Better Call Saul: Alpine Shepherd Boy

 "Hey, I'm not the one with the sex toilet..."

The sex toilet scene is, of course, utterly bloody hilarious. It's not often I laugh out loud at the telly, but I ceertainly let out a bit of a guffaw tonight.

Anyway, Jimmy's exploits last episode have drummed up business, but not necessarily the right business. We get the sex toilet. We get this weird right wing nutjob who wants to secede from the USA, something which has historically gone very well indeed. It's a light-hearted sequence, leading to him 

And then things aren't light-hearted at all as we discover more about Chuck, and his delusions that any electromagnetic devide will make him ill. This is a big reveal, and shows the horrible situation Jimmy is in. He really should get Chuck cmmitted, but it would feewlmlike a betrayal, and Chuck would see it as such.

Worse, it's Chuck's moral principles that are keeping the Slippy Jimmy instincts at bay. I strongly suspect Chuck is not long for this world. After the humour, we get potential real darkness.

And then the coda, with Mike. It seems we're about to learn more about him. Love the fact it's the same house and even the same cafe.

Utterly sublime, as ever.

Robo Vampire (1988)

 "Since Tom's dead. I'd like to use his body to make an android-like robot, Mr Glenn."

Oh dear.

This is, let's be clear from the start, a bloody awful film. Yes, the dialogue is awful. And it's awful throughout. See "Listen, we must find a way to handle Tom, that goddamn anti-drug agent." Yes, marvel at the crude, "as you know, Bob" exposition.

The poster, of course, in no way invokes RoboCop, released the previous year. But the film isn't so much of a straight rip-off as a mish-mash of bonkers ideas. It is,indeed, a series of set pieces and bonkers dialogue. One cannot help but love its un-selfconscious rubbishness.

I mean, there are "Dao vampires", who jump like rabbits and serve the Hong kong drug lords for some reason. That there is a ghost who resents that she has been denied afterlife with her beloved and vows revenge with gloriously terrible dialogue... "You can kill us, but not until our love is consummated".

Yes, quite. Such naturalistic dialogue..

She then proceeds to work for the baddies in return for marrying her vampire beloved. And it can't be stressed how terrible said vampires look.They have Rice Krispies on their faces, and  the jumping about is... yeah.

I thought this film would be enyertaingly rubbish. I mean, it's by Godfrey Ho, rhe king of dun B-moviesa, But... wwll, this fulm does havew many entertaninglynrubbish moments. But I cannot ewmphasise how shite it is,

If you much watch this film, prodigious quantities of alcohol are utterly essewntial. Teetotalers shouls avoid at all costs.

Cronos (1993)

 "You're going to Heaven covered in make-up. Your wife will think you've been with a whore."

'Tis the weekend before Halloween, so a horror film seems appropriate. And it's been a while since I've blogged a film by the great Guillermo del Toro, so here's an early film of his, indeed his first. And... yes, it's bloody good.

This is, at heart, a vampire movie. Yet it takes the simple idea, puts it among real people with real emotions and relationships in a very real Mexico City, and explores it from a new angle, as a type of immortality invented by a late Renaissance alchemist who fled to Mexico in 1536.

Unusually, the protahonist, Jesus Gill, is an elderly grandfather who sells antiques and dotes on his little grandaughter who, as the film progresses, becomes increasingly creepy through no fault of her own. His path to vampirism is both real and moving, because of both his love of family and his religiosity.

The baddies are believable too- a desperate old man seeking rejuvenation before his cancer kills him, and his put-upon thug of a nephew played superbly- if not really in Spanish- by Ron Perlman. Yet this is, at heart, despite the effective horror set pieces and ideas- I love the use of insects- this is a film with a lot of heart, above all about the bond between a grandad and his orphaned grandaughter.A unique, excellently shot and inspired debut from a director who will go on to do other great things.

Moon Knight: Summon the Suit

 "She said I needed a suit."

"Yeah, the ceremonial armour from Khonshu's temple, not psycho Colonel Sanders."

This second episode is, like the first, absolutely bloody brilliant.

We learn, alongside Steven, a little more. It seems that Marc is the champion of Khonshun, an Egyptian god of justice who bis kind enough only to punish the guilty after they've committed theit crimes. Arthur Harrow, it seems, is his predecessor but has now turned to serving Ammit, a goddess who kills potential evildoers beforethey commit their crimes. It's an intriguing concept; as Arthur shows Steven, it can lead to a utopia without evil... exzcept for the evil of killing those who are as yet innocent. Including, as Steven points out, children.

We meet Layla, Marc Spector's wife... and she needs quite a while to realise that Steven is not just Marc putting an act. So Marc's wife, whom he seems to be divorcing, has no idea who Steven is. How long, I wonder, has the Steven persona existed?

Steven reacts as well as can be expected to having his consciousness taken over, resisting Marc angrily and consistently until he has no choice. But is Marc a murderer? What will now happen as we shift from London, Cairo?

