Angel: Couplet

“Relax. If there’s one thing Groo knows, it’s how to handle a weapon.”

So, after last episode, it’s Jealousy, Part II, again with both Angel and Wesley. There’s some wit and some fun. And there is also, I gather from the final scenes, a hint of some impending darkness.

Angel’s jealousy of Groo is played largely for laughs. Angel is jealous, yes, and amusingly childish about it, but he’s old enough to have perspective, and is much reassured both by a nice little pep talk from Wesley and by saving the day from the rather token evil tree demon of the week. Wesley is less so; Gunn and Fred are in the cute early throes of love, and he feels it. And behind the learned exterior he’s young and less mature.

So their reactions are quite a contrast; Angel helps Cordy to get a potion allowing her to have sex with Groo without losing her visions, and ends the episode by paying for them both to have a holiday somewhere for a couple of episodes- a little strange from a father who wants to save for his baby son, but honourable. Wesley, meanwhile, strikes the wrong tone in a conversation with Gunn, until now his closest friend, and is beginning to look a little isolated. Not a good time, then, for him to find a prophecy that “the father will kill the son”...

An excellent episode, even if evil Cordelia does want her man to cut his hair short. No woman is ever getting rid of my flowing locks...!

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Older and Far Away

"We do not joke about eating people in this house!"

It's the "Buffy's birthday" episode (Buffy is now 21, which means she can now legally drink in the United States: hallelujah. How on earth do young Americans put up with that?) and so, as tradition dictates, it all goes horribly wrong. There's humour, there's character stuff, this isn't a particularly standout episode but it's all rather good.

So the party is planned, and there is awkwardness: Willow and Tara are both invited, as are two non-Scooby "friends"- I wonder if there will be any follow-up to the weirdness that they witness? Spike turns up with his poker-playing demon friend Clem, who is explained away as having a "skin condition". This is all mined rather nicely for humour. I love the bit when Willow explains all about her present for Buffy, a "massage device", and then Buffy and Spike exchange a naughty look...!

And then the magic happens; they are all trapped in the house forever, including the two outsiders, as part of a wish that Dawn was trapped int making and the consequences of which are obviously not going to do her any good. It soon becomes obvious that it was Halfrek who, in a nice touch, is a vengeance demon specialising in bad parents. The resolution is neat and funny, but unfortunately in the process it's revealed that Dawn has been shoplifting...

Oh, and Halfrek and Spike know each other, it seems. I wonder if anything will come of this...?

Eastern Promises (2007)

"London is a city of whores and queers."

I confess that I need to see more early period avid Cronenberg for his trademark body horror, and I will. Yet up to now I've only seen some of his late period non-fantasy stuff- Crash and Cosmopolis, both excellent. So what will I make of Eastern Promises?

Well, the directing is excellent, of course, from the framing of the first shot onwards. This is Cronenberg's London film, a tribute to what remains very much an imperial capital long after its empire has gone, a melting pot, a metropolis and world city far out of proportion to the nation of which it is capital, and a city which now, alas, faces the catastrophe of Brexit.

And yet... despite the excellence of Naomi Watt and the superbly ambiguous Viggo Mortensen, this is a very good but hardly superlative gangster film with both a conscience and an aesthetic for violence (which is excellent throughout). The famous twist is... fairly predictable, and what we have is a film about the Russian mafia, albeit a perfectly good one, and fascinating about the context with the tattoos and that depressingly prevalent Russian homophobia, but this is less good than either of the other Cronenberg films I've seen so far.

What it does show, though, is how many in less fortunate parts of our continent still see London as being paved with gold, so they come, and are abused and disappointed, hopefully not to the extent of poor Tatiana. But what we have here is a good film that, while well-directed, feels more like television than film.,

Angel: Waiting in the Wings

"We all know you've got a thing for ex-cheerleaders..."

Here we have an episode both written and directed by the man himself, Joss Whedon, which immediately tells us that it's special episode. What we get, though, is surprisingly subtle; a meditation on jealousy and unrequited love, where both Angel and (especially) Wesley take rejection much more honourably than the villain of the piece. It's also about ballet, of which I know nothing, and has a young Summer Glau in a guest role; I never noticed her before.

