Category Archives: Television

New Nordic Noir: The Bridge

 

Okay, it is not ‘new’ as the television series has 4 seasons released on home media but it is ‘new’ to me so I am sticking with the post’s title.

The Bridge is a Swedish/Danish co-production centered on investigations that bridge the nations of Sweden and Denmark. Its protagonist is Saga Noren a Swedish homicide investigator. Saga is brilliant but socially awkward and many viewers feel, though it has not been confirmed, that her character exist along the Autism spectrum.

The first season opens with the lights on the bridge between the Swedish City of Malmo and the Danish capitol of Copenhagen going out and in the intervening darkness, an unknown person leaves the corpse of a murdered woman on the bridge with half in Swedish jurisdiction and half in the Danish.

Murder mysteries tend to fall into two major camps, one centered on realistic portrayals of murders and investigators grounded in ruthless reality and the other focused on hyper-competent detectives facing villains of extraordinary brilliance and skill. The Bridge belongs to the latter category. While Saga’s partners and associates are not presented as bumbling like Holmes’ Lestrade often is portrayed, she exists on a different level of skill and talent. Likewise, the murderer of season one possesses a keen brilliance and has made detailed plans for nearly every contingency years ahead of their plot. If you go into The Bridgelooking for gritty realism, while the story and themes are grounds in societal ills, the execution is less concerned with realism than twist and reveals in the plot.

Sadly, The Bridge is not currently streaming anywhere available to the USA. My sweetie-wife who wanted to see the series after reading about it purchased season 1-4 on the UK Blu-ray release and we have been watching it that way.

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My Favorite Season: Agents of Shield

 

I’m old enough to remember when having a favorite season of a television program would have been quite strange. Before the advent of long form story telling season may have been good or bad but that rarely became favorites.

I watched all seven seasons of ABC’s Agents of SHIELD(henceforth known as AoS) during its original broadcast run and now as an unwinding before bed I am re-watching them in order from Netflix. There is no doubt in my mind, Season 4 is my favorite of the seven.

Split between two storylines, the front half centered on the Ghost Rider with the second half focused on rogue Life Model Decoys (LMDs) and the virtual world of the ‘framework’ the two halves are united by the ancient, magical, and corrupting book The Darkhold.

The Ghost Rider is fun, told well, and takes a different spin on the character than the original source but without violating the spirit of the Ghost Rider. The twist revealing the eventual ‘big bad’ was a well-played but for me the season really exploded with the ‘Framework’, the twists and turns of the artificial Intelligence ADIA and the sheer fun of watching actors and characters we had known for three and half season suddenly get to play vastly different colors and personalities.

While Mallory Jansen has been brought in during season four to play ADIA she was hands down the MVP for playing a wide range of characters during the season. She played ADIA, the LMB and rogue artificial intelligence with an evil and yet tragic motivation, Agnes the artistic human that ADIA was modeled upon, Madame Hydra, the supreme leader of Hydra in the virtual world of the Framework, and various shadings of all of these characters from the flat affectation of ADIA when she was little more than a robot to Agnes a frightened woman facing her own mortality.

Continuing storylines can make it difficult to jump into a series these days if you haven’t watched from the start but I do think season four of AoS can be enjoyed without having the watch the previous three, though of course it works much better if you have.

 

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First Thoughts on WandaVision

 

I’m a little late to the game but here are my first impressions of the Disney + new MCU series WandaVision.

‘It’s okay.’

Admittedly this is a nine-episode storyline and trying to judge it from the first one or two is unfair but that’s all we have so far. I have been an MCU fan from the first Iron Man feature film though I was never a collector of comics themselves so things like ‘Is this an adaptation of The House of M storyline go right over my head. However, as a fan I have thoroughly enjoyed the MCU and think overall it has been a spectacular success.

The first episode of WandaVision didn’t really strike me as a solid entry. They did a very good job recreating a classic late-50s sitcom but it suffered from the ‘it’s all a dream’ trope. We know what is happening isn’t reality, and to be fair the show never expects you to accept it as reality but rather part of the mystery, so the ‘impress the boss or lose your job’ stakes are meaningless filler. The first episode doesn’t give us enough stakes or even hints of stakes outside of the illusionary sitcom to create meaningful tension.

