Zum Start der Serie ist 'Berlin Station' in allerlei britischen Zeitungen als Fernsehtipp genannt worden:
Zitat:
Thursday's best TV: Berlin Station, The Bi Life and Sally4Ever
David Sexton
Thursday 25 October 2018 15:08
Sometimes a book, film or TV show is so definitively good that it defies emulation.
Or at least it should, since any attempt to recapture its magic is inevitably going to seem disappointing in comparison.
In fact, of course, all great successes immediately prompt a torrent of pastiches, homages, knock-offs and re-treads.
The writer of Berlin Station, Olen Steinhauer, an author with a dozen espionage novels to his credit, has been hugely influenced by John le Carré. He has declared Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to be the greatest spy novel he has ever read, truly exquisite, “on a par with the great books of English literature”.
(More4)
So Steinhauer is on a mission to make his own work comparably serious, profoundly about how people deceive one another, rather than just about how spies do the dirty.
The penalty for doing that at anything less than le Carré’s level is apparent in the opener for Berlin Station, a series commissioned by Epix, MGM’s premium cable and satellite channel in the US and originally broadcast there in 2016.
There are so many grabby thriller series out there now on so many platforms, that anything that takes time to get going is taking a big risk. And Berlin Station is slow.
It opens with a pretty common twist: an action scene in which a main character is shot and (apparently) killed, before we go back in time to understand the earlier events that led to this outcome. But thereafter it’s a fairly conventionally structured story, about CIA agent Daniel (Richard Armitage) being brought in to the Berlin Station to hunt down whoever has been leaking damaging stories about their operations, apparently from the inside.
So who can he trust? To make this psychological drama grip from the off the characters would have to be fascinating, the action relentless. But Armitage is not a very exciting presence himself, at least in this opener, little more than a cipher of a good guy. The strongest subsidiary character so far is Richard Jenkins (Nathaniel Fisher) as Steven Frost, the chief of station.
Rhys Ifans dials down his usual semi-hysteria a bit as disillusioned CIA veteran Hector DeJean — although he pops up intriguingly in the final scene for the surprise-in-need-of-an-explanation that’s designed to carry viewers through to episode two, so he may get more worked up later on.
The villain, a mystery-man called “Thomas Shaw” who has been leaking sensitive information to the papers, is explicitly compared to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, just to make sure we get the message — and he appears, without speaking so far, as some kind of wild-eyed Goth or a caricature of a romantic poet at a fancy-dress party.
Berlin Station is contemporary (or it was when made two years ago, before Trump) and makes the most of being filmed in the city — but, so far at least, it has no particular political edge or grounding in world events, unlike, say, choosing at random, that superb hokum Homeland. Actually, it is disappointingly light on hokum, weighed down rather by seriousness and its ambition to rival the best.
Spy stories that don’t thrill can’t do anything else either. Berlin Station may nevertheless prove worth sticking with, at least for another episode or two. But greater excitement this evening might just be created by the new series of that most informative dating show, Naked Attraction. Or reading a book.
The Bi Life - E!, 9pm
Missing Love Island? This new bisexual dating show is for you.
The 10-part series is presented by Australian drag queen and 2018 Celebrity Big Brother winner Courtney Act (non-drag name Shane Jenek), who presides over a group of nine young, British singletons as they travel to Barcelona to find love, or something similar.
The programme-makers suggest that the number of Britons identifying as bisexual has risen dramatically, and the cast includes many of the different permutations that fall into that category (or categories, with bisexual, pansexual, fluid and all permutations of the above included).
Launching the show, Act said that bisexual singles represented the largest part of the LGBTQ+ community, but were the least known. The cast of the show will live together and support each other as they embrace the dating scene in the Catalan capital.
The cast includes Michael Gunning, who aims to swim for team Jamaica in the 2020 Olympics, and model Carmen Clarke, who says she is “on a personal journey of discovery, but if I fall for someone too then I’m completely open to that.”
Screen time
Sally4Ever - Sky Atlantic, 10pm
It’s not uncommon for comedy writers to stray into uncomfortable territory, but Julia Davis goes the extra mile. Her humour has a disquieting, off-kilter quality, which makes the news that her previous series Camping has being remade by Lena Dunham hard to fathom (US reviewers, by and large, have found it unfathomable).
