Michael Noble Jul 31, 2017
Sometimes smartness isn't enough. Michael reviews the latest episode of Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers
See related American Horror Story renewed for seasons 8 and 9 American Horror Story: Roanoke might be its best season yet American Horror Story season 6: Roanoke Chapter 10 Ryan Murphy: celebrating a showrunner who never holds back
3.9 Aporia
It’s not enough, sometimes, to be clever. Each of Fargo season 3's principals - Emmit, Gloria, Nikki and Varga - are not lacking in inventiveness or brains. Their use of them, however, differs. And, as the events of this episode show, they are not always enough to solve your problems, get you out of a hole or fix your whole damn life.
Emmit was a smart kid. He admits as much in his heartbreaking confession, at which he intends not only to escape the greasy clutches of Vm Varga (even if this means...
Sometimes smartness isn't enough. Michael reviews the latest episode of Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers
See related American Horror Story renewed for seasons 8 and 9 American Horror Story: Roanoke might be its best season yet American Horror Story season 6: Roanoke Chapter 10 Ryan Murphy: celebrating a showrunner who never holds back
3.9 Aporia
It’s not enough, sometimes, to be clever. Each of Fargo season 3's principals - Emmit, Gloria, Nikki and Varga - are not lacking in inventiveness or brains. Their use of them, however, differs. And, as the events of this episode show, they are not always enough to solve your problems, get you out of a hole or fix your whole damn life.
Emmit was a smart kid. He admits as much in his heartbreaking confession, at which he intends not only to escape the greasy clutches of Vm Varga (even if this means...
- 7/31/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jul 21, 2017
The latest Fargo episode is visually arresting, funny and terrifying in turns. Spoilers ahead...
This review contains spoilers
See related Vikings renewed for season 5
3.8 Who Rules the Land of Denial?
This was very much an episode of two halves. The first half was entirely given over to the continued pursuit of Nikki (and her new accomplice in escape, Mr. Wrench, last seen in season one) by Varga’s trio of murderous henchmen. As a standalone piece of television, it was incredible stuff - visually arresting and funny and terrifying at turns. Filmed from a raw palette of dirty blacks and grimy grey, the chase appeared to be taking place in a haunted forest, replete with animal heads, crossbow hunters and decapitations, like something from the tales of the Brothers Grimm if they’d been animated by the German Expressionists instead of Walt Disney.
In narrative terms, the...
The latest Fargo episode is visually arresting, funny and terrifying in turns. Spoilers ahead...
This review contains spoilers
See related Vikings renewed for season 5
3.8 Who Rules the Land of Denial?
This was very much an episode of two halves. The first half was entirely given over to the continued pursuit of Nikki (and her new accomplice in escape, Mr. Wrench, last seen in season one) by Varga’s trio of murderous henchmen. As a standalone piece of television, it was incredible stuff - visually arresting and funny and terrifying at turns. Filmed from a raw palette of dirty blacks and grimy grey, the chase appeared to be taking place in a haunted forest, replete with animal heads, crossbow hunters and decapitations, like something from the tales of the Brothers Grimm if they’d been animated by the German Expressionists instead of Walt Disney.
In narrative terms, the...
- 7/21/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jul 13, 2017
It looks increasingly like a showdown between the Varga crew and Gloria is imminent in Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who: new Doctor is announced on Sunday Doctor Who: Moffat on budget issues, advice for Chibnall
3.7 The Law Of Inevitability
Ray Stussy was a pitiable figure in life. Somehow, he’s even more so in death. Not only has he been posthumously accused of being a domestic abuser, but the two people to whom he (could have) felt closest, his brother and his fiance, spent the aftermath of his death in a state of stunned submission. Stunned, not because of grief but because of the constraints that his death has placed on them.
For Nikki, the constraint is literal. Repeated shots of her handcuffs and the bars of her cell and prison transport underline her physical restrictions, while her dulled, numb expression reveals her psychological trap.
It looks increasingly like a showdown between the Varga crew and Gloria is imminent in Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who: new Doctor is announced on Sunday Doctor Who: Moffat on budget issues, advice for Chibnall
3.7 The Law Of Inevitability
Ray Stussy was a pitiable figure in life. Somehow, he’s even more so in death. Not only has he been posthumously accused of being a domestic abuser, but the two people to whom he (could have) felt closest, his brother and his fiance, spent the aftermath of his death in a state of stunned submission. Stunned, not because of grief but because of the constraints that his death has placed on them.
For Nikki, the constraint is literal. Repeated shots of her handcuffs and the bars of her cell and prison transport underline her physical restrictions, while her dulled, numb expression reveals her psychological trap.
- 7/13/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jul 7, 2017
Just what is V.M. Varga all about? In his review of the latest Fargo season 3 episode, Michael ponders...
This review contains spoilers.
See related 26 new UK TV shows to look out for The women taking over TV crime drama Ripper Street series 4: Matthew Macfadyen & MyAnna Buring interview
3.6 The Lord Of No Mercy
I’ve been trying to work out what V.M. Varga is all about. It’s a challenging prospect, for two reasons in particular. Firstly, he’s a decidedly slippery customer, prone to deflection, dissemblance and downright dishonesty. It’s near impossible to draw a bead on him. Secondly, he’s an utter grotesque and it’s not all that pleasant to stare too long at him. Seriously. His staring also into you would be the least of your concerns.
Still, this episode is a good one for which to don the protective...
Just what is V.M. Varga all about? In his review of the latest Fargo season 3 episode, Michael ponders...
This review contains spoilers.
See related 26 new UK TV shows to look out for The women taking over TV crime drama Ripper Street series 4: Matthew Macfadyen & MyAnna Buring interview
3.6 The Lord Of No Mercy
I’ve been trying to work out what V.M. Varga is all about. It’s a challenging prospect, for two reasons in particular. Firstly, he’s a decidedly slippery customer, prone to deflection, dissemblance and downright dishonesty. It’s near impossible to draw a bead on him. Secondly, he’s an utter grotesque and it’s not all that pleasant to stare too long at him. Seriously. His staring also into you would be the least of your concerns.
Still, this episode is a good one for which to don the protective...
- 7/7/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jun 30, 2017
The mask slips and the gloves come off in the latest episode of Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Bayonetta Xbox 360 review
3.5 The House Of Special Purpose
The question of authenticity has hung over this season like a cloud heavy with snow. It appeared at the very beginning, in the East German cold open (which was also the first mention of Yuri Gorka, of whom more later) and the official’s laboured distinction between ‘truth’ and ‘stories’. It’s there in the hidden former life of Gloria’s stepfather (did he end his life as Ennis Stussy or was there still some Thaddeus Mobley in him?). It’s the entire business model of V.M. Varga’s outfit, which uses a legitimate business as a front to hide its unpleasant truths. The contrast between truth and fake or, more accurately, their lack of contrast is particularly prominent this week.
The mask slips and the gloves come off in the latest episode of Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Bayonetta Xbox 360 review
3.5 The House Of Special Purpose
The question of authenticity has hung over this season like a cloud heavy with snow. It appeared at the very beginning, in the East German cold open (which was also the first mention of Yuri Gorka, of whom more later) and the official’s laboured distinction between ‘truth’ and ‘stories’. It’s there in the hidden former life of Gloria’s stepfather (did he end his life as Ennis Stussy or was there still some Thaddeus Mobley in him?). It’s the entire business model of V.M. Varga’s outfit, which uses a legitimate business as a front to hide its unpleasant truths. The contrast between truth and fake or, more accurately, their lack of contrast is particularly prominent this week.
- 6/30/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jun 23, 2017
Is there any escape in Fargo season 3? Here's our spoiler-filled review of episode 4...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Twin Peaks season 3 episode 7 review: There’s A Body All Right Twin Peaks season 3 episode 6 review: Don’t Die Twin Peaks season 3 episode 5 review: Case Files
3.4 The Narrow Escape Problem
The narrow escape problem is a term borrowed from biology that refers to a particle that is confined to a bounded domain, but which has a narrow window through which it can escape. Calculating the mean escape time is the the problem that our intrepid biologists seek to solve. (Before you start wondering whether I cribbed that from Wikipedia, let me tell you that yes, that’s exactly what I did and I freely admit so here in a vain effort to indemnify myself against accusations of cheating. You can correct me in the comments). What I can tell you is that,...
Is there any escape in Fargo season 3? Here's our spoiler-filled review of episode 4...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Twin Peaks season 3 episode 7 review: There’s A Body All Right Twin Peaks season 3 episode 6 review: Don’t Die Twin Peaks season 3 episode 5 review: Case Files
3.4 The Narrow Escape Problem
The narrow escape problem is a term borrowed from biology that refers to a particle that is confined to a bounded domain, but which has a narrow window through which it can escape. Calculating the mean escape time is the the problem that our intrepid biologists seek to solve. (Before you start wondering whether I cribbed that from Wikipedia, let me tell you that yes, that’s exactly what I did and I freely admit so here in a vain effort to indemnify myself against accusations of cheating. You can correct me in the comments). What I can tell you is that,...
