Podcast: Quite Franco My Dear I Don’t Give A Hamm

Mark Davidson, Laura Croft, Steve O’Hara and Dave Wark are joined by special guest Dr. Andy Stothers. He joins them to give his opinion on The Wire, having been challenged by Mark to see if it lives up to the hype. They also discuss Mad Men, and Breaking Bad in a television-centric Just Been Watching section. They go on to talk about some recent film news, their experiences at Glasgow Film Festival, as well as give their opinions on the recently announced changes to this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Finally, in the Best Worst Movie section they talk about their experience of watching their favourite bad movie Troll 2 on the big screen.

Among the highlights include the point at which one of us accuses another of racism; Laura is forced to confront the fact James Franco may not be as perfect as she had previously thought; and the gasps of Steve as he gets distracted by the goings on of a certain football game he’s watching in the background:

ObserveALot8.mp3
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The Podcast is sponsored by LoveFilm: a DVD and BluRay rental service.
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Special Features

As a gift to people who read the blog, as oppose to just subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, here’s some stuff on the interweb relating to this month’s podcast:

Submarine trailer:

Troll 2 trailer:

Best Worst Movie Trailer:

Running Order:

Total Duration: 51 Minutes

Just Been Watching
The Wire
Mad Men
Breaking Bad

Film News
Oscars Ceremony
Submarine at Glasgow Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival Changes

Best Worst Movie
Best Worst Movie/Troll 2 double bill on the big screen.

You can contact the podcast at observealot(at)gmail(dot)com

You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/you-can-observe-lot-just-by/id381134908#iTunes

Top Five Television Seasons of 2010

Unlike my Top Five Films of 2010, choosing my Top Five Television Seasons of 2010 requires me to put a fairly large disclaimer in place. Basically, every season on the list I have seen this year, but may first been aired in 2009 (or even 2008).

This represents the fact that with one exception, I watched all of these on DVD. I think this reflects a shift in the way many tv fans viewing habits have changed over the past decade. It means this list may not entirely representative of television in 2010. However, at the very least it reflects the way I, and many others, have experienced television this year.

5. Mad Men – Season 3

One of the great things about Mad Men has been the way it effortlessly intertwines the real-life events of the 1960s into the lives of its characters.

The highlight of season 3 for me was seeing how the show’s characters responded to the Kennedy assassination. In seeing something so shocking and tragic, they are forced to take stock of their own lives and what’s important to them.

Of course, while their responses may be life-changing and somewhat drastic, the genius of the show comes from the previous six or seven episodes that allow these big things to happen. Mad Men is a show never afraid to take its time, a show which allows its plot to flow effortlessly from the development of its characters.

4. The Pacific

While not quite reaching the heights of Band of Brothers, which remains the greatest mini-series ever made, The Pacific was nevertheless a welcome return to the themes and setting of Spielberg’s original series.

The choice to focus on just three men, as oppose to many, took a while to get used to. Once I did, however, it transported me into a war I wanted to escape from immediately.

In the UK, not as much attention is paid to the Pacific Front of the Second World War. Therefore, it was good to get an appreciation of the atrocious conditions the allied soldiers had to endure in their fight for freedom.

The nature of the war allowed Spielberg to take up themes we normally associate with films about Vietnam. How war changes men in different ways, and stays with them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives.

Like Band of Brothers it paints with so many strokes that as soon as you watch it, you feel you need to watch it again to catch everything you missed. Simply great, ambitious, cinematic television.

3. Doctor Who – Season 5

Some people thought Matt Smith had no hope of ever reaching the heights of Tennant’s Doctor. However, within minutes of eating custard and fish fingers it was obvious Smith had his own equally charming take on this age-old character.

Credit must also be given to Moffat, who has allowed the series to move in a new and interesting direction since taking over as show-runner from Russell T. Davies. A direction more concerned with the mythology of the Whoverse.

Perhaps this is best represented by the recurring appearances of River Song. She has given the show an added dimension with hints at future events, and insights into the Doctor’s character not even he knows.

Finally, Amy Pond as the new assistant, struck the right balance between wonderment, vulnerability, and sauciness. The opening episode of the season gave us by far the most ambitious and unique introduction to an assistant yet; brilliantly picking up the existing themes of how people are both helped and left helpless by meeting The Doctor.

