TV Guide: Part 2

The continuing TV guide!

CBS
Sex, violence, swearing: No. Although, with heavy involvement from Jerry Bruckheimer, many of the primetime drama have slow-motion, scantily-clad gun-fights and punch-ups.
Past programmes: Some of the biggest old shows: Dallas, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum P.I., T.J. Hooker, Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible, Walker Texas Ranger, Rod Sirling's classic The Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, The Jeffersons, M*A*S*H*, and lunch-time favourite Diagnosis Murder. More recently they had success with James Woods' legal drama Shark, and surprisingly watchable crime drama Numbers.
On the air: CBS is the network that spawned CSI and all it's spinoffs. It also has CSI-alikes Cold Case and NCIS, Criminal Minds, and supernatural dramas Ghost Whisperer and Medium (which it imported from NBC). There's acclaimed drama The Good Wife, for which Julianna Marguiles won a Golden Globe. Comedy-wise there's the geeky The Big Bang Theory, the inexplicably popular Charlie Sheen vehicle Two and a Half Men, although there's better fun to be had with both How I Met Your Mother (with Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, and Jason Segel) and The New Adventures of Old Christine (starring Julia Louis Dreyfus)
Upcoming: Another Bruckheimer-produced drama, which is imaginatively titled Miami Medical. Bizarrely it stars Jeremy Northam. Early word is not good.
Must see TV?: Well, CSI used to be groundbreaking television. Now, it's actually amazing that they have three of them going and that they're all so average. Well, apart from CSI Miami, which is hilariously awful. Medium is occasionally excellent, and How I Met Your Mother is a lot of fun. You could do worse.


HBO
Sex, violence, swearing?: What, on HBO?
Past programmes: HBO got its start with shows like Tales From the Crypt and Mr Show, as well as airing stand up comedy specials. The network made a big impact with prison drama Oz and The Wire's precursor The Corner, but really found its feet with The Sopranos and Sex in the City. The Wire and Six Feet Under soon followed, bringing a huge amount of acclaim. They stretched their wings a little with period shows like Daniel Knaufe's Carnivàle and David Milch's Deadwood, which lasted two and three seasons respectively. Rome was briefly entertaining but lost its way, and Milch's John From Cincinatti sadly disappeared up its own arse after a few impressive episodes, and was cancelled after one series. They've had big successes with combat drama mini-series, with Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. They also aired Extras, and took our favourite New Zealand folk parody duo Flight of the Conchords into the mainstream.
On air: A lot of shows. Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage are still going, as are dramas like Mormon drama Big Love and Gabriel Byrne-starring In Treatment. Everyone's favourite guilty pleasure True Blood is returning for a third series, and Thomas Jane's gigolo dramedy Hung secured a second season. We're very excited about second seasons for Danny McBride and Jody Hill's Eastbound and Down, and Jason Schwartzman/Ted Danson/Zach Galifianakis noir-comedy Bored to Death. They're also currently showing Band of Brothers follow-up The Pacific.
Upcoming: Two very big, star-studded series in the shape of Martin Scorsese-produced period gangster drama Boardwalk Empire, and David Simon's post-Katrina look at music in New Orleans Treme. Also on the way is Game of Thrones, a fantasy drama with Sean Bean and Lena Headey, and Stitch and Bitch, a comedy created by Juno herself: Ellen Page.
Must see TV?: Yes! HBO box-sets have been occupying our Christmas and birthday wish-lists for years. Their stunning programming at the start of the last decade is perhaps the biggest reason why TV has evolved.




NBC
Sex, violence, swearing?: No, no.
Past programmes: NBC is another one of the big broadcasting companies. They gave us Bonanza, Columbo, The A-Team, The Bionic Woman, Dragnet, Wings, Miami Vice, , ER, Homicide: Life on the Street, Knight Rider, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Quincy M.E., St. Elsewhere, the original V, The West Wing, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Cheers, The Cosby Show, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friends, Frasier, My Name is Earl, NewsRadio, Sanford and Son, Scrubs, Seinfeld, Taxi, and Star Trek. On the down-side, they cancelled shows like Southland, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Freaks and Geeks, Kings, Kidnapped, Journeyman, The Book of Daniel, Life, and My Own Worst Enemy (justifiable).
On air: A lot of good stuff. Somehow, Law and Order and its spinoffs are still going, as is Heroes (although that surely must be ending soon). Football drama Friday Night Lights and nerdy action sci-fi Chuck get rave reviews, if not necessarily massive viewing figures, but are definitely worth watching. New series include the star-studded Parenthood remake (Peter Krause, Craig T. Nelson, Lauren Graham), and medical drama Mercy. But NBC's best shows are its comedies. Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey's 30 Rock, The Office (which I actually think is funnier than the British version), Office-spinoff Parks and Recreation, and the hysterically funny Community.
Upcoming: Sci-fi Day One, Persons Unknown (about which little is known), and a new sitcom called 100 Questions. 30 Rock and Community have been confirmed for another season.
Must see TV?: Yes. While SNL is hit-and-miss, 30 Rock is still worth watching despite a slip in quality, and Community is just wonderful. Chuck and Friday Night Lights are up there with the best network dramas.

