Wish (2023)

 “It didn’t work. When does the magic happen?”

It’s the Chrimbo Limbo, it’s raining all day, time for a spontaneous cinema visit with Little Miss Llamastrangler. And… well, she enjoyed it. So did I, to be fair. The film is fine. It’s just… well, generic Disney.

Of course, the animation is superb, in a style that is at once classic and modern. The voice acting and facial animation are excellent. It’s just that the plot and the characters are… just ok. Next to other modern Disney animations, your Frozens, your Tangleds, it falls short. It’s a very linear plot, with characters that aren’t going to stand out next to previous Disney protagonists. And for a film meant to commemorate Disney’s centenary… well, that’s a problem.

Still, as I say, it’s fine. Little Miss Llamastrangler liked it. It’s perfectly serviceable and technically excellent. Chris Pine is a great baddie, and he gets the best song. This isn’t a dud. But it’s no classic, either.

Batman: The Bat's Cave

 "Don't worry. They don't bite... unless I tell them to."

Thankfully, other than the actualmpresence and appearance of Dr. Daka, the racism isn't so foregrounded here, much as it is of course present. This continues, that rather large elephant in the room aside, to be a moderately superior movie serial. Yes, we're now moving into the plotless series of episodes and set pieces that charactyerise the genre, but there are nice little touches- Lewis Wilson's impressive performance as Brude Wayne, the cynicism of the police captain taking credit fot Batman's work, the nice little scene of Linda Page being gassed in a phone boogth.

It's fascinating seeing the early use of the "Bat's Cave", too- no gadgets, here: this is just a scary place full of bats aimed at scaring baddies. It's equally interesting seeing the first iteration of Alfred- yes, he knows that Bruce and Dick are Batman and Robin, but he's very much a figure of fun and the butt of the joke.

I hope to see more of this sort of thing, fun though the set pieces are. The cliffhanger is rather good, and in fact the production so far is rather good for a movie serial. But we've a long way to go...

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

 "I've even been trampled by a moose..."

Well, that was enormous fun. I have to say, it's not a bad idea to debut a new Doctor on Christmas Day. Large casual audience, so no continuity to speak of other than "mavity" and the Doctor having recently realised he's an orphan, other than Mrs Flood's mid-credits line, whiuch we'll come to in due course. And, unlike The Christmas Invasion, the new Doctor is up and running in what looks like a great jumping on point. Despite the light continuity, this isn't a reboot as such, but it feels a lot like Rose.

Anyway... Ncuti Gatwa is outstanding. Charismatic, with charm, humour and gravitas. Interesring hints of queerness for this Doctor but, well, what's new? He is absolutely the Doctor. I say that without reservation. He's even overcome my prejudice against moustaches. That's saying a lot. Then there's the immediately relatable Ruby Sunday, whose mysterious past as a foundling, dumped by a mysterious hooded woman, is so a hook for future adventures.

She has a well-rounded family too, especially her adoptive mum, Carla. RTD uses timey-wimeyness to cleverly adddepth to her character by showing us, almost Pyramids of Mars-style, what her life would have been like without Ruby- bitter, unhappy, living without love.

The point of the episode is, of course, new beginnings, new characters. Not that I don't love the pirate goblins in the sky with their pirate ships and bizarre sciences of rope and coincifdence that are definitely not magic, nope, definitely not. The concepts on display here seem effortlessly brilliant. Loving the bad luck stuff… and the reveal of Davina. Then there's the songs. They're so wrong, yet so right. I love them. I am sooo using this episode to indoctrinate Little Miss Llamastrangler (happily in bed!) tomorrow.

But Mrs Flood... hmm. "Never seen a TARDIS before?" Not the Master, I assume. Let's not pretend the Rani is worth bringing back. The Meddling Monk? Not a bad idea, but probably too fannish a thought. Tecteun? Too Chibbers. Nope, someone else. But someone big enough to warrant casting Anita Dobson...

Anyway, that was fun, Which was precisely what it needed to be.

What If... Nebula joined the Nova Corps?

 "Seems a bit morally grey, with the guns and all."

