Union Jack- Co-operation

"So sorry I shot you, mate. My bad."

It's a weird time to be blogging this, a few minutes away from the exit poll in a somewhat dramatic election marked by much rain (at least here in the constituency of Bosworth) and, it seems, high turnout. But I shall pass these last twenty-odd minutes with some praise for a particularly outstanding episode of this bloody good web series.

First, though, I really need to correct a long-standing omission and praise the music, from Tasha Fights Tigers, to the skies. I love this kind of broadly post-punk sound, but not only is the theme tune awesome but the incidental music as good, if not better, than anything you see on telly.

As for the episode as a whole, though, once again we get lots of seriousness leaved by genuinely funny humour and likeable characters well portrayed. We get cleverness, too- the conceit here is that Axis Mundi are going to explode a WMD in central London tomorrow, and Joey and Romany have to sneak into Slaymaster's lair and get him to help. Yet the plot is foiled and everybody lives with plenty of entertaining drama but without too much strain on the budget; the defeat of Axis Mundi's plan happens off screen but we don't mind as we're too engrossed by the witty and exciting character drama we see unfolding.

Plus, you know, Trivial Pursuit banter. Booby jokes. And, er, Union Flag boxers. This is seriously good stuff. Watch it now on YouTube.

Union Jack: Compromised

"You're like a shit Captain Britain."

Well, that went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. An Axis Mundi agent running MI5; Joe and Slaymaster uniting against a common enemy; lots of complex allegiances. A typically brilliant episode this week, with the usual likeable characters, witty humour and enjoyably tally fight scenes. This is a series that understands how dull silent fight scenes can be, and that’s appreciated.

Slaymaster certainly seems to be a cynic and no angel, but he claims to be reformed- this isn’t quite the character who blinded Betsy Braddock in the comics. Here, so far, he’s pretty much just a cool red herring. He’s also an indicator that Joe is somewhat out of his depth, but that’s a big part of what makes Union Jack a hero; Captain Britain he is not.

As ever, though, the joy is in the dialogue- the exchange about the password between Romany and Joe including “How the fuck am I going to get the word ‘banana’ into a conversation with a supervillain?”, and all the Captain Britain stuff. But on top of all the arc plot is becoming ever more intricate. I’m enjoying this a lot.

Look it up on YouTube!