Twin Peaks: Pilot

 "Laura is the one..."

Oh my. That was... unlike any television pilot I've ever seen. Although it was very, well, David Lynch. This is utterly captivating stuff. I mean, I have no idea what's going on, and it'll take a couple of episodes to get a firm handle on all the characters, not least because all the main teenage characters seem to be cheating on their partners with someone else.

But the music, and the visuals, are not just a narrative but also a mood. This isrural Washington State, circa 1990, a place of sawmills, donuts and wood, everywhere you look. Wood, wood, wood, dead end jobs, wood, wood and darkness. Yes, I think I begin to understand a little more where Grunge came from.

Plot-wise... well, Laura Palmer is dead. Ronette escaped, although hardly unharmed. There was an earlier murder, elsewhere in the state. Under the fingernails of both dead girls is a letter of the alphabet!!! At the scene of the crime is necklace with half of a heart, and the words "fire walk with me". There's a primary red herring, Bobby, anda secondary red herring, James. There are hints of much, much more.

Oh, and there's the log lady. In the very first shot, just to weird us out from the very start.

I have no idea what's going on as we follow eccentric Agent Dale Cooper (name influenced by a certain skyjacker?) and Sheriff Harry S. Truman(!) on a weird yet entertaining investigation with twists and turns. But what's going on? What is this about? I have no idea, but this is so very David Lynch, and particularly redolent of the small town American weirdness of Blue Velvet. I think I'm going to like this.

The Defenders: Ashes, Ashes

"Any questions...?"

Wow. The Defenders is on fire as we approach the endgame. So many twists and turns.

Not that it's all shock moments- we get lots of fun plotting and skulduggery between the four surviving fingers of the Hand. We get some good little chatracter scenes- between Luke and Danny; between Luke and Stick; between Matt and Jessica. We see Danny versus the others- who are right- in a hero versus hero fight that actually makes sense. We see Matt and Jessica make a significant discovery about the Hand's intentions, although I'm not sure exactly why Matt starts to play that piano.

And then we get the final few minutes. We don't expect Stick to drug Luke so he can kill Danny. No hard feelings, of course: Danny would be useful to the Hand, so he has to die. Fortunately everyone is able to race back... but so is Elektra. It's an even bigger shock when she kills Stick- who, to be fair, has just assured his own doom by the karmic rules of television drama- and brings Danny to Alexandra.

So Alexandra triumphs yet again. She's won the prize, she's got the Iron Fist, the key to K'un Lun and the elixir of life she seeks to cure the disease that is killing her. And she's proved to her restless colleagues that she was right....

So Elektra kills her. And takes over, her agenda unclear. Wow. Just wow. This is brilliant in every way. Yet the shocks work, because the characterisation does.

Jack the Ripper: The Highest in the Land?

 "You should see some of the names in the papers we haven't let you see..."

And so we have it... or do we?

The centrepiece of this final episode is the tale introduced to the world by Stephen Knight and then popularised by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell in the exquisite graphic novel From Hell. Essentially, no less a figure than Prince Albert Victor ("Prince Eddy"), Duke of Clarence and eldest son of the Prince of Wales and thus right in the line of succession to the throne, has an affair with a shopgirl, "marries" her, and hasa child by her... but she's a Catholic. And, should a royal be thought to even consider marrying a Catholic... well, the world could not stand it, and nor could the Act of Settlement 1701.

But the illicitly married couple had a servant... one Mary Kelly.The muders were all done to target her. The other four victims may have been cases of mistaken identity, or to make the killing look to have been done by a madman. And the killers were a combination of coachman John Netley and royal physician Sir William Gull.

All this is related by Joseph Gorman, or Sickert, the real person, not an actor. This is the same source used by Stephen Knight in his book just a few years later. It's gripping viewing.

Plausible? Well... Gull was seventy-one years of age, hardly matching the ages of the witness descriptions. He was also rather busy, in late 1888, being in the midst of the series of strokes that would soon kill him. Plus... Gorman would later retract his claims. I'm unconvinced.

This is fascinating telly, nonetheless. The Clevekand Street male brothel stuff, and the dramatised libel trial, complete with the very effete and very obviously gay man who seems to fit the popular image of Oscar Wilde, is a fascinating glimpse into the very alien values of an earlier age- the early 1970s almost as much as the late 1880s.

We end with the haunting suggestion that the cover-up continues to this day. I suspect the killer may not necessarily be as exalted as implied here... but, nevertheless, wow.

The Defenders: Take Shelter

 "You are the dumbest Iron Fist yet!"

This is a fascinating episode. The heroes are not yet fully a team, not least because Matt is hiding the truth about Elektra from them... but it's great to see them interact. But the greater friction is, of course, within the five fingers of the Hand. This is a particularly strong episode. All the pieces are out and the mid-game phase is underway.

Plot-wise, things are pretty simple. The heroes' loved ones are threatened by the Hand, so Misty is persuaded to give them protection. Elektra is the catalyst to everything. Matt is forced to confess her backstory, and insists that some part of the resurrected "Black Sky" remains Elektra- something which the ending seems to prove. Meanwhile, the baddies turn against Alexandra for her going off-piste in resurrecting Elektra. Oh, and Stick beheads Sowande, as you do.

