I couldn't think of a title for this. So I'm going with 'Ballbag'

Brace yourselves. It's a long 'un.

Now I'm sure we all know that Flash Gordon pre-dates the Queen singing, James Bond indulging his Robin Hood fetish, Blackadder's Dad cosplaying as Katar Hol, 80's movie. Don't we? Of course we do.

Adam Strange? Pussy! Superman? Mommies Boy!

We know about the original comic strips; we know about the Buster Crabbe movie serials; some of us may even know about the series of novels from the 70's, (I've read 'em, they aren't very good) and 80's (I've not read 'em, they could be aces for all I know). But did you know about the 1954 TV show starring Steve Holland? Because for some bizarre reason, I didn't. Shocking, I know.

Not now Flash my dear. Ming is busy.

I only found out about said TV show when I was messing about googling Flash whilst in the midst of watching movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (or Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers Conquer The Universe, or Flash Gordon 3: Foxy Spy Ladies Of Mongo), which I picked up dirt cheap in a DVD discount store.  As so often seems to happen, watching one thing leads to the discovery of something else and I end up further behind than when I started. Well, not really further behind; the shows already existed; but it seems like that because I know these shows exist now.

Case in point; I plan in the very near future to get back to the 90's X-Men animated series, which I am roughly half way through watching. A quick search to update my episode checklists leads me down the link trail to Wolverine and the X-Men. Fair enough, I knew that show existed and had planned to tack it's relatively small episode count on to the end of X-Men. What I didn't know, and what I was about to find out, was that their was a 12 episode Wolverine anime. Something else to add to the list.

Hugh Jackman he aint

This is an all too common scenario, and one which can always be relied upon to batter my head whenever I get complacent. I mean, how many Spider-Man cartoons have their been? Searching for the Conan cartoon reveals a live action Conan series; which it turns out I knew about at one point because I have a full episode list printed off; no memory of it though. And of course there's the time you're reading an article about Children of the Stones and it mentions in passing something called Timeslip.

Timeslip. I know what he was up to. Cheeky blighter.

Even just having a wander in HMV can be a nightmare, as shelf after shelf after shelf is filled with shows that, once I become aware of their existence I become overwhelmed with a mad urge to watch them. Many of them will fester in the back of my brain for a few months, causing untold mental anguish, before gradually fading from my mind. Not because I've become less obsessive, but simply because another new thing has just popped up on a google search for He-Man.

Then there are the times you're flicking idly through Smallville reviews on a comic website and you're suddenly confronted by talk of this:

How had I never heard of that? Christos!

What you may be taking away from this post is that I am not the most educated of men when it comes to television science fiction. I profess to be going to watch everything but I don't really know what everything is. Rest assured though, that as soon as something comes to my attention, it's on the list. It just takes me longer to get around to some shows than others.

Let's take Life on Mars and Being Human, for example. Both have spawned US remakes, and neither of said remakes have crossed my oculars as of yet. Partly for reasons of time and partly because the originals were; and in the case of Being Human, still is; in production. (I'm counting Ashes to Ashes here. Gene is Gene.) I didn't fancy the confusion.

And then there are the shows that just look, or are reviewed as being,so shit that I have no real inclination to watch. It happened with The Net, but I eventually got around to watching that. And it happened with...du du du duuurrr... the 2007 series of Flash Gordon, starring Whitney Fordman, Shady Double Agent Lady From Mutant X, and your Dad's accountant. That one I haven't touched yet. One day though. One day.

Flash Gordon. Apparently

I hope you're all very impressed by the way I brought this here post; which you all thought was rambling aimlessly with no destination in sight, admit it; full circle and back to The Flasher. It's my way of pretending I know how to structure a piece of writing. (Which I don't. I'd have been useless at uni. Essays be damned!)

Anyway, proof positive that The Quest really is impossible. But it's not gonna stop me from plugging away regardless, with not a care for my sanity, or your boredom thresholds. Until next time.

Where did it all go wrong?

Well, that was... yeah.

When I started watching S6 of Supernatural I did so knowing that it was not considered the best, by it's legions of adoring fans. I also did so not really caring that it wasn't considered the best by said legions of adoring fans because a) those same legions of adoring fans had been particularly vocal about their dislike of several characters I happen to be very fond of and so their opinions are suspect to me and b) I had a nagging feeling that a lot of the backlash was probably down to there being a new showrunner and that can often lead to people getting 'different'  confused with 'not as good'.

As it turns out, and much as it pains me to say it, they were right.

