ScreenScribe

Babylon Berlin | Netflix, from Tuesday ➢ “The most expensive drama Germany has ever put on, except for . . . no, actually, let’s not make that joke; it is a detective series set in the interwar Weimar Republic. Darkness beckons, poverty is rife, politics are violent and insane, and a city copes by being decadent, […]

I’m Dying Up Here (SoHo, 9.30 Tuesdays) “By the end of the first episode of this utterly seductive tale about the comedy-club scene of early-1970s Los Angeles, it’s clear that the lives of these aspiring comedians with all their inexhaustible yearning, their whining, their gratitude for any spot onstage–2 a.m., before an audience of 15, […]

“Zootopia arrives on Blu-ray with the expectedly excellent 1080p presentation from Disney. The movie’s colour palette pops. There are plenty of pastels that make up the broader strokes around the city but a rainbow’s worth of variety and punchier flavors on characters, key backgrounds, and supportive elements.” “Sharpness is exceptional allowing us to see the intricacies […]

The new Cameron (Almost Famous) Crowe vehicle, Roadies, is being panned in early US reviews. “This is Crowe’s The Newsroom, the moment when his trademark sincerity crosses over into preachy didacticism,” Entertainment Weekly said of the musical comedy/drama, which premieres on Showtime on Sunday and on SoHo on July 4. It awarded Roadies a D grade, arguing “cheap […]

Billions ends its run tonight (SoHo, 8.30) with a finale that Variety says makes “a number of hairpin turns, before rather niftily laying the foundation for a second season”. It argues the high-stakes drama has “proved most enjoyable for an attribute that a lot of premium-cable dramas can tend to forget: Fun” — which is what working on another SoHo […]

❏ Wow! What a week for HD on free-to-air TV. Prime at last has got with the programme (even if its HD access is limited to Sky’s platform because of the cost of extending it to Freeview|HD), TV2 is unleashing its biggest week of the new season and TV3 will try to kick-start primetime with the […]

❏ Superhero fans will find their favourite fix on Saturday afternoons from February 20, when TV2 will resume season two of The Flash at 2pm and continue Supergirl at 3pm. They’re part of a new-look line-up that include the season three premiere of The Fosters at midday and the return of Pretty Little Liars’ sixth season at 1pm. […]

The producers of a new SoHo comedy/drama considered having the killer don a Donald Trump mask but thought it would be too hard to pull off legally. The Amazon-commissioned Mad Dogs, which is a US re-make of the British series, will premiere February 1 on SoHo and screen 9.30 Mondays. In the original, the killer wore a […]