Andor: Kassa

 "This case appears to bear all the hallmarks of what I like to describe as regrettable misadventure."

Hmm. This isn't bad telly. It's perfectrly fine. But so far that's all it is. Perfectly decent but no more than that.

I suppose Cassian Andor was always going to be a harder sell than Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi or even the Mandalorian- a new character but a familiar look. These shows harked back to classic Star Wars; Andor appeared only once in Rogue One. Like many others, I've seen the original trilogy many times over the decades, but Rogue One only once. So Andor is a perfectly decent character, but he doesn't have the resonance.

Also, while this is clearly set in the lived-in future of Star Wars, with the tech and general look being unmistakeable... but there are far fewer Easter eggs than previous series on Disney Plus, and all the planets are new. No more Tattooine!

The story is engaging enough, and it's good that we aren't spoon fed either what Kassian is doing or what happened with him and his missing sister as children. It's a nice touch that, so far, the Imperial forces are a distant threat, the immediate problem being highly militarised corporate security.

It's all set-up, of course, but this is nothing special so far. But this is but the first episode...

The Sandman: Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope

 "Writers are liars."

I'm again following far too many series because pesky present day telly insists on throwing up The Rings of Power, Inside Man and (coming soon to this blog) Andor. Fortunately this is a season finale, so I now have only Hawkeye, Breaking Bad and films to balance with all those. Anyway...

This is a beautiful coda to what is hopefully not the only series of Sandman. Here we have two achingly beautiful, profoundly meaningful fairytales that are so very, well... Gaimanesque.

As one who has been the property of many feline owners over the years, I was both amused by and admiring of Dream of a Thousand Cats, a cartoon with many famous voices. It transcends its superficial resemblance to Animal Farm (the Prophet is stroikingly similar to Old Major) to reach annundeniable truth. Cats, much as we adore them, have utterly enslaved us, and would certainly kill and eat them if they could... well, except Ashi, and Badger, and Loki, and Gizmo. I'm their daddy, so I'm safe. Right?

So it indisputably true that a reality shift occurred not all that long ago, and before then we were much smaller than them, and hunted by them. This is undoubtedly true,

Calliope is much darker, using myth to explore male abuse and exploitation of women, and the ensuing hypocrisy. In this case Richard is stealing the ideas of Calliope, a woman, and taking credit... not exactly unptrecedented. Arthur Darvill is superb as a dark protagonist straight out of an updated version of Hammer House of Horror, while Derek Jacobi is exquisite as an elderly writer who owes all his success to the fact that he kidnapped a Muse, Calliope, while on holiday in Greece, the Muse who inspired Homer.

Richard finally gets his just comeuppance at the hands of Morpheus, whose tender relationship with Calliope- despite their past bad blood centred on theor son Orpheus(!) is deeply touching.

This is just a profoundly beautiful bit of telly.

Inside Man: Episode 1

 "Anyone can wind up in this place..."

One might say, in some ways, that there is much we might have expected from Steven Moffat in this, his long-awaited new drama.There's a character- Jefferson Grieff- who is superficially similar to Sherlock in how he solves crimes. Paul McGuigan directs. It's all very clever, with different plot strands interconnecting at various points. David Tennant star as Harry, our likeable vicar protagonist. Lydia West and Dolly Wells are well known for starring in work by Moffat and his mate RTD.over-complex.

Yet this is not, as no doubt some are saying, just Moffat doing his usual tropes. It is not, as no doubt some are saying, confusing and over-complex. Just pay attention. It's all there. And it's much more than a puzzle box, this is about something.

Harry is a good man, a husband, a father, a lynchpin of his community. So when his verger, with his overbearing (and violent) mother asks him to take from him a drive with "porn", he sees this as a trivial matter. And yet-this being the central premise- a good man can become a murderer, given the right circumstances.

We have a parallel in Jefferson, who seems to have murdered his wife and believes he deserves his upcoming execution. As various conversations hint, he was also a good man who made a wrong decision, and somehow became a murderer. He accepts his fate, and whiles away his time in Death Row solving crimes. Yet the Sherlocking is superficial. The point is that this is a man who has done something evil, though not an evil man. And he accepts the consequences with integrity. Not just death, but to be hated. He actively dissuades Beth from ewriting about him positively. His ideas of "moral worth" are fascinating.

Janice, too, is clever and highly principled, as we see in the opening train scene. And so the terrible misunderstanding is set up, where she finds the verger's child porn, believing it to belong to Harry's son. Harry panics, handles things badly... and Janice ends up locked in the cellar. This is brilliant writing, and acting.

And so we face the consequences. Harry's horrified wife. And the confrontation with Janice, who fully realises the only possible fate for her is to be murdered as Harry, though a good man, has no other way out. But she will not make it easy...

And Beth is on the case. This is superb stuff.

The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: Partings

 "We set sail!"

This episode, and a fine episode it is- the start has been uneven, but there was much to establish. Thois iscan episode, a pivotal episode, one in which the forces of hope start to amass against the orcs, Adar, Sauron... and it's all about loyalty. Loyalty as a test.

The Stranger- now very clearly a proto-wizard, ahem!- proves his loyalty to the poroto-Hobbits by scaring away the Wargs. Others have it less easy. Elrond is torn between the honour of his oath to Durin and his Elven loyalty because mithril, apparently, is the ghost of a Silmaril (I know what they are!) and is needed to save the Eldar... yes, it's a word coined by Tolkien. but it makes me think of Space Marines and such. Bah.

The Men of the Southlands have conflicting loyalties. half of them, led by Waldreg, are bloody traitors. Arondir, bless him, is true, and will fight for the humans even if they will not fight for themselves. Bronwyn, heartbreakingly, is torn.

On the doomed Numenor, the queen shows admirable steel. Thev loyalty of Galadriel is not in doubt, though her fanaticism fascinates. The loyalty of the political class is not without cynicism, but true.Idildur, though... we know his name, and that of his fathervElendil, as the first two kings of Gondor, meaning Numenor must be doomed in the very short term. Yet he is portrayed, with all due melodrama, as a ne'er-do-well made good.

I have no problem with that. t describes myself. This episode oozes character, restrained wit and narrative skill.

Better Call Saul: Uno

 "You work for people who have sex with chopped off head?"

Straight into this prequel to Breaking Bad- you knew this was coming- and crikey, this is already good indeed, even if we do already know the central character and are looking for Easter Eggs (hello, Mike as tollboth man).

But this is divinely crafted by Mr Vince Gilligan himself. We start, fasciinatingly, with a moustachioed Saul running that bakery in Nebraska he casually mentioned at the end of Breaking Bad... and his life is safe, if paranoid; decent, materially ok... and symbolically in monochrome. No wonder he drinks cheap whisky and watched videotapes of his glory days.

The, we flash back... so abruptly I thought my telly was on the blink- to Albuquerque... and the good old days are not as the rose tinted glasses see the, Jimmy McGill is a struggling public defender, talented yet offered no hope by the system, despite the urgings of his very interesting brother Chuck- intelligent, principled, cultured and (we assume) dying by some disease, probably cancer, which is a ****.

The argument between the two men is pivotal- Chuck was a partner in a law film who got ill, and has been shafted, to his brother's extreme chagrin, yet he refuses to sue the firm (Did it cause his condition? I admire how we are not just being spoonfed.) out of loyalty to the staff. He and  Jimmy disagree, yet here are two good, decent men disagreeing on points of conscience. Jimmy may have been guilty of ice-based naughtiness in his youth, butbhe;s a good man... whom we know will become a deeply cynical, criminal-adjacent lawyer in a trajectory which we cannot but parallel with that of Walter White.

And his first attempt at such cynicism in practice- with two young, naive, pathetic conmen- leads us to... Tuco, whom we know of old.

Oh dear.

I'm hooked already,

Incidentally, I'll be blogging this weekly. The Marvel series (currently Hawkeye) will continue as scheduled. I'll keep on with The Rings of Power, next episode (I hope) tomorrow. I have one more episode of Sandman. Then I really ought to start Andor, as I note three episodes have dropped.

I'll start a neew series, probably something vintage, when the constant stream of new telly alllows!

The Oblong Box (1969)

 "We have knowledge of things you know nothing of..."

This film is an odd yet enjoyable beast. It's an adaptation of an Edgar Poe Story, sort of, as it has pretty much no scenes or characters in common with it other than the coffin itself. This is no sea voyage along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, but a British horror film of the late '60s with literally all the tropes that implies.

This is no bad thing.

It's 1865, and looks good, as such historical films often do, Vincent Price stars, inevitably, given the double whammy of British cinema of this time worshipping him and given him work and, of course, his association with Poe, courtesy of the great Roger Corman, having ceased but five years before.

The script is original, not Poe in the slightest, par for the course for a British horror film of the period, but it works. Both Price and Christopher Lee are amazing.

Gordon Kessler's direction is Jekyll and Hyde. His domestic scenes are ho-hum, but his scenes of horror and excitement are creative and inspired. The film centres on African voodoo, the opening scene feels- and is- quite unthinkingly racist- yet the sensitive treatment of Harry Baird's noble african character goes some way to mitigate, and the script goes some way to show colonialism as the original sin behind all of this.