Of course, professing a nagging disappointment with this season is nothing new, is it? I'm not being original at all here, am I? No, I'm just regurgitating (or will be when I get around to actually expressing any opinions and not waffling rubbish) the same old complaints that everyone else had over a year ago. At least, I assume I will; I don't really know why people didn't like the season, since I avoided reviews and discussions for fear of spoilers. That same avoidance of media on the subject of the show may mean that a lot of my conjecture has already been (long since) proven right or wrong, or was common knowledge from the start; I don't know, so please feel free to tell me.

The reason I'm coming to this so late in the day, when I was so close to being all caught up, is that I was thwarted in my every attempt to pick up the Season 6 DV... Nah, don't worry, I'm not going to repeat that in yet another post. Moving on.

It had been a long time though, between seasons, so for the most part any flaws in the early episodes were lost on me as I was just glad to be back in this world, but it didn't take long for that nagging feeling of something isn't quite right here to start scratching away at my subconscious. All the elements seemed to be in place, but they just weren't gelling the way you knew they could.

Sam returning from Hell  - spoilers ahoy for the rest of the post -  without his soul may have seemed like an intriguing and potentially exciting story avenue to explore; and to be fair to them they were probably feeling the pressure to come up with a different angle to the one they used when Dean came back in S4; but it was a storyline which failed to take into account that the Sam and Dean chemistry, the brotherly affection even when they looked ready to kill each other, was the glue that holds the show together. They could survive without it for one, maybe two weeks, but a storyline that required Ackles and Padalecki to play genuine estrangement for half a season was a shocking mis-read of what makes Supernatural work, and what the audience wanted to see.

It beggars belief, to be honest, that someone who has worked on the show for as long as (new boss) Sera Gamble has would be that far out in their concept of the show. Especially since I seem to have the idea in my head from somewhere that she was heavily influential in bringing angels into the show; a masterstroke for which we should be eternally grateful, because it marked a quantum leap in quality. If that's true though, how do you go from getting something so right, to screwing the pooch so spectacularly?

Moving on from the incredibly poor understanding of how this show works and on to the incredibly poor understanding of how stories work.  Take the character of Samuel, for example; deceased male relative of the boys, experienced hunter, able to be tempted by promises of being with their mother again; it can't have been just me that thought they had obviously wanted to use the Dad for this storyline but Jeffrey Dean Morgan turned them down. That's pure speculation on my part though, I don't know yay or nay.

Mitch Pilleggi. Legend

If you can't have JDM, though, then Mitch Pilleggi is no slouch as a replacement. And using Samuel instead of John at least let them use the line "...the difference between you and me? You know how to live without her", which for some reason really got me. Not sure why.

While Pilleggi is awesome in the role, the Samuel character does have one pretty massive flaw this season; namely, he dies. In a blah episode in which a bunch of other characters die as well. His story just ends, without ever really reaching any kind of climax. You don't bring people back from the dead and then kill them off again without there being some kind of point to it, some kind of redemptive arc, or at least a cool fucking battle. Did Season 6 of Buffy teach us nothing?

Damp squib ending of Pilleggi's character aside, the season as a whole was full of these narrative dead ends. The 'Mother of All' character that came out of nowhere and went back the same way a couple of episodes later being a prime example. It's ok though, that whole storyline wasn't a pointless detour at all, because the boys mother showed up so it must have been important. Yeah, right, you're fooling no-one, people. The wall in Sam's head is another; all that angst over something that gave him a couple of migraines. I ask you.


As the series draws to it's depressingly limp close we learn that Castiel has been in cahoots with the baddies all along, in a compromise designed to win the civil war for control of heaven. The boys don't like this one little bit, despite the alternative being a genocidal monster taking command upstairs, so they give poor Cas a right old tongue lashing. "We were like Brothers, man!", shouts Dean at one point. "How dare you take a sensible stance and acknowledge shades of moral grey in your attempt to save all of creation from a lunatic with an apocalypse fetish!" he then doesn't go on to say.

Castiel. Unfairly Maligned 

Yes, the last few episodes seem intent on making us condemn Castiel for his actions when, let's face it, he's only in the wrong because the writers say he is. His actions seem perfectly reasonable to me. Misha Collins plays the hell out of it of course, because you'd expect nothing less, but it all smacks of desperation; by rights Castiel should just be telling the brothers to man up and stop being a pair of whiny bitches, not moping over whether he's doing the right thing.

