Update

Life is happening (nothing to worry about!) so any blog posts will be thin on the ground this week. Back to normal from the weekend though.

Dexter: Truth Be Told

 "That ain't no little thing..."

Wow. That was quite the penultimate episode, setting everything up for an explosive finale.

There are other plot threads- LaGuerta seemingly losing her power play with the Captain and vowing his revenge, the recovered Angel finally coming to terms with the fact that his marriage is over, and an interesting resolution to the Paul story- Rita's son is not taking his father's absence well, and Dexter is right that the kids need to know that he deserves to be in prison (and he does, despite Dexter's little subterfuge!), much as Rita may not like it. And her solution is perfect: visit Paul and make him tell the truth to the kids or never see them again. Nicely done.

But, well, the main event is all about the setting up of Dexter vs Rudy, as events play out with grim inevitability. The witness from last episode is killed, the first time we see, in person, how he operates. Brr. And the wheels turn inexorably until he has Deb in his clutches, cruelly breaking her heart after proposing to her, using her as bait... and Dexter works out the truth, but too late.

And then there's the mystery of what happened to Dexter's mother, with Harry ordering the records destroyed. Something tells me that Rudy knows something, and we'll find out next episode. Let's see.

One prediction, though- Deb won't die. Because this hint of a thing between her and Doakes, with Rudy out of the picture, is setting things up nicely for friction next season, with Doakes very much having Dexter's number- especially noticing his reaction to the revelation that Angel is going to live.

The Beatles- Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

This is a really difficult album to review in 2025. With this more than any other Beatles album, historical context (especially when it comes to the technology, means everything. And likely goes much of the way towards explaining why, after traditionally topping those lists of best ever rock albums, it's now started to be eclipsed by other Beatles albums.

As a collection of songs, this is extraordinary. We have "She's Leaving Home"; "A Day in the Life"; "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Even deep cuts like "Fixing a Hole" and "Good Morning, Good Morning" are capable of burrowing their way into your brain. And yet... strictly as a collection of songs, is it really better than Revolver or Abbey Road, what with filler songs like "When I'm Sixty-Four" or "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid"? I'd say not. But that isn't the point.

A few years ago, I read of younger listeners criticising Abbey Road for what they saw as an awkward gap in the middle, not understanding that this was because of the need to change the record to Side 2! Context is everything. And this album, despite some earlier achievements with Revolver in particular, utterly revolutionised what a band could do in a studio, especially without the need to reproduce those studio effects live. In 1967, the soundscapes of "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and "A Day in the Life" would have utterly wowed people, whereas these days we take those studio effects for granted.

So yes, perhaps it is correct to use hindsight and judge this as a collection of songs- certainly great, but not quite the Beatles' best. But we would do well also to remember how utterly innovative this album was in shaping what could be achieved within a studio.

Dexter: Seeing Red

 "It's your wet dream in there..."

Yet another great episode this week as we get closer to the finale, as the story of Rita's despicable ex (using children as weapons to manipulate your former spouse is one of the most evil things you can do, and let's just say I have reasons for feeling that way) and the main plot of the Ice Truck Killer continues, with Rudy manipulating a clueless Dexter... and a crime that really conjures up past memories for Dexter; how come Rudy knows so much about him?

Rudy is in full control throughout, despite his ostensible faux pas with Deb (incidentally, Doakes definitely likes her), getting Dexter under his control while driving a wedge between him and Deb, although with the latter definitely being Dexter's fault too. And the crime- all the missing blood from earlier crimes deposited into one hotel room- has such repercussions, partly in its effect on the ongoing feud between LaGuerta and the Captain in proving the suspect in custody to be a mere fantasist, but also in its awakening a deeply buried memory for Dexter- of witnessing his birth mother's death. And I'm sure that much will be revealed over the coming season over what exactly happened.

Also, we have Angel starting to come to terms with his divorce at last... only to find a lead in the case that causes Rudy to try and kill him. The crime was interrupted, but will he survive...? This episode is just quite simply crammed with stuff.

And, most shockingly perhaps, as Paul goes too far in his persecution of Rita, Dexter feels able to bend the rules... after all, Harry did so with him in lying about his birth father. So yes, he doesn't kill Paul but rather ensures him life without parole by injecting with heroin... but, despite what Dexter thinks, the code of Harry has been bent for the first time. And, I'm sure, not the last.

