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Rating 3½
Created by Stephen Chbosky, Josh Schaer and Jonathan E Steinberg
Written by Carol Barbee (4 episodes), Stephen Chbosky (4 episodes), Matthew Federman (4 episodes), Rob Fresco (1 episode), Joy Gregory (2 episodes), Karen Hall (1 episode), Ellie Herman (1 episode), Mike Kelley (1 episode), Robert Levine (2 episodes), Frank Military (2 episodes), Mike Ostrowski (3 episodes), Stephen Scaia (4 episodes), Josh Schaer (2 episodes), Jonathan E Steinberg (5 episodes), Dan Shotz (2 episodes), Robbie Thompson (1 episode) and Nancy Won (1 episode)
Directed by Guy Norman Bee (3 episodes), Matt Earl Beesley (1 episode), Sanford Bookstaver (3 episodes), Steve Boyum (1 episode), Duane Clark (1 episode), Steven DePaul (1 episode), Kevin Dowling (1 episode), Steve Gomer (2 episodes), Christopher Leitch (1 episode), Seith Mann (2 episodes), Paul McCrane (1 episode), Martha Mitchell (2 episodes), Christine Moore (1 episode), John Peters (1 episode), Scott Peters (1 episode), Helen Shaver (1 episode), J Miller Tobin (1 episode), Jon Turteltaub (2 episodes), James Whitmore Jr (3 episodes)
Starring Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed, Kenneth Mitchell, Ashley Scott, Lennie James, Michael Gaston, Brad Beyer, Shoshannah Stern, Alicia Coppola, Clare Carey, Darby Stanchfield, Richard Speight Jr, Bob Stephenson, Erik Knudson, Candace Bailey, Beth Grant, April D Parker, Jazz Raycole, Sterling Ardrey, James Remar, D B Sweeney, Esai Morales and Sprague Grayden
Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) returns to Jericho, a small town in Kansas near to the border with Colorado where he grew up, harbouring a secret about where he has been for the last five years. His reason for returning is to claim an inheritance from his grandfather’s will, but when his father Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), the town’s Mayor for the last 25 years and the executor of the estate, refuses to sign the release forms, he sets out to leave once again, old family wounds having been reopened. On his way out of town, Jake is involved in an automobile accident when he is distracted by the sight of a mushroom cloud on the distant horizon. Although injured, he is able to rescue a busload of young children and their teacher Heather Lisinski (Sprague Grayden), the friend of his former girlfriend Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott), who have been involved in a separate accident.
In the aftermath of the mushroom cloud, the townsfolk discover that Denver has been the target of a nuclear device and it then becomes clear that it is just one of 23 major cities to be targeted. They are now cut off from the rest of the world with no lines of communication, limited power and resources and very little food, with a harsh winter just around the corner. They also have a mysterious newcomer in their midst, Robert Hawkins (played by the British actor and playwright Lennie James).
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The first season of ‘Jericho’ ran for 22 episodes and was broadcast by the CBS network in the U.S. between 20 September 2006 and 9 May 2007, averaging 9.5 million viewers per episode. The show was initially cancelled at this point and resulted in the inevitable fan campaign to have it reinstated. The network did briefly relent and a second season began on 12 February 2008, with seven episodes commissioned to allow the story to be brought to a conclusion of sorts. This truncated second season has, perhaps by necessity, a somewhat different feel to that of season one, one that I feel works rather well. The final episode was broadcast on 29 September 2008. The DVD offers two alternative endings. My preference is for the one that was broadcast.
The theme of the show was influenced both by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York in September 2001 and the widespread devastation caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Although some television critics compared it to ‘Lost’, presumably because of the sizeable cast of characters, the show it most obviously resembles is ‘Invasion’, which ran on the ABC network for one season of 22 episodes between September 2005 and May 2006. In that show, a small coastal town in Florida is cut-off from the outside world following a devastating hurricane.
I became aware of ‘Jericho’ because I recognised a number of the cast, including Skeet Ulrich, who I had first come across ten years previously in the films ‘The Craft’ and ‘Scream’. Ashley Scott was the lead actress in ‘Birds Of Prey’ and I had been impressed by Sprague Grayden in the second season of ‘Joan of Arcadia’. Clare Carey had been one of the lead cast members of the short-lived and much-maligned ‘Point Pleasant’, which remains one of my favourite shows of recent years.
I largely missed out on the series when it was being broadcast on television in the UK, apart from one small segment of a random episode. However, the premise sounded interesting, the presence of people like Scott, Grayden and Carey in the cast stirred my interest, and I was keen enough to finally invest in a DVD set.
The series attempts to show what might happen in the event that the U.S. became the target of a major nuclear attack that effectively wiped out the federal government. It uses a small isolated Midwest town as a kind of microcosm to represent the wider picture, much as the Salem witch trials of 1692 are often used as a means of understanding the widespread witch hunts that occurred in Europe over a period in excess of 200 years during the Middle Ages. In one of the advertisements for the series before the start of the truncated second season, the question was posed, “What if the America you knew was about to change?” The show depicts the numerous ways in which individuals might react to such a cataclysmic event and how these individual actions affect the community as a whole.
At the centre of the story we have Jake Green who constantly steps up to the plate to perform heroic acts. He is very typical of the American ideal of the flawed but individualistic hero. Johnston Green is the patriarch of the small community, as rugged as Mount Rushmore, a kind of John Wayne figure, and his wife Grace (Pamela Reed) is the matriarchal figure. Gray Anderson (Michael Gaston) challenges Johnston’s position as Mayor, his reasons for doing so largely self-serving, and replaces him, these characters being diametrical opposites. The same juxtaposition can be witnessed in a slightly different way via the local law enforcement officers, Bill Kohler (Richard Speight Jr) and Jimmy Taylor (Bob Stephenson). They are lifelong friends and prior to the attacks there does not seem to be much difference between the two, but one is a hothead who sides with Anderson and the other a more reflective character who acts as a voice of reason and ultimately remains loyal to the town’s deposed Mayor.
The one obvious problem with this approach is that some characters do end up being rather two dimensional, a necessity of trying to create this jumble of differing reactions to such an extreme situation. For example, I found Grace Green unbearably sanctimonious much of the time, even though I understand the purpose this character plays and appreciate that she acts as a kind of moral compass.
The dialogue does occasionally tend towards the clunky and the episodes are often less than subtle. There are too many “shoot ‘em ups” for my tastes, which are undoubtedly intended to be exciting, but just end up lending several episodes a rather monotonous air. To all intents and purposes, this is a western in a modern setting and every cliché of that genre is dragged out and used to bludgeon us with. Having said this, it is very well done and the production values are obviously high. With each episode it is possible to become more invested in the story, if not necessarily the individual characters, and at least want to stick around to find out what happens next. One interesting narractive device was that we the audience did not see anything of the world outside of Jericho until the characters did and even then we only ventured as far as they did.
The character I was firstdrawn to is the school teacher Heather Lisinski, who unfortunately is ultimately rather underused and is written out of the story after episode 13 for much of the remainder of the first season. Executive producer Jon Turteltaub suggested that she had been an afterthought, whose involvement beyond the pilot episode was not originally planned. They don’t make the most of her. The young rancher Stanley Richmond (Brad Beyer), his deaf younger sister Bonnie (Shoshannah Stern) and, in particular, Mimi Clark (Alicia Coppola), the IRS agent from Washington DC who comes to Jericho to audit their family ranch, prove to be three of the most likeable characters. Clearly, I am not alone in thinking this, because I discovered “The Richmond Ranch”, a fan website devoted to them.