Oh, and the way in which Dean figures out that Castiel has gone 'bad' is utter bollocks and makes Cas look like an idiot. Which, lest we forget, he is not. He is an angel, and in serious contention for the role of the new God; the guy's no dunce. Or he shouldn't be, written properly.

You're probably reading all of this and thinking that I hated this season. I didn't. There were several episodes; mainly the comedically slanted virtual stand-alones; that I loved wholeheartedly, the chemistry between the main players (when they were allowed to show it) was as good as ever, there were some surprising but welcome appearances by much missed favourites from earlier seasons, I actually liked all the Lisa and Ben stuff (Dean can't stay an immature ladies man forever) and guys like Pilleggi, Mark Sheppard and Sebastian Roche added a touch of class to the recurring roster of characters.

Lisa and Ben. I was sorry to see them go.

The problem is that the good things are fewer and further apart than they've been in any season since the (formulaic and really rather dull) first. I'm really hoping that things pick up a bit next season. (Don't tell me, all of you that have already seen it.)

A touch of class. But too little too late?

Oh, and was the fact that Eric Kripke came back to write the finale seen as a slight to Sera Gamble? It was certainly my thought when I saw his name in the credits.

So there you have it. My rambly and possibly nonsensical thoughts about Supernatural S6. They've been a while coming, so it feels good to get them off my chest. Next week, a little bit of Flash Gordon. 

Thank You Little Paper Boy

I finally, after months of fruitless searching (and fruitless whining on the internet) managed to get hold of a copy of Supernatural S6 on DVD a week or so back. My fears of once more falling massively behind; since all you dirty downloaders have already seen S7 and those with Sky and it's ilk were about to; fell by the wayside and I gleefully jumped headfirst into the creamy Winchester goodness, devouring episodes like I haven't devoured a show since Falcon Crest.

So naturally, the choice of topic for this week's post was as no-brainery as no-brainers get. Without further ado, I give you

Eerie, Indiana is one of those shows from my younger years that I know I watched all of, but only have the vaguest of memories of most of it. I remember Elvis, I remember the Mom (who would go on to much greater success as the Mom in Dawsons Creek) and I remember the creepy little kid with the '-' and '+' signs on his hand.

I remember John Astin being in it, and being great, though nothing about the actual part he played, and I remember the episode with the braces and the dogs. (That right there was a concept that wouldn't have shamed The Twilight Zone)

There are other snippets that I can recall, such as the brilliantly naff opening titles with the inspired theme music. Chills, you'd get from that music. Chills, I tell you!





Far from any specifics of plot or character, though, the thing I really think of when I contemplate Eerie Indiana; less often than the show deserves, but more often, I suspect, than anyone else I know; is just a vague feeling of having seen a classic. Do you ever have that feeling? That book, show or film, where you can't remember anything that happened in it, but you are nevertheless utterly convinced that it was great? Anyway...

I was somewhat taken aback to learn that the show had been revived, albeit for a short time only, as Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension, with a whole new cast (one assumes because the original leads had grown too old). It would seem my finger was somewhat further away from the pulse than I generally like, in this case.

I've yet to see any of this revival, and though comments I read at the time would indicate that it maybe wasn't the classic it's predecessor was, it's very high on my list of things I want to see. First though, I'm going to relive my teens (Oh the Horror!!!) and treat myself to a rewatch of the original stone classic. When next I go a-shopping for Quest goodies I'll see if I can't scout it out, otherwise I may visit your friend and mine, Herr Y. Rohr. Either way, Omri Katz and his hot mom are going in my eyeballs sometime soon.

Sexy Mum

Anyone who can tell me why watching S6 of Supernatural prompted a post about vague memories of a 90's kids show, comment away. Get it right and win a prize. The reason may be obscure, but there is one.

Where the devil are you, DM?

So what it is, right, is it's this, right. I was going to come back from the latest of my little hiatuses with an in depth and insightful discussion of that most venerable of 80's cartoons, Dangermouse. I felt that this would be a treat for you all that would be sufficiently exciting as to make you forgive the shameless lack of content recently.

I make no apologies. 'Tis a work of genius.

Sadly, this plan was kicked into touch by the THEFT of my Dangermouse 30th anniversary boxset. By the same person, I feel compelled to point out, that stole my Dangermouse 25th anniversary boxset. Back then, it was to sell for drug funds. These days, it was to watch. So while I can compliment him on his ability to leave behind his self destructive lifestyle, and on his taste in retro secret agent goodness, I feel that a better use for my time and the wear and tear on my vocal chords would be to swear at him, loudly and with much vigour.

