Poirot: Murder in the Mews

 "Well, I should think it's a jolly good night for a murder."

Ok, that was better.

No snobbishly depicted working class characters here to remind me of what rubs me up the wrong way about Agatha Christie, and Poirot comes across as a more interesting and nuanced character.The Thirtes period detail is on point, and fascinating; an age where interior decor seems so much more contemporary that just a couple of decades earlier.

Yet none of that is the point- our second episode finally gives us one of Christie's signature clever twists,and it is this that gives the episode its glory. We have our first proper summing up by Poirot at the end, and all the clues are presented fairly to us. Interestingly, we see Inspector Japp's methods here. He's no Lrestrade r Gregson, but a professional with an eye for detail; he simply lacks Poirot's intuitive leaps.

I'm relieved to have enjoyed that. Perhaps I shall enjoy this series after all.

Breaking Bad: Half Measures

 "I won't be wearing bells..."

This, yet another exercise in how to make sublime television from Breaking Bad, is an extraordinarily clever and extremely hard hitting episode. The title is very apt indeed, and the conclusion is even foreshadowed by a littl story told to Walt by Mike about his former days as a beat cop: he decided to give a regular wife beating piece of scum a warning rather that just killing him, and the long suffering lady died two weeks later.

That's the little microcosm, but the overall structure of the episode is incredible, from the opening montage with the prostitute we occasionally see, shot like an advert, to the shocking conclusion. There are other plot threads, too; Skyler continues trying to persuade Walt to lander the money her way. And Hank, after briefly coming to question how Walt is staying afloat financially without a job, is finally persuaded by Marie to leave hospital, using methods that, I imagine, must have been interesting to read in the script as an actor...

But it's clear what the main plot thread is here; the uncharacteristic pub conversation between Walt and Jesse make it clear where things are headed. Jesse, ever protective of children and wanting to avenge his mate from last season, plots the deaths of the dealers who did the deed and are using his gorlfriend's brother Tomas as a mule and a killer. Walt, of course, thinks this is madness. It will fatally rock the boat, and it's a little absurd to have moral standards if you're dealing meth.

Walt, after pondering a really bad idea, finally seems to hit upon a solution in making a clean breast to Gus, who brokers a truce. Jesse shows guts, but not brains, in insisting no more use of children, but Gus capitulates. And that's that... except that consequences are unpreductable. And Walt hears on the news, conveniently, during a family dinner- a phenomenon that must certainly have its own TV Tropes page- that Tomas has been killed in a contracr killing.

The final scene is superbly shot and soundtracked (the unsettling music sounds like Trent Reznor but probably isn't) as high noon approaches and Jesse begins a shootout with the two men responsible. So it's a real shock to see Walt, from out of nowhere, ram into them with a car and shoot the survivor dead. The bridges are all burned, and no one is safe. Roll on the finale. Wow.

Willow (1988)

 "Ignore the bird. Follow the river,"

This is, let's be honest, a fantasy B movie script made to look like Hollywood fare by Ron Howard, a very conventional Hollywood director but ina good way. Yes, the evil Quene (a delightfully proto-Morgaine-ish Jean Marsh). Yes, the whole concept of an evil monarch destroying all babies because of a prophecy, let alone the narrative of a baby floating down the river, have potentially pretentious Biblical overtones.

This isn't a clever film. It isn't a great film. It's a highly polished B movie, where one may freely chortle at Warwick Davis' shifting accent even while conceding he's acrtually bloody good as a lead, outshining the disturbingly young pretty boy Val Kilmer who is merely adequate as a rogue turned hero. His arc works, though, from petty thief in a cage to lover to a princess. And the tempedtuous beginnings of their relationship are fun, as is much else.There;s a nice mix between straightforward adventure and comedy.

Jean Marsh is, as if it needed saying, the perfect baddie, chewing the scenery exactly to the right degree. It's good to see Billy Barty, a year after Masters of the Universe, as a cheerfully winging it wizard. The cast is, overall, a success. There's no CGI here;the special effects are real, eithet green screen or stop motion.

Yet it's hard not to see this film as a cheeky reworking of Lord of the Rings, and a cheeky little prompt to Peter Jackson in doing the real thing,

The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 5: The Return of the Mandalorian

 "Dated a Jawa for a while. They're quite furry. Very furry."

This episode is, needless to say, not like the others. It would be blatantly obvious to point out that the eponymous Boba Fett isn't even bloody in this episode, but I'm going to have to do so. Plot-wise, of course, this is to move the Mandalorian into place so that Fennec Shand can hire him on Boba's behalf; presumably it's back to normal next episode, with Mando back to being a guest star in someone else's show.

It's also true that the first half of this episode is just fighting and exposition, while the second half is an exztended montage of welding bits of an antique starship from Naboo last seen in The Phantom Menace. The whole episode is literally fanwank of the most outrageous kind.

