Masters of the Universe: Revelations- Land of the Dead

 "Oh, bollocks..."

This episode is, perhaps, a little more formulaic than its predecessors in that it has our prtagonists on a quest in Hell- more of a Hades really. Here they are tested by Scare Glow, played by the great Tony Todd and, I've just discovered, one of the last classic toys released, at the same time as the movie characters. And it's all, really, about Teela facing her fear, namely that Adam never really trusted her.

There's some good stuff here, not least Orko's background and the revelation that his self-esteem issues stem from his upbringing. He has an increasingly nice bond with Evil Lyn, perhaps the wisest of all the characters. It's good to see Trollia. And the ending is, of course, splendidly shocking. But this felt more like a space-filling middle episode than most.

Still, that's only a relative criticism in an impressive series, and the characterisation continues to impress.

Breaking Bad: Peekaboo

 "You give me one hit, and I'll be any kind of mother that you want."

Crikey, this is a dark one. For a start, it centres on a junkie couple who live in the most depressing squalour imaginable, with the woman at one point declaring she's come down too far from the heroin she took to counteract the meth- and now needs more heroin. They both look as awful as their home, and then shockingly we (and Jesse) discover they have a horribly neglected kid. This is remniscent of the baby from Trainspotting, and as dark as the series, or indeed television, can get.

It's in this environent that Jesse has to dish out retribution for last week's dishonour amongst thieves. And it's hard, as he has obvious compassion for the kid, an interesting comparison to what is happening to Walt. The whole thing ends with some wonderfully gruesome black humour, but the overriding impression is one of awful and dehumanising chaos.

Walt's plot strand is entirely separate, with Gretchen finding out about the lies Walt has been telling about how his treatment is being paid for. There's a fascinating and highly charged scene between the exes that serves up a lot of exposition about what happened all those years ago but, as they're having a row, it feels natural- and Gretchen is quite right that Walt has changed.

Oddly enough, Walt seems to growing a little closer to both Skyler and Walt Jr by the end. But how long can he keep juggling all these balls in the air? This is gripping, masterfully unfolding stuff. I think I still know broadly where things are headed, but the details keep me guessing.

Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny

I seem to be getting through this series rather quickly, and I’ll admit that it’s all somewhat addictive. This third book is the most unputdownable yet, making good use of all the patient world building and character development of the first two instalments to spin us a tale of political skulduggery and, well, games of thrones between the royals of Amber. It’s a cracking read.

And yet, at the same time, it’s more substantial than that. Zelazny’s prose is still reminiscent of Raymond Chandler for the most part, hard-boiled and lightly cynical. There’s even a nicely metatextual bit near the end as Corwin’s friend Bill from the “shadow” Earth says he feels somewhat like a minor character in a novel who never gets to know what’s really going on. Yet the prose is capable of leaping into more than that when needed, and Zelazny is quite trippily poetic when describing those moments where the doors of perception get weird.

Even more excitingly, the whodunit side is now explained. But what of Dworkin, the nature of the trap for Oberon, the hinted-at origins of the black road? Much still lies to be explained, and then the novel ends with the big revelation that there is another, “real” Amber.

This both is and is not unlike anything I’ve read before. I’m enjoying it immensely.

Breaking Bad: Breakage

 "I'm guessing this one doesn't bounce?"

I knew it. This is the episode, I think, where it becomes clear that Walt is on a path that leaves inevitably to his filling that Tuco-shaped hole.

It all happens logically, too. The size of Walt's bill for his chemo is effectively shown by Bryan Cranston's facial acting: we don't need numbers. Meanwhile, Jesse (he has no dea who Jesse Jackson is...) has rent to pay. Cooking must be done, and quick.

Yet they still have that bottleneck. They can't sell as quick as they can produce, especially with the DEA on Jesse's tail. There's an argument, but the only choice is for underlings to do the selling, and them to take a cut and Jesse is actually pretty good at handling said underlings. 

Except... one of the underlings is robbed, which Jesse is prepared to write off as a cost of business. And here we see Walt's ruthless streak. This is fascinating.

There's also more awkwardness between Walt and Skyler, and a fascinating few scenes with Hank, who is now becoming a more nuanced character rather than an alpha male foil for Walt. Even macho men get PTSD, and are not necessarily the best at handling it.

This is excellent telly, as ever. But the most shocking eement is he appearance of a young-looking Krysten Ritter from Jessica Jones. Is she going to be a regular?

The Boys: We Gotta Go Now

 "Expecting a happy ending, were we? Sorry, Hughie. It ain't that kind of massage parlour."

This is, I suppose, a midseason episode which, more than most episodes, is quite clearly geared towards exposition and moving the pieces about to advance the season arc. But it's still bloody awesome. And it ends with possibly the kinkiest sex scene in all of screen history, between two uber-powerful and nigh-indestructible beings. "I don't break easily", says Stotmfront. Indeed. It's a pity she's such a white supremacist bitch. The confrontation between her and Annie is awesome, but my money's on Annie.

We also learn a lot about Billy Butcher, not least his bloody awesome aunt, and more of a focus on his self-destructive streak. It's fascinating that Hughie- his canary- is a kind of surrogate younger brother. The scenes of Maeve's sexual orientation being exploited for publicity are horrible, but it's interesting to see that she plans to bring down Homelander, just as Stormfron is using him.

