Adventureland (2009)

"You don't want 'virgin' to be your signifier."

"He takes one semiotics class..."

Ah, the nostalgia. Those halcyon days of uni, youth, much alcohol, the smoking of certain substances (not entirely off topic for this film!), terrible nightclubs (ditto) and Saussurean linguistics. It takes me back.

First things first, though: in spite of the fact that both films star Jesse Eisenberg, both were released in 2009 and both have similar titles, this film is not connected to Zombieland. Not, despite the uncanny similarities of Jesse Eisenberg's character getting dumped as he's introduced to us, is it connected to The Social Network.

It is, however, a brilliant and justly acclaimed film that deserves to be better known. Oh, structurally it may be a romantic comedy by numbers: boy meets girl; boy loses girl through series of complex event involving love triangles on both sides; boy really goes extra mile and gets girl back. The structure is nothing new. But within that structure it's funny: the dialogue is witty, intellectual and laugh out load hilarious. The characterisation is similarly superb. Basically, it rocks. And Joel is officially the coolest guy ever.

Even better than that, though, is the soundtrack. This film is set in an expertly realised 1987, and the tone is alternative '80s, meaning loads of my favourite bands. We open to "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements, no less, and the emotionally pivotal scene gets "Unsatisfied", a song which I love passionately and which, if you haven't yet heard, you must hear immediately. Seriously. The Velvet Underground are, quite rightly, everywhere and, incidentally, the subtitles tell me I've been getting the lyrics wrong for "Here She Comes Now" for years. Er, "She becomes my mouth", anyone?

Give this overlooked film a chance. It rocks in more ways than one.

Humans: Episode 7

"Oh, David. What did you do?"

Things get more and more intense this episode until the climax, which promises to lead to an emotionally draining finale. Humans, it's now clear, is one of the all time greats of British television.

The world has turned upside-down. Laura has to learn to make her own coffee again. But we begin ominously, with a flashback to Karen's creation and her traumatic rejection by Leo and her other siblings. In the present, protest rallies indicate an ominous was beyond the characters we know. 

The synths and the Hawkins'- including Joe- are altogether and seem to be getting on in a way which, despite some awkwardness, seems at first to hold out hope for peaceful co-existence. Even Joe seems to accept the nature of these sentient synth siblings. Best of all, it seems that Max could possibly be saved.

But in the background lurks Karen, whose story comes out both through Pete's investigations and in her conveniently expository chat with George. It seems Karen represents the overreaching of David Elster- a recreation of his dead beloved. His other creations reacted with hostility to her unveiling, and that night he killed himself. Karen has been left conversation need that she and her sentient synths are not meant to be, and must be destroyed. This is disturbing. Is she so very different, in extending her death wish to others, to those who kill their families before turning the gun on themselves? There is no excuse for her. She wants to murder sentient beings. And (I'm calling it) this makes her capable of killing humans. It must be her- not Niska, not Fred- who is the killer synth.

One thing is certain: she shoots George, and that's a shock. Is it an accident? Perhaps. Still, George's death is extremely moving, with the similarly dying Odi by his side, filling his last moments with memories of his late wife.

That's the most moving moment. The most disturbing is when Mia discusses with him how he had sex with Anita, telling him that "I was in there the whole time". Mia is clever, psychologically acute, nice and has a sense of humour. She may joke to Laura that "They think we plan to conquer the planet and make humanity our slaves", but the point is that synths have no united agenda of any kind. Why should they? They may not be human, but they're people, with all the messy diversity that implies.

And yet- can synths truly be happy in their skin? Karen isn't. And, as Leo tells Mattie. We are not emotionally designed for perfect recall. It is a curse to be denied the luxury of forgetting. That's the think about Humans: it's always throwing out cool ideas like this.

Our happy little family of Hawkinses and synths is upset by discord, firstly by the evaluation that Joe called the police on Leo and Max, and secondly by some TV footage of Niska at the synth Fight Club implying that she's a killer. (Is she? I think not, and the heartwarming scenes of her playing with Sophie are there to get us to earn to her.)

Max, it seems, cannot be salvaged, but the code in his head is still there, and could be used to bring sentience to all synths worldwide. But that's a whole different kettle of fish, and starts a debate for which there simply isn't time: Laura, putting her family first, asks them to leave. But, before they can do so, the trap springs. Karen betrays them, and riot police storm the house....

How can I be expected to wait until Sunday? How?

Freaky Friday (2003)

"I look like Stevie Nicks!"

"Who's he?"

Another remake by Disney, then, and yet again this is a rare case of a remake being superior to the original. It's much better paced, for a start- as firmly established by the opening montage- and a hell of a lot less sexist; this time the mother, Tess, is a psychiatrist rather than a housewife and the daughter, Anna, plays lead guitar in a band that sounds a bit like the Donnas or Verruca Salt. 

(While we're on the subject, incidentally, the film has an excellent soundtrack. And I'm reminded how good mainstream guitar music was back in 2003. Unlike Anna, I rather liked the White Stripes.)

This is a much faster-paced film than the original, thanks both to a much snappier s riot which cuts down on needless exposition and a much more creative directorial style; kids' films have changed a lot in twenty-seven years.

But the standout reason why the film is so watchable is, of course, Janie Lee Curtis, a superbly talented comic actress. As for Lindsay Lohan... well, personal life aside, she can certainly act.

Downsides? You could argue that there's a little light racism directed against the Chinese, perhaps, but while this isn't perfect I think that would be a more than harsh judgement. Could a band really win a competition in spite of its guitarist doing naff all for the first minutes of the song? I think yet. But I'm not going to labour the point. This isn't the greatest film ever made, being a bit of lightweight fluff designed for watchability rather than depth, yes. But there's nothing wrong with that. Well worth watching.

Humans: Episode 6

"If you power me down now, I will be unable to penetrate your wife."

It had to be that quote. There were plenty of potentials early on but when that one came along I knew it was The One.

Anyway, Humans. The revelations and the drama continue as per the last two episodes in what is turning out to be an interesting visually well-paced eight-parter, with no signs thus far of things dragging. Yes, there are times where the story has slowed down to explore theme and character, but there has been no padding. The writers deserve praise for that. 

They also deserve praise for this episode as a whole. The early scene with Fred, thus far a neglected character, both shows him to be a fascinating individual and raises the possibility that he, not Biska or Karen, may turn out to be the "killer synth". He's now on the loose. Max, too, gets a chance to shine, and die heroically to boot, as we examine his personality. He's a lovely bloke- loving, caring,  trusting, if not stupidly so, and with a faith in both humanity and, tentatively at least, God; the scene where he prays is quietly powerful. And yet he's the one who dies in an act of self sacrifice. What happens to Leo we will find out next week.

The repercussions of Joe's somewhat tapes act of infidelity are profound, yet they lead to a moving rapprochement of sorts between Laura and Mattie as we discover who the mysterious Tom was. It seems he was Laura's younger brother, who died as a child while his older sister was dying to look after him. Since then Laura has been dead to her awful mother, and Laura is terrified that the cycle is continuing with her and Mattie. I feel it won't, somehow.

The relationship between Biska and George continues to fascinate; Niska won't admit it, but heckles the old man. And we empathise with him, too, especially as we discover that George, after a stroke, has forgotten all about his late wife, relying on Odi to keep memories for him. It's clear he loves that poorly synth.

Niska, meanwhile, is five years younger than Mia and, it's implied, was used early on by David Elster as a concubine. Lovely. How very rapey. There's an obvious parallel here with Joe. 

Most dramatically, though, Mia makes a brief appearance to Laura and Mattie; the Anita personality keeps deleting her on the surface but she is always there in the nervous system, a metaphor for the subconscious. Interestingly, she says that she lost a son. This leads to Mattie and Laura making contact with a philosophical Max and a disconsolate and nearly dead Leo. At this point the revelations cone thick and fast, about David Elster's use of synth tech to resurrect his brain-dead son, of Nia being made as his surrogate mother, then Fred, Niska and Max, before his mysterious suicide. 

Mia agrees to stay with Laura and Mattie for the time being, but the increasingly creepy Hoe decides to snitch on Leo and Max, with the aforementioned tragic consequences. Is this the point where he stops being an empathetic character and just becomes pathetic?

