Fool Me Once: Episode 6

 "You keep sytumbling over dead bodies, don't you, Maya?"

A grumble, before the praise begins. I know I've whinged a lot about Kierce getting called "Detective Kierce" rather than "Detective Inspector", but this time his boss gets called "Captain Proctor" rather than Detective Chief Inspector Proctor". I don't mind a bit of adaptation to a largely American audience- this is Netflix- but things like that really take away the realism.

That aside, this episode is superb. The plot twists and turns like a twisty-turny thing yet again, and in a hugely entertaining manner. There are shocks and bombshells all the time, not least at the very end- did Joe really kill Andrew? But that's not all. What's Corey really after? Did he kill Tommy Dark? Is Judith, as I now suspect, a red herring?  Is Joe alive after all? There's a lot to uncover, I have no idea whats happening, yet we're really quite close to the end.

Yet, despite all this, this is all about Sami Kierce and his coming to terms with things, along with the help of his loving, lovely fiancee. Adeel Akhtar is once again sublime in a role that really showcases his talents. This is all about the shocks and the plot equivalent of jump scares, it's got no deeper subtext I can discern, but I'm loving the ride... and the characters feel very real.

Better Call Saul: Pinata

 "Get rich quick schemes never work."

The saddest scene, and also the most revealing, is where Jimmy visits HHM to pick up his $5,000. The firm, and Howard, are struggling... and it is all, of course, the fault of Jimmy, who destroys all he touches. Worse, HE tells HOWARD that hes a "****** lawyer" and much better at being a salesman. Pot, kettle...

Jimmy's only talent is the gift of the gab. The episode begins with a fadscinating flashback to Jimmy's mailroom days. We see a brilliant, triumphant Chuck and intern Kim, clearly going places. No one sees Jimmy as important. Cut to today... and Kim is still awesome, clearly held back by Jimmy, going places as he sells phones to the dodgy.

Jimmy has a brutal side, too, as we discover when he deals with the three ne-er-do-wells who attacked him last episode. But nowhere near as brutal as Gus. Giancarlo Esposito has a truly chilling, sublime monologue, making it clear he wants Hector alive and conscious just so he can suffer. Brr.

Gus trusts Mike increasingly, though, his fixer and reliable lieutenant already. Mike is fascinating, working for some dodgy people while also being a good family man, making amends with his daughter-in-law, with whom he has a genuinely sweet relationship. These characters, all of them, are very, very real people. This is, as ever, close to televisual perfection.

The Red Beret (1953)

 "There are two kinds of men who jump- those who are crazy and those who are stupid."

This is, I suppose, a fairly standard British war film, despite the fact that it happens to have an American star in the person of a notably getting-on-a-bit Alan Ladd. And it's a good, exciting bit of adventure with a nice bit of characterisation- McKendrick is an American pretending to be Ameriucan who has joined the parachute regiment here in Blighty.

Now, I'm a bit scared of heights. Not to extremes- I'll travel by plane (well, maybe, these days I'd have to think about the fossil fuels), but I'll go a bit quiet at takeoff and landing. But there's absolutely no way you'll ever get me in a parachute. I could never, ever, jump off a plane, even with a modern, much safer parachute. But back then... the early scene where the poor instructor "Roman candles" and plummets to his doom is existentially horrifying. The fear of that happening, much more likely then than it would be now, is unimaginable. But these men would do that and then go straight into combat.

There's nothing particularly outstanding about this film, it's no all-time classic, but it impresses simply by being very good and getting the basics right. The cast isn't that stellar but it does the job. The story, characterisation and script are impressive without necessaily being up there with the best. The tyrannical Scottish sergeant major is a nicely done little knowing stereotype. It's short, entertaining and worth a watch.

Batman: Slaves of the Rising Sun

"You and all your Axis cronies... you're through!"

A lot happens in this episode between the two cliffhangers of the railway bridge and the van going off a cliff. One of Daka's hoods, having failred in his mission and turned agaimnst Daka, is foolish enough to stand right on top of the trap door and ends up fed to Daka's aligators in that spendid supervillain trope. Some sake is drunk. There's a fortune teller and a switcheroo, a car chase, Batman firing the radium gun.

But... well, again it's the staggering levels of racism, even taking full account of the context, that stands out here. I know we had one staggeringly racist line in the first episode, but this time we get "That's the kind of answer that fits the colour of your skin."

Yes. Really. That line is literally in this episode. Wow.

I'm lefdt wondering just how much more we'll see that's at this level. Jingoism, anti-Japanese sentiment, even a bit of mild xenophobia could be largely explained by the context. But this? Wow.

Fool Me Once: Episode 5

 "The rich protect each other..."

The plot continues to be splendidly convoluted. Corey knows the Burketts are mixed up in some seriously bad criminal stuff, possibly involving Joe. The plot thickens, too, around his late brother Andrew andthat sinister public school. Another kid, a working class outsider turned popular achiever, dies of "alcohol poisoning" shortly before Andrew's apparent suicide. And yeah, the headmaster is definitely hiding something. 

In support of the "evil Burketts" theory is Judith's continued creepiness. She's a psychiatrist, making veiled threats to institutionalise Maya, having altready renfdered her daiughter Caroline a madwoman in the attic. Brr. Meanwhile, Eddie continues to be decent and his daughter has her own fascinating plot thread.

Oh, and there's a storage place. With at least one frozen body in it. Literal Brr.

But the real emotional core here, of course, is with Inspector Kierce and the sublime performance of Adeel Akhtar who, cruelly, as he's about to become a husband and father, faces a truly horrible fate. 

Again, this is perhaps not exactly oozing with subtext. It's a whodunit-cum-melodrama.But it's bloody good melodrama.

What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?

 "'Twas only two hours prior, and the Tower was not yet on fire..."

I know, it's late January, and I'm doing the Christmas episode of What If?. I still have Echo to go, plus all the non-MCU stuff I'm doing. This may not quite be the furthest behind I've ever been but, well, I'm juggling all this with Twin Peaks, Fool Me Once, Better Call Saul, Batman and really need to get back to Robin of Sherwood soon. Aaargh.

Anyway, this is a nice little comedy episode with lots of witty lines, lots of fun and allusions to just how many years Darcy has been at uni, just how many intern placements she's had, and how little Happy (or "Hulk Hogan", as jhe's nicknamed by a very naughty Justin Hammer) is probably being paid for all he's going through.

This is all a bit of a subtle allusion to the not-so-good old days before David Michelinie's first run on the Iron Man title, when Happy would regularly turn into a bizarre creature called, yes indeed, "the Freak". But the episode manages to get away with it, mainly by just being very funny indeed.

Good stuff. Although not necessary the standard programming...

Better Call Saul: Quite a Ride

 "You can't play chicken with me. I invented chicken."

It's a fascinating choice that this episode, filled with notably creative directorial choices even by the standards of Better Call Saul, begins with a flash forward to the very end of Breaking Bad, showing us the offices of Saul Goodman for the first time,or the last time, depending on your perspective. Saul's... Jimmy's last goodbye to Francesca is as awkward as it was always going to be. It's the end of Jimmy's life as anuything other than monochrome mediocrity and paranoia, reminding us that yes, he may seem to get away with his morally dodgy choices while others suffer, but karma will be back to punish him in the end.

Jimmy's behaviour here is typically cynical. Instead of honestly selling phones in the shop, he goes out at night to sell to the mildly criminal, grey market semi-undrrworld, only to be mugged for his pains: on this one occasion, karma is more immrediate, and he seems to learn his lesson and go back to orthodoxy. At his typically hmilating meeting with his parole officer, he seems resigned to biding his time until he can hopefully get his law licence back. And... we've seen where that ultimately leads.

Meanwhile, he continues to slowly ruin the lives of others around him. Kim really damages her reputation with her Mese Verde clients because she's having to take on other work to support Jimmy. And Howard, being a decent sort, seems to be falling apart with all the guilt. Guilt that rightly belongs to Jimmy.

And yet, while elsewhere we see Jimmy with his dodgy ways, and how he damages the lives and careers of thosearound him, we end the episode with a German structural emngineer bimpressing Gus with his consummate professionalism. Professionalism with not a Jimmy in sight.

Superb telly, obviously.

Dogma (1999)

 "Bethany, bless the sink!"

I watched, and enjoyed this film, many years ago but, as often happens as the decades pass- and I am not, you understand, in any way confessing to being middle aged- I remembered very litttle. Last night was pretty much a second first viewing.

And it's superb. As a comedy, it's bloody good, with a constant stream of laughs. Linda Fiorentino is perfect as the star. Chris Rock and Alan Rickman are both brilliant. George Carlin is perfect casting as a down-with-the-kids cardinal. Some dodgy angel wing CGI aside- and we can be forgiving, because it's 1999- there's not much wrong with this.

It is, of course, a very different beast from the very '90s slacker romantic comedies for which Kevin Smith had previously been known, although there's a fair bit of that sort of thing here. But the religious stuff is obviously going to come across as provocative, not least with Bethany working at an abortion clinic and (spoilers!) the plot requiring God's life support machine to be switched off. Casting Alanis Morissette as God is, of course, entirely uncontroversial.

