THE FULL LID
12th March 2021
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Hi everyone! Welcome to The Full Lid!
You know the drill by now: stuff that's fun, looked at with enthusiasm, inclusivity and eloquence. Email but good. LinkedIn but you can hold the network. Facebook but not built on a landfill of toxic techbro masculinity and outdated memes.
Plus, jokes! And this week, speeches. Firstly because they're great and secondly because I'm preparing for a role which will involve a bit more soliloquizing so I figured it was time to revisit some favorites.
Incidentally, I'm super aware how VERY white and male this collection is. That needs to change. If you have excellent speeches you'd like to recommend, please do send them my way.
Onwards to Contents!
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Contents
Resident Alien
While You Were Hyper-Sleeping
Signal Boost
Where You Can Find Me This Week
Signing Off / Playing Out
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Spare A Coffee?
Our April Fool's special issue plans are well and truly underway, True Believers! None of the usual nonsense here. Well, okay, SOME of the usual nonsense, but in an upbeat and positive way!
We've commissioned three writers and an artist to bring you features and artwork. And all of that that costs money -- could you help out?
Our goal is to raise $400 to cover the costs of this special edition -- you can chip in here
If we overfund, whoo hoo! We'll payment these talented writers and artists even more. Everyone wins! And thank you!
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Resident Alien
Editor's note: Spoilers for the first six episodes
That's Harry. Sort of. He's having a bit of a time right now. You see, 'Harry' is an alien scientist who volunteers for a job on Earth. Thanks to some lightning, Harry crashes. Alone on a planet not his own, he finds his way to the outskirts of Patience, Colorado, where he finds the reclusive Doctor Harry Vanderspiegle.
Things get... murdery and 'Harry' becomes Harry. Miles from anywhere, with nothing but Law & Order reruns he figures he has ample time to learn how to use his new body, find his ship, do the job, and leave. Right up until Sherriff Mike ('Big Black' to his friends, of which he has none, played by Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv Baker ( Elizabeth Bowen) show up. There's been a death in town. The local doctor is dead and now 'Harry' has been roped in as the town's only doctor.
Adapted from the Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse graphic novel series, Resident Alien is like Harry -- very invested in making you think it's one thing when it's actually another. The difference -- I say this with all due respect to blue and purple alien doctors everywhere -- is the show is competent.
Let's stick with Harry for a moment. Alan Tudyk is one of the Whedon-orbit actors who appears to have escaped that poisonous toxic masculinity farm largely intact. He's made a couple of tone deaf comments about his time on Firefly but also had the good sense to shut up and listen since then. Professionally, he's ploughed a very different furrow to the former nerd king's work. Tudyk's deadpan comedic invention has shown up everywhere from one of the least bad Transformers movies to Moana, in each case bringing his trademark comedic timing and presence to the role. Plus let's not forget his turn as the best murder butler ever in Rogue One.
So we JUST get away with avoiding the 'separate art from artist' Judo here and instead get to focus on a comic leviathan at work and holy WOW does Tudyk GET THE JOKE. He plays Harry like the offspring of Marvin the Martian and Crypto from Destroy All Humans! -- egotistically confident, permanently annoyed and abjectly terrified. He's a brilliant alien scientist continually outwitted by a nine year old boy. He's a barely competent doctor hiding inside the rapidly shrinking pocket of bias the locals hold about out-of-towners. He's also a happy drunk, which helps.
Best of all, Tudyk matches Harry's intellectual comedy with his physical skill. He barely moves his face above his mouth, is constantly wide eyed with astonishment and seems genuinely worried every time a laugh rips itself loose. It's an incredible performance, simultaneously echoing his amazing work on Doom Patrol and oddly reminiscent of Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises. There's the same sense of physical presence at war with intellect, just with fewer motorcycle chases. |
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Were the show just the Alan Tudyk Power Hour that would be, well, pretty great actually. But what lifts it is its refusal to sit back on the gimmick or let anyone have an easy time of it. Pictured above, you see Sara Tomko as Asta Twelvetrees, the local nurse alongside Harry and Sheriff Thompson. Reynolds is clearly having almost as much fun as Tudylk, doing his best David Clarke impression just with added humanity. He's clearly VERY focused, VERY intense and wants desperately to do his job well. But, like Harry, he hits the buffers of the town head on. Mike kicks back against them as well, but doesn't use humor (or at least, not good humor). Whether it's his insistence that his balls are a suitable tool for detection or his love for wonderfully inept French bulldog Cletus, Mike takes nothing at half measures. I desperately want his backstory but for now, Reynolds gives him such life you can't help but admire the dude. Just not in eyeline because he'd probably tell you a kid's story about trucks ripping off arms or something.