I'm hooked. I'm REALLY loving this.

Andor: Announcement

 "Watch your back..."

And so we have the aftermath. Luthen got what he wanted: the Empire has been rattled. On the one hand, some are inspired to resistance, such as Maarva. She refuses to leave with Kassian, inspired to work with the Resistance against the Empire.On the other hand, we have a crackdown. Hence Andor returns home briefly home to find Stormtroopers everywhere. And then, as an anonymous rich tourist, he is arrestedand sentenced to six years on trumped up charges.

Such is totalitarianism. And that's the side of the Empire that Andor shows so well. No Jedis. No magical thinking, just the hard moral choices one must face while living under tyranny. Some, like Mon Mothma, try and undermine it from within, but take enormous risks. The stakes are high. 

I see many parallels with Iran today- death to the dictator. Women, life, freedom! And with Russia- may Putin die horribly. Living under tyranny, it iseasy to conform, as Maarva kindly admits to Kassian; she makes no mora judgement. Why rebel if it means your kids will suffer? Such is the harsh reality. Yet brutality begets resistance. And glorious revolution.

I love the secret service intrigue on Coruscant, too, with Dedra this time getting the upper hand. But this is all very much Gestapo on Trantor. And I'm loving this very political approach to the Star Wars universe.

Moon Knight: The Goldfish Problem

 "There's chaos in you..."

Oh my. This is brilliant. And also bloody bonkers.

My era for Marvel comicswas the '80s and early '90s, but I didn't really read any Moon Knight. My only experience of the character was a few issues of West Coast Avengers by Steve Englehart where he was part of an ensemble cast. So I'm pretty much unspoiled and won't get any of the references, for once.

The concept is brilliant. Steven Grant is a harmless, put-upon gift shop employee in the British museum who keeps having blackouts... and goes to extreme lengths, such as restraining his feet, not to go sleepwalking. This last bit, as well as the opening with Arthur Harrow putting broken glass in his shoes(!) is disturbingly kinky.

Ah, Arthur Harrow, disciple of Ammit, who can judge people with his moving tattoo of a pair of scales- and the goddess will kill them if they turn out to be bad... over the whole of their life. Past, present and future. A fascinating concept, and Harrow is a fascinating character. 

This is the perfect opening episode, with ius discovering things alongside Steven, and Ancient Egyptian themes everywhere. We wake up with Stephen in strange places, experiencing the car chases, the confusion, the monster in the museum. We get hints of "Marc"... and then, at the end, we meet him. He looks awesome...

Wow. Just wow.

Andor: The Eye

 "We win, or everyone dies..."

As expected, this episode is full of tension and entirely concerns the heist, which is more or less a success, albeit not without some hairy moments, nor is it without tragedy. The episode is brilliantly shot and extremely exciting, with Andor actually taking something of a backseat until the latter part of the episode. This is very much an ensemble piece.

And there are lots of ensemble case moments. Poor, young, idealistic Nemik dies for the cause. Skeet, so seekingly principled, turns out to be a mere mercenary, far more cynical than a disgusted Kassian, who just shoots him. Vel turns out to be nervous, but reliable when in the swing of things. Taramyn is a former Stormtrooper. This is a well-characterised gang of individuals.

We get the sense of what a big deal this rebel raid is, too. The Empire israttled. Mon Mothma, in the Senate, gets the coldest of shoulders. It's clear that a big crackdown is coming.

And Andor is alone again, off into the galaxy with his share of the loot. I won't pretend I'm a fan of non-stop acion, but this was very well done. Most importantly, it did not neglect the characters. For an episode full of bangs, this was not bad at all.

Hawkeye: So This Is Christmas

 "Is this what heroes do? Arrest their mothers on Christmas?"

It's interesting watching this season finale the day after an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Doctor Who finale. But Hawkeye was in no way overshadowed.

Much of the episode was a big, fun, set piece Christmas party battle, with trick arrows, owls, LARPers, falling Christmas trees and... the actual bloody Kingpin. Wow. Vincent D'Onofrio is exacrly as superb, in the same way, as we've seen, but in another context. No way does he die. No bodies are seen.

Yet there are so many character moments. Kate is such a hero. Her whole privileged life is based on immoral acts... so she abandons it, in a heartbeat, hard though it is. Because kit's the right thing. Her mother is an unrepentant gamgster and criminal who isn't very good at gaslighting... so she gets her arrested. Hard, so very hard, but the right thing. Also, she's awesome in a fight. And this time more tactical. And Clint is, by now, impressed. So much so that I suspect he sees a successor in her, accepting her as a partner and inviting her to spend Christmas with his family. And she's made very welcome, bless her. 

Kate's confession to Hawkeye about her childhood glimpse of him is cute. And the scene between Clint and Yelenba turns out to be far more heartwarming and less murderous than we might expect. The rapport between Kate and Yelena is awesome too.

