Eoghann Irving's Blog, page 13

Doctor Who S09E10 — Face the Raven

I’m always a bit reluctant to rank Doctors or seasons of the show but I will say that season 9 is one of my favorites. The stories haven’t been perfect, they never are, but I’ve loved the slower pacing and the variety on offer. There’s really only been one clunker in my book and fortunately Face the Raven wasn’t it.

Generally I prefer two part stories because it gives things more time to breathe, but in this case the pacing was just fine. Y

es, you could argue that this is really part 1 of a three parter, but you would be wrong. This is a stand alone story with a single mission.
Let’s Kill Clara

Everything else in this story serves, at best, as a backdrop for the exit of the longest running companion in nu-Who history (not that it’s actually that long, but still) and a lot of what we see here is paying off on the build up throughout the season. Without those elements it’s fair to say my assessment of the story would be different, because it’s a relatively slight affair really.

The mystery for example doesn’t actually have that much depth to it. The tattoo, the hidden street and the “murder” are all solved in very little time at all. Nor do we really get a chance to explore what it means to have this refugee camp of aliens smack in the middle of London. It’s all backdrop and I’m okay with that.

Throughout this season Clara has been acting increasingly recklessly and well, Doctorish. It’s been noted and she’s been warned, but like many young people she doesn’t really believe she can die. After all she’s seen the Doctor cheat death and save the day again and again and again.

And the thing is, Clara’s actually quite good at being the Doctor. We’ve known that since the previous season. It’s just that even the Doctor’s luck runs out from time to time.

How Many Times is She Going To Leave?

There’s a lot of criticism of the character of Clara online (much less of the actor it’s worth noting) some of which stems from personality issues but perhaps more legitimately is the claim that she had no direction. I don’t think that’s true, but I do think her character arc has been warped by a number of off-screen events.

Being the companion who brought in a new Doctor inevitably impacted how she behaved and then her potential exit at the end of last season mean that she essentially had her arc completed. She got yet another potential exit written for the Christmas special, but decided to stay.

I’m glad she did because her portrayal this season and her exit is easily my favorite, but it’s hard to dismiss the hiccups that all that uncertainty created when you look at the character’s story as a whole.

They Always Run

Well, not always apparently. The whole point of this episode was to give Clara a significant death. And yes, it was significant, even if she didn’t really save anyone. Because the point is not whether you actually save people, it’s whether you try to. Clara acted bravely and died bravely. It was a great sendoff.

I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that  her pose in death was so similar to the way the Doctor’s reincarnations have happened in recent years, though with darkness billowing from her rather than light.

If the scene dragged out maybe a bit too long, it only made me wonder could there be a reprieve for the character? One last foolish hope to be dashed by the inevitability. Because somehow we all knew Clara was going to die. As soon as the rumors started about Jenna Coleman leaving there was an assumption that Clara wouldn’t just fade away, she would die.

You Know Who I Am

And what an opportunity for Peter Capaldi to shine once more. Wordless compassion from a Doctor who isn’t good with compassion and then fury pouring from him, aimed squarely at Ashildr. And Maisie Williams performance was pitch perfect. Suddenly the confident and ageless woman is a little girl once again, scared by what she is seeing.
But What About?

Yes the story took some shortcuts. It didn’t properly explain why Ashildr could no longer cancel the contract, or indeed why if the Raven had to have a death she would have been able to in the first place. It also didn’t explain why Clara couldn’t have passed it on to the Doctor,  who could have survived.

In truth the whole trap was needlessly convoluted if you’re being purely logical about it, but since I loved all the elements on screen I’m not sure what you could get rid of unless you turned it into a two parter. And then I think it would just have been too stretched out. Sometimes it’s just better not to explain things and expect the audience to go along with you.

Should You Watch It?

Well, yeah. Companion exit stories are a mixed bag, but this is one of the best. I’d watch the rest of the season first though. You can skip Sleep no More.

Doctor Who S09E10 — Face the Raven

I’m always a bit reluctant to rank Doctors or seasons of the show but I will say that season 9 is one of my favorites. The stories haven’t been perfect, they never are, but I’ve loved the slower pacing and the variety on offer. There’s really only been one clunker in my book and fortunately Face the Raven wasn’t it.

