Review: Life for Rent

Life for Rent, Dido (2003)

Music can trigger memories. You can be anywhere, at any time, and when that song or artist plays, you're suddenly thrown back to a happier (or sadder) time. When I sit here and review Life for Rent by Dido, I am called back to trips across the penines in our Toyota, the cold and the wind battering the sides and misting the windows. But here, I have to be critical.
      Luckily for me and my memories, Dido's album is a wonderful set of tracks that are a joy to listen to in all moods. Her USP is perhaps her light, almost silky vocal quality, and the way she conveys emotion is especially skillful. Making use of a range of instruments, her lyrics are powerful but still light enough for a casual listening. The singles that shine the most on this album are the now-famous White Flag, the titular song, and Sand in My Shoes.
    Seeing as this is Dido's second album, I'm sure you'd expect me to comment on how it compares to the first. No such luck, I'm afraid. Not only haven't I listened to that album, it's simply that this is the album that I feel the most connection with - the one most rooted in memory, and the one I'm using as a gauge for all of Dido's work on the whole. And here we come to the main critisism of Dido's work... her voice never varies from song to song. No experimentation. No difference in key, or genre, or anything. If any two of the none-shining songs were played in a supermarket, I would recognise the artist but not know the difference between the two. It would help as well if she managed somewhere along the line to sing about something other than relationships.
     To summarise, Dido is a great vocal artist in her own right - emoteful, light, and very good at getting across what she wanrts to say. However, her songs need some variation, and if she can experiment with different genres, then she would cease being a great artist and become an excellent one.

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Overview: The Black Adder

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The Black Adder is a different and distinctive comedy. It varies greatly from the next three series in both budget and characterisation, and, as is typical, this made the show much better. Despite that, BA1 is still entertaining and funny - just a different form of humour.
     Rowan Atkinson tends to prefer physcial comedy to witty speech, as seen in his Mr. Bean roles, and his influence on the writing team really shows. This is the only series in which assistant Baldrick, played by Tony Robinson, acts as the more intelligent and witty of the two. This dynamic would later serve to form the core of the series' comedy.
     Also unique to this series was the role of Brian Blessed, who added a violent sense of fun. BA1 never had a subtle delivery, and it seems fitting that the stereotypically loud Blessed be cast as King Richard (IV). Along with this greater focus on visual styles, the bigger budget meant that sets and shots were often large and extravangant - something that didn't necessarily improve the quality of the comedy.
     Overall, it's quite a fun watch, taking a mixture of farce, historical in-jokes and political satire to decent direction and large amounts of research. Low viewing figures led to Blackadder II being given a much lower buget, and thus the Blackadder that we know was born. Join me next Thursday when I review Blackadder II.

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Review: Merlin 3.1: The Tears of Uther Pendragon (Part One)

Merlin was a fun fantasy romp, taking a Smallville-style look at Arthurian legend and playing with the mythology while still producing something of a decent entertainment value. This applies mostly to Series Two, which kept a fun atmosphere while flirting with large plot developments.
      Series Three starts off with the pickup from the last series, with the forces of Camelot searching the land for Morgana. Morgana turned over to the Dark Side in the Series Two finale, but away from the good guys. As she returns, we watch as she slowly destableises the court of Camelot with the help of evil sister Morgause and an army from somewhere else. Meanwhile, Merlin gets kidnapped and has to summon The Dragon to save himself.
     You know what's really fucking annoying? Apart from the fact that Morgana is evil, nearly everything has been reset to before the Series Two finale. All of the characters' development, all of their chemistry - gone. To the point where the once amiable relationship between Merlin and Arthur has degenerated into practical jokes. The plot was long and drawn out, and there wasn't a sense of tension or even a sense of entertainment.
      Overall, a bad start. But we can only hope.

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Summer's End

Now I shaln't pretend,
That I can't witness Summer's end,
And how before I wrote reviews,
And now I'm getting those school blues.
There are things that I can't mend,
After I've witnessed Summer's end,
But what I can do, in some ways,
Is make a post every few days,
On things that I can send,
To people after Summer's end.
And now the autumn comes around,
Bringing TV and a mound,
Of homework that I'll have to tend
To now, after this Summer's end.
Who reads this blog anyways, I thought,
Or at least until the shield cut short,
And I could no longer pretend,
That at this wonderous Summer's end,
That people do read the blog, well some,
Simply find the link and come
Here to read and comprehend
My work from before the Summer's end.
So now new shows float around,
Merlin and Sarah Jane surround,
To be reviewed here, by my amend (ment),
Until the horrible Winter's end.

