POLITICAL ANIMAL! KELSEY GRAMMER IS 'BOSS'

One mean Mayor! Kelsey Grammer is BOSS. Images: LIONSGATE/STARZ.

If there's one thing that US TV does so well-high over the shoulders of many of its British and European rivals and counterparts-it's powerful and memorable political dramas, with finely crafted characters and skulduggery galore. It's a tradition of back-stabbing, manoeuvring, and kiss the girls to make them cry attitudes berthed in the human psyche of many of the power players in real life American society (with the rest of the world slowly but surely catching up!) that's so compelling and ripe for adaptation and transferring into thinly veiled artistic fantasy. With such seminal prior examples around since the mid-seventies onwards, like the terrific mini-series WASHINGTON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, to the more amiable comedy-drama antics of the perfect Oval Office, as well as lots of corridor talking, so resplendent in Aaron Sorkin's THE WEST WING, now comes the shady dealings and intrigue of BOSS.

It hasn't arrived yet on UK TV shores, but I'm hearing great things States-side about it, especially as a new vehicle for ex-Seattle comedy psychiatrist Frasier Crane portrayer Kelsey Grammer, showing him at his decidedly darkest, serious, razor sharp and controlling best in a first season, eight episode run (with a second year coming soon) about the day to day emotional and calculating infighting, power wrestling and rising ambitions of fictional (Thank, God!) Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, who makes British Mayors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone look as if they're still in Kindergarten, keeping his debilitating and untreatable brain disease secret from friends (a different kind of mental health issue to the one he had in his comedy series!), family and staffers alike whilst embarking on his personal mission/crusade to keep the city's political power, muscle and prestige to himself at all costs, and in the face of what will be a difficult re-election campaign. As this event intensifies, so will Kane's blunt aggression, sorting out a few old scores along the way to make sure he comes out top, and even prepared to use and possibly sacrifice his fractured family in the process (including GLADIATOR's yummy Connie Nielsen as his wife Meredith, and Hannah Ware as his drug abusing daughter, Emma).

In control? Grammer as Chicago Mayor Tom Kane.

At a political function with wife Meredith (Connie Nielsen).

Trailer: Boss - Trailer 1 - YouTube

Created by rising star Farhad Safinia for LIONSGATE FILMS and the STARZ channel (executive produced by Grammer (in his first major series drama lead) with movie icon Gus Van Sant, the first season run of BOSS, with great guest turns from the likes of HILL STREET BLUES Daniel J. Travanti and Martin Donovan, as well as calibre directors including DAMAGES Mario Van Peebles, has earned rave reviews for the title star and the series in general, many of whom have cited it for being a more than accurate look at politics and manipulation behind the scenes.

Season One of BOSS is now available in the US on Blu-ray. Look out for more on the show, and its upcoming second season, on KOOL TV in the not too distant future...

LIFE SUPPORT! "TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY"

The new Horsemen of the Apocalypse?! The TORCHWOOD team are back in action! Image: BBC/STARZ.

The old saying "We live to die" is literally torn apart by the dark and terrifying events soon witnessed in the new fourth season of the popular DOCTOR WHO spin-off from Russell T Davies -TORCHWOOD- with its new STARZ US/BBC UK co-production ten episode series titled MIRACLE DAY. All across the planet, in just one day, the people of Earth are put in an unforeseeable crisis, as its billions of inhabitants suddenly find themselves in a situation where death has been seemingly obliterated. Sounds good at first thought, but the scenario soon proves a frightening trigger hair to a much larger crisis as the population explosion reaches terrifying new heights and the lack of regular and natural mortality puts a huge strain on the world's already stretched food and other important resources. Just how and why has this happened? Is this all some kind of attempt by an alien race to weaken the Earth's defences and peoples prior to an invasion? Or is there a far worse threat closer to home that has initiated and inflicted this deadly new and unwanted phase of evolutionary chaos. Re-enter the once self-exiled Time Agent/traveller, the heroic Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman, clearly having the time of his life as the series lead star, making the unique part his own) who, with the one surviving member of the original TORCHWOOD team based in Wales, England, an isolationist Gwen Cooper (as played by lovely Welsh actress Eve Myles- her character now in rightly paranoid hiding alongside her loyal husband, Rhys (Kai Owen), and new baby), are soon hunted down by this unknown opponent, which, with its powerful connections and team of lethal Black Ops commandos, doesn't want their interference in the grand scheme of things, and will do anything to stop them...

Mother/protector! Eve Myles takes aim as Gwen Cooper.

