ORPHAN BLACK SEASON 2 EPISODE 2 - RECAP

Cosima accepts Leekie's offer after all and gets the remote lab, but first she has to convince him she had nothing to do with Sarah's appearance at the recent party. Rachel, who takes insults very personally, introduces herself by walking into the lab. She breaks the ice by stating the obvious: "So, you're gay". She reveals that she knows about Cosima's illness and provides some materials that could help find what's causing it, however, she declines showing the original DNA, which, according to her words, "was robust" and could not have possibly caused this sickness. She also supplies the limited data on Sarah's upbringing and orders Cosima to identify, why from all the clones, only Sarah is not childless.

Alison attends Aynsley's funeral and happens to hold her husband's coat the very moment when text messages come to the phone in its pocket. From what the messages say Alison figures out that Donnie was the monitor all along! This discovery ends her sober life. She tells Felix about it as well as about how poor Aynsley died. He advises her to set a trap for Donnie, so she speaks on the phone mentioning Sarah's name in her husband's presence and goes to her late friend's grave. There she meets her new buddy from the musical, also named Sarah, who spots Donnie, speaking on the phone with Leekie and hiding behind gravestones and trees. As Alison confronts him, he says he followed her 'cause he was worried. Right.

Sarah is reunited with Kira. Turns out Mrs. S. made it look like a kidnapping. She drove the girl out of the city to the house of her old friends and arranged for Sarah's comfortable delivery in the trunk of weird man's car. She plans to take Kira to the UK, while Sarah is supposed to stay in Canada and wait. Mrs. S denies she knows anything, when Sarah shows her the photo her birthmother gave her. Later, Kira tells her mom that she saw S. looking through Sarah's birthmother's stuff, so Sarah decides to run. Right about this time Siobhan discovers that her so called friends sold her out to the Proletheans and kills them, but lets Sarah and Kira drive away.

Felix, together with his foster-sister and her daughter, is on his way out of the city, when Alison calls him and tells that Donnie fell into a trap. Fee has too much on his mind, so he leaves her to deal with her problems on her own. Poor Alison.

And a few words about the Proletheans. We meet a cowboy Henrik Johanssen, a representative of the New Order, a leader of Prolethean Amish-like village. He provides shelter for Tomas and has Helena stolen from the hospital. Turns out, she's a mirror-girl, meaning that her heart is on the right side -  a condition sometimes developed in one of the identical twins. He thinks it would be amazing if Helena could conceive, while Tomas believes such child would be a monster. So the cowboy kills him. He seems to believe that science is not unholy.

In my opinion, the episode was slightly weaker than the first one, although my favorite clone Alison, is amazingly funny as always. My heart literally broke when Felix abandoned her at the time like this. I also think the freshly introduced fat Sarah may be Alison's new monitor. I still understand literally nothing about Mrs S. and I didn't like seeing the process of cow insemination along with the talks of whether Helena could conceive. Yikes. 

BLACK BOX

Since the moment House has ended, every channel seemed to have been looking for a new hit medical drama with an extraordinary and superarrogant doctor to fill the void. Moreover, now that bipolar Carrie from Homeland  had such a great impact on the audience and TV critics (for no apparent reason, in my opinion), it would be strange if we would not see any new female characters with this condition. And so meet ABC's Catherine Black (Kelly Reilly) - a secretly bipolar neurologist, who weirdly enjoys her disorder. If Gregory House had problems as a result of his drug abuse, Catherine's issues begin when she is not taking the pills, which she seems to not do quite often. For her "normal" means "mediocre", even though she does not actually say it out loud. She enjoys her maniacal phase, she feels her condition makes her incredible, although judging by how she is portrayed, her extraordinariness is only in her head, just like the music she dances to during her breakdowns.

The title of the show, Black Box, refers to the mysterious human brain, the subject of Catherine's studies. Trivially, it also contains last name of the heroine. Unlike House, she experiences no epiphany, she just does her job relatively thoroughly, but nothing really gives away why would anyone call her "Marco Polo of the brain", which is, apparently, her nickname in the industry. Apart from family, only her psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hartramph (Vanessa Redgrave) knows about her condition. Evidently, all her co-workers are idiots, as she manages to fool them for so many years, despite occasional dancing in the hospital stairwell.

