Lockdown TV – Time to binge watch EVERYTHING!

It’s been a while since my last post, and it’s taken time for me to adjust to lockdown life and not knowing whether it will ever end. It’s been painfully sad to see theatres around the world closing down, shows ending, and particularly seeing all the local amateur theatres pausing for who knows how long. I pray that it’s not the end of theatre, but social distancing seems an impossible challenge to get past, especially in the performance industries. Though it may not have occurred to most people, television and film is on the precipice of change too, we just won’t really see the full effect of COVID-19 for a few months still. So while we can, let’s watch everything! And I mean, EVERYTHING!

As I write this I am watching Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” on YouTube! What an amazing privilege this is! If you’ve been able to see this in the theatres when it was on, how lucky you are! Not all of us have been exposed to the theatre as children and some of us have come into it late in life! Not everyone has a keen parent to take them, not everyone lives near cities with big theatres and not everyone can afford it. Before lockdown, I was regularly getting cheap tickets off TodayTix and taking the train to see all the latest shows I could squeeze in between my own rehearsals for shows. So far, I’ve watched “Twelfth Night”, “Phantom of The Opera”, “One Man, Two Guvnors”, “Everyone’s Talking About Jamie” – all of which have been fantastic productions to behold. It’s not quite the same as watching them in the theatres but it certainly makes up for the fact that we can’t go. The biggest news to come out is that “Hamilton” will be showing on Disney + on July 3rd. I am fortunate to be able to afford a subscription, so its a shame it won’t be aired for free, but it really is quite the show. Possibly, the most stunning and impactful muscial I’ve ever had the pleasure to see from the front row. I’ve already written about it before.

So theatre on television is a miracle right now, I never thought I’d get a chance to see some of these classics, but there’s plenty of television shows that I have delved right into with no social life or evening activities to tear me away from my beloved LCD screen! Let me take you through some of the shows I’ve been watching.

I had quite a few friends mention the series”Normal People” to me which is currently playing on BBC3 on the iPlayer. A book adaptation, the series follows characters, Marianne and Connell, as they hesitate through childhood romance, into young adulthood, and the socio-economic barriers that divide them during their college days in Dublin and their torrid love affair. It’s beautifully captured on camera with lingering shots of the intimacy between them, never failing to get as close as possible to their faces and bodies through steamy sex and raw, emotional scenes.

It’s utterly sad watching this couple struggle to communicate with each other, often acting on assumptions and insecurities. If only they could say what they felt right from the beginning. This isn’t a millennial problem, even though I think mobile phone technology has a lot to answer for. Young people have always struggled with this problem, so it’s a hugely relatable story. Normal people really describes who these two characters are to SOME extent. My biggest criticism of this show is that they are just too darn beautiful. I mean, it’s very hard to believe that Marianne really thinks that she’s so ugly as a teenager because she’s utterly gorgeous. And the lad playing Connell, well… let’s just say it was nice to have shots appreciating the male body and not just the female as we are so used to seeing. The gaze here was just as much female as it was male which I really enjoyed though I wish it felt a bit more consensual!

My other problem with them being so beautiful is that if this is supposed to be about a relatable couple, then I wish they didn’t have such bodies that are the usual type we are so used to seeing on screen. Paul Mescal who plays Connell is fit, hairless, exceptionally tall with a strong jawline.  And Daisy Edgar-Jones is petite, small-breasted and slim, very Audrey Hepburn like. And her wardrobe is gorgeous, with strappy dresses fitted to her shape, and very high end looking, though she is meant to be wealthy. It just gives such unrealistic expectations for young girls who might watch this. The series also never goes into why she seeks abusive men and BDSM relationships, and I think this can be quite dangerous. Overall, it’s a very aesthetically pleasing show about two tormented but beautiful people.

I also had quite a few people tell me I ought to watch Hollywood on Netflix, the latest Ryan Murphy television series. Another impossibly glossy show from the fantasy obsessed creator. And this show is exactly that, a glorious fantasy that applies all the modern liberated views during the golden age of cinema. Representation is a subject I am absolutely passionate about and I loved seeing this idea of what if a gay black man could write a script featuring a black actress and her white lover and the female lead studio would let it all happen, ignoring the potential violent backlash from the general public. It’s lovely but it’s also… ridiculous. I think I enjoyed it but it also made me sad, as if tolerance is like a magical thing we can cast over people. It did have some wonderful points to make about representation which I think is really important to watch. So applying that lens of modern tolerance to a drama set during a very intolerant period is pure television escapism.