- 6/23/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jun 14, 2017
The mythos of Fargo deepens this week, providing insight into season 3's most sympathetic character...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Batman Forever: the case for and against Why Batman Forever's Batsuit had nipples
3.3 The Law Of Non-Contradiction
Erstwhile on Fargo, the writers signalled their intention to eschew the expectations of a (broadly) realistic period crime saga by introducing a flying saucer at a critical point in the story. Bold move. Even bolder to leave the spinning spacecraft as something that only existed on the very fringe of the narrative, a potentially colossal event that was used as little more than ornament. It was equally audacious, and perhaps even more effective, to devote several sections of this week’s episode to a series of sweet natured animated sequences featuring the philosophical quest of a good natured android named Minsky. The character was the product of...
The mythos of Fargo deepens this week, providing insight into season 3's most sympathetic character...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Batman Forever: the case for and against Why Batman Forever's Batsuit had nipples
3.3 The Law Of Non-Contradiction
Erstwhile on Fargo, the writers signalled their intention to eschew the expectations of a (broadly) realistic period crime saga by introducing a flying saucer at a critical point in the story. Bold move. Even bolder to leave the spinning spacecraft as something that only existed on the very fringe of the narrative, a potentially colossal event that was used as little more than ornament. It was equally audacious, and perhaps even more effective, to devote several sections of this week’s episode to a series of sweet natured animated sequences featuring the philosophical quest of a good natured android named Minsky. The character was the product of...
- 6/14/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Jun 7, 2017
Brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy, played by Ewan McGregor, continue to fascinate in Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who series 10: Empress Of Mars review
3.2 The Principle Of Restricted Choice
It’s nice to begin this week’s episode with an extended period in the company of Gloria Burgle. We follow her as she carries out two separate but related investigations. Firstly, there’s her researches into the unknown life of her dead stepfather, who, it transpires, was the author of awesomely-titled pulp Sf novels under the equally awesome nom de plume Thaddeus Mobley. (Seriously great titles though, his oeuvre included such gems as Organ Fish of Kleus-9 and The Plague Monkeys). As Gloria herself admits, she hardly knew the man, other than to know that he was an unremitting jerk, and her only reason for remaining in his life was the simple happenstance of family.
Brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy, played by Ewan McGregor, continue to fascinate in Fargo season 3...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who series 10: Empress Of Mars review
3.2 The Principle Of Restricted Choice
It’s nice to begin this week’s episode with an extended period in the company of Gloria Burgle. We follow her as she carries out two separate but related investigations. Firstly, there’s her researches into the unknown life of her dead stepfather, who, it transpires, was the author of awesomely-titled pulp Sf novels under the equally awesome nom de plume Thaddeus Mobley. (Seriously great titles though, his oeuvre included such gems as Organ Fish of Kleus-9 and The Plague Monkeys). As Gloria herself admits, she hardly knew the man, other than to know that he was an unremitting jerk, and her only reason for remaining in his life was the simple happenstance of family.
- 6/7/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble May 31, 2017
Casting Ewan McGregor as a pair of brothers in Fargo season 3 is a masterstroke...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who: The Lie Of The Land geeky spots and Easter eggs
3.1 The Law Of Vacant Places
'We are not here to tell stories,’ says the cold East German official at the beginning of this episode, ‘we are here to tell the truth'. Seeing a stark difference between ‘stories’ and ‘truth’ is pretty standard for someone in authority, particularly someone whose strict adherence to dogma blinds him to the absurdity of his position. Here however, with an explicit link to Fargo’s standard anti-disclaimer that ‘this is a true story’, the line is given a further inflection. There’s the truth, there are stories and then there are true stories. The distinction is a little more grey. Fargo, of course, is a work of fiction but...
Casting Ewan McGregor as a pair of brothers in Fargo season 3 is a masterstroke...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Doctor Who: The Lie Of The Land geeky spots and Easter eggs
3.1 The Law Of Vacant Places
'We are not here to tell stories,’ says the cold East German official at the beginning of this episode, ‘we are here to tell the truth'. Seeing a stark difference between ‘stories’ and ‘truth’ is pretty standard for someone in authority, particularly someone whose strict adherence to dogma blinds him to the absurdity of his position. Here however, with an explicit link to Fargo’s standard anti-disclaimer that ‘this is a true story’, the line is given a further inflection. There’s the truth, there are stories and then there are true stories. The distinction is a little more grey. Fargo, of course, is a work of fiction but...
- 5/31/2017
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Feb 13, 2017
For those of you who've already binge-watched the entirety of Sky Atlantic's Fortitude series 2, here's our spoiler-filled review...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Trespass Against Us trailer, with Michael Fassbender Justin Kurzel interview: Macbeth, Breaking Bad, Snowtown
When Fortitude arrived on our screens in 2015, it did so floating on a sea of publicity. Millions were spent announcing the arrival of Sky’s newest pitch at offering original drama to sit alongside its impressive roster of Us imports. Polar bears appeared at tube stations and posters of its snowbound stars, among them such luminaries as Michael Gambon, Sofie Gråbøl, Christopher Ecclestone and Stanley Tucci, appeared in hoardings both online and in the real world. The campaign caught attention but remained abstract, leaving little clue as to what the show was actually about.
The marketers can be forgiven for this approach, as the show itself seemed uncertain.
For those of you who've already binge-watched the entirety of Sky Atlantic's Fortitude series 2, here's our spoiler-filled review...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Trespass Against Us trailer, with Michael Fassbender Justin Kurzel interview: Macbeth, Breaking Bad, Snowtown
When Fortitude arrived on our screens in 2015, it did so floating on a sea of publicity. Millions were spent announcing the arrival of Sky’s newest pitch at offering original drama to sit alongside its impressive roster of Us imports. Polar bears appeared at tube stations and posters of its snowbound stars, among them such luminaries as Michael Gambon, Sofie Gråbøl, Christopher Ecclestone and Stanley Tucci, appeared in hoardings both online and in the real world. The campaign caught attention but remained abstract, leaving little clue as to what the show was actually about.
The marketers can be forgiven for this approach, as the show itself seemed uncertain.
- 2/12/2017
- Den of Geek
Den Of Geek Dec 22, 2016
Game Of Thrones, Black Mirror, Stranger Things, Westworld... Did your favourite TV episode of 2016 make the cut?
Earlier this month, twenty-five of Den Of Geek's writers nominated up to five of their favourite television episodes of the year, ranked in order of preference. Points were allocated. Favourites emerged. And the sanity of the site's TV editor was offered once again as a festive sacrifice to the God of Microsoft Excel worksheets.
See related Justin Kurzel interview: Assassin’s Creed
Over sixty individual episodes were nominated in total, and below are the fifteen that placed highest overall...
15. Scream season 2 episode 10 – The Vanishing
This show has hit a beautiful stride over the past two episodes, and we’re now set up for what could be a top-notch finale. While we’ve been given plenty of clues—some of which I’m sure will be forehead-slappers after the killer...
Game Of Thrones, Black Mirror, Stranger Things, Westworld... Did your favourite TV episode of 2016 make the cut?
Earlier this month, twenty-five of Den Of Geek's writers nominated up to five of their favourite television episodes of the year, ranked in order of preference. Points were allocated. Favourites emerged. And the sanity of the site's TV editor was offered once again as a festive sacrifice to the God of Microsoft Excel worksheets.
See related Justin Kurzel interview: Assassin’s Creed
Over sixty individual episodes were nominated in total, and below are the fifteen that placed highest overall...
15. Scream season 2 episode 10 – The Vanishing
This show has hit a beautiful stride over the past two episodes, and we’re now set up for what could be a top-notch finale. While we’ve been given plenty of clues—some of which I’m sure will be forehead-slappers after the killer...
- 12/19/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Dec 18, 2016
Humans concludes its second series with a mixed finale that deals better with Synth issues than human ones...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Star Wars: Rogue One enjoys huge opening weekend
This series has been bookended by significant moments in the marriage of Laura and Joe Hawkins. We opened with their relationship in sufficient crisis to warrant sessions with a guidance counsellor. We end with the marriage possibly over. As a device, here was much to recommend it. It followed characters with whom we were familiar in a storyline that was generated by events in the first season and was recognisably, reassuringly human. It’s unfortunate, then, that the state of the Hawkins union was never fully resolved. A brief discussion and a suspiciously quick shift in focus from Joe and…that was it. He’s moving out. I think.
Not that there was much...
Humans concludes its second series with a mixed finale that deals better with Synth issues than human ones...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Star Wars: Rogue One enjoys huge opening weekend
This series has been bookended by significant moments in the marriage of Laura and Joe Hawkins. We opened with their relationship in sufficient crisis to warrant sessions with a guidance counsellor. We end with the marriage possibly over. As a device, here was much to recommend it. It followed characters with whom we were familiar in a storyline that was generated by events in the first season and was recognisably, reassuringly human. It’s unfortunate, then, that the state of the Hawkins union was never fully resolved. A brief discussion and a suspiciously quick shift in focus from Joe and…that was it. He’s moving out. I think.
Not that there was much...
