Adam Curtis' Nostalgia For Radicalism Paints A Bleak Picture Of A World Changing For The Better

Adam Curtis released his latest documentary series, 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head', last week. All six episodes are currently available for UK viewers to watch on the BBC's iPlayer, while worldwide viewers can watch it here. As one might expect from Curtis, it is an expertly made visual collage with a superlative soundtrack, telling the stories of some fascinating figures largely forgotten to history, which Curtis ties together as part of his overall mission statement. This time, he is telling an 'emotional history' of how Western society embraced individualism to compensate for how the radicals of the past failed the change the world for the better, eventually leading to the rise of conspiracy theories and populism.

If that sounds familiar to Curtis' fans, it should: the documentary acts as something of a greatest hits of his previous concerns, ending up feeling almost as much of a retreat into Curtis' own history as that of the world. His signature phrases, '...And then something strange happened' and 'So they went back, into the passed' are trotted out in key moments much as how Marvel deploys beloved characters at unexpected moments for maximum fan excitement. It's as exciting, electric and eclectic as the best of his work to date. But then something strange happened: in going back, into his past, Curtis became infected with the very nostalgia-driven nihilism he attributed to others. In repeating his familiar refrains about our failures to improve the world, he missed how the world has been steadily improving in a different way to how he was expecting.

Marvel's Wandavision Season 1 Episodes 1 + 2 TV Review

Wandavision marks Marvel's latest foray into the world of television. Prior attempts to connect their big screen output to the small screen have not gone so well: Agents Of SHIELD began as a companion piece to the movies, but such close alignment resulted in a show playing perpetual catch-up and which only developed into a satisfying endeavour in its own right once the cord was severed. Subsequent efforts, including Agent Carter and Netflix shows such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones, tied into the cinematic universe in only the loosest sense.

Wandavision's approach is closest to that of Agent Carter, which featured characters from the movies in a self-contained story arc. Marvel's return to television is this time quite literal: the series draws heavily from the aesthetics of sitcoms from the 1950s and '60s, telling the story of the relationship between an android, Vision, and a telekinetic witch, Wanda, as they attempt to settle into (hyper)traditional married life in suburbia. It is here that a press release would affix the addendum 'except nothing is as it seems', which is ironically the problem: as far as premises go, 'dark mysteries lurking in flawless suburbia' is as generic as they come. On the basis of these early episodes, Wandavision looks to be exactly what it seems and nothing more.

Doctor Who 'Revolution Of The Daleks' TV Review

Chris Chibnall's tenure as Doctor Who showrunner has been a mixed bag at best, reaching its nadir when last season's finale saw fit to saddle the series' history and main character with entirely detrimental 'Chosen One' clichés. Mercifully, Chibnall's last new year's special was one of his better efforts and this year's, 'Revolution Of The Daleks', looked set to be a standalone free from the canon-defiling nonsense which tanked last season. The return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, absent for all but a short cameo since Russell T. Davies was at the helm, heightened expectations further.

On the plus side, 'Revolution Of The Daleks' was indeed largely standalone, despite featuring a large number of oddly specific callbacks: did anyone remember the second TARDIS stuck on Earth in the shape of a house? On the downside, while the canon revisionism from 'The Timeless Children' was for the most part eschewed, all Chibnall's worst writing habits were present in their most frustrating form.

Emily In Paris' Gender Confusion Makes Brigitte Macron Look Un Peu Ridicule

I've been watching Emily In Paris! Only two months late, but it takes time to run out of literally anything else to watch on the internet. It's amusing enough in its cliché-drenched way and every bit as feather-light and disposable as Lilly Collins' entire filmography to date. The series can't seem to decide whether the eponymous Emily is a well-intentioned imbécile or a secret marketing genius à la Don Draper. Emily's ignorance-as-secret-genius makes its first major appearance in the second episode, 'Masculin/Féminin', in which our heroine realises that the French word for vagina, le vagin, is gendered masculin. This sets off her American outrage alarm and naturally, she solves this perceived injustice by posting about it on Instagram.

