“Clear Brody… what does that even mean?” Good point, Saul. This kind of question demonstrates Homeland’s third season in its strongest mode, questioning the motives and decisions of its increasingly misguided characters. Despite an impressive, strung-out performance from Damian Lewis, Brody remains an albatross around the show’s neck, one that will – if this episode…
Last week’s middling episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was an even mix of good and bad. “The Well,” an insipid tie-in to Thor 2, had a lot of the bad but very little of the good. The links to Thor 2 are unimaginative – they’re literally cleaning up the wreckage – and hanging a lampshade…
Despite the fact that Ja’mie: Private School Girl finds Chris Lilley returning to a character he’s played not once, but twice before, the series is a risk for the comedian. Each of his previous series have been thematically distinct but shared a common narrative structure, splitting their time with roughly half-a-dozen characters (all played by…
Increasingly, this season of Homeland has been about the show reinventing itself as a slower, more contemplative show. The silly plot twists are still in evidence – see Mira’s lover being revealed as a spy – but the series is putting its emphasis on slower moments rather than the over-exaggerated tension of “look out! Terrorists!”…
Like most episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “The Hub” does a few things right and a few things poorly. Some of those things… Good: The series beginning to treat S.H.I.E.L.D. as an organisation worthy of scepticism rather than filled with unquestioned goodies. The titular hub was a timely reminder that S.H.I.E.L.D. is a large, pseudo-military…
The fourth episode of Ja’mie has the same problem I spoke about last episode in that there’s a continued reluctance to provide any kind of substantial characterisation to any non-Ja’mie characters. It’s telling that her romance with Mitchell has been relegated to descriptions of text messages/Facebook statuses and the occasional wordless montage; if I’m being…
Lately writing a review of a Homeland season three episode is like sifting through a pan of dirt for flecks of gold, and each week those glimmers are buried deeper in dense soil. That dirt is deep, rich and increasingly suffocating. The seeds of the Javadi storyline bear some fruit this episode, but every highlight…
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. might not be a good show, but “F.Z.Z.T.” is a pretty good episode of television. It’s not that it improves upon any of the fundamental flaws of the show, it just manages to execute its formula with more skill than previous episodes. The cast remain underwhelming (though Fitz’s crush on Skye…
One of the things that has always elevated Chris Lilley’s satire is his refusal to mock his characters in character. Sure, his bit is mostly about pointing out the ridiculousness of a given type, but while you’re supposed to laugh at Ja’mie, Lilley takes her very seriously. Ja’mie: Private School Girl takes this a step…
The title “Still Positive” is apropos to an episode that restored some optimism towards Homeland. This is an episode that restored a ragged sense of tension without relying on lame narrative trickery. The plotting is still haphazard (most television shows make things up as they go along to some extent, but that’s more evident than…
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