"Kingdom" 2019 Best series on Netflix at the moment?

Think an Oriental "Game of Thrones" meets "The Walking Dead".
With sumptuous production design, sweeping cinematography and suspenseful direction, this six part series is a winner. No wonder Season 2 is in the works. The show is adapted from the web-comic series "The Kingdom of the Gods".
The third episode's mass-zombie chase through the forest track was nail-bitingly good. The final episode in Season 1 was a mere 43 minutes, concluding with a cliff-hanger.

"Top of the Lake: China Girl" Review

The first season back in 2013 was a muddled masterpiece - great cast and atmospheric New Zealand locales. Jane Campion's Sydney-based opus is a hot mess.
Nothing rings true. The dialogue is clunky. The characters are unbelievable and unsympathetic. Yes, I get the 'misogyny takes many guises' message. I don't need to be hit over the head with it (the sniggering police recruits, the slimy geeks in the cafe, Mary's smarmy boyfriend Puss - or should that be Pus).
The situations are unreal, rather than quirky. What was the space helmet bit in Miranda's kitchen all about? If I want surreal, I can go to the sublime "Twin Peaks".
Any good stuff?
The bobbing suitcase, Clayton Jacobson's easygoing persona, Jane Campion's daughter, Nicole Kidman's frizzy grey coiff.

Episode 2 (not directed by Campion) was an improvement due to the N.Z. flashback, interesting plot twists and two standout scenes - Robin vs Julia (poor hubby Pyke) and Robin meeting Mary.
Ray, the Medical Examiner (Geoff Morrell), is stealing every scene he is in. I'm warming to Elizabeth Moss's understated performance.
Random weird stuff:

• The New Zealand police acting like 6 year olds on the suspension bridge.
• Miranda's 'open-door' therapy.

Episode 3's florid highlights:

• The overwrought restaurant scene complete with embarrassed customers, the 'c-bomb' and Alexander's chandelier rant. Terrific seeing Marg Downey ("Fast Forward", "Kath & Kim") as Julia's partner. She seems to be typecast as the new age nutbag.
• The return of David Wenham (Al Parker) - wheelchair bound Bond villain transforms into Hitchcockian psycho-killer.

Episode 4 (the nose-biting ep).
No mention of Parker's fate, just more cringeworthy developments.
Just when you thought Alexander couldn't get more detestable, he excels himself at the Father-Daughter bash; then pimps out Mary. The show defies logic. The nose biting scene got more gratuitous by being set on a nudist beach with sweeping views of Sydney's skyline.

Episode 5 (Jane Campion is back in the director's chair) - 59 minutes of my life I will never get back. More tortuous dialogue, implausible situations and a "Taxi Driver"-like denouement that you could see coming mid episode.

Episode 6 (final)
The Bondi Beach manhunt was another unbelievable scene. Why hide on the beach on a 35 degree day?  Because it was cinematic, that's why.
"Top of the Lake: China Girl" should have been a four-parter at the most. This story of loss, parenthood and surrogacy could have been more economically told. The production was ham-fisted and ponderous.

P.S. Small quibble: How could Alexander get a bag of bottled water through airport security?

Amazing cinematography in "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 9

 Sam Esmail's series has always been visually stunning with inventive framing and compositions. This week was no exception. The shot with Elliot and dad outside the prison, camera mounted at their feet.

Photograph USA Network

Photograph USA Network

The scenes with Phillip Price facing off White Rose were equally stunning. One shot has the two umbrella men taking up only 5% of the screen. In another, they are strolling through a formal garden. Classically composed. Reminded me of the shot in Resnais's "Last Day in Marienbad" combined with a surrealist painting.

Five things I learned from "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 8

• The show is still great without Malek and Slater (but I am missing B D Wong as White Rose and that cute Scandi couple, the wacky Wellicks).
• Darlene must stop wearing short shorts, she is going to freeze in New York.
• "Danse Macabre" is still a great symphonic poem.
• Angela does great karaoke with Tears for Fears' "Everybody wants to rule the world".
• Dom's obsession with "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion"

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 7 highlights

• Joanna's colour motif is definitely stark white and scarlet.
• Sam Esmail playing with the audience (Elliot's prison switcheroo)
• "Maybe next year..." (Phillip's response to Angela's birthday rebuff)
• "Can you let go of me please?" (Elliot being hugged by the Christian counsellor)
• Don't mess with Leon.

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 6, review

Despite "The Guardian" TV critic's theory about the demise of second seasons of critically acclaimed shows*, this episode proves that Sam Esmail is still full of surprises and "Mr Robot" is still one of the smartest things on television.
The "family road trip" 80's sitcom was inspired, complete with video-format, cheesy credits, laugh track, commercial breaks, back projection and a cameo by Alf.
Things get darker as the sitcom-from-Hell continues.
The middle part of the episode - Angela junior hacker - is more like a caper movie.
Getting a bit sick of Ray. Do we need this subplot?
The final scene with young Elliot and his dad in family car (a nice bookend for this episode) is satisfying as well as quite poignant.