Well, this concludes part 2! Look out for part 3, which will include Showtime and TNT.

Recent Release Reviewed: Shutter Island

Shutter Island
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow
Screenplay: Laeta Kalogridis, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
Director: Martin Scorsese

It's 1954, and Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive on Shutter Island, an maximum-security asylum for the criminally insane. They're here because one of the inmates, Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), escaped from her locked cell and is nowhere to be found. The doctors, led by Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow), are polite but uncooperative. Teddy begins to suspect that Rachel could not have escaped with no one noticing. He's also haunted by nightmares of his dead wife (Michelle Williams), who was killed in a fire started by an arsonist (Elias Koteas) who he believes is an inmate. Teddy and Chuck find themselves drawn into a mystery there may be no way out of.

Right, that's as much of the story as I can give you without wrecking the film! The first, and perhaps most important, thing to say is that Shutter Island is a big, fun, silly throwback to the type of overblown gothic horror that probably would have starred Vincent Price. From the dense fog that opens the film, to the incredible storm that prevents Teddy and Chuck from leaving, to the crypts, the lighthouse, and the maximum security wing that resembles a torture chamber from the middle ages, Scorsese and his team have turned everything up to eleven. The same instructions have been given to the actors, who all stay on just the right side of hammy.

DiCaprio continues his progression into one of the best actors around under Scorsese's guidance. He's got progressively better with each film, and he does well with a challenging role. It's a big performance, to be sure, but it certainly fits with the tone. Ruffalo is quietly solid in the less showy role of Teddy's loyal partner, Kingsley gives his best work for a while as the softly spoken head doctor, and he is very capably backed up by von Sydow, who's clearly enjoying himself. Michelle Williams gives another excellent performance (following Wendy and Lucy and Synecdoche, New York) as Teddy's deceased wife, and is incredibly haunting in fantastically shot dream sequences that are flooded with colour and layered with dread.

It's also a mark of a Scorsese film that the supporting cast is flooded with incredible character actors. Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, John Carrol Lynch, Elias Koteas, and Ted Levine all make a very big impression in their limited screen time, which for most of them is a matter of a couple of minutes.

Dennis Lehane is known to cinema-goers as the author of the novels Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, both of which were successfully turned into films. The first words that come to my mind when thinking about those two movies are "gritty", "depressing", and "realism". None of these words are applicable here. Shutter Island is overblown in the most entertaining sense of the word. The colours palette ranges from inky black darkness to scenes of almost overwhelming light/dark contrast. Michelle Williams' dream sequences, in particular, are shot with a striking mix of yellow and red that, combined with her excellent performance, make these scenes some of the most memorable.

Shutter Island also draws heavily on 1950s anger and suspicion. The red menace of the Communists is present and correct, although I won't go into it too much here. Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule both served in the Second World War. Daniels was present for the liberation of Dachau, which we see in carefully judged flashbacks that are given the same treatment as his dreams. There are just as visually striking, but they do not feel exploitative. These scenes move the narrative forward. They also give Daniels another point of antagonism, as von Sydow's Doctor Naehring is German.

And as for Mr. Scorsese? Well, the verve and energy that critics enjoyed so much in The Departed is equally as present here, if not more so. I was not a big fan of Gangs of New York, and I thought The Aviator was entertaining, but it feels like he enjoys these B-movie homages so much more. He clearly had a great time crafting this labyrinthine, over the top Gothic horror. There are things in the film that are easy to criticise, and some of the plot twists are signposted too easily, but the most important thing about Shutter Island is this: It's very entertaining. I'm repeating myself, but it's a big, fun B-movie made by a brilliant director and featuring a fantastic cast. What's not to like?

8/10