So why is this an absolutely brilliant bit of telly?

Partly it's just that it's so well-made and acted, and helmed with aplomb by Hollywood's own Bryce Dallas Howard, but a lot of it is also how, appropriately for Star Wars, the tale of the Mandalorian has a fairytale quality beneath the Western exterior, and this is never so apparent as here. We're reminded of the lrgends surrounding the Darksabre, and how these uber-traditionalist Mandalorianns are those who were exiled to a remote moon, not those who remained on Mandalor to be destroyed by the empire. We learn much mythology that will no doubt become relevant later, with the Madalorian poised as mythical hero.

We are also reminded not to put too store in those too unthinkingly dependent on tradition, too, as Mando is unjustly shunned after having to remove his helmet. I suspect the armourer will later come to regret this.

I've enjoyed this series very much so. But it's striking that this episode, much more like that of another show entirely, should be my favourite so far.

Mad Men: Indian Summer

 "Just think about it deeply, then forget it. Then an idea will jump up in your face."

This is an episode about ambition. The central scene, of course, is about Roger's second heart attack as he's dragged in to placate big clients Lucky Strike, but the situatioin has admen and clents alike being very, very worried about Sterling Cooper. So Don, the undoubted talent, is made partner.

This leaves openings. Peggy gets another chance ("Maybe lightning will strike twice"), through the fog of casual sexism, to impress, using her talent for euphemism to its fullest. And, when asking for a raise from Don, she's advised not to be "timid"... and gets what she wanted. In direct contrast to Pete, whose blatant angling for a promotion gets him nowhere.

Peggy gets an orgasm though. Unlike the sexually frustrated Betty, who takes what she can from the washing machine as her husband works late and has an affair with Rachel who, in turn, is adjusting to the concept of being the "other woman" and what it means. All this is very gendered, and the affair is very much at Don's masculine convenience.

As ever, this is all subtly done, and superlative telly... but the suicide of Don'd brother is not; hanging is a drawn out and horrible way to go. And it's a resentful Pete who gets the parcel for Don...

Poirot: The Adventure of the Clapham Cook

 "Ah, the stewed peaches! Quite!"

I've done the Granada Sherlock Holmes; why not make a leisurely start to Thames' Poirots? Incidentally, the Thames indent at the start gave me a nice nostalgic rush. ITV was a proper channel before the franchises were ruined in '91...

I've gone on record as saying I'm not an enormous fan of Agatha Christie. Her plots are as clever as their reputation, but she's a snob, and her prose and characterisation are not great. She is, in short, no Margery Allingham. However, I confess that my reasing of her novels, while extensive, was (ahem) a quarter of a century ago. I ought to revist one at some point.

However, I have to say that this episode bears out my prejudices somewhat. It's a well-made bit of telly, but the story upon which it is based is full of one-dimensional domestic servants and generally superficial characters. I suspect part of the reason this annoys me more than the Sherlock Holmes stuff is simply that, unlike the late Victorian setting of the other programme, this is set quite clearly in the 1930s, and the cars, clothing and general "look" are far less alien and more modern-looking, at least if one happens (just about) to remember a pre-digital world. There are no Hansom Cabs here. Also, the murder mystery is fine, but nothing special.

However, David Suchet is very good, and the woodenness of Hugh Fraser as Hastings probably owes as much to the character as the actor. I'll persevere, at least for a season.

Mark Lanegan

It seems Mark Lanegan has died. He was a songwriter of extraordinary talent, and until today I would have unhesitatingly described him as the greatest living male singer.

Google his cover of You Only Live Twice, now, and hear a voice full of wisdom, pain and life. Then look up Do You Wanna Come Walk with Me, a duet with Isobel Campbell. It's a song full of naughty double-entendres that nevertheless manages to be tender, melancholy and sincere.

This is a huge loss.

Mad Men: Long Weekend

 "This is all there is..."

This is yet another multi-layered and multi-faceted episde of a drama with a lot going on, ending with Don facing a bit of a low-key existential crisis after Roger's heart attack. But essentially it's aboiut how society, certainly in 1960 but very much also today, expects women to be pleasing to men as men use them.

We see this first with Betty's widowed father and his new girlfriend who, to Betty's disgust, "lives to serve". It's revealing that Don says casually that it'll be "good to have another woman around the house, give Betty a break." But we also see this with Roger (and, passively, Don) abusing his power to hire some pretty young twins half his age, invite them to drinks, and then humiliate and sexualy use them while they fulfil theor roles of being pleasing. It's creepy to watch. We also see a kind of parallel as Joan and Carol (of whom more later) pick up two men; Joan snags the good one while Carol, stuck with the dud, just sighs and tells him to do "whatever you want".