And we even get a musical number at the end.

This is really rather good. Not top tier telly, perhaps, but well characterised and acted. I enjoyed the episode and I enjoyed the series.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor

 "We could call this the Master's Dalek plan..."(!)

I love the line above. A nice little fourth wall breaking riff on a story that was televised fifty-six years ago and three quarters of which no longer exists.

Anyway, before I proceed to, yes, praise this epic story by Chris Chibnall (yes, I know), let's just briefly acknowledge that it makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, yes, I can dig the Master getting Daleks and Cybermen to join forces against the Doctor a la The Pandorica Opens... but get them to share ownership of Earth as a foundry for their respective races? Nah. Also, the Doctor is about to regenerate so she effectively tells Yaz to naff off?  That's cold, even though the script tries to pretend it isn't. What happened to their romance? Dan's departure seems forced as well.

And yet... it works. It's entertaining, it made me laugh, it made me cry. It contains everything but the kitchen sink, and the TARDIS full of the Doctor's "extended fam" at the end even outdoes Journey's End. Yet it works, all of the characters get room to breathe without outdoing Jodie on her swansong. Even the glimpses of past Doctors- David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann- are nice bits of fanwank, but kept in proportion.

And there's a lot of fanwank here. The Companions Anonymous meeting at the end is outrageous. I mean... Mel, Jo, bloody IAN CHESTERTON: William Russell will be ninety-eight next month. Yet, emotionally, it works.

Oh, and who's shipping Ace and Graham? Because Chibbers is.

Ace and Tegan are pitch perfect and absolutely joyful to see. With Tegan, she's the mouth on legs we love so much, brave hearted, wonderful, missing Adric. With Ace we have the jacket, the Nitro 999(!), and even the bloody baseball bat. Ace is absolutely herself, middle aged yet absoklutely the same teenager we know and adore so much. And both of them get to meet their Doctors, courtesy of plot necessity. 

Tegan's line to Yaz- "We used to be you, decades back" is a delight.

And I can't believe the early scene of the Cybermen being demagnetised into space isn't a nice little reference to The Moonbase. I love Ace's shock that Cybermen are now explicitly no longer vulnerable to gold. It's about time that was cleared up.

Sacha Dhawan is superb as the Master. His performance here- ever gaslighting and playing with our heads- makes him a serious contender to be the best Master ever. Yes, possibly better than Roger Delgado, John Simm, Derek Jacobi, even Michelle Gomez. And it cannot be denied that the Master, as Rasputin, in 1916, playing Boneyb M's "Ra Ra Rasputin" is one of the greatest televisual moments ever. The idea of Rasputin's hold over the Tsar and Tsarina being due to the "I am the Master, you will obey me" thing is genius.

But we end with the regeneration. Which, despite the rather forced departure of Yaz, is very well handled indeed. Jodie Whittaker is superb. She and Yaz get one last date and one last ice cream. It's just a shame they didn't kiss.

And then she does indeed, as rumoured, regenerate into David Tennant. Yet it's clear this is not a degeneration but a new incarnation with an old face. Tennant's dialogue is, of course, predictably amusing, but that's what RTD intended.

This was not without its flaws. It's possible that I may revise my opinion downwards in future; that happens with Chibnall scripts. But this episode was a joy.

We end with a preview for next year. Ncuti Gatwa is in it... and he's playing it Scottish?

The Thing (1982)

 "I'm trying to get some sleep. I was shot today."

Yes, it's absurd that I'm seeing The Thing for the first time in 2022. I suppose I have half an excuse that I saw thiis asa kind of remake of The Thing from Another World, and had to see that first, but even so.

This film is superb, basically. Not because it reinvents the wheel; it doesn't. It's a very straightforward base under siege story, where the entire cast spends the film paranoid, ascanyone could be the unnamed alien creature. The creature looks amazing; Alien has had a definite influence. There's a character called Fuchs. Titter.

But, essentially, this film is as good as it is pretty much entirely because of John Carpenter's first class direction. That's pretty much it. The way he shoots the snow; the way he shoots the shadows. The sheer bloody tension that anybody could be this shape-shifting alien. This gloriously slimy, '80s alien aesthetic that never stops being awesome, and is splendidly pre-CGI.

The film is entirely set, barring a brief expedition to some dead Norwegians and a millennia-old flying saucer, in and around one compound in Antarctica, full of central heating, booze, weed and a computer version of chess that I swear I once played on the Acorn Electron. The ensemble cast makes the film almost as much as the direction, but obviously Kurt Russel deserves special praise. Yes, it's a sausage fest, with no oestrogen to be seen and the Bechdel Test failed spectacularly.

This film doesn't do anything radical. It just does jump scare sci-fi horror really, really, really well.

Andor: The Axe Forgets

 "Who brings a treasure to a robbery?"

