Flavours of the Month: May & June 2024...

Rural japes, problematic paranormal adventures, and jacking-in to 'run the net' are just some of what's been setting the tone of my May & June 2024...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

LOOKS:

The Deuce: Seasons 2 & 3 - it's interesting to re-watch these a few years down the road. It's still fair to say that the second season leaves the majority of the male characters with stale story arcs, ending the season in an almost identical place as they were at the beginning, while the post-metoo thematic influence is clear. Watching all three seasons back-to-back also helped flag up just how tragic the third season often is, displaying comparatively more heart than the previous two seasons. That closing sequence hits even harder, too. It was an excellent show then, and it still is now.

Clarkson's Farm: Season 3 - this show is a real treat to watch. Not only is it genuinely laugh-out-loud entertaining, but it's also extremely informative about farmers and farming, and the plight that they're facing as a result of disastrously inept politicians (both local and national) and the maelstrom of world events throwing everyone and everthing into a blender of chaos (Brexit, Covid, the Cost of Living Crisis, multiple wars, et al). The show even hits you smack bang in the feels on a regular basis, but something that's also quite heartwarming about Clarkson's Farm is the sense of community it displays. "Community" has been misused by handwringing social media sops who think it means total strangers who just so happen to have a checkbox in common - well, a checkbox isn't going to shovel the snow from your driveway, or look after you when you're sick, or stop for a pleasant blether on a stone wall. So, even if you're lacking that real sense of community in your own life, and far too many of us do, it is at least nice to see that it still exists in its true and proper form somewhere in the world.

Bodkin: Season 1 - a dark comedy thriller from Jez Scharf about an American true crime podcaster and an Irish journalist lying low after a scandal, who get wrapped up in a mystery that has plagued a small Irish village for years. I can't say that I loved it, but I certainly liked it. The central mystery lacks some oomph, but it's the setting and the little idiosyncratic quirks along the way that allow this one to sidestep what could have otherwise been a somewhat pedestrian show.

John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in L.A. - a surprisingly enjoyable six-nightly live television global event from Netflix, hosted by the comedian, which gives an insider's look at Los Angeles. The loose style, the energetic sense of humour, and the genuinely interesting discussions of 'local issues' from palm trees to the La Brea Tar Pits prove to be both enjoyable and informative. It'd be cool if Netflix replicated this format to coincide with other Netflix-branded comedy events in other locations.

Outlaws: Series 3 - from Elgin James and Stephen Merchant. The show has always been a little hit and miss for me, but when it hits it raises good, solid laughter. However, I'd say it's covered all the bases and tidied everything up, so it's best left now.

Inside No. 9: Series 9 - Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's excellent series draws to a fittingly-numbered close. Series 7 and 8 had both been noticably patchy, leaving one wondering if the show's best was decidedly past it. However, bucking the typical television trend of declining quality, the final series of Inside No. 9 feels reinvigorated with each episode always giving the audience something to chew on and come away satisfied. A particular highlight was the episode told entirely from the POV of a doorbell camera, while even the more modest episodes (like the one aboard a tube train) draws you in just by the sheer will of the writing, the characters, and the performances. There was always something different with each episode of Inside No. 9, so you never quite knew what to expect for the most part (whether it be in regards to the genre, the story, the style, or the tone) and how many shows can pull off that?

Hitler and The Nazis: Evil on Trial - from Joe Berlinger, who has previously been known for his excellent documentaries on serial killers (e.g. Ted Bundy), this meticulously-made six-part series details the rise and fall of the perpetrators of the deadliest and bleakest period in 20th Century history. What's most chilling of all is how many comparisons (some of them soaked in tragic irony, others in dispicable hypocrisy) can be drawn from that period to today on a global scale ... and how wretched is that?

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (Blu-Ray) - I think, on second viewing, I enjoyed this more than I did the first time around. I still really liked it the first time, but there had been so much hype swirling the movie that it can't help but raise your expectations to unreasonably high levels. This time I was seeing it on its own terms. I still think the overuse of CGI in the climactic train sequences somewhat hinders the movie (e.g. they crashed a real train, but then replaced almost the entire shot with CGI, so why bother?), and the typically excellent action sequences don't pack the same punch as they did in the previous movie (which was aided by the heightened 'IMAX experience' where the screen expands at the top and bottom to add a visceral extra layer of reality to the spectacle) ... that all said, though, the film was still thunderously entertaining and I'm eager to see the concluding part.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Blu-Ray) - so, as a massive Ghostbusters fan, the headline would be that I enjoyed myself with this movie ... but that comes with a laundry list of problems. With the same writing team who absolutely nailed the screenplay for Afterlife (I would've literally only changed one line of dialogue, otherwise it was bang-on), it's strange that we've ended up with such a messy affair this time around. One huge problem is the gargantuan cast of characters, with few (or any) of them really getting anything meaty to chew on in terms of a character arc.

