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Hurrah for the sales! Before Xmas I was able to pick up the first three seasons of The Office (US) for a tenner at Asda... that works out at roughly a pound per disc! Madness! The trade-off is that they’re stuffed into crappy cardboard sleeves, but I’m trying to be more Zen and rise above my anxiety about scratches. As the American-accented remake of a much-loved and obsessed-over Britcom, it didn’t get much of a push over here, and the pilot episode is extremely off-putting as an almost line-for-line recreation of the original script. But after the first season the show really starts to stand on its own two feet, and spiral off in strange new directions. There are still echoes of the original story arc in the star-crossed romance of Jim and Pam, but almost everything else seems shiny and new.
Adding even greater value to the boxset is the fact that for every five episodes, there’s about an hour’s worth of deleted scenes. Sometimes they’re simply extended version of things we’ve already seen, but often they contain entirely separate subplots! Apparently the show was cast with improvisation in mind, and all of the writers had a “performance” clause in their contracts too, which really leads to a blurring of the lines between the two camps, and easily explains the excess of hilarity. Overall, I’d say my favourite character is probably Dwight, simply because some of the things he says and does are so insane... especially in the excised material. I’d seen Rainn Wilson in Six Feet Under before, where he was also very good, but his work as Dwight will surely earn him a coveted “lifetime pass”. I especially enjoy the scenes where he exchanges secret looks with Angela, or meets with her in the break room for clandestine conferences, backs turned and faces blank. There’s something rather sweet about their relationship, even when they’re maliciously plotting the downfall of everyone around them. Actually, Angela would also be a strong contender for favourite character, if only because it’s fun to see such a petite and sweet-looking woman being so utterly ruthless and destructive. She provides a great contrast to the more exuberant characters... especially her arch-nemesis, the ditzy, motor--mouthed, celeb-obsessed Kelly Kapoor.
The first time I saw Kaling on-screen was as Paul Rudd's disgruntled ex in The 40-Year Old Virgin... which is a very funny film, and that extended “speed dating” segment works brilliantly as a skit in itself, even if it isn’t a great showcase for her comic talents. Meanwhile, she had already written tons of episodes for The Office, where she also serves as a producer and script editor, on top of appearing as a regular cast member! If I worked in the Scranton branch, I’d probably be most smitten with Pam, because she’s so darn adorable, but Kelly is the cutest character f’sure (especially when she does her Bridget Jones impression). She’d be a serious headache to actually date, and if Ryan weren’t such a dick I might even sympathise with him... but I think she’d be a fun friend to hang out with. Thanks to Mindy/Kelly, we were also treated to a Diwali episode in season three, which made for a nice change of pace from all the Xmas stuff that was on TV. I was particularly bemused by Michael’s ignorance of Indian food since pretty much every supermarket in this country has a selection of pakoras, bhajis and samosas in its “deli” section, and curry has quickly become one of our favourite “national dishes”... which seems to really annoy the bigots who see it as an erosion of our native cultural identity (as if such a thing were immutable, and inherently tied to how bland our food tastes). Michael’s adaptation of Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” was also a nice way to round it all off, I thought... "Don't invite any zombies to a celebration of Diwali!”
Hopefully it won't be too long before I can witness the birth (and inevitable rise to stardom) of Kelly's girl group Subtle Sexuality!
Defying Gravity came to an abrupt halt last week, here in the UK. I neglected to read up on it before I started watching, and it was only around the third or fourth episode that I discovered the show was cancelled in the US after its first season. Poop. To be fair, I can see why it might have had trouble attracting an audience, regardless of the creator’s gripes about lacklustre publicity... its basically a slow-burning, supernatural soap-opera set in space... like Solaris stretched out for the long-haul. There was a lot of humour in the main characters’ banter, but overall the first few episodes were a slightly dour experience, with only the charm of the cast keeping things ticking over. At least Lost had the common decency to set itself on a gorgeous tropical island, so there was plenty of lush scenery to lap up between the more tedious flashbacks... with Defying Gravity, all you get is a rainbow of greys between the spaceship, training centre, and mission control, with a crappy local bar thrown in occasionally for a dash of colour. Eye-candy, it ain’t. In terms of the plot, enough was revealed and resolved before the finale to leave me feeling reasonably satisfied, but still hungry for more. The only problem there is that there will never be any more. Ever.
