The Full Lid 6th December 2019
|
|
Happy Friday everyone!
Well that was a week so long we should petition for another couple of 'ee's in the middle. But! You're here! I'm here and the Lid!Is!Full! Tell them the plan, paragraph 2!
Here's the plan; every Friday, around 5, you get all the details of the interesting, weird, fun, clever or often all of the above pieces of pop culture I've encountered in the week. If you like what you read,the archive and sign up link are here. Please share it but if you do please tell folks how to subscribe and where you got it. Also if you like what I do and want to assist me in remaining conscious, why not buy me a coffee?.
CONTENTS under pressure. Face towards...face
|
|
Contents
The Woking Dead
Live Statement Transcription: The Magnus Archives
Magnus Archives Peter Lukas Fan Art Spotlight
James Bond Issue 1
Signal Boosting
Where Can We Find You This Week
Signing Off/Playing Out
|
|
The Woking Dead
(with thanks to friend of the Lid and just TOP NOTCH twitter follow EwaSR for the title)
The BBC’s long anticipated, slightly suspiciously late broadcast, adaptation of War of the Worlds finished last week. It’s...not great. But it is interesting, and worth talking about. Here’s why:
Amy
The entire cast work far harder than they should ave to but no one works harder than Eleanor Tomlinson as Amy. George’s partner, the mother of his child but not (le gasp!) the woman George is married to, Amy is the Other Woman for the entire first episode and is saddled not only with vast amounts of exposition but all the prejudices that Peter Harness' script wants to explore.
On paper this is fine. God knows the Victorian era could absolutely stand to be skewered another few hundred times given the massive fetish for it our ruling class has but the show never escapes the feeling it’s doing all this to keep the Martians off screen as along as possible. Some people think its a budgetary failure, others think it;s a a failure of scope. Whichever it actually is it not only badly damages the show but means its newest and most important character has far more work to do than they ever should have been called upon for.
Dispatches
There are flashes of brilliance, maddening hints of the show we almost got. Rupert Graves’ Frederick being confronted by the horrifying realities of the government he supports and what it feels like being on the other side of oppression. Robert Carlyle’s brilliant, kind, gay Ogilvy, a character so interesting and carefully realized he’s written out for an episode and a half so George can look sad again. The ending which shoots for ‘from the dirt’ salvation and instead feels overlong and portentous and curiously flat. Time and again the show reaches for something interesting. Time and again budget, or will or choice, or format stop it getting there. The best example of that? The third episode, largely concerned with Amy, Frederick, George and a dwindling supporting cast holed up by a downed tripod, leaves the show in a fascinating position that's a great inciting incident and framing narrative. Instead, we get three episodes, heading in the wrong direction and making the wrong choices along the way.
|
|
The Gutsy as Hell Structure
That being said, the first episode is cut through within shots of what we we’re supposed to think is Mars. It’s all war-torn red deserts, wrecked war machines, the kind of thing that Black Sabbath would put on a really good concept album cover, big fun. About halfway through the first episode though, we start seeing humans in this environment, leading to the absolute gut punch of a payoff that closes episode one: this is Earth after the invasion is over.
That instantly gives the story another dimension and, what some people have viewed, as needless extra complexity. I don’t agree, largely because War of the Worlds is, at it’s core, 2.5 acts in search of a finale. The Martians invade, we lose, they die, home for tea and medals. Roll end credits. This is a far less tidy, far more realistic post-war world and I suspect the romance of Jolly Old England shaking off an alien invasion is something people have sorely missed. However, it’s the one part of the ‘imperialism is terrible’ element of the show that actually lands. The war is over, the bad guys lost but there are so few of the rest of us that the planet is basically there for the corpses to lie on. That’s grim, nasty fun, that has legs as something to explore. Likewise the revelation that the Martians died when they ate human meat rather than via a benign conspiracy of bacteria. The show even walks RIGHT up to a serious conversation about illness and sin and the uncomfortable times in our history when they’ve been viewed as one and the same. It’s RIGHT THERE in a way not even His Dark Materials manages and yet, at the last minute, the show waves off.