Her personal life is definitely far from normal. She has an illegitimate daughter, adopted by her brother Josh (David Chisum) and his wife Regan (Laura Fraser). The girl doesn't know the truth, obviously, but adores her irresponsible "auntie". Catherine's relationship with her boyfriend/fiancee Will (David Ajala) is complicated, of course. To summarize her actions during the episode, she just torments him. Ms. Black seems to lean towards self-destruction despite the tragic example from her past: her own mother ended her life by walking into the ocean, with her pockets full of rocks, when her kids were very young.

All this Nashville style (typical for any ABC show, really) melodramatic bulls**t with multiple break ups, several instances of cheating and two suicide attempts, on top of painful dialogues, makes the series look cheap and soapy.

The idea of normality being the best state for any person is challenged by this show, though the arguments are not particularly compelling. And by the way, comparing your character with Hemingway, Van Gogh et cetera, is never a good move - her actions should prove her genius and her right to be arrogant, otherwise it's just laughable.

FARGO - THE ROOSTER PRINCE - RECAP

As we know from the previous episode, Sam Hess was affiliated with Fargo crime syndicate, so two guys, Mr. Numbers (Adam Goldberg) and deaf Mr. Wrench (Russell Harvard), come to town to follow up on his murder. A co-worker and a friend of Hess tells them about Malvo's strange visit right before Sam's death and gives them a description of how he looks. The guys go to the strip club and interrogate the owner along with the hooker who's been with Sam that night. After hearing the description of the suspect, the hooker points to a venue habitue and a tough guy wannabe, who ends up in Numbers' and Wrench's trunk. Sam's friend says it's not the right guy, so they dispose of the unlucky idiot by throwing him to the ice-hole. Alive and tied up.

Fargo guys remind of these two from the original film:

 

In the meanwhile, Lorne is still in Duluth. He comes by the local post office to receive a package from his boss. After mildly harassing the old worker of the office, who at first refuses to give out anything without identity confirmation, he gets a parcel with a book and an id in it. "I'm a minister, apparently", he says, and makes the sign of the cross over the confused and petrified post office employee.

Malvo visits the supermarket king, Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt), whose book he received in the package. Stavros apparently hired Lorne to uncover the person behind the blackmail. Somebody sent him a note, threatening to reveal the source of the money Stavros started his business with, and demanding $43,613 in exchange for silence. The businessman suspects his wife he's about to divorce, so Lorne comes by her house. He finds Helena Milos (Allegra Fulton) working out with her fitness instructor and a big fan of self-tanning Don Chumph (Glenn Howerton). After having checked the note at the motel, Malvo discovers that the same bronzer he got on his palm from the handshake with Don is on the paper.

Then Wally, Stavros' head of security appears in the motel and demands that Lorne leave the town at once or else. But Malvo shows him what he really thinks of his threats, the way Tom Kane displayed his disrespect to Lalo Mata in Boss - he takes a dump in front of him.

Deputy Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) is being consumed by the guilt of letting a criminal go. Only one sexy neighbor eases his mind by showing herself in her underwear through the window. 

Lester mourns his wife (who, apparently, was very fond of stuffed animals) and the simpler life that ended with her death. He temporarily stays at his brother's and thinks of selling his house full of sad memories.

As it usually happens in real life, the position of chief goes to dim Bill (Bob Odenkirk), who very much believes in coincidence of all kinds. Molly insist they need to question Lester about the chat he had in the hospital, to which Bill reluctantly agrees. Lester nervously denies he spoke to anyone about Hess; he even pretends he does not remember his high school bully. Molly has many questions, but Bill doesn't let her press Lester harder, so they leave with nothing.

She doesn't give up and follows Lester to the pharmacy he comes by to buy something for his wound that seems to have been caused by the pellet from the shot Malvo took at Vern. Molly hardly gets anything out of him, as he literally runs away from her. After this conversation Lester calls Bob and complains about her awful behavior, so Bill takes her off the case, but promises to make her the lead on the frozen guy investigation.