So I’ve already rambled on too much and I didn’t even get a chance to talk about “Upload” on Amazon Prime, or “Never Have I Ever” on Netflix. I think I really need to write more regularly or else I’ll never be able to squeeze it all in! Until next time, then!

I’m back… no really, I am!

Blogging is hard. You have to be consistent and keep coming back to it. You have to have time to dedicate to it and you have to keep your readers interested. Well, I stopped blogging because I got a job. Not just any job, a dream job, running social media accounts and writing marketing emails for a local company just a ten-minute drive away. And then… the bloody coronavirus hit and work have been massively affected, as is any other business, as well as our daily lives, and everyone is home more than ever in lockdown until the tidal wave of infection passes over us all and we’re allowed to go back to whatever normal after a pandemic is.

In the meantime, I’m watching a lot of television again. And my, there is so much to watch. I watch a wide variety of television and I think I have some suggestions for whatever you might be in to. So I’ll go through what I’ve been watching and who I watch it with.

So… the easy one… what I’m watching with my teenage daughters… Friday Night Dinners…

My husband and I have never watched it, not sure why but watching it with my teenagers is epic, we howl with laughter and shout at the telly every time Jackie lets Jim in the house as he “accidentally” falls over and drools. It’s not even that bad with the language and suggestive talk so there are no really cringey moments that you’d hate watching with your kids. We’ve already binged the first two seasons and I’m sure we’ll catch up next week.

What I’m watching with the husband: aside from ever so boring episodes of The Walking Dead and Westworld, and I’ve done blogs about those… I’m not sure why I keep watching them but we are also watching The Good Doctor which is like a poor man’s House. I’m much more excited about Grey’s Anatomy coming back to our screens tomorrow!

For films, we watched Rocketman and it was again, ok, but I have to say Bohemian Rhapsody was a much better biopic. We also watched Midsommar on Amazon Prime and that was pretty mind-blowingly horrific even in comparison to its predecessor, Hereditary. I wouldn’t watch it if you are sensitive to violence and body horror, it’s quite graphic.

On my own, I’ve been watching way too much but I’ll give a brief description of everything I’ve watched so far:

Belgravia – ok but not as good as Downton, quite bleak as Tamsin Grieg and Paul Ritter are both in this but miserable as sin. Also, the whole plot seems to revolve around the shame of an unwed mother and her abandoned child which all seems so old fashioned and such a tired storyline. 

Liar – ok but not as exciting as the first season but Joanne Froggatt from Downton is in it and I’m obsessed and she’s a fab actress (amazing line up of British actresses, actually!)

Sunnyside – Kal Penn’s new comedy series which is based it my old home town in Queens… so far so funny, I want more!

Then I need to talk about Amazon Prime… what a novelty. While Netflix seems to show endless episodes of Riverdale with some of the worst acting and storylines I have ever seen… Amazon Prime has some winners, along with StarzPlay which I have avoided adding because of the extra charge.

On the main channel, Picard has been absolutely epic. My husband and I fell in love over our fondness for Star Trek so this has been a beautiful return to one of our favourites with many of the old cast returning.

The opening credits are stunning and cinematic and the show is everything I have been craving for in Star Trek. Discovery was great but far too complicated. The plot in this is filled with nostalgia and the ever-present philosophical quandaries that the old Captain (now Admiral) finds himself in. It’s an absolute must for Trekkies.

Then there’s Outlander which I’ve been obsessed with for some time and the latest season has been fairly good.

I finally switched over to StarzPlay on the promise of three months for only 99p a month and during Lockdown I have plenty of time to enjoy this.

I’ve already binge-watched and obsessed over Four Weddings and a Funeral which at first, the glossy good looking actors with mediocre acting skills put me off, but the writing from British Asian comedienne Bisha K Ali was absolutely fantastic! A spot-on representation of BAME characters.

I am also a few episodes into The Spanish Princess which I’m also loving after having read the books many years ago.

So… overall… there’s plenty to watch at the moment and I’ll be regularly posting on my Facebook page where you can comment and feedback or give me suggestions for things to watch and review!