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Opinion: Latest Episode of Eastenders (Volume Two)

Phil comes round.

After that train-crash of an episode, the follow-up is a wonderfully written and expertly crafted denouement, surprisingly written by the same writer, Simon Ashdown. It helps that the more absurd aspects of the previous episode are in fact addressed here, and the episode acts as an excellent, tear-jerking send-off to Peggy Mitchell.
     It's the day after the fire, and there's a full clean-up operation. Peggy moves, solemn, around the square, everyone helping her and she taking care of Phil, who is coming round from his month-long crack binge. She goes and talks with Stacey, where they both teach each other a few home truths. Eventually, Peggy decides to leave Walford - taking Phil with her. Elsewhere, Ryan grapples with the motivations behind Stacey's revelation - and whether he should leave on his honeymoon.

When Peggy confronts Stacey, she reminds her of her family.

     There are some tear-jerking scenes with Peggy remembering the past while walking around the ruins of the pub, and the last 10 minutes is an eye-watering sad set of scenes where Peggy finally persuades her family that she needs to leave and that they can live on without her. It is mainly a series of inspirational speeches, but they do work.
     I think its maddening that such a powerful episode can come after such a wallbanger, but it makes up for that car crash. Barbara Windsor's last half-hour (well, 40 minutes in this case) is powerful, evocative, and a beautiful end-point in her career.

Goodbye, Babs. You'll be sorely missed.

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Opinion: Latest Episode of Eastenders (Volume One)

Just about sums up the episode, really.

Eastenders is one of those shows which never really gets on my nerves enough to invoke a post; in the past few years, I've found that the soap has provided a good source of powerful and evocative drama, usually with a background moral subtext. An episode/arc has to be really bad for me to even consider writing a review.
     The episode that aired on 9/9/10 was supposed to be the climax of several arcs that had been building up for the past year: Who Killed Archie, Phil's breakdown, Stacy's child and Peggy's exit from the show. This episode should have been a complete epic. And it was, in a way, but it was also horribly written, confusing to watch, and the most recent of a bad month for the series so far.
     We carry on from Tuesday's cliffhanger, and mad teenager Stacy has just told pub landlady Peggy Mitchell that it was she, not her dead husband, that killed Peggy's ex-hubby Archie. Who Killed Archie was a powerful storyline at Christmas and afterwards, and the tension broke during the 25th Anniversary earlier in the year, where Stacy confessed to the camera. Why its taken her six months to tell Peggy I'll never know (she was off her meds, but she still sounded sane.) Anyway, Peggy doesn't believe her, even though she despised Archie, and commands her out of the pub. Regardless, Stacy has other things on her mind - it's the wedding reception of Janine and Ryan, and the groom is the father of her recently born child. Last episode Stacy somehow sneaked the child into an upstairs room in the Vic. She confronts Ryan who gets the wrong idea, and mother-in-law/matriach Pat physically assaults her.

Looks a little like a Sontaran, does Phil Mitchell.

     Meanwhile, upstairs, Phil Mitchell (The most iconic character in the soap) is bargaining with cousin Billy (who has a crowbar) for some food and water, in his drug-addled state. Peggy has gone a little mad and bordered up the windows - spare planks are left around to border up the door. Billy tries to escape, but LEAVES THE CROWBAR IN THE ROOM. Phil breaks out easily, and goes downstairs, where he breaks out some booze and sets fire to it. Naturally there is a tremendous but not life threatening explosion. Phil is a really formulaic character, and I think he has so much potential - his low points involve addiction of some kind, and just that. The angle where Peggy is inadvertantly responsible for him losing his two children is a nice twist, but his sudden jump to Coke (when Vodka was previously his drug of choice) is a little sad.
   So; here's the basic set-up; Peggy evacuates everyone outside, save herself (she stares around at her burning pub), Phil (who's in the cellar drinking and burning stuff) and then Stacy and her baby (in the women's toilets and an upper bedroom, respectively.) Who lives and who survives? Well, spoilers here, everyone lives. That's right. One of the situations where there is a viable reason for the whole building to explode, and everybody lives. 

"And THAT's for wanting to leave the program!"