SALEM: IT'S GONNA BORE THE HELL OUT OF YOU

I must be honest, I did not expect much from WGN's first original TV series Salem in the first place. Yet, I could not possibly imagine, it would be that bad. Like most people, I've seen my fair share of trashy horror movies - all that garbage that earned less than half of its budget - but up to this point, there hardly was any series that would fill this niche on TV. In its tackiness Salem can only compete with some of the low budget Russian TV shows, and has a good chance of winning (if you've never seen Russian series, just take my word for it: the comparison with them is an insult).

Salem takes us back to the end of the XVII century, when all the infamous witch trials took place. In the center of this series are Mary Sibley (Janet Montgomery) and John Alden (Shane West), who are smart enough to become lovers in the society where non-marital romantic relationships are severely punished. Consequently, Mary becomes pregnant, but is forced to solve this problem on her own, as John gets conscripted to fight Indians, before she learns about her condition. So she decides to get rid of the baby by sacrificing her fetus to the devil (on that note, she seems quite far on, how could she hide it for so long?). 

When seven years later John returns, he finds his hometown engulfed in witch hunting hysteria, instigated by the loyal customer of the local brothel Cotton Mather, the preacher. And Mary is married to a rich old guy, who's immobilized by the stroke (also, she's a witch, which John is yet to find out).

Somehow, the show manages to portray the obvious lunacy of puritans and at the same time introduce the idea that they weren't really wrong about the necessity of the witch hunt. Apparently, those hypocrites' fault was not the killing and torture in itself, but their inability to detect correctly, who must have been killed and tortured. Call me narrow-minded, but this is an idiotic premise.

The plot progression, the dialogues, the special effects and the acting induce yawns; the scenes from various horror movies look ripped off, rather than cited; the series is full of cliches and shallow characters. From the first episode we have learned all witches' names, and can probably guess how the story will advance fairly accurately. The only question left unanswered is whether Mary has any useful or interesting magical powers. She doesn't seem to show any significant abilities except for limited mind control. All the other scenes where she performs her witchy stuff, seem to be put there just to expose her body.

Clearly, the creators did not intend it to come off funny, which makes it especially amusing. The only environment where this series could actually be enjoyed is in the company of drunk or stoned. There you could at least laugh at numerous failures of this show's script and its ridiculous special effects. But if you're in the mood to get scared, don't even bother, there's no way in hell Salem could help you with that.

ORPHAN BLACK SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 RECAP

One of the few noteworthy conspiracy science-fiction dramas, Orphan Black, returned last Saturday with the brand new episode Nature Under Constraint and Vexed. First of all: wow! This is how you start the second season! This is how you pack the first episode with action, without leaving your viewer confused.

If you haven't watched the first season, I suggest that you do. It's a very unusual blend of various TV genres: one moment it goes like a police or CSI-ish procedural, the next it turns into a real action drama, dark comedy or a thriller. Unlike most conspiracy series or films, the story of Orphan Black is rather coherent and does not feel in any way far-fetched. Okay, maybe cutting a piggy tail off one man's ass was little too much.

It is also very interesting to watch Tatiana Maslany, who plays more than half of important characters on the show, and her seemingly limitless ability to transform into numerous personalities. Her acting talent is especially apparent in those scenes, where one clone is supposed to impersonate the other. 

Aaanyways, here is how it goes:

Sarah is wondering around the streets, looking for her daughter, who has disappeared along with her foster-mother Mrs S at the end of last season. Sarah walks into a diner and orders tea. She can't reach any of her sister-clones, so she dials Paul and leaves a message on his voicemail, asking whether Neolutionists kidnapped her family. Shortly after, she receives a callback from Paul's number, but it's Rachel, the bitchy clone, talking. She tells Sarah that she'll only get her loved ones back if she signs the patent contract.

Right about this time two neat men enter the place with the intent to take Sarah "to Kira" (yeah, right). The diner owner tries to intercede by pointing a rifle at the freaks, but gets a bullet in his head. As he falls down, his rifle goes off and takes one of the men out. This gives Sarah a chance to escape. She locks herself in the bathroom, breaks the wall with the fire extinguisher and gets the hell outta there.

To get her daughter back, Sarah needs a plan or, at the very least, a gun. Luckily, she knows just the right person to turn to, so she sends her foster-brother Felix to the suburbs, to Alison, who's right in the middle of pulling her act together. No alcohol, no pills; she's now channeling her energy to an amateur musical Blood Ties (surprisingly, it's a real musical), where she plays the main part that used to belong to her friend Aynsley, whom she watched getting strangled by the garbage disposal.

