Hacks - last month I raved about this show but I hadn’t quite finished the final episodes. Update: I finished it and I love it even more now. It’s unusual for me to cry and laugh at the same time at a comedy but I did for this one. It rounded off everyone’s stories so beautifully. A tiny bit sentimental but with enough humour to cut through it. I recommend this to the highest degree.
(series, streaming on AppleTV)
Youth - the latest comedy from Sharon Horgan. This is a dramedy, touching on all of the sorts of issues that middle aged women have to deal with which should be right up my street but I don't know why, it didn't really hit the spot for me. I found the critique of the publishing industry a bit annoying, not because it isn't funny or accurate, but it felt a bit to me as if it was in-jokes for the cool crowd. Maybe I was just feeling grumpy but
The Guardian absolutely loved it, and my multiple disagreements with their critics department at the moment made me feel that I might be right in my assessment of this one too.. The sex scenes were funny though, as was the painfully accurate parenting experience, so maybe I am being a bit tough on it. I enjoyed it, but in a sort of half hearted way
(series, streaming on NowTV/Sky)
Time - the third series from Jimmy McGovern looking at the UK penal system and highlighting all the ways it comes up short. This one has David Tennant as the main protagonist, alongside Siobhan Finneran, working in a young offenders institution. It’s almost unremittingly bleak, and even the sort of happy endings are only happy in comparison to what has gone before. Good and important stuff, with fantastic performances, particularly from the young actors playing the inmates. But another hard watch.
(Series, streaming on iplayer)
VisionQuest - this is the third in the Marvel series that started with Wandavision, then Agatha All Along. I’m not really a Marvel universe or superhero person but I do love this series and I am back, excited to see where this takes us. Even more excited to see Ruaridh Mollica appear (I was blown away by his stage performance last year in Clarkston),and it was a treat to see Emily Hampshire (Stevie from Schitts Creek) appear too. As I don't know enough of the lore, I take each episode as it comes and I am constantly surprised by what happens next. I haven't finished the series yet though so let's see.
(series, streaming on Disney+)
The Diplomat - Season 4. It’s back and I still absolutely love it. The cast for this is stunning, bringing back Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney in their little
West Wing double act throw back but this time with Trumpian tones. And it makes my love of Rory Kinnear even more pronounced - he is fab as the over emotional right wing populist British Prime Minister. And Jodie Whittaker is an absolute treat for this season too. The centre of the show though is the fraught relationship between Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal (Rufus Sewell) and it is handled beautifully too, both in the writing and in performance, although in real life I think they both would have pulled the plug on their marriage years ago. Anyway, this complex, layered show which sometimes appears to be about geopolitics but then turns out to be about a relationship or vice versa* is always engaging and is highly recommended by me
(series, streaming on Netflix)
Pierre - I am just a few episodes into this David Harewood led, noir style thriller. Harewood plays a duty solicitor, driving the dark streets, with night call outs, including detours to gambling dens. He's in a middle class profession but also a Black man, and that gives a nice slant to the angles the story keeps peeking around, taking a look at race and the hidden as well as the more obvious manifestations of institutional racism. To be honest, some of the dialogue is a bit clunky, and sometimes I find Harewood's style a little mannered, but I think I am going to be watching to the end of this series. I hope we get a decent ending though; the slow uncovering of the plot makes me worry that we are going to get a cliffhanger with a view to another series, and I hate that. Let's see.
(series, streaming on C4)
Yaga - a reworking of the folk tales about the mythical Slavic vengeful witch, I have read the play by Canadian writer Kat Sandler who is also the screenwriter for the series, and looking at the cast of Noah Reid (
Schitts Creek) Hudson Williams
(Heated Rivalry) and Carrie-Ann Moss (
The Matrix, Humans) I have high hopes. Sky has bizarrely decided to schedule the launch of the show one week later than the rest of the world so I saw the first couple of episodes early via slightly iffy means. I am loving Noah Reid as a dodgy, deceitful charmer, having really only ever seen him as sweet Patrick in
Schitt's Creek. Having read the play, which is extremely twisty turny but focusing on toxic masculinity and vengence, with a strong helping of witchcraft and magic, I can see roughly where this is going. However, there is so much new stuff in this version, it is keeping me on my toes. I believe Sky will catch up with the rest of the world this week, so looking forward to what comes next. Am I turning into someone who likes the horror genre or is this just a fluke? (
series, streaming on Sky/NowTV)Remarkably Bright Creatures - a sweet film led by an engaging Sally Field playing opposite an octopus and Lewis Pullman, leading us through an unlikely but engaging plot where an octopus called Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina) helps to bring a family together. I enjoyed the book and the film does a good job of capturing the essence of it, clear eyed about life but whimsical, and managing to find joy anyway. The sea life scenes were lovely to look at and my cat sat entranced on my lap the whole way through. It did make me horrified all over again though that anyone would ever want to eat an octopus.
(film, streaming on Netflix)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma - this film about film and lots of other stuff besides, is by Jane Schoenbrun, with another weird take using the horror genre to say all sorts of interesting things. Horror isn't my genre at all, so I know that I miss all sorts of tropes and references, but it didn't stop me really enjoying this. Starring Gillian Anderson as Billy Presley, a washed up, reclusive actress, previous star as final girl in the 'Camp Miasma' cult horror franchise and Hannah Einbinder (of
Hacks, see above!) as Kris, a young enthusiastic film maker who tracks Billy down to star in her 'elevated relaunch' of the franchise. It's about movie making, with so many nods that even I recognised, themes of the spectator and subject, mixing up fantasy and reality, and also about sex and gender and role play. I got to the end and wondered what on earth I watched, and put it on again. I remember I felt exactly the same way about Schoenbrun's earlier film
'I Saw the TV Glow'. Both Anderson and Einbinder are fantastic in this and I recommend it if you like your films a bit offbeat and stacked with obscure references and meaning. (
film, streaming on Mubi, or rental on Amazon Prime)
Wicker - I may have mentioned previously my love for Olivia Coleman, and so I wasn't going to miss this pairing with Alexander Skarsgård, who continues to pick really interesting parts these days. It's an entertaining fable, with a take on on the patriarchal nature of traditional marriage. Coleman's fisherwoman is fed up with being teased for being single and so gets the local basketmaker to make her a husband. The husband turns out to be Skarsgård in a wicker suit. It's a load of fun but it also feels pretty brutal in that way that fables often are, particularly in the nastiness of the village despite the humour. Peter Dinklage gets a special mention as the basket maker too. The costume worn by Skarsgård is amazing by the way, and the CGI was pretty impressive - the light shining through the wicker was very clever. I love the way nobody can resist from running their hands over his chest, and regardless of any lust or envy, the basketwork is gorgeous. He is definitely a work of art in all senses. The ending lets the film off the hook a bit I think, but is still highly entertaining, mainly due to the performances of the leads, who manage to make this pairing absolutely believable and a load of fun.
(film, at the cinema)* in one of those worlds colliding moments, here is Rufus Sewell commenting on the layered nature of Heated Rivalry and the similarities with The Diplomat https://www.instagram.com/reel/DfIpgbAyMbV/?vrfl=NmdreHhqYXdzaHVj
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