This brainless posturing from Emily is realistic enough as a sequence of events until the episode's final scene, where none other than Brigitte Macron posts her approval, sending Emily's post into the viral stratosphere. While the show's writers probably intended to depict Macron as trendy and au fait with American declarative activism, their ignorance about the origins and meaning of grammatical gender paint her, a former teacher, in a less than complimentary light.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 1 Review + Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Review

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY - Season 3, Episode 1: 'That Hope Is You, Part I'

Having been a Trekkie for most of my life, the return to television of the Star Trek franchise with Discovery ought to have been cause for celebration. Instead, Discovery proved not just to be Trek in name only, but a lousy television show in its own right, its reputation only somewhat salvaged with the airing of the considerably worse Star Trek Picard. If Discovery was seemingly written by people who'd memorised Trek lore but didn't understand what gave the series its soul, Picard knew what Trek was about but seemed to actively despise it.

Star Trek: Discovery's third season premiere is a step up on that nadir, at least. Regrettably, it immediately falls into the same flaws which sank the preceding two seasons: leaden dialogue, storytelling burdened with filler and repetitive action, charmless characters and, once again, a fundamental misunderstanding of what Star Trek is about.

Dame Diana Rigg Tribute: The Avengers Retrospective (Television, 1961-69)

[This article is being republished in honour of the late Dame Diana Rigg, Avengers star and a personal hero of mine, who died yesterday. If you'd like to read my tribute to her co-star Patrick Macnee, you can do so here.]

The name 'Avengers' tends to be associated with comic book superheroes these days, though for  British TV fans of a certain distinction, it instead recalls an iconic and much loved '60s show which beat the comics to the title on these shores by two years. The series was Sydney Newman's first major hit, with his second being the altogether more widely recognised Doctor Who. Starting out as a gritty spy thriller, the British Avengers came to define the swinging sixties through its playful embrace of abstract imagery, empowered women in risqué clothing, and intrinsically English sense of humour.

In its most popular incarnation, the series paired gentleman spy John Steed with a trendsetting, judo-throwing female partner. The most famous of these was Emma Peel, played by Mrs. Bond-to-be Diana Rigg. The series crossed over extensively with the Bond franchise, as Steed's previous partner, the high-kicking Cathy Gale, was played by Honor Blackman, aka Pussy Galore, while Steed himself (aka Patrick Macnee) had a supporting role in A View To A Kill. Bond and Who may have lasted longer, but few creations have been as influential to national culture as The Avengers was to sixties Britain.

 

Community Shows How Political Correctness And Diversity Can Be Turned Into Great TV

As a consequence of the Black Lives Matter protests, the discussion over representation and diversity in pop culture has become especially heated in recent months. Episodes of beloved television shows, sometimes shows in their entirety, are being removed from streaming platforms for perceived infractions of the current code of heightened racial sensitivity. Characters in cartoons are being recast because the skin colour of the voice actor does not match that of the person they were portraying.

The invasiveness of these actions has been criticised, even from some who align themselves with Black Lives Matter, as another example of politically correct overreach. The result of this has been a poisoning of the well for any productive discussion of the issues involved. Instead of arguing over whether political correctness is a good or bad thing, perhaps a better question is whether it has ever been achieved in art in a widely accepted way, embodying the positive intentions from which the concept sprung rather than the authoritarian culture with which it has become interlinked. To that end, I present a show which is a prime example of how to turn a political correct ethos into great TV, albeit one which has regrettably had one of its most celebrated episodes scrubbed: Community.

Star Trek And The Social Media Drumhead

The utopianism of classic Star Trek is often overstated. The series do take place at a time when the human race has overcome scarcity and greed, yet numerous episodes showed our baser instincts remaining very much intact and capable of seizing control of even the most rational, compassionate mind in a moment of weakness. Classic Trek is undoubtedly optimistic, showing a human race dedicated to self-improvement and blessed with an enlightened philosophical clarity, but does not pretend that humanity is perfect. Unlike the lesser shows which followed, it did not confuse mirroring current events for insight, but told universal stories about the human condition and the challenges of bettering oneself.