And yet... I don't get this film to be mocking faith, or religion itself, in any way, but rather the reactionary and socially conservative structure that eventually inserts itself around every religion. I've never had any religious faith myself, I wasn't brought up with it and am simply unable to believe in something without empirical proof, but even I was moved by Bethany's drunken nostalgia for a time when she had a childlike, simple faith. But perhaps this film also hints at a deeper truth. Divine or not, this Jesus person seems to have been anything but conservative.

What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

 "Bummer. I thought you were the dude from Van Halen."

Yes, I know. I'm doing so much telly at the moment, and it's a struggle to keep up. I blame all the new telly. There's this, there's Fool Me Once, there's Echo after this. I fear that Twin Peaks and the Batman movie serial may have to take a very temporary back seat, but they're very much ongoing. Same with Robin of Sherwood.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. There's character stuff with PeterQuill as a kid with Ego as the main threat. There is, perhaps, an overly neat resolution. But it's fun seeing an Avengers team form in 1988. We get a young Hank Pym, Bill Foster, and the fortysomethings are represented by T'Chaka... and both Peggy and Howard must be nearing retirement age. Peggy isn't aging bad. The Winter Soldier is well handled, though, and Thor is fun. 

One complaint, though: the United States has many fine ales and a proud brewing traditiob. But its bottled "light beers" are unfit for human consumption. Thor and T'Chaka endorsing "light beer" is the most unrealistic thing in this episode.

Fool Me Once: Episode 4

 "Boom!"

Grr. I know I've spent half these reviews moanimg about Kierce being referred to as "Detective" rather than "Inspector" and saying that this is not America... but this time we get "DUI", goddammit.

That aside, though, this is bloody good telly. It twists and turns, in the words of the great Lord Melchett, like a twisty-turny thing. I won't recount said twists and turns of the plot... but damn, there are some superb character moments here, triumphs of writing and acting.

Joanna Lumley is wonderful as the evil mother-in-law from Hell, pretty much threatening to put Maya in a psychiatric ward as she claims to have done with her daughter Caroline. And that shot of Caroline in the upstairs window... brr! Then there's the sweet, mutually respectful reconciliation between Maya and Eddie. And then we have Kierce and his underling being open with one another, about blackouts and sexual orientation resprectively. 

Perhaps even more interesting, though, is the thoughtful little chat between Maya and her erstwhile nemesis, Corey the Whistle. There's a kind of mutual regard there, too, and it feels plausible.

Halfway through. Lots of twisting and turning to go. It'sa fun ride.

Fool Me Once: Episode 3

 "Life-ruining rat!"

Deep breath. Lots of rabbit holes here. So...

The red car belongs to Corey the Whistle, who had dodgy arrangements with both Claire and Joe, feeding him info to protect Maya... infor for whi they both deied. Info about the Burketts? They're certainly paying off a lot of person. And that Neil (the third Burkett brother?) certainly seems dodgy. Which probably, of course, makes him the red herring.

Of course, I'm sure there's a lot to be revealed about what truly happened with Maya's apparent war crime- we're certainly being teased a lot. Then there's Claire's kids investigating a tech bro ex of their mother's, whose firm has a weird, QR code-flashing robot thingy.  Oh, and one of the motorbiokes from Joe's murder is linked to that unpleasant football coach. and the cliffhanger... wow.

And yet... what really impresses is the characters. Michelle Keegan is great, of course. But Adeel Akhtar also impresses as the able but world-weary DI Kierce (again, stop calling him "Detective Kierce!: this is not America!), a very well-rounded character. I'm still not sure this is about anything beyond the thrills... but does it have to be?

Fool Me Once: Episode 2

 "Lying's never good policing."

No, DI Kierce. And nor is lying by omission to your fiancee about your blackouts while being open to them to yoiur dodgy Alcoholics Anonymous counsellor. You need to stay away from that semi-cult for a start, but at least on this occasion she gives good advice. Get tested. And bloody tell your fiancee, who miraculously failed to spot anything dodgy after your very well-shot breakfast blackout.

Meanwhjile, in some ways, the plot advances quietly. In other ways it doesn's, as Maya finds a lead to ploice don't suspect- Claire had a secret phone which she used only for talking to someone at a retro gaming arcade. Was she having an affair with Joe, as the police (and Eddie) suspdct? I don't think so. I think it was a very different secret, and connected to all the dodgy cult stuff.

Then there's the photos of a young Claire, developed by her kids- and, incidentally, her son doesn't understand why the camera doesn't have a screen. I feel old- in which shre's pregnant with another child from before she met their dad. We see the reading of Joe's willpostponed by the lack of a death certificate, and we meet KJoe's likeable sister, Caroline, who has her own suspicions that not only Joe but his brother Andrew may not be dead.

Oh, and one final bombshell: Joe's family are paying Kierce a load of money every month. Conflict of interest much? But I suspect eve this is not what it seems. Nothing is. This is quite the most twisty-turny bit of telly I can remember ever seeing. I'm not sure if it's all that deep behind all these whodunit equivalent of jump scares, but my God I'm loving the ride.

Twin Peaks: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer

"Fire, walk with me..."

This, if you'll recall, is the third episode, and the one I inadvertentle skipped, having watched and blogged Episode Five. Now, thankfully, linear chronology is restored. And gosh... it would have been damned useful to have watched this episode in its proper place.

It is, perhaps, my favourite thus far, dreamlike from the very first scene in which Ben's brother Jerry (ha!) returns from Paris to interrupt an awkward, silent dinner where the wine is served from a decanter and a Native American bloke in full headdress just happens to be sitting at table, saying and doing nothing. We then proceed to learn of One Eyed Jack's.

We learn much more, too. How increasingly suspicious Leo is becoming. Jocelyn's discovery of the two sets of accounts.We meet Albert, FBI forensic genius and the rudestv man in America. And Agent Cooper's bizarre thing with the bottle, arising from dreams and Tibet, which both functions as a rather nice bit of exposition and actually gets Sheriff Truman to think more highly of him.

But then we get to the drewam itself and... oh my.This is peak David Lynch. It is a thing of beauty. I'm sure it all means something, if not necessarily in a linear way, which, i Suppose, makres it rather appropriate that I've inadvertently made a non-linear mishap. I shall endeavour not to do it again.

Fool Me Once: Episode 1

 "Duran Duran came on the radio and he's never even heard of them...!"

Aboiut time I got round to this new-ish thriller on Netflix which everyone is talking about: my very lovely partner has convinced me and now I see to be quite hopelessly addicted. And yeah, I know I'm blogging loads of different things and this is one more... but it was ever thus with this blog. It’s what I do.

So on the surface the conceit is simple. Maya, a former soldier (she loved combat and was addicted to it, an interesting character trait!) sees her husband Joe, from a much posher family than her, gunned down by apparent motorcylist muggers. Some time later, by means of a "nanny cam" (don't ask), she appears to see her late husband with her young daughter. Did this really happen? Or is this one of the many visions she's been having?

Also... is she the killer? Yeah, I know, she's the protagonist and there are unwritten rules of TV drama, so she probably isn't. But Detective Inspector Sami Kierce (not "Detective Kierce", please: this is not America) hasn't ruled her out. After all, her sister was recently killed, and her widower wants Maya to stay away from his daughters because "death follows you". Ouch. Indeed, we learn that both murders were done using the same gun.

There's dodginess in her past, too. Her old army mates seem to like her, but was she really dishonourably discharged for killing innocent civilians? Is there a connectioin with her murky past? I think we know there is.

But then we end with a bombshell. Maya's posh mother-in-law, Judith, is somewhat overbearing- I've had worse, mind- and there's a real subtext of snobbery. Except... we begin with a flashback to 1996, a private school, and some sort of Dennis Wheatley-style Satanic ritual. Then,  in the final scene, we realise this all pertains to Joe's younger brother, who died that year at seventeen. Does all this creepy aristcratic weirdness link to all this? We know it does.

Aaaargh. The tension is all coiled up like a spring. But I'll be good. Another episode tomorrow. And I'm not promising just the onre...

They Came from Beyond Space (1967)

 "I will not have sentiment interfering with our vital work!”

I knew, before watching, only that Amicus made this film at the same time as Daleks: Invasion Earth: 2150 AD, and reused some sets, costumes or whatnot.

Having seen it last night, though, I strongly suspect another Doctor Who connection. Yes, this is basically a cheeky rip-off of Quatermass II, both in terms of the plot and in terms of having an American star amongst an otherwise all-British cast. If you’ll forgive a brief Doctor Who fanboy diversion, though, I strongly suspect Robert Holmes saw this film, at the pictures, a couple of years before writing Spearhead from Space. I suspect said story’s debt to Nigel Kneale comes at least partly via this film, which not only has the plot based on alien meteorites leading to mysterious alien doings, but has as its hero an endearingly rude scientist with a vintage car. Yes, quite.

Rip-off it is, but the film is rather good. The cast may be fairly low-wattage, but they do a good job. The visuals are nicely trippy in a 1967 way, making this rather old-fashioned sort of film look relatively contemporary. It does, admittedly, run out of both ideas and budget once the story leaves Earth, but the rather sudden conclusion is brilliantly hilarious in a way which must surely have been intended. Let us just say that the cameo by Michael Gough is… unique.

