Category: Direct Beam Comms

Direct Beam Comms #58

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, TVPosted on

TV

Taboo – Grade: B+

FX has been promoting the new series Taboo for months now and I think that’s because of one thing and one thing alone; its star Tom Hardy. Hardy is most well known for movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant but has done some TV like Peaky Blinders. But just a recognizable face does not make a compelling TV series, fortunately Hardy is excellent in Taboo and even more fortunately, the story of Taboo is interesting as well. Taboo is a bit like if writer Alan Moore decided to retell the story of Tarzan but put his own unique spin on things. There isn’t anything like a boy being raised by apes in Taboo, but there is a young man being raised in the wilds of Africa and returning to an England and wealth they’re not accustomed to.

In Taboo it’s 1814 and Hardy stars as Englishman James Keziah Delaney who’s returned home mysteriously from Africa after his father’s death. Everyone, including Delaney’s sister Zilpha (Oona Chaplin), thought he was dead since the ship he traveling on to Africa sunk and he was missing the last 12 years. But Delaney didn’t die, he spent that time “living in the jungles” with the natives learning their ways. And now he’s returned home a rich man with a satchel of precious stones he buries in a rainy field in the opening scene of the series. But Delaney’s return has caused all sorts of problems when land that his father owned in North America was going to be sold to the East India Company now belong’s to Delaney as does his other father’s holdings which throws all sorts of deals into question. And when it turns out that the father was murdered, poisoned over a long period of time, it’s a question of whether or not the murderer will strike Delaney next, or if Delaney and his explosive anger that’s simmering just under the surface will destroy the conspirators.

I think that’s part of what makes Taboo work — Tom Hardy. He plays the Delaney role to perfection, allowing the other characters around him to move the plot forward while he says little but does much. The overall story of Taboo, of this primal force in Delaney coming up against this gigantic, monolithic corporation in the East India Company has some interesting angles and story elements as well. I think the visuals of the series are top-notch too, with Taboo presenting an 19th century England as this sort of wet, fog shrouded and haunted nightmare. Which is in stark contrast to other UK period series like The Crown and Downton Abbey.

In fact, the biggest concern I would have had with this show is that it might be a little too much for audiences to sit through season after season of the Delaney character grunting more than talking, and when he does talk mumbling that verges on unintelligible with his English accent to my American ears. Except Taboo is being presented as an eight episode limited series which just might be perfect for a series like this.

Rumor Control

Looking forward throughout 2017 and the longer articles I have set to write at certain times of the year, this year I’m planning on writing about 14 new movies. Which is a lot for me. Usually I write about just a few new films that interest me each year. Like last year I write about just four new movies. I think we’re living in this weird time when movies like sci-fi, horror and comic book films are now the biggest kinds of movies out there so all the studios are now in on the game of trying to create their own franchises and make their own billions like Marvel has done with their comics. And those are exactly the kinds of genera movies I like the most.

Here’s what I’m planning on writing about new-movie wise in 2017:

  • Logan
  • Skull Island
  • Power Rangers
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Alien: Covenant
  • Wonder Woman
  • The Mummy
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • War for the Planet of the Apes
  • The Dark Tower
  • IT
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Justice League

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1920: DeForrest Kelley, ‘Bones’ McCoy of Star Trek is born
  • 1948: John Carpenter, director of The Thing, Escape from New York and Halloween, to name a few, is born
  • 1974: The TV series The Six Million Dollar Man premiers
  • 1995: Star Trek: Voyager premiers
  • 2008: Cloverfield premiers in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #57

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, TVPosted on

TV

Sherlock – Season 4 premier: Grade: B+

It’s a bit odd to think that the TV series Sherlock has been around seven years and yet has only ever aired a handful of episodes. Granted, these episodes, 12 as of today, are more like feature films than simple episodes of TV, but in an era when most TV series air in a season in what Sherlock has in four says something about the popularity and staying power of this show.

