IZombie: Goon Struck

”Chinatown. The line speaks of the futility of obtaining justice in an inherently corrupt system.”

Wow. No episode of iZombie has packed an emotional heft like this one. Suddenly the season isn’t looking so bad. The episode is pretty much summed up by the line above, where Clive analyses Chinatown, as our friends discover that New Seattle is now fun by what has developed into a rather corrupt dictatorship where the crimes of Fillmore Graves are covered up and there is no justice- hence the barbaric judicial killing of Mama Leone. Chase Graves knows how evil this is, judging by all the drinking he does the night before and, like anyone who facilitated capital punishment, he is now no better than any common murderer.

Suddenly, New Seattle seems a deeply uncomfortable place where all sorts of riffs on contemporary demagoguery and paranoid style politics are possible. Especially as we hear more and more of this General Mills, in the “real” America outside of Seattle which is obviously not keen on zombies, who proposes to nuke Seattle.

So it’s a little awkward that, while Major and the ever-trustworthy Don E are escorting said general’s addict daughter out of Seattle, not only does Don E get caught on camera being naughty in full on zombie mode, but Major is forced to scratch her after an overdose to save her life.  Oops. The ultimate anti-zombie, it seems, has a zombie daughter. As Mrs Llamastrangler remarked, this is very reminiscent of a storyline on True Blood. And Major

On a less serious note, I love the Chase Graves Inspector Clouseau with the outrageous French accent, and the exchange between him and Ravi. But for once this isn’t an episode for so much humour, and for once that’s no bad thing.

IZombie: Brainless in Seattle, Part 2

“This place makes Freddie Krueger’s basement look like the Wonka factory.”

Now that’s a bit better.

This doesn’t really feel like a two parter, as time has passed between episodes, but it’s satisfying to see Liv and Clive painstakingly nail their perp with enough evidence. Ravi’s pretending to be a wealthy Etonian as bait is a highlight. But what’s truly significant is elsewhere.

Angus’ rabble rousing is truly bearing fruit at this point, and the whole plot line with Major and his protégés looking for the video footage takes an unexpected turn when the now zombified anti-zombie racist seems to take a 100 degree turn and start listening to Angus. Either humans hate zombies or vice versa; even Liv’s prospective boyfriend has been convinced by Angus that humans are just food.

Meanwhile, after much failing to tell him about Dale apparently cheating on him with another man, Liv learns that Clive, out of pure desperation, has accepted being in an open relationship. Ouch. This is only going to redouble Bridget Jones Liv’s attempts to set him up with that rookie cop.

More ominously, Blaine (loving his loose lips brain) captures poor Renegade and delivers her to Chase Graves. But we end with a heartwarming tribute to friendship as true love, and more hints that Peyton and Ravi are getting on rather well.

More like this please, and perhaps we can salvage the season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red

“Great love is wild and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes.”

Wow. This is a powerful episode, to put it mildly.

Things are not well with the Scoobies, to the point where the only people who can help Buffy trace the Three Nerds are Willow, Tara (finally, and ominously, Amber Benson is in the opening credits) and Dawn. Anya is off being quite rubbish at being a vengeance demon while Xander, Who needs an urgent cultural awakening in real ale, is drinking bad lager alone. Buffy and Xander have fallen out over Spike- although it’s nice to see them make up later, like true friends- and the awkwardness about what everyone saw last week is palpable.

All of which contrasts with the lovely, joyous, wonderful and loving scenes between Willow and Tara; sometimes it’s so lovely to watch scenes of nice people being happy that you forget that this is a Josss Whedon show, and Joss Whedon is evil. Dawn’s squeeing joy at their being back together speaks for us all. Love hasn’t gone very well in Sunnydale lately, but there’s hope.

It’s touching to see Dawn visit Spike, who is unlikely to be around much now; she misses him, but is quite rightly angry at what he did to Buffy with his moment of weakness. And it’s amising to see the Three Nerds again, complete with Jonathan wearing a fourth wall-busting rubber costume to get this week’s Charles Atlas MacGuffin so an increasingly disturbed Warren can again play at being the alpha male.