This film is utterly bonkers. I can’t call it a classic, but I can say it’s thoroughly enjoyable.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

This is a compelling, addictive, novel, one which I've found it very difficuklt to put aside every now and again for, you know, eating, seeping, that sort of thing. But it's odd. It's one of six detective novels by Josephine Tey featuring a Detective Inspector Alan Grant, the last of them before Tey sadly died. However, the other fice in the series are not widely read today. This particular novel is very unusual for an award winning whodunit.

Simply put, our inspector is laid up in hospital with a broken leg, he's bored out of his skull, and he ends up looking into the deaths of the Princes in the Tower and pondering whether the murderer was Richard III, as popularly supposed, or someone else.

It sounds simple. But what makes this novel compelling is the how. This is an investigation where we're really shown the working. All of the primary evidence, all the facts, are lain before us an analysed, and a modern (well, 1951) police approach is taken. The reasoning, and the conclusions, feel pretty damn rigorous, although other views of the case are available. 

I suppose, like the Jack the Ripper TV series from the '70s I recently blogged where the conceit was two fictional detectives investigating the murders in a documentary in the form of a drama, this may be seen as factual history dressed up as fiction. Yet the prose, the plotting, the characterisation, all are superb. 

This novel is a veritable Class A substance.

Twin Peaks: The One-Armed Man

 "In real life, there is no algebra..."

Bums. Just belatedly realised that, because of how the episodes are displayed on the DVD, I inadvertently missed the third episode, so the last one I blogged was ion fact the fourth. Aaaargh. That's incredibly annoying. I'll blog the third one next, then onwards.

Anyway...

I think, given how damned complicated things are getting- although, I'll note, it's not that hard to follow, which is a triumph of storytelling- I'm not going to be too thorough about discussing plot developments in these blog posts. So many characters, so many connections between them, so many secrets... and the point is not so much the endless mystery as the mood, in any case. And plenty of it.

Leland's chat with Leo is a surprise, though. And it's interesting how multiple characters are now having seemingly precognitive dreams. There's feeling here, too: Shelly's domestic abuse by Leo isn't treated lightly. We meet Hank, unexpectedly successful in his parole hearing, which is going to cause problems.. 

But mostly this is where the weirdness creeps in a little more. The goings-on are becoming more and more absurd. I'm minded of how the investigation takes a turn towards parrots and mynah birds. The absurdity, of course, is by no means a bad thing. This is the world of David Lynch. So much weirdness, so many symbols. Does any of it mean anything? Does it matter? I'm engrossed.

Batman: The Mark of the Zombies

 "I suggest that you adopt an attitude of fatal tresignation..."

This is the episode where, predictably, Linda's uncle gets zombified by Daka, in a suiably bonkers machine which reminds me of a pound shop version of the device from Bride of Frankenstein, a fairly recent film at this point. Daka is a properly moustache-twirling baddie and... yeah, even his henchmen are racist about him behind his back. I've learned, since last episode, that J. Carroll Naish was originally set to play the Joker, and you can kind of see with the costume and the hideout. Instead... oh dear. There's a danger of actually getting desensitised to the racism.

Awkwardly, though, this is actually pretty good for a movie serial.The cliffhanger resolution is actually ok. Daka's train robbery plan is cool, as is Bruce's plan to trap Daka with the newspsaper advert, which Daka sees through... only for the Batman to see through said, er, seeing through.

This is massively formulaic but, hey, it's a movie serial. So far, if it wasn't for the racism, I'd be quite impressed.

Better Call Saul: Talk

 "The one after that, she stabbed her boyfriend over a grilled cheese sandwich..."

Just realised the judge in this, whose hearings are being "observed" by Kim for some reason, is Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager. Wow. (And yes, I do plan at some point to do the whole Star Trek marathon thing, but let's not rush...) 

Anyway, this is one of those quietly fascinating characterisation-based episodes that usually means it's all about to kick off. Everyone gets some sort of development here.

Mike gets a little support group plot, eposing a fraud and flirting a bit with Anita, while showing just how good he is at this security consultant lark. But, inevitably, he's summoned by a superbly menacing Gus, and is clearly about to start Tthe kind of work for him that we recall from Breaking Bad. Impressively, he's low key accused of not being open about the Nacho thing... and gets to maintain his alpha male status in front of Gus himself. Impressive.

Then there's Jimmy, moving a little apart ftrom Kim, waking symbolically alone and reacting in a very Jimmyish way to her suggestion of a shrink. Interswstingly, he self-sabotages a job offer only to reverse course and take up a soul-destroying job... only to make a hell of a lot more money from the illicit exploits from last episode. Legitimacy, it seems, doesn't pay. Jimmy's immediate reaction is, shall we say, interesting.

But Nacho. Oh, Nacho. The webs we weave. We get to see, all from his POV, the deaths and the bloodshed madevnecessary by his lies. And, as we realise at the episode's end, Gus knows. But we always knew, didn't me? From Giancarlo Esposito's facial acting alone. What a show.

Tenet (2020)

 "We are being attacked from the future."

This is one of those Christopher Nolan films that are a massive puzzle box, like Inception and The Prestige, if not quite as good as those two. How much you enjoy these types of film depends on whetheryou like a film to be a puzzle box, in this case a big timey-wimey palindrome thingy. 

Confession time: yes, I understood the broad nature of the plot, but I immediately went on to watch a YouTube video to so I understood it... well, "fully" is an awfully strong word. Again, there will be those who, understandably,don't fancy the idea of a fil that takes effort, and even multiple viewings,to work out what's going on,especially if said film happens to be two and a half hours long.

It's worty it, though. This film is extraordinary, and it's a shame how a certain spiky virus sort of sabotaged it at the box office, although admittedly that's hardly the worst of the many sins of said virus.

The central concept is fantastic- inversion of entropy, meaning that an object or person can be "inverted", moving backwards through time instead of forwards. Hence, there's a lot of time travel in this film, but you have to live through events in real time, whether forwards or backwards. There are great concepts arising from this, such as the "temporal pincer movement" and the rather clever little time paradoxes around the characters, and particularly around the true nature of John David Washington's Protagonist. The fact he's known only as that is a clue.

It's not all that, of course. There's humour. There's Kenneth Branagh being superb as an evil (is there any other kind?) Russian oligarch. There's a chilling yet tasteful exploration of domestic abuse. There's a delightful cameo from old Michael Caine. This film is a joy.

Twin Peaks: Rest in Pain

 "Twin Peaks is weird..."

You don't say.

This is the episode of Laura Palmer's funeral, and inevitably there's drama, with Bobby calling out the town's hypocrisy and getting in to an altercation with James, no doubt to the intense displeasure of his authoritarian but oddly philosophical father. Poor Leland Palmer makes a spectacle of himself too, showing us the things that grief can do.

Meanwhile, Agent Cooper is puyrsuing the investigation by... analysing a dream he has, which is accepted by all and sundry, including the viewer. In any other show, this would be absurd, but this is the David Lynch dimension.

Various weird plot points advanve a little and, the findings of FBI pathologist Albert aside, the focus moves slightly away from Laura's murder to the town itself, with Albert snobbishly dismissing it as a place full of hicks while Cooper increasing feels affection for its charm and decency. It therefore feels natural when, at the end of the episode, Sheriff Truman includes him in a kind of secret society that exists to combat the, er, "evil" in the woods. 

Thing is, writing it out like that makes it seem silly. But, watching the episode, it works. And that, perhaps, is the key point. We accept and revel in the weirdness. This is oddly compelling television, and unlike pretty much anything else.

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

 

Yes, I know, I'm chain reading Isaac Asimov. I'll blog another novel first before I go on to Robots and Empire, honest. To be fair, though, these novels are a Class A substance.

... Which rather spoils from the outset that I very much enjoyed this much-delayed conclusion to the Elijah Baley trilogy. Ah well. And, incidentally, it still doesn't seem to me that Asimov's '80s novels are in any way inferior to his early work. Like Foundation's Edge, this compares very well to its predecessors.

Once again we have a rather agreeableb mix of genuinely clever whodunit, philosophical variations on the Three Laws of Robotics, and pondering on the spacefaring future of mankind. There's also, in the ultimately moribund decadence of the Spacers with their robots, a warning to us all: technology making our lives easier is a double edged sword. We may not, in 2024, have many anthropoid, two-legged robots. But we have Alexa, we have Siri, we have smart speakers: we have robots, just not on two legs. 

Auroran society, while less extreme than that of Solaria, is no less fascinating, although one can't help seeing its casual, easy attitude to sex without thinking of the post-#MeToo reputstion of its author. The troubling consequences of extreme longevity are handled well, as well as a reluctance to engage in political conflict. Baley himself, perhaps, was never the most engaging character, and the love triangle between him, his fawaway wife and Gladia has its awkward side. But no one reads Asimov for characterisation. This is an extraordinary novel of ideas which I thoroughly enjoyed to the point it's genuinely difficult not to just read Asimov after Asimov. But yes, something else first, and something rather different...

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

 " I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it."

This is the first anime, incredibly, that I've blogged. Indeed, it's only the second anime filom I've seen- I saw Akira about twenty years ago, not that I remember much. I have to see some more; this film is superb.