On the other hand, I remain less than convinced by the teenage Bonnie and Clyde that are Dale Turner (Eric Knudson) and Skylar Stevens (Candace Bailey). The concept of these two teenagers who are drawn together because they lose their parents in the attacks is an interesting idea, but I couldn’t help but think that someone needed to give Dale a good clip around the ear.
I did find myself almost becoming angry at some points during the episodes, simply because I remain undecided exactly what message the show wanted to send out. As an example, torture is a theme dealt with in both seasons. This could be interpreted simply as a commentary about what otherwise decent people can be pushed to in desperate situations. It might also be (and I suspect it probably is) a comment on the American torture camps sanctioned by the Bush administration as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’, which must surely be one of the most shameful episodes in recent American history. However, I could not help but wonder if it was nothing more than a suggestion that this is what the “enemy” is capable of, which puts an somewhat different spin on it.
In the closing episodes of the first season when everyone seems to spend all of their time striding around very manfully with rifles in their hands, playing at being cowboys, the whole alien (to me) “right to bear arms” ideology that seems to be an ingrained part of the American psyche did become a little unnerving. Clearly, my own bias is coming out here and I am witnessing the show from an “outside” European perspective.
Having said all of this, the episodes of season two would clearly seem to be a decidedly less then flattering comment about the behaviour and actions of the Bush administration in the years following 9/11, often flouting international law on human rights, and so any suspicions I might have do seem to be unfounded.
All in all, whatever its faults, I liked ‘Jericho’. I cannot say I fell in love with the show, unlike, as an example, ‘Joan of Arcadia’. I think ‘Invasion’, to use an example of a show that it might be more obviously compared to, was probably better, or at least I preferred it. However, I am a little surprised it was not given a full second season, although it does seem that no American network series is safe from the premature chop these days.
Review posted 30 March 2009
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Rating 3½
Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Written by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, based on a story by Luis Murillo
Starring Montse Mostaza, Nieve de Medina, Alejandra Lorenzo, Elena de Frutos and Mariana Cordero
Gloria is a single mother working at the same hospital as gynaecologist Ana Torres. To ease her financial worries, she accepts an offer to go with her young daughter Vicky (Alejandra Lorenzo) to live with Ana, also taking on the responsibility as receptionist and assistant at Ana’s evening practice in the house. Once there, Gloria discovers that Ana is conducting abortions and is persuaded to assist with these. Ana also seems to have feelings towards her, something Gloria tries to resist. When Gloria becomes pregnant, an angry Ana persuades her to have an abortion, following which strange things begin to occur in the old house.
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‘Películas para no dormir’ (Films To Keep You Awake) was a series of six films made for Spanish television in 2006 and based on a Spanish television series called ‘Historias para no dormir’ (Tales To Keep You Awake), which was originally broadcast between 1966 and 1968. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, who directed ‘La culpa’ (‘Blame’), wrote and directed the original television series, as well as introducing each episode in the style of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’.
‘La culpa’ might be a rather unsubtle commentary on abortion, although Ana’s motivation is always left open to interpretation, and it treads well worn ground. However, it tells its story very well and with a minimum of unnecessary trimmings, using the tried and tested old creepy house setting, including locked doors, a dusty attic full of children’s toys, and strange noises.
The whole series of films is recommended.
Review posted 30 March 2009
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Rating 3
Directed by William Friedkin
Written by Tracy Letts, based on his stage play
Starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Lynn Collins, Harry Connick Jr and Brian F O’Byrne
Agnes White (Ashley Judd) lives in a dilapidated motel room and works as a waitress at a near-by lesbian bar. She is being menaced by her abusive former boyfriend/husband Jerry Goss (Harry Connick Jr), who has been released on early parole from jail. Then she meets Peter Evans (Michael Shannon), a drifter who believes he is infested with bugs, and she is sucked into his weird world of deranged conspiracy theories.
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‘Bug’ is one of those films that deal with the strange “living on the edge of madness” netherworld that is a part of the American experience. Largely set in the motel room and with a small cast, it slowly creates a claustrophobic ambience. It was intriguing enough, imagine a Tennessee Williams play directed by David Cronenberg, although it went completely barmy towards the end and I suspect it wanted to be taken more seriously than perhaps we should. Undoubtedly, this is a film intended to generate discussion and debate about its meaning, but I am not entirely convinced it deserves or needs too much thought.
The performances are good, if a little overwrought towards the end. The director William Friedkin is best known for two celebrated early 1970s films, ‘The French Connection’ and ‘The Exorcist’.
‘Bug’ has a 59% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 124 reviews. The film grossed a little over $8 million at the box office worldwide.
Review posted 30 March 2009
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Rating 2½
Directed by Hans Horn
Written by Adam Kreutner and David Mitchell, with additional dialogue by Collin McMahon and Richard Speight Jr
Starring Susan May Pratt, Eric Dane, Richard Speight Jr, Ali Hillis, Niklaus Lange and Cameron Richardson
A group of old high school friends reunite to celebrating the thirtieth birthday of Zach (Nicklaus Lange) and spend a weekend on a luxurious yacht out in open sea. When they find themselves cast adrift from the vessel and unable to get back onboard they are plunged into a desperate struggle for survival.
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In 2004 the husband and wife team of director Chris Kentis and producer Laura Lau made ‘Open Water’, a film based on a true story of two people who found themselves stranded out in open water off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Their bodies have never been recovered. That film reportedly cost just $130,000 to make. It went on to gross nearly $55 million at the box office. It would therefore come as no surprise to learn that a second film followed, exploring a similar theme. Outside of the UK, ‘Adrift’ is known as ‘Open Water 2: Adrift’. It’s a German production, although English language, and was first released in September 2006. It did not receive a theatrical run in the U.S., being released direct to DVD in February 2007.
I have never seen ‘Open Water’, so I cannot compare the two films. ‘Adrift’ is well made and reasonably effective, although I cannot say I felt any emotional connection at all with any of the characters. The situation and the way in which they become cast adrift would seem to be plausible enough. What isn’t especially plausible is why the character Amy (Susan May Pratt), who apparently suffers from a severe phobia about open water, would actually go on this trip in the first place and take her baby with her.
The film does succumb to a degree of tedium at times, which is perhaps to be expected; basically, we are watching a group of people bobbing about in open water for 90 minutes and there is not much more to it than that. I don’t know that I would want to watch it again, but it was reasonably entertaining watched once.
Review posted 28 March 2009
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Rating 2
Directed by Rigoberto Castañeda
Written by Ed Dougherty
Starring Amber Tamblyn, Aiden Gillen, Armie Hammer, Katie Stuart, Kate Jennings Grant, Emma Prescott, Andrew Tarbet and Mabel Rivera
Three strangers, all in a hurry and all apparently harbouring a secret, find themselves trapped in an elevator in an otherwise empty building. As the hours pass by tensions bubble to the surface and the true nature of the three people slowly emerges.
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I had been looking forward to watching ‘Blackout’, in spite of the fact that the tiny-budget indie film had clearly died a death before ever getting a release and I have only ever seen one proper review of it. The main draw for me is that I have a lot of time for Amber Tamblyn, who has never been less than excellent in everything I have seen her in, and this was the follow-up film by the Mexican director Rigoberto Castañeda to ‘KM31’, a film not without its flaws that was nonetheless an interesting and diverting mix of Latin folklore and J-Horror influences.
