Thursday 25 November 2010

Dexter Season 5 OhmyGod OhmyGod Ohmygod!

Another thing I love about Dexter is that each time you watch the show, you think "surely they can't up the ante on the previous season?" but by heck, they do each time. (Spoiler Alert) Check out this latest trailer for season 5...



For regular fans of the show, I'm sure you'll agree that there comes a point in each season where you kinda feel the writers are treading water, where the web of storylines and characters are still moving into place....then about three-quarters of the way through the season, there's a big reveal ....

For example, last year, it was a good 'un:



Ok, that's a bit of a rubbishy vid, obviously taped from someone's telly, but you get my point - and the youtube comments attached to it sum up many viewers feelings about the dropped bombshell.

To quote Kabo3lives on youtube,  "I flipped my shit when I saw this. No lie". Quite. 

But this year, each episode has had me on the edge of my seat. The latest one I watched (episode 9) was a fairly quiet one, by Dexter standards, with Dex having to reveal far too much to the police about what he's up to, when his stepdaughter Astor goes missing. It seems to end sweetly, with Dex as family man,  But the last 1 minute of the episode was absolutely chilling. (You are gonna love it.)

This season, the writers also seem to be more comfortable than ever with the whole menagerie of characters within the Dexter universe, and have written them all meaty plotlines.

Miami Homicide is well-busy with loads of gruesome beheadings, Deb and Quinn are getting it on, (and he looks even more revolting than usual - skinny with a mahogany perma-tan, ewwwww), the dark-haired woman from the Commitments is Dex's nanny, Angel and La Guerta are probably the most troubled newlyweds I've ever seen, and she's even more insecure than ever about her job. 

There's a host of guest-stars too, clearly having the time of their lives. Julia Stiles, Jonny Lee Miller, and a fantastic Peter Weller (yep, that's right, Robocop himself), as a sleazy, drugs cop suspended for corruption, but hired by Quinn to check up on Dex, and who finds out much, much more than he bargained for.

With three episodes left of this post-Rita Season 5 left, those plotlines are now at a stage when they are intermingling, and drawing together. Once again, the net is closing around Dex, and also, this time, around a new friend he has made. Sleazy drugs cop is also beginning to realise that Dex is not a normal human being, and Dex's prey realises he's being hunted...by Dex ...and...and ....it's just magnificent.

When I reviewed this season a few weeks ago (see here) , I knew it was going to be good. So far it's even better than last years season with the Trinity killer. And even more dangerous. If that's possible.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Misfits: the ASBO X-men*

Why should clean cut, all-American familes get all the fun of super-powers (see No Ordinary Family), or cheerleaders, Japanese salarymen, chunky cops and male nurses for that matter (see Heroes). Why not a group of undeserving young scrotes, doing community service on a London housing estate, who get struck by lightning during a freak storm?. 

Yup, friends, welcome to the world of Misfits - a seriously underrated programme from E4.  Last year, the GLW and I couldn't believe that no-one else seemed to be watching it. However, this show won a BAFTA for best TV drama series, which I think came as a surprise to its creators. Well, welcome back: the second series starts this Thursday at 10 on E4.

It's unashamedly a teen drama, being mostly concerned with sex, social status and taking the piss. It's very funny, very rude, and has an increasing body count. It's also very unsentimental - the cast are just like real teenagers - thoroughly unlikeable, but a lot of fun.

There's inarticulate chavvy Kelly (Lauren Socha), slutty party girl Alisha (Antonia Thomas) and creepy weirdo Simon (Iwan Rheon) - star athlete Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) who's a decent fella, but busted for cocaine possession, and Nathan (Robert Sheehan) a cocky, irritating little turd (believe me, I'm being kind).

And their powers? Let Nathan explain the current state of play at the end of series one....



I really like the fact their powers aren't random at all, but seem to be appropriate to each character.

Curtis regrets what happened to him, and he gets the ability to turn back time.

Kelly is your typical paranoid teenager, and whatdayaknow, she can hear what people are thinking.

Alisha wants to be the fittest and most shaggable girl around - she literally drives people crazy with desire when they touch her (which she uses to get her wicked way with Curtis, who is not best pleased).

Nobody notices or listens to Simon, and he liteally becomes invisible.

And Nathan? He's just an annoying git, with a really crap life, so it's wholly appropriate that he finds out he's going to live forever (can you imagine having someone like that around you , for eternity?)

In the first series, they had virtually no control over their powers, and were fundamentally the same teenage fu*k-ups they were before. None of them suddenly wanted to be a superhero, nor did their powers make them better people. Curtis tries to change events for the better in one episode, but makes things worse, and in Simon's case, his powers make him a stranger, more damaged individual.

In fact, for me, Iwan Rheon as Simon is the standout performer in the first series- you can almost feel Simon's loneliness, isolation and desperation to belong. 

What's worse for the Misfits is that other people in the area (which I think is London's distinctive Thamesmead estate) are also affected by the storm. Their community worker becomes a crazed zombie psycho, there's a great episode where a sexy blonde girl takes a shine to Nathan, but she's not quite what she seems, and in another episode,  a do-gooding teenager gets super-charisma, and begins to control everyones minds.

It has the flavour of an anarchist X-Men drawn by a pissed Banksy. (You get me? It's sick, as young-uns say...or am I using outdated cultural slang again? I'll get my coat.) 

If you missed it, either because it looked a bit too teenage, or because it was on E4, I can't recommend it highly enough - all the first season episodes are on 4OD, so you have no excuse.

