Landman is maybe Taylor Sheridan's best series of late. Following all the Yellowstone spin-offs, Lioness and Tulsa King, Landman is funny, raw and real. It's golden age TV.
Based on the podcast Boomtown hosted by Christian Wallace, Landman, stars Billy Bob Thornton in the lead role as a landman at an oil company.
Paramount+ started streaming the ten part first season mid-November, last year. Concluding early Monday morning, The Crumbs of Hope was almost a movie length episode. Full of drama and plot lines leading into (a hopeful) second season.
No spoilers here for this premium drama though.
So other than Billy Bob Thornton offering some wild, memorable one liners, Landman is set within the world of oilfields in West Texas, where "roughnecks and wildcat billionaires are fuelling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics."
Thornton's lead character, Tommy Norris, can be abrasive, as is the out-of-town lawyer investigating a fatal accident early in the season.
Alongside Thornton, Jacob Lofland, Ali Larter, Michelle Randolph, Kayla Wallace, James Jordan, Mark Collie, Paulina Chávez, Jon Hamm, Octavio Rodriguez & J.R. Villarreal all star. While Demi Moore plays Hamm's wife.
Whilst being absent for a large chunk of the series, the way things are left off, Moore could be a more major player in season two.
Unofficially too, in May, it was stated by Demi Moore that the series had scored a second season, with production commencing in early 2025.
God I hope this is right. However Paramount+ would be stupid to can this. Alongside a premium Taylor Sheridan drama.
Wanting more Taylor Sheridan? Well, 1923 returns for it's second and final season next month!
Also fingers crossed for news on Tulsa King and Lioness in coming months. Both shows concluded late last year, so come on already Paramount+. With Showtime with Paramount+ dramas also coming to an end soon (The Agency and Dexter prequel), Showtime is finally getting its mojo back.
With Yellowjackets also set to return next month, Paramount+ is on a bit of a roll.
On Call was an unexpected, fast-paced, gripping new cop procedural drama.
I haven't watched much Dick Wolf TV, however I was happy that this was the first series from Dick Wolf to be set in a half-hour format with the running time being 24 minutes.
All eight episodes are streaming now on Prime Video, which follows Long Beach Police Department veteran training officer Traci Harmon and her rookie partner Alex Diaz as they respond to emergency calls on the streets of Long Beach, California while also navigating the fallout of the loss of a fellow officer.
Starring Troian Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente, as the main two beat cops. With support from Eriq LaSalle, Lori Loughlin & Rich Ting.
With a small cast we really get to know Bellisario & Larracuente very well.
I really enjoyed this series. I also wasn't expecting it to be so addictive.
I did think (via reading Wikipedia) this was a miniseries, however episode eight gives us serious hopes for season two.
There is no word on a second season yet, however I feel this is nice, new format for an old story.
So if you get a chance between tennis matches on the Nine network, maybe give this a red hot go.
Also finally Landman will get a post over the weekend. See you then!
God I wanted to like, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. However like the previous Star Wars trainwreck, The Acolyte, this was awful.
Like just plain awful. Streaming on Disney+, as part of the Star Wars franchise, which has now been flogged so hard the Melbourne Cup horses are already in pain in January, Skeleton Crew was a primary school take on the iconic franchise.
Taking place in the same time frame as the The Mandalorian series and its interconnected spin-offs after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). Skeleton Crew tells a coming-of-age story about four children who make a discovery on their home planet, get lost in the galaxy, and go on an adventure to get back home.
Jude Law is one of few adults in the series, alongside Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, & Nick Frost.
Skeleton Crew landed on Disney+ just in time for the school holidays, commencing at the start of December, with episodes releasing weekly, until this Wednesday.
Tell me more about the eight episodes? Roughly five years after the fall of the Galactic Empire, four children end up on an adventure to make their way home after being lost in the galaxy following a discovery they make on their home planet At Attin while befriending a Force-user.
SPOILER ALERTS ahead for the average finale. One good thing is, the episodes are super short with super long end credits!
Jod continues to pose as the Republic Emissary and he orders Wim, Neel and KB confined to their quarters while he takes Fern and Fara to meet the Supervisor, which is revealed to be a massive AI droid.
When the Supervisor contradicts his claim about being a Jedi, revealing to have learned of Order 66, Jod is forced to destroy the Supervisor, causing a blackout in the city, as well as shutting down the safety droids. As the pirates invade At Attin with the intent of enslaving the populace, which includes Neel's and KB's parents, Wim, Wendle, Neel and KB race to the Onyx Cinder.
As the ship is locked in place, Wim distracts Jod so Wendle can restore power, enabling KB to fly the ship past the barrier with a repaired SM-33 to call Kh'ymm for help, shortly before the Onyx Cinder is shot down.
In a subsequent struggle with Jod, Wim and Fern separate him from his lightsaber while a reluctant Wendle and Fern destroy the barrier, enabling the New Republic forces to arrive to deal with the pirates enough to shoot down the pirates' ship, forcing Jod to admit defeat. Everyone then races to the Onyx Cinder crash site to find KB alive and well.