SPOILERS AHEAD, FYI ... For one, "Lucky" is entirely pointless. She does next-to-nothing at all, the chance of some sort of romance with Trevor is completely abandoned (not that we needed it anyway), and occupies a place that Phoebe should've taken. Another huge problem with the screenplay are some massive plotholes, logic gaps, or just plain iffy storytelling. Why did Winston keep his paranormal research facility secret from the Spenglers, who have been active Ghostbusters for up to two years by this point? Phoebe, being a minor, should've been taken off the dangerous 'front lines' of ghost busting and found an outlet for her fascinations at the research facility, where she could have also pondered the idea of temporarily removing one's spirit from the corporeal body for scientific research purposes. This could have dovetailed with her speaking more to Ray (one of the OGs, now contemplating his "golden years" and eventual death and what lies beyond - especially in reaction to seeing Egon in the previous film), and this could've played into her sense of being sidelined from the day-to-day family business of busting ghosts - with Trevor, now a legal adult, promoted to active duty.

This, in-turn, would've allowed you to also remove the character of Melody, who just comes off as an annoying 'too cool for school' arse. The character is all-the-more awkward considering the curiously ill-thought-out plan of Garraka (the film's big bad) to utilise Melody to trick Phoebe into helping enable its plan for domination via some convoluted scheme that makes little sense.

Then there's the issue of elements that feel 'out of sync' with the Ghostbusters world. The character of Nadeem, a 'fire master' in-waiting, feels much too fantastical (a bit 'Harry Potter', perhaps) for this franchise. It also doesn't help that his character is written and performed in a way that is decidedly 'Judd Apatow' in nature. The Apatow style, which has arguably passed its sell-by-date, has its place, but that place is not in Ghostbusters, which has always tended towards a more sardonic nature, subtler, and without all the self-awareness. Gary Grooberson is certainly a very enjoyable character, but he's also lumbered with too many lines of dialogue that have that Apatow feel. There was very little of that at all in Afterlife, so why has it come to the fore so much in Frozen Empire? The whole 'awkward slide down the fire pole' moment in the climactic battle, for instance, feels so much like a stubbed toe, destroying what had become a genuinely tense and dramatic moment, and all for a terribly generic 'joke'.

Other moments that feel decidedly out-of-sync with the style and tone of Ghostbusters include chasing a possessed trash bag, and the use of an 'animated stone carving' to illustrate the expositional backstory of Garraka. Remember how the backstory of Ivo Shandor and Gozer was handled with just a few characters talking around a table? That's the style that suits this franchise. The way they did it here wasn't egregious, but it certainly didn't fit, and all in a clumsy search of a way to keep things 'visually interesting'.

Pacing wise, too, the film suffers from the hefty narrative requirements of its over-stuffed cast. The testing of the brass ball containing Garraka arrives at least eight minutes too late (at the 38 minute mark), while the long-awaited appearance of Garraka and the 'Frozen Empire' feels like it's a smidge rushed for time. There's also the problem of 'internal logic' vanishing on occasion. One of the most egregious 'small things' that flags this up is that of Ray Parker Jr's famous themesong now being canon in the world of Ghostbusters. However, this shows how not enough thought was put into decisions like this. It's a wink to the audience, a bit of fun, but seriously - why on earth would a person like Egon Spengler or Ray Stantz ever agree to appear in a music video? It's a sign of flabby indulgence, much like the utterly pointless mid-credits scene of the mini-Pufts hijacking a truck ... why???

So, certainly, the film is riddled with problems. However, I did enjoy plenty of other things. The flashback to 1908, for instance, was very effectively done and was a wonderful 'prior evil' set-up sequence. Similarly, Garraka proves to be an intimidating presence, filled with threat (albeit short-changed) and boasts a very creepy design. Callie and Gary trying to establish their family unit and Gary's position within it, although sadly under-explored, provided some emotional grounding (especially in the closing moments). Slimer's re-appearance was enjoyable, even if it did flag-up how Trevor was similarly under-utilised. I also very much enjoyed any scene between Ray and Podcast, who made a good double-act of paranormal nerds (but the 'hammer' thing was rubbish, even a bit mean-spirited).