*Anyway, I liked Season 2 of "True Detective". Season 1 was brilliant but got a bit wanky toward the end. Season 2 of "Fargo" maintained the quality of the first season, so the above theory doesn't hold up.

5 Things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 5

• Elliot's recount of his hacking of the public library at 11 years old.
• B.D. Wong (TV's go-to actor for Asian supervillains, see Hugo Strange in "Gotham") has a terrific scene with Dom showing her his treasured wardrobe collection (and clocks).
• Love Dipierro's Kojak-inspired Chupa Chups (she is now my favourite character, certainly the most sympathetic).
• Mrs Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) gets even weirder in this episode (the bit about drugging the underling so he knows the reason for his death, while cradling her baby).
• Creator Sam Esmail demonstrates his directorial prowess with the final shootout scene.

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 4.

• "The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeois" low budget slasher flick.
• The masterful use of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" in the opening scenes.
• Whiterose's elegant boudoir (shades of the French Provincial bedroom in the closing scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey"). For other Asian transvestite hackers, see Cinemax's patchy, but good fun, "Banshee".
• Elliot's fairy tale dream - street dinner party.
• The symmetrical composition of shots in the Court Square subway station and the park during the chess showdown.

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 3

• Jerome's Coney Island back story
• Eclectic music choice - Dusty Springfield, Willie Nelson
• Phillip Price's occasional channelling of Christopher Walken
• Elliot's rant on religion
• Ganja gran

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 2

• Ray's basketball court philosophizing. What does this dude want?
• Danish actor Stephanie Corneliussen (Joanna-Lady Macbeth-Wellick) reminds me of a young Liv Tyler. Interesting that Martin Wallstrom (the lovable Tyrell) is also Scandinavian.
• The beautifully directed $5.9 m bonfire scene.
• The lawyer's bar joke with Angela. Angela is a force to be reckoned with in this season. Those motivation tapes are a worry.
• Channel surfing with Joanna's new S&M buddy (Nancy Grace to "Vanderpumps Rules").

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 1

• The cleverly edited Obama TV speech.
• Elliot's Seinfeld-spouting buddy, Leon (Joey Bada$$ - great name for a rapper)
• The elegant framing in many shots
• Amazing musical score
• When was the last time you saw "Intermission" in a TV show?

The best bits of "Penny Dreadful" Season 2

So pleased that the second series has maintained the standard of the first. Just as beautifully produced, acted and scripted. It's witty, gory, sexy and .... bonkers, of course.

Episode 2:

• It's great to see Simon Russell Beale is back as campy Professor Lyle (love the hair), funny scene with him flirting with Ethan (Josh Hartnett). 
• Any scene with Evelyn (Helen McCrory, Damian Lewis's partner, by the by) classifies as a "best bit". Nasty baby sacrifice scene (those creepy mannequins).
• Dorian Gray's (Reeve Carney) encounter with the (well-endowed) ladyboy (my wife nearly dropped her cuppa).
• Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) scenes with newly reanimated Brona (Billie Piper) and The Creature - tender, caring, perceptive (very different from Universal's version in the 30's and 40's).

Episode 3:

The entire episode. The back story of Vanessa on the moors was flawless. Three superb actors chewing up the scenery - the cursed Vanessa (Eva Green), the good witch, Joan Clayton (Patti LuPone - who coincidentally guest starred in another witch opus - "American Horror Story: Coven") and bad witch (Helen McCrory - culling cattle, flouncing around in shoulder pads and showing the lord of the manor who's boss).

Episode 4:

• The opulent art direction - street carousels, the Gossima Parlour, the coven's skulls-encrusted walls.
• Frankenstein's "bride" is resembling "Pygmalion". Liked the good doctor's "I'm good at stitching" line
• The slow build-up to the attack of the nightcomers - the careful preparation of supper, cutting the butter cake, filling the urn.

Episode 5:

• The tender scenes with Vanessa and The Creature reciting poetry and dancing.
• The last 10 minutes was a bonk-fest, with something for everyone - gay gorn, grey porn (Sir Malcolm/Timothy Dalton), even Dr Frankenstein gets his leg over. Poor Prof Lyle misses out.

Episode 6:

• The ballroom blood-shower scene (shades of "Carrie"). Stunning.
• Special mention to the use of extras in the London street scenes. Season 2's budget must be considerably more than the first season.

Episode 7:

• Vanessa telling Ethan in her deliciously croaky voice, "We are dangerous".