This episode is brave and interesting. We finished the last instalment poised to execute a heist... yet we slow down and examine the characters before vthe heist, with Andor being distrusted until he admits he's being paid. The character dynamics are excellent. This is bloody good, a slow burning series that develops its characters.

We further explore the relationship between Mon Mothma and her toxic husband. Syril Karn, at rock bottom and humiliated, is about to be found a new job by his equally poisonous mother. It's clear that he will clash with Kassian again. We learn why Lieutenant Gorn has turned against the Empire- love has made this fundamental everyman realise that he is serving evil. He is like many a colonial soldier. Colonialism is a clear theme.

We have a brief look at the rivalry between them two imperial officers on Coruscant. Yet the meat of the episode consists of Andor experiencing friction with his comrades, and we, along him, get to know them.

This is slow, considered, bloody good telly, and, for Disney Plus stuff based on Star Wars, it's nothing like The Mandalorian. I'm loving it now. I'm confidient I'm about to love it even more.

Hawkeye: Ronin

"Kate, this is not cutlery."

This is a bloody brilliant episode. Yes, there are revelations upon revelations, but after last episode we see Kate deflated at Clint's rejection of her, until she's ultimately determined to, er, reject his rejection, and he ends up saving Clint, as Ronin, from Maya, genuinely saving him. She even has her escape route planned. Nice one.

And Clint seems to accept her. He's very much worried, though, hinting that the Tracksuit Mafia is much bigger than Maya, that there is a "Big Man" behind the scenes, gunning not only for him but also for his family. Yet he has revelations for Maya, too, about who killed her father...

Families are very uncertain here. We learn that Yelena died when Thanos snapped his fingers, only to instantaneously return after five years, her sister dead and very much blaming Clint... why? Her conversation with Kate is delightful. Florence Pugh and of course Hailee Steinfeld both excel. Yet we also have a final bombshell... Kate's mother seems to be the one who hired Yelena. Well then. And it seems her boss is... Kingpin.

Yes: Kingpin. As in Daredevil. As in the Netflix shows now appear to be canon...

Andor: Aldhani

 "To put a real stick into the eye of the empire... and get paid for it."

And all has changed. The preamble is over. Sybil Kane- who will be back- and his gang of pathetic corporate toy soldiers are all sacked, while Kassian and Luthen are off into lightspeed. There's a nice early ideological exchange between them- the grizzled idealist versus the bitter, burned cynic- but Andor agrees to take on this desperate mission, a heist, with Vel and her gang of deserate desperados, whom we will no doubt get to know over the coming episodes.

We also get a good look at Coruscant, presented here as a kind of cross between Trantor and Nazi Berlin. We see Anton Lesser, charismatic as ever, as a kind of cynical yet efficient Gestapo chief, with two underlings jostling for power under him. We shall see more of them.

We also meet our old friend Mon Mothma, a young senator involved with rebel circles... and her politically cynical husband. It's like a Guardian reader having to be married to bloody Suella Braverman. A woman far more evil than the Emperor himself.

Tbhis is bloody good. Andor's slow start was the foundation. Right now this is pretty much perfect.

Inside Man: Episode 4

 "How does anyone ever get murdered? There's so much admin!"

There so much about this episode that's great. The above line and, indeed, most of Mary's dialogue, which straddles that line between humour and horror. The way a random woman gingerly steps over the trail of blood after Mary is run over. Mary's desperate and almost comical confrontation with Beth. Poor Ben, Harry becoming increasingly unhinged. Grieff's slow acceptance of his fate. That surprising coda with Janice asking Grieff to help her to murder her husband.

But, surprisingly, we aren't told why Grieff killed his wife. Sequel hunting, or a statement that some things are unknowable, as Grieff tells Harry his usual monologue about how all of us, given sufficient desperation, are potential murderers? Probably the latter., as Grieff is, by his own admission, somewhat pressed for time.

This is a satisfying, entertaining finale, with exquisite performances from, in particular, Lyndsey Marshal, Stanley Tucci and David Tennant. Most of all, it's satisfying, in this final episode, to see how Steven Moffat can write himself seemingly into a corner and then seamlessly out of it. Good stuff.

Better Call Saul: Hero

 "Human slavery. So..."

Mrs Kettleman, you are David Brent and I hereby claim my £100.

This is another intriguing and transitional episode. We begin, appropriately, with a highly entertaining flashback with Slippy Jimmy and a mate participating in a con. And then, in the present day, in direct contrast to the Kettlemans' incredible stupidity- as Jimmy moans about to the ever-impassive Mike- Jimmy pulls off an intricate scheme to get at Howard Hamlin while significantly drumming up business. Not a bads day's work. And another very clever episode. It's a real joy to see Jimmy's schemes play out and to try and work out what he's up to.

Chuck finds out, though. Oops. It's an extraordinarily well-directed scene as he puts on his foil and ventures outdoors. I'm sure we will soon find out precisely what the problem is, and more of Chuck's backstory.