And so far Sherlock has remained one of the more popular of the BBC export series, turning Benedict Cumberbatch from an actor who appeared on mostly British TV to a legitimate superstar most recently starring in the latest Marvel hit Doctor Strange. And co-star Martin Freeman, who was the one known “face” when Sherlock originally premiered, has gone from “the guy who was in the British version of The Office” to a well-known actor recently starring in the first season of the Fargo TV series, the lead in the Hobbit trilogy of films and now, like Cumberbatch, a part of the Marvel movie universe appearing in several films.

I think the reason for all this popularity is that the tone of Sherlock is just right. It’s mostly light, but sometimes heavy. And comedy plays a large role in the show too, whether we’re laughing at things the characters say or the actions they take. However, this most recent season of Sherlock is reportedly going “darker” than previous seasons which makes me a little nervous in the direction of the show.

This time Sherlock Holmes (Cumberbatch), Dr. John Watson (Freeman), John’s wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) and their infant daughter are back on the case after the events of the third season finale seem to indicate that Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty (Adam Scott) might still have evil plans in the works even after his death. What starts as Holmes believing that the mystery he’s trying to solve is one Moriarty set into motion to harass Holmes post-death turns instead into something from Mary’s dark past that comes to haunt the trio.

And the first episode of the fourth season does go dark, much darker than before. While I thought the episode was still good, I’m not sure how this bodes on the longevity of the show. On the one hand I can’t see Sherlock lasting much longer, especially with Cumberbatch and Freeman being in such demand elsewhere making the gap between seasons of the series so long — other than last year’s Christmas special the last episode of the series aired nearly three years ago. So it would make sense for series creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat to shake things up a bit if they are really getting towards the end, to try out some new kinds of stories that weren’t possible before and take the show in a different direction. Still, even if the series has been on the air for those seven years there’s been so little story covered in that time that going dark now feels really odd. Like, even if Gatiss and Moffat had simply done another Sherlock series in tone with what’s come before I don’t think anyone would be complaining that they’re trudging on story ground covered in previous seasons of the show — they could spend years more exploring that version of Sherlock and never do the same story twice.

The Mick – First two episodes of season 1 – Grade: C

The first two episodes of the new Fox comedy The Mick premiered last week. The show, about Mackenzie Murphy (Kaitlin Olson) who’s forced to raise her spoiled niece and nephews after her sister and husband flees the country ahead of a federal indictment is all right, if I get the feeling this has all been done before. The Mick is equal parts Arrested Development — a family member is forced to swoop in help out their extremely wealthy family after the feds find that wealth was gotten by less than legal means — by way of the raunchy over the top humor of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It doesn’t help matters that the Mackenzie character here Olson plays is essentially the same character she plays on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Heck, The Mick might actually be interesting if it were a spin-off of that show since there doesn’t seem to be a lot of originality going on in here.

I think what hurts The Mick the most is that there’s absolutely no characters in it the audience can identify with. It’s okay if a few or even most of the characters in a show are unlikable, but there’s no one on The Mick from Makenzie who’s a self-centered drunk, to the sister who abandons her family or even the niece or nephews who are the stereotypical spoiled rich kids you hope will fail but realize will probably be running the world someday to root for, which makes watching The Mick one long drag.

Cool Sites

Neflix Infinite Runner

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1976: The TV series The Bionic Woman premiers
  • 1981: Scanners opens in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #56

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, TVPosted on

TV

Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (aka 2016 Christmas Special) – Grade: B+

Superficially, there doesn’t seem to be much resemblance between the classic version of Doctor Who that ran from 1963–1989 and the modern one that began in 2006. If the classic Doctor Who looked slightly cheap then the modern one looks like a little money was spent on each episode. If the classic Doctor Who had mostly self-contained stories, then the modern one has season, if not series, long stories. But I think in tone the modern version of Doctor Who is actually a lot closer to the classic one than it might seem from the outside which is exemplified in the latest Christmas “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” episode.