Ah, Stormfront. By now it's clear she's the big bad. I really want to know where this is going...

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

 "For that's where crimes are conceived and where they're solved- in the imagination.

This is the first time, barring out-of-context clips, that I've seen any of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, which I'll be watching every now and then, in order. It's quite arresting to reflect that this film, in 1939, was made less than a decade after Conan Doyle's death and less than forty years after the first serialisation of what would become the novel- many who saw this film in 1939 would have read the story in 1901. The film is set in 1889, precisely thirty years before the film was made. Fifty years is what separates us, in 2021, from the death of Jim Morrison.

Rathbone's performance feels very straightforward to us now, with eight further decades of actors playing Holmes in various ways. But, with those actors preceding Rathbone leaving little mark on posterity, his performance is the template, the benchmark. He is excellent- charismatic and highly convincing. Again, Nigel Bruce's somewhat comical performance as Watson has become something for subsequent performers to rebel against but, judged as the comic role that it is, Bruce's performance is superb.

And so is the film. Unlike other versions, less straightfotwardly shot, this is easy to follow, despite the plot being far from simple, with some nice narrative touches like having the dramatis personae at an inquest scene for Sir Charles at the start, or the faded parchment in the background of the seventeenth century flashback with Sir Hugo. Yet it is the narrative that is simplified without much change to the plot- although having Beryl be Stapleton's sister rather than  his wife has awkwar implications of an incestuous marriage to Sir Henry. 

Moving swiftly on, the whole thing looks suitably atmospheric, with the moor set looking very eerie indeed, and the film has the sense to put storytelling first. A promising start.

It's an interesting ending, though- "Watson, the needle!"

The Boys: Nothing Like It in the World

"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong? Or are you gonna stain my clean sheets with your sweaty despair?"

Another bloody good episode here and, just like the last one, we have asplendidly clever and twisted take on a big theme, this time love. So we have Homelander having an icky assignation with the late Madelyn again, complete with the milk stuff, until it turns out it's just that shapechanger bloke... and Homelander has him killed at an awkward moment.

We also have the cult auditioning various potential wives for the helpless Deep. We have Frenchie's ill-advised kiss. We have Hughie and Annie on a mission together where they are allowed to be fleetingly free, happy and in love... but have to stay apart because happiness is not safe. And, of course, we have Billy desperately planning to get Becca to freedom after their emotional reunion. And yet the seeds of their doomed relationship are cleverly sowed within the dialogue from the start: Billy wil never accept a supe kid so it's him or Ryan. And Becca's comments, while lovingly meant, are devastating: Butcher's dark obsessiveness was there long before her.

We also have MM's OCD pointed out to us, and hear more of his past. And the rivalry between Stormfront and Homelander develops, too. But it seems she's older than she seems, and very racist indeed, which explains the disturbing connotations of her name. Halfway through, and the season is getting very interesting indeed.

The Boys: Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men

 "You are my real family."

This is an episode all about family, of various sorts- Kimiko and her doomed brother; Homelander and his rejection by his son (ha!) versus his family in the Seven; the Deep's relationship with the cult he's fallen for. But its also pivota;. The Compound V secret is out- well done, Annie- and the relationship between prospective alpha males Hughie and Burcher is getting complicated.

Yet, as ever, it's about the little things. Annie's humiliation of the Deep after the incident with the bloodied CGI whale, and Homelander's comment that "Your gill is showing. Cover it up. It's disgusting." MM as the grown-up amongst the Boys, and Frenchie's compassion for Kimiko. Edgar's smooth corporate evil. Oh, and one big thing- Stormfront seems to be competing with Homelander and briefly shows herself to be a murdering racist bitch. Bit of a shock, that.

This is bloody good telly, yet again. I have no idea where this is going.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations- The Most Dangerous Man in Eternia

"I don't know why I thought the lady named Evil-Lyn would be nice..."

Another rushed evening, so blogging this.

I've never read any Joseph Campbell, and probably never will: I tend to take a dim view of overly reductive classification of mythical narratives into quests, hero's journey or any of that. Taken too far it shrinks the world of story to be smaller than it should be. This episode, however, is blatantly part of an overall quest narrative and also features a reconciliation, of sorts, between father and daughter.

Kevin Smith, of course, is far too clever not to be meta about this. Theres rather a lot going on, and not just the witty dialogue ("He-Man had the sense of humour of a teenager who didn't get out much"). There's Man-at-Arms being the typical old ex-hero who refuses to get back in the saddle, nicely subverted by Roboto. There's the splendid Evil-Lyn's gloriously cynical advice to Andra and Teela as she regrets wasting her life with Skeletor and, more broadly, a realigning of allegiances across the board. The conveniently easy definitions of good and evil are gone.

This is good stuff- well-written and acted. I'm enjoying the He-Man vs Skeletor flashbacks at the start of each episode, too.

Breaking Bad: Down

 "That was before my housing situation went totally testicular on me, ok?"

This is another cleverlt structured episode, with Walt and Jesse given perfectly contrasting parallel dilemmas in an episode which very much focuses on the drama as opposed to terrifying excitement. It's also an episode which shows even further what a superb double act Walt and Jesse have already become, to the credit of bot actors: we all know Bryan Cranston is extraordinary, but so is Aaron Paul.