The second episode with more unmistakable intrusions by other realities and with an ending that questions who is pulling the strings does a much better job of creating the tension that the first episode lacked and is probably the reason the pair were dropped together with the rest of the series being released one the week-by-week format favored by the streaming service. Though it was nice seeing one of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer favorites, Emma Caufield now credited as Emma Caufield Ford, back on my screen even if the role is likely to remain quite small.

I will stick with WandaVision as I intrigued by the plot but at this time I have not been wooed by the series.

 

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First Review of 2021: Wonder Woman 84

First Review of 2021: Wonder Woman 84

It is said that every movie is made three times, first when it is written as a script, second when it is photographed, and third when it is edited. In principle the stages allow for revisions the bring the final film closed to the ideal that had propelled the project but often diverging voices, power struggles, and a lack of focus allows the stages to muddy the waters and create chaos instead of coherence. This appears the be the case with Wonder Woman 84.

Except for a prolog set in the indeterminate time when Diana was a child, and really this sequence would have been better and easier to suspend disbelief for had they portrayed her as a young teen instead, the film takes place 66 years after the close of the previous entry in the franchise. Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) lives as a historical expert at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. still mourning the loss of her love Steve Trevor in 1918. Kristen Wiig plays Barbara Minerva a cliche version of a woman overlooked and ignored by the world while Pedro Pascal plays Max Lord the central villain of the piece conman and television personality the propels what passes as the central plot of the movie.

Drowning itself in the period’s clothing and style, Wonder Woman 84 is a mess. Elaborate and expensive sequences take place that have no function in furthering the plot or developing the characters. No thought is present for the actual consequences of the choices the writers made when they crafted the script. The special effects suffer from the issue that the digital characters seem to lack weight and float when they should not and perhaps worse of all the plot suffers from that most horrid comic book trope Powers ex machina, with Wonder Woman developing sudden abilities that exist solely to resolve an immediate plot complication and are then discarded.

I found it impossible to surrender myself to the story and was constantly reminded the artifice with repeated errors of the type. Wonder Woman I found to be charming and fun though far from perfect and its sequel, though far from the dour, depressing, Objectivist works of the Snyder Batman and Superman films, I cannot recommend at all.

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Without Grogu is There a Story?

Light Spoilers for the Entire Run of The Mandalorian to date.

The Mandalorian is Disney +’s original Star Wars series set during the period after the fall of the Galactic Empire and before the events of The Force Awakens. Its central and titular character is Din Djarin an orphan raised in a Mandalorian creed that emphasizes warrior qualities and religious devotion to never revealing one’s face to another living being. Mandalorian in the lore of Star Wars are a people and a belief that are currently suffering a diaspora after the conquest of their home-world with many serving as mercenaries and bounty hunters. Din lives as a bounty hunter in a near sociopathic existence without compassion or remorse until a contract has him ‘obtaining’ an asset the child ‘Grogu’ or better known popularly as ‘Baby Yoda.’ Din forms a bond with the 50-year-old child and ends up forsaking his bounty hunter life with a quest to reunite the child with the Jedi that are responsible for Grogu.

Over the course of two season Din and Grogu encounter many characters, some original to the show some from other Star Wars properties until in the final episode of season two Grogu departs with a jedi master with Din revealing his face to the child before their farewell.

The Mandalorian has been a major success for Disney penetrating deep into the cultural conversation, drawing subscribers to their streaming service, and igniting fresh enthusiasm for a franchise more than 40 years old but I wonder what happens next?

I have enjoyed the series, but I also see that the episodes are often very light ion story while heavy on plot. An entire episode will be devoted to a single plot point, infiltrating an Imperial base to gain access to a piece of datum that moves the plot forward but in terms of character has very little to say. The only powerful story element of the series has been the transformation of Din because of his bond with Grogu and with Grogu departure what is there that is emotionally compelling about Din’s adventures? The series had first-rate action, ground-breaking visual effects, and a radical approach to placing actors and characters into fantastic settings that is going to change the industry forever but none of that is gripping emotional storytelling. Grogu is the reason the series has exploded culturally; Din is a cypher, and it is very difficult to make a cypher a compelling character. Not impossible mind you, mysterious samurai and gun slingers without names have carried film franchises for a few films but that’s a shorter run than a television series.

