Luke Cage: Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?

 “He was fine!"

This episode has, in contrast to the last two, a relatively simple plot. Luke Cage decides to strike back at Cottonmouth by attacking several of his stash houses and then his main fortress so that the money is all confiscated by investigating cops. The centrepiece is a big set piece of his doing exactly that, to a rather fitting Wu-Tang Clan soundtrack.

There are consequences though, not the least of which is Cottonmouth gettig his very personal and very fiery revenge at the end. Luke, I suspect, can't be hurt by this, but his friend at the rerstaurant very much can. The peoople he cares about are very much vulnerable, even if he isn't.

Misty Knight knows damn well what Luke is up to, as shown by an amusingly confrontational yet flirtatious conversation. A later conversation between Misty and her partner Scarfe is fascinating, and eches debates about vigilanteism in Daredevil- should we approve of what Luke is doing?

Yet all this, and the various criminal diplomacies and wars around Cottonmouth and Mariah, is overshadowed by the big reveal that Scarfe is working for Cottonmouth- and kills Chico to stop him talking.

This is good. Very, very good indeed.,

Poirot: Problem at Sea

 "One cannot hurry the little grey cells, captain."

This is another decent episode, not only as a whodunit which works well and does so in a shrt format but, for once, also as a drama. The poor murder does the deed because he is a vivtim of what we would today call coercive control. None of the characters, in 1935, would have used the phtrase, but they all knew damn well what was going on.

It's all nicely done. All the characters behave like real people with real motives and, again, 1935 feels not quite so long ago, despite the inevitable casual racism of the characters as they wander around the Alexandria of King Fuad. Yet, despite some differences in social mores, these people are not so different from ourselves, if somewhat posher on the whole.

The summing up is the best yet, as showman Poirot has a little fun with ventriloquism. This still is not exactly my favourite television drama, but it has its moments.

Breaking Bad: Cornered

 "I'm not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger!"

Another fascinating character episode here, in the middle of the seasaon, as tensions build towards what feels like an inevitable clash between clever improviser Walt and the heavily controlling, calm, collected, and careful Gus. These episodes feel like chess at times, with us following one of the players. And this is a dangerous game, as the superbly shot empty scene shows us with the two blokes dying horribly of carbon monoxide.

And Gus' manipulation of Jesse here, driving that wedge between him and Walt, is materfully played. Jesse, self-loathing waster that he is, is no fool, yet Gus has him exactly where he wants him- and the fact that Walt knows exactly what's going on won't help him.

I love the scenes with Jesse and Mike; Mike is swiftly becoming a favourite character with his exasperation, yet also with his wrldly yet respectful dealings with the coldly inscrutable Gus.

This is a dangerous game. And Skyler, at last, is beginning to understand that, and perhaps what her husband is. Finally, she sees a flash of Heisenberg, and it scares here with the hint that Walt is not some innocent nebbish of a man who might be in trouble, but something much darker.

So she runs, as far as she can, to a literal crossroads, a cool little spot where fur states- Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico- meet. She's back, but the sexy times are over.For now. I'm betting Skyler will adjust yet again.

This is, needless to say, television of the very first class.

Breaking Bad: Shotgun

 "Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?"

This is a bloody clever, subtle, psychological episode, from the opening char chase with it's fittingly panicked-looking directrion to the final scene with Hank discovering the Los Hermanos Pollos connection.

At a surface level, much of thus episode is on the everyday mundanity of the work required in the meth trade, from cooking to money drops. There are multiple speeded up montages to the same soundtrack. Yet behind it all is tension; what is Gus, the unseen puppetmaster, forever in control with his all-seeing cameras, going to do to Jesse and then to Walt? This season seems to be shaping up to be a contest between the two of them but, at this stage, it's hardly an equal one.

Gus is controlled and controlling, his lack of presence being a sign of strength. He decides, and then stays in the background while his decisions are implemented. Doing, and having to be seen, is for underlings. Not having to be seen is power.

And Gus wins here. The manipulation of Jesse through clever psychology, driving the beginnings of a wedge between him and Walt through divide and rule tactics, works like clockwork. Walt may be having sex with Skyler again (crime is sexy, as in the first season), and be back in the family home,]the proud co-owner of a car wash-cum-money laundromat.

Yet Skyler is still naive, having no idea of the dangers Walt is in. Not least of which is his own tongue, as a tipsy Walt ends up perhaps saying things to Hank that he shouldn't have. 

It's going to be fascinating seeing how all this plays out. I'm loving this season.

Clash of the Titans (1981)

 "Once he tried to ravish me disguised as a cuttlefish..."

This is Ray Harryhausen's last film. His career was, of course, long and magnificent, but the best bits were the three Sinbad films and this. Harryhausen the American stop motion genius- surely the greatest special effects maestro of all time, from a time before CGI- finished his career here, gracing us with his presence in this England until the end of his pleasingly long days. By all accounts he was a really nice bloke, a good thing to hear particularly of a genius.