Which brings us to Asta, who I'd argue is the show's real protagonist. Sara Tomko is amazingly good from the jump. She's a dropout who's also a nurse, an abuse survivor who refuses to let that abuse define her. A loyal family member who gave up her daughter for adoption at seventeen. And has been trying to subtly watch and reconnect with her daughter ever since, while keeping it a secret.
Resident Alien has a rich supporting cast of interesting, unrepentantly flawed characters, like former Olympian turned bartender D'arcy Bloom. D'arcy, played with flamboyant, pinwheeling joyous sleaze by Alice Wetterlund, is Asta's best friend. Their shared experience and chemistry -- small town escapees who since returned -- gives them endless fodder for their supportive, acerbic banter. Anyone who's grown up in a community this small, and dug the tunnel out of it, will recognize a lot of what the two women experience.
And the show has plenty left to do. Harry is being pursued by government agents, is increasingly unsure of his mission, and six episodes in has genuinely begun to feel at home. Towns like Patience are places you wash ashore as well as come home to, and everyone in the show has the look of the recently drowning and glad to be alive. This is a town full of people whose stories are in progress, and I can't think of a higher compliment for the writing than that.
Especially as the characters that's truest of are the children. Mayor's son Max (Judah Prehn) and his best friend Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke), the only Muslim girl in town, are having their own Stranger Things season in and around Resident Alien. The show may never be sweeter than Sahar showing Max her tinfoil hat under her hijab but I look forward to seeing it try.
Resident Alien is intensely odd, at times wildly inappropriate, and has no business being as clever and sweet as it is. Funny, sad, jammed with body shapes of every size and a diverse cast with nothing to prove, this is, to misquote Harry, not some BULL-SHIT at all.
Resident Alien is airing on Syfy now in the UK and the graphic novels are available through your local comic shop, mine or online.
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SPEEEECH!: Chris and the Piano
Northern Exposure. Chris Stevens, one of my household gods. A moment of airborne grace.
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While You Were Hyper-Sleeping
Editor's note: spoilers for both Red Valley and this mini-series
First off, have you listened to Red Valley? If not, treat yourself. The entire series clocks in under 90 minutes and is one of my favorite podcasts to date. I've talked about it here before.
Back? Excellent, isn't that cool?! Here's what that're doing next.
Gordon Porlock (Alan Mandel) has the best/worst job in the world. A conspiracy theorist whose every suspicion has been proven, Gordon's reward is to be sentenced to the Red Valley facility where his employers, Overhead, keep their more... esoteric projects. One of which is Gordon's best friend Warren.
Finally left to his own devices in Scotland's answer to Area 51, Gordon adjusts to his new solitary life and explores the facility. He's a completely charming, mildly at sea geek who can't help but be swept up by the excitement of his job, even if the horror is never far behind. Gordon isn't just the person who knows the secrets, now he's GUARDING them. His search for a correct title is only slightly less endearing than the distanced, Socratic conversations he has with Warren about the terrible DVD collection on site. They may have a lower opinion of Jai Courtney than I do but I'm right there with them about Jingle All the Way 2. My god...
Mandel's Gordon is a pure and gentle soul, providing levity and coping mechanism both as Gordon investigates Walter's past. A glorious cameo from Alexander Broad as last season's musketeer of the profane, Clive Schill, is delightful, right alongside Gordon discovering heavy metal Christmas mixes. All interspersed with Warren's recordings during the original experiments -- of the horrific ways the others died, and he didn't.
