Tom Charman

Alias two nights a week? How can one reviewer cope? Well, she can’t. So I’ll be stepping in to review the Thursday episodes. To provide a little male perspective on the show — which is obviously needed, as Shannon doesn’t seem to properly appreciate just how sexy Jennifer Garner is. Of course, I’ve never seen the show before, so I have some ignorance too, just in different places.

The episode starts in three places. Somewhere, a woman is being locked up very carefully. She didn’t look particularly scary, but everyone else seemed very unsettled, so I’m assuming she’s either a master criminal or a victim of a lethal contagion that threatens to cover the earth. Somewhere else, a weaselly looking man is undergoing some slightly icky initiation ceremony. And in some dank alley, two very attractive people are talking. One of them is Jennifer Garner. Did her voice sound that chipmonk-ey in Daredevil?

Ah, who am I kidding? I know who all these people are. Channel 7 provided me with a helpful intro, explaining who’s bad, who’s good, who’s bad pretending to be good and who’s good pretending to be bad. I’ve got a handle on everyone. At first I thought this was probably going to be superfluous, and that the title sequence would probably have given me the insight I required.

Then I saw it. Does Alias have the most boring and uninspired title sequence I’ve ever seen on a show? Why, yes it does. My god. Spinning white letters. Man, that’s cool. I long for the days of Babylon 5‘s ever changing, always emotive title sequences and music. But enough of my sad bitching, onto the episode proper.

As Michael Vartan hesitantly approached the cell that holds Sydney’s Mum, I was reminded of the many cage scenes this season in Angel. Perhaps she’s a vampire. Vaughn seems pretty scared. What a baby. What’s the worst she can have done to him? At least he got up the guts to look at her, unlike certain sexy double agents we could mention. I’ll forgive Sydney however on the basis of the outfit she wears on her mission to get the film.

The central dilemma of the episode — should Sydney do what her mother tells her or not — is one we can all relate to. Mothers can be so controlling. While I found our voluptuous heroine’s five-minute conversation mid-mission with her real bosses somewhat unbelievably risky, it was a very tense moment, handled well. What was handled even better though was the resolution of this. We never found out what would have happened if she pulled the lever. Her mother’s comment on her return could be interpreted either as “You’re looking spooked and irritated, you didn’t press the lever” or “You’re looking healthy and you have your right hand, you didn’t press the lever.” I always like a bit of well-used ambiguity, and this was fairly impressive for a US action TV show.

In fact, apart from this childish resistance to doing what her mother tells her, I was fairly impressed with Sydney. She does a very nice drop off the balcony, and her laser torch is one of the fastest and most convincing I’ve seen. I wish she wouldn’t wear her hair straight back, but as Shannon complained about exactly the opposite thing last week I shan’t go on about it. I’m certainly impressed that she’s keeping up this ‘double agent’ lark so long. It must make for a stressful sort of life. Vaughn is less impressive. Was there some kind of pole up his arse in the night club? I’ve never seen someone look so out of place. This is probably as I don’t carry a mirror in nightclubs.

Having bagged the title sequence, I feel obliged to point out that the zooming words announcing the narrative settling on a new location are rather cool. The decision to use slow motion every single time anyone visits Mum could get old pretty fast though. Perhaps fast motion next week. This show looks like it needs a good comedy episode. Who’s up for an Alias / Benny Hill crossover?

Well, Benny Hill, for one.

After putting notice of an extra Wednesday rehearsal on the EMS newsletter, and putting my hand up to say I’d be there, I then completely forgot to go. There was a little voice saying ‘stop by the EMS office on your way home’ in my head after Electrodynamics, but I figured I was just wanting to waste good Lab-writing-up time.

I am getting a little scatterbrained. A little MORE scatterbrained. I need an organiser that talks and casually reminds you of things that morning.

On the bright side, I’ve finished my two books. Both were good, though Wilde had the better ending.

I attempted to demonstrate NTGF’s latest masterpiece — Andy C episode 1, part 3, subsection IV — to our good friend Corrinne today. Corrinne rarely spends time online and was unaware of most of our recent efforts but I managed to persuade her to join me at a PC to hear the voices of her good mates, Sara and Andy.

However to my irritation, the PC involved refused to transmit any audio content save the bare MIDI minimum. Hence, instead of presenting to her the voices of long-missed amigos, I instead showed her animated boobs bouncing up and down as I repeatedly rewound in hope of finding some sound.

Which was marvellous. Those EMS members looking over my shoulder were puzzled also. Bloody PCs.

In exciting news, the ABC is repeating all of Doctor Who from the start at 6pm on weekdays, starting in September!

Alright, it’s not exciting at all. They would choose the time when I’m overseas to do it.

Hey, look! We have a books section on Grapefruit finally! Though of course I’ve only reviewed a Doctor Who book, so it’s nothing particularly impressive. However yesterday I bought ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde… as well as yet another Who book. Both will end up being reviewed. Although I may change style somewhat, make the reviews more chatty. I don’t particularly like the one I wrote for ‘Frontier Worlds’.