After an artily shot beginning the two paallel narratives begin, reflecting cleverly upon each other. Walt is desperate to stay at home for a while to allay Skyler's suspicions, meaning no more cooking for a good while. Alas, it also means some bad lying from Walt- he comes across as far too desperate and secretive about the second phone thing, and Skyler isn't stupid. He's trapped, and his family life seems to be slipping away, as shown most subtly where e fails to connect with his son while trying to tach him to drive. I suspect, by the end of the season, Walt will no longer be with his family as for him to be a family man, while doing what he does, is simply not sustainable. Yet it's the very thing that gives his life meaning in the first place.

Jesse, meanwhile, is summarily evicted by his long-suffering parents, and is suddenly reduced to desperate sofa surfing. There's a nicely huanced scene of him in the house of an old man, now married with a young son, with the massive culture clash between them made awkwardly clear. Jesse needs to start cooking pretty damn quickly. And he needs Walt, as is made very clear indeed by the end.

I think I know where this is going- to the full transition from family life to one of criminal ambition. The scene between Jesse and his old mate illustrates how one cannot have both. But this is, again, a superb bit of telly.

The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

 I found this novel, the second instalment of the Amber Chronicles, as I believe they are called, quite as enjoyable as its predecessor. By now I’m used to Roger Zelazny’s deceptively Chandleresque prose, which is more poetic than it seems on first glance, and the fruitful admixture of fascinatingly imaginative fantasy worlds with hard-boiled reality. Here we have magical beasts, superbly sketched impossible worlds, and a sequence about gun smuggling in Brussels and end user certificates that could almost have come from a Frederick Forsyth novel if the prose were not far too good for that.

Just as good is the world itself, with the world building allowed to emerge naturally and organically from the skilfully constructed narrative. Various of the nine Amber brothers- especially Benedict- are sketched out some more, and I’m left eager to read the next novel.

I did have a criticism, that the ageless Corwin seemed to shag his seventeen year old great-niece, which is icky now to say the least and must have been so in 1972. But I’m relieved to see that all is hopefully not what it seems and that Corwin, and Amber, have a new and fascinating nemesis.

This is a superbly told and constructed tale, and I want to jump deeper into this universe. I’m hooked.

The Boys: Proper Preparation and Planning

 "What does it matter whether heroes have a dick or a vag?"

Two episodes in and the various establishing plotlines have a bit of time to breathe.On the one hand we have the creepiness of Homelander insisting on beng involved in the life of his son Ryan, with Becca being understandably really rather freaked out. But, on the other side of the coin, in's becoming increasingly clear to Hughie- and the other Boys- just how unhinged Butcher is becoming.

Also, the Deep is getting further unto this dodgy cult, this time listening to his gills psychoanalyse him in the voice of Patton Oswalt, courtesy of some psychedelic mushrooms and some truly terrible music from the awful Goo Goo Dolls. Stormfront is mysterious- seemingly given licence to be cynical and not cooperate with all the media stuff. I'm sure she has secrets, a hinterland, and an agenda that will be revealed. We also have a nice bit of mutually assured destruction bvia blackmail between Annie and A-Train. And, er, Homelander being pervy about milk again.

But most interestingly, the Boys go after this mysterious Supe terrorist- and it's Kimiko's brother, who turns out to have a rather different agenda. It's all looking very complicated and very unstable, with Homelander at the centre of it all: as a dangerous, sociopathis Superman who can do anything he wants. I'm loving the darkness of this world.

Birds of Prey (2020)

 “You killed my sandwich!"

I absolutely love this film. It is, of course, beyond its obvious and rather successful feminist credentials as a superhero film with a female director and mostly female cast, a blatant version of Pulp Fiction for the superhero genre, complete with the nin-linear storytelling, fetishised ultraviolence and witty pop culture dialogue. This works rather well. There is indeed an uplifting and vaguely feminist message, one might say a fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn, but above all this is a fun, entertaining film.

It's also, of course, a film about Gotham and its characters without Batman or his main supporting cast: the Joker is at least noticed, as Harley's ex, by his absence, but Batman has nary a mention; this isn't his film. Instead we have a superlative Margot Robbie as the undoubted star, with Black Canary, Renee Montoya and Huntress very much taking a back seat, and Ewan McGregor in a rare outing as a baddie, almost nailing his American accent as Black Mask.

It's a brave decision to make a superhero film like this, violent and revelling in it, and thereby excluding the younger audience, but the film is just so damn good and witty, almost DC's Deadpool. Script, direction and acting are all first class and the whole thing is just so damn life-affirming. More like this please, DC.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations- The Poisoned Chalice

 "Cry havoc and let slip these cogs of war!"

I was going to blog The Boys tonight, as I like to alternate. Alas, I'm pushed for time, so the shorter alternative it is.

This is another brilliant episode, shattering the staus quo of an old early '80s filmastion cartoon by removing the reset button and introducing an arc, an ever-changing status quo and a milieu in which any character can die- as Tri-Klops (Henry Rollins!) says, we are no longer in an era of Skeletor's repeated absurd and moribund plans. We're all fortysomethings now, after all.