Admittedly, the translated dialogue seems a bit stilted and unnatural, suggesting not so much care has been taken with the translation as would be the case for a live action film, but the film itself can't be blamed for that. The animation is quite brilliant, and the unusual soundtrack extraordinary and atmospheric. Yet what elevates the film to genius is the script.

It's a distant future Japan of 2029(!), and things look and feel very cyberpunk, with cyborgs, corporations, crime and corruption- the three c's of cyberpunk- everywhere. Our protagonists are agents of "Section Nine", rivals to "Section Six", augmented to extremes , including to their brains and memories to the point where it's debatable to what extent they retain the same "self", one of many points made by our philosophical protagonist, Major Kutanagi. Yes, there's a plot full of action and intrigue. And it's nicely done. Yet what lingers in the memory are moments like Kutanagi pointing out that she and her friend Bato would, if they were to retire or resign, have to forfeit all their augmentations- arguably tantamount to losing their sense of self. This is ironic, given the ending, but this line of thinking poses deep, existential questions on the nature of consciousness. We change, evolve and experience life. Are we, therefore, meaningfully the same consciousness as at a given point in the past? Are we sentient, or is the very notion a mere comforting illusion? Is there a self beyond memories? Equally disturbing is the man planted with false memories of a daughter for whom he feels real love, his original memories gone forever.

Yet. if Kutanagi is philosophical, her antagonist the Puppet Master is even more so. The ending is extraordinary. It wasn't what I expected, but this is an extraordinary bit of cinematic hard science fiction.

Motorhead- Overkill (1979)

Happy New Year!

I used to listen to this album a lot in my late teens, but for some reason haven't given it much thought for years. Hearing it again today I'm reminded of why I love it so much.

Then again, we think we know Motorhead, don't we? They're a metal band, right, albeit the metal band that it ewas ok for punks to like before Grunge called a truce between the two genres? 

Wrong. And Lemmy always kept telling us so. They're Motorhead. They play rock'n'roll. Oh, they're heavy, but the songs are very much in the rock'n'roll tradition as much as they obviously owe a lot to the heavy rock of the time. But the songwriting is solid, and the songs are catchy, well-constructed if dsimple, and, well, bangers. There's a reason why this is my favourite Motorhead album, and it's the songs. 

Not, of course, that the playing is anything less than great, or the simple yet clean production. And no, Lemmy's not a great singer, but he's a great frontman- and he writes well for his limited range. But, ultimately, it's about the songs. And I'd quite forgotten how bloody good this collection of songs is.

Wish (2023)

 “It didn’t work. When does the magic happen?”

It’s the Chrimbo Limbo, it’s raining all day, time for a spontaneous cinema visit with Little Miss Llamastrangler. And… well, she enjoyed it. So did I, to be fair. The film is fine. It’s just… well, generic Disney.

Of course, the animation is superb, in a style that is at once classic and modern. The voice acting and facial animation are excellent. It’s just that the plot and the characters are… just ok. Next to other modern Disney animations, your Frozens, your Tangleds, it falls short. It’s a very linear plot, with characters that aren’t going to stand out next to previous Disney protagonists. And for a film meant to commemorate Disney’s centenary… well, that’s a problem.

Still, as I say, it’s fine. Little Miss Llamastrangler liked it. It’s perfectly serviceable and technically excellent. Chris Pine is a great baddie, and he gets the best song. This isn’t a dud. But it’s no classic, either.

Batman: The Bat's Cave

 "Don't worry. They don't bite... unless I tell them to."

Thankfully, other than the actualmpresence and appearance of Dr. Daka, the racism isn't so foregrounded here, much as it is of course present. This continues, that rather large elephant in the room aside, to be a moderately superior movie serial. Yes, we're now moving into the plotless series of episodes and set pieces that charactyerise the genre, but there are nice little touches- Lewis Wilson's impressive performance as Brude Wayne, the cynicism of the police captain taking credit fot Batman's work, the nice little scene of Linda Page being gassed in a phone boogth.

It's fascinating seeing the early use of the "Bat's Cave", too- no gadgets, here: this is just a scary place full of bats aimed at scaring baddies. It's equally interesting seeing the first iteration of Alfred- yes, he knows that Bruce and Dick are Batman and Robin, but he's very much a figure of fun and the butt of the joke.

I hope to see more of this sort of thing, fun though the set pieces are. The cliffhanger is rather good, and in fact the production so far is rather good for a movie serial. But we've a long way to go...

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

 "I've even been trampled by a moose..."

Well, that was enormous fun. I have to say, it's not a bad idea to debut a new Doctor on Christmas Day. Large casual audience, so no continuity to speak of other than "mavity" and the Doctor having recently realised he's an orphan, other than Mrs Flood's mid-credits line, whiuch we'll come to in due course. And, unlike The Christmas Invasion, the new Doctor is up and running in what looks like a great jumping on point. Despite the light continuity, this isn't a reboot as such, but it feels a lot like Rose.

Anyway... Ncuti Gatwa is outstanding. Charismatic, with charm, humour and gravitas. Interesring hints of queerness for this Doctor but, well, what's new? He is absolutely the Doctor. I say that without reservation. He's even overcome my prejudice against moustaches. That's saying a lot. Then there's the immediately relatable Ruby Sunday, whose mysterious past as a foundling, dumped by a mysterious hooded woman, is so a hook for future adventures.

She has a well-rounded family too, especially her adoptive mum, Carla. RTD uses timey-wimeyness to cleverly adddepth to her character by showing us, almost Pyramids of Mars-style, what her life would have been like without Ruby- bitter, unhappy, living without love.

The point of the episode is, of course, new beginnings, new characters. Not that I don't love the pirate goblins in the sky with their pirate ships and bizarre sciences of rope and coincifdence that are definitely not magic, nope, definitely not. The concepts on display here seem effortlessly brilliant. Loving the bad luck stuff… and the reveal of Davina. Then there's the songs. They're so wrong, yet so right. I love them. I am sooo using this episode to indoctrinate Little Miss Llamastrangler (happily in bed!) tomorrow.

But Mrs Flood... hmm. "Never seen a TARDIS before?" Not the Master, I assume. Let's not pretend the Rani is worth bringing back. The Meddling Monk? Not a bad idea, but probably too fannish a thought. Tecteun? Too Chibbers. Nope, someone else. But someone big enough to warrant casting Anita Dobson...

Anyway, that was fun, Which was precisely what it needed to be.

What If... Nebula joined the Nova Corps?

 "Seems a bit morally grey, with the guns and all."

You'll have to excuse me: I didn't know that What If? was about to drop now, at Christmastime, one episode per day, and I'm a few days late. I'm already blogging Better Call Saul, Twin Peaks and the 1943 Batman serial. I still am. Plus there's Doctor Who tomorrow. Aaaargh. I'll do my best, as this is a current show, to blog it as quickly as I can while not neglecting the others.

Anyway, I love this opening episode. Yes, there's a big central sci-fi idea, with more than a dollop of William Gibson and Blade Runner in the aesthetics of a dark, crime-ridden metropolis and the protagonist being a cyborg. Yet, to me, this feels very much like it's channelling Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, except with Karren Gillan, outstanding as Nebula, as the principled agent of justice in a world where no one else can be trusted at all. It is this, the mood, the setting, perfect for Nebula as a character, that makes the episode so good.

The plot is clever, though, with the twists and turns somehow working brilliantly both as high concept science fiction if written by Raymond Chandler.

It's wonderful to see Seth Green's Howard the Duck too, obviously. And Taika Waititi's Korg is always a joy. I'm impressed, once again, that an animated series is able to recruit such a high calibre of actors. And it's interesting to get a focus on Xandar and the Nova Corps, very much cosmic side characters with the MCU... but, of course, Nova is coming.

Oh, and Merry Christmas:)

Bitter Victory (1957)

 "All men are cowards in some things..."

This film does not, it seems, have much of a reputation. Richard Burton gets top billing here as Captain James Leith, but far more interesting is Curd Jurgens, perennial German officer in World War II films but this tiome an officer- albeit South African- in the British Army, as Major David Brand. Brand is the protagonist, but a far deeper and more fascinating one than a mere hero would have been. Both he and Burton are superb, and both characters have real depth. The script is exquisite; this feels as much a serious play as a war film, despite the gripping action scenes.

Both men are candidates to lead an important, dangerous mission from Cairo into German-held Libya. Yet there is friction, with Leith being an old flame to Brand's wife Jane. Brand is an inexperienced staff officer, out of his depth in action, whereas Leith is a volunteer, a former archeologist, a philosophical man with a deep, dark soul. The general chooses Brand to lead, as Leith is "an intellectual. Besides, he;s Welsh." Well then.

The scenes between the two men are gripping. Leith sees Brand's failure to kill in action, yet this is no moral failing. Where Brand disgusts is in his dishonesty and the extent to which he goes to hide his failure, trying to kill Leith, subtly, and ending up with a reputation as a killer amongst his men and, indeed, his wife. Yes, this is an action film, and a good one. There is suspense. Yet, as a character drama, this is almost as good as anything by Miller or Rattigan.

Not only that, we get to hear Christopher Lee doing a cockney accent.