He does his usual brilliant stuff in this film- the kraken, the owl, the vulture, Medusa and so on, as he always does. As usual, he gets his ezxecutrive producer credit to demonsrate that,unusually, the special effects guy is one of the stars. Ray Harryhausen was unique. I can't see us knowing his like again.

This is the tale of Perseus, from the myths, pretty much straight, or at least as straight as the practicalities of stop motion will allow. Harry Hamlin and Judi Bowker are competent and pretty, but the real acting chops lie elsewhere. We have Burgess Meredith, first and foremost, outshining everyone. But we also have the gods, capricious as the myths demand. And so we have Larry himself as Zeus, Jack Gwillim as Poseidon and a veritable pantheon of goddeses with Ursula Andress, Claire Bloom and the extraordinary Maggie Smith as Thetis.

The film is a refreshingly straightforward and highly straightforward retelling of the myth. It's a B movie, whatever its fame. It may be a tad slowy paced at times, but I challenge you not to love it.

The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 7: In the Name of Honour

 "I gave you my word. I'm with you until we both fall."

So the season has ended already. It's been a little uneven and experimental at times in recent episodes, yes, but that's no bad thing. And this is a true climax, the ending to a Western movie in which the sheriff and his gang have to do the right thing to protect the townsfolk from the baddies. It's all quite topical, really; I'm typing this as Putin and his fascist underlings murder their way to lebensraum in Ukraine, not an inch of which must be surrendered. May Zelenskyy be as successful as Fett.

This is at once a splendid selection of great-looking CGI set pieces and full of surprises, sort of. The suspense lies in which allies will arrive and the answer is, of course, all of them, from Baby Yoda to the entire population of Freetown. But there's good  haracter stuff, too, as former bounty hunter Boba finally learns what it is to be a hero, to be respected, to... ride a Rancor. And yes, the extraordinarily well done CGI Rancor, cleverly foreshadowed a few episodes aho with Boba saying he wanted to ride it, is the visual highlight, even more than those two ED-209's with force fields that turn up as end-of-level bosses.

But what really matters is when the Freetowners turn up, enraged by the murder of their sheriff and, of course, Grogu returning to his dad, Beskar armour clad, to help save the day by putting the Rancor to sleep and then, er, curling up to sleep next to it in an incredibly cute way.

This is a perfectly structured and awesome finale to a bravely experimental variation on The Mandalorian which develops Boba Fett while reminding us that Westerns are often metaphors for not appeasing fascists and shooting them instead, whatever John Wayne's dodgy politics.

Luke Cage: Code of the Streets

 "Jesus saves." I don't."

Wow. That was an unexpectedly eventful and deeply layered second episode with a lot going on. This is classy, richly textured television.

There's a lot of development here. We get the backstory of Pop, Chico's dad and Cottonmouth all being young thugs together, until Pop turned himself around after serving a ten stretch in prison as his lady was pregnant. Ouch. That goes to show how the concept of prison is so problematic- it punishes not only the guilty, but their innocent family and children too. We get more of Pop encouraging "Power Man" to be a hero. We get the We get emphasis that the barber shop is "Switzerland", so it's a betrayal, and shocking, when Pop dies the way he does.

We get some fascinating philsophical debate between Cottonmouth and Mariah, much of it framed by black history. We get an eventful appearance by Turk. We get Luke learning who Misty really is. And we get a superb shot, by the same Paul McGuigan who directed similar scenes in Sherlock, of Misty standing at a scene of a crime and literally seeing what happened. She's pretty good at basketball too.

This is extraordinary, easily as good as Daredevil and Jessica Jones so far, in a similar style but definitely its own thing. I'm loving it.

Poirot: Triangle at Rhodes

 "At least he's not a bottom pincher, Mr. Poirot."

This episode decidedly departs from the norm- no Hastings, no Miss Lemon, and the whole thing is set entirely on location on what looks genuinely to be Rhodes- the locations are truly breathtaking.

These episodes are based on Agatha Christie's short stories. She's better known for her longer form whodunits, so these are bound ro be somewhat basic in comparison, This is no exception, being relatively simple despite some minor cleverness. But the murder mystery is not so much the draw here.

No; this is an amusing and fascinating glimpse of the English on holiday, with their '30s bathing costumes, evening dress and casual racism, in 1935 as the papers discuss Italy's invasion of Abyssinia. Indeed, Rhodes at this time was part of the Italian Aegean, and the Greek natives are ruled by an Italian bureaucracy. Poirot has to deal with a local inspector who is, alas, no Japp, and has a portrait of Il Duce (why not the King Vittorio Emmanuele?) above his desk.

This is no more than mildly diverting, and it's still likely that I'll not be returning tomPoirot for a while after this first series, but I was happy enough with this.