It is, of course, an episode all about relationships. Yes, there's a plot with a baddie- this is the exact same ballet troupe that Angel(us) last saw back in 1890, as the rather sulky Count Kurskov, a wizard, has reacted rather badly to his prima ballerina wanting to be with another man by cursing her to do the same performance every night for more than a century. Rather spiteful of him. And this petulance of a Russian aristocrat contrasts with Angel's disappointment when a suddenly deposed Groosalugg arrives just as he's about to declare his feelings for Cordelia.

More heartbreaking, though, is how we're shown the extent that Wesley has his heart set on Fred, only for her to fall hard for a newly ballet-loving Gunn. This is all the crueller for the fact that Gunn is such a good friend and hasn't done anything wrong. Our team ends the episode very much still friends and as strong a unit as ever, though, because they're all good people and better than the likes of Kurskov.

Having said that, though... this is an excellent episode, and a brilliantly well-constructed drama about jealously and heartbreak, but it's not quite as much of an "event" as you'd expect from a Joss Whedon episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dead Things

"I love you."

"No you don't."

"You think I haven't tried not to?"

Wow. That was... dark.

We begin with Buffy and Spike having some sneaky, kinky and, it's heavily implied, very good sex where she is extremely rough with him... and then things get post-coital, for once Buffy doesn't leave immediately and Spike is moved to ask "Are we having a conversation?". It may be good sex, but the ambiguity over whether it's hate sex or even a "thing" makes it problematic.

There are no such nuances in the next scene, though, as Warren, Jonathan and Andrew plan to use magic to make a woman their sex slave: that isn't just a bit rapey, it's literally rape, and right from the go these are dark waters to be swimming in. So when Warren finds his ex Katrina and argues with her, only to use the magic and have her instantly say "I love you, Master"... that's seriously dark. So when we next see her dressed as a French maid, waiting on all three of them and expected to service all three of them, and she even drops to her knees in front of Warren... that's incredibly dark for a fairly mainstream TV show, and one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever seen on TV. I'm glad she comes immediately to, and she calls them out as rapists and sets out to report the crime to the police; not to have had that happen would have been appalling. But I can't imagine such a scene being written in such a blatant way today. 2003 seems so long ago. The intent is, of course, clearly to call out rape culture, but it's done with a certain insensitivity.

So, once that has happened and, worse, Katrina is killed, all three of them are beyond redemption. Narratively, they have to pay for what they've done, even if Warren is both the ringleader and shows clear psychopathic tendencies, referring to Katrina's body as "it".

Meanwhile, Buffy is filled with guilt. Everyone understands, except a neglected Dawn, that the reason they no longer see her is because she works at the burger bar on top of a busy slaying schedule. But only she knows that she also spends a lot of time having guilty good/bad sex with Spike, the forbidden fruit. She is female, we as a society have double standards, so Buffy feels sex shamed.

This only intensifies, of course, when she again neglects her friends for Spike, so our already guilt-ridden Slayer is well-primed for being made to believe that it was her who accidentally killed Katrina. And the suffering this added guilt causes her is heart-wrenching to see, especially when she confesses to Dawn and explains she will need to confess and go to prison, causing a horribly teenage reaction.

Fortunately Spike, sheer chance, clever Scoobies and a busy police station allow Buffy to work out what appened, and I think we can forgive how convenient this is as it's good sleight of hand. Besides, this episode is powerfully and brilliantly crafted.

Meanwhile we get an awkward meeting between Willow and Tara, and Tara reveals to Buffy that she really, truly, didn't come back wrong at all. But even without Katrina's death on her conscience a tearful Buffy is wracked with guilt, telling an understanding Tara that she lets Spike do these things to her because it's the only time anything feels real. And she realises she's "using him", that that's wrong, so we have even more guilt. If only society made men feel such scruples...

So yet, bit of a feminist subtext there. And a powerful, harrowing, amazing episode.

Angel: Provider

"Just don't lose sight of the mission!"

There's no denying it; there's definitely some mid-season water treading going on here as a light-hearted and fairly inconsequential episode plays out, the nearest the season has come to a disposable episode. Still, it has its moments.

The conceit, played for laughs but not really written with the polish to really convince (as we might expect from a Joss Whedon show) is that Angel is a father now and the mission takes a back seat to making money, with lots of advertising ad lots of cases going on simultaneously, only one of which makes any money, albeit a lot. It's fun, but not as fun as it seems to think it is.

