Review: Misfits 3.2

Curtis uses "Melissa" to get running again.

One of Misfits' great virtues is that it isn't afraid to ridicule its own characters. This week was a centric for Curtis, and opposed to his heroic episode in Series One this week decides to focus very much on the more negative sides of his character that shone through in Series Two. It also confirmed my feeling that Seth, originating in the Christmas Special, is going to become a much more important character. I'm still a little put off by the developmental focus, but that's really because the series is making up for Simon and Alesha's heavy development in Series Two.
     Not content to lead a life without his old passion, Curtis uses his power to enroll in a women-only running team. As "Melissa," he meets Emma, a fellow runner, who then flirts with him in his male form, blissfully ignorant of their encounter. Kelly, using her specific knowledge of rocket science, helped to fix Seth's car. Meanwhile, Alyssa is then being hit on by social worker Shaun. Talking to Emma as Melissa, Curtis accidentally finds out that she thought that he was crap in bed. He asks Alesha for advice and she reveals that even Simon is better in bed. She gives him a big verbal talking-down to, telling him that his ego is ridiculous. (Something that I pointed out last series). 
     Using his female self, he "experiments" with the female body. Kelly watches as Seth visits the grave of his deceased wife. Simon discovers Curtis' secret and Kelly sees it out of context, leading her to think that he;s cheating. Melissa and Emma get very drunk together, and he/she bonks her. Later, Curtis and Simon discuss hwo to clarify his sexual orientation, and then as Curtis he approaches her and apologises.

Emma

     After thoroughly creeping Melissa out, her coach then gives her a date-rape drug. Rudy wanders in and based on her drunken advancements starts acting like a cunning linguist, throwing Emma off in the process. Creepy Coach guy proceeds to try and rape her, but the drug's effect kicks in and his power is reversed, leaving Curtis wandering around in a golden dress while the coach is confused. Emma visits Curtis at his flat and they nearly recompense - but for Emma finding the golden dress and suspecting Curtis of bonking... himself.
    Kelly confronts Melissa about Simon in front of Alesha, and he has a big outburst before having to escape because of his "period". Simon reveals what was going on to the rest, and Curtis heads off to tell Emma about his power. She's been taken in by the Coach, and Curtis finds out, only just managing to save her from rape. He reveals to her the power and they chat. Emme goes away (the running club was temporary, it seems) and Curtis lives happily ever after. 
    It didn't feel like the writers knew what to do with Rudy this episode, and he just seemed to float in and out borrowing Nathan's background jokes. This came in addition to an episode where the characterisation was just excellent, and any problems I had with Curtis beforehand have all been quashed. I wish I knew the name of the actress playing Melissa, but when that's my only complaint then we're getting something right. Oh, and there was a strange focus on cunnilingus. Overman has a weird mind..

Kelly helps Seth with his car.

     For those who thought that Series Two focussed too much on Alesha and Simon... this episode is for you. Curtis' characterisation was fully explored for the first time since the first series, and it made up for the problems with his character that had emerged inbetween. Instead of a freak-of-the-week, we got a brillaitn examination of a person's self-identity and the bias within society, presented in a funny-as-hell context.

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Review: Merlin 4.6: A Servant of Two Masters

GO AWAY!

Overall, this week tended to be better than both Series Three and Four's previous offerings, but it collapsed in its main execution of what was a fundamentally tired and cliched scenario. While it did manage to hit the majority of Merlin's main tropes, it was in some parts incredibly entertaining. The only problems arrived in the rest of the episode.
      This week's plot followed the well known sitcom formula of one of the characters not being in their right minds (see Angels and Demons in Red Dwarf, for example, or even GOBLIN'S DAMN GOLD). This episode it was Merlin's turn to become a mindless slave, having been injected with the forever-rejuvinating head of a magical serpent inserted into his neck, controlling his thoughts so that his one motive was to kill Arthur. Instead of using this to create a tense, menacing atmopshere in which Arthur can trust noone and death is barely minutes away, the episode decided to do what Merlin always does and played it for comedy in a way which illicited no response from me except a tired, anguished groan of disbelief.
       The reason that this most usual Merlin plotline really got on my nerves was that episode began as absolutely smashing - following a path through the woods, the Knights and Merlin are ambushed by an army that could only have been sent by a traitor within Camelot. Arthur admits to Merlin that, after 45 episodes, he really does care about him and think that he's one of the bravest men that he's ever met, before they're sperated and Arthur leads a long and tiresome search to find his long lost friend. The first 20 minutes of the episode contained this wonderful character development the likes of which the last two series have so far not seen, and that was immediately spoiled the moment that the horrifically cheery music started playing in the background.