Sadly, it proves to be something of a disappointment. Castañeda doesn’t tell the story particularly well and gets bogged down in unimpressive flashy editing that adds nothing to the story and is simply annoying from the start. This is a common blight that affects the American horror genre and although ‘Blackout’ is clearly not a horror film, that is how it has been promoted.
The set-up is not original by any stretch of the imagination, but while I am not expecting Castañeda to serve up Hitchcockian levels of suspense and filmmaking expertise it could have been much better than this. I would argue that longer should have been spent introducing us to the three main characters before they end up trapped in the elevator. We get a cursory look at them, but the characterisation is sketchy and clichéd. The claustrophobia of the main setting, the confined space they are trapped in, might have been used to better effect than it is here, but once again that would require stronger characterisation. It is not the setting as such that makes the impact, but the reaction of the various characters to it. The unfolding story of each of them really needed more substance and would have been better served had their stories been told without the irritating and off-putting editing and camerawork, which just annoys and deflects attention away from what we should be concentrating on. In the end, though, what is perhaps most disappointing is that it is blatantly obvious right from the start where the story is heading, which kills the suspense that should have kept the film interesting. These are three people going to hell in a bucket (or, in this case, an elevator), but the journey surely could have been less monotonous than this.
‘Blackout’ does have a few bright spots and occasional touches that suggest what might have been achieved with a slightly different approach and a stronger hand at the helm (but see my note below). The actors are okay, Tamblyn in particular. I didn’t entirely dislike the film, but it really could and should have been a whole lot better. Its short running time, barely 72 minutes, excluding the end credits, for the version I saw, means it doesn’t outstay its welcome, but it also indicates how flimsy it is.
‘Blackout’ was filmed in Barcelona, although this is not relevant to the story and apart from the architecture of the building that houses the elevator it would otherwise seem to be an anonymous American city setting (It’s an English-language film). It was given an “R” rating in the U.S., which is the kiss of death for a film like this, given the wholly stymied nature of American cinema these days. If the entry at IMDb is to be believed, the version of the film released in Germany and the European film market has a running time of 120 minutes. If that is true, it might go some way towards explaining my disappointment at what appears on the surface to be a very threadbare enterprise and suggests that Castañeda’s original film has been butchered.
The British filmmaker Asif Kapedia recently commented that making ‘The Return’ had been a real eye opener for him because having been hired to make the film he immediately became embroiled in Hollywood politics and was quickly pushed to one side in the creative process, leading to a film that bore little relation to his original vision. Perhaps Castañeda has suffered a similar fate.
By the by, I think the opening credits of ‘Blackout’ are appalling and this is something that usually does not bother me too much one way or the other.
Review posted 27 March 2009
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Rating 3
Directed by Shusuke Kaneko
Written by Tetsuya Oishi, based on the comic series by Tsugumi Ôhba (writer) and Takeshi Obata (illustrator)
Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Takeshi Kaga, Shigeki Hosokawa, Asaka Seto, Yu Kashii, Shunji Fujimura, Erika Toda, Sota Aoyama, Hikari Mitsushima, Michiko Godai and Shido Nakamura
Law student Light Yagami (Tatsuya Fujiwara) comes across a book called “Death Note” and discovers that when he writes a name in it that person dies. He uses it to rid the world of criminals and is soon joined by a supernatural creature known as Ryuk, a shinigami or death god, who says he dropped the book and wants to observe how Light uses it. Light’s father Souichirou Yagami (Takeshi Kaga), an experienced police detective, is assigned to the case of the unexplained deaths and soon finds himself working with “L” (Ken’ichi Matsuyama), a mysterious and eccentric operative who works with the International Police Organisation.
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‘Death Note’ (or ‘Desu nōto’) is the first of two Japanese films released in 2006 (the second film is ‘Death Note: The Last Name’, which as yet I have not seen) and based on the Japanese manga comics of the same name. These ran for twelve volumes between 2003 and 2006. Both films topped the box office in Japan and the second film was one of the highest grossing Japanese films of the year.
Not being an aficionado of comics, manga or otherwise, I cannot make a judgement about the film’s faithfulness or its quality in general as a live-action adaptation of this particular genre of comics. Having limited knowledge of Japanese cinema, I don’t feel particularly qualified to critique the film, but I certainly found it interesting. Luckily, I happened to watch a version with subtitles rather than the version dubbed into English – I can only imagine how dreadful that must be. From my wholly inexpert position, it put me in mind of ‘V for Vendetta’ to a small degree, a film I actually dislike with some intensity. I found it a peculiar film. I don’t even know if I really liked it or not, but it caught enough of my interest and I found it unusual and alluring enough to have a hankering to watch the second instalment.
There is also an anime (animated) series based on the comic and a spin-off novel, as well as a video game. No doubt it has a huge cult following, but until I chanced upon the film on the Film 4 television channel and decided to watch it on whim, I had never before heard of it.
There are apparently plans for a Hollywood remake.
Review posted 22 March 2009
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Rating 1
Directed by Tim Cox
Written by Tim Cox, Brian Durham and Sean Keller, from a story by Don Guarisco
Starring Vincent Ventresca, Summer Glau, Tom Skerritt, Cole Williams, Leila Arcieri, Charles Carroll, Mark Irvingsen, David Kellaway and Marcus Lyle Brown
A meteorite carrying an alien life-form crashes into a museum and brings a frozen mammoth back to life, now controlled by the alien organism.
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This 2006 film was made for the Sci-Fi Channel and is typical of such productions. It is probably of most note because the cast includes the always reliable veteran actor Tom Skerritt and Summer Glau, who is best known for her roles in the television shows ‘Firefly’ and ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’. Although she has received very good reviews in both cases, I must admit that I am not overly fond of her acting and the same applies here.
The 25-year-old Glau rather unconvincingly plays a 16-year-old, but to be fair to her, this is a dreadful film that cannot seem to decide what it wants to be. It’s an entirely unsuccessful mix of comedy that is never funny, sci-fi that is so badly botched as to be embarrassing, and witless monster movie. I found the performance of Vincent Ventresca in the lead role as Dr Frank Abernathy, the palaeontologist father of Summer Glau’s character, utterly inexplicable, but like the other actors, he is hamstrung by a dreadful screenplay and, from my admittedly inexpert position, inept direction.
‘Mammoth’ seems to be going for the same kind of affectionate/humorous approach as the films ‘Evolution’ and ‘Slither’, but it fails on all levels. It won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Effects.
Review posted 21 March 2009
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Rating 5
Created by Bryan Fuller
Written by Bridget Carpenter (5 episodes), Dan Fesman (3 episodes), Bryan Fuller (2 episodes), Karl Gajdusek (4 episodes), Stephen Godchaux (14 episodes), Paul Lieberstein (1 episodes), Mona Mansour (1 episodes), John Masius (7 episodes), Anna C Miller (1 episodes), Pete Ocko (3 episodes), J J Philbin (2 episodes), Tom Spezialy (1 episode), Ian Thomas (1 episode), Harry Victor (3 episodes), Annie Weismen (4 episodes)
Directed by Sarah Pia Anderson (2 episodes), Steve Beers (2 episodes), Milan Cheyluv (1 episode), Kevin Dowling (2 episodes), Michael Fresco (1 episode), David Grossman (4 episodes), Peter Lauer (4 episodes), James Marshall (1 episode), Robert Duncan McNeill (2 episode), Helen Shaver (1 episode), David Straiton (1 episode), Brad Turner (1 episode), Tony Westman (1 episode), James Whitmore Jr (4 episodes), Scott Winant (1 episode), Jeff Woolnough (1 episode)
Starring Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Cynthia Stevenson, Jasmine Guy, Callum Blue, Rebecca Gayheart, Laura Harris, Britt McKillip, Christine Willes, Greg Kean and Crystal Dahl
Georgia ‘George’ Lass (Ellen Muth) is a disaffected and cynical 18-year-old who stays on the sidelines, refusing to participate so as to avoid disappointment. When she drops out of college she is forced to look for a job by her mother Joy (brilliantly played by Cynthia Stevenson) and ends up at Happy Time, a temporary employment agency, where she is given a menial office task by Dolores Herbig (Christine Willes). However, when George is killed in a freak accident involving a toilet seat on her first day she becomes a grim reaper, part of a group of five reapers led by Rube Sofer (Mandy Patinkin) responsible for reaping the souls of people killed in accidents and at the hands of others.
