Category Archives: Television

Quick Hits

 

Just a few unrelated thoughts and observations this morning.

 

COVID-19: Well, this is fucked. We could have been well on the way to controlling the pandemic in the US and then turning our considerable resources to helping the rest of the world, but no, our fascist-adjacent party insists on throwing their tantrum modeled upon their orange god-king and screwing it up for everyone.

 

New Novel: I’ve started act break work on my new novel about alien ‘non-contact.’ I’m hoping within a week to have an outline and to be ready for actual scene writing.

 

Marvel’s What if …: the new series an anthology of animated alternate versions of MCU stories, the premier being what is Agent Carter got the super solider serum instead of Steve. It worked but I wasn’t blown away.

 

 

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Crossing The Bridge

 

Last night my sweetie-wife and I finished the fourth and final season of the Swedish/Danish television series The Bridge.

As a season and as a series it reached a satisfying conclusion wrapping up the various threads of both the current multiple murder investigation that drove the season’s plot and the long running character arcs.

Looking back over all four seasons with the exception of a misstep in virology late in season two the series maintained an exceptional level of skill in story, character, and production. The MVP of the show remained from episode one through the final scene Sofia Helin’s portrayal of Swedish homicide detective Saga Noren. Helin’s skills as an actor are tremendous. She fully inhabits Saga and never misses when she’s required to communicate her character’s inner thoughts and doubts non-verbally. Her costars are all competent and talented actors, but it is always clear that Helin is the shows center and its star.

The concept of the series, cross border investigations driven in part by a transnational bridge proved too tempting not to be duplicated and the series spawned reinterpretations set along six national divides including the US and Mexico.

When my sweetie-wife first wanted to watch this series, it was not available on any of the streaming services, and she purchased the UK Blu-ray release as we own a region free Blu-ray player. Now the original series is available on Amazon prime and if you have even a passing interest in Nordic Noir, I can’t recommend the series enough.

 

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A Pair of Micro Reviews

Messiah of Evil

This is a 1973 independent horror movie that managed to scrap up enough money for a day or two’s work from Elisha Cook Jr but not enough to a competent screenplay. Marianna Hill plays Arletty a young woman who comes to a seaside community in search of her artist father who has gone silent. She teams up with a womanizer and his harem of two who also are seeking her father. A sinister force seems to inhabit the town and gruesome murders result. Despite a decent set-up the screenplay is clumsy, the cinematography is bland, and the acting uninspired stretching the film’s 90-minute run time into tedium. Messiah of Evilis currently streaming on Shudder.

Masters of the Universe: Revelations

Kevin’s Smith’s revisioning of the second-rate animated series that couldn’t bother to produce actual names for character but referred to them solely by the story function is smarter and had more emotional depth than it deserves. I have watched just the premier episode but already there have been surprising twists and honest emotional reactions from characters discovering that their most loved and trusted companions have been lying to them for years. A special call out needs to be given to Sarah Michell Geller’s vocal work as Teela who is shaping up to the be the series most important viewpoint character.

This is currently streaming on Netflix

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Movie Review: G. I. Joe: Snake Eyes

 

When the 80s animated television series G.I. Joe, in reality a 30-minute toy commercial masquerading as entertainment in a recently deregulated space, originally aired I was too old for its key demographic but young enough to enjoy the campy, winking-at-the-camera, fun the show presented. Stalwart heroes and arch-villains can be a hell of a lot of fun in the right context and mindset.

It’s really no surprise that in 2009 I went to and thoroughly enjoyed G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the first live action attempt to bring the franchise to the silvered screen. That film took liberties with the source material even losing The Baroness’, one of Cobra’s lead villains, delightfully euro-trash accent. That film’s sequel looked half-hearted, and I skipped it.

Now, twelve years later, studios are again interested in reviving the franchise and have started with an origin story for one of the show’s most popular characters, the ninja Snake Eyes.

Henry Golding, a talented and charismatic Malaysian actor, plays the titular character Snake Eyes. After being orphaned by the murder of his enigmatic father Golding’s Snake Eyes grows to
adulthood as an underground cage fighter until he is recruited by a mysterious patron who promises to deliver his father’s murderer in return for Snake Eyes services as a spy and combatant.

Snake Eyes becomes entangled in a deadly contest within an ancient ninja clan, the Arashikage and is soon torn between his thirst for revenge, his growing bond with the members of the clan, and the realization that forces far greater than his personal grudges are at play forcing him into irrevocable choices that will not only decide his fate but nearly everyone’s around him.