The movie was desperately in-need of streamlining, and was undoubtedly so at the earliest planning stages, so its disappointing that the writing team (who did such a great job last time out) never bit the bullet and did what had to be done to wrangle this expanding beast. Of the four movies (I'm not counting that 2016 remake junk) it is clear that Frozen Empire is the least of them, but does that mean I wouldn't want a sequel? No, of course not, I very much would want a fifth movie - BUT - there are some big lessons that need to be learned and acted upon in order to correct course.

The Boys: Season 4 - Eric Kripke's action comedy superhero show returns, but it has come as something of a disappointment. The main problem? It's drowning itself in real-world politics to a childish degree, with its attempt at satire having the subtlety and depth of a similarly childish scrawling on a piece of crumpled paper. Previous seasons attempted to also send-up the hard left (e.g. the crass corporatisation of all things 'woke'), but season four has gone all-in on poking its tongue out at the hard right. Yes, there is indeed plenty to mock about the hard right, and deservedly so, but to be this lop-sided and this blunt proves only to be blatantly self-indulgent and about as on-the-nose as a sledgehammer to cure a head cold.

There's good meat on the bones behind all this exceptionally un-subtle and tribalistic flag-waving, but far too much of it is being left to rot while Kripke & Co pleasure themselves in the vile, aggressive, uncommunicative, divisive culture war politics us normal folk in the middle ground have been forced to endure since the mid-2010s. Enough already, yeah? The hard left and the hard right are two sides of the same shitty coin and they both need to fuck right off and leave the rest of us alone. Make Politics Boring Again!


SOUNDS:

John Carpenter "Lost Themes IV: Noir" (album)

Green Day "Saviors" (album)

Alice Cooper "Road" (album)

Hollywood Vampires "Live in Rio" (album) and "Rise" (album)

The Black Angels "Wilderness of Mirrors" (album)

Betamaxx "Guided By Moonlight"

Dance With The Dead "Waves"

Greylancer "Viper"

Miami Nights 1984 "Accelerated"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

RoboCop: Rogue City (Xbox Series S) - it would be nice if they could patch the 'stretched lips' glitch in this game, as so many characters speak with a bit of their lower lip drawn up to a point attached to their upper lip. It's a small thing, but you notice it so much that it's curious the dev team never fixed it. Anyway, despite a few rough edges dotted about the place as mentioned in the previous Flavours of the Month, you can't resist the surge you get (with the themetune blaring) as you pop-off juicy, gore-spewing headshots. A sequence near the end as Downtown erupts into chaos was also a true blast, with small and large crimes happening on every street corner requiring swift Robo-justice, and all the while you encounter familiar faces from the neighbourhood in need of help. Hopefully the dev team can get a bigger budget and more resources on their next project to inject that extra layer of polished storytelling.

"Cinema Specualation" by Quentin Tarantino

Cyberpunk 2077 (Xbox Series S) - I remember the disastrous launch of this long-awaited sci-fi action FPS RPG, further hindered by being one of those awkward cross-gen titles, and figured well that would be something I'd steer clear of. However, after seeing so many reviews about it being a stunning about-turn as a result of numerous updates, it was back on the wish list. So far I'm thirty hours deep and absolutely loving it. The world is nothing short of immersive, like a combination of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Judge Dredd, Akira, and more, while the gunplay feels fluid and satisfying. It's certainly a bit overwhelming to begin with, almost swamping the player with information, character customisation, and numerous game mechanics, while the menus take a bit of getting used to (they're not the slickest or most user friendly), and the vehicles seem to lack finesse (I often find myself understeering, oversteering, lurching about, or struggling to stop) - but these are relatively small quibbles.

While I've not advanced too far with the main story, I've found myself eagerly chomping through the open world in search of random encounters, NCPD calls, side stories, and gigs to get used to the gameplay and level-up my character. Again, the sumptuous visual design of the game is truly something, made all the more impressive by the towering sense of verticality. You can be strolling through a cramped, neon-doused side street bustling with the denizens of Night City, and then emerge into a more open area where, quite suddenly, there looms a monolithic concrete skyscraper as countless sources of noise (citizens, advertisements, distant deadly encounters) compete for your attention. I reckon I'll be playing this game for months to come.

"Calvin & Hobbes: Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons" by Bill Watterson