We get an appearance from a young Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a guest role but, in an episode otherwise with relatively little arc stuff, we get a rather interesting, twisty and kinky relationship between Holtz and Justine, whose name is certainly intended to evoke De Sade: why else would Holtz insist on her spending hours with her had stuck to a table with a knife through the fleshy bit? This is surprisingly edgy stuff.

We also see more of how both Gunn and Wesley fancy the pants off Fred, while Cordy is still waiting for the inevitable price to be paid for being part demon. And an example of what zombies are like in the Buffyverse, with no munching of grey matter. But it's an episode that won't particularly come to mind when I think of the season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doublemeat Palace

"You're better than this!"

Yes, I know: it's been far too long. But from now on, aside from a mini-break between seasons, there'll be no non-current TV in this blog that isn't Buffyverse. Promise. I'm going to finish this marathon and enjoy myself in the process.

Anyway, this is an intrinsically depressing episode about the awfulness of fast food and the sheer soul-destroying and profound bleakness of working in such a restaurant, with its crushingly monotonous processes, made much worse by the fact that, as Dawn insightfully points out, Buffy is the Slayer and will therefore be doing such soul-crushing work for the rest of her short, violent life. So let's get Jane Espenson to write it and leaven all this with wit and humour, although I suspect I may see a moderately subtle vegetarian subtext here. But it's a nice little one-off tale, with a nice twist, and shows us the depressing economic reality of being the Slayer.

Oh, and this is the first episode of Buffy I ever saw, at uni, courtesy of my housemate. It kept my attention, although I took a while to become hooked.

Sub-plots include Willow's cold turkey from magic, this season's rather strained metaphor for drugs, with Amy as her bad influence friend whom she finally rejects- yay Willow- and Anya's and Xander's festering doubts about their upcoming nuptials. Anya's old demon mate is fantastic; I don't usually single out guest stars but Kali Rocha is brilliant.

This isn't, perhaps, a particularly great episode to return to, and there's a certain hint of mid-season treading of water. But even a mediocre episode of Buffy is superior to most other telly. It's good to be back.

Severance (2006)

"Foursome?"

My, this is brilliant. A superb script from James Moran and excellent direction from Christopher Smith of Creep fame give us a hugely entertaining comedy slasher- which is, of course, always the best kind of slasher.

Danny Dyer is, well, Danny Dyer. But it's a shock for this fairly regular EastEnders viewer to see him looking so bloody young. The film is really carried, though, by character actor stalwarts such as Andy Nyman and the superb Tim McInnerny.

The film oozes confidence and fun, beginning in media res with some unfortunate Hungarian employees of the same weapons company  employing our mainly British cast getting a foretaste of what we will soon be seeing. We also get enough time to get to know our engaging and well-scripted characters before the carnage begins, and I mean it entirely in a good way when I note that this film dates from a time when The Office was firmly part of the zeitgeist. Noughties office humour and the slasher genre mix very well indeed. This is a bloody good film and more people should see it.

The best bit, of course, involves a decapitation and the few seconds thereafter...

Angel: Birthday

"Well, as much as I enjoy this forced death march down memory lane..."

I know. It's been a while. But now I'm back and determined to finish Angel. (And Buffy.) The delay was caused by, er, a scratch in a DVD, but said DVD has now been replaced and the Buffyverse marathon resumes.

So Cordy's visions are finally catching up with her; in fact, they're killing her. On her birthday. Which is rude. Hence a splendid Cordy-centred episode full of typically superb dialogue and Charisma carpenter being awesome.

So many moments: Dennis' aborted birthday party, Cordelia's theme tune, the first appearance of the excellent Skip. It's all a cheat, of course; Cordy's visions are killing her because she's human so she finds a loophole of becoming part demon, like Doyle, with no ill effects apart from a silly punchline. But who cares; this is first class telly.

The alternate reality is interesting, though; this one-armed Wesley is rather badass. Foreshadowing? And it's instructive that the visions send Angel to pieces but Cordy handles them like a woman. Most importantly, she really does make a difference. Also, I like Skip. A lot.

I've missed this. I'm looking forward to proper re-immersion into the Buffyverse...

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

"The bastard son of a hundred maniacs."

Well then. You can tell from the staggering number of years since I blogged the second film in this series that, as I said at the time, I was less than enthused by. I'm now far less likely to wait so long until the next one. This was bloody good.

