If you enjoy good crime drama such as Fargo and The Killing the this is one for you.

The acting is great, the story-lines compelling and the setting, the vast cold Canadian landscape is wonderful.



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Proper Sci-Fi!!!

I have one rule of thumb that determines for me if something is genuine sci-fi, or just a fantastic light show fantasy piece:

Do I come away from this with more questions that I went in with?

(Anyone who claims to have the answers hasn't asked enough questions yet :)

And this really lived up to billing, as it deals with some fairly predictable, and well worn fare of many worlds / multi-verse / fate / destiny / free will themes, but ingeniously, uses that predictability from established formulas to lead you well and truly up many garden paths, only to bamboozle you by playing with your expectations of what is about to happen, and the general meaning of what it's all about... then throwing a neat twist in just at the punch line / expected outcome.

What is Devs?

Well it's safe to say there is pretty much a Fight club rule on this one...

..."you do not talk about..."

You get the picture, and that is both one of the points of the show, and what makes it difficult to fully explain without spoiling it.

But it most certainly is centred around the themes I mentioned earlier.

A cool, glacial slab of minimalist sci-fi with a great story, lots of drama and moments of action, opaque, but reveals itself in the end...

(Not like some TV shows, that only think they're being profound, but ultimately go nowhere... often because the writer(s) haven't actually thought it through, and got a destination in mind from the outset... Lost, you might say :)

... and shows that it actually has warmth and soul to it's ideas (and humour!)

A great self contained (or not, possibly) concept, that will be watched again from the start, in the newly attained context of having seen it once to the end.

Marvellous!

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An absolutely extrordinary documentary made by John Maloof who stumbled over some of Vivian Maier's photograph negatives at an auction room. He subsequently hunted down her storage locker and other box lots sold at the auction room and introduced the world to the many talents of a completely unknown gifted street photographer.

WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide. During her lifetime, Maier's photographs were unknown and unpublished; many of her negatives were never printed. A Chicago collector, John Maloof, acquired some of Maier's photos in 2007, while two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, also found some of Maier's prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time. Maier's photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008, by Slattery, but the work received little response. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier's photographs on the image-sharing website Flickr, and the results went viral, with thousands of people expressing interest. Maier's work subsequently attracted critical acclaim, and since then, Maier's photographs have been exhibited around the world. ~ From Wikipedia

I first heard about her through an Alan Yentob 'Imagine' documentary on BBC4 back in 2013.

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R.I.P.Denis Norden,I will miss you so much and you gave us a lot of laughter in the world of comedy,and definately entertained us.

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I remember this show,and used to be screened on Monday nights and it was 40 years ago,when I was 11 years ago at the time and I love the series especially the intro and outro music written and performed by Dudley Simpson,in which I admired.There are 52 episodes in total,but we lost so many people who appeared in the show such as Gareth Thomas,David Jackson,Peter Tuddenham,but one of my favourite actress Jacqueline Pearce sadly passed away on the 3/9/2018,who played Servalan,and I think she`s look so beautiful for the role,and she`s look terrific,but definately sadly missed for me.Other celebrities who took part in Blake`s 7 such as Brian Blessed,Tony Caunter [from Eastenders],Karl Howman,John Savident,Ronald Lacey the,late Kevin Lloyd [from The Bill],late Roy Kinnear,Lynda Bellingham and not to mention Glynis Barber [best remembered in Dempsey & Makepeace and Eastenders] I hope they`ll bring back the series as a re-run to celebrate 40 years of the series.

