TV - Reviews by Magic Marmalade

TV - Reviews by Magic Marmalade

« Member Page

Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 30th Sep 2024		TV V: The Final Battle (1984)	Rated 6/10 Wow, this really lost it's way pretty darn fast! ....Right in front of my eyes in fact. For while the first two parter had a very strong idea at it's core, and felt like a split cinematic movie, in terms of the story, and the quality of the writing, this instantly feels less movie-like, and more tv miniseries / episodic. It feels rushed too, bouncing from scene to scene without much explanation of how it got from one scene to the other. Across the three episodes, you see a valiant attempt to match the orginal story, and take up where it left off, rapidly, and by degrees disintegrate, visibly running out of ideas, and cobbling together stories just to get it along to the finale. By the end, it gives way entirely to the most hokey, cornball hammery you can think of... It almost literally goes back in time from first episode to last in terms of quality of production, until it's virtually a spoof hippie sixties groovy buck rogers Flash Gordon spoof of love-in optimism, replete with rainbows of balloons, groovy cod-funk music, and unaccounted for space magic nonsense. Forgets all the good characters they'd previously put work into building, and summarily disposing of others, losing any interest that marked the original out for special consideration. Promising to begin with, total crap by the end. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 29th Sep 2024		TV V [1983] (1983)	Rated 8/10 I remember this being a real event back in the day, but have not seen it since. So I was pleased to find the DVD sets of both this and The Final Battle in the Charity shop the other day... ...And I've got to say it's even better than I remember it! Imagine Independence Day, but with fully rounded, non cartoonish characters, and depth of story-telling, and rather than a straight up, meat and potatoes alien invasion scenario, like War Of The Worlds, the superficially benign "visitors" have a subtle, fascistic scheme for world domination, with the story focussing on all the interpersonal relationships among the humans experiencing this, and how those character dynamics change when challenged, and what you find you have here is an excellently thought out, brilliantly written analogy for a modern fascist oppression, who's methods are more insidious than a flat out invasion, and who's true motives are far more sinister. Granted, it's very, very eighties in terms of production quality, and the effects have mostly aged pretty badly, but the story is good enough to get over that, and the telling of that story is brilliantly handled. More subtle and nuanced by orders of magnitude than said: Independence Day, as you have human collaborators, as well as Alien, human sympathisers all considered well in the writing. It's just a shame they didn't have the guts back then to go huge with this, and make a three hour, big budget movie of it (which is what this feels like... minus the budget, of course!), if they had, this would have been a landlmark in sci-fi cinema to this day, every bit the equal of the modern iteration of Dune. As it is though, it's still a cracker... and I can't wait to get going on the Final Battle set. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 22nd Jun 2024		TV Jack The Ripper [1988] (1988)	Rated 8/10 Difficult to judge anything to do with such a historically nebulous figure as Jack The Ripper, as theories abound, and "facts" come and go... But outside of "historical documentaries" and the like, it does make for great dramatic material in which to explore theories and hypotheses... ...This, in my opinion, is the best of them - A very engaging, and excellently realised examination of the "facts" of the case, such as was available to the production at the time, and from a particular point of view, or points of view. Certainly required viewing for current or prospective "Ripperologists". (But even if you are not either of these, cracking drama for those who like a mystery / intrigue / "conspiracy theory" watch) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 8th Jun 2020		TV Devs (2020)	Rated 9/10 Proper Sci-Fi!!! I have one rule of thumb that determines for me if something is genuine sci-fi, or just a fantastic light show fantasy piece: Do I come away from this with more questions that I went in with? (Anyone who claims to have the answers hasn't asked enough questions yet :) And this really lived up to billing, as it deals with some fairly predictable, and well worn fare of many worlds / multi-verse / fate / destiny / free will themes, but ingeniously, uses that predictability from established formulas to lead you well and truly up many garden paths, only to bamboozle you by playing with your expectations of what is about to happen, and the general meaning of what it's all about... then throwing a neat twist in just at the punch line / expected outcome. What is Devs? Well it's safe to say there is pretty much a Fight club rule on this one... ..."you do not talk about..." You get the picture, and that is both one of the points of the show, and what makes it difficult to fully explain without spoiling it. But it most certainly is centred around the themes I mentioned earlier. A cool, glacial slab of minimalist sci-fi with a great story, lots of drama and moments of action, opaque, but reveals itself in the end... (Not like some TV shows, that only think they're being profound, but ultimately go nowhere... often because the writer(s) haven't actually thought it through, and got a destination in mind from the outset... Lost, you might say :) ... and shows that it actually has warmth and soul to it's ideas (and humour!) A great self contained (or not, possibly) concept, that will be watched again from the start, in the newly attained context of having seen it once to the end. Marvellous! 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 6th Jan 2016		TV Newsnight (1980 - Now)	Review It's been a while now since Pacman left... ... And I have to say I don't miss him much now, as it was getting to the point where he was all but nodding off in the chair; Either he was dreaming of being tucked up in bed with his Ovaltine, or had finally reached a transcendent state of news journalist Nirvana where the news was now beneath him, and to be regarded with contempt and frequent expressions of boredom. Mind you, that could be confused with contempt for the show itself, as contrasted with Wark's antics (Her dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller at the end of one show made something die inside me), and her obvious pushing of a feminist "agenda" (blimey, I sound like a right wing nut job now.... aaarrrrggh), I'm all for feminism, and many other isms, where and when an ism is required, and doesn't threaten the peace, security, and well being of people, but I'm also for Journalism - remember that word? - Journalism has suffered greatly since the advent of 24 hour "news", which has been one of the single most destructive innovations of the last twenty years, and this was one of those little Oases of integrity, but gradually succumbed to the influence of 24 hysteria - sorry... "news". Picking up many of the bad habits of the 24 hour TV screen saver channels (be honest, when their's nothing on TV, you find yourself landing on one of these channels to act as a glowing fire place on your TV... or frequently switch over "in case" anything has "happened"), such as giving us a massive build up to some event, like a speech, then "We're going to leave that there" - for no apparent purpose except to piss you off once you're well into said speech (rather they suffer from institutional attention deficit disorder themselves), pressing interviewees on questons before they've even opened their mouths to answer the last question that was asked.... sometimes even overtly favouring one of the guests and virtually cold shouldering the other (It's my prerogative as a viewer to agree or disagree with a guest's views or not... even to dislike them if I should so choose... but you are a "journalist", who ought to be impartial and professional ((careful.... your polititcs are showing!)). Frequently we see Matlis strutting around, or "jogging" a story (?)... (Of course, it hasn't become all about the presenter now has it?!!) Evan Davis though... who did look a little light-weight in the beginning, seems to have gotten to grips with it, and has a snappy, sharp - yet easy style of presenting which is a lot better, and even occasionally, some journalism breaks out in the studio. But the endless string of "economists" "analysts" "Political editors/commentators/gossip columnists/politics-as-sport-as-entertatinment mongers giving their useless opinions (If they know so much, why haven't they fixed things themselves?) grates on the nerves now, as Jack Nicholson's character in As good As It Gets remarks (albeit out context here- but equally applicable): "I'm drowning here... and You're describing the water!" Which probably sums up best what journalism has come to in this day and age, where once, to read a newspaper, or watch a show like this was the mark of someone wanting to be informed, and enlightened, now it's just a pageant, the sign of delusion. It's said that those who can't do...teach. But when it comes to economics, politics, world affairs and the like: Those who can't do.... become "Journalists". (It's no wonder I don't vote anymore, and more generally don't believe in our system of democracy either.... this lot would make a cynic of anyone.) GGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?