Despite this season’s changes, Doctor Who remains the most exciting and creative show on British television. Long may it continue.

2. Breaking Bad – Season 1

I debated whether to put this on the list at all, since season one was first aired in 2008, and has been available in the UK since 2009. However, 2010 was the year I discovered Breaking Bad, and it’s a series I hope many more people in the UK discover in 2011.

Breaking Bad takes the drug-dealing of The Wire and mixes it in with the family life of something like Friday Night Lights. Its main character, Walt, is a chemistry teacher with cancer. Only he can’t afford the treatment. (Damn American Health System!)

After being accidentally introduced to the kind of money crystal meth dealers make via his brother-in-law, a cop, he decides to go into business with a small-time dealer, Jesse. Walt uses his chemistry know-how to make the drugs; Jesse, his contacts to sell it.

All of which sounds like the set-up for an outrageous comedy. Yet there’s so much more to Breaking Bad than the funny that naturally comes from the odd couple at its heart.

The genius of Breaking Bad is the way it combines the dark comedic elements with its incredibly touching familial moments. The way each member of Walt’s family deals with his diagnosis giving the show the kind of reality and truth so few television shows ever achieve.

It’s my belief that as more and more people watch Breaking Bad, it’ll be mentioned in the same breath as The Wire and Mad Men. In other words, television you simply must see.

1. Friday Night Lights – Season 4

A show few in the States have seen, and even fewer in the UK. For a British viewer to watch it, one must own a multi-region DVD player and import the DVD boxsets from America. The fact I am willing to do this every year should be testament enough to the quality of the show.

I’ve already said a lot about this show. However, its simple appeal comes from the fact that watching it feels like spending time with old friends.

Whether its Matt Saracen, Tim Riggins or Tami Taylor, there’s a pure unadulterated joy in spending time with these characters that no other show has ever given me.

It’s recently been announced that Season 5 will be its last. However, no matter how it ends, I’ll still be thinking about how the lives of these characters are going; what they’re doing; and who they’re with. If that sounds like a sad and pathetic thing to do, then I know you’ve yet to watch one of the greatest television series ever made.

As a quick epilogue to the Top Five TV Seasons of 2010, here are my Top Three Most Anticipated New Series of 2011. And by ‘new’, you can assume I mean ‘available on DVD in 2011 in the UK’:

3. Boardwalk Empire
Scorsese does The Sopranos in the prohibition era.

2. The Walking Dead
A serialised zombie apocolyspe show from Frank Darabont.

1. Treme
From the makers of The Wire.

What I’ve Been Watching: Television

Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 2
The Mother of All Destiny

The Terminator franchise has had a somewhat turmultious history. Terminator and Terminator 2 are considered to be among the best sci-fi movies of all time, containing the performances Arnold Schwarzenegger will be remembered for. Terminator 3 was considered to be a fairly insignificant sequel, just about staying on the right side of average. Finally, Terminator: Salvation was generally considered the biggest disappointment of last year’s blockbusters. Having few new ideas or stories to convince us the story Post-Judgment Day is worth telling.

Sarah Connor Chronicles sees the title character’s battle to bring up and protect her teenage son, John. He has the unenviable task of leading the humans rebellion against their machine overlords in the future. They have the help of Cameron, a machine FutureJohn has reprogrammed to protect TeenageJohn. Confused? Try not to think about it too much…

Where as season one saw our happy family try to hide and destroy anything that could bring about the rise of the machines, season two sees them more accepting of humanity’s fate.

The season is patchy in parts. At its worst, episodes are remakes of the original movies: with our heroes trying to escape a robot sent from the future. Also references to religion were completely misjudged and patronising. With one character being chosen to teach a machine morals purely because of his faith. The subsequent ‘theological’ conversations failing miserably to hit the depth I feel the writers should have been going for. Evidently, they hadn’t seen The Two Cathedrals.

At its best, it compared the struggle to that of seasoned war veterans, who find it difficult to keep going with all the pain and suffering they’ve endured. Sarah’s ongoing struggle to both protect her son, but allow him to become the man he needs to be providing an excellent undercurrent to all the series’ events. The two extra protagonists they added, Riley and Jesse, proved to have the most interesting this season. Perhaps the reason they worked so well is that unlike the other characters, they don’t have the baggage of the film’s canon looming over them.