Most of all, though, I have to praise Bob Odenkirk. He's always been grear as Jimmy/Saul, but the character has become much more nuanced for his own show, and Odenkirk carries this with real aplomb. Better Call Saul is already easily as good as Breaking Bad.

The Lords of the Rings- The Rings of Power: Alloyed

 "He is not Sauron! He is the other! He is the Istatr!

Where to begin? This first series has struggled at times. Yet, having seen the whole design, IU'm full of admiration for its construction. The number of huge moments in this finale was staggering- not least the singing of "one Ring to Rule Them All" during the closing credits. 

It must be said, before we get excited about the revelations, that the episode is extraordinarily well directed by Wayne Yip, in every way fit for a finale.

We begin, cleverly, with a nice bit of misdirection: those three evil women from last episode hail the Stranger as Sauron and, well, that's that. Nori and the other Harfoots who went after him are doomed. He is the Dark Lord.

Except... he isn't. He's a wizard, it's explicitly stated. I'm guessing Saruman. And he saves the Harfoots, except poor Sadoc.And we end with Nori accompanying him on a quest for next season.

And then we have a bigger shock. I suspected Halbrand may not actually be the King of the Southlands... but he's Sauron! I had not a clue. This is very, very clever.

We also have what looks like the ruin of Numenor. The Queen and Elendil pledging to go on to the end. And, of course, the triumphant forging- visually brilliant- of the first three rings by Celebrimbor. This will save the elves in Middle Earth.

Yet it was Sauron who made the suggestions that made this happens. Sauron who now rules in Mordor. In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie.

The Imitation Game (2014)

 "You just defeated Nazism with a crossword puzzle..."

I've been waiting to see this film for years. It's very good: Alan Turing deserved a biopic, amd he needed to wait until an age where homophobia, if not cured, is at least disapproved of by the law. If only we could say the same of transphobia.

Benedict Cumberbatch is extraordinary. Keira Knighlley is good. Allen Leach is subtly superb as John Cairncross, a Soviet spy and one of the Cambridge Five. Bloody traitor, and blackmailer to boot. His development is very clever indeed. Mark Strong is perfect casting as Stewart Menzies, or C.

This ois a fairly standard film, not brilliant by any means, The script and plot are pedestrian. Yet the themes are huge: the appaling treatment, of gay men in the '40s and '50s; the fat that those who persecuted this war hero were traitors; and, most clearly, autism.

Turing's life was tragic. Deeply so. Cumberbatch shows this so well. Yet his genius shines through here, with allusions to the Turing Test. And, as important as the injustice dine to this British hero because of his sexuality may be, he is portrayed here quite explicitly as autistic. And that may well describe the man. But we should not assume either way. Whether autistic or living with metaphor-loving allistic behaviour like myself, we all owe a huge debt to the real Alan Turing. For our computing, and for our freedom. 

The film is... ok. But Cumberbatch is superb.

Hawkeye: Partners, Am I Right?

 "If I ever met Huey Lewis, I'd be a wreck."

Hawkeye is not, perhaps, the best Disney Marvel series yet, but it's pretty solid. This is, of course, the episode where Clint and Kate really, really click- the movie marathon, reminiscencing and planning scene are wonderful- and so it's inevitable that he should angrily drive her away at the start. There's a harbinger of this in thev awkward scenes at the Bishop residence, as Kate's mum warns Clint not to make her lose her daughter.

And then we have Clint admitting to Kate how much he misses Natasha, So, when it turns out that not only are the Tracksuit Mafia taking notes on his family but suddenly a Black Widow assassin turns up... and it's Yelena. Ouch. No wonder Clint reacts like he did.

Kate is awesome though, charismatic yet vulnerable, and clever enough to work out who Ronin really was. And it's confirmed, as if there was any doubt, that Jack is a baddie.

This is very good. Not great, but very good.

Andor: Reckoning

 "What have you done?"

The series is hotting up now, with this episode beting the finest so far. Syril Karn, Sergeant Mosk and their other soldiers arrive on the planet, and Cassian's future looks bleak as his home is ransacked, his adoptive family threatened, and poor Bix loses her lover, despite realising earlier that it was Timm who sold out Andor.

The episode is crammed with both tension and action. We can almost smell Andor's desperation. Meanwhile, the dynamic between Mosk- the person really in charge- and Karn, a young officer deeply out of his depth and ultimately humiliated, is extremely well done.

 So is the meeting between Kassian and the mysterious yet charismatic Luthen- Stellan Skarsgard is superb- as it becomes cleare that Luthen wants not merely Andor's goods but Andor himself; his talents for sneaking about have not gone unrecognised.

It's a;so a nice touch, in the flashback scenes, to see how Cassian came to be adopted by the Andors, and their departure by starship is paralleled in the present day.

This, I suspect, is where the prologue ends...

