Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

The Mentalist – Season 4 (DVD)

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The end of The Mentalist – Season 3 was certainly dramatic, with CBI (California Bureau of Investigation) consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) gunning down a man in a shopping mall. The ‘victim’ claimed to be Red John, the serial killer who slaughtered Jane’s wife and child.

For pretty much every other person on the planet, shooting someone to death in cold blood would be the end of their law enforcement career, but this is TV, so former ‘psychic’ Patrick quickly gets out of this sticky situation and is back to solving crimes using his unique brand of mental manipulation. Not only that, but he doesn’t believe the man he killed was really Red John, ensuring that Jane still has his single-minded pursuit of the killer to drive him. [Read more…]

Hart Of Dixie – Season 1 (DVD)

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Most American TV is focussed on the urban middle-classes in major metropolitan areas, but every so often they remember that dotted in between the big cities are tens of thousands of smaller settlements, and that maybe they’d like something aimed at them (and so might city sophisticates who like the idea of small town charm). That’s where Hart Of Dixie fits on the spectrum, a show you’d be forgiven for never having heard of, as in the UK its first series was tucked away on the TV channel Really.

Now it’s coming to DVD, so you can catch up if it sounds like the sort of thing you’d like. If you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls, for example (the tone of which Hart Of Dixie often seems to borrow from liberally), this should be right up your street. [Read more…]

Bones – Season 7 (Blu-ray)

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While a normal US TV season lasts between 22 and 24 episodes, we only get 13 instalments of Bones – Season 7. The reason is that Emily Deschanel rudely decided to have a baby. While her being up the duff was written into the show, she gave birth partway through the season’s shooting schedule, and by the time she returned there was only time to make 13 episodes. It just goes to show how important she is to the series, as normally pregnant women getting written out of a show for a few episodes when it’s time to drop the sprog, but here things had to stop to make way for the appearance of Deschanel junior. [Read more…]

Modern Family – Season 3 (Blu-ray)

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Before Modern Family came along, a lot of TV pundits were all ready to pronounce the death of the US sitcom. Then the series came along, became a darling of the critics and found huge audiences too. It’s managed to keep up the quality through its first three seasons, so that just a few days ago it picked up five Emmys.

It’s a great show, where strong writing and good direction come together with one of the best casts ever assembled for a television show. The acting really is top notch (it’s notable that when Julie Bowen and Eric Stonestreet won their Emmys for the show, they had to beat out four of their castmates, who were nominated in the same categories) and it’s not just the adults, as the kids are all great too. Much of the time with sitcoms, you’re sort of having to forgive the younger cast members their lack of comic skill, but here they’re all great – even four-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who plays Lily, has her moments. [Read more…]

Casanova ’73 (DVD)

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Casanova ’73 is a bit of a footnote in British comedy history. It only ran for seven episodes, but managed to get Mary Whitehouse in a tizzy with its risqué bedroom farce antics, and caused the BBC to get cold feet partway through its run and move it from mid-evening to a late night slot. As a result, Mastermind got Casanova’s primetime slot and became a surprise hit.

Written by Galton and Simpson, of Hancock and Steptoe & Son fame, the series sees Leslie Phillips as Henry Newhouse, a married man in his mid-40s who spends most of his life philandering. In each episode his wayward ways cause some sort of trouble, whether it’s trying to keep his wife from finding a series of letters from an overeager one night stand to having to hide in a closet from a strapping husband who came home early. [Read more…]

My Babysitter’s A Vampire – Series 1 (DVD)

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When I reviewed My Babysitter’s A Vampire – The Movie earlier this year, I was surprised by how much fun it was. However, I didn’t think much of the first episode of the regular series that was included on the disc. Now the whole first series of the supernatural family comedy is here and thankfully it turns out that first episode was a slight aberration as the rest of it is a lot of more fun and goes back to the smart wit and family entertainment of the film.

While the movie deals with the origins of the characters, the series dives right in with teen nerd Ethan dealing with the visions he often has when he touches someone, his friend Benny trying to do magic but screwing it up, and the titular babysitter, Sarah, who has her own problem’s as she’s a fledgling vampire. Between them they have to deal with all manner of supernatural shenanigans that befall their small town, from blood donor nurses who are actually vampires to a ghost who wants to force Ethan to be a wrestler. [Read more…]

Covert Affairs – Season 2 (DVD)

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The most implausible but entertaining spy show on TV hits DVD once more with its second season release. When we left newbie spy Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) at the end of Season 1, the lover who’d abandoned her and then suddenly reappeared in her life, Ben (Eoin Bailey), had been shot and they were trying to escape on a helicopter. Once the fallout of that is dealt with (and Ben’s disappeared again), it’s on to 16 more episodes of silly but fun CIA shenanigans. At least I desperately hope it’s silly, as if the CIA is really like this, it’s a miracle we’re not being blown up by terrorists every day. [Read more…]

Alphas – Season 1 (DVD)

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If you’ve ever watched a SyFy original movie, you might expect any TV show made for them would be cheap, dumb and rather cheesy. However the series that they’ve premiered in the US are a lot better than their films, with the likes of A Town Called Eureka, Sanctuary and Warehouse 13 all welcome additions to the sci-fi landscape – and Alphas certainly adds to that. In Alphas, X-Files meets The Avengers meets the police procedural with Davis Strathairn as Dr. Lee Rosen, a man who’s spent his life researching the titular Alphas.

These are people whose brains have evolved beyond those of normal people, giving them incredible abilities. Dr. Rosen has brought together a team of these superpowered folks to investigate and get to the bottom of cases involving other Alphas. It’s a task complicated by the fact the government and other federal agencies are suspicious of the Alphas and want to keep them secret, while many of those with incredible power believe in a more violent way (whether deliberate or accidental) of dealing with their problems. [Read more…]

Maison Close – Series 1 (Blu-ray)

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What is it with the French and prostitution? Ever since the 19th Century (and perhaps before) Gallic art has had an odd preoccupation with ladies of the night, from Manet’s painting Olympia and Emile Zola’s novel Nana, through movies like Belle de Jour. And just in the last year there’s been the Juliette Binoche starrer Elles, as well as House Of Tolerance, which is set in a similar milieu as the TV series Maison Close.

The series charts the lives of the workers and owners in an upscale Parisian bordello called ‘Paradise’ in the 1870s. Over the eight episodes the lives, desires and tribulations of the women are uncovered. Some feel utterly trapped and degraded by the lives they’re pretty much forced to live (if they don’t please the men they risk being sold to a cheap flophouse), while others seem happier with the money and sense of empowerment they have in a male dominated society. [Read more…]

The Shakespeare Collection (DVD)

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Once Upon A Time ITV didn’t just produce The Only Way Is Essex and The Only Way Is Downton Abbey, they also made adaptations of Shakespeare (or at least Thames Television did). This box set collects four of them together – King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night – all shot in the 70s and 80s. Some are actually filmed stagings of theatrical productions of the plays, so for example, Twelfth Night is Kenneth Branagh’s 1987 version from his Renaissance Theatre Company, while Macbeth is the 1979 RSC take starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. [Read more…]