But Davis’s new show is suitably skewed. She plays Emma, a bohemian actress/poet who saves, or diverts, another woman, Sally (Catherine Shepherd) from a decade-long dull relationship with her fiancé David (Alex Macqueen). As well as Davis’s husband Julian Barratt, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan pop up, and there are guest slots for Sean Bean and Mark Gatiss.
Pictured: Catherine Shepherd, Julia Davis & Alex Macqueen (Sky)
Welcome to Collinwood - London Live, 9pm
The Russo Brothers are safe pairs of blockbuster directorial hands, a trait demonstrated in this heist caper. An all-star cast — Sam Rockwell, William H Macy, Isaiah Washington and George Clooney — play crooks seeking untold jewels. They are hooked by the underground legend of a “Bellini” — a robbery of total perfection and substantial reward.
London Go - Tomorrow, London Live, 7pm
What wouldn’t have amused Queen Victoria were the repeated burglaries of Buckingham Palace by teenager Edward Jones, who was found there three times but is suspected of breaking in on many more occasions. Jones, who reputedly never washed, was even once caught with a pair of Victoria’s underwear in his trousers.
This bizarre crime is retold in Victoria’s Knickers, running at the Soho Theatre, and this week’s London Go host Tania Francis speaks to Alice Vilanculo and Oseloka Obi, who play Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in this strange tale.
Then Francis will be in discussion with Saul Reichlin about his show Sholom Aleichem in the Old Country, which will be on at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town.
Deep dish
Derren Brown — Sacrifice - Netflix
The charismatic illusionist is sometimes described as “a mentalist”, which would mean something different if he was in Glasgow. Or perhaps not. In this Netflix special he tries to persuade someone to jump in front of a bullet. The twist is that he mixes in a subplot in which racial prejudice is tested to the limit. Can Phil, an American man with robust views on Mexican immigration, be persuade to sacrifice himself for a Mexican immigrant?
Catch up
The Great British Bake Off - All 4
This series of the cake trial has been a revelation, while also being exactly the same as ever. This week’s episode, the semi-final, sees Paul Hollywood turning up the heat — an unglazed raspberry!
Listen out for Ruby, pictured above, turning the cream sour with expletives that had to be bleeped out as the judges approached her baking bench.
https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/thursdays-best-tv-berlin-station-the-bi-life-and-sally4ever-a3971841.htmlZitat:
Damien Love's TV pick of the week
Damien Love
Watch how you tread, because Julia Davis is back on the prowl and – as far as I was able to tell, watching through my fingers from behind the sofa – her new series Sally4Ever finds her going the Full Julia Davis. Clearly, this is simultaneously a great thing, and utterly terrifying.
After the cringing rural trip of Camping and the lush period excursion of Hunderby, her blackly, beautifully twisted take on gothic romance, this seven-part sitcom finds Davis, as writer, director and co-star, moving closer again to the perilous territory of her unforgettable (try as you might) Nighty Night. But it’s a ghastly thing of its own.
At the centre of the hot nightmare is Sally (Catherine Shepherd), who works quietly in a lowly London advertising agency, and can’t quite work out why her life has ended up the way it has. Specifically, she seems mystified over how she could ever have wound up living with David (Alex McQueen), her long term boyfriend, whose desires, hobbies, tastes, personal habits, personal hygiene routines and general approach to existence itself have quietly smothered her in a stunned, silent scream of beige suburban horror.
One fateful day, however, while riding the tube to work, Sally lets her eyes wander, only to find them snagged on the dark, knowing gaze of an interesting-looking woman across the aisle: Emma (Davis). It’s only a quick, penetrating glance, but Sally is already captured, and, after a long and particularly crummy day, topped off by an impassioned marriage proposal from David, she escapes her suffocating house and heads alone into the night to track Emma down.
The path leads to a club where Emma is at the centre of the midnight swirl, giving a wild performance as DJ-artist. Like Alice finding a bohemian Wonderland, Sally is astonished at the life on offer, takes a pill, and finds herself embarking on an unexpected adventure. She’s never done this kind of thing before, but she kisses Emma, and, just like the song, she likes it. But, as she begins an affair with the stranger, she doesn’t know quite what lies in store from here.