Then it happens. Spike comes to demonstrate with Buffy, demonstrate with her... and tries to rape her. The act isn’t trivialised or minimised; it’s allowed to linger in its full horror, with a traumatised Buffy and flashbacks. When I first saw this episode, more than a decade ago, I thought this scene was misjudged, and the character of Spike was tainted by this act. But this time it feels different, because this is what rape culture is like; men who know their victim, and rape from an aggrieved sense of enlightenment. This kind of rape happens all the time, by “nice guys”, and it’s good to make that point, however upsetting. It’s also good to see Spike’s confused feelings of both guilt and continued entitlement, sadly realistic, and inevitable after this that he rides off into the sunset.

Buffy finally confronts the nerds on a heist and beats them, capturing Jonathan and Andrew. But Warren is still loose, and the last few seconds of the episode are harrowing, even when you know what’s coming. Tara’s death is deliberately sudden, shocking, and out of nowhere, and Williw’s red eyes are terrifying.

IZombie: Brainless in Seattle, Part 1

”And she gets to live another day!”

This season of iZombie has been a bit rubbish so far, and frankly I’m starting to get worried. Especially as this episode is somewhat meh and it’s the first of a two parter.

Rose McIver is of course fabulous as Liv on Bridget Jones’ Diary brain, but the murder plot- about “bad” people smugglers who promise to get people into Seattle but then kill and harvest their brains for, among others, Don E’s restaurant- is dull. Yes, it’s the harbinger of a crisis as zombies are facing a shortage of brains that is bound to lead to chaos, but the plot is dull.

The season arc continues to get into gear as Chase Graves sends Blaine to locate Renegade, while Peyton and aravi show signs of warming to one another again- and Liv sees that Dale is cheating on a live, no doubt for the sex. To tell or not to tell? But, regardless, this is awfully dull. What is happening to iZombie?

Angel: Double or Nothing

"He is fortunate to have such a woman looking after his weapon."

Breathe. It’s all been rather heavy lately, with Angel losing his baby to a hell dimension, presumably forever, and trying to kill Wesley. So let’s have an episode of healing. Cordy and Groo being back helps- well, mainly Cordy, who gently decides things while being lovely, although the hapless Groosalugg supplies the above quote.

So we get a Gunn episode to get away from all the tragedy. Yes, there’s tension and conflict; Gunn sold his soul seven years ago and it’s time for a demonic wide boy to collect, and he even tries to protect Fred by (unconvincingly) breaking up with her. But in the end it’s all a bit of fun, serving to show what a lovely couple they are, and cheer Angel up a bit. It’s all about slow healing.

I note there’s a bit of awkwardness about Gunn as a character, mind you. Narrative means we have to distance him from his old gang in favour of his new one, but this means we take away his hinterland and start to define him only in terms of his present, arguably necessary but not good for the depth of the character. I wonder if we will see much, or any, of his past again?

A fairly quiet episode, then. But a necessary one.

IZombie: Blue Bloody

”Would you rather stay in here with Ravi and talk about your genitals?”

A better episode this time, as we return to the traditional whodunit format, with the victim being a particularly obnoxious rich woman, killed, delightfully, by a golf ball to the eye- fired, of course, by a golf ball gun. Liv eats her brain, of course, and once again Rose McIver excels in one of the best starring roles on television.

This time the arc stuff is proportionate and watchable, too, with not too much overwhelming exposition and world building. Angus is hugely entertaining as a splendidly over-the-top zombie preacher, no doubt limbering up to be the season big bad. Clive confessed to Ravi in a brilliant scene that he’s getting, ahem, frustrated by the need to not have sex with Dale. And one of Major’s two recruits from last episode screws up in a big way.