Perhaps the most tragic character is Karen, though: after making love to her "favourite human", Pete, she all but declared her love for him and reveals her true nature, only to be horribly rejected by the appalled Pete, whose dislike of synths is well-established. This is yet another cliffhanger on an episode which is even more superb than usual. I can't wait until next time.

Humans: Episode 5

"She saved our son's life. And you're calling her a sex toy!"

Lots of revelations this week, some of them dramatic. It may be an episode of, essentially, exposition, but this is how you do it.

We begin with the meme of a "killer synth" having escaped into the public imagination, and we assume that it's Niska. Isn't that too obvious, though? Could it be Karen, for example? Interesting, if so: she and Pete are put on to the case.

We continue with a family debate about what to do with Anita. Joe, with a dirty secret to hide, wants rid of her, but no one else does, motivated by curiosity and not a little affection. Something is going to happen.

Leo sends Niska to George, where she'll be safe,which is awfully crazy newbie to because the two of them are both fascinating in their interaction and able to further the plot by exchanging information; for the first time it's confirmed that Niska was constructed by the mysterious David Elster.

Joe nearly succeeds in getting rid of Anita and his dirty secret, but she is rescued by the increasingly heroic Matilda and taken to Leo and Max, only for a devastated Leo to ultimately fail at restoring Mia from inside her. This is a crushing blow both to him and to us.

George experiences a fascinating, philosophical side to Niska, as he exposure that he was "lured over" from MIT, twenty-five years ago, to join David Elster in his work. But Elster, apparently, intended to pursue consciousness, hence his children. Even curiouser, Leo Elster was officially declared brain dead; this gives us a heavy hint as to how and why he now appears to be some sort of cyborg.

The big revelation finally arrives: Mattie notices that Anita's sex circuits have been activated. At first Leo is blamed, and is happy to take the rap for his dad, but Joe isn't quite as bad as all that and eventually confesses. This is very well written and played; Joe is arguably a rapist of sorts, but he is not played as a monster, just as a weak man. Tom Goodman-Hilll deserves a lot of praise here.

This leads, of course, to a lot of drama and to Laura throwing Joe out. Whatever the arguments about whether he's committed adultery or a type of masturbation with a sex toy, what really disgusts Laura is how rapey it all feels.

Pete, meanwhile, has his anti-synth feelings reinforced throughout the episode- he has, after all, been cuckolded by one. An interesting scene sees him attending an event on the streets, addressed by a fascinatingly persuasive anti-synth demagogue. All this is clearly leading up to something. As are many things. Humans still rocks.

The Battleship Potemkin (1925)

"Down with tsarism!"

Obviously, this is a much-admired film, largely because of the inspiring and extraordinary effective use of montage in the "Odessa Steps" sequence to manipulate our emotions. Sergei Eisenstein, like a Bolshevik Steven Spielberg, uses masterful framing and editing techniques to maximise the pathos of the (entirely fictional) massacre of the universally revolutionary population of Odessa at the hands of some nasty Cossacks. It is indeed both effective and extraordinarily both technically as cinema and as propaganda; Goebbels admired The Battleship Potemkin. Not to the point of allowing it to be shown in Nazi Germany, of course, but he admired it as propaganda. But what is left for me to say about it?

Well, the Odessa Steps sequence is but six minutes out of seventy-three. The rY pRt of the film is set entirely within the cramped confines of the eponymous battleship, a considerable contrast with the later scenes. Tension is built up, with an officer attacking a recruit, unprovoked, and maggot-riven meat being the catalyst for an uprising. The moustaches and stiff collars of the officers- this is 1905 and the time of the Sevastopol uprising and the Japanese victory over Russia- alienate them from us as much as their evil, scowling faces. This being propaganda, characterisation is simple. Vakulinchuk, the leader of the revels, is martyred and fetishised much as was being done to the recently departed Lenin shortly before the film was made. And it's tempting to see Vakulinchuk, more directly than Marx, as the I spirTion for the character of Old Major in Heorge Orwell's Animal Farm.

The Russian navy of 1905 looks positively Nelsonisn in parts, with its hammocks and maggot-infested meat. But I suppose the impression of ancient regime archaism is the point. The film is based on an event, manipulated and used to stand for the Russian Revolution in microcosm. 

This is a genuine milepost in cinematic technique on the part of the Odessa Steps sequence. I wouldn't say it's quite as affecting as its reputation- I found the sailors less than hugely sympathetic- but it's a film every film buff should see. If nothing else, it's an early triumph of direction.

Penny Dreadful: Verbis Diablo

"Is this what it's like to go mad? Your darkest fears made manifest before your eyes?"

More of the same superbly stylish horror-tinged Victoriana, then, as the focus shifts away from Mrs Poole and her witch underlings' psychic war against Vanessa to the careful simmering of other incipient plotlines.

First we have Caliban and his bride, named Lily by Frankenstein, as her creator shows her how to use language. Yet there are hints that she is becoming much closer to her creator than to her "betrothed". A surprising emphasis is placed on Sir Malcolm introducing Vanessa to the experience of charity work he performs to soothe his soul, but the main function of this scene is probably to engineer a meeting, and an interesting philosophical chat, between Caliban and Vanessa. The two do not agree on religion, but they seem to find a mutual affection and understanding.

Dorian Gray still pines for Vanessa, but is accosted by a prostitute, Veronique, who is bold enough to tell him that she fancies the pants off him, or Victorian words to that effect. Upon visiting her at her brother (she needs a firm hand, apparently!), of course, he is both unsurprised and unbothered to see that she is transgender, as the Victorians would certainly not have said, and genitally male.

There is also an erotic frisson between Sir Malcolm and Mrs Poole, mich though he may insist that, although separated, he is married and thus unavailable: the principled Victorian gentleman.

Mrs Poole is, of course, extremely nasty, calling Vanessa the c word and blackmailing poor Mr Lyle, who has the misfortune of being born at a bad time to be gay. Mr Lyke is extremely likeable, both for his endearing mannerisms in flirting with Ethan  ("American! I am undone!") and for his knowledge of the eponymous Verbis Diablo, a demonic and little-known tongue which Vanessa has been speaking. But the history is ominous; the writer of the sole extant text was burned at the stake.

We end with some quite disturbing scenes as Mrs Poole, surrounded by some extremely freaky dolls, proceeds to vivisect a recently-kidnapped baby, which isn't very nice but is a triumph of direction on the part of James Hawes. This is a most effectively freaky scene.

And Mrs Poole has a freaky dummy of Vanessa...

Humans: Episode 4

"I'm an analogue man in a digital world..."

The usual excellence continues in terms of script, execution and performances, but this time the plot gathers pace. I haven't minded the slow pace of the plot so far- it's been fun exploring this fascinating world and characters- but now it's time for things to pick up pace. And that's what we get.

Our first bombshell is when Pete, our distinctly robophobic sacked detective, gets dumped, cuckolded (symbolically, at least) by a synth called Simon. But soon we turn back to our main family, as Anita seems to show affection towards Toby and Joe wrongly suspects Laura of having an affair. The point is, though, that their relationship is in such a state that he could think such a thing. Laura, meanwhile, gets ever more intrigued about Anita and her increasing signs of sentience ("Anita, do you ever get scared?" "I think everyone does").

A line gets crossed, though, when Joe activates Anita's sex drive and does the deed with her. I suppose there's a debate to be had about whether this was technically sex or masturbation, but there's no doubt that he's cheated on Laura. And it's implicit that he will eventually be found out, especially as Laura wants to take Anita for a diagnostic check and to delve into her past.

A linked ethical dilemma occurs at a party for the youngsters: Mattie behaves, quite rightly, as though having sex with an unconscious synth is rape. Because, if men behave like that to synths, even those without sentience, they will do the same to women. But, of course, the underlying thought (most blatantly shown by the case of the woman objecting to her synth being ejected from a theatrical performance on grounds of his "human" rights) is about the ethics of how we should behave to artificial intelligences. At what point does it stop being a household appliance and start being an enslaved person? The answer, I suppose, lies in the concept of the Singularity.