At firt, it seems as though we have a story of the week to introduce a new staus quo as Teela and her new friend, some time having passed, work as mercenaries. We get a whiff of Stinkor, played by Jay of "and Silent Bob" fame.

We also get a fascinating elaboration of the backstory. Magic is dying, as in Visionaries. Tri-Klops is leading a cult of cyborg technology, complete with body horror transformations. Eternia was the first planet, and both it will rot without magic. A newly cynical Teela, and Andra, must quest for the two halves of the sword of power, in Heaven and Hell. With Evil Lyn. 

The plot thickens, deepens and becomes more interesting. This is such a fresh take. I love it.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations- The Power of Grayskull

 "You can't tend a garden without pulling a few weeds..."

Obviously I was never going to blog the original '80s cartoon. Xennial that I am, and as important Masters of the Universe was to my primary school days as well as those of ever other little boy born in 1977 or thereabouts, I prefer to leave such never-ending cartoons with their big red reset buttons out of the blog. There wouldn't be anything of substance to write about, and I'm no druggie.

This, however, is quite another prospect. For some reason, after blogging more that 750 films, I've never got round to  doing any by Kevin Smith, but in my twenties I was a massive fan of Jay and Silent Bob. His involvement makes this a must-blog.

And it doesn't disappoint. We begin by leaning into the nostalgia, with the introductory art even deliberately homaging the art style of those little comic books  you used to get with the toys. It shows us all our favourite characters being themselves, wallowing in nostalgia, although having a bit of metatextual fun with the catchphrases.

And then, magnificently, it punctures everything as surely as Adam punctures Orko's semi-metaphorical bubble.We learn the secrets of Castle Grayskull- and the whole edifice is a massive exercise in misdirection, to distract Skeletor from what lies beneath- the lair of the Elders, and the Orb that is the source of Eternia's magic and, apprarently, creation itself. At last, as reflected in the dialogue, Skeletor's endless failures are over. At last, as Skeletor sardonically remarks, He-Man finally uses his famous sword to seemingly kill his nemesis. The narrative rules are ended, and that big red reset button is destroyed, never to be pressed again.

The first to die is obscure (and smelly!) goodie Moss Man, but He-Man and Skeletor soon die and, in a dramatic- and perhaps too sudden- final scene, it all collapses as the King and Queen learn simulaneusly that their son was He-Man and that he is dead. Randor's, er, rancour, his banishing of Duncan and Teela's own outburst are perhaps a little too much to accept, even with this stellar cast, bt it all feels so fresh, and Masters of the Universe is at last unpredictable. Hooray.

If one must wallow in nistalgia, one must at least do something new and interesting with it, and upset all the right people. So far Kevn smith certainly seems to be doing that.

The Boys: The Big Ride

 "For an extra grand, I'll let you chop off my dick."

The second series starts not only with a bang but with that uniquely Garth Ennis two-fingered salute. We have a man who uses his regeneration powers to make money on the side by letting blokes dismember bits of his body for fun, which I think is fair to describe as quite a long way down the kinky path. We have characters designed to deconstruct, with delicious bad taste, the archetypes of both the archer as superhero and the blind superhero. There is hilarious footage of Burcher, played by an ersatz actor. We have the head of the deputy director of the CIA's head explode. The Boys is back.

The Seven are very much in their artificial, scripted, cynical world and Homelander s very much the cynical, evil bastard we love to hate- but he may have met his match in Vought executive Mr Edgar, played by the excellent Giancarlo Esposito from The Mandalorian. Meanwhile, the Boys hide in squalour as Hughie wants to press on (with help from a pitying Annie) while all MM wants to do is get home to his wife and little girl.

The Deep, in a tragic place and being un-personed by the Seven, is getting his own sub-plot as he falls prey to a cult that sees therapy as "destructive", which doesn't remind you of any prominent real life cults, right? It's all shaping up nicely.

Oh, and Homelander drinks some breast milk. Eurgh.

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

 

I’ve resisted blogging novels for the ten years I’ve had this blog. Why? Partly because I’m in the habit of writing notes as a watch things I intend to blog, and it’s both less instinctive and more intrusive to do that while reading a book. Also, inertia: I was in the habit, for years, of treating this as a film and TV blog. Then it expanded to albums. Now, it seems, the blog title has become even more inaccurate. Also, I’m off work looking after a poorly Little Miss Llamastrangler so why not?

When it comes to fantasy novels, I like quirky and weird over those long, pompous trilogies with dwarves, elves and dragons. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin can pull off that sort of thing, but their many inferior clones, I fear, tend to bore me.

This is the first novel in what is, to paraphrase Douglas Adam’s, an increasingly inaccurately named trilogy. It is, however, pleasingly weird and imaginative, and a splendid introduction to Roger Zelazny, an author new to me. Its slowly unfolding tale of demigod siblings warring through the ages not only looks suspiciously like a major influence on Highlander, but cleverly deals with all the necessary exposition of world building by giving our protagonist, Corwin, amnesia at the start so he learns who he is alongside the reader. The characters may be godlike beings, but they read as three dimensional people with interior lives and real relations.