This, more or less, is the outline of the plot in Episode One, but, as ever, it’s the devastating details, curdled dialogue, and gobsmacking gags Davis crafts that make the thing come to devious, demented life. To detail them would be to spoil things, but suffice to say that, as the awful David, Alex McQueen (formerly The Thick Of It’s malign, biscuit-munching mandarin fusspot Julius) gives a performance of heroic proportions. After this, either his phone will be ringing off the hook, or, possibly, he’ll never work again.
It’s amazing stuff, with a tremendous cast (a rogues’ gallery including Julian Barratt, Felicity Montagu, Steve Oram, Mark Gattis, Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan), all dominated by another monstrous turn from Davis as a disruptive character who suggests the daemeon lover from the old folk songs, by way of the Ting Tings.
Compared with the lurid life of Sally4Ever, More4’s new thriller import Berlin Station is a pallid, predictable thing. Former Spooks star Richard Armitage pulls on his spy trousers again as a CIA agent stationed in Berlin, hoping to uncover an Edward Snowden-style whistleblower in the Agency’s midst. There’s a good cast, including Rhys Ifans as a jaded spook and the great character actor Richard Jenkins as their boss, and it passes the time. But the plotting and pacing is very by the numbers. Not so much George Smiley as generically ropey
https://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/16986297.damien-loves-tv-pick-of-the-week/Zitat:
3 of the best TV shows to watch this week
Podge & Rodge return to Ballydung while BBC airs unseen footage of Bowie in 2000
Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 06:00
Kevin Courtney
The Podge & Rodge Show
Monday, RTÉ 2, 10.40pm
The national broadcaster is under pressure: revenues and viewer numbers are down, and (if the multimillion-euro ad campaign is to be believed) no one is coughing up for their licence fee. How can RTÉ return things back to the way they were? Simple – bring back two of telly’s most famous grumpy old men (no, not Eamon Dunphy and John Giles) and watch the viewers and revenue flow back in. Yes, the doors of Ballydung Manor are creaking open once more, as Podge & Rodge treat celebrity guests to some serious bedtime scares with the help of their (considerably) younger cohost, Doireann Garrihy.
The Podge & Rodge Show last aired 10 years ago, but, amazingly, the O’Leprosy brothers look like they haven’t aged a single century since. They’re ready to gross out a new generation of viewers, but is the new generation ready for them? RTÉ is certainly banking on it being so.
Incidentally, guests on this first show are Dancing with the Stars fleetfoot Erin McGregory and Josh "JP" Patterson of Made in Chelsea fame. With music from Le Galaxie.
Mr Mercedes
Monday, RTÉ 2, 9.30pm
Brendan Gleeson returns as retired detective Bill Hodges, in the series based on the crime trilogy by Stephen King. The first focused on the cat-and-mouse game between Hodges and the psychopath known as Mr Mercedes, and Gleeson was commanding in the role the complex, larger-than-life copper. This second series is based on the second book in the trilogy, Finders Keepers, and sees Hodges drawn into the weird inner world of the Great American Author as he investigates the cold-case murder of a famous writer and recluse 40 years previously. King apparently based theauthor character on Philip Roth, John Updike and JD Salinger, and he did the writer-meets-psycho thing very well in Misery, so let’s see where this one goes.
Only Connect
Monday, BBC2, 8pm
Victoria Coren Mitchell returns with another run of the engaging quiz. There have been 13 winning teams since the series began a decade ago, from the Crossworders to the most recent victors, the Escapologists. In the first match, a side from Lancashire take on three pop music aficionados, with one set of clues consisting of “Beethoven’s 7th, Centre of gravity, 3rd of November, and Very beginning”. As the Hotpots take on the Poptimists, prepare to be amazed as some often baffling connections are made. It should be a brain-expanding journey as squads are whittled down to the final two.
A Woman Captured: Storyville
Monday, BBC4, 10pm
Marish, a 53-year-old Hungarian woman, has been kept as an unpaid domestic slave for 10 years by a family in her native country. She has been separated from her family and friends as well as her possessions and dignity by a woman called Eta (who is heard off-screen). If there’s too much sugar in her coffee, it can have repercussions for Marish, who has also been forced to take out loans on behalf of Eta’s family. What’s remarkable in this powerful documentary is the fact that Bernadett Tuza-Ritter spent two years filming Marish’s plight before the harrowing story reaches its conclusion.
