I was planning on a Doctor Who review this weekend, but I’m so far behind on things that I’ve only just gathered my thoughts together on Torchwood! Besides, I’m still waiting for a half decent episode of the new Doctor Who.
Okay, the second season of Torchwood then. While it was an uneven ride, there’s been some superlative moments. So even if a few episodes were below par I’m still giving it nine out of ten. I love Torchwood because the BBC have delivered something so far absent from our screens; an adult British science fiction television series. Complete with adult themes and even gay characters who don’t scream their sexuality in quite the same way as a lazily thought out last minute addition to EastEnders.
Torchwood is a spin off from Doctor Who, featuring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, a friend of the good Doctor’s who, after receiving Dalek extermination, is miraculously revived with the ability to regenerate himself (although not quite in the same way as The Doctor – he always comes back to life as John Barrowman). After The Doctor has abandoned him (rightly thinking him dead), Harkness attempts to follow him back to modern day Cardiff. Why? Well it appears that the Doctor frequents Cardiff because there in something called the rift there, which acts as a sort of cosmic fuelling station for the TARDIS. Oh yes, and the BBC base their production there. And Russell T. Davies is Welsh. Anyway, Captain Jack messes up slightly and ends up in 1869, having to wait around for 140 odd years before he runs into The Doctor again to find out exactly what happened to him. Not to worry, he fills his idle hours chasing aliens, being killed and recruiting members of Torchwood, a sort of youthful alien-dealing taskforce. And dreaming that one day he will be absolutely everywhere on UK television, from kids quiz shows to I’d do Anything, the excrutiating Oliver! singalong talent show.
Episodes 11 and 12 are my suggestions for some of the best tv this year. Episode 12 opened with an almightly explosion; four of the five lead characters in mortal danger. Okay, three – as remember Captain Jack Harkness can’t actually be killed. No, hang on – two – as Owen is already dead. A sort of walking dead. Still keeping up? This episode was great as it served as a Torchwood origin, delving back into the past lives of the main characters as they lie semi-conscious and dreaming. We see how cocksure Owen, the bookish Toshiko and the quietly confident Ianto were all recruited (the gorgeous Gwen taking a backseat as we’ve already seen her initiation right back in episode one, series one). Most satisfying was the start of a backstory for Jack’s missing years, showing his recruitment into Torchwood 1899 style, complete with sideburns and a dashing Adam Adamant style cape. Basically, it’s just great fun.
But the series also works well because it is often thoughful and character driven. Going back to episode 11, the gorgeous Gwen becomes involved in some intrigue surrounding a missing teenager who returns – startlingly changed – after a few months away. Some subtle thoughts about loss, motherhood and lost time. I found it oddly moving for a sci-fi show, and equally disturbing, especially the blood curdling scream that people will let out – and one that lasts for 20 hours – after looking into the heart of a dark star (similar to my reaction to I’d do Anything). Moreover, the storyline proved that working for Torchwood might not be the most fulfilling career choice, which was taken one step further in the final episode with the death of two characters (although one was actually already dead, if you see what I mean).
Like its sister show (or perhaps its maiden aunt show) Doctor Who, Torchwood‘s ears are constantly burning with all the idle conjecture that goes on in internet Who chat rooms. Some of the Doctor Who rumours and supposed spoilers are insane – and reading internet forums always spoils the enjoyment of the real thing, spoilers true or otherwise. But the clue is in the name I guess. Spoiler. But it’s inevitable; when recently interviewed by Mark Lawson, Russell T. Davies was proud of the Doctor Who mythology that’s built up since the show was revived in 2005. Its increasing complexity of backstory is all part of his masterplan, and Who fans need little encouragement anyway. Want to take a look? Visit the Doctor Who Forum.
Like Doctor Who, Torchwood has begun to attract quality actors all keen to make cameo appearances, including Ruth Jones from the brilliant Gavin and Stacey, Richard Briers and James Marsters. Marsters plays Captain John, a sort of Master figure for Jack Harkness, although so far less prominent than The Doctor’s arch foe. He’s equally fiendish, charming and very, very dangerous though. The series finale, spoilt slightly for me by the forums, featured exhausting antics you’d expect from anything associated with Doctor Who, including Jack buried alive for nine hundred years or so. Oh well, anything to stop John Barrowman appearing in everything…
I welcome the third series, less a character or two, when it hopefully returns next year. Now onto David Tennant and Catherine Tate…
The Curse of Galton and Simpson
The BBC are currently showing a short season of dramas about much loved heroes of British comedy, with an emphasis on television stars who had a bloody hard time of it in their personal life. The first film, The Curse of Steptoe, followed the careers of Harry H.Corbett and Wilfred Brambell – stars of Steptoe and Son, arguably the best comedy series ever made which ran between 1962 and 1974. For me, Steptoe and Son took the hardest premise for a television series and ran with it. A small set, two main characters trapped in their horrible lives and constantly arguing. A life with no escape. Old man Steptoe, disgusting, decrepid, selfish but oddly compelling, and his depressed son Harold, still living at home although fast approaching middle age; a wasted life with alternatives always beyond his grasp. Similarities between the Galton and Simpson scripts have been made with Pinter and Beckett and they are worthy ones; the writing is often exceptional – the comedy always shrouded in the bleak and inevitable.