The prose is impressive too, which helps a lot. I’m no prose snob, and I don’t by any means read only literary fiction despite doing English at uni many years ago. I don’t mind functional prose, but bad prose I cannot tolerate. Bad prose ruins Agatha Christie for me. Her plots may be ingenious, but she’s no Margery Allingham. But the prose here is just the right balance of hard boiled and whimsical, with the light cynicism leavened by some delightful imagery.

The novel is fairly short, but the next one beckons…

Captain America: Episodes 14 and 15

 

 Episode 14: The Scarab Strikes

"We have nothing to worry about from the District Attorney!"

Not much time to blog tonight, so I'm glad these are short.

A long reprise this time, in an episode full of fistfights- and including a rather nasty whipping to show just how nasty the Scarab is.  

It's the penultimate episode, but there isn't much to show this- even Gardner tracing a call doesn't (yet) led to the Scarab's headquarters. But Gardner's careless comment to where hes going (as Cap) to a goon will have consequences later.

The final cliffhanger- a building being bombed from the air- is admittedly a good one.

 

Episode 15: The Toll of Doom

"It's obvious the District Attorney and Captain America are the same man."

It's the final episode, so the plot has to stop. Gardner and the Scarab discover each others' secret identities in ways they could easily have done much earlier; Gail is put in some intriguing type of peril yet manages to be damn clever; the baddie gets a brutal comeuppance in a way that blatantly condones judicial killing as though no one would object. Wow.

Surprisngly, Gardner is outed as Cap, and it sticks. That's an interesting move.

This was, it has to be said, quite a good movie serial overall. It's a movie serial nevertheless, though. I don't think I'll be seeing another any time soon.

The Boys: You Found Me

 "I was just like you. And then I started givng pieces of myself away, and I guess I gave away everything."

This was an... eventful season finale. Highly satisfying, full of shocks, and very Garth Ennis indeed. It also contains the most disturbng sex scene since Nero and Agripinilla in I, Clavdivs, but that's The Boys for you.

There are of course shocks galore. Homelander kills Madelyn at the end like a bastard, shortly after she gets promoted by the mysterious Mr Edgar whom we will certainly be seeing again as he's played by Giancarlo Esposito. We meet the mysterious Grace. These terrorist supes were deliberately created by Homelander so Vought can make more money. And, of course, we learn the truth at the end- Becca is alive, in suburbia and raising her son with Homelander. Boom.

But it's not just shocks, it's masterful resolution of character arcs. Hence Madelyn's own petard hoisting her. Hence A-train getting back on the Compound V and having a heart attack. Hence Hughie slowly seeing how unhinged Butcher is and returning to his true friends. Hence Annie, knowing the truth about Compound V, confronting her manipulating, gaslighting mother. Hence her deciding to be a real hero after all following an unexpected pep talk, of sorts. from Queen Maeve. Hence the Deep's Britney Spears moment. Hence Annie and Hughie maybe having a future togeher after all.

This is a finale that delivers on the shocks and surprises while still having time for character, humour andsubtext. Its magnificent. 

Season Two to follow within days...

Captain America: Episodes 12 and 13

 Episode 12: Horror on the Highway

"You might as well accuse me of being the Scarab!"

Dare I say it, but this serial seems to be getting a little less aimless and more entertaining as we approach the final strait: this episode is the best in a while.

We begin just after Matson's resirrection as he and his accomplice getaway, although of course there is absolutely nothing in the way of philosophical musing on the miracle of a dead man being resurrected, even if the machine and its inventor are gone.

We then get even more absurdly exaggerated dramatic irony as Grant Gardner once again trusts the scheming Dr Maldor and includes him in his plans.It's all very insidious, and fun to watch, even if the Captain America costume isn't seen again after the first scene.

 

Episode 13: Skyscaper Plunge

"You may tell the Scarab I'll not aid his murderous plans even at the risk of my life!"

The cliffhanger (Grant's car falling off a cliff) is resolved without cheating if a little easily, and were off. This episode is a little less entertaining than the last one, being somewhat full of the usual filler, but we have a new MacGuffin and new Mayan archaeologist character who will presumably take us through the final phase of the story.

But for now it's all set pieces so, after a bit of fisticuffs, Cap falls out of a skyscraper window...

The Boys: The Self-Preservation Society

 "There's always a choice!"

This is an extraordinary- and unusually serious- episode where lots of threads come together and we realise just how damned elegant the plotting is as Homelander reveals the Boys to the surviving Seven- and greatly enjoys doing so, right bastard that he is.

Poor Annie is shot by both sides, as Howard Devoto would have said: suspected initially by Homelander of being in league with Hughie while Butcher remains convinced she's a fully invested member of the supe conspiracy. We also get origin stories, sort of, for both Homelander and Butcher, the damaged indivuiduals at opposite poles. Homelander was raised as a lab rat, while we learn that Becca, after being raped, became pregnant with Homelander's child and died horribly in childbirth.

Parallels abound. After being fugitives the Boys finally accept Fed protection after MM persuades Butcher, and suddenly the Feds have leverage to kep supes and the US military separate. And then... suddenly emerges a terrorist supe in Damascus. Oh dear. Then we have the only comic relief with the Deep in Nowheresville, Ohio... except, on what I suppose could be a kind of poetic justice, a girl hes invited to his room, well, rapes him. In the gills.

