"I can think of better ways to die..."
"And better causes to die for."
Well, here’s yet another very good episode in a run of what have been particularly good ones- at least in the order I’m watching. It takes a while to work out what’s going on- acting Number Two trying to discredit Number Six as a Cassandra so he can carry out a plot from on high to assassinate the actual Number Two at the moment of his retirement (is the motive really just to avoid paying a pension?!), and it’s she slow reveal of what’s happening that makes the episode so enjoyable. It leads to some questions, though. Who are all these Number Twos? How many of those we’ve met so far have been “acting”? How long is a Number Two’s term? Why have we never seen the actual Number Two before? Were all the others just “acting”?
A big highlight of this episode is Derren Nesbitt’s excellently mannered performance as the acting Number Two- and, for us Doctor Who fans, this is a veritable Marco Polo reunion with both Mark Eden and Kublai Khan himself, Martin Miller. Not only that but there’s a minor role for Wanda Ventham. Not many episodes have such a cast as this.
We also get to see the bizarre, crash-helmeted, trampoline-based sport that is Kosho, which briefly appeared last episode- I think this is completely made up. In any other series I’d describe it as utterly surreal but, well...
Yes, I suppose the resolution is predictable, but I love the stoic fatalism of the outgoing Number Two, who survives but probably not for long. This is a superbly weird piece of telly.
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Monday, 15 July 2019
The Prisoner: Hammer into Anvil
”Each man has his breaking point, you know...”
This is possibly the finest episode yet. A simple plot- Number Six is outraged at the sadistic new Number Two for goading a poor young woman to suicide and slowly destroys him through psychological manipulation- is simple. But the slow unwinding of Number Two as he descends into paranoia and ruin is masterfully done.
This episode is, perhaps, a different kind of surreal, all instigated this time by Number Six, listening to the same Georges Bizet record multiple times and making notes, and hiding blank sheets of paper.. McGoohan is brilliant, of course, but so is Patrick Cargill as a confidently sadistic Number Two, an assured and capable man who quotes Goethe and Cervantes in their original German and Castilian yet gradually ends up an absolute wreck.
The episode works because it consists entirely of the unwinding of Number Six’s plan, and the mystery of what he’s up to. It’s the Day of the Jackal of The Prisoner, and it’s a triumph. This is far from a typical episode (does such a thing exist?) but it may be the best yet.
This is possibly the finest episode yet. A simple plot- Number Six is outraged at the sadistic new Number Two for goading a poor young woman to suicide and slowly destroys him through psychological manipulation- is simple. But the slow unwinding of Number Two as he descends into paranoia and ruin is masterfully done.
This episode is, perhaps, a different kind of surreal, all instigated this time by Number Six, listening to the same Georges Bizet record multiple times and making notes, and hiding blank sheets of paper.. McGoohan is brilliant, of course, but so is Patrick Cargill as a confidently sadistic Number Two, an assured and capable man who quotes Goethe and Cervantes in their original German and Castilian yet gradually ends up an absolute wreck.
The episode works because it consists entirely of the unwinding of Number Six’s plan, and the mystery of what he’s up to. It’s the Day of the Jackal of The Prisoner, and it’s a triumph. This is far from a typical episode (does such a thing exist?) but it may be the best yet.
Sunday, 14 July 2019
Valkyrie (2008)
“We have to show the world that not all of us are like him.”
This is an extremely exciting, entertaining and dramatic film full of tension and suspense as (in spite of inevitably knowing that the plot doesn’t succeed) we follow through the workings of the plot to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 by Count Claus Von Stauffenberg, Ludwig Beck and various other members of the German (in many cases Prussian) conservative establishment who feel that Hitler and Nazism have gone too far.
And the result is gripping. This is a film that had me on the edge of the seat. In a sense it could hardly have been otherwise, as the historical events are pretty bloody cinematic in the first place. But the whole thing is well executed. Yes, Tom Cruise is pretty wooden, but there’s a magnificent cast of mainly British character actors, with Bill Nighy standing out in particular, but we also get Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard in a straight role, Danny Webb, Ian McNiece, Tom Hollander and more. As a Hollywood war film with loads of suspense the film certainly succeeds.
And yet... does the film not whitewash Von Stauffenberg, Beck and the other members of the plot? Historians seem to disagree on Von Stauffenberg’s views- was he an anti-Semite but one who felt that the Holocsust was going too far? He was certainly no liberal, or democrat; he believed in German dominance over Poland; and he wanted a Germany with its 1914 borders plus Germany and the Sudetenland. This is, perhaps, the best we could have expected given where the Overton window was in Nazi Germany, but it’s a shame these shades of grey were washed over and the plotters were portrayed simply as heroes. They deserve respect and remembrance for what they did, but they fought for Nazi Germany. I think I shall let Roger Bartlett from The Great Escape have the last word here:
“Look, sir, you talk about the High Command and the Luftwaffe, and then you talk about the Gestapo and the SS. To me, they're the same! We're fighting the bloody lot! There's only one way to put it, sir: they are the common enemies of everyone who believes in freedom. If the High Command didn't approve of Hitler, then why didn't they throw him out?”
The July 1944 plot was too little, too late.
And the result is gripping. This is a film that had me on the edge of the seat. In a sense it could hardly have been otherwise, as the historical events are pretty bloody cinematic in the first place. But the whole thing is well executed. Yes, Tom Cruise is pretty wooden, but there’s a magnificent cast of mainly British character actors, with Bill Nighy standing out in particular, but we also get Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard in a straight role, Danny Webb, Ian McNiece, Tom Hollander and more. As a Hollywood war film with loads of suspense the film certainly succeeds.
And yet... does the film not whitewash Von Stauffenberg, Beck and the other members of the plot? Historians seem to disagree on Von Stauffenberg’s views- was he an anti-Semite but one who felt that the Holocsust was going too far? He was certainly no liberal, or democrat; he believed in German dominance over Poland; and he wanted a Germany with its 1914 borders plus Germany and the Sudetenland. This is, perhaps, the best we could have expected given where the Overton window was in Nazi Germany, but it’s a shame these shades of grey were washed over and the plotters were portrayed simply as heroes. They deserve respect and remembrance for what they did, but they fought for Nazi Germany. I think I shall let Roger Bartlett from The Great Escape have the last word here:
“Look, sir, you talk about the High Command and the Luftwaffe, and then you talk about the Gestapo and the SS. To me, they're the same! We're fighting the bloody lot! There's only one way to put it, sir: they are the common enemies of everyone who believes in freedom. If the High Command didn't approve of Hitler, then why didn't they throw him out?”
The July 1944 plot was too little, too late.
Atypical: Season 2, Episode 1- Juiced!
"I never met anyone who committed adultery before..."
This episode sees the fallout from last season’s finale as Elsa confesses her adultery to a furious Doug, who leaves for a while- hence the 2004 flashback, reminding us he hasn’t always had the moral high ground. Elsa tried hard to be a good mother and keep things together but she’s falling apart, and Casey is furious with her. When Doug returns a couple of days later it’s him who bonds with a highly strung Casey- and rather harshly throws a meek Elsa out of the house. This is nothing if not dramatic, and removes Doug’s halo somewhat. Is the rest of the season going to show Doug trying to manage as pretty much a single parent while Elsa is all alone?
There’s a hole in the family, and the metaphor with Sam’s hole in Antarctica is very cleverly handled all the way through until Sam realised what has happened after an upset Casey blurts it out- and actually copes rather well, considering, especially as Paige is away in Maine and their relationship is currently ambiguous after the, ahem, magical experience in the igloo. But he copes well, as Julia says when he naughtily meets her as a one-off for what should really be the last time. Hopefully he will find a decent new counsellor with, er, acceptable eyebrows...
Incidentally, Paige has a “mee-maw” as in Young Sheldon, and Sam goes past a “Denton University”. I Googled this, and apparently they all live in the Dallas area of Texas, which is not what I expected. Wherever they are, this is a strong start.
This episode sees the fallout from last season’s finale as Elsa confesses her adultery to a furious Doug, who leaves for a while- hence the 2004 flashback, reminding us he hasn’t always had the moral high ground. Elsa tried hard to be a good mother and keep things together but she’s falling apart, and Casey is furious with her. When Doug returns a couple of days later it’s him who bonds with a highly strung Casey- and rather harshly throws a meek Elsa out of the house. This is nothing if not dramatic, and removes Doug’s halo somewhat. Is the rest of the season going to show Doug trying to manage as pretty much a single parent while Elsa is all alone?
There’s a hole in the family, and the metaphor with Sam’s hole in Antarctica is very cleverly handled all the way through until Sam realised what has happened after an upset Casey blurts it out- and actually copes rather well, considering, especially as Paige is away in Maine and their relationship is currently ambiguous after the, ahem, magical experience in the igloo. But he copes well, as Julia says when he naughtily meets her as a one-off for what should really be the last time. Hopefully he will find a decent new counsellor with, er, acceptable eyebrows...
Incidentally, Paige has a “mee-maw” as in Young Sheldon, and Sam goes past a “Denton University”. I Googled this, and apparently they all live in the Dallas area of Texas, which is not what I expected. Wherever they are, this is a strong start.
iZombie: Night and the Zombie City
"This is so noir!"
This episode is exactly as per the quote- Liv is on Sam Spade brain, the whole thing is shot and lit like a film noir, and fourth wall-breaking is apace anywhere you care to look. Ravi.in particular, knows exactly what genre he's in.
And yet, at heart, this episode shows perfectly just how much iZombie has perfected its formula just as it's about to end. Again we have an episode with a solid murder mystery plus related genre; great characterisation; and of course the ever-present arc plot. Here we have Liv learning her father is Beanpole Bob, inventor of Utopium, and thus creator of all zombies. Peyton comes to terms with no longer being mayor and returns to drinking magnificently. And, gloriously, Hi Zombie does actually seem to (just) prevent Seattle from getting nuked, meaning she didn't sacrifice her job for nothing.
We also, sweetly, have Don E proposing to Darcy (she's going to die soon, right?) - and learn that a zombie cure exists, which Liv and Clive just miss out on. We end with Liv and Ravi searching Martin's house, finding drug labs, notes possibly on the tainted Utopium- and cages full of Max Ragered Romeros. I genuinely have no idea where this is going in the last three episodes ever(!) but I'm loving iZombie more than ever.
This episode is exactly as per the quote- Liv is on Sam Spade brain, the whole thing is shot and lit like a film noir, and fourth wall-breaking is apace anywhere you care to look. Ravi.in particular, knows exactly what genre he's in.
And yet, at heart, this episode shows perfectly just how much iZombie has perfected its formula just as it's about to end. Again we have an episode with a solid murder mystery plus related genre; great characterisation; and of course the ever-present arc plot. Here we have Liv learning her father is Beanpole Bob, inventor of Utopium, and thus creator of all zombies. Peyton comes to terms with no longer being mayor and returns to drinking magnificently. And, gloriously, Hi Zombie does actually seem to (just) prevent Seattle from getting nuked, meaning she didn't sacrifice her job for nothing.
We also, sweetly, have Don E proposing to Darcy (she's going to die soon, right?) - and learn that a zombie cure exists, which Liv and Clive just miss out on. We end with Liv and Ravi searching Martin's house, finding drug labs, notes possibly on the tainted Utopium- and cages full of Max Ragered Romeros. I genuinely have no idea where this is going in the last three episodes ever(!) but I'm loving iZombie more than ever.
Friday, 12 July 2019
A Star Is Born (2018)
"Will you sign my boobs?"
Oh my. It's romantic comedy starring Lady Gaga and Rocket raccoon. And it's actually rather good.
Before I say much... yes, I know I have a policy of not blogging remakes before originals, but this isn't a genre I follow more than casually, so I'll make an exception here. I may eventually blog the 1937 original, I may not; I have no idea. The musicals are unlikely but, again, who knows. Suffice to say I'm aware this is a remake, and previous versions have focused on movie stardom rather than music aside from the one with Kris Kristofferson, whose acting I like but whose music I cannot stand.
Suffice to say, it works. Cooper- I understand the whole thing is his vision- is extraordinary, jarring though it is to see a man but two years older than me playing a man in personal and career decline; and lady Gaga can really, really act- and she can sing, of course, and is a rather talented individual who could achieve remarkable things if only she gets the courage to utterly disown the evil, satanic world of chart pop.
I like that this is a romance between real soulmates united by a mutual love of the songwriting process- the downtrodden dreamer Ally and Jack, the kind of country music megastar who feels perfectly comfortable surrounded by drag artists in a gay bar. Our lovers have real chemistry and their relationship seems to evolve naturally. And I like the way the world of chart pop is shown to be as evil as it is, ruining artists with autotuned stupidity and trying to control their image.Rez, as our Simon Cowell-esque evil, uncultured svengali, is the villain of the piece, going sadly uncultured. And Jack's final suicide is at once tastefully shot and utterly devastating. A rather good film.
Oh my. It's romantic comedy starring Lady Gaga and Rocket raccoon. And it's actually rather good.Before I say much... yes, I know I have a policy of not blogging remakes before originals, but this isn't a genre I follow more than casually, so I'll make an exception here. I may eventually blog the 1937 original, I may not; I have no idea. The musicals are unlikely but, again, who knows. Suffice to say I'm aware this is a remake, and previous versions have focused on movie stardom rather than music aside from the one with Kris Kristofferson, whose acting I like but whose music I cannot stand.
Suffice to say, it works. Cooper- I understand the whole thing is his vision- is extraordinary, jarring though it is to see a man but two years older than me playing a man in personal and career decline; and lady Gaga can really, really act- and she can sing, of course, and is a rather talented individual who could achieve remarkable things if only she gets the courage to utterly disown the evil, satanic world of chart pop.
I like that this is a romance between real soulmates united by a mutual love of the songwriting process- the downtrodden dreamer Ally and Jack, the kind of country music megastar who feels perfectly comfortable surrounded by drag artists in a gay bar. Our lovers have real chemistry and their relationship seems to evolve naturally. And I like the way the world of chart pop is shown to be as evil as it is, ruining artists with autotuned stupidity and trying to control their image.Rez, as our Simon Cowell-esque evil, uncultured svengali, is the villain of the piece, going sadly uncultured. And Jack's final suicide is at once tastefully shot and utterly devastating. A rather good film.
Inhumans: Havoc in the Hidden Land
"Think about what kind of ruler you want to be."
Well, there was me thinking that once we left all the Earth stuff behind and got everyone back to Attilan things would improve. Well, not really. This is clearly meant to be the exciting penultimate episode, setting up the final battle between Black Bolt and Maximus (I'm betting Anson Mount get a line next episode) while establishing both that Maximus wants to undergo a second terrigenesis to acquire some powers and also that this is traditionally seen as a Bad Thing To Do- hence the secondary cliffhanger of second terrigenesis having resurrected Gorgon, in some form or other.
Yes it doesn't quite come off. Crystal is now suddenly pining for Hawaii and her beloved Dave, but ths has hardly been earned. We, and surely she, hardly know Dave. Triton is back but, again, we hardly know him. And then there's Medusa and Black Bolt arguing over whether to be vengeful or merciful with Maximus- but surely this is no choice at all? As Aeschylus established thousands of years ago the way to break the cycle of revenge and vendettas is a justice system. Surely Attilan has laws? If Black Bolt is just an arbitrary ruler then he's not the good guy.
It all goes as expected, with a parley and Maximus double crossing everyone. Good though Iwan Rheon is at twirling his non-existent moustache, this episode isn't really about anything and by this stage we've long come to leaen not to expect much in characterisation. Inhumans looks set to end not with a bang but with a whimper.
Well, there was me thinking that once we left all the Earth stuff behind and got everyone back to Attilan things would improve. Well, not really. This is clearly meant to be the exciting penultimate episode, setting up the final battle between Black Bolt and Maximus (I'm betting Anson Mount get a line next episode) while establishing both that Maximus wants to undergo a second terrigenesis to acquire some powers and also that this is traditionally seen as a Bad Thing To Do- hence the secondary cliffhanger of second terrigenesis having resurrected Gorgon, in some form or other.
Yes it doesn't quite come off. Crystal is now suddenly pining for Hawaii and her beloved Dave, but ths has hardly been earned. We, and surely she, hardly know Dave. Triton is back but, again, we hardly know him. And then there's Medusa and Black Bolt arguing over whether to be vengeful or merciful with Maximus- but surely this is no choice at all? As Aeschylus established thousands of years ago the way to break the cycle of revenge and vendettas is a justice system. Surely Attilan has laws? If Black Bolt is just an arbitrary ruler then he's not the good guy.
It all goes as expected, with a parley and Maximus double crossing everyone. Good though Iwan Rheon is at twirling his non-existent moustache, this episode isn't really about anything and by this stage we've long come to leaen not to expect much in characterisation. Inhumans looks set to end not with a bang but with a whimper.
Good Omens: The Very Last Day of the Rest of Their Lives
“Just imagine how awful it might have been if we'd been at all competent."
It's the end, then. oh, I'm aware of what's been said in the media; Gaiman hasn't ruled out a second season, and he and Terry Pratchett even had at least some discussion way back when about a novel. But really; there are obviously no particular plans to continue and it all seems pretty much well-wrapped up to me.
It's a splendid finale, too. Oh, I realise it ends about halfway through with Newt breaking all the world's military computers with his superhuman klutziness while Adam firmly insists that a CGI Benedict Cumberbatch is not his father, in a bizarre reversal of The Empire Strikes Back, and we proceed to spend the rest of the episode in an indulgent celebration of Crowley and Aziraphale's six thousand year friendship. And why the bloody hell not? It's all highly entertaining, and the swap between the two of them to survive their respective punishments is, er, devilishly clever. Never mind that Mrs Llamastrangler guessed what they'd done, or that they're lucky that their respective punishments were indeed holy water and hellfire respectively. I'm far too entertained by this to be churlish about plot holes.
