Film & TV Archives – The Writer Muses

Poldark

Colin Parton — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 10:58:57 +0000

Poldark - Debbie Horsfield

Season Two

This series becomes silly in the second season. Ross and Demelza falling out of love with each other is a ridiculous turn of events.

They were head over heels in love last season, and we are to believe they are just casting that aside?

As usual, Ross is a hothead.

What on earth could have possessed him to sleep with his ex-flame? It is beyond dumb. The death of Francis is heartbreaking, but it also felt silly because it was totally avoidable.

The whole mine saga, money saga, and contraband saga just make Ross look like an idiot because of his wife’s position – AND she is right!

The Doctor and the Heiress was the only redeeming quality this season, and that was not enough.

This is where Poldark and I part ways. Disappointing, as the first season had such promise.

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The Witcher

Colin Parton — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 01:22:57 +0000

The Witcher - Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

Season Four

Liam Hemsworth (The Dressmaker & Workaholics) is a bit jarring as the new Geralt after Henry Cavill’s (Mission Impossible: Fallout & Zack Snyder’s Justice League) departure. The a bigger shock than it would have been otherwise because Geralt is nursing an injury.

If Liam had been able to enter with all the cool tricks and excellent combat that Henry did, I do not think it would have been such a shock.

The monsters remained excellent. They were fantastic this season. Really scary and varied. The dramatic irony of the fake princess Cerillia was getting old. I am glad they finished that off.

The mages were really disappointing this season. They just felt a bit meh, which is really surprising because this was their chance to shine. Now that they are down they have to fight.

Cerilia’s, Freya Allan (Into the Badlands & Kingdom of Planet of the Apes), side quest with the rats was underwhelming as well.

It was good to see normal people in this world because that is something that is generally missing from the series.

The fight where Geralt saves the girl from being raped in the barn is one of the best choreographed fight scenes in the entire series—a joy to behold.

Cahir, Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks & The Pacific), felt really strange in this season. He moves from and excellent proxy of the big bad to joining the good guys. The transition is too quick.

Another section that felt very off for me was Milva’s pregnancy and planned abortion. Unsure where this came from, but it was very poorly handled.

Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix & John Wick: Chapter 2) is great as the vampire. He brings nuance to a role that could very easily have been two-dimensional.

The interplay between him and Geralt is brilliant.

So there are lots of issues with the series and things that were not handled well. Having said that, I still think it is an 8/10, so the rest of it is rip-roaring fun.

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Derry Girls

Colin Parton — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 10:47:00 +0000

Derry Girls - Lisa McGee

Season One

This small town sit-com focus on the small-town things that take up the lives of these girls and their families. It was a very rough start, with a lot of the jokes just missing the mark.

The characters were all hot and cold as well. But both the story and the characters grew on me.

It really felt that they were feeling their way a little bit at the start of the season.

The characters were a bit inconsistent, but this was all sorted out by the end of the season. One of the girls’ male cousins is sent to the girls’ school because they’re afraid the boys will kill him because he’s English.

He doesn’t really get a look in apart from being the but of jokes, which is sad because they could have done a lot more with this character.

All of their parents are just as mental as they are. So totally bizarre. One of my favourites is the main girl’s dad, Gerry, Tommy Tiernan (Wolfwalkers & Hardy Bucks). He is a timid fella, but you quickly realise that he might be one of the few with their head screwed on.

The issue is that everyone around him is so much more headstrong than him. To drive this home, Gerry’s wife’s dad lives with them, and the father-in-law is always saying how hopeless Gerry is.

It also doesn’t matter if Gerry agrees with what they are saying. They will still act as if they aren’t.

I’m going to give the second season a go. They need to define the characters better for this to have legs beyond that.

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Dracula

Colin Parton — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:55:32 +0000

Dracula - Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat

The mini-series takes us to new places, yet remains true, at least in its form, to the original story. We are told the tale through interviews that have a distinctly similar feeling to the original letters.

We get one character’s telling of the tale, which is then taken up by another character’s telling of the tale in the future. It is a beautiful way to tell this story.

The beginning of the series is almost beat-for-beat identical to the novel. Then small details begin to diverge until we are in an entirely unknown place altogether.

