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it's bedlam
Sky has been promoting its new supernatural show called Bedlam, and I decided to tune in for an episode. The premise is simple: an asylum that has been in the Bettany family for hundreds of years has been re-fitted into flats for Yuppies and creepy things begin to happen. This ain’t a new concept, but it’s all about the execution after all. Alas, execution is what’s going to happen to this series, because it’s clumsily put together, hackneyed, and not very scary at all. There is an attractive cast of characters, including the heiress vixen (Charlotte Salt), her dad the evil landlord (Hugo Speer), the troubled, sexy young man who…
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Skins 5
A few years back I watched a chunk of episodes from the 1st series of British teenage drama Skins late one night. I had previously decided based on the trailers that I wouldn’t care for it, and was quite surprised at the quality of the writing, acting and the character development. I then watched Season 2, and thought it was extremely strong with compelling storylines. In particular I thought the episode where Cassie goes to New York after the death of Chris to be quite sublime: a poignant expression of the reaction to shock and trauma, as well as a lovely, and unexpected, take on the city and its inhabitants.…
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ordinary unordinary lives
A new American television series, No Ordinary Family, has just begun broadcast on this side of the Atlantic. Its premise is simple: an ‘ordinary’ family – wife, husband, daughter and son – with the the usual moderate middle class disfunctionality gain super-powers and must adjust to them. I’ve seen two episodes, and will probably watch a few more out of mild-mannered curiosity. In the pilot the show quickly established the Powell family dynamics: Stephenie (Julie Benz), the Mom, is a scientist, career woman and the main wage earner; Jim (Michael Chiklis), the dad, is a police sketch artist and failed painter who feels inadequate despite being the main carer for…
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smile, get girls reading comics
Over the past year I’ve increased the amount of comic books/graphic novels I’m reading. Partly because I’m writing coming books now, and also because it’s such a fun, diverse medium. There are so many great titles being published to suit all tastes. When I was a girl I was not encouraged to read comics – I wasn’t discouraged either, but I didn’t know another girl my age who loved them the way I did. I’ve no idea where I got the notion that ‘comic books were for boys’, but it was something I understood. I didn’t agree, but I knew that my liking comic books was not the norm. It…
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seeing the strange
I took this photo in the woods about a week ago. Of course it’s a desiccated thistle head, but it also looks like there’s a winged creature escaped from a fantasy world – such as The Dark Crystal – perched on top of it. Seeing the world at a slant can lend wonder to the most ordinary moment or scene. I’m away today to spend the holiday with my parents, and I’ll be back next week. I might blog, but I also might take a break. It depends on my humour. It was inevitable that after praising the Little Crackers series on Sky I should see two of them I…
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Little Crackers
Over the past couple of years the satellite broadcaster Sky has been venturing into commissioning original television programmes, which is generally a good thing as I’m always happy to see screenwriters getting work. Even though Sky is part of the Murdoch MegaCorp, it can have its benefits (as long as you avoid the news channels). This holiday season Sky has been airing a series of short films by male and female comedians called Little Crackers. Most of them are autobiographical, or at least represent the essence of the comedian (and the comedians usually appear in the short as a character). I’ve seen five of them so far and they are…
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healthy competition?
I’ve noted before that I’m fond of the BBC Masterchef series in all its incarnations. My main reason is that I enjoy seeing people who are passionate about their hobby/profession demonstrating their skill, as well as watching their talent being nurtured over the course of the programme. Not all reality TV shows do that. Often there are competitive elements within the show that are orchestrated to create conflict between the contestants for the entertainment of the viewer. This can mean that the best and most talented person does not win the show. I can’t bear watching the worst examples of this kind of reality TV show. They’re just heartless. I’ve…
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Nikita episode 1
Last night I watched the début episode of the new television series Nikita. I’m intrigued how the core concept of this story has persisted and been remade. Its first incarnation was as a French action film in 1990, also called Nikita, which was written and directed by Luc Besson. The plotline is that Nikita is a young criminal sent to prison. French intelligence fakes her death, takes her to a secret facility and trains her to work as an assassin. After a significant test of her ability she is released into society with a cover story, but she can be activated for any job at any time. Nikita meets a nice…
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a terrible treasure
I decided to pick a work to feature in a “Horror’s Hidden Treasures” section of my own since SFX failed so spectacularly to ask women to promote an under-rated horror gem. I’d encourage other women to do the same. There’s no pressure to pick a woman’s work, but I’m doing so because this writer hugely impressed me with her work. Since the debacle last year about the lack of representation of women in horror I’ve been paying more attention to the subject. Even I was under-educated in the variety of women working in the field, but I’m hardly immune to a system that promotes men’s fiction and accidentally forgets to…
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monstrous women are rarely rewarded
I’ve been meaning to write something for Women in Horror Recognition Month, which is a campaign to promote women who work within the horror genre during the month of February. I’m going to look at two films that I think deserve some attention and discussion: Ginger Snaps (2000) and Jennifer’s Body (2009). These two films serve as a useful balance, since the first is smart and thought-provoking, while the second is interesting but muddled. Ginger Snaps is based on a story by Karen Walton and John Fawcett, the screenplay was written by Walton, and directed by Fawcett. It’s a film about two sisters, Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigette (Emily Perkins),…