This time, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) finds himself in New York where a group of aliens are set on taking over the world. Using a cover corporation called “Harmony Shoals,” these aliens just so happen to be the size and shape of our brains and their plan includes luring people to their buildings around the planet and removing the brains of all the politicians on the globe and replacing them with these brain-looking aliens. In an homage to the Superman story, investigating Harmony Shoals is dogged reporter Lucy Fletcher (Charity Wakefield) who meets the Doctor and his assistant (Matt Lucas) who are also scoping out the corporation. And there’s also a Superman-like superhero flying around New York City called the Ghost aka Grant Gordon (Justin Chatwin) who the Doctor knows and accidentally created decades prior when he met him as a child. As the aliens begin to put their devious plan into motion and threaten the fate of the entire planet, it’s more of a question as to whether Lucy will ever figure out that the Ghost is really her nanny Grant Gordon as to if the aliens will succeed in taking over the planet.

Which to me is a story only Doctor Who, either classic or modern, could do with a straight face and get away with it, to take a story that might seem silly and goody and present them as a straight sci-fi/fantasy story without irony or laughs.

And I think that’s part of the strengths and weaknesses of Doctor Who. Right now most critically acclaimed sci-fi series push hard in the direction of gritty reality, of which Doctor Who certainly doesn’t. Doctor Who is a sort of anthesis series to heavy shows like The Expanse and Westworld and is also a bit of an anachronism to older styles of storytelling. However, that might also be a good thing for Doctor Who — while every other series can be seen as being of our times Doctor Who instead stands out as a series slightly out of time, more harkening back to the sci-fi series of the past than today. And that might help the series for viewers in the future. Doctor Who might never feel old and dated since it’s always been a bit old and dated to begin with whereas the other series of our time might feel too much of our time and not relatable to future viewers.

A whole heck of a lot of TV

Over the past year I’ve been reviewing new episodes of TV series here in these weekly Direct Beams Comms. I don’t pretend to review all or even most new comedies and dramas released but I did review all the comedies and dramas I watched in 2016 which turned out to be 45 brand new TV series. If you consider that most TV series I watch tend to air between five and 13 episodes the means there’s somewhere between 225 and 585 episodes of TV out there of just these new shows I watched.

In addition, I watched 15 shows that were in their second or further seasons meaning there’s anywhere between 75 and 195 episodes of those shows I watched too.

Which is a lot of TV — that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Looking out over the calendar there’s new TV series I’m interested in checking out each week from now until mid-February. And that’s just counting NEW series, not returning ones. And my guess is that calendar stops in February not because there’s a break in new shows being launched but because that’s all the further out the calendars I found online happen to go out.

The one good thing with all these hours of TV is that since new series are being launched all year long it means there’s a lot of TV watching for me that’s spread out over the months. But that also means that there’s somewhat of a commitment on my part to watch all these shows since there are always new ones due out next week.

Anthony Hopkins in Westworld

What’s most fascinating is that while I watched around 60 scripted shows last season, this represents only about 13% of the total amount of new series out there, more than 450 this year in a recent report. Which is the best of times since there are so many series channels are willing to take chances on TV shows that wouldn’t ever have gotten made a few years ago. Even edited for content I can’t imagine a series like Westworld ever being shown on network or even cable TV in its current form without being turned into something more episodic even this decade. And I can’t ever see something like the five part documentary series O.J.: Made in America having aired on ESPN of all places finding a TV home other than right now. We might have gotten a one hour special on O.J. years ago, but a five part multi-night documentary would have been out of the question.

Game of Thrones

All of which makes me wonder, if we’re living in this wonderful time where there are quite literally AMAZING brand-new TV series being created and released year after year, how does all this sustain itself? Right now we’re living in a time where there are all these different content channels from network to cable to streaming all looking for series and all willing to shell out big-bucks in some cases to get it. (Reportedly a single season of Game of Thrones costs HBO about $60 million and Westworld $100.) But they’re willing to spend this money right now because all these channels are trying to stake their claim and be the one place people go for their entertainment in the future and are willing to spend, spend and spend to get this.