If I could make a few comments on Stacey. Stacey Slater has been lauded by critics one of the most powerful characters on the show, with a realistic progression from stroppy teenager to reliable adult, and then dealing with her inherited mental health problems. However, when she is off the meds, her maddened state is always, and I mean always, cringingly written (apart from one scene back near the beginning of that story.)
     Anyway, back to the action, and here we have some of the worse scripting imaginable. It's often a complaint in drama that people don't speak over each other enough because of the nature of script, but this takes it to ridiculous heights - sometimes painful, as everyone on the screen is talking at once. Elsewhere, and in your attmepts to adress who is in the Vic and who is out, it is often a confusing matter - you're expecting someone to die, for the sheer sake of realism. As I say, they all live, although hopefully someone will die of smoke inhalation.

The woman on the right is breaking the law.

     Finally, Ryan manages to rescue both Stacy and Lily. When Lily is safe, and Ryan and Stacy are lying, ash-covered on the ground with severe wounds and burns, not to mention the horrific somoke inhalation from that amount of booze, Stacy finally finds the time to tell Ryan about his daughter. His facial expression is priceless.
     This is a bad episode. It's  full of awful characterisations (For example, most of the pubgoers ignore the raging fire until peggy rings a bell) as well as a general lack of relevance; it doesn't feel like a good send off to these arcs. Not that these arcs were anything special to begin with, but this plot could have been so much better. A little coherance, perhaps, maybe a more clear and realistic rescue plan. In this case, a rarest of cases, it's true that realism would have had a bigger effect.

It's my wedding day. I am now married to the most wonderful woman I have ever known. Then my reception caught fire and exploded dramatically, and I rescued a madwoman who has seemingly fallen for me on the day I got married. And now, when I'm brusied, ash-covern an wheezing like an old bicycle, you tell me that I have a child with that madwoman? Really? You couldn't have told me before I got married? 

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Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Moonbase

1967. It's hard to review stories where half of the episodes are missing, and its hard to critisise the black and white stories based on their aesthetics. These are the difficulties I face, as I listen/watch The Moonbase, the second Cyberman story from far back in 1967.
      As I said in my review of Tomb, The Tenth Planet was important in Doctor Who history for two reasons; it introduced the concept of Regeneration, and it introduced the Cybermen. As the most common recurring monster of Troughton's era, the Cybermen returned in this serial. It needed to reintroduce the concept while spicing up the monsters.
     For the story, the Cybermen were given a robotic makeover (pictured) as well as new voices and a new aim. (It's explained in bonus material from around 1988 that these are a different subspecies of Cyberman than in The Tenth Planet.) I find that while these Cybermen lose one type of fear from their counterparts (in that they are less human, and therefore they are less easy to envisage as the next stage of humanity,) but they do have their own fear - an eerie emotionless face and voice.
     The story is basic, and more-or-less a rerun of The Tenth Planet - The Cybermen attack the Doctor, his companions and a specialist team while cooped up in a base. In this case, that base is the Gravitron Weather Controller, or the titular moonbase. The base has been affected by a virus that is strangely selective, and when the Doctor arrives, he soon finds that an old enemy are involved... (The Cybermen, obviously.)
     Only the second and fourth episodes remain, leaving me to have to listen to the audio recordings of the first and third. While it doesn't make up for the loss of picture, I can certainly get a slim idea of what's going on. It doesn't feel right to criticise the story. But the truth is that it is dull, repetitive and doesn't make use of any of the concepts with any skill.

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Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Tomb of the Cybermen

1967. Tomb of the Cybermen is one of the classic stories in the early history of Doctor Who, making the most of the low budget and making something that's interesting, compelling and sometimes a little genuinely scary. The Beeb wanted another Cyber story to follow up on the success of The Moonbase (which I might review later), which had repopularised them after their debut in The Tenth Planet. These ruthless, emotionless creatures were a real hit with fans, second to the Daleks, and Tomb was in fact the strongest story ever featuring them.
     It's around 2486 AD. An expedition of archeologists arrive on the Cybermen's second planet, Telos, after their 200 year sleep. They discover a pair of electro-wired doors with the Cyber symbol. The Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria arrive and help out the exhibition. as they explore the inside, it is realised that some members of the expedition have ulterior motives...
      Everyone acts brilliantly (With the exception of a black slave and a very ambitious American), and are very well characterised. Everything is more or less believable, and when the Cybermen do appear, they aren't too bothered with revenge, and come off more logical and efficient than in later stories. The story also acts as a first adventure for companion Victoria Waterfield, and while some of the acting is a little hyperbolic, her times and trends are well demonstrated without it infringing upon the stroy's progress.
     This story is responsible for many aspects of the Cybermen's fame: Cybermats, The Cybercontroller, Cryogenics, and the chilling catchphrase, "YOU WILL BECOME LIKE US."