Generally I prefer two part stories because it gives things more time to breathe, but in this case the pacing was just fine. Yes, you could argue that this is really part 1 of a three parter, but you would be wrong. This is a stand alone story with a single mission.

Let’s Kill Clara

Everything else in this story serves, at best, as a backdrop for the exit of the longest running companion in nu-Who history (not that it’s actually that long, but still) and a lot of what we see here is paying off on the build up throughout the season. Without those elements it’s fair to say my assessment of the story would be different, because it’s a relatively slight affair really.

The mystery for example doesn’t actually have that much depth to it. The tattoo, the hidden street and the “murder” are all solved in very little time at all. Nor do we really get a chance to explore what it means to have this refugee camp of aliens smack in the middle of London. It’s all backdrop and I’m okay with that.

Throughout this season Clara has been acting increasingly recklessly and well, Doctorish. It’s been noted and she’s been warned, but like many young people she doesn’t really believe she can die. After all she’s seen the Doctor cheat death and save the day again and again and again.

And the thing is, Clara’s actually quite good at being the Doctor. We’ve known that since the previous season. It’s just that even the Doctor’s luck runs out from time to time.

How Many Times is She Going To Leave?

There’s a lot of criticism of the character of Clara online (much less of the actor it’s worth noting) some of which stems from personality issues but perhaps more legitimately is the claim that she had no direction. I don’t think that’s true, but I do think her character arc has been warped by a number of off-screen events.

Being the companion who brought in a new Doctor inevitably impacted how she behaved and then her potential exit at the end of last season mean that she essentially had her arc completed. She got yet another potential exit written for the Christmas special, but decided to stay.

I’m glad she did because her portrayal this season and her exit is easily my favorite, but it’s hard to dismiss the hiccups that all that uncertainty created when you look at the character’s story as a whole.

They Always Run

Well, not always apparently. The whole point of this episode was to give Clara a significant death. And yes, it was significant, even if she didn’t really save anyone. Because the point is not whether you actually save people, it’s whether you try to. Clara acted bravely and died bravely. It was a great sendoff.

I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that  her pose in death was so similar to the way the Doctor’s reincarnations have happened in recent years, though with darkness billowing from her rather than light.

If the scene dragged out maybe a bit too long, it only made me wonder could there be a reprieve for the character? One last foolish hope to be dashed by the inevitability. Because somehow we all knew Clara was going to die. As soon as the rumors started about Jenna Coleman leaving there was an assumption that Clara wouldn’t just fade away, she would die.

You Know Who I Am

And what an opportunity for Peter Capaldi to shine once more. Wordless compassion from a Doctor who isn’t good with compassion and then fury pouring from him, aimed squarely at Ashildr. And Maisie Williams performance was pitch perfect. Suddenly the confident and ageless woman is a little girl once again, scared by what she is seeing.

But What About?

Yes the story took some shortcuts. It didn’t properly explain why Ashildr could no longer cancel the contract, or indeed why if the Raven had to have a death she would have been able to in the first place. It also didn’t explain why Clara couldn’t have passed it on to the Doctor,  who could have survived.

In truth the whole trap was needlessly convoluted if you’re being purely logical about it, but since I loved all the elements on screen I’m not sure what you could get rid of unless you turned it into a two parter. And then I think it would just have been too stretched out. Sometimes it’s just better not to explain things and expect the audience to go along with you.

Should You Watch It?

Well, yeah. Companion exit stories are a mixed bag, but this is one of the best. I’d watch the rest of the season first though. You can skip Sleep no More.

TV Review: Marvel's Jessica Jones S01E01 - S01E03

While DC comics basically owns network tv adaptations of comic book characters, Marvel Comics has been setting out to do something radically different with its Netflix series. Daredevil set a very high bar giving is a dark exploration of  a street level vigilante. Marvel's Jessica Jones  is even darker and quite possibly better.

I say that having only watched the first three episodes of the series so far, but the quality is immediately apparent. While Daredevil showed us the blood and violence that the inhabitants of Hells Kitchen were exposed to Jessica Jones is a much more personal exploration. The violence here is as much emotional as it is physical.

