After a few months of not much happening, there’s suddenly a few new series that deserve your attention.

Spiral. Third series of the edgy French cop show, labelled Spiral: The Butcher of La Villette by the BBC in the hope you won’t realise you’ve missed two series already. (You don’t really need to see them to understand this, but they’re only 15.99 on Amazon anyway) Apart from the thriller elements and the terrific cast, it’s fascinating to see a completely different judicial system in operation. Saturday nights on BBC4 with a midweek repeat, and on iplayer.

Rubicon. An outstanding conspiracy thriller shown on US TV last year. Sometimes slower than treacle but never boring, it’s reminiscent of ’70s paranioa movies and the cast is perfect. I’ve never rated James Badge Dale before but he’s found the right part at last. Or would have if Rubicon hadn’t been canned at the end of the first series. It just about ties things up so don’t let that put you off. And watch for Michael Cristofer’s marvellously eccentric performance as Truxton Spangler. Starts Thursday night on BBC4 and on iplayer.

The Walking Dead. Weekend terrestrial showing on Channel5 for Frank Darabont’s adaptation of the ongoing graphic novel, patchy but the basic set-up, a less political telling of the Romero stories with a large budget, means it can’t fail. Non-spoiler review of the first episode here.

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

Excellent BBC documentary about the history and recent popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction and TV. Beck, Wallander and Salander among others.

May disappear soon so watch it asap.

Watch on BBC iplayer

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

UK poster - The Walking Dead

For a few years I’ve been reading Robert Kirkman’s comic book The Walking Dead. I’ll admit here to not being the greatest fan of the medium, I’m never too sure of the intended pacing of stories compared with novels or movies, and find that expository dialogue, particularly in Kirkman’s case, tends to sound unnatural. So even as a long-time zombie enthusiast, I approached the pilot episode with a few reservations.

The good news is that the positive reception in the US means that it’s likely to run past the initial season,so it’s worth investing some time in. More good news comes with the significant involvement of Frank Darabont, who showed in The Mist and The Blob that he has an affinity for this sort of thing. Ditto Greg Nicotero, who’s been the master of zombie make-up since the ’80s. The casting is a bit weirder – two English actors are the focus of the pilot episode: Andrew Lincoln, previously unremarkable in a variety of unappealing Tv shows and the occasional movie (Love Actually), plays the hero. Opposite him is Lennie James, veteran of this sort of thing (the TV series Jericho should have prepared him for one).

Both actors manage a credible generic American accent, if not a Georgian one, and James in particular makes the most of the melodrama. The biggest relief, however, is that the show plays the zombie menace absolutely straight, sticking to the Romero rules – George is the genre equivalent of the Marquis of Queensberry as far as I’m concerned. Even better, the apocalypse is used to generate an atmosphere of tragedy and lost lives, which is the only sensible way to play it even if the box-office usually says otherwise.

The first show looks good, rewrites just enough of the comic to keep long-time readers guessing, and moves at a fair pace despite only covering 20-odd pages of the source, so there’s plenty to look forward to. Of course there is the odd bit of clunky dialogue, and the time-line of events seems questionable, but this is as good as anyone could have anticipated.

Further review to follow once the story hits its stride.

Mild Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

SKY TV just aired the first episode, titled THORNE:SLEEPYHEAD, in a 3-part adaptation of Mark Billingham’s first novel.

David Morrissey fits the bill as the run-down detective Tom Thorne, even if he is too tall and good-looking, and there’s a fine supporting cast including Natasha McElhone, Eddie Marsan and Aidan Gillen. It’s directed by Stephen Hopkins in a strange attempt to film London in the style of 24, but it more or less works and it’s good to see a homegrown drama with decent production values.

I’m hoping it’s a success, as Billingham’s Thorne novels are all well-plotted with terrific dialogue, as you might expect from a former stand-up comic. Presumably it will turn up on FOX in the States, so keep an eye out.

Mild Peril Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

It’s not an original strategy of course, indeed the X-Files long-term arc about alien invasion tried the same thing before giving up any attempt at coherence, but Fringe does appear to be planning ahead slightly. Perhaps JJ Abrams has learned from his experience on Lost, where the apparent lack of plot planning alienated a lot of his potential audience. Fringe hedges its bets by developing a range of paranoid conspiracies and inviting the audience to fill in the blanks, although it’s more or less certain that Leonard Nimoy is not as innocent as he pretends.

The rest of the cast has turned out to be surprisingly strong despite having little marquee value. Anna Torv in the Gillian Anderson role doesn’t have a lot to do, and most of the showy dialogue goes to mad scientist John Noble. The big surprise has been Joshua Jackson, who seems to be the straight man to both Torv and Noble, but has gradually developed the role beyond that.

The only problem with Fringe is that SF series in particular seem to be prone to cancellation just when they’ve developed a loyalty in their audience. Let’s hope that the eggs laid so far will live long enough to be hatched.

Mild Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more

Mild Peril - movie reviews and more