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Undeniably the most unexpected and pleasant surprise of the fall 2017 US TV season, this big-hearted, extremely well-written and performed science-fiction dramedy caught a lot of people off-guard, seeing it was created by and mostly written by Seth MacFarlane, who up till now has been known primarily for raunchy, edgy, low-brow comedy like Family Guy. It was like Frankie Howerd suddenly doing a police drama. But MacFarlane has hidden depths and it's forgotten that he spearheaded the well-regarded sequel to Carl Sagan's science masterpiece Cosmos and has been trying to mount his own Star Trek series for years. As a result, The Orville feels more like a Star Trek series than the latest version of that franchise, Discovery (it even has a number of Trek veterans producing and directing the show and occasionally features cameos from actors associated with the Trek franchise). It perfectly reflects Gene Roddenberry's optimistic future worldview, but through a modern-day lens. It looks and feels like Star Trek TNG, but some of the issues examined, ranging from transgender rights to sexual consent and social media peer pressure, give the show a "ripped from the headlines feel." Even with the occasional off-colour joke. The cast of the show are superb, with Halston Sage's Alara becoming a fan favourite though, to be fair, all the characters have become beloved even over the dozen episodes that made up the first season. The fact a lot of what it does has been done before - several episodes have used similar plots to Trek, Black Mirror, etc - is actually a strength as the show is recognizing that the stories and themes are still relevant for a 2017 audience. The Orville isn't perfect - there are rough edges, some of the stands the show takes on issues are controversial with some, and not all the humour scores - but for those wanting an oasis from the (often) MA-rated, dark, depressing SF series on TV right now (for the most part the only relief from that are the superhero shows and even a number of them have gone dark and MA-rated), and if Star Trek Discovery is not appealing (though there's no law saying you can't enjoy both), then The Orville is worth savoring.

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The theme tune for the intro and outro for The Adventure Game is the Norwegian Dance No.2 from 4 Norwegian Dances,Op.35 by Edvard Grieg,originally for 1 or 2 pianos,as well as the orchestral version arranged by Hans Sitt.

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A brilliant compilation of British Rock acts from the 70's. Containing a real gem of a clip in the form of Man playing Ain't Their Fight from the album Back Into The Future. Along with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band playing Faith Healer and a very rare example of a great version of Free's Alright Now that has Paul Rodgers singing live to a backing track, his vocals are amazing on this clip. There's also clips of Family, Babe Ruth, Status Quo and a brilliant clip of Humble Pie doing Honky Tonk Woman and Steve Marriott is in fine voice for this one. A Tour de Force of pure classic British 70's music that's an absolute must see.

Running Order PT 1

Badfinger - Come And Get It - 1970
Free - All Right Now - 1970
Faces - Bad 'n' Ruin - 1971
Stone The Crows - Big Jim Salter - 1971
The Roy Young Band - Wild Country Wine - 1971
Family - In My Own Time - 1971
Humble Pie - Honky Tonk Woman - 1972
Babe Ruth - Black Dog - 1972
Kevin Ayers - Shouting In A Bucket Of Blues - 1973
Man - Ain't Their Fight - 1973
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Faith Healer - 1973
Status Quo - Caroline - 1973
Thin Lizzy - The Rocker - 1973
Heavy Metal Kids - Hanging On - 1974
Pretty Things - Singapore Silk Torpedo - 1974
Nazareth - Silver Dollar Forger - 1974
Mott The Hoople - The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll - 1974

Running Order PT 2

Dr. Feelgood - Keep It Out Of Sight - 1975
Ducks Deluxe - Coast To Coast - 1975
Ace - I'm A Man - 1975
Ronnie Lane And Slim Chance - Anniversary - 1975
Kursaal Flyers - Little Does She Know - 1976
Eddie And The Hot Rods - Get Out Of Denver - 1976
Graham Parker And The Rumour - Heat Treatment - 1977
Tyla Gang - Young Lords - 1977
Steve Gibbons Band - Tulane - 1977
Meal Ticket - This Could Be The Town - 1977
Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll) - 1977
Elvis Costello - (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes - 1977
The Motors - Dancing The Night Away - 1978
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing - 1978
Nick Lowe - Cruel To Be Kind - 1979
Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing - 1979
The Inmates - The Walk - 1979
Graham Parker And The Rumour - Hey Lord Don't Ask Me Questions - 1978


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R.I.P.Barry Norman,you`re one of the greatest film critics of all time,as well as writing and presenting the series The Hollywood Greats and The British Greats for the BBC,in which I do remember,when originally screened on Thursday nights,and who can forget,Barry`s appearance on The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1977,doing the showstopper sequence called `There Is Nothing Like A Dame`from the Musical `South Pacific`,alongside Peter Woods,Richard Baker,Eddie Waring,Richard Whitmore and of course Michael Aspel,and I will miss you so much forever.

