Reviews, views and occasionally other things…
If movies are my true love, TV is my dirty weekend fling.
Former Detective Nick Sax is an alcoholic loner who relies on narcotics to fill his life with meaning and interest, in turn relying on his skills as a gun for hire to provide for his habits. However, after having a near death experience he is visited by Happy, a small blue flying unicorn which only … Continue reading Happy! Season One Review
Following on from the events of the first season, the trajectory of the second season of Netflix’s High School drama series charts a disappointingly similar course to its predecessor, with a sprinkling of new ingredients that neither improve nor detract from what’s come before. We have a few new students to focus on who mostly … Continue reading 13 Reasons Why – Season Two Review
On November 13th 2015, ISIL orchestrated a multi-cell attack using a variety of methods that ended the lives of 130 people in the space of a few hours. With support from the French government, mobile phone footage from witnesses and interviews with survivors and first responders, this three-part Netflix documentary (in French with English subtitles) … Continue reading 13 November: Attack On Paris Review
Fifteen years ago, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” aired its final episode “Chosen” on Sky One here in the UK (some three weeks or so after its US airdate), so it’s the perfect time for Sweetie G – the person who introduced me to Buffy – and me to sit down and agree our Top Ten … Continue reading The Best Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
25 years ago, on 3rd January 1993, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” made its TV debut in America. It wouldn’t reach UK TV screens until 22nd August later that year. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, What The Craggus Saw is taking the time between those two premiere dates to revisit and review each season of … Continue reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Retrospective: Season 5
One day Clay Jensen arrives home from Liberty High School to discover a curious package on his doorstep. Upon opening the box he discovers seven audio cassettes that serve as an explanation for his close friend Hannah Baker’s recent suicide. Over the course of listening to the tapes, Clay discovers the cause of Hannah’s gradual … Continue reading 13 Reasons Why – Season One Review
Tom Delaney is a successful British surgeon who was recently widowed, leaving himself to bring up his two daughters who are becoming increasingly distanced since the tragic loss of their Mother. When Tom’s eldest daughter Jenny goes missing, whilst assisting Police in their search he discovers an intricate and tragic secret that may hold the … Continue reading Safe – Series Review
In August 28th 2003 Brian Wells enters a bank in Erie Pennsylvania armed with a gun cane. He hands a note to the teller instructing them to give him $250,000. The teller, unable to open the vault, hands him $8,000, Brian takes a lollipop and calmly strolls out into the warm sunshine. He is then … Continue reading Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist Series Review
In case you aren’t familiar with the 1960’s original, “Lost In Space” chronicles the adventures of the Robinson family, their faithful robot and the villainous Dr Smith as they venture through space. With the huge budget attached to the project there was a high level of expectation and trepidation regarding the reimaging of a cult … Continue reading Lost In Space Season One Review
Charting the origins of Osama Bin Laden and the formation of al-Qaeda from the 1990s through to the tragic events that unfolded on September the 11th, “The Looming Tower” is a real-life historical “Homeland”. It peers behind the intelligence curtain and reveals the internal squabbles and intense rivalry between the FBI and the CIA that … Continue reading The Looming Tower Series Review
It’s the late nineteenth century in New York and delinquent children are starting to go missing. Future President and newly appointed Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty)contacts criminal psychologist Dr Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) and illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) for help to solve the case. When Dr Keizler and Mr Moore realise that the … Continue reading The Alienist Season Review
The three Baudelaire children (Malina, Louis and baby Sunny) become orphaned when their parents perish in a mysterious fire. Too young to take care of themselves, the bank that manages their fortune puts them into the care of distant relative Count Olaf; an eccentric failed actor who is penniless. What becomes apparent to the children … Continue reading Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events Season 1 Review
Sam Loudermilk is a recovering alcoholic and acerbically witted counsellor who provides emotional support to his congregation of miscreants and layabouts whenever they encounter trials and tribulations. When he becomes the guardian of Claire, a recovering substance abuser, he realises that there is more to life than just his job and rediscovers love in the … Continue reading Loudermilk Season One Review