It was nice to see Laura Harris, of Dead Like Me fame, again. She’s a fun, sparky actress, but there was something annoying about her character in this... she was a little too flighty and gaffe-prone for my liking. Still, some of her best scenes came when she was hanging out with her gal-pal Jen, played by Christina Cox. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cox in anything before, but immediately warmed to her. There’s something about her that radiates responsibleness (is that a real word?) and quiet confidence. She’s a sturdy, safe pair of hands, and exactly the sort of friend you’d want watching your back on a crazy jaunt around the galaxy. Cox also handled Jen’s more emotional scenes very well, as the pressures of a long-distance relationship and loss of purpose ground her down. An award-worthy performance, imho, albeit one that is consigned to the DVD graveyard now.
I’ve read an interview with the Parriott on a fansite, which revealed a few of his ideas about where certain storylines would have gone, and it sounds like it could have been an intriguing ride... but I doubt it would ever have really “taken off” in a major, must-watch sort of way. Still, I’m sad that gravity eventually took its toll on the show, bringing the cast crashing back to Earth.
Online news sources are reporting that the actress Brittany Murphy has died, following a full cardiac arrest. She was 32. Obviously I'm hoping this news isn't true, but I guess we'll find out more tomorrow. I can't pretend to be familiar with every entry on her extensive filmography, but she did some fantastic work in Clueless, which remains a classic teen rom-com, and is always a fun watch. She was also very funny in Drop Dead Gorgeous and Freeway, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of King of the Hill episodes she voiced, as Luanne.
This is just horrible news... and right before the holidays too... my heart goes out to her friends and family.
Hmmm... what to make of that? At times it felt a little too monster-of-the-week-y, and barely touched on the major “elephant in the room” (or corpses in the store room, if you like) of the main series arc. Again, the action was largely confined to the community centre, which I guess is a necessary evil of budget constraints, but it often feels as if the characters are trapped in a tiny bubble of unreality, cut-off from the wider world (like, if they ever tried to leave town, they’d just find a Silent Hill-esque wall of fog). I mean, when established parental characters aren’t seen at their own child’s funeral, then you have to wonder what’s going on. As a result the cliff-hanger left me a bit underwhelmed... but not in a bitter way. I just wish they had the money to make more episodes, on a slightly large scale, and really flesh out the world around the characters. At least we got some sort of resolution over what Nathan’s power might be, although the opening credit sequence suggests there’s still more to him than meets the eye. Thankfully there’s news on the E4 site that a second series has been commissioned, so there’s potential for growth there, fingers crossed. Meanwhile, it was weird seeing Kelly without so much make-up on... she looked so young! I was slightly disturbed to discover that the actress who plays her (Lauren Socha) is in fact only 19, so I’m almost old enough to be her father. Gah! But she’s so perfect for the lead role in the film trilogy I’ve been working on, it kills me. Will wishing hard enough make it happen? Probably not, no.
Finally managed to catch up with the first five episodes of Misfits (hurrah for the internet!), just in time for the series finale this Thursday. The pitch used in a lot of reviews was “Heroes meets Skins”, but really it’s more like “Smallville meets Shallow Grave”. The premise of juvenile delinquents getting stuck with superpowers while serving out their “ASBO”-enforced community service is a very strong one... one I wish I’d had myself, in fact. There are plenty of great jokes (verbal and visual), mixed with some serious spills, chills, and thrills... so it’s all rollicking good fun. My one criticism, or concern, would simply be that on a British TV budget, you don’t exactly get an X-Men movie level of action and adventure. The stories, by necessity, have to be kept quite small, and focussed around the community centre where they serve out their sentences... and even then, the series is almost over before us late-comers have even started watching. Imagine the uproar if Buffy or Lost had only been on for six hours a year? Doesn’t bear thinking about. There are a few self-reflexive lines at the end of the first episode about how this sort of superhero stuff just doesn’t happen in Britain, and they’re right, of course... more’s the pity. The show also backs up my theory about “affirmative action” and genre fiction... in that a lot of superheroes gain their powers through freak events, so there’s always the potential there for minorities, or otherwise disenfranchised people, to score a major cosmic break and leap ahead of the pack (in a single bound!). It’s a shame that this potential is so rarely exploited.