- 12/16/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Dec 5, 2016
Humans series 2's multiple plots begin to coalesce in episode six...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Inhumans: Iron Fist's Scott Buck signs up as showrunner
There is a subtlety in emphasis. Meaning (or a counter-meaning) can often be better carried in pitch and tone than in simple nouns and verbs, particularly in statements that are ostensibly bland. There’s no better blandness than in corporate slogans and no more effective use of accentuation than in Qualia Industries’ Silicon Valley boardroom hippy mantra: ‘Building Your Future’. It was the stress on that ‘your’ that sold it, the slight selfishness inherent in the idea that by building your future, Qualia doesn’t have to bother itself with anybody else’s. Their intention, like any well-branded company, is to disperse their promises, offering each individual customer the same ‘exclusive’ product as any other customer. That might work if you’re selling cola,...
Humans series 2's multiple plots begin to coalesce in episode six...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Inhumans: Iron Fist's Scott Buck signs up as showrunner
There is a subtlety in emphasis. Meaning (or a counter-meaning) can often be better carried in pitch and tone than in simple nouns and verbs, particularly in statements that are ostensibly bland. There’s no better blandness than in corporate slogans and no more effective use of accentuation than in Qualia Industries’ Silicon Valley boardroom hippy mantra: ‘Building Your Future’. It was the stress on that ‘your’ that sold it, the slight selfishness inherent in the idea that by building your future, Qualia doesn’t have to bother itself with anybody else’s. Their intention, like any well-branded company, is to disperse their promises, offering each individual customer the same ‘exclusive’ product as any other customer. That might work if you’re selling cola,...
- 12/4/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Nov 28, 2016
The latest Humans episode blurs the lines between human and Synh...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Flash season 3 episode 7 review: Killer Frost The Flash season 3 episode 6 review: Shade The Flash season 3 episode 5 review: Monster Supergirl season 2 episode 8 review: Medusa
There is often something rather creepy in the portrayal of children in genre fiction. Whether horror or science fiction, the inclusion of youngsters serves to enhance the sense of dread or uncanniness. The arrival, finally, of the Seraphim class of synths in Humans adds an extra Wyndhamesque touch to this cosiest of catastrophes. The final shot of a bewildered Pete staring at the unresponsive child synth in the park was one of the strongest images of the series, perfectly illustrating the sheer oddness of the situation. It was something to do with the way that the other children, the real children, scattered away to the edges,...
The latest Humans episode blurs the lines between human and Synh...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Flash season 3 episode 7 review: Killer Frost The Flash season 3 episode 6 review: Shade The Flash season 3 episode 5 review: Monster Supergirl season 2 episode 8 review: Medusa
There is often something rather creepy in the portrayal of children in genre fiction. Whether horror or science fiction, the inclusion of youngsters serves to enhance the sense of dread or uncanniness. The arrival, finally, of the Seraphim class of synths in Humans adds an extra Wyndhamesque touch to this cosiest of catastrophes. The final shot of a bewildered Pete staring at the unresponsive child synth in the park was one of the strongest images of the series, perfectly illustrating the sheer oddness of the situation. It was something to do with the way that the other children, the real children, scattered away to the edges,...
- 11/27/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Nov 20, 2016
This week's instalment of Humans series 2 shows that human or otherwise, nobody's perfect...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Walking Dead season 7: synopses and titles for episodes 6, 7 and 8 The Walking Dead: how will the show end? The Walking Dead season 7 episode 4 review: Service The Walking Dead season 7 episode 3 review: The Cell
It was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him. It would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one that measured up.
The psychiatrist’s assessment of Sophie Hawkins’ synth obsession carried a rather large flavour of Sarah Connor...
This week's instalment of Humans series 2 shows that human or otherwise, nobody's perfect...
This review contains spoilers.
See related The Walking Dead season 7: synopses and titles for episodes 6, 7 and 8 The Walking Dead: how will the show end? The Walking Dead season 7 episode 4 review: Service The Walking Dead season 7 episode 3 review: The Cell
It was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him. It would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one that measured up.
The psychiatrist’s assessment of Sophie Hawkins’ synth obsession carried a rather large flavour of Sarah Connor...
- 11/20/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Nov 14, 2016
Can a soul be expressed as a digital readout on a screen? This week's Humans delves deeper into philosophical questions...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Power Rangers, boob armour, and impractical costumes
Appropriately, for a programme concerned with duality (human/Synth, real/artificial/ conscious/automaton), Humans likes to approach its story through two lenses. Never was this more apparent than in this episode’s continued probing of the nature of consciousness and selfhood, which it achieved through the two separate pathways of Niska and Mia. One artificial, one somehow more natural.
The test is presented in a deliberately clinical, simulated manner, from the precise legalism of the arrangement to the intentional absurdity of the examiners expecting somehow to see Niska’s consciousness, her ‘soul’ if you like, as a digital readout on a screen. Set up like some cross between the Voight-Kampff test and the Ludovico Technique,...
Can a soul be expressed as a digital readout on a screen? This week's Humans delves deeper into philosophical questions...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Power Rangers, boob armour, and impractical costumes
Appropriately, for a programme concerned with duality (human/Synth, real/artificial/ conscious/automaton), Humans likes to approach its story through two lenses. Never was this more apparent than in this episode’s continued probing of the nature of consciousness and selfhood, which it achieved through the two separate pathways of Niska and Mia. One artificial, one somehow more natural.
The test is presented in a deliberately clinical, simulated manner, from the precise legalism of the arrangement to the intentional absurdity of the examiners expecting somehow to see Niska’s consciousness, her ‘soul’ if you like, as a digital readout on a screen. Set up like some cross between the Voight-Kampff test and the Ludovico Technique,...
- 11/10/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Nov 7, 2016
The battle lines are being established in Humans series 2, and it'll soon be time to pick a side...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Marvel Studios: how long is left on everyone’s contracts?
Way back at the beginning of the first series of Humans, I noted the cleverness of having the Synths as the sole technology that distinguishes this fictional world from our own. It reduces distraction, enhances the power of allegory and throws the programme’s multiplicity of philosophical questions into sharp relief. Naturally, this decision raises certain questions of plausibility, most striking of which is, why are all the AIs humanoid? It’s reasonable enough for most of the Synth occupations we’ve seen; nanny, service staff, sex worker, but given the opportunity to employ Synths in mineshafts or in chemical factories, would four limbs, a head and a torso really be the optimum design?...
The battle lines are being established in Humans series 2, and it'll soon be time to pick a side...
This review contains spoilers.
See related Marvel Studios: how long is left on everyone’s contracts?
Way back at the beginning of the first series of Humans, I noted the cleverness of having the Synths as the sole technology that distinguishes this fictional world from our own. It reduces distraction, enhances the power of allegory and throws the programme’s multiplicity of philosophical questions into sharp relief. Naturally, this decision raises certain questions of plausibility, most striking of which is, why are all the AIs humanoid? It’s reasonable enough for most of the Synth occupations we’ve seen; nanny, service staff, sex worker, but given the opportunity to employ Synths in mineshafts or in chemical factories, would four limbs, a head and a torso really be the optimum design?...
- 11/4/2016
- Den of Geek
Michael Noble Oct 30, 2016
Humans returns for series 2 with an ideas-packed episode that poses urgent philosophical questions for our time...
This review contains spoilers.
See related American Horror Story season 6: Roanoke Chapter 6 review The Serial effect: making true crime hot TV property American Horror Story: examining the real lost colony of Roanoke American Horror Story: is there life after Jessica Lange?
The biggest advantage that the writers of Humans have in going into their second series is the sheer ambiguity of language and meaning. As the show expands its scope (among other things, by offering glimpses of the global impact of the Synths), it also seeks to expand its line of philosophical questioning. There’s an awful lot to pack in and it helps that so much of it can be done through the subtle layering of meaning and intent. A prominent example occurs early in the narrative,...
Humans returns for series 2 with an ideas-packed episode that poses urgent philosophical questions for our time...
This review contains spoilers.
See related American Horror Story season 6: Roanoke Chapter 6 review The Serial effect: making true crime hot TV property American Horror Story: examining the real lost colony of Roanoke American Horror Story: is there life after Jessica Lange?
The biggest advantage that the writers of Humans have in going into their second series is the sheer ambiguity of language and meaning. As the show expands its scope (among other things, by offering glimpses of the global impact of the Synths), it also seeks to expand its line of philosophical questioning. There’s an awful lot to pack in and it helps that so much of it can be done through the subtle layering of meaning and intent. A prominent example occurs early in the narrative,...
- 10/28/2016
- Den of Geek
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Vinyl has much to improve when it returns for season 2, and judging by this solid-enough finale, it's heading in the right direction...
This review contains spoilers.
1.10 Alibi
Taken as a whole, Vinyl is structured around the premise that the behind-the-scenes operation of the music business (encompassing, among other things, dealmaking, artist development, public relations and financing) is just as interesting as the soul shaking, life-affirming product that this bloated industry sells. The premise is correct and there is much to say about men like Richie Finestra and Maury Gold and the companies that they lead. At its best, Vinyl has done a good job of balancing the two elements, never taking its eye off the ball with the music and only rarely doing so with the business side of things. Its missteps have mostly emerged from the moments during which the plot and characters wandered too far...