Along with Sherlock  it's proof that we can produce good, adventure drama here in the UK (instead of endless cliched costume dramas, aaargh!).

* By the way, I'd like to take credit for the phrase "ASBO X-men, but I think the Guardian coined it first.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

The Walking Dead...er...walk on.

AMC has already renewed The Walking Dead for a second season. Not really surprising, regarding it had a best debut for any cable show ever in the states.

Here's a pointless quote from the head of AMC...

“The ‘Dead’ has spread!” said Charlie Collier, President, AMC. “No other cable series has ever attracted as many Adults 18-49 as The Walking Dead. This reaffirms viewers’ hunger for premium television on basic cable. We are so proud to be bringing back The Dead again, across the globe.”

So there you go. I watched the second episode last night, followed by the latest episode of Dexter. Needless to say, I squealed like a little girl all the way through, and afterwards I needed a lie-down in a darkened room, and half a junior dispirin. I even considered sleeping with the light on.

Several sharp slaps later from my GLW, and being told to stop being Mr Soggy-pants, I have to tell you that the tension continues to be ramped-up throughout episode 2, which is called "Guts". It doesn't take a brain surgeon (or abdominal surgeon, boom boom!) to work out why.



It's so gross at one point, that the only dialogue from all the cast members for a good three minutes consists of a single word: "ewwwwwwww!"

I'm lovin' it. Someone in my regular job called me a sicko the other day (because I watched "Drag me to Hell" on the train into work). They're probably right.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

The Walking Dead - Nerdgasm time.

Ok, I think from the title of this blog update, you can be safely assured that I really like AMCs The Walking Dead. I'll be honest, it's the one US show I've really been looking forward to seeing this year.....



Oh YEAH!....but y'know what, the trailer really doesn't do it justice. You may look at the bit where Andrew Lincoln wakes up in hospital and say (adopts whiney, sneering know-it-all voice) "Yeah, but Danny Boyle did that in 28 Days Later years ago..." (*discuss: see my note at the bottom of this post)

Yeah yeah yeah....let's face it, there aren't that many ways to start a zombie story on-screen. By the way, let me digress for the moment, and show you my favourite opener - from Zombieland...



Back to business, and (spoiler alert) The Walking Dead only resembles 28 Days Later in its subject matter and the situation the lead character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln from Teachers and this Life) initially finds himself in. The show resembles the more serious offspring of a union between 28 Days Later and the BBCs Survivors, though somehow it comes across as more realistic than either of them - which I admit is strange, given the subject matter.

Remember when Cillian Murphy woke up in 28 Days Later? It was used as a sequence of pure spectacle,  with him wandering around a deserted London, empty apart from sprinting zombies. Well, this is slightly different. Rick Grimes wakes, can barely stand, and is faced with a deserted hospital with some rooms barracaded shut, with the undead trying to get out - not to mention the piles of bodies outside. You get a real sense of just how bad things have got in the time he's been unconscious.

He is found by an uninfected father and son who think he's a threat because he's wounded (they initially think he's been bitten by a zombie) and after he gets tooled-up, he heads off to Atlanta to try to find his missing wife and son (so far, so Survivors).

But where this differs from previous efforts is that the characters have time to consider their actions. The father and son are trapped: physically by a house surrounded by the undead every night, and emotionally, by the fact that one of the besieging zombies is the father's beloved wife, and the mother of his child.

Another scene stood out for me - on the way home in his hospital nightgown, Grimes encounters his first zombie face-to-face. It's the pitful remains of a young woman, a hissing, snarling torso with arms and a head, only able to move by dragging herself along. He returns a few days later, and spends some time searching for what's left of her, before telling her "I'm sorry this happened to you" and blowing her brains out.

Mercy, conscience, and loss:  in essence, some of the emotional attachments within society that are normally absent from your average zombie flick. Mainstream critics may argue that these scenes in The Walking Dead are handled in a slightly heavy-handed way, but as a horror fan, I was pleasantly surprised that they were there at all. After all, you'd have to be a bona-fide psychopath to pick up a baseball bat, or cricket bat and bash your zombie neighbour's head in without feeling anything.

I remember that when I first heard about The Walking Dead , I was sure one of the main channels over here would have been mad not to pick it up - but on reflection, I can see why it was bought by FX.

At the moment, Channel 4 is showing the pretty gruesome True Blood, and FX has just finished showing the 4th series of the bloodbath (literally) that is Dexter, which undoubtedly will be shown soon on ITV2. But The Walking Dead  takes this to another level competely. It's an uncompromising horror series - if you're not used to zombie flicks you may be a bit shocked at some of the things that happen in the first episode alone -
I mean, Grimes shoots a little zombie girl in the head in the first two minutes of the show - brains and blood fly everywhere....But, if like me, you're a zombie movie fan - you'll love it.

Mind you, my GLW hates horror films because she's a big girl's blouse, but she thought The Walking Dead was brilliant.

And there is one moment in the very first episode, that doesn't make you jump, nor does it make you squeal, but it literally takes your breath away, and makes you go "Oh.My.God...."

I think I had my first nerdgasm.

The Walking Dead starts on FX this Friday at 10pm - they've even got a nice little interview with the writer of the original comic, Robert Kirkman here  

* Factoid: by the way, Robert Kirkman who wrote The Walking Dead came up with the "waking up from a coma into zombie apocalypse" idea first...before 28 Days Later, so there.