In fairness, the material it waves off this in favor of is one of the other biggest strengths. Everyone in this cast is working far harder than they should have to and almost none of them more than Rafe Spall. Saddled with the vastly superfluous subplot of George being sort-of unfaithful, he does what he can with a character that for some reason the production team have decided wasn’t quite unlikable enough. The end result is the show grinding to a halt for three minutes while he and his older brother argue about imperialism, an entirely abandoned element of the plot involving his wife and an overwhelming lack of agency. George has very little to do other than look for other people and be startled as Martian death machines kill them. It’s only in the third episode when, possibly already dying, he makes the one choice that makes sense for this version, and in fairness, A Quiet Place before it; sacrifice.
George dies so Amy and their unborn son can live and it’s such a perfect twist, such a logical place to take the story I’m honestly shocked no one has ever done it before. George, and older brother Frederick aren't built for the new world. Amy and the child are. Again, there’s incredible potential to build new, vital, interesting structures out of the classic there. Instead, the show never quite works up the courage to break from it and ultimately does it more of a disservice than if it had. It’s a real shame because there's a fascinating story hidden somewhere in the wreckage of Woking. But this, it turns out is not it.
|
|
|
|
I will never stop loving the transition from orchestral doom to slapbass funkotronic doom on this.
|
|
Live Statement Transcription: The Magnus Archives
|
|
|
NEEDLE SCRATCH/FREEZE FRAME
Yup that's me. you're probably wondering how i ended up in this situation. Well, last week The Magnus Archives had their first live show as part of The London Podcast Festival. The Magnus Archives is a show we've talked about here before, because, well, I used to be the lead villain.
Well...
I say villain...
Peter Lukas took over the Archives when his close...FRIEND...Elias Bouchard ('Elias' to his friends, '...ELIAS' to Peter) was arrested for murder, Peter was a lovely, charming, jovial fellow, super interested in his employee's health and especially in the radicalization of Martin (Played by Alexander J. Newall). You see, Peter, works for...something. And that something wants the Institute. And Martin is a big part of how it's going to get it. So, Peter breaks Martin, Martin breaks the world, everyone goes home happy. Or screaming. Or happy. One of the two. It's not happy. Unless you're Peter.
Well...I say unless you're Peter.
I don't want to spoil much because the show is amazingly well put together, like an antique time piece made entirely of knives and you really should experience it for yourself.
|
|
That was our plan when we showed up. It lasted as long as Alex sitting me at one end of the signing line for the meet and greet and his partner Hannah pressganging Marguerite into being an extra set of hands. What followed was a profoundly weird and LOVELY half hour that turned into 90 minutes of signing people's programs and tickets. SO many people said that they loved or hated my character and thanked me for playing him and it was such a PURE experience and one I didn't know I frantically needed. This year has been a LOT, everyone and to have an experience in the middle of that which was an unalloyed, definitive positive was incredibly refreshing.
Plus I think I successfully sold them on a prequel series starring Elias and Peter as stockbrokers.
Anyway! The show. The Magnus Archives Live cleverly does three excellent things:
- Explains the premise of the show to new listeners
- Sets up WAY more longterm plot than you might think
- Has a really excellent running gag involving a dog
It was a brilliant night. It would have been a brilliant night without the signing line and being called onstage to take part in the cast Q&A that closed the show but with it? It was inspiring. It was...restful? It was amazing, thanks to everyone for coming in.
The photo! Right!
SO, there is a general consensus among some fans that Elias and Peter are in fact in a long term, deeply weird but loving relationship. This is adorable and I've decided it's true. Plus, it turns out that Ben (Yes his moustache is amazing) and I never actually recorded together so this was the first time we met. As a result, and thanks to the chunky jumper and captain's hat Marguerite acquired for me, it was time for the murderhusbands to murderhusband up. And we ROCKED it.
The Magnus Archives is in it's season 4/5 hiatus. Start at the beginning. Take notes. It's AMAZING. Thanks to Zalia for the photo, Marguerite for the signing line photo and epic costume location skills and the entire team and fans for being so welcoming.
|
|
Magnus Archives Peter Lukas Fan Art Spotlight
|
|
Look! Look at this from the amazing VeraRaeArt! Look at the adorable murderhusbands! |
|
|
Featuring! Two of the best cast members from Knives Out! One of the best cast members from Captain Marvel! The most Phoebe Waller-Bridgeian line in HUMAN HISTORY! A possibly worrying amount of Spectre continuity! An almost certainly doomed Felix Leitner! LET'S DO THIS!