Strong Female Character

If ever there was a phrase that should be stricken from the vocabulary of all reviewers and indeed anyone commenting on stories then "strong female character" is it. The phrase is trotted out almost any time a woman is headlining or at least starring in a show and 9 times out of 10 what it actually means is, this is a character who can beat people up. She's a bad ass!

That would be a female who is strong, not a strong female and it's not actually that interesting or much of an achievement.

Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is not a "strong female character", she is a complex character. On the surface she is spiky and hostile. There is a veneer of cynicism to everything she says and her default reaction to anyone is anger.  Even when she's asking for work she clearly needs, she can't stop verbally attacking. Violence seethes under the surface at all times, as though she can barely keep it in check.

There's a good reason for that and the show peels back the layers every so carefully showing us how Jessica is suffering from PTSD and her self-medication is clearly not enough. We're given glimpses of what got her to this state (without getting giant info dumps or endless flashbacks) and are expected as intelligent adults to be able to put the story together ourselves. How refreshing.

The show also  doesn't feel the need to make Jessica sexy even though it features multiple sex scenes. Ritter is a very attractive woman and that inevitably shows on screen, but she isn't artfully posed in the most flattering angles. In the first episode when she strips down to get in bed, it is a functional act, not a strip tease. In another scene we see her sitting on the toilet while conning information out of someone on the phone.

Because this is a character who is extremely competent at what she does and she's more interested in getting the job done than presenting herself to a viewing audience she doesn't even know is there. I will be very disappointed if we ever see her doing the Black Widow pose.

She's competent, yet self destructive and strong, both physically and mentally, but also brittle. There is weakness in her strength and that is what makes the character so compelling.

And the Rest

Jessica is surrounded by equally complex characters, many of them also female including her former best friend Patsy Walker (Rachael Taylor), a character who seems much more together and successful than Jessica herself but already in just three episodes we've been given hints that she too has her issues.

Carrie Anne Moss plays Jeri Hogarth a ruthless lawyer who sometimes employs Jessica. Her relationship with Jessica is adversarial and at times she seems to stand in judgement of the younger woman and yet during these early episodes we see she is far from perfect herself.

Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is the romantic interest, but he is much more than that. Possessing superpowers himself he doesn't want to use them or draw attention to himself and his relationship with Jessica is complicated by her past.

Which leads us inevitably to Kilgrave played by David Tennant, a man capable of mind controlling others and apparently lacking any sense of compassion or empathy. He can make people do things, so he does.  We don't get to see much of Kilgrave in these first few episodes but Tennant does a wonderful job with the material he's given, making Kilgrave seem both charming and terrifying at the same time. Kilgrave is possibly the most evil villain that Marvel has ever put on screen.  There's a clever technique used in the first episode where the color purple becomes prominent any time Jessica is thinking about Kilgrave. It's a clever signal of what's happening and also a neat call out to the origins of the character as The Purple Man in comics.

Slow and Steady

As with several other Netflix original series, there's no sense of the frantic pace that most modern tv shows operate at. Here, without having to worry about advert breaks and secure in the knowledge that all the episodes are available immediately the show's creators are happy to take their time setting up the story rather than dumping the whole set up into episode one. There are characters that are clearly going to play a role later on who so far have only had a few lines.

How do I know they are going to matter? Because the show has already shown that sort of attention to detail. Minor elements set up in episode 1 or 2 are paid off in episode 3. Everything matters here, much like Daredevil it really isn't 13 separate stories, it's one story in 13 hours. And that allows the creators to delve deep into not only the main character but many of the secondary ones too.

But Where's the Super?
Mike Colter as Luke Cage

It's there, but it's not in the foreground. In the first episode Jessica's superpowers are shown in mostly low key ways like her tendency to break things. It's not flashy because the character isn't flashy. As she says she's not hiding what she is, but she's not going out of her way to advertise it either.

This isn't a superhero show so much as a hard boiled detective show whose detective happens to have super strength. We even get the cynical narration at times! Jessica and Luke are superpowered, but they aren't superheroes. They just do what they need to do.

For some that may be a disappointment. Certainly it's much less flashy than say Agents of SHIELD or Arrow or, The Flash. In fact there's less obvious superheroing going on here than even in Daredevil. But, given that we have all of those shows and countless movies, this is a different angle on what is becoming a very familiar subject.