Breaking Bad: Bullet Points

" The ozone layer is already thin because of the cow farts..."

This is a second set-up episode in a row, a brave choice but a necessary one as scenes giving us the appearance of a semblance of order gradually yield to the realisation that Walt is in a chaotic and perilous situattion.

Skyler, in being the brains behind both the car wash and the gambling cover story, is showing herself to be an impressively efficient administrator. Yet the thought has to be admitted that her thirst to impose order arises out of a kind of wishful thinking, a refusal to accept the reality that Waly now leads- and so, behind the curtain, does she. For all the tension- and little character moments between the two of them- as they rehearse their story for the benefit mainly of Hank, there are in reality far bigger things to be afraid of that are (as yet) beyond Skyler's comprehension.

All of which Walt pretty much says to Saul as he ponders the precariousness of his situation, with Hank closing in (I love the chat between Hank and Walt as Hank proudly declares Gale to have been Heisenberg; these scenes of Hank getting close are clever and fun, yet it's not easy writing to keep them nevertheless so plausible. Yet the threat of Hank is as nothing compared to the certainty that Gus will kill both Walt and Jesse if they're not on their best game.

And they aren't, particularly Jesse. His dissolute, squalid lifesryle belies a man who has given up hope, who sees no future and is just waiting out the days until his murder as hedonistically as he can, devoid of meaning or human connection. And the arrival of Mike, lately of arather cool opening sequence, indicates that things are set to reach a crisis point.

This episode is masterful. Next episode looks eventful.

Breaking Bad: Open House

 "What? I'm Nixon now?"

This entire episode is about a failure to communicate. Mostly. But it's also, of course, about Skyler mirroring the Walt of earlier seasons as she slips slowly into criminality... and not without success. 

Walt lies to Skyler about his black eye, a failure to communicate. There's a camera in the lab, a bluntly one way mode of communication to which Walt has an entirely mature and adult response. Walt and Jesse are barely communicating and, in Jesse's disgusting cesspit of a house which is an endless round of soulless parties mongst the squalour, Jesse just sits and gets high, interacting with no one.

Hank and Marie are, of course, mot communicating in a healthy way, and Hank's understandable depression does not in any ay justify his behaviour towards Marie. However, Marie seeks refuge in absurd lies and fantasies ultimately leading to disaster, humilation and criminality of a very white, middle class lady kind.

But Skyler is triumphant here, cleverly getting Bogdan's business of him for very little, and doing it through awesome skill and excellent communication. Yet the only skilful piece of communication in this episode is about swindling a poor bloke out of his business, not meaningful human connection.

Communication aside, this is a transitional episode that subtly advances the arc and moves pieces around rather than a big "event". Such episodes have to exist, and are rarely done with such skill.

Bad Boys (1995)

 "It's ok to be a homosexual, Mike..."

Some evenings you just need a big dumb '90s action film. And some dumb '90s action films are not dumb at all, even when directed by Michael Bay, a director who certainly has his highs but equally has an awful lot of lows.

This, though, is one of his highs. To a large extent this is because of Martin Lawrence.Oh, Will Smith is superb and charismatic, as always: he may be a pretty boy but you can't deny his acting chops. He tends to pick damn good scripts too. But Martin Lawrence's Marcus is the real hero- the family man with real rsponsibilities rather than the shallow trust fund playboy.

The two of them are a magnificent double act, though, in a sparkling script which mixes comedy and sction superbly in a Miami which mixes high and low life, druggy villainy with domestic drudgery, but keeps the tone light and the action fun. The car chases alone are magnificent.

There's nothing whatsoever that's clever about this film. But it works. The heroes are both likrable and charismatic and the plot works, despite being just set piece after set piece. It's all very '90s in the best possible way- the first scene riffs on the fact that cars are now expected to have cupholders, while pagers abound. There's also the cars, the awful clothes, the awesome music, the direction.

The '90s were a golden age for big dumb action movies. This film epitomises why.

The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

 "Times are hard. People just aren't dying off so quick..."

This isn't the first time I've seen this film, but it's probably pushing two decades since I last saw this, and it's lost none of its power. It's a shame the film, apparently, flopped at the box office; the script, direction and Ralph Bates are all superb, and even Kate O'Mara's inexplicable mittel-European Irish accent strangely works.

The Curse of Frankenstein introduced Hammer Horror films properly, telling the familiat story with a focus on Frankenstein himself as an amoral and obsessive villain rather than a tragic figure. This film absolutely doubles down on that, with Bates' Victor Frankenstein being a cynical, manipulative, cold bastard who not only kills for his work but demands sex from his housekeeper and cruelly refuses to marry Elizabeth, who is besotted with him, but cruelly exploits her financial troubles to make her his housekeeper. This Frankenstein is a deliciously nasty piece of work, and Bates carries this film in an absolute tour de force of a performance, although Dennis Price is absolutely wonderful as the splendidly camp grave robber,.