And Don, distraught, instinctly goes to Rachel- a woman he respects, and who is not afraid to be firm with him- for succour. She doesn't yield meekly... but she yields. Althoigh not after getting some of Don's life story out of him. He's the son of a prostitute, raised by his dad, a client, and after his dad's death by his dad's wife and her new man. Bloody hell.

Even the exceptions are interesting. When Carol finally, drunkenly, confesses to Joan that she loves her ("Just think of me as a boy"), Joan pauses and pretends it never happens- and Carol goes along with it. Same sex attraction simply can't be mentioned.

And then there's Peggy, callimg out Pete on his entitled dickishness. She's going places.

This is simply an extraordinary bit of telly.

Breaking Bad: Abiquiu

 "You, I thought I was gonna see some, like, vaginas."

As we often do in Breaking Bad, we begin with an obliquely symbolic sceene. It's our first flashback of Jesse and Jane- in itself significant- and it's a glimpse of that Georgia O'Keefe exhibition they visited last season. It's played for laughs, of course, with Jesse being his hilariously uncultured self, but we get a discussion of O'Keefe's many painings of doors, which are all different and each of which has its own meaning.

Because doors, of course, symbolise new beginnings. The symbolism of the door, and the fact that we get a flashback to Jane in this of all episodes, means I'm certain that Jesse is going to start a new reationship with the single mother whose name I didn't catch. The morality of this is all over the place. Jesse initially seduced her with the sole purpose of selling her meth while she's trying to kick the habit. This is not a nice thing to do but, for me, the fact the makes out with her and then tries to sell her meth is even worse. 

Then again, you can tell Jesse likes and cares about her son, so it's at once hpocritical and sincere of him to be shocked when she suggests getting high a few months before picking him up.

But there's a shock to come... her little brother is the kid on the bike with the gun from last season. Ouch.

Elsewhere, we have Hank struggling with therapy and feeling utterly defeated yet utterly determined- and hes not coming home until he's well. Dean Norris is amazing here. Of course, it's worth remembering that Hank's treatment is being funded, with delicious irony, through blue meth...

But perhaps most fascinating is the ongoing slow reconciliation between Walt and Skyler, who is dipping her hands further into the blood, meeting Saul and using her bookeeping knowledge to advise- wisely, it seems- on the money laundering. And it seems the two of them are not yet divorced. I think it's clear where this is going.

And yet we end with yet another calm yet tension-filled scene between Walt and Gus, in Gus' very nice kitchen. It's all deliciously nuanced and powerful, not because of what is said but what is left unsaid.

Wow. This is proper highbrow telly.

Black Widow (2021)

 “Such a poser…”

It’s a little weird seeing Black Widow get her own flashback movie at a point after she’s been seen to die on screen, but in the end this is a highly enjoyable film. It won’t be quite up there with Marvel’s best, but their movies never fall below a certain standard, and this is no exception.

This is a film all about Natasha’s complex origins as the “daughter” of Russian sleeper agents in Ohio, and about a secret Russian troupe of mind controlled female assassins scattered worldwide. It is, essentially, a Bond film. There are many glamorous international locations; Ray Winstone is a suitable over-the-top villain; there are cool car chases and other action set pieces. Even better, there’s a denouement that is at once devilishly clever and easy to follow, a sign of good writing and direction.

Yet this is also a film about families, by blood or not. Natasha’s “parents” Rachel Weisz and the superb David Harbour as the hilarious Red Guardian (love the customs…) have nuanced and interesting roles with a lot of heart, but Florence Pugh really steals the show as Natasha’s “sister”, Yelena. The CGI may have been a little rubbish at times, but I really enjoyed this film- and the post-credit sequence was at once heartbreaking and intriguing in how it ties into TV rather than film.

The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm

 "You can only get so far without a tribe."

This time the focus is on the flashback as Boba, folloewing the detrruction of the Sand People tribe, resolves to get his ship back from Bib Fortuna and his underlings in the events prior to his and Fennec Shand's appearance in The Mandalorian. Yet this is crucial not only as backstory but also as deep character background, showing us how a bounty hunter came to settle down and become a "daimyo".

His first reconnaissance of Jabba's palace leads him to find a dying Fennec Shand, whose life he saves with cybernetic surgery. She agrees to assist him in order to pay off her debt of honour and they retrieve Boba's ship together, yet a genuine mutual regard grows between them- and when Mr Fett offers to employ her permanently he makes clear his respect and offers his "loyalty". It's fascinating to see the bond growing between them, and both interesting and fresh that there's no hint of sex or romance, just a friendship based on mutual respect. Boba is realising that the lonely life of a bounty hunter will not give him what he needs.

Returning to the present, we see Mr Fett undertaking the necessary diplomatic maneouvres in preparation for his attack on the Pyke Syndicate. Next episode will no doubt be action-packed, but I'm loving the diplomatic chess playing here. Yet again, this script may not focus on the most obviously crowd-pleasing areas, but this is top telly.

