Tag Archives: Television

Streaming Review: The Dig

 

The Dig is a dramatization of the discovery of a 6th century burial ship on an English estate by a self-trained archaeologist, Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) and the estates owner the widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan.) The movie details their struggles with acceptance, resistance from the accredited community, and deteriorating health all as England the world plunge into the cataclysmic horror of the Second World War.

This is a quiet, sedate, drama without anyone pulling a weapon or even raising their voice and it still crackled with tension as the characters faces trials and tribulations. It is a perfect example of that uniquely British style of drama that is motivated by class and manners, where the stakes are defines by expectations and the cost of defying them. In years past The Dig would have played to great success on the silver screen but not only due to the pandemic but also changing audience patterns niche channels and streaming services are now the home for this sort of dramatic fare. The truth of the matter is that fewer and fewer people are willing to pay more than twenty dollars a piece for non-spectacle cinema. That is not a slight on spectacle films but rather an acceptance that audiences have changed.

The performances in The Dig are superb. Fiennes adopts a Suffolk accent that is simply charming, Mulligan radiates sympathy a widowed wife facing not only the challenge of raising a son alone with also while dealing with a terrible condition all without ever devolving into maudlin pits of self-pity. The supporting cast is equally talented including Lilly James as a young archaeologist faced with sexism from academia and the horror that she has married the wrong man.

Cinematographer Mike Eley captures haunting and lovely images of the English country giving the fog a ghostly and timeless luminosity that feels as though it has passed through the centuries with the buried burial site.

Screenwriter Moira Buffini’s script shows a deft competence and subtilty that trusts the audience to understand the situation and the characters’ inner lives and motivations without needlessly wordy exposition.

Under the helm of Director Simon Stone all of these elements come together for a moving portrait of people and an age that has now passed.

The Dig is streaming on Netflix.

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It’s Not Just the Person in Charge

I have finished watching the 10 episode documentary Hitler’s Circle of Evil and it was truly a fascinating journey. So interesting in fact that I look forward to seeing every episode again as I re-watch them with friends equally interested in history.

One of the aspects of the entire Nazi Germany history that this series had laid out in a clear manner is how important the people surrounding Hitler were to what happened.

From the very start of the movement through its transformation into a personality cult and onwards into a juggernaut of evil it was more than the hateful evil fuck Hitler responsible. Throughout the process he was surrounded by people who performed critical roles that shaped the ideology, energized the members, and brought the murderous cult to power.

What truly jumped out at me was how few of the people that held these powerful positions had any real competence or qualifications for their posts. To the man each chased individual ambitions, some petty and prosaic such as Goring’s looting of artistic treasures for his homes while others pursued their conspiratorial feats into mass murder. What not one of these men seemed to possess was a sense to duty to the country. Oh, they all professed a great love for their country, but their actions time and time again demonstrated their base, selfish, and evil objectives.

The fish rots from the head and Hitler was the center of the corruption. The inner circle was one of his own making and one that reflected his twisted views and hate filled perspective. For the members of the inner circle power flowed from their direct and personal relationship to Hitler, as those relationships waxed and waned so did their influence. I find it curious that these vicious, scheming, and treacherous men who moved so confidently against one another were simultaneously craven ‘yes men’ unable to tell their adored and feared leader ‘no.’

It is that relationship, cruel men who cower and bootlick; paying the source of their power for false flattery that fascinates me. It is the system that provided a platform for genocide and wars of aggression not simply the product of one madman’s maniacal delusion. Had there been strong institutions staffed by people not driven by personal, petty, purposes the entire Nazi government would have been impossible. Of course the Weimer Republic never had the chance to develop those deep institutional cultures and in the collapse of the German Empire the vacuum was filled with men and parties intent on power and money.

As a writer of fiction and a student of history the lesson that it is never just one man is a terribly important one. When I create worlds for my stories or when I look at governments around the world it will be important to keep it mind it is never just one person it equally vital to know who they surround themselves with, who is in their inner circle.