The monster turns up fairly late on in the film, but that doesn't matter. It's all about Frankenstein himself as the antihero we love to hate. Best of all, he survives unharmed at the end, unlike all of those who have crossed or even annoyed him. This is peak, confident Hammer, and t's superb, box office be damned.

Luke Cage: Moment of Truth

 "Everyone has a gun. No one has a father."

This is a superb first episode. I'm hooked.

Obviously, I was rather annoyed when all the Defenders episodes vanished from ther former abode but, now they've been rehomed, it's time to resume marathoning the whole lot. I'm of a generation a little too young to have read more than the odd issue of Power Man and Iron Fist back in the day, and never really read the early '90s Luke Cage issues, so I know the character from more than Jessica Jones, although I know much of the outline.

Knowledge of the comics means little, though; you can start here very easily, give or take the odd Easter Egg. We have some vague exposition and a brief flashback telling us Luke was framed in the past, Shades was involved, and he receiveda beating in rison that gave him his powers. But we see that he's a decent, hardworking fellow, honestly working dead end jobs to make ends meet and trying to do the right thing- with a little shagging on the side; the ladies seem to like him.

We also get to know- Biblically, in Luke's case, the police detective Misty Knight, not a PI here, who also seems essentially decent. Yet we also see some other major characters, one being Harlem itself which really shines out here as  place with glamour on the one hand and a hopeless trap on the other; a place of racial tension as waves of immigrants move into a traditionally black neighbourhood; and organised crime syumbolised my Cottonmouth, already giving the impression of being a superbly written and played villain, as nuanced as Wilson Fisk and with politcal connections through his corrupt councillor cousin Mariah.

Much of the plot here focuses on Cottonmouth and the doings of his underlings, as well as his rivalry with the mysterious Diamondback. But we end with Luke, having tried to stay out of the hero business, unable to stop himself- although, ironically given the chacter's origins, he's not for hire.

This an excellent opener, splendidly done and already addictive.

Breaking Bad: Thirty-Eight Snub

 "They're not just zombies. They're Nazi zombies."

The opening scene with Walt/Heisenberg carefully buying a gun is fascinating, much as the boring detail reminds me of when I'm talking to a mechanic about my car, the workings of which which I know nothing. It shows, of course, that Walt realises he's in danger of being killed every time someone walks down the stairs into the lab. But his decision to buy a firearm illegally, despite the permissive laws of New Mexico, further underlines his commitment to go deeper and deeper into criminality. He can go only in the one direction.

Jesse is less pragmatic, spending with abandon and throwing over-the-top parties for his two friends and a load of strangers, horrible parties that I would hate. Yet he's a passive observer, in charge of the parties but not really part of them, the Boris Johnson of Albuquerque, trying to buy friendship with money alone. And he's passively lost his girlfriend, although not without leaving her with money he hopes she will use wisely, as he never will.

Hank isn't in a good place either, struggling with therapy. He's coldly pushing Marie away, rejecting her help as an undermining of his masculinity. He's also acquiring an interest in minerals, which is oddly nerdy for him. I'm not sure where this is going, but their marriage is looking decidedly troubled.

Walt and Skyler, meanwhile, despite superficial disagreements, seem to be getting closer as Skyler invests more and more deeply in Walt's criminal empire. Her plan to buy the car wash is aggressively (and misogynistically) rebuffed by Bogdan, still resentful of Walt, but she shows real skill as a bookkeeper.

Yet the episode hinges around the duo of Walt and Mike, two very intelligent and very ruthless men. Mike prevents Walt from making a very bad mistake in trying to kill Gus- who doesn't appear in the episode and from whose presence Walt is, apparently,banished, in an even more extreme manifestation of silence meaning power.

Yet, as Walt approaches Mike to seek a mutual understanding with Mike in one of those conversations thatare all subtext,trying to seekan ally against Gus, he gets a violent response. Yet has he truly lost in the longer term?

This is a fascinating, and masterfully crafted, episode.

Breaking Bad: Box Cutter

 "Well? Get back to work."

This is, of course, a superlative episode of television in its own right as well as being, although I say this unspoiled, the perfect season opening to set us up for a season based on competition between Heisenberg and Gus.

Yet it all boils down to one long scene, which I'll turn to immediately. Because we may start with a nice little flashback with Gale, ironiclly sowing the seeds of his own destruction, in flashback, as he encourages Gus to hire the creator of the mysterious blue meth. And we may then move on to the moment of the fateful shot- the camera focusing, as it should, on Jesse's horrified face as he does something he can never undo. But ultimately it's Jesse and Heisenberg (not Walt; only Heisenberg appears in this episode. That's a first.) who have to face the music as they wait for Gus.

