Ron Howard Talks Arrested Development Season 5

While walking the red carpet in London to promote new National Geographic drama series Genius Ron Howard spoke about the comedy genius of Arrested development and confirmed the status of the fan favourite show. Howard who both narrates and co-stars in the series confirmed that the current plan remains for a 5th season to return to Netflix, as opposed to pursuing the long promised big screen version.

Howard confirms that show creator Mitch Hurwitz has a brilliant concept for the new episodes which would ideally see the entire cast return. Although Howard admits the growing stardom of the cast makes arrangements difficult he interestingly confirms that the plan is to have the fifth season return to the original show format of having the ensemble cast film together.

The fourth season which marked the shows much anticipated return was shot out of necessity with members of the cast largely working separately on episodes which primarily focused on individual characters. This allowed the show to be filmed more flexibly around the casts’s limited availability but was met with largely disappointed reaction form fans. Indeed the entire ensemble cast actually only really featured together in one scene during the fourth season, with editing done to loosely stitch the various strands of the story together after the fact

While as always Howard stops short of outright confirming that the fifth season will begin filming any time soon, at least fans can be confident that the production plans are still progressing and that should the series return it will hopefully be in a more complete format.

For now check out the video below and try not to shout out too many of your favourite Tobias quotes while you watch…

MTV Movie & TV Awards Goes Gender Neutral

MTV has officially scrapped the male and female categories for their forthcoming Movie and TV Awards ceremony due to be held in LA in May. The move follows recent debate surrounding the Emmys and the news that Billions star Asia Kate Dillon had been asked to choose whether to be considered for best actor or best actress. Although born female the Billions star does not  now choose to identify as either male or female.

Although high profile ceremony’s like the Oscars and BAFTAs still have clear splits for male and female categories other ceremonies such as the Grammys and National Television Awards don’t have gender specific distinctions.

The move from MTV will likely be greeted by inevitably mixed reactions. Some will welcome the change as a symbolic step in recognizing increasingly flexible social attitudes towards gender labels while others will dismiss the change as unnecessary identity politics being deferred to even further  by a fervently liberal media. Of course many will no doubt also consider it largely irrelevant whether Actors and Actress compete for shared honors or separate categories.

Although MTV’s decision is unlikely to put any direct pressure on the Oscars or BAFTAs to rethink their categories, it will at least further fuel the debate around the increasingly emotive subject.

BAFTA Games Awards 2017 Winners

42nd Street Review

The Plot

In the midst of the great depression an aging diva, an overwhelmed newcomer and a perfectionist director combine forces to stage a spectacular new show Pretty Lady. Together they battle drama both on and offstage to prove that whatever happens, the show really must go on…

The Good

42^Nd Street is yet another welcome revival of a classic musical currently returning to the West End. With an explosion of sequin clad vintage charm and a bursting thunder of percussive tap dancing the show is a fabulously satisfying homage to a spectacular era of traditional musical magic. Glittering production value, an endlessly energetic dancing ensemble and accomplished turns form all principal performers make it a night of must see theatre delights.

Sheena Easton is of course a renowned international pop star and her performance as aging prima donna Dorothy Brock is musically flawless. The depth and range of her impressive voice is surprising even to those familiar with her past musical success. She also clearly relishes the comically mean spirited fun of playing a cliché demanding diva. She commands the stage with her vocal power, at times threatening to justify her run away ego. It’s a delightful turn from a performer clearly cast for her ability not just her household name.

Tom Lister is another commanding presence on stage as the tyrannical director Julian Marsh. His towering physical presence and furious perfectionism is a driving force for the show. He spars well both with Sheena Easton and Claire Halse as young starlet Peggy Sawyer.

Claire Halse is a sparkling young talent who manages to imbue Peggy with all the fresh faced charm and true star quality the role demands. As the show progresses she manages to convincingly map Peggy’s rapid transformation from timid and overwhelmed to an accomplished show stopping performer.  Halse has a pleasing vocal range, comic timing and flawless dance craft that combine to make Peggy the shining star the show demands her to be.

Overall the productions shamelessly lavish and energetic musical dance numbers keep audiences consistently dazzled and delighted. Endless costume changes, bright lights, fast feet, a seemingly never ending line of chorus girl and singing top hats make for a wonderful throwback to a vintage era of musical theatre.