There's a lot of pain here. MM's wfe seems to dump him. Annie feels understandably betrayed by the man she trusted. Everthing is very dark. It's all quite masterfully done, and here comes the finale...

Inspector Morse: The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

 "There's always a fifty-fifty chance that the man who found the body did the deed..."

This second episode is better than the first: a complex yet logical series of events that furnishes us with the clues quite fairly, with well-rounded characters portrayed by an extraordinary cast of some of this country's finest character actors. Even better, there are a couple of fiendishly clever twists at the end- and the traditional Morse conceit of having our Wagnerian detective make a couple of wrong turns only makes the whole thing more effective.

It's been decades, plural, since I last read the novel, but this seemed like a fairly straight adaptation to me, although with a few extra visual clues slotted in at the start, as would sometimes happen in Granada's Sherlock Holmes. No doubt it's an '80s thing for the ITV franchises which were, of course, still largely in their pre-1991 heyday.

It's also notable how much of Morse's character is by now shaping up- the crosswords are prominent here- and, of course, relevant- as is the Wagner. Morse's attitude to real ale is, of course, eminently civilised. It's good too, and surprising, to see pathologist Max fleshed out a bit. Peter Woodthorpe maks him quite the memorable character.

There's more Oxford architectural porn here, of course, no doubt for the last time. But there's some interestingly dated attitudes here, in a 1987 adaptation of a 1977 novel. Personally, I've never seen Last Tango in Paris, but certainly not out of any prudery; I haven't got around to it, plus I understand the actual making of the film was a bit #MeToo. It's a proper film by a reputable director and I would not, personally, think of it as porn, just a serious film with sex in it.

On the other hand, I hate butter...

Breaking Bad: Bit By a Dead Bee

 "It wasn't Whole Foods, was it?"

Now that was impressive. I mean, Breaking Bad literally always is, but they'd written themselves into a corner. And got themselves out of it... to the extent they wanted to.

It was inevitablt going to stretch credibility with Hank getting dangerously close to what Walt is up to, however dramatically effective. They had to bring it to a head, and it's to their credit that it all worked out with plausibility. 

It's plausible because the whole amnesia schtick is just Walt being clever, as well as coaching Jesse on what to say to the DEA- athough it turns out Jesse is genuinely lucky in his choice of girlfriend: Wendy has something on Hank, sort of. Yet Walt stage-manages everything to perfection, with superb acting- including "acting" acting- from the magnificent Bryan Cranston. For a while it seems as though Walt may have a problem in not being released from hospital and thus unable to cook... but the way he plays the psychiatrist (the mayor from Buffy!) is masterful indeed.

There are two loose ends, though, as life isn't that neat. Is Jesse getting cold feet? Oh, and Skyler still wants to know about that second cell phone. Ouch. She thinks he's having an affair. Is this going to push them apart? After all, Walt can hardly maintain both of hs lives forever. Is thisperhaps how his family life ends?

I'm REALLY enjoying this.

The Vault of Horror (1973)

 "No money in horror..."

I've seen lots of Amicus portmanteau horror films by now and enjoyed them all to a greater or lesser extent. This is easily the best of the lot.

Partly it's that this time around the tales are all splendidly gleeful in their ghoulish bad taste as the five men who enter the lift each receive their magnificently grand guignol comeuppance. A greedy murderer ends up having blood dispensed from his neck like wine from a wine box. An obsessively nagging husband who insists on neatness has his organs neatly displayed in jars after driving his wife to murder. An insurance fraudster is buried alive and meets his death. And so on, all amongst the most '70s clothing and interior decor that has ever been immortalised in film. 

It helps that Roy Ward Baker imbues the film with some visually witty touches, such as our insurance fraudster reading a novelisation of Tales from the Crypt, to which this is a semi-sequel. The script, too, is wittier and more gleeful this time round.

Yet what really makes this film shine, well-made as it is, is a superb cast full of the sort of well-known character actors who (Terry-Thomas aside) were not quite stars at the time. Standout performances from Glynis Johns and a splendidly vengeful, bizarrely bearded and deeply charismatic Tom Baker are a huge part of the film's success- and a success it is: I care not for the views po-faced contemporary critics.

Captain America: Episodes 10 and 11

 Episode 10: The Avenging Corpse

"These scientists don't seem to realise they're walking eight into the Scarab's trap!"

Two thirds of the way through. I can do this.

So this episode, after we resolve the cliffhanger with the traditional blatant reediting cheat, suddenly changes track as the brother of the late professor from a couple of years ago has conveniently invented a resurrectin machin which the Scarab will obviously wan to steal, and is even giving a talk about it at the Mayan Explorers' Club just so the plot convenience can be total. No wonder Grant blatantly lampshades this in the quoted line.

The Scarab essentially steals the machine and kidnaps its inventor right after a demonstration, in which the scientist revives a dog whom, presumably, he has thoughtfully killed for the occasion.  And then we move to a chase and cliffhanger. You know the drill.

 

Episode 11: The Dead Man Revives

"I didn't contruct this machine to bring a dead murderer back to life!"

The Scarab's henchman Matson is killed, but the Scarab can now resurrect him- and we spend the entire bloody episode in suspense for this to happen. That is, literally, the episode, plus a standard bit of peril.