The “misfits” themselves are a good mix of clashing, complex characters, and they’ve assembled a great cast of young actors to fill their orange jump-suits. Unfortunately the one I identify most with is probably Simon (Iwan Kehoah), the creepy, no-mates video-geek... although I’d like to stress than I’m not nearly as pervy or dysfunctional as he is. Robert Sheehan steals most of the scenes as angel-faced gobshite Nathan, while the mystery surrounding his past crimes and current powers really kept me hooked. I was also relieved that the writer demonstrated that there was a definite downside to being such a smart-arse. Too often the “jester” character is left free to mock everyone and everything around them, without ever experiencing any fallout... but here, his “fresh mouth” (as Judge Judy would say) is pretty much the cause of all his problems and he knows it, but he still can’t stop himself... so there’s genuine pathos there. And Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) gets possibly the greatest time-travel episode ever... well, since Desmond’s in Lost, anyway.
Still, the standout character for me was Kelly, the mind-reader who swings wildly between knee-jerk aggression, and genuine compassion. There was a sweet scene in the second episode where they’re all helping to look after a group of pensioners, and she inadvertently “hears” an old man think how thirsty he is. She immediately offers him a cup of tea... not because he’d asked her out loud, and she had an obligation to respond, but simply because she’s nice like that, bless her. She’s also the only character who actively attempts to break through Nathan’s defences, no matter how often he pushes her away, or thinks about having sex with her. At one point I thought she might even become the group’s leader, since she’s clearly the most authoritative and calm in a crisis, but sadly that didn’t come to pass. As far as I’m concerned, Socha is the star of the show, with a firm handle on the mood swings her character goes through, exposing the vulnerability and humanity beneath the explosive “chav” exterior. She is also, as one wit on the E4 website so eloquently observed, “well fit”. As far as I can tell she hasn’t had many roles before this one, so let’s hope there are plenty more entries on her IMDb page by this time next year, and that some of them are comedies... preferably written by me. Seriously, I have scripts ready and waiting... let’s do lunch!
I see a lot of mags/sites are breaking out their “Best of the Decade” lists, but I can’t be doing with that. Amélie remains my favourite film of all time, so it follows that it’s my fave of the decade... beyond that, there are too many likely candidates to calculate. Still, I think I can just about manage a “Best of the Year” list...
Film: Inglourious Basterds
I’ve been a Tarantino fanboy ever since I first saw Reservoir Dogs at the cinema, back when it was still banned from video release in the UK. Hard to imagine in our post-Saw, “torture porn” era, but the censors seemed to think that a scene (sort of) showing a policeman getting his ear cut-off was the height of horror. All I remember is thinking how cool and funny Steve Buscemi was, and to this day I maintain that Mr Pink made it out alive. Until I see a body, I’m counting him as the sole survivor, so nuts to you. It’s hard to say if QT has grown much since those days... he still has a taste for tense stand-offs, and if anything his stories have gotten a little sloppier. But he has broadened his cultural/historical frame of reference, and when it comes to arresting images and colourful dialogue, he always delivers. This flick didn’t turn out to be quite what I’d been expecting from the trailer, which suggested a Jewsploitation take on The Dirty Dozen... there are certainly elements of that in there, but the “Basterds” aren’t the sole focus of the story, and the other characters make for a more expansive experience, although the incidental scenes do tend to drag a little. Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) still impresses as a strong, smart heroine, even if she does forget a golden rule of dealing with movie villains. One thing you can always rely on with QT, even as the clones try to play catch-up, and the accusations of his own pop-cultural pilfering come flying, is that there’s no one else making movies like him right now... and that’s a shame.
Honourable mentions: Star Trek and Drag Me To Hell, both of which were big, pulpy fun. I had high hopes for Marina de Van’s latest, Don't Look Back (Ne Te Retourne Pas), starring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci... but when it was screened out of competition at Cannes, it dropped like a lead balloon, so it’s unlikely to get a big release in this country.