The Netflix production line of comprehensive documentaries on fascinating stories continues with this six-part study of Rajneeshpuram and its expansion from an obscure Indian following to a world-wide “cult”. What the Duplass Brothers (“Togetherness”, “Animals”, “Safety Not Guaranteed”) have produced is an encyclopaedic study of the ‘religion’ and its origins, its polarising leader Bhagwan Shree … Continue reading Wild Wild Country (2018) Series Review
25 years ago, on 3rd January 1993, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” made its TV debut in America. It wouldn’t reach UK TV screens until 22nd August later that year. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, What The Craggus Saw is taking the time between those two premiere dates to revisit and review each season of … Continue reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Retrospective: Season 4
Previously on “Sneaky Pete”: Conman Marius Josipovic (Giovanni Ribisi) befriends Pete Murphy (Ethan Embry) when they become cellmates. When Marius is released, he decides to assume the identity of his still incarcerated friend to evade the wrath of a local gangster. But to successfully assume his identity, he’s going to have to convince Pete’s estranged … Continue reading Sneaky Pete Season 2 Review
Previously on “The Santa Clarita Diet”: Joel (Timothy Oliphant) and Sheila (Drew Barrymore) Hammond are real estate agents in a sleepy Santa Clarita suburb when Sheila suddenly transforms from mousey middle-class soccer mom of Millennial teen Abby (Liv Hewson) to an undead zombie that must regularly feast on the living to remain ‘alive’. The Hammonds … Continue reading The Santa Clarita Diet Season 2 Review
Flint, Michigan is one of the most dangerous cities in America, if not the world and has been consistently in America's top ten for over three decades. After the abandonment of the motor industry, the town has spiralled into poverty, substance abuse, violence and crime. This is further compounded by crippling budget cuts to the running … Continue reading Flint Town Season Review
Lauded Hollywood screenwriter Scott Frank (“Out Of Sight”, “Minority Report”, “Logan”) brings a refreshing tale of a plucky band of women’s struggle with life in the Wild West to the small screen in his first foray into the medium as a Director. What’s he’s ended up with is not only one of the best Western … Continue reading Godless Season One Review
Craggus had planned for this to be my first review, but I wanted to get into the reviewing groove before tackling this. It should be apparent from what follows but if it isn’t, I want to make one thing clear: the concept of “Altered Carbon”, along with its execution, requires a considerable amount of talent … Continue reading Altered Carbon Season One Review
Sticking with the baking competition theme, Netflix has followed up its acquisition of “Zumbo’s Just Desserts” with an original six-part series based loosely (enough that they don’t have to credit it) on the phenomenon of Cake Wrecks. Famously one of those sites you can spend hours on, laughing until the tears stream down your face, … Continue reading Nailed It! Season One Review
Reality TV is an odd fit for a streaming service like Netflix, but it must help fill up those ‘original’ content quotas to buy up international shows for markets they were never broadcast in. So it is with Australian Willy Wonka-inspired “Great British Bake Off” knock-off “Zumbo’s Just Desserts”. Headed up by celebrated Australian pâtissier … Continue reading Zumbo’s Just Desserts Season One Review
25 years ago, on 3rd January 1993, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” made its TV debut in America. It wouldn’t reach UK TV screens until 22nd August later that year. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, What The Craggus Saw is taking the time between those two premiere dates to revisit and review each season of … Continue reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Retrospective: Season 3
When the BBC announced its New Year’s line-up of “McMafia”, “Hard Sun”, “Collateral” and “Requiem” there was a great deal of hype and hope for their upcoming drama slate. Unfortunately, all of them have been a complete waste of licence payer’s money and clear evidence that the broadcaster needs to take a long look at … Continue reading Requiem Series Review
Sky have been desperate for years to mirror Netflix and Amazon in producing quality original dramatic content. To say this has been hit (“Tin Star”) and miss (“Britannia”, “Fortitude”, “Lucky Man”, “Jamestown”) so, err…mostly miss, would be an understatement. However, it appears that they may be a glimmer of hope with this superb gritty, harrowing … Continue reading Save Me Season One Review
Given the escalating events over the past few years involving the treatment of young black men in the United States, “Seven Seconds” is a show that feels like it’s been a long time coming but, hopefully, will not age well as time goes by. Peter Jablonski (Beau Knapp), a young white cop starting out as … Continue reading Seven Seconds Season One Review