It's clear the two men are under much closer surveillance than they realized, nicely seeding in hooks for the upcoming second season of Red Valley. As Warren (expertly played by Jonathan Williams) puts it, the facility itself is understaffed, remote -- a perfect place to put things you'd rather forget. Even their wardens.
While You Were Hypersleeping is available now, with Season 2 of Red Valley due later this year. I can't wait. Not just to see what happens next but to hear Gordon get someone new to talk to. Bless him. He's not wrong about Prometheus... |
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SPEEEECH!: Donald Sutherland brings it. All of it.
This info dump in JFK -- which is itself a three hour info dump draped in Oscars -- is unlike any other exposition sequence. Firstly because it's so long and has such a specific rhythm (find part 2 here), and secondly because it's oddly charming. Sutherland as this graceful old spider of a spook, darkly amused at what's been done while he's off the board is terrifying and unforgettable. |
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New reader? Looking for a back issue?
Buy me a coffee?
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SPEEEECH!: Reddington, On Grief
The Blacklist is a treasure trove of monologues, but this one takes the prize. One particular line hits with a level of truth that many other shows never approach. That is does so while Spader's operatic monster simultaneously enjoys the ballet, sends his not-quite friend the severed head of his nemesis, and weeps for what he's lost, just tells you everything you need to know about the show.
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Signal Boost
Books and Comics
Newsletters and Workshops
Gaming
Podcasting
That's this week's Signal Boost, folks. If you have a project you'd like to see here get in touch.
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Where You Can Find Me This Week
Awards Season Contines
- Hugo nominations close in under 10 days now. I'm proud of my writing and projects in our Year of Plague, all described at my Eligibility Post. Thanks for considering them (and me)!
Novel O'Clock
- NOTHING! Busy week of pitching for things and hearing back about other things, none of which I can talk about yet BUT! If these chips all land as they look to, that's my year locked down...
Twitch
- No new streams this week, but if you missed our fantastic interview with S.B. Divya regarding her debut MACHINEHOOD check it out.
Podcast Land
The Secret of St. Kilda
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Behold my fellow fancy lads! I am deeply honoured to be part of the newest Haggis & Dragons production The Secret of St Kilda. Alan's done brilliant work on The Amelia Project, Ben is an actual voice acting kaiju (and my internet husband, obvs) and I get to do my favorite thing: stand just to the left of everything and... provide scope. :-)
This is going to be AMAZING fun. Follow St. Kilda on Twitter, and check out the Haggis & Dragons website for more details.
And Finally, THIS!
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Enjoy this Rusty Quill Gaming and Giving bonus video I recorded with Mike LeBeau. As the Youths say, Free Serotonin!
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SPEEEECH!: Captain Marcus Chapman, Just Crazy Enough
Last Resort is the definition of a near miss. Had it run three to four years later, the story of a nuclear submarine crew who narrowly avoid becoming the patsies that start World War 3 would have grabbed headlines and refused to yield. It remains a complex, fiercely dark, one season wonder crammed full of astonishing talent on both sides of the camera.
This clip is saber-rattling at its finest. Marcus weaponizing the 'crazy black man' in a desperate bid to give his terrified crew breathing room. It finishes with him looking at Sam (Scott Speedman) who nods and says 'Just crazy enough, sir.'
The show is currently available for an absolute song -- check it out.
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Signing Off / Playing Out
Thanks for reading, folks! Hope your week was a good one.
TFL returns to your inboxes next week. Check out my Carrd for all the places you can find me, including the Team KennerStuart Instagram and the Twitters, currently leading a rousing round of karaoke.
We took a week off the Twitch streams, partially in solidarity with an Amazon strike, and (once we learned the strike wasn't organized by the workers actually voting to unionize) partially because breaks are health things. But we'll always have VODParis... or... something.
This work is produced for free. If you like what you read please consider dropping something in the tip jar or sign up for The Full Lid Plus, my monthly subscription substack. And thank you!
Playing us out this week is this glorious musical interlude from Resident Alien. Because this
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is a Full Lid.
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