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Vinyl has much to improve when it returns for season 2, and judging by this solid-enough finale, it's heading in the right direction...
This review contains spoilers.
1.10 Alibi
Taken as a whole, Vinyl is structured around the premise that the behind-the-scenes operation of the music business (encompassing, among other things, dealmaking, artist development, public relations and financing) is just as interesting as the soul shaking, life-affirming product that this bloated industry sells. The premise is correct and there is much to say about men like Richie Finestra and Maury Gold and the companies that they lead. At its best, Vinyl has done a good job of balancing the two elements, never taking its eye off the ball with the music and only rarely doing so with the business side of things. Its missteps have mostly emerged from the moments during which the plot and characters wandered too far...
- 4/19/2016
- Den of Geek
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As Vinyl reaches its penultimate episode, we evaluate the season so far...
This review contains spoilers.
1.9 Rock And Roll Queen We reach the penultimate episode of the opening season of Vinyl, with the news that we will be definitely seeing a second and that showrunner Terence Winter will not be part of it. It’s as good a time as any to reflect on what has worked and what has been less successful in the series so far. Such a review could have come at any time in the past few weeks (or indeed, next week) but Rock And Roll Queen offers so much material to pick over that it would be remiss not to take the opportunity.
The episode itself comes towards the end of a solid run of instalments in which the show has demonstrated a welcome focus and clarity in its storytelling. With Richie...
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As Vinyl reaches its penultimate episode, we evaluate the season so far...
This review contains spoilers.
1.9 Rock And Roll Queen We reach the penultimate episode of the opening season of Vinyl, with the news that we will be definitely seeing a second and that showrunner Terence Winter will not be part of it. It’s as good a time as any to reflect on what has worked and what has been less successful in the series so far. Such a review could have come at any time in the past few weeks (or indeed, next week) but Rock And Roll Queen offers so much material to pick over that it would be remiss not to take the opportunity.
The episode itself comes towards the end of a solid run of instalments in which the show has demonstrated a welcome focus and clarity in its storytelling. With Richie...
- 4/13/2016
- Den of Geek
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The closer Vinyl sticks to the music, the better everything works...
This review contains spoilers.
1.8 E.A.B.
In January 1977, around three or so years after the events of Vinyl’s first season, punk fanzine Sideburns carried a simple drawing of the finger placings for three guitar chords. Its text ran as follows: "here’s a chord. Here’s another one. Here’s a third. Now go and form a band". The cartoon became legendary (and frequently attributed to the better known Sniffin’ Glue fanzine) largely because it seemed to encapsulate the punk ethic. The conventional narrative is that the simple, direct ‘anti-musicianship’ was a necessary response to the bloated virtuosity of mainstream performers. Punk, so the theory goes, was a corrective moment that stripped music right back to basics. Three chords, E, A, B.
Lester Grimes’ patient tutorial for the Nasty Bitz (who are still not...
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The closer Vinyl sticks to the music, the better everything works...
This review contains spoilers.
1.8 E.A.B.
In January 1977, around three or so years after the events of Vinyl’s first season, punk fanzine Sideburns carried a simple drawing of the finger placings for three guitar chords. Its text ran as follows: "here’s a chord. Here’s another one. Here’s a third. Now go and form a band". The cartoon became legendary (and frequently attributed to the better known Sniffin’ Glue fanzine) largely because it seemed to encapsulate the punk ethic. The conventional narrative is that the simple, direct ‘anti-musicianship’ was a necessary response to the bloated virtuosity of mainstream performers. Punk, so the theory goes, was a corrective moment that stripped music right back to basics. Three chords, E, A, B.
Lester Grimes’ patient tutorial for the Nasty Bitz (who are still not...
- 4/6/2016
- Den of Geek
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Richie pursues the King of Rock n Roll, Mr Elvis Presley, in the latest episode of HBO and Sky Atlantic's Vinyl...
This review contains spoilers.
1.7 The King Of I
In some ways, episodes six and seven of this season could be regarded as a connected pair. Both episodes worked as an extended examination of Richie’s emotional travails and both of them used a particular narrative device to do so. In last week’s episode, the twist was that, in thinking that Ernst really was accompanying him, Richie knew less than the audience (assuming that, in this post Fight Club/Sixth Sense cultural environment, you all saw the reveal coming). This week, it’s Richie who knows more about his Las Vegas adventure and the viewer who has to be clued in after the fact. It was a subtle way of suggesting that Richie is back in control,...
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Richie pursues the King of Rock n Roll, Mr Elvis Presley, in the latest episode of HBO and Sky Atlantic's Vinyl...
This review contains spoilers.
1.7 The King Of I
In some ways, episodes six and seven of this season could be regarded as a connected pair. Both episodes worked as an extended examination of Richie’s emotional travails and both of them used a particular narrative device to do so. In last week’s episode, the twist was that, in thinking that Ernst really was accompanying him, Richie knew less than the audience (assuming that, in this post Fight Club/Sixth Sense cultural environment, you all saw the reveal coming). This week, it’s Richie who knows more about his Las Vegas adventure and the viewer who has to be clued in after the fact. It was a subtle way of suggesting that Richie is back in control,...
- 3/29/2016
- Den of Geek
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We take a look at a key event in House Of Cards season 4 that left Frank out of the action and saw Claire press ahead. Spoilers..
As requested, please welcome a cameo by Daphne the spoiler squirrel...
Now of course he was never going to die from that bullet. Frank Underwood has plot armour so thick that it would take a military intervention to pierce it, but even so, for a character that has motored ahead with the relentlessness of an Executive branch Terminator, the assassination attempt was a moment for pause.
Indeed, that was the primary plot purpose of the event; giving the president a couple of episodes to keep out of the action and allow Claire an opportunity to press ahead with her own political ambitions. This was no soap opera shooting, with the audience invited to play detective and determine the identity of the...
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We take a look at a key event in House Of Cards season 4 that left Frank out of the action and saw Claire press ahead. Spoilers..
As requested, please welcome a cameo by Daphne the spoiler squirrel...
Now of course he was never going to die from that bullet. Frank Underwood has plot armour so thick that it would take a military intervention to pierce it, but even so, for a character that has motored ahead with the relentlessness of an Executive branch Terminator, the assassination attempt was a moment for pause.
Indeed, that was the primary plot purpose of the event; giving the president a couple of episodes to keep out of the action and allow Claire an opportunity to press ahead with her own political ambitions. This was no soap opera shooting, with the audience invited to play detective and determine the identity of the...
- 3/16/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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The Underwoods' single-minded pursuit of power is the story of House Of Cards season 4, which paves the way for a truly exciting season 5...
This review contains spoilers.
There was a very telling moment towards the end of this season of House Of Cards. It involved Claire Underwood and a question that, were this real life, would have dogged her campaign to join her husband’s presidential ticket. It came from Hannah Conway who, as the wife of Republican challenger William, might have been better prepared to withstand pointed comparisons with the First Lady. "Do you regret not having children?", asked the younger woman. Claire’s response was politely acid. "Do you regret having yours?". It was a line that was meant to shock, which it did, but only because it broke one of our society’s mild taboos, in which procreation is seen as a universal good and choosing not to,...
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The Underwoods' single-minded pursuit of power is the story of House Of Cards season 4, which paves the way for a truly exciting season 5...
This review contains spoilers.
There was a very telling moment towards the end of this season of House Of Cards. It involved Claire Underwood and a question that, were this real life, would have dogged her campaign to join her husband’s presidential ticket. It came from Hannah Conway who, as the wife of Republican challenger William, might have been better prepared to withstand pointed comparisons with the First Lady. "Do you regret not having children?", asked the younger woman. Claire’s response was politely acid. "Do you regret having yours?". It was a line that was meant to shock, which it did, but only because it broke one of our society’s mild taboos, in which procreation is seen as a universal good and choosing not to,...
- 3/16/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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The Knick season two finale concludes with a cavalier, reckless and lunatic act by Clive Owen's Thack...
This review contains spoilers.
2.10 This Is All We Are
A surgeon has a privileged vantage point from which to look at the human form. A living body, opened up for examination with all of its squelchy mechanics still in action, is quite a thing to see. It is perhaps less compelling once you have seen your first ten, or hundred or however many Dr John Thackery opened up in the course of his prematurely terminated career. It raises the question of what such a perspective does to a person’s view of humanity or even selfhood. At least I hope that it does. Any other explanation for Thackery’s ability to attempt his own bowel resection is frankly too disturbing to contemplate. His last words, this finale’s title...
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The Knick season two finale concludes with a cavalier, reckless and lunatic act by Clive Owen's Thack...
This review contains spoilers.
2.10 This Is All We Are
A surgeon has a privileged vantage point from which to look at the human form. A living body, opened up for examination with all of its squelchy mechanics still in action, is quite a thing to see. It is perhaps less compelling once you have seen your first ten, or hundred or however many Dr John Thackery opened up in the course of his prematurely terminated career. It raises the question of what such a perspective does to a person’s view of humanity or even selfhood. At least I hope that it does. Any other explanation for Thackery’s ability to attempt his own bowel resection is frankly too disturbing to contemplate. His last words, this finale’s title...