But what happens in a few years when the economics change, maybe people are less interested in watching scripted series and there are the inevitable channel collapses, acquisitions and mergers? What happens then, I think, are channels and networks less willing to spend such amounts on TV series and less willing to fund loads and loads of new shows. And I don’t think this day is that far in the future — it really can’t be with the amount of money being spent and lost on series.

People always talk about how great the movies of the 1970s were and how movies since were never able to capture that same spark. Or, if they were able to capture that spark it was only for a movie or two or for a short period of time. I think that’s what’s happening with TV series right now — we’re living in this golden age of TV with all these different choices and options where there are all these amazing shows and it just can’t last.

The Expanse season 2 TV commercial

“Are all your plans always this vague?”

The Reading List

The 52 Most Anticipated Movies of 2017

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1993: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiers
  • 1996: Twelve Monkeys is released in theaters
  • 2007: Children of Men premiers in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #55

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, Toys, TVPosted on

TV

People of Earth – Season 1: Grade: B+

I wasn’t totally sold on the TBS comedy series People of Earth when it premiered a few months back. The series about a support group for people who’ve been abducted, err…, experienced aliens where it turns out the members of the group really were abducted started off a bit too broad but within an episode or two found its footing.

Wyatt Cenac stars as writer Ozzie Graham who starts off the series as a journalist doing a story about the abductees but quickly finds himself at the center of things when he’s abducted. The group, lead by Gina (Ana Gasteyer) quickly welcomes Wyatt with open arms if everyone there has their own issues. But People of Earth isn’t just about the abductee group, in a hilarious twist it’s also about the aliens doing the abductions too. There’s bug eyed monster Jeff (Ken Hall), lizard Kurt (Drew Nelson) and dreamy nordic hunk Don (Björn Gustafsson) who go about their day snatching people and erasing their memories in order to prepare for an invasion.

In many ways, People of Earth reminds me of the series Community, not so much in tone but the idea of a group of disparate people thrown together who only have one thing in common and are forced to deal with each other. The characters are interesting and the interactions within the group on People of Earth are pretty funny too. I especially liked the character of Father Doug (Oscar Nuñez) who runs the church the group holds their meetings at. He’s not too interested in the group until one night he experiences something which sends him down the path of abandoning the cloth and getting his old fusion-jazz band back together.

But what’s funniest and best about the show are those aliens. They’re so workaday just doing a job who are a little in over their heads which makes People of Earth work so well. Plus, I’ve got to hand it for whomever did the makeup for the aliens, especially the one for Jeff. It’s a wonderful appliance with the piece covering his entire head that includes blinking eyes and everything.

Even though TBS has renewed People of Earth for a second season I’d be down for a Jeff spin-off series!

Movies

Blade Runner 2049 teaser trailer/announcement

“Replicants are like any other machine, their either a benefit or a hazard.”

Toys

Aliens – Foam Replica – 36″ Alien Skull

This replica skull of the monster from the movie Aliens is awesome. At first I wondered if I were to get it what I’d even do with it, but then I thought that it might make a cool Halloween decoration to scare the kiddies with. Then I saw the cost, $270, which is just a few hundred bucks out of my traditional Halloween decorating budget!

The Reading & Watch List

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1932: Nichelle Nichols, Uhura of Star Trek is born
  • 1980: Altered States is released
  • 1982: The Thing premiers in theaters
  • 1997: The Postman premiers
  • 1999: Galaxy Quest opens in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #54

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, TVPosted on

TV

The Man in the High Castle – Season 2 premier – Grade: B+

All episodes of the second season of The Man in the High Castle are currently available on Amazon Prime, but so far I’ve only watched the first episode of the second season so take that into consideration.

In the second season – it’s bleak times for Americans living in 1962 in The Man in the High Castle. From the east coast to the Rockies the Nazis rule with an iron fist, eliminating any resistance along with anyone not measuring up to the aryan ideal. On the west coast the Japanese Imperial Army occupies everything that side of the Rockies. And while living under Japanese rule is slightly better than the Nazis, it still means that the Americans live as third-class citizens with the Japanese killing and executing whomever they want with impunity. But in all this bleakness is a tiny ray of hope — a film found that seems to depict an alternate reality, presumably ours, where the Nazis and Japanese lost and the Allies won WW2.