I was a policeman once. That was fun. More fun than this.

       And yes, we got to see some more Old Man Merlin. This may have been interesting the first two times, but now it feels like a go-to-excuse and it must play hell with the filming schedule. Yes, "Emrys"' dual with a frightened Morgana was downright awesome, but it felt like so much fluffery that it didn't make a difference. Instead of the plot being resolved in any meaningful or compelling way, the character was used as a basic deus ex machina; an excuse for Merlin to be able to use his full powers in the open that feels like a laziness on the writers' part and certainly doesn't provide Colin Morgan with his best material. Oh, and more tavern jokes. Cos I love 'em.
     Was this week's episode of Merlin challengingly different and exciting? For 20 minutes. The rest... that way madness lies. A Servant of Two Masters was typical Merlin in nearly all respects; cliched plot structure, irritating characterisations that defy reality and a solution from thin air. It's struggling, it's trying to fight it, but so far this series has not yet escaped the biggest of its faults.

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PS. Have a safe Bonfire Night.

Off To See The Wizard

Like last year, and less so the year before, I'll be reviewing my school's production this year, which I again have a part in. Compared to previous years, I expect that this year's review will be a lot more interesting due to our relatively messy production. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. In any case, look forward to Wizard of Oz 2011 on the 9th December.

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Review: Being Human 2.7

Mitchell and Daisy commit the Box Tunnel Massacre.

While the finale of a series is usually where the stories reach their climax, Being Human has always taken a different root and prefers to have its storylines meet in the penultimate episode with the finale as a sort of extended dénoument. 2.7 is no different, and as the first seventh episode it's the perfect test of the format. Of course there are aspects of the story and the format that fall down here, but overall it's an above-average episode of this series.
      This week, Nina returned to the fold with Kemp on her arm, with the intent to bring George and Annie back to CenSSA's Facility. This was greeted by Annie's enthusiasm (as she's not all that set on living until the end of time) and skepticism by George, who then decided to accept Sam's request to attend Molly's parents' evening. Despite even proposing to Sam, it all goes awry when George fails to register the clocks going back and ends up transforming in the middle of the school. Even though he manages to get home without hurting anyone, the event is enough to ruin his relationship with Sam and he accepts's Nina's proposal.
      Having escaped from the burning Parlour, Mitchell met up with Daisy (Amy Manson) and together they went to find answers. First dropping off at the Coroners, they assume that the police are to blame after Mitchell's murder of the Police Constable, but the Coroner laughs and gives him another name - Lucy. Angry at his betrayal by Lucy and thus humanity, Mitchell and Daisy attack a train full of passengers - the Box Tunnel Massacre seen throughout Series Three. As George decides to go with Nina, he and Annie discover a blood-drunk Mitchell, afraid of himself. Going after Lucy, he visits the Hospital Chapel, where we meet the Chaplain (Michael Begley, from 1.6) who tells Mitchell to be strong, and accidentally reveals that Lucy works at CenSSA.

A mistake means that George transforms in public.