You'll have to excuse me: I didn't know that What If? was about to drop now, at Christmastime, one episode per day, and I'm a few days late. I'm already blogging Better Call Saul, Twin Peaks and the 1943 Batman serial. I still am. Plus there's Doctor Who tomorrow. Aaaargh. I'll do my best, as this is a current show, to blog it as quickly as I can while not neglecting the others.

Anyway, I love this opening episode. Yes, there's a big central sci-fi idea, with more than a dollop of William Gibson and Blade Runner in the aesthetics of a dark, crime-ridden metropolis and the protagonist being a cyborg. Yet, to me, this feels very much like it's channelling Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, except with Karren Gillan, outstanding as Nebula, as the principled agent of justice in a world where no one else can be trusted at all. It is this, the mood, the setting, perfect for Nebula as a character, that makes the episode so good.

The plot is clever, though, with the twists and turns somehow working brilliantly both as high concept science fiction if written by Raymond Chandler.

It's wonderful to see Seth Green's Howard the Duck too, obviously. And Taika Waititi's Korg is always a joy. I'm impressed, once again, that an animated series is able to recruit such a high calibre of actors. And it's interesting to get a focus on Xandar and the Nova Corps, very much cosmic side characters with the MCU... but, of course, Nova is coming.

Oh, and Merry Christmas:)

Bitter Victory (1957)

 "All men are cowards in some things..."

This film does not, it seems, have much of a reputation. Richard Burton gets top billing here as Captain James Leith, but far more interesting is Curd Jurgens, perennial German officer in World War II films but this tiome an officer- albeit South African- in the British Army, as Major David Brand. Brand is the protagonist, but a far deeper and more fascinating one than a mere hero would have been. Both he and Burton are superb, and both characters have real depth. The script is exquisite; this feels as much a serious play as a war film, despite the gripping action scenes.

Both men are candidates to lead an important, dangerous mission from Cairo into German-held Libya. Yet there is friction, with Leith being an old flame to Brand's wife Jane. Brand is an inexperienced staff officer, out of his depth in action, whereas Leith is a volunteer, a former archeologist, a philosophical man with a deep, dark soul. The general chooses Brand to lead, as Leith is "an intellectual. Besides, he;s Welsh." Well then.

The scenes between the two men are gripping. Leith sees Brand's failure to kill in action, yet this is no moral failing. Where Brand disgusts is in his dishonesty and the extent to which he goes to hide his failure, trying to kill Leith, subtly, and ending up with a reputation as a killer amongst his men and, indeed, his wife. Yes, this is an action film, and a good one. There is suspense. Yet, as a character drama, this is almost as good as anything by Miller or Rattigan.

Not only that, we get to hear Christopher Lee doing a cockney accent.

Batman: The Electrical Brain

 "Listen, Daka, or whatever your name is! I owe allegiance to no country or order but my own! I'm an American, first and always, and no amount of torture conceived by your twisted oriental brain will make me change my mind!"

I last watched this over Christmas and New Year, 1990-91. Why not watch it again, now, for the firsttime since? The first screen appearance of Batman and a Robin for whom every day is a bad hair day. The first ever appearance, comics included, of Alfred and the Batcave, which is reveal to us from the very start in all ots awesome glory: a posh table, a chair or two, some bats flying about and some papier mache rocks. Bloody terrifying.

This is genuinely very good and engaging, though. Lewis Wilson is excellent as a Batman who, as Bruce Wayne, amusingly exaggerates his playboy persona for the benefit of his disapproving girlfriend, Linda Page, who- she being a woman and this being 1943- is a typist. There's a good explanation ("our special assignment from Uncle Sam") for Bruce not being in the armed forces. And the plot, involving radium in a safe, a radioactive ray gun, and sinister mind control, is excellent.

But- and yes, you knew this was coming: yep, the racism. You have to make allowances for the fact this is 1943, and this is Imperial Japan, merrily committing unspeakable war crimes as the movie serial is filmed. The yellowface is one thing- far from ok, but there's a context. But, I mean, we get the line "since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed J*ps", which is utterly mind boggling. Wow.

So yes, all very good... but the racism is really, really shocking, it can't be denied.

Better Call Saul: Something Beautiful

 "It never loses suction."