The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa

 "Take it from an ex-bounty hunter: don't work for scugholes."

This episode gives us a fascinating change of pace as it focuses on the realities of Boba Fett's new life as the boss of Jabba's former domain- he has to make complex, indeed political, decisions. The moisture farmers are having their water stolen by cool cyborg ne'er-do-wells, yet said cyborgs are left with no choice because of chronic unemployment and extortionate parties. The solution, as it often must be, is a messy compromise. Still, at least Mr Fett ends up with some cool cyborg underlings.

We get a nice bit of exposition from 808 too; Boba's position is not yet established as he only runs some of Jabba's old protection rackets and needs to expand his power- politics again. And it seems a bigger power, the Pyke syndicate, is muscling in, and charging protection money within Boba's sphere of influence. I'm rather enjoying this focus on Fett's responsibilities. Being a kingpin is za\a life of much admin.

Things get even more complex after a large set piece in which the twin Hutts' Wookie employee almost succeeds in assassinating Mr Fett (he would be dead if not for the cyborgs), only for the Hutts to apologise, give a Rancor monster as a geasture, and duly sod off so as not to offend the feared Pyle Syndicate. This serves to really big up these new baddies, although it will be a shame not to see the Hutts again. Still, saves on CGI, I suppodse.

We end with a touching scene of bonding with the Rancor (nice cameo from Danny Trejo as the Rancor keeper!) and a bit of a very Star Wars car chase, crammed with visual Easter Eggs, before Bobba determines to go after the Mayor, who is clearly linked with the syndicate.

Meanwhile, in flashback, Mr Fett finds the Sand People settlement raided and destroyed, vowing revenge.

This is the best episode yet, daring to focus on areas which may not appeal to everyone but doing so superbly.

Daredevil: A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

 “What if this isn’t the end? What if this is just the beginning?”

This, in the end, is a fairly predictable finale, but it’s so well-crafted and emotionally resonant that that’s ok. It’s not much of a spoiler, given the forty years since Daredevil #181, that Electra dies, so why not have an emotional Matt pledge to be with her, and go with her anywhere, before their final battle against the odds, just to rub in the fact we all know she’s not going to survive?

It’s an all-out battle with Nobu and the Hand, with much of the supporting cast involved as hostages. Even Frank Castle, while taking a lower profile, gets to play his part at the end… while wearing that proper Punisher skull t-shirt. Daredevil finally gets his billy club, too.

It’s a highly satisfying closer, and that’s not even taking into accountthe cameo appearance of Jeri Hogarth from Jessica Jones- will Foggy take that high flying job? Will he appear in other Netflix Marvel shows before the next season of Daredevil? And we get that dramatic moment, right at the end, where Matt finally reveals to Karen that he’s Daredevil.

I’ll wait for the Netflix shows to transfer to Disney Plus, then I’ll carry on with the first season of Luke Cage…

The Uncanny (1977)

 "I thought I saw a pussy cat? I did! I did!"

This is a film, a portmanteau horror produced by Milton Subotsky of the sort that had become somewhat unfashionable in the UK by 1977 and so produced in a late 1970s Montreal which can't help feeling a bit David Cronenberg, about how cats are evil. Cat lovers, like myself (we are owned by four, and they are indeed our rulers), may not quite agree that cats are evil- we love them and they love us; they are not so aloof as popular myth dictates, they're just introverts- but, well, they can be little bastards at times.

This film may be full of animatronic cats and dated effects, and it may be the very epitome of the '70s; it may, indeed, suffer from too much a focus on cats as its means of horrifying the audience... but, damn, it does so bloody effectively. Peter Cushing is superb in the framing sequence, but the portmanteau structure allows for a pleasing mix of British character actors in period roles and canadian actors in the modern day. Donald Pleasence hams it up disgracefully, one is forced to admit, but this doesn't fail to add to this little film's considerable charms.

This could, I suppose, be seen as a tired and lesser version ogf the earlier Amicus portmanteau horror films, especially with its restrictive theme. It seems to have flopped at the box office, a fact which I attribute to fashion as much as anything. But the cast, the Canadian element in the late '70s when David Cronenberg was making Anglo Quebec a nucleus of cinematic horror genius. This film may be a relic from a sligfhtly earlier era, but it surfs that wave with aplomb.

Metallica- Master of Puppets (1986)

 I suppose this, while not as widely popular as the bestselling Black Album, would be the Metallica album of choice for the cognoscenti. This is partly, of course, because it's the end of an era, being the last album to have been released before the shockingly premature death of Cliff Burton, an absolutely crucial member of the band and songwriter; subsequent bassists would not have anything like his influence. What Metallica would have gone on to do if he'd lived is one of the great "what ifs" of metal. The band would go one to achieve further great things, but there's an obvious discontinuity.