"I only borrowed it, I didn't know you were in the middle of watching it", he says when confronted. Oh, well that's all right then, isn't it. It's not as if there was any way you could have ascertained whether I was watching it before you walked out with it, is there? No, no way at all. I mean, asking for permission to borrow it, at which point I would have told you that I was in the process of watching it; that's clearly just fucking crazy talk, am I right?

Anyway, while I wait for the miscreant to return that which he has stolen, what am I going to talk to you about? What? Eh? WHAT? Well, howsabout a little round up of what I've been watching that isn't a seminal 80's cartoon whose narrator is one of the greatest comedy creations of all time?

Sheer class

Much of my viewing of late has been a rewatch followed by first watch of the later episodes, of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip; another show I thought I'd seen all of but have been proved wrong by a DVD set; and Murder She Wrote on ITV1. I have to say, some of the episodes of the latter have really thrown me with just how clever they actually are. I've gotten some right, and I've gotten some wrong, but only once has the culprit been obvious from the outset. I've been surprised by how much I've genuinely enjoyed the show. I'm now wondering how much of it's mammoth run ITV have the rights to repeat, and when it's going to disappear; they have S3 at least, because that starts this week.

As good as they are though; and Studio 60 is one of my favourite dramas of all time; neither of those shows qualify for the Quest. So instead let's talk about... Primeval and The Walking Dead, both of which aired months ago for those with a half decent TV package and both of which are now FINALLY airing for those of us relying on basic TV. Except you can add, both of which I've managed to get even further behind on by recording them and not watching to the extent that by my count I'm now 4 episodes late on both of them. Because I'm shit. So let's not talk about them after all. Thwarted again!

Once Upon A Time is still trundling merrily along, doing it's own thing and not holding truck with any of those old fashioned concepts like heroes who aren't dicks or plots that show some signs of progression from week to week. It's picked up the pace slightly in the last two episodes I've watched; what with the whole 'Heart buried in the box/people remembering the fantasy world/Sheriff pulling her head out of her arse and actually starting to acknowledge that something weird is happening; so I'm  quietly hopeful the last few eps should be belters. Seriously though, can you believe we're 17 weeks in and the protagonist is only now starting to maybe believe in the premise of the show? There's slow burn, and there's, well... I'm not sure what this is.

So all in all, my first post back after yet another long break has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Not to worry though, because LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT!

Isn't it lovely?

Yes, after all my many trials and tribulations I finally managed to get hold of a copy; I only had to sacrifice 4 virgins in the end, which was two less than I was willing to stretch to; and now I'm merrily chugging my way through. By all accounts it's a bit of a weak season by Supernatural's own standards but to be honest, it's taken me long enough to see it, so right now I'm just glad of anything I can get. Not sure how critical I'm going to be able to be, that being the case, but what the hell. Expect a full round up of my slavish fan-ish thoughts next week.

Until then, then, I shall bid you adieu and once more trundle my way into the sunset. I hope I'm not leaving you feeling too disappointed.

Jekyll

Hello and welcome to another thrill packed edition of 'Paul watches something and waffles about it it to no real point until he gets bored.' This week, Jekyll.

At some point over the course of the last several years I managed to convince myself that I had seen most of Jekyll and missed the finale. Then I watched it on DVD and realised that what I had in fact actually seen was one episode. Not really sure what happened there. Perhaps I've gone insane and no-one thought to tell me.

Leaving aside the question of whether I need to start checking for hairs on my palms, the good thing about this little piece of self delusion is that rather than having one episode of brand spanking new Steven Moffat sci-fi goodness to indulge in, I had five. And five episodes of Moffat sci-fi is pretty much akin to Christmas, that year your Mum won the lottery and your Dad got a huge bonus and your Gran decided to spend Grandads life insurance payout on the kiddies, cos "you can't take it with you, sweetie."

What I'm saying is, it's a good time.

The basic plot of Jekyll is nothing massively original, at least at first; it really is just Jekyll and Hyde in the modern day. That doesn't stay the case for long though because, of course, if the plot was just a rehash of the original there would be little point in doing it. Instead Moffat, as he and Mark Gatiss would do (with much greater commercial and critical success) years later with the Sherlock Holmes mythos, adds twists, turns, and new elements aplenty to his modern take. Where this differs from Sherlock though, is that this isn't an adaptation. It's a sequel. Of a sort. Kinda.