I was going to use a certain quote concerning gold nuggets, but decided I'd better not. Anyway...

This is a fascinating episode, which has the air of calm before the storm. Not that Nacho's extraordinary actions- faking a hit, including having himself shot and wounded twise, in order to cover up the death of that bloke- are exactly calm. But these are the lengths he has to go to, conflicted between his loyalty to the cartel and towards his father. He's badly conflicted and he can't, surely, keep getting away with this. He's lucky to survive... for now. And that doctor has such a wonderful bedside manner.

These things create ripples. Gus isaffected, with supplies disrupted and having todeal with conflicting demands from on high. Yet we also see him interact with an ambitious Gale for the first time, another old face.

Jimmy, meanwhile, is "masterminding" another dodgy scheme... eventually, when he can persuade a patsy to do the cat burglaring. I love how we spend such a long, tense scene with things almost going very badly indeed, yet with intentional bathos as the rather pathetic victim has been kicked out of his house by his wife. This is all sort of comic relief, but I suspect I ought to be seeing this as a clue that things are about to get serious.

We see Kim, working to hsrd while she should be resting, but... it she reaching some sort of crisis? Chuck's letter to Jimmy is actually nice, and it is she who tears up while Jimmy remains cold, as he always is deep inside, because what she loves is the mask, not the man. Is she beginning to realise...?

As ever... wow.

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

 "It should have been perfect!"

It's been a while since I've blogged a Hammer Horror film, not least because there are relatively few of them left. But, incredibly, I've yet to see or blog any of the sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein, so here goes. 

This is,let's face it, Hammer horror by numbers. It's ninety minutes of Peter Cushing dominating the screen as the deliciously obsessive and amoral Baron Frankenstein. The good Baron may speak of "revenge", but after cheating death in such a gloriously improbably way he wishes only to consider his experiments. I'm not sure how, even back in Bismarck's Prussia, one could practise medicine under a pseudonym as surely qualifications would have sort of mattered. I'm a little surprised, too, at how friendly the good Baron can be when blackmailed. but let us think not of such things, and just enjoy ourselves. 

This time Frankenstein has a willing volunteer, a disabled man who wants his brain to be transported into a new, perfect body. It's just that he didn't bother to clarigfy before the operation that Frankenstein intends him to be a public spectacle, which he's less than keen on. Oops. It's also made hilariously clear, with a bit of foreshadowing with a chimp given the brain of an orang-utan, that transplanting Karl's brain into the new body will probably turn him into a crazed, cannibalistic killer. How lovely. How very Hammer. The scenes where the inevitable happens and Karl goes made are a delight.

And if all that isn't fun enough, we get the perfect ending. And any film about brains in jars just has to be adored. So yes, Hammer by numbers... but Hammer by numbers isa very good thing indeed.

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

 "My hovercraft is full of eels."

This film is, of course, just a load of sketches from the first two series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, barely rewritten at all and reshot with a slightly bigger budget. That, of course, is no bad concept for a film.

Whether the "best" sketches were chosen is, of course, a subjective thing. Any thirteen episode series of half hour shows is going to be, as the cliche goes, hit and miss. There's so much good stuff in those two series, and the film has less than ninety minutes to play with, so it's a shame they went for the killer joke sketch, the rowdy old ladies, and other second tier stuff. I suppose they were pretty much obliged to include the slightly overrated parrot sketch. Nevertheless, we get the two mountaineering sketches, not being seen, the restaurant sketch, defence against fresh fruit, and other top tier stuff/.

Obviously, the film is superb. It couldn't possibly not have been. But what fascinates me, after the passage of fifty-odd years, is how much longer ago 1971 feels than it did the last time I saw this film, I suspect when John Major was prime minister. We no longer, mercifully, have many tobacconists. Let us just say that attitudes to LGBT+ people are a bit different. Even more fascinating, though, old people wear Victorian fashions because they are, of course, Victorians. It's middle aged women who look like my generation's idea of what old people look like. And there are the ever-present city gents with their black bowler hats.

This is a hilarious comedy, and also a fascinating little time capsule.

Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov

I’ve consistently said, ever since I first read most of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, Robot and Empire novels some twenty-odd years ago, that Asimov is a writer of two halves. The Asimov of the ‘40s and ‘50s is a powerhouse of brilliant ideas, while the older Asimov of the ‘80s writes Asimov fan fiction full of continuity. High quality fan fiction, for sure- fan fiction is often superb and should not be disparaged- but more focused on continuity than in the big ideas of Asimov’s youth.

Having just reached the ‘80s with this rereading in the shape of this novel, however… I don’t get that impression at all. Oh, there’s continuity, all right. The Foundation universe is linked to the Robot universe for the first time. But… the book positively fizzes with ideas. The plot is a devilishly clever game of ten dimensional diplomatic chess, and for Asimov, it’s not really about characters: plot is all. Getting to see the political skulduggery of not only Terminus but the Second Foundation is a real joy.

Then there’s the ending. Yes, obviously the Gaia stuff owes a lot to James Lovelock, obviously. But the context is ingenious. The Gaia hypothesis as political ideology… is there a very, very left-wing subtext here, anti-individualism? It’s unclear. I don’t necessarily approve but, if said subtext is there, it’s nicely done.

The ending is devilishly clever: I particularly love the studies ambiguity as to whether or not Bliss is a robot.

Doctor Who: The Giggle

 "I gambled with God and made him a Jack-in-the-box..."

Yes, I know: I, of all peopole, am a day l with his ate for Doctor Who. But, much as my Who fix is an imperative, a necessity,  a matter of life and death... yeah, my child comes first. Anyway, this is going to be a long one. But let's just start by saying that it's a tour de force of writing, characterisation, direction and production, like both of its predecessors this 60th. We even get Mel, getting to be a genius working for UNIT, Bonnie Langford being brilliant, and even a potted history of life from Sabalom Glitz onwards... and is it hinted that they were an actual couple? Bizarrely, though it shouldn't, I think that sort of works. Anyway...

Love the pre-titles with the Toymaker in 1925 with his creepy shop, the John Logie Baird stuff, and the captivatingly evil charisma from Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker. I like the way the Toymaker is called out for a casually racist comment that exactly echoes one made to Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Time and Space, surely a deliberate nod. It's also perhaps a nod to the hints of archaic racist tropes that hover around the character; if you're not sure what I mean, Google the words "Celestial" and "Chinese". I'll wait. Incidentally, I love the brief colourised clips of William Hartnell and Michael Gough. 

Of course, The Celestial Toymaker is, I have to say, total pants, just game after game with no real sense of drama or purpose. The games here are so much different, and creepy. That poor man made into a marionnette (not saved, I note, from this existential body horror), and Donna's being attacked by the family of ventriloquist dummies. Brr. The Toymaker may not have been a great villain in 1966 (he really wasn't!), but he is now. The concept was always potentially great. Now, at last, it's been done properly. And I love how RTD refuses to do anything so mundane as explain what the Toymaker is. The whole point is that he's beyond all logic and explanation, and therefore terrifying.

Even better, this episode is about something. People acting so belligerently in 2023 is simply the Toymaker having people behave in real life as they behave online, a nice touch. And the anti-Zeedex conspiracy theories, with the obvious subtext... yeah, chef's kiss. The Toymaker even declares during the climax how he loves the capacity of humanity to lose themselves in their gaming headphones (not much of a gamer myself in that sense. Pokemon Go, on the other hand...), plus "the mind games- the dating, the ghosting". This is the perfect way of using fantasy to get away with social commentary. Oh RTD, how we've missed you.

Anyway, we get UNIT again. Still led by Kate. Shirley is still there. Are we, perhaps, looking at a recurring UNIT gang, 70s style? Potentially including Donna (I love how she casually gets the job!) and even Mel? It's an exciting prospect, one of many arising from this episode.

The conclusion, with the bi-regeneration and two Doctors, really shouldn't work. Describe it out of context and it's terrible. Except, with RTD writing... it isn't. It's brilliant. Ncuti Gatwa is superb, of course, but more on him at Christmas. The Fourteenth Doctor is tired, full of the weight of history, and facing burnout. The Toymaker's puppet show illustrates it nicely... the guilt of Amy and Rory, of Clara, of Bill, of the Flux, of that thing last episode with the salt. As Donna hasn't stopped telling him, from the very start, he needs to stop. And now he has a family, on Earth, which is lovely, much as he keeps taking people on naughty little TARDIS trips. It's a nice touch that Mel, being an orphan, gets included too. And, being that this is a second Earth exile of sorts, it's a nice little Easter egg that the Doctor tells a little anecdote about the planet Delphon, where they communicate with their eyebrows. That joke is fifty-four years old next month...!