Excellent stuff, yet again.

Metallica- ... And Justice for All (1988)

This album is strangely overlooked, having been released between Master of Puppets and the Black Album, both of which get much more attention. And that's odd, because it contains "One", the only song on the album that truly ranks as one of the band's best known. "One" is, of course, a truly great song about something truly horrific, at one the band's first music video and the reason why Metallica ended up owning the rights to the film version of Johnny Get Your Gun.

Yet, that one song aside... this album is strangely unloved. The first album with the painful absence of Cliff Burton, the first with Jason Newsted desperately trying to fill his shoes... and, by all accounts, being given a rather hard time. And, while remastered versions now abound, the album is rather oddly mixed.

And yet... if we consider the songs themselves, they're as good as any collection of songs that Metallica did in the '80s. "Blackened", the title track, "Harvester of Sorrow". This is the last album the band would make with their trademark long songs with a Sabbath-esque structure and all those superbly done transitions before adapting their style towards shorter and simpler songs. And... it deserves more love!

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

 

I read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell many moons ago, before this blog was ever conceived of. I won't say too much, as I'm quite likely to reread it at some point, and inevitably blog it, but suffice to say that it made a huge impression on me. Sadly, Susanna Clarke hasn't written much- I understand for health reasons- but a few years ago she graced us with Piranesi, and I understand a third novel is underway. Let there be much rejoicing.

This novel is shorter, less epic in length than its predecessor. Yet it is nevertheless a triumph, quite as good as everybody says it is. We begin with our eponymous narrator, living in a seemingly endless and seemingly impossible labyrinthine structure which is, for him, the world entire.

The novel is a wonderful puzzle, unwinding at the perfect pace to enthral us. It is complex, beguiling, yet in no way a difficult read. The puzzle, and the resolution, are not only deeply satisfying but deeply so.

And yet, there's an emotional heart to this. The narrator is innocent, good, intelligent yet naïve and as we slowly come to discover, much sinned against, a painful realisation for him. While this book is, yes, a puzzle, it has a heart. And it also has, I think, a subtext. That there are dangerous, manipulative individuals out there, most of them men, and that we succumb to their dubious charms at our peril...

Green Day- Dookie (1994)

 

It's a little odd, with thirty years of distance, to look back at what was a rather formative album of my teenage years.

Yes, I know it wasn't Green Day's first album, or their second, but it's their major label debut (and "selling out" to major labels was much agonised over back then- how times change) and so the album most of us heard first. And... looking back, it made a huge impact. Grunge was in its death throes (despite much good stuff to come) and Californian punk, spearheaded by Rancid, the Offspring and especially Green Day, felt like the ideal replacement. For a few years (after earlier bands like X, the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Agent Orange etc had been awesome but not quite mainstream), Californian punk ruled the roost.

And... well, then came Blink 182 and all that pop punk crap, mixing punk with chart pop, literally the least punk thing ever. And... yes, in hindsight, in a certain light this album might seem like a bit of a harbinger of that, full of the laddish angst of a trio of still very young men. Yet, unlike anything Blink 182 ever did, it's awesome. There's not a single bit of filler on here and, even if we ignore the singles, we have songs like "She", "Sassafrass Roots" and "F.O.D."

With thirty years of hindsight, then... an even better debut that it would have seemed at the time.

Update

 No TV or film blog posts for a few days... broke a glass while washing up and blood spurted out of an artery in my thumb. It took ages of pressing on it, but I'm fine. It's hard to write, though, with a plaster on the tip of one's thumb, without pressing on the affected area!

Normal blogging will resume once I'm confident that it's healed sufficiently for me to be able to write my notes as I view.

I may still blog the novel I'm reading rather quickly, however, or albums, which don't need me to write. We shall see!

Squid Game: The Starry Night

 "Hang on in there just a bit longer...."

Wow. What an episode.

We begin with No-eul showing a ruthlessness that many of the players in the game of hide and seek do not- and the rest of the episode is dedicated entirely to said game. 

My only slight criticism here is that the point is that anyone could die (and does die!) in the games... except Ji-hun, whose plot armour is impervious. He spends the episode being simply unable, mostly decent chap (though terrible father) that he is, to kill anyone. But we know he has to survive, and so it's inevitable that he ends up killing in self-defence. And his deeply felt guilt... yeah, we get the point. Let's not push that too much further, shall we?