There's an intriguing meeting between Mattie and Leo, but it isn't long before she rather cleverly gives them the slip. Still, he and Max are clearly getting closer and closer to "Mia". Laura and Joe discover more about her at the diagnostic check, too: far from being new, she's at least fourteen years old. Still, at least Joe's infidelity remains a secret for now.

Things really hot up at the end with the respective plotlines of Leo and Niska. Firstly, Leo meets Geirge Mullican and reveals that he is Leo Elster, the apparently dead son of the mysterious David Elster, who apparently granted sentience to Mia, Max, Niska and Fred.  It seems, also, thT a mysterious program is written into all of them, with all needing to be together for the jigsaw to be complete.

Niska's storyline, though, gets disturbing. Discovering not only prejudice against synths but a secret club for humans to beat synths into a synthetic pulp, she responds by angrily beating up the humans, only to find that the synths she "rescued" are nothing but uncaring machines. Still, this means war between Niska and humanity; her storyline isn't going to end well. We end the episode with her capture by the police seemingly inevitable except that she receives an unexpected phone call. Leo drops his bombshell and, in rather thrilling scenes, she escapes. 

There's one final surprise, though; Katen has accepted Peter into her home for the time being and we're misdirected into thinking that there may be sexual tension between them until the final few seconds and the big reveal: Karen is a synth!!! This is all the more effective for the cleverness of the misdirection.

Humans, at this point, is by far the best thing that's been on telly this year. Utterly superb.

Humans: Episode 3

"Dr. Millican! This is highly unsafe!"

Humans just keeps getting better and better. And that Kraftwerk-inspired theme tune is really growing on me.

Last week's cliffhanger is resolved, perhaps, with a bit of a cheat; Anita gets a reprieve by saving Toby's life, and by that point it's clear that no one else in her family agrees with her about taking Anita back. Nothing is resolved, though. Not for Anita and not within the family.

Probably the standout performances of the episode (taking Rebecca Chan's awfulness for granted, that is) are Rebecca Front as the tyrannical synth nurse Vera and Emily Berrington as the increasingly disturbed and upset Niska, for whom the world grows ever more nightmarish. It is a world like ours, but with little tell-tale signs of synth charging points. Immutable human nature is present and correct, but the synths are having a malign effect, an effect largely foreshadowed in Isaac Asimov's tales of the Spacers. But I doubt we'll be getting an Elijah Baley here. Instead we have an awkward and vaguely transgressive sexual tension between Joe and Anita as she asks him to inspect her naked body for damage. Is it mutual? Worse, with the addition of young Toby could we have a budding love triangle here?

Meanwhile, Niska's murder of that paedophile last episode is being investigated by detectives Pete and Karen, setting off a chain of events leading to the distinctly synth-phobic Pete losing his job. The whole thing is covered up; the public must not be told that the synths on which they rely could sometimes be killers. Now, though, Niska is deciding that, not only is she going to go rogue from human society, she also wants to dissociate herself from the mysterious Leo and become the ultimate lone wolf. Do I suspect some sort of one woman crusade against humans may be in the offing? Interestingly, she is seen reading The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler. Mrs Llamastrangler is reminded of Alpha from Dollhouse.

Niska gets an interesting series of scenes in which she allows a man to pick her up and follows him home, expecting him to be violent, lecherous and nasty and intending to kill him. Instead, he turns out to be nice, interested in her as a person and a devoted father. Instead of killing him, she simply leaves.

The episode's most tragic scene sees George, seemingly, saying a final goodbye to the malfunctioning Odi, who runs into the woods to die. Or so it seems. But it seems George has a past; he was deeply involved with the development of synths. Anita's past as Mia is briefly revealed during an abortive hack by Matilda, but she posts the results online. It seems that buried secrets from the past will soon be uncovered. One of them seems likely to be the mysterious "Tom", whom Laura does not wish to discuss. A lover? A dead child? Something else?

Humans is so good I just don't know how to praise it. I'm salivating at the thought of the five episodes to come.

Any Requests?

Any requests for what you'd like me to cover on the blog? Obviously, I'm limited in the access I have to stuff, but I've a fairly large collection. 

Also, which series/films I've done do you particularly like? Just curious for some feedback!

The Doctor Who Pubcast

Here be the latest of Nick's and my Doctor Who Pubcasts. Previous instalments are also available...

http://dwpubcast.podomatic.com/entry/2015-06-30T13_23_36-07_00

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

"Are you gay?"

Before I say anything else, I should praise the way this film is shot by Sam Taylor-Wood. I'm not sure about the washed-out colours ("grey", yes, very clever), but she has shot the film with a lot of style and used some rather neat narrative tricks, particularly the montage illustrating the contract between Ana and Grey; large pieces of text are difficult to get across well onscreen, but Taylor-Wood delivers here. She does as good a job with the source material as can be done. The script also adapts the novel well.

However, it's still based on the novel by E.L. James and it's intrinsic virtues and flaws. The novel does not pretend to be literary fiction, but it is rather well-written, with good prose, engaging characters and a fast and dramatic plot. It may not be very deep, but there's nothing wrong with that. It would have been better if James had employed a proper proofreader instead of letting her husband do it, but it isn't a bad novel. Except in its message. And the film cannot help but follow suit.

The main problem I have with both book and film is Christian Grey. I dislike him as a character, I would intensely dislike him as a person if he was real, and I find him a somewhat disturbing subject for female desire. He's a bully, a control freak, a stalker, and he and Ana have an abusive relationship. There. I've said it.

And none of this, I hasten to add, is in any way to do with BDSM. I have issues with how the media (and this is a prime suspect) treats BDSM as being about dominant males and submissive females whereas, in reality, it's just as likely to be the other way round. Indeed, BDSM has its origins in gay culture and remains something of a gay-heavy subculture. But BDSM itself is a perfectly healthy thing, done safely and consensually. 

The problem with Christian isn't that he's a dominant, and there isn't a single sex scene in the film which wouldn't be perfectly ok in a different context, but that he's a weird, damaged control freak who does what he does out of a desire to hurt women as revenge for his mother's failings- pretty basic misogyny. There are lots of alarm bells. For a start, he wants to dominate a woman who isn't into the lifestyle when he meets her, which is in itself deeply dodgy. He's trying to psychologically manipulate her into submitting to him when she has no prior desire to do so. That's deeply creepy and I'm of the opinion that Ana is rushed and pressured into "consenting". That's more than a bit rapey.

The book, and the film by extension, could do a great deal of harm, firstly in propagating misleading ideas about BDSM and, most worryingly, encouraging naive women in the audience to enter into abusive relationships masquerading as such.

BDSM aside, it's not exactly feminist to present a rich man as a wish fulfilment figure, as though the place of a woman is to marry a man who can look after her and just be an ornament.

All that said, Jamie Dornan does an excellently nuanced job of playing the character. He does the best with an impossible job, and impresses. And that's something that can be said of the film as a whole: it does a good job of adapting material which is deeply dodgy in what it is saying.

Grimm: Cry Havoc

"If it's any consolation, Kenneth is dead..."

... And now so is Juliette. Who saw that coming? It's quite a twist, as is her entire character arc throughout the latter part of the season. Bitsie gets to bow out with an awesome death concluding an awesome storyline. Yes, Kenneth dies too, but that's less important; he's just an ersatz Prince Viktor, and still feels like a blatant replacement, filling in a part originally planned for Alexis Denisof.

This is a big season finale, a highly entertaining one, but it's sadly devalued by both Debisof's absence and the fact that it opens with the revelation that Kelly is dead through means of showing, not telling, as Mary Elizabeth Madtrantonio didn't even appear in the episode in which her character died. These things matter, to put it mildly.

Still, everything else is sufficient to bring the standard up. It's a good finale, it really is, but there's a certain epic quality missing through the lack of said personnel. The dogs of war bark, and bark well, but they don't quite bite.

It's nice, and near, to see the late Kenneth being framed for the Jack the Ripper murders. And it's nice to see Kenneth getting arrested (his fake surname, from his passport, is "Bowes-Lyon", the late Queen Mother's maiden name!), but then taken to an honest, old-fashioned bout of fisticuffs with Nick. In which Nick, predictably, kills him.