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R.I.P.Michael Bond,you`re one of the greatest creators of Paddington Bear,and I do remember the show so much and all I remember it ran for 5 minutes before the BBC News at 5:40 p.m.,but a great voice from Michael Hordern,and a terrific actor.

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This series ran for four series,adding 110 episodes [32 in black and white,78 in colour].The only two episodes in which Richard Basehart didn`t appear were The Menfish and The Mechanical Man,because of ill health. Also,this series launched the careers,before they came famous such as Leslie Nielsen,June Lockhart and even George Takei [a year before he came as Mr.Sulu in Star Trek] all became household names to achieve stardom.Also,I like the original theme tune best of all.Not to mention,Richard Basehart went on to narrate and played William Knight [in the pilot] in the TV series called Knight Rider,which turn out to be his first final role,when he passed away in 1984.

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Quite a good dramatic re-creation of events that took place in 2008. Sheridan Smith was great as usual but the one thing I didn't like was how thick the Yorkshire accents were. They were so strong that parts of the dialogue were Indecipherable. I've noticed in recent years the tendancy to subtitle programs with accents this thick, and in the case of "The Moorside" this probably wouldn't have gone amiss.

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As a kid, I watched all of this series and was devastated when it ended but.... it was replaced by Fireball X L 5 so that was even better.

I've revisited Fireball on YouTube - time to see if Supercar made it too!

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Review
Some reviews from old Movie Guide books. Reviews are dropped from later editions for minor films.

Leonard Maltin 1993:
James Bondish derring-do involving a woman superspy who crosses swords with a suave playboy head of an international crime ring. (S*H*E stands for security hazards expert.) Script by Bond veteran Richard Maibaum. Average.

Steven Scheuer 1990:
Slick production values, exotic location shooting, and the beautiful Cornelia Sharpe as a sexy female James Bond-type are the draws here. S*H*E (Securities Hazards Expert) is hot on the trail of international blackmailers who plan to jeopardize the world's oil supply if their demands aren't met. 2/4

Martin and Porter 2003:
This average made-for-TV spy-action thriller has one twist .. a female James Bond. Beautiful Cornelia Sharpe is S.H.E. (Security Hazards Expert). She pursues Robert Lansing, the US syndicate boss, throughout Europe. Omar Sharif makes an appearance as a wine baron. 3/5

Richard Maibaum, James Bond writer, wrote a big-time screenplay but the result was weak.
The entire film is available at Youtube at the moment but beware the shape is all wrong.

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Season 1 tells over 8 episodes the story of a young english boy that goes missing whilst the family holiday in France.
I personally thought that it mirrored many of the issues I had read regarding the real life case of Madeline McCann - english parents dealing with a foreign police force that works differently, the language difficulties, police officers with their own personal agendas and the dealings with journalists to name just a few.
It is a compelling slow burning drama that kept me engaged and wanting to see the next episode.
A great British drama that is worth a watch.

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Oh yes, anti-Communism. You know what's coming next. How many will there be on this site who will express disdain for it and for "McCarthyism" and such?
To the rest of you: patriotic Americans succeeded in convincing the ABC network to run something to counter the constant pro-communist propaganda in the media. This was one mini-series, quite extended. The ratings were okay, but not spectacular, maybe because it was drawn out. So of course fodder for political commentators.
But to make a long story short, soon after, the Disney Company bought ABC, and made sure nothing like that would ever be shown on TV ever again. That's how it works.