She doesn't want to know anything about the clone conspiracy or let Sarah shoot people with guns registered under her name, but she knows this guy named Ramon (of course, she does), who could get an unregistered piece... maker. So she contacts him and sends him to Sarah with the hand-made card. Oh, Alison. Thoughtful and cordial, as ever.

Having obtained the gun, Sarah distracts Neolutionists' security dispatch by making them chase unsuspecting Alison (who showed those bastards how the real housewife can use her pepper spray), puts on Cosima style make-up and braids and runs off to face Rachel, who's meeting some important Koreans (both South and North) at the Dyad party. After the meeting, where Rachel admits her corporation made some lobbying efforts to convince the Supreme Court allow patenting synthetic DNA (a clear reference to the recent real-life decision), is over, when Rachel is left by herself, Sarah points a gun at her, demanding her daughter released. At first, Rachel tries to play cool, but a bullet just inches from her ear make her realize that Sara means business. She confesses that she's lied about having Kira, someone else had taken her. Sara hits the bitch and considers shooting her, but Paul interferes. She knocks Rachel out, and Paul lets her run free afterwards.

She turns to Art asking for his help in finding Kira. Apparently, it's Helena's religious nuts who kidnapped her.

Speaking of the devil, Helena is alive (I was supposed to be shocked by this turnout, but I simply forgot that Sarah shot her). So she must be having so special healing abilities. Leaving blood stains all over the place, she enters a medical center and passes out at the front desk. The neat guy from the opening scene appears there too, overlooking her hospitalization.

And what about Cosima? Nothing comforting, she is still sick of the unknown respiratory disease, and Delphine tries to convince her to start working for Dr. Leekie. Cosima says she does not want Neolutionists to get her bio material, but her lover takes her blood sample to Leekie anyway and tells him that Cosima has developed the same symptoms as the other two subjects (one is German Katja, the other one is "unknown" for now). At the Dyad party, disguised as Cosima, Sarah accepts Leekie's offer. So, most probably, the scientist clone will start working for Neolutionists after all. 

As I said in the beginning, this was a very solid comeback for the series. Intense, exciting and hilarious - everything one needs to get entertained. The show does not go too deep into the characters' like, let's say, Breaking Bad, Fargo or True Detective (at least for now); there is hardly any point it tries to prove, any philosophical idea it explores. It's just a fun series to watch, which is not a bad thing - I'm all for diversity. Besides, it gave me a new favourite expression "what the Dickens?", what more can I ask for?

FARGO - THE CROCODILE'S DILEMMA - RECAP

I've outlined my general thoughts on Fargo in my previous post, now it's time for a recap.

The episode begins with Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) driving along the frozen highway. Suddenly, a herd of deer jump across the road and Malvo hits one of them. This accident lets a man, wearing nothing but underpants, escape the trunk of Lorne's car and run into the woods. Later, that man is discovered frozen to death by two police officers, Vern Thurman (Shawn Doyle) and Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), when they investigate this car crash. At first they suppose the almost-naked-man is the driver, but the absence of any head trauma that must have been caused by the hit, makes them check the local hospital for any suspicious men.

And indeed, Malvo happens to look for some medical assistance; while waiting for the personnel to address his head injury, he engages in conversation with a timid insurance salesman with the broken nose, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), who's been having a bad day (which was about to get even worse). Question by question, Lorne drags the cause of Lester's trauma out - turns out, this is the courtesy of the proud owner of a truck depot, a father of two dull sons, Sam Hess (Kevin O'Grady), who used to bully Lester in high school and can't pass on the thought of mocking him in present. Lester tries to sugarcoat the situation as much as he can, 'cause "it's not good to dwell on those things", but his new acquaintance sees it for what it really is.

"If that were me in your position... I would have killed this man", says Malvo eventually.

"Heck, you're so sure about this, maybe you should just kill him for me", responds Lester, unable to conceal his true desire.

