The Hour comes across a little as if it doesn’t know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it’s a bit of an in joke at the expense of the BBC. Look how hard it is to get things done around here! The government is telling us what we can and can’t broadcast!

On the other hand, it’s a whodunnit, or a whydidtheydoit even, with the main character Freddie (Ben Whishaw) trying to figure out why an old friend of his was killed (or did she kill herself?).

The balance is nicely struck though, even if McNulty Dominic West doesn’t seem to quite fit into the role of Hector Madden. There’s a fine line between acting like you’re hamming it up, and actually hamming it up. The other actors seem particularly well cast though, and there are a string of fine cameos from Andrew Strong (who you might recall as Moriarty from the recent BBC adaptation of Sherlock Holmes), Juliet Stevenson, and Tim Pigott-Smith.

Check it out on the BBC iPlayer if you’ve missed it.

So, it’s back. 21 years after the first series ended Thundercats has been relaunched by the Cartoon Network in the US. I watched the first two episodes to see how it had changed from what I remembered as a kid in 1984.

Despite still being a cartoon for kids, the tone is much more serious, taking a lot of cues from The Lord Of The Rings or even Game Of Thrones. It touches on ideas including a war between different species, magic versus technology, and all the usual kids stuff like watching your dad, the king, get stabbed and fall off a big tree. The trailer above gives you a good feel for it.

What I wonder is, will kids these days care for it? It looks good for sure, but first two episodes feel like an origin story movie, where not a lot really happens except one big battle towards the end. I’m not sure it’d hold kids attention. Presumably though we can expect a new range of toys and console games to accompany the new series, and maybe that’s all that matters to the makers.

Charlie Brooker

In his own words, no less, Charlie Brooker describes himself as a bigot. What kind of bigot? An anti-Apple bigot! Head over to the Guardian for his take on the cult of the Mac, and why he’s happy to stay using Windows.

In other news, his Screenwipe / Newswipe empire grew last night to include Gameswipe, which was an interesting look back on the history and genres of videogames down through the years. It’s a pity it was only a one off show. What did surprise me though was that it is produced by Zeppotron, who are owned by Endemol, the people who bring us Big Brother.

It’s a bit like finding out the Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show is produced by Fox News. (It isn’t.)

Remember When This Was Good?

Not a lot of solid info on this yet, but early reports of a “dark”, adult oriented show sound great. There is obviously a massive middle-aged fan base who would gladly watch a regular Star Wars based show. You can read snippets of info on Holy Moly’s mailout and on the MTV Movies blog.