Batman: The Electrical Brain

 "Listen, Daka, or whatever your name is! I owe allegiance to no country or order but my own! I'm an American, first and always, and no amount of torture conceived by your twisted oriental brain will make me change my mind!"

I last watched this over Christmas and New Year, 1990-91. Why not watch it again, now, for the firsttime since? The first screen appearance of Batman and a Robin for whom every day is a bad hair day. The first ever appearance, comics included, of Alfred and the Batcave, which is reveal to us from the very start in all ots awesome glory: a posh table, a chair or two, some bats flying about and some papier mache rocks. Bloody terrifying.

This is genuinely very good and engaging, though. Lewis Wilson is excellent as a Batman who, as Bruce Wayne, amusingly exaggerates his playboy persona for the benefit of his disapproving girlfriend, Linda Page, who- she being a woman and this being 1943- is a typist. There's a good explanation ("our special assignment from Uncle Sam") for Bruce not being in the armed forces. And the plot, involving radium in a safe, a radioactive ray gun, and sinister mind control, is excellent.

But- and yes, you knew this was coming: yep, the racism. You have to make allowances for the fact this is 1943, and this is Imperial Japan, merrily committing unspeakable war crimes as the movie serial is filmed. The yellowface is one thing- far from ok, but there's a context. But, I mean, we get the line "since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed J*ps", which is utterly mind boggling. Wow.

So yes, all very good... but the racism is really, really shocking, it can't be denied.

Better Call Saul: Something Beautiful

 "It never loses suction."

I was going to use a certain quote concerning gold nuggets, but decided I'd better not. Anyway...

This is a fascinating episode, which has the air of calm before the storm. Not that Nacho's extraordinary actions- faking a hit, including having himself shot and wounded twise, in order to cover up the death of that bloke- are exactly calm. But these are the lengths he has to go to, conflicted between his loyalty to the cartel and towards his father. He's badly conflicted and he can't, surely, keep getting away with this. He's lucky to survive... for now. And that doctor has such a wonderful bedside manner.

These things create ripples. Gus isaffected, with supplies disrupted and having todeal with conflicting demands from on high. Yet we also see him interact with an ambitious Gale for the first time, another old face.

Jimmy, meanwhile, is "masterminding" another dodgy scheme... eventually, when he can persuade a patsy to do the cat burglaring. I love how we spend such a long, tense scene with things almost going very badly indeed, yet with intentional bathos as the rather pathetic victim has been kicked out of his house by his wife. This is all sort of comic relief, but I suspect I ought to be seeing this as a clue that things are about to get serious.

We see Kim, working to hsrd while she should be resting, but... it she reaching some sort of crisis? Chuck's letter to Jimmy is actually nice, and it is she who tears up while Jimmy remains cold, as he always is deep inside, because what she loves is the mask, not the man. Is she beginning to realise...?

As ever... wow.

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

 "It should have been perfect!"

It's been a while since I've blogged a Hammer Horror film, not least because there are relatively few of them left. But, incredibly, I've yet to see or blog any of the sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein, so here goes. 

This is,let's face it, Hammer horror by numbers. It's ninety minutes of Peter Cushing dominating the screen as the deliciously obsessive and amoral Baron Frankenstein. The good Baron may speak of "revenge", but after cheating death in such a gloriously improbably way he wishes only to consider his experiments. I'm not sure how, even back in Bismarck's Prussia, one could practise medicine under a pseudonym as surely qualifications would have sort of mattered. I'm a little surprised, too, at how friendly the good Baron can be when blackmailed. but let us think not of such things, and just enjoy ourselves. 

This time Frankenstein has a willing volunteer, a disabled man who wants his brain to be transported into a new, perfect body. It's just that he didn't bother to clarigfy before the operation that Frankenstein intends him to be a public spectacle, which he's less than keen on. Oops. It's also made hilariously clear, with a bit of foreshadowing with a chimp given the brain of an orang-utan, that transplanting Karl's brain into the new body will probably turn him into a crazed, cannibalistic killer. How lovely. How very Hammer. The scenes where the inevitable happens and Karl goes made are a delight.

And if all that isn't fun enough, we get the perfect ending. And any film about brains in jars just has to be adored. So yes, Hammer by numbers... but Hammer by numbers isa very good thing indeed.

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)

 "My hovercraft is full of eels."

This film is, of course, just a load of sketches from the first two series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, barely rewritten at all and reshot with a slightly bigger budget. That, of course, is no bad concept for a film.

Whether the "best" sketches were chosen is, of course, a subjective thing. Any thirteen episode series of half hour shows is going to be, as the cliche goes, hit and miss. There's so much good stuff in those two series, and the film has less than ninety minutes to play with, so it's a shame they went for the killer joke sketch, the rowdy old ladies, and other second tier stuff. I suppose they were pretty much obliged to include the slightly overrated parrot sketch. Nevertheless, we get the two mountaineering sketches, not being seen, the restaurant sketch, defence against fresh fruit, and other top tier stuff/.

Obviously, the film is superb. It couldn't possibly not have been. But what fascinates me, after the passage of fifty-odd years, is how much longer ago 1971 feels than it did the last time I saw this film, I suspect when John Major was prime minister. We no longer, mercifully, have many tobacconists. Let us just say that attitudes to LGBT+ people are a bit different. Even more fascinating, though, old people wear Victorian fashions because they are, of course, Victorians. It's middle aged women who look like my generation's idea of what old people look like. And there are the ever-present city gents with their black bowler hats.

This is a hilarious comedy, and also a fascinating little time capsule.

Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov

I’ve consistently said, ever since I first read most of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, Robot and Empire novels some twenty-odd years ago, that Asimov is a writer of two halves. The Asimov of the ‘40s and ‘50s is a powerhouse of brilliant ideas, while the older Asimov of the ‘80s writes Asimov fan fiction full of continuity. High quality fan fiction, for sure- fan fiction is often superb and should not be disparaged- but more focused on continuity than in the big ideas of Asimov’s youth.

Having just reached the ‘80s with this rereading in the shape of this novel, however… I don’t get that impression at all. Oh, there’s continuity, all right. The Foundation universe is linked to the Robot universe for the first time. But… the book positively fizzes with ideas. The plot is a devilishly clever game of ten dimensional diplomatic chess, and for Asimov, it’s not really about characters: plot is all. Getting to see the political skulduggery of not only Terminus but the Second Foundation is a real joy.

Then there’s the ending. Yes, obviously the Gaia stuff owes a lot to James Lovelock, obviously. But the context is ingenious. The Gaia hypothesis as political ideology… is there a very, very left-wing subtext here, anti-individualism? It’s unclear. I don’t necessarily approve but, if said subtext is there, it’s nicely done.

The ending is devilishly clever: I particularly love the studies ambiguity as to whether or not Bliss is a robot.

Doctor Who: The Giggle

 "I gambled with God and made him a Jack-in-the-box..."

Yes, I know: I, of all peopole, am a day l with his ate for Doctor Who. But, much as my Who fix is an imperative, a necessity,  a matter of life and death... yeah, my child comes first. Anyway, this is going to be a long one. But let's just start by saying that it's a tour de force of writing, characterisation, direction and production, like both of its predecessors this 60th. We even get Mel, getting to be a genius working for UNIT, Bonnie Langford being brilliant, and even a potted history of life from Sabalom Glitz onwards... and is it hinted that they were an actual couple? Bizarrely, though it shouldn't, I think that sort of works. Anyway...

Love the pre-titles with the Toymaker in 1925 with his creepy shop, the John Logie Baird stuff, and the captivatingly evil charisma from Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker. I like the way the Toymaker is called out for a casually racist comment that exactly echoes one made to Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Time and Space, surely a deliberate nod. It's also perhaps a nod to the hints of archaic racist tropes that hover around the character; if you're not sure what I mean, Google the words "Celestial" and "Chinese". I'll wait. Incidentally, I love the brief colourised clips of William Hartnell and Michael Gough. 

Of course, The Celestial Toymaker is, I have to say, total pants, just game after game with no real sense of drama or purpose. The games here are so much different, and creepy. That poor man made into a marionnette (not saved, I note, from this existential body horror), and Donna's being attacked by the family of ventriloquist dummies. Brr. The Toymaker may not have been a great villain in 1966 (he really wasn't!), but he is now. The concept was always potentially great. Now, at last, it's been done properly. And I love how RTD refuses to do anything so mundane as explain what the Toymaker is. The whole point is that he's beyond all logic and explanation, and therefore terrifying.

Even better, this episode is about something. People acting so belligerently in 2023 is simply the Toymaker having people behave in real life as they behave online, a nice touch. And the anti-Zeedex conspiracy theories, with the obvious subtext... yeah, chef's kiss. The Toymaker even declares during the climax how he loves the capacity of humanity to lose themselves in their gaming headphones (not much of a gamer myself in that sense. Pokemon Go, on the other hand...), plus "the mind games- the dating, the ghosting". This is the perfect way of using fantasy to get away with social commentary. Oh RTD, how we've missed you.

Anyway, we get UNIT again. Still led by Kate. Shirley is still there. Are we, perhaps, looking at a recurring UNIT gang, 70s style? Potentially including Donna (I love how she casually gets the job!) and even Mel? It's an exciting prospect, one of many arising from this episode.