Only time and another season will show if the writers of the Mandaloriancan expand their show beyond spectacle, action, and ‘easter eggs’ of fan lore.

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The Marvel Show That Sailed Away

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had run a fairly tight ship continuity-wise. There have been a few misstep and clues dropped that led to nowhere, such as The Ten Rings reference in Iron Man that never paid off but overall the studio has done a good job presenting its properties as taking place in the same share setting.

And then there’s Marvels’ Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. which ran on ABC from 2013 thru 2020 for 136 episodes and followed the turbulent lives of a few SHIELD agents as they navigated personal, professional, and powered challenges in a world suddenly infused with enhanced beings and aliens.

For the first season the program hewed close to the events of the MCU, the agents were dispatched to the UK as part of the clean-up and follow-up crew in the wake of the destruction unleased by the conflicts of Thor: The Dark Worldand the agency was toppled by the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But as the series progressed the connections between the feature films and the events the television characters encounter weakened until finally the most massive event of the MCU, Thanos’ eradication of half of all life in the universe, is never referenced and for all practical purposes never happens.

Agents of SHIELD did play with a number of concepts and characters from Marvel mythology with the introduction of Life Model Decoy, android replicas of characters, the best onscreen portrayal of the Ghost Rider character, and the introduction of the Inhumans as a stand in for mutant powered individuals as that ‘term’ for enhanced superpowered character was tied up with the right to the X-Men franchise with Fox studios.

All seven season of Agents of Shield are available for streaming on Netflixand I am currently doing a front to back re-watch of the series.

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The Queen’s Gambit and the Peril of Sports Movies

The Queen’s Gambit and the Peril of Sports Movies

Written and Directed by Scott Frank with luscious cinematography by Steven Meizler The Queen’s Gambit stars the luminous and captivating Anya Taylor-Joy Elizabeth Harmon and follows Beth life from her discovery of chess in the basement of her orphanage through her trials and tribulations with substance abuse, loss, and love as she climbs the ranks of world championship chess in the late 50s and 60s.

Adapted from a 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis The Queen’s Gambit is both a character study and a sports film. Following Beth from age five when she is orphaned after her mother is killed in an automobile crash through her young adulthood in her twenties the story charts the characters growing addiction with prescription medication and alcohol as she develops her skills and talents as a chess prodigy while haunted by the tragedies of her life.

Skillfully directed with the best use of split-screen instead of a montage and deftly written with nary a scene of line of dialog out of place by Scott Frank the limited series immerses the viewer in Beth’s life and challenges with a bold confident style that never shies away from the more troubling aspects of her journey. Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance is masterful with careful control she expresses more with voiceless expressions than many actors ever achieve with speeches full of sound and fury that signify nothing. I have been a fan of Ms. Taylor-Joy’s acting since seeing her in the amazing horror film The Witch, and here she commands every scene and every shot without overwhelming them with ‘star power.’

Steven Meizler’s photography is simply amazing. His use of low-level light while still capturing deeply saturated colors is fantastic, creating scenes with depth, character, packed with emotion and yet never breaking the sense of period. More than once I have watched a period set film orseries and the photography spoiled the suspension of disbelief in subtle way that still proved impossible to ignore, not so here.

The Queen’s Gambit does fall into the category of film that is the ‘sports movie,’ and as such faces the challenges of the genre.

The first is the ‘Big Game’ problem. Usually a sport movie, no matter the sport, turns it emotional ending on the final big game, the championship match that the character of characters has been striving towards the entire story. The problem is that they can only win or lose and with rare exception the popular satisfying ending is winning and with the audience aware of this it tends to drain the drama from the play. A League of Their Own subverted this by having characters the audience identified with and cared for on both teams so someonewas going to lose, and the audience would be torn in their loyalties. The Queen’s Gambit had no such option and was forced to confront the issues head on. The solution Scott Frank found satisfied emotionally.

The second major problem facing sports movies is the requirement to understand the play involved. One reason the vast majority of sport movies fail to work for me is that I do not watch sports as a pastime and so the players’ great plays and terrible plays are not self-evident to me. The Queen’s Gambithas the issue multiplied as there are few people who could grasp and the dynamics of master level chess. Here Scott Frank used primarily play-by-play commenters to illuminate the games being played and avoided the trap of letting the audience ‘hear’ Beth’s thoughts as she played. During one critical match I knew that dramatically Beth’s opponent needed to perform a move she wasn’t expecting and yet I also knew I had no hopes of seeing and understanding if his move was the expected or surprising one. Frank solved this dilemma by having an observer mutter ‘He wasn’t supposed to do that,’ the dialog, though a tad clunky, worked.