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‘Dead Like Me’ was broadcast in the US for two seasons and a total of 29 episodes on the Showtime subscription television channel between 27 June 2003 and 31 October 2004. It was created by Bryan Fuller, who had previously been a writer on ‘Star Trek Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Star Trek Voyager’. He went on to create the short-lived ‘Wonderfalls’ (in collaboration with Todd Holland) and ‘Pushing Daisies’, as well as working as a consulting producer and writer during the first season of ‘Heroes’. Fuller wrote the first two episodes of ‘Dead Like Me’, but left after five episodes due to conflicts with MGM Television, the company that produced the show. He described the period as “the worst experience of my life,” although he continued to receive a credit as a consultant. The creative direction was subsequently dictated by John Masius (the show’s executive producer) and Stephen Godchaux, its most prolific writer.
The show is brilliantly executed, from the memorable opening credits onwards. It takes the simple premise of life explored through death (George does not really begin to live until she is dead) and produces a near-perfect mix of black comedy and poignant drama, set against a supernatural theme. It follows George’s journey as she slowly begins to understand what life really means; both through her reminiscences about her parents and younger sister and through her relationship with the people she meets in death, including the two people who become almost surrogate parents to her, Rube and Dolores. Even in death, George is required to deal with the mundane matters of life and in the guise of “Millie” she once again ends up working at Happy Time.
The standard of writing throughout is extremely high and the cast is superb, bringing life to several memorable characters. Rebecca Gayheart was cast as one of the original reapers, the 1920s flapper Betty Rohmer. However, Betty was written out the show after five episodes and Gayheart was replaced by the actress Laura Harris, playing Daisy Adair, a would-be Hollywood starlet who claims to have died in a fire on the set of ‘Gone With The Wind’ in 1938. I don’t know the reason why Gayheart left the show, although I guess it could have been connected to the departure of Bryan Fuller. She did have, at that time, seemingly, a rather chaotic life and in 2002 had been dropped from the main cast of the television series ‘Firefly’ after just one day of filming. She was replaced on that occasion by Morena Baccarin. Fans of that show would not agree with me, but I think it would have benefited greatly from the presence of Gayheart, who would surely have given us something more spirited than Baccarin’s depressingly bland performance.
I like Rebecca Gayheart a lot and also like the character Betty, so her early departure was initially disappointing. However, Daisy Adair proved to be one of the show’s great characters. I was previously aware of Laura Harris from the Robert Rodriguez film ‘The Faculty’ and from an episode of ‘The X Files’. Her performance here is outstanding, as we slowly learn more about the very sad and poignant nature of her character, which she carefully hides beneath a brazen and self-absorbed exterior.
This is just one of several really outstanding performances. The character I found perhaps most interesting is Joy Lass, George’s mother, played by Cynthia Stevenson, who once again is not what she seems on the surface. Dolores Herbig is also worthy of mention; George’s seemingly annoying manager at work who proves to be very kind-hearted and acts as a mentor/mother figure to her. Dolores is played by Christine Willes, who has subsequently featured in a recurring role in the television series ‘Reaper’. The actor and singer Mandy Patinkin is always very watchable and Rube Sofer is another particularly noteworthy character, his relationship with George and the other reapers being one of the many joys to had watching the series.
The show’s most overtly comic character is the constantly hapless Mason (Callum Blue), a 1960s alcohol and drug addicted drop-out who killed himself drilling a hole in his skull in search of the ultimate high.
There is a notable shift in emphasis between the first and second seasons. Season one is more comedy-attuned and irreverent, whereas season two begins to delve more deeply into the lives of the various characters, for example exploring the relationship between Joy Lass and her daughter Reggie (Britt McKillip), George’s younger sister. As a result, I think, having watched the series in its entirety three times, it’s a more interesting season, as much as I like the first one. It contains several memorable and heartrending moments, such as the scene in the episode ‘Rites of Passage’ when George’s free-spirited grandmother Phyllis (beautifully played by Barbara Barrie) holds a small framed photograph of her grand-daughter up to her chest, tears in her eyes, or in ‘Always’ when Rube sings a lullaby to his daughter Rosie, now a elderly woman, in the final moments of her life. There are also scenes that leave a powerful impression, such as one in the episode ‘Be Still My Heart’ that sees Daisy crouching down, terrified, in a hotel room closet while the young woman whose soul she has come to reap is brutally strangled by her married lover.
The second season is also notable for an appearance in three episodes by Eric McCormack, playing a distinctly unpleasant character quite unlike his signature role in the long-running sitcom ‘Will and Grace’. I should not, of course, forget to mention Ellen Muth, who is perfectly cast in the lead role as George Lass, although I can never quite get over how scarily skinny she is. Muth, who apparently has an unusually high IQ and is a member of both Mensa and Intertel, made her acting debut in the 1995 film ‘Dolores Claiborne’ when she was 14-years-old, receiving many positive reviews for her performance.
My only criticisms of the series are two very minor quibbles. In ‘Reaping Havoc’, the fifth episode of the first season, an Irishman who dies goes into the light when he sees the white cliffs of Dover, which are to be found on the south coast of England and would have no emotional pull whatsoever for someone from Ireland. The storyline required cliffs, but this is cringe-worthy. In ‘A Cook’, the eighth episode of season one, Mandy Patinkin adopts a Scottish accent that is so awful it is embarrassing, worse even than the typically dreadful Irish accents that so many American actors seem to feel the need to adopt at least once in their acting careers.
Accurate data about viewing figures for the show are not available. It has been claimed that it was watched by an audience three times the Showtime primetime average; although there is no evidence I know of to back this up. Whatever the truth, Showtime decided not to commission a third season. However, a direct-to-DVD film version was released in the US in February 2009. It was written by John Masius and Stephen Godchaux and reunited several of the cast from the television series, although Mandy Patinkin, Laura Harris and Greg Kean, who played George’s father, Clancy, are absent. The film was directed by Stephen Herek, whose previous films include ‘Critters’, ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and the live-action version of ‘101 Dalmatians’.
Review posted 21 March 2009
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Rating 1½
Directed by Greg Spence
Written by Greg Spence and Matthew Greenberg, based on characters created by Gregory Widen
Starring Christopher Walken, Jennifer Beals, Russell Wong, Brittany Murphy, Glenn Danzig, William Prael, Steve Hytner, Bruce Abbott, Danny Strong and Eric Roberts
Gabriel (Christopher Walken) is expelled from Hell by Lucifer and goes in search of Valerie Rosales (Jennifer Beals), who carries the Nephilim, intent on killing the unborn child.