Even better, we get Agnes' new prophecies, and shipping of Sergeant Shadwell with Madame Tracey, as soon as he's checked she has an acceptable number of nipples. But best of all are our two friends, those magnificent actors Messrs Sheen and Tennant, and a superb adaptation of a splendid novel after three bloody decades. Wonderful.
It's the end, then. oh, I'm aware of what's been said in the media; Gaiman hasn't ruled out a second season, and he and Terry Pratchett even had at least some discussion way back when about a novel. But really; there are obviously no particular plans to continue and it all seems pretty much well-wrapped up to me.
It's a splendid finale, too. Oh, I realise it ends about halfway through with Newt breaking all the world's military computers with his superhuman klutziness while Adam firmly insists that a CGI Benedict Cumberbatch is not his father, in a bizarre reversal of The Empire Strikes Back, and we proceed to spend the rest of the episode in an indulgent celebration of Crowley and Aziraphale's six thousand year friendship. And why the bloody hell not? It's all highly entertaining, and the swap between the two of them to survive their respective punishments is, er, devilishly clever. Never mind that Mrs Llamastrangler guessed what they'd done, or that they're lucky that their respective punishments were indeed holy water and hellfire respectively. I'm far too entertained by this to be churlish about plot holes.
Even better, we get Agnes' new prophecies, and shipping of Sergeant Shadwell with Madame Tracey, as soon as he's checked she has an acceptable number of nipples. But best of all are our two friends, those magnificent actors Messrs Sheen and Tennant, and a superb adaptation of a splendid novel after three bloody decades. Wonderful.
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Good Omens: The Doomsday Option
"Your car is on fire!"
Mrs Llamastrangler and I are somewhat distressed that there’s only one episode left to go, and a second series is unlikely given the sad, untimely death of the wonderful Sir Terry Pratchett. This is, if anything, the least good episode so far, much of which can be put down to its being Part Five. It’s still bloody brilliant.
We begin with Crowley at the bookshop, distressed that someone has apparently killed the man he now calls “my best friend” (although I love how Aziraphale, now partly played by Miranda Richardson whole role is suddenly no longer a bit part, has such a very English reaction to realising this), spends the whole episode in a state of furious, heroic, utterly David Tennant determination such that it’s tempting to call Crowley the central heroic protagonist of the entire series- I mean, he gets through the impassable hellfire that is the M25 in a burning car to get to Tadfield, where the delightfully British reaction of the local man whom he stops for directions and is too polite to point out that his car is on fire is one of the funniest scenes so far.
Interestingly, there’s far less piss-taking of the American military in the US airbase than there is in the novel, but everyone is gravitating towards there- the Four Horsemen, Anathema and the now-deflowered Newt, and of course Adam- who, having not been properly raised as an Antichrist, is sounding a little more sane. But there’s still time to mention Crowley’s intense dislike of the 14th century, something I was beginning to expect would remain only in the novel. And there is, of course, the ultimate nuclear cliffhanger...
It’s an energetic, fast-paced, apocalyptic penultimate episode. I suspect the finale will be anything but.
Mrs Llamastrangler and I are somewhat distressed that there’s only one episode left to go, and a second series is unlikely given the sad, untimely death of the wonderful Sir Terry Pratchett. This is, if anything, the least good episode so far, much of which can be put down to its being Part Five. It’s still bloody brilliant.
We begin with Crowley at the bookshop, distressed that someone has apparently killed the man he now calls “my best friend” (although I love how Aziraphale, now partly played by Miranda Richardson whole role is suddenly no longer a bit part, has such a very English reaction to realising this), spends the whole episode in a state of furious, heroic, utterly David Tennant determination such that it’s tempting to call Crowley the central heroic protagonist of the entire series- I mean, he gets through the impassable hellfire that is the M25 in a burning car to get to Tadfield, where the delightfully British reaction of the local man whom he stops for directions and is too polite to point out that his car is on fire is one of the funniest scenes so far.
Interestingly, there’s far less piss-taking of the American military in the US airbase than there is in the novel, but everyone is gravitating towards there- the Four Horsemen, Anathema and the now-deflowered Newt, and of course Adam- who, having not been properly raised as an Antichrist, is sounding a little more sane. But there’s still time to mention Crowley’s intense dislike of the 14th century, something I was beginning to expect would remain only in the novel. And there is, of course, the ultimate nuclear cliffhanger...
It’s an energetic, fast-paced, apocalyptic penultimate episode. I suspect the finale will be anything but.
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 8- The Silencing Properties of Snow
“I just got a hand job in an igloo!”
So we teach the dramatic end of this magnificent season, a meditation about love, where Sam’s quirks stop just being funny and start to hurt people- and where Elsa starts to experience consequences.
Sam, being Sam, tells Paige he doesn’t love her and immediately dumps her while in a restaurant with her entire family, a terrible thing to do to someone, and understandably she’s heartbroken and angry- you can hardly blame her for the angry demonstration on the family lawn. That he manages to partly atone for this is more because of her saintliness than anything else, and it’s right that she doesn’t fully take him back as her boyfriend. He’s very lucky to get, er, what happens in the igloo.
What he does to Julia in confronting her at home and declaring his love, with chocolate strawberries, is if anything worse, especially as the gift immediately reveals to her that Sam cost her her fiancé. Yes, she yells at him and causes an incident on the bus but no, she is not in anyway unjustified or unprofessional. Sam trespassed into her house and violated her privacy, with potentially life ruining consequences. Her right to that privacy is absolute. Doug is wrong to assign any blame to her. The conclusion for her is inconclusive, too; will she accept her fiancé ‘s crass new proposal?
Casey, at least, gets over her avoidance of Evan and the two of them finish in a good place- but she’s still damaged by knowledge of Elsa’s affair, something that isn’t her responsibility. Elsa gets over the affair, deleting Nick from her phone and forgiving Doug for leaving fifteen years ago- and then Doug catches a little lie. And, in the final scene, finds out in the most hilarious way possible which is so very Casey. This is brilliant, brilliant telly.
I would say I can’t wait until the next season. But I can, of course, watch it at any time...
So we teach the dramatic end of this magnificent season, a meditation about love, where Sam’s quirks stop just being funny and start to hurt people- and where Elsa starts to experience consequences.
Sam, being Sam, tells Paige he doesn’t love her and immediately dumps her while in a restaurant with her entire family, a terrible thing to do to someone, and understandably she’s heartbroken and angry- you can hardly blame her for the angry demonstration on the family lawn. That he manages to partly atone for this is more because of her saintliness than anything else, and it’s right that she doesn’t fully take him back as her boyfriend. He’s very lucky to get, er, what happens in the igloo.
What he does to Julia in confronting her at home and declaring his love, with chocolate strawberries, is if anything worse, especially as the gift immediately reveals to her that Sam cost her her fiancé. Yes, she yells at him and causes an incident on the bus but no, she is not in anyway unjustified or unprofessional. Sam trespassed into her house and violated her privacy, with potentially life ruining consequences. Her right to that privacy is absolute. Doug is wrong to assign any blame to her. The conclusion for her is inconclusive, too; will she accept her fiancé ‘s crass new proposal?
Casey, at least, gets over her avoidance of Evan and the two of them finish in a good place- but she’s still damaged by knowledge of Elsa’s affair, something that isn’t her responsibility. Elsa gets over the affair, deleting Nick from her phone and forgiving Doug for leaving fifteen years ago- and then Doug catches a little lie. And, in the final scene, finds out in the most hilarious way possible which is so very Casey. This is brilliant, brilliant telly.
I would say I can’t wait until the next season. But I can, of course, watch it at any time...
Monday, 8 July 2019
The Prisoner: Checkmate
"It 's not allowed- the cult of the individual!"
A weird but very interesting episode this time, with subtle exploration of themes of totalitarian control through some sharp and nuanced dialogue and a very Brezhnev-like exploration of how dissent can be medicalised as a mental condition.
Yes, we get the visual spectacle early on of a chess game played with real people, but this is just done to introduce chess as a metaphor and introduce us to the likeable “queen” who, sadly, is fated to be used as a pawn-.and to show us a rebellious rook (never referred to as anyone else) who commits the crime of independent thought. It’s interesting, though, that this is followed by Number Six having an interesting and opaque conversation with one of the players, played by no less a figure than George Coulouris, who explains ways of distinguishing prisoners from staff.
The medical scenes are disturbing, with the rook’s individualism being punished by Pavlovian electric shocks and the psychiatrist, a Freudian quack, recommending to the new Number Two (a coasting Peter Wyngarde) that Number Six should be forced to have a “leucotomy”, better known as a lobotomy; in 1967 no longer quite flavour of the month but still legal to perform on a patient without their consent in the UK. Even Brezhnev’s Soviet Union had no truck with this barbarity.
Also cruel, though, is the way the queen is conditioned into unrequited love for Number Six. And the end is clever; Number Six is betrayed by his own accomplices who are in the end unable to accept him as a fellow prisoner because of his air of authority. This may not be the most high concept of episodes but it’s quietly one of the cleverer scripts.
A weird but very interesting episode this time, with subtle exploration of themes of totalitarian control through some sharp and nuanced dialogue and a very Brezhnev-like exploration of how dissent can be medicalised as a mental condition.
Yes, we get the visual spectacle early on of a chess game played with real people, but this is just done to introduce chess as a metaphor and introduce us to the likeable “queen” who, sadly, is fated to be used as a pawn-.and to show us a rebellious rook (never referred to as anyone else) who commits the crime of independent thought. It’s interesting, though, that this is followed by Number Six having an interesting and opaque conversation with one of the players, played by no less a figure than George Coulouris, who explains ways of distinguishing prisoners from staff.
The medical scenes are disturbing, with the rook’s individualism being punished by Pavlovian electric shocks and the psychiatrist, a Freudian quack, recommending to the new Number Two (a coasting Peter Wyngarde) that Number Six should be forced to have a “leucotomy”, better known as a lobotomy; in 1967 no longer quite flavour of the month but still legal to perform on a patient without their consent in the UK. Even Brezhnev’s Soviet Union had no truck with this barbarity.
Also cruel, though, is the way the queen is conditioned into unrequited love for Number Six. And the end is clever; Number Six is betrayed by his own accomplices who are in the end unable to accept him as a fellow prisoner because of his air of authority. This may not be the most high concept of episodes but it’s quietly one of the cleverer scripts.
Sunday, 7 July 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 7: I Lost My Poor Meatball
”What about you, Elsa? You been doing any self care lately?”
It’s amazing that so much can be crammed into thirty-one minutes, but that’s a testament to how much the show and the characters have been patiently developed over the last six episodes. So the central thread of Paige telling Sam she loves him and him trying to work out what love is and that he feels it for her is both evocative in itself and interplay’s effectively with other threads- when Sam asks his parents how they first realised they loved each other he’s oblivious to the awkwardness, the question of whether they do indeed still love each other, whether they do do equally, or whether they ever did.
And the rug is cleverly pulled from under us- just as Sam thinks he’s worked out, in his own way, that he thinks he loves Paige, he meets Julia and realises he loves her. As Zahid says, you just know.
The contrast here is Elsa. Does she love Doug? She certainly doesn’t love Nick. Her convenient no-strings arrangement suffers mission creep as Nic’s friend has died and this time he wants emotional
and not just physical support. And Elsa can’t do this; she has enough emotional labour in her life and just wants some consequence-free sex. Given her life, one can understand- and I will emphasise, again, we should be careful not to demonise her for being unable to cope with her life and the huge expectations on her with expectations on her as the traditionally caring gender. But that’s not to say the affair is ok. Neither is just using Nick for free sex like this; he’s understandably upset at being exploited as she ends the affair as soon as strings become attached. It’s nice to see a tiresome gender stereotype being reversed; our culture sees men as being pure libido and women wanting sex only as something deeper. This is nonsense.
As for Casey- she gets her scholarship, in spite of everything! But her happiness is somewhat ruined by seeing her mother kissing Nick, ironically as she leaves him. This puts a horrible burden on her and ruins the loss of her virginity. I suspect we’re in for an eventful but unpredictable finale.
It’s amazing that so much can be crammed into thirty-one minutes, but that’s a testament to how much the show and the characters have been patiently developed over the last six episodes. So the central thread of Paige telling Sam she loves him and him trying to work out what love is and that he feels it for her is both evocative in itself and interplay’s effectively with other threads- when Sam asks his parents how they first realised they loved each other he’s oblivious to the awkwardness, the question of whether they do indeed still love each other, whether they do do equally, or whether they ever did.
And the rug is cleverly pulled from under us- just as Sam thinks he’s worked out, in his own way, that he thinks he loves Paige, he meets Julia and realises he loves her. As Zahid says, you just know.
The contrast here is Elsa. Does she love Doug? She certainly doesn’t love Nick. Her convenient no-strings arrangement suffers mission creep as Nic’s friend has died and this time he wants emotional
and not just physical support. And Elsa can’t do this; she has enough emotional labour in her life and just wants some consequence-free sex. Given her life, one can understand- and I will emphasise, again, we should be careful not to demonise her for being unable to cope with her life and the huge expectations on her with expectations on her as the traditionally caring gender. But that’s not to say the affair is ok. Neither is just using Nick for free sex like this; he’s understandably upset at being exploited as she ends the affair as soon as strings become attached. It’s nice to see a tiresome gender stereotype being reversed; our culture sees men as being pure libido and women wanting sex only as something deeper. This is nonsense.
As for Casey- she gets her scholarship, in spite of everything! But her happiness is somewhat ruined by seeing her mother kissing Nick, ironically as she leaves him. This puts a horrible burden on her and ruins the loss of her virginity. I suspect we’re in for an eventful but unpredictable finale.
Saturday, 6 July 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 6- The D-Train to Bone Town
“Just always assume I mean sex...”
Fascinating episode again as, shockingly, we reach the season’s three quarter point. The relationship between Sam and Paige is still lovely, and Paige is still a saint. There’s a school dance coming up, a big thing America and indeed, these days, here, and all that stimulation doesn’t sit at all well with Sam’s autism. There’s lots of humour here, yes- a needed counterbalance to what goes on elsewhere - but Paige is showing such consideration here.
Less considerate is Elsa, but we’ve already been through how simplistic it would be to demonise her, given what her life is like, for her affair with Nick- and for relaxing every once in a while with a bit of weed. It’s just unfortunate that she should happen to let slip Casey’s possible scholarship to the mother of her daughter’s best friend, leading to lots of upsetting ostracism and bullying from Casey’s friends who are angry that she’s abandoning the relay team. But, as Elsa rightly tells her, it’s ok to be selfish sometimes, especially if you don’t put yourself first very often.
Meanwhile Julia’s boyfriend has left her, unable to deal with all the constant suspicion emanating from that chocolate strawberry, and she’s both single and bonding with Doug in a situation which seems innocent now but may take on another context when Doug finds out about Elsa’s affair, which I predict will happen next episode so the finale can deal with the aftermath. Let’s see if I’m right.
Oh, and Julia’s pregnant. Wow. This is all bloody good.
Fascinating episode again as, shockingly, we reach the season’s three quarter point. The relationship between Sam and Paige is still lovely, and Paige is still a saint. There’s a school dance coming up, a big thing America and indeed, these days, here, and all that stimulation doesn’t sit at all well with Sam’s autism. There’s lots of humour here, yes- a needed counterbalance to what goes on elsewhere - but Paige is showing such consideration here.
Less considerate is Elsa, but we’ve already been through how simplistic it would be to demonise her, given what her life is like, for her affair with Nick- and for relaxing every once in a while with a bit of weed. It’s just unfortunate that she should happen to let slip Casey’s possible scholarship to the mother of her daughter’s best friend, leading to lots of upsetting ostracism and bullying from Casey’s friends who are angry that she’s abandoning the relay team. But, as Elsa rightly tells her, it’s ok to be selfish sometimes, especially if you don’t put yourself first very often.
Meanwhile Julia’s boyfriend has left her, unable to deal with all the constant suspicion emanating from that chocolate strawberry, and she’s both single and bonding with Doug in a situation which seems innocent now but may take on another context when Doug finds out about Elsa’s affair, which I predict will happen next episode so the finale can deal with the aftermath. Let’s see if I’m right.
Oh, and Julia’s pregnant. Wow. This is all bloody good.
The Dark Crystal (1982)
“Prophets don't know everything."
This is a decidedly odd film, and it’s easy to forget that. A heroic fantasy set on another world with an extremely detailed backstory and completely made-up races, no human characters and no concession to the modern world; so far, so early ‘80s fantasy film boom, perhaps. But this film is 100% literal muppets.
So we have a crystal that shattered a thousand years ago and altered nature- nothing grows and there are no children for the evil Skeksis- whose puppets are awesome- or the nice but incredibly lazy mystics- who look like, well, muppets- who set around doing sod all as their Gelfling neighbours are exterminates and Podlings neighbours enslaved, in spite of allegedly having magic. Clearly they’re very rubbish wizards.
Not rubbish, though, are our Gelfling heroes, muppets who speak without moving their mouths: a boy called Jen and a winged girl called Kira who, as the last of their kind, are morally obliged to do lots and lots of 18 rated stuff after the film ends.
The film is s rather good example of the early ‘80s fashion for fantasy films, but what really impresses are the sets and the many, many different types of muppet creature. Add this to a cast of decent character actors who don’t usually get to star, and some solid world building leading to a fantasy myth type plot that all looks Joseph Campbell, and we have a film that very much deserves its cult status.
So we have a crystal that shattered a thousand years ago and altered nature- nothing grows and there are no children for the evil Skeksis- whose puppets are awesome- or the nice but incredibly lazy mystics- who look like, well, muppets- who set around doing sod all as their Gelfling neighbours are exterminates and Podlings neighbours enslaved, in spite of allegedly having magic. Clearly they’re very rubbish wizards.
Not rubbish, though, are our Gelfling heroes, muppets who speak without moving their mouths: a boy called Jen and a winged girl called Kira who, as the last of their kind, are morally obliged to do lots and lots of 18 rated stuff after the film ends.