I’ve bought ‘Dorian Gray’ for a uni course this semester: ‘Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda’. Sounds interesting, huh? I can’t imagine how I’ve missed it before. Apparently it has quite a reputation as the uni ‘filth’ course – but this is pretty much entirely based on having ‘porn’ in the name.

However, we did see some really big pictures of naked men grabbing each other by the ghoulies in the first lecture. Which wasn’t particularly pretty.

When I first read this book, way back in the mists of year twelve, I was completely disappointed in it. After the head-screwing of ‘Interference’, the craziness of ‘The Blue Angel’ and the audacious inventiveness of ‘The Taking of Planet 5’, well, this book seemed a return to filler, involving your standard Doctor Who evil corporation, morally bankrupt executives and corridors.

As was pointed out by many critics at the time — and will be by me, now — it’s nothing of the sort.

In fact, having re-read through the previous books recently in an attempt to justify their purchase, I found the more human viewpoint of ‘Frontier Worlds’ to be a welcome relief from the universal shennanigans of the previous books. Not that I didn’t enjoy those immensely. Also, this time, knowing of certain revelations in previous books, I was looking in the right place for my nifty series-wide-hints this time. These are excellently done, and make me feel very stupid for not having spotted their coolness the first time round.

There are many very nice aspects to the novel. The discussion between the Doctor and Mozarno at the beginning. The Doctor and Compassion’s dreams. All of the Doctor’s amusing action sequences — especially those involving Sempiter’s robot. The Doctor pretending to be a businessman. Fitz’s continuing narrative is also a treat — his roleplaying is nicely done, and particularly resonant now given the events of ‘Interference’. But there’s not too much heavy angst — well, not considering — and some nice personal moments for him.

The relationship between Compassion and Fitz is most interestingly drawn. Compassion manages to keep you guessing as to whether she’s beginning to care or not. It’s unfortunate in a way that the Doctor blunders into this plotline. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve always thought of the Doctor as super-open-minded. That’s part of his appeal. But he seems to have a real issue with new companion Compassion’s culture — one that is super-responsive to ‘signals’ to the point where they tune into almost everything around them via their ear-attached recievers. To see the Doctor actively trying to change someone’s culture seems a bit peculiar, even if there are a few dangers in her being completely open to suggestion. I can’t really offer constructive criticism, but the character ended up sounding more like a more self-righteous one than I generally expect. Luckily, in all other plotlines he too is at his improvising, delightful best.

There were some negative aspects too — many of which I remembered from my first, super-nitpicky read of the book. “The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail” is a bad joke the first time it’s said. By the third, it’s really starting to set my teeth on edge. I don’t care how useful it was to the plot, it’s just annoying. And this comes from a lover of bad jokes. Certain Doctor Who cliches involving certain heroes attempting to talk mutating humans back from the brink of a terrible decision are revisited here and really don’t deserve to be.

In general though, I found ‘Frontier Worlds’ a good, page turning story, and far better than I remembered it.

For the last week, perhaps longer, trains to the city on the Frankston line have been running around 5-10 minutes late.

This week, I’ve been back to uni, having to get up before even 7am to make it into Melbourne Uni by 9am. I’ve also been running around 5-10 minutes late. It’s brilliant. I turn up with little idea what time it is and the train that I’d vaguely thought I might catch turns up too!

Trains should ALWAYS run late. It’s very relaxing.

Tonight, I watch my first episode of Alias. And I’m reviewing it too, so I won’t just be able to gawk mindlessly at the hotness that goes by the name of Jennifer Garner. Actually, this reviewing lark is beginning to turn into an addiction. Whenever I sit down at the couch I reach for a pad and pen to make notes…

Better get the usual crap out of the way first…

• Buffy’s making long speeches: tick.
• Buffy has trouble fighting: no.
• Someone questions Buffy’s ability to make difficult decisions: tick — Giles and Robin.
• Flashbacks: tick — Plenty of Spike related ones.
• Modern Weaponry: no.
• Poke test to check for corporeality: no.
• Anya’s sole line: “Spike has some kind of get out of jail free card that doesn’t apply to the rest of it. I mean, he could slaughter a hundred frat boys … Forgiveness makes us human, blah blah blah.”
• Andrew provides comic relief: tick — Mistakes Fred for a guy.
• The First does something: no.
• Strange behaviour by the gang: blood dripping from Robin’s hand. Robin takes off his metal gloves.
• Getting it on: tick — Spike and Drusilla.
• Best quote: “You want to bring your mum with us?” — Drusilla
• Biggest gripe: so many repeats to keep Buffy and Angel aligned correctly.

Everyone’s got mother issues in this episode. They should all go to counselling except they probably can’t afford it.

Giles, while acting for the greater good, takes a big risk betraying Buffy. I dislike Spike as much as Giles does and can see the danger in keeping him around. I’m sure he’s still quite capable of commiting evil deeds. The chip was useless towards the end and I haven’t seen much evidence of this much-flaunted soul of his. Unlike the rest of the vampires, there is little difference between souless Spike and this season’s souled version. It’s been a gradual change over the past couple of seasons during which the vampire part of Spike has faded into the background before he got his soul back. There was no Angelus-like significant character change when Spike was resouled, but there’s a difference when Spike is sired so I’ll let it go and chalk it up to differences in character and the effect of the chip.