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‘The Prophecy II’ was released direct to video in January 1998, two years and four month after the original film, which had built up a word-of-mouth cult following after a middling showing at the box office. Everything that made that first film so compelling and enjoyable, be it the interesting premise or the agreeably over-the-top performances, is absent here. This is just a really bad film. I have given it an extra half-point to acknowledge a spirited performance by Brittany Murphy.
Christopher Walken returns from the first outing, although watching the result, it is hard to know what possessed him. The only other actor to return is Steve Hytner, in what amounts to little more than a cameo.
Gregory Widen, who wrote and directed the first film, is an executive producer this time around. He gets a credit as the creator of the original characters, although it is tempting to suggest that he can hardly claim credit for the likes of Lucifer and the Archangel Gabriel.
Review posted 16 March 2009
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Rating 5
Written and directed by Gregory Widen
Starring Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mottensen, Adam Goldberg, Amanda Plummer, Steve Hytner and Moriah Shing Dove Snyder
Thomas Daggett (Elias Koteas) trained to be a Catholic priest, but he was plagued by horrifying visions of Heaven plunged into an eternal war and lost his faith on the day of his ordination. He is now a detective with the LAPD. When he is called in to investigate a bizarre murder, the trail leads him to a small desert town in Arizona where the Archangel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) has come down to Earth in search of the soul of a recently deceased soldier who had been charged with horrific cannibalistic war crimes during the Korean War.
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Released into American cinemas in September 1995, ‘The Prophecy’ is a horror film with a central theme drawing on various Judeo-Christian biblical teachings. Following the first celestial war, ending when Lucifer (played here by Viggo Mortensen) and his followers were cast out of Heaven, a second war erupted when God elevated man over all other creatures. Gabriel and Simon (played by Eric Stoltz) had stood side by side at the head of the army of angels that defeated Lucifer, but are now on opposing sides. Simon has come to Earth to stop Gabriel from getting the soul he seeks.
The Archangel Gabriel is sometimes referred to as the Angel of Death. The name Gabriel translates as “The Strength of God”.
I saw this film several times when it was first released, but it had been a long while, maybe as long as ten years, since I had last watched it, before recently buying a copy on DVD for the first time. It had been one of my favourite films and I approached it again with a small degree of trepidation, wondering if it would prove to be a anti-climax in retrospect. It probably isn’t quite as spectacularly good as I remembered, but I wasn’t disappointed. Is it deserving of a “5” rating? Possibly not, but it is a five-star film for me.
The premise really works very well. I like horror films that draw on religious imaginary and I think this is a particularly good example, taking the very inhuman nature of angels as they are described in biblical texts as a starting point and building a story around that. As Thomas says at one point in the film, “Did you ever notice how in the Bible, whenever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel?”
There is one particularly effective moment in the film when Thomas asks Gabriel, “If you wanted to prove your side was right, Gabriel, so badly, why didn’t you just ask Him? Why didn’t you ask God?” Gabriel replies, almost wistfully, “Because He doesn’t talk to me anymore.”
Christopher Walken is not an actor often given to subtlety (with one or two exceptions, such as his Oscar-winning performance in ‘The Deer Hunter’), but he is one of the most compelling and memorable American film actors of his generation, if also one of the weirdest. He is in particularly impressive barnstorming scenery-chewing form here, but he is given a good run for his money by Viggo Mortensen, who gets to deliver lines of dialogue like, “I could lay you out and fill your mouth with your mother’s faeces,” when talking to Virginia Madsen’s small-town teacher, Katherine Henley. It’s always good to see Virginia Madsen, who like Mortensen is a past Academy Award nominee.
Eric Stoltz is an actor not shy of adding quirks to his performances and Adam Goldberg and Amanda Plummer, both playing characters on the cusp of death who are kept from dying by Gabriel to do his bidding, are well established oddball actors and scene stealers. With this level of over-the-top acting competition, the Greek-Canadian actor Elias Koteas does rather get trampled and disappears into the background, but that is perfect for the character he plays, the would-be priest who suffered a crisis of faith and now finds himself in the middle of this extraordinary scenario.
Writer/director Gregory Widen is probably best known as one of the co-writers of the 1986 film ‘Highlander’. He also wrote the 1991 Ron Howard film ‘Backdraft’. Widen was employed as a fire-fighter for three years, using that experience as the basis for his screenplay.
‘The Prophecy’, which is also known as ‘God’s Army’, had a production budget estimated to have been in the region of $8 million. It grossed $16.1 million at the box office in America. Nineteen reviews are collected at Rotten Tomatoes, resulting in a 42% rotten rating. There have been four sequels to date, plus the crossover addition to the franchise ‘Hellraiser: Prophecy’.
The fifth season ‘X Files’ episode ‘All Souls’ draws on a vaguely similar theme.
Review posted 13 March 2009
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Rating 4
Written and directed by Kim Tae-gyeong
Starring Kim Ha-neul, Ryu Jin, Jeon Hye-bin, Nam Sang-mi, Shin-ee, Lee Yoon-ji, Kim Hae-suk, Ran Choi and Gi Ju-bong
Min Ji-won (Kim Ha-neul) is a second year university Sociology student. She is suffering from dissociative amnesia following an accident and has no memory of her life before that. Her plan to leave university and go away is greeted with anger by her mother. Nobody will answer her questions and her only friend at university, Park Jun-ho (Ryo Jin), seems to know more about her past than he lets on, but he avoids giving straight answers to her questions. She has disturbing dreams and visions and she discovers that two former friends from high school have died in bizarre circumstances. She begins to retrieve snippets of her memories and the truth about her past slowly emerges.
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‘Ryeong’ is also known as ‘Dead Friend’ and ‘The Ghost’. The copy I have uses this latter title. It’s a South Korean horror film, very similar in style to Japanese films like ‘The Ring’, ‘Ju-on: The Grudge’ and ‘Dark Water’, although it is immediately noticeable that the social mores depicted are very different. Released in 2004, it was the debut film of writer-director Kim Tae-gyeong (also known as Tae-kyeong Kim).
I came across this DVD in my local Oxfam charity shop. I had not heard of it before, but because I like Japanese horror and other associated films such as ‘The Eye’ trilogy and ‘The Ring Virus’, the South Korean remake of ‘The Ring’, I decided to give it a go. In truth, I was not expecting too much from it and it sat on a shelf for some time before I finally took the plunge and watched it. I am glad I did, because I really enjoyed it.
The film does not offer anything that cannot be found in the Japanese films I have mentioned. A female ghost figure, more or less identical to the onryō seen in ‘The Ring’, is featured, as is the presence of water, a common theme in Japanese horror films, as a kind of conduit for the vengeful spirit. In this respect, it is clearly rather derivative, or, at least, treading a well-worn path, but it is also very likeable and really rather well done. It even manages to mix in a few moments of humour here and there. I was, to be honest, a little confused during the early scenes as I tried to piece together the story as it unfolded, but it soon began to take shape. It proved to be a satisfying premise, complete with a neat little twist.
As an alternative to my view of the film, Kyu Hyun Kim, writing in the online Korean newspaper OhmyNews International, suggests that the film, “Represents the nadir of contemporary Korean horror cinema, ravaged by the strains of a PSC (Pointless Sadako Clone) virus and put together in such a slapdash manner that it might serve as an object lesson in how not to make a generic horror film.”Kim Tae-gyeong has made one more film to date, ‘Muoi’, which was released at the end of 2007. This was filmed mainly in Vietnam and although ostensibly a South Korean production, it is said to be the first Vietnamese horror film. It has apparently caused some controversy and was not universally well received.