In this age of box sets and binge marathons, one of the advantages of an anthology series is there’s no need to have seen season one to jump aboard season two because each is a standalone story. There is one actor who does return from last season but it’s not quite in the same league … Continue reading Channel Zero Season Two: No-End House Review
To understand a show like “Channel Zero”, you need to understand its roots, especially in The Golden Age Of TelevisionTM where most everything tends to homage or borrow from something else; history, previous shows of a different era, another medium, or a mix and match of all of the above. Each season of “Channel Zero” … Continue reading Channel Zero Season One: Candle Cove Review
An HBO made for TV movie from 1995, “Citizen X” offers a fascinating glimpse behind the crumbling Iron Curtain of the 1980s, into a society where political corruption and ideological hubris led to the deaths of dozens of young men and women at the hands of the Soviet Union’s first identified serial killer. When a … Continue reading Citizen X (1995) Review
Friday night is trailer night and it’s me, Superb Owl, back to look over the teasers and trailers which dropped over the past week. Did you have a nice Valentine’s day? I didn’t bother with any romance myself – with all the wind and rain, it was too wet to woo. Ahem. The Incredibles 2 … Continue reading Superb Owl’s Trailer Hootenanny #2
*SPOILERS* I’d be lying if I said I was boldly going in to the season finale. The going has been pretty rough at times and with a series that’s proved itself so inept at delivering payoffs to its (often admittedly impressive) setups, part of me dreaded the thought of what such a series would do … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – Will You Take My Hand? (S1E15) Review
25 years ago, on 3rd January 1993, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” made its TV debut in America. It wouldn’t reach UK TV screens until 22nd August later that year. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, What The Craggus Saw is taking the time between those two premiere dates to revisit and review each season of … Continue reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Retrospective: Season 2
*SPOILERS* Oh man, have you seen “The Cloverfield Paradox”? No, of course not because Monday night is “Star Trek: Discovery” night! As we learned last week, the USS Discovery has been missing for nine months and the baby of destiny that’s gestated in that time is an imminent Klingon victory. While they wait to make … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – The War Without, The War Within (S1E14) Review
*SPOILERS* By this point, “Star Trek: Discovery” has used more quotes as titles than you could shake a spear at (it’s also batting way above average in getting characters to announce the episode title in dialogue) and after last week’s dip into the Scottish play, this week’s is lifted from “The Tempest”: ‘What’s Past Is … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – What’s Past Is Prologue (S1E13) Review
*SPOILERS* The ambition may be vaulting, but it’s certainly not boundless as “Star Trek: Discovery” brings us an episode that’s barely thirty-eight minutes long (including recap). Still, to rewind a bit from ‘vaulting ambition’, if it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. Unfortunately, this is “Star Trek: Discovery” and … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – Vaulting Ambition (S1E12) Review
*SPOILERS* Still stranded in the Mirror Universe, Burnham, Lorca and Tyler remain under cover on the ISS Shenzhou while on Discovery, Tilly and Saru deal with Stamets’ deteriorating condition. The episode may be titled “The Wolf Inside” but the latest episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” seems more interested in taking us on a foxtrot. This … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – The Wolf Inside (S1E11) Review
Previously, on “Star Trek: Discovery”: This; This; And this; This too; And this; Not forgetting this; And of course, this; Also this; And finally this. *SPOILERS*And…we’re back. It’s been, what? Nine weeks since we left our heroes stranded amidst Klingon debris in a mysterious galactic location and you know what? I’d be lying if I … Continue reading Star Trek: Discovery – Despite Yourself (S1E10) Review
25 years ago, on 3rd January 1993, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” made its TV debut in America. It wouldn’t reach UK TV screens until 22nd August later that year. Often thought of as the neglected middle child of the “Star Trek” offspring, looking at it now, it was simply two decades ahead of its … Continue reading Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 25th Anniversary Retrospective: Season 1
Forty years ago, at 6:00pm on Tuesday 2nd January 1978, the BBC launched a new science fiction adventure series: “Blake’s 7”. With its prime slot on the New Year Bank Holiday Monday, this certainly wasn’t a low key launch for Terry ‘Creator of the Daleks’ Nation’s latest sci-fi extravaganza and it proved to be quite … Continue reading The Great British Blake Off: The 40th Anniversary of Blake’s 7