In our present day, social media has become a tool which allows the worst of human nature to run rampant, undermining the principles and institutional pillars on which the free societies of the Western world reside. Although responsibility for each user's behaviour lies with nobody but themselves, the ways in which the nature of the technology irrationalises human thinking are evoked in two poignant episodes, each belonging to a different Trek series, which deserve revisiting.

J.J. Abrams Is An Algorithm

Television is going through another Golden Age, or so it is claimed. I disagree. It's true that television shows have higher budgets and look closer to cinematic productions every passing year. It's also true that more shows are produced and are readily available than ever before, courtesy of international streaming services like Netflix and the regional streaming outlets of major traditional broadcasters such as the BBC's iPlayer.

As the old saying goes, though, quantity is not quality. There is a lot of television to watch, and much of it looks impressive, but when you dig deeper into those myriad productions, beneath the aesthetics to judge how engaging the storytelling and compelling the characters, how many are even good, let alone great? How many feel like works of passion rather than another piece of flavourless content churned off the assembly line to be thoughtlessly consumed at speed before moving onto the next one? Why have emotionless executive jargon like 'content' and 'consume' become the lingua franca of the media industry? There are many answers, but one man at the heart of it all: J.J. Abrams. And as artificial intelligence expands its influence in all areas of modern life, it is time to accept what has secretly been clear all along: J.J. Abrams is an algorithm.

Self-Isolation Of The Free Man: The Prisoner (1967-1968) Retrospective

The escalating scale of the Coronavirus pandemic is keeping a lot of people prisoners in their own homes. The struggle of those in self-isolation to escape boredom has already produced many strange and entertaining results, such as the man who ran an entire marathon around his drawing room. Thanks to the unprecedented amount of entertainment now available at the touch of a button, many are finding this a perfect time to discover films and television series which may have passed them by. For those looking for something which will resonate with their present lockdown, I have a suggestion.

The Prisoner ran from September 1967 to February 1968, comprising a total of 17 episodes. Airing in the Friday night timeslot traditionally reserved for such conventionally enjoyable spy fare as The Saint, the show tore up the rules of its ostensible genre - here is a spy show where the main character is the one being perpetually spied upon - and reflected social fears back at viewers through a lens of avant-garde abstraction, heavily influencing such later series as Twin Peaks and The X-Files and delving deeply into the substance of existentialist philosophy which HBO's Westworld can only emptily feign at.

David Baddiel's Holocaust Denial Documentary Showed Why Evil Opinions Must Be Confronted

A few days ago, Jewish comedian David Baddiel aired a documentary on Holocaust denial on the BBC. Baddiel visited the sites of the many Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people, including the remains of the little-known extermination site at Chelmno, where he encountered a man who lived nearby at the time and spoke of the dreadful screams coming from the camp. He also spoke to Deborah Lipstadt and her lawyer Anthony Julius, who prevailed when David Irving sued Lipstadt for (correctly) calling him a Holocaust denier.

Throughout the documentary, Baddiel debated with himself whether his documentary would be complete without talking to a Holocaust denier in person. Baddiel's reticence was clear and understandable. When he posed the question to Anthony Julius, Julius was unequivocal in stating that such people should not be given airtime on the grounds that addressing deniers is simply giving them exposure, even if it is to refute them. Lipstadt believed it was sufficient to lay out their lies and destroy them, without going to the individuals responsible for them. In the end, Baddiel chose to speak to a denier, an man named Dermot Mulqueen who had trolled Baddiel's Facebook account earlier in the documentary. The result demonstrated why Baddiel's instincts were absolutely correct.

Victoria's Secret Swim Special 2015 review (Archive)

[These articles were originally written around 2014-15 for a separate outlet whose redesign has resulted in several of my pieces being lost. I'm republishing a number of my favourites on this blog for posterity. This particular review was chosen in honour of the never-ending pleasure of being rude about Maroon 5. Definitely not just so I had an excuse to go searching for images of Lily Aldridge and Behati Prinsloo.]