- 3/16/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Vinyl seems to be running out of things to explore about Richie Finestra worryingly early. At least the music's still great...
This review contains spoilers.
1.5 He In Racist Fire
I’m starting to worry about Richie Finestra. I’m not concerned for his welfare, or his financial standing or even his marriage. He’s perfectly capable of screwing all of those up by himself. I’m worried about what Richie Finestra actually does. He is necessarily the lynchpin character in Vinyl but I’m not convinced that he is interesting enough to carry a sufficient amount of the narrative on his own and this episode, the least effective of the season so far, does very little to ease that feeling.
It’s not entirely barren. Two of Richie’s significant relationships are explored in more detail than they were before, while a third (and possibly more interesting one) is introduced.
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Vinyl seems to be running out of things to explore about Richie Finestra worryingly early. At least the music's still great...
This review contains spoilers.
1.5 He In Racist Fire
I’m starting to worry about Richie Finestra. I’m not concerned for his welfare, or his financial standing or even his marriage. He’s perfectly capable of screwing all of those up by himself. I’m worried about what Richie Finestra actually does. He is necessarily the lynchpin character in Vinyl but I’m not convinced that he is interesting enough to carry a sufficient amount of the narrative on his own and this episode, the least effective of the season so far, does very little to ease that feeling.
It’s not entirely barren. Two of Richie’s significant relationships are explored in more detail than they were before, while a third (and possibly more interesting one) is introduced.
- 3/16/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fathers, literal or metaphorical, are being killed off in the penultimate episode of The Knick season 2...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Do You Remember Moon Flower?
Patricide, that most mythopoeic of crimes, has maintained a peculiar hold over fiction writers for as long as there have been fictions to write. The dynamic is simple, straightforward and dramatic; a story that can be told in a single word but still almost impossibly complicated. This penultimate episode of the season explores in three cases, none of which are all that easy to explain.
Captain August Robertson was a literal father to Cornelia and Henry and, along with the already-dead Dr J.M. Christiansen, a metaphorical one to Thackery. He’s lost to them all now. The use of the flashback, a device that The Knick uses only sparingly, provided a timely insight into the length and nature of the Thack/Robertson relationship.
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Fathers, literal or metaphorical, are being killed off in the penultimate episode of The Knick season 2...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Do You Remember Moon Flower?
Patricide, that most mythopoeic of crimes, has maintained a peculiar hold over fiction writers for as long as there have been fictions to write. The dynamic is simple, straightforward and dramatic; a story that can be told in a single word but still almost impossibly complicated. This penultimate episode of the season explores in three cases, none of which are all that easy to explain.
Captain August Robertson was a literal father to Cornelia and Henry and, along with the already-dead Dr J.M. Christiansen, a metaphorical one to Thackery. He’s lost to them all now. The use of the flashback, a device that The Knick uses only sparingly, provided a timely insight into the length and nature of the Thack/Robertson relationship.
- 3/10/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter's Vinyl takes a turn towards comic absurdity in its latest episode, The Racket...
This review contains spoilers.
1.4 The Racket
Somewhat infamously, after first seeing This Is Spinal Tap, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler declared that he couldn’t see the humour in it. It wasn’t that the jokes were particularly subtle (though some of them were), it was more that the film was so accurate and naturally familiar to the singer of a million-selling rock band. At least Steve admitted it. He’s unlikely to have been the only one to let the Tufnell, St. Hubbins and Smalls go whooshing over his head. Stories of bands with their own Spinal Tap legends are legion and testament to one of the most enduring dynamics in rock ‘n’ roll: its sheer absurd ridiculousness. The Racket, an episode that bears a title with a dual meaning,...
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Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter's Vinyl takes a turn towards comic absurdity in its latest episode, The Racket...
This review contains spoilers.
1.4 The Racket
Somewhat infamously, after first seeing This Is Spinal Tap, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler declared that he couldn’t see the humour in it. It wasn’t that the jokes were particularly subtle (though some of them were), it was more that the film was so accurate and naturally familiar to the singer of a million-selling rock band. At least Steve admitted it. He’s unlikely to have been the only one to let the Tufnell, St. Hubbins and Smalls go whooshing over his head. Stories of bands with their own Spinal Tap legends are legion and testament to one of the most enduring dynamics in rock ‘n’ roll: its sheer absurd ridiculousness. The Racket, an episode that bears a title with a dual meaning,...
- 3/8/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Frank Underwood may be running for election in House Of Cards season 4, but it's not the White House that's threatening to tumble down...
One of the biggest questions, going into this latest season of House Of Cards, is whether events off screen will overshadow those being transmitted by broadband to homes around the world. Perhaps that’s the wrong way of putting it. The real question is not whether the fortunes of Trump, Clinton, Sanders, Rubio and co. will be more vivid and loud than those of Mr and Mrs Underwood, but by how much. It’s an election year, and an especially disruptive and unusual one at that, so the task that befalls the makers of House Of Cards is how to make their show stand out when there’s a real life drama playing out like a technicolour Bayeux Tapestry on everybody’s TV screens anyway.
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Frank Underwood may be running for election in House Of Cards season 4, but it's not the White House that's threatening to tumble down...
One of the biggest questions, going into this latest season of House Of Cards, is whether events off screen will overshadow those being transmitted by broadband to homes around the world. Perhaps that’s the wrong way of putting it. The real question is not whether the fortunes of Trump, Clinton, Sanders, Rubio and co. will be more vivid and loud than those of Mr and Mrs Underwood, but by how much. It’s an election year, and an especially disruptive and unusual one at that, so the task that befalls the makers of House Of Cards is how to make their show stand out when there’s a real life drama playing out like a technicolour Bayeux Tapestry on everybody’s TV screens anyway.
- 3/4/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Dirty secrets emerge in the latest episode of The Knick season 2, currently airing on Sky Atlantic in the UK...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Not Well At All
There were some moments towards the end of the last episode, in which it seemed as things might just turn out okay. Not perfectly, of course, but we were certainly a long way from the Ten Knots of the season’s opening episode. There have been developments aplenty, including Harriet’s move from doomed defendant to clandestine condom supplier and Bertie Chickering’s stepping out of his father’s shadow and courtship of the formidable Genevieve. However, the biggest transformation belonged to John Thackery, a man converted from quivering addict to glowing gentleman. All of this may simply mean that he has the furthest to fall, particularly following the tragic events of this episode, which did so much to unpick...
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Dirty secrets emerge in the latest episode of The Knick season 2, currently airing on Sky Atlantic in the UK...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Not Well At All
There were some moments towards the end of the last episode, in which it seemed as things might just turn out okay. Not perfectly, of course, but we were certainly a long way from the Ten Knots of the season’s opening episode. There have been developments aplenty, including Harriet’s move from doomed defendant to clandestine condom supplier and Bertie Chickering’s stepping out of his father’s shadow and courtship of the formidable Genevieve. However, the biggest transformation belonged to John Thackery, a man converted from quivering addict to glowing gentleman. All of this may simply mean that he has the furthest to fall, particularly following the tragic events of this episode, which did so much to unpick...
- 3/2/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Is Richie still too much of a fan for the money-spinning music industry? Here's our review of Vinyl's third episode...
This review contains spoilers.
1.3 Whispered Secrets
It’s a little-spoken rule of thumb that, in getting to know a new TV show, it’s often a good idea to give it three episodes. The formal introductory work is done in the pilot, character positions are consolidated in the second episode and by instalment no.3, the plot can really start motoring. By the end of Whispered Secrets, it certainly seems as though Vinyl’s core plots are all securely in place.
The impact of Richie’s torpedoing of the Polygram deal forms the central path and its fallout directs much of the rest of the drama, in particular, the pressures that it causes the business, from the necessity of bringing some sense of discipline to American Century...
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Is Richie still too much of a fan for the money-spinning music industry? Here's our review of Vinyl's third episode...
This review contains spoilers.
1.3 Whispered Secrets
It’s a little-spoken rule of thumb that, in getting to know a new TV show, it’s often a good idea to give it three episodes. The formal introductory work is done in the pilot, character positions are consolidated in the second episode and by instalment no.3, the plot can really start motoring. By the end of Whispered Secrets, it certainly seems as though Vinyl’s core plots are all securely in place.
The impact of Richie’s torpedoing of the Polygram deal forms the central path and its fallout directs much of the rest of the drama, in particular, the pressures that it causes the business, from the necessity of bringing some sense of discipline to American Century...
- 2/29/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Here's our review of Sky Atlantic's latest episode of period medical drama, The Knick season 2, feat. Clive Owen...
This review contains spoilers.
2.7 Williams And Walker
Some of the most revolutionary developments are those that are least noticed and it’s all too easy to miss the commonplace. Just take a look around the room you are currently sitting in and count the items that are made from some sort of plastic. They’re everywhere, literally shaping the world we live in and, for the most part, less than a century in invention. Plastics arrived in the real world as they do in The Knick, by subtle degree.
