Eureka, Season 4 (2010)

Dangerous situations are part and parcel of life in Eureka, what with it being a think tank for cutting edge scientific experimentation, but after three seasons of that, even 'we might all be about to die' can seem a bit stale.  So kudos to the Eureka writers team for varying up the formula a little at the start of this series.  Sure, the main cast 'save the day', but the season's tagline of "The Equation Has Changed" is a deserved one, with some interesting shake-ups in several key character relationships and dynamics ... while still remaining recognisably the same show.  Nice work.

I'm not as enamoured of everything that happens in this season, it has to be said.  The individual episode scenarios are mostly solid enough (with "The Ex-Files" bneing particularly fun for long-term fans of the show), but the reintroduction of a conspiracy plotline that was mercifully absent from season three was definitely less welcome to me.  I've never much cared about the Consortium or its machinations, and the whole arc seems to rely pretty heavily on supposedly smart characters being rather dumb.

Fortunately, though the Consortium plays a fairly large role in several episodes (and will be back to stink up the place with ever-less-sensical schemes in the last season), there are plenty of instalments of the show that are entirely free of them, and you can just enjoy the capable and likeable cast doing their thing.

If you've enjoyed the first three seasons of Eureka, you should like this one too.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)

16-year old Nancy Drew is a big city girl, and none-too-thrilled about her father's decision to quit Chicago for the alleged pleasures of small town life.  Daddy Drew, you see, couldn't bear to remain in the city that reminded him of his deceased wife.

The big news in their new home is a proposed railroad.  Some of the townsfolk are keen to see this built, believing it will bring new life to the town, but plenty oppose it, including Nancy's dad.  A talented lawyer and convincing orator, he seems close to scuppering the whole deal.

Nancy, however, is far more interested in wreaking vengeance on those who upset the few friends she has in town, and in stories that a local home is haunted.  She doesn't believe in ghosts, but maybe there's something else going on at the house ...

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is based on a 1930 novel, which probably explains the rather anachronous railway line premise that underlies much of the action there.  In most other respects, the film updates itself to 2019 quite effectively.  The characters all have and use mobile phones, and social media and video editing are both utilised.

This is a fun teen mystery movie.  It's got a likeable cast - in particular, Sophia Lillis is great in the main role - and some genuinely funny character interplay.  There is one sequence around the supposed haunting that might be a little intense for some younger viewers, but it's otherwise a light, family-friendly affair that zips along quite merrily for its 90 minute run-time.

Warehouse 13, Season 2 (2010)

Renegade agent James MacPerson has managed to breach Warehouse 13's security and liberate one of the criminals stored in the secret "Bronzed" section.  Who did he liberate and why?  And what agenda will this new player bring to complicate the continuing struggle to keep the world safe from artefacts?

Artefacts, in case you missed my season one review, are items that were important to particularly noteworthy people, and have developed inexplicable-to-modern-science powers.  Jimi Hendrix's guitar, for instance, has a hallucinogenic effect when played.  In malicious or unwitting hands, such items can be extremely dangerous, and Warehouse agents are the ones responsible for finding and safely securing them.  Without alerting the world to the fact that such things even exist.

Season two of Warehouse 13 is definitely a stronger offering than the opening series.  The main characters are bedded down and have fun relationships established between them.  The actors convey a real sense of camaraderie.  The guest stars are well chosen and set up fun new dynamics.  The writing team seems to have got a better handle on the characters and on the actors playing them.

If light genre TV is something you're looking for, pay a visit to Warehouse 13.

Zero Theorem (2013)

In Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil, a socially-isolated man in a dystopian society works a seemingly meaningless job while dreaming of a higher purpose.  Assigned to a special project by his deliberately obtuse and obstructive superiors, he meets a special woman, falls in love, and finally dares to fight for what he wants, which puts him on a path that might best be described as having a bittersweet ending.

In Terry Gilliam's 2013 film Zero Theorem, a socially-isolated man in a dystopian society works a seemingly meaningless job while dreaming of a higher purpose.  Assigned to a special project by his deliberately obtuse and obstructive superiors, he meets a special woman, falls in love, and finally dares to fight for what he wants, which puts him on a path that might best be described as having a bittersweet ending.

I'm perhaps being slightly unfair in the above two paragraphs, because plenty of the details of these two films are very different.  But the reality is that it's hard to ignore how similar are the core story and themes of the two.  For me at least, the change of details doesn't really make up for how familiar it all felt.

Of course if you've never seen Brazil then you won't have that problem.  But if you've never seen Brazil ... well, I'd say go watch it, rather than this re-tread of the same ideas.  Though I will give Zero Theorem this: Melinda Thierry is a much more compelling love interest than Kim Greist was.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, Season 3 (2001)

After three years, the Challenger Expedition is still stuck in the depths of South America, still battling to find to a way out of the increasingly misnamed "Lost" world, and still running into all kinds of insane stuff.  By episode five of this final season of the show they'll have encountered a cursed aviator, an Aztec(?) Trickster god, a literal dragon lady, a ghostly warlord and Jack the Ripper.  And if you think we're going to wrap up this filmed in Australia series without at least some kind of nod to The Road Warrior, well, you better think again!

The attraction of this show has always been its "kitchen sink" approach to stories, as it unapologetically throws all kinds of madness at its cast.  I also like how the characters seem to have adapted to all the crazy.  They're willing to embrace wild and kooky scenarios, with something of a shrug and the comment "we've seen weirder".  The show and the actors lean into the silliness without ever winking and nodding at the camera.  Which is not to say they don't sometimes go for laughs - there's quite the vein of dad jokes to be found here - but it's smart enough not to ask you to laugh at its own expense.