Can I also just ask, if you’re watching these shows, do try and pay and subscribe for it because the artists involved in these shows don’t work for free and right now they need the money more than ever. Most productions and theatre have come to a full halt and for people to continue pirating film and television is just not ok. Artists need to be paid, or else, what else will you watch on tv without them????

 

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack

OH MY GOSH! THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD TELLY ON! I know it’s been a while since I last posted. I had a lot going on with my Master’s Degree in Global Film and Television in the first half of December that sort of wiped me out for the next month. I may have stopped blogging but I certainly didn’t stop watching telly! After all, it is my research!

So what have I been watching? I thought I’d break it down by the various ways in which I watch television: Sky, Amazon Prime and Netflix. I did watch quite a few films in the cinema too over the last few months so let me start with them:

Cinema

Wreck It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet – the one kids film my prepubescent kids actually wanted to watch. It was good! A bit like the first film but on acid. The world is Social Media obsessed so it was an interesting take on how Disney would make a film about YouTube stars and appeal to a whole new generation that might not really watch as many Disney films anymore. Genuinely a good laugh and the animation is stunning and eye catching.

Mary Poppins Returns – Another film I dragged my kids to see and actually I really enjoyed it. We had watched the original film earlier that day and they really made an effort to repeat the success by following a formula using nostalgia to attract the older audiences. It was a little sugary sweet – a bit saccharine like, but overall I was super impressed with Emily Blunt’s gorgeous voice. Of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda was what I was excited to see on screen. After being obsessed with the Hamilton album and musical for so long I’ve never seen him perform properly. He really didn’t disappoint at all. I’m pretty much in love with him. See my previous post on Hamilton!

Bohemian Rhapsody – This was an incredible biopic. Rami Malek gave a performance that was truly sensational. I have always loved Freddy Mercury and Queen and this was a feast for the fans. I had watched this not long after I’d seen A Star Is Born so I was so happy to see that this film was so much better. The awards are all going to Gaga but I actually dislike her acting – it’s all too contrived.

Aquaman – This was a visually stunning piece of work and yeah, I enjoyed the story. And Jason Momoa – I have no words. He is just beautiful. I’m glad I saw it in the cinema, almost wish I had watched it in 4DX.

Sky & Terrestrial 

This is Us – I love this American drama so much, the performances are beautiful and the stories are so meaningful. If you love a good tearjerker this is for you.

Grey’s Anatomy – If you haven’t watched this series, you’ve missed a real treat. My husband and I watch it religiously. I’m always wanting more.

9-1-1 – Another fab series from Ryan Murphy and friends. It’s by far the campest series about emergency services I have ever seen but I can’t not watch something with Angela Basset in it, she is a QUEEEEEEEN!

Les Miserables – I’m enjoying this non musical version on the BBC. You get a lot more from the actual story and there are some brilliant actors in it, including the impressive Olivia Coleman.

Call The Midwife – Good old nostalgia pieces. I just love it.

The Orville – Hilarious, especially if you’re a Star Trek fan.

Amazon Prime

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel – I love this show so much. She’s witty, sharp, gorgeous, and epitomises feminism. There are some truly spectacular moments in the second season. Everyone should watch this.

Homecoming – Julia Roberts is incredible. It’s a fairly short piece but poignant and very well written and filmed. She is going to get huge accolades for this and already is.

Outlander – I’m obsessed and I will probably be writing a full blog post about this series very soon!

And finally…

Netflix

The Bird Box – This was incredible. I love Sandra Bullock for producing and starring in this brilliant film. It’s not about romance, it’s not about saving the world. It’s just a simple film about survival. I love it.

Bandersnatch – So much hype and well worth it. A very impressive effort on something that may actually be the future of television. Television does seem to be taking over reading books, doesn’t it? I do wonder about this quite a bit. It’s possibly the subject of my MA thesis.

The Good Place – Basically philosophy for beginners. Plenty of thought experiments brought to life. Kristen Bell is brilliant in this and her ensemble cast in this show have all earned a certain level of fame for just being effortlessly funny.

You – This first season was so dark and delicious and definitely a treat for the old fans of Gossip Girl. A thriller that really preys on our concerns about social media and privacy. This is so good!

Titans – Currently binge watching this at the moment. I was hooked the moment Robin said “Fuck Batman!” I wanna know! What happened? Very clever writing in this show!