The film is s rather good example of the early ‘80s fashion for fantasy films, but what really impresses are the sets and the many, many different types of muppet creature. Add this to a cast of decent character actors who don’t usually get to star, and some solid world building leading to a fantasy myth type plot that all looks Joseph Campbell, and we have a film that very much deserves its cult status.
Friday, 5 July 2019
The Prisoner: Dance of the Dead
“Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for oneself.”
A bit of a downturn in quality this episode; it isn’t bad, far from it, but seems a little incoherent. Certainly this is less high concept than any previous episode, there being no particular big idea at its centre.
The basic concept is, if anything, a bit ho-hum; Number Six finds a body on the beach and a radio with it, to which he listens a bit. He is caught, tried and condemned but gets away on a technicality. That’s it. Oh, and the body is made to look like him so he can be thought dead.
So there’s not much here to hang the episode on. What saves it are the details- Mary Morris as the only female Number Two, or at least the only one present throughout. A nice surreal little cameo by Aubrey Morris, and indeed the whole spectacle of the fancy dress trial, conducted as in Revolutionary France. There’s the fascinating girl who watches Number Six throughout, a true believer in the “rules” no one gets to see and a good little authoritarian drone, yet fascinated as well and repulsed by Number Six’s rebellious ways. There’s also interesting dialogue from Number Two suggesting that Number Six is somehow important; others are expendable, but he is not, and it is important to truly win him over rather than use the torture they use on his unfortunate friend Dutton.
Not the greatest episode, then, but nicely surreal and with a real sense of the Kafkaesque.
A bit of a downturn in quality this episode; it isn’t bad, far from it, but seems a little incoherent. Certainly this is less high concept than any previous episode, there being no particular big idea at its centre.
The basic concept is, if anything, a bit ho-hum; Number Six finds a body on the beach and a radio with it, to which he listens a bit. He is caught, tried and condemned but gets away on a technicality. That’s it. Oh, and the body is made to look like him so he can be thought dead.
So there’s not much here to hang the episode on. What saves it are the details- Mary Morris as the only female Number Two, or at least the only one present throughout. A nice surreal little cameo by Aubrey Morris, and indeed the whole spectacle of the fancy dress trial, conducted as in Revolutionary France. There’s the fascinating girl who watches Number Six throughout, a true believer in the “rules” no one gets to see and a good little authoritarian drone, yet fascinated as well and repulsed by Number Six’s rebellious ways. There’s also interesting dialogue from Number Two suggesting that Number Six is somehow important; others are expendable, but he is not, and it is important to truly win him over rather than use the torture they use on his unfortunate friend Dutton.
Not the greatest episode, then, but nicely surreal and with a real sense of the Kafkaesque.
Thursday, 4 July 2019
The Prisoner: Many Happy Returns
”Where is this?”
Seven episodes in and I’m still fascinated in what plots can be got out of such a seemingly limited premise. This episode centres around a conceit which could be done only once; Number Six genuinely escapes- but his own curiosity in locating the Village leads him to return in the conceptually cleverest way possible.
It’s a weird, and simple, premise- Number Six wakes up alone in the Village. No people, no Rover; nothing to prevent his escape. So escape he does, as simple as that, and we go through the motions of seeing him build a raft, stow away on a gun running vessel, make his way to an obviously real London, and speak to the rather nice lady who now lives in his flat and drives his car. So, he’s free, and that’s seemingly it- although he seems to have no close personal friends or relatives. And he certainly seems to be well-trained in the James Bond stuff. National Service, probably.
But Number Six is curious, and wants to find where the Village is. So, with help from his former establishment employers (was he a spy?) he traces its location- just outside the entrance to the Med, apparently; is this official? And, as a final act of hubris, he flies over it, only to be forcibly ejected back into the Village where he finds the same nice lady, who has prepared a birthday cake and a terrible pun. It’s all rather clever. This is another good one, even though it’s nearly 22 minutes until anybody speaks. And there’s no Number Two, no regular cast aside from Patrick McGoohan himself. Most unusual.
Seven episodes in and I’m still fascinated in what plots can be got out of such a seemingly limited premise. This episode centres around a conceit which could be done only once; Number Six genuinely escapes- but his own curiosity in locating the Village leads him to return in the conceptually cleverest way possible.
It’s a weird, and simple, premise- Number Six wakes up alone in the Village. No people, no Rover; nothing to prevent his escape. So escape he does, as simple as that, and we go through the motions of seeing him build a raft, stow away on a gun running vessel, make his way to an obviously real London, and speak to the rather nice lady who now lives in his flat and drives his car. So, he’s free, and that’s seemingly it- although he seems to have no close personal friends or relatives. And he certainly seems to be well-trained in the James Bond stuff. National Service, probably.
But Number Six is curious, and wants to find where the Village is. So, with help from his former establishment employers (was he a spy?) he traces its location- just outside the entrance to the Med, apparently; is this official? And, as a final act of hubris, he flies over it, only to be forcibly ejected back into the Village where he finds the same nice lady, who has prepared a birthday cake and a terrible pun. It’s all rather clever. This is another good one, even though it’s nearly 22 minutes until anybody speaks. And there’s no Number Two, no regular cast aside from Patrick McGoohan himself. Most unusual.
Wednesday, 3 July 2019
The Prisoner: The General
“Nothing’s impossible in this place.”
Another intriguing episode this time, with yet another very ‘60s and very British view of freedom and repression- the conceit is that the “Professor”, with the aid of the “General” is able to create subliminal educational courses which can deliver a three year degree in three minutes. This is, of course, an obvious means of brainwashing, as we see. And the “education” it imparts is of doubtful value- learning by rote set phrases about the Treaty of Adrianople does not impart any real understanding, as Number Six immediately sees.
Number Six is aided, however, by Number Twelve, whose rebel sympathies are never actually exposed, and it’s ambiguous whether he gets away with helping Number Six. He is played, of course, by a shockingly young John Castle, whom I know well from I, Clavdivs and RoboCop 3. It’s also odd to see Colin Gordon back as Number Two but with no suggestion that Number Six has met this particular Number Two before. Will this keep on happening as previous actors return?
The conclusion to all this is fascinating; the “General” turns out to be a very ‘60s advanced computer, covering a whole wall and with spoils everywhere. And we end with a very ‘60s viewpoint of computers meaning control and repression, of computers as calculating decision makers rather than toys for entertainment, of man needing to make his own decisions. If only they could look ahead...
Another intriguing episode this time, with yet another very ‘60s and very British view of freedom and repression- the conceit is that the “Professor”, with the aid of the “General” is able to create subliminal educational courses which can deliver a three year degree in three minutes. This is, of course, an obvious means of brainwashing, as we see. And the “education” it imparts is of doubtful value- learning by rote set phrases about the Treaty of Adrianople does not impart any real understanding, as Number Six immediately sees.
Number Six is aided, however, by Number Twelve, whose rebel sympathies are never actually exposed, and it’s ambiguous whether he gets away with helping Number Six. He is played, of course, by a shockingly young John Castle, whom I know well from I, Clavdivs and RoboCop 3. It’s also odd to see Colin Gordon back as Number Two but with no suggestion that Number Six has met this particular Number Two before. Will this keep on happening as previous actors return?
The conclusion to all this is fascinating; the “General” turns out to be a very ‘60s advanced computer, covering a whole wall and with spoils everywhere. And we end with a very ‘60s viewpoint of computers meaning control and repression, of computers as calculating decision makers rather than toys for entertainment, of man needing to make his own decisions. If only they could look ahead...
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
House of Cards: Episode 4
“DADDY...!”
I’m blogging rather more series than I usually would as the wife and I have started y and Good Omens while I’m also blogging The Prisoner and Inhumans. Time to finish at least one series off.
So, this is the final episode, if we ignore the sequel and, indeed, the American remake which I haven’t seen. It concludes, interestingly, very differently from the novel, with Urquhart successfully reaching the top of the greasiest pole in politics, and we have the fun of seeing him first take out his minor rivals for the leadership and then Woolton (a cassette tape of his affair with Penny- easy) and Samuels (lefty positions in his university day, including, shock horror, “pro-gay sentiments”) in quick succession.
There’s a lot more to it that that, of course. Urquhart’s announcement that he’s standing is swiftly followed by a tastefully shot sex scene in which Mattie shouts “Daddy!”, and he continues to manipulate her throughout, making her all contrite as he tells her off for apparently endangering herself with her investigations. This sort of thing could look like harmless kink in snatcher context but it isn’t- this is disturbing manipulation and gaslighting of a woman with real feelings to exploit, and Urquhart’s monologue to camera on father’s and daughters (I note he has no kids) is incredibly disturbing.
Also dealt on, rightly, is his cunning murder of Roger, full of deft manipulation, and I’m glad Roger’s moving Death is dwelt upon. He was a man of promise, once. Then cocaine happened. And his death leaves poor a Penny absolutely devastated, especially as she’s just dumped him.
But what lingers is his cold-blooded murder of Mattie, mere seconds as she’s told him “I love you, Daddy”. These four episodes are a perfect portrait of a psychopath, one with all the charm such people tend to possess. And Westminster is, I suspect, full of such personalities to this day.
I’m blogging rather more series than I usually would as the wife and I have started y and Good Omens while I’m also blogging The Prisoner and Inhumans. Time to finish at least one series off.
So, this is the final episode, if we ignore the sequel and, indeed, the American remake which I haven’t seen. It concludes, interestingly, very differently from the novel, with Urquhart successfully reaching the top of the greasiest pole in politics, and we have the fun of seeing him first take out his minor rivals for the leadership and then Woolton (a cassette tape of his affair with Penny- easy) and Samuels (lefty positions in his university day, including, shock horror, “pro-gay sentiments”) in quick succession.
There’s a lot more to it that that, of course. Urquhart’s announcement that he’s standing is swiftly followed by a tastefully shot sex scene in which Mattie shouts “Daddy!”, and he continues to manipulate her throughout, making her all contrite as he tells her off for apparently endangering herself with her investigations. This sort of thing could look like harmless kink in snatcher context but it isn’t- this is disturbing manipulation and gaslighting of a woman with real feelings to exploit, and Urquhart’s monologue to camera on father’s and daughters (I note he has no kids) is incredibly disturbing.
Also dealt on, rightly, is his cunning murder of Roger, full of deft manipulation, and I’m glad Roger’s moving Death is dwelt upon. He was a man of promise, once. Then cocaine happened. And his death leaves poor a Penny absolutely devastated, especially as she’s just dumped him.
But what lingers is his cold-blooded murder of Mattie, mere seconds as she’s told him “I love you, Daddy”. These four episodes are a perfect portrait of a psychopath, one with all the charm such people tend to possess. And Westminster is, I suspect, full of such personalities to this day.
Sunday, 30 June 2019
House of Cards: Episode 3
"His deepest need was that people should like him. An admirable trait, that... in a spaniel, or a whore. Not, I think, in a prime minister."
This episode, after we’ve seen the details of the PM’s fall, immediately moves beyond- there’s an emergency Cabinet meeting, introduced with one of Urquhart’s asides to camera, and that’s it; the PM has resigned, and the starting gun has fired on the leadership race- although I believe there’s a constitutional blunder here. Collingridge hasn’t resigned as PM yet, just announced he will be stepping down when the Tories elect a new leader. So why is he going to the Palace?
Still, it’s fun as ever to see the wheel turning. The departing PM, in his final Cabibet meeting, actually thanks Francis for his support. And Francis implicates the viewers into his scheming with our voyeurism- “Not feeling guilty, I hope?”.
Francis is, of course, not yet in a position to run and needs to manipulate others- not least the infatuated Mattie- into “persuading” him. Others are in a less happy position- Charles Coleridge is suicidal, and it’s interesting that we are given a script with the two brothers sobbing, collateral damage in Urquhart’s wake. This is contrasted with Francis kissing Mattie, the camera pulling away and.. well, the next time we see him he exclaims “No! There are some things a gentleman never discussed!” It’s a nice touch.
Francis still needs building up into a plausible candidate and the clock is ticking, as his dinner with newspaper proprietor Ben makes clear. But Francis has influence, manipulating Collingridge into making it a long contest to his own advantage. Meanwhile Mattie continues to investigate the PM’s fall, irritating those in high places, and ends up getting the sack in a remarkably and openly sexist way which, one hopes, would not fly these days. Worse, she gets a nasty shock with a brick through her window and a threatening note, and not even her friend John, well and truly friend-zones, can remove the fear. No; it falls to Francis to “comfort” her. And she calls him “Daddy”...!
This is a superb adaptation, metatextual, clever, and far deeper than the original novel.
This episode, after we’ve seen the details of the PM’s fall, immediately moves beyond- there’s an emergency Cabinet meeting, introduced with one of Urquhart’s asides to camera, and that’s it; the PM has resigned, and the starting gun has fired on the leadership race- although I believe there’s a constitutional blunder here. Collingridge hasn’t resigned as PM yet, just announced he will be stepping down when the Tories elect a new leader. So why is he going to the Palace?
Still, it’s fun as ever to see the wheel turning. The departing PM, in his final Cabibet meeting, actually thanks Francis for his support. And Francis implicates the viewers into his scheming with our voyeurism- “Not feeling guilty, I hope?”.
Francis is, of course, not yet in a position to run and needs to manipulate others- not least the infatuated Mattie- into “persuading” him. Others are in a less happy position- Charles Coleridge is suicidal, and it’s interesting that we are given a script with the two brothers sobbing, collateral damage in Urquhart’s wake. This is contrasted with Francis kissing Mattie, the camera pulling away and.. well, the next time we see him he exclaims “No! There are some things a gentleman never discussed!” It’s a nice touch.
Francis still needs building up into a plausible candidate and the clock is ticking, as his dinner with newspaper proprietor Ben makes clear. But Francis has influence, manipulating Collingridge into making it a long contest to his own advantage. Meanwhile Mattie continues to investigate the PM’s fall, irritating those in high places, and ends up getting the sack in a remarkably and openly sexist way which, one hopes, would not fly these days. Worse, she gets a nasty shock with a brick through her window and a threatening note, and not even her friend John, well and truly friend-zones, can remove the fear. No; it falls to Francis to “comfort” her. And she calls him “Daddy”...!
This is a superb adaptation, metatextual, clever, and far deeper than the original novel.
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 5- That's My Sweatshirt
"I'm black, so they put me on the brochure."
Another extraordinary nuanced episode of character drama; I'm finding Atypical gets deeper and deeper with each episode as we explore the consequences of autism not only on the person in question but those in their gravitational orbit. So yes, we follow Sam's sweet and lovely romance with the truly saintly Paige, she of infinite tolerance. Yet we can understand how Casey, overprotective, gets Paige to dump her brother rather than expose him to deep emotion.Still, it's lovely seeing Sam wooing her back at the end. Please let them be happy.
And yet Sam influences other people too. His chocolate strawberry is having dangerous effects on Julia's relationship with her boyfriend. Casey's longed-for scholarship is endangered by the fact she hit someone for being a bully- being a protector, which being Sam's sister has made her. And, of course, Elsa's and Dou's relationship has been bent entirely out of shape by this heavy object demanding so much attention. It's easy to see Doug, in spite of his weaknesses in the past, as the good guy here, as opposed to Elsa who, after a bit of immersion in family life, returns again to sleeping with Nik.
It's brave of creator Robia Rashid, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, to make Elsa so unlikeable on the surface. She's a character who makes you thnk not only hoe exhausting an autistic child would be but, more subtly, how much work, especially emotional labour, falls on women as the default. This is a superb drama, with a lot of subtext.
Another extraordinary nuanced episode of character drama; I'm finding Atypical gets deeper and deeper with each episode as we explore the consequences of autism not only on the person in question but those in their gravitational orbit. So yes, we follow Sam's sweet and lovely romance with the truly saintly Paige, she of infinite tolerance. Yet we can understand how Casey, overprotective, gets Paige to dump her brother rather than expose him to deep emotion.Still, it's lovely seeing Sam wooing her back at the end. Please let them be happy.
And yet Sam influences other people too. His chocolate strawberry is having dangerous effects on Julia's relationship with her boyfriend. Casey's longed-for scholarship is endangered by the fact she hit someone for being a bully- being a protector, which being Sam's sister has made her. And, of course, Elsa's and Dou's relationship has been bent entirely out of shape by this heavy object demanding so much attention. It's easy to see Doug, in spite of his weaknesses in the past, as the good guy here, as opposed to Elsa who, after a bit of immersion in family life, returns again to sleeping with Nik.
It's brave of creator Robia Rashid, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, to make Elsa so unlikeable on the surface. She's a character who makes you thnk not only hoe exhausting an autistic child would be but, more subtly, how much work, especially emotional labour, falls on women as the default. This is a superb drama, with a lot of subtext.
Good Omens: Saturday Morning Funtime
“Did you count their nipples?”
Adam, very much a Boy's Own Antichrist, is starting to affect reality in visually expressive ways which are a good opportunity for actor cameos but, of course, being exposed to New Age Twaddle can have a highly deleterious effect on any child, Beast or not. We meet a new Horseman of the upcoming Apocalypse- Pollution, Pestilence being a bit too old-fashioned these days. Apocalypse, though not quite now, is clearly quite soon.
I like the bit with Death following soon after although it's unfortunate that, unlike in the book, we don't really get the Terry Pratchett version. But then the Pratchett version can only really exist effectively in print. Far more televisual is all the palaver at Megiddo, but things are now too far advanced for either Crowley or Aziraphale to be able to square things with their respective Head Offices; both are rumbled. This episode mostly concerns their trying to deal with this fact, in Crowley's case a highly entertaining series of attempts to escape from everything. Hastur being trapped on a cassette tape is genius; Neil Gaiman was quite right to take this wholesale from the novel, our modern digital world be damned.
The bits with Newt and Anathema meeting being blown about and shagging, all as foretold by Agnes Nutter, is fun, as is any scene containing Shadwell. Derek Jacobi is nice in his little cameo as Metatron, a Kabbalistic figure who I just had to look up. And yes, that's quite the cliffhanger. More please.