Album: It’s Not me, It’s You by Lily Allen
Some of the lyrics may have proven to be slightly less sardonic than they first sounded (she’s since gone topless for a magazine photo shoot, making the “I’ll take my clothes off” line from ‘The Fear’ a bit prophetic), and its hard to sympathise with a pop-star who buys a beach and then complains that she isn’t making enough money, but I’m still impressed by how biting and satirical her deceptively cheerful ditties can be. I haven’t heard any other artists drop the F-Bomb with the sugar-coated venom Allen does on “F*ck You”, which puts most modern punks to shame. Not every track is a keeper, but then with today’s technology it’s easy enough to swap some of the syrup out for caustic B-sides like ‘Kabul Shit’. And no one romanticises the mundane details of dating like Lily does, bless her.
Honourable mentions: Jigsaw by Lady Sovereign, which was quite catchy but lacked the spiky spontaneity of her debut (and had far too much auto-tune on it for my liking) and Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? by Paloma Faith. 21st Century Man by Luke Haines would probably be a strong contender for the top spot too, but it only came out the other week, and I haven’t heard it enough times to really comment.
Book: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
True, it was first published way back in 1927, but I don’t read a lot of new books, and this nifty little novel deserves a nod for achieving the seemingly impossible task of making me feel like an upbeat, adventurous optimist! It didn’t last, but for a few days there I was flying. Along with the Bhagavad Gita and Teach Yourself Happiness, this has been a pretty positive year, reading-wise.
TV: Coming Soon
Sad to say, but the best television I saw this year was actually from 1999, namely the three-part series Coming Soon by Annie Griffin. Her latest offering New Town could have been a contender too, of course, but it was aborted after only one episode, so who knows how it would have turned out?
Honourable mentions: Lost (S5) and Ugly Betty (S3) both had their high points, but they also had plenty of lows. The way the Lost writers have treated Locke since the second season is disgraceful, and that resentment taints everything else that happens around the poor sod. Boo, I say! Ugly Betty has become so predictable with its tragedy and melodrama... “Oh look, a new girlfriend for Daniel... wonder how long she’ll last?”, “Oh, a fancy job offer for Betty... wonder if that will fall through somehow?” The whole thing would work much better as a family/workplace sitcom, imho. Make it so! I really wish I’d watched Misfits from the beginning, because that looks like it could be pretty good... I only caught the first half-hour of the third episode, but I already have a slight crush on Lauren Socha (love at first head-butt, you might say!). The premise of a gang of random juvenile delinquents gaining superpowers is a strong one, and they seem to have a great cast for it. I’m strongly considering taking a blind punt on the DVD, which is a very rare impulse for a miser like me. Meanwhile, I’m still addicted to Judge Judy, but let’s not talk about that.
And if you read all of that, give yourself a cookie. You earned it. :)
As the lead “Emo” Andrea in St Trinian’s, Faith scored herself a considerable amount of screen time, although I didn’t really notice her until she ditched the face-paint and piercings, and appeared as herself on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. According to Wikipedia, “as an ex-magician’s assistant, trained contemporary dancer, Leeds alumna with an MA in time based arts, a performer in burlesque show and dance club, and an actress, Paloma has been mixing artistic media throughout her adult life. A few years ago she introduced music into the equation, at first mimicking the blues and soul singers she admired, but eventually finding her own voice.” Um... except that “her own voice” sounds suspiciously like Amy Winehouse’s... not that that’s such a bad thing, of course. Still, it would be difficult to confuse the two because, as asserted in an overly harsh NME review of her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, Faith lacks the sneering, snarling and swearing swagger of her predecessor. True, that’s a large part of the appeal with Winehouse, but that doesn’t mean that Faith doesn’t have anything to offer, simply because she’s taken a sweeter, softer approach to White-Girl Soul.
