposed to be about a group's struggle for survival, but watching people merely survive doesn't necessarily make for compelling television week in week out. What The Walking Dead lacks most is something 'meta', a story-arc which the group need to strive toward, to give their exploits purpose. As it stands however, The Walking Dead is more about watching people foraging for food whilst coming across the occasional undead. It's well acted and a reasonably engaging personal drama, but I feel it needs an extra kick up the bum to really get going.

Best T-Shirt Ever No.1!

And it's mine!! Thanks, TeeFury!

Lost: The complete Blu-Ray box set

So, before Lost becomes a distant memory I thought I'd make my first 'blog' about it, picking up on the tail-end of last week's finale.

It would be fair to say that I have become a little bit of a fanatic since first watching in late November last year. Initially I was completely incredulous to what might be the best piece of television ever produced. When I first heard about Lost back in 2004 the concept made absolutely no sense to me; how, in an age of modern technology, black-box flight recorders and GPS can someone get 'lost' on a deserted island? Surely this is just an updated Robinson Crusoe/Swiss Family Robinson/Lord of the Flies, I thought?

How wrong I was! I went through my entire three years as an Undergrad (2005-2008) ignorantly taking the piss. First, my flatmates, who would all huddle round a laptop in someone's room to watch the latest episode, making me feel like the castaway, and then my housemate of two years who, bless him, persevered in his pestering of me to watch it.

Said pestering eventually paid off when late last year, with nothing better to do, and to get my then ex-housemate off my back, I gave it a chance. Best decision I'd ever made (perhaps saying something about my wider life). Within two weeks I had caught up with all five seasons, and to say I was hooked would be an understatement. Oh how I repented for my former sinfulness, I had seen the light!

Which brings us around to the sixth and final season which has just ended. And in a perfect manner it ended too. Many 'Losties' (and I use the term lightly in the context of this) didn't really understand the end, and slated it accordingly. "What, they were dead all along?! What utter bollocks!". No! You morons!

Whilst the finale did fail to answer some of the larger, mythological questions surrounding the island, I am of the opinion that this was the correct way to end it. What writers Lindelof and Lieber did satisfactorily was to wrap up all the character's story arcs. It was always the characters which drove the show; Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin, Sun, Locke, Desmond, Ben, Sayid, hell, even Kate. All their storylines came to a gratifying close, which somehow made the larger questions about the island seem somewhat distant and nonessential from the human story they were trying to tell. Sure, I would have liked to know what exactly the island was and the whole mythology behind it. More so, I had a lot of pedant's questions; What the hell was all that with Walt? What was going on with that fertility storyline? Who was making the airdrops? How did the others get there in the first place before Jacob took over? Who the Time Lord Eloise actually was? What exactly happened in Jacob's cabin? I was also a tad disappointed at the lack of another Desmond-Penny moment akin to 'The Constant', but these are all small niggles in a show that has given more "WTF" moments than any other. But, because all the characters had satisfactory endings, I don't mind remaining a little 'lost' over the larger specter of the island itself, and for me, any good story always leaves a little something to the imagination.

So, with nothing to look forward to on Tuesdays now, all that remains is to wait for the blu-ray box set. And my! What a box set it is!

Perhaps the most well presented box set of anything I have ever seen! And I thought 'Alan Wake' would be hard to top. The contents of this beautifully crafted special edition set include:

• Every episode from all six seasons housed in collectible packaging.
• Images of the box art.
• A special edition 'Senet' game, as seen in season six (M.I.B's game).
• A custom Lost island replica.
• An exclusive episode guide.
• A collectible Ankh.
• A black light penlight.
• "A unique series of featurettes that take viewers on a very personal tour of Oahu where the series was created".
• "Exploring the global phenomenon that is Lost".
• "A closer look at some of the props with cast, writers and producers, exploring their significance, stories and emotional ties to the characters".
• "A humourous, yet emotional look at every character who died on the series".
• "16 hilarious Lost Slapdown” featurettes showcasing celebrity Lost fans who confront Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to ask press questions about the final season, including the Muppets and cast members Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson, Rebecca Mader and more".

The season 6 box set (included in the collectible edition pictured above) will also contain some extra goodies. These include:

• Bloopers and deleted scenes.
• Audio commentaries on four episodes (LA X, Dr. Linus, Ab Aeterno and Across the Sea).
• "The End: Crafting A Final Season".
• "A Hero's Journey".
• "See You In Another Life, Brotha".
• "LOST on Location".
• Plus the rumoured epilogue which will allow viewers to "go deeper into the world of LOST with a much-anticipated new chapter of the island’s story from Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse".

Certainly all looks fantastic! Heaven knows how much this will set us all back, especially the blu-ray edition. So I recommend all you Losties start saving your pennies now.

Hurley and Ben spin-off please!!!

(Thanks to http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/05/28/lost-complete-collection-box-art-and-contents-revealed/ for box set information)