Prime Time – The Presidential Debate
Tuesday, RTE One, 9.35pm
With the election looming on Friday, all six candidates - Peter Casey, Gavin Duffy, Joan Freeman, Sean Gallagher, current President Michael D Higgins and Liadh Ní Riada, - are expected in the studio for the final TV debate to try to persuade voters they are the best person for the job. However, Casey said on Friday he was going to “think carefully about whether to continue” in the race after he was sharply criticised for his comments about Travellers in recent days. David McCullough will be on hand to make sure everything is above board.
Imagine — Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw the Line?
Tuesday, BBC1, 12.10am
British artist Tracey Emin, who turned her unmade bed into a work of art, is busier than ever. Large-scale commissions have taken her from London’s St Pancras station to the streets of downtown Sydney, and there have also been exhibitions in Hong Kong and Brussels. Following the death of her mother two years ago, Emin has decided to convert a derelict Margate print works into a new studio where she can live and create. For the past 12 months, cameras have followed her progress around the world and on home turf. She talks to Alan Yentob about her life, from her troubled early years in Margate to a series of breakthroughs in the 1990s as a leading light of the Young British Artists.
Martin Lewis: 10 Things Your Kids Should Know
Tuesday, UTV, 9pm
In this one-off special, the renowned money expert reveals what he believes every family should do to secure their children’s financial futures, offering handy tips and advice for those concerned about their state of affairs. The film also explores some of the secrets of Martin’s own success to give a picture of how he came to prominence in his field and made his fame and fortune, and looks back at his childhood and how the tragic death of his mother helped shape his life.
Trevor McDonald and the Killer Nurse
Wednesday, UTV, 9pm
In 1991, 22-year-old nurse Beverly Allitt murdered four children in her care and attacked nine more at Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire. Here, Trevor McDonald re-examines the case 25 years after he reported on her conviction. He is given access to the original police interviews with Allitt, and tracks down several of her surviving victims. They include Bradley Gibson, who was five years old when Allitt tried to kill him. Now 32, he describes how his heart stopped beating for 32 minutes, long after many doctors would have given him up as dead. The veteran newsman also meets former det supt Stuart Clifton, the man who caught Allitt, and hears the story of an investigation against the odds.
Ear to the Ground
Thursday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm
The agri-magazine show returns for its 26th series, and once again Ella McSweeney, Helen Carroll and Darragh McCullough will traverse the country and get the lowdown on what’s happening in farms and agri-businesses across the land. The series begins with a look at the aftermath of the driest summer in years, as farmers coped with burnt crops and ongoing water shortages. The team also meets a couple who keep alpaca and beef farmers trying to survive in an increasingly under-pressure sector.
Berlin Station
Thursday, More4, 9pm
The acclaimed crime series set in the German capital returns for a second crack of the whip, with Richard Armitage as American CIA operative Daniel Miller, sent to the CIA’s Berlin office to help bring down terrorists, international criminals, corrupt politicians and people who haven’t paid their TV licence (not sure about that last one). In the first series, Miller was tasked with tracking down a mole who was leaking top-secret information. In series two, the operatives of Berlin Station must infiltrate a far-right group planning a major atrocity on election day. A starry supporting cast includes Rhys Ifans, Richard Jenkins Michelle Forbes and Ashley Judd.
100 Days to Victory
Thursday, BBC2, 8pm
A century after the close of the first World War, this two-part docu-drama reconstructs the final months of battle, revealing how the Allied forces eventually seized victory. The Germans had launched an attack, advancing more than 60km in only three days. Blocking their path were British, French, Australian and Canadian forces, whose leaders decided the only way to achieve success was by the effective co-ordination of artillery, tanks, aircraft and infantry. Modern warfare had begun.
David Bowie at Glastonbury 2000
Friday, BBC4, 10.55pm
On Sunday, June 25, 2000, David Bowie closed Glastonbury with a two-hour performance. It was his first appearance at the festival since 1971, and should have been screened in all its glory. However, only some 30 minutes of the set was broadcast on the BBC that night at the star’s insistence. Thankfully cameras kept rolling and captured the whole performance for posterity. This programme features an hour of highlights, including such previously un-broadcast hits as Ashes to Ashes, Starman and Let’s Dance. A glorious reminder of one of the most unique and sorely missed talents in showbusiness.