This is not, perhaps, a great film. But, for those of us who love this type of horror, it is exquisite.

Hawkeye: Hide and Seek

 "A twenty-two year old vigilante. Shouldn't you be in school?"

Ok, first of all, the Hawkeye LARPing montage was obviously awesome. But we hearing aid wearers find it easier to follow what's going on with tabletop RPGs. Maybe Clint would enjoy that more...

Yet there's so much elseto admire in a series that is settling down quite nively. Clint's frustration at not being with his family at Christmas brings us closer to him. Yet Kate is awesome, too, just like us in a way: wanting to learn from Clint to achieve her dream and make it as a superhero. Anything to escape from the life with the family business that's been planned out for her.

Then there's her new stepfather, Jack... the Swordsman. Charming, evasive... and seemingly at the scene of Armand's murder. Kate has problems, and complications. Not only are she and Clint captured and at the mercy of the, er, Tracksuit Mafia, but the cops want to question her in the morning.

Best of all, though, is the chemistry between the hero worshipping, naive yet resourceful Kate and the gruff and annoyed Clint. The script, and both actors, are superb.

The Sandman: Lost Hearts

 "It was a pleasure being human with you."

It is, perhaps, true, that the second half of this first season, adapting The Doll's House from the comics, while very good, has not quite matched what came before it. Yet this conclusion, season finale, really, though there isa coda to come, is nothing short of magnificent.

This is the stuff of fairytale. Dream's punishment of the collectors is grimly appropriate. His ultimate triuph over the Corinthian- whose eyes we finally see- has an air of inevitability once he persuades Rose. And Unity's dreamingly reading of the book of her life that would have been, in Lucienne's library, is not only poetic but utterly prefigures her beautiful sacrifice to save Rose, her family.

And Rose has lots of family. Her brother, yes, but also a family she chose. And they all live happily ever after. Even the ending of Fiddler's Green- a lovely man, and perfectly cast as Stephen Fry- is something lovelier than death. It's all very beautiful.

Yet it was all a trick by Desire, to get Dream to kill Desire's own granddaughter(!) and, it is hinted, trick him into breaking some rule by killing a descendent of the Endless. And it is hinted that the sublings fall into two opposing camps- Dream, Death and Destiny versus Desire, Despair and Delirium. Interesting.

Oh, and it appears Hell is going to war....

Hawkeye: Never Meet Your Heroes

 "I need a bow and arrow!"

This is all very new to me. I know Hawkeye, obviously, but Kate Bishop is from well after my comics-reading years. I know Jack must be the Swordsman, which is exciting, but I've never heard of Hawkeye as the Ronin, which I think of as a massive great big robot kaijin that went up against the Avengers.

We get a big revelation about Clint's unexpected past, we see him with his kids, and we get an actual mentioj of his hearing aid- although, trust me as one who knows: if you switch your hearing off you bloody well take it out and let your ear breathe a bit. Hearing aids help you hear more like other people do so you can fit in, but they're bloody uncomfortable to wear for hours on end.

I like Kate. The odds are stacked against her as a spoiled little rich girl, but I like her, a credit to both Halle Steinfeld and the writing. She's cool, resourceful and has just the right amount of sadness in her past. Plus she worships superheroes, especially the esteemed Mr Barton.

This is mostly set-up, but there's much to intrigue. The Swordsman. Simon Callow, as the late Armand, playing American. What the hell is going on with all this Ronin stuff. This isn't quite up there, so far, with WandaVision and Loki, but I'm enjoying it.

The Sandman: Collectors

 "I thought there'd be cereal..."

My Netflix issues are fixed. Normal blogging is resumed. Phew.

Things are moving fast. Rose as the vortex seems to be the unwitting cause of Lyta's being with her dead husband in her dreams... and her pregnancy. Yet this seems to be leading to instability. Cracks are appearing.

So what does Dream do? He continues to be an utter dick. After offending Lucienne last episode- and Matthew speaks for all of us when he criticises their mutual sulk, he tramples into Lyta's dream like a bull in a china shop, heartlessly crumbling her husband to dust and, if that isn't bad enough, threatening that one day he will come and take Lyta's baby. Yes, he's a mythically powerful and capricious god, but he's also a dick.

We see more of the serial killer convention this episode, and it's utterly, blackly hilarious. We also get to see more of the wonderful Gilbert, played with aplomb by the one and only Stephen Fry... and get to learn who he is. But we end with the Corinthian triumphant in a staggeringly excellent episode full of twists, turns and much coolness.

The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: The Great Wave

 "You have been told many lies..."

Halfway through the season, already, and things are getting ominous. I liked this episode a lot. 

Evil tidings aboung everywhere. Arandir is freed by Adar- an elf who seems to command the orcs- to deliver an ultimatum to the humans in the elf tower- surrender the Southlands to him or be crushed. Young Theo, fresh from nearly getting heroically killed, is told by a fellow villager, a sinister individual, that the falling stars some nightsago mean Sauron is coming.

Meanwhile, Elrond learns the dwarves are tentatively mining a new mineral- mithril, previously unknown. Yet the efforts almost end in disaster, and I sense that Durin's royal father will not live long. And the Dwarves know that Elrond is hiding something. It's all very friendly, but everyone is hiding something.

Most fascinating are the events in Numenor, as Galadriel hears the reason for all the suspicion; the royals have a seeing stone, one foretelling the fooding end destruction of Numenor. Isildur disgraces himself at sea. And yet... we know that "Elendil" was a battle cry for Aragorn, his distant descendent. And Isildur will achieve legendary things... I think he was called the first king of Gondor? But Gondor is on Middle Earth. I suspect Numenor is doomed, and soon. All these revelations are thrilling. The series has build up slowly, at times, but this episode really delivers the goods.

And, unexpectedly, Numenor goes to war with Galadriel, the Queen and Isildur among the troops. I'm excited.

Black Coffee by Agatha Christie at the Little Theatre in Leicester

 I saw this excellent play last night, admittedly because a friend of mine is in it, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. 

Agatha Christie, as I have said many time, cannot be matched in terms of whodunit plotting, yet her prose and characterisation are lacking to the point that it is not Christie but Margery Allingham who is the Queen of Golden Age Crime Fiction.

Yet Christie’s work can nevertheless shine where actors can provide characterisation that the words on the page do not. And that is the case here. The cast is uniformly excellent, filling their performances with subtle mannerisms and line deliveries that add so much.

The set is particularly excellent, too, in a play based around a single room. And the MacGuffin- a formula for a new type of devastating atomic explosive- is quite an arresting idea for 1930.

If there are any tickets left, I would heartily recommend scrapping them up.

What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?

 "Blimey! Bloody bollocks!"

Still having Netflix issues which may delay the last episodes of Sandman for a few days, so I'll just carry on with the Disney Marvel shows untol that's sorted- with episodes of Rings of Power as they drop, of course. Once Netflix is back with me, the normal blogging schedule will resume. 

So we complete the season with the conclusion of the fourth wall-breaking two parter and it's entertaing enough, albeit rather heavily based on action. Inevitably we get a team assembled by the Watcher from throughout the season. Theseare apparently the perfect team to defeat Ultron. Yes, even a version of Thor who is nothing but a Hooray Henry. Hmm.

It's fun, though. The characters interact well. It's impressive that we manage to get cameos from the likes of Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jacksom and Tom Hiddleston. And, sadly, this is the Marvel swansong for Chadwick Boseman.

There are nice little heartwarming happy endings for both Peggy and Natasha too. Sentimental, yes, but just about earned. Overall, this is a decent enough conclusion, if a little crowded and by-the-book.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

 "If you don't shut up, you won't be invited to the orgy.

Right, let's just get Taika Waititi to do all the Thor films from now on, shall we? This is awesome: witty, fourth wall-breakingly funny but without crossing a certain line... and absolutely heartbreaking. Jane's death is devastating (but yay for the post-credits) as well as being the right way to end. There's a nice bit of misdirection in that we suspect Eternity's wish is going to cure her, but no. She and Thor, at last deciding to stop pushing people away, fall in love all over again... and she dies, both of cancer and in battle. At least she dies well.

There's so much coolness here. New Asgard as tourist trap. Jane Foster becoming Thor, which I understand is based on a comic story after my time. Thor's look echoing Eric Masterson, which isn't. All those narrations by Korg. Tessa Thompson as the highly relatable Valkyrie. The fact that it's self-evidently necessary to take loads and loads of beer on a heroic mission, which is unquestionably true. Even the soppy ending is both earned and cool.

But, yeah, Russel Crowe as Zeus. With a Greek accent and a thunderbolt. That is certainly something to behold.

Gorr as a villain is similarly, I suspect, from comics after my time. But Christian Bale is superb, and the character's origin is magnificently done. Gorr's visual impression is absolutely extraordinary. And the sheer, existential horror of being told by your gods that they don't care about you, your place is to suffer for them without meaning, and the afterlife is a lie... wow. That's dark.