Meanwhile, Juliette seems to be getting on with the deliciously evil King, who, it seems, is called Frederick, and who casually abandons Kenneth to his death. There's one more twist, however; just as we think the King has won, and is leaving Portland in a helicopter with his granddaughter Diana... she kills him. It seems this little princess, the child of Sean and Adalind, is firmly with the resistance.

Nick, though, has lost everything- both his mother and his fiancée. Still, it seems to be all over... until that FBI woman arrives, indicating that Trubel may have accepted her offer. What's been happening with Trubel? We have an agonisingly long wait to find out.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: The Education of a Magician

"Can a magician kill a man by magic?"

"I suppose a magician might. But a gentleman never could."

And on we go. More creative direction from Toby Haynes, more faithful adaptation of the novel by Peter Harness and more top notch villainy from Marc Warren. This continues to be a superb piece of television fantasy for all the reasons mentioned previously. And now we're getting to the really good bits. Jonathan Strange's adventures in the Peninsular War were always my favourite part of the novel, and they're just as extraordinary here.

Norrell, back at home, is rather passive, but malevolently so. He intercepts the letters between Mr and Mrs Strange lest he lose control of information, and he callously informs Mrs Pole of her awful fate, and the fact that he will not help her, and sends Childermass to destroy her rather nice tapestry. She is collateral damage in the cause of "respectability". Yet Norrell does not come across as evil, merely obsessive and addicted to missing the point, a bit like a bad boss.

Strange, meanwhile, is slowly learning, in Portugal, to rely less on books and structure and more on gut instinct, as far from Norrell as a magician can get; order versus chaos. (And it's interesting to think of the Gentleman in those terms, is it not? Chaos seems to often equal faerie, hence Norrell's dislike). One knows instinctively that Norrell would not approve of his raising the dead. Wellington (a superb character) cares not; to him, "Merlin" may as well just be a military engineer, a problem solver at his disposal.

But the episode's most powerful scene belongs to Stephen Black, a character thus far as marginalised on the narrative as he is I the narrative, as the Gentleman shows his horrific birth among the chains and disease and death of a slave ship, reinforced by the simple question "What was the name your mother gave you?" Much as the Gentleman may dangle the prospect of kingship at Stephen, we know (as the Gentleman seemingly does not) that this could surely never happen.

The end of the episode- Childermass takes the bullet as Lady Pole attempts to assassinate Norrell- is shocking. But not as shocking as the scenes in the slave ship. It is clear that the novel, like the series, is not just a superlative Gaimanesque fantasy, but has things to say about the world. And it's bloody brilliantly, too.

Humans: Episode 2

"The synths steal their job; they steal the synth."

Well, it seems as though the second episode is no less superlative than the first. This is intelligent, literate, hard sci-fi which is so damn good that it's Scandinavian roots are showing. We have a solid plot, strong characters, a well-developed theme and visual flair. This reminds me, more than anything, of Borgen.

Gemma Chan continues to astonish with a performance of outstanding subtlety. The part of Anita- an apparent automaton with slight hints of humanity and a distinctly maternal instincts- is particular challenging as the viewer is carefully studying each individual mannerism and modulation of voice. It's a stern test, but one that is passed admirably by her, and to s lesser extent by those laying other synths. But a special mention has to go to Rebecca Front, cast against type as a tyrannical nurse synth, dispassionately bullying William Hurt's sympathetic George. 

Laura is increasingly and incrementally creeped out by Anita, hence the seemingly decisive ending. Laura may not be the most sympathetic character, being a workaholic who struggles to connect with her husband and children and sees Anita as a threat to her role, but she continues to be our identification character. Matilda, meanwhile, is our rebel. How and the younger two children are, thus far, passive characters who exist in terms of Laura's character developments; Joe is there, in contrast to Laura, as a character seeing synths as no more than household appliances.

The most disturbing scenes involve Niska, and a paedophile client; disgusted, she kills him and flees, in grave danger but, at least, true to herself. Of her fellow fugitives we seem to learn that Leo is some kind of cyborgs but the others- Fred, Max and Mia ("Anita")- are presumably synths? I'm sure we'll get the backstory in due course.

As yet it's far from clear where this is going, but I'm hooked. This is an extraordinary piece of drama.

Grimm: Headache

"Well, this should be a jolly good romp!"

Eh? Jelly Burkhart dies this episode. The cliffhanger is even Nick receiving her head in a box. And yet, due to obvious behind the scenes issues, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio doesn't even appear in the episode in which her character dies. That's weird and awkward.

In less surprising news... yes, Sean is indeed Jack the Ripoer as we all thought. It seems that his blackouts are dues to obsession by said fiend, who came back to life when he was resurrected at the start of the season, which is suspiciously similar to a certain episode of Buffy. Still, at least our heroes have a plan to scare the cheeky Cockney geezer away.

But the real villain here is Juliette. It is she who helps Kenneth in setting up the trap for Kelly. And not even the "surprise" return of Trubel can save her. Still, there's no getting round the convoluted awkwardness of Kelly only ever appearing off-screen. At least we meet the baby, though, and my- hasn't she grown?

This is, of course, an excellent and bloody exciting episode, revving up the excitement for next week's finale. Still, the absence of Kelly is a big problem.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: How Is Lady Pole?

Something different today: a guest post from MrVortexOfDoom, whose YouTube channel you would be wise to have a look at, particularly if you happen to be partial to a bit of Doctor Who.

He and I will be alternating episodes of this splendid serial, and then going head to head for the finale.

That's the compere bit over with; let me hand you over to MrVortexOfDoom...

“I see no one. Or rather, I see roomfuls of people – and not a Christian amongst them”

What really annoys me about peoples’ appreciation of British telly is the fact that we in Britain can't recognise the fantastic and clever product being made in our backyard – while Americans lap quality like this up. Of course, our friends in the US regularly have at least a dozen hours of superb product to digest per week – while all we seem to want is more reality nonsense and documentaries about cats. 

Episode two of “The TV fantasy of 2015” (according to Rolling Stone .com , don’t’cha know) deals this out in spades. Having just finished rereading the fantastic novel by Susanna Clarke, you realise several things. 

1. Somehow, the BBC has managed to get the film rights back from New Line Cinema after the film giant collapsed – that’s why the adaption has taken 10 years to get to us. 

2. How much of an epic struggle it has been to get the monster 782 pages down to a workable mini-series.

And:  3. How much of a challenge it is to pack the iconic scenes into each episode. You read the chapter on the French discovering the rainships & the epic Sandhorses sequence and you think “well, I’m never going to see THAT on screen”. And then, they only go and show it. A brilliant &  breath-taking achievement.

However, what really is striking me about this is the attention to detail, taken faithfully from the novel. Writer Peter Harness could easily have chosen to cut the references to antiquarian times and antiquarian books of magic in favour of seven episodes of CGI and effects. But instead, in a bold move that’s not pleasing everyone, you really feel that the past history of magic is oozing through every minute. I cheered at every namecheck of days long gone – Sutton-Grove, Ormskirk, Mary Absalom, Ralph Stokesey, Lanchesters’ History Of Birds (and a wonderful set-up with Revelations Of Thirty-Six Worlds – which has a great pay-off later (I hope)).

And as well as all that, the episode continues to lay further intriguing questions at your feet. The constant cawing of ravens through the soundtrack. The influence of Fairie and the real world gradually being intertwined (Segundus & Stranges’ shared dream and Stephen's mysterious extra servants bell). The very fact that Segundus can sense magic being performed (store that in your mind palace for later). And a second lovely little set-up with the St Marks Square, Venice paintings. 

Of course, you could just discount all that and go goggle-eyed about how FANTASTIC Lost-Hope looks. But that would be a disservice to the source material and the sheer effort put in to what was considered in many areas an unfilmable novel. 

Enzo Cilenti as Childermass continues to rule every scene he’s in, looking moody in the background (it’s a fun game to spot just how much he’s taking in and observing). However, top billing for episode 2 in my eyes must go to Alice Englert and Bertie Carvel. Englert's Lady Pole starts to unravel badly with all the “fairy stories” taken directly from the text. And Strange himself is starting to believe just how far he can go in the magical world – with just one person standing in his way. 