The story showed how Russians came in and stormed Congress and massacred it. Kristofferson is the hero, who is first seen in prison, and when released gets involved in resistance. No there was not a victorious ending ... but for some that is a happy ending. Now you can be happy about Obama and things like the assassination of Chief Justice Scalia.

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Fans of Connie or Greg Evigan appreciated seeing this. A typically slick detective series with a humorous element because the Connie and Greg characters dislike each other. It just wasn't interesting enuf and was cancelled. Connie showed a lot of legs in this one with a miniskirt.

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A primetime soap I suppose, but more a mystery. One storyline would last a few weeks. Set in a sunny California town with extensive sets constructed. Such an impressive and attractive cast, what a disappointment it was to many people when it had to be cancelled.
I thought the complex mystery plots were on the contrived side however.
Megan was married for a time then.

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From Teresa Brewer Center:
Teresa Brewer and Mel Torme cohosted the show, and were seen in different resort settings on the twice-weekly live telecasts which aired each Tuesday and Thursday during the summer of 1953. The scenic backgrounds ranged from Manhattan, Atlantic City and Niagara Falls in the USA, to Scotland, Rio de Janeiro, Havana and the Casbah overseas.
Teresa wrote:
"When Mel Torme and I had a TV series in the 1950s, we usually sang one song together per show, which was nice."

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A most excellent programme. On obtaining the Network DVD a few years back I was up in to the early hours watching them. Unusual also for a series to go into colour during its production run.

Other regular cast members I was unable to fit include JENNIFER WILSON- Det. Sgt Webb and KEITH WASHINGTON as Det. Con. Morresey.

They made a second series in 1970, all in colour. Far inferior to the first with a lousy theme which replaced the catchy Norman Kay original.

It's by great good fortune that all episodes survive from their original VT transmission tapes. The Network DVD of Series One especially is highly recommended.

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**This was review was first posted on IMDB by myself**

This was broadcast under the title "Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain", Girl Powered is the working title. This documentary is a history of The Spice Girls with references to the girl group promoting feminism. Love them or hate them, The Spice Girls were no doubt the biggest bands in the UK and maybe the world for about two years. I appreciate that they have been a massive influence on pop culture and I like some of their songs, but I'm certainly not a superfan.

The documentary features a lot of talking heads from people like Miranda Sawyer who attempts to clumsily make out The Spice Girls are in some way feminist icons. Matthew Wright who wrote several hit pieces on The Spice Girls attempts to clear his name after being made out to be a villain. Some of The Spice Girls PR team from back in the day recount their experiences of the band. It is all good stuff, but like most people I would have liked to hear from the girls themselves. Instead we are just shown archive clips.

The documentary manages to gloss over a few key events and the cynic in me would suggest this feels more like a puff piece than a serious documentary, especially given it is nearly 3 hours long in its entirety. The Spice Girls panned commercial flop "Spice World" movie wasn't mentioned to my knowledge or if it was I blinked and missed it. A pivotal moment in that it suggested The Spice Girls maybe weren't as popular at that time than was made out. Very little was mentioned of Mel B's single - "I Want You Back" with Missy Elliot which was massive. Also to my knowledge no mention of the Mel B documentary "Voodoo Princess" which was made for Channel 4. If I remember correctly there was no mention of the original demo version of Wannabe which was a slow R&B song similar to something like The All Saints "Black Coffee" in terms of tempo. There's no doubt in my mind giving it a fast paced europop style tempo gave it the kick in the face it needed to be a chart success; especially given dance music was dominating the charts in 1996.