It’s a hard life being a television critic. Sometimes you just have to sit down, steel yourself, and watch a full hour of the world’s hottest models prance about in miniscule bikinis on gorgeous tropical beaches for review, because, well, it’s your job. No, don’t feel the need to send letters of thanks. These are the sacrifices we make; extensive rewinding, pausing and all.

So, the Swim Special. In a gripping narrative, the Angels turn up in Puerto Rico to shoot photos for the Victoria Secret swimsuit catalogue, with the dramatic stakes terrifyingly high as each model competes to claim the much sought-after cover. Lily Aldridge, owner of a body so celestial you’d expect planets to revolve around it, is up first, proving herself a master of understatement by describing the shoot as ‘epic’ and ‘legendary’. Truly, hers is a task Heracles would wilt to face, having to overcome crippling vertigo by climbing a small ladder onto a moderately sized boulder.

The Avengers star Patrick Macnee obituary, 1922 - 2015 (Archive)

[These articles were originally written around 2014-15 for a separate outlet whose redesign has resulted in several of my pieces being lost. I'm republishing a number of my favourites on this blog for posterity.]

Patrick Macnee, best known for starring as John Steed in the ’60s British television phenomenon, The Avengers, died of natural causes on June 25th 2015, aged 93, at his home in California.

Some of you may have read the article I posted about the impact The Avengers had in pioneering powerful female characters on television. For those who still remember the show, often the first thing that comes to mind is Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel, the show’s karate-chopping, catsuited co-lead between 1965-1967 who became an immediate fashion and feminist icon of her time. While the show’s array of brilliant and beautiful female characters may live most vividly in the popular memory for their impact on culture and beyond, it was Macnee’s John Steed who was its constant anchor, lasting its entire run from 1961-1969 before returning for two more years between 1976-1977 with the New Avengers revival.

Top Ten: The essential Red Dwarf

A new series of Red Dwarf returned to British screens just over a week ago, and while the new season / series has been greeted with some acclaim, or perhaps relief at the step up in quality from the abysmal 2009 mini-series 'Back To Earth', anyone coming to the show for the first time may wonder what all the fuss is about. There are a handful of solid laughs, but the humour is a little more forced, the performances that bit broader than they need to be.

To that end, I've put together a list of my top ten essential Red Dwarf episodes. In addition to listing some of the show's most hysterical half-hours, the rundown includes some of the landmark moments in its on-again-off-again run since 1988. At its best, Dwarf combined top tier character writing with unexpectedly innovative sci-fi ideas and an admirable affection for big, silly punchlines. If you're not a fully-fledged Dwarfer after watching every entry in this list, a certain hand puppet penguin will be very cross...

  

Television - Red Dwarf X 'Trojan' review

I'm one of those rare Red Dwarf fans who likes almost all of it. Not just the classic seasons one through six, but seven and eight as well. I thought Chloë Annett's Kochanski was a nice addition to the cast, bringing some fresh dynamics to the group in Rimmer's temporary absence. The last two seasons might not have been as effortlessly silly as the six preceding ones, occasionally veering too far into soap opera territory - a possible consequence of Doug Naylor, often considered 'the plot guy', taking full control of the show following the departure of Rob Grant, aka 'the joke guy' - but had their fair share of classic Dwarf moments nevertheless.

'Back To Earth', the 2009 revival, was the first time the show really fell flat in my eyes. The gags were leaden, the comedic energy drained by the absence of an audience (live or recorded) and the meandering, reference-heavy plot given too much precedence over the humour. It received record ratings for its new channel Dave though, leading to the commissioning of a full series. With 'Back To Earth' still an open wound, I can't say my anticipation levels were high. (I'd have gone to red alert, but for being too lazy to change the bulb). To my considerable relief, while 'Trojan' is far from a classic and still shows signs of the stiffness which plagued the 2009 mini-series, it was competent enough to avoid further smegging up the legacy of this once great show.

