Blightyvision: “Sherlock” Series 2
Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss
Written by Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and Steve Thompson
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and Andrew Scott
After the ending of the first series of Sherlock, a friend tweeted desperately to Steven Moffat that clearly he forgot to deliver the next episode to the BBC. For more than a year, the fandom has been biting their nails waiting to see how the horrifying cliffhanger would be resolved, and on New Year’s Day they finally got their show back and could breathe again. For three weeks. In those three weeks, though, we got to see an already-good show evolve, finding ways around last year’s weak points without suddenly flying off the handle and changing format and theme.
A few things did change this series. For one thing, they went in a similar direction to “Jonathan Creek,” forcing their genius protagonist into the limelight to deal with unwanted new-found celebrity. The unwanted attention also found its way into Sherlock’s personal life, as his unfortunate admirer Molly (Loo Brealey, an unsung talent in the show) goes from being a bit of a joke to genuinely sympathetic. This isn’t the only woman in Sherlock’s life, though.
Nope. If you had your ear in even the general direction of this series’s production, you knew The Woman — Irene Adler — was on the way. Played by Lara Pulver (of “MI-5″ and the ill-fated final series of “Robin Hood”), this Irene is certainly a bit on the edgier side — her episode, “A Scandal in Belgravia” (based on the original story A Scandal in Bohemia), presents her as a dominatrix whose fascination with Sherlock’s apparent asexuality leads her to play a variety of games with him, mental and otherwise. Let’s just say the “battle dress” she greets him in leaves very little to the imagination. Moff came under a bit of fire for this, as the show aired before the watershed, but he’s always getting yelled at for something, so moving on.
Now in its second series, the show knows where it stands well enough that it can tackle the famous stories; thus, their second episode is Gatiss’s “The Hounds of Baskerville” (based on … well, it’s fairly obvious). ”Hounds” is a horror story in every sense, from directorial choices to high-strung psychological crises. Gatiss, whose Doctor Who history includes the spooky “The Unquiet Dead” and “Night Terrors,” was a good match, and his writing gives the actors a challenge they appear to be more than up to. Russell Tovey puts in an impressive appearance — and no, I don’t think it was lost on anyone that the werewolf from “Being Human” was in the episode about a giant demon dog.
As for the third story … “The Reichenbach Fall” … there’s not much one can say. This is in part for spoilers, in another part for honest inability to try and relate it, but mainly because if you know Holmes canon you already know what that title signifies. What can I say? Strenuous and amazing work from both Cumberbatch and Freeman, for a start. Andrew Scott continues to be utterly mad as Moriarty, and we finally get to see an extended performance from him. More than anything, though, this proves Steve Thompson as a writer, whose episode last year — “The Blind Banker” — was (if one had to choose) the weakest of the three. He was given an essential and unchangeable piece of Holmes canon to adapt, and he made it both tear-jerking and utterly confounding … though one gets the feeling Moff helped with that.
I think I’ve complained in the past — actually, I know I have — about warring fandoms (specifically, Ritchie movies vs. this … I’ve yet to see a rabid Basil Rathbone fan lose it on Tumblr about accuracy to the source). One thing I really did love in here was a pair of brief, yet obvious, directorial nods to the Ritchie flicks. Given that I’ve heard Cumberbatch enjoys the movies and they scared him into going to the gym, I take them as a cute little tip of the hat to its fellow reinterpretation. See if you can spot them.
The main thing Sherlock had going for it this year was the fact that there was no more setup necessary. With all the characters in place and the style of the series established, they were free to branch out both with plots and with character development. Rupert Graves is delightful as Lestrade, and he actually gets some of the best lines in the show for a change. And Una Stubbs as the indispensable Mrs. Hudson becomes essential to the action, as does the aforementioned Molly Hooper. Even the main pair got some character development — yes, even Sherlock, a risky direction for this characterization but handled well and interestingly. Cumberbatch and Freeman continue excellent, with their chemistry improving significantly this year. I heard from a few viewers that the “we’re not gay” gags wore a bit thin on them, but your mileage may very.
Last year, too, the pairing of writer to story seemed a bit arbitrary — the show-runners get the first and last story of the year, and the third writer picks up the middle. Here, the choices made sense: Moff gets the sexy one, Gatiss gets the spooky one, and Thompson gets a golden opportunity to show what he can do. And while there was the running thread of Moriarty last year, this year the connections between things are more subtle and (according to Moff) some are still going unnoticed as the fandom scratches its head over the big finale.
Never fear, though. A third series was commissioned and approved long before it was announced, so questions will be answered and more stories are in store. I can’t wait to see them explain this one away, though.
The second series of Sherlock will air in the US as part of Masterpiece Mystery! starting on May 6. Tune in to see people get naked … there, that’s got your attention.
In: Columns, Television: British and Canadian · Tagged with: benedict cumberbatch, mark gatiss, martin freeman, modern retelling, mystery, Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, the moff
Spielberg possibly directing “Braveheart-ish Moses Epic”, Gods and Kings
Steven Spielberg is doing a good job of hitting iconic moments in history. Fresh off War Horse, and to follow the upcoming Lincoln & the not-historically-accurate-but-totally-will-be Robopocalypse, Warner Bros is trying to snag the director for a new take on Moses.