Review posted 9 March 2009
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Rating 2¾
Written and directed by Rigoberto Castañeda
Starring Iliana Fox, Adrià Collado, Raúl Méndez, Carlos Aragon and Luisa Huertas
Agata (Iliana Fox) knocks over a small boy at the KM31 mark on a lonely stretch of road outside Mexico City. While she is desperately phoning her boyfriend Omar (Raúl Méndez) on her mobile from the scene she is struck by another vehicle, resulting in horrific injuries that leave her in a coma. She shares a kind of telepathic link with her twin sister Catalina (also Iliana Fox), who becomes convinced Agata is crying out for help from within her unconscious state.
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‘KM31’ is supposedly based on a true story, according to the credits at the beginning of the film. It is based on the Hispanic legend of “La Llorona”, or the “Weeping Woman”, who is said to haunt rivers and streams and lure children to their deaths below the water.
The film is clearly heavily influenced by Japanese horror films, but it also has a Latin flavour. It is not entirely successful and tends to meander a little bit at various points. The antipathy shared between Omar and Catalina’s boyfriend Nuño (the Spanish actor Adrià Collado) seems to come out of nowhere and perhaps could have been dealt with in a more focused way. This might have provided the film with a bit more dramatic substance and perhaps helped to give us a greater understanding of the relationship between the two sisters. Equally, the strange attraction of KM31 that keeps drawing them back to that stretch of road is not as forcible as perhaps it should be. That said, the film is very atmospheric and has a strong sense of foreboding. The minimal use of music is very effective and the climactic scenes are very satisfying.
The film is flawed and the familiarity of its obvious influences means that it is has a slightly clichéd feel. However, I am sucker for ghost stories and this was a rather enjoyable one.
‘KM31’ has a 71% fresh rating from seven reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, although little can be gleaned from this, given the small number of reviews collected. It was apparently a big box office hit in Mexico. Total Film magazine described it as, “One of Mexico’s all-time box office hits,” although no figures are quoted to back up this claim.
Review posted 7 March 2009
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Rating 2¾
Directed by Edward Buzzell
Written by Steve Fisher and Net Perrin, with additional dialogue by James O’Hanlon and Harry Crane, from an original story by Stanley Roberts
Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett
Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn, Gloria Grahame, Leon Ames, Patricia Morison, Philip Reed, Jayne Meadows, Ralph Morgan, Don Taylor, Bruce Cowling and Dean Stockwell
Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) attend a charity function on a ship moored in New York Harbour that is used as a night club where gambling is permitted. A musician is murdered and Nick soon finds himself forced to investigate.
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‘Song of the Thin Man’ was the sixth and final film in the series, released in August 1947, three years after the fifth film, ‘The Thin Man Goes Home’, and 13 years after the original film, which was based on the famous 1934 Dashiell Hammett novel. As with the preceding film, there are new writers and a new director for this final excursion. Edward Buzzell also directed the late-period Marx Brothers films ‘At The Circus’ and ‘Go West’, both of which contain moments of the free-wheeling anarchic comedy that made them famous, but are a pale shadow of the brothers at their very best. Amongst the various writers credited with contributing to the screenplay is Nat Perrin, who provided additional dialogue for the classic 1933 Marx Brothers film ‘Duck Soup’.
This sixth outing displays very obvious signs of wear and tear. There is even a suggestion in the screenplay that Nick and Nora are “past it”, with the generation gap depicted via their failure to understand the slang talk at the jazz parties they attend in search of clues to help solve the murder. Herein lies one of the problems with the film, with its entirely unrealistic portrayal of the “younger generation”, which is just as false here as it would be later on when film and television turned its attentions to 1950s and 1960s youth culture. Of more concern is the fact that at each of the after-hours jam sessions where the various jazz musicians congregate there is not a single black person to seen anywhere.
On the plus side, the screen chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy shines through and the affectionate banter between Nick and Nora still occasionally sparkles. There are even a few great lines of comic dialogue that very nearly match the superior quality of the earlier films. Even below par Powell and Loy are a notch or two above the rest of the pack. The climactic scenes in which the identity of the killer is revealed seem rushed and do rather fizzle out, but all things considered, the film is thoroughly enjoyable, even if overall it is clearly quite a long way below the series at its very best.
Gloria Grahame is featured as a jazz band singer in one of her first film roles. One of the screen’s great femme fatales, she was nominated for an Academy Award in 1947 for her performance in the film noir ‘Crossfire’ and won an Oscar in 1953 for ‘The Bad and the Beautiful’. Keenan Wynn had a long and busy career, including his role as Willard ‘Digger’ Barnes in the hugely successful television series ‘Dallas’. Dean Stockwell, who was just eleven years old at the time of ‘Song of the Thin Man’, plays Nick Charles Jr. In a career that has so far lasted more than 60 years, he has appeared in cult classic films like ‘Paris, Texas’ and ‘Blue Velvet’ and is currently featured in a recurring role in the critically acclaimed television series ‘Battlestar Gallactica’.
Review posted 4 March 2009
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Episode One: Jesus the Jew (Written and presented by Howard Jacobson); Episode Two: Rome (Written and presented by Michael Portillo); Episode Three: Dark Ages (Written and presented by Robert Beckford); Episode Four: Crusades (Written and presented by Rageh Omaar; Epiosde Five: Reformation (Written and presented by Anne Widdecombe); Episode Six: Dark Continents (Written and presented by Kwame Kwei Armah; Episode Seven: God and the Scientists (Written and presented by Colin Blakemore; Episode Eight: The Future of Christianity (Written and presented by Cherie Blair)
‘Christianity: A History’ is a series of eight programmes broadcast in a one hour Sunday evening timeslot with advertisement breaks on Channel 4 between January and March 2009. Each programme was written and presented by a different person and explored a particular aspect of what still remains the world’s largest religion.
At the outset I will state for the record that I am not an atheist, but equally I am not an overtly religious person. I have never belonged to a church or to one particular religious belief. My father was a lapsed Catholic, who lost his faith as a result of the horrendous things he saw during World War Two, and my mother, as far as I am aware, was an atheist. Other than mandatory religious education when I was at school more than thirty years ago, I have never read the Bible in any depth and I have never owned a copy of the Bible. I have serious qualms about many aspects of organised religion. However, my overall stance is certainly ambivalent. A part of me is open to the possibility of the existence of God and a part of me wants to believe in the existence of God. At the same time, I generally suspect that in all likelihood God does not exist. Annoyingly, I refuse to make my mind up one way or the other.
Religion is a very emotive subject, both amongst conflicting religious groups and with secular groups, who are often very critical of the role that organised religion plays in all aspects of our lives, whether we accept it or not. The seventh programme in the series, ‘God and the Scientists’, saw Colin Blakemore, a leading neurobiologist and a controversial figure in the past because of the role he has played in animal experimentation, argue that science will eventually make religion obsolete. It is basically the argument put forward by Richard Dawkins, who is very briefly featured in the programme, although Blakemore presents a stance that one assumes is intended to suggest he is not quite so aggressively dogmatic in his approach.