That’s it for now. I could go on but I don’t want to bore you. I’ll definitely start blogging again. Let me know if you have any suggestions for shows you want to talk about!

 

 

 

 

A Star Is Born… again

I watched this last night and I’m a big lover of music, musicals, and romantic films and so a lot of my friends were expecting me to love this film. I didn’t. But then I’m not a big lover of hugely popular movies. I didn’t like La La Land that much and The Greatest Showman left me very sour so I’m not surprised that I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to.

If you want a little history about the film, here’s a good article. It might help you understand why the film had to be the way it is, following a formula.

To be fair, I didn’t hate it. Bradley Cooper is an impeccable actor, sometimes a little up himself, but he throws him so wholly into his project. He not only starred in this film, he directed and produced it. His name all over the end credits made sure you came away from the film knowing that. Ok, Bradley, I get it, you’re immensely talented and powerful (for a handsome white guy, I mean they have to stand out from all the rest to get so far to the top, am I right?)

And Bradley is VERY handsome, those eyes are gorgeous, and I’ve been following his career since he featured on Alias as Jennifer Garner‘s awkward friend, Will Tippin. He and Lady Gaga are very cute together. Their romance is really sweet. There are beautiful close ups of their faces and their intense stares at each other. Bradley’s character Jackson Maine has a hearing problem so he often shares conversations very close to people’s faces. Hence the really tight shots. Their conversations are really natural, it doesn’t feel scripted, it feels improvised. I definitely liked that. The songs are gorgeous (bar a few but there’s a reason for that).

I’m curious as to why Lady Gaga didn’t use her real name for the credits, it seems an odd choice. This performance was way better than what she got a Golden Globe for in American Horror Story. Her acting was solid, but when she sang it VERY much sounded like Lady Gaga, and not some random called Ally.

This is where my problem with it was. A friend pointed out that there were no other female characters in the WHOLE FILM! Like where were her friends? And how did I not notice this myself! (Thank you, Adam!) Her closest friend was played by Anthony Ramos (cue screams from me – he was Phillip in the Broadway production of Hamilton) but it was just a bit part and he doesn’t even get to sing! A travesty!

So she has her dad and his driver buddies, the drag queens at the bar she sings at, Jackson and his band, and maybe one woman who shows her to the stage, Jackson’s brother and that’s it. There was something not quite right. If she had a female friend, she probably would have been warned about getting involved with a depressive alcoholic. It also annoys me that in this day and age a woman of her talent would be shown as not getting to where she is without a man!

I really, really wanted to like this film, but there were lots of problems. I didn’t really believe this character of Ally. She sounded like she had balls but she does all this trashy music when she gets famous. She looks like she takes no shit from anyone, but Jackson treats her like a toy. I get that this sort of thing happens but I just expected something modern from this rebirth. It was just so clichéd.

I’m still going to listen to the soundtrack, I really do like it. I saw Lady Gaga perform live at the 02 in Dublin years ago and she was insanely entertaining. I have huge admiration for her as an artist, but as an actor… yeah ok, I think she might get an Oscar for this. Bradley will for sure… it’s his turn. Ugh… I hate that.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – How to get a sequel right!

I know I’m a little late on this train but there is an awful lot to watch at the moment! I went back to the glorious Odyssey Cinema in St Albans to see this because at £7 a ticket for myself and my family, the price and the location were perfect!

And oh how we all love Chris Pratt! My teen daughters and I adore him and I’m pretty sure my husband has a man crush on him too! He’s the perfect combination of a guy next door you want to be friends with, and masculine and funny without every being misogynistic.

The story starts with the sassy Bryce Dallas Edwards working to save the dinosaurs at the park from being obliterated by a dangerous volcano on the verge of devouring the whole island with lava. She is notably without her ridiculous white heels in this film as she rounds up a team of a dinosaur vet, an IT geek and the lovely Chris Pratt in an effort to rescue the creatures.

Jeff Goldblum makes an appearance in his old role from the original films but it’s such short scenes I couldn’t help be disappointed. There were a few more old faces and some new but over all it was the dinosaurs themselves that stole the show. Good old Blue made a come back with some darling scenes from it’s childhood while it was being reared by Owen Brady (Pratt).