That being said, Spike probably shouldn’t be killed. He’s clearly devoted to Buffy, follows her orders and is a good fighter — which the group needs. Aside from that, Giles should let Spike be, for much the same reasons that Gandalf thought that Gollum shouldn’t be killed. Just because he’s partly evil doesn’t mean he won’t be able to help save the world in the end. Speaking of parallels, Robin reminds me of Holtz. They both want to avenge a family members death and kill a vampire with a soul.

Giles seems to be trying to make more hard decisions for Buffy but it’s only going to get him shut out of Buffy’s life — rather symbolically pointed out at the end. Giles would be better off trying to organise the gang to be more prepared for things to come. Buffy’s far too attached to Spike and too stubborn to accept Spike’s death as necessary.

After spending a rather irritating portion of yesterday rebuilding the whole fricking articles database for grapefruit, it was refreshing and enjoyable today to install MoveableType weblog managing software instead. Ah, the fun. This should look quite nice indeed.

So why am I glum? Because it’s university again tomorrow. Dammit. I’m sure that somewhere along the line I missed at least two weeks of holidays.

As soon as I watch Gosford Park again, I promise to review it. But in the commentary Robert Altman INSISTED that I ought to watch it twice. Who am I to argue? He’s cleverer than me, and he made the thing…

When we last left dear old Angel, he was being encircled by a large bunch of the insect like monsters we were introduced to last week. How does he get out of this one? Why, by waving a key at them.

I must try that one on muggers.

This is an episode mainly focussed on Angel and Connor — well, everyone else is either locked up or unconscious. And Connor’s almost interesting. He comes damn close to being vaguely interesting. His talk of lies and his life sells his near psychosis to us, generally, but after almost a season of watching him act like a wanker, or mindless evil-Cordy stooge, it’s probably too late to expect any major empathy from the audience. Angel’s issues are more interesting, but having them spoken directly out loud by a teeny weeny comic relief monster man was possibly not the best way to explore them.

Perhaps the most interesting stuff this episode comes from our favourite demi-god, Jasmine. During these last two episodes she has managed to come across at times as genuinely altruistic, if just a little too willing to eat people. Her plaintive arguments to Angel were almost heart rending, and I found myself really caring for her. Right up to when she started throwing cars at him. Then kissing him. I really didn’t get the kissing bit.

Speaking of things I didn’t get, the brief dialogue between our incarcerated friends concerning using Cordy against Jasmine seemed peculiar. I mean, I wasn’t desperate to see Cordelia wake up after some of her more average acting this season. But those few moments might’ve really gotten the hopes up of fervent Charisma Carpenter fans — who would then have them dashed by the whole thing being wrapped up without her.

So what might have been a really brilliant episode if placed on more solid foundations, ends up simply a solid, occasionally insightful story. It certainly lacked the freshness of last week’s — an example being the disappointingly normal speech patterns used by the high priest. But it was full of nice touches, such as the cool cinematography inside the church, Angel coming back and finally taking the wind out of smug ol’ Jasmine’s sails, and some more very nice demon make-up.

And, of course, one of your bigger surprise endings. Oooooh.

Desperate times call for desperate measures this week, as our favourite demon hunting detective agency take to the sewers to evade Jasmine’s insidious influence. Insidious and scary, I should specify, as the scene at the gas station was supremely creepy and fun. It also allowed Gina Torres one of a few chances to show off some fairly impressive maniacal laughter, which is always enjoyable.

Like all the best Angel episodes, there were some solid themes running through this episode — questions of sacrifice and perspective. The opposition of Angel and Fred’s viewpoints on how best to manage themselves during the crisis were interesting, and I felt slightly disappointed that they never got to have a proper forthright discussion on the matter. I would have liked to see her stand up to him, and how he’d deal with it.

Once down below, of course, our heroes met up with a bunch of plucky kids. Guest characters! Yay! I’d almost forgotten you could have a character in an Angel episode who wasn’t in a previous one. Unfortunately, as mentioned, they were plucky kids. But I got over it. Especially when they got a little evil at the end. And it was a sensible way to really rub into Angel what he’d just done to Connor.

But the best aspect of this week’s Angel was, of course, the monster bug. Good computer effects (for television at least). Amazing make up. Hilarious dialogue. Excellent acting. Every scene between him and Wesley was a pleasure, also in part due to seeing Wes be as clever as everyone says he is. As a result of this section, I found a few of the more minor plausibility problems of the episode easier to ignore, or forgive. Such as — what are the odds of running into Jasmine worshipping insects? Or these tricky keys that open doors the moment anyone rubs them with blood.

For freshness, creepyness, and excellent handling of the regular characters, this episode stands for me as one of this season’s best. And did I mention the damn cool cliffhanger?