The ending is unexpected, though. The whodunit plot is wrapped up, with help from the ever entertaining Vampire Steve, and we turn to the ethics of getting a sick child out of quarantined Seattle for an operation in Los Angeles. And so Liv and Major, who earlier had some creative and amazing rich bitch sex, have a big row and split up. Wow. Dramatic, but was this really built up to? It feels sudden.

Anyway, by no means one of the best episodes but back on track somewhat. Let’s hope the season stays that way.

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

"Oh, it is on like Donkey Kong!"

So we have another Despicable Me sequel and... yeah, this is one too many, isn't it, really? Don't get me wrong; the film isn't bad. But we're really getting to the point now where things are starting to feel a bit repetitive.

That said, I enjoyed it, even if I wasn't necessarily blown away. The characters are intrinsically funny, and the actors are all good, with Kristen Wiig in particular being outstanding. Bratt is an amusing villain, with his extreme eightiesness extending to a hairstyle which involves both mullet and spiky hair, constant use of Rubiks' cubes and bubble gum everywhere. Also, it's amusing to see Gru's twin brother, and the three girls are cute. But, well, the film comes in at less than 90 minutes and I think there's a reason for that.

Still, there is cool stuff, much of it revolving around Eighties references: "I love it when a plan comes together", indeed. "Monsieur Pompo" is a nice little dig at Trump. We get Minions, in prison, ruling the roost and being well 'ard. It's just that an awful lot of the character sub-plots (such as Margo's accidental "engagement") don't really go anywhere and it just feels as though the script could do with a couple of more drafts. Having said that, the film is worth seeing if you liked the others. Please, though, let us not have any more.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

"We’re gonna make you invulnerable. But first we’re gonna destroy you.”

Well, this film is ok, I suppose- it certainly looks good, and the montage at the start of “Jimmy” and Victor fighting in various wars is brilliant, but somehow it doesn’t quite catch fire and was ever so mildly disappointing.

Interesting start, though; we learn far more about Logan’s past than I’m sure the comics ever told us. He was a child in 1845, living in what we can loosely call Canadian frontier territory, and his name is James Logan- and the psychopathic Victor Creed (Sabretooth) is indeed his older brother- and they look out for each other, in war after war, for 130 years, until Vietnam, and Colonel William Stryker.

Stryker is, of course, a younger iteration of the baddie from X-Men 2, portrayed superbly by Danny Huston, and hires the brothers as part of a slightly rubbish gang of mutant agents, including a criminally wasted Deadpool, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds but certainly not in continuity with his later solo outing, a far better film than this one. Oh, and one of these mutants, for some reason, is portrayed by a surprisingly decent Will.i.am.

But Logan leaves, in final disgust at Victor’s bloodlust, and six years pass in which he settles down as a lumberjack in the native Rockies with the lovely Kayla Silverfox- until Victor arrives, and kills the woman he loves. The person who was taking him has gone, and he wants revenge against the brother with whom he spent thirteen decades.

And so we come to the pivotal scene, where he survives the agonies of having adamantium bonded to his skeleton. Only with his healing factor can this not kill him, and he seems to barely survive. This is an important scene, and it’s done well.

Except... from this point the film drags, and lots of random elements are included. Nice as it is to see Gambit and the Blob (in a particularly toe-curling scene), they are irrelevant distractions from the newly christened Wolverine and his revenge against Victor Creed, Stryker and their bizarre and vaguely purposed little Island of Dr Moreau full of kidnapped mutants- including, for no good reason, a young Scott Summers.

The last half hour is a mess, with even the revelation of Kayla’s duplicity lacking real emotional heft, although there is real pathos in someone so old and full of tears having his memory cruelly erased. And yet... the film is well shot, and would have worked well if better edited. Was there a clash between the director and the studio?

I’d like to see a director’s cut, but the film we have is unfortunately a bit of a mess, in spite of its good points.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy

"You're lesbians, so the hating of men will come in handy!"

Anya's back, looking for revenge! And... actually we get a rather witty and thoughtful episode that mixes comedy with very good characterisation, hitting exactly the right tone in the way that only Buffy can.