I mean, you probably will laugh at its expense from time to time, because there are some pretty dodgy ideas and effects in here ... but the show doesn't ever point out its own shortcomings.

Should you watch Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World?  Well, if you miss those goofy, mostly family-friendly action adventures shows of the 90s, and you don't mind that this one ended without ever getting a proper ending (this final season, in fact, wraps up with no less than five separate cliffhangers), then you'll probably have fun with this.  I sure did!

Ghostbusters (2016)

Dr Erin Gilbert is chasing a tenure position at Columbia University when a research book she wrote about ghosts, but subsequently has tried to conceal, makes an unwelcome reappearance in her life.  Erin's efforts to get the embarrassing work under wraps once more put her back in contact with her estranged friend Dr Abby Yates - and also backfire horribly when she and Abby run slap into a very real ghost and Erin's reaction to this hits the internet.

Her career plans in ruins, but with ghostly phenomena on the rise across the city, Erin throws in her lot with Abby and Abby's quirky engineer friend Holtzmann to establish a company to seriously investigate the paranormal.  Society isn't much interested in the "Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination" however, and quickly dubs them the "Ghostbusters".

And of course, you can rest assured that some ghosts are most definitely going to need busting before the film is out ...

This 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters triggered massive flame wars on the internet, because according to some people, casting four women in the main roles in the remake is an attack on the 1984 original.  Presumably the studio was also planning to come to these people's houses and forcibly repossess their existing DVDs and make them only watch this film, or something.

In case it's not obvious, I think those people are very silly.

The 2016 Ghostbusters is not a perfect film: not all of the jokes hit.  But it throws so many of them at you that some at least are bound to do so.  The cast are likeable, and the affection for the original film is (contrary to the claims of the naysayers) obvious throughout.  The action scenes all work nicely.  I enjoyed it as much on this, my second viewing, as I did when I saw it in theatres.  Recommended.

Californication, Season 7 (2010)

Hank Moody's perennial cycle of pursuing, winning back and then driving away Karen, the supposed love of his life, is interrupted by the arrival of a son he never knew he had.  In a lot of shows "surprise, you have a kid you didn't know about" suddenly turning up after six seasons would make me roll my eyes.  Given this is nigh-pathological womaniser Hank Moody though, it feels if anything, overdue.

Anyway, in between getting to know his 20-21 year old son and trying to win and hold onto a job at a TV show, Hank's got quite a lot on his plate.  That means less Karen-chasing than usual, especially since Julia, the mother of his son (whom he dated before Karen), turns out to be still beautiful and vivacious.  You're shocked, I am sure.

After the execrable season six, this series of Californication is a welcome return to something approximating the show's best form.  It remains crass and crude and the core cast are still pretty horrible people, but there is a sense that they're trying to be a bit less awful at last, and most of the new characters for this year are actually pretty decent sorts.  Even Hank's son, who has a pretty high douche factor for a lot of the season, actually takes some steps towards being human near the end.

I'm not sure that I would say that this final season of the show makes up for the missteps of the year before - I'm not sure that anything could make that rot become watchable - but it's a pretty fitting end to the series as a whole: flawed and sometimes cringe-inducing, but still holding out some hope that its better natures will eventually win through.

Fast Five (2011)

Dominic Toretto is on his way to jail, but let's face it when you and all your friends are basically superheroes, there's no way that's going to actually happen, and ten minutes and a bus crash later, the team's in Brazil, boosting cars by literally cutting out the side of a high-speed train and driving them off it.

Alas, the locals they're working with aren't trustworthy and the cars are the property of the US government, so we're one double-cross away from Dom & Co being entangled in a three-way struggle with the local mob and a seemingly unstoppable US lawman in the shape of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The fourth Fast & Furious film restored some box office lustre to what had previously seemed to be a failing franchise, but it is this entry that confirmed a shift in financial trajectory.  Fast Five was the #6 earner in the 2011 US box office, and #7 worldwide.  And even nearly a decade later, it's not hard to see why: the film is bonkers, balls to the wall action pretty much from start to finish.  It's the cinematic equivalent of an amusement park rollercoaster and it leans in hard to that fact, with only very occasional breaks for someone to make some gravelly-voiced comment about "mi familia".

Good, gonzo fun.

The Shield, Season 6 (2007)

Vic Mackey has made a career of staying one step ahead of anyone who wants to take him down, whatever side of the law they happen to be on.  But now the walls are really closing in.  One of his team is dead, and Lieutenant Kavanaugh is willing to go to any lengths to prove that it was Vic that did it.  Though ironically, for once it wasn't Vic, who is on his own crusade to find the culprit.

The hits keep on coming, though: the department is looking to force Vic out when he hits his 15 year's service, and his captain's already brought in his replacement to learn the ropes.  Oh, and there seems to be a massive mob war brewing between the Mexican and El Salvadoran gangs, which kicks off with 11 corpses.  Unless they can break that case, the whole Farmington PD might get shut down.  It's going to take a real Houdini act to get out of all this.

Six seasons in and only one to go, and at this point The Shield is one of those few shows to get stronger over time.  Characters develop and evolve over time in plausible ways, and plot points carry over episodes and seasons and bubble up to trouble those involved at multiple different times.  I still don't think it's quite as good as The Wire at its best, but name me something in this genre that is?

Good stuff.