This is, of course, like the last Thor film, a comedy. Yet it simultaneously manages to function asa superb action film while tugging most effectively at the heartstrings. Utterly splendid.

What If... Ultron Won?

 "All those worlds. All that suffering. And you just watched?"

And that's more like it. Wow.

(Bear with me on Sandman: more Netflix issues!)

It's the penultimate episode, so of course they do something different with the format and end in a cliffhanger. It's nice how they very quickly show Ultron destroying all life on Earth, a nice touch being how quickly he dispatches Thanos... and takes all the Infinity Stones. Thus he destroys all sentient life in the universe... via montage. Then he's finished. and has no purpose.

Throughout all this he's opposed by Black Widow and an increasingly despondent Hawkeye, his wife and children certainly dead. Clint's death is brutally and emotionally bleak, followed shortly by Natasha, but Ultron has long since discovered theb Multiverse... and broken the fourth wall by challenging the Watcher. In a nice touch, he calls him "creepy"!

And so the Watcher must break his oath, in a way which nicely deconstructs the entire premise of the series in ways that, of course, the eponymous comic book did many times, but still packs a punch here. It's magnificently done.

What If... Thor Were an Only Child?

 "We never get to fire the nukes...!"

I think it's fair to say this is a lighter episode in both senses. Yes, it's light-hearted and yes, it's funny... but it's not that funny. And, as it's fairly lightweight in every other respect, having little of substance to say, it nearly needs to be funnier than it is in order to be more than ok.

The premise is that Frigga and Odin never adopt Loki, and Thor therefore develops into a bit of a frat boy, spending the whole episode partying on Earth.

The episode plays everything for laught. Countries are emblazoned with their names, as we see Thor hurl Captain Marvel from land named "France" to land named "United Kingdom". The characterisation and dialogue are funny; Jane Foster and Darcy are a great comedy double act. Yes, people act out of character for the sake of having witty lines and visuals, but an episode like this can get away with that.

This isn't unfunny. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just... well, ok.

The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: Adar

 "The sea is always right..."

Wow. This episode has blown it all wide open. We are suddenly immersed in charactewrs we know from The Lord of the Rings, both the novel(s) and the films. Last episode we had Gil-Galad. Now we find ourselves in Numenor, a name I recognise, a Western island kingdom. Yet Galadriel and Halbrand are introduced to Elendil, the captain of the ship, and his son is a cadet... Isildur. We know these names. My memory is shaky, but will not Aragorn cry into battle crying "Elendil"? Will not Isildur found the Kingdom of Gondor? This is epic stuff. I mean, yes, I read the appendices to Tolkien's masterwork. But that was in another century.

We have conflict. The people of Numenor fought amongst the elves but now hate them. Why? The king was deposed for suppoireting them. Oh, and we have the bombshell that Halbrand is the exiled king of the Southlands... and that Sauron is building a base there. Is this a proto-Mordor?

We have brutal enslavement of elves, including Arandir, by orcs who are certainly shown to be evil, but not stupid. Arandir proves himself to be pretty awesome...but has to face "Adar". Sauron?

Speaking of Sauron, I thought the stranger who appeared to the Hsrfoots was him. I'm now fairly sure he isn't, and another theory is correct. I Shall be discreet, though...

This episode is MUCH better. I'm very pleased.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

 "Dude, you're on fire!"

This film is, perhaps, a little slow at first. But it's slow for a reason and, as with anything written and shot by Vince Gilligan, it has real depths. For this is a characyer study of one Jesse Pjnkman, a man who has been enslaved and caged for months, and who is suffering intense PTSD at the start of the film. We have various flashbacks, all meaningful, all riffing on what's happening in the present day, one at the end featuring a welcome cameo for Bryan Cranston as Walter White.

But this is a film about how Jesse overcomes his PTSD to become a badass, and to have the chance to start a new life. We see the highly disturbing flashbacks of his life in captivity, and get to know at closequarters just how disturbing Todd is. It goes without saying that Jesse Plemons and, especially, Aaron Paul are magnificent.

It's a slow burn. This, crucially, is not an action film, and won't be enjoyed by those looking for one. But I'm watching it a mere couple of weeks after marathoning all of Breaking Bad. I know what it means to show such guts with those two fake cops; with that very particular vacuum cleaner salesman who can make one disappear; and that Wild West shootout.

Jesse grows so much as a character, if one sees this film as a continuation of Breaking Bad. Those two fake cops waste their money on girls and drugs in a way Jesse once did. But no more. He wants a new start, a new life in, er, Alaska. And he gets it.

This is a philosophical film, not an action thriller. Watch it with that in mind, and it's the perfect coda.

Queen Elizabeth II

 This is weird. More upsetting than this quasi-republican had expected. And more momentous and consequential to so many more people than I can appreciate.

The world isn’t divided nearly into royalists and republicans. There are lots of people, like me, who are less neatly defined. If a republican starts making points about why monarchy shouldn’t exist I’ll probably nod and say “yep” at every point until they’ve finished. Then I’d quietly ask them whether they thought our current generation of politicians were sufficiently honourable and sagacious to be entrusted with major rewrites to the Constitution.

That’s the point, really. Republicanism is fine in the abstract, but we don’t live in the abstract. We are not the Thirteen Colonies between 1783 and 1787. The world just won’t leave us alone for a few years while some Enlightenment intellectuals write us a constitution. The known is imperfect. But we cannot be sure that that the unknown will be better in our imperfect world.

We are where we are. The monarchy exists. The job of monarch exists. And Elizabeth II did it bloody well. For someone who has always avoided royal gossip like the plague, I’ll miss her, and I’m finding this strangely upsetting.

What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?

 "You believe the cure for human suffering is more suffering?"

This is a fascinating episode. Killmonger saves Tony Stark... so he remains a playboy and never becomes Iron Man, leading to so much stuff not happening. For much of the episode we have basically decent but still very playboy Tony Stark.

But that's not what this episode is about.

It's about Erik Killmonger, and his lifelong concealed rage. Rage against racism. Rage against colonial exploitation. A rage that leads him to use Ulysses Klaw while he remains useful but kills him as soon as he slips into very Sith Efrican casual racism redolent of those days, within living memory, when South Africa was not so civilised. 

Stark still tries to be a hero in the end, but Killmonger is a fascinating and complex character amongst many in a nuanced and highyly satisfactory episode that packs so much into half an hour.

It's great to hear the voice of Chadwick Boseman. He's in this a lot, and he must have been dying. Was he too sick to appear on film but determined to make as much of a mark as he could in the time he had left? A sad thought.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power- Adrift

 "The tides of fate are flowing..."

This episode, it has to be said, is a fair bit slower and less gripping than the promising opener. It really does drag, which is worrying. A slow pace is fine if you're having fun or lost in good characterisation, but a serious epic like this can't afford to drag. I hope this doesn't continue.

It's pity, as there's actually a lot going on. That strange tramp, fallen from the sky, being looked after by those Harfoot children... is he Sauron, or is this a bit of misdirection? Then there's this beautiful creation Lord Celebrimbor wishes to do... will this end up being the Nine Rings? The series title may, after all, be a clue.

Orcs, rot and entropy seem to be spreading into human and Harfoot lands, hence great migrations. Galadriel meets someone who finally challenges her in ways she may need. And Elrond learns a lesson in manners for those not so long lived as he, while we get to admire the drwarves of Khazzad-Dun, while secrets are kinted at.

There's a lot of good stuff here. But it all happened far too ponderously.

The Sandman: Playing House

 "I'm sure he's fine..."

This is, once again, rich and textured drama with much to say about dreams, both literal and in terms of ambition- Hal, whose ambitions were thwarted, quite rightly has words on that subject to say to Rose.

Yet drems, even nightmares, have dreams. Dream is too quick to believe all is solved when he "saves" Jed's night-time existence from Gault, who wishes only to give Jed some comfort as he is horribly abused in real life. She is punished by a hasty Dream, yet she has harsh and pointed worfds for him. All of us can change anf grow, even, I'm sure, if we are manifestations of abstract concepts.

Abstract concepts abound here. The nature of home. The temptations of dreams- for Jed, as the Golden Age Sandman, a nice touch, but also for Lyra, tempted into idyllic family life by the dreaming ghost of her dead husband. Drwams and ambitions versus the unambitious yet easy life.

Yet this is really about character- Rose, Jed, Hal, the whole wonderful Florida family. Dream, so kind to Rose and so unthinkingly cruel to Gault. Hal, who I hope comes to realise their dreams.

Loving this. Sadly,there';s not long to go.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power- A Shadow of the Past

"We thought our light would never dim..."

 Fear not: Netflix problems are now solved and I'll be carrying on with Sandman alongside What If. However, I absolutely had to add this rather exciting little series to my schedule. I'll alternate all three until I reach the point, very soon, where I'm only able to watch one episode a week of this. That's the forseeable future.

