Rather sensibly the series ignores the crap 3rd Terminator movie and picks up a little after T2.

Essentially in the pilot sky net is yet again trying to 'terminate' John Connor. Escaping to the future (2007) and therfore avoiding Terminator 3. The premise being trying to stop Sky Net from ever being invented.

Show is action/drama and plays on this riff. Sadly the show was cut to only 9 episodes by the writers strike and a watch will show that the writers clearly had a big plot arc planned. Which will be picked up in season 2.

It's strengths are it's principle cast who manage to be engagin and interesting. Cameron played by Summer Glau is the stand out. Playing a killer cyborg with very questionable if none existent morality she is brillant. Glau puts plenty of strange querkyness into her performance. It also helps that she is very very hot! Reviewer admits bias there.

Thomas Dekker plays John Connor perfectly. He manages successfully to play a role that requires him to do the whole 'I'm going to save the world' angst without getting irritating. He also has some slightly disturbing sexual chemistry with Glau's Cameron.

Oddly the weak link is Sarah Connor played by Lena Headly. As Connor she is very good and credible as hard ass and heart. But is asked to play it far to angst ridden. Iritatingly giving us a moral to the story every single episode!

In short short thought the series is great. Frankly its fantastic and people need to watch it. Also Summer Glau is hot, in case I failed to mention it.

Check out the trailers:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QnRIppORY
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9SiS1uGjkG0

Absolutely barking mad, and not in a good way. Appalling script, characters-by-numbers, totally unlikeable lead, too much 'ooh, let's stir up some religious controversy, aren't we daring', archaelogical practices that would have Time Team's Mick Aston rending his stripy jumper asunder in despair, and Paul Nicholls seemed to have been ADRed to within an inch of his life (he wasn't doing his own accent. It must have been awful before they fixed it. I say 'fixed'...). This is from the people who did Life On Mars, for goodness' sake. If it'd been played for laughs it would have been a lot more successful, but they seem to be taking it far too seriously.

That said, I'll still be tuning in for the remaining 5 weeks (or however long it stays on air) because Hugh Bonneville is in it, and he is utterly marvellous, always. The massively generous 2/10 is entirely due to him. There were a few decent lines, and he had all of them (unfortunately some really ropey ones too). If his character was the lead it would be sooo much better, but they've gone for Julie Graham instead (she's had her teeth done, but that's not important right now) who gets right on my wick.

Maybe I'll try next week's episode with a couple of beers. Might take the edge off.

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The hilarious misadventures of the utterly hapless halfwitted couple as they blunder through the series of misunderstandings and confusion which comprise their life together.

I was expecting to find the programme objectionable in some way, but it's impossible to hate these people - they exist entirely on a single happy-go-lucky level, having no deeper understanding of the world around them beyond working out if they need to look pretty for it or sue it for slander, both of which they seem to approach with the same oblivious good-naturedness.

Watching Peter Andre trying to come to terms with having his hair shampooed by a male hairdresser after having anticipated an 'erotic experience', and ultimately declaring himself to have been betrayed by society, was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

More disturbing was Katie's thirst for anaesthesia, she relishes the feeling of being rendered unconscious so much that she instructs surgeons to apply it slowly so she can 'feel it going up my arm' - she sounds more like a junkie than a patient. Also, despite her cheery approach to life, it's obvious that she's got severe body dismorphic issues, and will never be happy with her body no matter how much surgery she has done to it. It's actually quite touching to witness Peter's concern for her as she subjects herself to the neverending surgeries.

However, after 45 minutes, when they brought dental experts on to speculate on the causes of her toothache I had to give up. I've not experimented with 'reality TV' for several years and there's only so much a simple soul like myself can take before I actually start bleeding from the ears. I'll probably watch the rest before 2020, but I need to rest now, my dears. Run along and fetch me my slippers, would you?

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Doctor Who used to be known for it's imaginative writing, plot twists and high-suspense cliffhangers. The recently revived series started off with a few bold attempts to emulate the earlier series but over the course of four years has degenerated into endless close-ups of David Tennent's leering grimace, utterly insipid writing lacking any interesting features whatsoever, and is seemingly composed entirely of cliche and self-reference. The writers seem to have dispensed entrirely with the idea of plot, instead simply throwing in a random piece of exposition of the Doctor's early life instead of a plot twist whenever the 'action' becomes too unbearably repetitive. When all else fails, a character from Torchwood or an earlier series may be used to fill the gaps left by the complete absence of actual events. Most of the alleged storylines now seem to differ only in the (admittedly excellent) prosthetics for this week's alien warriors / alien menace / alien ghosts / future shock moralising.

With a bit of luck Davies will use the coming break to re-evaluate what he wants to do with this series. Amazingly he still seems to have retained enough viewing figures and public goodwill to allow him another shot in 2009; if he doesn't manage to completely overhaul the series, starting with firing the latest round of writers, then I don't think the illusion is going to last much longer; I don't think the public will watch another two years of drivel on a par with the last two, no matter how much many front covers the Radio Times devotes to it. I honestly hope something does change, as Doctor Who has at times been some of the best British television of its time, and meanwhile Torchwood is taking TV drama to levels of darkness rarely seen, and doing so with style, self-confidence and plots that will leave you breathless.

One mark each for the make-up and special effects departments. Episode 7 looked like it might earn another mark till it turned out to be yet another alien all along.