He can't believe this is really happening, neither can he say "no" to Malvo's confirmation question, whether Lester is actually asking him to kill a man, so Sam Hess' destiny is decided: he is stabbed to his head in a hooker house. After Lester hears about it, he finds the hitman, and tries to take his words back in a way, but what's done is done. Lorne convinces him that killing Hess made Lester more of a man than he's ever been. Encouraged by this thought, Mr. Nygaard attempts to be a man and fix the darn washing machine, but fails miserably in front of Mrs. Nygaard, who does not hesitate to throw what she thinks of him in his face. And then... he hits her with a hammer multiple times, mumbling "oh, jeez" along the way. Somebody must have developed taste for human flesh, huh.

After realizing what he has done, Lester calls Malvo in with the clear intent to kill him and present to the police as the murderer. Right about this time, the police find out that Lester's been talking to a man with the head injury about the late Sam Hess in the hospital, and Vern Thurman pays the unfortunate insurance salesman a visit. As he notices the blood stains on the floor and attempts to arrest Lester, Malvo, right on time, shoots him twice, and then disappears, leaving Lester with two bodies and the back-up that Thurman called for on its way. So to escape the arrest, the newly born murderer throws himself against the wall and loses conscientiousness. He wakes up in the hospital, not cuffed, so that seems to have worked.

Malvo carries on with his live, and we see him driving away, presumably after having completed the assignment given by his boss in Duluth. He is stopped by Deputy Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks), but after hearing a number of very convincing requests not to go down that road and return home alive, Gus lets him go.

FARGO - PILOT REVIEW - THE CROCODILE'S DILEMMA

The most anticipated new mini-series of the year, Fargo, premiered last night, and oh boy, was it great! I've been longing for a great dark comedy like this for a long time now. 

The action is set in Bemidji, Minnesota, in 2006, however the spirit is more that of the late 90's. Though the series clearly inherited the mood and the feel from the original film with the same title, it does not repeat the plot or the characters. A typical bad guy named Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) makes an involuntary stop in this off this beaten track place and, after meeting a pushover insurance salesman, Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), starts spreading chaos and violence around the town, seemingly, just for the fun of it. 

Nearly every character in the series looks rather caricaturistic, especially the women, for example, a cop who gags whenever he sees a dead body; a pregnant housewife, who can't decide what color she wants for the nursery; a successful entrepreneur, who thinks it's a good idea to fake-punch a forty year old man, whom he used to bully in high school, and so on, however, there is no feeling of untruthfulness in their motivation or actions.

The series explores what happens when a man, who's all his life been trying "not to dwell" on how other people treat him (on that note, can't help feeling that he deserves every bit of contempt he gets), is suddenly forced to go down a different road. We've seen something similar in Breaking Bad, though Lester Nygaard is definitely far less sympathetic or relatable than Walter White. Despite his inner urges, he does not choose to become "bad" on his own: extremely susceptible to other people's opinions, just like he had been influenced by, let's say, his wife before, he's now affected by Lorne Malvo's judgement. And even though we can already see that it will drive him to an unhappy ending, it surely will be a fun journey to watch.

NEW SERIES IN MAY

Fox doesn't seem to be able to let go of Kiefer Sutherland's superhero Jack Bauer, so on the 5th of May he returns with the mini-series 24: Live Another Day (a clear reference to Die Another Day). I absolutely hated the original 24 series, seriously, I can't think of any other show what annoyed me that much, but I'm sure there are many people who can't wait to see it.

Penny Dreadful, which airs on the 11th of May on Showtime seems a bit more interesting. Basically, they take a bunch characters from various spooky novels (e.g. Dorian Gray and Dr. Frankenstein) and put them to Victorian London. The show is created by John Logan, whose writing credits include Skyfall and The Aviator, and features Bond girl Eva Green, who plays one of the main characters.

 

On the 22nd of May a new action drama Gang Related premieres on Fox. The series is created by Chris Morgan (Fast and Furious) and it is about L.A. Police Department's special Gang Task Force and its war on gangs. Latinos will hate it, I'm afraid.

Then we have three new series from NBC. On the 27th of May they release The Night Shift about the night shift ER doctors from San Antonio Medical Center.

Two days later NBC introduce a sitcom Undateable by Adam Sztykiel, which is based on the book Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won't Be Dating Or Having Sex. It's about a bunch of guys and their unfortunate lack of dating skills. The first look promo is here.