So a fairly uneven season, that did have some interesting things to say, although I feel the franchise it was based on actually proved to be a hindrance as oppose to a help. Sometimes I wasn’t sure the type of show it wanted to be, and too often it would default back to slow motion shots of Terminators unceremoniously taking out an innocent bystander. This lack of forward momentum meant I found it difficult to engage with the storylines at points, and meant I wasn’t as engrossed as I could have been.

Sarah Connor Chronicles: Seasons 1 & 2 are both available on DVD right now.

Mad Men: Season 3
Selling Your Soul

Mad Men has just finished its run on BBC4 and remains just as strong as ever. Set in the sixties it tells the story of an advertising agency in Manhattan.

In a story-telling form similar to The Wire, events take a while to get going, with little appearing to happen from episode to episode. However, since the show is based around on its characterisation, small events or comments can have huge significance later on.

Where the show succeeded most this season was in its amalgamation of its characters and real events from the sixties. In particular the way it handles (SPOILER for real life coming up) the assassination of JFK was a complete triumph. Masterfully combining both a realistic portrayal of how the news came out with possibly the most engaging character moments of the season.

In common with shows like Friday Night Lights and The West Wing (At least Seasons 1 to 4) it’s difficult to separate this season’s events from previous seasons. This isn’t a show you can just pick up at some random point, but rather have to watch from the beginning. It has the philosophy that stories shouldn’t explain everything to their audience, but should instead force them to lean in and engage beyond what is merely happening from scene to scene. As such fans of The Wire can rejoice, here’s a show that at least comes close to matching its quality, patience and vision.

Mad Men Season 3 is released on DVD this Monday, 26th April in the UK/Ireland

Being Human: Season 2
Wanna Watch The Real Hustle?

Being Human has solidified its place among Great British Sci-Fi with its second season. Taking a leaf out of Buffy’s book, it does a great job of allowing characters to grow and develop in response to the evil they’re fighting.

Having survived a first season, it felt as though the writers had a very clear idea of where they wanted the characters to go this time around.

In particular, the way each episode opened with a flashblack to a character’s past really did a great job of extending the world and mythology of the show beyond that of present day Bristol.

The villains for this season were religious fundamentalists. Being Human has dealt with religious themes before. In particular a quote from 1 Corinithians helping convince George to make a significant decision at the end of season one. However, despite some efforts to give a fair representation of religion, they failed: in the world of Being Human, religion is merely used to brainwash characters into unquestionably doing things they wouldn’t do otherwise. Instead the villains of the piece were used to support a clear theme of Being Human: that the people we associate ourselves will end up defining us.

There was a great irony to this season, as the more our heroes were told they were less than human, the more they were pushed and attacked, the more monstrous they became. Violence and hatred breeding nothing but the same in return.

This led to a sense of brokenness and despair at the end of the season that had a uniquely British feel to it. Like Torchwood, the world created by the writers is one in which saving the day often comes at a price beyond that which the characters were willing to pay. I’ll certainly be watching when the third season returns next year, this time with our characters relocated to Cardiff. Torchwood/Being Human crossover anyone?

Being Human seasons 1 and 2 are both available on DVD right now. (Region 2 only)

What I’ve Been Watching: Cinema

Invictus
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Invictus in the story of South Africa’s road to winning the Rugby World Cup in 1995. At its centre is the relationship between Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of the Springboks, and Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman).

In many ways the film feels like a normal sports movie. The team in question is in serious trouble at the start of the movie, getting slaughtered by England at home, months before the tournament. Then, as the movie progresses, and after Mandela’s interest in the sport increases, the team gets better: standing a real chance of winning the tournament.

However, the story’s focus is not on the team or their relationships with one another, rather it’s on the people of South Africa and their support/hatred of the Springboks. In that sense it has more in common with Fever Pitch than your average sports movie: looking at the real impact sport has on people’s lives.

So the picture we get of Nelson Mandela here, is essentially the one he chooses to show to Pienaar. We do get occasional glimpses of his strained relationship with his family, but essentially we’re shown the same Mandela as we normally get on television: charming, inspirational and dignified.