What About the Comics?
David Tennant as Kilgrave

Forget the comic books. I've read them, they are very good, but while the broad strokes are the same here most of the details have changed. This show is telling its own story. You can read the comics before or after (I would recommend reading them) but don't compare them directly to the show because you would be doing a disservice to both.

There are a few scenes that look have been lifted almost directly from the comics, but this is not a beat for beat adaptation.

Watch, Record or Skip?

Watch it now.

TV Review: Marvel’s Jessica Jones S01E01 — S01E03

While DC comics basically owns network tv adaptations of comic book characters, Marvel Comics has been setting out to do something radically different with its Netflix series. Daredevil set a very high bar giving is a dark exploration of  a street level vigilante. Marvel’s Jessica Jones  is even darker and quite possibly better.

I say that having only watched the first three episodes of the series so far, but the quality is immediately apparent. While Daredevil showed us the blood and violence that the inhabitants of Hells Kitchen were exposed to Jessica Jones is a much more personal exploration. The violence here is as much emotional as it is physical.

Strong Female Character

If ever there was a phrase that should be stricken from the vocabulary of all reviewers and indeed anyone commenting on stories then “strong female character” is it. The phrase is trotted out almost any time a woman is headlining or at least starring in a show and 9 times out of 10 what it actually means is, this is a character who can beat people up. She’s a bad ass!

That would be a female who is strong, not a strong female and it’s not actually that interesting or much of an achievement.

Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is not a “strong female character”, she is a complex character. On the surface she is spiky and hostile. There is a veneer of cynicism to everything she says and her default reaction to anyone is anger.  Even when she’s asking for work she clearly needs, she can’t stop verbally attacking. Violence seethes under the surface at all times, as though she can barely keep it in check.

There’s a good reason for that and the show peels back the layers every so carefully showing us how Jessica is suffering from PTSD and her self-medication is clearly not enough. We’re given glimpses of what got her to this state (without getting giant info dumps or endless flashbacks) and are expected as intelligent adults to be able to put the story together ourselves. How refreshing.

The show also  doesn’t feel the need to make Jessica sexy even though it features multiple sex scenes. Ritter is a very attractive woman and that inevitably shows on screen, but she isn’t artfully posed in the most flattering angles. In the first episode when she strips down to get in bed, it is a functional act, not a strip tease. In another scene we see her sitting on the toilet while conning information out of someone on the phone.

Because this is a character who is extremely competent at what she does and she’s more interested in getting the job done than presenting herself to a viewing audience she doesn’t even know is there. I will be very disappointed if we ever see her doing the Black Widow pose.

She’s competent, yet self destructive and strong, both physically and mentally, but also brittle. There is weakness in her strength and that is what makes the character so compelling.

And the Rest

Jessica is surrounded by equally complex characters, many of them also female including her former best friend Patsy Walker (Rachael Taylor), a character who seems much more together and successful than Jessica herself but already in just three episodes we’ve been given hints that she too has her issues.

Carrie Anne Moss plays Jeri Hogarth a ruthless lawyer who sometimes employs Jessica. Her relationship with Jessica is adversarial and at times she seems to stand in judgement of the younger woman and yet during these early episodes we see she is far from perfect herself.

Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is the romantic interest, but he is much more than that. Possessing superpowers himself he doesn’t want to use them or draw attention to himself and his relationship with Jessica is complicated by her past.

Which leads us inevitably to Kilgrave played by David Tennant, a man capable of mind controlling others and apparently lacking any sense of compassion or empathy. He can make people do things, so he does.  We don’t get to see much of Kilgrave in these first few episodes but Tennant does a wonderful job with the material he’s given, making Kilgrave seem both charming and terrifying at the same time. Kilgrave is possibly the most evil villain that Marvel has ever put on screen.  There’s a clever technique used in the first episode where the color purple becomes prominent any time Jessica is thinking about Kilgrave. It’s a clever signal of what’s happening and also a neat call out to the origins of the character as The Purple Man in comics.

Slow and Steady

As with several other Netflix original series, there’s no sense of the f

rantic pace that most modern tv shows operate at. Here, without having to worry about advert breaks and secure in the knowledge that all the episodes are available immediately the show’s creators are happy to take their time setting up the story rather than dumping the whole set up into episode one. There are characters that are clearly going to play a role later on who so far have only had a few lines.