     Unfortunately, I felt that Annie didn't have a lot to do in this episode other than try to communicate with Kemp - a product of her unfortunatley splintered storyline this series. What confused me is that Annie spent the first half of this series trying to avoid the Door, and in this episode she suddenly wants to jump into Hell like it's a trip to Summer Camp. These scenes did however provide an excuse for Kemp to expose a more kindly side, one that was all the more creepy for the casually delivered dialogue about Satanic posession.
       Episode 2.7 closed the storylines pretty neatly, but wasn't really very big on the aspects of Being Human that I like - no emotional poignancy, or real action. A lot of things happened, but nothing felt fully explored and the storylines that we'd supposedly been following for seven weeks seemed to come to a hilt without real warning. It was a climax that didn't need, nor deserve, to be here.


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NEXT WEEK: The worst episode of Being Human, bar Adam's Family. Of course.

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween, my pretties. Unfortunatley there isn't anything spooky going on this year for Audenshaw Reviews, but I'm sure you can delight in the magical Merlin and the miscreants of Misfits, as well as a downright spooky Being Human. Enjoy this Halloween, and stay safe...

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Review: Misfits 3.1

Rudy meets Curtis

Misfits returned with its third series, this time with new boy Joe Gilgun as leading man Rudy. The episode didn;t hesitate to return us to the action, providing us with fare that avoided the show's issues with its Freak of the Week formula. Left with the task of introducing our new lead and his entire personality, the episode does so perhaps too well, as the episode's "villain" feels overshadowed. Nonetheless, this Rudy-centric beginning to the series was an excellent comedy hour that set the stage perfectly for this extended series.
     As Simon, Kelly, Curtis and Alesha adapted to their new powers - Short-term premonition, the knowledge of a Rocket Scientist, the ability to change gender and perception respectively - new boy Rudy arrives and begins to woo his two fellow new Community Servicers - a brunette called Charlie and a vicious blonde with the ability to pause time. The blond frames the gang for assaulting Rudy after his multi-man exploits, but they manage to avoid police attention.
     Rudy gets on with the gang until he meets Alesha, who broke his heart back in college - something his clone is aggravated by. After a confrontation, Simon calms Alesha and Rudy effectively disowns his clone. The blond is angry when Rudy tries to frame her in turn, and so she causes Rudy to murder Charlie and then strings he and Alesha up by a rope. While the blond is killed by a kick to the face, Alesha and Rudy are saved by the clone.
     The rest of the gang help to bury the bodies, explaining that they're no strangers to accidental murder, but because they end up travelling in Rudy's stolen car, the entire gang is put back into orange jumpsuits. I hope this isn't because Overman couldn't handle having characters outside the Community Centre, because that feels a tad like a cop-out to me.

The old gang are re-suited.

     Rudy is the perfect replacement for Nathan, imbued with the same manic humour and sense of timing. An aspect of his character that I love is his clone, who exercises the deeper parts of his personality and allows us some excellent character development through his insecurities. His history with Alesha is also sure to stir up some trouble in future episodes, and it perfectly complimented this episode. Really I'm not used to this format of episode, as a lot of the episodes in Series Two were more serialised and this is more similar to the character-centric episodes of Lost or the first series of Misfits. Hell, next week is Curtis centric.
     Overall, 3.1 spent most of its time persuading the audience that the show didn't need Robert Sheehan, and I am fully, fully persuaded. The hour was a brilliant character study of our new character that integrated character development into the normal Freak of the Week plot, and thus I think that the next seven weeks are going to be incredible.

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NEXT WEEK: Curtis gets his mac on. He doesn't really stay for long, does he?

Review: Merlin 4.5: His Father's Son

Lindsey Duncan? What are you doing here?