There is, conversely, a continuity from Ride the Lightning to this, not least in the production. But this album shows a real progression. "Call of Ktulu" was a superb piece of musicianship; "Orion" is sublime. And such standout tracks as "Battery" and "The Thing That Should Not Be" are among Metallica's best work. There's no filler here, and throughout we have the perfect blend of deep musicianship and restrained songwriting. The songs are long, often complex, but never over-long or pretentious.

This is, for me, the finest metal album of the '80s.

Encanto (2021)

 “You can’t hurry the future!”

This film, the latest Disney behemoth, has become ubiquitous over the last few months. Little Miss Llamastrangler is watching little else right now, and nor are any of her friends. There is, I suppose, a wider worry about Disney’s increasing cultural domination, but in itself and in the fact that it tends to spread the rather conservative social mores of a modern America where one of the two main political parties, the Republicans, is openly fascist.

Thing is, though, none of that stuff can stop me admitting that this film is bloody good. Exceptionally so, in fact. It’s a splendid thing that Disney is doing a magic realist film for kids in the Latin American tradition, and setting it in Colombia, a country that deserves to be known more for Gabriel Garcia Marquez than for cocaine.

This is a wonderful little tale of a magical house that gives “gifts” to its family such as healing with a meal or talking to animals, but also of the need to be kind to one another and not forget to make sure everyone is ok and happy with their lives. The songs are wonderful, and the best of them is a superb yet catchy warning about the great dangers of stress and overwork.

Kids love it; the characters are great and the film is magical in more ways than one. And it’s great to get a light shone on to magic realism by popular culture. This film is quite, quite brilliant.

Daredevil: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

 "Matty, I'm proud of you."

Wow. That's how to do a penultimate episode.

I especially love how there are two parallel narratives, with both Matt and Karen cast very clearly as equally heroic. Karen gets a further sequence, despite her very human exhaustion and despair, of journalistic awesomeness as she interviews the Colonel from Castle's trial... only for the rather brilliant revelation to hit her that he is, in fact, the Blacksmith. Even more of a shock is to see how she's saved by Frank. This whole sequence is full of shocks, yes, but also with superb acting from Deborah Ann Woll, John Bernthal and Clancy Brown who, I should have realised, is not the sort of actor you get in for a bit part.

Then we have the sequences of Elektra's childhood with Stick, the relevance of which hits us towards the end. But first we have Stick Kidnapped and tortured by the Hand, with both Matt and Elektra on their trail, but there's still time for a poignant scene between Matt and Foggy, who can't seem to resurrect their friendship.

There's lots of cool, well-directed action as Matt fights loads of ninjas until we get to the really big revelation... the Hand's big scary weapon, the Black Sky... is Elektra! And we end with a flurry of activity and confused motives leading us into a much-anticipated finale.

If that's not enough, you have to admire the parallel revelation, Black Star and the Blacksmith, and with the long-buried past coming back, gothic-style, to horrify everyone...

Wow. Just wow.

Daredevil: .380

 "Stay away from me..."

The season is in the final stretch and things are speeding up. There's still time for character scenes- Claire once again warns Matt he's in too deep; Karen gets advice on not letting the love she has with Matt slipaway by Frank Castle, of all people, while he simultaneously uses her as bait; and Daredevil agrees with Frank to handle the Blacksmith his way "just this once"- but, as Frank points out, there's no going back from that side of the line.

There's a lot going on. Madame Gao is back. Matt and Frank are simultaneously on the trail of the Blacksmith, their paths converging towards the end, and Frank may or may not end up dead. We see more of this bizarre blood cult. Elektra is after Stick, ostensibly for revenge. 

And yet the real heroes of this episode are women. Claire quits her job rather than being implicit in the kind of cover-up, motivated by a need to please a donor, which makes a powerful argument in favour of America getting an actual health care system. And Karen, despite her obvious trauma, spends the episode reaching for the right thing to do, and doing it in spitre of her fears.

This is an episode filled with incident, but it's the characters that make this series so amazing.

Another Update

 I’ve been pondering my approach to the Marvel Defenders series leaving Netflix and will be slightly changing my approach.

Breaking Bad will be unaffected, but I’m going to rush through the rest of Daredevil Season Two and save the rest of the season of Mad Men until afterwards. This is so that I definitely finish the season before the end of February. I know it’s only the middle of the month but life happens and I need to be sure.

After Daredevil I’ll finish the season of Mad Men and alternate episodes with something else.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

I’ve somehow reached the age of forty-four without, until very recently indeed,  reading a word of the Gormenghast trilogy. I was vaguely aware that it was set in a realm trapped in ossified tradition and that Steerpike is almost the archetype for insidious advancement.