As Gus enters, the tension is electric. Heisenberg is immediately out-alpha maled as he tries to justify his actions and emphasise his value- intrerestingly, taking a risk to protect Jesse. It seems what Jesse has just done has made Walt even more loyal to his friend. It's an extraordinary scene, which works due to the power of Bryan Cranston's delivery and the sheer menacing presence of Giancarlo Esposito. It's truly shocking when Gus, calm and silent up until this point-silence, in this case, means power- slashes Victor's neck and kills him. Walt and Jesse are too valuable, for the moment, but someone has to die.

It's an extraordinary and haunting few moments of television. The status quo is restored, on the surface, but it's kill or be killed.

Elsewhere, Skyler goes deeper into acceptance of her new criminal lifestyle- how far will she go? And Hank is not in a good place. He'd be in an even worse place if he knew what was funding his recovery. The direction is sublime, with objects used as reference points- that teddy bear eye again, and the knife used to kill Victor is seen earlier, like Chekhov's Gun. But this superlative episode is, ultimately, based around that one scene.

Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (Revisited), Parts Three and Four

Part Three

"We are all happy to work..."

Three episodes in, and The Macra Terror feels like a totally different story with visuals, especially in an episodelike thiswhere the TARDIS crew (minus that snitch Ben) are put to highly dangerous slave labour in the mines, even if the Doctor does have it rather cushy by acting as "supervisor".

It's true, perhaps, that this is not the most visually arresting episode, consisting mainly of dangerous and back breaking sweatshop labour in the "pit". But it doesn't half help in following the plot.

There's some good drama, and good acting from Michael Craze, as Ben struggles against his conditioning, lots of the Doctor being mischievous, and a scary cliffhanger, but this is treading water somewhat.

Part Four

"We want something gay and cheerful!"

It's a pity, I suppose, how a story with such a great concept sags so noticeably in its third episode, as this final episode piles on the revelations and the drama. The revelation that the planet is literally controlled by parasites that look like an STD is full of all sorts of potential for political the political subtext of your choice. It's a nice touch that, even after being given their freedom, the colinists are still a cultural desert, a nightmare of forced jollity and cheery songs even without the giant crabs. No wonder this uniquely anarchic Doctor can't wait to be rid of the place.

Again, though, the visuals are great. Somehow I suspect the wiped original wouldn't have featured all those Macra in the control room, er, controlling things. Conversely, it's a pity we don't get to see Frazer Hines' actual attempt at the Highland Fling.

But there's Troughton, too. This is very much the early, anarchic, slightly sinister if not for the innocence, "I would like a hat like that" Second Doctor. He's great, but the actual footage would be priceless,

Poirot: The Third Floor Flat

 "Birds do not run, Hastings."

Again, we have an episode that is rather clever. What initially looks like a murder with a dearth of suspects ends up having a rather clever and satisfying resolution, all being resolved in a classic summing up by Poirot, with added car chase. Suchet is excellent, yet again, with our four regulars being well-characterised by the use of plenty of gentle humour.

Yet there's also a clever bit of fun with the fourth wall as Hastings takes a hypochondriac Poirot to a whodunit play, and our esteemed Belgian gets the killer wrong, proceeding to criticise the author for blatantly failing to adhere to Father Ronald Knox's famous rules of detective fiction, something of which Agatha Christie can never be accused of doing without justification.

Again, too, the 1930s are a fascinating period. Things look and seem modern much of the time, but people living in upmarket flats will typically have a maid, while what passes for popular music is pre-rock 'n' roll and so utterly alien. I'm not sure I'll be blogging the second series any time soon, but I'm enjoying this first series more than I expected at first.

Frankenstein Unbound (1990)

 "This is not the end of the world."

Some films are very good, so you enjoy them. Some films are pants, so you dontr. This film fits into an interesting third category: the interesting failure. And this is one of those: Roger Corman's first film in twenty years and one which is, although right up his street- a mainly period adaptation of a novel by serious science fiction author Brian Aldiss featuring both interesting ideas around time travel and a postmodern riff on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein featuring the lady herself... er, shagging John Hurt's hero. Er, yes.

The film starts in the (this being 1990) far fututre of 2031, where there are no longer any Brazilian rainforests and KITT from Knight Rider exists, thus predicting both the disgusting Jair Bolsonaroand self-driving cars. If only cars in 2022 looked so cool.

Anyway, John Hurt is maverick scientist Joe Buchanan, selling out his country to the Yankee dollar, tut tut, and risking tim slip side effects in his attempt to sell a superweapon to the US military. He fails, but is propelled back in time to 1817, where he meets not only Mary Shelley but Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, both of whom are played for laughs, at Lake Diodati, in an early Nineteenth Century Switzerland where language differences are airily handwaved. There's all sorts of what I rather suspect are clever subtexts about the meaning of "unbound" from the novel that are never quite explored and which remain unclear.

John Hurt is superb. He cannot be otherwise, Bridget Fonda is adequate, as ever. Raul Julia chews the scenery with his usual class. Yet something doesn't quite work. Nevertheless, the film is far from dull.