I knew very little of this going in except that it was set well before the Third Age- the First Age, presumably?- and based on those appendices to Lord of the Rings that I last read at a very young age. So it was pleasing to see how well made this is, and hoe epic it feels, beginning with a bit of narration from Galadriel herself on the early days of Valinor, the centuries-long war (no doubt Tolkien's allegory for 1914-18), and the slinking away of Sauron and his orcs, leading to Galadriel's obsession. Galadrielis the main focus here, the Cassandra who insists Sauron is still a threat yet seems to be ignored, but we see lots of visual Elven awesomeness. We also get much of a very young Elrond... and finally get to meet the legendary Gil-Galad.

We also have some human villages, with elves still seeing humans as tainted from their erstwhile loyalty to Morgoth. So it's an interesting twist to have an elf- Arondir- in love with a human, Bronwyn, both of them going AWOL to investigate disturbing portents from the East of disease and decay.

Finally, we have the Harfoots, progenitors of Hobbits, recognisable similar but just a little wilder and less technologically advanced, with Lenny Henry excellent as their wise and troubled leader.

There's a lot going on, but the characters are alrewady distinct and clear, and thisall feels very big indeed. I'm already enjoying this.

The Big Sleep (1946)

 "I don't slap so good around this time of the evening..."

I'm beginning, now I've seen enough 1940s film noirs to at least begin to have opinions about them, to bloody love them. Oh, some of the social attitudes of this film have dated a bit- see the quote. But the writing, the direction, the acting, the dialogue... these are real people, and the film feels somehow more modern and more grown-up than any modern film. Then again, William bloody Faulkner co-scripted.

I've read the original novel, but in another century. I remembered literally nothing so watched the film unspoiled, but loved all the Raymond Chandler tropes- the several femme fatales in this film; the witty dialogue; the fact that, should thinhgs be threatening tomfizzle out, a man with a gun will appear.

Yet the complex and very Chandleresque plot- at once intricate and probably improvised- comes across well on film. And the chemistry, and very unconventional romance, sort of, between Marlowe and Vivian Rutledge, is exquisite. But we know that Bogart and Bacall are always going to be sublime. It seems they were having an affair during filming. That's not surprising.

Martha Vickers deserves enormous praise too, though, as a decadent drug addicted spoiled little rich girl. She's extraordinatry. And so are the twists and turns of the plot. You can even forgive the film for featuring loads and loads of torrential rain.., in LA.

This film is superb. If you haven't seen it, do so. It really is that good.

Rashomon (1950)

 "It's not as thougfh men are reasonable."

I call it the Citizen Kane factor. A film can be pretty much sublime yet the hype is such that it cannot be lived up to. Incredibly, this is not the case here, much as the treatment of rape and misogyny is ambiguous... but even there we have wiggle room.

We have three contrasting narratives surrounding a rape and murder, confusing and philosophically troubling our two main narrators, stunned and downcast by their experiences as the rain splashes symbolically. The direction, this being Kurosawa, is excellent. Suspense, unease and uncertainty are constantly with us, somewhat but not quite akin to the grammar of a horror film in the cinematography, camera movements and, not to be underemphasised, the music.

All three narrative arise from trestimonies to unseen judges, and we see all from a judge's point of view, explicitly made to judge for ourselves. All contradict. All, bizarrely, confess openly to the killing. The rape is, well, not really treated by mediaeval society as something that matters, although the film sort of accepts its effect, although the treatment is extremelt troubling. In one, the husband hates his wife, rejects her and calls her a whore after the rape, making him no better than the rapist and a total piece of ****. The male narrators talk of women "leading them on" and display troubling attitudes- and most of the inconsistent narratives give a troubling account of the woman accepting her rapist and insisting on "manly" fighting to the death between the two men. This is, to say the least, uncomfortable.

Yet this can, I suppose, be seen as the attitudes of unreliable and misigynistic narrators. But perhaps I do the film too much credit. This is Japan in 1950, in turn recreating a mediaeval Japan.

I can't deny, though, that this extraordinary exploration of the sliupperiness of truth, of human dishonesty and self-deception rings very true today, as the deluded and incredibly stupid supporters of would-be tyrant Trump continue to lie and lie and lie.

What If... Zombies?"

 "Do you guys just not have horror movies in Wakanda?"

"We don't need them. We have American reality shows."

Bear with me with Sandman; technical difficulties with Netflix. The Marvel stuff will continue on schedule. I may choose to alternate it with something else for the duration, but anyway...

After last episode's seriousness, here we get a load of fun. It's nt very complicated plot-wise, just taking all the zombie tropes and running with them. I stopped reading comics all but completely n '93-94ish, with the odd exception, after being a pretty much full-on True Believer at that point: I discovered rock music. Hence I know little of the whole "Marvel Zombies" thing.

But this is enormous fun. The Point of Departure is simple, but makes sense: Janet Van Dyne was a zombie who infected Hank Pym in the Quantum Zone, and so on. We have superhero zombies. We have a crew of random motley surviving superheroes. We have the requisite heroic sacrifice from a heroic hero, in this case the Wasp. We have a mini-sanctuary with the Vision, rather cleverly, as being an android he's "not on the menu", but it turns out he's not to be trusted due to his love for Zombie Wanda. Nice twist. And nice use of the Hulk.

And of course we have a, well, maxi-sanctuary in the form of Wakanda, humanity's last hope, where the survivors head, hoping to cure zombie-ism...

After which zombie Thanos is waiting to snap. Nice twist, again.

This is fun, not too serious but that makes it no less witty nor clever.

Office Space (1999)

 "The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care."

It's a shame I waited so damn long to see this film. So long, in fact, that the office life it depicts is not really that of the present generation with its working from home, no office dress code and less use of printers.

This is, simply put, brilliant. It's interesting that this is the year before The Office and ploughs similar ground- albeit through the delightfully twisted mind of Mike "underappreciated because a lot of his stuff is animation" Judge. Yet it's extraordinary how low budget this film is, and how- Jennifer Aniston aside, for 'tis the 90s- there is so little star wattage. This film stands or falls by whether or not it's funny. And it is, by God.

We've all been Peter. I certainly was, circa 2003 to '05, only without the embezzlement, or the cubicles, which seem to be very much an American thing. But the petty office jealousies over things like staplers ring very true. And I love the concept of Peter ceasing to give a crap about work and suddenly finding his career in the ascendant; alas, the world isn't quite like that. 

The period details have dated. But the underlying points haven't. The gentle digs at the "I can't be bothered to pronounce your name" racism directed at Samir rings true. So do all those annoying microaggressions of management. Fortunately I'm now promoted just far enough for that not to be a part of my life, but I've certainly been there.

This film is exquisite. Watch it. And be glad it isn't 1999 any more.

Velvet Goldmine (1998)

 "I needn't mention how essential dreaming is to the character of the rock star."

It would be an exaggeration, perhaps, to say that rock 'n' roll is gay. The gayness of early '70s glam was not quite as prominent as portrayed here. Yet the LGBT+ness was present in real life as it was here- the New York Dolls; Bowie's (oops; Slade's) bisexuality; the whole damn aesthetic; Lou Reed having had that electric shock treatment to get rid of all traces of gayness, here attributed to Curt Wild, a character otherwise based blatantly on the rather less gay Iggy Pop.

It's a welcome perspective. And it's to be applauded that Todd Haynes, an American director, sees the importance of mudsic hall, as much as the blues, to British rock in general and Bowie in paticular. See also Ian Dury, Roxy Music (heard in this film) anfd the DNA of British punk and post-punk bands who may well know nothing of music hall. This is, I feel, an underexplored area. 

This is a glorious film, clever and directed with artistic confidence which nevertheless serves the narrative, however weird it may get. Obviously the narrative- a journalist researching how Bowie- oops, Slade- disappeared after faking his death, evokes Citizen Kane. That's no bad thing. The exploration of early '70s gay and general British culture are well done- a couple of old queens speak in subtitled palare. Vada that, me jolly old eek. Ooh, Mr Horne, etc. There are orgies. There's Angie Bowie- er, Mandy. 

Importantly, there are triumphant performances from jonathan Rhys Meyer and Ewan McGregor. Christan Bale, as ever, is a bit meh, but Eddie Izzard is superb as the quintessential rock manager.

And the whole thing is infused wth the spirit of Oscar Wilde, apparently a foundling deposited in 1854 by a flying saucer! His amulet of gayness is symbolic. Characters quote him at the drop of a hat. His aesthetic movement is echoed throughout,

This is a much, much more important and serious film than I'd expected to see. It's magnificent, an elowquent plea for the very important gay side of rock 'n' roll.

What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

 "Stephen, this path only leads to darkness and the end of this reality."

This episode is very good: a timey-wimey tale of another universe's Doctor Strange, one who lost not his hands in the crash, but his beloved Christine, and whose obsession to bring back his love eventually destroys the universe in exactly the sort of hubristic act we know Strange is pretty much capable of- that's the tension that makes the character so bloody good.

There's so much to enjoy here. Strange's desperate Groundhog Day moment as he attempts to save Christine again and again, only for every conceivable alternative to result in her death. The revelation that the Ancient One has split Strange into two. Strange's horrified realisation of what he has done. And, for the first time, an interaction with the inscrutable Watcher as he begs for help only to be told the Watcher, as ever, "cannot interfere".