Much as I'd say the chance of the Fourteenth Doctor and the Nobles (sadly Wilf had just a cameo, understandably...) reappearing in some way is pretty much 100%. Good. Because the characterisation has been exquisite, not least with the Doctor accepting his regeneration without self-indulgence this time. 

This is pretty much perfection. The bar has been set high... but I've every confidence that Ncuti Gatwa's debut is totally going to smash it.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

 "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?"

Yes, I know. I should have seen this film long before the run-in to my forty-seventh Christmas. At least I've seen it now. It's awesome, obviously.

What's striking on a first viewing is how very late in the film we get the bit where aspiring angel Clarence shows George how awful his community would be without him. We get nearly two hours of George, a nice guy- well, by 1946 standards- having his dreams of travel and architectural glory slowly crushed as he stays in the same town, putting others before himself and living a modest, humble life. Some of the scenes are quite distressing, not least his and Mary's honeymoon being ruined by the Wall Street Crash.

What's also striking is that the film disapproves of capitalism red in tooth and claw and insists that community matters far more than money, an important point for any age. Bedford Falls is a nice place: Pottersville is an obvious inspiration for Biff's changed 1985 of Back to the Future Part II.

Jimmy Stewart is, of course, the perfect leading man, the cast is superb with Lionel Barrymore, especially, engaging in some truly splendid chewing of the scenery, and the entire thing looks perfect. I'll even forgive the film, as someonewho knows, for its rather amusing total failure of realism in depicting George's deafness. As anti-Dickensian riffs on A Christmas Carol go, this is pretty much cinematic perfection.

The Defenders: The Defenders

 "It's just a city, They rise. They fall..."

Hmm. I mean, there's nothing wrong with this. It's finale stuff. It does the job. It wraps things up. It's exciting. But... is it me who's feeling perhaps a little underwhelmed?

So Luke, Jessicaand map go down into the bowels of our metaphorical Hell beneath New York. They blow the baddies up. Matt stays behind to try and persuade Elektra to turn good... but she's a baddie precisely because she wants to be with him forever in deatyh and, as she says, "This is what living feels like." It's all very dramatic, but also a bit cliched.

There's so much weight placed on the police captain wanting our heroes arrested, too... but then, at the end, all charges are dropped, no questions asked, part of the cover-up. Oh, there are a few good character moments, I suppose, although not that good. Misty losing her arm is a genuine shock. I have no idea about these nuns who have in some way rescued Matt. But, well, this is a bit of a let down after some good recent episodes.

I'm going to continue blogging all of the formerly Netflix Marvel stuff, fear not. But there's less of a mad rush now, as Daredevil: Born Again won't be rushing upon us on Disney Plusas soon as we thought. Besides, despite Jon Bernthal's impressive performances, I'm not a great fan of the Punisher as a character, and next up is thirteen episodes of him. So I'll be taking a short break and watching a certain animated series in this "slot".Fear not, though. It will be just a short break.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This novel had an unfortunate disadvantage for me on this reading: I read it once before, twenty-odd years ago, and formed the firm impression that it was the greatest novel ever, even as my memories of id gradually and inexorably faded. This gave it something of the "Citizen Kane problem". How could it possibly live up to such an impossible reputation, superb though it might be? Against the odds, though, this rereading has altered my opinion not a whit. It is truly the greatest novel I, at any rate, have ever read.

Not, of course, that it is, as some say, "the greatest love story ever told". It is not a love story, not remotely, and it is absurd to say that it is. It is a tale, set in a landscape of bleak, harsh, unforgiving beauty that seems the master of vulnerable humanity, very much not the other way around. Against this, the lives and the values of the landed gentry make desperate and futile attempts to cling to existence. Life is short. To live to forty is accounted lucky... although, admittedly, perhaps the Lintons and the Earnshaws would breed children with much more robust constitutions if they weren't so bleeding incestuous. Marrying your cousins is bad, mmkay? 