Hand on heart, I can't say I've ever been one of the greatest fans of TORCHWOOD-its earliest season, controversially dubbed by the shows makers as the adult DOCTOR WHO, was to me anything but, as its gratuitous attempts to inject a harder edged concoction of stories with more sex, violence and swearing within its core characters and storylines, led by Russell T Davies' wet dream omnisexual hero co-creation Harkness, often came across as more juvenile and cliched than anything seen in the less adult and actually more intelligent WHO. Fortunately, over time, the series format and characters have evolved and improved greatly, as would the storytelling, with Davies's later CHILDREN OF EARTH mini-series shown in 2008 over five weekday nights on the UK's BBC ONE soon becoming a vital, must see TV event that was full of genuine shocks and surprise (including the bold and tragic death of one of the main cast)- so well realized that it would soon prove to be a huge ratings hit on the BBC AMERICA channel, too, apparently garnering record breaking audience ratings, and leading to their fellow US STARZ channel, smelling a recognizable hit series that could form a stronger part of their own unique programming and identity, joining forces with Auntie Beeb's American wing for this longer length and equally ambitious new season, which carries on the same kind of central umbrella storytelling ambition/mix of action and high concept seen with CHILDREN OF EARTH, but taking it up several notches with a greater, and most welcome, infusion of additional monies for bolder action set pieces, pyrotechnics and special effects.

Mekhi Phifer brings a driven American edge to the series as Agent Rex Matheson.

Sympathy for the Devil? Bill Pullman as the Lecter-esque Oswald Danes.

Arlene Tur as intriguing new character Dr. Vera Juarez.

Rounding out the new TORCHWOOD team is CIA operative Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins)

Joining the regular TORCHWOOD cast for this unique new hybrid-made series is an excellent cast of American talent, including E.R.'s Mekhi Phifer as the ambitious, bold and brash FBI agent, Rex Matheson, who, having undergone an unexpected life changing transition, joins forces with TORCHWOOD, and, as well as showing a darkly healthy transatlantic sense of humour, kicks ass with the best of them, alongside his young and resourceful assistant, Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and Arlene Tur as the glamorous Doctor, Vera Juarez, investigating this new crisis to the Earth and its effects on the Human Race. On the opposite side of the character fence, and fighting our heroes every step of the way through MIRACLE DAY will be ex-SEINFELDer Wayne Knight (probably more familiar to UK audiences as JURASSIC PARK's loathsome scientist/ thief Dennis Nedry) and, adding major acting weight to the series, film star/character actor Bill Pullman as the horrible paedophile/ Hannibal Lecter-esque figure of Oswald Danes, who, surviving his lethal injection execution during the start of MIRACLE DAY, becomes a dangerous and all-knowing American TV evangelist/celebrity whose cult following by the masses soon swells to frightening levels and threatens chaos across the planet, aided and abetted by Lauren Ambrose as his equally ambitious publicist (you can't get more sinister than being in that job!), Jilly Kitzinger. Other noted actors to be seen across the series will include GHOSTBUSTERS Ernie Hudson, UNFORGIVEN's Frances Fisher, Mare Winningham, DOLLHOUSE's Dichen Lachman, STAR TREK's ex-Q, John De Lancie (surely playing another seedy baddy!), and DEEP SPACE NINE's Nana Visitor.

Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) makes a stand against the new threat in the Episode One finale.

US Trailer (with lots of spoilers): YouTube - ‪Torchwood: Miracle Day - Official Trailer‬‏
UK trailer-BBC: YouTube - ‪Torchwood Miracle Day Trailer - BBC One‬‏

I've seen the opening episode of MIRACLE DAY and I have to say that it's good fun- far better than I thought it was going to be. It's transatlantic start may be a little slower paced than the previous opener of CHILDREN OF EARTH, but that had less episodes to play with and more that had to be set-up quickly, but this glossy new tale soon builds up the tension and atmosphere to effective levels, with some good performances from cast old and new-there are some suitable heroics from a now vulnerable to pain Captain Jack (whose character, affected in reverse by the effects of MIRACLE DAY, and performance from Barrowman welcomely seems a bit more restrained (though this sadly won't last long-he'll apparently soon be ramming his gob, and other private parts, on men and women in episodes to come!) and Welsh Wonder Woman Gwen Cooper, including a fine helicopter chase set piece and a really fun scene of gore, that is shocking and blackly funny at the same time, which should soon hook viewers in for the duration.  Die-hard TORCHWOOD fans, already unhappy that the UK created series is being shown in the US first, may miss the Wales backdrop after the first episode has come and gone, but I didn't, and I think the new US backdrop to the story may prove interesting and give the writers, including THE X-FILES John Shiban and modern BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Jane Espenson, some new fish out of water facets to play with regarding our core heroes and their continued relationships. Hopefully the dramatic and action stakes will evolve and get even better over the duration, too. Can CHILDREN OF EARTH be topped? Time will quickly tell, but, unlike the series main storyline and its grim shadow over Humanity, I think the ultimate future prognosis for TORCHWOOD looks very healthy indeed!