And here’s a top piece of trivia for regular llama stranglers. Alice Englert's mother? Of all people, Jane Campion !! (Oscar-winning director of The Piano, In the Cut and the Top Of The Lake miniseries). If that juicy morsel doesn’t get you looking forward to episode 3, I don’t know what will.

VoD 2015  

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: The Friends of English Magic

"All magicians lie, that one more than most..."

I've been looking forward to this dries for ages; I loved the novel. Susanna Clark really has written a wonderful work of fiction, a Regency magical fantasy that wonderfully fuses the world of Jane Austen and Patrick O'Brian with that of Neil Gaiman, building a wonderfully compelling world and peopling it with fascinating individuals. Go and read it now.

I had high hopes, therefore, of this series, and so far (I'm actually three episodes in) my hopes have been entirely full. It's a largely faithful adaptation by Peter Harmess, with a little necessary structural jiggery pokers so that Jonathan Strange can be involved early on, made visually sumptuous by the ever-creative Toby Haynes, one of the best directors currently working in British telly. But s large part of its triumph lies in the wise decision to leave so much of the novel unchanged to the point that I frequently findyself recognising pieces of dialogue.

Bertie Carvel, fresh from playing Nick Clegg in Coalition, is a triumph as the charismatic and chaotic Strange, while Eddie Marsan slightly underwhelms as the sour and miserly Norrell, although I'm aware that others have praised his performance. Still, I must also praise Paul Kaye for a splendidly mad Vinculus (but is he an uncomfortable Jewish Fagin stereotype or am I overthinking things?)and Marc Warren, whose performance as the sinister Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair is magnificent. Also impressive, albeit in the smallish part of Drawlight,is Vincent Franklin, whose performance in Cucumber should rightfully elevate him to leading man status.

It's early days yet, and this episode is, as always for first episodes, set-up. But it does a good job of achieving said set-up, nicely establishing Jonathan Strange as someone expected (not least by his own father) to end up as a rich, useless dilettante but who ends up pursuing magic to impress his belle, Arabella. Norrell's miserable and awkward nature is established, as well as his Faustian pact with the Gentleman. It's clear that we have a Roundhead magician and a budding Cavalier one. I'm also impressed with Childermass, at this stage far more interesting than his employer.

So far so excellent, but let's see how it goes...

Humans: Episode 1

"Those robots are the Singularity!"

It's prime time hard sci-if on Channel 4 courtesy of this remake of the Swedish original, with inevitable name checks for Asimov and Capek. Wisely, there's nothing other than the synths themselves (creepily lifelike robots) to indicate that this isn't the present day; excessive futurism would alienate us from a parable which has a lot to say about our lives; yes, we have robots (sort of) and the Singularity looms, but Capek's "robots", in the original Czech, meant "serfs". There are issues of class here, not only in the "human" rights of any sentient robot slaves, but in the lazy decadence that looms for their owners.

Narratively speaking, all this requires an Everyman (Tom Goodman-Hill's easygoing Joe), an everywoman (Karherine Parkinson's Laura, thus far the main character, with more time for work than family. She is, in effect, the primary audience POV character and, interestingly, is troubled by synths. There are also three, er, every children: Vanessa is the rebellious genius, Sophie is there to be young, cute and to illustrate certain parenting duties, and Toby thus far seems to be the token boy and little else. They're all well-rounded and likeable enough to get away with the fact that they are, essentially, archetypes. They are also our way in to the drama, with Joe purchasing a synth, Anita, to do the housework so that he and Laura can spend time together.

Anita- a standout superb performance from Gemma Chan, is at once creepy and captivating, and the family's getting used to her neatly gets the exposition out of the way. The language of IT is used to discuss then, with "primary users" and "secondary users". They are treated and thought of like household appliances, but wasn't the same true of Roman slaves?

There's no suggestion, at this point, that she might be sentient, but there are already uncomfortable issues about having a robot "slave"; as Matilda puts it, why should she spend years training to be a brain surgeon when a synth can do it so much better? The human race is being threatened with uselessness.

But that's not all: an early flashback sequence with the mysterious Leo (Colin "Merlin" Morgan) establishes that a select few synths, all mates of his, have achieved sentience, complete with feelings. We observe one of them ("Fred")being caught, in rather upsetting scenes, all the more redolent for the fact that Fred, a recaptured escaped slave, is portrayed by a black actor. Then there is Niska, a synth who works on a brothel and insists on feeling every degrading moment. Towards the end the camera lingers uncomfortably as she is taken from behind, silent.

Oh, and the flashback establishes that Anita was one of these sentiments, until she was kidnapped five weeks ago. We know, unlike the Hawkinses(?), that she is sentient, although this does not rob her closing comment about the moon of its impact; not only does she have a soul, but there is poetry in it.

We meet an old man, the irascible and American inventor Dr George Millican (William Hurt), who has become attached to his rather endearing synth, Obi, which helps him with his failing memory. It seems this synth is past its sell-by date, though, and must be consigned to the scrap heap like an old, broken fridge.

There are a lot of promising strands here in what already looks like one of the dramatic highlights of the year. Humans is already outstanding telly.

Daredevil: In the Blood

"If he had an iron suit, or a magic hammer, maybe that would explain how you get your asses handed to you."

It's early days, I know. Even Buffy seemed distinctly unpromising at this stage. There's nothing wrong with Daredevil per se, it's just that it isn't catching fire yet. The characters seem well-rounded, well-written and performed, but I don't know them yet. 

Perhaps I should bear in mind that this is all set-up at this point; Matt is still floundering a bit and yet to put on the red spandex, and even Wilson Fisk, the focus of this episode, is yet to become a true Kingpin. He's an intriguing character- ruthless, yet also nervous and chivalrous around Vanessa, the lady he likes, and there are intriguing hints of a hard early life in Hell's Kitchen.

The ostensible focus of the episode is on Anatoly and Vladimir, our two Russian brothers, wannabe crimelords, and their ambitions, only to be cruelly snuffed out by Fisk, who ends the episode by personally killing Anatoly with his bare hands after his date is ruined. It's a nice way of establishing how Fisk, nervous around girls and only occasionally getting his hands dirty, invisible to the Internet and ostensibly law abiding, is the true threat, not whatever thugs may currently be top of the pile. As Matt muses to Claire, if one crimelord inevitably replaces another, what's the point of him? I suppose he will come to find an answer.

We also see a tightened by of a wary anti-corruption partnership between Karen Oage and Ben Zurich but, as Zurich makes clear, they're playing for high stakes. This is more immediately so for Claire, captured and roughly treated. Daredevil may have dramatically rescued her, but it's his fault she was put in harm's way at all. Still, the experience seems to have deepened their bond.

It's a good episode, yes. But I'm still waiting for the engines to fire up. 

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: S.O.S, Part 2

"Yeah, and I thought my mom was bad when she started watching Fox News."

This is it, then. No more Agents of SHIELD for an awfully long time. This isn't the most dramatic of finales, but it wraps things up nicely and points towards a new status quo, although those never last long. And we end with quite a cliffhanger.

It starts positively, with Coulson managing to persuade Cal to go all Dr Jekyll again and help SHIELD against his wife; at last he picks a side. Cal also tells Coulson about Jiaying eating people, that elders used to sacrifice themselves for her, and that village in China was essentially a farm for her eternal life. 

In other news, Mack manages to free Skye, but Inhumans still control the carrier. Meanwhile, Ward and Kara have set up a trap for Huntet, trying to free the tortured Bobbi. Instead it is she who selflessly takes the bullet, and it's only at the very end that we discover that she will love. Kara is not so lucky, dying suddenly and randomly, realistic for a combat situation. There are parallels here between Hunter and Ward, both losing their woman. Ward is naturally devastated in an obviously character-shaping way; it's not surprising to see him take over HYDRA at the end, twirling his metaphorical moustache like a pro. His entire arc thus far has just been one big supervillain origin story. I hear he's to be next season's big bad.

Things are looking up, though. Both Skye and Lincoln are on board, and Fitz has a doohickey to deal with Gordon. May thinks things are bleak, though; she actually calls Andrew from a mission, for the first time since Bahrain.

We end with a big, exciting fight during which Cal finally kills Jiaying, Fitz kills Gordon and Coulson dramatically catches the Terrigen crystals before they hit the floor and kill everyone. He begins to die, from his hand outwards... until Mack saves him by, er, chopping his hand off.

