Douglas Is Cancelled: Episode 4

 "I'm an avenging angel of dearth, from Newsnight. And you're Prince Andrew."

Wow. This episode is a tour de force of television scriptwriting and performance, and surely the extraordinary highlight of Karen Gillan's career so far. She truly is superb as Madeline here, as she finally and cleverly takes down Douglas, an unstoppable righteous force in an episode that brilliantly examines all of the issues arising from #MeToo. Wow.

So many elements here compliment the core message personally. We have the hapless, thick, casually misogynisic "comedian", tasked with coming up with "family friendly misogyny from a happier time". We have Douglas's increasing panic, followed by misplaced confidence. We have the slow destruction of Claudia's faith in her father. We have that gloeious confrontation between Madeline and Sheila in the ladies'.

And yes, we have Douglas cancelled, hot unfairly, because of a joke that truly was awful. There's nothing really unjust about that, despite the twist that his career ends because of an entirely separate joke for which he bears no real blame: the joke he did tell was inexcusable. And yet... Toby gets away with far worse, because Madeline, in a world of double standards, woukd bring herself down with him. And perhaps the point, the real point, as Madeline says, is that we men who are not like Toby really do need to step up.

The Boys: Dirty Business

 "Are Jewish space lasers brainwashing you into joining ther shuls?"

The above isn't the only appropriated quote from America's far right- we also have that old "legitimate rape" line and talk of a total ban on abortion, heavily dog whistled white supremacism and pushing of an oligarchy where the super rich can do what they like without regulation. It's all perfectly judged satire, highly appropriate in a week where the boy Drumpf said the quiet part out loud.

I've no intention of recounting all the myriad plot threads that you get in late season episodes of The Boys: there's a lot going on here. But the satire is the point. So is the hypocrisy. Hence the fact that these social conservatives have a BDSM dungeon, and we get a scene at once hilarious and horrifying, where Hughie, undercover as a very interesting riff on Spider-Man, is put in the situation of not knowing the safe word for the person he's supposed to be. Literally, ouch. Yet this all turns truly nightmaring.

I love the Batman parallels, too- Tek Knight is blatantly a Batman analogue, with an old money background, a masion and a "Tek Cave". Yet he's plotting to build internment camps... and his Alfred hates his guts.

Then there's the revelation about Butcher... Kessler is as much a hallucination as Becca, the devil and angel on his shoulder, respectively. Is he really going to engineer a virus for supe genocide...?

But even that pales beside the revelation of exactly what Firecracker is willing to do for Homelander. Wow. I mean, this is a blog, but words fail me. Exquisite, outrageous television that perhaps does more than any other art to show the true existential threat of the American Republican party to everything we hold dear.

Inside Out 2 (2024)

 "Maybe this is what happens when you grow up..."

So today, having watched the original Inside Out, today it was off to the cinema with Little Miss Llamastrangler to see a seqiuel that's come out a massive nine years latert. I suppose one may be inclined to see that as a worrying sign, as well as the fact that the main point of the film- puberty- was telegraphed all those years ago.

So is this the equal of the first film? Well, no, not really. But it's still good, and Little Miss Llamastrangler loved it, which counts for an awful lot as far as I'm concerned. The way the concept was handled was superb. New emotions such as Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui (my absolute favourite)... and the superb Maya Hawke absolutely stealing the show as Envy.

Wisely, the film takes place over a limited period of time in Riley's life, as she goes to an ice hockey camp where she absolutely must impress, and is torn between old and new friends. The horrors of sexual awakening, I trust, can wait until the next film, presumably in 2033.

The plot works out well, with lots of nice little humorous moments. The ultimate resolution is a little trite, though, and the film overall doesn't have quite the pizzazz of its more original predecessor. Nevertheless, these things are hardly crimes, and the new emotions are great. This is well worthy seeing.

Inside Out (2015)

 "Forget it, Jake. It's Cloudtown."

This is a film chosen not by myself but by Little Miss Llamastrangler. It's been a while since I've seen a Pixar film, and this one I's never seen before.

Yet I've never seen a Pixar film I didn't like, this one included. It's not necessarily a genre I'd usually seek out, but good films of any genre can be hugely enjoyable. I mean, I've even watched and blogged Grease...

I must admit... I'm a Brit of a certain age. So, with apologies to those who don't get the reference, I was very much reminded of the Numbskulls from The Beezer. But the concept was superb. On, on the surface it's about a littlre girl's anthropomorphised emotions, yes. But it's about the uncertainties of change, especially rocky ones, when one is growing up.

And it's also about the necessity of sadness, too. We know what Joy is for. Anger, Fear and Disgust protect us. But Sadness? It takes the whole film, more or less, to effectively drive home the lesson: we could all do with a bit of melancholy, sometimes.

We also have lots of little in-jokes from the grown-ups, a random supporting role from Kyle MacLachlan, no less, and some bloody brilliant imaginitive concepts. Not, then, the sort of film I'd often seek out, but very good stuff nonetheless.

Update

 This is just to say that, for life reasons, updates may be thin on the ground this week. All will return to normal after next weekend, though, fear not.