What I’ve found over the last few days has been intoxicating, the literary equivalent to the sort of album you’d describe as a “soundscape”. The prose is thick, meandering, yet intoxicating. There is plenty of humour- indeed, the prose style is a clear influence on both Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett- but it is a dry, mirthless humour. The prose is thick with description, so much so that a novel in which relatively little happens can extend to five hundred pages. It can fairly be said that the novel takes a good while to grow on one, given the meandering style, but, once we get to know the characters and incidents start happening, the novel suddenly becomes difficult to put down, in equal measure because of its delightful gallery of grotesques and the prose which, having seemed impenetrable at the start, becomes intoxicating.

The novel ends with much, clearly, still to happen, but I fear I shall have to acquire the rest of the trilogy in order to continue. For now, however, I’m happy to have absorbed the unique mood of this unique novel.

Breaking Bad: Fly

 "It's all contaminated..."

This is, it soon becomes apparent, not a typical episode. Not so much a bottle episode but something with echoes of both Becket and Pinter, a two-hander with just Walt and Jesse with definite "calm before the storm" vibes. After all the complex machinations between Walt and Gus we pause for an episode of introspection and slow, philosophical character development.

On the surface this is a simple, silly and whimsical episode about cooking being disrupted by a fly, and much humour is found early on in Walt's over-the-top obsession with the fly versus Jesse, very much the voice of reason, judst wanting to get back to work. We end with the roles reversed... but what happens in-between is fascinating.

Because Walt finally tells a philosophical Jesse about the night Jane died, the night that he believes he should have died- after his daughter was born, after he'd provided for his family, but before Skyler found out. He never was motivated by the desire to live, but to be a provider beyond the grave. Now, his life trapped in its inevitable course, he has a darkness deep inside. He ponders the sheer unlikeliness of himself, a man who never going to bars alone, happening to do so and to speak to Jane's dad of all people. Walt draws, perhaps, a more philosophical conclusion than we viewers may, knowing as we do that coincidences are the wellspring of television drama.

It's a subtly done character piece, gently resetting the relationship between them- and gently establishing that Walt knows exxactly what Jesse is doing in creaming off an amount for himself...

Breaking Bad: Kafkaesque

 "One taste and you'll know!"

This is one of those episodes which, while easy to follow, have a lot of three dimensional chess going on beneath the surface, most obviously with the frank (and superbly acted) discussion between Walt (Heisenberg) and the ever-impassive Gus. Walt is always nervous before his boss, a proven princeling of crime, but his approach is all realpolitik and honesty. He shows he knows Gus' thinking, and would have done the same. He is at once demostrating to Gus that he's not a threat, an intellectual equal, able to cope with all this Kafkaesque complexity, and a supplicant. The alpha male competition may be latent, but it's there. Walt may be salaried middle management for now, with a pay rise to boot, but we (and Gus, who is no fool) know that he won't be satisfied being a middle manager for long.

Jesse, for once, in a role reversal, is the ambitious one. He now has drive, as we see from his desire to cream off a bit at the side and from a very revealing monologue at that ridiculous twelve step thing. He cares about his work and doesn't want to see success slip away- hence the very clever use of his underlings toexploit the group for advertising. Even if he's not willing (yet) to listen to Saul about money laundering. Which follows on from the very unusualopening advert for Los Pollos Hermanos, itself a front business.

Also, interestingly, we have signs of possible rapprochement between Skyler and Walt. She comes up with an inspired gambling cover story to explain Walt's wealth so she can excuse using the money to ensure Hank gets decent medical care in spite of the USA's third world lack of a health system. And yes, there's a deep irony if this comes to pass: Hank, of all people, benefiting hugely from blue meth money. And Skyler's reaction to Ted's awkward visit is hugely revrealing. Is her marriage to Walt perhaps showing signs of potentia llife after all?

I love these kinds of layered episodes. Top telly, as Breaking Bad always is.

Update

 So I’ve been more-or-less alternating, aside from films, Breaking Bad and various odds and sods, between the second season of Daredevil and the first season of Mad Men. The plan has roughly been to marathon the Netflix Marvel shows with something else (I’ll move on to something else for a while once this season of Mad Men is done with).

However, it seems the Marvel shows are leaving Netflix at the end of the month. It seems likely they’ll end up on Disney Plus so I can continue.

So, if I need to, I’ll blog something else Marvel. So what shall it be? I have access to Cloak & Dagger, Legion, The Gifted, Agents of SHIELD, and Hellstrom.

Any suggestions? Three of the above series I’ve blogged earlier seasons of in the past…

The Ghoul (1933)

 "I shall be among the trees, waiting..."

There are quite a few '30s horror films, in the wake of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff. They are, as you would expect B movies. They have their charms, I'm rather fond of them, but you wouldn't mostly say they were actually very good.

Except this one.

Plot-wise, it's nothing special: an old man with a stolen Egyptian artifact manages to cheat death by means of ancient yet cursed magic. Yet the cast is startlingly excellent. Not only is there Karloff but also a typically camp Ernest Thesiger, a delightfully dastardly Cedric Harwicke, and even an alarmingly young and splendidly splenetic Anthony Bushelll as our heroic yet delightfully rude leading man. We even get Ralph bloody Richardson.