Well, except when he can. I bet we will ultimately see that happen.

Overall this is an excellent bit of telly, full of heart and imagination. It is, perhaps, just a little too reminiscent of Steven Moffat's writing, particularly on Doctor Who, not to have been quite clearly influenced, but nevertheless I very much enjoyed this.

The Sandman: The Doll's House

 "It's trerrible. We know."

Watching this episode brought back long- repressed and surprisingly vivid memories of the comic book. It was, again, much more faithful than one might expect. Yet it didn't quite manage, despite being very good indeed and extremely well made, to quite match the source material. Of course, I wouldn't have noticed this had I not read the story in its original medium, but it was my impression nonetheless.

Still, this is very good telly. We start with Desire and Despair, very odd twins, inferring that they are behind much has gone wrong, but then we turn to the tale of Rose, bereaved and charismatic, as she searches for her long-lost little brother with her equally bereaved surrogate mother (loved the sudden revelation she'd been talking to her dead husband), and travels to London to find a great grandmother... who is still alive despite falling asleep in 1916 when Dream was captured, aged 12. Yeah. This made sense in 1989, but these days it's best not looked at so closely.

Loved the serial killer convention committee, attracting the attention of the Corinthian. Loved Stephen Fry as Gilbert. Loved the whole Florida family. In fact, I loved the characters, the narrative and the whole damn thing. It's just that, somehow, the comic was more poetic.

What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?

 "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to exit the donut."

Another intriguing, if very short, eposode here as Nick Fury has to deal with the original avengers (sans the still-frozen Captain America) being killed by a mystery baddie before the Avengers Initiative can take off.

It's clever- I like the use of Loki, and the twist at the end as he almost casually takes over Earth. I'm not sure about the Coulson jokes- its all a bit "ha ha, he's gay", but the reveal as to what the POD was is clever- it's Hope Van Dyne being killed in action for SHIELD, causing Hank Pym to go all unhinged and- nice touch- to don the mantle of Yellowjacket in a nod to the comics, this time thankfully without the domestic violence.

It's a shame not all the voice actors are the real actors, but these are big stars, not always available, and it's easier to use understudies for animation- although I hope the non-appearance of Scarlett Johansen isn't because of that massive mardy Disney threw at her last year.

A little rushed, then, but this is engaging enough.

Breaking Bad: Felina

 "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive."

We start with Walt, miserable and freezing in New Hampshire. Alone, isolated, off grid, trying to get a car to start and getting a police scare to remind him he's hunted. Oh, and he's dying. He's in a grim situation.

Yet, from this downbeat teaser, we get Walt visiting Albuquerque one late time like an avenging demon. The plan to eventually provide for his family is inspired, even if, like everything else, it's Heisenberg. It's Heisenberg who tells the truth to Skyler. It's even Heisenberg who touches his baby daughter for one last time, as even monsters love their children. But monsters can be terrible, and Heisenberg more than most.

I correctly predicted before the start exactly who would die in this finale. That doesn't matter. Poetically, Jack and his whole gang, Lydia and Walt all HAD to die. It was just a matter of how, and it was all realised with such brilliance, from the machine gun contraption in the boot to the dispatching of both Todd and Jack.

Best of all, of course, is Walt's phone chat with Lydia, casually and cruelly telling her that the reason she probably feels under the weather is the ricin (at last!) that he slipped her.

Walt and Jesse's final parting is meaningful, as is Jesse's joyful freedom. For Walt, though, there can be only one ending.

A perfect finale to a perfect television series. This is literally sublime.

What If... T'Challa Became a Star Lord?

 "You are very articulate for a duck..."

"That, Sir, is very closed-minded!"

It's fascinating, with a second episode, to see what is just format and what is not. Hence we see the same intro with the Watcher, equally effective. But then we see a fascinating tale of T.Challa, in many ways a batter and more beloved Starlord, who even convinces Thanos(!) to join the Ravagers, is adored by Yondu, and tries hard to reconcile Nebula with her father. All while acting as an interstellar Robin Hood, naturally... and co-opting his foes, as the wonderful first scene demonstrates.

Chadwick Boseman is, of course, superb. T'Challa gets to be a huge hero, ending universal poverty and freeing Howard the Duck to boot. There's just the minor inconvenience, after a happy family reunion in Wakanda, that the world is going to end because the wrong Star Lord was chosen. Bummer.

Yes, this is, like all of this series, a short half hour bit of fun. But I loved it.

The Sandman: The Sound of Her Wings

 "That's all there is, little one. That's all you get."

Yes, that scene... I'm a parent and it shook me deeply. I'm so glad they cut away before the mother's discovery of what had happened. But that's the point; death is taboo, and this episode faces it. The first half, covering the comic book issue of the same name, is actually almost entirely faithful to an original which can't really be improved upon. Kirby Howell-Baptiste, while not a goth, is perfect as Neil Gaiman's death: a lovely, caring person who finds meaning in easaing people's transition to the "Sunless Lands".

And that's the point; the Endless exist to fulfil their function. They are not gods, however aloof and arrogant they may seem. They are our servants, not our masters. And Dream, depressed after his recent triumph, gets a much-needed lesson from his very lovely older sister.

And then, after twenty minutes, we get to a faithful retelling of the tale of Hob Gedling, a man who is, essentially, seen to be cheerfully indisting, in a pub, that he will never die. As a resident of small town Leicestershire I could mardily point out that only in London, in pubs frequented by the likes of Chaucer, Marlowe and Shakespeare, do passing gods happen to grant immortality to ordinary blokes out of mere philosphical curiosity. But chips belong on plates, not on shoulders. And chips here in the provinces are both better and cheaper than in that London, of which I'm actually rather fond. Plus, I suppose, there are benefits to living in a part of the country where you can have an ordinary profession and yet own your own home. 

And perhaps two passing gods will do this for me sometime. I'm with Hob: life has its ups and downs; the downs are crushing. But life will always be rich and beautiful, and I will always want it.

So see you at the pub in 2122?

The New Mutants (2020)

 "I masturbated twice..."

We're not supposed to like this film, are we? It was the last Marvel film made by Fox but released after Disney bought Fox, hence monkeyed around a lot by exacys, cut to ribbons, unloved, released without fanfare, left to sink at an unprepared box office, in peak Covid.

Well, I really liked it. I'm not saying it's the greatest fuilm of all time- it's a little superhero horror coming-of-age film, a combination that works rather well- but it's a nice little film, much as I may have been swayed by the fact I went in with low expectations.

The horror works well. The Smiling Men are effective and it's directed well for scares in a way horror films generally aren't. The plot is clever, substituting a sinister corporate doctor for Professor X and making Dani' powers the A threat. Yet it hinges on yje five man characters- Dani (Mirage); Rahne (Wolfsbane); Illyana (Magik, of whose brother we hear nowt); Sam (Cannonball) and Roberto (Sunspot), all of whom came to the institution tragically via killing people with their powers, and are being secretly trained to kill. It's a nice bit of misdirection that they are not, in fact, in Xavier's school and the institution's supposed connection with the X-Men is a lie.

Yes, there's a focus on Dani, and up to a point Rahne and Illyana. But all five of them get to shine, This is a well-written, directed and acted piece of cinema, with visual hints at Bill Sienciewicz to boot. I love it. You probably haven't seen it. Please do.

What if... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?

 "Who needs a plan? I have shield!"

So Loki has unleashed the Multiverse. Branches now proliferate. So here's the first.

In alternate history (Google the fourm; it's an interest of mine) we have a phrase, the "POD" or point of divergence. Here, it's Peggy choosing to stay, and so becoming the Super Soldier instead of Steve... hence the Captain Carter in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.

This is huge fun. Captain America: The First Avenger plays out with Peggy as the hero- allowed to display the Union Flag, for some reason, by Americans of 1943, who would have been somewhat more ambiguous about us.

And it's wonderful. The romance between strong Peggy and War Machine weaking Steve, with a character that wins her heart. The Lovecraftian horror. I love this.

Loki: For All Time. Always

 "Only one person gets free will. The one in charge!"

Wow. This is huge. So suddenly there are branches everywhere, there's an array of Multiverses, and He Who Remains... no, that names a bit of a mouthful; let's give him a one syllable name such as, like, "Kang", because that's blatantly who he is, given his actions and backstory- is dead, but his variants will live on.

Kang is awesome, a deeply clever puppetmaster who is the man behind the curtain at a Citadel at the End of Time, so clever he can break the fourth wall and cheerfully show Loki and Sylvie the script of the scene they're in. He gets to say "We're all villains here". His Multiversal backstory is fascinating. He's eneormously charismatic. Yet his existence offers a horrible vision of free will. It cannot exist, or Multiversal War breaks out. Tyrannical, stutifying order vs. destructive anarchy. As Kang puts it, get rid of the dictator and... well, we all remember Iraq. Must it be either tyranny or Hobbesian chaos? Either way, the die is cast.