The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger

 "Can we takre your helmets for a cleaning?"

Well, Boba Fett is in this one. A bit.

This is a most oddly structured series. There are seven episodes in total, with the next one being the finale. The first four are the meat of the series, buioding up to the finale... but the fifth and, now, sixth episodes suddenly move off to follow other characters entirely.

And it's a disjointed series of scenes that dance around the preparation for the strike against the arrogant Pyke Syndicate that is to come. We have extended scenes of the Mandalorian trying to visit Baby Yoda (Grogu) with a Luke Skywalker played jointly by Mark Hamill and some surely very expensive-looking CGI, returning him to 1983 vintage. We have lomg scenes of Luke training Baby Yoda that are enormous fun, We have Ahsoka Tano looking cool and spouting exposition. We have some rather cool insect droids building that structure we see in the recent film trilogy. And yet there's pathos- Mando is discouraged from seeing Baby Yoda as encouraging his attachments will supposedly harm his Jedi training. And, when Mando gives his gift of Beskar armour, cruel Luke makres him choose between that and the lightsabre, at such a tender age. The Jedi attitude to attachments is, without a doubt, wrong.

Then, on top of all this, we have Sheriff Cobo Vanth, armourless but with his trusty sharpshooter and hat, trying to protect his town from trouble, with the Pyke Syndicate lurking in the background. It seems uncertain whether he's going to be able to convince the peace loving townsfolk to fight for Fett at Mando's urging, but then the Syndicate send a sinister black-hatted alen, terrifying to look at, who shockingly shooyts not only the sheriff but also the deputy.

Meanwhile, there's Boba Fett and co aboiut to stike. What will Grogu choose? Is Vanth dead? Will Boba Fett be in the finale of his own show? This is all very oddly structured and disjointed. Yet it's oddly compelling.

Doctor Who: The Macra Terror (Revisited), Parts One and Two

Part One

"Well, this is gay."

The animation begins with the rather relevant reprise from the end of The Moonbase, showing us how the TARDIS regulars are to be animated. It's all mostly pretty good, and the Doctor is very good. But Polly isn't quite right. The animation works, the visual storytelling is very good, but it has its limitations.

Still, it's great to have visuals and actually understand what's going on for the long stretches without dialogue. The storytelling is rather nice; we meet Medok first, suggesting something wrong with the colony, and there are hints from the beginning that things are quite right with all this creepy conformity.

The visuals here- so important in these early stories as Patrick Troughton evolves his performance into what it would become- shows that this is still the elfin, nimble, unpredictable and mischievous Doctor of the early stories- anarchistic, openly and cheerfully resistant to authority, and at times seeming not enormously trustworthy. The animation leans nicely into this.

Part Two

"They're in controooool!"

The opening titles have been nicely colourised for this animation, with animation of Troughton's face and the colour scheme being the same as Pertwee, belatedly showing me what should have been the obvious fact that Pertwee's era, despite the big changes, would eventually keep Troughton's opening titles for four years.

This episode is much talkier and hence less absolutely dependent on the visuals, with the Kafkaesque tyranny of the colony becoming more and more apparent as Ben is brainwashed and Medok sentenced to hard labour for life. The sequence with the Controller is animated superbly for effect, and I suspect the Macra look far much better here than they would have at the time.

I'm rather enjoying this, if mostly because I'm reminded what a brilliant, politically clever story this is.

Poirot: Four and Twenty Blackbirds

 "Cricket. The English enigma. I know not of any other game where even the players are unsure of the rules."

This is rather good, perhaps the best episode far, and not just for seeing the novelty of Jim Branning from EastEnders as an attendant in the gents. I'm warming more to the little character quirks of Suchet's Poirot- the seriousness with which he takes his food, and his subtle humour.

The story is quite clever too, even if I twigged straight away that the change in Henry Gascoigne's eating habits was explained away by an impostor. There are a pleasing number of twists and turns, and for once there's some nicely judged and amusing character moments. There's a nice little guest spot from Hilary Mason as a stern housekeeper, and nice nods to Japp's embrace of deductive science- no Lestrade he- and the relaxed friendship between the two of them and Hastings.

The period continues to fascinate- the social attitudes, the cars, the clothes, the art, the architecture.

I may be getting into this series a little. May.

Breaking Bad: Full Measure

 "That's like Thomas Magnum threatening that, like, prissy guy with the moustache."

This is a big, important finale: we know, as Vince Gilligan is writing and directing himself. 

It's all really a big chess game between Walt and Gus. Yet it's all done with such humanity, reminding us that these are all people with lives and loved ones; even Mike is shown as a doting father immediately before he goes and kills some people in a rather cool little mission.