The second season starts essentially where the first left off. With characters Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) and Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) separated while trying to get one of these films to the titular Man in the High Castle with Japanese diplomate Nobusuke Tagomi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) suddenly realizing that these films might be right and their reality might be one of many and American Nazi John Smith (Rufus Sewell) returning to his position of power in New York.

Movies, and now series, based on Phillp K. Dick stories can be challenging to adapt and none more challenging than the novel The Man in the High Castle. Reportedly, Dick used the I Ching to assist with randomizing plot points in his book. Which makes for an odd, yet strangely compelling read, where characters aren’t so much doing things or driving a story forward but instead living lives in Dick’s novel and making interesting choices. So, translating this book to screen must’ve been difficult for the series creators who needed to take something that for the most part doesn’t have a central plot or much structure and create a TV series that does and is still based on Dick’s underlying story.

And their solution in the first season was to take most of the elements form the book — from the idea of the alternate 1960s America, the characters, these weird alternate-history artifacts — and to place them into a standard narrative where the characters are going from point “A” to “Z.” And for the most part in the first season all this worked.

If there’s one thing that concerns me the most about The Man in the High Castle is its bleakness. Right now I don’t see this as an issue, but I can see it becoming one down the road, especially looking at another show that seems to bask in bleakness; The Walking Dead. For a time in that show all the bleakness of civilization crumbled and mankind reduced to living off their wits against a plague of zombies and one and other was interesting enough. But as the seasons progressed and the show seemed to double down on all the bad, for me at least The Walking Dead became more and more hard to watch until I finally gave up on it.

I only bring this up since I could see The Man in the High Castle going down this same road, especially if Amazon sees this show as going on forever without a definite end in sight. The good thing is that so far, one episode into the second season, most everything from characters to story in The Man in the High Castle is working and the series is enjoyable. If the feeling I have watching the show now is different than I did before the election. 😉

Movies

More alternate Christmas movies

Gremlins (1984): Honestly, Gremlins is the closest thing to a Christmas movie I can think of that isn’t a Christmas movie. It’s got Christmas songs, is about a Christmas present and has lots of snow. Yet this film about tiny reptilian monsters that cause havoc on a small, unsuspecting town with only Billy (Zach Galligan) and his nice, cuddly mogwai to stop them is anything but a Christmas movie. Gremlins is more horror than Christmas with the titular creatures being so scary they scarred a generation of kids who didn’t know what they were in for when they went to go see this rated PG movie.

The Mothman Prophecies (2002): Much of The Mothman Prophecies takes place during wintertime in Point Pleasant, West Virginia where John Klein (Richard Gere) faces weird, unknowable paranormal forces surrounding the town. Which all leads up to a confrontation on a bridge in Point Pleasant that takes place on Christmas Eve.

I Am Legend (2007): From the looks of it, I Am Legend takes place at the height of summer, or late enough in the year that character Robert Neville (Will Smith) is able to harvest corn that he’s grown in a ruined New York, City. However, I think of this as a kind’a Christmas movie in that when the plague hit that caused most people in I Am Legend to die and some to turn into bloodthirsty mutant monsters — all that happened during Christmastime. So Neville is living in this weird, wrecked New York where all the Christmas decorations are still up and whenever he breaks into a building or apartment looking for supplies sees things like Christmas trees and stockings all up and waiting for a Christmas that will never come.

Dunkirk movie trailer

“There’s no hiding from this…”

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1957: Denise Crosby, Tasha Yar of Star Trek: The Next Generation is born
  • 1971: A Clockwork Orange debuts
  • 1978: Invasion of the Body Snatchers premiers
  • 1979: The Black Hole premiers
  • 1981: Mad Max 2 opens
  • 1985: Enemy Mine premiers in theaters
  • 2009: Avatar opens in theaters
  • 2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens