Review: Good Omens

It's been a while since I did a book, isn't it?

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I’ve loved the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett for a few years now – that way that the the stories often transcend fiction and mess around with narrative certainties while being steeped in satire that lasts through the ages. Pratchett, a humanist who started writing in the 80s, is one of the greatest sci-fi-fantasy authors of his generation. I couldn’t, however, review any one of his books on their own without gushing madly about the entire series.

     Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, is someone whom I wish I’d heard of but unfortunately haven’t had the time or energy to investigate. My first encounter was only recently this year with the The Doctor’s Wife in the six series of Doctor Whom and immediately I was won over by the episode’s complete admiration not only for the series it was in, but also for all fiction. As a British ex-pat, Neil has a healthy admiration for both cultures. His greatest (and most well known) work is the Sandman graphic comic series, which I have never read by am in fact rather curious about. I’ll have to look into it.

     I’d heard of Good Omens but I hadn’t really considered seeking it out, not knowing about Gaiman’s writing style or tastes. Seeing the book recently in a book shop, however, I bought it and was not disappointed by its less than modest reception. The subject matter may be a little suspect for some more pious and possibly American audiences – the book surrounds Armageddon as happening in 1990s England.

     With a rich wealth of characters, it’s difficult to know where to start when discussing Good Omens. In a nutshell, the story follows the apocalypse as predicted by the fictional witch Agnes Nutter, who, after being employed to cash in on the trade of false prophecies, turned out to be completely right. Heaven and Hell both have their servants – albeit it’s difficult to tell which side is which. Two such servants, Aziriphale and Crowley (nee Crawly, who happens to be the Snake from the Garden of Eden), are charged with overseeing the Antichrist, who is brought to Earth eleven years before Nutter has prophesised the Apocalypse. Aziraphale, a camp book-collecting angel, has made good friends with his supposed opposite Crowly, a snake-like demon who adores the 20^th century.

     The Antichrist, Adam, unintentionally gains the powers to change the world according to his will, and thus starts creating magical things from nowhere; Atlantis rises from the sea, and Tibetans tunnel up through the Earth. Not helping things are the anthropomorphic personifications of War, Famine and Pollution (Pestilence retired after the discovery of penicillin in 1936), who are intent on causing the apocalypse no matter the cost.

     The duo have managed to turn in an exciting page turner that not only tickles my funny bone but presents itself as a satire of both political and religious dichotomy. The characters, while often unnecessary quirky or weird, are so well characterised that you can’t help but be charmed by their idiosyncrasies. As is often true in both their writing, the characterisations are so thickly woven into the story that it wouldn’t be the same without them; nothing is predictable but everything makes its own kind of sense in hindsight. One of my favourite things about the book is its unique running gags which punctuate it, with the results being blamed on Pratchett’s oft used ‘power of belief’.

     This is a book that I would refer to anyone and everyone, if only for the ability to say that one has read the book; sufficient nerd cred in itself. Good Omens is an example of terrific writing, excellently pitched humour dripping with timeless satire, and a set of characters so rich that they reach from the page.

Thanks.

Opinion: (Other) Shows I Love

You know the shows I love - Doctor Who, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, etc. . But there are some shows that I can't find either the time or the nerve to review but do watch on a regular basis. So; here are four (Other) Shows I Love.

Star Trek

The Cast of Voy. Season 4 onwards.

I’m not enough of a fan to really review any Star Trek episodes – there are other people on the internet that can do and are doing it better. I love Star Trek because unlike Doctor Who, it takes one central sci-fi idea and expands upon it in a wonderfully technobabble-filled setting. Like that show, Star Trek is best when examining character and realistic moral dilemmas, something it does very often.

     That said, my favourite series of Trek is probably Voyager, mainly for its focus on the Borg. Its bad episodes are, unlike certain episodes of the putrid Enterprise, funny because of said poor quality. While not every character gets enough development, I think that the excellent development of The Doctor and Seven of Nine are enough to watch Voyager’s highlights. I also like Deep Space Nine for its deeper political tales and its very strong characterisation across the board (although to me the Ferengi are downright ridiculous and entirely superfluous to proceedings.)

    Part of Voyager’s fun that I really enjoy is Janeway, whose splintered and inconsistent characterisation is even joked at in some of the later seasons. Her character is a “matriarchal hypocrite” – like Karen Fisher but with 100x more responsibility. Her exploits make the show dynamic, and even when this applies to the show’s quality it’s still something that keeps me coming back.

    Star Trek, while more science-based than Doctor Who, is in some ways a perfect Americanised staple. Maybe I’m being too heavy on the comparison, but both have had a profound influence on their home cultures and on each other. Different, but the same.

     For good reviews from everything Star Trek, I reccomend Sci Fi Debris.

Luther

I said at the beginning of the year that I’d be reviewing the second series of this excellent cop-drama series, but I couldn’t conjure the words. Luther (Hollywood actor Idris Alba) is fundamentally a tired concept amongst tired concepts – a maverick cowboy cop who doesn’t play by the rules and has nothing left to lose. But, for some glorious reason, Luther takes this and rejuvenates it with perfect art-deco style and a series of characterisations so fun to witness that it feels a shame not to come back every week.

    The first series had its share of issues, but the show was held together by the side-character Alice, a psychopath who managed to escape prosecution for the murder of her parents. A charming stalker, she assisted Luther and helped him with not only his troubled private life (with ex-wife Indira Varma and new hubby John, played by Paul McGann) and his cases.  The second series left those characters behind, and with some strong characterisations the series stood on its own two feet with a series of three powerful villains.

    One thing that separates Luther with other cop-shows is that, rather than trying to discover who the killer is, the show introduces the villain as a main character and then follows how the police find out what we know. Not new to the genre, maybe, but it’s a concept not seen on British crime drama at the moment and thus feels very fresh and exciting.

The Brittas Empire

Readers of my blog know that I absolutely adore Red Dwarf mainly for the performances turned in by Chris Barrie as Rimmer. In 1993, Barrie got his own sitcom – The Brittas Empire, set around the neurotic and incompetent Gordon Brittas in his day-to-day management of a Leisure Centre.

     The series’ charm for me, like a lot of other, “UK Gold Comedies”, is that the humour relies on both slapstick and on the characterisation. Gordon is probably one of the most well-characterised comedy protagonists this side of Reginald Perrin, and this is in no doubt codified by Barrie’s stunning performance.

            The show ran for seven series before it was cancelled, and after that Barrie went off to film a full series of Red Dwarf (the horrifically bad Series VIII). Despite British Brevity, this means that I unfortunately couldn’t review it as I haven’t the money nor the time to discover which episodes are in which order and to find them in television together at a convenient time.

            The Brittas Empire will always hold a special place in my heart, not only for its cast of brilliantly written characters, but also for the tremendous performances and the often powerful and satirical stories.

Jeeves and Wooster

One of the more well-known adaptations of P.G. Wodehouse’s series of written comedies, Jeeves and Wooster took the incredibly well-written and enjoyable stories and took them to screen with the same vigour. Starring two of the early nineties’ best comedians – Hugh Laurie (fresh from Blackadder) and Steven Fry, who had been popular with their sketch-comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie – I love the show for its trademark wit and charm, taking an Edwardian feel and translating it to modern audiences. It feels more like an ITV Costume Drama than a typical “UK Gold Comedy,” and so is too oft ignored – a crime, considering the quality of its writing and acting.

There are many other shows I like but can’t review, but these are the ones that I have considered reviewing in the past and just haven’t been able to.

Thanks. 

Opinion: The Harry Potter Film Series

As I've pointed out, I really love Harry Potter. The series is adaptive and challenging, taking a new generation of kids and exposing them to some brilliant writing. The series’ planning and forethought is often mindboggling to behold. However, like many children I didn’t start out reading the books – I grew up on the first three films in the series, directed by Christopher Columbus and Alfonso Cuaron respectively. I loved these films direction and their spellbinding worlds, as well as how the characters were portrayed by the ambitiously cast main actors. I started reading the books before the fourth film was released, and I was immediately hooked into this richer world. It’s no coincidence that I didn’t like the films afterwards as much, maybe because I now noticed the problems of translating the series from stage to screen.

     The first two films, directed by Christopher Columbus, had an eerie fantasy feel that reflected the relative innocence of the early books. The books here were only around 200 pages long, meaning that not a lot had to be cut out or changed to fit the new medium. Regardless, a lot of things were, but nothing that affected the story in major ways. Of the first three films, I prefer the second – it was the last on-screen performance of the late Richard Harris, whose performance as the earlier, more mystical Dumbledore fit that version perfectly. I also loved the chilling climax, where the threat felt very real.

     The third film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron took a more mature feel as the actors were beginning to out grow the ages of their characters. The film took a lot more liberties with the source material, especially in the omission of several key points affecting the series’ mythos that make certain scenes in later films more nonsensical. It also saw the arrival of Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, a character whose skilful introduction is carried over from the book. Most of all, I enjoy this particular film’s dealings with the book’s time-travel aspect, which really captured my imagination as a child. Michael Gambon’s new Dumbledore, while strange at this early stage, is better later on when Dumbledore takes on a darker persona.

    The fourth film was somewhat of a no-brainer for me, as it didn’t abuse the source material in any meaningful ways and actually introduced us to the film series’ badass version of Lord Voldemort. It was a more-or-less perfect translation from script-to-screen, helped no doubt by the book’s plot, which is pretty much a filler arc until the climax. The director, Mike Newell, was drafted in at the last minute and thus has no obvious grandiose takes on the series.

     The last four films were directed by David Yates, whose style took on a more adult and epic feel. After the fourth film, I became a lot more disconnected with the franchise. The seventh and final book came out just after the fifth film, meaning that all of the previous plot-significance that the previous films had omitted would hopefully be left in. The fifth film took a hell-of-a-lot of liberties – several major character arcs were omitted, making previous characters useless – an example here being Rita Skeeter, whose arc here in posting negative propaganda about Harry, as well as being revealed to Hermione as an unregistered Animagus, were left out. We never saw the character again, making her inclusion in Film Four a rather wasted opportunity.  

     The only Harry Potter film which has really disappointed me is the adaptation of Book Six, whose focus moved away from the mythos and more into an irritating adolescent drama filled with kissing, dating and other such trifles. I understand the desires of screaming fangirls and Shippers in the Harry Potter fanbase, but the film could have been so much better had it focussed more on the mythology set out in the book – one that examined not only our villain’s main motivations, but also shone some light onto Dumbledore. I was, most of all, worried for the adaptation of the final book – this film had been scripted with the final book in mind, and yet it leaves out so much that the final tale needs.

     A lot of fans were irritated when they learnt that the final adaptation, being around 5 hours long, would have to be separated into to two different films. I was intrigued and I had my hopes up – and I wasn’t disappointed, with a much more mature and considered directing style that perfectly captured the feel of the book. In places, the film was actually better – especially in the climactic battle, where the film did things that literature cannot, making it much more epic and exciting to witness. I also loved the final film’s treatment of Snape, who is the series’ true protagonist – the section where his loyalties were revealed was much more moving and poignant than I ever could have imagined.

     The all-star cast of the series help to cement its pedigree – among others, Alan Rickman’s Snape is a perfect translation and adds a new dimension to the character; Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid also fits his character very well. The three main leads, despite being complete unknowns, show a genuine growth in both their characters and their acting ability.