The conclusion, with the bi-regeneration and two Doctors, really shouldn't work. Describe it out of context and it's terrible. Except, with RTD writing... it isn't. It's brilliant. Ncuti Gatwa is superb, of course, but more on him at Christmas. The Fourteenth Doctor is tired, full of the weight of history, and facing burnout. The Toymaker's puppet show illustrates it nicely... the guilt of Amy and Rory, of Clara, of Bill, of the Flux, of that thing last episode with the salt. As Donna hasn't stopped telling him, from the very start, he needs to stop. And now he has a family, on Earth, which is lovely, much as he keeps taking people on naughty little TARDIS trips. It's a nice touch that Mel, being an orphan, gets included too. And, being that this is a second Earth exile of sorts, it's a nice little Easter egg that the Doctor tells a little anecdote about the planet Delphon, where they communicate with their eyebrows. That joke is fifty-four years old next month...!

Much as I'd say the chance of the Fourteenth Doctor and the Nobles (sadly Wilf had just a cameo, understandably...) reappearing in some way is pretty much 100%. Good. Because the characterisation has been exquisite, not least with the Doctor accepting his regeneration without self-indulgence this time. 

This is pretty much perfection. The bar has been set high... but I've every confidence that Ncuti Gatwa's debut is totally going to smash it.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

 "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?"

Yes, I know. I should have seen this film long before the run-in to my forty-seventh Christmas. At least I've seen it now. It's awesome, obviously.

What's striking on a first viewing is how very late in the film we get the bit where aspiring angel Clarence shows George how awful his community would be without him. We get nearly two hours of George, a nice guy- well, by 1946 standards- having his dreams of travel and architectural glory slowly crushed as he stays in the same town, putting others before himself and living a modest, humble life. Some of the scenes are quite distressing, not least his and Mary's honeymoon being ruined by the Wall Street Crash.

What's also striking is that the film disapproves of capitalism red in tooth and claw and insists that community matters far more than money, an important point for any age. Bedford Falls is a nice place: Pottersville is an obvious inspiration for Biff's changed 1985 of Back to the Future Part II.

Jimmy Stewart is, of course, the perfect leading man, the cast is superb with Lionel Barrymore, especially, engaging in some truly splendid chewing of the scenery, and the entire thing looks perfect. I'll even forgive the film, as someonewho knows, for its rather amusing total failure of realism in depicting George's deafness. As anti-Dickensian riffs on A Christmas Carol go, this is pretty much cinematic perfection.

The Defenders: The Defenders

 "It's just a city, They rise. They fall..."

Hmm. I mean, there's nothing wrong with this. It's finale stuff. It does the job. It wraps things up. It's exciting. But... is it me who's feeling perhaps a little underwhelmed?

So Luke, Jessicaand map go down into the bowels of our metaphorical Hell beneath New York. They blow the baddies up. Matt stays behind to try and persuade Elektra to turn good... but she's a baddie precisely because she wants to be with him forever in deatyh and, as she says, "This is what living feels like." It's all very dramatic, but also a bit cliched.

There's so much weight placed on the police captain wanting our heroes arrested, too... but then, at the end, all charges are dropped, no questions asked, part of the cover-up. Oh, there are a few good character moments, I suppose, although not that good. Misty losing her arm is a genuine shock. I have no idea about these nuns who have in some way rescued Matt. But, well, this is a bit of a let down after some good recent episodes.

I'm going to continue blogging all of the formerly Netflix Marvel stuff, fear not. But there's less of a mad rush now, as Daredevil: Born Again won't be rushing upon us on Disney Plusas soon as we thought. Besides, despite Jon Bernthal's impressive performances, I'm not a great fan of the Punisher as a character, and next up is thirteen episodes of him. So I'll be taking a short break and watching a certain animated series in this "slot".Fear not, though. It will be just a short break.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This novel had an unfortunate disadvantage for me on this reading: I read it once before, twenty-odd years ago, and formed the firm impression that it was the greatest novel ever, even as my memories of id gradually and inexorably faded. This gave it something of the "Citizen Kane problem". How could it possibly live up to such an impossible reputation, superb though it might be? Against the odds, though, this rereading has altered my opinion not a whit. It is truly the greatest novel I, at any rate, have ever read.

Not, of course, that it is, as some say, "the greatest love story ever told". It is not a love story, not remotely, and it is absurd to say that it is. It is a tale, set in a landscape of bleak, harsh, unforgiving beauty that seems the master of vulnerable humanity, very much not the other way around. Against this, the lives and the values of the landed gentry make desperate and futile attempts to cling to existence. Life is short. To live to forty is accounted lucky... although, admittedly, perhaps the Lintons and the Earnshaws would breed children with much more robust constitutions if they weren't so bleeding incestuous. Marrying your cousins is bad, mmkay? 

These families are not happy ones. Indeed, the main theme of the book is the damage done by childhood abuse. Not, of course, that Emily Bronte would have used the term "personality disorder", but Cathy certainly has Borderline Personality Disorder, to my mind, and Heathcliff has something, too. Both of them are hopelessly damaged by their childhoods, and live and die defined by that abuse. Worse, Heathcliff seems to exist only to perpetuate that cycle of abuse.

There is, fortunately, a note of hope at the end, as young Cathy and Hareton seem to be falling in love and to show hope of breaking out of that awful cycle. It'a bleak but very human novel, yet somehow not without hope. It seems to question notions of class and (more tentatively) gender. In structure and in feeling it is by no means of its time, early Victorian, but simultaneously both harking back to Gothic tropes and looking forwards, with its non-linear narrative and not entirely reliable narrators. It is perfection.

Twin Peaks: Traces to Nowhere

 "You know, I think I'd better start studying medicine."

"Any why is that?"

"Because I'm beginning to feel a bit like Dr. Watson."

The second episode is no less compelling than the pilot as we dig deeper not only into the mystery, which will no doubt all be wrapped up neatly in due course(!), but the characters and the evocative, textured, oh-so-brown setting that is Twin Peaks.

Kyle MacLachlan is dsuperb as Agent Dale Cooper, clearly a highly intelligent and able agent yet with a certain naivete that comes alomgside that. Who is Diane? I don't expect ever to know.

At times- yeah, the Log Lady- we lean into weirdness. Laura Palmer's mother seeing that figure and screaming, for example. Yet other scenes are very real and distressing. Shelley's abusive relationshiop with that *** Leo is hard to watch. And the mystery deepens in multiple ways while still being easy to follow who is who and what's going on, on the surface at any rate. This is not an easy thing to do.

There are new plot threads and characters- a mysterious $ , in Laura's safe deposit box, Donna falling in love with James, Bobby's highly articulatre and violent father, Truman's affair with the widowed Mrs Packland. But the mystery surrounding the murder of Laura Palmer is already showing signs of being quite the rabbit hole.

Alreadty, this is about much, much more than the murder mystery, as far as it's about that at all. I'm absolutely loving this.

The Defenders: Fish in the Jailhouse

 "Karen, this is my life."

Structurally, this is your typical penultimate episode, maneouvvring everybofy into position for the finale. Matt, Luke and Jessica begin in the police station with tough questiins to anseerr, but by the end they're ar the lair of the Hand, fighting its three remaining fingers. Meanwhile, Elektra tries to persiuade Danny to side with her, abandoning his prior allegiances as she abandoned hers.

But the heart of this episode is about character. It's about trust,and integrity. The integrity of Luke, who puts his city and its millions of people above the risk to his hard-won liberty. The trust placed in him and his friends by Misty, risking her entire career. And the trust of Foggy in Matt, smuggling in his Daredevil suit. The Hand and Elektra are divided, broken. But our gandg are, in the end, united. Even when it comes to Colleen's explosive plan.

Some of these relationships are fascinating. The deep mutual respect between Misty and Luke, and Misty's equally respectful understanding with Claire, perhaps the wisest character. The slow journey undertaken by Karen and Foggy to understand that Matt is Daredevil, and denying that is pointless.

It's all nicely done, and the characterisation is good. The episode is, perhaps, necessarily formulaic, and seeing protagonists in unfair legal trouble is never fun, meaning this episode isn't quite as entertaining as the last couple. But we seem set fair for a finale worth waiting for. Let's hope it lives up to its promise.

The Frozen North (1922)

Well, that's not exactly the best Buster Keaton film, but apparently it's incomplete, and he made it while rather upset about what really does seem to have been an unfair and unjust prosecution of his good friend Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

The film looks good, with location filming and real snow in a part of California that really does look like California. And Keaton's facial comic acting is as peerless as ever. Many of the skits work well. But it's weird and unsettling seeing Keaton as a baddie, the sort of man who holds up a casino, shoots dead who he thinks is his cheating wife, and generally goes around not being very nice. No wonder the film isn't better known.

Still, I'll admit that, while I'm no newcomer to silent comedy shorts, they're probably best experienced in a cinema with a live pianist. The film may be silent, but the experience probably shouldn't be. Certainly the humour itself is no less fresh a century later.

Not the best of its kind that I've seen, then. All the same, a relatively bad Buster Keaton film is a Buster Keaton film nonetheless, and I was suitably amused. The film can of course be found easily and legally online.

Better Call Saul: Breathe

 "I decide what he deserves. No one else."