G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes is an enjoyable cartoon of a movie. It is not a film to be taken seriously, though the stakes and emotions are played straight, and the actors involved give the characters real emotional weight. As to be expected there are a lot of ‘set pieces’ or action and martial arts fighting which are marred by an editing that is a little too quick robbing the audiences of stunt performances that need to be fully seen to be fully enjoyed. The films greatest failure comes in the movie’s final act as we follow several groups of character though the near continuous fight for resolution. The fact that it is near continuous is not the issue with fights and the action but rather that each group doesn’t possess a clear goal defined to the audience. In Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Solider we also follow different characters through a very action-packed final act, but for each set of characters we understand exactly what they are trying to achieve. The Falcon must get the chips into the right slots to realign that craft’s targeting system, Black Widow and Fury have to infiltrate and subvert to command level of SHIELD, now controlled by Hydra, and Captain America must not only get the chips to the right slots like same but must find a way to save his friend Bucky, now the Winter Solider, from Hydra’s brainwashing. BY know their goal the audience knows when the characters have wins that bring them closer and losses that set them back on their heels. In G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes most of the character groups do not have well defined goals so the fights carry less weight, and we are never sure how big any particular win or loss matters and as such are less invested in them.

That said if you enjoy action, martial arts, and stories of betrayal and redemption served with melted cheese then G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes may be a movie for you.

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Weekly vs Binge

 

Over the last few years, the streaming wars have given us two options for watching our series, have an episode drop every week very much like the traditional methods of series production or make all episode available at one and leave it to the viewer to decide on when and how much to watch at once.

I have engaged with both formats. The Queen’s Gambit and The Crown were consumed watching two or three episodes at a time while all the Disney+ MCU extension shows have been offered only once per week but then available for binge re-watching. There are also programs that I watch with my sweetie-wife that are available for binging but that is not her preferred method of viewing and these programs such as The Bridge (Which we have on disk) and Katla are watched episode by episode but not on a set this day of the week schedule.

Binging gives the viewer quick satisfaction and powers through the story but at times can feel like skimming a book rather than luxuriating in the artistry. However, the plot and characters are there right away and there is no need to wait for a resolution to a twist or surprise.

Weekly episodes give time and space for fans to connect, all synched to the rhythms of the story and speculate and share in the communal mood of the experience.

Sporadically gives the least satisfying experience. IT’s too easy to lose track of characters and events if the series is not watched regularly.

Of the three I think I still favor the weekly episodes but my feeling on this is not particularly strong.

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Series Review LOKI

 

This week Disney+ and Marvel Studios released the final episode of LOKI season one. Some mild spoilers for the history of the MCU through Avenger: Endgame are part of my review.

Loki, adopted brother of Thor and former villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after meeting his fate at the hands of the mad titan Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, lived on by way of a parallel time stream variant that escaped captivity due to the Avengers time heist to save half the universe in Avengers: Endgame. The series LOKI follows this edition of the character who
has not experienced the character growth from the films Thor: The Dark world or Thor: Ragnarök as he is hunted as a ‘variant’ by the Time Variance Authority the mysterious organization charged with keeping the timeline orderly and proceeding according to plan. Whose plan and why is the central mystery of LOKI as it compresses three feature films worth of character development for Loki into a montage and then challenges the character with a number of variations on himself exploring the question are we fated to be who we are, or can we choose who we are.

LOKI is a series that I could not review until the complete run had been released. It’s central mystery and eventual character development revealed in the final episode are too critical to the piece’s artistic vision. Overall, I think that they writers, directors, and actors, including some surprise and fun guest stars, landed their craft admirably and delivered an entertaining and even occasionally thoughtful series. Not as deep into exploring human emotion and motivation as WandaVision’s examination of the power of grief but a little more subtle and nuanced than The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s dive into identity and social racism. Revealing one last mystery in its final scene LOKI promises more adventures for the Asgardian with an announced second season.

 

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Series Review: Wellington Paranormal

 

In 2014 the world was treated to the feature film comedy What We Do in The Shadows, a mock documentary of a film crew following a trio of vampires around Wellington New Zealand leading up to a major vampire celebration. It’s co-writer, Director, and one of the stars, Taika Waititi has gone on to create memorable movies such as Thor: Ragnarök and JoJo Rabbit. Here in the United States the first spin off of the successful vampire comedy was the Hulu television series What We Do in The Shadows which utilized the same mockumentary conceit but this time following three old-world vampires living in Staten Island. However New Zealand actually witnessed the first television series inspired by the mockumentary Wellington Paranormal.

Employing the same mockumentary style Wellington Paranormalfollows three officers of the Wellington Police Force as they investigate and deal with supernatural threats and occurrences in the city. The series combines the broad humor found in the original feature film with a satirical reproduction of the seriousness of programs such as COPS. The show’s principal characters are Officer Minogue partnered with Officer O’Leary played by Mike Minogue and Kate O’Leary respectively a pair of hapless but good-hearted officers hopelessly over their head in dealing with ghosts, vampires, and in the first episode of the season, demonic possession. The rough handheld camerawork mimicking the documentary style allows the series to utilized decent special effects while covering the for the television level of budget with quick pans and shaking visuals. While some of the humor is clearly based in local culture and geography and doesn’t translate to an American audience over all the series is funny and well worth the time.