Xander starts the episode in a terrible state, drinking bottles of awful, undrinkable American lager. Fortunately, Anya's return at least saves him from that awful (though perhaps deserved) fate, in spite of going terribly wrong.

Other stuff is happening, of course; Jonathan is doing some spell type thingy, while the rest of the gang (well, Warren) seem to have ominous plans for him. Spike is still threatening to tell everyone about him and Buffy. Buffy and Dawn are slowly reconnecting. But much of the episode, played for comedy and performed with superb comic timing by Emma Caulfield, consists of Anya trying to get each member of the cast in turn to curse Xander. Eventually she connects with spike, over a bottle of bourbon. Very well, in fact. To the point of doinky doinky. Unfortunately this happens right in front of one of many cameras installed by the three nerds, just as it's been hacked by the Scoobies- and everyone sees. Including Buffy and Xander, both heartbroken. And this time the anger between Anya and Xander is mutual. The whole fallout is simply brutal.

And then we get a final scene, perfectly scripted, where Willow and Tara, the sweetest couple ever, get back together. This is the perfect ending to an episode that really does demonstrate this programme's absolute mastery of tone. Magnificent telly.

Angel: Forgiving

"Oh. There is no happy for you."

And so we have the aftermath.

Connor and Holtz are gone, it seems for good: Quor-Toth is unreachable. Angel must deal with his loss, and he does so by getting back at those who dd this to him-making very clear from the start that this includes Wesley. But first, the puppet master: Sahjahn. plot-wise, this episode is primarily about Angel trapping Sahjahn in a jar, either for all eternity or until the writers want to bring him back. But the episode is, of course, about much, much more.

Fortunately, we also have Fred and Gunn, who manage to piece together why Wesley did what he did, and the terrible moral dilemma he laboured under- but Wesley, it seems, is dying or dead. We are shown this clearly as the camera dwells on him. We therefore know, from the laws of television drama, that he'll be fine.

The creepy little girl in the "White Room" at Wolfram and Hart is a nice touch, as is Lilah's keeping her cool. But best of all is the killer reveal; Sahjhan falsified the prophecy, moving back and forth in time to do so. It was in fact Connor who had been destined to kill him, and he wanted the baby dead.

The final twist in a horrifyingly gripping episode, though, comes at the end, between Angel and Wesley, good friends until so very recently. Angel understands, he genuinely does- and yet he wants Wesley dead, and has to be prised off him...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Normal Again

"What, you think this isn't real just because of all the vampires, and demons, and ex-vengeance demons, and the sister that used to be a big ball of universe-destroying energy?"

Wow. This episode is right up there with the very best, with Hush and Once More with Feeling. It really is that good.

And the idea isn't even intrinsically brilliant. A demon that makes Buffy think she's in a mental institution and her vampire slaying life is just fantasy. It could have gone very, very wrong. Instead it's a real highlight of the series.

It all happens because Buffy gets a little too close to the Three Nerds, who panic and send after her a demon with a complicated name that is going to have her "tripping like a Ken Russell film festival". But her alternate reality is cleverly done; instead of playing up the horror of being stuck in a psychiatric institution we her her loving parents, Kristine Sutherland is back, and she gets the chance of a normal life instead of one from which she's recently become very, very detached.

It's fitting that we finally get an episode that's all about Buffy, although Xander somewhat sheepishly returns to slot back into his role convincingly enough, Anya is troublingly missing, and Willow continues to pine adorably over Tara. But we also get some superbly metatextual touches, as the doctor describes Buffy's delusion as "grand overblown conflicts against an assortment of monsters" and, in a nice touch, not only does Dawn not exist in the other world but the doctor refers to the "inconsistencies" caused by her being retconned into Buffy's reality. We even have it pointed out that, with all the gods and monsters that Buffy has faced and fought in the past, her current nemeses seem to be a trio of pathetic teenage boys.