Adam, very much a Boy's Own Antichrist, is starting to affect reality in visually expressive ways which are a good opportunity for actor cameos but, of course, being exposed to New Age Twaddle can have a highly deleterious effect on any child, Beast or not. We meet a new Horseman of the upcoming Apocalypse- Pollution, Pestilence being a bit too old-fashioned these days. Apocalypse, though not quite now, is clearly quite soon.
I like the bit with Death following soon after although it's unfortunate that, unlike in the book, we don't really get the Terry Pratchett version. But then the Pratchett version can only really exist effectively in print. Far more televisual is all the palaver at Megiddo, but things are now too far advanced for either Crowley or Aziraphale to be able to square things with their respective Head Offices; both are rumbled. This episode mostly concerns their trying to deal with this fact, in Crowley's case a highly entertaining series of attempts to escape from everything. Hastur being trapped on a cassette tape is genius; Neil Gaiman was quite right to take this wholesale from the novel, our modern digital world be damned.
The bits with Newt and Anathema meeting being blown about and shagging, all as foretold by Agnes Nutter, is fun, as is any scene containing Shadwell. Derek Jacobi is nice in his little cameo as Metatron, a Kabbalistic figure who I just had to look up. And yes, that's quite the cliffhanger. More please.
Circus of Horrors (1960)
"Quick, get her to a doctor. And send the clowns in."
This is a mildly obscure but well regarded non-Hammer horror film, one with no supernatural elements and more tension than scares, although the sheer body horror of the opening scene with Evelyn’s face after her plastic surgery disaster, along with her hysterical laughter, is one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen.
Anton Diffring is rather good as our plastic surgeon anti-hero, improbably fleeing to the continent and setting up as a circus after reshaping the face of poor little Nicole and the untimely death of her father who, bizarrely, is Donald Pleasance with a French accent. And so a situation evolves where a circus is set up starring wanted and highly blackmailable criminals whose faces have been reshaped, but dastardly Rossiter has all the details. I’m not sure how such a circus should have become successful from its poor beginnings, but let’s roll with it. Let us also roll with the fact that circuses in 1960 were rather cruel places, with lions, bears, elephants, horses and gorillas cruelly whipped and forced to perform to a clapping and unbothered crowd. People in 1960 also seemed to Thing that clowns were funny and not terrifying at all. Weird.
Of course, every now and then a glamorous female artists threatens to leave the circus, and coincidentally ends up suffering a freak fatal accident in her final performance, something which has not gone unnoticed by the authorities. Amusingly, several times we see said artistes declaring that they will leave or reveal something after the final performance, which they always approach without any fear whatsoever. But this means plenty of tension, and in spite of the awkward questions about the plot this is a rather compelling film and a cut above most of its ilk.
Anton Diffring is rather good as our plastic surgeon anti-hero, improbably fleeing to the continent and setting up as a circus after reshaping the face of poor little Nicole and the untimely death of her father who, bizarrely, is Donald Pleasance with a French accent. And so a situation evolves where a circus is set up starring wanted and highly blackmailable criminals whose faces have been reshaped, but dastardly Rossiter has all the details. I’m not sure how such a circus should have become successful from its poor beginnings, but let’s roll with it. Let us also roll with the fact that circuses in 1960 were rather cruel places, with lions, bears, elephants, horses and gorillas cruelly whipped and forced to perform to a clapping and unbothered crowd. People in 1960 also seemed to Thing that clowns were funny and not terrifying at all. Weird.
Of course, every now and then a glamorous female artists threatens to leave the circus, and coincidentally ends up suffering a freak fatal accident in her final performance, something which has not gone unnoticed by the authorities. Amusingly, several times we see said artistes declaring that they will leave or reveal something after the final performance, which they always approach without any fear whatsoever. But this means plenty of tension, and in spite of the awkward questions about the plot this is a rather compelling film and a cut above most of its ilk.
Saturday, 29 June 2019
Good Omens: Hard Times
"I didn't really fall. I just, you know, sauntered vaguely downwards..."
A surprising start, this time, as an extraordinarily long pre-credit sequence charts the history of what both Aziraphale and Crowley would no doubt refuse to call a friendship, and has a lot of fun along the way. So Crowley raises an eyebrow at God's genocidal plans as Noah builds his Ark, and it's in fifth century Britain that both of them realise they've been cancelling each other out with their various schemes so they may as well achieve the same thing by doing precisely sod all. It's all a rather funny addition and ends with a highly entertaining Second World War scene containing 66.67% of the League of Gentlemen, which can never be a bad thing. and the other 33.33% is William Bloody Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, in the present day, the plot doesn't really advance much, but it fails to do so most entertainingly. We, and Adam, learn that Anathema is a new age type. Shadwell hasn't got much of an imagination. Crowley and Aziraphale are a superb double act, and both Sheen and Tennant are amazing. There's a new horseman- Famine.
It's all very silly in a very Douglas Adams kind of way. And there are few more pleasurable ways to spend fifty minutes.
A surprising start, this time, as an extraordinarily long pre-credit sequence charts the history of what both Aziraphale and Crowley would no doubt refuse to call a friendship, and has a lot of fun along the way. So Crowley raises an eyebrow at God's genocidal plans as Noah builds his Ark, and it's in fifth century Britain that both of them realise they've been cancelling each other out with their various schemes so they may as well achieve the same thing by doing precisely sod all. It's all a rather funny addition and ends with a highly entertaining Second World War scene containing 66.67% of the League of Gentlemen, which can never be a bad thing. and the other 33.33% is William Bloody Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, in the present day, the plot doesn't really advance much, but it fails to do so most entertainingly. We, and Adam, learn that Anathema is a new age type. Shadwell hasn't got much of an imagination. Crowley and Aziraphale are a superb double act, and both Sheen and Tennant are amazing. There's a new horseman- Famine.
It's all very silly in a very Douglas Adams kind of way. And there are few more pleasurable ways to spend fifty minutes.
iZombie: The Fresh Princess
"It's like calling a pine cone 'your majesty'..."
This season, now we’re just a few episodes from the end, is slowly coalescing into the best ever. It’s successfully using the non-diagetic but very present fact that this is the final season to suggest that Seattle society, with its fragile truce between humans and zombies, is on the edge of collapse. But that’s in the background; meanwhile it’s developing all the characters superbly while juggling lots of different arc strands including lots of surprises (although it’s pretty much been obvious for ages that Liv’s dad was Beanpole Bob), and still managing to function as the whodunit its always been.
Liv on ‘90s beauty queen brain is hilarious, although somewhat alienating for me. The ‘90s were my decade, the time of my adolescence. But I’m afraid the pop culture references we see here don’t reflect my personal ‘90s of Grunge, wondering why everyone thought Oasis were so great, Ren and Stimpy, waiting for the Major government to fall and naively assuring I’d never see a worse one, loads of rock festivals, beer, cigarettes (and, er, smoking other things), trying to talk to girls, and Doctor Who novels the New Adventures which I generally read to a soundtrack of Sonic Youth or the Butthole Surfers.
So I’m afraid all the ‘90s stuff passed me by, but Liv as thick beauty queen is still funny, and the murder mystery is fun. So is Peyton and Ravi's double act as they track down Beanpole Bob, and the revelation that Peyyon's selling the Space Needle has caught up with her and she's been sacked.
But the fact that Durkins has some kidnapped zombies who she's starved into becoming Romeros, and has them massacring people on telly is probably not something that bodes well. Worse, one of the Romeros is our nuke-happy general's daughter, and Major has to shoot her...
iZombie is one of the best things on telly and I can't believe it's ending.
This season, now we’re just a few episodes from the end, is slowly coalescing into the best ever. It’s successfully using the non-diagetic but very present fact that this is the final season to suggest that Seattle society, with its fragile truce between humans and zombies, is on the edge of collapse. But that’s in the background; meanwhile it’s developing all the characters superbly while juggling lots of different arc strands including lots of surprises (although it’s pretty much been obvious for ages that Liv’s dad was Beanpole Bob), and still managing to function as the whodunit its always been.
Liv on ‘90s beauty queen brain is hilarious, although somewhat alienating for me. The ‘90s were my decade, the time of my adolescence. But I’m afraid the pop culture references we see here don’t reflect my personal ‘90s of Grunge, wondering why everyone thought Oasis were so great, Ren and Stimpy, waiting for the Major government to fall and naively assuring I’d never see a worse one, loads of rock festivals, beer, cigarettes (and, er, smoking other things), trying to talk to girls, and Doctor Who novels the New Adventures which I generally read to a soundtrack of Sonic Youth or the Butthole Surfers.
So I’m afraid all the ‘90s stuff passed me by, but Liv as thick beauty queen is still funny, and the murder mystery is fun. So is Peyton and Ravi's double act as they track down Beanpole Bob, and the revelation that Peyyon's selling the Space Needle has caught up with her and she's been sacked.
But the fact that Durkins has some kidnapped zombies who she's starved into becoming Romeros, and has them massacring people on telly is probably not something that bodes well. Worse, one of the Romeros is our nuke-happy general's daughter, and Major has to shoot her...
iZombie is one of the best things on telly and I can't believe it's ending.
Thursday, 27 June 2019
House of Cards: Episode 2
"Would you be into quickies at all?"
If this were to be made today, perhaps- and I haven't seen the American remake with Kevin Spacey- there wouldn't be so much attention on ho the sausage was made. We'd likely jump cut straight from his downfall being plotted at the end of last episode to the PM's downfall. But in 1990 telly could be slower paced, at least sometimes. This episode is an example of why that can be a good thing.
In contrast to the twisty-turny plotting of the first episode, we are concerned here pretty much exclusively with the workings of Urquhart's plot to bring down Henry Collingridge and very little else- but it's gripping. And we get the usual fourth wall breaking stuff, with an early monologue by Francis doing a bit of that pheasant shooting stuff that was an unremarked-upon pastime of upper class Tories back then. 1990 was a long time ago, when twentysomething political researchers could plausibly be called Kevin and, as per last episode, there's a fair bit of misogyny directed towards Penny. Urquhart does, at least, criticise Patrick Woolton for being boorish, lecherous, anti-Semitic and racist while manipulating him, although there's more than a whiff of snobbery directed at this north country foreign secretary.
Urquhart's manipulating ways work on everyone, culminating in the PM being cruelly ambushed on telly, yet everyone seems to think he's a "good man". Indeed, Mattie seems to think he's not only the ablest man (and men they all are) in the Cabinet but that he's attractive- and, as we see, he has permission from his wife to sleep with her. Shagging is inevitable at this point.
Like the potboiler on which it's based, this is unputdownable telly. And Ian Richardson is incredible.
If this were to be made today, perhaps- and I haven't seen the American remake with Kevin Spacey- there wouldn't be so much attention on ho the sausage was made. We'd likely jump cut straight from his downfall being plotted at the end of last episode to the PM's downfall. But in 1990 telly could be slower paced, at least sometimes. This episode is an example of why that can be a good thing.
In contrast to the twisty-turny plotting of the first episode, we are concerned here pretty much exclusively with the workings of Urquhart's plot to bring down Henry Collingridge and very little else- but it's gripping. And we get the usual fourth wall breaking stuff, with an early monologue by Francis doing a bit of that pheasant shooting stuff that was an unremarked-upon pastime of upper class Tories back then. 1990 was a long time ago, when twentysomething political researchers could plausibly be called Kevin and, as per last episode, there's a fair bit of misogyny directed towards Penny. Urquhart does, at least, criticise Patrick Woolton for being boorish, lecherous, anti-Semitic and racist while manipulating him, although there's more than a whiff of snobbery directed at this north country foreign secretary.
Urquhart's manipulating ways work on everyone, culminating in the PM being cruelly ambushed on telly, yet everyone seems to think he's a "good man". Indeed, Mattie seems to think he's not only the ablest man (and men they all are) in the Cabinet but that he's attractive- and, as we see, he has permission from his wife to sleep with her. Shagging is inevitable at this point.
Like the potboiler on which it's based, this is unputdownable telly. And Ian Richardson is incredible.
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 4- A Nice Neutral Smell
"She's a girl who wants to touch your peen..."
A surprisingly eventful episode here as we reach the season halfway point. It's played for laughs, but Elsa is racked with guilt for her infidelity, and ends up dumping her lover and committing to her life of Doug being nice and her kids taking her for granted.
But this episode isn't really about Elsa. It's not about Doug, either, and the alienation he feels at the autism group with the constant anal pointing out of his occasional slip into non-"people-inclusive language". Nor, even, is it about Sam, with his incident in the crowd at the athletics track with the ponytail, or that a lot of screen time is spent with him clumsily making his way towards a relationship with the rather cute Paige.
No; this is about Casey, whose record-breaking victory in the 400m isn't witnessed by anyone in her family, and whose proffered athletics scholarship to a posh school is pooh poohed by Elsa because she "needs" to be in the same school as Sam to look after him. Because Sam is the special one, and no one wants it to be about her- so it falls to a brave and lovely outburst by Evan, who insists that it bloody well is about her and it's time people started recognising that. It's a very good bit of writing. And I can't believe we're already halfway through the season.
A surprisingly eventful episode here as we reach the season halfway point. It's played for laughs, but Elsa is racked with guilt for her infidelity, and ends up dumping her lover and committing to her life of Doug being nice and her kids taking her for granted.
But this episode isn't really about Elsa. It's not about Doug, either, and the alienation he feels at the autism group with the constant anal pointing out of his occasional slip into non-"people-inclusive language". Nor, even, is it about Sam, with his incident in the crowd at the athletics track with the ponytail, or that a lot of screen time is spent with him clumsily making his way towards a relationship with the rather cute Paige.
No; this is about Casey, whose record-breaking victory in the 400m isn't witnessed by anyone in her family, and whose proffered athletics scholarship to a posh school is pooh poohed by Elsa because she "needs" to be in the same school as Sam to look after him. Because Sam is the special one, and no one wants it to be about her- so it falls to a brave and lovely outburst by Evan, who insists that it bloody well is about her and it's time people started recognising that. It's a very good bit of writing. And I can't believe we're already halfway through the season.
Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Good Omens: The Book
"Let us discuss my purchase in a private place, because I am buying... pornography!"
The quality and the humour doesn't let up for the superb second episode. The entire exchange on pornography in the bookshop between Angel and Aziraphale had Mrs Llamastrangler and myself in stitches. But this episode actually has a lot to do- it introduces the story of Agnes Nutter (the brilliant Josie Lawrence) and her Nice and Accurate Prophecies, and how she avenged her own death by blowing up the splendidly named Witchfinder Major Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer and his silly underlings. It introduces Anathema Device, a very different, very Californian character than she appears in the novel; Newton Pulsifer and his Tom Baker scarf tie; and Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell. It also introduces young Adam and his friends properly and, of course, in an amusing scene, War. I rather suspect the next three episodes will all feature a similar scene with a Horseman of the Apocalypse...
A lot of the laughs, though, still come from Crowley and Azirophale, despite their reduced screen time this time around, with Tennant and Shen again excellent. But one has to credit Gaiman's script, with so much plot to cram in, for managing also to cram in so many funny lines. I love how Crowley's car radio always seems to play the most appropriate Queen song, and how 666 is literally the phone number of the Antichrist, a nice resolution to our pair of angel/demons hunting Adam down without either of their respective Head Offices being in on what they're up to.
This is bloody brilliant. And we're really still only in the set-up phase.
The quality and the humour doesn't let up for the superb second episode. The entire exchange on pornography in the bookshop between Angel and Aziraphale had Mrs Llamastrangler and myself in stitches. But this episode actually has a lot to do- it introduces the story of Agnes Nutter (the brilliant Josie Lawrence) and her Nice and Accurate Prophecies, and how she avenged her own death by blowing up the splendidly named Witchfinder Major Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer and his silly underlings. It introduces Anathema Device, a very different, very Californian character than she appears in the novel; Newton Pulsifer and his Tom Baker scarf tie; and Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell. It also introduces young Adam and his friends properly and, of course, in an amusing scene, War. I rather suspect the next three episodes will all feature a similar scene with a Horseman of the Apocalypse...
A lot of the laughs, though, still come from Crowley and Azirophale, despite their reduced screen time this time around, with Tennant and Shen again excellent. But one has to credit Gaiman's script, with so much plot to cram in, for managing also to cram in so many funny lines. I love how Crowley's car radio always seems to play the most appropriate Queen song, and how 666 is literally the phone number of the Antichrist, a nice resolution to our pair of angel/demons hunting Adam down without either of their respective Head Offices being in on what they're up to.
This is bloody brilliant. And we're really still only in the set-up phase.
Good Omens: In the Beginning
”Welcome to the end times..”
I've read the novel of Good Omens. In fact, I've read it half a dozen times, which puts it right up there with Life, the Universe and Everything. So you could say I'm the kind of fanboy you'd expect would be hard to please, except Neil Gaiman himself is showrunning this (Sir Terry being sadly unable to join him), and the cast looked mouth-watering. So, especially now I've obviously seen it, let us not pretend I'm not going to be saying I like this.
Because, well, even before we start it's clear that the source material is superb, and David Tennant as Crowley is the most appropriate casting choice since Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. But Michael Sheen as Azirophale is equally superb; Sheen is one of those actors who doesn't seem to have a style but simply to inhabit the character he's playing like a true chameleon, whether it's Tony Blair, David Frost or a moderate angel who is good mates with his fellow centrist from downstairs.
It all looks great, with loads of CGI, and it's a good way of structuring a first episode, with the backstory of, well, creation, but also of the ancient friendship between Crowley and Azirophale, and then straight into the old pastiche of The Omen. There are some nice additions, too. God as a narrator is a great idea, as is her gender. Jon Hamm as Heavenly middle manager Gabriel is inspired too, being to Aziraphale what Hastur and Ligur are to Crowley, and a bloody funny character too. The humour from the novel is translated intact, but the new stuff it just as funny. An excellent start.
I've read the novel of Good Omens. In fact, I've read it half a dozen times, which puts it right up there with Life, the Universe and Everything. So you could say I'm the kind of fanboy you'd expect would be hard to please, except Neil Gaiman himself is showrunning this (Sir Terry being sadly unable to join him), and the cast looked mouth-watering. So, especially now I've obviously seen it, let us not pretend I'm not going to be saying I like this.