Finally, a new show about pirates with John Malkovich as Blackbeard, Crossbones, debuts on the 30th of May. The show was created by Neil Cross (Luther). At first there were rumors that Hugh Laurie would take the main part, but I guess, that wasn't meant to be. Unfortunately, I could not find any promotional video, so here's a poster instead:

BANSHEE SEASON 2 REVIEW

[THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS]

I meant to write about Banshee for a while now. In fact, I thought I would recap it, but changed my mind after having watched the first episode.

I'm not a big fan of action movies, especially those with extreme violence and numerous sex scenes, but somehow I have a soft spot for this show. This is one of a few series, where violent payback for unjust, criminal actions is not tabooed, and I like it for it. For too long we've been fed with the same principle: a protagonist cannot do what the antagonist does, and I'm glad too see that at least somebody explores other possibilities. 

The question of whether or not answering with violence is a viable option is raised throughout the season, and there's even a short monologue on the topic, read by the lead. One by one, the good people surrounding Lucas Hood, as well as the sheriff himself, answer this question on their own and choose what feels right rather than what society would say is right. Some, like Emmett, pay the ultimate price for it; some, like Siobhan, not only get away with it, but finally get some inner peace. 

Both the opening episode and the season finale left me confused, the narration was so incoherent it felt like I was listening to a drunk telling story. I guess they just tried to put as much action and psychological tension as they could to make those episodes "exciting".

Unfortunately, few of the characters grew any layers. Rebecca's character has definitely changed the most as she tries on her uncle's shoes and does her first steps as his future heir. It saddens me that Job gets so little time on the screen and still we know next to nothing about him. Instead of exploring the regulars, the creators add a bunch of new characters and kill them off or send them away almost instantly.

By the end of the season Lucas seems to have finally let go of the past with Ana; whatever connected them is gone: the house he bought for them is burnt to the ground, the diamonds turned out to be pieces of glass (a discovery that hasn't been properly addressed, by the way), and even Rabbit doesn't threaten either of them anymore. But he can't leave Banshee now that he officially has a daughter. And the new threat is coming:

I have little hope that Chayton Littlestone will be a good replacement for Rabbit as a villain, but let's see how it goes.

TURN S01E01 REVIEW

Inspired by the news of a decent (read: not disastrous) viewers' number for Turn on an extremely competitive night (one would think that planning a premiere on the same day when Game of Thrones returns is suicidal), I have finally overcome my prejudice against the men in powdered wigs and white pantyhose, and watched the pilot. Well, not that I regret it per se... let's just say there was no pleasant surprise: the show seemed to be exactly what I imagined it to be after having read the synopsis.

Turn takes us back to the 18th century, the time of the American Revolutionary War; we take a closer look at the life of a farmer, Abe Woodhull, who, like nobody, fits the profile of a lesser man. Lying low, he's growing cabbage, a good part of which ends up infested with worms, so he is not even good at it. Watching the "redcoats" commit all sorts of indiscretions, he keeps being loyal to the crown, like his father - a very influential man, as it turns out. He's married and has a son.

"The normal" life he's trying to maintain is ruined, when he gets into a fight with the British at his ex-sweetheart's tavern. The fight leads to a chain of events which results in Abe becoming a spy for the Continental Army. 

I've read that some people say they like that it's not all black and white, but it is. Sure, Americans use waterboarding to obtain intelligence (nice to know their techniques have not changed since 1776) and kill the enemy in a very cruel manner, but there is not a single moment during the episode, when we would hesitate to say who the real bad guys are. 

Abe is the only character that's got any edge; all others are merely the decorations. I see Turn as a story about a man trying to find the true self and finally get rid of his father's beliefs, he's always thought of as his own. And just like we know the outcome of the Revolutionary War, we know the ending of this story, don't we?

P.S. The intro is awesome, but I can't help feeling it's not right for this series.

SILICON VALLEY S01E01 REVIEW

Silicon Valley premiered last night on HBO, so I'll write a couple of words about it.

Synopsis:

Richard lives in a Silicon Valley incubator with four other geeks and works for a global tech company Hooli; his own project develops very slowly, until two billionaires, Peter Gregory, who hates college education (I'm with him on that, by the way), and the founder of Hooli, Gavin Belson, find out about the algorithm he wrote that allows to compress files without any data loss. Naturally, they want in, and Richard must decide, which offer he would accept.