We get lots of splendid visual horror from the start, well directed and making you jump, and this continues all the way through. But what really makes the film work is a solid plot based around a mental institution and fear of sleep and, in a film where Freddy Krueger is ever-present but appears surprisingly little- a successful formula- but the only disappointment here is that nasty Dr Simms doesn't die. And likeable characters do.

So what are my highlights? A very young Patricia Arquette? An early appearance by a young Laurence Fishburne? A rare Hollywood example of D&D being played? The delightfully '80s metal soundtrack by Dokken? The skeleton of Freddy Krueger resisting burial by means of stop motion? Probably the latter, but there are many. And the plot is actually quite gripping, and as twisty-turny as it is suspenseful.

Fellow Doctor Who fans: I believe that this is the earliest Hollywood film credit of one Rachel Talalay...?

Jabberwocky (1977)

“Rat on a stick!"

 This is a very funny film, make no mistake about that. But it's also an interestingly placed one- Terry Gilliam's first non-Python film, or not, depending on your point of view, and moreover its use of so many well-known character actors in a comedy echoes Ripping Yarns. It can't really be seen in isolation, especially not if one happens to be a massive Monty Python geek.

All of which is to say that it's all very Python in its humour, and in a good way; this is no Yellowbeard. And it's wonderful to see the likes of John Le Mesurier and Harry H. Corbett getting to work with this kind of material. It’s also a treasure trove for the actor spotter, with a young Annette Badland as Griselda and a huge number of cameos.

But Michael Palin, as always, puts in a superb comic performance as our innocent and gloriously boring hero, a cooper’s apprentice turned hero who should have been a management consultant. Max Wall and John Le Mesurier are also superb, but it all hangs upon the brilliant Palin, whose working relationship with his fellow Python Terry Gilliam would of course go on to further great things. And it’s fascinating to see this as Gilliam’s first solo directorial credit for a full length film.

Python-connected films are always worth watching. But few are as brilliant as this one.

Elektra (2005)

"They say Elektra whispers in your ear before she kills you."

Meh. Thing is, this isn't an awful script, not really. There are some nice directorial touches in places, although there are also moments of, well, meh. But the main reason why this is Marvel's notorious flop, a spin-off of the already underwhelming Daredevil, is that Jennifer Garner is just phoning it in and offers up no charisma whatsoever. She simply sucks the energy out of the film whenever she's on screen.

Not that there aren't some positive points- it's good to see Terence Stamp, General Zod himself, appearing in a Marvel film, even if he is woefully miscast as Stick. The main baddies are good acting-wise, although I'm not familiar with the Hand from the comics. And the opening sequence establishing Elektra as the assassin she isn't going to be for the rest of the film is well done.

But... Jennifer Garner. And the film, frankly, flags once you're an hour in, not a good thing for a film that isn't really all that long. There are lots of action sequences, many of them good. Tattoo is a cool character. It’s good to see Typhoid Mary on screen. But... Jennifer Garner.

This film really isn’t worth seeing except for us Marvel completists. Meaning, sadly, that Marvel has yet to release a decent film with a female star, in the Cinematic Universe or elsewhere. I hope they do so by the time my daughter is old enough.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 13: Beside the Dying Fire

"This isn't a democracy any more..."

So that’s the explosive finale all done and dusted; after so many episodes with Herschell’s farm as a sanctuary it’s all over, just like that, and just because an unstoppable herd of zombies happens to pass by. So now I’ve finished Season 2 I can go back and finish other series where I’m midway through a season before blogging any other non-current telly- namely Buffy, Angel, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Game of Thrones.

What an episode, though, truly drawing a line under the season just gone while also pointing forward- who was that hooded figure with the two pet zombies who saved Andrea from certain death by zombie in the woods? What is that massive complex of buildings just behind everybody at the end?

But this is zombie action from the get go and it’s clear that this is it: Rick doesn’t even have time to answer Carl’s awkward question about how Shane died before zombies try to overrun them. There are confused scenes as people fight, panic, don’t know who’s alive and dead, and finally flee. All the minor characters, predictably, die. Herschel tried to go down defending his farm before Rick saves him and there are a number of superb set pieces in the best zombie action we’ve seen all season; can we have more of this in future please?

Glen finally mans up and tells Maggie that he loves her, predictably in a moment of brief respite from the peril. Everyone manages to rendezvous successfully, with Darryl being as competent, gruff and casually racist as ever. But what do they do now? This is made worse by Lori’s reaction to Rick’s confession that he kills Shane. This later leads to an extraordinary outburst from Rick to the whole group, openly telling everyone what he did, how he feels and exactly what they can go and do if they disagree. It’s an acting tour de force from Andrew Lincoln.