It's all very real to Buffy, because she actually was briefly put into such an institution before, when she first encountered vampires. It's all very real how much she comes to question which reality is the true one and, by the time she is persuaded to lock Willow, Xander and Dawn in the cellar so the demon can eat them, the episode feels like a horror film with Buffy as the baddie. That's brilliantly done.

And yet the final scene is best of all, as the episode pulls back to suggest that, actually, maybe the institution was real...? Absolutely peerless telly.

Angel: Sleep Tight

"It sounds like a nice cult..."

Well then; there's a twist and then some. Everything has changed.

Wesley's agonising dilemma comes to an end as he finally betrays his friend, but by the end of the episode he has himself been betrayed, stabbed by Justine, and lies possibly dying as Holtz and Justine take Connor away to raise as their own at a ranch in Utah, although how they intend to  support themselves I've no idea. And yet... this is in itself a betrayal of Sahjahn, who has his own mysterious grudge against Angel. But the final twist is courtesy of Holtz, who runs with Connor right through the portal into Quor-Toth, the worst of all Hell dimensions.

A lot else happens, though. We have an ominous beginning, with Angel all cheery as he always is when something bad is about to happen, while the very stressed Wesley continues to be a dick about the lovey-doveyness between Fred and Gunn. It's noticeable, though, that Gunn is suddenly part of the gang here, in full. I suspect we'll suddenly see him now living at the hotel rather than just always visiting. Cordy and Groo are still off gallivanting.

We learn that devious old Holtz gets one thing right; he can't stand tea in styrofoam cups. But would he have much of a taste for Indian tea anyway, being a mid-eighteenth century chap? If Angel can wonder about whether the Flying Nun  can fly then I feel this is a legitimate question...

It's also an interesting chat between Angel and Lilah, who has had to be twice as good at as any man at Wolfram and Hart, is definitely evil and lives "dangerously and quite comfortably". There's a surprising amount of subtle and wellwritten character stuff in what is a pivotal and gripping episode. This makes you desperate to see what happens next. But I shall be patient...

The Hidden Fortress (1958)

"What you make of another's kindness is up to you."

Let's get the obvious comments about this being a blatant influence on Star Wars out of the way quickly, shall we? The directorial style, with the wipes; there's a princess, who gives out a medal at the end; Tahei and Matakishi are C-3PO and R2-D2, and their squabbling at the start of the film is awfully similar, as are all their early scenes. That's enough to be blatant, and I suspect the great Toshiro Mifune's General Matakishi is a big influence on Obi-Wan. Will that do?

But as an Akira Kurasawa film, shockingly only the second I've blogged although I saw a fair few in my pre-blogging days? Well, it's not his best; perhaps it lacks the thematic or aesthetic depths of his best work. But it is nevertheless awesomely made even if the script is odd; shorn of anything more than superficial themes of honour and vague spirituality, it contains Mifune being Mifune, an awesome duelling scene with lances on foot(!), and of course a comic chorus in the form of Tahei and Matakishi, who are rather interestingly foregrounded from the very start, the film being more or less their POV. They also, however, highlight the oddity of a film which is classily directed and made in a modern manner, with a new script, but set entirely within an early modern value system of feudalism, where peasants are simply rude mechanicals, crude and greedy as opposed to the noble behaviour of the posher characters.

It's a brilliant film for all the usual Kurosawa reasons, though, even if it probably would have ended up as one of his lesser-known works if not for George Lucas.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hell's Bells

"Nothing on Earth can stop this wedding now...”

We all know what television wedding episodes are like- Light-hearted, funny, relaxing, with a little bit of drama but everything turning out ok in the end. Except this is a Joss Whedon Show. So we get most of the above aside from the ending, which takes your heart and repeatedly stomps on it.

Still, most of the episode is fun, witty, and let’s the characters breathe in contexts we don’t usually see, with Buffy as best man while Willow and Tara bond again, and Spike brings some ransomed as a date to get at Buffy, except that this ends up in the kind of bizarrely heartwarming conversation between the two of them that few lesser shows would do. We finally get to see Xander’s family, and they are every bit as awful as we might imagine- and his parents’ marriage is a big part of why we get the ending we do.