Because, well, even before we start it's clear that the source material is superb, and David Tennant as Crowley is the most appropriate casting choice since Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. But Michael Sheen as Azirophale is equally superb; Sheen is one of those actors who doesn't seem to have a style but simply to inhabit the character he's playing like a true chameleon, whether it's Tony Blair, David Frost or a moderate angel who is good mates with his fellow centrist from downstairs.
It all looks great, with loads of CGI, and it's a good way of structuring a first episode, with the backstory of, well, creation, but also of the ancient friendship between Crowley and Azirophale, and then straight into the old pastiche of The Omen. There are some nice additions, too. God as a narrator is a great idea, as is her gender. Jon Hamm as Heavenly middle manager Gabriel is inspired too, being to Aziraphale what Hastur and Ligur are to Crowley, and a bloody funny character too. The humour from the novel is translated intact, but the new stuff it just as funny. An excellent start.
The Prisoner: The Schizoid Man
" Your job, Number Twelve, is to impersonate him. Take his identity away."
This episode is an extraordinary example of institutional gaslighting, a word that probably wouldn’t have been used at the time, with Number Six told he is someone else and that he is to impersonate Number Six- and then introduced to a doppelgänger who seems to be far more himself than he is.
This idea is explored fiendishly, with devastating scenes at which the doppelgänger slowly and confidently makes him lose his sense of identity. And it’s arresting to hear him (well, his double) insisting that “I am Number Six “, the very thing he denies at the start of the episode. This is a deeply affecting example of destroying someone’s identity- all so he can reveal why he resigned “in your dream”. It helps that Anton Rodgers is a superb Number Two- with the venerable Earl Cameron as his deputy. But Patrick McGoohan is, as ever, superb, showing moments where our hero shows a rare, defeated vulnerability.
It’s interesting to see Number Six making a human connection with Alison, a believer in all this ESP nonsense; sadly Number Six believes in this crap, and accuses those of us who don’t of having no imagination!
But, as is traditional, we end with an escape attempt, with our nameless hero telling the latest Number Two that “Number Six is dead” and almost making it out in a helicopter. This is the cleverest plot yet, and the one which deals with some rather intense subject matter. One of the better episodes and a fine bit of telly.
And yes, I do have a certain track by King Crimson going through my head...
This episode is an extraordinary example of institutional gaslighting, a word that probably wouldn’t have been used at the time, with Number Six told he is someone else and that he is to impersonate Number Six- and then introduced to a doppelgänger who seems to be far more himself than he is.
This idea is explored fiendishly, with devastating scenes at which the doppelgänger slowly and confidently makes him lose his sense of identity. And it’s arresting to hear him (well, his double) insisting that “I am Number Six “, the very thing he denies at the start of the episode. This is a deeply affecting example of destroying someone’s identity- all so he can reveal why he resigned “in your dream”. It helps that Anton Rodgers is a superb Number Two- with the venerable Earl Cameron as his deputy. But Patrick McGoohan is, as ever, superb, showing moments where our hero shows a rare, defeated vulnerability.
It’s interesting to see Number Six making a human connection with Alison, a believer in all this ESP nonsense; sadly Number Six believes in this crap, and accuses those of us who don’t of having no imagination!
But, as is traditional, we end with an escape attempt, with our nameless hero telling the latest Number Two that “Number Six is dead” and almost making it out in a helicopter. This is the cleverest plot yet, and the one which deals with some rather intense subject matter. One of the better episodes and a fine bit of telly.
And yes, I do have a certain track by King Crimson going through my head...
Tuesday, 25 June 2019
House of Cards: Episode 1
"You may think that. I couldn't possibly comment..."
Long before Kevin Spacey was a household name, let alone disgraced, Ian Richardson became a household name through his extraordinarily sinister, fourth wall breaking, insidious performance as Francis Urquhart. I haven't seen this since that late Autumn of 1990 when Thatcher fell, the only prime minister I could remember. This TV adaptation of Michael Dobbs' potboiler of a novel cheekily alludes to her downfall in its opening shot, an early example of the visual wit that made this series a cut above the original novel.
Other differences are that the party in power is explicitly stated to be the Tories, an of course the asides to camera which give the whole thing both its structure and its intimacy. Urquhart is not just our antihero, he is our intimate guide to the dark arts of politics. If Mattie is seduced by his charms then so are we all, even an old Liberal like me.
It's an uncomfortable reminder of my age, though, that I remember lots of things that happened in 1990, but they did things differently then. Here we see casual sexism and homophobia in the corridors of power, MP's actually speaking in the Commons without notes, an all-male cabinet and smoking everywhere.
But the episode insists entirely of skulduggery and plotting, and all from our Chief Whip’s point of view as he manipulates the wet drip of a PM (although I not that Henry Collingridge, a “wet” Tory, is depicted as wet personally too), his cocaine using fixer, the Cabinet and, through Mattie, the press. The relationship with Mattie is interesting: in a sense he’s grooming her, all for his own benefit. We end with a manufactured scandal about to break and the PM set to fall...
Long before Kevin Spacey was a household name, let alone disgraced, Ian Richardson became a household name through his extraordinarily sinister, fourth wall breaking, insidious performance as Francis Urquhart. I haven't seen this since that late Autumn of 1990 when Thatcher fell, the only prime minister I could remember. This TV adaptation of Michael Dobbs' potboiler of a novel cheekily alludes to her downfall in its opening shot, an early example of the visual wit that made this series a cut above the original novel.
Other differences are that the party in power is explicitly stated to be the Tories, an of course the asides to camera which give the whole thing both its structure and its intimacy. Urquhart is not just our antihero, he is our intimate guide to the dark arts of politics. If Mattie is seduced by his charms then so are we all, even an old Liberal like me.
It's an uncomfortable reminder of my age, though, that I remember lots of things that happened in 1990, but they did things differently then. Here we see casual sexism and homophobia in the corridors of power, MP's actually speaking in the Commons without notes, an all-male cabinet and smoking everywhere.
But the episode insists entirely of skulduggery and plotting, and all from our Chief Whip’s point of view as he manipulates the wet drip of a PM (although I not that Henry Collingridge, a “wet” Tory, is depicted as wet personally too), his cocaine using fixer, the Cabinet and, through Mattie, the press. The relationship with Mattie is interesting: in a sense he’s grooming her, all for his own benefit. We end with a manufactured scandal about to break and the PM set to fall...
Monday, 24 June 2019
The Prisoner: Free for All
"Very good technique. Where did you get him?
"The Civil Service. He adapted immediately."
I know it's been a while since the last episode. Fear not; I spent a week not watching stuff while I applied for a promotion at work (fingers crossed!) and blogged only a couple of things I'd prepared earlier since that time, and afterwards I focused on current telly first. Fear not, The Prisoner will continue until the end.
Anyway, this is clearly a Very Important Episode, as Patrick McGoohan both writes (under a pseudonym) and directs. It’s also one with a very obvious subtext. It’s election time in the Village and Number Two (Eric Portman this time) decides that this time for once, he should be opposed, and Number Six accepts the challenge, not entirely seriously, using his candidacy as an excuse to goad the council, who are essentially a rubber stamp, giving a rather magnificent speech. At first, he’s the candidate of freedom, but he’s soon brainwashed, in a delightful scene with a former civil servant. So we have the prospect of someone with ideals standing for office and immediately abandoning those ideals in favour of the vested interests of the status quo. Of course, this would never happen in reality.
Before the election Number Six finally finds a place where he can get a proper drink (hallelujah) where he finds Number Two, who in private (a rare situation) is just as jaded with the Village as he is. Number Six wins by a landslide, but turns out to have no actual power and is beaten up, while the foreign maid-cum-spy who has been with him all episode turns out to be the new Number Two. It’s a superb indictment of the perceived impotence of the democratic process and, while I’m not at all in favour of “they’re all the same” apathy, especially in the current age of populism, Trump, Brexit and other dangerous nonsense, this has some considerable bite.
All this happens amongst lots and lots of splendidly disorienting surrealism, dreamlike, druggy, and utterly 1967. It’s a truly excellent episode.
"The Civil Service. He adapted immediately."
I know it's been a while since the last episode. Fear not; I spent a week not watching stuff while I applied for a promotion at work (fingers crossed!) and blogged only a couple of things I'd prepared earlier since that time, and afterwards I focused on current telly first. Fear not, The Prisoner will continue until the end.
Anyway, this is clearly a Very Important Episode, as Patrick McGoohan both writes (under a pseudonym) and directs. It’s also one with a very obvious subtext. It’s election time in the Village and Number Two (Eric Portman this time) decides that this time for once, he should be opposed, and Number Six accepts the challenge, not entirely seriously, using his candidacy as an excuse to goad the council, who are essentially a rubber stamp, giving a rather magnificent speech. At first, he’s the candidate of freedom, but he’s soon brainwashed, in a delightful scene with a former civil servant. So we have the prospect of someone with ideals standing for office and immediately abandoning those ideals in favour of the vested interests of the status quo. Of course, this would never happen in reality.
Before the election Number Six finally finds a place where he can get a proper drink (hallelujah) where he finds Number Two, who in private (a rare situation) is just as jaded with the Village as he is. Number Six wins by a landslide, but turns out to have no actual power and is beaten up, while the foreign maid-cum-spy who has been with him all episode turns out to be the new Number Two. It’s a superb indictment of the perceived impotence of the democratic process and, while I’m not at all in favour of “they’re all the same” apathy, especially in the current age of populism, Trump, Brexit and other dangerous nonsense, this has some considerable bite.
All this happens amongst lots and lots of splendidly disorienting surrealism, dreamlike, druggy, and utterly 1967. It’s a truly excellent episode.
Sunday, 23 June 2019
Dead of Night (1945)
"Mr Craig is going to hit me, savagely!"
Oh well, I'm sure he can hit somebody else instead."
Wow. That blew me away, utterly and unexpectedly. Why is this not known as one of the greatest horror films ever? No, it's not exactly obscure, or indeed short of praise, but it's rarely seen in "best of" lists. This is an extraordinary film.
I can see where Amicus got the idea of the portmanteau horror film from having seen this, but Dead of Night is no B Movie and the horror is never cheesy but always effective. No monsters in make-up here, just ghost story uncanniness. And no silliness: there’s no silliness here, although there’s plenty of wit in the script.
The plot is fiendishly clever; an architect visits a house he’s never visited before, and recognises it and everyone there from a recurring nightmare, and events gradually unfold just as he fears, but with some devilishly clever twists at the end. Along the way he hears several tales- separate sequences by different directors- all of which are deeply effective, but the ones that stand out are Michael Redgrave and the creepy ventriloquist’s dummy and the bit of comic relief with a dead golfer haunting his estranged friend (“May the Lord have mercy on your handicap!”).
The acting is superb, with Redgrave and Googie Withers deserving extra praise, and although 1945 feels a very long time ago- no shagging before marriage, “how do you do?”, all the smoking, the plummy accents (the hide and seek lecherous wanker comes across very much like Tim, Nice But Dim...) - but this is an extraordinary film which will linger in the mind for a long time.
Oh well, I'm sure he can hit somebody else instead."
I can see where Amicus got the idea of the portmanteau horror film from having seen this, but Dead of Night is no B Movie and the horror is never cheesy but always effective. No monsters in make-up here, just ghost story uncanniness. And no silliness: there’s no silliness here, although there’s plenty of wit in the script.
The plot is fiendishly clever; an architect visits a house he’s never visited before, and recognises it and everyone there from a recurring nightmare, and events gradually unfold just as he fears, but with some devilishly clever twists at the end. Along the way he hears several tales- separate sequences by different directors- all of which are deeply effective, but the ones that stand out are Michael Redgrave and the creepy ventriloquist’s dummy and the bit of comic relief with a dead golfer haunting his estranged friend (“May the Lord have mercy on your handicap!”).
The acting is superb, with Redgrave and Googie Withers deserving extra praise, and although 1945 feels a very long time ago- no shagging before marriage, “how do you do?”, all the smoking, the plummy accents (the hide and seek lecherous wanker comes across very much like Tim, Nice But Dim...) - but this is an extraordinary film which will linger in the mind for a long time.
Saturday, 22 June 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 3- Julia Says
”I put my butt on his car...!"
Another well-crafted piece of drama and a treatises on faithfulness this episode. The series isn't about Sam; in a sense he's a kind of Greek chorus with his talk of a "practice girlfriend". The meat of the episode is Casey's shock at finding that their dad abandoned the family for a few months in 2004, overwhelmed by the difficulties of an autistic son. Doug is now full of regret and has been trying to atone ever since, but the father/daughter relationship may never be quite the same- we end the episode with Casey running alone.
We also end with Elsa, inevitably kissing the bloke from the bar. Yet, of course, she has an autistic child too, and although Doug tries to be an affectionate husband one has to ask if the two of them ought to be together if not for their children.
There is, of course, a lot of rather good humour, too, but at its heart this is a serious character drama rather than one driven by autism as a theme- so far, at least.
Another well-crafted piece of drama and a treatises on faithfulness this episode. The series isn't about Sam; in a sense he's a kind of Greek chorus with his talk of a "practice girlfriend". The meat of the episode is Casey's shock at finding that their dad abandoned the family for a few months in 2004, overwhelmed by the difficulties of an autistic son. Doug is now full of regret and has been trying to atone ever since, but the father/daughter relationship may never be quite the same- we end the episode with Casey running alone.
We also end with Elsa, inevitably kissing the bloke from the bar. Yet, of course, she has an autistic child too, and although Doug tries to be an affectionate husband one has to ask if the two of them ought to be together if not for their children.
There is, of course, a lot of rather good humour, too, but at its heart this is a serious character drama rather than one driven by autism as a theme- so far, at least.
iZombie: Death of a Car Salesman
”Herbie wasn’t evil. He was the Love Bug.”
I can’t believe how close we are to the end; previous seasons have drifted off the format a bit but this episode gives us a wanker of a murdered car salesman with both Liv and Ravi having some of his brain, and it’s all perfect. The fact that we’ve known these characters for so long just adds to it- Clive’s reaction to the two of them is hilarious but would not have been possible seasons ago.
We also have flashbacks with Martin, Liv’s dad, with Blaine, Don E and Scott E (remember him?) and seem to see that Martin is not only “Beanpole Bob” but was the original creator of that tainted utopium that causes the original zombie outbreak on that boat. Meanwhile, in the present, Liv tries to connect with her dad but is exasperated with her co tinging addiction. At the end, though, it’s clear that he fully realised that his daughter is Renegade...
Blaine, meanwhile, has a new business kidnapping teenage kids with Freylich’s Syndrome, walking zombie cures. I prefer Blaine as gangster to Blaine the tycoon; he’s in his element. And one result is the comedy pairing of, er, Don E and the teenage Darcy, who kiss. Urgh. Isn’t she about seventeen?
Still, four episodes to go. And iZombie has never been better.
I can’t believe how close we are to the end; previous seasons have drifted off the format a bit but this episode gives us a wanker of a murdered car salesman with both Liv and Ravi having some of his brain, and it’s all perfect. The fact that we’ve known these characters for so long just adds to it- Clive’s reaction to the two of them is hilarious but would not have been possible seasons ago.
We also have flashbacks with Martin, Liv’s dad, with Blaine, Don E and Scott E (remember him?) and seem to see that Martin is not only “Beanpole Bob” but was the original creator of that tainted utopium that causes the original zombie outbreak on that boat. Meanwhile, in the present, Liv tries to connect with her dad but is exasperated with her co tinging addiction. At the end, though, it’s clear that he fully realised that his daughter is Renegade...
Blaine, meanwhile, has a new business kidnapping teenage kids with Freylich’s Syndrome, walking zombie cures. I prefer Blaine as gangster to Blaine the tycoon; he’s in his element. And one result is the comedy pairing of, er, Don E and the teenage Darcy, who kiss. Urgh. Isn’t she about seventeen?
Still, four episodes to go. And iZombie has never been better.
Friday, 21 June 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 2- A Human Female
“Nobody needs you, Mom!”
On the surface this episode centres around Sam’s crush for Julia and his comical misunderstanding that he has the green light to pursue Julia, something which takes up a lot of screen time and allows him to bond with his dad while doing so, but this is all neatly resolved. Meanwhile, more long term things are happening beneath the surface.
Elsa, for example, is responding very negatively to Doug’s attention and eventually finds an excuse to meet that barman again. It’s clear where this is going, and she isn’t a likeable character, but before we judge too harshly we should remember that she’s spend years with heavy caring response divinities and, decent though Doug is, we live in a culture where women are expected to do this sort of heavy labour.
We also see an intensifying of the relationship between the touchingly inexperienced Casey and Evan. After kissing him for the first time her reaction is utterly, utterly cute. So far this is the nice and fluffy storyline, acting as contrast to the worrying possibility of adultery, and meanwhile Sam is oblivious. This is promisingly well written stuff.
On the surface this episode centres around Sam’s crush for Julia and his comical misunderstanding that he has the green light to pursue Julia, something which takes up a lot of screen time and allows him to bond with his dad while doing so, but this is all neatly resolved. Meanwhile, more long term things are happening beneath the surface.
Elsa, for example, is responding very negatively to Doug’s attention and eventually finds an excuse to meet that barman again. It’s clear where this is going, and she isn’t a likeable character, but before we judge too harshly we should remember that she’s spend years with heavy caring response divinities and, decent though Doug is, we live in a culture where women are expected to do this sort of heavy labour.
We also see an intensifying of the relationship between the touchingly inexperienced Casey and Evan. After kissing him for the first time her reaction is utterly, utterly cute. So far this is the nice and fluffy storyline, acting as contrast to the worrying possibility of adultery, and meanwhile Sam is oblivious. This is promisingly well written stuff.
Thursday, 20 June 2019
Years and Years: Episode 6
"This is the world we built."