Overall, The Queens Gambit is a masterful piece of television and the story fit the limited series format. It is doubtful that it could have been as thoroughly satisfying had someone tried to compress it into a single feature film.

The Queens Gambit is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Series Review: Jordskott

Jordskott is a police/thriller/horror series from Sweden with two seasons currently streaming on the service Shudder.

The show follows Eva Thornblad a police officer returning home after her father death in a fire. Johan Thornblad led the family business in lumber and mineral extraction and with his death the fate of the company the heart of community’s economy is in doubt as environmentalists pressure for the local virgin forest to be kept pristine. Eva is haunted by the disappearance of her daughter seven years earlier and when local children began vanishing in similar manners she’s drawn by the local police force into the investigation. What she uncovers are dark family secrets, horrors in the forest, and a noirish plot to steal the company her family founded.

Jordskott, which means ‘soil shoot’ in Swedish, practices what is rare today the slow build-up and reveal of supernatural horror. While I watched the series, I was reminded of Twin Peaks and how what started as a hunt for a serial killer twisted into a tale of ancient evil and the corruption just under the surface of a small American town. Jordskott while having the same gradual reveal of supernatural forces and evil that lurks inside of people’s souls, takes its own approach and should not be considered as a ‘knock off’ production. Its similarity lies in tone not plot.

We have not yet started on Season 2, but I am very pleased with season one, which did not end in a cliff-hanger but rather presented a complete and satisfying story. If you have Shudder, and given its slim pricing it’s really one of the best deals out there for commercial-free streaming, this is something to give a spin.

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Do You Need Pleasant, Non-Stressful Viewing?

This year has been a very tough one for so many people and here in early November the television seems to be a device invented to deliver stress directly into people brains. However, there are programs that not only do not talk endlessly about the crumbling state of civilization but also are devoid of assault, murder, and other stressful act even when committed in fiction and I am here to bring one of those.

Travel Man 48 Hours in … is hosted by The IT Crowd‘s Richard Ayoade and follows in the wake of his program Gadget Man. Where gadget Man a program where Richard demonstrated various apps and gadgets came off as advertising way too much Travel Man is much more pleasant. (Aside from season one where there were still unfortunate elements of Gadget Man still lurking about.) The basic premise of Travel Man 48 Hours in … is that in each episode Richard travels a city bringing along a celebrity guest and that explore the location for two days, sampling food, buying trinkets, while providing a running comedy commentary. A good introduction to the series might be Helsinki which Richards visits with American actor and comedian Paul Rudd and we are introduced to a Burger King with a sauna.

Each episode runs about 23 minutes and makes for a very pleasant, entertaining, and utterly unserious break from the real world.

Travel Man 48 Hours in … is currently streaming on Hulu.

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Quick Thoughts on Lovecraft Country

I have completed HBO’s adaptation of the Lovecraft Country set during Jim Crow America as a Black family fights for survival in a world that in addition to racism contains magic and monsters.

Overall, I rate Lovecraft Country as Good but not Great and I know that puts me at odds with a number of my fellow genre fans. That’s okay, art is subjective and as I often say in my writer’s group meetings, ‘Your mileage may vary.’

The performances are stellar, the production is fantastic, and the writing of each episode overall is excellent so what doesn’t work for me are issues that may not matter to someone else.

For me the narrative momentum drifted in the middle of the story giving it some second act issues which gave some of the middle episodes the same overall feeling of a classic Doctor Who escape, run around, and get caught again episode. Information was gleaned, some characters issues advanced, but the plot remained stuck in place.

I never understood why Christina invoked a convoluted plan that involved bequeathing a fake inheritance to Leticia to maneuver her into buying the old home instead of just going there directly to recover the orrery.

At times thematically it felt a bit heavy handed.

For something invoking the concepts of Lovecraft’s work the absence of cosmic horror is startling.

It was good and should be watched but for my money I think HBO’s sequel/extension of the graphic novel Watchmen is a better series.

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