In a show like Merlin, where the endpoint is a foregone conclusion, the trick is not to make us wonder whether Good will win, but how it will win. The show has prophecised itself enough times, and we all know that at the end of the day, Arthur will be the old benvolent ruler, Merlin will be his happily-accepted head wizard, and Guinevere will be his queen. There's no point in tempting us otherwise, and every twist that appears to take us away from that feels more like timewasting. His Father's Son didn't do anything in particular to change matters, and instead gave us another mix of the "Camelot goes to war" and "magically influenced competition" templates.
     Upon the invasion of his realm by a rival king, Arthur makes the decision to execute said king as a show of strength, to prove himself as the true King of Camelot. Inspector Lynley (who's fast becoming tiring for more reasons than one) used this to his advantage, manipulating the King into his decisions. Soon the king's widow, Queen Annis (goddamn Lindsey Duncan, everyone!) arrives with an army to avenge her husband. Meeting her on the field of battle, Arthur admits his cock-up and suggests a compromise; he will fight her champion for half of Camelot's lands.
     Annis is joined by Morgana, who with Inspector Lynley rigs the match using magic (It's a fighting competition. In Merlin. Did you expect anything different?) When Arthur fights her champion (played by that one guy from Sherlock Holmes, you know the one), Merlin of course helps when she of course tries to rig the match and he of course wins. A truce is made and everyone goes home happy. Yawn. Oh, and there's a subplot with Arthur and Guinevere, but that goes nowhere, as you'd expect.

Protagonist? What protagonist?

    Notable, I think, was the lack of our eponymous protagonist - not that that was a problem, but if the series doesn't have the faith to use its titlular character there's obviously something wrong. It certainly doesn't help that Arthur and Merlin are not used together well - Merlin is still the bumbling comedy protagonist that I despise, and Arthur is still acting as if Merlin has never done a good thing for him, despite the fact that HE SAVES YOU EVERY EPISODE, YOU BLOODY CLOT. 
    Nothing more to report, Captain. Yet another boring week, one that had me turning off at times. I don't really know why I pay so much attention to Merlin any more, as it just isn't going anywhere, and when it does it cocks it up. The series has the potential to be brilliant, and this week was just another example of it wasting that potential and going absolutely nowhere.

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NEXT WEEK: Old Merlin. Again. Bloody again. Kill me now.

Review: Fades 1.6

Sarah walks through the ash.

Fades ended with a considerable bang, and although it left us with a cliffhanger (a time worn way to irritate one's audience) it did bring this series to a dramatic, if not very inovative, conclusion. The majority of the running time was dedicated to Paul trying to discover how to save the world and kill all of the Fades without actually killing them. In the end the solution was nothing more complicated than "magic beam of energy solves everything", and that felt disappointing in a series that otherwise had been incredibly interesting.
     Neil held Mac hostage, having discovered the hideout of John and the more important Reborns. John, still bitter at the death of Natalie, had been sending Reborns out to find and kill Paul, who with the last remaing sane Angelic was trying to restart Ascension in the forest, and failing. When Paul didn't answer Neil's calls, he took his family hostage. Meeting in the centre of town, Neil held Jay at gunpoint and then, when Paul refused to help him, he shot her dead. This irritated me somewhat as the character only had two or so lines in the episode and her death felt a lot less important than by rights it should have done.
     Sarah meanwhile realised that her state as a Reborn meant that she would need to eat, and thus decided to jump on John's bandwagon and help him as Neil and an emotionally crippled Paul went to assassinate him. Because of their bickering, Paul decided to try and defy both his and Sarah's premonitions and attempt to restart Ascension in the place where we began - the point buried underneath the shopping centre. As seen in premontions throughout the series, the attempt created fountains of ash, but instead of John stabbing Paul he found that Sarah stood in his place, allowing Paul to use his wings (nice that they get another reference) to get high enough to restart Ascension and kill all of the Fades - meddling with life and death in the process.

John's time is near.

     This couldn't have come quick enough for Anna (Lily Loveless) and Mac (Daniel Kaluuya) who had been locked up together by Neil and were on the verge of being eaten by Reborns. Despite the mythos, their discussions inside the shipping container formed some of the best scenes of the episode. I think that's because they actually had some brilliant, emotional characterisation, unlike the main plot, which was filled with stuffy prophesising of the most boring sort.
     At the end, Fades still had everything that it had before - great characterisation and really interesting concepts. However, the treatment of Jay as a device rather than a character was misguided, and instead of making the sequence more dramatic it only served to drive the plot towards the conclusion that we've been able to guess for weeks now. Despite this, I have the best of hopes for the series and hope that another six episodes are comissioned in this tight economic climate.