In The Curse of Steptoe, Harry H.Corbett (played brilliantly by Jason Isaacs) remarks “it’s like Waiting for Godot, although Godot never bloody comes” when waiting for the perpetually late Wilfred Brambell (Phil Davis) at an early read through. Corbett, a highly regarded British stage actor in the early 1960s who was mentioned in the same breath as Albert Finney and dubbed the British Marlon Brando, is enticed by the brilliance of a Galton and Simpson one-off television play, against the better judgment of his theatrical peers, including the director Joan Greenwood. The writing team, who’d enjoyed great success with Tony Hancock, were looking to escape from the shackles of situation comedy, but all are quickly sucked into the even greater success of Steptoe and Son. The series rolls on and on, the writers falling slowly into despair as the situations are exhausted, and the actors into the grim realisation that they will never escape their celebrated creations. The stars are seen having lunch over the years in the BBC bar, their early enthusiasm turning to the frustration over wasted lives worthy of the on screen father and son. The final bar shot sees them seated in drag, showing how stretched and uninspired the situations had become.
Phil Davis was a slight disappointment as Wilfred Brambell/Albert Steptoe. Although he looked the part, he failed to fully capture the physical weakness and vocal mannerisms of the man. I’d always imagined a well turned out gent (akin to the role he played opposite The Beatles in A Hard Days Night) who scrubbed down well to play the dirty old man of Shepherds Bush. Davis seemed to fall somewhere in between. Jason Isaacs, however, was outstanding and as well as delivering a spot on impersonation of Corbett, his sometimes very odd vocal delivery, added depth to a frustrated and not wholly likeable man. Neither revelled in the lives of laughter expected from the stars of sitcom. Brambell was a boozy homosexual, haunted by his failed marriage and subsequent arrest for soliciting himself in a public toilet. Corbett, also drawn to the booze in later years, also looked back on a failed marriage and an unfulfilled career. One of the most uncomfortable scenes in Steptoe and Son is where Harold tries and fails to become an actor, feebly recreating the famous contender scene from On the Waterfront. The British Marlon Brando he would never be.
An exceptional film, The Curse of Steptoe appears to be ending happily before whipping the carpet from under your feet. Corbett, having become a father himself in a new relationship, takes Brambell quietly to one side and they agree to finally quit their roles. Brambell is seen fleetingly in a new relationship of his own with a young man. But just as it’s all looking rosy, and just when you’re thinking “didn’t they get back together again for a final tour of Australia?”, we see Corbett in the final scene, already finding it difficult to find work post-Steptoe, receive that fateful phone call… Like the bleakest of situations for Harold Steptoe, there really was no escape.
Not long ago, at least it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, I mused mid-season about Heroes. Now it’s all over, and as series creator Tim Kring has been reported apologising for the lacklustre second season, I may never get nearly as enthusiastic about it again.
By far my favourite actor in Heroes is Zachary Quinto (pictured, quarrelling with real hero Hiro), who played the evil Sylar with relish. Quinto didn’t appear until a few episodes into the series with Sylar featured only that far as a shadowy figure in a baseball cap. Apparently Quinto wasn’t cast until the series had already started filming, so this is where Heroes has some similarity to Gone With the Wind, as Vivian Leigh wasn’t cast in her role either until after filming had commenced. But I guess that’s where the similarities end.
Quinto played the part with just about the right degree of inhumanity (and I concede that using your finger as a can opener to wrench open people’s skulls is about an inhuman as you can get), but he never went too far over the top. My favourite episode was where Sylar has his moment of doubt after realising he might be the one who’s going to write off half the population of New York in a rather largish explosion. He phones his old mucker Mohinder (“oh, hi Sylar!”) before descending on his poor mother who inadvertently makes his mind up for him. Cue snow globes and creepy blokes. But it was truly chilling television, and I call for the reviewer in the Radio Times who couldn’t see the point of this episode to be sacked. I think that it gave the inhuman just that short glimpse of compassion, which made it all the more frightening when you realised that he might have called the whole plan off. We need our film and movie monsters to prove that they think about things a little; it isn’t just about stealing brains. Sylar, Norman Bates, Dr Leckter; they’re all extremely clever. And this makes me more afraid of them.