We also had a notable appearance of a newly invented dinosaur called the Indoraptor which was terrifying and exciting to watch. I loved the references to Frankenstein’s creation in these scenes when the dinosaur handlers wielded electric staffs that cast an ominous silhouette on the walls of the Indoraptor.

The whole film does revolve around the ethics of genetic science and whether we as humans ought to even create such creatures whether we have the ability to do it or not. If anything it says that it’s too late, if we’ve already done it, we ought to protect the dinosaurs from acts of nature. It’s treading on dodgy ethical grounds but the film is the perfect summer blockbuster.

The special effects are awesome, the dinosaurs are magnificent, the locations, in Hawaii again stunning to behold and make me wish I could afford a holiday there! I couldn’t help compare to Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. They just got everything right in this film that they didn’t in Mamma Mia. The chemistry between Bryce and Chris is delicious, and there is almost no sexual content in the film at all (doesn’t need it, in my opinion). It’s just good old fashioned fantasy and fun with a little bit of ethics thrown in. Take your family to see it, it had us all captivated for all 128 minutes.

Also, hang in there after the credits as there is an extra scene you don’t want to miss!!! I’m already looking forward to the sequel which is set to come out in 2021!

Hereditary at the Odyssey Cinema, St Albans

First of all, I would just like to say that the Odyssey Cinema is the most beautiful cinema I have been to in a long time. I can’t believe I have never been as I have lived and worked around St Albans for a very long time. Not only are the prices incredibly reasonable, but this art deco style cinema has the most wonderful seating arrangement. Please check out their website immediately!

I was invited to this showing of Hereditary by my Module Leader and lecturer of my MA in Global Film and Television, Dr Darren Elliott-Smith from the University of Hertfordshire. I took an old classmate of mine from my undergrad days as we loved our old film lectures and seminars and Darren was giving a short talk before the film and a Q&A after.

Darren stressed that the film is brilliant but complicated and that we would probably need to stay after to discuss it. I was intrigued, as my MT nerd friend was pleading with me to watch it as she had so many questions and NEEDED to talk to me about it.

So the trailers for the film make it look pretty scary but I was told it wasn’t that bad, to me, IT WAS SCARY AS F***! I spent a few minutes hiding behind the lovely velvet cushions in the settee seats we had. The film is stunning to watch. I wish I could remember every detail but I need to watch it again. Set mostly in a family home in the middle of nowhere, Toni Collette plays Annie, a mother of two who has just lost her own mother. At the funeral, her eulogy is strange, her relationship with her mother is stranger, her children are strange, her husband is gorgeous (I f***** love Gabriel Byrne, he could be 82 by now but I don’t care because he is still fiiiiiiiiiiine to me.) The actor portraying the son, Peter, is Alex Wolff and he looks remarkably like Byrne, an excellent casting, as he seems to possess the same brooding good looks.

The story of this family’s grief unfolds and revolves around their dynamics. The son seems pretty normal, but the daughter, Charlie, is freakishly odd looking. The character has a peanut allergy, and excuse me if this sounds rude but the kid looks like she’s suffering from the peanut allergy all the time.

 

 

I couldn’t believe that someone could be so unfortunate looking so I was relieved to see the actress is actually quite cute in real life and is just also a very good physical actress!

Speaking of physical actresses, Toni Collette is simply amazing. I have been a bit obsessed with her since Muriel’s Wedding but I also became infatuated when she did United States of Tara where she played a mother with multiple personality disorder. So to see her in a film now that also involves mental illness, I wasn’t surprised to see her acting skills at her best.

 

Toni’s character, Annie is a weird one herself. She’s estranged from her kids, she spends hours in a room on her own as an artist creating tiny dioramas in what seem like doll houses. The scene she depicts seem to be important ones in her life and she seems to find catharsis through her art work. What is beautiful about this film is the concept that the characters themselves are like dolls and this is captured through shots that contain the whole room of their home including the ceiling and with a tilted angle and antique oak furniture, often with spindly legs, seeming like they are actually inside the doll house themselves. This gives the sense they are not in control of themselves and are manipulated by some higher power.

Without giving too much away, why did we need to discuss this? Darren calls it a film of the post horror movement. Not quite traditional horror, which some might say is outdated. Personally I think horror has had to progress because we’re so desensitised to violence and body mutilation. There were moments in the film where people gasped, and there were moments of traditional horror with scenes borrowed from old films and that made people laugh!