But then it ends, and Xander can’t go through with the wedding, not because of the token baddie but his own innate, pathetic, yet very human fears and, having seen his family, we are horrified but can sort of understand. Like Willow, we feel we should hate him but can’t. Anya, though? It’s heartbreaking how her loving monologue is juxtaposed with Xander’s doubtful body language, and the blow is utterly devastating in a brutal piece of televisual excellent. In the end she’s back with D’Hoffryn- to be a vengeance demon again? Heart-wrenching telly.

The Conformist (1970)

"I want to see how a dictatorship falls.”

I’ve always hated unthinking confirmity so, as you can imagine, I found this film rather satisfying. It may be adapted from a novel I don’t know, but it’s rare to find a film that feels so much like literary fiction in its treatment of theme and inferiority, an impressive achievement when one must use visuals and acting as a substitute to being privy to characters’ thoughts.

Marcello Clerici is cold, reserved, not given to easy display of feeling, perhaps because of sexual abuse in his youth, and self-conscious about this, as well as secretly not being quite unambiguously heterosexual. But this very self-consciousness makes him anxious to fit in, to be “normal”, an attitude he shares with his blond friend Italo.

So he conforms. Even his marriage to Giulia, while he sees as rather simple and with whom he has no real connection as a person, is done so he can appear normal. The trouble is, of course, that confirmity can be a particularly terrible thing if you happen to live in an oppressive society such as, say, Fascist Italy in 1938, and the film centres on a moral dilemma; will Marcello get his hands dirty by assassinating an old anti-Fascist professor? In the end he does, of course, and he conforms to Fascism and tyranny in all of its openly evil aspects.

His relationship with Anna is interesting, too. The professor’s wife, yet also attracted to both Marcello and the innocently oblivious Giulia, she seems to offer her body as a peace offering to Marcello in a doomed attempt to stave off the inevitable. Yet she is attracted to the man she hates, accepting sex and comfort from him even as she confronts him with human rights abuses under Mussolini.

And yet, five years later, as Mussolini’s regime falls, Marcello is able to conform once more without a qualm, denouncing his former Fascist beliefs and even his old friend Italo, no doubt set to thrive in the new democratic Italy. Such conformists surround us, their potential for evil often latent, but they are monsters. This is a fine film.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

"Oh, my stars and garters!"

You know how a film gets critically acclaimed, you're aware of this, and so when you come to see said film, however good it may be, it inevitably disappoints next to the Platonic ideal of cinematic perfection you were expecting? And you know how, when everybody tells you a film is pants, you can be pleasurably surprised? I call that Howard the Duck syndrome, and it definitely applies here.

Syndrome or not, I found this film to be far from pants. It's entertaining, well-acted and deals with the characters well. Yes, Vinnie Jones is Vinnie Jones, but the use of the character of Juggernaut I found to be fine. Yes, the direction is unshowy, but it does the job. Yes, the Phoenix saga is squashed into a film that's really about a mutant "cure" that works as a semi-metaphor for those awful gay conversion therapies that are still legal in certain barbaric areas of the world. But it's an action-filled film, if a simple one, and the characters ring true, even if Wolverine inevitably dominates. Some characters die (Scott is a shock, but the cinema version was always quite dull), but we get a cool, recast Kitty Pryde; Colossus doing the good old fastball special with Wolverine; Angel with daddy issues; Rogue getting cured and, let's face it, getting banged by Bobby after the credits roll; the genuine grief when Charles Xavier dies; the post-credit scene; the Beast as a successful politician; Madrox.

All this, and we also get an early cameo from both Stan Lee and Chris Claremont. Ignore the critics; this film is much-maligned.

Baywatch (2017)

“You got your beef and your biscuits stuck down there...”