Harker, John Heffernan (Luther & Eye In The Sky), survives at the end of this story to tell the tale to the nun in the convent, until we realise that he didn’t survive. He is undead and he doesn’t realise it.

The bridge between the undead and vampires explored in this series is very interesting. Most of Dracula’s, Claes Bang (The Bridge & Borgen), victims simply die.

Some survive as undead; others become full vampires. When I first saw this, I thought that we were seeing a fatal flaw that had appeared in other vampire stories in the past.

In these stories, any person who is bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire. This makes no sense unless the original vampire hardly ever feeds. Otherwise, the entire world would be overrun by vampires very quickly.

This stepped approach makes complete sense within the narrative and allows for the whole John Harker narrative to play out as brilliantly as it does.

Another fantastic plot mechanic is ‘Blood is Lives’. Everyone who hears this doesn’t quite grasp its full meaning until Dracula explains it.

It is pretty literal. As Dracula drinks the blood of a victim, he can see their life and learn their languages. He takes their knowledge and skills. Fantastic stuff.

What better way to manipulate someone than actually to know everything that they have ever done?

The characters are great and well-rounded throughout. The new additions work well, even if they are a little jarring to begin with.

Sister Agatha Van-Helsing, Dolly Wells (The I.T. Crowd & Peep Show), is a great example of one of these. She is the vessel that allows Harker to tell his story.

She carries with her the knowledge of her family bloodline. A bloodline that Dracula is keen to get his hands on so that he can learn more about himself.

The major plot lines continue, including the journey to England. But that is where the similarity ends.

The boat is sunk, and then we skip forward into the future – present day. I did not see that coming. This was a great move, and I really enjoyed it… for a bit.

There were some great aha moments, such as the reveal that the Van-Helsing bloodline continued and was watching over where Dracula had lain at the bottom of the channel all these years.

The bigger issue was that so few of the characters were likeable or interesting.

The end was a bit meh. Very average. Nothing interesting or new. But I guess the question arrises: with such a massive tale, how do you end it well?

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The Sandman

Colin Parton — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:37:44 +0000

The Sandman - Neil Gaiman & David S. Goyer & Allan Heinberg

Season One

The capture of Dream in the opening of this sets the tone and weirdness of this series perfectly. The passing of time as a backdrop to the opening is great and vital for us to understand the world and the rest of the plots we are about to encounter.

I love the interesting ideas that this series integrates. What if there were a collection of eternal beings that ruled over the realms relating to abstracts of existence?

“The Endless” is such an interesting idea. What would the Lord of Desire be like?

The cast is brilliant. With Tom Sturridge (Being Julia & The Hollow Crown) as Dream and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Barry & Hacks) as Death, what more can we want? They deliver stand-out performances, capturing something unnerving about the bizarre entities they are playing.

When Dream returns to his realm after his long capture, his realm is in ruin. He begins searching for missing dreams and nightmares (personifications).

This sets up some great through plots and characters that we will return to again and again throughout the series.

The narative tied to the big three dreams and nightmares is great. Their stories are touched on and we return to them again and again as other stories unfold. Just great stuff.

The meta plot instigated by Desire, Mason Alexander Park (Cowboy Bebop & Not In My Backyard), is such a neatly tied package. It is tight and believable – beautiful to watch.

The casting of Lucifer, Gwendoline Christie (Wednesday & Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens), couldn’t be more perfect. She embodies Lucifer Morningstar to a T, and we feel the true weight of the crown of hell that sits on her brow.

I binged the first season – so very much looking forward to the next. Love This!

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My Hero Academia

Colin Parton — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:00:56 +0000

My Hero Academia - Kôhei Horikoshi

Season Four

Everything changes for the heroes this season. All Might’s retirement signals a new age for the villains and heroes alike.

The students on their probationary hero licenses now have the responsibility to participate in hero activities. As the students step into their new role, the world is more threatening than it has been for many years.

A new villain emerges for this season – Overhaul – leader of the Yakuza.

The Yakuza form a tenuous alliance with the League of Villains. In another big development, we learn of a power that can remove quirks.