There is so much lore being hinted at. Does Gao blind her acolytes, and does this explain Stick's origins? There are hints that there may be more to K'un Lun than is known to Danny. The Hand has "always" owned New York. Alexandra had a daughter before her pilgrimage to K'un Lun.

Deeper than this, though, is the characterisation. Karen and Stick are pulling Matt in opposite directions. Claire is utterly devoted to Luke, and a wise friend to Colleen. This is very well written and acted. It's nuanced, fascinating television, balancing the action with intrigue and solid characterisation. I'm impressed. The Defenders has been good from the start, but this is more.

Better Call Saul: Smoke

 "Well Howard, I guess that's your cross to bear..."

We begin, as season openers tend to do, in the monochrome, smaller-than-life present day, with Jimmy existing, if not living, as a a small business owner with a rubbish moustache in Nebraska, recovering from the incident with the vault, with every arty shot simply dripping with existential ennui. For Jimmy, this is a Hell indeed. And, as we emphasise, there's the constant stress of discovery. He's miserable, depressed, and forever looking over his shoulder. We're reminded that, however much of a terrible person Jimmy is, it will lead only to darkness in the end. His sins will not go unpunished.

Nacho, in the usual timeframe (2003-04?)- is unwittingly in a similar position. Don Hector has had his stroke... but his replacement wants everything to continue as before. Was it all for nothing? Worse, he's under suspicion, and Gus is eloquently concerned about a gang war filling the gap left by Hector. This is all going to get complicated.

For Mike, though, things are looking up. He leaves his old job and receives his first monthly paycheque of more than $10,000!!! We haven't seen much of him lately, so it's great seeing somre cool, fun scenes, including a warehouse montage(!) where he checks Madrigal's security.

But Jimmy... oh, Jimmy. He's very down after Chuck's death, but still very much not the grown-up. Both Kim and Howard do a lot of adulting here: Jimmy does none whatsoever.Worse, Howard, who comes across as more and more decent the more we gets to know him, confesses that he feels responsible for Chuck's death. Jimmy, who has far more cause to blame himself... just lets him. Wow. 

Jimmy deserves his eventual fate. Terrible moustache and all. I can't help wondering, though... what next? We can see where Mike's thread is going, and all the gangland intrigue. But what next for Jimmy?

I am, needless to say, gripped. The camerawork, the depth of the characters... I'm running out of ways to praise this show.

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

 "You can wear a suit that tight up to the age of thirty-five... and no further!"

SPOILERS, obvs.

Oh, RTD, how I've missed you. It's so many years since I've watched an episode of Doctor Who with characters who act and talk about real people, and whom we care about. Yes, we know Donna, Sylvia and Shaun, and that's a nice shortcut, but RTD really can write people, and family dynamics, and those little bits of character subtlety.

That, more than anything, is why this episode is so bloody good. The actual alien threat plot is not the point, cool though it is to see Miriam Margolyes voice Beep the Meep- it's literally an off-the-shelf plot from a very early issue of Doctor Who Weekly for which Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons get credited. No; what matters is Donna, and fixing the cruelty done to her in wiping her memory of all the cool adventures she had. Coming right on the heels of Tales of the TARDIS, which returned the memories stolen from Jamie and Zoe by the Time Lords, Donna now gets similar treatment.

Even better, the way Donna's memories are returned is not a cop out. The moment is earned, and comes from real, human drama centring on Donna's Daughter Rose (nice name). I'm a cis middle-aged man, and it's not my place to comment on what it must be like to be a trans person in the UK in 2023, a nation blighted by culture wars and whose prime minister has made a speech saying people should not be "bullied" for denying trans peoole exist. But the characterisation here feels real- Donna is a wonderful, loving mother and, while Sylvia sometimes gets things wrong, she loves her grandaughter and tries hard. But making all this the resolution is so bloody clever. 

It's so wonderfully nostalgic seeing David Tennant and the whole gang again, both in front of the camera and behind it- this was the first time this year I'd actually watched telly live, as broadcast, albeit on iPlayer- but Doctor Who (aside from General Elections) is literally the only prpgramme for which I treat iPlayer as anything other than a streaming service. Yet it's not just nostalgia. This is bloody good, contemporary telly, calculated to appeal to a general audience. The script is witty and human, the budget looks enormous, and Rachel Talalay's creative direction looks literally cinematic. Plus, the climactic scenes with the Doctor and Donna feature what is literally the best and most fun technobabble ever.

We get to see UNIT, and new character Shirley, UNIT's newest scientific adviser who fires missiles from her wheelchair, is very cool, and is played by the awesome Ruth Madeley from Years and Years. We get teased about both Kate Lethbridge Stewart... but we don't get to see them, not yet. Likewise, Beep the Meep hints cryptically at a "boss", but so far there's no big, Bad Wolf-like continuing thread. Oh, and the new TARDIS interior is at once cool, enormous, oozing high production values and... blatantly based on the DWM comic strip from the early '90s, which is certainly no bad thing.