Hereditary is definitely horror, with gore and jumps and scares and all sorts but there is also the essence of melodrama. The film is about mental illness, a mother’s anguish and eternal feelings of guilt, and the family dynamics particularly during adolescence. There is a lot to think about in this film.  It’s definitely worth watching and if you get the chance to visit the Odyssey Cinema in St Albans, just go, it’s wonderful!

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – did we have to go again?

Well I couldn’t miss the sequel of the year. I loved Mamma Mia! when it came out back in 2008. I have great memories of the film, watched it with my mum and my kids. My daughters grew up listening to the soundtrack on repeat, the DVD was always on with the subtitles so we could sing along.

When they announced the sequel and that Cher would be in it, well! – how could I not see this??? The original film had the perfect blend of plot, mystery, glamour, song, dance, and singing that any musical on film requires. Meryl Streep was gorgeous au naturel, full of life, singing like we’ve never heard her sing before. It wasn’t the kind of style you hear on stage that is pitch perfect and honed and finely tuned, it was sweet and delicate and bold at the same time. Singing “The Winner Takes It All” at the top of the mountain in the serene surrounds in Greece was the highlight of the film for me. Even the men singing terribly throughout the film was laughable but endearing.

OK, so lets talk about the sequel. I won’t give any spoilers so not to worry. Let’s just say the film was good but problematic on so many levels.

Location – Come on, producers… this didn’t look like Greece… and it wasn’t. Even if Croatia where they filmed it does look similar to Greece in parts, this setting looked nothing like the original film! AT ALL!!!! Like even if they filmed some of it in a studio, why not build the set to look even a little like the original! It was just wrong.

Cast – Cher and her seven minutes on screen were captivating. Fernando sounded lush but her chemistry with Andy Garcia was ZERO! There was some laughable choreography that you can even see in trailers and clips and it was just awkward AF! Lily James as a young Donna had great energy bu the rest of the cast was underused. I wanted much more of Christine Baranski but I’m biased (I am obsessed with her).

Plot – what plot? Where was the hardship, where was the climax? There were a lot of flashbacks to show Donna in her hookups with the three men in her life, but we knew all about this in the first film. The dialogue was fairly cheesy throughout and just some how felt a little unnatural. There was no big obstacle for the main characters to overcome so it just didn’t feel that satisfying in the end.

Songs and singing – well there weren’t many Abba songs left in the repertoire to add to this film so there were lots of songs I hadn’t heard before. It was nice to hear ones that weren’t in the first film but really all the best ones were used and they did cover them again in the second one. My kids and I agreed Dancing Queen and Super Trouper were excellent a second time round! It’s a shame Lily James’s singing had some autotuning, it wasn’t necessary. We didn’t have that in the first film and we didn’t need it this time either.

Good points – the music of Abba is wonderful. I loved the harmonies and hearing songs I hadn’t heard in a very long time. The heartstrings were definitely pulled with a duet between Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep. I ugly cried at that scene, though it did feel like I was emotionally manipulated so the whole film felt very contrived. It’s such a shame, I think it could have been an exceptional film but in the end they very well could have done without a sequel.

Still, I wouldn’t miss it. It was definitely a bit of a Grease 2 sort of film. I think it will end up a treasure for the cult fans and definitely for those who consider Cher and Meryl Streep some sort of goddesses and they do deserve worship on all levels, but that’s just my opinion!

Everybody SHOULD BE talking about Jamie!

A television documentary inspires a musical for stage and is shown at the cinema live simultaneously around the world! I mean I had to see it and blog about it, of course! I’d heard little bits about the show earlier in the year and I wish I had gone when the ticket prices were relatively low. Then it picked up and it was a little hard to get tickets and I got busy and just didn’t have a chance to go.

When my local cinema announced they would be airing it live direct from the theatre I was dubious, why go to the cinema when it was only 45 minutes away from my home to see the show live? I’m fortunate to live so close to London and I can sometimes get last minute tickets, particularly from the Today Tix app which I adore! But I thought it would be interesting to watch a live feed from the theatre in the cinema. I’d never experienced it before and tickets were relatively cheaper. At £20 for full price and £15 concession it was a lot cheaper than in house tickets and the added price of the journey to London. PLUS, the views were right up close from cameras carefully placed around the stage and theatre. While I don’t think productions for the stage are meant to be seen so close, it does make the view more intimate for the viewer in the cinema and hell, you get to see a great show from the comfort of your home town and not all of us live so close to cities with big shows playing. What a fab way to get the theatre out to the masses, especially a show that is currently on stage and new!