(i have half an idea about examining the Craig Bonds as a finite text given how much narrative tissue they share. Yes this would mean rewatching both Something of Boris and Spectre. Yes I would do this for you. No, no more statues are...well okay, just a little one.)
|
|
James Bond Issue 1
James Bond is Doctor Who. Unkillable. Infallible. REALLY good at suits. Even if you subscribe to the number and the man being different entities, Bond is a towering colossus of old school toxic masculinity one way, and the Le Carreian ideal the other. The principled bulldog. The exhausted guardian on the wall. Licensed to kill and drowning those memories in whiskey rather than blood.
So how do you write him?
Easy. Same way you write The Doctor. By writing the people around them. And, on occasion, having them change gender.
SCREAM LOUDER, GROGNARDS. YOUR ANGUISH NOURISHES ME.
Anyhoo, Vita Ayala and Danny Lore have jumped aboard the Bond train (It's made of explosions, fistfights and somehow, always Monaco) and their first issue is a textbook example of how to do this. We meet Bond at the top of the story with what's basically a two page, Will Eisnerian chase sequence and mission statement (Women! Diplomats! Sex! Explosions! Parkour!) and then...
we meet these two.
|
|
Brandy Keys is an art insurance investigator. Reese is her ever so slightly dodgy buddy. Keys is both classic Bond and the sort of character Nate Ford would nod approvingly down the bar to; endlessly competent, encylopedically aware and she LIKES this game. Ayala and Lore's script cleverly sits with these two for much of the issue and gives Eric Gapstur's playful, light on its feet and brass knuckled art a chance to have a LOT of fun. The entire middle of the issue is basically these two artcrime nerds nerding out about artcrime. And by nerding out I mean figuring out how they'd do it.
It is CATNIP for someone who loves characters who are smart. It is CATNIP dipped in chocolate for someone who loves Leverage and, specifically, The Rashomon Job (Go, watch the entire show it's amazing), as much as I do. Clever, artful, complex and FUN. Gapstur's work is perfectly suited to it too, and the little Eisner flares (I love that Reese leans against a panel during the brainstorming session) the three come up with are just a joy to read. Likewise Roshaw Kurichiyanil and Rebecca Nalty's lush colours which manage to create a sense of Bondian hyper-reality, and also correctly portray a down at heel Snooker joint. Oh also? The English slang and vernacular is on poiint, Arianna Maker's lettering gets a ton of information across with ease and the book moves like Bond himself. Graceful, constant, and purposeful.
Which is the final thing that makes me smile about this; this story is going to plunge Bond into the world of art fraud. Brandy and Reese are at home here while he's a velociraptor with a firearm. It's going to be fascinating to see the two sides bounce off one another and, if it's half as good as this door-kicking debut, we're in for a treat.
James Bond issue 1 is ludicrously good fun and is out now. Oh and click through to find the link to your local comic shop. Mine as ever, is here.
|
|
|
|
The Stanley Parable is one of my all-time favorite games. And stories. And museums. It's...there's a Lot contained inside the suspiciously jovial game and I had no idea the Ultra Deluxe edition was even a thing. Excitement! Office buildings! One of the chirpiest soundtracks ever! Bring it onnnnn!
|
|
And of course, here's my Ko-Fi.
|
|
|
|
The original series is one of those ELO albums of modern comics, everyone's heard of it but odds are you've never heard it (I haven't). Despite that, I'm surprisingly invested in this. The Berlanti shows are often a really good time and they've really swung for this one. I'll report back on how it is in a week or so.
|
|
Where You Can Find Me This Week
At PseudoPod!
At SciFi Bulletin!
|
|
Signing Off/Playing Out
Well that was a week. A Week in fact. Possibly even a Weeek. Anyway, done now, and in the rear view at last and what are we listening to while we drive into Weekend City? Why, the Escape Artists Podcast Network of course! Also check out the Team KennerStuart instagram as usual.
All this is done for free so f you like what you read please consider dropping something in the tip jar. Thank you:)
SUNSHINE, folks. We're in the slide down to the shortest days right now. Make sure you get outside. Stop the world for a bit, choose when to get back on, okay?
Playing us out this week? Skratch Bastid's Star Wars set. Firstly, because we're worth it. Secondly, because this?
|
|
|
|
is a Full Lid.
|
|
|
|
|