Wellington Paranormal starting with the 1 season originally aired in New Zealand in 2018 plays on the CW Network with episodes becoming available on HBOMax the following day.

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Series Review: Katla

 

 

My sweetie-wife enjoys programming from Iceland, and this has expanded my cinematic and entertainment horizons with the latest being the enigmatic series Katla.

Katla is the largest volcano in Iceland and in the program Katla is had been erupting for a year when the first episode begins. The shows start with a woman covered in mud and ash climbing out from under the glacier and stumbling to a local station. The nearby town of Vik has been evacuated save for a few people maintaining the vulcanologists studying the eruption. The mysterious woman gives the name of a Swedish tourist who had visited Vik some twenty years earlier. Soon other strange occurrences begin happening. Dead ravens are seen alive again and people who are missing or known to be dead and buried appear in the area, again covered in the mud and ash of the eruption. The reappearance of the dead, missing, and long departed persons reopens traumatic memories and familial divisions with the people surviving the brutal conditions at the volcano’s base.

I haven’t yet finished the series and so I reserve final judgment. Endings are critical and something as atmospheric and mysterious as Katla depends heavily on a satisfying conclusion.

That said I am very much enjoying the series. It is well produced, every frame carries mood and tone far beyond the simple spoken word and the air is not only thick with ash and gas from the volcano but with tension, secrets, and menace. Katla is not an action series but one that builds slowly over its episodes as we follow disparate characters struggling with mysteries with the viewers the only ones having all the clues.

Katla is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.

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Wasting Wesley

 

Just a quick note from my writer’s desk on how the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation wasted their opportunity with the character Wesley Crusher. This is not about the use or abuse of the character’s skills and talents used to save the ship, much has been said on that issue and having a ‘tech save’ of any plot is bad writing anyway. No, this about the way the character could have fit into the show as a writing tool that would have be unique.

Wesley was introduced as Dr. Crusher’s son and not as a crew member of the new Enterprise, existing outside of the ship’s chain-of command. However fairly quickly the character was ‘upgraded’ to an acting ensign and from that point one was functionally crew.

This was a mistake.

As a person outside of the command his relationship with everyone else would have been unique. Characters would interact and say things to someone outside of the command that they could never ever speak to someone occupying a place under them in the chain-of-command. This could have been a wonderful tool to explore characters’ inner lives as they open up about themselves in a way that they would not have with a junior ensign. One of the hardest writing tasks is getting a character to reveal their inner truths especially in a military or pseudo-military setting. Instead, the character of Wesley becomes disposable because he doesn’t’ sever any vital plot or story function that couldn’t be performed by someone else.

 

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Blake’s 7

 

From 1978, one year after the KT Event in science-fiction/Fantasy know as Star Wars, until 1981 the BBC ran a weekly sf adventure program Blake’s 7.

In the distant future, exactly how distant is left quite vague, humanity has spread out across the star and Earth sits atop the corrupt and oppressive Federation. The various planets of the Federation vary wildly from colonies that have fallen into savagery to the technologically advanced drugged and despotic Earth. Blake, after discovering that some of his memories are manufactured, joins with a freedom movement seeking to overthrow the Federation. IT goes badly and after a stint on a prison ship he eventually escapes with other prisoners comes into possession of an advanced alien starship. Now armed with comrades, some of quite questionable loyalty, and the most advanced craft in the galaxy but only this one, he launches a quixotic quest to bring down the tyranny that has its boot on the face of humanity.

Pitched as The Dirty Dozen in space Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 was a dark and cynical science-fiction series that suffered from chronic budgetary shortfalls, the BBC has given them the budget of the show previously in that time slot a police procedural, along with wildly inconsistent characters and tones, but managed to evoke a unique sensibility that holds a fanbase to this day more than 40 years later. With fewer episodes than the original run of Star Trek, a mere 52 compared to 76, and mired in rights issues that has stymied all attempts at a revival so common to other properties beloved by fans, Blake’s 7 hasn’t even gotten a proper US DVD release. But still, it’s fandom continue watching and re-watching the series adoring its flawed production, it’s surprisingly dark turns, and its chaotic churn of characters and actors. Season, or as the Brits call it Series, 4 ended on a dark a deadly cliffhanger that serves perfectly as a doomed ending to the insane quest for freedom. When other SF properties were leaving the 70s and its cynicism Blake’s 7 embraced a vision of the future that foretold that humanity would remain a flawed, petty, greedy, and occasionally noble species.

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