POTTER SPIN-OFF A MUST SEE FOR ROWLING NUTS
Given the nature of how we do things at the end of each year, I usually end up with a bit of downtime spanning from just before Christmas to the first few days of the new year, which is good for catching up on video games, TV shows and movies I missed. Once I used the time to watch the Harry Potter movies I hadn’t seen. I’m not the biggest fan. I haven’t read the books and don’t ever intend to, but I’d seen enough of the movies to want to know how it all ended.
As such, I didn’t know that author JK Rowling had begun a new series set in the Harry Potter universe, and that the first movie is already out. It’s called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and you can catch it on M-Net, channel 101, tonight at 8:05pm. This spin-off series is set in the 1920s, roughly 70 years before the start of the Harry Potter series.
A British wizard named Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, arrives in New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures — which he almost immediately loses track of, causing the beasts to scatter all over the city, posing a serious risk of revealing the existence of magic to the general populace. It doesn’t help that there is a group already on a witchhunt to prove the existence of magic users in their midst. Newt has to sort this out ASAP if he wants to keep his life, because the magic authorities in the US aren’t happy about this incident, and they aren’t the forgiving type.
From what I’ve seen, it seems the usual Rowling fare, featuring a villain with quaint fairytale name, Gellert Grindewald, and creatures with names such as nifflers, obscurus and thunderbirds. It also has a goblin gangster called Gnarlack, played by Ron Perlman. Hmmm. I think I have to see it now.
● The sequel will be coming to the big screen soon.
VIKINGS AND POM KINGS
There are also new shows on M-Net, channel 101, starting with one that registers on my radar, Vikings season five, Monday at 10.05pm. I haven’t yet caught up with the last half of season four — but I do already know that Ragnar met a grisly end and his sons have sworn revenge on the English kings who did the deed. It sounds like it has much less of a linear focus than in previous seasons, and now several story arcs are going on at once: Ragnar’s sons are fighting the English and forming alliances against Lagertha, Bjorn is exploring Africa, Floki is trying to start a new colony and Rollo will presumably have to make it up to his Frankish wife for heading out on a Viking raid when he had supposedly changed his ways.
AN ACCIDENTAL S.W.A.T.
You can catch the first episode of S.W.A.T. on Thursday at 8pm. It’s a bit early to say whether the show will get a second season, and what little info the relevant websites have been able to rake in so far point to an average reception, but it looks promising.
The trailer sets up the premise nicely. LAPD SWAT leader William Spivey (Louis Ferreira) accidentally shoots an unarmed black teenager in a chaotic gunfight. Oh dear. Accident or not, that’s not going to go over well, and though he's genuinely mortified and the kid survives, he accepts he has to be let go for political reasons. The mantle of leader is passed to the main character, Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson (Shemar Moore), a former gang member who saw the error of his ways, went back to school and became a police officer. The only problem is, Hondo has to deal with a huge amount of distrust of the police and this latest incident hasn’t helped. It looks pretty high budget with flashy action scenes and a bit of political intrigue. Could be interesting to see if it does well enough to get another season.
● Frasier
Years before Dr Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammar) was giving psychiatric advice over the radio in Seattle, he lived out in the Midwest and frequented the bar in the TV series Cheers.
Angel
The titular character, played by David Boreanaz, was originally a villain in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, but was given his own series which ran for quite a long time.
Better Call Saul
A prequel series following the early career of the dodgy lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) from Breaking Bad.
Machete
This grindhouse-style action schlock film stars Danny Trejo as a terse badass, but the most interesting thing about it is its origins. It's a spin-off – but not the usual kind. In the Robert Rodriguez zombie B movie Planet Terror, a fictional trailer is shown, which eventually became this real movie. Oh man! If this could happen, why couldn't we get Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet from the fictional trailer in Last Action Hero? Or the film Satan’s Alley from the fictional trailer at the start of Tropic Thunder?
Fear the Walking Dead
The prequel is a common form for a spinoff to take, and there is some argument about whether or not a direct prequel really constitutes a spin-off, as the term seems to imply a new direction – but there’s no time for that! Zombies are coming ... in this prequel to the Walking Dead TV series showing us how things were while humanity was still getting it through their thick skulls that zombies were actually real.
Melrose Place
After the eventual conclusion of Beverly Hills 90210, something would have been needed to fill that beloved slot – so why not a continuation of the story, less high school and college and more young adult life?
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L