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Opinion: SuperTed

"Rocketing Raspberries, Look at this!"

Childhood's an interesting thing, isn't it? I remember a menagerie of programs from when I was around 3/4 years old, that hang loosely on the memory. Some were funny, others unintentionally fearful, or a creepy mixture of the two. In any case, they were completely absurd, concepts on brought together in dreams. And here, a prime example, is SuperTed.
     And now, to explain the concepts present, I give you the intro sequence (with thanks to the Youtube channel, The Cartoon Archive.)

For those who can't or won;t watch the video, it's basically about a stuffed toy brought to life by a spotty banana-shaped alien. The narration persists throughout, and it doesn't feel intrusive because usually his voice is the only thing happening. Not shown in the intro are the villians, which are perhaps the things which scared me as a child; Texas Pete, a mad cowboy (in space, of course) and then the two comic relief characters, a fat guy and a really camp skeleton. Not that this show needed comic relief.
     I think the show is admirable for the sheer nerve of having such a wild premise while really sticking up for the Sci-Fi genre. The humour that's to be derived from it is from the absurdity, and the humour never strays into either lowbrow or highbrow territory. (I've got this image now of someone with perfectly middle-distance eyebrows.)
     As for quality, the voice acting is fine enough, and the animation does well to convey the advanced settings. Characters of note? Spotty (the aforementioned Banana-shaped alien, from the planet Spot) is quite an nice character to work with, as well as being voiced by none-other-than JON PERTWEE. I also love the camp Skeleton. He's just so openly camp, something unusual for a kids show.
     If there is a criticism that I can give (and it's harsh for a kids show, and I really am nitpicking to be honest) is that it doesn't accurately portray the vaccuum of space (as in, you can breathe and speak et. al.) Other than that, it's a brilliant absurdist series produced with high production values, funny characters and a passion for the sci-fi world that makes me love it even more. Oh, and the theme tune rocks.

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Opinion: Torchwood: Top 5 things I want

So. Torchwood: The New World is a production between the BBC and American company, Starz. And it's going to be terrible. At least I think so, and so when it airs next year, I'll hopefully be reviewing it here, on Audenshaw Reviews. In the mean time, here's a list of what I want from the new series.

5.) Doctor, Doctor, Just Give Me The News

Torchwood was founded to fight with/against The Doctor and other aliens. The Doctor is in their charter - essentially, the reason for their existence. And yet he plays no part in the organisation, even after learning of its beneficial effects in The Sound of Drums. At least make reference to him.

4.) The World is Not America

We've brought in an American studio, which really worked out in the past, didn't it. Not only is there the culture shock, if you've read the press release, there's a complete and total misunderstanding of the characters. So, I'd like to see a subversion of the trope; I want true multiculturism, proving that Torchwood effects the world, an not simply the convenient Western hemisphere.

3.) Start from the Beginning.

Torchwood hasn't exactly had a top quality run. Enjoyable, maybe, but its treatment as a Doctor Who with sex and gore isn't a good use of the concept. For New World, I would personally love to see some form of revamp, ignoring every. last. thing. from before that point.

2.) Lose Chibnall.

Again, Chibnall is sloppy. This time, however, it's surrounding minor characters. He can write a good sci-fi plot, but when it comes to realistic character relations, he fails considerably. Evidence? Cyberwoman. The concept is sound, and yet the relationship between Ianto and Lisa is only held together by tremendous acting instead of the script. Over in Doctor Who, we have 42 and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. Yet again, good sci-fi ideas, but all of the characters are boring, predictable and unltimately bland. No chemistry with anyone. At all. Lose Chibnall.

1.) Lose Russell.

I'm sorry, Russell, I really am. But you can't write properly. Yeah, the plots are epic. Wow, they're epic. But that's not the point. Having a wide scope doesn't just magically equal high quality. And when it comes down to the facts, his stories are laced with holes and are generally sloppy, disappointing messes. Lose Russell.

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