It's an interesting dilemma: how to most effectively use the only player with plot armour, and for whom there can be no real tension...?

Ji-hun aside, though... this episode is devastating.

Myung-gi, with his sense, and Nam-gyu, with his total lack of conscience, make a gruesomely efficient team, working out the best strategy- collaborate and jointly kill two people. But Nam-gyu- it bloody would be him- also works out that it's in their overall interests to keep on killing, reducing the opposition on both teams to their long term advantage. Wow. Fortune favours the sociopath, it seems. I'm sure he'll get his delicious comeuppance.

Speaking of comeuppances, Seon-nyeo, that cynical quack, gets hers. Good. As a direct contrast to this, we have the solidarity of Jun-hee (who of course goes into labour at the worst possible moment), the old Geum-ja and the heroic Hyun-ju, who gets a heroic, selfless death here. Yes, one may raise an eyebrow at the only trans character being killed... but it's a very heroic, noble death, saving the two other ladies with whom, pointedly, she bonded while they were all in the ladies' loo.

Geum-ja, though... oh! Her tragedy, inevitable though it begins to seem by the end, hits hard.

As does the episode. Wow.

The City & the City by China Mieville

Cliché though it is to say, this novel blew my mind. It is, in the best possible Borgesian way, an absolute mindfuck.  At first it seems to be a standard, if vaguely weird, little murder mystery, but with the odd word like "crosshatched" or "grosstopical" thrown in. But then the good Inspector Borlu receives a certain phone call, and we suddenly get something of an idea of what's going on.

I won't spoil anything here. I often do in this blog, but the slow reveal of the weird reality is this novel's big genius thing, and spoiling things really, really would be a crime. Spoilers are things that, shall we say, one cannot unsee.

Let's just say that the opening words of the novel, "I could not see..." take on a very different meaning once the fundamental principles are revealed.

There's so much to praise here. This is generally seen as weird fantasy, but the presence of fantasy elements is, very carefully, never overt. Breach are sort of implied to have supernatural powers, but a certain line is never crossed.

Most admirable, though, is how the concept of the novel is carried through, played with, explored and treated with consistency. Importantly, the backstory as to how Beszel and Ul Qoma are how they are is hinted at but not dwelt on. The lack of a full explanation is a feature, not a bug.

Perhaps the ending could have packed more of a punch, but that's outweighed by the sheer genius of the worldbuilding here. I'm certainly going to explore more works by China Mieville after this.

Naked Lunch (1991)

 "It's a Kafka high. You feel like a bug."

When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I got into the habit of reading novels that were seen as a bit counter-culture, a bit alternative, a bit offbeat. Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, that sort of thing. And, for some reason, I ended up reading a lot of William S. Burroughs including, yes, Naked Lunch. And that isn't exactly an experience I can recommend. Let's just say it's a novel you can only read when you're young...!

This film, though? Oh, the novel and David Cronenberg were made for each other. So much body horror, and not just the (deliciously realised) Mugwumps. No, we have sentient, spymaster typewriters which are highly sexed, which ejaculate and which, er, stand to attention when excited. Because of course we do. This is the perfect canvas for Cronenberg to do his thing.

The film is visually exquisite, as one might expect. Yet the highlight may be Peter Weller's monologue recounting that surreal anal-related sequence from the novel. He truly carries the film in a suitably deadpan performance, believable as Burroughs himself, the still point beside whom all the gloriously surreal stuff makes a weird kind of sense.

No, this isn't a straight adaptation of a novel that is, straightforwardly, unfilmable, with its complex, bonkers plot and even more complex, bonkers subtext... and written by an author who was a heavy user of certain substances. Yet, albeit with the addition of certain elements from Burroughs' life (the notorious "William Tell" act especially), it comes surprisingly close.

Absolutely peak Cronenberg. A film that achieves the impossible, and does so with aplomb.

Batman: The Animated Series- Tyger, Tyger

 "Your father was a test tube..."

Meh.

I mean, the story sort of works. A rich mad scientist has an island off Gotham where he goes all Dr Moreau and performs genetic experiments. He kidnaps Selina Kyle, turns her into a literal Catwoman, Batman has to rescue her, there exists a highly convenient antidote, there's the obligatory tragic Quasimodo/King Kong figure. Lots of these tropes are highly predictable, but there's nothing wrong with this.