Overhaul has a captive girl who can take a person or object back in time – essentially erasing the development of their quirk. It doesn’t change their age or anything, so not really sure how that works.

The problem is that she cannot control her ability, so Overhaul is using her blood to temporarily remove quirks and also boost quirks as well. Towards the end of the season, we learn that Overhaul has been able to refine a few blood bullets to by ppermenant quirk removal.

This makes the boss fight extra scary. We also get the introduction of the big 3. UA’s top three students, Lemillion, Sun Eater and Wave Motion.

The entire end of this season is the probationary heroes, teachers and the big three, along with some of the pros trying to take down the Yakuza. This is epic in every sense of the word.

One of the pros was All Might’s partner. He can see into a person’s future, and he saw All Might’s death.

This has been an underlying plot point. So, in the end, when we see his vision of Izuka’s death, we are certain this is the end.

But through the girl’s power uniting with his, not only does he evade death, but he rewrites the future. And we get to see All For One at 100% for the first time.

This show keeps getting better, and this is by far the best season yet! I can’t wait for what Season 5 brings!

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Born Yesterday

Colin Parton — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 01:40:32 +0000

Born Yesterday - George Cukor

Such a simple plot and executed so well. This would be 10/10 apart from a few personal issues.

Harry, Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol & Rawhide), is a bigshot junker who has come to Washington with his girl. He is here to pay off congressmen to get a bill passed to protect his business.

That’s the situation. The problem is that his girl, Billie, Judy Holliday (The Solid Gold Cadillac & Adam’s Rib), is as dumb as a post. This causes lots of problems early on as they meet with senators and their families.

There is a journalist who is onto Harry’s case, and Harry hires him to teach Billie not to be so dumb. The thing is, Billie likes being dumb.

She isn’t really dumb; she just knows what she likes. There is this awesome scene where Harry and she are playing Gin Rummy.

He is giving her a talking to that she had better smarten up, as she silently destroys him at the game. She realises that she had better learn something if she wants her high-flying life to continue.

The journo, Paul, William Holden (The Network & The Bridge Over the River Kwai), returns. She is interested, and they kiss. She is really excited about everything she is learning.

She starts reading Paul’s articles. Her response to one of them is: “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever read, but I didn’t understand a word of it.”

As she learns things, she learns more about her rights and how bad Harry is, not just to her.

They get into a big fight, which is a beautiful scene. This is because, as they go at it, they have to pause every few lines as a maid crosses back and forth through the room while cleaning.

Harry begins to glimpse what he has created, and there is an awful scene where he beats her.

She gets her own back. She and Paul get the files that prove his wrongdoing. She has begun to understand the paperwork that she has been forced to sign.

It all comes together in a big final scene, which is just fantastic. They win, and the awful Harry is ruined.

The dialogue in this film is just incredible. The script could be from today. My only gripe is that Billie’s voice is just awful, and as the main character, we hear a lot of it.

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Beasts Of No Nation

Colin Parton — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 05:57:15 +0000

Beasts Of No Nation - Cary Joji Fukunaga

Beasts of No Nation has some major structural flaws, but it is still a fantastic film. We follow Agu, Abraham Attah (Spider-Man: Homecoming & Tasmanian Devil), as he is forced from a contented childhood into the life of a child-soldier.

Once he becomes a soldier, his story is intertwined with that of his Commandant, Idris Elba (The Wire & Luther). These dual storylines are what cause the biggest problem for the film.

Agu is our hero, but there is no crisis for his storyline.

While his fate is tied to the Commandant’s, the crisis faced by their leader is not faced by Agu. Agu has no agency at this part of the film. The downbeat in the film is entirely the Commandant’s.

The setup at the start of the film gives you no idea of what is coming. We get to meet all his family and learn a little about their trials and goals.

While all of the opening scenes feel like separate glimpses of life, we learn that they are all interconnected.

The film captures these kids’ childhoods so well at the start. We get to see this again after the first combat action is over. Agu has just been forced to commit atrocities.

But life resumes, they are kids, and they return to playing. They have to hunt for their food.

This juxtaposition of utter mundanity and brutal atrocity is something else to watch.