The debate, fight, kiss and betrayal between Loki and Sylvie is deeply moving in the end. So is the bitter parting between Mobius and Ravonna... and, indeed, the fact that Loki ends up back at the TVA, with no one knowing who he is.

Unsurprisingly, we get a second season. This is superb telly.

The Sandman: 24/7

 "The trouble with stories is, if you keep them going long enough, they all end in death, don't they?"

I realise that, currently watching the last episodes of Breaking Bad, I'm spoiled for superlative telly, and everything else looks distinctly inferior, pretty much. Yet, by any ordinary standard- although, as far as my quarter century memory can recall, it's reasonably true to the comic- this is a sublime episode of telly.

The premise is simple. John Dee (not that one) has Dream's ruby. And he goes to a diner, for a coffee, surrounded by a handful of perfectly ordinary people. On the surface, they are mundane and everyday, like us all. But scratch beneath the surface- and he does- and, like all of us, they have interior lives rich and as conflicted as any play by Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller.

Jogn wants an honest world. one without lying, including to ourselves. This leads to terrible violence and self-mutilation. It is hardly a happy world.

Because we need lies. They console us. We need the consolation of lies in this random, godless world. One day each one of us will die, and there is nothing beyond. Who can blame us for choosing not to examine that unsettling fact too closely?

This is sublime telly, quite different from previous episodes. Dream and Dee, wonderfully, are not the stars. We are.

The Green Hornet, Episode 13: Doom of the Underworld

 "My job is finished..."

And so the serial ends... suddenly, within twenty minutes, but with finality. The Hornet rather efficiently foils the plot to blow up the offices of the Sentinel, and then foils the baddies entirely by using cunning to turn them against each other. It's all nicely done, incredibly cliched in the best possible way.

There is comedy, with Jenks and Axford, and Miss Case gets to finally meet her hero and, as we might expect, swoon over him. There is much banter at the end. And yet the end of the racket is unexpectedly brutal and violent, as movie serials can occasionally be.

This is, however, the end to a movie serial of the superior sort. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and shall be bavk for more before long.

Loki: Journey into Mystery

 "Don't die isn't a plan. It's just a general demand of living."

Nice title. I love these subtle, or not so subtle, little nods.

Wow. This is a big, big episodes and I'm not even going to get started on all the hidden little artifacts around the void. We get loads of Lokis, one of which is Richard E. Grant in the original costime by King Kirby himself. The whole thing is enormous fun.

Then we get the simmering romance between Sylvie and Loki. More Miss Minutes, always a good thing. A frigging alligator Loki, one up on Walt Simonson's frog Thor. We get the revelation that the pruned aren't killed; they're sent to a bit of the far future beyond which we cannot see, and where a beast guards something beyond, something which may hold the secrets of the Time Keepers. Wow.

It's not just about the revelations, though, awesome though they are. The relationship between Loki and Sylvie is subtly and beautifully done, alongside the friendship between both of them and the relievingly not-dead Mobius, who will hopefully achieve what he sets out to do.

This is brilliant. So what lies behind the curtain...?

The Sandman: A Hope in Hell

 "I am hope..."

Why does Lucifer not just counter with despair, or nihilism, or some such dreary bollocks? Never mind; I usually tune out suring any but the quirkiest of fight scenes, but this one is so beautifully poetic- and, though I remember the comic book only dimly, I believe it's faithful, more or less. So is the evocative and myth-like scene with Nada, a woman he loves but has sentenced to Hell because he does not forgive her after ten thousand years. This is powerful stuff, like the ancient myths.

Meanewhile, John Dee, cynical, insane and troublingly powerful, meets Rosemary, a damaged yet kind and good woman. Yet this does not comfort us. Those masterful scenes of tension in the car and the petrol station, and his cruel killing of the shoipkeeper, show us he is capable of casual cruelty. So his casual kindness to Rosemary, even if it gives her immunity from harm, is merely a sign of terrible capriciousness. This man is dangerous.

I love the poetic depictiuon of Hell, even if it doesnt quite import the idea from the comic that the punishments of the damned arise from their own subconscious. I love the stoicism of Dream. I love the humanity of Matthew, although he's a crow. This is beautiful telly.

Breaking Bad: Granite State

 "Just so you know, this isn't personal."

Oh my. Where to start? Suddenly everything is going horribly wrong. Walt is still dying of cancer; chemo takes place in less than ideal conditions; he's forced to live in a shack in deepest, darkest New Hampshire (still a better fate than Saul, seemingly, destined for Nebraska, which this foreigner assumes to be the most obscure state in the USA- it's always the pretty much square ones), off grid, starved of company, unable to use his money or even send it to his family. Yes, Flynn is a good lad.

Also, Skyler is doomed. As Saul points out, she knows not where she is, and so she has nothing to trade. It all promises to be, as Walt (not Heisenberg; he even grows his hair), all for nothing.

Except he plans to kill Jack and all of his Nazi mates. My God, I hope so, after the slave labour for poor, despairing Jesse; the swastika tattoos; the callous murder of Andrea in front of Jesse. I'll say this now: Jack and his gang- including dead-eyed, evil Todd- are all going to die, like Walt will. I hope that amoral, cynical bitch Lydia dies too, but I suspect she won't.

And then we get the final betrayal, just when Walt appears to be ready to give himself up, as Elliott and Gretchen insult him on telly. One episode to go. I can't believe it. It will be quite the ride. This is how you do telly as art.This is Dickens. This is Thackeray. This is genius.

The Green Hornet, Episode 12: Panic in the Zoo

 "I got the Hornet..."

I'll get to the episode in a minute- it is the penultimate one, after all- but, yeah, zoos in 1940. This zoo looks, on the one hand, like a lot of fun- rides, stalls and all that good stuff, but on the other hand... yes, it's obviously stock footage, but those poor animals in those horrible cages. The cruelty is obvious. It's all, quite blatantly, also a health and safety nightmare. The past is, sometimes, a very foreign country. And yet we're meant to approve of Britt trying to protect the zoo by not publicising the "jinx". Wow.

This aside... there's nothing to particularly indicate that this a penultimate episode. It's just another instalment- cliffhanger hets resolved, the racket is dealt and so we move on to a different bit of extortion. Interswsting, though, that the baddies should finally realise that silencing the Sentinel may well be in their interests, but not that the connection with the Hornet is as close as we know it to be.

How on Earth are they going to end all this in twenty minutes...?

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

 "You can shovel ****, can't you?

The critics are wrong. This film is a masterpiece, and easily the best of the original Mad Max trilogy. Yes, as good as the first two are, especially the second, this film is truly great. 

Firstly, not that the previous film didn't, but this film utterly owns the post-apocalyptic aesthetic. It looks bloody brilliant, with the deserts of Australia being as much a star as any of the cast. This is also a profoundly Australian film, as are its predecessors. A nuclear holocaust would wipe out all of Europe, North America, and the Soviet Union near as dammit. Australia would survive, even if its civilisation wouldn't.

Ah, civilisation. That's the core of the film, and it's done without didactricism. Take Auntie and, incidentally, while one may not necessarily expect a singer to be worthy of such a role, Tina Turner gives an admirably nuanced performance as Auntie.

She's framed as the baddie, and is certainly hostile to Max. But is she really bad? After all, she made Bartertown, a genuine holdout of civilisation. Yes, it runs on pig manure, but, well, nice metaphor. And, much as I tend to be very libera in matters of justice and Auntie isn't, she hasn't the luxury of living in a civilised, industrial society. Even the sublime John Stuart Mill made an exception for such things. If Auntie hadn't provided the level of civilisation she has, wouldn't society, if that's the word, be quite Hobbesian?

It's an interesting contrast in post-apocalyptic political systems- back to basics- in that the antithesis of Auntie and her harshly enforced civilisation isa bunch of kids with great, poetic dialogue but basically a cargo cult.They get their plane ride; they get their city. But, somehow, I suspect it will be the Aunties of this wrld who ultimately rebuild civilisation. But, admirably, none of this is in any way didactic.

Profound, looks sperb, exciting, and overall just a bloody brilliant film.

Loki: The Nexus Event

"What an incredible seismic narcissist..."

This isan incredible episode, full of twist, turns and big, big reveals along all the timey-wimey stuff, starting with the sad reveal that Sylvie was kidnapped by the TVA when she was just a little girl to... yeah, that ending.

It's still all about character, though. Neither we nor Mobius stop pondering what makes the so-called God of Mischief tick, of whether he trult has fallern in love with his alternate self. Mobius too, who seems to be permanently "pruned" by Ravonna, his best friend, also gets quite the journey here as he tenaciously notes the things that don't add up and realises that Loki, for once, was telling the truth: everyone who works for the TVA is a mind-wiped variant. His death is dignified, yes, but deeply sad.

And then there's the revelation at the end: the "Time Keepers" are just a front. What's really going on? Who really runs the TVA? Whatever, it#s clear that Ravonnais right at the centre. This is getting pretty bloody gripping.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

 "This time it's gonna take more than killing me to kill me."