According to Deadline, Warner Brothers wants their movie, Gods and Kings, not to follow The Ten Commandments but rather be a “warrior film…with the grittiness of Saving Private Ryan.” Spielberg first read the script in September and talks, for good or ill, are supposed to be finished by the end of the month.
The treatment was brought to the studio by Matt Leshem, who will be producing, and the script is to be written by Michael Green (co-writer, Green Lantern) and Stuart Hazeldine (Paradise Lost). Filming is expected to being in 2013.
In: Eyes and Ears, Movies, News · Tagged with: Gods and Kings, Moses, Steven Spielberg, Warner Brothers
Comic Non-Sans: The Column in 2012
I’ve been writing this column for a while now. It started as a look at individual webcomics and corresponding trends, then personal observations, then peeks at the business side of webcomicking, and now it’s become something of an odd mishmash of all of the above.
I’d love for this column to be helpful to our readers, but I’ve no idea if our audience is made up mostly of webcomic readers or creators. So as I start sorting out my writing responsibilities for the new year, I’m curious — as a regular (I assume) reader, what would you like to see this section of the blog cover? More specific comics? More business/financial-angled stuff? Or are you content with something as free-form as it’s been lately?
I still plan to cover conventions as I attend them, new projects from known creators, and — whenever possible — information on new artists who are coming up with innovative new presentations. Those things won’t change. But in between times, I’d love to hear what our readers would like to see this column become in the new year. I look forward to reading your comments.
In: Columns, The Written Word, Webcomics, Webcomics
Geekly Speaking About interviews Josh A. Cagan
Josh A. Cagan performs at w00tstock 1.2. Photo by Adam Savage.
There have been many great things to come out of the invention of Twitter, and one of those things is the fact that Joe and Jane Average Geek can have a closer relationship to the celebrities they admire. Of course, sometimes what happens as a result of those Twitter conversations occurs in a completely unpredictable way, and the result can be something rather spectacular.
Take screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (@joshacagan) for example. One minute, he’s noodling around on Twitter, the next he’s starting a friendship with Adam Savage from “Mythbusters,” after that comes an appearance at the inaugural w00tstock shows, and just recently, a script he sold last year was on the 2011 Hollywood Blacklist of the year’s “most liked” spec scripts.
But as Lowell Greenblatt and I found out during our interview with him, Cagan’s life and career has had its low points, too:
Read the rest of this post »
In: Interviews, Podcasts · Tagged with: Bandslam, Interviews, Josh A. Cagan, Podcasts, screenwriters, The Duff, Undergrads
Producers Guild of America Awards
Well, it’s sort of coming out at a bad time, considering Sundance is going on right now, but the Producers Guild of America held their awards show this weekend and we may be getting a good look at a barometer for the Oscars.
The Artist has picked up another ‘Best Picture’ award, this one the Darryl F. Zanuck award, which has been awarded to the best picture winners for the last few years. Also a winner in the animation category was The Adventures of Tintin, beating out Rango and the slate of sequels that came out in the last year.
Other winners included Downton Abbey, Boardwalk Empire and Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest.
Check out the full list of winners here.
In: Events, Movies, Television: British and Canadian, Television: U.S.A. · Tagged with: Producers Guild of America, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, The Artist
Lincoln’s Movie Night: Haywire
Haywire
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas
Haywire is not pretty.
That’s a misleading statement. I’m not saying that it’s a bad film, or that it isn’t shot well. On the contrary, it’s a lot of fun, and the cinematography make for an extremely entertaining film. No, what Haywire is is what The Expendables should have been: action stripped down to it’s most basic, bloody, bone-breaking form, with none of the CGI or wire-work that has come to define the genre.
And not a single explosion.
In: Eyes and Ears, Movies, Reviews · Tagged with: Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Gina Carano, Haywire, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, MMA, Steven Soderbergh
Blightyvision: “Treasure Island”
Directed by Steve Barron
Adapted by Stewart Harcourt
Starring Eddie Izzard, Toby Regbo and Rupert Penry-Jones
If you had told College Me that Eddie Izzard would someday be killing it in a serious period drama, my response would likely have been “Right, and next you’ll be telling me that North kid will actually survive as a grown-up actor.” Well, to be fair, I would have found the latter mildly more believable. But over the years, Izzard has been stepping out into more mainstream dramatic roles — such as “The Riches,” struck down in its prime as it was — to the point where hearing he was playing Long John Silver wasn’t a shocker so much as a pleasant surprise.
This new version of Treasure Island, billed during its inception as family fare, was Sky 1′s holiday offering, and featured an impressive cast that just grew more impressive during the span of slow-release casting news last year. Daniel Mays (of “Ashes to Ashes” and recently the Doctor Who episode “Night Terrors”) appears as Dr. Livesey, Philip Glenister as Captain Smollett, and the afore-referenced Elijah Wood is Ben Gunn. Just to name three.