The epilogue is long and dramatic. Coulson, arm in sling, briefs Skye on his plan for her to lead a team of "gifted a". Cal, in the episode's most featherlight scene, is found to have had his memory wiped. He will never again remember his daughter, or the best day of his life: the 2nd of July, 1988.

May is back with Andrew in what seem to be the stirrings of an actual personal life. Who'd have thunk it? Mack is staying, after persuasion by Coulson and his being put in charge of all alien artefacts.

Most dramatically, and heartbreakingly, though... earlier, Jemma Simmons tried to talk to Leo Fitz about what he said to her, a season ago, at the bottom. Of the ocean, and his irritated reply was "Why now?". The answer, of course, is that every day may be our last: carpe diem. We end with Fitz asking Simmons out on a date, walking out of the room... and said artefact swallowing Jemna whole.

That moment made my jaw hit the floor. This may not have overwhelmed, as season finished often do, but I was certainly sufficiently whelmed. It's going to be a long wait until Season Three...

Grimm: You Don't Know Jack

"It's not that easy being pregnant, cutting up your mom, and waiting for someone to kill you!"

Looks as though the season is going to conclude with a loose three parter, as an intriguing story about Jack the Ripper still being alive and his victims being Wesen (Is he a Grimm? Or is that misdirection?) is mixed up with loads of juicy arc stuff and heavy hints that both Kelly Burkhart and Trubel are going to be turning up soon. It's also an episode in which Jiloette and Adalind seem to complete an almost total switching of their respective roles, with Juliette hobnobbing with Ken while Adalind appears more and more like one of the gang, carefully protected by Nick. He is the father of her child, not Juliette's.

But we begin with the charred remains of Nick's trailer, and an attempt to salvage as much as possible of the books and heirlooms amassed by his family over generations. It's a downbeat beginning to an episode in which so many things seem to be going wrong. Juliette lures Kelly into an obvious trap set by Kenneth. The potion so carefully prepared by Rosalie, and for which Adalind has sacrificed so much- desecrating her mother' corpse and giving up her Hexenbeist abilities in an Exorcist-type spectacle- is contemptuously smashed into pieces by Juliette. Oh, and Henrietta is shockingly murderec by our mysterious Jack the Ripper figure.

Who is Jack? Research establishes that he is old, some ninety years older even than 1888, and that his removal of his Wesen victims' organs is for some mysterious purpose. We finish the episode not knowing, but... Sean's bleeding episodes are accompanied by memory loss, and his waking from his slumbers from some kind of body of water. Could it be...?

Oh, and we leave with Juliette seemingly about to make Nick shoot one of his mates. 

I'm calling it: with this season Grimm has ascended from a quite good but ordinary show into something great. What now?

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: S.O.S, Part 1

"I am capable of finishing my own..."

"Sentences."

Here we go, then. War. It's all very confused at the start, not least because Jiaying compounds her "provoked" killing of Gonzalez by instigating what looks like a SHIELD attack against her own people.  Oh, and you know that eternal youth thing? That's from killing and absorbing people. Just so we know.

Jiaying is thus, after weeks of ambiguity, firmly defined here as a baddie. That's good plot structure, but it's also, perhaps, a little troubling that the only character to advance the pro-civil liberties point of view about the compulsory cataloging of those who are different is now firmly defined as a villain. Could the programme be defining itself as in favour of authoritarian policies? Hmm. We'll see. And either way it doesn't detract from the quality.

Skye is the piggy in the middle here, but it is she who discovers what is going on and she, with naturally conflicting motives and, indeed, definitions of family, is both the hero and the emotional heart of the episode. 

Bobbi, it turns out, is alive, but she's in the nasty, torturing clutches of Ward and Kara and, noble though her defiance may be, there's little apparent hope for her, much as May and (of course) Hunter set off to save her. Her fellow one time turncoat Mack, it seems, is sticking around for a bit, but only for the duration of the current crisis. 

With SHIELD's various agents' positioning on the chessboard established, Jiaying further cements her villainous credentials by killing Raina; the precognitive, as the cliche goes, simply knows too much. The Inhumans are on the warpath, aided by a rather cool Inhuman lady who can make loads of copies of herself. Jiaying's lot clearly have the upper hand.

This doesn't mean that Jiaying is winning in the fight for Skye's allegiance, though; her daughter realises that Raina was murdered, and works out pretty much everything that her mother has done.  But things look bleak at the end; Bobbi is used as a fatal trap for Hunter, and Inhumans overrun the helicarrier as Mr Hyde takes a load of those serums and suddenly starts looking exactly as he did in the comics. 

Looks like a splendid season finale, then. Much of this episode, as ever for a part one, is set-up, but it had me riveted. What next,

Grimm: Iron Hans

"So will you be a pawn, or will you be a queen?"

This time the story of the week isn't quite as high quality as we've recently come to expect, but it is solid nonetheless; a camping night for teenagers coming to terms with their inner hunter is singularly appropriate for Wesen who are integrated into civilised society, resonant with themes, and well-suited for some character development for Monroe, hinting at possible past killings. We will probably hear more about this.

The killer is a nice twist, though, and Jeff Fahey is a rather huge guest star. But, again, this all essentially plays second fiddle to the arc stuff, where Prince Kenneth (again, an oddly Scottish Christian name for Central European royalty) informs Adalind that not only does he know of Juliette's situation, but smells an opportunity. Where an extraordinary well-directed sequence sees Juliette's "remember" clips of herself and Adalind. Where Adalind informs Sean that the child she is carrying is Nick's.

Of clear plot significance is Rosalie agreeing to help find a cure for Juliette and protect Adalind. But the real biggie is Adalind asking Nock, father of the child in her belly, to be her "hero" and protect her. From Juliette. Oh, how the roles are reversed.

We end with Kenneth outing to get Kelly and, shockingly, Juliette setting Nick's motorhome cum library on fire. Things are heating up. Oh yes. This promises to be a dramatic last few episodes. 

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Scars

"I was expecting a raised eyebrow, but ok..."

I trust you've all seen Avengers: Age of Ultron in between blog posts?

We begin with a recap, retcon even, concerning what Coulson has really been up to over the past year. It begins well (Patton Oswalt! Yay!) and proceeds to drop the bombshell that the Theta Protocol was in fact Nick Fury's secret helicarrier as seen in said film, now the property of a more-or-less united, and now rather well-resources SHIELD.

The fallout from last episode proceeds, as Agent 33/Kara is un-brainwashed and Skye keeps watch at Lincoln's bedside. Lincoln, however, is a little dubious about his "rescuers", pointing out (correctly) that their wish to categorise him is more than a little dodgy on civil liberties grounds; this will run and run way past the episode's explosive ending and, I suspect, on to our cinema screens with Captain America: Civil War.

Cal and, indeed, the narrative, implored us not to trust Raina's claims about what she foresees, a clever bit of misdirection as Jiaying apparently learns of the mysterious Kree artifact hidden deep within the helicarrier- a stone that can liquefy itself in true modern CGI fashion. The narrative puts our sympathies with Jiayibg, particularly if the viewer happens to be a civil libertarian like myself, and we are full of foreboding when Hunter announces that he has located Afterlife; SHIELD are coming. 

Coulson and Gonzalez debate what to do. Ever the dove, Coulson gives some ground to the hawkish Gonzalez by accepting that he, not Coulson, should handle the diplomatic niceties with Jiaying. Revelations tumble after one another, with Skye admitting to Coulson that Jiaying is her mother while May tells him what really happened in Bahrain. But there is much foreboding: Raina foresees the coming of SHIELD, and Afterlife in flames.

This eventful episode also sees Mack's resignation, his differences with Coulson teaching breaking point, while Coulson realises that he, Fitz and Hunter have become a little too much of a clique. 

Things get dramatic as May, travelling with Bobbi, turns out to be Kara, still in league with Ward. Ward shoots Bobbi, and it really seems that she's dead, especially as Ward apparently shoots her again, several times, at the end of the episode. 