The episode ends with Wim looking up at the sky to the arriving New Republic ships in amazement as power is restored to At Attin.
No season two has been confirmed yet, however this was scraping the bottom of the Star Wars barrel. As a massive fan of the space saga back in its hey day, some of these Disney+ series are really taking the piss. Like Marvel its high time, Star Wars take a bit of a break. That's just my opinion.
Tokyo Vice joins previously posted Bump as another series that called it a day in 2024.
We lost some big series the past year, however Tokyo Vice (despite being on HBO's streaming platform, Max) never really got out from under the radar.
Streaming on SBS on Demand, based on the 2009 memoir by Jake Adelstein, the first season originally streamed ad-free on Paramount+, however for some reason the series was removed, now it only streams on SBS's platform.
Starring Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Hideaki Itō, Show Kasamatsu, Ella Rumpf, Rinko Kikuchi, Tomohisa Yamashita, Miki Maya, & Yōsuke Kubozuka.
The series is set in the late 90's with American aspiring investigative journalist Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) relocates to Tokyo and secures a job at a major Japanese newspaper, becoming their first foreign journalist.
Taken under the wing of a veteran detective in the organised crime squad, Adelstein delves into the dark and dangerous world of the yakuza whilst living under the city's (and the newspaper's) official line that "murder does not happen in Tokyo".
The real Jake Adelstein in the early 90's became the first non-Japanese staff writer at the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in Urawa, Saitama, where he worked for 12 years.
After leaving the Yomiuri, Adelstein published an exposé of how an alleged crime boss, Tadamasa Goto, made a deal with the FBI to gain entry to the United States for a liver transplant at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2009, Adelstein published a memoir about his career as a reporter in Japan, Tokyo Vice, in which he accused Goto of threatening to kill him over the story.[5] An April 2022 article by The Hollywood Reporter raised doubts about the veracity of the events described in the memoir.[6] In November 2022, Esquire reported that Adelstein had released via Twitter a folder of source materials which he claimed supported his versions of events.
Adelstein was subsequently a reporter for a United States Department of State investigation into human trafficking in Japan,[8] and now writes for the Daily Beast, Vice News, The Japan Times & other publications. He is a board member and advisor to the Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims (formerly Polaris Project Japan).
On April 19, 2011, Adelstein filed a lawsuit against National Geographic Television, which had hired him to help make a documentary about the yakuza, citing ethical problems with their behavior in Japan. However, the court dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the plaintiff is barred from bringing that claim in another court.
So how does the series wrap? Full details (meaning spoilers) below the trailer.
In the now series finale, endgame, Hiroto and Shoko lead simultaneous raids on Shinzo's properties: the boat reveals his agreement with the FBI.
Jake (Elgort) is tasked with writing the exposé but Emi realizes the Meicho will not run the story, learning that Ozaki, the leader of the Meicho, destroyed the tape. Hiroto hands the documents to Sato.
Shinzo abducts Misaki's mother and is lured by her to a hideout led by Sato and the other yakuza clan leaders, including Kazuko: Shinzo commits suicide when confronted.
Sato is officially appointed oyabun of the chihara-kai. Misaki decides to end it with Jake, while Samantha decides to take an extended break from her current responsibilities. Katagiri claims to have retired, while Maruyama has been offered a new job opportunity if she wants to leave the Meicho. It does all end rather neat and tidy, making me think the producers knew it always had a two season run.
Both seasons received generally positive reviews, with praise for its setting, aesthetic, and characters. With the show concluding in April last year, I am slowly catching up on those 2024 shows.
This is a standout SBS on Demand series. If you haven't already downloaded the free app, get on it now!
The second season of Squid Game, landed like Bump on Boxing Day. Whilst I was on leave, life was busy so this got left a little into the new year. But man this season was addictive. The episodes were long(ish) however they were action packed this time around, making them whiz past.
The second season, stars Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Wi Ha-joon, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-wook, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-shim, & Jo Yu-ri.
It picks up three years after Seong Gi-hun won the Squid Game, giving up on going to the United States and returning to the games with the intent of stopping them once and for all. He once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of ₩45.6 billion.
A side-plot of the season sees Hwang Jun-ho trying to locate Gi-hun with help from hired mercenaries.
The second season has proved the first run wasn't a fluke. Within the first three days of release, the second season had 68 million views, exceeding the highest premiere viewership for Netflix held by the first season of Wednesday at 50.1 million views during its premiere week.
According to Netflix, the season ranked at No. 1 in 92 countries.
One complaint though, with the third (and final season), filmed back-to-back with the second season, the last episode kind of just ended. Apparently the third season will be released this year.
Some spoilers below the trailer, so BEWARE!
In Friend or Foe/"Chinguwa Jeok" (Korean: 친구와 적) Captain Park of Jun-ho's team is revealed to be a double agent, having sabotaged their drone.
Following the bathroom brawl, players realise they can kill others to raise the prize pool and weaken the opposing voters. Gi-hun predicts there will be an attack that night by players who want to continue the game, but convinces a small group of "X" players to avoid attacking, arguing that the game's creators are the true enemies.