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The Frankenstein Chronicles

My sweetie-wife and I have started watching a new Netflix series The Frankenstein Chronicles. Set in London 1827 the show is about a detective, John Marlott, played by Sean Bean we’ll see how long he lives in this show, as he investigates a series of bizarre strange occurrences. Given the title it is no spoiler or surprise that the inciting incident is when working a river smuggling case Marlott discovers a corpse of a small child that is actually composed of several different children. So far the trail has lead him to noted poet William Blake and author Mary Shelly. We are only a couple of episodes into the series but I am already impressed with the level of historical accuracy, a pleasant change from Penny Dreadful. It is always a pleasant turn when I investigate something in a historical piece that I think the authors may have gotten wrong and instead I come away with new knowledge.

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New Television Series Discovery

This has been a rough cold and flu season for me. Last week I contracted another cold, Friday I was feeling poorly, Saturday was pretty bad and I sent friends home early at the end of Board and Card Game Night, and Sunday I barely made it out to the Noir on the Boulevard screening of This Gun For Hire. (A very enjoyable early noir and worth seeing on a big screen.) Today I woke still feeling pretty bad off and stayed home from work.

As I gagged on postnasal drip I watched Youtube videos and took in a new documentary series on Netflix, Hitler’s Circle of Evil. It’s a ten part series that focuses on the men closest top Adolf Hitler and the parts they played in the rise of one of the world’s most murderous regimes.

What makes this series particularly fascinating is the focus on the men who supported Hitler. We have heard endless examinations of Hitler’s life, his decisions making processes, and so on, but for the rest of that ruling clique we generally are only given glimpses of the others and then only in their relationship to the dictator. In this series each man is followed along his history from his origins into the halls of power and their eventual downfall. While they all served and followed Hitler, each retained their own motivations, goals and methods all of which repeatedly brought them into conflict with one another. It is very instructive to study this sort of history. They were all NAZIs, they were all anti-Semitic, but they were all very different in personality, powerbase, and outcomes.

For those who write fiction, particularly if you have ‘evil empires’ as part of your world-building, this series is must watch research. If can help you flesh out a cardboard evil empire into a realistic and terrible construction.

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On Remakes and Reboots

Next month Netflix unveils their SF television series Lost in Space a reboot of the 60’s show of the same title. Again the premise of the show is essentially The Swiss Family Robinson but in space.

In the original series the Robinson family is departing for Alpha Centauri to start humanity’s first interstellar colony. The logistic of the premise is laughable. A single family founding a colony, the genetics are a nightmare. For reasons a hostile foreign power, never identified as to which power or why, attempts the sabotage the mission. The saboteur is trapped aboard the vessel at launch and ends up trapped with the Robinsons when their ship veers wildly off course and they are lost in the unmapped vastness of the cosmos.

Very quickly an ensemble show transformed into a children’s program focused on Will Robinson, the precocious young boy of the series, the ship’s robot, and Dr. Smith, the saboteur but now a character of comic relief and defanged of all serious threat. The show ran three years and produced classic SF ideas such as a rebellion of vegetables. The show was bad.

So if I did not care for the original, does that mean I will be skipped this reboot? No. Here is my core rule for remakes and reboots; they should only remake material that was bad.

If you attempt to remake a good show or movie, particularly if we are talking a classic, you are almost certainly going to do worse. It’s hard enough to make good narrative material, it’s harder to improve on material that has already achieved quality and that should be avoided. However, bad source material, well, you might find a way to make something good out of that.

Given that Netflix’s original series may indeed salvage something worthwhile from the concept. After all, the original, The Swiss Family Robinson, itself was a remake of Robinson Crusoe but with a good god-fearing Christian family as the principal characters. (In the book the family was not named Robinson, but Irwin Allen was never known for subtlety.)

I shall keep my expectations low, but I will give at least the pilot a go.

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Video Review: Britannia

Short version; Silly but fun.

 

Set in 43 AD with the invasion of the British Isle by the Roman 9th legion the Amazon original show Britannia should not be confused with history, but rather in the words of Peter Shaffer when speaking about his play Amadeus a ‘historical fantasy.’

When the commander of the 9th Legion, Aulus, (David Morrissey) invades with 20,000 troops, minus the three he executed for desertion, he finds the land of Britannia at war with itself. Various tribes bicker and war while bending knee to the mysterious religious leaders the Druids.

Very quickly it is established that there is a reality behind the Druid’s beliefs and abilities, so that pretty much tells you we are dealing with a fantasy story and not one masquerading as historical fiction.