I identified some problems with Blakemore’s argument. First of all, he is too ready to go for easy targets, such as believers in creationism and intelligent design. He is not wrong to include a visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky as part of the programme, but the subtext that this is what all religious belief is about is, to say the least, biased and a little dishonest. When he does come across someone with strong religious beliefs who is happy to concede that God did not create the world in six days and Genesis is not to be interpreted literally as a history of creation, he simply doesn’t listen, or after the fact questions that person’s true beliefs. His stance would seem to be that science is always right and can be relied upon to provide us with facts and, therefore, trustworthy knowledge. That is only true up to a point, although science is pliable and able to adapt to increased knowledge, something that organised religion in hierarchical terms would seem to work to resist with all its might.
Blakemore puts his faith, if I might use that word, in science. It is now widely accepted by many scientists that the Big Bang theory explains the moment in which the universe came into being. It may well be the case, but there is a reason why it is called a theory. In pursuit of knowledge about the universe, science tells us that dark matter and dark energy makes up most of the mass in the universe, even though we cannot see it and there is no conclusive proof of its existence. God, on the other hand, does not exist. Blakemore would have us believe that is an irrefutable fact – because we cannot see God and there is no conclusive proof of God’s existence.
Ultimately, what Blakemore does that largely kills the argument he puts forward for me is fail to acknowledge and explore the reason why belief or faith exists. His ultimate message seems to be that if you believe in God you must be a moron. Belief in God is not simply an attempt to explain something in the absence of scientific knowledge. It doesn’t actually matter that science looks for evidence or that our knowledge about evolution makes nonsense of creationism. God is, as much as anything, a concept used by people to try to give meaning to their lives as more than simply what we can know and what we can see. Science will never do that.
As the priest and one-time professor of psychics John Polkinghorne said, talking about Richard Dawkins, “Debating with Dawkins is hopeless, because there’s no give and take. He doesn’t give an inch. He just says no when you say yes.” Colin Blakemore would seem to conform to this trend. I came away from his programme feeling very sceptical about his proposition that science is all-knowing.
In earlier programmes, the writer Howard Jacobson reminds us that Jesus was a Jew and that Christianity has its roots in Judaism. He proposes that Jesus never intended to start a new religion and questions the anti-Semitism that can be traced through the history of Christianity, leading ultimately to the Holocaust. The former Conservative politician Michael Portillo looks at the role of the Roman Emperor Constantine and how this transformed Christianity into the most powerful religion on Earth. Another Conservative politician, Anne Widdecombe, who was brought up a Protestant but converted late in life to Catholicism, looks at the Reformation. She proved to be a spirited and informative persenter and she does make some pertinent points, although I am not sure what her overall message was intended to be. She seems to suggest that if Christianity had not engaged in hundreds of years of fighting amongst itself, it could have devoted that time to stamping out other religions. I hope I am wrong, because that is a horrendous idea. Colin Blakemore’s programme made me veer towards God, in reaction to a very biased stance, even though I agree with a lot of what he says. Anne Widdecombe’s programme, on the other hand, just reminded me that religion often gives us an excuse to do evil things. I was particularly disturbed by the moment when Ian Paisley confirms that he believes the Pope is, literally, the Anti-Christ.
The journalist and war correspondent Rageh Omaar, a Muslim, wrote and presented a programme about the Islamic world’s attitudes towards the Crusades and how these differ from the West. He makes some pertinent points about the actions of George W Bush and Tony Blair and how we might interpret the reason why Bush used the word “crusade” when talking about the “War on Terror” and Blair argued that the invasion of Iraq was a “Just War”, an argument traditionally used to justify Holy Wars. Which leads me to the final programme, written and presented by Cherie Blair.
I approached this programme with a degree of trepidation. I have an extremely negative view of Tony Blair and the motivation for his actions in involving this country in an illegal and immoral war, based on entirely bogus “intelligence”, against the wishes of the majority of the people. Things didn’t start well. Cherie Blair, looking at the decline of Christianity, specifically Catholicism, in Europe, points to the horrors of the two World Wars that occurred in the Twentieth Century. It seemed somewhat hypocritical, given her husband’s record and the suspicion that his own religious beliefs were not entirely separated from his actions. Tellingly, later on in the programme there is a brief snippet of an interview with Laura Bush, which seems to have been inserted for no other reason than to argue that George W Bush and Tony Blair are not religious zealots and were not influenced in any way by their religious beliefs when it came to making decisions in the aftermath of the horrific attack on and destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. This might be true. I have my doubts.
Primarily, Cherie Blair’s programme dealt with the marginalisation of women by the Catholic Church. That is a big issue and a shameful one for Catholicism. Nothing in the programme suggests to me that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church intends to do anything other than continue to perpetrate and attempt to strengthen that stance. Cherie Blair looks to Christianity in the USA and proposes this where we must look to learn lessons how to drive the region forward successfully into the 21st Century. In an earlier programme entitled ‘Dark Continents’, the writer and playwright Kwame Kwei Armah proposes that Britain and America need to look to Africa for the way forward.
On a side note, should we read anything into the fact that only two of the eight epiosdes were written and presented by females, even though the population of the world is very nearly split equally 50/50 between male and female?
I found the eight programmes were, to varying degrees, interesting. I learned something from them, although not a huge amount I did not already know, in truth. ‘Jesus the Jew’ and ‘Crusades’ worked for me because they looked outside of Christianity at its relationship with other religions, invariably a hostile one. Other programmes in the series dealt specifically with Christianity, almost as if it is the only religion, understandably given the the remit of the series. Oddly enough, that was particularly true of Colin Blackmore’s programme, which gave the impression that he is anti-Christian, whereas, I assume, he is anti-Religion, which is not quite the same thing.
Channel 4 has frequently been accused of dumbing down in recent years, with very good reason. ‘Christianity: A History’ shows that it can still make interesting and thought-provoking television when it wants to. It’s not a series of programmes that would change many opinions and I am sure it would have angered more than a few, but it was a worthwhile venture.
Review posted 3 March 2009
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Rating 4
Created by Toby Whithouse
Written by Toby Whithouse (four episodes), Rachel Anthony (one episode) and Brian Dooley (one episode)
Directed by Toby Haynes (two episodes), Alex Pillai (two episodes) and Colin Teague (two episodes)
Starring Russell Tovey, Aidan Turner, Lenora Crichlow, Gregg Chillin, Jason Watkins, Sinead Keenan, Annabel Scholey and Sama Goldie
George Sands (Russell Tovey) is a werewolf living in modern-day Bristol in the South West of England and working as a porter at a local hospital. He has a huge IQ and speaks several languages fluently. During a full moon he locks himself away in a cell in the disused basement of the hospital, until refurbishment work begins, when he is forced out into nearby woods. John Mitchell (Aidan Turner) is a vampire who fights against his demonic instincts. He was turned during the First World War by his commanding officer William Herrick (Jason Watkins). He also works as a porter at the hospital. Annie Sawyer (Lenora Crichlow) is a ghost. She haunts the house where she fell down a flight of stairs and died. The house, which is owned by her financé Owen (Gregg Chillin), is rented out to George and John (commonly referred to as “Mitchell”). Herrick is a local uniformed police officer, making it his purpose to try to entice Mitchell back into the fold.
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The first season of ‘Being Human’, six episodes in total, broadcast on BBC3 between 25 January and 1 March 2009. The series was created by Toby Whithouse, who had previously written ‘School Reunion’, the episode of ‘Doctor Who’ that saw the return of Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, arguably the single most famous character in the history of that show outside of the Doctor himself, not counting the likes of the Daleks and Cybermen. Whithouse had also written for the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off ‘Torchwood’; the first season episode ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’, which remains, probably, my favourite episode of that particular series. Colin Teague who directed the final two episodes of this first season has also directed several episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Torchwood’, as well as an episode of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’.