There is a terrible section where we begin to suspect, but are not sure, that the Commandant is molesting one of the children. Then Agu is selected.

It is a great choice by the filmmakers not to show this scene. We get to see the impact that it has on Agu, which is heartbreaking.

We are also left guessing, but not really – something happened in there that seriously messed him up, and what else could it be after all that he has seen.

Agu has an internal monologue throughout the film, and it is excellent. We gain insight into what he is thinking as terror surrounds him.

One of the most powerful of these is after they take a town and his comrades are raping a lady, he thinks: God, do you see what we are doing?

A close second is after they have surrendered to the UN, and a councillor is trying to get him to talk. The whole internal speech here is on another level – it is one of the best things ever put to film.

At the end of it, he stares blankly into the lady’s face and thinks: I have been to war, and she doesn’t know what war is.

The speed at which the opening develops is great. Agu’s friendship with one of the other kids is touching.

There are some crazy hallucinations where they get him high as they go into battle. The pathetic downfall of Commandant at the end is a stark contrast to the power he had at the beginning. Overall, it’s a great film.

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A Prophet

Colin Parton — Sun, 10 May 2026 10:42:06 +0000

A Prophet - Jacques Audiard

This prison drama follows Malik, Tahar Rahim (Batman Unburied & Bref), after his incarceration. The prison scenes are hauntingly real.

Everything that happens in the jail is just so believable – not that I have any metric to judge the reality of the situation on.

We follow Malik as he tries to learn the ropes. He becomes vital to a powerful group in the prison.

He uses this to his advantage, not becoming one of them but using his position to push for more. He ends up with his fingers in every pie in the jail as a powerful tale of betrayal unfolds.

Malik is forced to kill a man early on, and he follows Malik around throughout the film. Malik is haunted, but the man is also real to him; he talks to him.

The reality of the haunting is so terrifying because of how mundane it is. It really reminded me a lot of the very similar dream Riley has in Midnight Mass of his car crash victim.

Another big draw card for me was how the plot progresses so rapidly. All the ins and outs of what is about to happen are laid out for Malik and for us.

So we know what should happen in the coming scene – or at least what Malik’s goals are. But he might do something completely different, and we get to see why as it happens

This is just great storytelling. I’ve never seen it pulled off so well. It reminds me a lot of Guy Ritchie’s early work, but in those films, you still aren’t in on it in the same way you are here.

The story is really grounded in the reality that they are all in prison, whoever they are. A big win for Malik is getting a CD player and a conjugal visit from a prostitute.

There is a filmic device used to represent either Malik’s poor eyesight or his visions.

The lens telescopes in, and we are left with blurry vision surrounded by darkness. As far as I can remember, this only happens twice during the film.

One of these occurrences is confirmed as a vision as we see it play out, and it is how he gets his nickname.

The other just looks like he has bad eyesight. I found this really confusing, so I’m glad that it was only used twice.

I would recommend this film for anyone who loves being in the know about what is coming next in a film, but is equally happy to have their expectations met unexpectedly.

It’s also worth a watch if you want to see the most real jail life I have seen.

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The Lincoln Lawyer

Colin Parton — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:05:32 +0000

The Lincoln Lawyer - Ted Humphrey & David E. Kelley

Season One

I was immediately hooked on this show. The characters are great, and the lead is likable and interesting.

It is an interesting start to a series with our lead, Mickey Haller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Widows & Murder on the Orient Express), being handed the keys to a law firm after the owner is murdered.

This setup allows for a meta-plot: the big murder trial with Trevor. As well as many smaller cases scattered throughout.

The smaller cases allow us to meet the rest of the cast as well as inform the wider plot. It is a great backdrop for a series to work around.

Having his ex-wives as key characters in the series is great, as through them we see different aspects of his personality that we wouldn’t otherwise see.

The main plot line plays with an interesting concept: you hate the accused, but they have set it up to make it look like he is innocent. There is a further big bad beyond that, the head judge of the courts pulling the strings, which is really scary.

The way all the cases weave and intertwine in the story is what makes this series superb. The characters are fun to watch in action. It’s an easy and fun watch.

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