     The series’ fourteen year legacy ended this July with the release of the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. But despite the films’ (and the books’) problems, Harry Potter will go down in history as the first time that such an ambitious project was undertaken – the first time that Hollywood even tried to adapt a series like this to the big screen. Its effects are everywhere – the recent Avengers Series, for example, wouldn’t have been possible without the proof and long-lasting appeal that the Harry Potter series brought with it. The series, now on its deathbed, is already working its way into the history books.

Thanks.

Review: Torchwood 4.3: Dead of Night

This week’s episode of the Welsh drama was much an improvement, even if the only reason that I say so is that the episode felt a lot more like standard Torchwood fare. That does, however, include some of the old Torchwood’s issues, but overall it was more engaging than last week’s slow crawl. Dead of Night still has a lot of work to do, but it’s a step in the right direction.

     This week the main cast came together in a much more Torchwood-esque way, leading them from the corrupt Brian Friedkin to PhiCorp, a medical company. They track the company back to a warehouse where it turns out PhiCorp has been storing non-narcoleptic drugs (the painkillers that the Miracle needs) for over a year. Rex disagrees with Jack’s attitude and goes off on his own when they realise that everyone (including Rex’s ex-CIA mentor) has been poised against them.

     As armies of Anonymous-esque people wander the streets claiming to be “soulless,” Oswald Danes’ television career leads to him being beaten up by some policemen. Kitzinger is waiting for him and brings him to a PhiCorp conference – she works for the company. Rex by now has also rejoined the Torchwood team after bonking Dr. Vera Juarez, who’s also at the conference.

     Gwen uses the Camera Contact Lenses from Children of Earth to hack into Kitzinger’s PhiCorp computer while Jack faced Oswald Danes to try and settle his own guilt with killing his grandson last series. Turns out Danes is still a freaky paedophile and, as Jack reasons, is so self loathing that he wanted to be executed, and is now suffering because of the Miracle. Unfortunately Jack is escorted out by PhiCorp’s guards, who’ve now got a vested interest in Danes – PhiCorp is exploiting his new cult of personality to push through legislature to allow PhiCorp to take a monopoly over all pharmaceuticals and to allow all drugs to be bought without prescription.

     Part of the fun in this week’s team dynamic was the near-constant American-British discordance, almost as if the show is trying to translate the cultural differences across the audience. It really stands out and it isn’t very interesting in the long run, and on my end felt very condescending. For example; everything Gwen said Esther would “translate” into an American version. Also strange was that this episode cut out some sex scenes that were present in the American version – usually it’s the opposite. Not that those sex scenes were at all necessary – in any way. Maybe Rex bonking Juarez was important to the plot but I still don’t see how Jack picking up a barman did anything to advance the plot.

     The episode had a lot more ties to Children of Earth than we saw in episodes one and two, in ways that actually made some sense – Jack misses Ianto, is guilty over killing his grandson and has kept the only gadget they had left, the Camera Contact Lenses. It may not really gel with the new American audience, which is always a consideration now, but I liked the stronger continuity that went together with said references. One of the strongest points in the episode was a touching telephone call between Gwen and Jack, talking about the events of that storyline. As someone who thought that Jack’s actions at the end of Children of Earth were extremely out of character, I was glad to see (albeit after three hours) that the character acknowledges this.

     Now it seems we actually have a face behind the villains of this story (except for Danes, of course.) PhiCorp’s activities are perhaps more villainous to us here in the UK with Universal Healthcare, as the call for the ability to “buy whatever drugs you want” is nothing new to the American system (from an ideological point of view.) What an alien presence wants America’s money for I really don’t know, but it’s an interesting concept that I’d like to see developed.

     Overall this week’s episode felt like it actually went somewhere and it advanced the plot into unseen directions that were fun and gave us a lot to think about. There was still a lot of things going on that were unnecessary, such as random sex scenes and arguments for the sake of argument, but Dead of Night was a deeper exploration of our characters and a fun romp that showed that this miniseries is heading in a direction close to being to the right one.

Thanks.