Doctor Who is back. Properly. Oh yes.

Jack the Ripper: Suspects

 "The Ripper played cricket?!!!"

Here I go again, with yet another Jack the Ripper. Fear not, though: tomorrow is Doctor Who, so it won'ty be five consecutive episodes in succession.

This continues to be entertaining stuff but, well, we get a series of lacklustre suspects all linked to czarist Russia, with even Rasputin getting a mention, before things start to get back on track. Still, this never fails to hold the attention and we do, at least, confirm the point that the relevant archival material is somewhat lacking.

Then we get to M.J. Druitt, a plausible-seeming suspect although, I'm sure, one of many... and we can never be sure whether or not he was a Freemason or not. And then off we go on a royal-themed tangent. That's it, although we do at least focus on the point that there must be a reason the Ripper stopped in November 1880 Did he die, move away, get himself committed to an asylum? Like the Freemasonry stuff, this is a point that needs to be explained.

The last two episodes, while good, haven't matched the gripping intensity and intelligence of their predecessors. Let's hope the same can't be said of the final episode.

Jack the Ripper: Panic

 "... and by that I mean the City of Oporto the port, not the City of Oporto, the ship."#

Ahem. Sorry, but this series is a Class A drug. I keep having to see the next one. I will continue with the other stuff I'm blogging, but it's getting hard to akternate as I'm getting so bloody addicted.

Things slow down a bit this episode as we explore the immediate reaction to both the murders and the failings of the police, both in Whitechapel and more widely. The format works really well here, with texts read out by actors portraying those writing them. This allows us to appreciate the pathos and the reality, These were people living not all that long ago, and not so very different from ourselves. The details of Mary Kelly's funeral are heartbreaking.

There's some dark comedy and some mockery of the casual racism of the time ("The Portuguese are notoriously darkened, villainous creatures"), and also an examination of the public fury against both the hapless Home Secretary in Salisbury's Government and the hopeless Sir Charles Warren, whose defence of this decision to wipe away the "Juwes" graffito- to prevent anti-Semitic violence- is almost convincing.

This episode essentially takes a break from the mystery and excitement in order to remind us of the human side of all this. Yes, it slows things down. But it's the right thing to do.

Jack the Ripper: Butchery

 "One does not need to be a Sherlock Holmes…”

This is fascinating stuff. We have the Freemasonry theories about the “Juwes” and clear hints of a desire from on high to cover up the murders, not least within the constabulary. We have Sir Charles Warren covering up the writing. We have a dodgy-seeming coroner and an absurd head of the CID who blames Jews rather than "Juwes".

We even have, from Watt, a fair amount of description of the actual Freemason mumbo jumbo, although not quite to the point of Jah-Bul-On. This is simply extraordinary: this is From Hell stuff, theories supposed to have first been aired by Stephen Knight in 1976. Yet here we are, a full three years earlier, and a nice bit of emphasis on the possible masonic nature of the rituals. I'm calling it: it's going to be Gull. I bet it is.

 Mind you, I'm well aware that all this Freemasonry stuff is far from universally accepted, and it's all rather murky, and that we're all supposed to suspect Charles Lechmere of being the Ripper these days. But, in 1973, this is cutting edge Ripperology.

This episode is extraordinary in the same way as its predecessors. And, er, yes, I know I'm not supposed to be blogging this today. I just had to see the next episode. Sorry! Defenders next time, definitely. Ahem.

Jack the Ripper: Double Event

 "Good at stopping riots, bad ar catching Rippers!"

The second episode is as gripping as the first, with the conceit of Barlow and Watt simply discussing things intelligently being utterly spellbinding television. Once again, this is a drama that does the job of a documentary, but the personalities of our two protagonists add so much more. We even get a dig, this being 1973, of Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's recent milk snatching antics.

We follow on from the first two murders by looking up at the killing of "Long Liz" Stride, where the Ripper was interrupted, and the immediately following murder of Kate Eddoes, where the Ripper's grisly modus operandi was in full effect. There's much to interest us, from an analysis of descriptions to suggest the Ripper's appearance to speculation that he may not have been left handed after all.

Much is made of the distinction between the area covered by the Metropolitan Police, run by the authoritarian martinet Sir Charles Warren, he of Bloody Sunday the previous year, and the City of London Police, under Major Henry Smith, a seemingly more eloquent and thoughtful character.

Yet we end with something truly extraordinary as the pair discuss the famous graffito "the Juwes are the men who will not be blamed for nothing". The unusual spelling "Juwes" is said to refer to freemasonry, something familiar to those of us who have read Alan Moore's From Hell.... yet this idea is supposed to have begun with Stephen Knight's famous 1976 book. This is three years earlier, when the freemasonry suggestion was not supposed to have been posited. Wow.

I know: I'm supposed to be blogging The Defenders. Next blog post, honest. But I just couldn't wait.

The Prestige (2006)

"You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."

I've seen this film before, a few years before this blog was ever envisioned. I haven't read the original novel be Christopher Priest, but I understand there are a few differences; I won't look them up, as I have a vague intention to read the novel someday- although the ever-moving onset of middle age is making me aware that I have a finite number of decades left in order to consume all the culture I would like to consume.