Episode 8:

• Evelyn's line to the professor: "You taste like a fat, little man".
• We finally get to see Dorian Gray's hidden picture, not as scary as the 1945 movie version, though.
• The "Bride"/Brona's ball-busting "thee and me" monologue to the hapless Creature.

Episode 9:

• There's a nifty fight scene in Vanessa's rural retreat about 5 minutes in.
• Brona goes all Mike Tyson with Dorian in the ballroom.

Epiode 10 (season final)

• The prof's line, "Never underestimate the power of a queen with lovely hair, dear."
• Blood-soaked ballroon in Chez Gray, #2. The white gown/suits design was a masterstroke. "Shall we murder him?" crows Brona.
• The nautical farewell to three characters. The Creature's Arctic voyage true to Shelley's novel.
• Did the police inspector refer to Ethan as "Mr Talbot" (or am I too immersed in Universal's "The Wolfman"?)

"Plebs" Season 2, ITV2, review

The boys are back. It's puerile but irresistible. It's "The Inbetweeners" meets "Up Pompeii". The Roman sets are even more extravagant (thanks to leftovers from epics like "Hercules", filmed in the same studio in Bulgaria).
Look carefully for Tom Rosenthal's dad, Jim, as the sportscaster in Episode 1. It was good to see Lauren Socha from "Misfits" as Amanda, the prostitute, in same same episode.
Episode 2's stag night was lots of fun. "The Baby", Episode 3, was almost sweet, but it still had enough time for the fair share of boob references, boffing and butt plugs. Grumio (Ryan Sampson with his strident Mancurian accent and atrocious bowl haircut) constantly steals scenes.
Hugo from "The Vicar of Dibley" (James Fleet) tries to make Stylax his boy toy in Episode 4 (also awash with bodily function gags).

"Ray Donovan" Season 2 Better than ever? F**k yeah.

You think you had a bad day?
Spare a thought for our hero (anti-hero):
In the first episode: a buried-alive nightmare, angry early morning sex with the wife, followed by marriage guidance/psychologist meeting, his son is suspended from school, hounded by the Feds/daughter arrested for possession, tricky shooting cover-up for a client followed by a quick night drive to Mexico for his boozed, sociopath daddy. At least he had a clean shirt for the Parent-Teacher meeting (which he changed out of before brandishing his baseball bat in Baja).
Cracking season opening. Bonus: Hank Azaria as FBI officer and scrabble/wife swapping fiend. Bit weird seeing Agador Spartacus from "The Birdcage" in this part.
Tequila-soaked Mickey swimming with talking Flipper (Rosanna Arquette) was the cherry on the Showtime cake.
By Episode 3 you realise that family is the core of this show, not sex and violence.  The resemblance between mother and daughter is uncanny. Elliott Gould is a trick in this show, stealing ever scene that he is in.
Nice to see Ann-Margret as the former Hollywood goddess.
Episode 7: possibly the worst 14th birthday party ever, saved by Ray and birthday boy dancing to "Walk this way".
Episode 8 guest appearances by /60's/70's star Richard Benjamin (weird hearing him say "couldn't find a clit in a forest of clits) and Paul Michael Glasser (Starky) as the sleazy producer. Knockout final scenes: bedroom fireworks at Chez Donovan and brutal street slaying. No wonder David Hollander (script writer) has been 'promoted' in Season 3, booting out producer, Ann Biderman.
Episode 12 season finale: series creator, Ann Biderman, wrote this one, lots of loose ends tied up, a classy swansong.

"Masters of Sex" Season 2, Showtime

It is reassuring to see that this show is just as engrossing as the first season. Complex 'grey' characters (e.g. the selfish, hardly likable Bill Masters), female bonding (e.g. Virginia and Lillian, Betty and Rose) and the welcome return of 'The Pretzel King' and his sardonic wife, Betty, the ex-hooker. I hope Danny Huston (last seen in "American Horror Story") is used as an ongoing character in this season.
The art direction in Episode 2 is a standout (Gateway Memorial Hospital set design). Bill's speech about sexual dysfunction compared to being labelled "deviant" could be this season's raison d'etre. I am really enjoying ballsy Betty, too.
Episode 3 (surely Emmy-nomination worthy) was primarily a hotel room-based two hander with Bill and Virginia discussing sexual identity, power and the psychology of boxing. The intercutting of the operation scenes concerning the hermaphrodite infant was poignant. This season gets better and better.
With Episode 4 and 5, integration and race relations is becoming a dominant theme. Nice to see Sarah Silverman return as Betty's old "friend".

"Penny Dreadful" Season 1, Episode 8, "Grand Guignol", Season 2, Episode 1, "Fresh Hell"

"Do you really want to be normal?" the man of God asks Vanessa in the final scene. She then thinks long and hard about it. Roll credits.
This series has promised a lot in its 8 episodes and it delivered in the series final.