How many more episodes do I need to sit through? Four? Sigh...

 

The Boys: The Innocents

 "It snapped off..."

They cast Haley Joel Osment as an ex-child star who is now all washed up. That is simply the most meta thing ever. And it's brilliant.

And so is the episode. We see the fakeness of life in the Seven clearly, with manufactured documentary footage showing very clearly how curated are their lives, their histories, even their feeling. Starlight's cry of genuine rage last episode is gradually altered to fit a pre-conceived narrative, with the Deep uttering a carefully crafted apology. Yet the Boys are discovering the truth, piece by piece. All superheroes are manufactured in childhood with the possible exception of Homelander- where did he come from, then?

This is the episode where we learn what's motivating Butcher- his wife was raped eight years ago by Homelander and then vanished, which is horrible, and one of many example of how the untouchable supes ruin lives. Yet Butcher is very blsck and white about the supes. He doesn't trust Mesmer (quite rightly!), and won't believe that Annie is genuine. He's very big on the truth... yet he lies to the team at the end having turned down official status from the Feds. There's a strong theme throughout of truth versus lies. And Homelander is the still, evil centre of all that is wrong.

And poor Hughie is going to have to betray somebody...

Inspector Morse: The Dead of Jericho

 "You're one of these people who have breakfast, aren't you?"

I've read all the Colin Dexter novels at least once although, I'm sure, it's been at least twenty years. I've never seen any of the TV series before though, at least not a whole episodes. I'll not be blogging these quickly as the episodes are bloody long, but the first one is fascinating. This is in some ways the Morse of the books- bloody minded, knows his beer and his culture, but in other ways he isn't: this isn't the course misogynist that Colin Dexter wrote but more of a gentle soul who courts Anne Stavely sensitively.

John Thaw is superb, but credit is also due to Anthony Minghella for perhaps the hardest adaptation- one that has to introduce the series and the characters. He does so with subtlety and writerly restraint, with shortand simple scenes that don't show off, and by showing, not telling; the hallmark of a certain sort of good screenwriting. A shockingly young Gemma Jones is also excellent as, of course, is the great Patrick Troughton in what must be one of his last roles.

I thought I remembered little of the story as it unfolded but the Sophocles red herring came to me as the camera focused yet again on a copy of Oedipus the King just after we learned that Ned had blinded himself. But it was all quite clever, and a cosily enjoyable thing to watch without being too cosy. It helps that morse himself is a compellingly nuanced character.

I'll keep occasionally blogging these. Look out for another episode sometime...

Captain America: Episodes 8 and 9

 

Episode 7: Cremation in the Clouds

"I wonder what's keeping the DA..."

Sigh. This is a perfectly decent movie serial, it really is, but movie serials are just one damn set piece after another. This serial is fine, but if, like myself, you only watch the genre because of superhero completism or some such reason, they start to try the patience by the halfway point, especially as we start with a cliffhanger resolution that is yet another blatant re-editing cheat. And that within a serial that is only sort of about Captain America.

Lionel Atwill is good, it's amusing to see Grant Gardner walk yet again into the Scarab's lair unwittingly, and the stuff with the blowpipe is a rather fun way of seeminly engineering a sdden absence of Henley from the plot.

Whats this? A cliffhanger of Gail piloting a plane with a time bomb on it? How very original...

 

Episode 9: Triple Tragedy

"Don't start anything unless you absolutely have to..."

This cliffhanger is the most blatantly dishonest piece of re-editing since... last episode. Yes, this time we splice in some footage of Gail jumping out with a parachute. This kind of cliffhanger cheating really is becoming a hallmark of this serial. 

This is the point where the serial really starts to bcome repetitive, and the lack of actual plot progression starts to feel really annoying. Yes, I like how Grant trusts Gail as a woman to be badass even though it's 1944, and badass she certainly is, but this episode ends yet again with another bloody building blowing up.

Another six to go...

 

Breaking Bad: Grilled

 "Hey, you got the C bomb, man. All right?"

Every single episode of Breaking Bad so far has been a superlatively good bit of telly. For an episode to be excellent is, so far, the norm. Yet this episode manages to stand out. It's extraordinary.

There's a lot of story arc stuff here, obviously. Life goes on for the whole supporting cast, even if everything is centred around Tujo's kidnapping of Walt and Jesse. We see Hank, first of all in a hilarious opening scene at work and as he moves in and out of his comfort zone (acting all macho, chasing criminals even if he always fails to realise Walt's involvement), a shootout in the desert, even skilfully questioning Jesse's mother) and areas there he is much less assured (talking to Skyler, anything involving emotional intelligence). We see the devastating effect on Walt's family of his disappearance. And we're left to wonder just how the hell he's going to explain all this.

But much of the episode is heavily concentrated on the experiences of Walt and Jesse, completely at the mercy of the utterly fickly and mindlessly violent Tujo, a man who could simply kill them just like that for the slightest of reasons. There are so many moments of intense danger, and the feeling of constant tension is amazing, a testament to the excellence of both the script and the direction- and I suspect the unique mood of the artily shot New Mexico location has a lot to do with it too.

The acting is universally excellent, not least from Mark Margolis as Tujo's seriously ill father, uncle or whatever he is. The ending is surprising, satisfying, relieving and another kind of intense, all at once. How is Walt going to avoid Hank? How is he going to explain himself? How is he going to deal with the inevitable trauma?