The Boys: Beware the Jabberwock, My Son

 "It's an absolute wonder to me that you've all managed to live this long..."

Oh my. Only The Boys could possibly do flying killer sheep infected with Compound Vi quite like this episode. As ever, this is exquisite.

So many little touches. I love, once again, the little bits of Vought advertising excess, with its tone deaf attempts at diversity and the blatant not to Kevin Feige's public unveling of the next raft of Marvel films.

There's so much more, though. The ending, when Billy Butcher reveals what his real, devilishly clever plan was. The links to Gen V. Homelander's slowly successful corruption of Ryan. Ashley's cold betrayal of the ex-sub whoi dumped her, framimg him and ensuring his horrible death. Seeing Stan Edgar again, and his commentary on everyone. Firecracker really going all out to destroy Annie.

And yet there's real heart here. Frenchie's terrible guilt, and Catholic guilt at that, over all the muders he's committed... and what it spurs him to do. 

But the real, incredible, heart-wrenching tragedy here is, of course, Hughie and his dad, with a tour de force performance from Simon Pegg. The dynamics between Hughie and both his parents here is utterly incredible. 

And yet, even here, there's glorious amounts of gore. Ah, The Boys. Like nothing else on telly, and I love it so much.

Douglas Is Cancelled: Episode 3

 "You do want the job, don't you...?"

Wow. This is a sudden, effective and blatantly deliberate shift of tone from the previous two epidsodes. And it's incredible.

The whole episode is a flashback to Madeleine's past, her first meeting with Douglas... and how she got the job. By the end, we pretty much know what Douglas said at the wedding, and how utterly unforgiveable it was.. And that isn't even the point.

The vast majority of the episode is a two hander between Madeline and Toby. Ben Miles is excellent but Karen Gillan is utterly sublime, playing the discomfort, fear and resignation of a woman who, despite her poise, despite being wise to the gaslighting, The script is outstanding here, showing us the horrible reality of #MeToo as experienced in reality by so many women. So many nuances are there in the script. The gaslighting, the power imbalance, the sheer horror.

And, in the end, Douglas opens the door, sees what Madeline is going through... and advises her, in those words we've heard before, that whatever she has to wade through, it's worth it.

Wow. This isn't the type of first class television I was expecting after the first two episodes. But it's certainly first class television.

The Batman (2022)

 "It's all connected."

While the later films didn't quite manage to maintain the excellence, one would perhaps naturally assume that Christopher Nolan had perfected the Batman film back in 2005 with Batman Begins. Yet it would seem not. We have a new contender.

So why is this film so good? Wisely, it skips the origin story and, notably, focuses on a very realistic portrayal of Gotham, with zero supernatural or sci-fi elements. The film is superbly and stylistically shot. Robert Pattinson is perfect as Bruce Wayne, while Zoe Kravitz and Jeffrey Wright also excel.

The use of villains is also excellent. This is a brilliant way of using the Riddler, while Penguin is toned down to become a mere mob boss, no doubt to appear again. The character of Selina Kyle is very well written indeed.

Yet this is at root a crime film very much reminiscent of the Saw franchise and not only in its visual style. Not necessarily in terms of the tiresomely excessive gore but the elements of those films that were actually good- the dark, almost hopeless feeling that violent, corruption and despair are ever-present, and the complex, multi-layered mystery, something which works supremely well here and makes everything feel very fresh indeed.

Yet what works even better is the way the Riddler is reinvented in the vein of Jigsaw, as a crusader for truth. Even better, there's a thread of Gotham having dark secrets in its past, which is used to comment wryly on the extremely harmful conspiracy theory online culture that exists today. It makes the point, rightly, that conspiracy theories are not mere harmless fun.

I hope this film is the first of several. It certainly seems to be setting things up for the future. Overall, though, this film is a triumph..

Downtime

 "I thought I was in Cromer..."

I know: still suffering Doctor Who withdrawal.

This is another one of those curious oddities from, ahem, "the Wilderness Years", as we Doctor Who fans call the '90s. I saw Shakedown not long ago, I enjoyed it despite its endearing flaws, so I thought I'd watch this. Any good?

Well... no. I mean, on paper, it seems good. Filmed on location, a sequel to The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, loads of old actors and characters. And yet...

The direction is flat. Marc Platt's script has it's character moments and lots of nice metatextual lines, but it's a mess. There's a heavy focus on Victoria, with Deborah Watling being very good, and a welcome appearance from her real life father Jack Watling as Professor Travers. Nick Courtney is superb, as ever, as the Brig, and has a nice little family subplot. And, yeah, this is totally why UNIT today is led by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

Yet Elisabeth Sladen, despite being very good, is woefully underused as Sarah Jane Smith, and there's a little too much going on. And, despite some good character stuff, the plot is very muddled and oddly paced. And yes... inevitably, the whole thing looks very cheap.

This is an interesting curiosity, perhaps, and far from terrible, with very real good points. But it's not exactly great, sadly.

