Tag Archives: Owen McDonnell

True Detective: Night Country. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella Star LaBlanc, Christopher Eccleston, John Hawkins, Dervla Kirwan, Anna Lambe, L’xeis Diane Benson, Aka Niviâna, Joel D. Montgrand, Owen McDonnell, Erling Eliasson.

Although it is unwritten, a good detective will know instinctively when the need to turn away from the letter of the law is good for the community, when the reveal of the truth will play into the hands of those with evil intent and not the victims who suffered under the yoke of oppression, be it corporate or personal.

True Detective: Night Country. Television Drama Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Great Expectations (2023). Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Olivia Colman, Ashley Thomas, Owen McDonnell, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Trystan Gravelle, Hayley Squires, Rudi Dharmalingham, Laurie Ogden, Matthew Needham, Tom Sweet, Matt Berry, Parth Thakerar, Chloe Lea, Jonathan Coy, Bronte Carmichael, Ben Moor, Emily Johnstone, James Foster, John Mackay, Eric Godon.

To wish or demand for the same outcome time and again shows that immovability and stagnation of the human spirit are sadly more common than we were led to believe, and whilst some change will often rub against the sentiment of the purist, to decry that which sparks revolution is to corrode and rust itself.

Great Expectations (2023). Television Series Review. full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Killing Eve: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, Harriet Walter, Danny Sapani, Turlough Convery, Gemma Whelan, Steve Pemberton, Raj Bajaj, Alexandra Roach, Sean Delaney.

As inevitable as it was for a third offering of Killing Eve to be commissioned, especially with the cliff-hanger that preceding series left the viewers confronting their emotional response to Villanelle’s destruction of Sandra Oh’s titular character, there seems to be a moment in which you can foresee the story-lines embracing the world of the absurd, of creating havoc for havoc’s sake and treating the agent of chaos as nothing more than that of embracing titillation.

Killing Eve: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(425 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Killing Eve: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, Sean Delaney, Edward Bluemel, Henry Lloyd-Hughes Nina Sosanya, Adrian Scarborough, Jung Sun den Hollander, Emma Pierson, Adeel Akhtar, Shannon Tarbet, Zoe Wanamaker, Nickolas Grace, Julian Barratt, Nigel Betts, Barbara Flynn.

A new television serial might be a hit with viewers from the start, the initial rush of congratulations could well be deserved, but there is always a nagging doubt that it is born of quick sensationalism, rather than the embrace of complexity, a character who titillates rather than nourishes, and whilst in a modern world there is no problem with the idea of shock tactics to win over an audience, it can leave others feeling cold, numb to the pressure to enjoy.

Killing Eve: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Killing Eve. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Sean Delaney, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Owen McDonnell, David Haig, Darren Boyd, Ken Nwosu,  Sonia Elliman, David Agranov.

The world of spies and espionage is nothing without its major villain, it is the binding reassurance that the tussle between two equally determined people plays out in front of an audience who always seem to have the appetite for the resource of the cloak and dagger, the thinly veiled appreciation of a war that has enthralled readers and viewers alike for decades.

Killing Eve. Television Review. full post

(619 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Paula, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Denise Gough, Tom Hughes, Owen McDonnell, Siobhan Cullen, Sean McGinley, Aoibhinn McGinnity, Jane Brennan, Emily Taaffe, Ameilia Metcalfe, Jonny Holden, Edward MacLiam, Ciarán McMenamin, Aislin McGuckin, David Herlihy, Rachael Dowling, Marty Maguire, Dylan Breen, Gary Liburn, David Pearse.

 

It is infuriating when a drama on television cannot decide if it is one thing or another, especially when in theory the premise of the story is not bad, a light entertainment by the small screen and one willing to find a way to bring a necessary point of view to the adult conversation. Yet in Paula, the makers of the programme managed to make a perfectly good idea somehow unpalatable, degrading and almost thrown straight into the bin where all other nonsense is kept.

Paula, Television Review. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)