While Caught In The Net doesn’t like to be unpatriotic, it has to be said that virtually all the best TV nowadays is coming out of the US of A.
Despite stiff competition from Boardwalk Empire, Dexter and Terra Nova, our favorite American show last year was Homeland, the wonderfully complex 12-parter based on the Israeli series, Hatufim, which for the non-Hebrew speakers among you translates as ‘Kidnapped’.
Starring Claire Daines, Criminal Minds old boy Mandy Patinkin and Damian Lewis, it makes its RTÉ Two bow at 9.30pm on Friday January 13. Get a sneak preview at [link]www.sho.com/site/homeland/home.sho[/link].
RTÉ have also picked up Luck, the new HBO racetrack drama, which includes Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte and Michael Gambon among its seriously stellar cast.
The series, which premieres Stateside on January 29, is from the pen of NYPD Blue and Deadwood man David Milch who also happens to own two Breeders Cup winners.
“The Western town and the track are both frontiers," he reflects. “They're on the margins of society. And the margin is an interesting place to look at a society from.”
There’s a ‘Making Of’ featurette at [link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdvcQJuK6Q8&feature=related[/link].
Another show CIN can’t wait to feast its eyes on is Alcatraz, the new JJ Abrams yarn about inmates and guards who went missing from the infamous prison 50 years ago mysteriously reappearing and messing with history.
With Lost’s Jorge Garcia and Sam Neill both on board, it should have conspiracy theorists drooling with delight. Visit [link]www.fox.com/alcatraz/recaps/season-1/episode-1[/link] for a preview and loads of downloadables.
Also debuting on the other side of the pond shortly are Touch, a new paranormal series starring Kiefer Sutherland and Danny Glover ([link]www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=touch[/link]); Don Cheadle’s “steal from the rich and give to myself” comedy House Of Lies ([link]www.sho.com/site/houseoflies/home.sho[/link]); and The River, a genetic splicing of Deliverance to the Blairwitch Project that hands its lead role to Bruce Greenwood who Trekkies might recognise as Captain Christopher Pike ([link]www.abc.go.com/shows/the-river[/link]).
Which just leaves time for quick visits to [link]www.soundcloud.com/user1743512/irish-pictorial-boatly[/link] (the pilot for RTÉ radio’s rather excellent Irish Pictorial Boatly); [link]www.thepale.ie/wp/?p=762[/link] (Legendary Dublin band gear up for album release with Mobile App Tour of Dublin); and [link]www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXb8RjGLcZk[/link] (in case you haven’t seen it, the best own goal… ever!)