Now the show itself was gloriously upbeat. The songs are modern and fresh with a range of tempos and references to Beyonce, Madonna and some great ballads that you can only get away with in musical theatre. The show is modern and fresh and diverse and the script is sharp and witty and funny and touching.

The character of Jamie New is based on the story of 16 year old school boy, Jamie Campbell who decided that he would not only pursue a career in drag performance once he finished school, but that he would debut his drag character at his high school prom back in 2011. Quite a lot of the documentary narrative is adapted into the musical with some key moments and relationships.

The most significant change in the adaptation is the diversity of the people around Jamie. In the documentary, pretty much everyone is white. In the show, the characters are sprinkled with diversity all over the place. It might not have been written in to the script for this character to be Asian but this aired stage version featured the wonderful Shobna Gulati playing Jamie’s mum’s best friend, Ray. Ray is a ray of sunshine throughout the show, dropping sharp one liners all over the place including her angry reaction to Jamie not being allowed to wear a dress for prom by the teachers, “It boils my piss!”. Interestingly, this cracking line is directly taken from the feature documentary but to hear it from an Asian soap actress, Gulati makes it her own in a cheeky and saucy fashion that breaks all the preconceptions about female Asian character stereotypes.

John McCrea is fabulously camp and sharp and witty as Jamie New. He shows great depth and vulnerability as he exposes his inner desires to the kids at school and to his father who shuns him. Jamie’s mother, Margaret, is played by Josie Walker whose voice is utterly heart wrenching during the ballad, “He’s My Boy”. The depth and tone of her voice is incredibly strong and so unique compared to the usual musical theatre sound. I found her performance compelling and sincere with every tear she shed in the close up performance on camera.

What struck a chord with me the most, was the character of Pritti Pasha, played by Lucie Shorthouse. This character who is Jamie’s best friend, also happens to be the class nerd, and wears a hijab. I immediately thought, this character isn’t right, she has a Hindu name! Much to my surprise, the character addresses this during the show, to point out her queerness to Jamie, to show that she is just like him in a way, a Muslim girl with a Hindu name! I LOVED THIS! (I’m a Hindu girl with a made up name.)

More than that, it made question myself, “Am I queer?” I’ve never had a problem with homosexuality or LGBT choices amongst my peers, but I never realised what it was made me identify with these friends until I saw this show. I’m queer, I thought to myself. There are many of us who identify with being queer, with being on the sidelines, with not fitting in the norm. I may be straight, married, a mum with two kids, but I do identify with queerness. The show is a celebration of queer and Jamie’s coming out and the embracing of his queerness by his peers and even himself is a joy to watch. He doesn’t want to be a girl, he just wants to be a boy that dresses up like a girl and feels pretty.

Watching it in the cinema may have not been my first choice but making a show about celebrating queerness more accessible to the masses that live outside the cities which are inhabited by the queer majorities, means that those few who are left on the fringes in their little town in the middle of nowhere, have something to relate to and identify with on screen. Everybody SHOULD BE talking about Jamie!

Do Cowboy Androids Dream of Electric Cattle? Part 2!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending ‘Screening The Unreal’, a film and television symposium held at the University of Brighton and hosted by their Film and Screen Studies department. While academics from Brighton and other universities gave their papers I took down lots of notes and had plenty of food for thought on the train home from Brighton.

In particular, two very different talks on Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Humans (2015-) made me think on my last blog post about AI and robots on screen. There are lots of themes that are explored through the concept of artificial intelligence. Some of it is epistemological, such as the sentience of a robot? If they can think for themselves, are they alive? Do they have the same rights to exist as humans? Blade Runner (1982) explores this with the notion that the Replicants may be “more human than human”.

Then there are themes in older films about androids, such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) that also talk about the ‘humanness’ of the robots, but also explore the general fear of technology experienced by the human characters.