Better Call Saul already seemed to be pretty much the embodiment of televisual perfection. Yet, two episodes into its fourth season, it seems to show signs of getting... better? Can such a thing be possible?

Jimmy's job interview for the position of photocopier salesman reveals so much about him, even though his real agenda is revealed later on. He's so very suited to the job, whuich suits him far more than being a lawyer- not to stereotype those in said profession, but Jimmy is outgoing, dishonest, a born bullsh***er, and entirely devoid of any true moral sense. He effortlessly charms his prospective employers, "selling" himself to get the job despite his dodging the awkward question on why he stopped practising law... and throws it all away by insulting them as soon as he gets the job out of what looks like pure self-loathing- and I think, despite the ulterior motives, that remains a fair summation.

Kim, meanwhile, is a total git to poor, decent Howard, guilt tripping him on Jimmy's behalf at the discussion of Chuck's will... and hiding Chuck's letter to Jimmy. Jimmy's behaviour is rubbing off on her. Kim is, of courdse, doomed by her love for Jimmy... perhaps this will be via the slow ruination of her character? She always liked the Slippin' Jimmy stuff. She's the good girl who fell for the bad boy.

Mike, meanwhile, is confident despite his sparring with a highly annoyed Lydia: Gus likes him, and he knows it. And Gus has never been more chilling than in this episode, nor Giancarlo Esposito a more sublime example of acting perfection: Mr Esposito truly is up there among the greats. Gus's sadistic, vindictive desire to consign Hector to a life of fully conscious, helpless paralysis is a thing of pure horror. As is the tone of voice wioth which he says "you're mine" to Nacjo after the horiffic final scene.

Wow. Can Vince Gilligan make some more telly please?

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

 “Oddsbodkins!”

There were all sorts of predictions for this episode, weren’t there? Returning Doctors and all sorts. But that was never going to happen. Multi-Doctor stories are a logistical nightmare for the writer, and become all the more so with the onward march of time as new Doctors are cast and old ones age.

Plus, this is the start of an RTD renaissance. What better way to celebrate the 60th than by looking forward instead of back? By all accounts the ratings for last episode looked good overnight on the BBC but within a week, as iPlayer was factored in, they began to look stratospheric. And it seems the show has been a massive international hit on Disney Plus too. Why alienate all these new viewers with excessive continuity and fanwank? It’s enough of a nod to us oldies to just mention the HADS, something newbies won’t even realise is a reference. Anyway, Doctor Who is back, and popular. Happy 60th.

Anyway, I loved this episode. After last week’s fairly trad alien invasion story with lots of characters and characterisation, this time we get something very weird and different, showcasing the variety of what the show can do. It’s all delightfully creepy, not only in the sense of jump scares but in concepts that make you go “brr”. The edge of the universe stuff is superficially a bit Planet of Evil but the details, and the plot, are very, very different.

The first half of the episode felt like an old-fashioned Part One in the best possible sense, until the scary weirdness started happening, built up perfectly. Making the antagonists shapeless copies of the Doctor and Donna was brilliant. This episode had mood, scares… and drama, with lots of great character scenes between the Doctor and Donna. After all, why not take advantage of the fact you have a two-gander of an episode with such great leads?

Literally the only other characters are Isaac Newton- did you recognise the actor from RTD’s It’s a Sin?- and Wilf. Yes, Wilf. About whom more next week.

This was almost a bottle episode… but, excessive CGI aside, it didn’t exactly look cheap. This is a reminder that RTD can write characters to perfection, yes, but he can also scare the pants of us. May he continue to do so for a long, long time.

Twin Peaks: Pilot

 "Laura is the one..."

Oh my. That was... unlike any television pilot I've ever seen. Although it was very, well, David Lynch. This is utterly captivating stuff. I mean, I have no idea what's going on, and it'll take a couple of episodes to get a firm handle on all the characters, not least because all the main teenage characters seem to be cheating on their partners with someone else.

But the music, and the visuals, are not just a narrative but also a mood. This isrural Washington State, circa 1990, a place of sawmills, donuts and wood, everywhere you look. Wood, wood, wood, dead end jobs, wood, wood and darkness. Yes, I think I begin to understand a little more where Grunge came from.

Plot-wise... well, Laura Palmer is dead. Ronette escaped, although hardly unharmed. There was an earlier murder, elsewhere in the state. Under the fingernails of both dead girls is a letter of the alphabet!!! At the scene of the crime is necklace with half of a heart, and the words "fire walk with me". There's a primary red herring, Bobby, anda secondary red herring, James. There are hints of much, much more.

Oh, and there's the log lady. In the very first shot, just to weird us out from the very start.

I have no idea what's going on as we follow eccentric Agent Dale Cooper (name influenced by a certain skyjacker?) and Sheriff Harry S. Truman(!) on a weird yet entertaining investigation with twists and turns. But what's going on? What is this about? I have no idea, but this is so very David Lynch, and particularly redolent of the small town American weirdness of Blue Velvet. I think I'm going to like this.

The Defenders: Ashes, Ashes

"Any questions...?"

Wow. The Defenders is on fire as we approach the endgame. So many twists and turns.

Not that it's all shock moments- we get lots of fun plotting and skulduggery between the four surviving fingers of the Hand. We get some good little chatracter scenes- between Luke and Danny; between Luke and Stick; between Matt and Jessica. We see Danny versus the others- who are right- in a hero versus hero fight that actually makes sense. We see Matt and Jessica make a significant discovery about the Hand's intentions, although I'm not sure exactly why Matt starts to play that piano.

And then we get the final few minutes. We don't expect Stick to drug Luke so he can kill Danny. No hard feelings, of course: Danny would be useful to the Hand, so he has to die. Fortunately everyone is able to race back... but so is Elektra. It's an even bigger shock when she kills Stick- who, to be fair, has just assured his own doom by the karmic rules of television drama- and brings Danny to Alexandra.

So Alexandra triumphs yet again. She's won the prize, she's got the Iron Fist, the key to K'un Lun and the elixir of life she seeks to cure the disease that is killing her. And she's proved to her restless colleagues that she was right....

So Elektra kills her. And takes over, her agenda unclear. Wow. Just wow. This is brilliant in every way. Yet the shocks work, because the characterisation does.

Jack the Ripper: The Highest in the Land?

 "You should see some of the names in the papers we haven't let you see..."

And so we have it... or do we?

The centrepiece of this final episode is the tale introduced to the world by Stephen Knight and then popularised by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell in the exquisite graphic novel From Hell. Essentially, no less a figure than Prince Albert Victor ("Prince Eddy"), Duke of Clarence and eldest son of the Prince of Wales and thus right in the line of succession to the throne, has an affair with a shopgirl, "marries" her, and hasa child by her... but she's a Catholic. And, should a royal be thought to even consider marrying a Catholic... well, the world could not stand it, and nor could the Act of Settlement 1701.

But the illicitly married couple had a servant... one Mary Kelly.The muders were all done to target her. The other four victims may have been cases of mistaken identity, or to make the killing look to have been done by a madman. And the killers were a combination of coachman John Netley and royal physician Sir William Gull.

All this is related by Joseph Gorman, or Sickert, the real person, not an actor. This is the same source used by Stephen Knight in his book just a few years later. It's gripping viewing.

Plausible? Well... Gull was seventy-one years of age, hardly matching the ages of the witness descriptions. He was also rather busy, in late 1888, being in the midst of the series of strokes that would soon kill him. Plus... Gorman would later retract his claims. I'm unconvinced.

This is fascinating telly, nonetheless. The Clevekand Street male brothel stuff, and the dramatised libel trial, complete with the very effete and very obviously gay man who seems to fit the popular image of Oscar Wilde, is a fascinating glimpse into the very alien values of an earlier age- the early 1970s almost as much as the late 1880s.

We end with the haunting suggestion that the cover-up continues to this day. I suspect the killer may not necessarily be as exalted as implied here... but, nevertheless, wow.

The Defenders: Take Shelter

 "You are the dumbest Iron Fist yet!"

This is a fascinating episode. The heroes are not yet fully a team, not least because Matt is hiding the truth about Elektra from them... but it's great to see them interact. But the greater friction is, of course, within the five fingers of the Hand. This is a particularly strong episode. All the pieces are out and the mid-game phase is underway.

Plot-wise, things are pretty simple. The heroes' loved ones are threatened by the Hand, so Misty is persuaded to give them protection. Elektra is the catalyst to everything. Matt is forced to confess her backstory, and insists that some part of the resurrected "Black Sky" remains Elektra- something which the ending seems to prove. Meanwhile, the baddies turn against Alexandra for her going off-piste in resurrecting Elektra. Oh, and Stick beheads Sowande, as you do.

There is so much lore being hinted at. Does Gao blind her acolytes, and does this explain Stick's origins? There are hints that there may be more to K'un Lun than is known to Danny. The Hand has "always" owned New York. Alexandra had a daughter before her pilgrimage to K'un Lun.

Deeper than this, though, is the characterisation. Karen and Stick are pulling Matt in opposite directions. Claire is utterly devoted to Luke, and a wise friend to Colleen. This is very well written and acted. It's nuanced, fascinating television, balancing the action with intrigue and solid characterisation. I'm impressed. The Defenders has been good from the start, but this is more.