The final episode of season one was both enjoyable and infuriating. Perhaps I’d built it up too much in my own head; I certainly didn’t want Sylar to die, because he’s such a good character. But as the whole theme was about destiny and it was Hiro’s destiny to polish the dastardly villain off then that was what had to happen for a fitting conclusion. But then they had to go and spoil things with a Hallowe’en style ending; we’ve seen it a thousand times before – camera returns to the spot where the baddie has died but they’ve miraculously got up and legged it …
Oh. Never mind.
Zachary Quinto is likely to emerge as the star of the Heroes mob of actors. He’s already been cast as the young Mr Spock in the new Star Trek prequel and there is something weirdly alien about his appearance, whether or not he’s wearing a pair of Vulcan ears. I shall look forward to him on the bridge with Jim T. Kirk, carrying his funny little handbag, arguing with his perpetually cross father and raising his eyebrow to Dr McCoy. A perfect piece of casting and I really can’t wait.
Just a shame he had to die/appeared to die but might come back (delete as applicable). But with such a huge cast, Heroes could afford to waste a few of them. The last episode ended with Parkman and DL in a bad way, poor Ted gone to the nuclear reactor in the sky, the Petrelli brothers creating their own and Malcolm McDowell and Julia Robert’s brother two very dead baddies. Perhaps they went too far with the body count. No wonder the next season is having to introduce some new blood.
My only real criticism of Heroes is that, at times, it’s a little too knowing. For example, I’m tired of spotting Stan Lee cameos in film and tv. But I suppose that we live in a reference filled world, and the more I think about it the more I realise that you have to become part of it all. Dig the references. Salute Nathan Petrelli when he says the self-referencing you saved the cheerleader, now let us both save the world. I’m the first to show my annoyance when people don’t realise who George Takei is, or don’t question me when I roll my eyes at Stan Lee. Okay, I have no criticism.
Favourite moments? There are just too many, and one of the joys has been watching several episodes more than once to savour the subtleties. In particular, I enjoyed it when Hiro and Ando journeyed into an alternative future where the worst had happened and Nathan Petrelli was a particularly nasty US President. But of course it was really Sylar posing as him, and second viewing revealed the excellent acting of Adrian Pasdar. My second favourite actor in Heroes. If you get a chance, watch this episode again. It’s Adrian Pasdar playing Zachary Quinto playing Sylar as President Nathan Petrelli. Awesome.
And of course I pity the people who started watching the series but then gave up and subequently didn’t enjoy all of the 23 episodes at least once. I refuse to answer the questions “was Clare’s Dad really nasty?” and “something about brains? – I haven’t really watched it” because I am proud of my Heroes superiority complex.
Oh. never mind.
Season one of Heroes ended with a taster for season two; at least we know that Hiro is still with us. And I’m so glad that his thoroughly decent friend Ando is safe and well. And let’s hang on. The taster was rather intriguing, making use of the eclipse theme, and there’s already plenty of other online previews to look at, although I hear that production is currently in limbo. Let’s get this writer’s strike sorted in Hollywood. Now. Come on Mr Bennet, can’t you pull a few strings?
Keep the Star Trek references coming Heroes, because you’re the best tv show to come along since. Maybe my enthusiasm has returned…
Season two preview at the BBC
If you’re still reading, and if you’re as big a fan as I am, do you think Nathan and Peter are really dead? No, I didn’t think you did.
Classic Covers: Frankenstein
You can do anything with Frankenstein. It’s a story that invites a reinvention; it’s always ready to come back and scare a new generation of children. And scare adults again in a different way. I always welcome a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic. Some bear little resemblence to the original, others try to stick too closely to it. Whatever they are, I always enjoy letting the Frankenstein experience wash over me. Whether it be Karloff, Lee or some new pretender – I’ll always be receptive.
Apologies for the poor image of this 1973 Arrow paperback edition of the novel. The cover is fascinating; very 1970s and very little to do with the book really. It could decorate any collection of ghost or horror stories from the period. At a pinch it could illustrate an edition of Dracula. But it’s a great cover nevertheless; candles, a blonde screaming beauty in a nightdress, a three-fingered hand. Things that kept the Hammer movie producers excited throughout their careers.
Frankenstein endured another reinvention this week with a new ITV version starring Helen McRory as Victoria Frankenstein. It is unkind to say endured because I thought this was an excellent take on the tale, introducing a mad (ish) professor and a hitherto untapped maternal aspect to the story. There was something very disturbing seeing Victoria visiting the creature armed with early reading books and baby toys; this gave a brilliant hook to the story that refuses to get tired.
Although my wife dismissed the film as it became increasingly preposterous I lapped it up. As I’ve said, this is a story that invites reinvention, and this version did just that, with McRory portraying a very sympathetic scientist and the monster glimpsed just enough to deliver the right amount of scares.