Although we start the episode as one might expect- Vivienne Rook is PM, and she does a lot of Trumpy things like shutting down the BBC for being "enemies of the people" and denying Russian involvement in her election.And there's a lot of dystopian detail as per earlier episodes-
bacterial food that was never alive, working class estates being arbitrarily locked in, food banks closing- and Muriel's wonderful voice-of-the-author speech about how things have gone wrong since the millennium but how we're all to blame through wanting cheap stuff without considering the consequences. And there's a lot of horrifying stuff with Viktor and others in concentration cams which look very, very much like, well, you know.
But this is RTD. Things don't carry on through the same dystopian path. There is hope. Yes, it's undercut at the end by the point that the regime was opposed and falling anyway, but we see the Lyons family essentially toppling the government. And I now thing Edith is even cooler and Jessica Hynes deserves a BAFTA. But the point is that the very ordinary family we've been seeing turn out to be heroes- even Rosie and little Lincoln do heir bit against tyranny. Even Stephen goes some way to redeeming himself, much as though it looked for one horrifying moment that he was going to shoot Celeste.
Yet it's not just about the defiant note of hope, the insistence that yes, humans can be right bastards, but we have the potential to redeem ourselves. No; we have a fascinating final ten minutes of poetry as Edith, who I think represents someone the author would like to be, waits to die, and to have her memories and perhaps her consciousness (or just a copy?) uploaded online, perhaps to be immortal. There's a lot of philosophy about consciousness to unpick here, and I'd observe that, in all the futurology that RTD has given us, he's deliberately seemed to avoid the subject of the Singularity, of artificial intelligence becoming sentient. Is this the bit where he addresses such themes head on, being deliberately ambiguous? Is the "I am love" a statement on all this or just the endorphins of a dying woman? I don't know, but these six episode have been first rank telly.
Although we start the episode as one might expect- Vivienne Rook is PM, and she does a lot of Trumpy things like shutting down the BBC for being "enemies of the people" and denying Russian involvement in her election.And there's a lot of dystopian detail as per earlier episodes-
bacterial food that was never alive, working class estates being arbitrarily locked in, food banks closing- and Muriel's wonderful voice-of-the-author speech about how things have gone wrong since the millennium but how we're all to blame through wanting cheap stuff without considering the consequences. And there's a lot of horrifying stuff with Viktor and others in concentration cams which look very, very much like, well, you know.
But this is RTD. Things don't carry on through the same dystopian path. There is hope. Yes, it's undercut at the end by the point that the regime was opposed and falling anyway, but we see the Lyons family essentially toppling the government. And I now thing Edith is even cooler and Jessica Hynes deserves a BAFTA. But the point is that the very ordinary family we've been seeing turn out to be heroes- even Rosie and little Lincoln do heir bit against tyranny. Even Stephen goes some way to redeeming himself, much as though it looked for one horrifying moment that he was going to shoot Celeste.
Yet it's not just about the defiant note of hope, the insistence that yes, humans can be right bastards, but we have the potential to redeem ourselves. No; we have a fascinating final ten minutes of poetry as Edith, who I think represents someone the author would like to be, waits to die, and to have her memories and perhaps her consciousness (or just a copy?) uploaded online, perhaps to be immortal. There's a lot of philosophy about consciousness to unpick here, and I'd observe that, in all the futurology that RTD has given us, he's deliberately seemed to avoid the subject of the Singularity, of artificial intelligence becoming sentient. Is this the bit where he addresses such themes head on, being deliberately ambiguous? Is the "I am love" a statement on all this or just the endorphins of a dying woman? I don't know, but these six episode have been first rank telly.
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 1- Antarctica
“People on the spectrum date, you know."
This is a series on Netflix that Mrs Llamastrangler and I are going to be watching once a week, one or two episodes at a time- expect the next episode's blog in the morning. It's a comedy-drama about an autistic teenager, his family and, well, the comedy and the drama that ensues.
Now, neither Mrs Llamastrangler nor I are autistic, and those people we know are all at the Asperger's end of the spectrum- as, I'm guessing, is Sam. It's with mentioning that people we know who are on the spectrum are very different individuals, and by no means defined by the fact that they are autistic. There's also nothing wrong with being autistic; it's part of the world of neurodiversity, encompassing all sorts of things. Autism is not a mental illness.
So it's also worth questioning whether it's appropriate to use this subject matter for comedy. So far, though (and I'll keep reviewing this) this is a balance of humour with drama that seriously explores the issues f how the world treats autistic people. Humour can be a very effective way of making a serious point, and there's a balance to be struck in any case between nasty humour that punches down and being overly pious. Personally, I'm a hearing aid wearer, and I laugh at my own comedy mishearings all the time.
Anyway, Sam lives with his overprotective mother Elsa, who is exactly the sort of person I wouldn't like very much in real life, and his long-suffering dad Doug. The two of them are worn out from years of caring for him, and their relationship looks fragile, held together only by routine and worryingly endangered should the nest empty. And it's worrying seeing Elsa with that bloke behind the bar...
There's also Casey, Sam's wonderfully cynical sister, and both teenage siblings are slowly exploring relationships. Finally, there's Julia, Sam's therapist, who is handy for driving the plot and giving a reason for Sam to have his humorous and counterpointing monologues. This aspect is very Sopranos. But Sam is funny, likeable, and frankly adorable. And he knows a lot about penguins.
It's good stuff so far, well written and set up nicely for various things to develop throughout the fairly short season. Do Americans really say "twat" like that though?
This is a series on Netflix that Mrs Llamastrangler and I are going to be watching once a week, one or two episodes at a time- expect the next episode's blog in the morning. It's a comedy-drama about an autistic teenager, his family and, well, the comedy and the drama that ensues.
Now, neither Mrs Llamastrangler nor I are autistic, and those people we know are all at the Asperger's end of the spectrum- as, I'm guessing, is Sam. It's with mentioning that people we know who are on the spectrum are very different individuals, and by no means defined by the fact that they are autistic. There's also nothing wrong with being autistic; it's part of the world of neurodiversity, encompassing all sorts of things. Autism is not a mental illness.
So it's also worth questioning whether it's appropriate to use this subject matter for comedy. So far, though (and I'll keep reviewing this) this is a balance of humour with drama that seriously explores the issues f how the world treats autistic people. Humour can be a very effective way of making a serious point, and there's a balance to be struck in any case between nasty humour that punches down and being overly pious. Personally, I'm a hearing aid wearer, and I laugh at my own comedy mishearings all the time.
Anyway, Sam lives with his overprotective mother Elsa, who is exactly the sort of person I wouldn't like very much in real life, and his long-suffering dad Doug. The two of them are worn out from years of caring for him, and their relationship looks fragile, held together only by routine and worryingly endangered should the nest empty. And it's worrying seeing Elsa with that bloke behind the bar...
There's also Casey, Sam's wonderfully cynical sister, and both teenage siblings are slowly exploring relationships. Finally, there's Julia, Sam's therapist, who is handy for driving the plot and giving a reason for Sam to have his humorous and counterpointing monologues. This aspect is very Sopranos. But Sam is funny, likeable, and frankly adorable. And he knows a lot about penguins.
It's good stuff so far, well written and set up nicely for various things to develop throughout the fairly short season. Do Americans really say "twat" like that though?
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Years and Years: Episode 5
"I’ll just topple the government. How about that?”
It’s 2028. Vivienne Rook is PM and initially little has changed- indeed, Rook’s public statements are just vacuous and meaningless platitudes. But the first thing we see is a critic being suddenly arrested on what looks like trumped up charges, mentioning the “disappeared”. Shades of Pinochet already.
Chez the Lyons there’s a struggle to recover from Daniel’s death, with Stephen visiting Viktor to tell him personally that he blames and will not forgive him. And it’s an even bleaker world- bananas are gone. Global heating means endless rain. Energy crises and co start blackouts mean much of what exists online is erased forever, and there’s an amusing scene of schoolchildren having to get used to this quaint little thing called paper. And then things get truly dystopian with dirty bombs causing radioactive fallouts in two major cities while floods erode the coast. There are floods of homeless refugees, both British and international. And this is less than a decade away.
There are positives; Muriel’s macular degeneration can be cured just like that, albeit at the cost of her family’s inheritance. But this is s world where civil liberties are despised, where “criminal” estates are walled off and where Rosie’s business is closed down because of where she lives. Each episode is getting more dystopian than the last, and scarily plausible in a world that contains such scum as Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins and Donald Trump. I think RTD underestimates the liberal backlash but, this being part polemic, creatively that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
There’s a human side too; an increasingly bitter Stephen lives with a woman he doesn’t particularly like. Edith is increasingly cool and easily my favourite character, but she’s dying. Bethany’s joy at becoming a bionic woman is wonderful- but, as Stephen points out, she has become state property. And Celeste is increasingly bitter at having to be nursemaid to her mother in law. These are very real people, anchoring us to this world.
The shocking conclusion, of course, has Stephen humiliate himself to get a better job with an absolute wanker he went to school with, and briefly meeting Vivienne Rook, who casually mentions that is she ever resigned as PM, “they’d kill me.” And the contract they’re bidding on is one for concentration camps for refugees and other desirables, where Rook plans to solve the overcrowding problems by “letting nature take its course”. Because this is inevitably where far right populism leads.
The human dimension adds extra horror, too, as Stephen deliberately moves Viktor to the extermination camp. And Bethany knows...
This is utterly sublime.
It’s 2028. Vivienne Rook is PM and initially little has changed- indeed, Rook’s public statements are just vacuous and meaningless platitudes. But the first thing we see is a critic being suddenly arrested on what looks like trumped up charges, mentioning the “disappeared”. Shades of Pinochet already.
Chez the Lyons there’s a struggle to recover from Daniel’s death, with Stephen visiting Viktor to tell him personally that he blames and will not forgive him. And it’s an even bleaker world- bananas are gone. Global heating means endless rain. Energy crises and co start blackouts mean much of what exists online is erased forever, and there’s an amusing scene of schoolchildren having to get used to this quaint little thing called paper. And then things get truly dystopian with dirty bombs causing radioactive fallouts in two major cities while floods erode the coast. There are floods of homeless refugees, both British and international. And this is less than a decade away.
There are positives; Muriel’s macular degeneration can be cured just like that, albeit at the cost of her family’s inheritance. But this is s world where civil liberties are despised, where “criminal” estates are walled off and where Rosie’s business is closed down because of where she lives. Each episode is getting more dystopian than the last, and scarily plausible in a world that contains such scum as Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins and Donald Trump. I think RTD underestimates the liberal backlash but, this being part polemic, creatively that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
There’s a human side too; an increasingly bitter Stephen lives with a woman he doesn’t particularly like. Edith is increasingly cool and easily my favourite character, but she’s dying. Bethany’s joy at becoming a bionic woman is wonderful- but, as Stephen points out, she has become state property. And Celeste is increasingly bitter at having to be nursemaid to her mother in law. These are very real people, anchoring us to this world.
The shocking conclusion, of course, has Stephen humiliate himself to get a better job with an absolute wanker he went to school with, and briefly meeting Vivienne Rook, who casually mentions that is she ever resigned as PM, “they’d kill me.” And the contract they’re bidding on is one for concentration camps for refugees and other desirables, where Rook plans to solve the overcrowding problems by “letting nature take its course”. Because this is inevitably where far right populism leads.
The human dimension adds extra horror, too, as Stephen deliberately moves Viktor to the extermination camp. And Bethany knows...
This is utterly sublime.
Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Years and Years: Episode 4
"Turns out we were born in a pause..."
This is a bloody brilliant piece of telly. There’s so much going on, obviously- not least the fact we finally see Vivienne Rook attaining power, the consequences of which we are no doubt about to see. But the plot is about two things. Firstly, Celeste gives Stephen his comeuppance for his affair by humiliatingly outing him in front of the whole family, which crushes him- Gran’s reaction is devastating enough, but Bethany's Parting question is “What colour is she?” and, on being told she’s while, simply “bye”. Ouch. And, in a masterfully scripted couple of scenes, it’s clear that his lover is beginning to tire of him anyway, and unhappy being stuck with him.
We also see Rosie starting a new business and getting a rather annoying new boyfriend, and start to see just how far Edith would go to protect her family. There’s a lot of love here.
But most of the episode focuses on the incredibly tense and dramatic attempt by Daniel to get Viktor over to the UK rather than facing possible disappearance or even execution in the Ukraine. This gets a lot of screen time, but ends with the incredibly dangerous sight of dozens of people being crammed into a dinghy and pushed across the channel. The screen goes black and we see just a couple of horrifying flashes, and then we’re on a beach on the south coast of England with emergency services everywhere. Daniel is dead and we end with Viktor in their house alone, alive but empty.
RTD’s brilliance at writing character and drama is very much on display here, but it’s also a scarily plausible version of a near future of 3-D printed villages and burgers without beef, of deepfake videos, of Grexit, turmoil in Italy and a bankrupt Hungary, as America bans equal marriage and overthrows Roe vs Wade. This reveals itself to be better and better every week. So I’d better catch up quick...
This is a bloody brilliant piece of telly. There’s so much going on, obviously- not least the fact we finally see Vivienne Rook attaining power, the consequences of which we are no doubt about to see. But the plot is about two things. Firstly, Celeste gives Stephen his comeuppance for his affair by humiliatingly outing him in front of the whole family, which crushes him- Gran’s reaction is devastating enough, but Bethany's Parting question is “What colour is she?” and, on being told she’s while, simply “bye”. Ouch. And, in a masterfully scripted couple of scenes, it’s clear that his lover is beginning to tire of him anyway, and unhappy being stuck with him.
We also see Rosie starting a new business and getting a rather annoying new boyfriend, and start to see just how far Edith would go to protect her family. There’s a lot of love here.
But most of the episode focuses on the incredibly tense and dramatic attempt by Daniel to get Viktor over to the UK rather than facing possible disappearance or even execution in the Ukraine. This gets a lot of screen time, but ends with the incredibly dangerous sight of dozens of people being crammed into a dinghy and pushed across the channel. The screen goes black and we see just a couple of horrifying flashes, and then we’re on a beach on the south coast of England with emergency services everywhere. Daniel is dead and we end with Viktor in their house alone, alive but empty.
RTD’s brilliance at writing character and drama is very much on display here, but it’s also a scarily plausible version of a near future of 3-D printed villages and burgers without beef, of deepfake videos, of Grexit, turmoil in Italy and a bankrupt Hungary, as America bans equal marriage and overthrows Roe vs Wade. This reveals itself to be better and better every week. So I’d better catch up quick...
Monday, 17 June 2019
Inhumans: The Gentleman’s Name Is Gorgon
”You’re like some kind of god of thunder!”
Another so-so episode- but have we seen the last of the scenes set on Earth? Please? Sorry, Hawaii, you’re picturesque and all, and I wish you well in your struggle against your imperialist oppressor, but I want to see Attilan, not you.
We begin with a flashback where it's hinted that Maximus may have killed his and Black Bolt's parents, something which I suspect is bound to surface later. Meanwhile, as the cousins plot to get Crystal and rescue Black Bolt's human friends, Medusa and Black Bolt debate how hard they should come down on Maximus. On Attilan, though, Maximus twirls his moustache with as much charisma as ever (Iwan Rheon really is the standout performer of this series) and overthrows a plot against him.
I'm afraid we have a bit of Earth stuff to do first, though. Crystal gets a proper snog with Dave but not much later the two of them seem quite sanguine about parting, seemingly forever, as a kind of holiday romance. Louise, too, seems oddly happy to give up the chance to see Attilan, staying behind to wait and be arrested for car theft. Is this really it for them? This series has always felt like a rigid plot structure is driving events no matter what, and characters' feelings and motivations must conform to this or else.
We do get some dramatic stuff, though. Auron is not immortal and, like a certain BBC character, can only regenerate and survive death for as many times as the plot requires.We are reminded once again that Attilan is a caste-based society and, whatever Maximus' motives, he is trying to change this. Karnak gets to be cool and, with Gorgon's assistance, get at least some of his mojo back. However, once Mordis finally decides to blow himself up (the character always was Chekhov's Gun on legs), Gorgon shockingly blows himself up, dying heroically. This will, I imagine have consequences and, fairly bland though the character was, it's a bit of a shock that such a well-known character should die.
This is very mediocre telly, though. Can we hope that the fact we've left Earth will enliven things>
Another so-so episode- but have we seen the last of the scenes set on Earth? Please? Sorry, Hawaii, you’re picturesque and all, and I wish you well in your struggle against your imperialist oppressor, but I want to see Attilan, not you.
We begin with a flashback where it's hinted that Maximus may have killed his and Black Bolt's parents, something which I suspect is bound to surface later. Meanwhile, as the cousins plot to get Crystal and rescue Black Bolt's human friends, Medusa and Black Bolt debate how hard they should come down on Maximus. On Attilan, though, Maximus twirls his moustache with as much charisma as ever (Iwan Rheon really is the standout performer of this series) and overthrows a plot against him.
I'm afraid we have a bit of Earth stuff to do first, though. Crystal gets a proper snog with Dave but not much later the two of them seem quite sanguine about parting, seemingly forever, as a kind of holiday romance. Louise, too, seems oddly happy to give up the chance to see Attilan, staying behind to wait and be arrested for car theft. Is this really it for them? This series has always felt like a rigid plot structure is driving events no matter what, and characters' feelings and motivations must conform to this or else.
We do get some dramatic stuff, though. Auron is not immortal and, like a certain BBC character, can only regenerate and survive death for as many times as the plot requires.We are reminded once again that Attilan is a caste-based society and, whatever Maximus' motives, he is trying to change this. Karnak gets to be cool and, with Gorgon's assistance, get at least some of his mojo back. However, once Mordis finally decides to blow himself up (the character always was Chekhov's Gun on legs), Gorgon shockingly blows himself up, dying heroically. This will, I imagine have consequences and, fairly bland though the character was, it's a bit of a shock that such a well-known character should die.