These families are not happy ones. Indeed, the main theme of the book is the damage done by childhood abuse. Not, of course, that Emily Bronte would have used the term "personality disorder", but Cathy certainly has Borderline Personality Disorder, to my mind, and Heathcliff has something, too. Both of them are hopelessly damaged by their childhoods, and live and die defined by that abuse. Worse, Heathcliff seems to exist only to perpetuate that cycle of abuse.

There is, fortunately, a note of hope at the end, as young Cathy and Hareton seem to be falling in love and to show hope of breaking out of that awful cycle. It'a bleak but very human novel, yet somehow not without hope. It seems to question notions of class and (more tentatively) gender. In structure and in feeling it is by no means of its time, early Victorian, but simultaneously both harking back to Gothic tropes and looking forwards, with its non-linear narrative and not entirely reliable narrators. It is perfection.

Twin Peaks: Traces to Nowhere

 "You know, I think I'd better start studying medicine."

"Any why is that?"

"Because I'm beginning to feel a bit like Dr. Watson."

The second episode is no less compelling than the pilot as we dig deeper not only into the mystery, which will no doubt all be wrapped up neatly in due course(!), but the characters and the evocative, textured, oh-so-brown setting that is Twin Peaks.

Kyle MacLachlan is dsuperb as Agent Dale Cooper, clearly a highly intelligent and able agent yet with a certain naivete that comes alomgside that. Who is Diane? I don't expect ever to know.

At times- yeah, the Log Lady- we lean into weirdness. Laura Palmer's mother seeing that figure and screaming, for example. Yet other scenes are very real and distressing. Shelley's abusive relationshiop with that *** Leo is hard to watch. And the mystery deepens in multiple ways while still being easy to follow who is who and what's going on, on the surface at any rate. This is not an easy thing to do.

There are new plot threads and characters- a mysterious $ , in Laura's safe deposit box, Donna falling in love with James, Bobby's highly articulatre and violent father, Truman's affair with the widowed Mrs Packland. But the mystery surrounding the murder of Laura Palmer is already showing signs of being quite the rabbit hole.

Alreadty, this is about much, much more than the murder mystery, as far as it's about that at all. I'm absolutely loving this.

The Defenders: Fish in the Jailhouse

 "Karen, this is my life."

Structurally, this is your typical penultimate episode, maneouvvring everybofy into position for the finale. Matt, Luke and Jessica begin in the police station with tough questiins to anseerr, but by the end they're ar the lair of the Hand, fighting its three remaining fingers. Meanwhile, Elektra tries to persiuade Danny to side with her, abandoning his prior allegiances as she abandoned hers.

But the heart of this episode is about character. It's about trust,and integrity. The integrity of Luke, who puts his city and its millions of people above the risk to his hard-won liberty. The trust placed in him and his friends by Misty, risking her entire career. And the trust of Foggy in Matt, smuggling in his Daredevil suit. The Hand and Elektra are divided, broken. But our gandg are, in the end, united. Even when it comes to Colleen's explosive plan.

Some of these relationships are fascinating. The deep mutual respect between Misty and Luke, and Misty's equally respectful understanding with Claire, perhaps the wisest character. The slow journey undertaken by Karen and Foggy to understand that Matt is Daredevil, and denying that is pointless.

It's all nicely done, and the characterisation is good. The episode is, perhaps, necessarily formulaic, and seeing protagonists in unfair legal trouble is never fun, meaning this episode isn't quite as entertaining as the last couple. But we seem set fair for a finale worth waiting for. Let's hope it lives up to its promise.

The Frozen North (1922)

Well, that's not exactly the best Buster Keaton film, but apparently it's incomplete, and he made it while rather upset about what really does seem to have been an unfair and unjust prosecution of his good friend Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

The film looks good, with location filming and real snow in a part of California that really does look like California. And Keaton's facial comic acting is as peerless as ever. Many of the skits work well. But it's weird and unsettling seeing Keaton as a baddie, the sort of man who holds up a casino, shoots dead who he thinks is his cheating wife, and generally goes around not being very nice. No wonder the film isn't better known.