Inside Man: Episode 3

 "Much be so much easier."

"What must?"

"Not believing in Hell."

This is the hardest decision I've had to make for a quote for ages. That says a lot. 

There's a lot of quotable, philosophical dialogue here. But it all emerges from the characters. Harry's police interview is so very cringe. But it exposes Harry. He's a bad man, and a good man. He acted with dselfish desperation towards Edgar, and did not, as he tried to claim, protect him. Yet Edgar watched, and thus funds, child porn. And, let's face it, that suicide note wasa spiteful act of vindictiveness aimed, unknowingly yet culpably, at an innocent teenage boy.

Beth is interrogated, too, on the ethics of her trade as a voyeuristically morbid crime journalist by hardened criminal Morag- who adopts the moral high ground. And Grieff, faced with an actual execution date, reacts not with dignity but with an unexpected desperation. He wants to live, after all. And, despite the fact he mutilated his wife's corpse, apparently the retrieval of her head will explain things. Hmm.

This is building up for a huge finale, with Janice's very justifuable mind games and the horrifying cliffhanger, with Ben locked in the cellar with Janice as the carbon monoxide slowly kills them... and it was Harry who did this, so his wife would not. Because he loves hisfamily so much that he would take their place in Hell. That he would actually download child porn- an evl act in itself, funding more child abuse- to save his son.

This is deep, clever, fascinating. And memory sticks are indestructible, right?

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

 "We move at first light."

"What light?"

After last week's triumphant victory, all is lost after an unnatiral volcano which sees Adar and his Orcs claiming the Southlands for themselves, reneming it, inevitably, as Mordor.

And all is entropy and decay. The Queen of Numenor is blinded. Elendil has lost his favourite son, and Isildur his brother. He is bitter and wants no more to do with Middle-Earth. The Dwarven king refuses to dig for Mithril and save the elves, and proudly disinherits his son after a row. The Harfoots are ruined and have sent away the Stranger, who briefly gave new life to their forest before three evil cloaked woman arrive and destroy everything... who are they?

Yet, in the land of Mordor, there is yet hope. Durin plots with his lovely wife. The throne will be his. The Numenoreans will return. The enemies of Sauron have lost, if not the battle, the context. Yet there is time and space to regroup. The war goes on. Again, this is very mythical, very Tolkien.

This episode is not quite so exciting as last week's, but after some shaky early episode the first season seems to have found its stride. The directing is enormously impressive especially the early scenes, which feel like a very orange disaster movie.

Better Call Saul: Nacho

 "I was calling you tonight with quality, PC conversation."

This is a clever, clever episode- and bloody brilliant. Most of it is ten dimensional chess between a clever but seat-of-the-pants Jimmy (still not used to calling him that), a very scary Nacho, and the hopeless Kettlemans. It's spellbinding to watch, and you have to pay attention.

Yet there's a lot of character stuff, too. We delve deeper into Jimmy's casual relationship with Kim, a lawyer somewhat more successful than he is. We get a fascinating early scene, a flashback, where a suitably lawyerly Chuck is poised to save a jailed and desperate Jimmy from ruination.

Incidentally, being called either James or Charles is unremarkable. But brothers having those names? Jacobites!!!

Finally, we have Mike. After a rather amusing scene with the long-running parking gag- Jonathan Banks gets to display his rather excellent comedic facial acting- Jimmy is surprised by his wisom, integrity, and history as a cop, which of course we know of, courtesy of Breaking Bad. It's fascinating to see Jimmy radically reassess this man whom he has so far just seen as a jobsworth. And it's a comment from Mike that ultimately saves Jimmy. And dooms the Kettlemans.

This series is getting very good, very fast. I'm loving it.

Werewolf by Night (2022 TV Movie)

 "But what of the darkness...?"

This is apparently the first of a new kind of Marvel thing on Disney Plus- not a continuing serial, not quite long enough to be a film, but a chance to tell a one off story. And, Halloween coming up as it is, we begin with some early '70s nostalgia in Werewolf by Night- although I remember the character from the late '80s run in Marvel Comics Presents.

I know Jack Russell well as a conscientious werewolf who does his best to not kill anyone when he turns into a werewolf, which is awfully nice of him. I'm also vaguely aware of the late Ulysses Bloodstone, and I love the treatment of Man-Thing in this- Ted- the monster who is not a monster but is, er, Giant Size. The werewolf looks cool but Man-Thing looks extraordinary.

But this isn't just about early '70s Marvel nostalgia, It's about capturing, in monochrome, the tone of Universal horror, including the deliciously camp humour of James Whale. And, with the late Ulysses Bloodstone's corpse being made to mechanically move to his recorded voice like something out of a haunted house, the effect is a chieved with aplomb. Gael Garcia Bernal is excellent as Jack Russell (woof woof), while Laura Donnelly- and I must watch The Nevers- is magnificent as the intrepid Elsa Bloodstone, who ends up in possession of the estate and the Bloodstone itself after her wicked stepmother is violently killed. No doubt we shall be seeing her again, in particular.

This is a wonderfully fun piece of pastiche horror. I love it.

Hawkeye: Echoes

 "I mean, look on the bright side. You don't have to go and see Imagine Dragons."

Kate is right. Imagine Dragons are exactly the sort of depressingly and cynically mainstream landfill fodder that I imagined middle aged people would listen to when I was young. I'm forty-five now, and I hate that sort of AOR bollocks even more. I've heard it all; I want music to be DIFFICULT. 

Anyway, Hawkeye... I've been impressed with the build-up, but this is where the series really starts to shine. We're introcuded, via her childhood, to Maya, a deaf martial artist. We see, in flashback, that her father dotres on her... and you know what a sucker I am for daddy/daughter relationships, becausewe daddies of little girls are softies about this. He learns ASL, bless him. He's a good dad. 

But he's also an organised crime type person. And dies in his daughter's arms, killed by... Ronin? Oh dear. Revenge looms should Maya learn whom Ronin is. And Maya ends up as the immediate leader of the tracksuit mafia, and chief baddie for now...

And yeah, as a hearing aid wearer, I felt the portrayal and humour of hearing loss was on point and enjoyable. I mean, Clint's hearing aid is clearly private, well posh, and no doubt much better than my NHS hearing aids. But at least mine are free at the point of use.

The car chasw, with the arroes and trick arrows, is awesome, andwe're getting a real bond between Clint- no spring chicken- and the young, athletic, idealistic and very likeable Kate, who is slipping nicely into Padawan territory. He's blatantly a father figure to this rich orphan, as she sees him potentially sacrificing his family Christmas to save the life of this stranger.

This is getting VERY good with this episode. And I love the wink to the traditional costume.

Andor: That Would Be Me

 "I messed up..."

I have to confess that, while this is an improvement, I'm still not really feeling this series. That's not to say there isn't a lot to like about it, of course. The whole episode consists of deepening paranoia as Kassian comes under suspicion and the net tightens and tightens. Suddenly, Kassian is in an awful lot of danger, and at this point he's still young and inexperienced.

There's more backstory; we learn that Kenarii is a polluted and abandoned world, and there are more childhood flashbacks. The mined out terracing vista is an awesome bit of CGI.

Then there's the characterisation. Andor and his mother. Lovers Bix and Tim casually lying to each other and failing to communicate. And Deputy Chief Inspector Kyle Soller falling deeper into the rabbit hole as a naive young officer who, like many a dim young officer, finds a grizzled old sergeant to manipulate him. The awkwardly bad speevh scene is brilliantly acted.

There's real potential here. But I'm waiting for it to really take off.

Inside Man: Episode 2

 "There's no reason this has to be uncivilised..."

Look, I really like this programme. Indulge me, and let's pretend, for a couple of minutes, that flash drives are indestructible, ok? It's gripping and fascinating look at how an ordinary "good" person, such as Harry the vicar, can be driven to bad things an, inexorably, to what seems like the inevitable murder of Janice. No doubt, towards the end, we shall hear how Grieff murdered his wife. One thing is certain: Stanley Tucci is simply brilliant.

Yet was Harry, the "dark vicar", ever such a good man as he appeared? Yes, he's doing all this for his son, and he's trapped: even the accusation would ruin Ben, even if he were ultimately acquitted. And yet... I'm not a religious man, but what he does to Edgar in the chaurch, making him confess before God so he can record him, gaslighting and manipulating this rather simple man- yes, I know, a nonce- for his own purposes... I have no concept of blasphemy, personally, but there's a lack of integrity here. And Janice says she never really liked Harry. Was he ever as good a man as he seems?

His wife Mary is fascinating, too. Clearer about what must be done to save her son, yet not really wanting to murder Janice. And Janice is clever. The 9pm Skype call tomorrow will lead, inevitably, to her murder and ther ruin. So she seeks to divide and conquer, offering them both- separately- the chance to postpone that call... in return for an offer. She's very clever.

So, of course, is Grieff, who is truly compelling. Superficially, with his cases- such as the case of the week here- he's Sherlock, but in terms of his character he's very different. He is comforted by the ;prospect of punishment for his crime in a way which is actually rather self indulgent: if he isfulfilling a useful function, one which must inevitably save lives in the fullness of time, what is the social utility of killing him? Will his death not just punish the innocent? Such are the moral contradictions of judicial killing.

And such are the moral quandaries of this programme. Yes, Moffat's clever in an Agatha Christie sort of way, we know and love that. But here he is, on msainstream telly, being brilliant with theme and character. This is outstanding telly.

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

 "New life... in defiance of death!"

Wow.This is when Rings of Power really comes alive. I may not be a huge fan of battle scenes, but this is a proper, awesome, cinematic, Lord of the Rings battle scene. And I love it.