The season ends on a high. But I’ve mixed feelings about The Walking Dead. It’s well-written, shotcand acted, but by its nature it’s a format with limited scope, and I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed it all that much, as you can see by the slow pace of how I’ve watched this season. Will I return to blog future seasons? Let’s see.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

"I haven't poisoned it..."

"It's always good to know that."

SPOILERS

Well, that was very good indeed, and not at all what you'd expect from what on the surface of what looks like a typical late 1950s low budget horror flick which does, after all, star Vincent Price at his camp best. Instead we get a fourth wall-breaking, immaculately plotted (well, there are a few holes on reflection bt let us not be churlish: how did Annabelle and Trent know that Loren would hand out guns?) and, above all, gloriously witty.

This is, in the end, a murder mystery without any supernatural elements. Well, other than the heightened sense of reality, but it just about manages to skirt the line. In the Lorens we have one of cinema's most gloriously acidic couples, appropriate considering where one of them ends up, with each cheerfully wanting to murder the other. There's what looks like an unpleasant note of feminine hysteria in the treatment of Nora but this is partly explained. This is far from the square-jawed 1950s Hollywood I'm used to seeing.

Most refreshingly surprising, though, is the witty fourth-wall breaking and the cheerful use of haunted house tropes throughout to heighten the atmosphere and drama. A gloriously fun way to wind down of a Tuesday evening and the best Vincent Price performance I've seen to date.

The Walking Dead- Season 2, Episode 12: Better Angels

"This was you, not me!"

SPOILERS

It's the penultimate episode, and we begin with Dale's funeral oration. Dale was the group's heart, and is a true loss. He had a complex relationship with many- Glenn, certainly Andrea, and of course Carl, racked with guilt over his part in Dale's death, but he was in many ways the antithesis of Shane who, of course, shows his true colours and dies this episode. Yay!

Everyone is moving inside the house; at last the two groups are one. Lori has one last heart-to-heart with Shane, revealing that the baby she is carrying could be his; she just doesn't know. In hindsight this conversation could have hinted to me that Shane would die now, and not in the finale, but I remained oblivious.

We have a father and son talk between Rick and Carl that is simultaneously heartwarming and incredibly bleak: what kind of childhood can Carl expect, waiting until his parents probably die, and himself probably unlikely to survive to adulthood? It's symbolic when Rick hands him back the gun; he must put away childish things and be a man.

And so we come to Shane's devious yet probably opportunistic plot to kill Rick, and the final standoff where Shane pulls the gun on Rick and calls him a weak husband and father. And yet it's Rick who finally has the guts to kill, stabbing Shane with a knife. Not coldly, though; it upsets him to have to kill, but he does what he must.

The final scenes feel exactly right; Carl has secretly seen what happened, and pulls a gun, saving Rick from zombie Shane. This is a superb episode in which we wave goodbye to a superb villain, brilliantly portrayed by Jon Bernthal. Roll on the finale...

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

"Dr. Manning, suck my ectoplasmic schwanztucker!"

It’s unusual to see the combination of auteur director and a Hollywood comic book blockbuster, but the first Hellboy film gave us that with Guillermo Del Toro. Now, though, we have a sequel, without anything like the need for exposition, and it feels as though Del Toro has been released by the success of the previous film from the studio’s constraints and can truly put his stamp on the film.

This is clear from the start, with a John Hurt-narrated flashback from what looks rather like Middle Earth is done in the style of a Tool video, and is the first of the film’s countless visual triumphs, ranging from “tooth fairies” to a psychopathic beanstalk. All this is sufficiently done with sufficient awesomeness that you barely notice the main baddie is played by... Luke Goss from Bros. Yes indeed.

It’s not all visual awesomeness, though; solid plotting, superb characterisation and splendid central performances from Ron Perlman and Selma Blair are also essential ingredients as, bizarrely, is the comedy German accent provided by none other than Seth MacFarlane. Similarly awesome is the psychogeography in which, beneath the surface of New York's boroughs, there lurk troll markets and other such things. This evokes Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, China Mieville and, indeed, points towards Doctor Who's Face the Raven but, more to the point, is awesome to see being handled by Del Toro.

There's a moral here; be brave, get a good director and let them do whatever the hell they want.