A few things going on in telly at the moment with older stroppy women - it’s good to see.
The Beast in me. Clare Danes and Matthew Rhys on opposite sides of a tense thriller full of grief, vengeance and rage. It has some fairly clunky twists and turns and some bits were too obvious, particularly the resolution which was ridiculously signposted, but I really enjoyed it all the same. It’s always moving forward (and twisting back on itself sometimes) and the two leads are brilliant. Clare Danes is twitchy, restless and angry, Matthew Rhys is scarily in control until he isn’t. Both great performers and a great supporting cast, it was fun to watch this unravel. Great autumn telly (
series, streaming on Netflix)
Down Cemetery Road: This has lived up to its promise and I am loving it as a weird mix of thriller and comedy with cartoonish violence but with interesting friendships between women (it passes the Bechdel test) and an underlying serious drama. Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson are both excellent, and I love Emma Thompson's swashbuckling investigator and Ruth Wilson's chaotic but stubborn protagonist Sarah
(series, streaming on AppleTV+)
Plur1bus:A science fiction story where an alien mind virus turns everyone into a single entity that just wants to be happy all of the time. There are twelve people in the world immune, and Carol (Rhea Seehorn) a cynical, misanthropic but highly successful romance writer is one of them although her wife dies as a result of the virus which makes her even angrier. This is a version of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers where those affected act as if they are in a passively aggressive happy cult. All this single entity wants to do is make Carol happy whilst they try to work out how to help her join them. It’s bleakly funny but also thoughtful. How do you stand out against group think? How do you manage when the people trying to convert you think you are just misguided and you will understand once you have joined them. Are these people really human if they have no individuality? In a chronically divided world this is a good reminder that conformity is its own kind of hell. The series is still ongoing, and I gather that Apple has already ordered a second - I hope it continues to live up to its promise
(series, streaming on AppleTV)
Trespasses: Another series with great female leads, this is a drama set in Belfast in the mid 1970’s; a timely reminder of what happens when you set up divisions between groups of people. It focuses on the relationships and chasms between the different communities, centred around a relationship across the divide. It captures the divided loyalties and web of complications that people of the different communities were living with, and a good reminder that dividing people into opposing forces is never a good idea. It's a proper slice of 1970s life, beautifully realised and with great performances by the two leads Tim Curran and Lola Pettigrew as the lovers, but Gillian Anderson absolutely steals this as the embittered mother drinking herself to oblivion after her husband is killed. I am sure the 1970’s can’t have been as orange and brown as the tv seems to remember, but it does look right. What is really hard is realising that my youth is now properly history - a world that is long gone, although in many respects I hope it stays gone
(series, streaming on iplayer). Upload: I loved the first series of this, and the second was good too. A sci-fi comedy about a world where people can be uploaded to the internet to live a virtual life. It's great if you have money but otherwise not so good. And the other downside is your body is destroyed as part of the process. The third was ...ok... but this final season was a bit meh. This is billed as the final series but it would have been better stopping at three. An example of a show going on too long, but I still recommend series one and two. (series, streaming on Prime)
The Morning Show: Series 4 has finally concluded. I did watch it, and mostly enjoyed it but for most of the series I didn't quite understand where it was going, with lots of plot bunnies started in a messy way. Then the last episode was packed so full of plot it was a bit too much. And who sends a tv journalist to make a swap with the Belarus secret service? I just didn't buy it. And then the ending was just pure cliche. I see that a fifth series has already been commissioned but I worry that it has reached its sell by date. Especially if we don't get Greta Lee back (series, streaming on AppleTV)
Stranger Things Season 5 pt1: I have really enjoyed this series, although it’s certainly time for it to wrap up. The first four episodes launched in the last week of November and I binge watched them. I still love the 80's analogue technology and music. Character development has largely gone out of the window so far (apart from Will of course) , but there’s still a fair amount of plot to be tidied up. I still love Robyn (Maya Hawke) who gets some memorable moments and Joyce (Winona Ryder) is still fab as a fierce mumma bear. It’s also great to see Max (Sadie Sink) return. The laughs are fewer than previously but the nods to other films and tv made me smile on more than one occasion. The series wraps up after Xmas day, so they are making us wait. In the meantime the Xmas tree at Waterloo station was being set up when I was there last night and people were already taking selfies with it, so I think there are lots like me prepared to see it through to the end.
And just a few films this month
Train Dreams - This simply follows the life of Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), an itinerant worker born in the late 1800s a logger and then railroad worker. We see along with Robert how America moves from a wild country to an industrialised one, although he stays on the outside of it all, and without ever feeling he understands what is going on or why. The centre of his life are his wife and daughter, but he can never spend enough time with them, work always calling him away. It’s gorgeous looking, making the most of the wild landscapes of America before it was tamed, filled with love and grief, and elegiac with a sense of time being a blink of an eye and forever. Joel Edgerton puts in a great performance as a man of few words but deep feelings. This is getting mixed reviews and not a lot happens but also a lot happens somehow. I liked it, although I think you need to be in the right mood (
Film, streaming on Netflix)
A House of Dynamite - the latest Kathryn Bigelow film follows the 20 minutes or so after it becomes clear a nuclear weapon has been launched against the US, taking the same events from three different angles, but all looking at the decisions being made by the people in charge in different ways. It’s tense,tense, tense, but without any cathartic ending. Social media after I watched it was filled with people grumbling that there wasn’t a clear ending but this is designed as a think piece rather than some kind of action adventure. I was brought up on nuclear war horror stories from The War Game to Threads, alongside government
Protect and Survive leaflets and it's interesting, timely and scary that this is rolling back into view. This particular film envisages Idris Elba as the president and with mainly competent staff - imagine if the current batch were in charge? The same themes have been taken and given more original treatments elsewhere and this isn't leavened with any laughter or joy at all. I had to watch
Tom Holland’s Umbrella, and a couple of episodes of
Motherland to cheer me up enough to be able to go to bed. (
Film, streaming on Netflix)
Ballad of a Small Player - this looks amazing. I love the colour choices, popping with reds and greens, and the mix of grittyness mixed with sumptuousness, offset by this pathetic man trying to live it large and failing. Colin Farrell is a gambler who is on his last chances and the film follows a long weekend as he scrambles to survive. Tilda Swinton plays it large as the investigator sent to track him down and recover his debts, whilst Fala Chen plays a croupier who helps Farrell’s character but turns out to have her own issues. A bit of a ghost story, a bit of a drama and a bit of a comedy, it’s also a bit of a mess in lots of ways but I still enjoyed it.
(Film, streaming on Netflix)
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