Posted by Unknown
Posted on 9:31 AM
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The conventional wisdom says that remakes are rubbish, here are six recent television remakes that are actually rather good.
a remake of the Isreali show, Hatufim (Prisoners of War).
another awesome remake of an Isreali show, BeTipul.
compared to the original British series, it's better looking in every way...
largely (and wrongly) dismissed in the UK, this remake of the Danish drama has much to recommend it; with a faster pace and superior production values, whilst still retaining the drama of the original.
about to enter its ninth season on nbc, this has to be the most commercially successful UK to USA scripted transfer, in decades.
this short lived, but decent, remake of the British time warp series used a New York icon to illustrate Sam's arrival in 1973, with stunning results.
Posted by Unknown
Posted on 5:22 PM
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(there be spoilers ahead for those who have not seen Dexter season six)
The final episode of the sixth season of Dexter recently hit British television screens. Taken as a whole, the sixth season was on a par with the quality of season five, but still fell a long way short of the awesome season four.
But has it jumped the shark? Don't get me wrong, over the past few years Dexter has been one of the finest shows on television. And an average episode of Dexter, is way better than most shows ever achieve; but here are six killer reasons why its best days may just be behind it.
1. It's becoming a bit predictable. I have a long history of not anticipating even the most obvious twists; but even I could work out that Professor Casey was not alive - a week before Dexter did.
2. Too many ghosts. Its a sure sign of fatigue when a series begins to duplicate its most successful elements. So whilst it has been a joy to have Dexter chatting to his deceased father for several seasons, this season he was joined by his brother. And we had the aforementioned Professor Casey advising the Doomsday killer.
3. The police department is getting dumber and dumber. With the endless exploits of Quinn, a deputy getting involved with a dead hooker, dodgy interns and a total inability to solve crime; it is little wonder that Dexter has been able to kill at will, for all these years.
4. Its all gone a bit Game of Thrones. Whilst it was more than able to compete with Thrones on the body count, the blood and the cursing, Dexter just couldn't keep up with the HBO show when it came to incest, until now...
5. Too many irrelevant storylines and loose ends. Dexter's brother turns up for an episode. "Trinity" is back for an episode. The intern steals evidence, another intern buys it, they send it to Dexter.... Why? We never found out.
6. That final twist... Whilst it is always tempting to see what happens when a character's cover is blown, it is fiendishly difficult to maintain a compelling or plausible storyline, once you have crossed that line. The unmasking of Dexter, to his sister, feels like something that should have happened toward the end of the final season.
Because there are two more seasons to come, the writers seem to have four choices in taking the story forward. They are:
a) Dexter could kill Debra, maintaining his secret.
b) Dexter and Debra could team up and work together.
c) Debra reports Dexter, the department investigates his crimes. Dexter gets his day in court.
d) Dexter kills himself and then offers advice to another "good" serial killer.