  

Television - Doctor Who 'The Angels Take Manhattan' review

'The Eleventh Hour' represents the pinnacle of Steven Moffat's work on Doctor Who to date, in my opinion. There was so much potential to Amy and her relationship with the raggedy man who grew up with her as she grew up dreaming of him, both trying to make sense of each other and find their place in the world. Looking back, the real sadness of Amy Pond is how she lived a life full of incident, but relatively little substance. Moffat has made her the Doctor's mother-in-law, the centre of a plot to tear apart the universe and more besides, yet despite her charmingly multifaceted introduction, she has been almost entirely defined as a character by Karen Gillan' performances.

What is there to say about her as a person? She's Scottish, she loves her husband, is vivacious, occasionally impulse and... ginger? For the many flaws in Russell T. Davies' writing, his lead characters always had purpose and enough depth to justify their place at the Doctor's side. Amy still feels like a sketch, filled in by Gillan's charisma.

 

Television - South Park 'Sarcastaball' review

'Sarcastaball' is a truly, deeply ridiculous story, and all the better for it. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never had much need for plausibility to drive their plots forward, but this episode took the biscuit. After discovering the student football team had done away with kick-offs due to the risk of concussion, Randy's sarcastic complaints leads to the school implementing his suggestions that the players wear tin foil hats and bras instead of helmets and padding, and hug each other instead of tackle. This new version of the sport soon becomes a nationwide phenomenon, and Butters a champion due to his ability to summon up the 'creamy goodness' from inside him.

Make sense? Not for a moment. Funny? You'd better believe it.

 

Television - Doctor Who 'The Power Of Three' review

'The Power Of Three' was shaping up to be my favourite of Doctor Who's truncated fifth season before being stopped in its tracks by a rushed, meaningless ending which wasted all the good ideas so carefully built up by the preceding forty minutes. After deranged Daleks, Dinosaurs on a spaceship and a cyborg assassin in the old West, 'Power' reigned in the spectacle for a wonderfully creepy, low-key vibe, playing on our vulnerability to things we have become used to. The premise was superb, and the simplicity of the inactive black cubes supremely unsettling.

The episode also made brilliant use of the Doctor, who seemed a bit out of sorts last week. Matt Smith may not be good at being intimidating, but is an expert at vulnerability. His chat with Amy about why she and Rory mean so much to him was a sweet moment and perfect homage to the Ponds' contribution to the series, set to end next week in spectacular fashion.

  

Television - Parks & Recreation 'Ms Knope Goes To Washington' review

I'm not going to pretend I was particularly keen on the last season of Parks & Recreation. Leslie's bid for local government office ended up producing a large number of repetitive storylines and too often required the great Ms Knope to act drastically out of character in aid of some unusually laboured gags.
   

Fortunately, 'Ms Knope Goes To Washington' is a wonderful return to form and hopefully a sign of things to come for a series I seriously considered no longer covering. (Actually, it still depends on what my schedule looks like when the fall season really begins, but I'll certainly be reviewing Parks for a little while longer). Leslie was back to her old self, passionate and endlessly adorable, and the Parks department was busy with its own affairs again - well, a barbeque - rather than an auxiliary wing of a political campaign.

 

Television - Doctor Who 'A Town Called Mercy' review

The problem with emulating Westerns is that the genre has such a distinct visual style and rhythm, extending deeper than stetsons and shoot-outs, that accommodating such peculiarities into the established aesthetic of a television programme or movie (I'm thinking Back To The Future Part III here) comes off as hollow. It won't have made a blind bit of difference for any of the children watching, but for any Western fans watching, 'A Town Called Mercy' shot well wide of its mark.

Another problem to which 'Mercy' fell victim is the temptation to deploy all the Western clichés without giving them a fresh spin or purpose. The Doctor enters a bar which immediately falls silent; a man is protected in the local gaol; a go-for-your-guns standoff occurs between hero and black hat. All de rigeur for the genre, and imitations of it even moreso, but none were given the required twist to make them any more fresh than the countless times they've graced our screens before.