The latter half of the documentary manages to segue in some frankly jarring references to feminism and even features footage of recent-ish protests for nearly 15 minutes. I think it's maybe a stretch too far. The Spice Girls were absolutely massive, but as important as Stevie Nicks or Debbie Harry at influencing young women into pursuing musical careers? I honestly don't know. I do know nostalgia for the 90s is bang on trend at the moment. The 00s will be next! This documentary took a few years to put together and 100s of hours of clips were sorted through and carefully selected. It is a real shame that some of the footage isn't better quality. A press conference video on episode 3 looks like an awful 240p YouTube clip and some footage looks has watermarks. On a big budget documentary I expect higher production values. With a press conference surely the original source clips are available. This isn't the only documentary to use low quality clips, but it is a real shame especially now as most people watch films and TV on HD quality equipment.

This is a mixed bag. The opening episode is fantastic and gives a good history of how the band got started with some rare footage. As the documentary goes on it looks like a bit of a filler was used or maybe my interest ran out. I think for anyone interested in 90s pop culture or asks the question "Mummy, who were The Spice Girls?" this is a pretty good watch.

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Hailed as a classic and one of the best sitcoms of all time by both critics and viewers alike. This series made stars of everyone involved. The character David Brent has appeared on many best comedy character lists. Brent is an egotistic narcissist, but unlike Alan Partridge he is maybe a bit more ignorant and sympathetic, Partridge is more of a Machiavellian monster than a loveable idiot; both are victims of their own arrogance though.

The Office was one of the early "Cringe Comedies" along with I'm Alan Partridge, Peep Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm in the USA and followed by series like The Inbetweeners and maybe Nathan Barley and Friday Night Dinner to an extent.

So, the question is: "is this a classic and is David Brent a great character?" The answer is yes to both. This is nowhere near the masterpiece it is made out to be. I measure how good a TV series is by whether I would watch it again in its entirety and I've had no desire to revisit it since I saw it upon its first broadcast. For me there's just something a bit naff and dated about the "mockumentary" format a bit like sitcoms with canned laughter. The cynic in me says the BBC elevated this well above its status to fill a comedy void, bear in mind at the time the BBC had very little in the way of new comedy, with most shows being long running ones like Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the lasts series of I'm Alan Partridge.

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I remember this series and originally screened on Saturday Nights for LWT in 1979,and now it`s currently screened again on Forces TV with two episodes each on weekdays and then back to back at weekends.There are 139 episodes in total for 6 series from 1977-83,and two different theme tunes I definitely remember that.Rick Rosner who created the series [as well as 240-Robert,etc].All the complete episodes are still available on DVD,and I still love the series so much.

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Based on Celeste Ng's 2017 bestseller, "Little Fires Everywhere" this mini-TV series (spanning nearly 8 hours) follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

I found it an interesting and engaging story line that was helped no end by its star cast. It was interesting how, as the series played out, me and my partner chose which character's side we were on only to find that maybe all the characters are very similar and in their own way flawed.

Starts with a big fire scene (not a spoiler) that then has you guessing all the way through who set it.......is it as simple as it appears? Watch and find out!

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R.I.P.Geoffrey Hayes,you`re one of the greatest presenters and will be sadly missed,and certainly entertained children of all ages.I remember the show,when I was 5 years old,when the show came out and used to screen on Mondays to Fridays at 12:10 p.m. One TV critic described Rainbow as Britain`s answer to Sesame Street,according to one presenter,and I will miss you so much,and you`re one of the best in Children`s TV shows.

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R.I.P.Martin Landau,I will definitely miss you and you`re a great actor when playing Commander Koenig as well as Rollin Hand in Mission:Impossible,and I still got all the dvds of both series,in which I will treasure forever.

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Wow, I had no idea Micky Dolenz was involved!

This was a (to me) hilarious show! I reckon it would be great to see again, like the Scooby Doo series it was clearly influenced by.

Daws Butler's characterisation was the USP.

I'll be there forthwith. Fifthwith, even! :happy:

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My favourite show as a child - I watched these all the first time they were aired, VHS and recorders didn't exist so it's great to see there are some that are available on YouTube.

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Absolutely awful

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Terrible from start to finish. The acting is awful, the screenplays plain abysmal and the filming is below par.
The only good thing being the theme tune.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?