The film is well shot, certainly more so than one would expect for a B movie in the period. There are some nice touches- the leading lady's friend has a genuinely funny infatuation with a visiting "sheikh", clearly not having got over Rudolph Valentino. There's a comedy vicar who turns out to be not quite what he seems. Most of all, there's genuine suspense so that, despite the slow pace, there's none of the dragging quality often found with these sorts of films. 

An unexpectedly pleasant surprisew. Even Karloff's relatively limited screen time can't spoil this one.

Out of the Trees

 “Van… is a word rarely used to start sentences.”

It's a shame this was buried on original transmission and lost for so many years; it’s superb. A sketch show scripted by the dream team of Douglas Adams and my fellow Leicestershire lad Graham Chapman, it feels in some ways similar to the style of the last season of Monty Python but is much fresher. Chapman and Adam’s as a writing team produce some splendid alchemy giving us a consistent run of excellent and very funny sketches.

The cast impresses too, especially Simon Jones in his pre-Arthur Dent days.

If you enjoyed the more verbal type of Pythonesque humour, or you’re a fan of Douglas Adam’s, you must seek this out.

Daredevil: The Man in the Box

 “This is your jungle. This is your blood, like it is mine.”

We're moving close to the end of the season and things are speeding up. An assassin tries to kill a departing Elektra, after flirting with her- and he was sent not by the Hand but by Stick. Frank Castle is on the loose and is seemingly on a killing spree... or is he?

Frank is seemingly assassinating everyone who he believes to have wronged him, starting, in an effectrively shocking scene, as Reyes confesses to being behind the sting gone sour and the cover-up, before being suddenly killed... with Foggy lucky to survive, showing the danger Matt's friends are in. And Karen, pursuing the sory as a reporter again, discovers that there are further targets- the doctor from the trial and herself. She's saved, in a not-entirely-unpredictable twist, by none other than Frank. So who is the killer?

All this is just plot, of course, exciting that it is. What the episode is really about is Matt's increasing isolation, deciding he wands "no more law" and "no more friends", despite Claire rather sensibly telling him that cutting himself off from normal life, justive, human connection and, indeed, sleep, is not exactly an awesome idea. 

We end this splendid episode with the hospital under attack from without by ninjas and from within from those blood-poisoned people Daredevil has just rescued, and both Claire and Foggy in peril. I bet that would never happen in a country with an actual health system...

Breaking Bad: I See You

 "It's all, like, shiny up in here."

Once again we have a devilishly clever episode which gets even cleverer at the very end. On the surface it's about Walt juggling two worlds: one where he's under pressure to deliver his meh quota; and another where he has family obligations to wait at the hospital with the family as Hank fights for his life. Yet there's so much going on beneath the surface of the deceptively simple plot, and we discover that literally everyone is but a fly in Gus' web.

Jesse basically spends the episode being a ridiculous dick, with Aaron Paul's facial expression when he discovers what happened to Hank being utterly priceless. And his arrival in the lab at exactly the wrong moment while Walt (not Heisenberg!) is bullshitting badly to Gale is hilarious. I'm calling it now; Gale is to become a future antagonist and Walt will regret treagting him so shabbily.

Elsewhere we have hints at a connection between Walt and Marie, which is interesting. We have a truly terrifying horror scene where the surviving brother sees Walt, leaves his hospital bed and crawls, legless and bleeding on the floor, towards Walt. We have a uniquely straightforward opening. And we have Walt Jr telling his dad about a book Hank got him- Walt being out-fathered by a man fighting for his life.

Yet all that is overshadowed by the end, with Gus humiliating Walt and subtly letting him know that he knows everything, and proceeding to kill the remaining brother (and only witness as to who ordered the hit on Hank) before almost casually having his rival killed. We now realise just how dangerous Gus is... and yet, with the trajectory of Breaking Bad being towards bigger and bigger scale, I expect one day he will have Walt for a rival...

A superb episode, and superb performances all round.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

 "Well, if you save the world, you knoiw what that means...!"

I rather enjoyed the previous Kingsman movie, a fitrst class rollicking modern action movie which was basically a modern version of James Bond written by Jane Goldman and directed by Matthew Vaughn. I enjoyed this film for exactly the same reasons.

The first film was excellent. This sequel, unusually, maintained exactly the same level of quality, in exactly the same style. It's a blockbuster action film in the James Bond sort of genre, only without the historical weight and constraints on the visual style.