Douglas Is Cancelled: Episode 2

 "They execute gay people and it won't stop raining!"

Two episodrs in... and this is wonderful. Rain in Dubai, the crap comedy writer, the awkwardness between Toby and the taxi driver. But mostly, it's the wit, and the characters. Oh, the characters.

Madeline is much more centtre stage this time. We get to see first hand how she manipulates Douglas. On this occasion he's gone in there all cross and about to demand she remove the tweet... and she gets him to retweet it. But the whole thing is a kind of fight over Douglas between Madeline and Sheila, both of whom want to prep him for the interview he's going to have to endure soon... and then we end with Madeline dropping that bombshell. She's an utterly fascinating character, with far more depth to her than initially meets the eye, and so much cleverer than everyone else.

This is masterful storytelling, and halfway through the series we still don't know what Douglas' joke actually was. But the whole thing is engrossing. The entire cast shines, but Karen Gillan, Alex Kingston and Ben Miles are utterly superb. The real star, though, is the script. Steven Moffat can sooo do comedy thst makes you think.#

Is it me, or is Douglas inexorably headed towards absolute doom?

The Boys: Wisdom of the Ages

 "Your life is literally in your hands..."

Wow, This is a dark, dark episode. For a start, much of it consists of Homelander slowly torturing, humiliating and killing those who made his childhood so damaging. It's all good character stuff... but damn, it's dark.

But so is everything else. Sage has her own demons, unable to be free from the burden of her genius. So much so... that she gets her toyboy the Deep to give her a te,porary fontal lobotomy so she can dumb down for a while.Wow. And that's only the second grossest moment in this episode. The worst is... you know.

Then there's the dying Butcher, the little worm that's roaming in his skin, and that... explosion or something that saves his life. Frenchie finally confesses to Colin. Hughie does his ultimaterly fruitless little deal with A-Train... and what's happening with his Dad?

And yet... the most distressing part of the episode is how cruelly Firecracker (who at one point say to Sage "You know, when I first met you, I thought you were kind of uppity. But you're one of the good ones"... just wow) ruins Annie's life on television via a six hour hatchet job. Liberals are always held to higher moral standards than fascists, because we have morals and they don't. The asymmetry explains why they succeed, and why we must sometimes compromise on our ethics in order to crush them.

This is darker, more of a downer, than most episodes. But, as ever, besides the grossness and the cynicism is a real moral outrage.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I watched an episode or two of the television series many years ago... but hesitated. Should I not read the novels first? And so, during the Coronavirus plague, I started on the first novel, began to enjoy it... and alas, could not continue, as life was simply too overwhelming and would not stop.

Now, finally, I've read the first novel and oooooh... I see exactly why these novels are so revered. George R.R. Martin has produced a fictionalised mediaeval world that feels real, characters whom one feels one knows, and prose in which to get drunk. Reading this novel is a rich and fulfilling experience, and I have many more to go... possibly with a final novel to go unritten, but for now, I care not. 

Martin is, I suppose, an epic fantasy equivalent of Patrick O'Brian, of yetbeyond his genre. His setting, the continent of Westeros, has the sense of deep history that Middle Earth does, as the book takes us from a loose kingdom united under a week king to a state of utter chaos and civil war, and does so via chapers that each focus on the viewpoint of a single character, all with their own view, desires and quirks.

The situation is, I suppose, similar to the Wars of the Roses, yet there is no exact parallel: one cannot say that the very unpleasant "King" Joffrey is wholly based on Edward IV, for example. The fantasy elements are kept light, yet- at the ending especially- they are there. One cannot help but feel that, as Caetlyn fears, the men of Westeros will cause so much death and destruction fighting each other.... and we know, as she does not, that Danaerys is waiting.

Exquisite.

I plan to alternate A Song of Ice and Fire with another novel until I've finished. So, a shorter novel next. Then A Clash of Kings...

Douglas Is Cancelled: Episode 1

 "That's not ambiguity.That's plausible deniability."

Yes, I know, I've sort of had to temporarily pause my ongoing series that I'm blogging in order to frantically catch up with The Boys after three episodes bloody landed at once. Now ITV have gone and released a new comedy drama by Steven Moffat, so my schedule lies even more in tatters. Grr.

I must say, though, this first episode is bloody brilliant. The premise seems very ho-hum and meh: a news presenter is overheard telling a sexist joke at a wedding and suddenly his career is in the balance. At first glance it looks as though we're in for a tiresome, heavy-handed rant about "cancel culture"... but of course, not.This is Steven Moffat, and he's much cleverer than that.

What's particularly clever is the actual joke itself is held back. It's "Schrodinger's joke". We end the episode on tenterhooks not kmnowing how bad it is or how bad things are.

Hugh Bonneville is excellent as the eponymous Douglas, and so is Karen Gillan as his subtly clever co-host Madeline. But utterly standout performances from Ben Miles as the most cynical producer, and Alex Kingston as the gloriously weary Sheila, utterly steal the show. This is clever, witty, topical (we get lines like "I work with people who hack your phone") and very thoughtful comedy drama. I'm hooked.