At source we have the troublesome question of what to do with the, apparently, valueless by-product of the Showalter/Robertson crude oil concern. There’s the fascination that Thack has with the celluloid and the information that it can be moulded into anything,...
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Here's our review of Sky Atlantic's latest episode of period medical drama, The Knick season 2, feat. Clive Owen...
This review contains spoilers.
2.7 Williams And Walker
Some of the most revolutionary developments are those that are least noticed and it’s all too easy to miss the commonplace. Just take a look around the room you are currently sitting in and count the items that are made from some sort of plastic. They’re everywhere, literally shaping the world we live in and, for the most part, less than a century in invention. Plastics arrived in the real world as they do in The Knick, by subtle degree.
At source we have the troublesome question of what to do with the, apparently, valueless by-product of the Showalter/Robertson crude oil concern. There’s the fascination that Thack has with the celluloid and the information that it can be moulded into anything,...
- 2/25/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Youth is something Vinyl's record execs can sell, but not something they can ever get back. Here's our review of Yesterday Once More...
This review contains spoilers.
1.2 Yesterday Once More
The first time that I heard Bob Dylan I was in the car with my mother, and we were listening to, I think, maybe Wmca, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind - Bruce Springsteen
It becomes very clear, early on in this second episode, just why Vinyl, a TV show obsessed with rock ’n’ roll is set in the 1970s, rather than during the genre’s birth in the 1950s or at its high water mark in the late 1960s. It’s for purposes of nostalgia. This is not merely the ex-universe sense of longing for the sounds of several decades ago (which Vinyl, with...
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Youth is something Vinyl's record execs can sell, but not something they can ever get back. Here's our review of Yesterday Once More...
This review contains spoilers.
1.2 Yesterday Once More
The first time that I heard Bob Dylan I was in the car with my mother, and we were listening to, I think, maybe Wmca, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind - Bruce Springsteen
It becomes very clear, early on in this second episode, just why Vinyl, a TV show obsessed with rock ’n’ roll is set in the 1970s, rather than during the genre’s birth in the 1950s or at its high water mark in the late 1960s. It’s for purposes of nostalgia. This is not merely the ex-universe sense of longing for the sounds of several decades ago (which Vinyl, with...
- 2/22/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Is Thackery a saviour in the case of the circus twins in this week's episode of The Knick? Or are his actions equally exploitative?
This review contains spoilers.
2.6 There Are Rules
The term ‘operating theatre’ is today an anachronism, a fossilised expression that recalls an earlier age when these rooms were literally sites of spectation, complete with stepped seating for the audience. That era, as we all know, is very much still current in The Knick, so it’s curious to note the alternative metaphors that the characters deploy. ‘This’, says Algernon Edwards as he shows his guests around the Knickerbocker’s own theatre, ‘is our Big Top’. Later we hear an annoyed Dr Zimberg have to protest that he ‘is not running a circus’. These are fluid terms and they reflect fluid ideas; the gap from circus to (operating) theatre is not that great. The gap...
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Is Thackery a saviour in the case of the circus twins in this week's episode of The Knick? Or are his actions equally exploitative?
This review contains spoilers.
2.6 There Are Rules
The term ‘operating theatre’ is today an anachronism, a fossilised expression that recalls an earlier age when these rooms were literally sites of spectation, complete with stepped seating for the audience. That era, as we all know, is very much still current in The Knick, so it’s curious to note the alternative metaphors that the characters deploy. ‘This’, says Algernon Edwards as he shows his guests around the Knickerbocker’s own theatre, ‘is our Big Top’. Later we hear an annoyed Dr Zimberg have to protest that he ‘is not running a circus’. These are fluid terms and they reflect fluid ideas; the gap from circus to (operating) theatre is not that great. The gap...
- 2/18/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger's new HBO drama looks and sounds great, but can Vinyl grow into more than just Mad Men: The Rock Years?
My favourite rock ’n’ roll conspiracy theory runs as follows. Punk rock, with its cheap Diy ethic, mistrust (and deliberate avoidance) of wealth and dismissal of the decadent excess of earlier rock bands was a deliberately nefarious creation of major music labels that had grown fearful of the growing power of artists and who found a clever way of redressing the balance so that they, the anonymous suits, remained in charge. A Sid Viscious, so the theory goes, would be far more biddable and less likely to demand a larger slice of the cake than a Neil Young or a Roger Waters.
Whether by deliberate policy or not, it’s certainly true that some of the business elements of the music industry were changing.
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Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger's new HBO drama looks and sounds great, but can Vinyl grow into more than just Mad Men: The Rock Years?
My favourite rock ’n’ roll conspiracy theory runs as follows. Punk rock, with its cheap Diy ethic, mistrust (and deliberate avoidance) of wealth and dismissal of the decadent excess of earlier rock bands was a deliberately nefarious creation of major music labels that had grown fearful of the growing power of artists and who found a clever way of redressing the balance so that they, the anonymous suits, remained in charge. A Sid Viscious, so the theory goes, would be far more biddable and less likely to demand a larger slice of the cake than a Neil Young or a Roger Waters.
Whether by deliberate policy or not, it’s certainly true that some of the business elements of the music industry were changing.
- 2/15/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Can human processes be reduced to a system of switches and controls? The Knick's John Thackery thinks so...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 Whiplash
Has there ever been a more perfect distillation of Dr John Thackery’s medical worldview than the one presented in his demonstration of the modular functions of the brain? The idea that every human process, whether physical, mental or emotional, could be reduced to a simple process of switches and controls, has enormous appeal to a man who likes to reduce the most complicated of problems to the simplest of puzzles and, by doing so, exercise mastery of biology itself. Clive Owen’s performance in this scene was superb, injecting his character with all the swagger of some glassy-eyed god and thereby implying the hubris that must be answered by failure.
If it turns out that excising a tiny part of a person...
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Can human processes be reduced to a system of switches and controls? The Knick's John Thackery thinks so...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 Whiplash
Has there ever been a more perfect distillation of Dr John Thackery’s medical worldview than the one presented in his demonstration of the modular functions of the brain? The idea that every human process, whether physical, mental or emotional, could be reduced to a simple process of switches and controls, has enormous appeal to a man who likes to reduce the most complicated of problems to the simplest of puzzles and, by doing so, exercise mastery of biology itself. Clive Owen’s performance in this scene was superb, injecting his character with all the swagger of some glassy-eyed god and thereby implying the hubris that must be answered by failure.
If it turns out that excising a tiny part of a person...
- 2/10/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Satisfyingly, The Knick's latest episode focuses more on its characters' personal lives than their social contexts...
This review contains spoilers.
2.4 Wonderful Surprises
So much of The Knick is concerned with melodrama and the sudden revelation of unpleasant truths that it’s rather refreshing to experiences surprises of a somewhat more wonderful nature. We begin this episode still dealing with the consequences of last week’s big reveal and, for a time, it seems as though it’s going to be business as usual. The reasons for Algernon’s flit from Paris, and possibly even for his refusal to even mention Opal before now, start to become clear as her paranoid, possessive suspicions flicker into view. Of course, being paranoid doesn’t mean that you’re wrong and Opal’s Sherlocking of her husband is entirely accurate, which is all the more painful for her husband. It...
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Satisfyingly, The Knick's latest episode focuses more on its characters' personal lives than their social contexts...
This review contains spoilers.
2.4 Wonderful Surprises
So much of The Knick is concerned with melodrama and the sudden revelation of unpleasant truths that it’s rather refreshing to experiences surprises of a somewhat more wonderful nature. We begin this episode still dealing with the consequences of last week’s big reveal and, for a time, it seems as though it’s going to be business as usual. The reasons for Algernon’s flit from Paris, and possibly even for his refusal to even mention Opal before now, start to become clear as her paranoid, possessive suspicions flicker into view. Of course, being paranoid doesn’t mean that you’re wrong and Opal’s Sherlocking of her husband is entirely accurate, which is all the more painful for her husband. It...
- 2/4/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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The Knick explores the complex social morality and punishment surrounding nineteenth century abortion in this season 2 episode...
This review contains spoilers.
2.3 The Best With The Best To Get The Best
Babykiller. It’s a pretty unequivocal insult. Precise, to the point and surely ranking among the very worst of allegations. And yet, this episode of The Knick manages to find the subtleties in it. The expression itself is thrown twice but even where it is not made explicit, the concept seems to hang around several of the plotlines perfuming the atmosphere like an unspoken accusation.
First, the explicit. Dorothy is absolutely clear that among her sister’s collection of shameful crimes is that she killed a baby. It is also made by Philip Showalter, who may be ignorant of the extent of his wife’s involvement in Harriet’s situation but is no fool when it comes...
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The Knick explores the complex social morality and punishment surrounding nineteenth century abortion in this season 2 episode...
This review contains spoilers.
2.3 The Best With The Best To Get The Best
Babykiller. It’s a pretty unequivocal insult. Precise, to the point and surely ranking among the very worst of allegations. And yet, this episode of The Knick manages to find the subtleties in it. The expression itself is thrown twice but even where it is not made explicit, the concept seems to hang around several of the plotlines perfuming the atmosphere like an unspoken accusation.