I know. What can I say? It was a moment of madness. I can certainly reassure you, though: I certainly won’t be blogging the TV series. No one wants that.

Well, let’s make clear from the outset that, a few good performances aside such as, yes, Dwayne Johnson, Mrs Llamastrangler and I are both united in the view that this film is, unsurprisingly, pants. The plot is as predictable as clockwork, with cartoon baddies and a secondary hero who has to prove himself, and there are the obligatory knowing winks and amusing cameos from both Pamela Anderson and a shockingly old-looking David Hasselhoff. Mercifully unexplained is why both mentor and protege are called Mitch Buchannon.

We have a nerd character (we know at the start he’s a nerd because he wears a Donkey Kong t-shirt) who ends up getting the sexy chick and, yes, you’re not going to get a movie like this without, well, not so much the male gaze as an awful lot of perving on scantily clad women by both the camera and the script.

There are some funny one liners, especially at the start and end, but unfortunately the middle of the film is all plot and action and this is really rather dull in the way rubbish films tend to be. Yes, this film is done with a knowing wink, the fourth wall is somewhat unstable throughout, but let there be no doubt that this film is utter, absolute pants.

iZombie: Are You Ready for Some Zombies?

"All bulls' pizzles hit the road..."

Before I get started... fear not, iZombie is current. I'm still very much committed to finishing Buffy and Angel aside from current TV such as this, plus films. I still may do stuff that's currently on my Sky Plus in addition, and will probably slot in finishing a season of Game of Thrones between seasons of Buffy/Angel, but fear not!

Anyway... this opening episode isn't that good, is it? The wit doesn't sparkle like it usually does in spite of the funny scene with Shakespeare luvvie brain, the post-zombie apocalypse setting leads to a lot of exposition, and the trinity of Liv, Ravi and Clive don't even get much screen time what with how much of an ensemble cast this show has slowly developed.

Anyway, four months have passed. Seattle is all walled off, so MAGA and all that bollocks. Everyone knows about zombies, although there is much seething resentment, and "Z"'s painted on the doors of households known to hold zombies. There's a nice scene, though, as Ravi and Clive exchange a brief acknowledgement of the irony when Liv, the only white person present, has to deal with the social awkwardness of casual racism. Brains are rationed, but Chase Graves are more equal than others. Blaine is an informer to Chase Graves, and there's the spectre of a zombie guillotine. Oh, and there's a token murder and a token quirky brain, but the whodunit really doesn't feel very important here.

Ravi is getting zombie "periods" once a month, which will be interesting, and Major is now going back to his roots and counselling teen zombie delinquents, except it seems to be for the purpose of recruiting more soldiers. Worryingly, we seem to have two extra young members of an already-large cast at the end of the episode. Weirdly, Clive can now be open about the way Liv gets visions from eating the victim's brain.

But it's all rather over-complicated, with two many characters, too much exposition and too many plotlines. Here's hoping things improve.

Schindler's List (1993)

"The party's over, Oskar. They're shutting us down. Sending everything to Auschwitz."

This is, to put it mildly, not an enjoyable film. But it is a necessary one, and one of the greatest and most devastating films ever made.

It's fitting that a film about the Holocaust should not feature Hitler, that dull, bigoted, pathetic man whose place in popular culture as the embodiment of evil troubles me. Because unloading the unspeakable evils of the Nazis on to one lazy, useless, banal man is a cop out. The Holocaust is the worst thing the human race has ever done, and to emphasise the man in charge is to downplay the evil of the many soldiers, bureaucrats, functionaries and accountants who murdered six million Jewish people- individuals, with lives, hopes and fears- and so many others.

Worse, I can't blame it on anything intrinsically German (much as such racism would entirely miss the point) as I am an Englishman, with partly Anglo-Saxon and so ethnically German blood flowing through my veins. No; it is a profound human darkness that must never be repeated, and it is a profound worry that, as these events fade from living memory, the inoculation is fading. We already see the symptoms: people who use such stupid terms as "SJW" and "snowflake"... both my grandads used to shoot people like you, and I'm proud of them for that.