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A slacker who's had life his own way discovers that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. Now he has to hunt down souls that have escaped from hell with his two slacker buddies...

The devil's a bit too nice, but he is slickly cool. The main enjoyment comes from the three friends having fun with their new gig - whilst tormenting their old boss. It's a simple fantasy slacker comedy action thing basically!

thank god they got shot of mark 'twatto' lamaar. this simon anstell bloke is fantastic, not least because i had a dream that he was turkey slapping me the other night.


disclaimer: dreams mean nothing, even if you are being turkey slapped by the presenter of a scathing music comedy show. they don't, okay!!!!!


edit: according to the ginger fury i've done a bad thing by writing this review. i admit
that use of the word 'twatto' could be perceived as offensive and perhaps the word 'dream' should be replaced with the word 'nightmare'.

This spin off of Doctor Who features a small team hunting down aliens that have fallen through a rift in space and time in Cardiff.

The first season was notable for squeezing sex into pretty much any place it would fit, but the second series seems to have calmed down a bit and the entire thing has a bit more of an even keel to it. They've also managed to find a rather dry sense of humour that fits perfectly.

Not as good as Doctor Who, but not bad and worth a look - especially if you hated season 1.

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CAUTION - READING THIS WILL REVEAL THE ENDING OF LIFE ON MARS.

This is brilliant. Top sequel to Life on Mars. Sticking with the 'cop thrown back in time' theme, this is a bit different. Keeley Hawes' (fab actress) character, Alex, knows about the experiences of Sam Tyler from LoM as she has studied his file. When she is shot, and ends up in 1981 London with Gene Hunt et al, she knows that she is suffering hallucinations and has to work her way through the mystery in order to get back to 2008 and her daughter.

Oh, there's also mahooosive hair and a terrifying clown. What more could you ask for?

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I still can't believe they replaced Wogan and Dr. Who with THIS!

Great little science / technology documentary about the wondrousness of the human voice. Highlights:
- Pavarobotti
- Scarily skilled speech therapist analysing the voice of and then doing eery imitatons of Katie Melua (just for you Diziet ) Barbara Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald () and some loud shouty singing woman who's name I forget.
- Rory Bremner being shown how to get his Tony Blair voice to sound better using a graph
- John Local, who is Ladybird's favourite lecturer at York Uni

All very well put together with a good eye for comedy clips to stop things getting dull in the talky bits. Still on iPlayer until the end of this week I think. With thanks to Ladybird for plonking me down in front of it while eating tea.

EDIT: Here's a link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008s99k.shtml

An interesting concept for a TV programme: follow various animals through the slaughter process (in full, gut-spilling detail), then have a butcher explain a few things about the different cut you can get from each carcass. The meat is the spit-roasted and served to a studio audience.
The show is presented in a semi-live format and some very careful editing seems to take place, especially when the slaughtermen are discussing what happens to the guts of the animal and the less 'prime' cuts of meat. Obviously, the beeb dont want to be seen to be slating british farmers, so it's all presented from a very 'ooh, look how humane this is' point of veiw.
The show about suckling pigs was a real eye-opener, the kid-goat one less so, but the one that really got me was last night's veal calves episode. I know it's a cliche, but it did have me thinking: if i had to kill it myself, would i still eat it?
I'd really like to give this programme a higher rating, but the obvious editing has made me think; if you're not going to tell the full story, don't bother.
If you want a deeper insight to where your meat comes from, read 'Fast Food Nation'.

Journeyman follows Dan Vasser, a San Francisco journalist who discovers that he can travel in time. Actually he will travel in time whether he wants to or not, and whether it's appropriate or not.

On his travels he "tracks" ordinary people through the major events of their lives, changing them for better or worse, and sometimes even ruining his own life. He is helped on this journey by his ex-fiancee Livie, who he believed had tragically died in a plane crash.

This is basically a new spin on the Quantum Leap tale. The major differences are watching Dan desperately try to hold his fast unravelling present together whilst he fixes the past. It looks like it won't get a second series unfortunately, but I highly recommend you check out series one on sky one if your able!

so WACKY it made me want to SCREAM my FUCKING head OFF!!!!

edit: okay, this has grown on me a lot. Charley and the Hubba Bubba Nightmare is one of the scariest and funniest things i've seen in ages. rating changed from 2 to 6.

edit: The Priest and the Beast episode - Genius! rating amended from 6 to 8.

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Utterly gripping BBC drama series, now on it's sixth series (I believe). Also the most-complained-about series ever shown on the BBC, for many different reasons. Each episode plays like a mini film, with all the attendant highs, lows and twists. What makes this so outstanding is its steadfast refusal to follow the conventional cliches of storytelling. Once you think you know how the episode is going to turn out, it invariably sidesteps the obvious formulas and goes somewhere interesting, shocking or thought-provoking, rather than somewhere neat and tidily wrapped up. I'm not 100% convinced by the acting of the main character (Tom Quinn), but then I have no idea what MI5 agents are actually like.

It's also incredible to discover that MI5 heads of department earn basic governmental salary scale D, or 32 grand per year. And you thought your job was badly paid!

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the mid-nineties were a confusing time for men. this show is a perfect example of 'new lad'. basically its a poor attempt to pass acute bitterness off as irony. bloody awful.