Mini reviews of Television seasons old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. Occasional bunnies.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Sapphire and Steel (1979-82)

I saw it first when I was a kid. I don't remember what age exactly, but it blew my young mind. I saw some of it again in my twenties. It blew my mind once more. You can guess where this is going... yup, and again in my thirties, mind blown. During all that time I encountered nothing else quite like it, so in my experience it's unique.

Wikipedia notes that the show's creator, Peter J. Hammond, gave it the working title of The Time Menders; and while not as seductive or as pleasing to say as Sapphire and Steel, it does a better job at describing what the series is as a whole.

The enigmatic duo are 'operators' that fix time when it goes wrong or when parts of it leak or break through barriers into other parts. It's known that there are 127 operators in total, of which Sapphire (Joanna Lumley) and Steel (David McCallum) are two. Their full role is a mystery, but part of their job is to mend fractures that exist between temporal states; they're a line of defence, preventing the malicious side of past, present and future from destroying itself and everything within it. Time itself is described as a corridor that encompasses all things, so in a way the operators are like interdimensional hall monitors maintaining order.

Joanna Lumley is radiant and sympathetic as Sapphire, although she can paradoxically be sometimes cold and detached at the same time. David McCallum is austere and methodical as Steel. Yes, both are like their names, but I've often wondered if the names came first or if the personalities preceded them.

Stories (called 'assignments') are multi-part, so while there are 34 episodes in total there are only 6 assignments and it's best if you make time to watch all of one assignment in one sitting. Each assignment has a resolution but don't expect to have all questions answered. It's deliciously cryptic but not to the point of bafflement. The editing and use of sound are excellent, keeping events tense and flowing, always engaging and often eerie - at times even chilling.

I feel that the low budget actually works in the production's favour. The feeling that we're on a sound stage adds to the unsettling nature of the environments. It's almost as if for the duration of the assignment they've lost the intangible sense of safety that we unconsciously attribute to traditional notions of reality.

34 episodes, approx 25 minutes each.

5 side doors out of 5

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Net Edition: Kamen Rider Backwards-Kiva:
Queen of Hell's Castle (2008)

A rare moment of Sosuke being nice to Bomper.

You should watch them before seeing Kiva's dedicated movie, if you are interested.

Engine Sentai Go-Onger: Bom Bom! Bom Bom!
Net de Bong!! (2008)


The net movies for the Go-Ongers' dedicated cinematic excursion are a bit special amongst their peers, in that they are not all set prior to the Go-Ongers' dedicated movie, BunBun! BanBan! Gekijobang!!. The first three take place prior to its events, with the third concluding on them henshining and heading to the scene. The fourth takes place during it, and the fifth sees their return.

You can watch them after Gran Prix 24.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Running Scared (1986)

Not to be confused with the movies of the same name that came out in 1972, 1980, 1986, and 2006 (it's a popular title), this Running Scared is a British TV mini-series that was written by popular children's author Bernard Ashley. Around the same time he wrote a tie-in novel of the same name, but I haven't read it.

By chance, fourteen-year-old Paula Prescott's grandfather is in the wrong place at the wrong time, witness to a crime by local gangster Charlie Elkin (Christopher Ellison – yes, DCI Frank Burnside), a vicious type involved in car theft, jewellery heists, protection rackets, etc. Charlie and his moll (Hetty Baynes - the future Mrs Ken Russell) will do anything to prevent the old man from informing the Filth.

For reasons I won't spoil, Paula (Julia Millbank) gets involved. The young girl has a mystery to solve and a moral dilemma to overcome, so she enlists the help of her best friend, Narinder Sidhu (Amarjit Dhillon). Together the two girls uncover more than they bargained for, about both the wider world and their own families.

It's set in London's East End and more often than not resembles a soap opera of the era. It's even possible to imagine that in a Square not too far away Arthur Fowler is slowly going off his rocker while sitting alone in front of a blank TV screen.

While the mystery is what drives the story forward, it's equally a study of working class London and the racism that was rife within it. Because it's aimed at teens it doesn't get too violent, but anyone that's witnessed British racism in action knows that what is threatened and implied in the series was often actualised in real life.

It won't please everyone, but I don't recall many other kid's shows from the era being as open about such a subject matter, so for that it gets a thumbs up.

6 episodes, approx 25 minutes each.

3 cockney toe-rags out of 5