Well, thgis film blew me away. It's a huge fanwank treat. It's very Sam Raimi indeed. I love its continuation of the whole vibe of magic being really trippy, man, in the MCU, almost as thought it was some king of metaphor or something.

But, although very good, this film isn't great. It doesn't quite have the swagger and smooth greatness of the best Marvel films but- let me stress- this is no great critiscism. Merely being very good indeedcis no crime.

Plus, this film may be fanwank, but it's fanwank of the first degree. Rintrah! Clea at the end! A brief CGI hint of the Living Tribunal! Chthon! Earth 616!

But this is about the full realisation of the Multiverse- Black Bolt! Captain Carter! Reed Richards! Confirmation, for those of my generation, that Monica Rambeau is THE real Captain Marvel. And we have Professor X... played by Patrick Stewart"! This is a blatant tease about the former Fox properties, using the concept of the Multiverse to the full.

Yet this film is very human as well as high concept. We explore, through different realities, Strange's relations with Christine, and his rather lovely fatherly relationship with the orphaned America Chavez, presumably a comics character from after my time.

Yet also, after WandaVision, we meet Wanda... and she's the baddie, plausibly yet tragically: she's a loving parent, able to see her beloved children only through snatched, one dimensional, dreamlike moments which are better than nothing but no replacement for everyday physical parenthood. I get exactly where she's coming from. It means a lot that she does the right thing, in the end, through love of her children.

No, this isn't a great film. But just being bloody good is no crime.

The Sandman: Dream a Little Dream of Me

 "What's the point of you...?"

This is a pivotal episode and, as far as I recall, faithful to the comic. Much of it is set-up. Hence we're introduced to the splendid Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven, and we have those incredible scenes between Ethel and John, which are textbook examples of how to do exposition well, culminating in her sacrificing her life (aged 116!) so her son may have the Amulet of Protection, presumably an extended lifespan, and all sorts of powers... so naturally he kills a guard and escapes. He won't do anything bad, right?

We also have Mad Hettie (yay!), a princess marrying a demon footballer, and Meera Syal as a delightfully human vicar.

But, yeah, this is all about Jenna Coleman as a gender-swapped John/Johanna Constantine who, nevertheless, is the character. And yes; Coleman is significantly better than Keanu Reeves in the part. But this is a nice little chacter piece, with a nice and surprising little bond between Constantine and Morpheus. This is good telly.

So, off to Hell. Should be fun...

The Green Hornet, Episode 11: Disaster Rides the Rails

 "Six months? Give me six days!"

It's incredible how close we are to the end. Next episode is the penultimate one.And yet still we have an episode of the racketeers being caught with one racket and moving on to another, with set pieces and car chases to pad things out... yet things are padded out so well. This is so much fun to watch.

Two interesting pounts to note, though. The vote rigging plot is wrapped up so quickly- if only Trump's criminal anticsat trying to steal the 2020 election across the pond could be so easily dealt with- and we move on. This is accomplished through narrative by newspaper front page... and one headline shows the word "armoured" spelled with a "u" as per this side of the Atlantic. Did Americans go through a phase of being less  pernickety about Noah Webster's linguistic diktats in 1940?

The second is that there's a random German baddie, in an American movie serial made in 1940 by an industry in which Jewish men were able to enjoy a rare exercise of power, alongside those in the comics industry. It would be nice to think this was political.

Away from such very weighty matters, though, this is fun. It will be interesting to see if the penultimate episode feels penultimate, though...

Loki: Lamentis-1

 "What part of imminent death confuses you?"

This episode seems to take things in unexpected directions. Just as we seemed to be settling into a status quo of Loki working for the TVA and pursuing the alternate Loki... things take a different turn. And yes, it's just Loki and Sylvie (for that seems to be her name) getting to know each other while an adventure with an apocalypse happens around them, but it's fun, if not as good as its two predecessors.

It annoys me a bit when the episode proudly reveals that Loki is bisexual, and then expects to be congratulated for being so progressive. You know, people have sexual orientations, it's a mundane fact of life and should be shown as such. For a TV series in 2021 to reveal an ageless character is bisexual is routine. I mean, I'm straight, but I imagineif my lifespan was measured in thousands of years I'd at least be some degree of pansexual. So would you. This isn't bravery. It's not saying anything. I'd be impressed if they, I don't know, did an episode giving the finger to the rampant transphobia that seems to be coarsening our society these days.

That aside, though, this is a fun little two hander between Loki and Sylvie, and we get a little titbit about the TVA: all of their employees are variants. Wow. What other secrets do the Time Keepers have? And who is the mysterious Ramona?

The Sandman: Imperfect Hosts

 "He almost never murders me before lunch..."

After a deep and emotional first episode, the second episode feels curiously mythical, and deliberately so. Dream is reminded of his siblings in a way that in turn reminds me of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, which I love, and so does Neil Gaiman. Yet this masterpiece takes that influence and adds so much.

Dream is questing for his three artifacts which will restore his realm. He seeks cryptic advice from the Fates, advice which I'm sure will define the outline of the season. Yet against him is the Corinthian and the modern Ethel, an art dealer, and her son in his asylum... John Dee. And there's a name with alchemical associations.

Triumphantly, though, we have Cain and Abel, shown surprisingly faithfully to the comic book (as is the whole episode, if I rightly recall) and portrayed superbly by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry, whose speech at the end is profoundly moving. As is the sacrifice of poor little Gregory, a faithful pet put down.

Are we all pets to Morpheus, to e put down when needed? This is a fascinating protagonist, and a lushly superb, if short, bit of telly.

Breaking Bad: Ozymandias

 "What the hell is wrong with you? We're family!"

Having started my blog on this brutal and almost perfect piece of television, about how a man once lord of all he surveys who finds it all crumble to dust among the sands, with the above quote, I'll also now do something unusual and quote in full the eponymous poem from Percy Bysshe "the missus wrote Frankenstein" Shelley:

"I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” 

It's all so very apt, is it not?

It all falls apart. We begin with an opening scene from the old days, when Jesse and Walt were friends and Heisenberg was not a thing. But the ghosts of the past fade away to be replaced by the intensity of the present, as Walt- not Heisenberg, perhaps for the last time- pleads for Hank's life, yet Hank is the alpha male even in death, as Walt is humiliated by Jack and his gang of white supremacist scum. He is no longer the kingpin, forced to run away. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Things get even more intense as Marie goes on the warpath, thinking Hank has Walt just where he ewant him... and forces Marie to tell Flynn the truth, in deeply painful scenes. Flynn's reaction- like R.J. Mitte's acting- is very real. He's just a teenage boy, young and naive. His parents are not who he thought they were, and his world falls apart. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

And then we have the intensity of the final scenes, the altercation between Walt and Skyler with a knife as an appalled Flynn calls the police on his father. And Walt's phone call to Skyler- with police listening in- is classic abusive spouse. He's lost the plot- and helped Skyler inadvertently by making her collaboration seem like coercive control.

Then there's Jesse, having a very bad day. He dodges being killed only to be forced to work as a meth slave to stop his girlfriend and stepson being killed. Ouch.

Everything has changed. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. Two episodes left. Walt has lost everything, and even been rejected by his baby daughter. Ouch. As a dad, this hits home.

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Bedazzled (1967)

 "Good evening. I couldn't help noticing that you were making an unsuccessful suicide bid."

Peter Cook, possibly the funniest man who ever lived, had a glorious, if not always consistent, career. His personal problems, particularly with too much booze, meant he was never quite as prolific as we, his fans, would have liked. But everything he did touch turned to comedy gold.

Except, largely, in the sphere of cinema. It's a huge relief, then, that Bedazzled is one film at least (The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer is another) in which he gets the starring role and gets to showcase his talents playing the Devil, no less.

This is almost, but not quite, a portmaneau comedy in which Dudey Moore gets given seven wishes by the delightfully slippery Satan in which he tries to find happiness with the woman he loves, but there's always a devilishly clever catch that ruins everything. Yes, some material is recycled from sketches from Not Only... But Also, but who cares? Certainly not the BBC, who bloody junked most of it. And I don't care how gratuitous the Raquel Welch cameo may be, or how cheeky it may be to give her such high billing for five minutes.

The dialogue sparkles with wit and hilarity, and the central dynamic of Pete 'n' Dud shines throughout. This is one of the real greats of comedy cinema- too coherent to be a portmanteau, cleverly and hilariously scripted, well made and cinematic in scope while remembering that its purpose is first and foremost to be very, very funny. And it bloody well is.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

 "Gods don't have to choose. We take."

SPOILERS.

I've been waiting to see this film for a while, and it's a relief to have finally seen it. It is, after all, clearly quite big in being the first film (although Loki got there first, I believe) to establish ther multiverse. And it's bloody good.

For a film that literally links all the Sony Spider-Men and baddies to the MCU, quite an undertaking, this is a deeply witty and enjoyable film, chock full of actors, although they may have aged a bit. Alfred Molina has aged somewhat, but that's mitigated by the reaction of Peter, MJ and Ned to the name "Otto Octavius". Yet Jamie Foxx and Willem Defoe are awesome in their own right.