As with a lot of new-new-new adaptations of classics already made into films in the past, this two-part miniseries is not afraid to go both grittier and truer to the original story. Its “family” billing is clearly by British “kids can handle this” standards. As for loyalty to the source, this version mentions Silver’s wife (here named Alibe and played by Nina Sosanya of “Casanova”), who has never made an appearance in any previous versions. Also, with a much longer form to work with, there’s a lot less trimming to do.
The heavy-hitter cast does not disappoint. Wood plays the best kind of crazy as the religion- and cheese-obsessed castaway Ben Gunn, and it’s a pity that his role in the book meant he only got an outing in the second half. Young Toby Regbo plays an admirable Jim Hawkins without being too wide-eyed or innocent, and Mays as Dr. Livesey lets “Ashes” fans see him take another go in a sympathetic role. It was also nice to see Shirley Henderson (as Meg Hawkins) stepping outside fandom’s perception of her as incurably young to play a strong mother figure opposite Sosanya as Alibe (who, fortunately, had a decent chunk of screen time).
The two real killers of the cast, though, were easily Glenister and Izzard, and one of the great pleasures of Treasure Island is seeing them engaging in extreme acting opposite each other. The former, whose recent roles seem to entail him unbuttoning his shirt in warm sunny places, has always done well in period dramas, and people who know him for nothing other than Gene Hunt will get to see a very different side of him. Yes, Smollett does begin a bit Hunt-esque, but that melts away quickly. And Izzard — I’m hard pressed to find adequate words. As a comedian he’s always been rather endearing in a pleasant, scatterbrained sort of way. But in drama, somehow he seems to excel at characters who are simultaneously untrustworthy and subversively likable. Silver is one hell of a physical transformation for him, so even if somewhere within you there’s a bit of difficulty separating yourself from his other roles (or himself), the tattoos and shaved head should drive it home. As well as that really fierce coat.
There are two big reasons to consider watching this version of Treasure Island: either because you love the story, or because you love the cast. Either of those alone is enough reason to watch, as it’s an admirable adaptation and shows everyone at their best. If you’re a regular reader, I can assume that you’re familiar with a bare minimum of three of the featured cast. In which case … provided you can get your hands on it … give it a watch. Sky 1 has done Region 1 releases of its Discworld adaptations, so if there’s enough demand we may see this stateside.
At the very least, it’d be something cool to show a high school English class during their last week before summer vacation.
This adaptation of Treasure Island also features Donald Sutherland as himself, if he were a crazy old pirate. So, well …
In: Columns, Television: British and Canadian
SOPA/PIPA Videos of the Day
Today, I’ve got a couple videos for you. If you’ve tried to visit Wikipedia today, you’re aware that it has ‘gone dark’ in protest of two bills that are moving through Congress, the Protect IP act and the Stop Online Piracy act. What exactly are these acts? Check out the videos below.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
This one is funnier, but no less intelligent.
Contact your senator and let them know that they need to vote against these bills. If they pass, sites like this one could not exist in the very near future.
In: Around the Intertubes · Tagged with: Censorship, MPAA, PIPA, RIAA, Soapbox, SOPA
Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, gets some Oscar-winning talent
It’s ridiculous to make the point that, yes, The Hunger Games series is popular. And surprise, surprise, the sequel for the upcoming and assuredly awesome film is already in the planning stage at Lionsgate.
Gary Ross, director of Seabiscuit as well as the first film, is returning to direct. But in a move that represents what the studio is investing in the film, The Wrap announced that Oscar-Winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) is working on the script. The film, which covers the birth of the revolution surrounding series protagonist Katniss Everdeen, will release on November 22, 2013.
But for Hunger Games fans, the date to wait for is the premiere of the first on March 23, 2012. May the odds be ever in your favor.
In: Eyes and Ears, Movies, News · Tagged with: Gary Ross, Simon Beaufoy, The Hunger Games
Comic Non-Sans: MarsCon Wrap-Up
MarsCon is the first convention I ever attended, starting in 2000 when I was a college freshman and didn’t understand the whole “convention” thing. I guess this makes it my Lucky 13th year attending, for what it’s worth. It’s stayed pretty much consistently good over the years, which is saying something for a middling-sized “relax-a-con” that’s managed to stay in a smallish historical tourist town.
Kicking off this year's inevitable slew of "End of the World" themes at cons, we have a zombie apocalypse brewing
From a creator standpoint, MarsCon has never been much of a commerce convention. If you’re the guest of honor or write for an established property, you’re likely to have more luck. For a webcomicker or indie writer, though, your mileage may vary. At $25 a pop for a table, it’s not as bad as, say, striking out at a bigger Artist Alley. Here, regardless of whether I sell, I’ve always had good luck getting to know people, making connections (both with readers and fellow artists), and getting a feel for what’s popular among different age groups.
For the record, MarsCon tends to have a spread leaning toward older fandom. This year there were a lot of teens and twentysomethings on hand — not surprising for Williamsburg, home of the College of William & Mary — but in large part, the attendees are people who have been going for quite a while, or who at least have been going to cons in general for quite a while. Read the rest of this post »
In: Columns, Events, The Written Word, Webcomics, Webcomics · Tagged with: conventions, events, marscon, Zombies