Frankenstein 2007 received some bad press. Unjustly, I think. Reviews were unimaginative in their slating (come on, the creature wore a hoody – and they missed out all the jokes with that one). But they also missed the point. Midweek tv. Something called Frankenstein and – even though it is a concept first dreamt of in 1816 – it’s still a viewing must.
This latest version of the horror classic washed over me as I knew it would and as I wanted it to. There’s room for more and I look forward to further reinventions.
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World
Okay, a very unoriginal post title. Tap this into Google and you get 2,320,000 results. That’s a nice round number, but it’s still a lot. But how else to introduce one of the cleverest and most inspiring television series of all time?
So I have your attention. Good. Heroes, as that – if you hadn’t guessed by now – is what this all about, has finally proved to me that I have a slightly obsessive nature when it comes to tv. I don’t dip in and out of things. I give my full attention or none (which is why I usually avoid long running series); I’ve found I can become easily engrossed in long, intricate, absorbing, at times infuriating, at times very demanding television. For all of these reasons – and others – I love Heroes.
One of the most rewarding aspects of blogging is that people read from all over the world. I don’t claim to have a huge readership, but people have stopped by here from all around the globe. So it’s important to stress that this post is based on my enjoyment of Heroes in its current UK run of the first season, and we’re about halfway through at the moment. So anything I might say, any predictions about what’s going to happen, may turn out to be rubbish. I’ve already made this mistake over summer barbecues, where my theories about the series have amounted to nothing as it has brilliantly unfolded. I sometimes wish I could do a Hiro (character in Heroes – keep reading!) and teleport forward in time, watch the whole series on DVD, then teleport back to do the rounds of barbecues and dinner parties. But, hey, it doesn’t always work out that well for the real Hiro…
Heroes has been described as akin to the X-Men. Think more of Marvel Comics on the page rather than on the cinema screen here – Heroes does the Marvel thing of looking at the hangups of its superheroes. People with special powers but ordinary people as well. Peter Parker was Spider Man but he also had trouble with girls, he was pushed over and had his glasses knocked off at school. Being Spider Man could be a drag. The characters in Heroes also have very real and complicated lives to lead. Their special powers only serve to complicate them more. The cop who still directs traffic after years and years on the force without career progression. The mother of a young child, his father escaping from prison. The complications of life as a cheerleader. But that’s only one aspect. Heroes also reminds me of the long forgotten British tv series of the 1970s The Tomorrow People, where especially gifted individuals suddenly broke out into the world and needed help and assistance to survive and come to terms with thier gifts. Some just don’t make it through.
The series offers a mix of memorable characters (there are many of them) and iconic moments. Each of the heroes has their own unique ability, although some are more obvious than others, and some use their abilities to try to kill cheerleaders – rather than save them. Some aren’t even aware of their abilities at all, others find them a curse. Some just don’t make it through.
The most memorable character is probably Hiro, a Japanese computer programmer who discovers that he has the ability to both travel through time and space and to stop it entirely (he flirts for a while with the benefits of this and visits Las Vegas casinos to mess with time at the roulette table). During his first teleport, he travels into the near future to discover that an enigmatic comic book artist has the ability to paint the future – Hiro reads about his own exploits in a published comic – and he narrowly escapes some kind of global disaster as he ports back to the present day. Cue a very complicated plot revolving round Hiro’s plight to “save the cheerleader, save the world”, further paintings of comic artist Isaac (who can only incidentally, paint whilst on heroin), a serial killer called Sylar, more flashbacks and flash forwards and several other character who are yet to be revealed as either heroes or villains of the piece. Be warned, this is merely the briefest synopsis.
Heroes is great because it does sci-fi well; good and believable writing yet somehow endulging in the craziness of it all. It’s comic book stuff – it’s mad – but you fall for it all. You’re willing to suspend your disbelief because it’s all so well structured; especial care has been taken over this series. If you guess that something’s going to happen it probably will, but not in the way you thought. When Hiro warns Peter Petrelli, who has the ability to somehow absorb the abilities of others, to “save the cheerleader, save the world” we know he probably will – it’s how it all falls into place that’s so exciting. And whose abilities he just happens to absorb at the time.
And one last thing – anyone who has criticized this series for being slow is wrong – the reason why it gets so good around episode 9 is precisely because it has been allowed to breath and grow. There is a lot of attention to detail that is easily missed first time around. And what’s best about it is I really really don’t know how it’s going to turn out…
If you haven’t seen any of Heroes yet please do, and I might leave my predictions for the outcome of this series to one side and instead pay you a visit via teleport at a future barbecue (or should that be past barbecue?)
Characters from Heroes. Keep away from the one on the left! Run now!!
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