But, well, where are they going with the character of Selina Kyle? She's sort of reformed- although she is at least tempted to free the tiger from the zoo at the start- so what to do with the character now? Simply using her as a damsel in distress is... not great. The series needs to think very hard at this point about what to do with the character.

I suppose it's good to see Kirk Langstrom again, just advising Batman- this sort of thing helps flesh out the setting, which is good. But otherwise... not exactly the best episode.

Twin Peaks: The Condemned Woman

 "You'll have to excuse me. the chef tried to stab Jerry."

I love the way the above quote isn't even followed up on, and is just an excuse for Ben to leave so that Audrey and mysterious newcomer Jack Wheeler can have their deliciously nuanced conversation, circling around each other. She doesn't like him. But...

Still, to state the bleeding obvious, this is Josie's episode. And what a horrible last few hours for her, after days of being bullied and humiliated by Catherine. Poor Josie. The dilemma of prison or "belonging" to Eckhart. The finality of the end- her shooting her tormentor, her death, Harry's heartbreak.

Other things happen. Windom Earle luring Shelley, Donna and Audrey to a few seats away from him. The tense game of chess by newspaper- and Pete as chess expert. Hank going to jail, Nadine dumping Ed, Ed proposing to Norma, and Norma dumping Hank in a uniquely Twin Peaks love quadrangle. Ben continuing to plot against Catherine as he schemes to revive the fortunes of his family.

But really, this episode is all about poor Josie, and the real, agonised despair of her final hours. Poor girl.

Batman: The Animated Series- Joker's Wild

 "It's an homage to me! I'm kind of sorry I have to blow it up..."

This episode is really rather good. For a start, the plot (SPOILERS!) is clever: a bankrupt billionaire gives his resort a Joker theme so that said Clown Prince of Crime will take offence and destroy it, allowing the naughty billionaire to pocket the insurance money and avoid ruin. It's clever, has a nice twist, and is a perfect little twenty-two minute mystery.

But, more than that, it's the real joy of seeing Mark Hamill's Joker, who by this point is easily the best villain in the Animated Series, by far. He gets all the best lines ("Why can't he ever stay dead?"), sets a gloriously bonkers blackjack-themed deathtrap for the Batman, and just hogs your attention throughout. This Joker is a delight.

But there's more, as the Gotham of this version of Batman continues to be fleshed out and given texture- more of Summer Gleeson, more development of Arkham Asylum, with consistent staff members- and the Joker's fun little spat with Poison Ivy.

Two thirds into the first season or thereabouts, and it's increasingly looking like the finished article.

Dexter: Father Knows Best

 "Oh, good. Dancing..."

So much fascinating stuff in this episode, and it's all layered. To start with, Dexter suddenly and randomly inherits a house from his birth dad... a birth dad whom Harry had told him was dead. Cue flashbacks and intrigue; DNA proves that this man is his birth dad, so why did Harry lie? We get some fascinating friction between him and Deb here, with Dexter blatantly having no idea how to react to his sister being upset. Yet we also find out that this man had a hidden dark past... is this birth dad the origin of Dexter's dark side? I hope we eventually learn more about all this.

But Dexter's birth dad is only dead, of course, because Rudy murdered him... and it's fascinating seeing Rudy and Dexter interact, Dexter having no idea that Rudy is the Ice Truck Killer and is not only playing mind games with him but using his poor sister. A sociopath with much better social skills... or perhaps a dark empath?

Then we have Doakes who, being an American cop, shoots a man in cold blood. And yet there's moral complexity: Doakes was in Haiti, and he's seen this man commit atrocities as part of the Ton Ton Macoute... and so LaGuerta covers it up. Police corruption, certainly... but moral shades of grey. And it's fascinating how Angel, trying to do the right thing, drops Doakes in it... but Doakes respects that, and refuses to tolerate Angel being mocked as a snitch. This is the complex morality of not being a psychopath...

But then we have the end, and Paul who, against stiff competition, is easily the most morally disgusting character on the show. Surely Dexter has to kill him?

And yet... that's the clever thing. We find ourselves hoping for that, but then we remember that dexter is a monster, and vigilantism has no place in a civilised society. Ah, that moral complexity again!