How do I know they are going to matter? Because the show has already shown that sort of attention to detail. Minor elements set up in episode 1 or 2 are paid off in episode 3. Everything matters here, much like Daredevil it really isn’t 13 separate stories, it’s one story in 13 hours. And that allows the creators to delve deep into not only the main character but many of the secondary ones too.

But Where’s the Super?
Mike Colter as Luke Cage

It’s there, but it’s not in the foreground. In the first episode Jessica’s superpowers are shown in mostly low key ways like her tendency to break things. It’s not flashy because the character isn’t flashy. As she says she’s not hiding what she is, but she’s not going out of her way to advertise it either.

This isn’t a superhero show so much as a hard boiled detective show whose detective happens to have super strength. We even get the cynical narration at times! Jessica and Luke are superpowered, but they aren’t superheroes. They just do what they need to do.

For some that may be a disappointment. Certainly it’s much less flashy than say Agents of SHIELD or Arrow or, The Flash. In fact there’s less obvious superheroing going on here than even in Daredevil. But, given that we have all of those shows and countless movies, this is a different angle on what is becoming a very familiar subject.

What About the Comics?
David Tennant as Kilgrave

Forget the comic books. I’ve read them, they are very good, but while the broad strokes are the same here most of the details have changed. This show is telling its own story. You can read the comics before or after (I would recommend reading them) but don’t compare them directly to the show because you would be doing a disservice to both.

There are a few scenes that look have been lifted almost directly from the comics, but this is not a beat for beat adaptation.

Watch, Record or Skip?

Watch it now.

TV Review: Marvel’s Jessica Jones S01E01 — S01E03

While DC comics basically owns network tv adaptations of comic book characters, Marvel Comics has been setting out to do something radically different with its Netflix series. Daredevil set a very high bar giving is a dark exploration of  a street level vigilante. Marvel’s Jessica Jones  is even darker and quite possibly better.

I say that having only watched the first three episodes of the series so far, but the quality is immediately apparent. While Daredevil showed us the blood and violence that the inhabitants of Hells Kitchen were exposed to Jessica Jones is a much more personal exploration. The violence here is as much emotional as it is physical.

Strong Female Character

If ever there was a phrase that should be stricken from the vocabulary of all reviewers and indeed anyone commenting on stories then “strong female character” is it. The phrase is trotted out almost any time a woman is headlining or at least starring in a show and 9 times out of 10 what it actually means is, this is a character who can beat people up. She’s a bad ass!

That would be a female who is strong, not a strong female and it’s not actually that interesting or much of an achievement.

Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is not a “strong female character”, she is a complex character. On the surface she is spiky and hostile. There is a veneer of cynicism to everything she says and her default reaction to anyone is anger.  Even when she’s asking for work she clearly needs, she can’t stop verbally attacking. Violence seethes under the surface at all times, as though she can barely keep it in check.

There’s a good reason for that and the show peels back the layers every so carefully showing us how Jessica is suffering from PTSD and her self-medication is clearly not enough. We’re given glimpses of what got her to this state (without getting giant info dumps or endless flashbacks) and are expected as intelligent adults to be able to put the story together ourselves. How refreshing.

The show also  doesn’t feel the need to make Jessica sexy even though it features multiple sex scenes. Ritter is a very attractive woman and that inevitably shows on screen, but she isn’t artfully posed in the most flattering angles. In the first episode when she strips down to get in bed, it is a functional act, not a strip tease. In another scene we see her sitting on the toilet while conning information out of someone on the phone.

Because this is a character who is extremely competent at what she does and she’s more interested in getting the job done than presenting herself to a viewing audience she doesn’t even know is there. I will be very disappointed if we ever see her doing the Black Widow pose.

She’s competent, yet self destructive and strong, both physically and mentally, but also brittle. There is weakness in her strength and that is what makes the character so compelling.

And the Rest

Jessica is surrounded by equally complex characters, many of them also female including her former best friend Patsy Walker (Rachael Taylor), a character who seems much more together and successful than Jessica herself but already in just three episodes we’ve been given hints that she too has her issues.