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IN TWO WEEKS: I finish of Season Four of LOST!

Review: Being Human 2.6

Mitchell, George and Annie discuss moving on.

After five episodes that have left me feeling rather cold, this week provided us with a moving piece of television that looked confidently on to the finale. It's quite a sign of how bloated this series has become because of those two extra hours, and now we're coming to the end there's some hope that such a problem will disappear.
     Despite her character's distinct lack of focus or direction, the best subplot this week went to Annie, who assisted the psychic Alan Cortez (the wonderful, wonderful Simon Day). Alan had lost his way, unable to hear the large collection of ghosts that followed him on tour - apart from Annie, whose confidence allowed her to be heard by him. Together they use Alan's show to help Ghosts to pass over - that is, until Annie's mother Carmen arrives. Through Alan, Annie tells her mother to move on and finally realises that she has to face up to her fears and allow George and Mitchell to move on with their lives should they so wish. This exploration of coping with death and Carmen's reactions at least made this genuinely moving for me, and Simon Day performs it with all of the appropriate sensitivity of a man down on his luck who is changed by a stranger.
     Mitchell's storyline formed the backbone here but the development last week meant that he was relegated to the odd scene. Enamoured by Lucy, Mitchell is convinced by her to pass on the leadership of the Vampires to someone else - in fact a ruse to get all of the Bristol Vampires in one place. After praying and bonding with Kemp, Lucy goes ahead with CenSSA's plan and that night they blow up the Parlour, killing almost everyone inside. Mitchell's fate is left a mystery. We know that he's not dead, but the Next Time trailer tries to hide that fact and at the time we were genuinely wondering whether the writers would go that far.

Kemp and Lucy prepare to exterminate the vampires.

     And then, of course, George. Poor little George. Doubt started to creep in as he moved into a new house with Sam this week. Still no one commenting on how unrealistically fast this is - a single mother moving in with someone she's known for three weeks and getting a house in a few days. To fan the flames, Sam announced that Molly's parents' evening was on the 27th - a full moon - and George was driven to use a ridiculous excuse. Although found out by Molly, they didn't really clash until Molly was woken by dreams of George as a werewolf. I really, really don't get the "wise beyond their years" character type and even if Molly has some way to sense the supernatural, it isn't explored at all.
     Episode 2.6 was the best episode of this series so far, and was genuinely moving in certain areas. It dealt with the theme of having to move on - moving on from death, from the past and from one's mistakes. It was a tad dull in places, but the episode built enough tension to promise an excellent final two weeks.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Foundations are laid for Series Three and Amy Manson makes a last appearance.

Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Ultimate Foe

The Doctor talks with himself.

“There’s nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!”

At the end of the day, the Trial season was a failure, and that was clear even as production neared completion. This final story was a production nightmare, and led to the resignation of Eric Saward and contributed to the death of Robert Holmes. The Ultimate Foe  is, above all other things, messy and ungainly, its various twists and revelations flashing one after the other like a badly written plot synopsis.

     The two part story was due to be written by Robert Holmes, a veteran writer of the series and the writer of The Mysterious Planet. He unfortunately died of cancer after having only written the first draft of the first half and only a few notes about the second. Script Editor Eric Saward took up the job, handing in a complete rewrite of the script with a harsh, downbeat ending so typical of Sawards’ scripts. John Nathan-Turner, trying to keep things optimistic, asked him to change the ending – a decision that angered Saward so much that he resigned as Script Editor. Now left with one half-finished script and no last episode for the series, the task fell on Pip and Jane Baker, the writers of Vervoids, to finish off. You can see where this is going.