First, the explicit. Dorothy is absolutely clear that among her sister’s collection of shameful crimes is that she killed a baby. It is also made by Philip Showalter, who may be ignorant of the extent of his wife’s involvement in Harriet’s situation but is no fool when it comes...
- 1/27/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Is Clive Owen's character in The Knick capable of change? Here's our review of season 2's latest episode, You're No Rose...
This review contains spoilers.
2.2 You're No Rose
I don’t wanna start anew. I wanna continue on.
When, through eyefuls of tears, Lucy Elkins tells John Thackery that she wants to pick things up where they left them before his rehab, it comes, quite naturally, as a plea for love. However, in seeing their situation as a binary choice, the erstwhile lovers reveal something of the tension that suffuses this episode.
The most obvious example follows the pattern established by the above conversation; whether present events represent a break from the past or a continuation of them. Thackery arrives back at the Knick and with characteristic blunt arrogance, acts as though he can continue as before in a senior position. Worse yet, he intends to...
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Is Clive Owen's character in The Knick capable of change? Here's our review of season 2's latest episode, You're No Rose...
This review contains spoilers.
2.2 You're No Rose
I don’t wanna start anew. I wanna continue on.
When, through eyefuls of tears, Lucy Elkins tells John Thackery that she wants to pick things up where they left them before his rehab, it comes, quite naturally, as a plea for love. However, in seeing their situation as a binary choice, the erstwhile lovers reveal something of the tension that suffuses this episode.
The most obvious example follows the pattern established by the above conversation; whether present events represent a break from the past or a continuation of them. Thackery arrives back at the Knick and with characteristic blunt arrogance, acts as though he can continue as before in a senior position. Worse yet, he intends to...
- 1/21/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Historical hospital drama The Knick returns for season 2, and the world it depicts isn't getting any easier for Thackery and Edwards...
This review contains spoilers.
2.1 Ten Knots
We finished the last season of The Knick with a sense that the characters, and one in particular, were exchanging the frying pan for the fire. This season, which picks up the story several months on, makes it clear that those flames are showing no sign of abatement, even if things seem curiously, almost suspiciously similar. For John Thackery, the switch from cocaine to heroin has proven no less deleterious, at least in a chemical sense, and he finds himself, as before, measuring his days from hit to hit. Sure, he’s living to a more disciplined regime but that is only partly due to the demands placed upon him by the Cromartie hospital, it is, as Clive Owen’s glassily fixed stare suggests,...
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Historical hospital drama The Knick returns for season 2, and the world it depicts isn't getting any easier for Thackery and Edwards...
This review contains spoilers.
2.1 Ten Knots
We finished the last season of The Knick with a sense that the characters, and one in particular, were exchanging the frying pan for the fire. This season, which picks up the story several months on, makes it clear that those flames are showing no sign of abatement, even if things seem curiously, almost suspiciously similar. For John Thackery, the switch from cocaine to heroin has proven no less deleterious, at least in a chemical sense, and he finds himself, as before, measuring his days from hit to hit. Sure, he’s living to a more disciplined regime but that is only partly due to the demands placed upon him by the Cromartie hospital, it is, as Clive Owen’s glassily fixed stare suggests,...
- 1/13/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fargo may be profligate with killing, but it never forgets the cost. Here's our review of the excellent season two finale...
This review contains spoilers
2.10 Palindrome
The slow procession of Gerhardt bodies in the opening moments of this final episode acts as a reminder of the high cost that this season has levied on its characters. Although no one really left the series totally unscathed, the routing of the once-powerful local crime family should be regarded as the core tragedy of the narrative. A combination of stupidity and downright bad luck prompted Rye’s demise and the family continued to exhibit both characteristics until they were utterly destroyed. A failure to instigate a clear succession plan caused rifts between Floyd and Dodd, which only exacerbated the problems between Dodd and Bear, which would have been bad enough even without Hanzee acting as a wildcard angel of death.
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Fargo may be profligate with killing, but it never forgets the cost. Here's our review of the excellent season two finale...
This review contains spoilers
2.10 Palindrome
The slow procession of Gerhardt bodies in the opening moments of this final episode acts as a reminder of the high cost that this season has levied on its characters. Although no one really left the series totally unscathed, the routing of the once-powerful local crime family should be regarded as the core tragedy of the narrative. A combination of stupidity and downright bad luck prompted Rye’s demise and the family continued to exhibit both characteristics until they were utterly destroyed. A failure to instigate a clear succession plan caused rifts between Floyd and Dodd, which only exacerbated the problems between Dodd and Bear, which would have been bad enough even without Hanzee acting as a wildcard angel of death.
- 1/4/2016
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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The Last Panthers builds from a slow start into an ambitious, strongly acted drama where the political meets the personal...
Until relatively recently, it was commonly accepted that British TV audiences just didn’t ‘do’ subtitles. Films and programmes in languages other than English were generally relegated to specialist channels with specialist audiences; your BBC4s, Sky Arts and such like. Prior to that, they’d appear at somewhat late hours on BBC2 and Channel 4 (themselves once regarded rather ‘specialist’). There they would be enjoyed by the sort of viewer who would seek them out anyway; never quite becoming the sort of show that thousands of people stumble across and turn into conversation fodder at office watercoolers the next day.
The success of The Killing changed all that. Ten hours of bleak Scandinavian noir, presented entirely in Danish and lapped up by British audiences who eagerly...
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The Last Panthers builds from a slow start into an ambitious, strongly acted drama where the political meets the personal...
Until relatively recently, it was commonly accepted that British TV audiences just didn’t ‘do’ subtitles. Films and programmes in languages other than English were generally relegated to specialist channels with specialist audiences; your BBC4s, Sky Arts and such like. Prior to that, they’d appear at somewhat late hours on BBC2 and Channel 4 (themselves once regarded rather ‘specialist’). There they would be enjoyed by the sort of viewer who would seek them out anyway; never quite becoming the sort of show that thousands of people stumble across and turn into conversation fodder at office watercoolers the next day.
The success of The Killing changed all that. Ten hours of bleak Scandinavian noir, presented entirely in Danish and lapped up by British audiences who eagerly...
- 12/18/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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This week's gloriously absurd episode, The Castle, was sheer, unadulterated Fargo...
This review contains spoilers.
2.9 The Castle
The all-out massacre that provided the climax of this episode has been signalled since before this season had even started (an older Lou referred to it, with heavy understatement, as ‘bloody’ during season one) and was heralded by a steady increase in dread in the preceding few episodes. This palpable foreboding became almost unbearable in the first two thirds of the episode itself as a collective spirit of arrogance, manipulation and good old fashioned stupidity swirled into an inevitable orgy of violence. That final multiway outburst was simply a fantastic piece of action television; frantic, exciting, and utterly, utterly terrifying.
It was also gloriously absurd. Sheer, unadulterated Fargo. Indeed, there is a case to be made for The Castle being considered the exemplar episode of Fargo, every special component working...
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This week's gloriously absurd episode, The Castle, was sheer, unadulterated Fargo...
This review contains spoilers.
2.9 The Castle
The all-out massacre that provided the climax of this episode has been signalled since before this season had even started (an older Lou referred to it, with heavy understatement, as ‘bloody’ during season one) and was heralded by a steady increase in dread in the preceding few episodes. This palpable foreboding became almost unbearable in the first two thirds of the episode itself as a collective spirit of arrogance, manipulation and good old fashioned stupidity swirled into an inevitable orgy of violence. That final multiway outburst was simply a fantastic piece of action television; frantic, exciting, and utterly, utterly terrifying.
It was also gloriously absurd. Sheer, unadulterated Fargo. Indeed, there is a case to be made for The Castle being considered the exemplar episode of Fargo, every special component working...
- 12/16/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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We speak to Samantha Morton about Sky Atlantic's crime drama The Last Panthers and politicised, groundbreaking television...
Samantha Morton has built an impressive career in television and film. She is currently starring in Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers, a multilingual, multinational drama in which she plays Naomi Franckom, an insurance loss-adjuster on the trail of an organised gang of diamond thieves. We spoke to her about transnational crime, the scars of war and deadlifting sixty kilograms.
I want to talk to you about your character Naomi. Her background is clearly very significant to the whole theme of the show but it’s not really fully explored until later on in the series, so how did you approach the task of sketching in her history?
I think it was about getting her, I found her. That was a combination of discussions with Johan [Renck, who directed all six episodes], Peter [Carlton, producer] and Jack Thorne...
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We speak to Samantha Morton about Sky Atlantic's crime drama The Last Panthers and politicised, groundbreaking television...
Samantha Morton has built an impressive career in television and film. She is currently starring in Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers, a multilingual, multinational drama in which she plays Naomi Franckom, an insurance loss-adjuster on the trail of an organised gang of diamond thieves. We spoke to her about transnational crime, the scars of war and deadlifting sixty kilograms.