Better Call Saul: Smoke

 "Well Howard, I guess that's your cross to bear..."

We begin, as season openers tend to do, in the monochrome, smaller-than-life present day, with Jimmy existing, if not living, as a a small business owner with a rubbish moustache in Nebraska, recovering from the incident with the vault, with every arty shot simply dripping with existential ennui. For Jimmy, this is a Hell indeed. And, as we emphasise, there's the constant stress of discovery. He's miserable, depressed, and forever looking over his shoulder. We're reminded that, however much of a terrible person Jimmy is, it will lead only to darkness in the end. His sins will not go unpunished.

Nacho, in the usual timeframe (2003-04?)- is unwittingly in a similar position. Don Hector has had his stroke... but his replacement wants everything to continue as before. Was it all for nothing? Worse, he's under suspicion, and Gus is eloquently concerned about a gang war filling the gap left by Hector. This is all going to get complicated.

For Mike, though, things are looking up. He leaves his old job and receives his first monthly paycheque of more than $10,000!!! We haven't seen much of him lately, so it's great seeing somre cool, fun scenes, including a warehouse montage(!) where he checks Madrigal's security.

But Jimmy... oh, Jimmy. He's very down after Chuck's death, but still very much not the grown-up. Both Kim and Howard do a lot of adulting here: Jimmy does none whatsoever.Worse, Howard, who comes across as more and more decent the more we gets to know him, confesses that he feels responsible for Chuck's death. Jimmy, who has far more cause to blame himself... just lets him. Wow. 

Jimmy deserves his eventual fate. Terrible moustache and all. I can't help wondering, though... what next? We can see where Mike's thread is going, and all the gangland intrigue. But what next for Jimmy?

I am, needless to say, gripped. The camerawork, the depth of the characters... I'm running out of ways to praise this show.

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

 "You can wear a suit that tight up to the age of thirty-five... and no further!"

SPOILERS, obvs.

Oh, RTD, how I've missed you. It's so many years since I've watched an episode of Doctor Who with characters who act and talk about real people, and whom we care about. Yes, we know Donna, Sylvia and Shaun, and that's a nice shortcut, but RTD really can write people, and family dynamics, and those little bits of character subtlety.

That, more than anything, is why this episode is so bloody good. The actual alien threat plot is not the point, cool though it is to see Miriam Margolyes voice Beep the Meep- it's literally an off-the-shelf plot from a very early issue of Doctor Who Weekly for which Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons get credited. No; what matters is Donna, and fixing the cruelty done to her in wiping her memory of all the cool adventures she had. Coming right on the heels of Tales of the TARDIS, which returned the memories stolen from Jamie and Zoe by the Time Lords, Donna now gets similar treatment.

Even better, the way Donna's memories are returned is not a cop out. The moment is earned, and comes from real, human drama centring on Donna's Daughter Rose (nice name). I'm a cis middle-aged man, and it's not my place to comment on what it must be like to be a trans person in the UK in 2023, a nation blighted by culture wars and whose prime minister has made a speech saying people should not be "bullied" for denying trans peoole exist. But the characterisation here feels real- Donna is a wonderful, loving mother and, while Sylvia sometimes gets things wrong, she loves her grandaughter and tries hard. But making all this the resolution is so bloody clever. 

It's so wonderfully nostalgic seeing David Tennant and the whole gang again, both in front of the camera and behind it- this was the first time this year I'd actually watched telly live, as broadcast, albeit on iPlayer- but Doctor Who (aside from General Elections) is literally the only prpgramme for which I treat iPlayer as anything other than a streaming service. Yet it's not just nostalgia. This is bloody good, contemporary telly, calculated to appeal to a general audience. The script is witty and human, the budget looks enormous, and Rachel Talalay's creative direction looks literally cinematic. Plus, the climactic scenes with the Doctor and Donna feature what is literally the best and most fun technobabble ever.

We get to see UNIT, and new character Shirley, UNIT's newest scientific adviser who fires missiles from her wheelchair, is very cool, and is played by the awesome Ruth Madeley from Years and Years. We get teased about both Kate Lethbridge Stewart... but we don't get to see them, not yet. Likewise, Beep the Meep hints cryptically at a "boss", but so far there's no big, Bad Wolf-like continuing thread. Oh, and the new TARDIS interior is at once cool, enormous, oozing high production values and... blatantly based on the DWM comic strip from the early '90s, which is certainly no bad thing.

Doctor Who is back. Properly. Oh yes.

Jack the Ripper: Suspects

 "The Ripper played cricket?!!!"

Here I go again, with yet another Jack the Ripper. Fear not, though: tomorrow is Doctor Who, so it won'ty be five consecutive episodes in succession.

This continues to be entertaining stuff but, well, we get a series of lacklustre suspects all linked to czarist Russia, with even Rasputin getting a mention, before things start to get back on track. Still, this never fails to hold the attention and we do, at least, confirm the point that the relevant archival material is somewhat lacking.

Then we get to M.J. Druitt, a plausible-seeming suspect although, I'm sure, one of many... and we can never be sure whether or not he was a Freemason or not. And then off we go on a royal-themed tangent. That's it, although we do at least focus on the point that there must be a reason the Ripper stopped in November 1880 Did he die, move away, get himself committed to an asylum? Like the Freemasonry stuff, this is a point that needs to be explained.

The last two episodes, while good, haven't matched the gripping intensity and intelligence of their predecessors. Let's hope the same can't be said of the final episode.

Jack the Ripper: Panic

 "... and by that I mean the City of Oporto the port, not the City of Oporto, the ship."#

Ahem. Sorry, but this series is a Class A drug. I keep having to see the next one. I will continue with the other stuff I'm blogging, but it's getting hard to akternate as I'm getting so bloody addicted.

Things slow down a bit this episode as we explore the immediate reaction to both the murders and the failings of the police, both in Whitechapel and more widely. The format works really well here, with texts read out by actors portraying those writing them. This allows us to appreciate the pathos and the reality, These were people living not all that long ago, and not so very different from ourselves. The details of Mary Kelly's funeral are heartbreaking.

There's some dark comedy and some mockery of the casual racism of the time ("The Portuguese are notoriously darkened, villainous creatures"), and also an examination of the public fury against both the hapless Home Secretary in Salisbury's Government and the hopeless Sir Charles Warren, whose defence of this decision to wipe away the "Juwes" graffito- to prevent anti-Semitic violence- is almost convincing.

This episode essentially takes a break from the mystery and excitement in order to remind us of the human side of all this. Yes, it slows things down. But it's the right thing to do.

Jack the Ripper: Butchery

 "One does not need to be a Sherlock Holmes…”

This is fascinating stuff. We have the Freemasonry theories about the “Juwes” and clear hints of a desire from on high to cover up the murders, not least within the constabulary. We have Sir Charles Warren covering up the writing. We have a dodgy-seeming coroner and an absurd head of the CID who blames Jews rather than "Juwes".

We even have, from Watt, a fair amount of description of the actual Freemason mumbo jumbo, although not quite to the point of Jah-Bul-On. This is simply extraordinary: this is From Hell stuff, theories supposed to have first been aired by Stephen Knight in 1976. Yet here we are, a full three years earlier, and a nice bit of emphasis on the possible masonic nature of the rituals. I'm calling it: it's going to be Gull. I bet it is.

 Mind you, I'm well aware that all this Freemasonry stuff is far from universally accepted, and it's all rather murky, and that we're all supposed to suspect Charles Lechmere of being the Ripper these days. But, in 1973, this is cutting edge Ripperology.

This episode is extraordinary in the same way as its predecessors. And, er, yes, I know I'm not supposed to be blogging this today. I just had to see the next episode. Sorry! Defenders next time, definitely. Ahem.

Jack the Ripper: Double Event

 "Good at stopping riots, bad ar catching Rippers!"

The second episode is as gripping as the first, with the conceit of Barlow and Watt simply discussing things intelligently being utterly spellbinding television. Once again, this is a drama that does the job of a documentary, but the personalities of our two protagonists add so much more. We even get a dig, this being 1973, of Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's recent milk snatching antics.

We follow on from the first two murders by looking up at the killing of "Long Liz" Stride, where the Ripper was interrupted, and the immediately following murder of Kate Eddoes, where the Ripper's grisly modus operandi was in full effect. There's much to interest us, from an analysis of descriptions to suggest the Ripper's appearance to speculation that he may not have been left handed after all.

Much is made of the distinction between the area covered by the Metropolitan Police, run by the authoritarian martinet Sir Charles Warren, he of Bloody Sunday the previous year, and the City of London Police, under Major Henry Smith, a seemingly more eloquent and thoughtful character.

Yet we end with something truly extraordinary as the pair discuss the famous graffito "the Juwes are the men who will not be blamed for nothing". The unusual spelling "Juwes" is said to refer to freemasonry, something familiar to those of us who have read Alan Moore's From Hell.... yet this idea is supposed to have begun with Stephen Knight's famous 1976 book. This is three years earlier, when the freemasonry suggestion was not supposed to have been posited. Wow.

I know: I'm supposed to be blogging The Defenders. Next blog post, honest. But I just couldn't wait.