Carrie Anne Moss plays Jeri Hogarth a ruthless lawyer who sometimes employs Jessica. Her relationship with Jessica is adversarial and at times she seems to stand in judgement of the younger woman and yet during these early episodes we see she is far from perfect herself.

Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is the romantic interest, but he is much more than that. Possessing superpowers himself he doesn’t want to use them or draw attention to himself and his relationship with Jessica is complicated by her past.

Which leads us inevitably to Kilgrave played by David Tennant, a man capable of mind controlling others and apparently lacking any sense of compassion or empathy. He can make people do things, so he does.  We don’t get to see much of Kilgrave in these first few episodes but Tennant does a wonderful job with the material he’s given, making Kilgrave seem both charming and terrifying at the same time. Kilgrave is possibly the most evil villain that Marvel has ever put on screen.  There’s a clever technique used in the first episode where the color purple becomes prominent any time Jessica is thinking about Kilgrave. It’s a clever signal of what’s happening and also a neat call out to the origins of the character as The Purple Man in comics.

Slow and Steady

As with several other Netflix original series, there’s no sense of the frantic pace that most modern tv shows operate at. Here, without having to worry about advert breaks and secure in the knowledge that all the episodes are available immediately the show’s creators are happy to take their time setting up the story rather than dumping the whole set up into episode one. There are characters that are clearly going to play a role later on who so far have only had a few lines.

How do I know they are going to matter? Because the show has already shown that sort of attention to detail. Minor elements set up in episode 1 or 2 are paid off in episode 3. Everything matters here, much like Daredevil it really isn’t 13 separate stories, it’s one story in 13 hours. And that allows the creators to delve deep into not only the main character but many of the secondary ones too.

But Where’s the Super?
Mike Colter as Luke Cage

It’s there, but it’s not in the foreground. In the first episode Jessica’s superpowers are shown in mostly low key ways like her tendency to break things. It’s not flashy because the character isn’t flashy. As she says she’s not hiding what she is, but she’s not going out of her way to advertise it either.

This isn’t a superhero show so much as a hard boiled detective show whose detective happens to have super strength. We even get the cynical narration at times! Jessica and Luke are superpowered, but they aren’t superheroes. They just do what they need to do.

For some that may be a disappointment. Certainly it’s much less flashy than say Agents of SHIELD or Arrow or, The Flash. In fact there’s less obvious superheroing going on here than even in Daredevil. But, given that we have all of those shows and countless movies, this is a different angle on what is becoming a very familiar subject.

What About the Comics?
David Tennant as Kilgrave

Forget the comic books. I’ve read them, they are very good, but while the broad strokes are the same here most of the details have changed. This show is telling its own story. You can read the comics before or after (I would recommend reading them) but don’t compare them directly to the show because you would be doing a disservice to both.

There are a few scenes that look have been lifted almost directly from the comics, but this is not a beat for beat adaptation.

Watch, Record or Skip?

Watch it now.

DC Comics Fan Art — Supergirl

With a Supergirl tv series on air and doing rather well in the ratings so far I thought it would be nice to post some DC Comics Supergirl fan art. Turns out finding good Supergirl fan art is actually quite a challenge.

This one, which is directly inspired by the new show, does a good job of capturing both the actress and character I think. There’s a certain impishness shining through.

Source: DeviantArt — Supergirl! by JGiampietro

 

 

DC Comics Fan Art — Supergirl

With a Supergirl tv series on air and doing rather well in the ratings so far I thought it would be nice to post some DC Comics Supergirl fan art. Turns out finding good Supergirl fan art is actually quite a challenge.

This one, which is directly inspired by the new show, does a good job of capturing both the actress and character I think. There’s a certain impishness shining through.

Source: DeviantArt — Supergirl! by JGiampietro

 

 

The Bridge to Virginius Island.

Another photo from my walk around Harpers Ferry yesterday. See it here: http://flic.kr/p/ANU4UC

Harpers Ferry

With my sciatica it’s been a while since I was comfortable doing longer walks. So it was nice to wander around Harpers Ferry again.

 

Fall on the Potomac Our good weather has come to an end it seems.

See it here: http://flic.kr/p/ALXV8y