The men of the Southlands fight well, with Bronwyn and Arondir being real heroes. The tactics, and the ebb and flow of battle, work well narratively. It's hard to do this, yet the episode does it with aplomb. And verve. And CGI,

Yet the characterisation is superb, too. Isildur getting to fight as a soldier, and imprressing Elendil. The nobility of Bronwyn. Her romance with Arondir, Leo's attachment to the artifact- like Smeagol. The arresting interrogation of Adar by the deeply charismatic and awesome Galadriel- we learn that orcs were once elves, and that he claimed to kill Sauron. 

And then there's Halbrand... I don't think he's a king at all. We shall see. Yet he and Galadriel seem to find love in battle. Like Spartans without the gayness...

The conclusion is shocking, if CGI heavy. We know Galadriel, Elendil and Isildur must survive the eruption. But the others?

Better Call Saul: Mijo

 "I'm not a criminal! I'm a lawyer."

Yeah, Jimmy. You go on thinking that. But you've already started rolling down the slippery slope to criminality, which has its huge price. It's fascinating that this programme is more than just a prequel to Breaking Bad: it's a parallel. Saul, here back in 2002, is on the same trajectory as Walt, only without the psycopathy.

The episode is full of Easter eggs, especially regarding Tuco and his gang, all of whom survive at this point. But the way Jimmy uses the gift of his gab to not only survive his moment of extreme peril in the highly visually effective New Mexico desert is magnificent. He even manages to earn Tuco's respect. He's very fortunate that Tuco is so bleeding thick.

We move straight from extreme peril to a long, hilarios montage of day in, day out lawyering to petty criminals for a pittance, with Mike again being a strangely appropriate jobsworth.

We also get clues about Chuck. He's mentally rather than physically ill?

This is absolutely superb telly from Vince Gilligan. There are, of course, so many continuities in visua and thematic style from Breaking Bad. Yet Jimmy as the central character, and the profoundly amazing Bob Odenkirk as the star, is what makes this. The show, and Odenkirk's performance, is based on the grammar of comedy withoit necessarily being comedy. And it works so very well.

A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

 "Poke your little pecker out the window..."

I've actually read (and indeed blogged) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, which on balance added to my enjoyment of this very funny film. And yet one might just as well see this as a precursor to The Trip, and the partnership of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Of course, the whole thing is quite postmodern, alternating scenres of Tristram Shandy, that famiusly unfilmable novel, with a behind the scenes narrative where Brydon and, especially, Coogan, play versions of themselves, rather effectively.

The joke throughout, of course, is that Coogan himself hasn't read the novel, and everyone else has. Through all the buddy buddy stuff with Coogan, the jokes about his sexual difficulties following the birth of the baby and his habits of infidelity nonetheless, it's really all about the fourth wall.

Stephen Fry's academic cameo puts it best: the novel probably shouldn't be seen as postmodern, an anachronistic term. There's nothing modern about textual self-referentialism- see Rabelais and Cervantes- but it becomes rather less fasionable after Lawrence Sterne. By 2005, it's back, and can be commingled with actual postmodernism. Hence this film, and its almost obvious playfulness with the fourth wall, where Coogan's sexual wakwardness echoes Walter Shandy's. Yet Coogan's life is like the Shany of the novel; too complex, real and nuanced to accurately be summed up by any narrative or work of art.

This film isn't as deep as I've made it sound. But it's funny.

The Raven (1963)

 "But you'd be kiled!"

"I do hope not..."

I haven't checked how many of Roger Corman's Poe films I've seen. It's a lot. It's possible, with this film, I've seen them all. 

They are, of course, all B movies, bless them. They all acknowledge the fun side of that. Corman has always understood the power of kitsch... except in Frankenstein Unbound. This film makes me wonder if the tongue in cheek subtletiesof his other Poe films are wittier than they come across, Because this film is full of ironic, fourth wall- threatenning humour.

Understandably, many films are based on novels or plays. Few films are based on poems, yet this film begins with a recital of Poe's masterpiece- I love the poem, unfashionable thought it is; compare it to the adolescent nature-wanking drivel of John Keats- and just has fun.

Vincent Price is a great avtor, one who deserved more than B movies. Here he shows his prowess at deadpan humour. Peter Lorre not so much, but you can't take your eyes off him Hazel Court is more of the classy straight actress, but her performance works very well indeed. Boris Karloff cannot fail to be the consummate evil sorcerer. He was born to play such a role.

Yet Jack Nicholson- yes, he was once this young- turns out to be a bloody good comic actor, moving beyond the point of treating B movie characters like Shakespeare, as he was previously known to do, and showing a real comic timing. 

This film is a joy, despite the tenuous connection to Poe, and the cast is fascinating. So is the deliciosly garish direction, exalting in the possibility of Technicolor.

I know this film is very silly, but I love it.

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.