This works. Taron Egerton in=s a splendid lead. Julianne Moore is almost as good a Bond villain as Samuel L. Jackson was. We have a whole new American cast, led by Jeff Bridges, after Kingsman is destroyed, and are introduced to a new American secret socety based in the state of bluegrass and fried chicken, what would be the coolest state in the USA if it were not the fact that it votes for the Republican party, a fascist cult that hates democracy and is rightly despised by all who love freedom, including one hundred percent of the mainstream centre-right, . If you're reading this and you're a Republican, kindly cease doing so. And, indeed.cease reading my blog. You hate freedom and I loathe you as I loathed the USSR. Democracy hates you asv you hate democracy. Death to all you love. Thank you.

I admire the attitude this film takes to the drugs war. Personally, I'm on the fence. Cannabis obviously needs to be legalised, not least so that I can occasionally smoke it (at old-fashionred strength), but heroin? The film, while not telling us what think, addressed the topic thoughtfully, while showing us the cool side of Kentucky at the same time as giving us a US president almost as much as a prick as the criminal Trump. May he die in prison.

Anyway, superb film,.a blockbuster every bitbas good as the original..

The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)

 "This is dreadful. The next thing we know we'll be nationalised..."

This is not, perhaps, one of those Ealing comedies that are widely regarded as works of genius, yet it's fondly regarded. And I can see why; it's not exactly a laugh a minute but it's pleasant and diverting, and a fascinating glimpse into those last few years of steam rail, when everyone knew the writing was on the wall but hoped that steam's demise would be postponed for a little while.

Stanley Holloway impresses, and so does a slightly pre-screen fame Sid James in a middling role, but the large cast of character actors perhaps fails to quite set the film ablaze despite much enthusiasm. The script, too, is fuller on charm than it is on humour, but it's amusing to see a train-obsessed vicar surely based on the Rev. W. Awdry and the lengths some would go to in order to get around those horribly puritan opening hours. The characters are all of their time and memorable; it all feels very Dad's Army. And the plot- villagers upset at losing their train station decide to buy and run it themselves, despite the dastardly bus company trying to stop them- is just melodramatic enough to provide interest without spoiling the pleasant mood.

This isn't exactly Kind Hearts and Coronets, but it's a pleasantly enjoyable film. And I'm not particularly a rail enthusiast, but there's something awesome about seeing a steam locomotive in its natural habitat. And better to drink a proper pint in a railway carriage than lager in Downing Street.

Mad Men: Shoot

 "I like this show. Very gay songs."

Once again, Mad Men gives us a devilishly clever forty-seven minutes of television. Ostensibly it's about a bigger, rival agency trying to poach Don from Sterling Cooper, unsuccessfully in the end, and the use of a modelling job for Betty as a quid pro quo. Yet it's so much more than that. It's about contemporary attitudes to women working and how they need the implied permission of their husbands, and how being at work is seen, unthinkingly, as neglecting her role as mother. It's all done with admirable subtlety.

Peggy, on the other hand, is now seeing the downside of her copywriting success, no longer seen as sexy now that she's a bluestocking- leading Pete to take extreme measures to defend his masculine definition of her "honour". And yet, in this man's world, Peggy seems to be confident she can go places, much to Joan's well-meaning bemusement. 

The ending, though, is clever, and not only pecause it makes the title a pun on both modelling and firing a shotgun, as she takes elegant revenge on at least one man who has dared to wrong her. This is wonderfully symbolic of something much deeper, and the perfect ending to an elegantly well-crafted episode.

Daredevil: Seven Minutes in Heaven

 "In prison, there's only room for one Kingpin..."

At this point the series is quite addictive and I'm eagerly waitng for the next episode. Daredevil is amazing right now, and this episode is a roller-coaster of well-directed, superbly acted and astonishingly eventful awesomeness.

Where to start? Matt sadly sees, from Elekra's bloodlust in saving him last episode. He admits he loves her, but dumps her for falling short of his ideals. And then there's the end of Nelson and Murdoch in an extraordinary scene of suppressed yet palpable emotions as Matt and Foggy end their firm and, seemingly, their friendship. He's already lost Karen; Matt now has nothing and no one... except his mission and his unhealthy drive to do what he does, which is pushing everyone away and ruining his life.

Yet Karen is still awesome. Now having no job, by default, she finds respect and purpose in journalism, uncovering the fact that the carousel massacre was instigated by a police agent provocateur... as, in a parallel, Frank discovers the same thing.

Frank's prison experience, seemingly brief, is dominated by what I suspect is a single episode guest appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Fisk, that calmly introspective, civilised yet menacing man who dominates every scene in which he appears. To see his adaptations to prison life as he uses Frank Castle to become, well, kingpin is nuanced and fascinating. He never lies to Frank, being quite open about why he's using him. It's an extraordinarily subtle, well-written and superbly acted dynamic.

And then we have O' Hornhead's dsubterranean pursuit of the Hand, and the unexpected things he finds. Yet it's not just the momentous events: it's the characters, the extraordinary sequence where the Punisher, in slow motion, prevails against an army of fellow prisoners... this is as good as it gets. And what on Earth is going on with the Hand?