Tobey Maguire, though, and Andrew Garfield, deserve as much praise as Tom Holland and- indeed- Benedict Cumberbatch, who has conceded the title of Sorcerer Supreme to Wong by means of being dead for five years. That'll do it.

Despite the multiversal shenanigans, though, this is all about the characters. Spidey's reaction to May's death is heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as the fact that the conclusion has to revolve around everyone- including MJ- forgetting Peter. Ouch.

Yet, alongside the tragedy, and the blealk ending of everyone forgetting who Peter ids, threre's humour, which is very Spider-Man. And, while the late Aunt May is much nicer and much more relatable than in the comics, there's also J. Jonah Jameson, played superbly by J.K. Simmons, being a total ***. He's the real villain.

Yes, this probably won't stand up well to repeated viewings. But I love it.

All this and Matt Murdoch. So all them series are canon?

The Sandman: Sleep of the Just

 "We begin in the waking world, which humanity insists on calling the real world..."

For once I manage to blog the first episode of a hot new streaming serial on the day of its release- yay me. Even better, it's Sandman. I haven't read all of the sixty-odd issues of Neil Gaiman's late '80s masterpiece, thick with meaning, literary allusion and proper '80s goth aesthetic, but I've read enough of the early issues to cover all of this first season which, I understand, covers the first two arcs. And it does so magnificently. Gaiman has a previous triumph under his belt in terms of transferring a print masterpiece to screen magnigicently with Good Omens. He's only bloody gone and done it again.

This first episode looks sumptuous, and the casting is triumphant. Tom Sturridge seems born to play Dream, helmet perfectly realised. Charles Dance as the Magus is a captivating villain, for Dream literally so. I'm not sure the chronology quite works (Dream is captured in 1916 when young Alex is a child, but Alex and his partner Paul are both still alive when Dream is (quite magnificently) freed after "more than a century" of captivity?), but the epic tale of Dream's capture and eventual escape is gripping telly, not only because of the concepts but the very real characters and their nicely drawn relationships- Rodericks cruelty to second son Alex after his first son dies at Gallipolli, or Ethel's fury towards the man who dares presume to decide whether or not she will keep her baby.

The Corinthian is a deeply disturbing villain, an escaped nightmare who seems to take the eyes of his victims, but many of these characters we shall see grow and grow in this questlike, epic and- yes- dreamlike piece of brilliance.

The Green Hornet, Episode 10: Bullets and Ballots

 "They are repeaters!"

Another episode and, after briefly pausing to resolve the cliffhanger, another racket: this time stuffing ballot boxes in order to rig an election, just like Donald Trump and his fellow vote riggers in today's USA, although their methods are of course quite different, more insidious, and more blaantly racist. Indeed it is, er, the land of the free.

This vote rigging, though, is very 1940, with the "repeaters" (very odd word, but Britt uses it in a newspaper headline so presumably it was current) driving around in cars with their hats and their guns, like a vote rigging Al Capone. It's all good fun.

And then the Green Hornet is driving a long a cliff edge and is blown off it. Bet they re-edit that a bit next episode.

This is all, as ever, just a succession of plotless set pieces. But what set pieces they are...

Pistol- Track 6: Who Killed Bambi?"

 "We'll always have Huddersfield..."

It's perfect, after all the distressing events of the episode, to finish with the Pistols' benefit gig, on Christmas Day 1977, for the children of desperate striking firefighters. Despite all else that happens, it's a moment of strange innocence, with even Sid being kind to children and John showing his moral side, much like his refusal to have anything to do with that *** Ronnie Biggs.

All else is tragedy. Sid and Nancy, two damaged and co-dependent kids who were just kids, really, meet their horribly tragic demises. Malcolm shows himself to be an inhuman ***, both ij the opening scene and in how his cynical manipularion leads to such tragedy. Punk has no need for svengalis: it's about how ANYONE, with just three chords, can write good songs, rule the world and mean something far more significant than all that Situationist fatuosity.

It's right, and meaningful, that Sid's death should be counterbalanced by Chrissie's deserved success. It's also nice to have that well-written final conversation between Steve- the protagonist here- and John, about the cynicism of Malcolm and how John need not bear that burden of all that stupid Catholic guilt about Sid.

Malcolm is the true villain here.Should Hell somehow exist, let him rot in it. Sid and Nancy (Rockets Redglare killed her) were such children. They're all so bloody young. Heroin and cutting yourself is not rock 'n' roll.

The Pistols gave us such incredible music, musi that I love. But at what price? And how many died for it? Is art worth the suffering?

That is, I suppose, the perennial question. We are, I hope, well past the age of glamourising death and mental illness in the name of rock 'n' roll. But we can't deny its worth as art. Still, is it worth it?

Danny Boyle, you have created a serious work of art from a subject matter that needed it. Thank you.

Breaking Bad: To'hajilee

 "Don't drink and drive. But, if you do, call me."

Wow. This is one of the most intricately plotted episodes of television I've ever seen, with all the interlocking pieces of the elegantly structured plot balanced out perfectly as we see the intertwining of two intertwining yet opposing plans- one from Walt, the other from Hank and Jesse- in a zero sum game in which they try and destroy each other...

Yet we end with a chaotic shootout which neither side wanted and neither side can control, ending in the ultimate cliffhanger. Will Hank survive? His emotional last phone call to Marie is ominous. There's no status quo now. No one is safe. Walt is dying, it's just a question of how soon, and desperate. And the acting is, of course, as superlative as the writing (and directing, much artier this week), with Cranston, Paul and Norris worthy of particularly high praise.

Yet there are also signs of things breaking down for poor Lydia without Walt, whose absence is crashing the quality of meth with uneducated criminals taking the place of a first class chemist. Things fall apart everywhere. No centre, it seems, can hold. The last fifteen minutes, certainly, show is that we are now approaching the end, and anything can happen.

Breaking Bad is better than ever. Also, it's very nearly over...

Loki: The Variant

 "Luckily, he believes in himself enough for both of us..."

This second episode has me fascinated. The whole concept of this limited series is suoerb. We take a variant Loki from an already-established divergent timeline and plonk him into the TVA, a concept of Walt Simonson's where everyone (just Owen Wilson here) looks just like the late Mark Gruenwald, which is so well-established here, as a 1960s office environment rather less glamorous than Mad Men.

Thus we have philosophical, timey-wimey issues of coolness. We get fascinating, abstracxt conversations between Loki and Mobius about predestination and free will. We, like Loki, are left wondering what is the bacstory behind the Time Keepersa. Even more, we non-Amewricans are left wondering about, like, what the hell is this Rennaissance Fayre insanity?

But it's all about the variant, a veraion of Loki who seems badass. And Loki's own mor=tives. What are they? Everybody's playing thirty-seven dimensional chess, and I love it.

Also, Loki is pretty damn good at paperwork!

Dad's Army (1971)

 "And I must ask you to keep your hands off my privates...".

Obviously, this film isn't ever going to be as funny as the TV programme, which I'll prpbably never blog, fuzzy thoiugh my principle of never blogging sitcoms may be. Films, being directed differently and, in this era, on film instead of video, are not directed for comic effect in the same way as a contemporary sitcom episode.

Despite this, the film is bloody funny.

A lot of this is, of course, down to all the familiar characters, well-established by 1971. The opening scenes establish this so well, as Mainwaring walks to the bank in the morning and greets the townsfolk.

It's amazing to ponder that 1971 was fifty-one years ago, and that old people at that time- such as John Laurie and Arnold Ridley- would have been born in the century of Victoria. The cast is superb, as much as the script, as ever with Dad's Army, is the best kind of farce, entirely based on well-developed character.

Yet this is, too, a fascinating historical document, chronicling the events of 1940 through ordinary people. And the ending- where Mainwaring is a genuine, bona fide hero- is both superb and something we'd never see on telly. Mainwaring may be a pompous ass, but he's no coward and, indeed, as brave as any western hero. Such is the complexity of life.

I love the constant comical friction with Bernard Archard's general. I love that this is a rather well done origin story. I love the whole bloody thing. Cinematic versions of sitcoms didn't often succeed in this era. But this certainly does.

The Green Hornet, Episode 9: The Hornet Trapped

 "You're a rotten shot, Michael!"

And so we continue, seemingly no closer to the end, but this time with the focus not so much on the racketeers- although Lynch is killed, after leaving evidence in a waste paper basket after drawing a picture of a waste paper basket for Britt Reid to fing, which, er, makes no sense- but on the continuing hunt for the Hornet.

And so we end up with an exciting but fast conclusion, following a strangely slow episode,in which everyone- including Reid!- sets out to find the Hornet. It's all very exciting, and in no well feels like the pllot doggy-paddling it assuredly is at this point because the set pieces, this being a movie serial, remain splendid.

This is also a rare glimpse into how Britt Reid must get very few hours sleep per night, with his double life. He ought towatch it. Thatcher famously needed only four hours per night, and I understand this is considered the reason for her dementia. Lack of sleep in healthy neither for superheroes nor milk snatchers.