I don't intend to simply rercount the intricate and clever plot, but, obviously, SPOILERS.

This filom, as one would expect from Christopher Nolan, is supremely entertaining and bloody clever. Let's get the evaluation out of the way now: it's superb. The whole plot is constructed and layered like a magic trick, ending with not one but two prestiges: the revelation that Borden is in fact two twin brothers, and that Angier goes to such lengths for revenge on Borden, potentially dying every night: the latter of these is positively existential. Yet the final prestige is that yes, Borden is judicially murdered, but his daughter still has her father. For Borden, there is hope. For spoilt rich boy Angier, there is only empty death.

It's even cleverer than it seems, with the structure of the whole thing and the foreshadowing- early on there is a trick with a bird being made to disappear, and the small boy realises that the way it's done is for one brother to die and be replaced by the other. Quite.

It's an entertaining film behind the cleverness, with a first rate main cast and a delightful supporting role from David Bowie himself. It is, naturally, exquisitely shot and written. The score by Thom Yorke is exquisite. And the film has understated but very real heart too. A triumph.

Doctor Who: Destination Skaro

 “I like it!”

Yes, this is only five odd minutes. Yes, the tone is very much Children in Need, geared towards a very different audience to those who would actually watch the programme. The metatextual jokes and times-wimey fun at the end, then, much though I enjoyed it, doesn’t tell us anything about the tone of the actual specials from one week today. This is what it is. And I enjoyed it enormously.

Julian Bleach, without make-up, is superb as Davros. No chair, no make-up, but the voice and mannerisms are utterly Davros. I’d assumed the decision to present Davros like this to be an interesting creative one, but it seems RTD is now on record as saying he’s rather bothered that the character tends to encapsulate the trope of Disabled=Evil. If he’s decided to just present Davros like this from now on regardless then, well, the fan in me does whisper “but continuity!” but these things can be handwaved with a bit of creativity. Let’s face it, RTD has a point.

David Tennant is also superb… and this is something that may well come to point towards what we may shortly expect. Tennant has aged, but this gives him a nicely Doctorish gravitas. And is it me, but is a post-Good Omens Tennant even better, certainly at comedy in particular, than previously, despite being bloody good before?

This is what it is. But I love it.

Jack the Ripper: The First Two

 "A middle class Ripper...?"

Yes, I know, this is a fantastically obscure bit of telly. It's a drama, not a documentary, from 1973. It's a spin-off of a spin-off. Two popular detectives- Detective Superintendents Barlow and Watt from Softly Softly, a spin-off from Z-Cars (and no, I'm not going to blog those very old, mostly missing series!) spend the whole episode just investigating and discussing this very cold case, the documented statements from witnesses, police surgeons and the like being nicely dramatised. The effect is something that feels very much like a documentary, and a good one. But it isn't.

Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor are awfully good, excellent actors with loads of charisma. Even just the two of them intrelligently discussing the case is splendidly entertaining in itself, and that's before we get to the dramatised bits.

This is deeply engrossing. It doesn't neglect the social context of 1888- a time where women and boys are sent out of the room at the inquest as the Ripper's incisions to poor Annie Chapman's genitals are described, yet there are 80,000 prostitutes. There's a scene where Charles Booth describes the poverty of Whitechapel. And impressions begin to emerge. A left-handed killer, middle-aged. One with anatomical knowledge and the decidedly middle class of luxury to dispose of the blood from his clothes and so on. Yet a middle class man who would not look out of place in Whitechapel.

The format works brilliantly at acquainting us with details: instead of a dry narration, we get two senior detectives dicussing, debating, questioning the evidence intelligently. Why, for instance, was Annia Chapman killed at 5.25am, when day was well into the process of dawning, rather than earlier? Why such intricate ceremony, taking quite some time after each murder? I know not. But I'm already engrossed.

Gen V: Guardians of Godolkin

 "That was Andy. He was hilarious. And then really sad. He was bipolar."

Wow. That's quite a twist at the end.

And it's quite an episode. Yes, the Shetty/plague stuff was wrapped up last episode, but the season is by no means over as the episode begins. The Big Bad is not Shetty after all... it's Cate, with Same on her side and the others desapewrately trying to deal with a nightmarish race war. All looks hopeless.

Yet there's so much character stuff here. Marie grows to understand all the many more things her powers can do, and decides she doewsn't want so much to be a hero, or have her sisyter's forgiveness, but just to be a good person.... which she is. If she can't have those other things, she can at least deserve them. And yes, Cate deserves what she gets.

Sam is a **** for breaking poor Emma's heart, the girl who risked so much for him. Andre is in a horrible situation, under pressure to take over from his dad, who is suffering brain injuries as a result of just using his powers. 

But the ending is extraordinary. Homelander arrives not to save the day but to rearrange things for Vought's advantage. Marie, Jordan, Emma and Andre are the scapegoats... and genocidal maniacs Cate and Sam are the heroes. WHAT? Billy Butcher has the last word, and it's hard to disagree. But this is brilliant satirical telly. Superb episode, superb finale, superb season. More please.