The start, a flashback with an incredibly young-looking Walt and Skyler, is a curiosity, certainly, and reminds uswhat a perfect couple they once were, in an empty house so full of infinite possibility, Skyler pregnant with Walt Jr and Walt both ambitious and irrepressibly confident. Yet it also serves to remind us how far Walt has come to be such a cold blooded killer, as we see this episode.

Walt talks his way out of immediately being killed on the orders of a superbly menacing Gus, but we all know it's just a temporary reprieve. As soon as we see his assistant- Gale- it's clear that a successor is being groomed for after his death. And the conversation between Gus and valuable pawn Gale is a triumph of scripting and acting, one of those conversations that are 100% subtext.

There's so much tension in this episode, as Walt knows he's to be killed very soon. The solution- to kill Gale and thus render himself irreplaceable- is brillant but desperate, and that final scene, as Walt is about to be killed, is an amazing bit of television, ending with a moment of high drama.

Where now...? Things are looking very much like Walt vs Gus, with Walt about to move upwards against the odds. We shall see...

Shivers (1975)

 "

David Cronenberg is a favourite director of mine, He occupies that strange middle ground between respected auteur and body horror genre director, at least in the early part of his career: later on,the body horror disappears and Cronenberg safely gets the approval of the snobbish critics whi sniff at his earlier work, even this film, which is safely gathered into the canon of we horror aficionados, Yet this is no B movie. It deserves more.

Amonst the cast, of course, is Barbara Steele, to whom the phrase "horror queen" could be applied. And this very modern film (for 1975), opening with a posh advert for a load of posh aparments on the St Lawrence in Montreal, is certainly within the horror genre. Yet it centres ver specifically on a body horror equated exactly with sexzuality. As Janine says, while trying to seductively kill Dr St Luc, mere existence is sexuality; we exist to reproduce, The species is all. So here we have a Dr Hobbes who plans to replace malfunctioning organs with useful parasites that do the same job, yet (after the nonce dies after murdering a schoolgirl he'd been shagging, causing distressingly little outrage) his true philosopjy is that humans are too cerebral and insufficiently sexual. This is the perfect premise for a film based on the phenimenon of disgusting little phallic worms which can hardly do other than represent male sexuality. There's a clearly rapey theme here, intended to evoke bloody disgust, and no one gets out alive, as we're all guilty of having sexual desires, if not necessarily violent ones. 

This is at once a superb horror film, belying its low budget, and a harbinger of what Cronenberg has yet to bring us.The man's a genius.

The 39 Steps (1935)

 “There are twenty million women in this island, and I've got to be chained to you..."

I ought to begin with a confession that I've never read the John Buchan novel.

This is the earliest Hitchcock film I've yet to blog, and it's rather good; a cleverly and appropriately directed tale of paranoia where reality is a slippery thing and, brilliant, the spy plot remains somewhat vague and unreal throughout, leaving us to question our sense of reality no less than Richard Hannay himself.

Redundant though it may be to say so, the suspense is exquisite. Robert Donat is excellent, despite his questionable Canadian accent, with Madeleine Carroll excellent too. The two of them are convincing in the tempestuous yet sexually charged situation in which they find themselves, with lots of sexual chemistry. A very young John Laurie is also superb as a religious zealot and, unlike literally all of the other characters in a film largely set in Scotland, has a genuine Scottish accent.

Yet this is a film about how the world we think we know may have less comfortable realities lurking bebeath, which feel almost supernatural in their unreality. The thirty-nine steps; the missing fingertips; the shadowy nature of the whole conspiract and, of course, the grand guignol circumstances of the mysterious woman's murder all combine to give us a film which establishes a creepy mood well beyond its mere plot. There's nothing supernatural here on the surface, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. Superb.

Mad Men: The Wheel

 "You'll have to give back that copy of Ayn Rand..."

This is an interestingly brave, yet satisfying finale. We don't have the climaxes of last season- Peggy aside- as we end not with a dramatic peak but a satisfyingly relaxed wrapping up. This finale is all about families, none of them perfect.

This is obviously the case for Don, who never has one growing up and- as we found last week- feels semi-detached from his family, preferring to work rather than join them for Thanksgiving. Yet he has an epiphany of sorts in his presentation- brilliant as ever- for Kodak, using his own family snaps and getting a little emotional- a sublimely judged performance from Jon Hamm- at the thought of the family he has. Yet the scenes of his returning home, gathering his children in his arms and joining the family for Thanksgiving are shown just to be in his head; the reality is a cold, lonely house, all alone.

Betty finally realises, too, after Francine comes to her for help with her own husband's infidelity, that she's always known about Don's unfaithfulness and is finding it harder and harder to pretend. Then there's Pete, in his strained marriage, under pressure from his fayher-in-law to sire an heir. There's Harry, thrown out of his house after his dalliance last episode and sleeping in the office. Even Peggy's promotion to junior copywriter, a huge achievement for this quietly ambitious young woman- and another humiliation for Pete, who seems desperate to please a stern, uncaring father figure in Don- is followed by the shock of realising she's pregnant and about to give birth, a woman in a man's world after all. And, when shown her baby son, she turns her head away...