This is very mediocre telly, though. Can we hope that the fact we've left Earth will enliven things>
Sunday, 16 June 2019
iZombie: Filleted to Rest
"She fired people for existing wrong."
Another superb episode that, as this season is continuously doing with admirable skill, manages to pull off a genuinely impressive whodunit while still having lots of jaw-dropping arc stuff happen against a steadily deteriorating background of human vs zombie tension. And we end with quite the cliffhanger. Halfway through this final season...
The murder/brain of the week, a delightfully rude chef, is a particularly good one, and Liv on chef brain is a real treat. The murder of the week, to be fair, takes up a lot of screen time, and deserves to. It's too easy to forget that iZombie's basic format, still fundamentally there in spite of everything, is a bloody good one. Burgling as a murder alibi is a bloody good one.
And yet...a load of Fillmore Graves troops are killed in a terrorist attack, and after a far bit of intrigue Major gains proof that Justin- who is, let us not forget, a former boyfriend of Liv- is a traitor, shooting his recently former close friend while trying to escape. Ouch. Liv has a massive row with her mum, who we haven't seen for, well, seasons, but it's finally time to start tying up the loose ends.
There's a heartwarming scene where Michelle tells Clive that, no, he probably isn't the father... but she thinks he's a decent man and kind of wishes he was. Aw. Ravi's relationship with Dr Charlie Collier (and her twin sister!) develops a little, which makes me think they are going to share a more blatant sub-plot about a zombie cure.
But that cliffhanger, that this new player who is de-thawing zombies and appears to be Durkins' zombie mirror image is probably Liv's dad... wow.
Another superb episode that, as this season is continuously doing with admirable skill, manages to pull off a genuinely impressive whodunit while still having lots of jaw-dropping arc stuff happen against a steadily deteriorating background of human vs zombie tension. And we end with quite the cliffhanger. Halfway through this final season...
The murder/brain of the week, a delightfully rude chef, is a particularly good one, and Liv on chef brain is a real treat. The murder of the week, to be fair, takes up a lot of screen time, and deserves to. It's too easy to forget that iZombie's basic format, still fundamentally there in spite of everything, is a bloody good one. Burgling as a murder alibi is a bloody good one.
And yet...a load of Fillmore Graves troops are killed in a terrorist attack, and after a far bit of intrigue Major gains proof that Justin- who is, let us not forget, a former boyfriend of Liv- is a traitor, shooting his recently former close friend while trying to escape. Ouch. Liv has a massive row with her mum, who we haven't seen for, well, seasons, but it's finally time to start tying up the loose ends.
There's a heartwarming scene where Michelle tells Clive that, no, he probably isn't the father... but she thinks he's a decent man and kind of wishes he was. Aw. Ravi's relationship with Dr Charlie Collier (and her twin sister!) develops a little, which makes me think they are going to share a more blatant sub-plot about a zombie cure.
But that cliffhanger, that this new player who is de-thawing zombies and appears to be Durkins' zombie mirror image is probably Liv's dad... wow.
Captain Kronos- Vampire Hunter (1974)
"What he doesn't know about vampirism wouldn't fill a flea's codpiece."
This is a film that, whatever its virtues, and notwithstanding that it isn't the last one, is as good as any to mark the end of Hammer. With Lee and Cushing pretty much gone from the scene, this film was intended to spearhead an entire new series of Hammer horror films- but it ended up having its delayed for two years and flopping at the box office. What went wrong?
Well, at first glance an awful lot went right. The script from Brian Clemens is clever, twisty-turny, full of compelling characters and nicely establishing a wider mythology about various types of vampires which behave differently- this one ages its victims- and can be killed in different ways, something explored nicely and which gives obvious sequel potential. It’s also creepily shot by Brian Clemens himself, with the vampire attack scenes creatively shot from the vampire’s POV and with plenty of suspense. There’s also a solid and effective cast of splendid British character actors, led by the superb John Cater but including Wanda Ventham, Ian Hendry and John Carson. It also features the very delightful Caroline Munro. There’s a lot going for this film.
Sadly, though, it has two big problems. The first is the casting of Horst Janson. The character of Kronos is awesome- I love his swordsmanship and how he deals with the ruffians in the pub- and Janson is pretty good, but if you have to dub all of your star’s lines because you can’t understand his German accent you have a rather big problem. There’s an awkward disjoint here that overshadows everything. And the second problem is, I think, Clemens’ direction. He can shoot certain types of scenes very well indeed, and you can’t fault his visual storytelling, but there’s a certain dull, overcast feel to the cinematography where a hint of swashbuckling fun was required. The tone doesn’t feel quite right.
It’s a real shame. There’s an excellent film inside this struggling to get out but alas it, and the continuing future of Hammer, was not to be.
Well, at first glance an awful lot went right. The script from Brian Clemens is clever, twisty-turny, full of compelling characters and nicely establishing a wider mythology about various types of vampires which behave differently- this one ages its victims- and can be killed in different ways, something explored nicely and which gives obvious sequel potential. It’s also creepily shot by Brian Clemens himself, with the vampire attack scenes creatively shot from the vampire’s POV and with plenty of suspense. There’s also a solid and effective cast of splendid British character actors, led by the superb John Cater but including Wanda Ventham, Ian Hendry and John Carson. It also features the very delightful Caroline Munro. There’s a lot going for this film.
Sadly, though, it has two big problems. The first is the casting of Horst Janson. The character of Kronos is awesome- I love his swordsmanship and how he deals with the ruffians in the pub- and Janson is pretty good, but if you have to dub all of your star’s lines because you can’t understand his German accent you have a rather big problem. There’s an awkward disjoint here that overshadows everything. And the second problem is, I think, Clemens’ direction. He can shoot certain types of scenes very well indeed, and you can’t fault his visual storytelling, but there’s a certain dull, overcast feel to the cinematography where a hint of swashbuckling fun was required. The tone doesn’t feel quite right.
It’s a real shame. There’s an excellent film inside this struggling to get out but alas it, and the continuing future of Hammer, was not to be.
Saturday, 15 June 2019
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
"Each man creates his own God for himself, his own Heaven, his own Hell."
I'd seen and blogged a couple of Roger Corman’s Poe films before, and found they’ve always been impressive in how they were scripted, shot and acted. But this one absolutely stands out as the finest by far. It’s superb, taking an Edgar Allan Poe short story and making a dark philosophical treatise that almost echoes Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.
The setting is simple; a gothic castle in Renaissance Italy and the dark, plague-ridden countryside. But the film eschews realism in order to make the countryside darkly stylised, while there’s a sense that this community is cut off from the rest of Italy, giving Prince Prosperous absolute power over all he surveys. An openly Satanist prince would not possibly have been able to survive in Renaissance Italy, of course, but the film exists in its own claustrophobic, deeply atmospheric little world.
And at the centre of it all is the magnificent, extraordinary Vincent Price, giving one of the performances of his career. His mellifluous voice, the arch of his eyebrow, the looks of sardonic sadism- all this makes him utterly compelling as a charming sadist with absolute power and a love of Satan. There are subplots- Hazel Court as a princess fated to a gory death after giving herself to the Devil, and the horrifying revenge of a dwarf for the insult to his lady- but the film entirely focuses around the compelling figure of Prospero, and his eventual comeuppance is glorious.
I’ve blogged a fair few Roger Corman films by now, many of them excellent. But this is his finest achievement by far.
The setting is simple; a gothic castle in Renaissance Italy and the dark, plague-ridden countryside. But the film eschews realism in order to make the countryside darkly stylised, while there’s a sense that this community is cut off from the rest of Italy, giving Prince Prosperous absolute power over all he surveys. An openly Satanist prince would not possibly have been able to survive in Renaissance Italy, of course, but the film exists in its own claustrophobic, deeply atmospheric little world.
And at the centre of it all is the magnificent, extraordinary Vincent Price, giving one of the performances of his career. His mellifluous voice, the arch of his eyebrow, the looks of sardonic sadism- all this makes him utterly compelling as a charming sadist with absolute power and a love of Satan. There are subplots- Hazel Court as a princess fated to a gory death after giving herself to the Devil, and the horrifying revenge of a dwarf for the insult to his lady- but the film entirely focuses around the compelling figure of Prospero, and his eventual comeuppance is glorious.
I’ve blogged a fair few Roger Corman films by now, many of them excellent. But this is his finest achievement by far.
Friday, 14 June 2019
iZombie: The Scratchmaker
”Let’s face it- we’ve all got a little monster in us.”
It finally happened; a Blaine episode, after his near-absence from the opening episodes. Following his downfall last week we now follow Blaine as he adjusts to his new reality- and survives, as he always does. Oh, there’s a perfunctory murder of the week with a matchmaker being murdered and Liv on match maker brain. But all this happens in the background. Other characters get their moments- now that Dale is off on maternity leave (I know they have shit working conditions in America- do they have that?) it’s fun to see Clive getting to sit in the big chair.
But this is about Blaine, stuck in a cell, forced to answer questions and, worse, his entertainment options limited to the TV edit of Snakes on a Plane in endless loop. He’s an evil, amoral, annoyingly witty man who we all live to hate, and this is probably the right moment to praise David Anderson to the skies for inhabiting this gloriously witty sociopath. iZombie without Blaine is a terrifying thought.
There’s a rather big change to the status quo here as it turns out Al is the niece of none other than Stacey Boss, who is behind all of this and planning to takeover Blaine’s brain business wholesale- successfully, although not without some cleverness from Major forcing him and his new sidekick Don E to lower the price. Interestingly,Blaine is left to think that the brain business has gone elsewhere, effectively coupled by Don E and his shadowy benefactor. I’m sure he’ll take it very well when he finds out.
All this and Major, who is on fire somewhat, has a bit of a mini-showdown with Durkins. Another splendid episode, then, and a final season which is coming along very nicely.
It finally happened; a Blaine episode, after his near-absence from the opening episodes. Following his downfall last week we now follow Blaine as he adjusts to his new reality- and survives, as he always does. Oh, there’s a perfunctory murder of the week with a matchmaker being murdered and Liv on match maker brain. But all this happens in the background. Other characters get their moments- now that Dale is off on maternity leave (I know they have shit working conditions in America- do they have that?) it’s fun to see Clive getting to sit in the big chair.
But this is about Blaine, stuck in a cell, forced to answer questions and, worse, his entertainment options limited to the TV edit of Snakes on a Plane in endless loop. He’s an evil, amoral, annoyingly witty man who we all live to hate, and this is probably the right moment to praise David Anderson to the skies for inhabiting this gloriously witty sociopath. iZombie without Blaine is a terrifying thought.
There’s a rather big change to the status quo here as it turns out Al is the niece of none other than Stacey Boss, who is behind all of this and planning to takeover Blaine’s brain business wholesale- successfully, although not without some cleverness from Major forcing him and his new sidekick Don E to lower the price. Interestingly,Blaine is left to think that the brain business has gone elsewhere, effectively coupled by Don E and his shadowy benefactor. I’m sure he’ll take it very well when he finds out.
All this and Major, who is on fire somewhat, has a bit of a mini-showdown with Durkins. Another splendid episode, then, and a final season which is coming along very nicely.
Monday, 10 June 2019
The Five Venoms (1978)
"Once an evil deed is done, it never ends.”
I haven't seen many films in this genre at all; I blogged another Shaw Brothers film a while ago but am still not familiar with the tropes. Still, although there’s a lot of kung fu here, and a similarly historical setting, it feels very different to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
The plot structure is extremely simple and info-dumped on us in the very first scene as a dying teacher of martial arts tells his half-trainer young student that he has trained five others and wants him to see whether they have ended up good or evil. We then get s montage of the five and their styles- the centipede, snake, scorpion, lizard and toad. And then the student spends the whole film just observing things until the very end. It’s certainly convenient that all five still live in the same town, but the fun is that, although we soon find the identities of the centipede and snake, we have to work out which characters in the film are the other three.
It’s not the most difficult whodunit in the world, and I guessed them all, but this way of doing things adds fun. It has a very odd but interesting feel of being a police procedural throughout, too, although the justice system is horrifyingly brutal, corrupt and atrocious, based on torturing suspects until they confess, and where judges can whip police officers to solve a crime quickly, inevitably resulting in wrongful convictions and judicial killings. I disagree with the sentiments of the last scene; that judge deserves a good kicking. But the film itself is a fun little way of passing some time.
The plot structure is extremely simple and info-dumped on us in the very first scene as a dying teacher of martial arts tells his half-trainer young student that he has trained five others and wants him to see whether they have ended up good or evil. We then get s montage of the five and their styles- the centipede, snake, scorpion, lizard and toad. And then the student spends the whole film just observing things until the very end. It’s certainly convenient that all five still live in the same town, but the fun is that, although we soon find the identities of the centipede and snake, we have to work out which characters in the film are the other three.
It’s not the most difficult whodunit in the world, and I guessed them all, but this way of doing things adds fun. It has a very odd but interesting feel of being a police procedural throughout, too, although the justice system is horrifyingly brutal, corrupt and atrocious, based on torturing suspects until they confess, and where judges can whip police officers to solve a crime quickly, inevitably resulting in wrongful convictions and judicial killings. I disagree with the sentiments of the last scene; that judge deserves a good kicking. But the film itself is a fun little way of passing some time.
Saturday, 8 June 2019
Deathstalker (1983)
“Heroes and fools are the same thing...”
This is one of many sword and sorcery films that sprang up in the wake of Conan the Barbarian. A fair few of them were quite good. This one isn’t, but it’s one of the better known ones which are utter pants.
There are no real stars in it. It’s cheap as chips. But it seems to have amassed enough of a cult following that we’re here talking about it 36 years later. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s a fairly perfunctory plot about a cynical anti-hero whom we first meet saving a damsel in distress from some lecherous men who are disfigures and therefore bad, and then proceeding to, er, undress and grope her, giving us the first of many glimpses of boobies. Well then. No feminism here, clearly.
Deathstalker (what sort of a name is that?) then proceeds to deny he’s a hero and that he just steals and kills to stay alive. It may be sword and sorcery, but this is definitely the ‘80s. And not just because of the bean bags that are visible in several scenes...
It soon morphs into a plot which makes no sense but isn’t hard to follow, involving a witch, a few perfunctory MacGuffins and a kind of gladiatorial contest which an evil wizard is setting up for reasons which are not quite clear. But there’s a nasty pig man, lots of naked woman who, er, seem to exist for the pleasure of all those charming men, and a lot of fighting. And, er, that’s it. It’s a short, simple film which, to be fair, shows a quite well-designed lived-in, dirty, sword and sorcery world. But, really, there are plenty of other sword and sorcery films from this sort of era.
There are no real stars in it. It’s cheap as chips. But it seems to have amassed enough of a cult following that we’re here talking about it 36 years later. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s a fairly perfunctory plot about a cynical anti-hero whom we first meet saving a damsel in distress from some lecherous men who are disfigures and therefore bad, and then proceeding to, er, undress and grope her, giving us the first of many glimpses of boobies. Well then. No feminism here, clearly.
Deathstalker (what sort of a name is that?) then proceeds to deny he’s a hero and that he just steals and kills to stay alive. It may be sword and sorcery, but this is definitely the ‘80s. And not just because of the bean bags that are visible in several scenes...
It soon morphs into a plot which makes no sense but isn’t hard to follow, involving a witch, a few perfunctory MacGuffins and a kind of gladiatorial contest which an evil wizard is setting up for reasons which are not quite clear. But there’s a nasty pig man, lots of naked woman who, er, seem to exist for the pleasure of all those charming men, and a lot of fighting. And, er, that’s it. It’s a short, simple film which, to be fair, shows a quite well-designed lived-in, dirty, sword and sorcery world. But, really, there are plenty of other sword and sorcery films from this sort of era.
Thursday, 6 June 2019
The Prisoner: A. B. and C
"This is a dreamy party..."
Well, that was certainly different.
I suppose this is early in the series, it's too soon to have fully explored the possible formats, but this one is decidedly odd. Yes, we again begin with Number Six waking in the village- will we always? There's a new Number Two- will there be a different one each time? I was amused to note we had the same opening dialogue between Numbers Six and Two, but with a different Number Two. Will this be a thing?
All that was familiar. And yet...
This week we don't really explore the Village, although I note Number Two has by now accepted a maid. No, instead we follow a science fiction scheme to control Number Six's dreams to attempt to find out which of three possible individuals from within the spy world Number Six was attempting to sell out to. And we may actually have discovered something; we don't know why Number Six resigned, but he wasn't switching loyalies to another side.
And that's pretty much it. Number Six gets a bit of agency in that he realises what is happening and ends up taking control of his own dream narrative. But it all feels suspiciously like filler, as I understand many of the seventeen episodes pretty much were.
This isn't a bad episode. But compared to its two predecessors it feels a little perfunctory.
Well, that was certainly different.
I suppose this is early in the series, it's too soon to have fully explored the possible formats, but this one is decidedly odd. Yes, we again begin with Number Six waking in the village- will we always? There's a new Number Two- will there be a different one each time? I was amused to note we had the same opening dialogue between Numbers Six and Two, but with a different Number Two. Will this be a thing?
All that was familiar. And yet...
This week we don't really explore the Village, although I note Number Two has by now accepted a maid. No, instead we follow a science fiction scheme to control Number Six's dreams to attempt to find out which of three possible individuals from within the spy world Number Six was attempting to sell out to. And we may actually have discovered something; we don't know why Number Six resigned, but he wasn't switching loyalies to another side.
And that's pretty much it. Number Six gets a bit of agency in that he realises what is happening and ends up taking control of his own dream narrative. But it all feels suspiciously like filler, as I understand many of the seventeen episodes pretty much were.
This isn't a bad episode. But compared to its two predecessors it feels a little perfunctory.
The Prisoner: The Chimes of Big Ben
"I don't want a man of fragments..."
I’ve asked around and ummed and ahhed and done a bit of reading to see what the best order is to watch the seventeen episodes, and concluded that the order in my DVD set (the ITC order) will do. So here’s a somewhat arbitrary second episode for your delectation.