Better Call Saul: Lantern

 "In the end, you're going to hurt everyone around you. You can't help it. So stop apologising and accept it."

The above quote is, of course, from the key scene of the episode, the last conversation Jimmy and Chuck will ever have, in which Chuck tells little brother some hard truths. And we know he's right. And this conversation will go on to shape one Saul Goodman.

t's not that Jimmy doesn't care. He's genuinely caring with Kim, looking after her,and he is willing to humiliate himself- and presumably end all future hope of working in elder law ever again- to un-ruin Irene's life. He's not evil. But he's self-centred and, crucially, totally lacking in integrity. And we see it in his relations with those around him. He made Kim work too hard, and nearly die, for him, because he does that to people. Yet Kim, unlike Jimmy, has integrity, as we see in this episode. She insists on taking responsibility for her actions, and cares about her clients even at a time when she shouldn't even be thinking about work. Such thoughts, to Jimmy, are alien.

Chuck is self-centred, too: the brothers are not completely unalike. See what he does to the firm he helps to build, from nothing but pride... and how Howard saves the firm by paying Chuck out of his own pocket. True integrity. Howard may often come across as arrogant, but underneath he's a decent sort. Chuck? Well, he's neither a Jimmy nor a Howard. Self-centred? Oh yes. But he believes in values other than himself, not least the law.

Or, at least, used to beieve. Because I'm in no doubt as to what that last scene means. To bookend the episode with this scene and the opening teaser, the only flashback we ever get of the two brothers as kids, both with the motif of a lantern, is very nicely done.

No Mike this episode but, in a scene where we can absolutely see the tension for Nacho, Don Hector finally succumbs to the doctored pill... and Gus twice gives Nacho a look. He knows.

I'm running out of ways to say that a given episode of Better Call Saul is as good as television gets. But it is.

The Marvels (2023)

 "Do you just add the word 'quantum' before everything?"

I don't usually watch films at the cinema because it's a faff finding a showing with subtitles... but I made an exception today, for this film. There seems to be a massive wave of negativity around The Marvels, not for any reason to do with its content, but because certain pathetic incels and male supremacist far right wankers are having a bit of a mardy. So I went to see it during the opening weekend just to throw my two fingers up at said little boys.

And you know what? I LOVED it. And not only because I'm a cat lover. Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and especially Iman Vellani are superb, giving us a likeable and charismatic super team. Crucially, the writing is superb absolutely in the Marvel tradition, balancing humour, humanity and cinematic action.

Spoilers, in case it needs saying.

Zawe Ashton is also great as Dar-Benn, a typical Marvel baddie. Yet there's real heart behind the theatrics. We learn that Carol caused Hala to start to die as an eventual result of killing the Supreme Intelligence, and the reason she didn't come back to see Monica was, essentially, shame. Kamala Khan is the perfect Spider-Man type teenage superhero, and her relationship with her family is utterly wonderful. Then there's Nick Fury, and the fact that it's cats who essentially save everyone by eating them with tentacles. And yes, that's a sentence I rather enjoyed writing. Then we have all the little Marvel details- Quasar's Quantum Band; quantum entanglement, like Mar-Vell and Rick Jones in the comics; lots of harking back to Ms Marvel and WandaVision.

The end is quite something, with Monica (my generation's Captain Marvel!) stuck in a different reality after fixing a hole in the multiversal fabric. She's in the X-Mansion! We see Kelsey Grammer as the Beast! "Charles" is mentioned. And... her alternate mother is there, this reality's Captain Marvel, except this time in Carol's old comics guise of Binary. This is awesome. And that's before we even consider the fact that Kamala, echoing Nick Fury, is going around assembling a team of young superheroes, starting with Kate Bishop. 

This is good, proper, old-fashioned MCU fun, just solid superhero storytelling. This is one of the finest MCU films in recent years, right up there with the best.

Dementia 13 (1963)

 "Drink's the only road to survival in this climate."

No, I have no idea what the title means either. This is, however, a delightful little gem from a young, creative Francis Ford Coppola. With very little budget, he relies on directorial flair, plus the fact that monochrome hides all sorts of budgetary sins, to produce a rather special little film.

Spoilers. Be warned.

The misdirection is nicely done: we think we're watching a ghost story, but it turns out we're watching an early slasher movie-cum-whodunit. The script plays very nicely indeed with genre tropes: Patrick Magee has a wonderful scene towards the end where he tries to persuade the just-married Kane that yes, his mannerisms are very sinister, but he's actually the red herring, honest. And, of course, it is he who eventually saves her from the killer.

The location is nicely evocative: an old castle in Dev's Republic of Ireland where an aristocratric family struggle in adapting their gothic values to this new world where all of the late Lord Halloran's sons are now devoid of titles and thoroughly Americanised.

Visually and conceptually, the whole thing is superb- the scene where Louise finds the creepy dolls; her death by the pond; the dark humour of the opening scene as Louise's dying husband gloats that his fatal heart attack means she will inherit nothing. Coppola will go on to direct more serious films, but this is a B movie done with real class.