During the anticipated massacre, Gi-hun's group stays hidden as the rest of the group receives heavy losses, and they emerge only once soldiers arrive. Gi-hun's group baits the soldiers, killing all but one and taking their firearms.
They start a rebellion and force the surviving soldier to lead them to the control room. However, more soldiers open fire en route, and the rebellion starts to falter when the group runs out of ammunition; Dae-ho, tasked with retrieving more ammo, suffers a combat stress reaction and is unable to return.
Player 001 betrays the group by killing two players and faking his death, while other surrendering players are executed. Gi-hun and Jung-bae are captured. In-ho, now masked as the Front Man, executes Jung-bae in front of a horrified Gi-hun.
So where will we go in the third and final season? Will Seong Gi-hun get his revenge/happy ending with all that cash?
After a slower start with episodes one and two just building the story, then once the games started things accelerated fast!
This was a fun watch. Maybe Squid Game will go down as one of Netflix's biggest titles. With Cobra Kai ending next month, Emily in Paris (or Rome) a way off, the streamer really needs some new hits, not just forgettable fast TV like the Australian production, Territory or The Perfect Couple. Speaking of Australian series, Heartbreak High will also conclude with its third season later this year on Netflix.
Coming up tomorrow more TV our of Asia, it's HBO Max's Tokyo Vice.
Oh the Catholics! The pope is dead, the throne is vacant, let's watch this drama unfold!
Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow & Isabella Rossellini, is doing the rounds now the awards season has started. Well sort of. The California wildfires (in winter BTW) are impacting these now as we speak.
Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope.
Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.
Conclave described as a mystery thriller film. Set in a deeply religious and lavish setting!
Directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris.
Conclave has taken a minute to get to Australian cinemas, first premiering at the 51st Telluride Film Festival late August 2024. Had a US cinema release (a large number of Hollywood cinemas are also closed now due to the wildfires) back in October 2024, followed by the United Kingdom cinemas in November.
Conclave has received positive reviews from critics, & grossed $62.1 million worldwide, while being named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.
Back to it's spotlight at the awards seasons, the film received nominations for six Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and won Best Screenplay, and tied with Wicked for a leading eleven nominations at the 30th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture.
I enjoyed all two hours of Conclave. Yes it was long, but with gripping performances from Lithgow and Fiennes & Tucci, it had me on the end of my seat. Even as someone deeply non religious. The wild process that goes into selecting a new Pope, is like selecting a new member for the deeply divided Northern Beaches seat of Warringah.
Disclaimer (stylised as DISCLAIMER*) is one Apple TV+ title I missed late last year. With Shrinking, Bad Sisters and Silo all streaming week-to-week, it was hard to keep up with everything. Including this Golden Globe (and now SAG) nominated miniseries.
This R rated psychological/thriller miniseries written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight.
Starring former STC royalty and queen, Cate Blanchett as a documentarian who is forced to confront her past, and Kevin Kline as the father of a boy who died in Italy 20 years earlier.
Also starring in this all star cast, Borat, I mean Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Louis Partridge, Leila George, Lesley Manville & features Indira Varma as the narrator.
So what is DISCLAIMER* all about? Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), a famed documentary journalist, discovers she is a prominent character in a novel that purports to reveal a secret she has tried to keep hidden. Catherine built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realise she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.
As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys both her own life and her relationships with her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and their son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee)
The story is revealed in a non-linear fashion with scenes alternating between a holiday in Italy (young Catherine’s encounter with Jonathan and his subsequent death by drowning) and back home in London twenty years later (the truth emerges, the consequences).
The series also uses the technique of unreliable narrator in that the events in Italy are told twice: first from Nancy's speculative point of view and later from Catherine's first person experience. Leading to a monster conclusion in episode seven. Watch out spoilers below the trailer.
In the seventh and final episode, Catherine reveals to Stephen that Jonathan broke into her hotel room, held her at knifepoint, forced her to pose for his photos, then repeatedly raped her before leaving.
The next day, Jonathan did indeed drown saving Nicholas; Catherine had collected physical evidence of her rape, but got rid of it after Jonathan died, wanting her memory of the experience to die with him. As Catherine finishes her story, she realizes that Stephen has drugged her tea and collapses; Stephen then returns to the hospital to kill Nicholas, but relents when he awakens and calls for his mother.
Stephen, finally accepting what Catherine told him, informs Robert, who is overcome with guilt. Catherine awakens and rushes to the hospital where she reunites with her family.
In the aftermath, Stephen burns all the copies of The Perfect Stranger, Jonathan's photos, and Nancy's belongings, while contemplating suicide. He discovers that one of the photos shows young Nicholas witnessing his mother's rape.
Unable to forgive Robert for what she’s been through, Catherine chooses to divorce him, and later reconciles with Nicholas.
This is seriously good TV. It also continues Apple's brilliant run of titles in late 2024. It was a stellar year for Apple with Shrinking, this and Bad Sisters all becoming big and bigger hits! This year Severance finally returns, Silo will conclude it's second season and one can only hope The Morning Show finally returns.
Apple TV+ is really leading the charge when it comes to quality over quantity (looking at you Netflix) content. Brilliant work!
