TNT's Animal Kingdom
In a year filled with remakes and adaptations, from the upcoming Training Day to the cancelled Minority Report, a very special and original tale gets retold.
Animal Kingdom, premiering on TNT on June 14th 2016 at 9pm (Bravo in Canada), brings an amazing remake of the 2010 Australian film of the same name staring Guy Pierce and Jacki Weaver (who was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards that same year).
The story has the same premise in the pilot as the movie. Joshua "J" Cody, recently orphaned by his mother who suffered a heroine overdose, is reunited with his estranged family led by his grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody (played by Ellen Barkin). What he soon learns is that Smurf and his uncles have a darker side and is soon sucked into a deep dark criminal world.
If the pilot is any indication of how the tone and grit of this series is going to evolve, then I believe we are about to experience something very special.
While watching the first episode I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Each character brings something very special to the table. Its a pleasure to see Scott Speedman returning to tv, playing the level headed Barry "Baz" Blackwell who tries to bring a bit of calm to the chaos. As a counter balance to the story we are introduced to the recently released from prison, Andrew "Pope" Cody. Pope brings everything wrong but right as the antagonist uncle who is trouble from the very first moment he appears on the screen.
Without spoiling anything, if you like dark twisted gangster movies then you're in for a treat.
Check out the trailer and make sure to set you PVR's to record series!
Silicon Valley Season 3
There is always a fear whenever one of your favourite shows comes back on air the momentum will be lost or the humour doesn't quite hit it's beat.
This is not the case with Silicon Valley Season 3. At least not for the first 3 episodes I got to screen. The whole gang continues off exactly where Season 2 ended with Richard being fired as CEO of Pied Piper.
This season focusses on Pied Piper v2.0 as they move into office space, hire a sales force and deal with a new CEO (Jack Barker played by Stephen Tobolowsky) who is just as crazy as any of its existing characters. Barkers specialty is selling products that don't exist as you will see him create a version of Pied Piper in a box so his cracker jack new sales force has something to sell.
While the story continues, you are greeted with familiarity of Richards cringe worthy behaviour, Gilfoyle is still insulting Dinesh at every turn and Erlich Bachman still smokes a ton of weed!
Check out the premier of Silicon Valley Season 3 on HBO this Sunday at 10pm (EST) - right after Game of Thrones!
The Night Manager
Every now and then a British mini-series breaks through the content barrier. Both AMC Networks and BBC have had a great track record with the Sundance TV/BBC co-production, The Honourable Woman (one of my favourite binge worthy shows of 2015) and now they have done it again with The Night Manager which will air on Tuesday April 19th on AMC in North America.
For some people this is old news since it aired in February on the BBC in the UK, but for us over the pond is brand new exciting content.
The show brings together Hugh Laurie (House) and Tom Hiddleston (better known as Loki in the Avengers and Thor movies). Both powerhouse actors who own their characters. Hiddleston plays Jonathan Pine, an ex-soldier who is known in the hotel business as "The Night Manager". Pine eventually gets recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate an arms dealer named Richard Roper, played by Laurie.
With only 6 episodes, each running 1 hr, the series runs fast with little time to draw things out. Don't mistake this for the show not being deep in character or motivation. The storyline does provide enough backdrop, so that we as an audience believe each characters motivation.
Drawing over 10 Million viewers in the UK for the 1st episode it will be interesting to see how this translates on the zombie network (AMC). My fear is this series will get lost in the shuffle, but those in the know, will pick it up. With so much good content on TV and Online Networks this might be a tough one for North American audiences to commit to. But, if you do you will be rewarded with a tight story filled with spies, betrayal, corruption and revenge. Add in good storytelling and beautiful cinematography, The Night Manager delivers in 6 episodes what few series do in 22.
Reward yourself, watch the night manager, you deserve it!