The negotiations between Jiaying and Gonzalez seem to start well, albeit with a certain veiled prickliness, with Cal being released to SHIELD as a sign of good faith. But it soon becomes apparent that Gonzalez wants all Inhumans to be catalogued- tyranny in Jiaying's boom. And mine. Despite what happens next, I'm with her on the principles.

But what she does next- murdering Gonzales and manufacturing a fake casus belli for a war with SHIELD- is both shocking and framed to make us side with SHIELD. But what is and is not justified in the pursuit of liberty...?

Grimm: Mishipeshu

 "Most crime everywhere is Wesen-related..."

I'm British and therefore know sod all about Native Americans; we mostly still think it's ok to use the phrase "Red Indian", after all. (Although, conversely, we also think the portrayal of Apu in The Simpsons is vaguely racist, and the less said about Short Circuit the better.) But this is one of the best stories based on Native American lore that I've seen in all of popular culture, dealing directly with racism, and using the Wesen as metaphor (remember when that happened every episode) in a rather neat and, it seems, appropriate way. And there's a CGI goat ghost, which is always good.

I also like the non-linear beginning, fast forwarding to a future scene of Hank trying to kill Nick, deceptively exciting when shorn of its context. It's good to see Grimm showing the confidence to do clever things it never would have attempted a few seasons ago. This episode's story of the week follows the recent run of good 'uns.

Meanwhile Juliette, in her extended car crash since becoming a Hexenbeist, is arrested for brawling in a bar, embarrassing her policeman fiancé somewhat. It's clear that the arc or is moving into the foreground in these last few episodes of the season, hence the relatively straightforward "a" plot here.  Juliette is getting the upper hand in her frequent verbal sparrings with Nick, which are taking place more and more often. 

The ending is exciting, with a bit of extra-judicial killing at the end, but there's so much going on in the arc right now: roll on next episode...

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: The Dirty Half Dozen

"I thought her gift was spinning really fast to collect gold rings..."

Things speed up for the finale as the opening moments strongly suggest that Raina's Inhuman "gift" is precognitive dreams, people overhear Jiaying saying that Skye is her daughter, and Lincoln is in HYDRA's clutches with Mike Peterson, both  at the mercy of their Dr Mengeles. 

(Incidentally, we get a reference to all previous experiments ending up with fatalities aside from "the twins" from Avengers: Age of Ultron!!!)

But much of this episode consists of negotiations for a merger between the SHIELDs of Coulson and Gonzalez, Cavalier and Roundhead respectively, as Coulson attempts to persuade a sceptical audience of his audacious scheme to send in s small squad to rescue the two captured "specials" from HYDRA. A squad that happens to include both Ward and Agent 33! Brilliantly, the casting vote goes to May, increasingly suspicious of Coulson in recent episodes, and this brings out all of her suspicions as he tries to persuade her. That's good character advancement.

Jiaying, meanwhile, is much less dynamic, deciding to abandon Lincoln to HYDRA's torturous clutches because HYDRA can trace Gordon's movements and a rescue would therefore be too dangerous for the majority. She is very protective of her charges, but cautious and definitely a Roundhead. Skye isn't; she's going on a rescue mission, behind her mother's back and per the advice of Raina, despite her suspicious behaviour. Cal, in particular, distrusts her deeply.

Heartwarmingly, Fitz and Simmons are connecting again; looks like the shipping is back on. Mack and Hunter make up and are friends again. But, now that the set-up is compete, the episode speeds up into the excitement of the mission itself, during which we just know that Skye and Coukson's squad are going to turn up at exactly the same time and bump into each other.

They do. It all gets very exciting. Skye uses her powers to save Lincoln, just as Raiba had foretold. Bakshi is killed. Ward escapes, leaving Kara to SHIELD. Gonzalez is still a dick. But the mission is a success and, in an obvious sign that this episode runs into a certain current movie, Coulson reveals that Nick Fury is alive...

More please. This season has gone lightning fast.

Grimm: Hibernaculum

"Sort of like an animal heat orgy!"

Wow. A car chase on Grimm. A pretty damn good one too, and a strong opening to yet another in a run of very strong episodes. This one, though, is better directed than most.

We also very definitely establish Nick as alone, and lonely, in a house without Juliette, while Juliette herself is with, of all people, Sean. But it's not long before we get to a story of the week: this episode's Wesen are snake people who seasonally require human warmth, invariably fatal for the human in question, if they fail to arrive for hibernation at an, er, hibernaculum. Again, the dilemma here is that these Wesen are dangerous but most of them have committed no crime.

A nice character touch sees Monroe, a watchmaker, suffering from shaking hands after his ordeal at the clutches of the Wesenrein; as a character he's arguably been mildly neglected lately so this is good to see. He and Rosalie receive a shocking and somewhat revelatory visit from Juliette, but this results in her vowing revenge on the pair of them, seemingly unable to help her, on top of Nick and Hank. Which is nice. Juliette seems so well these days.

The mildly comical ending can't hide the more somber tone of the arc plot here. Things are getting very dark, and that's how I like my Grimm. More please.

Grimm: Heartbreaker

"It happened!"

A tragic fairytale, this; a beautiful girl who can never know love because, if a bloke fancies her, he dies. Horribly. And so on through generations of guilt. No wonder there's a tradition of mothers deliberately mutilating their daughters' faces for this race if Wesen. Poor Bella. The climax means she isn't brutally mutilated by her mother, but she's cured, and mutilated anyway. Still, at least we end with the hope that she may find love. And it's nice that Nick and Hank conclude she has committed no crime. Once again it's an affecting story of the week, with much pathos, but not too much incident so as to overshadow the arc plot. And there's a nice thematic parallel in the unintended side effects of magic potions for both Bella and Juliette.

Speaking of Juliette, she's not in a good mood. The spell book seems to show nothing to help either herself or Sean, and she's heartily sick of all things Wesen. Sean has his own problems, of course, with those bloody dreams, and now his private eye friend tells him that Viktor has been returned to Vienna. 

Instead of Viktor we meet the young, driven, ruthless and annoying Kenbeth, who seems to miss nothing, certainly not the obvious fact that Adalind is preggers again. Clever boy. Even cleverer, and to establish his dastardliness, he kills the private eye in the course of setting a trap for Sean but then proceeds to do little more than gloat at Sean, beat him up, and let him go. Definitely a job application for the position of moustache-twirler-in-chief. 

Not sure about Kenneth, but this season provides us with yet another quality episode.

Penny Dreadful: Fresh Hell

"What would Dr Frankenstein be without his creature?"

So, at last the second season starts on Sky Atlantic. It looks as though last season's big bad is going to be witches, but in the meantime we have character arcs to set up for the new season, lushly and beautifully shot by James Hawes as always.

We add to the feminine theme of witches with a riff on Bride of Frankenstein as Billie Piper returns to play said monster, while her prospective mate finds another grimly Victorian job with poor conditions, this time working in a waxworks exhibit, a la Madame Tussaud's, except much more influence by lurid crimes and, well, penny dreadfuls. His boss, I'm pleased to see, is played by the excellent David Haig. 

Elsewhere, Ethan dithers about whether or not to return to Anerica while Vanessa remains her delightfully weird, brooding self. He tells her of his blackouts, after which he wakes to much blood. Much will come of this, especially as an inspector from the Yard is investigating the deaths of his pursuers from the end of last season.

Meanwhile, it's made clear to Sir Malcolm by his poor, bereaved wife that, after presiding over the deaths of two children, their marriage is henceforth to be eked out as a cold, artificial she'll with the two of them living apart. His surrogate daughter, Vanessa, is now his only family. No wonder she runs into his arms, able to confide in no one else. The witches, it seems, led by the mysterious Mistress Kali, are after her soul...

A very promising opening, if not quite up to the heights of last season's opener. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

Grimm: Double Date

"Olive or Twist? I love that place. Prices will scare the Dickens out of you though."

Oh, Monroe. You are awful.

There's a trend this season of the stories of the week both being particularly strong and being well-integrated with the fast moving arc-plot, and this excellent episode is no exception. In fact, aside from Adalind's and Viktor's interminable treading of water in Vienna, this has been a fine season.

The threat here is a gender-fluid Wesen, with two distinct personalities, one male and one female, sharing the same body- it's impossible not to see this in terms of trans issues, whether intended or not. The fact that there is only one Wesen here, and not a couple, is cleverly held back as the central mystery, although both Mrs Llamastrangler and I worked it out well in advance.