Schindler is no saint. He's a dodgy businessman, an adulterer, fond of the good life, not a good Catholic. But put him next to a psycho like Goeth, perhaps the most evil character in all of cinema. The contrasting scenes of both of them with Helen Hirsch show that. Liam Neeson is amazing, of course, and Ralph Fiennes is the most evil presence in all of cinema. But the real revelation is Steven Spielberg, whose usual didactic filmmaking gives way to a devastating, monochrome, handheld documentary style that clearly portrays the horrors of the Holocaust. Scenes are etched into your mind, which is a good thing: never forget.

A cathartic and profound work of art which dwarfs anything else that Spielberg has ever done, and a film which has made the world a better place by hopefully preserving the memory of the Holocaust for another generation.

Angel: Loyalty

"Simple mortal, your pain is just beginning!"

Wow. Who thought a statue of a cartoon hamburger could be so scary?

This is both a superb piece of writing and a superb performance from Alexis Denisof as poor Wesley is driven to the end of his tether by the most agonising moral dilemma at a time when he's just had his heart broken anyway and, deep down, beneath appearances, he isn't so mature as he appears to be.

We begin with nice scenes of lovely doting father Angel, fitting in with the young mothers in the waiting room and being touchingly anxious at Connor's medical check up. But we soon meet a client who is soon revealed to be reconnoitring the team for Holtz and his ever-expanding squad of badass(ish) underlings. They lure Fred and Gunninto a trap just to test them and certainly have plans.

This isn't proceeding quickly enough for our old friend Sahjahn, though. So, with a little freelance help from Lilah- seen on the phone with her dementia-suffering mother in a tragic human touch- he sets a trap for Wesley, arranging the prophecy of "earthquake, fire and blood" that Wesley is told about in that incredible, perfect, inspired scene that changes everything. It seems the father will indeed kill the son, and Wesley can't bear the pressure.

Wesley, already a little distanced from Gunn last episode, manages to alienate Fred a little, too; he's not very good at hiding his jealousy, while both Gunn and Fred manage to be both decent and gracious. Even at a deserted pier, at night, surrounded by vampires, which says a lot.

There's an interesting chat between Wesley and Holtz piling up the pressure, too. And it seems that Holtz knows about the gypsy curse. He just doesn't care.

Wesley ends up hysterical near the end, but then it happens; earthquake, fire, blood. What's a chap to do? This is a brilliant character piece, as well as a straightforwardly gripping bit of telly, that is surely one of the finest episodes of Angel.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: As You Were

“My hat has a cow.”

Riley’s back. I bet that was a surprise. Let’s face it, Buffy is known for its well-rounded characters but Riley, well, he’s a bit of a cipher, isn’t he?

But at least he’s got his life together, with a cool job and a fulfilling marriage. Buffy has none of that. In fact, her future looks extremely bleak, and she’s only 21. Stuck in a dead end job, with even vampires complaining about the smell, she's getting increasingly isolated with her friends, has no time to look after Dawn, and her only outlet in inevitably meaningless sex with Spike. Although it certainly sounds like rather good sex...

So when Riley turns up and whisks Buffy off on a fast-paced mission it's a welcome distraction, and the sexual tension is certainly there. Until Riley's (pretty cool) wife Sam  turns up. Oops.

(Incidentally, it's both interesting and odd to see Riley and Dawn "remember" each other although they have technically never met. It's only moments like this that you realise how short a time Dawn has existed.)

But my, it's embarrassing for Buffy to be caught in bed with Spike by Riley and Sam. Especially as Spike seems to be the villain of the piece this week because, you know, still evil.

It's an awkward parting with Riley, yet also a sweet one, and one with closure. And, of course, Buffy finally breaks up with Spike, albeit in a way which feels contrived. An episode full of stuff, but perhaps one that could have done with a bit more polish on the script at times. Good telly, but not as good as we usually see on Buffy.