The series currently has one season and my sweetie-wife and I are just a little over halfway through the episodes. We have our guesses about where the program is going and the anachronisms are sometimes amusing but we still enjoy the ride and it’s paying off so far. (Though my sweetie-wife has voiced a fear that the series may still go all Fortitude on us.) My favorite anachronisms so far, when a character is performing a pagan ritual and imploring their gods to ‘turn back the hands of time.’ Really? ‘Hands of time?’ I guess the writer doesn’t understand that phrase originates with clocks.

The program is produced in stunning 4K resolution with lovely location shooting in Eastern Europe.

If you turn off your history knowledge it is possible to enjoy the show.

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The Inevitable Disappointment

Over the last few months a television series my sweetie-wife I have enjoy is Shetland. Based on a series of mystery novels by Ann Cleeves the series takes place on the far north Scottish island of Shetland where DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Jimmy Perez solves murders and balances being a widower father and returning island native.

The series has run for three seasons and a total of 14 episodes, 8 of which are direct adaptation of the original novels with the final 6 an original mystery created by the producers.

It is those final six, the entirety of the third season where the show disappointed me. With the earlier adaptations two episodes were used for each novel and the general mood of each piece was one of clues, detective work, and hidden motives. The final storyline became a tangles mess of witness protection, mob corruption, and amazing coincidences that came off more like a standard cop show than the original mysteries I had enjoyed.

I was particularly annoyed with one sub-plot in the final season.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Six episodes long that story broke into a three-act structure with two episodes per act. As the end of the second act one of the police characters is kidnapped by the mob to send a message to DCI Perez. Naturally it is our sympathetic female cop DS Allison ‘Tosh’ Macintosh. As soon as the third act opens she is released but naturally there has been a sexual assault.

I can’t tell you how tired I am of the third act assault/killing/murder to motivate the hero. Here there is no real plot justification, the entire subplot could be removed with very little effect on the main and convoluted story. It is cliché, and it uses the sexual assault not as the principle event of it’s own story but as a plot detail in someone else’s story. Yes the writers deal with it tastefully, never showing it, never making it titillating, exploring ramifications for Tosh and the people around her, and even a little lecturing by our heroes on the injustice women face when trying to have these crimes prosecuted, but it’s all sub-plot and a tired, worn out sub-plot at that.

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Thoughts on HBOs WESTWORLD

I have now watched all the episodes in season one of HBO’s SF series Westworld; what follows will have spoilers about the entire season and as such if you have not watched the series and you want to remain, like the hobbits, unspoiled you should stop reading now.

I was certainly intrigued by the idea of taking the 70s Michael Crichton film and expanding it a full television series. For those unaware of the original movie, robots in a theme park malfunction going on a murderous spree until we are reduced to one robot and one human in a game of survival. Really it has a very Terminator feel to it and it is a decent film but the plot is rather thin for a series.

Jonathan Nolan, brother and frequent collaborator with Christopher Nolan teamed up with his wife Lisa Joy and J.J. Abrams to create this visually stunning, expertly produced, and deeply plotted show. The talent involved is tremendous and the story arc as it progresses through the 10 episodes is intelligent, engaging, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Why the series let me down is very much connected to my last posting on Promise and Flavor in storytelling.

When the first episode open we are following Teddy, a likeable protagonist with what appears to be a good strong moral sense. He quickly becomes reacquainted with Dolores, a farmer’s daughter who sees the beauty in this world and it si clear that they have a history. That night bandits attack Dolores’ farm, Teddy rides to the rescue and defeats the thugs, but then the twist occurs. The Man in Black arrives, defeats Teddy because Teddy is a robot and unable to harm the Man in Black who is human. Having defeated Teddy the Man in Black takes Delores to the barn to sexually assault her.

What does this opening promise us and what flavor are we led to expect?

Playing with our expectations, Teddy isn’t a “guest’, a human playing a game, but a ‘Host’ sets up that this is going to be a story of facades and hidden truths, Dolores’s optimistic views that their is beauty in this world promises an affirming story.

