Monday 30 March 2009

TV

Law & Order: UK
1x06 Paradise
Another strong episode, if still subject to the series' penchant for worthiness... though at least it seems to be aware of it, turning it into a character flaw rather than just blunt writing. Well done.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Mentalist
1x01 Pilot
Sherlock Holmes meets Derren Brown by way of any old US cop show in Five's latest import. As a fan of at least two out of those three things, this is very promising.

Films

Big Nothing (2006)
[#12 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
This is the third new film in a row I've watched on TV, an unusually high number for me.

Articles

Robin Hood tops Primeval in ratings by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"The return of Robin Hood beat the return of Primeval in the ratings... The BBC drama averaged 5.62m (25.8%)... Its ITV1 rival, also launching its third run, put in 5.27m (23.7%)...
Hood suffered from being up against Harry Hill's TV Burp... but when Primeval began Hood's audience jumped from 5.65m to a peak of 6.74m (29.7%) within five minutes.
The audience for Hood was roughly on par with that for the first episode of series two, which managed 5.76m... Primeval, meanwhile, was down around 500k on its second series premiere, which delivered 5.72m."
Clearly I wasn't the only one who preferred the Hood. Their overall closeness may not be enough to jolt ITV into moving them out of direct competition, sadly, though Primeval's drop from last year and Hood's spike when Primeval began might convince them...

Weekend Report: Monsters, Haunting Scare Up Big Business by Brandon Gray
(from Box Office Mojo)
But never mind them -- this is an "oh dear" update on Watchmen:
"Watchmen's rapid descent persisted, this time dissipating 59% to an estimated $2.8 million... The superhero drama did lose more than half of its screens and showings from last weekend, but there were still many more than enough to satiate any remaining audience interest. On its 21st day, it crossed the $100 million mark, but it was the slowest of any movie that opened to over $50 million to reach that milestone".