This is as good as television gets.

.

The Boys: Good for the Soul

 "You played my butt like jazz. With poise and skill, and willingness to improvise."

Hooray for The Boys having to do the courage to do an episode which so joyously and righteously skewers the evils of fundamentalist Christianity (which, I stress, is a totally different thing from actual Christianity) any hypocrity, cynicism and greed that lies behind the whole thing. It's nice that we get different perspectives, too, from the cheerfully irreverent atheism of Burcher to the honest and simple religiosity of Annie, whose faith may not be dogmatic but is much more real than that of the forces behind fundamentalism.

The beginning is very dark, as Popclaw confesses to A-Train... and he immediately makes her take a fatal heroin overdose. We then learn that he did this at the orders of Homelander, who now controls him even more deeply than before... and views the video of what happened that day. Including Frenchie's face.

Frenchie is in trouble. Yet he seems to be developing a real bond with the girl which is touching to see, and his joy at the end when she seems to heal herself after apparently dying is deeply touching and, indeed, humanising. Hughie, too, impresses MM and, indeed, the viewer hugely as he manages to blackmail Ezekiel successfully, improvising after things go terribly wrong.

Hughie, also, is struggling not only with the conflict between the mission and real feelings for Annie but with the conflict between these feelings and those for the recently departed Robin, whose ghost is ever-present. Annie, meanwhile, struggles with the expectations of the Believe festival, under pressure to pretend beliefs she does not hold, not only for the Seven but her own manipulative, selfish mother.

And then there's Homelander's speech, and the subsequent scene with him and Madelyn, which... let's not go there. It reminds me of Nero and his mother in I, Clavdivs. But quickly moving on... there are other things, too. Rebecca has been missing for eight years yet Butcher won't give up. And Maeve has a bit of a drunken breakdown in front of her ex after last episode's hijack hijinks.

But this is the best ending yet- Compound V is being given to a baby. And Butcher uses the baby as a gun. This is, still, awesome telly.

The Boys: The Female of the Species

 "How do you know so much about the Spice Girls?"

Butcher's monologue about the Spice Girls alone would make this a bloody excellent hour of telly. But there's more. So much more I'm really enjoyng The Boys. Every episode advances the arc in various wool ways with lots of character development, world building, and the kind of dark humour that can only have come from the brain of Garth Ennis.

We begin with an intriguing flashback to Butcher's wife or girlfriend Rebecca who is no longer around- presumably dead? I'm sure we will be drip fed much more of this backstory over the coming episodes. We aso learn more about the Compound V den- A-Train has been running it, and V has been fed to a mysterious and now missing girl who speaks no English and has fearsome powers.

But there's much more. Horrifyingly, Homelander and Queen Maeve (mainly that cynical, self-centred bastard Homelander) arrogantly swan around while trying to stop a hijacking... and end up having to leave all 123 passengers to die as the plane crashes, deliberately not even saving a few people so there can be no witnesses to their incompetence. It's a magnificent sequence that reveals so much about these characters and this world. And worse, Homelander manages to turn it to the supes' advantage.

Interestingly, though, Maeve is clearly having a quiet attack of conscience. This whole sequence, if anything, overshadows the "Boys" and their search for the mysterious girl as they struggle to trust each other. But this is yet another episode of incredibly good telly. And next episode Hughie is expected to blackmail Ezekiel, a kind of closeted, Chrstian fundamentalist Mr Fantastic...

The Matrix (1999)

 "There is no spoon."

This film, by its very cinematography, may well sinply ooze the essence of the late '90s. But it is timeless.

Obviously, this is a truly great film. The fact that a film so drenched in philosophy and wonder can be such a blockbuster hit is a testament both to the genius of the Wachowskis and to the openness of humanity to ideas. And the fact that the "red pill" has in recent years been adopted by thenow thankfully dated alt-right is as meaningless as the alt-righ themselves,  along with everyone who doubts that Trump is a wannabe dictator or that Brexiteers are all Putin's bitches. These people are sad, hateful virgins, while this film is full of joy.

The point is not that this film posits a reality in which our lives are not only but a dream but are simulated realities while we are farmed horribly by AI's resulting from a singularity that looks worryingly as though it may happen within my lifetime, competing with global heating in the fear stakes. The point is, on the one hand, that this film has such a bloody good soundtrack (Rob Zombie, he whose "Dragula" was ubiquitous, and rightly so in late '90s rock clubs, and, er, Marilyn Manson, a genius who may possibly also be an abusive bastard). On the other, though... yes, this is an action sci-fi film with sci-fi protagonists. Yes, it uses its premise to mimic the martial arts visuals on the popular martial arts films of the time. Bjut it means something.

There may well be a religious subtext. If so, it's refreshingly subtle and not preaching uselessly to the converted. There may, as chronicled in recent years, be a trans subtext, endorsed by the Wachowskis who have both transitioned. But subtexts naturally abound with a subject matter so deep as the nature of reality and the ethics of living in a comfortable simulation vs. harsh reality. Should we pretend that there is a spoon?

And yes, I noticed: said bent spoon was in the real world, not the matrix. This film is awesome.