Still, I'll admit that, while I'm no newcomer to silent comedy shorts, they're probably best experienced in a cinema with a live pianist. The film may be silent, but the experience probably shouldn't be. Certainly the humour itself is no less fresh a century later.

Not the best of its kind that I've seen, then. All the same, a relatively bad Buster Keaton film is a Buster Keaton film nonetheless, and I was suitably amused. The film can of course be found easily and legally online.

Better Call Saul: Breathe

 "I decide what he deserves. No one else."

Better Call Saul already seemed to be pretty much the embodiment of televisual perfection. Yet, two episodes into its fourth season, it seems to show signs of getting... better? Can such a thing be possible?

Jimmy's job interview for the position of photocopier salesman reveals so much about him, even though his real agenda is revealed later on. He's so very suited to the job, whuich suits him far more than being a lawyer- not to stereotype those in said profession, but Jimmy is outgoing, dishonest, a born bullsh***er, and entirely devoid of any true moral sense. He effortlessly charms his prospective employers, "selling" himself to get the job despite his dodging the awkward question on why he stopped practising law... and throws it all away by insulting them as soon as he gets the job out of what looks like pure self-loathing- and I think, despite the ulterior motives, that remains a fair summation.

Kim, meanwhile, is a total git to poor, decent Howard, guilt tripping him on Jimmy's behalf at the discussion of Chuck's will... and hiding Chuck's letter to Jimmy. Jimmy's behaviour is rubbing off on her. Kim is, of courdse, doomed by her love for Jimmy... perhaps this will be via the slow ruination of her character? She always liked the Slippin' Jimmy stuff. She's the good girl who fell for the bad boy.

Mike, meanwhile, is confident despite his sparring with a highly annoyed Lydia: Gus likes him, and he knows it. And Gus has never been more chilling than in this episode, nor Giancarlo Esposito a more sublime example of acting perfection: Mr Esposito truly is up there among the greats. Gus's sadistic, vindictive desire to consign Hector to a life of fully conscious, helpless paralysis is a thing of pure horror. As is the tone of voice wioth which he says "you're mine" to Nacjo after the horiffic final scene.

Wow. Can Vince Gilligan make some more telly please?

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

 “Oddsbodkins!”

There were all sorts of predictions for this episode, weren’t there? Returning Doctors and all sorts. But that was never going to happen. Multi-Doctor stories are a logistical nightmare for the writer, and become all the more so with the onward march of time as new Doctors are cast and old ones age.

Plus, this is the start of an RTD renaissance. What better way to celebrate the 60th than by looking forward instead of back? By all accounts the ratings for last episode looked good overnight on the BBC but within a week, as iPlayer was factored in, they began to look stratospheric. And it seems the show has been a massive international hit on Disney Plus too. Why alienate all these new viewers with excessive continuity and fanwank? It’s enough of a nod to us oldies to just mention the HADS, something newbies won’t even realise is a reference. Anyway, Doctor Who is back, and popular. Happy 60th.

Anyway, I loved this episode. After last week’s fairly trad alien invasion story with lots of characters and characterisation, this time we get something very weird and different, showcasing the variety of what the show can do. It’s all delightfully creepy, not only in the sense of jump scares but in concepts that make you go “brr”. The edge of the universe stuff is superficially a bit Planet of Evil but the details, and the plot, are very, very different.

The first half of the episode felt like an old-fashioned Part One in the best possible sense, until the scary weirdness started happening, built up perfectly. Making the antagonists shapeless copies of the Doctor and Donna was brilliant. This episode had mood, scares… and drama, with lots of great character scenes between the Doctor and Donna. After all, why not take advantage of the fact you have a two-gander of an episode with such great leads?

Literally the only other characters are Isaac Newton- did you recognise the actor from RTD’s It’s a Sin?- and Wilf. Yes, Wilf. About whom more next week.

This was almost a bottle episode… but, excessive CGI aside, it didn’t exactly look cheap. This is a reminder that RTD can write characters to perfection, yes, but he can also scare the pants of us. May he continue to do so for a long, long time.