There’s a new Number Two, the splendid Leo McKern, although Christopher Benjamin as Number Two’s assistant seems to be a kind of Permanent Secretary. There is our first “I am not a number. I am a free man”. There’s the same opening sequence with the resignation, albeit truncated, I suspect the version we will get from now on. And there’s the Village, of course, both as Orwellian and as Kafkaesque as ever, with its curfews, it’s awful tannoy waking everyone up at the same time in a dreadful conformity, and, worst of all, “alcohol-free” whisky and vodka, which is an affront to civilisation itself.
This episode focuses on new arrival Number Eight, or Nadia, a seeming parallel to Number Six, from Estonia or so she says, although her surname sounds suspiciously Slavic to me. She gains his confidence and they exploit an art competition to escape together, believing they are in Lithuania and escaping across the border to Poland. They seem to arrive in London and... it’s all a simulation. They never left the Village, and it was all a plot to get him to explain to two familiar faces, both seemingly in on it, why he resigned. And Nadia was in charge all along.
It’s a fun little twist, and tells us something about what we may expect from the format. We have another escape, a last minute sleight of hand, and we are back to square one in a village which we no longer have any reason to believe is in Lithuania. There’s some interesting talk about “sides” and the Cold War which very much dates the whole thing, but it’s interesting that, overwhelmingly British though the Village may feel, we’re invited to consider that it is not necessarily in the UK.
A fascinating episode, although I’m genuinely intrigued to see what else they can do with what seems to be a rather restrictive format.
I’ve asked around and ummed and ahhed and done a bit of reading to see what the best order is to watch the seventeen episodes, and concluded that the order in my DVD set (the ITC order) will do. So here’s a somewhat arbitrary second episode for your delectation.
There’s a new Number Two, the splendid Leo McKern, although Christopher Benjamin as Number Two’s assistant seems to be a kind of Permanent Secretary. There is our first “I am not a number. I am a free man”. There’s the same opening sequence with the resignation, albeit truncated, I suspect the version we will get from now on. And there’s the Village, of course, both as Orwellian and as Kafkaesque as ever, with its curfews, it’s awful tannoy waking everyone up at the same time in a dreadful conformity, and, worst of all, “alcohol-free” whisky and vodka, which is an affront to civilisation itself.
This episode focuses on new arrival Number Eight, or Nadia, a seeming parallel to Number Six, from Estonia or so she says, although her surname sounds suspiciously Slavic to me. She gains his confidence and they exploit an art competition to escape together, believing they are in Lithuania and escaping across the border to Poland. They seem to arrive in London and... it’s all a simulation. They never left the Village, and it was all a plot to get him to explain to two familiar faces, both seemingly in on it, why he resigned. And Nadia was in charge all along.
It’s a fun little twist, and tells us something about what we may expect from the format. We have another escape, a last minute sleight of hand, and we are back to square one in a village which we no longer have any reason to believe is in Lithuania. There’s some interesting talk about “sides” and the Cold War which very much dates the whole thing, but it’s interesting that, overwhelmingly British though the Village may feel, we’re invited to consider that it is not necessarily in the UK.
A fascinating episode, although I’m genuinely intrigued to see what else they can do with what seems to be a rather restrictive format.
Wednesday, 5 June 2019
The Prisoner: Arrival
"We're all pawns, my dear. Your move."
This blog started out with Doctor Who and then Blake's 7; I think it's time I took a look at another example of British "telefantasy", to use a word utilised only by those of us who are fans of it. I've seen the odd episode of The Prisoner before, but that was in another century. I recall pretty much nothing, and I've only seen three or four. So this is all but a fresh viewing, my only preconceptions coming from the programme's reputation and the eponymous song by Iron Maiden.
So what have we here? The bare bones of a backstory- Patrick McGoohan's unnamed character (let's disregard Danger Man, partly because I haven't seen it and partly to avoid dull, reductive attempts to find a literal explanation) used to drive a flash car and work at a posh building in iconic Sixties London but has resigned on a matter of principle (I love the way we see, but don't hear, this happening), only to be returned home to be gassed unconscious... and wakes up in the Village, where we will be spending a lot of time.
Portmeiron is, of course, extraordinary-looking, striking, distinctive, all those things, as well as giving a very Welsh coast feeling of isolation. But what strikes me about the Village as a setting is the stultifying conformity, which is almost as bad as the ubiquitous Orwellian slogans discouraging curiosity. This is a tiny place where everybody knows everybody, with a few permitted pastimes in which one is not just permitted but expected to participate. This smells a little of forced jollity, even of Butlins, and there is nothing more totalitarian than that.
There’s a lot of surface charm in the Village, but it’s a place where a woman desperate to escape is persuaded to work as a “maid” (sexual services are implied) on empty promises of release. It’s also deeply surreal, as though the powers that be control reality itself- the big white balloon of death is scarily effective, and all the more so for being utterly surreal, but even more chilling is the fact everyone stands absolutely still while the balloon follows and kills a man for an unspecified crime. This is achieved by freezing the screen, giving the impression that the laws of physics themselves are under control.
We end the episode with the first of what I’m sure is many failed escape attempts, following a great deal of manipulation involving a fake suicide. Can Number Six (please let us never know his real name) trust anyone?
Even more sinister, it’s heavily implied that Number Six, who has knowledge very much desired by the powers that be, is being treated with kid gloves for the moment. What happens when the gloves come off?
Brilliant, philosophical drama that avoids reducing things to the literal and is delightfully weird. Nice cast, too- we see a young Paul Eddington and an especially young George Baker, whom I’ve just seen in I, Clavdivs. But at the centre of it all is McGoohan himself as a very macho, stubborn man who will not give up his freedom...
This blog started out with Doctor Who and then Blake's 7; I think it's time I took a look at another example of British "telefantasy", to use a word utilised only by those of us who are fans of it. I've seen the odd episode of The Prisoner before, but that was in another century. I recall pretty much nothing, and I've only seen three or four. So this is all but a fresh viewing, my only preconceptions coming from the programme's reputation and the eponymous song by Iron Maiden.
So what have we here? The bare bones of a backstory- Patrick McGoohan's unnamed character (let's disregard Danger Man, partly because I haven't seen it and partly to avoid dull, reductive attempts to find a literal explanation) used to drive a flash car and work at a posh building in iconic Sixties London but has resigned on a matter of principle (I love the way we see, but don't hear, this happening), only to be returned home to be gassed unconscious... and wakes up in the Village, where we will be spending a lot of time.
Portmeiron is, of course, extraordinary-looking, striking, distinctive, all those things, as well as giving a very Welsh coast feeling of isolation. But what strikes me about the Village as a setting is the stultifying conformity, which is almost as bad as the ubiquitous Orwellian slogans discouraging curiosity. This is a tiny place where everybody knows everybody, with a few permitted pastimes in which one is not just permitted but expected to participate. This smells a little of forced jollity, even of Butlins, and there is nothing more totalitarian than that.
There’s a lot of surface charm in the Village, but it’s a place where a woman desperate to escape is persuaded to work as a “maid” (sexual services are implied) on empty promises of release. It’s also deeply surreal, as though the powers that be control reality itself- the big white balloon of death is scarily effective, and all the more so for being utterly surreal, but even more chilling is the fact everyone stands absolutely still while the balloon follows and kills a man for an unspecified crime. This is achieved by freezing the screen, giving the impression that the laws of physics themselves are under control.
We end the episode with the first of what I’m sure is many failed escape attempts, following a great deal of manipulation involving a fake suicide. Can Number Six (please let us never know his real name) trust anyone?
Even more sinister, it’s heavily implied that Number Six, who has knowledge very much desired by the powers that be, is being treated with kid gloves for the moment. What happens when the gloves come off?
Brilliant, philosophical drama that avoids reducing things to the literal and is delightfully weird. Nice cast, too- we see a young Paul Eddington and an especially young George Baker, whom I’ve just seen in I, Clavdivs. But at the centre of it all is McGoohan himself as a very macho, stubborn man who will not give up his freedom...
Tuesday, 4 June 2019
I, Clavdivs: Old King Log
"The man who dwells by the pool shall open Graves..."
The first episode, which seems so long ago, featured an interesting bit of breakage to the fourth wall early on as, while Augustus, Marcus Agrippa and co reclined and chatted, a couple of minor characters discussed how the old days never truly existed, that the past is an illusion. That was a clear acknowledgement by Jack Pulman that we rely on sources but we can never arrive at real historical truth, and certainly not via Suetonius.
And so it’s appropriate that, in this final episode, realism breaks down somewhat and the fourth wall is constantly pointed at- and not only in the above quote from Claudius’ farewell speech to the Senate, where he refers to Jack Pulman and Robert Graves. No; in this final episode Claudius has become convinced that he erred in ruling wisely; he reconciled Rome to monarchy instead of discrediting it. So Old King Log resolves to “let all the poisons that lurk in the mud gat h it”, leaning into the Sibylline Prophecy. So he marries his niece and favours Nero as heir over his own son Britannicus. In doing so he raises himself from a mere principal character almost to the status of author, truly Claudius the God. This is often humorous, as when he exasperates Agripinilla by anticipating her every wish without hiding his contempt. (How come such a noble couple as Germanicus and Aggripina spawned such a nest of monsters?). He exerts control over his own death. Yet the ferryman waits for us all in the end.
There is one thing Claudius can not control- his honourable yet naive son, Britannicus, who refuses to go along with Claudius’ secret plan because “no one believes in the Republic any more”. Instead he chooses to put on his manly gown and face death. Claudius is not omnipotent, after all.
So Claudius gets his big death scene, and a chat with the Sibyll. We get the cameos we’ve longed for from the characters we missed. We get to know the loathsome Agripinilla and Nero (interesting casting!) who, as we won’t be following their exploits after Claudius, can be portrayed with relish, with Nero noting “What a pretty thing a fire is”. No subtext there...
The first episode, which seems so long ago, featured an interesting bit of breakage to the fourth wall early on as, while Augustus, Marcus Agrippa and co reclined and chatted, a couple of minor characters discussed how the old days never truly existed, that the past is an illusion. That was a clear acknowledgement by Jack Pulman that we rely on sources but we can never arrive at real historical truth, and certainly not via Suetonius.
And so it’s appropriate that, in this final episode, realism breaks down somewhat and the fourth wall is constantly pointed at- and not only in the above quote from Claudius’ farewell speech to the Senate, where he refers to Jack Pulman and Robert Graves. No; in this final episode Claudius has become convinced that he erred in ruling wisely; he reconciled Rome to monarchy instead of discrediting it. So Old King Log resolves to “let all the poisons that lurk in the mud gat h it”, leaning into the Sibylline Prophecy. So he marries his niece and favours Nero as heir over his own son Britannicus. In doing so he raises himself from a mere principal character almost to the status of author, truly Claudius the God. This is often humorous, as when he exasperates Agripinilla by anticipating her every wish without hiding his contempt. (How come such a noble couple as Germanicus and Aggripina spawned such a nest of monsters?). He exerts control over his own death. Yet the ferryman waits for us all in the end.
There is one thing Claudius can not control- his honourable yet naive son, Britannicus, who refuses to go along with Claudius’ secret plan because “no one believes in the Republic any more”. Instead he chooses to put on his manly gown and face death. Claudius is not omnipotent, after all.
So Claudius gets his big death scene, and a chat with the Sibyll. We get the cameos we’ve longed for from the characters we missed. We get to know the loathsome Agripinilla and Nero (interesting casting!) who, as we won’t be following their exploits after Claudius, can be portrayed with relish, with Nero noting “What a pretty thing a fire is”. No subtext there...
A fitting end to a drama that is justly seen as one of the finest ever. Who cares about the obvious staginess. This is superlative telly.
Monday, 3 June 2019
Years and Years: Episode 3
"The gig economy, that's me."
Things slow down a bit in the third episode as the characters get a chance to breathe and respond from the huge events that ended both the first two episodes. But there’s a very definite sense that civilisation is declining as the 2026 election day looms.
There’s humanity, though, which stops things getting too depressing- RTD is a master at using time like this. Yes, Daniel and Viktor are separated, Viktor is in huge danger from bigoted wankers, and it’s all quite heartbreaking. But their love and devotion for each other is touching, and it’s wonderful to see Viktor make it to Spain, where the internment camps have conjugal arrangements.
But this is a moment of hope in the context of rising bigotry. We also see the hollowing of the muffle class as Steve and Celeste are forced to stay with Gran and replace their nice professional jobs with gig economy drudgery with appalling conditions. Meanwhile, Bethany and her fellow transhuman Lizzie are exploited into handing over £10,000 for a horrifying botched operation to replace their eyes with cameras- fortunately Beth escapes. There’s artificial meat, all cars seem to be electric, but society isn’t heading in a pleasant direction.
Yes the deaths of the siblings’ father allows them to bond at his funeral in another moment of humanity. Never mind that Rosie has lost her job, Steve is forced to take what work he has, Edith is dying and Daniel’s partner is in a cell. They have each other, even if Edith (easily my favourite character), er, drinks her father.
Seems with Celeste, proud and stoic to the last, discovers that Steve has been having an affair, and the election results are revealed- Tories and Labour finely balanced with the odious Vivienne Rook holding the balance of power. Simple and narratively necessary, I suppose, but where are my beloved Lib Dem’s? And what about the Norn MP’s? Whatever, the march of dodgy populism proceeds onwards. More superb telly although, after a superlative second episode, this is merely great rather than superlative.
Things slow down a bit in the third episode as the characters get a chance to breathe and respond from the huge events that ended both the first two episodes. But there’s a very definite sense that civilisation is declining as the 2026 election day looms.
There’s humanity, though, which stops things getting too depressing- RTD is a master at using time like this. Yes, Daniel and Viktor are separated, Viktor is in huge danger from bigoted wankers, and it’s all quite heartbreaking. But their love and devotion for each other is touching, and it’s wonderful to see Viktor make it to Spain, where the internment camps have conjugal arrangements.
But this is a moment of hope in the context of rising bigotry. We also see the hollowing of the muffle class as Steve and Celeste are forced to stay with Gran and replace their nice professional jobs with gig economy drudgery with appalling conditions. Meanwhile, Bethany and her fellow transhuman Lizzie are exploited into handing over £10,000 for a horrifying botched operation to replace their eyes with cameras- fortunately Beth escapes. There’s artificial meat, all cars seem to be electric, but society isn’t heading in a pleasant direction.
Yes the deaths of the siblings’ father allows them to bond at his funeral in another moment of humanity. Never mind that Rosie has lost her job, Steve is forced to take what work he has, Edith is dying and Daniel’s partner is in a cell. They have each other, even if Edith (easily my favourite character), er, drinks her father.
Seems with Celeste, proud and stoic to the last, discovers that Steve has been having an affair, and the election results are revealed- Tories and Labour finely balanced with the odious Vivienne Rook holding the balance of power. Simple and narratively necessary, I suppose, but where are my beloved Lib Dem’s? And what about the Norn MP’s? Whatever, the march of dodgy populism proceeds onwards. More superb telly although, after a superlative second episode, this is merely great rather than superlative.
Saturday, 1 June 2019
iZombie: Death Moves Pretty Fast
"Can a thing that's known for doing a thing do that very thing?"
As if it were possible for this season of iZombie to ramp things up, well, that's exactly what seems to have happened. There's also a pretty good murder of the week too, although it's a shame the use of Blaine as a suspect doesn't last, and (SPOILERS!) only at the end do we realise that we're getting a prankster killed by his resentful sidekick... again. But there's a lot more going on than that, although I'm a little confused at Clive's injury? He seemed fine last week.
Anyway, the Dead Enders continue to be a menace, this time sneaking Alzheimer's brains into the tubes- and this leads to the culmination of the conflict between Major and Enzo, the hardliner with the outrageous French accent. The zombie cure leaks out, and Ravi is devastated because it's his fault that sufferers of the disease in question now all have targets on their backs. But the main focus of the episode, cleverly done, is how Al slowly uncovers the full truth about Blaine's murderous past, and we see him exposed, turned from hero to public enemy number one... and the supply of brains stops. Worse, Peyon is shown to be either stupid or complicit, her earlier relationship with Blaine revealed. Peyton's position is now imperilled, just when New Seattle needs her to persuade DC not to nuke the place... again. And where are the brains going to come from?
Suddenly things look very worrying indeed for our fragile civilisation in the city, and that's before Major learns, once Enzo is on ice, that a full seventeen people have been thawed out... cut to a cage full of Romeros and suddenly we're reminded this is the final season. Could everything end with an actual zombie apocalypse? Another superb bit of telly, although I do worry about this over-the-top comedy treatment of Vampire Steve.
As if it were possible for this season of iZombie to ramp things up, well, that's exactly what seems to have happened. There's also a pretty good murder of the week too, although it's a shame the use of Blaine as a suspect doesn't last, and (SPOILERS!) only at the end do we realise that we're getting a prankster killed by his resentful sidekick... again. But there's a lot more going on than that, although I'm a little confused at Clive's injury? He seemed fine last week.
Anyway, the Dead Enders continue to be a menace, this time sneaking Alzheimer's brains into the tubes- and this leads to the culmination of the conflict between Major and Enzo, the hardliner with the outrageous French accent. The zombie cure leaks out, and Ravi is devastated because it's his fault that sufferers of the disease in question now all have targets on their backs. But the main focus of the episode, cleverly done, is how Al slowly uncovers the full truth about Blaine's murderous past, and we see him exposed, turned from hero to public enemy number one... and the supply of brains stops. Worse, Peyon is shown to be either stupid or complicit, her earlier relationship with Blaine revealed. Peyton's position is now imperilled, just when New Seattle needs her to persuade DC not to nuke the place... again. And where are the brains going to come from?
Suddenly things look very worrying indeed for our fragile civilisation in the city, and that's before Major learns, once Enzo is on ice, that a full seventeen people have been thawed out... cut to a cage full of Romeros and suddenly we're reminded this is the final season. Could everything end with an actual zombie apocalypse? Another superb bit of telly, although I do worry about this over-the-top comedy treatment of Vampire Steve.
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