ScreenScribe

The Enemy Within | Lightbox, from Monday ☆☆☆☆ “The new drama The Enemy Within marks NBC’s latest fairly unsuccessful attempt to copy whatever NBC executives interpret to be the template that turned The Blacklist into a hit. It isn’t the worst in the network’s line of dramas featuring generic intelligence operatives forced to team up with […]

Deep State | TVNZ 1, 9.10 Saturday ➢➢ “Mark Strong brings his strong-and-silent charisma to the role of a former spy whose family — two families, actually — becomes collateral damage in a conspiracy that stretches from the C.I.A. to MI6 to the Iranian power grid … Superficially entertaining and predictable … combining elements of […]

Greyzone | TVNZ OnDemand, from Thursday ➢➢ “The ambitious new thriller brings a Scandi sensibility to a Homeland-style drama of international consequence … Greyzone represents the latest entry in the new wave of Danish dramas that are breaking away from the Scandi-Noir genre that shows from the region are so well known for. Gone is the […]

Homeland | SoHo, 9.30 Monday ➢ “On a narrative level the Homeland premiere is decidedly small. Although Homeland has fundamentally been a character-driven drama, the threat of the world on the brink of cataclysm has always lingered on the surface. Assassinations. Terrorist actions. Upheavals of power. The seventh season premiere keeps the implied stakes high, […]

SEAL Team | Prime, 8.30 Friday ➢ “Given that a broadcast show is rarely if ever going to approach the complexity of a show like Homeland, SEAL Team makes a strong effort to bring the human element of the fight against amorphous terrorists to the broadcast audience. And to the show’s credit, the emphasis of the show […]

McMafia | Amazon Prime, from Tuesday ➢ “McMafia is an ambitious drama, spanning the globe, promising to be complex in its exploration of 21st-century organised crime and based on the 2008 book of the same name. Yet the first half felt stuck in second gear and merely like a procession of unpleasant rich men about […]

Berlin Station | SoHo, 8.30 Friday ➢ “Berlin Station is a little talky, maybe a little over-plotted and populated — though a lot of 10-episode serials feel that way in the early going. But, on the evidence of its first four episodes, it keeps you interested in the central question of who’s leaking information about the […]

   Ahead of next week’s 4K-UHD release of Peter Jackson’s King Kong comes another entry in the franchise that doesn’t just ape the original, Kong: Skull Island. “Kong: Skull Island is a CG infestation at times, but that doesn’t hamper the 4K’s acute beauty throughout,” WhySoBlu said. “I’m not going to lie to you and […]

Prime will pre-empt Monday’s 7.30 premiere of Fishing Impossible for the 60 Minutes special, Barack Obama – Eight Years In The White House. His interview with Steve Kroft was his last TV interview as President of the United States. In the US, CBS aired it five days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Arguably, Prime should have run it last […]

Two hours after resuming her Emmy-winning role as Carrie Mathison on Homeland (SoHo, 8.30), Claire Danes appears on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon (Prime, 10.30), when she joins fellow guest JK Simmons and the host in a sketch that spoofs news anchors. Expect Danes to also promote season six of Homeland, which already has been renewed for […]