• We had the welcome return of "Madame Kali" (Helen McCrory). Expect more of her scene-stealing in Season 2. 
• A touching farewell from theatre producer, Vincent: "Remember us better than we are," he tells The Creature, Caliban
• The show has never been afraid of filming in half dark, e.g. the vampire-hunting scene in the Grand Guignol. 
• Frankenstein's throwaway line after he has smothered Billie Piper (future mate for The Creature): "Don't worry, I'll take care of the body."
• In the riverside pub, the long awaited wolfman transformation scene.

Let's hope in the second series we get some full moon action, a look at Dorian's hidden portrait and loads more of Eva Green, dishevelled hair and smoky voice, acting either horny or possessed (or both).

Update:
Season 2, Episode 1 has a nifty solution to The Creature's employment worries - working in a cut price waxworks featuring grisly tableaux of recent murders. Writer John Logan has added a coven of witches into this already meaty stew. There's a thrilling attack on a Hansom cab and a creepy scene with Frankenstein fondling Billie Piper's breasts (Caliban's soon to be reanimated mate).

Has "Da Vinci's Demons" run out of puff? Season 2 finale, Episode 10

Season 2 of "Da Vinci's Demons" has been all over the shop. Running half way around the world in search of The Book of Leaves, Leo's momma, the fall of the House of Medici and the naughty Labyrinth boys popping up to enlist Risario.
Risario saw a nifty salt water torture device, this time on (especially his eyeballs) the receiving end (shades of "A Clockwork Orange"). It was fun to find out that chubby young Nico will become sanguine, political strategist Niccolo Machiavelli. In reality, he was 17 years younger than Da Vinci, both from Florence and later did work with Leo (see the Borgias and for fun, "Assassin's Creed"). Machiavelli would make a great mini series.
The finale (with Leo about to demonstrate his latest military invention) was merely a warm-up for Season 3.

Things I like about "Da Vinci's Demons" Season 2

• Leonardo doing a credible Risario impersonation in Episode 3, complete with his signature camp sunglasses (though the wrong shape)
• The Pope's Bond-villainesque lair, atmospheric lighting, flashy art direction (all villains must have posh British accents, this is a prerequisite)
• The show soars whenever Leo brings on on of his inventions (usually inspired by nature - e.g. submarine in Episode 3 - even though a row boat at night probably would have sufficed)
• Clarice Orsini (Medici's take-no-prisoners, gutsy missus) has a beefed up role in the second series
• It never takes itself too seriously - each episode usually has some nice throw away lines (often delivered by Leo or Zoroaster).
• All that green in Episode 5, now Leo has reached South America. Don't know how he ended up in the Andes and what looks like Machu Picchu but hey, who cares? This is such enjoyable claptrap and Risario is there, too.
• This season gets nuttier each week. Episode 7 looked more like Indiana Jones, plus we had "Carry On, Constantinople"

"Da Vinci's Demons" Season 2 Episode 1

I've missed this rollicking silliness. The over the top flash forward in South America (complete with Las Vegas showgirl costumes and gory ritual sacrifice), with Leo and Risario as unlikely comrades, will ensure a loyal fan base. More backstabbing, fruity language, a rudimentary blood transfusion and lots of mumbo jumbo flashbacks for Leo. This is a rattling good yarn.                                    
Once the scene changed to onboard ship, the tone was more like "Sinbad"/Saturday Matinee adventure.

"Bates Motel" Season 2, Episode 10, Episode 3, A&E, spoilers Episode 4, Episode 5

I swore I wasn't going to watch this soapy stuff anymore... but the Faye Dunaway-style "Chinatown" revelation was a ripper (he's your uncle/father, Norman).
No "South Pacific" for Norma. Shame, I would have loved to hear Norma sing, "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair" (in the style of Janet Leigh, of course).
Norman got hit on by a gay dude and Norma got hit on by a wealthy divorcee. Oxy-girl (Olivia Cooke, surprisingly from Manchester, England, great US accent, girl) got hit on also, before chucking her cookies.
Dylan (part-time gravedigger) got royally screwed in Caleb's Costa Rica scam (I'm assuming).
I like Norman new feisty girlfriend, though. Norman might be a psycho, but he's a straight psycho (with a Mother Complex).
Episode 4 was deadly dull, then redeemed itself in the final minutes with Norman finally 'becoming' his mother in front of  incestuous Uncle Caleb, brandishing a knife a la Tony Perkins. Will this  how get its mojo back?
Episode 5 - the season stalls again - White Pine Bay is becoming more like a teenage Banshee. The drug subplot is a yawn. This show is supposed to be creepy, isn't it? Too much teen bonking, not enough weird stuff.
Episode 10 - best bit was the final look at demented Norman. This second season has been a dud. Too much padding, not enough gothic/creepy business. Season 3, big ask....