Singles like "Stone Cold Sober" and “Upside Down” are hooky and charming enough on their own, but also benefit greatly from being seen as part of her overall performance. Faith isn’t “edgy”, by any stretch of the imagination, but she has chipper charm, quirky style, an easy smile, and a powerful set of pipes... plus she knows how to play to the camera/audience in ways that the typical NME-approved hipper-than-thou artists could never manage. Yes, maybe her show has more spectacle than scathing social commentary or political bluster, but what’s wrong with that? Pop music is a pretty broad church, and there’s plenty of room on our playlists for a little levity, isn’t there? And there’s always the outside chance she’ll fall under the spell of a sinister Luke Haines-esque svengali, who’ll have her singing about the Baader Meinhof Group and such... but until then, come to the cabaret, old chum!
All I want for X-Mas this year is a cheque for $30 Million, and Sarah Silverman on my arm. Make it so!
(Aside from being a window into my dearest day-dreams, this is also a still from a new movie starring Steve Buscemi, called Saint John of Las Vegas. Apparently it has already appeared at several film festivals and is scheduled to hit American theaters on January 29th, in limited release)
Horrocks first caught my eye as the foxy Nirvanah Crane, seducing Rimmer in an episode of Red Dwarf... but that same year (1992) she also made her debut as Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous. I always enjoy it when a “ditzy” character crosses the line into surreality, and Bubble skipped merrily across that line time and time again, somehow managing to make Edina seem relatively sane and sensible by comparison. She also wore some super-cute outfits (costumes?) around the office, setting the bar far higher than Ugly Betty has ever attempted with Amanda’s attire. Sadly Horrocks eventually tired of playing the fool, and was reincarnated as Katy Grin, a soullessly whitebread shark of a TV presenter. I’m not sure how many actresses could pull off a gearshift like that, but then if there’s one thing Horrocks is known for, it’s versatility.
In fact, her ability to mimic various old-timey singers even inspired a play, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, later to be adapted into a critically acclaimed film, co-starring Ewan McGregor, Brenda Blethyn and Michael Caine. The film spawned two spin-off albums, and also earned her nominations for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award. Her chameleon skills were also tested in a 1996 sketch-show special called Never Mind the Horrocks, which contained two classic skits guaranteed to haunt me for the rest of my life... and thanks to the blessed YouTube, they can haunt you too! The first (warning: contains swears) features a shrill children’s presenter, from back in the black & white days, talking down to her audience, encouraging them to torment their servants, and then singing possibly the most irritating marching “song” you’ll ever hear. Her commitment to the bit is a joy, even if the sound emanating from her mouth is a pain! The second sees her springing up in a classy costume drama, with Martin Clunes as the astounded suitor attempting to woo a wealthy father’s unruly (rabid?) youngest daughter. That Philippa, she’ll steal your heart, along with your trousers!
Most recently (just t’other night, in fact) she appeared as the wartime singer/comedienne Gracie Fields, in a BBC4 docudrama written by her husband. Biopics aren’t my usual cup of tea, but Horrocks and her co-star Tom Hollander kept it all fizzing along nicely, with their amusing and engaging performances. There was also a common plot element with last week’s look at the author Enid Blyton, played by Helena Bonham-Carter... namely the eponymous heroines getting screwed over by the British press. In Blyton’s case it was a scurrilous rumour that she had a team of ghost-writers knocking out her novels for her (ironically, the way she was depicted treating her poor children and first husband rather made such allegations pale in comparison), while in Fields’ case it was seemingly manufactured outrage over her decision to “flee” to North America, to escape the Blitz with her Italian husband, who they insinuated was an associate of Al Capone! Granted, her main motivation for the move seemed to be sparing her loved one from being interned as a POW, but she was still touring as a singer and unofficial cultural ambassador, trying to keep spirits up and raise funds for the war effort. She wasn’t sat by a swimming pool, rolling chocolate cigarettes out of silk stockings, so the “traitor” slurs and pillory treatment seems a bit harsh in retrospect. Apparently one of the trade-offs in having a “free press” back then was that they were free to make up any garbage they liked to grab an audience, regardless of the damage it might do to an innocent individual’s reputation. Tch! Thank goodness we’ve all evolved past that sort of trial-by-tabloid hysteria now... ho ho...