The ending is harsh, though: the Wesen (looking like the Creature from the Black Lagoon in Wesen form) is trapped in male form, with the female form, Stacy, effectively killed. Linus is arrested, a man in a dress facing jail time and heartbroken by the loss of his soulmate. I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with what this says about transsexual issues, but it's a moment filled with pathos.

As far as the arc is concerned, newly Hexenbeistly Juliette is still estranged from Nick, and Sean is still experiencing dreams of his shooting which are beginning to become dangerously real. Nick finally tells Hank about Juliette, while Juliette asks Sean of all people for a place to stay.

Meanwhile, Adalind is visited by the King, and told that Viktor is to return to Vienna, with another family member to replace hm. This feels rather awkwardly sudden. Did Alexis Denisof leave abruptly?

Whatever, this is still a brilliant piece of serial telly. 

Doctor Who Pubcast

Nick and I have recorded another of our splendid wittering sessions...

http://dwpubcast.podomatic.com/entry/2015-05-31T08_16_25-07_00

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: The Frenemy of My Enemy

"Daisy Johnson. Huh."

Oh, such a complex web of allegiances: we have two competing visions of what SHIELD should be, Skye's loyalties to both SHIELD and her fellow Inhumans- and her complex relations with her loving yet Machiavellian mother Jiaying and her unstable yet honest father Cal, whom her mother plans to betray, and Skye knows it. Skye has a complicated lifestyle these days.

Fitz, meanwhile, at last joins up with Coulson and Hunter, still in possession of that prime MacGuffin, Nick Fury's toolbox. Coulson is doing a deal with the devil, working with Ward and Agent 33 in order to further his plans.

 Bobbi, in Gonzalez' rogue SHIELD, is beginning to worry that they may be somewhat neglecting the still operating HYDRA, which by the laws of television drama must mean that said baddies are about to do something nefarious.

But the heart of the episode lies in Skye learning to connect with her Dad in a Milwaukee that has changed, even though she realises she must betray him. There is much pathos in Cal's disappointment that so many of the things he wanted to show his daughter are no longer there as a sad metaphor of how time disappears. But we end the episode in a flurry of unexpected developments: HYDRA are tracking Gordon's teleports, and are able to arrive just as Coulson turns up to arrest Cal. Both Lincoln and Mike Peterson are captured, and Skye and Coulson fleetingly meet before Gordon takes her away.

If that wasn't brilliant enough for this fast-moving piece of television, we end with Coulson unexpectedly surrendering to Bobbi and Mack. What next? I, for one, am becoming obsessed.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Melinda

"I moved a mountain!"

At last we get the backstory to all this "Cavalry" stuff that Agent May did in Bahrain. The truth feels a bit like backtracking- what she actually did tends to underwhelm after all the hints- but this episode is nonetheless quite as brilliant as they all are at the moment. I'd expect nothing less.

What a difference seven years makes: Melinda was still with Andrew, and seemingly much more comfortable in her skin as she sets off with Coulson on a mission to retrieve a "gifted" individual in Bahrain. Unfortunately, things soon get out of control. This contrasts with the present day, in which Skye is slowly learning to tame her powers. She also finally learns that Jiayang is her mother, "put back together" by Cal after being vivisection by Whitehall, and also learns the circumstances of her birth right down to her actual birthday, which she now finally knows. It's a deeply emotional moment but one fraught with danger for Jiayang, who cannot be seen, as leader, to be favouring her daughter. I bet she will be outed as doing so by the end of the season.

Meanwhile, May impresses on Simmons that Coulson has been keeping many mysterious secrets, and she now wonders whether he should be trusted. Most prominent among these are the mysterious Theta Protocols.

There's a nice structural moment as Jiaying recounts to Skye of a woman, seven years ago, who stole Terrifen crystals and explored her powers without help, juxtaposed with footage, seven years ago in Bahrain, of May dealing with the fallout. The twist is that the powers- to gain power from others' pain- are not those of the target but of her daughter, whom May is forced to kill. This devastates her, damages her marriage, and leads her to abandon combat operations. She is now the distant Melinda that we know. All of this fits the facts as we know them, but it doesn't quite satisfy after all the build-up of the "Cavalry".

We end with Fitz proposing to join Coulson and Hunter, and he's bringing Fury's secret box of tricks... 

Cinderella (1950)

"Bibbidi bobbidi boo!"

Hmm. This film is ok, but, well, it seems to drag out s very short fairy tale to film length with a lot of only mildly funny stuff with cartoon animals and, well, fails to really soar. Is it me, or does this film lack the sparkle either of recent days or of the golden age of Bambi and Dumbo?

No, that's too harsh. It's a simple fairy tale for kids and, as such, it works, but without the charm or heart of Disney's early films or the adult appeal of their late ones, but it does a good job. I'll tell you one thing, though; it isn't made by cat people. The characterisation of Lucifer is a bit harsh to this avowed cat person. It's also disappointing that the wicked stepmother and stepsisters don't get any sort of comeuppance in a rather rushed ending. Still, it's nice to see the animals playing a pivotal role towards the end.

It's a short film and, I suspect, enjoyable for its target audience, although they may prefer Tom and Jerry for the cat and mouse stuff. In a couple of years I'll see what my little girl thinks!

The Parent Trap (1998)

"I have class and you don't!"

This isn't exactly the greatest film ever made or anything. Nor is it a particular favourite, and to be honest it was Mrs Llamastrangler who instigated watching it. But I've already blogged the original and may as well blog this. After all, it's very much a rarity to get a sequel that's better than the original.

The main reason for this is the pacing; this film zips along and doesn't drag in places as does it's predecessor. Also, a very young Lindsay Lohan is rather good as the twins- here renamed Hallie and Annie- and, indeed, knocks Hayley Milks into a cocked hat. And that, I'm sure you agree, is an arresting image.

The main difference from the original is that one of the twins, Annie, is British, and from London rather than Boston. Not the actual London, though; this is very much the London of Hollywood, a tourist-friendly place where people cross the zebra crossing at Abbey Road and where the La's (from, er, Liverpool) provide the soundtrack.

Another plus point is the splendid comic acting of Natasha Richardson, and the rather sweet romance between Martin and Chessie. Also, this time around,there's modification of Mum (Elizabeth) having physically abused Dad (Nick) way back when, which is always a plus. Oh, and the pranks are much bigger and better.

This is the perfect remake, with little improvements everywhere. The sweetest thing of all is that Martin and Chessie get married at the end too. So, yes, not exactly the best film ever, but the rare distinction, at least, of one remake which isn't pointless.

The C Word

"I'll tell you what, mate, right. You stand up, and I'll rummage around in your nuts."

Let's get all the superlatives about Sheridan Smith out of the way first, shall we? She's simply awesome, as always. So much so that we shall overlook the lack of any real attempt at a Derby accent. Sheridan Smith is probably the best actress on telly today.

This time she plays Lisa Lynch, real life cancer sufferer and author of the eponymous book. We start off by establishing how nice and normal Lisa is, as we would expect, and then the C bomb is duly dropped. It's an awful moment and, like everything, beautifully scripted and played. All of the big moments- mastectomy, chemotherapy, death sentence- are perfectly judged. And Mrs Llamastrangler and I were glad of this, as the subject of the C word is raw; earlier this year it took Mrs L's uncle, one of the nicest and coolest and most rock 'n' roll guys you could ever meet, get a bit sloshed with or compare beards with. He was only 44. The C word is indeed a C word.

There's an ironic contrast in that Lisa doesn't want to talk about the elephant in the room and can't be surrounded by drama, preferring to talk about other things. Hence the blog. It's all very human and very real.

The blog leads to a book, ironically recommended to Lisa after her second, terminal diagnosis, and the awful heartbreak of the cancer is juxtaposed throughout with humour and humanity. Like life, I suppose.

This is a most affecting piece of television and, what with my having just turned 38 and knocking on the door of middle age, as pleasant a way as any to confront my own mortality. We will all die, and it's usually painful and unpleasant, but at least we have each other, and our pleasures.

Sheridan Smith will win yet another award for this, mark my words.