The Graham Norton Show
Friday, BBC1, 11.05pm
The host welcomes Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law, who talk about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the latest Harry Potter prequel, which is released on November 16. Joining them on the sofa are Melissa McCarthy, promoting upcoming comedy-drama Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Oscar winner Emma Stone and singer Rick Astley, who also performs his latest single Try.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/13-of-the-best-tv-shows-to-watch-this-week-1.3667857Zitat:
This week’s best home entertainment: from Sally4Ever to Berlin Station
Julia Davis is back and as dark as ever in her new HBO-backed comedy, while it’s off to Berlin for More4’s spy drama
Fri 19 Oct 2018 11.59 BST
Last modified on Sat 20 Oct 2018 04.21 BST
Sally4Ever
The triumphantly grotesque return of Julia Davis, now backed – slightly bizarrely – by HBO. This co-production between the US network and Sky is a Basic Instinct-tinged tale of an affair between a wife-to-be and a mysterious musician, featuring defiantly off-colour gags, a decidedly post-watershed sexathon and some very odd jokes about eggs. Plus Julian Barratt!
Thursday 25 October, 10pm, Sky Atlantic
Luisa Omielan: Politics for Bitches
The What Would Beyoncé Do?! comic embarks on a mission to explain the baffling world of British politics to young people, along the way encountering NHS workers, young entrepreneurs and Tory MP/hateful slug Philip Davies.
From Sunday 21 October, BBC Three
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka replaces Melissa Joan Hart for a follow-up to 90s kids’ comedy Sabrina the Teenage Witch that’s likely to surprise anyone looking for cute talking cats and gentle comedy. Instead, expect gore, satanism and social commentary in a smart, deeply dark series that will chime well with those who loved the YA thrills of Riverdale.
From Friday 26 October, Netflix
The Mash Report
Probably the closest thing the UK has to a Daily Show/Last Week Tonight, the Nish Kumar-fronted topical comedy show returns for a new series of satirical snarking. Perfect timing, just as the US gears up for the midterms and Brexit reaches its frothing, farcical climax (Lord help us all).
Friday 26 October, 10pm, BBC Two
The Bi Life
Hot on the heels of Desiree Akhavan’s sitcom The Bisexual comes another take on modern sexual mores. Drag queen Courtney Act presents a dating show for those who fall under the heading of bisexual+ (ie bi, pansexual and fluid). That detail aside, it looks set to follow the usual reality formats, with contestants decamping to a villa in Barcelona for pool parties, speed dating and a masked ball. Call it Multi-Love Island.
Thursday 25 October, 9pm, E!
My Dinner With Hervé
Game of Thrones’s Peter Dinklage stars in this lively and lightly fictionalised account of a journalist’s gonzo encounter with former Bond bad guy Hervé “The plane, the plane” Villechaize, shortly before the latter’s 1993 death.
Monday 22 October, 9pm, Sky Atlantic
The Horror of Dolores Roach
Another week, another dramatic podcast. This one is worth your while, though. Made by podcast giant Gimlet Media, it stars Daphne Rubin-Vega (Smash) and Bobby Cannavale (The Sopranos, Vinyl) in a Halloween-apposite tale of murder and betrayal in subterranean Manhattan.
Podcast
Berlin Station
One of two German-set dramas this week (the other being 54 Hours: The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis), this spy thriller stars Brit actor Richard Armitage as an officer transplanted to Berlin to uncover a leaker at the CIA office there. Those looking to commit long-term will be pleased to hear that it’s already up to season three in the US.
Thursday 25 October, 9pm, More4
Cool Hand Luke
Paul Newman was the blue-eyed boy of Hollywood when he starred in Stuart Rosenberg’s gritty 1967 drama about convict Luke Jackson, who maintains inner freedom despite the brutalities of a deep-south chain gang. In the style of the old Warner Bros melodramas, the action is lightened by humour, as in the movie’s much-celebrated boiled egg-eating contest.
Saturday 20 October, 6.25pm, TCM
Stand Up to Cancer 2018
A week of charity telly culminates in this live all-nighter, hosted by Adam Hills, Alan Carr and Radio 1’s Maya Jama. Expect sketches from the Muppets, celebrity specials of Bake Off and Gogglebox, and – loaned from US network TV – James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke featuring Michael Bublé. All that plus the chilling prospect of a Made in Chelsea charity single.
Friday 26 October, 7pm, Channel 4
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/19/this-weeks-best-home-entertainment-from-sally4ever-to-berlin-station