In may ways, it's like Better Off Ted meets The It Crowd, only without the awkward romantic relationships (well, at least for now, I definitely sensed the potential love story between the lead and the college-hater assistant) and any normal people. The series portrays the ridiculousness of the tech world, populated with the suddenly rich social freaks, who can't think of spending cash on anything better than a performance by Kid Rock (!) at their party. 

The tech world is divided. On the one side there are billionaires driving exceptionally narrow cars and talking to the spiritual advisers. On the other side - the nobodies, the guys who have gotten the shit kicked out of throughout all their lives, the guys who do not want to change the world, or even get rich, for that matter; they just want to make it happen, without fully realizing what it is.

The acting is exceptional and is essential to the show. Most of the jokes are funny just because of the tone and the facial expressions. And of course, the creators couldn't not introduce the typical American comedy character - the insensitive doctor. Only here, on top of delivering the usual anatomical jokes, the doctor is pitching his patients with his app idea.

The episode ends with Richard's speech about how he doesn't want his company to turn into any other "corporate cult", and that was probably the funniest part of the show. We've seen it all before; the most dramatic example is, of course, Google; the company, famous for fighting "the evil" (i.e. Microsoft), has turned into... well, whatever it is now.

So, whether you love or loathe the tech world, this show is definitely worth checking out.

NEW TV SERIES IN APRIL

Tonight, on the 6th of April, we've got two new shows on HBO and AMC.

Silicon Valley is a new HBO comedy, created by Mike Judge. He actually used to work for a video card start up company in the past, and as far as I understand, he did not really enjoy it. This makes it interesting, 'cause if you’re not an IT enthusiast, it should be easier for you to look critically at the environment and make fun of it.

The first teaser was rather disappointing, but the second one and the sneak peeks look very promising. The series is rather short, only 8 episodes, so It’s better be good.

Turn airs tonight on AMC (a.k.a. the Breaking Bad channel). This series is based on a book named Washington Spies. It is a period drama set in the 18^th century during American Revolutionary War. The creators promise all the spy movie fun with guns and chases etc. Quite honestly, it seems like there is a little too much testosterone in this show for me to enjoy it.

On the 15^th of april FX releases Fargo with the Coens as executive producers. This is an anthology, so expect a different story every season. The first one is based on a 1996 film with the same name that  has altogether earned seven Oscars. There already was an attempt to create a spin-off, Kathy Bates even directed the pilot back in 1997, but that wasn't meant to be. The new version involves brilliant martin freeman (he’s everywhere now) and Billie Bob Thornton as the leads.

FX has already revealed the first 7 minutes of the pilot, and it looks great. Dark, funny, with exceptional acting – I have a feeling it will be the best new mini series of the year. So yeah, I’m looking forward to all the ten episodes.

Another period drama slash supernatural witch show called Salem is coming out on the 20^th of April on WGN. It is created by Brannon Braga, who has been previously working on Terra Nova, and Start Track franchise, and Adam Simon, the guy who wrote for a number of horror movies, including a trashy one named Bones, with Snoop Dogg (which earned less than half of its budget).

The show is set in the 17^th century, and the witches are real and running the witch trials. How about that?

For the teenagers and those that are young at heart, MTV has created a new show called Faking It, which will air on the 22^nd of April. It’s about two girls that pretend to be a lesbian couple just to fit and become popular in High School. Enough said.

  

A new mini series named Black Box is set to debut on the 24^th of April. The show is about Catherine Black, who is a secretly  bipolar neuroscientist. So, in essence, it’s like if instead of a leg/Vicodin problem Gregory House had the mental stability of Carrie from Homeland.  I doubt it’d be any good.



CBS took a movie Bad Teacher and turned it into a series, which will premiere on the 24^th of April. Frankly, I haven’t fully recovered from the loss of the money I paid to see the movie, so I have mixed feelings about it. The only thing that I can mark as interesting in the show’s trailers, is that Juanita from Desperate Housewives still looks as a kid.

Finally, on the 29^th of April, USA Network releases a new comedy about the female friendship called Playing House. The show is based on the real life friendship between Lennon Parham andJessica St. Clair and they also play the leading parts.