The movie’s success, and arguably its failure, is that it does well at reminding the viewer how remarkable the story of the ’95 World Cup was. When politics and sport somehow combined successfully to give South Africa a moment that will probably stay with that generation for the rest of the lives. The picture of Mandela and Pienaar standing on the podium together is probably the most significant image for the country since the end of apartheid.

I say failure, because I think the story’s so remarkable and well documented it doesn’t really need a movie made about it: a movie which, by virtue of its medium, makes the events seem less real than they are. It’s my opinion that a documentary would have served the story a lot better, and I’m sure Mandela and Pienaar would have only too happy to oblige. If you need proof of this, watch the documentary When We Were Kings, followed by Will Smith’s portrayal in Ali, and tell me which you think told you the story of the boxer’s remarkable career and personality better? Also think about what your reaction would be if Man On Wire was to be made into a Hollywood Blockbuster starring, say, Tom Cruise? Not everything needs to be reshot, re-imagined and redone. Sometimes it’s best just to show people footage and let them discover an exceptional event for themselves.

A Single Man
The film for which Colin Firth won a BAFTA, A Single Man centres on someone who’s recently lost his boyfriend in a car accident. Firth tries his best to cope with the bereavement when no one recognises the love he shared with his partner. The views of the society he inhabits best surmised by Julianne Moore’s character, who describes it as “not a real relationship”

The first film by fashion designer turned director, Tom Ford, the film oozes style from every frame. Like it’s main character, each scene has a beauty and attention to detail that’s incredibly appealing and means you can on occasion let your eyes and mind be distracted from the heavy subject matter of the narrative.

The film’s main success is in its portrayal of bereavement: Firth is scared of everything in his life having lost the man he loved. For him a day survived is a day well spent; every time he leaves the door is a triumph. He seems happy to live his life ignored by those around him, avoiding human contact as much as possible. His memories both comfort and haunt him, and we as an audience are left trying to reach out to someone who may not want rescuing.

I also feel the narrative balanced subtly and clarity beautifully, to bring the audience into Firth’s world, without necessarily showing you everything he was thinking and feeling. Like the TV series Mad Men (with whom the film shares a production designer), characters do and say surprising things without us feeling they’re acting ‘out of character’: a juggling act which few films or T.V. shows are able to pull off.

A Single Man then, is a character piece which succeeds on many levels: in portraying a culture, character and period in a very stylish and telling way. A remarkable debut piece from a director whose work I greatly anticipate in the future.

Crazy Heart
The film which gave Jeff Bridges the oscar The Big Lebowski should have done. Crazy Heart has been rightly compared to the Wrestler: portraying an ageing artist trying to make a living past his prime. Along the way he’s supported by a younger woman, (in this case Maggie Gyllenhaal) who encourages him to make contact with his grown-up child.

The main difference between this and Aronofsky’s film is the country music, provided by T-Bone Burnett. Bridges performances of these songs allows Bridges’ character, Bad Blake, to tell of his woes, troubles and sins in a manner befitting of the genre. The other difference is, it’s nowhere near as good.

The problem comes, not from the performances, which are all fantastic, but rather from the central plot which lacks the emotional depth of a film like The Wrestler, or the instant gratification of another similar film, Walk the Line. Instead, we’re left with a character we don’t feel like we know that well, and are not really given a reason to care that much about. What made him remarkable in his prime? Why is his story worth telling?

Instead, we go through the motions of a journey where he learns a lot about himself through others, and ends up a better person because he was able to face up to his past. A story so old, you imagine cavemen would even have called Crazy Heart cliched.

My only defence for this movie is that as someone who is not a natural fan of country and western, I could see how someone who did enjoy the genre may allow themselves to be swallowed up in the emotion of the music. I know films like Walk the Line, Ray, and even Once all beautifully pace themselves with songs that allow the story to move from one place to the next. Given that those bits in this film were the least engaging for me, perhaps my enjoyment of the movie was tarnished as a result.

In essence, unless you’re a truck-driving, beer-guzzling, flannel-shirt wearing, odour-ridden middle aged man called Earl, give it a miss.