Loki: Glorious Purpose

 "The last thing I want is a throne."

SPOILERS, obviously. I mean, this is not only the season finale but surely ends the show for good, two seasons to tell one complete stiry and then stop.

Loki begins and ends with an episode called Glorious Purpose; the snake eats its own tail. But look how far Loki has come, a triumph of character development from the writers and from Tom Hiddleston. In the end, Loki is truly a god from a myth, sacrificing everything so that a whole multiverse of infinite timelines may live and countless people may live. Last episode he confessed to Sylvie that he was motivated not only by altruism but by fear of losing his friends, of loneliness. So we know that his sacrifice, meaning perpetual loneliness, is meaningful and a final redemption.

And this is all beatifully mythical- Loki, for all eternity, alone on his throne, sacrificing everything. There are obvious echoes of Christian mythology, of course, but far more of the old myths. It's a different pantheon, but this evokes such things as Apollo driving the Sun across the sky in his chariot every day. It's appropriate, then, that the new loom should reveal itself as Yggsdrasil, the World Tree. The ultimate Ragnarok has been averted.

So yes, much of the episode is timey-winey fun evoking such things as Back to the Future, and it's brilliant. But there's real depth here, and character. Not only Loki; Mobius accepts he needs to leave the TVA and discover who he really is. We even get to see He Who Remains being sincere with Loki and, while we can't accept what he stands for, we can understand his motives. He's not evil, but genuinely focused on what he sees as the greater good. Jonathan Majors is extraordinary as ever here, with HWR and Victor Timely being crucially different performances.

There's so much subtext here, too. I'm barely scratching the surface. There's a lot about free will vs. determinism which is at once timey-wimey and philosophical. There's lots of great comedy in the timey-wimey scenes ("I'm not questioning your surprisingly advanced engineering skills..."), beautifully performed. There's an ambiguous end for Renslayer. And, in the end, there's what appears to be a stable multiverse. This, I'm sure, is at the heart of this phase of the MCU. More than that, though- episode, season and series- this is utterly magnificent.

Gen V: Sick

 "In my defence, he was a puppet at the time, so..."

Gen V has been a consistently excellent television programme throughout, but this penultimate episode- pretty much a finale in itself- is a particular triumph. The worldbuilding, the characters, the political subtext, the masterful switching of tone between dark humour, tragedy and emotion, is all done to perfection.

In terms of the characters, there are two main threads here. One concerns Cate, filled with guilt and knowing she has so much work to do if she is to earn back her friends' trust. Even we doubt her motives as she appears to succumb to Shetty's gaslighting, even realising that Shetty genuinely loves her as an adopted daughter. It's a particularly clever piece of misdirection as Cate eventually forces Shetty to reveal the truth- about the genocide virus, about wanting revenge for Homelander's killing of her family on that plane, about the entire uni just being a front for the Woods.And kills her, in a way that is particularly upsetting for Marie.

As for Marie, the episode gives us another bombshell: Marie's benefactor is none other than Victoria Neuman, whose powers are the same as Marie's and how she makes people'sheads explode. Neuman deals with the whole virus thing, making Dr Cardoza's head explode into the bargain... but what's going on with her? What does she actually want? The plot thickens.

Most powerful of all, though, is the reaction of the protesting students towards Neuman, clearly evoking slogans of the real world MAGA extreme right. And Sam, is seems, is in the process of being radicalised into supe supremacism. This is truly heady stuff. Supe genocide vs. supe supremacism, Nazis vs. Nazis...

Robin of Sherwood: The King's Fool

 "We're his pets. The wolves clever Richard trapped and tamed."

I'm impressed. For the second episode in the row we riff on a traditional tale, this time the one where King Richard returns and pardons the outlaws and, indeed, at firat it appears that this is happening. The fact that this is the last episode of the series makes it feel plausible, and John Rhys Davies certainly has presence and charisma as King Richard- at once larger-than-life and utterly believable, not an easy combination.

Yet all, as ever, is not as it seems, and the episode gives us a fascinating meditation on the ethics of compromise versus not selling out... and comes down firmly on the side of the latter. If this episode were a band, it would refuse to join a major label or learn a fourth chord, and rightly so.

Robin, blinded by hope, is the last to see Richard for who he truly is: a warlord, who knows and wants only war. A king who spends little time in England and sees it only as a cash cow for his dynastic wars, wars in which he wishes to involve the merry men. Oh, it may seem at first that Robin has royal favour and the Sheriff does not, but the natural order soon reasserts itself.

The ending, too, is fascinating. Gisburne, surely, is dead. And at first, by the evocative surroundings of a stone circle (let us gloss over the fact that there are none in or near Nottinghamshire), it seems that Marian does too... yet, at the last we have the atmospheric, vaguely Celtic magic of Herne the Hunter. Let us not think too hard about the provenance of these myths, shall we?

A triumphant ending to a promising first season. I'll shortly be resuming with series two, but first I'll be doing something else in this "slot"...

Julius Caesar (1953)

 "Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life cuts off so many years of fearing death."