Although described in some places as a comedy-drama, it would be more accurate to call ‘Being Human’ a drama-horror with touches of (very funny) comedy. In this respect, it certainly bears comparison to ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, as so many series’ that came after that show do. It might be tempting to compare the character Mitchell to Angel in ‘Buffy’ and its subsequent spin-off ‘Angel’. Both are vampires with a conscience, haunted by the memories of their violent and brutal pasts, fighting to control their vampiric urges. George the werewolf is much like Oz in ‘Buffy’, attempting to lead as normal a life as possible and to control the wolf side of his nature, but knowing he will never be normal. He locks himself away during a full moon to protect others from what he becomes.
These similarities are very obvious, but the show never sits in the shadows as a pale imitation of the ‘Buffy’ concept, unlike, for example, ITV’s recent misfiring ‘Demons’. Instead, it proves to be one of the most refreshingly original and quirky series to come along in quite some time. The mix of the dark horror elements, the comedic moments and the drama of these displaced people, living in society but outside of it, is very nearly as perfect as it could be.
There was an earlier pilot episode broadcast in February 2008, which received mixed reviews, although it also resulted in a petition, started by Narin Bahar, a journalist on the newspaper the Reading Chronicle, to have the show commissioned for a full season. The actors playing Mitchell, Annie and William Merrick, as well as Lauren (played by Annabel Scholey in the series), were recast before the full season went into production, with only Russell Tovey as George remaining unchanged. I have never seen the pilot episode, but there seems to be widespread agreement (coupled with some isolated pockets of dissent) that these changes resulted in a definite improvement.
The three main characters are immediately interesting and work very well together. It was George I responded to first. I had seen Russell Tovey previously in an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ and in the recent BBC1 adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel ‘Little Dorrit’. Tovey, in fact, had been one of the many actors mentioned as being in the running to replace David Tennant as the Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. At the time, I thought he was an entirely unsuitable suggestion for the role, but having seen ‘Being Human’ I have now changed my opinion. On this showing, I think he would have made a very interesting Doctor.
Ultimately, I think it turned out to be Annie who in many ways I responded to the most. At the outset, we know she died after falling down a flight of stairs and has idyllic memories of her relationship with Owen, but she is the last of the three main characters we really learn more about and begin to understand. Of note here is the third episode, in which George and Mitchell take Annie to a club where she meets Gilbert (a one-episode character played by Alex Price), a ghost who died in 1985 and seems to base his personality and character traits on the records of The Smiths and Marc and the Mambas. It’s a springboard for some wonderful mordant humour, but in subsequent episodes we discover a shocking revelation about Annie, which probably should have been obvious, but I didn’t see it coming.
The success of the revived ‘Doctor Who’ has opened the door to a lot of fantasy-based new television drama in the UK which would not otherwise have been made. Obviously, without ‘Doctor Who’, there would have been no ‘Torchwood’ or ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’. It seems extremely unlikely that ‘Primeval’ and ‘Demons’ would have been made. Steven Moffatt’s ‘Jekyll’ would probably not have happened without ‘Doctor Who’. The same applies to ‘Being Human’. Equally, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ has a huge influence on all of these shows, including the updating of ‘Doctor Who’, something Russell T Davies has been very quick to acknowledge. Where British and American series do part ways is in the number of episodes that make up a single season. In America it is common for a season to consist of 22 or 24 episodes (12 or 13 episodes for a mid-season start, in line with the very rigid scheduling of the main networks). Here in Britain, something like ‘Doctor Who’ or ‘Torchwood’ will be given a 13 episode run, but six or seven episodes is the norm.
The recently premiered new American series ‘Dollhouse’ (the work of ‘Buffy’ creator Joss Whedon) has received mixed reviews from critics and disappointing if not completely disastrous viewing figures. Whedon himself has claimed the show does not really start to fully spark until episode six and his fan-base (as loyal and vocal in their support as any such fan-base I can bring to mind), concerned that the show might be prematurely cancelled, are desperately trying to find ways to keep it on air for its full first season run, arguing that it will be well into season two before any real assessment of the long-term worth of the show can be made. The thinking is very different to here in Britain, where budget constraints mean that six episodes is an entire season, not just an opportunity to set down a basic framework for a story.
‘Being Human’ attracted over a million viewers for the opening episode of its first season, but then averaged a little over 800,000 viewers per episode. As a comparison, the first season of ‘Torchwood’ was also broadcast on BBC3. The opening episode attracted 2.5 million viewers and the thirteen-episode season as a whole averaged something in the region of 1.2 million viewers. ‘Being Human’ has been commissioned for a second season.
Review posted 3 March 2009
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Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) returns to Jericho, a small town in Kansas near to the border with Colorado where he grew up, harbouring a secret about where he has been for the last five years. His reason for returning is to claim an inheritance from his grandfather’s will, but when his father Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), the town’s Mayor for the last 25 years and the executor of the estate, refuses to sign the release forms, he sets out to leave once again, old family wounds having been reopened. On his way out of town, Jake is involved in an automobile accident when he is distracted by the sight of a mushroom cloud on the distant horizon. Although injured, he is able to rescue a busload of young children and their teacher Heather Lisinski (Sprague Grayden), the friend of his former girlfriend Emily Sullivan (Ashley Scott), who have been involved in a separate accident.
The first season of ‘Jericho’ ran for 22 episodes and was broadcast by the CBS network in the U.S. between 20 September 2006 and 9 May 2007, averaging 9.5 million viewers per episode. The show was initially cancelled at this point and resulted in the inevitable fan campaign to have it reinstated. The network did briefly relent and a second season began on 12 February 2008, with seven episodes commissioned to allow the story to be brought to a conclusion of sorts. This truncated second season has, perhaps by necessity, a somewhat different feel to that of season one, one that I feel works rather well. The final episode was broadcast on 29 September 2008. The DVD offers two alternative endings. My preference is for the one that was broadcast.
The series attempts to show what might happen in the event that the U.S. became the target of a major nuclear attack that effectively wiped out the federal government. It uses a small isolated Midwest town as a kind of microcosm to represent the wider picture, much as the Salem witch trials of 1692 are often used as a means of understanding the widespread witch hunts that occurred in Europe over a period in excess of 200 years during the Middle Ages. In one of the advertisements for the series before the start of the truncated second season, the question was posed, “What if the America you knew was about to change?” The show depicts the numerous ways in which individuals might react to such a cataclysmic event and how these individual actions affect the community as a whole.
The character I was firstdrawn to is the school teacher Heather Lisinski, who unfortunately is ultimately rather underused and is written out of the story after episode 13 for much of the remainder of the first season. Executive producer Jon Turteltaub suggested that she had been an afterthought, whose involvement beyond the pilot episode was not originally planned. They don’t make the most of her. The young rancher Stanley Richmond (Brad Beyer), his deaf younger sister Bonnie (Shoshannah Stern) and, in particular, Mimi Clark (Alicia Coppola), the IRS agent from Washington DC who comes to Jericho to audit their family ranch, prove to be three of the most likeable characters. Clearly, I am not alone in thinking this, because I discovered “The Richmond Ranch”, a fan website devoted to them.
In the closing episodes of the first season when everyone seems to spend all of their time striding around very manfully with rifles in their hands, playing at being cowboys, the whole alien (to me) “right to bear arms” ideology that seems to be an ingrained part of the American psyche did become a little unnerving. Clearly, my own bias is coming out here and I am witnessing the show from an “outside” European perspective.