The early STARZ promotional poster for the new series.

On a side note, the UK's BBC RADIO 4 are airing three all-new radio dramas called TORCHWOOD: THE LOST FILES, starting from today 2.15pm until Wednesday.

The first three seasons of TORCHWOOD are now available on DVD and Blu-ray from 2ENTERTAIN.

POWER AND PRINCIPALITY: "CAMELOT"

High stakes for Arthur (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Morgan (Eva Green) in the new interpretation of CAMELOT. Image: STARZ

Just in time to cash in on the heavy dollops of sex and swordplay on offer in the hugely successful GAME OF THRONES HBO adaptation comes the US STARZ channel's ambitious new series CAMELOT to CHANNEL 4 this Saturday evening, based on, you guessed it, the birth and evolution of the Arthur legend (isn't it great that the UK has produced so many iconic characters and legendary heroes ripe for continual re-imagining? If there had been a publicist like Max Clifford back in the day when all these heroes, villains and myths were being formulated and perpetuated-passed through the generations- the film and TV purchasing rights would have been enormous!). It all looks glossy and enjoyable in its own way, with the fresh acting blood of Jamie Campbell Bower in the title role of the young man who will be king, and, as its produced by the people behind THE TUDORS, its more than likely to contradict, for its own story needs, everything that's ever been iconized about the character/saviour of the Dark Ages -if such a man could ever have existed- and his noble part in Ye Olde England's history. Whether such dramatic license will prove to be a good thing, and whether it can even top the likes of such quality works on the subject as John Boorman's superb and enchanting movie, EXCALIBUR, remains to be seen. I think we'll probably end up with a version of the tale one step up from Richard Gere and Sean Connery's 1995 attempt, KING ARTHUR, but with a bit more gritty realism, lots of gore and violence and the aforementioned bed hopping...

Watch your back, Arthur: that Morgan's a deadly lady!

There's definitely one major difference, however, between this and any other prior versions of the Arthur and Merlin legend: namely that it's got the rather lovely Eva Green in it, surely one of the most popular of James Bond girls in recent years after her performance as 007's doomed love Vesper Lynd in the hit Daniel Craig premiere CASINO ROYALE, and she's an actress with the kind of hypnotic and sexually beguiling, dangerous look in her eyes that's absolutely perfect for this kind of storytelling. She plays the important role of Morgan, the series principal antagonist, ambitious to claim the rightful throne that once belonged to her late father, King Uther. No doubt, as the series goes on, she'll make Helen Mirren's sultry and vindictive version of the role in EXCALIBUR look like a convent girl!

Joseph Fiennes as a slightly revised version of Merlin.

Arthur puts his point across to the masses...

The kind of all-star cast needed to propel this series into the public eye, described in the press publicity as being heavy on drama, politics and idealism, continues with the addition of FLASH FORWARD's Joseph Fiennes as a younger and more action heroic version of Merlin than we've been previously accustomed to, Claire Forlani as Arthur's mother Igraine, ROME's James Purefoy, lovely Tamsin Egerton as Arthur's tragic love Guinevere, Sean Pertwee and the always dependable action-hero Vincent Regan, so I'm sure they'll be enough eye candy to be enjoyed by both girls and boys as the story unfolds amongst the no doubt beautiful location backdrops of Ireland and Canada.

Trailer: YouTube - "Camelot" - NEW, long trailer STARZ

Fire and blood make their bedfellows with Arthur as he becomes King of England.

However many seasons it ultimately goes to, will CAMELOT make the kind of long term phenomenal impact that GAME OF THRONES has so quickly reached? Unlikely, I think (and English scripter Chris Chibnall, whose previous credits include LAW AND ORDER UK, DOCTOR WHO and TORCHWOOD, has hardly proved himself as one of the all-time great TV writers yet), but I certainly reckon it will have a good innings existence for the next few years at least across the world's digital TV platforms, their channels always desperate to have well made series in their schedules so as to bolster out their portfolios and viewing figures.

King Arthur remains an immortally interesting and enduring character across the world, and I have no doubts that this won't be the last time we'll see another romanticised series bearing either his name or legacy...