However, I find that more modern text about this concept is more of an analogy for humans who are treated as less than human. I haven’t finished watching the latest series of Humans on Channel 4 but Principal Lecturer of the University of Brighton, Dr. Aris Mousoutzanis commented on the treatment of the synths and compared them to the treatment of immigrants in this country and in the US. The synths are created to do all the jobs that humans no longer want to do, they are expected to do what is considered degrading by some. Unfortunately they are further degraded by the humans as they explore their darker nature.

Westworld (2016-) also explores the dark nature of humans and how they are often exploiting victims who have no voice. Patricia McManus, a lecturer from University of Brighton, who gave the talk on Blade Runner 2049, made note of how many of these texts on artificial intelligence also point out the degenerate behaviour of the human race.

It made me think, are we as humans really that bad? I’m ever the optimist so I don’t really believe it but film and television like this does make feel, if we are producing text like this, then surely we are aware of how bad we can be, and if it is pointed out to us, then we have the chance to see our reflection and make changes that make us better human beings.

I recently picked up a film magazine called Little White Lies and their recent issue was entitled, Can Movies Save The World?, where they called on contributors to state what film they would show to all the world leaders to make them change. I was delighted to see that the film Short Circuit (1986) was included. Johnny 5 is a great character who through his gifted life, he appreciates every moment of his given existence. What a wonderful way to teach us humans how to be better, how to appreciate what we have. But that’s just me, ever the optimist.

Do Cowboy Androids Dream of Electric Cattle?: Westworld and Blade Runner 2049

I came in to the original Blade Runner film a bit later in to my life, which is strange, considering my obsession with all fiction relating to androids. I’m so obsessed that the only novel I attempted to write was about a dystopian future where all men have died out and women are left to run the world with the assistance of male androids and science to propagate the human race. I got three chapters in and then gave up. Why?

I was so inspired by televisions shows like Star Trek and Small Wonder (look it up and don’t laugh). The character of Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation was so intriguing. Imagine robots are created to take on the labour of humans that no one wants to do. However, in order to work effectively they need enough artificial intelligence to be proactive and safe so as not to harm humans. With artificial intelligence comes sentience. Data evolves from a pragmatic character much like Spok in the Original Star Trek, to one that develops human like feelings and empathy. The ethics of sentient robots has been explored for a long time. Isaac Asimov‘s Robot series of novels written more than fifty years ago were all stories that revolved around the subject in depth. He created the Three Laws of Robotics,

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

His books looked at the idea that maybe these rules can’t always be adhered too. What if robots can’t be safe around humans. Both Westworld and Blade Runner 2049 are based on the same idea but with very different outcomes.

My problem with both the television series and film is that the subject is tired. I’ve seen so many of these stories recycled over and over again. It’s partly why I gave up writing about it. There are other television series too like Humans, Futurama, and Lost In Space all still being aired at the moment.

I really want to like Westworld. It’s beautifully shot, costumed, and scored. Thandie Newton is stunning and bold, Evan Rachel Wood is mysterious and beautiful. Both play androids who start to wake from their situations and become aware of their exploitation. Ed Harris is just confusing as hell. This is where I start to hate it. The men are boring and uninspiring. The story lines are utterly confusing and complicated. I have to read up on it afterwards to figure out wtf is going on. There are several timelines and stories intertwined and I actually just stopped caring. I keep watching because I like to follow things through but it’s just lost me.

When I did eventually watch the original Blade Runner film in my twenties, I was fascinated. The concept revolves more around the Turing test, can an android be so convinced that he’s actually a human that they are indistinguishable from other humans? It’s 2019 and Harrison Ford plays a blade runner, Decker, a sort of cop who retires ‘Replicants’ from their existence when they go rogue. He comes across Sean Young playing Rachel, a Replicant who has been given fake memories to make her think she is human. It looks as though he falls in love with her.

In Blade Runner 2049, Ryan Gosling plays a blade runner who is a Replicant, sent out to retire the older models who have gone rogue. Without giving the twist away, it’s actually far more interesting than Westworld. The themes of this film revolve more around bio-engineering, and the ethics of playing god in the scientific world.

The film noir/neo noir style is far more appealing that the bleak themes of Westworld and their exploitation of robots for sex, slavery and violence. This theme exists in both but there is something more romantic and heady about Blade Runner 2049.

But essentially both are tired and exhausted stories. It’s almost put me off science fiction altogether. I want something fresh, or something more real.