By the end of episode 10 things are very different. We have learned that The Man in Black is William, a guest who 30 years ago fell in love with the host Dolores but the park has awaken and or revealed his true darker nature as a sadist and rapist. Humans turned out to be hosts, hosts overcoming their programing turned out to be puppets playing out someone else’s agenda, the park’s brilliant creator, Dr Robert Ford’s assertion that humanity is a vain, pointless thing no different than the hosts goes unchallenged. The series ends with a massacre of the guests, which Dolores not only take part in but also instigates and leads.

The story’s end is consistent and doesn’t violate any internal logic, the production was outstanding and the performances truly marvelous, but I was left with a bad taste. This ending so dark and cynical seems at odds with the promise and as such I was repulsed by the conclusion.

I know this is not squeamishness on my part. No one who loves film noir can be against cynicism in stories. The deeply dark and cynical movie Night Crawler works for me, but its tone and promise are consistent from start to finished and I do not think this is the case with Westworld

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Space Zombies? Really?

So veering onto an entirely new track here s a quick post about making sure that your world-building and the your metaphors work and play together.

There’s an instance where it really falls down and that occurs in the fan favorite and short lived SF TV show Firefly.

(Yes I am taking my life in my hands by pointing a glaring flaw in the beloved series.)

The show is a hybrid SF/Western set in a terraformed solar system where dozen of worlds and hundreds of moons have shirt-sleeve environments. (never mind the science issues here – Joss and Science have never been a particularly strong match.) Inspired by the U.S. Civil war our heroes are plucky rebels who stood up to the central powers and lost. They now live on the frontier moons, scraping out a living running cargos and doing odd jobs, often of questionable legality, while trying to remain a few steps ahead of the suffocating core worlds. This is all and good. The set up allows an interesting exploration go the clash of cultures that happened with the U.S. Civil war without the overpowering evil of slavery hanging over everything. The transformed frontier moons allow a wild west feel without the native aliens so he side steps the American Native issues as well. Right from the pilot a threat is revealed in the form of ‘Reavers.’ Humans who it is said had gone mad at the vast emptiness of space and now travels from moon to moon, killing, raping, and wearing the skins of their victims, should they be so lucky as to have it occur in that order.

The show ran a few episodes before Fox killed it, but gathered enough of a fan base that Universal bankrolled a modest feature film that allowed Joss to resolve some incomplete plot lines.

On the Blu-ray bonus materials Joss explains that the Reavers, who play a central plot point, are in fact supposed to be basically ‘Space Zombies.’ (Because there is no escaping the zombie genre – anywhere.) The reavers are unbridled and uncontrolled expression of human anger and aggression, incapable of expressing anything other than violence and destruction. A metaphor for what goes wrong when you try to meddle with human nature, but within the world-building there utterly ludicrous.

Reavers when they appeared display no thought, no planning, nothing but naked savagery. They run and chase down their victims, tearing into them, tearing them appart, and then chasing after the next. Okay – that’s pretty zombish, but how the hell do they fly spaceships?

Seriously I would love to have Joss write me a scene that takes place aboard a ship piloted and controlled by reavers. How do they manage to make it go from place to place, piloting and landing safely while unable to think?

It is an aspect of the show that one has to ignore and if you are unable to ignore the issue the entire story falls apart.

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Supergirl – Two Episodes In:

1-supergirl_tv_series_0001Before going to bed each night I usually watch something to let my brain wind-down from its high RPM state. For this I either select something known to me and this requiring light processing or something less heavy for the last two nights it has been the new series Supergirl. (Which is now on Netflix so I am a season behind, but that make no matter to me.)

I do like that this show has a light tone. It doesn’t play it all for yucks, but the over touch is a whimsical one and a generally optimistic outlook. a far cry from Snyder’s dreary, washed, whinny take of the Man of Steel.

I have two observations about the series so far.

 

First: the writing needs a little more polish. The plots are fine and story works but where it feels clunky is in the dialogue. Characters tend to speak to specifically and not in the usual shorthand that real people use among each other.

Second: this series shows the vast gulf between DC attempts at a cinematic universal and the same project as realized by the Marvel Studios. The deep mythology of the story is inconsistent.

Does the Superman Symbol stand for hope or is it a family crest for the moto ‘Stronger Together?’

Is Krypton a world of genetic engineering and unnatural births or one of families and even twins?

 

I’ll stick with the series, unless it seriously upsets me, the tone is fun and perfect for an unwinding brain, but I do hope the dialogue gets sharper.

 

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