I want to talk to you about your character Naomi. Her background is clearly very significant to the whole theme of the show but it’s not really fully explored until later on in the series, so how did you approach the task of sketching in her history?
I think it was about getting her, I found her. That was a combination of discussions with Johan [Renck, who directed all six episodes], Peter [Carlton, producer] and Jack Thorne...
- 12/10/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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The brilliant Fargo season 2 episode 8 offers moments of unbearable tension and raw discomfort...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Loplop
Have you actualised, fully? Peggy’s vision at the beginning of this episode was a rather Lynchian way of underlining just how far out of their depth she and her husband are. Having stumbled, literally by accident, into a pattern of poor decision-making that has led to them on the lam with a dangerous man in the boot of their car, the Blomquists find themselves having to justify their position. It’s probably easier the less they actually think about it, or to put it in the New Age wisdom terms so beloved by Peggy, if they don’t think, just be.
As forms of denial go, it’s rather handy. Peggy’s mental distancing from the reality of her situation enable her to do things that she wouldn...
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The brilliant Fargo season 2 episode 8 offers moments of unbearable tension and raw discomfort...
This review contains spoilers.
2.8 Loplop
Have you actualised, fully? Peggy’s vision at the beginning of this episode was a rather Lynchian way of underlining just how far out of their depth she and her husband are. Having stumbled, literally by accident, into a pattern of poor decision-making that has led to them on the lam with a dangerous man in the boot of their car, the Blomquists find themselves having to justify their position. It’s probably easier the less they actually think about it, or to put it in the New Age wisdom terms so beloved by Peggy, if they don’t think, just be.
As forms of denial go, it’s rather handy. Peggy’s mental distancing from the reality of her situation enable her to do things that she wouldn...
- 12/9/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Two thirds of the way through Fargo season 2, this rich, complex drama is building into something wonderful...
This review contains spoilers
2.7 Did You Do This? No, You Did It!
‘It’s hard to be simple’, says Hank in his customary grandfatherly tones, ‘in times of complication’. It’s a somewhat pat piece of wisdom, but one that’s entirely suited to the bewilderingly complicated scenario that we have before us. Two thirds of the way through the season and positions have become so thoroughly entwined that it’s difficult to imagine a sword sharp enough to cut through the knot.
Not that a violent shortcut is completely off the table. As the opening montage loudly reminded us, this world, however complicated, is a terrifyingly violent one and the prospect of any resolution coming through words alone seems very remote indeed. We started with a double Gerhardt funeral...
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Two thirds of the way through Fargo season 2, this rich, complex drama is building into something wonderful...
This review contains spoilers
2.7 Did You Do This? No, You Did It!
‘It’s hard to be simple’, says Hank in his customary grandfatherly tones, ‘in times of complication’. It’s a somewhat pat piece of wisdom, but one that’s entirely suited to the bewilderingly complicated scenario that we have before us. Two thirds of the way through the season and positions have become so thoroughly entwined that it’s difficult to imagine a sword sharp enough to cut through the knot.
Not that a violent shortcut is completely off the table. As the opening montage loudly reminded us, this world, however complicated, is a terrifyingly violent one and the prospect of any resolution coming through words alone seems very remote indeed. We started with a double Gerhardt funeral...
- 12/2/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fargo's second season is simply excellent drama, with sparkling dialogue and clever character development...
This review contains spoilers.
2.6 Rhinoceros
Speaking prior to the debut of the first season of Fargo, showrunner Noah Hawley made the telling comment that he saw his project as less a TV show and more a ‘ten hour movie’. The import was that the show could be enjoyed as a self-contained story, something that needed no external input, such as the promise of a second series and multiple year arcs, to work. His argument has some merit, particularly for TV shows such as his, that take the anthology format and promise a narrative resolution in each season.
As with any creative decision, there are positive and negative aspects to the approach, but ultimately, it’s a valid view and a valid decision for Hawley to make. I thought about this a lot while watching Rhinoceros,...
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Fargo's second season is simply excellent drama, with sparkling dialogue and clever character development...
This review contains spoilers.
2.6 Rhinoceros
Speaking prior to the debut of the first season of Fargo, showrunner Noah Hawley made the telling comment that he saw his project as less a TV show and more a ‘ten hour movie’. The import was that the show could be enjoyed as a self-contained story, something that needed no external input, such as the promise of a second series and multiple year arcs, to work. His argument has some merit, particularly for TV shows such as his, that take the anthology format and promise a narrative resolution in each season.
As with any creative decision, there are positive and negative aspects to the approach, but ultimately, it’s a valid view and a valid decision for Hawley to make. I thought about this a lot while watching Rhinoceros,...
- 11/25/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fargo season 2 offers up a detailed exploration of violence in The Gift Of The Magi, feat. a bonus appearance from Bruce Campbell...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 The Gift Of The Magi
There are times that I check the running time of an episode of Fargo just to see whether it’s actually four hours long. This isn't because the fifty-odd minutes tend to drag, quite the contrary, but because the writers seem to cram so much into every edition and still appear to take their time in doing so. The Gift Of The Magi, for example, managed to examine the commission of violence, in some considerable detail, through two separate lenses.
The early shoot-out offered a look at violence through the eyes of the victims (if the brutal Kc mob could ever earn the soubriquet ‘victims’, it was here). Fast, bloody and utterly frenzied, the assault came...
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Fargo season 2 offers up a detailed exploration of violence in The Gift Of The Magi, feat. a bonus appearance from Bruce Campbell...
This review contains spoilers.
2.5 The Gift Of The Magi
There are times that I check the running time of an episode of Fargo just to see whether it’s actually four hours long. This isn't because the fifty-odd minutes tend to drag, quite the contrary, but because the writers seem to cram so much into every edition and still appear to take their time in doing so. The Gift Of The Magi, for example, managed to examine the commission of violence, in some considerable detail, through two separate lenses.
The early shoot-out offered a look at violence through the eyes of the victims (if the brutal Kc mob could ever earn the soubriquet ‘victims’, it was here). Fast, bloody and utterly frenzied, the assault came...
- 11/18/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fargo season 2 reveals what lies behind the mannered civility of the Midwest, and it's not friendliness...
This review contains spoilers.
2.4 Fear And Trembling
In a show as crisply written and carefully presented as Fargo there are many opportunities for writers to offer simple but telling lines of dialogue. This episode, which alternated moments of violence with scenes of quieter menace, was no different. It could, however, be summarised with a line from last week’s episode, in which thug-savant Mike Milligan opined that in this part of the Midwest, the locals are so friendly with their unfriendliness. It’s a good look, presented as part of the local culture and evident in every ‘aw jeez’ mannerism, but also used for a more deliberate purpose.
This mannered civility is an effective method for conveying tension and is deployed very well indeed this week as the various parties continue to dance around one another.
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Fargo season 2 reveals what lies behind the mannered civility of the Midwest, and it's not friendliness...
This review contains spoilers.
2.4 Fear And Trembling
In a show as crisply written and carefully presented as Fargo there are many opportunities for writers to offer simple but telling lines of dialogue. This episode, which alternated moments of violence with scenes of quieter menace, was no different. It could, however, be summarised with a line from last week’s episode, in which thug-savant Mike Milligan opined that in this part of the Midwest, the locals are so friendly with their unfriendliness. It’s a good look, presented as part of the local culture and evident in every ‘aw jeez’ mannerism, but also used for a more deliberate purpose.
This mannered civility is an effective method for conveying tension and is deployed very well indeed this week as the various parties continue to dance around one another.
- 11/11/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
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Fargo remains brilliantly controlled as the plot tightens. Here's Michael's review of The Myth Of Sisyphus...
This review contains spoilers
2.3 The Myth of Sisyphus
Fargo is undoubtedly one of the most carefully constructed TV shows of the current roster. It has to be. It would be impossible to maintain its unique tone, blending intense absurd violence and cosy winterbound warmth, without a very, very careful control of the material. That control was in firm evidence this week, both in content and delivery.
First, the content, or rather, the plot. A sense of escalation permeated the passage of events this week as the four disparate parties -the Gerhardts, the Kansas City mob, the police and the Blomquists- each grappled with the acquisition of information and the tightening circles that draw them ineluctably together.
So it was that the embattled Gerhardt clan, whose twin misfortunes kickstarted this whole mess,...
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Fargo remains brilliantly controlled as the plot tightens. Here's Michael's review of The Myth Of Sisyphus...
This review contains spoilers
2.3 The Myth of Sisyphus
Fargo is undoubtedly one of the most carefully constructed TV shows of the current roster. It has to be. It would be impossible to maintain its unique tone, blending intense absurd violence and cosy winterbound warmth, without a very, very careful control of the material. That control was in firm evidence this week, both in content and delivery.
First, the content, or rather, the plot. A sense of escalation permeated the passage of events this week as the four disparate parties -the Gerhardts, the Kansas City mob, the police and the Blomquists- each grappled with the acquisition of information and the tightening circles that draw them ineluctably together.
So it was that the embattled Gerhardt clan, whose twin misfortunes kickstarted this whole mess,...
- 11/3/2015
- by michaeln
- Den of Geek
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