The Bad

Although there is certainly a sizeable audience appetite for traditional musicals, those who prefer more contemporary twists on the genre like Avenue Q or Book Of Mormon may find the vintage charms of 42^nd Street a little safe for their tastes. Admittedly beneath the relentless distraction of energetic dance numbers and costume changes the core story is fairly simple and dramatically tame.

Those that delight in seeking out any hint of political incorrectness might maliciously attempt to manufacture some feminist offense at the way naïve young heroine Peggy Sawyer is variously pursued and bullied by her demanding director and insistent male co-star. But in truth it would be absurd to expect a 1930s set musical homage to ignore the realities of that era and airbrush in modern social agendas.  In any case this aspect of the story is in reality just an honest reflection of the trials and tribulations of show business for fresh faced Broadway dreamers.

The Ugly Truth

With the Duchess of Cambridge watching gleefully from the royal balcony on opening night  42^nd Street  never puts a foot wrong as it produces the kind of toe tapping razzle dazzle spectacle truly fit for a royalty. It’s wonderful that for the mere price of a ticket anyone else can share the same gleeful experience at the Theatre Royal. If you can, you should….

Review by Russell Nelson

City Of Tiny Lights Review

The Plot

A London private detective is paid to search for a missing girl, but his routine case soon escalates into a murky web of murder and international espionage. He also finds faces form his past forcing him to revisit past personal traumas.

The Good

Played out on the permanently rain drenched streets of London’s less glamorous side, City Of Tiny Lights does a fine job of making the very most of stretching a modest budget with some well-crafted film noir cinematography and carefully chosen locations.  The film manages to adeptly  homage all the familiar tropes of the classic detective tale but replaces American clichés with something more distinctly British.

Leading man Riz Ahmed is a perfect example of the film’s ability to inject some genuinely unique qualities into a genre too often ruined by over familiarity. Ahmed is rapidly emerging as a breakthrough trans-Atlantic talent with obvious justification. He once again turns in a performance good enough to elevate his scenes into something far more intriguing and nuanced. His diminutive frame and ethnicity already innately defy tired genre stereotypes, but likewise they shouldn’t distract from a generally strong display of acting prowess.  Ahmed’s innately watchable screen presence is a strange blend of kind hearted vulnerability and worldly apathy.

The film as a whole eschews convention and pushes hard to be something at least partly original as opposed to merely pantomiming the film noir playbook. At times, particularly when laced with effective humour the film does manage to achieve those laudable ambitions. In particular it’s refreshing to see the film handle British Asian culture as a backdrop to a standard detective yarn, without allowing that to ever become a heavy handed sole focus of proceedings.

The Bad

While the film does well to maintain high quality production values and keep the story for the most part grounded in a fairly convincing reality, inevitably as the film slides into its third act some of its plot twist become a little more predictable and melodramatic. Also despite the film’s best intentions it’s hard to ignore that fact that the sprawling scale and seedy glamour of LA does makes for a somewhat more epic backdrop  for classic detective drama than a central London wine bar or a small semi-detached house. Even with the cloak of night-time darkness a liberal use of wide angle cityscapes London still feels a little too real to be the setting for film noir fantasy, especially for British audiences.

The film’s efforts to tie present day proceedings with a childhood trauma suffered by Ahmed’s hard drinking detective and his teenage friends does feel a little laboured as the film progresses. Persistent flashbacks to younger version of Ahmed and Billie Piper’s characters are too frequent and ruined to an extent by a failure to find younger actors able to physically match their older selves. In particular Piper’s distinctive Cheshire cat grin is noticeably absent in the younger version of her character. Such distractions would be more forgivable for one brief flashback but given the frequency and narrative importance of these scenes it’s disappointing that neither version of the characters create any convincing continuity.

It also doesn’t help that Billie Piper is largely reduced to spectator duties throughout her brief screen time and that Riz Ahmed is the only cast member to really be given any opportunity to create a performance of any depth.

Having done well to establish some good early momentum and intrigue it’s also fair to say that the longer the film goes on for the further ahead of the plot the audiences become. By the climax of the story any attentive audience will unfortunately be easily predicting every supposedly dramatic twist.

The Ugly Truth

City Of Tiny Lights boasts a typically strong performance from rapidly rising star Riz Ahmed, it also manages to deliver a surprisingly well produced British version of a typical classic American crime genre. The film grasps audience attention with relative firmness throughout.

Review by Russell Nelson