      The Doctor is about to sentenced, now with the charge of Genocide included. His last defence is the tampering of the Matrix, and despite the fact that he cannot provide witnesses, someone has done so for him. Mel and Glitz appear before the court, and The Master appears from The Matrix supporting The Doctor’s story. He reveals that the people who moved Earth in The Mysterious Planet and renamed it Ravalox were the Time Lords, trying to prevent their technological secrets from being stolen. The Doctor gives a great monologue (the story’s real saving grace) about how the Time Lords, as the oldest civilisations, are the most corrupt of them all.

The Master of Light Entertainment

    The Master then reveals the Valeyard’s identity – he is the dark side of The Doctor’s personality, and had made a deal with the High Council to cover up the Ravalox affair in exchange for The Doctor’s remaining regenerations. His identity discovered, he flees into the Matrix, and The Doctor and Glitz follow. Valeyard’s illusions bring them to a Victorian Square. There they enter a waiting room run by an incredibly bureaucratic Mr. Popplewick  (Keeping Up Appearances’ Geoffrey Hughes), who leads them to another of the Valeyard’s illusions. On a beach, on his own, The Doctor is dragged into the sand and the cliffhanger music chimes.

     When we come back, Glitz is mourning The Doctor, who reappears and reveals that his death was another illusion. The Valeyard makes an appearance and explains who his is – a darker side of the Doctor, a concentration of all of his evil. Escaping some random toxic nerve gas, Six and Glitz enter The Master’s Tardis. The Master explains that he is helping because The Doctor is a less threatening enemy, and then puts him into a zombie-like state and uses him as bait for the Valeyard. It doesn’t work; Glitz and The Master escape. Meanwhile, The Valeyard’s illusions appear to convince The Doctor that he has been tried for his crimes and sent for execution.

     Mel, watching this, storms into the Matrix and “saves” him. He reveals that the illusion was obvious and that he was trying to get close to the Valeyard, who they then go after. While The Master suffered a malfunction in his Tardis, The Doctor and Mel (who really don’t work well together at all) track down The Valeyard and his machine, designed to kill everyone in the Trial room once he had the Doctor’s lives. Mel evacuates the room and The Doctor destroys the machine, and both escape with The Valeyard apparently dead. The Inquisitor frees The Doctor of all charges, and he flies off into space to be fired by the BBC.

"Do you have an appointment?"

     Because of the reworking, the plot appears to fly off in random directions. One moment The Doctor’s standing on a beach, the next he’s incapacitated and a zombie, and then he’s at the trial, but it’s not really the trial and so on and so on. That really only applies to the second episode though, because the first is one long exposition dump using the formulaic setup that we tired of eight episodes ago. The different writers are very, very obvious, especially after the cliffhanger where it appears that all of the characters have swallowed a dictionary – the most egregious example being the quote at the top of this article.

     A heavy rewrite in the script meant that The Master and Glitz felt very wasted – a fact not lost on their actors, who were very upset about the ordeal. Really, The Master didn’t need to be there at all, and as Anthony Ainley’s penultimate performance it doesn’t really do him any justice at all. Even Colin Baker didn’t survive this story, being fired by execs – the same execs who allowed Bonnie Langford’s performance of all things.
     What the serial does do is link together the series as a whole. Robert Holmes' script touches upon the events of The Mysterious Planet and uses it as a large plot device - a means to reveal The Valeyard's plans and identity. Pip and Jane use their episode as an excuse to create another illusion regarding Vervoids, and both writers mention the most manipulated segment, Mindwarp - where it turns out that Peri is living happily with Yrcanos.

Colin gets a sinking feeling.

     The Trial of a Timelord ended on a messy note which didn't do justice to the ambition of the series' premise. The Ultimate Foe was let down by its troubled production and the script editor's spurious morality, a state of affairs that made the result just salvageable enough to keep the series on air. Despite this, the lead was fired and the script editor had left, leaving Doctor Who with a very uncertain future. Luckily Sylvester McCoy would take up the reins and after a series of mediocre bombs he would return Doctor Who to the brilliant television that it could be. 

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IN TWO WEEKS: My Classics season starts, with Spearhead From Space!