I'm utterly knackered today after a long, difficult drive and the emotional drop after dropping Little Miss Llamastrangler back at her mum's after a wonderful half term week, so I wanted to watch something undemanding and... yeah, it's Shakespeare. But I've seen this version before in my youth and was curious to see it again, and this is the play I've seen on screen the most for some reason.

This is, of course, sublime cinematic Shakespeare. James Mason excels as Brutus who is, I suppose, the closest we come to a main protagonist: it was certainly the part later played by Charlton Heston in his later version, not comparable to this but fascinating in its own way. The direction, the sets, all is at once suitably cinematic yet at the same time appropriately intimate in ways that suits Shakespeare who, writing for the Elizabethan stage, focused by necessity on dialogue rather than complex spectacle.

Yet there are two obvious stand-out performances by two truly great actors who, incidentally, both exemplify different schools of acting, both done to perfection- the traditional stage approack of John Gielgud and the method, er, method of Marlon Brando. Gielgud is the perfect Cassius. Yet Brando as Mark Antony steals the show. Antony doesn't have as much prominence in the play as one might think, but he certainly has the big soliloquys. And Brando performs them in a way that may never be surpassed, perhaps showing once and for all that the best of Hollywood can approach Shakespeare with utter confidence. Making no attempt to pointlessly do a fake British accent, Brando brings an intensity to the part that makes the words come alive. It is, perhaps, the single greatest Shakespeare performance ever committed to film.

So, yeah, this is a truly great film. It also shows how the same Shakespeare play can speak to you in different ways each time you see it, perhaps shaped by the differences in direction, performance, version of the text. Here I was struck by the many references to the inevitability of death and how one must manage one's fear and existential dread that we are all mortal. Death is the only certainty in life.

Yet the one line that struck me most this time came not from one of the characters but from the Roman crowd as Brutus makes his speech: "Let him be Caesar!". Brutus and the conspirators do their bloody deed, ostensibly for liberty and so that the Roman Republic may not know another Tarquin, yet the masses utterly miss the point, thereby showing that such scruples are futile in the long run... and, of course, young Octavian waits in the wings, he and Antony dissing poor Lepidus behind his back...

So, yeah. Nice simple film for knackered old me.

Loki: Science/Fiction

 “Reality isn’t what you think it is.”

So, last episode painted everything into a corner. It gave us the ultimate cliffhanger: everything is over. Where now? It reminds me in broad terms of the end of Steven Moffat’s first series of Doctor Who, but it is very much its own beast. This is an excellent piece of television. Also, I approve of the point made about the Velvet Underground being a literally earth-shaking band.

So Loki, already established as time slipping- with an effect that suddenly reminds me of the fate of poor Victor Timely- spaghettied. I suppose being a God helps. 

And so Loki goes on his journey to the main timeline lives of all his friends- Hunter B15 the community doctor; Mobius the single dad jetski salesman (what else?); Casey the bank robber escapee from Alcatraz (what?!); OB the physics professor and aspiring science fiction author. It’s all good fun, though hard to see where all this is going.

Then Sylvie. And that wonderful scene in the bar. The scene that starts by laying out the ideological oppositions of these two variants of the same person. Both believe they support free will, free agency, yet these concepts are not easy to apply to a slippery, timey-wimey multiverse which is somewhat unstable.

Sincere though both are, though… both are selfish. Sylvie wants her humble life in Oklahoma. It’s not much, but it’s human. It’s happiness. It’s what she’s always dreamed of. For Loki… for the first time in his life, he has purpose through friendship. The trickster god need not be alone. I’m not sure this quite works with the character’s history and nuance… but there’s enough sleight of hand.

So all hope lies in time-slipping Loki TL rewrite the timeline. There is hope.

Except… the first scene in the “previously on” very much seemed to me to suggest that He Who Remains is indeed manipulating all of these events.

Superb telly, in case it needs reiterating.

Gen V: Jumanji

 "I fart the star spangled banner!"

I haven't seen the titular film, so no doubt there are all sorts of pop culture references I'm not getting here. Nevertheless... 

The B plot here is so, so sweet. Sex is often played for gross in Gen V and The Boys, but this episode has one of the loveliest sex scenes I've ever seen, as Emma and Sam make love. It's his first time, but Emma is so very understanding and makes it clear that there's no pressure. Bless her.

The rest of the episode, though.... oooh, it's dark. Also structurally clever, of course. How can we get the rest of the gang to give Cate the time of day ever again? By getting trapped in her traumatised psyche and get to understand, if not condone, what she did. Cate has a lot of work to do to even begin to earn back their trust... but it's a start.

We know what Cate did to her brother, but not how her mother proceeded to hide her away, unloved, for nine years, easy prey for Shetty and her bottle of pills. And there are parallels with Jordan who, we now see, made some dodgy decisions in going along with brink, and with Andre, who started sleeping with Cate while Luke was still alive. And then there's the parallels with Marie: her sister's rewaction is utterly heartbreaking.

But Shetty, the doctor, and that supe-killing virus... ouch. We've had two intense and character-based episodes, two superb bits of telly, but I get the feeling a lot is going to happen in these last two episodes.

Tales of the TARDIS

 Obviously I haven’t watched the omnibus versions of all these old Doctor Who stories I’ve seen countless times before, just the fabulous new scenes at the beginning and ends. So I’ll say only that the whole omnibus thing makes me nostalgic for the old days of BBC video. Also, The Mind Robber and The Time Meddler have never looked so good. And I’m pleased to see the extended cut was used for The Curse of Fenric.

Earthshock

“Oh, you got old.”

"You didn't."

Of course, we saw Tegan and the Fifth Doctor interact briefly in The Power of the Doctor and ditto for the Seventh Doctor and Ace. These pairings therefore make sense, and this and The Curse of Fenric are the obvious story choices for each respective pairing: bloody good, but also emotionally resonant for the characters. 

So what's going on? This first instalment has to do a bit of exposition on what a "Memory TARDIS" is- part of the TARDIS, although perhaps not a physical location as such. It feeds on memories, so a story has to be told. Wisely, it's all kept a bit vague, and at this point we simplyhandwave over how the Doctor looks visibly older than he was when we saw him succumb to Spectrox Toxaemia with all those heads whizzing around him.

We end with some nicely meta commentary as the two of them mourn Adric. "He loved you", insists Tegan, to which the Doctor responds "Yes, I realise that now." The characters are pretty much acknowledging that the episodic nature of the series back in those days didn't really allow for prolonged dwelling on the characters and their development- but it's not too late to remedy that. It's a lovely sentiment.

We also learn more about what Tegan went on to do, as with many former companions: campaign for environmental causes. Are you listening, Sunak?

The Mind Robber

"I think we're in Heaven."

"I hope not. I'm a very busy woman."

This one was absolutely necessary- the theft of Jamie and Zoe's memories by the Time Lords in The War Games was a truly monstrous crime. It's been left very late in the characters' lives, but at last that great wrong can be righted.

We learn that they've both led good lives- Jamie has fathered a massive family, while Zoe is now president. This one is just vibes, really, but it's lovely. And the chemistry between the actors is as wonderful as ever.

Vengeance on Varos

"The twenty-first century- it feels a lot like Varos."

Both Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are great here but... is it me, or is the chemistry not quite there? Regardless, this one is perhaps not so successful as the others, for reasons that are not really its fault. The decision to have Peri get married to barbarian king Yrcanos was always an outrage, a shameful treatment of a character who had meant so much. RTD has no choice but to spin this as Peri having achieved great things as a "Warrior Queen", but this isn't enough to wash away the sins of his prdedecessors within that very, very dysfunctional Doctor Who office of 1986. Nothing could.

It's good to see the Sixth Doctor rather less garishly dressed, though. It's also heartwarming to see them both resolve to go travelling again, though. So a Memory TARDIS can travel through time and space, maybe...

The Three Doctors

"Did you love him?"

Katy Manning is, of course, the obvious choice here, but who to pair her with? The only real choices from the era would have been John Levene or Richard Franklin and... yeah. So Daniel Anthony as Clyde Langer is the perfect choice. We get a bit more closure on The Sarah Jane Adventures: Clyde is a successful comic book creator; Luke and Sanjay are astronauts; Rani is an activist, like Tegan and Ace.

There's real heart to this one. A recently bereaved Jo is mourning her Cliff, and in a mood not to allow Clyde to miss his own chance for love. RTD does this sort of character stuff very well indeed, and it works.

The Time Meddler

"I mean, can you imagine the Doctor wearing something like this?"

The above is the best joke in all six of these, with Steven commenting on what we know to be the Sixth Doctor's inimitable fashion sense.

And this one is absolutely the best of the lot. Peter Purves is superb but Maureen O'Brien is absolutely wonderful. A couple of years may have passed but she is still absolutely, utterly, brilliantly Vicki, and a real joy.

Both of them are grandparents. Steven is a king. Yet Vicki's departure in The Myth Makers, while not the Peri level of bad, was pretty appalling, a girl from the twenty-fifth century settling in the time just after the Trojan Wars, a time with few creature comforts and much violence and hardships. But RTD very much emphasises that she's had a happy life regardless, and O'Brien's performance convinces us.

I love the ending, a nice touch.

The Curse of Fenric

"Time streams are funny things. In some, I regenerate. In others, I don't."

The above quote, I suppose, is the best we're going to get in terms of explaining why all these Doctors look visibly older. Best not to ask too many questions, I feel.

This one follows on nicely from The Power of the Doctor, and both characters get closure, with the Seventh Doctor admitting that his manipulations would, yust veeery occasionally, you understand, go a little bit too far. I love the revelation that Ace used to see her nan- Kathleen Dudman- in the nursing home. And yes... the Doctor was always a father figure to her.

So off they go on one more journey. This one was wonderful.

So there we are. Just a few minutes per story, yes, but the sort of nice little character moments that Doctor Who coudn't really do when it consisted of twenty-five minute serialised episodes. It's surprising how much of a delight this all is, considering that it isn't much material. But this is whetting my appetite nicely. I trust RTD.