The Kodak Carousel may show a surface world of happy families. But they are nothing but.

Another season of Mad Men will be coming to this blog before too long. This is delicious, exquisite telly.

Poirot: The Adventure of Johnnie Waverley

 "See also under marriage?"

Well, after an improvement last episode... we have another disappointment. At this stage we're looking at one good episode from the first three. Not a good strike rate.

This isn't terrible; it's good telly. David Suchet is excellent, as is Philip Jackson as the nicely relatable and believable Chief Inspector Japp.Beyond that, however, we are struggling. The guest cast are ok in their functional roles, but Hugh Fraser really is appallingly silly as Captain Hastings.

And the plot, with its big reveal, doesn't work here. This may have worked better in print, but I for one worked out what was going on long before it was revealed, and that isn't usual for me. Yes, the clues were fair and it all worked like clockwork, but it was all a little transparent; so much for Agatha Christie's unique selling point.

Sigh. I'llcarry on until at least the end of the season...

Mad Men: Nixon vs Kennedy

 "Mr Campbell, who cares?"

It's interesting that this should be the penultimate episode rather than the finale, seeing how it reaches a climax in a number of ways- including, I hope, for both Harry and Trudy, however deliciously awkward their morning after may be.

Sterling Cooper's unfortunate connection to the Nixon campaign allows a focus on the election night drama for that very close Kennedy. Yet, unlike in 2020, there genuinely is electoral fraud, although I understand the historical consensus is broadly that it didn't determine the outcome. Yet it feels strangely old-fashioned to see Nixon concede so gracefully. Of course, in those days, the Republican Party was an institution of the mainstream centre-right, and was in favour of freedom and democracy while opposing Russian authoritarianism. How times change.

The party is, of course, drunken, decadent, and full of inappropriate and sexist behaviour. Peggy, of course, leaves early, and endures a little light bullying. Yet I suspect, in the long run, she's going places.

The final act, though, has Pete using the info he's gleaned to try and blackmail Don. Don has a crisis of confidence- it's a brave and nuanced piece of writing to show this with him visiting Rachel and begging her to run away with him. As she rightly points out, this is cowardice, especially as he has kids he would seemingly abandon. We're allowed, here, to see Don at his weakest, and to see him propose to do something irredeemably contemptible. What matters is that he doesn't do this, and instead finds courage- but too late to salvage his affair with a disgusted Rachel. It's probably for the best.

Don's calling Pete's bluff is glorious, especially given how Bert Cooper's absolute indifference utterly humiliates him. Cooper is an admirer of the deluded fool Ayn Rand; he sees Don as a self-made man, a Nixon rather than an aristocratic Kennedy.

The coda is fascinating, even if Jon Hamm is perhaps a little too old to play the younger Don.We see how he passively accepts the identity of a dead lieutenant, receiving a free upgrade in social class, and leaves everything behind. Wow. This is brilliant telly, as ever.

Poirot: Murder in the Mews

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

Ok, that was better.

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

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

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

Breaking Bad: Half Measures

 "I won't be wearing bells..."

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

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

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

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

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

Willow (1988)

 "Ignore the bird. Follow the river,"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So why is this an absolutely brilliant bit of telly?

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

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

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

Mad Men: Indian Summer

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

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

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

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

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

Poirot: The Adventure of the Clapham Cook

 "Ah, the stewed peaches! Quite!"

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

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

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

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

Mark Lanegan

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

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

This is a huge loss.

Mad Men: Long Weekend

 "This is all there is..."

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

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

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

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

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

This is simply an extraordinary bit of telly.

Breaking Bad: Abiquiu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow. This is proper highbrow telly.

Black Widow (2021)

 “Such a poser…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daredevil: A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

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

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

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

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

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

The Uncanny (1977)

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

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

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

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

Metallica- Master of Puppets (1986)

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

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

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

Encanto (2021)

 “You can’t hurry the future!”

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

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

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

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

Daredevil: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

 "Matty, I'm proud of you."

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

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

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

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

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

Wow. Just wow.

Daredevil: .380

 "Stay away from me..."

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

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

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

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

Another Update

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

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

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

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

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

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

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

Breaking Bad: Fly

 "It's all contaminated..."

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

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

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

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

Breaking Bad: Kafkaesque

 "One taste and you'll know!"

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

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

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

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

Update

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

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

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

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

The Ghoul (1933)

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

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

Except this one.

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

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

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

Out of the Trees

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

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

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

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

Daredevil: The Man in the Box

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

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

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

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

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

Breaking Bad: I See You

 "It's all, like, shiny up in here."

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

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

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

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

A superb episode, and superb performances all round.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)

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

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

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

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

Mad Men: Shoot

 "I like this show. Very gay songs."

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

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

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