I know that in TV terms Jekyll is ancient having been made, ruddy hell, 5 whole years ago, but I'm not gonna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Especially since it's on sale in HMV for £3 (hint hint). Unfortunately, that means I can't rave about what that 'kinda' means. Suffice to say, it's a clever little twist, it leads to an even cleverer twist, and then things twist around a bit more, and then a twist happens. And it ends on a twist. Or 2. And I'm not even including the ridiculous, laugh out loud false opening to one particular episode; it's very very cheeky, and could have gone massively wrong, but you'll love it.

I'm a Moffat fanboy though, so my opinion is perhaps not worth as much as that of someone less biased; or as I like to call it, more wrong; and to be honest the show seems not to have achieved much in the way of praise. Certainly, the lack of a second season, coupled with the fact that everyone I talk to seems never to have heard of it, tells me it's perhaps not so well regarded as all that. But I love it, and that's all that matters. So nyah! Also, I'm allowed to be excited for no other reason than I can finally tick the show off in my massive 'To Watch' file, which never seems to get any thinner. The swine.

Anyway, to the cast. James Nesbitt plays Jekyll-alike Tom Jackman and his initially un-named (later to take the name Hyde) alter ego is played by...James Nesbitt as well. It's a brilliant transformation, almost entirely achieved through movement and intonation; a wig is the extent of the make-up involved. I've never been a massive fan of Nesbitt, mainly because he has never really appeared in anything I'd like to watch rather than any active dislike of his work, but he's won me over here.

It's not his show alone though, and he is ably assisted by a pretty bloody good support cast. The one who got all the pre-launch buzz was of course Michelle Ryan, ex of Eastenders and soon to be Bionic Woman, who plays the psychiatric nurse Jackman hires to help him manage his condition. They'll tell you it's because she was an up and coming star in the making. I'll tell you it's cos she's hot.

And of course, who can forget the legend that is Wedge, Mr Denis Lawson himself. Lawson plays Jackman's best friend, and boss. With a smart line in sarcastic humour and a self deprecating air of 'taking it on the chin' when the jokes on him, he and Nesbitt share an easy chemistry that makes every scene they share a joy. But this is Denis Lawson we're talking about,  and as his role increases we see him steal any number of scenes. The man is class. (His attempt to fire a gun is one of my favourite scenes of the series. Seriously laugh out loud funny).

Jackman's bizarre behaviour has of course not gone unnoticed so it's only a matter of time before someone decides to do a little digging. Enter private eyes Meera Syal and Fenella Woolgar, a pairing that is an absolute joy to watch together. Their chemistry is as seemingly natural as Nesbitt and Lawson's and I have no doubt that had this story been written from a slightly different angle, a sci-fi/horror detective show with these two would have worked like a charm. I'd watch it. You never know, we could still see it; I mean, it's not as if Moffat is busy at the minute or anything.

The villains of the piece, intent on harnessing Hyde for their own nefarious ends and hang the consequences to Jackman, are led by Paterson Joseph. (See, I told you this was a stellar cast). His American accent leaves a little bit to be desired; although I think that may have been intentional; but his smarmy, ultra confident 'we own the world' shtick always amuses, even when he's at his most evil, and trust me when I tell you that he gets evil.

Which just leaves Gina Bellman. Now, as much as it pains me to say this, I don't think Bellman is up to this. She plays Jackman's wife; a role which becomes pretty important as his enemies start to use his family against him, as well as in... other ways; and unfortunately never quite manages to convince us of their relationship. We're told that they are soul mates, that they're a love story for the ages, but we never feel it. Hers is a slightly too stiff performance, even in the sex scenes, or when she is required to almost break under pressure. She gives the impression of nothing so much as a drama student doing emoting exercises; there's nothing behind the eyes, no soul to the performance. It's a shame, and could easily have damaged the show, where she not carried so ably by those around her.

In the end the show is too good, the material too strong, the rest of the cast too talented; there is no question of one weak link dragging it down. It's never going to be regarded as a classic of the genre, and I'm not so mired in hero worship as to suggest that it should be, but I'd say it's definitely up there with the best of the BBC's post Dr Who revival glut of telefantasy efforts. If it wasn't for Moffat's current job, I'd be crying foul that we never got a second season. As it is though, I don't really think we can complain.

Of course, now that Jekyll is done I have to go back to waiting with the rest of you for the new series of Doctor Who for my Moff fix. In the meantime, what shall I be filling my empty little head with? Well, I'll tell you.

Now, where's that waterproof teabag?