True Blood, Season 1 (2008)

Two years after the existence of vampires became public knowledge, there is considerable argument in the media and government about the rights and role of these undead Americans.  Some believe vampires should enjoy the same rights as humans; some that they should be hunted to extinction.

Not that any of this seems to matter that much in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps.  They've never even seen a vampire in town ... at least, not until Bill Compton strolls into the local watering hole, Merlotte's.

Bill's arrival is a transformative moment for Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at Merlotte's.  Sookie is instantly drawn to the newcomer, not least because of a secret of her own: Sookie can hear other people's thoughts, and has to work hard to force out the constant background noise of other humans.  She can't hear Bill's thoughts at all, which makes him peaceful for her to be around.

Of course, the arrival of the town's first vampire is going to gee up the locals one way or another, and soon women suspected of being "fangbangers" are turning up dead ...

The first time I tried to watch True Blood, I turned it off after ten minutes.  The second time, I went in fore-warned that it is an over the top melodrama.  And when I say "over the top", I really mean it.  The first time Sookie sees Bill, all the lights and noise of the diner fades out, until he's basically standing in a silent halo of light.  It couldn't be more obvious if "This is her love interest" was tattooed on his forehead.

I should probably also warn you that the show is full of sex and violence and cursing.  Subtlety is not much on display here, in any sense of the word.  As long as that kind of content isn't a problem for you, though, there's an entertainingly gonzo TV show here.  Check it out if you like sexy vampires, and don't mind if they are often not very nice people.

Richard III (1995)

England, the 1930s.  A vicious civil war comes to and end with the death of the King and his heir at the hands of Field Marshal Richard Gloucester.  This opens the way for Richard's elder brother Edward to take the throne.

Edward shouldn't make himself too comfortable, though, because Richard has no intention of remaining just the King's brother.  It's true that the new monarch has two sons, but the eldest is only 12, and should anything happen to the King, is there anything a couple of boys could really do to stop the plans of an ambitious man?

Richard III is a work of 16th century propaganda by one William Shakespeare, who - whatever your opinions of his skills as a playwright - certainly knew on what side his political bread was buttered.  Elizabeth I was on the throne, and it was her grandfather who deposed Richard III, so it is perhaps no surprise that this play sets out to paint the House of York as either evil incarnate (ol' Dicky 3 himself) or naive and foolish patsies who are oblivious to his scheme (everyone else).  Even before one takes the fact that the film transplants the action to 500 years after the actual reign of Richard III, this is not interested in telling the story of what really happened (Richard's brother George, for instance, is depicted as a naive and trusting dupe when in real life he betrayed and fought against his elder brother Edward in an attempt to take the throne for himself).

What I am saying is, don't be watching this as true account of history.  But that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch it.  It's a good film, with a strong cast, and Ian McKellen is a great choice of lead as the malevolent Richard Gloucester.  If you can cope with the Shakespearean language (which is not updated, despite the 20th century setting), then it's worth your time.

Star Blazers, Season 2 (1980)

One year after the Argo returned from its search for Iscandar and saved humanity from the alien Gamilons, Earth faces a new and even more deadly threat.  This is the Comet Empire, a powerful war machine that travels the cosmos conquering and/or destroying any planets in their path.  The first warning of this danger comes via a plea for help from Trelaina of Trelezart, a distant planet that is also on the Comet Empire's warpath.

Earth's government isn't willing to commit resources to assist Telezart, but the crew of the Argo feel that they owe a debt for the aid that Iscandar gave to humanity, and disobey orders to fly to Trelaina's aid.  Unfortunately for them, the Comet Empire has expected such a move and has a surprise ally of their own ...

I can see why, when Star Blazers hit western screens in 1979, it would make a huge impression.  Each season has a connecting narrative that runs through from the first episode to the last: this wasn't a thing that pretty much any US TV show was doing at the time, let alone a "kids' cartoon".  Also, there's a sense of real danger, that characters are at risk of harm or death.

Unfortunately, the passage of forty years has not been kind to the show.  The season-long narrative is very drawn out, the characters are often petulant and childish, and the voice acting ... oh dear, the voice acting.  Admittedly, some of the dialogue is so clunky as to be near impossible to perform well, but this cast isn't up to delivering any dialogue well.  They're so bad that I'm actually quite pleased to hear that there's an entirely new English language voice cast for season three.  It might be weird to hear new voices for familiar characters, but if those voices are better performed, I will call it a win.

Unless you're old enough to be a fan from the days the show first came out, Star Blazers is better left as a important historical artefact in Japanese SF animation than a show you actually watch.

Rough Night (2017)

College besties Jess, Alice, Frankie, and Blair reunite a decade later for Jess's bachelorette party.  It's the first time they've all been together in nearly three years, and their friendships are under some strain.  Jess's attention is focused on her run for state senate and her upcoming nuptials, and she finds Alice's desire to relive their college days very clingy and frustrating.  Frankie and Blair, meanwhile, are one-time lovers who have split up and gone in very different directions in their lives.  Throw in Pippa, Jess's Australian best friend that none of the others have met before, and who Alice obviously resents, and you've got a recipe for trouble even before they all take cocaine and then accidentally kill the male stripper they've hired to come to their house.

As you might imagine, panic ensues.  It was an accident, but will the cops believe that?  All of them have reasons they don't want to risk it, even before factoring in the risk of their narcotic experimentation being discovered.

Naturally enough, stress and cocaine do not make for good decision-making, and an escalating series of misadventures inevitably result, eventually drawing in the swingers next door as well as a number of other unexpected visitors.

Rough Night was not a great commercial or critical success, but I actually found it a fun film to watch.  Yes, it's frequently crass and silly, and pretty predictable, but it has a great cast who commit to all the zany shenanigans and it rattles along briskly to its conclusion without overstaying its welcome.  I had some laughs and finished the movie with a smile on my face.

If you do watch this film, be sure to stick around for Pippa's musical number in the end credits.

Lost Girl, Season 1 (2010)

When everyone you have sex with is killed by the experience, it's safest to keep yourself distant from others.  And for the last ten years, that's been Bo Dennis's strategy: no entanglements, always ready to move on.  But when she sees a young grifter named Kenzi about to be sexually assaulted, she steps in and gives the would-be rapist a lethal kiss.

Now Bo finds herself with a fiercely loyal new friend.  Which would be bad enough by itself, given her history, but her act of altruism has also drawn the attention of two police officers who seem a lot more knowledgeable about Bo's strange powers than she is herself.  Through them, Bo finds herself inducted into the world of the 'Fae' a secret community of creatures with unusual powers.  Bo herself is a succubus, able to feed on sexual energy, and if she got the right training, this would not have to be a fatal experience for her partner.

Of course, many offers of help come with strings attached, and this is one of them.  The Fae are split into two factions, who expect (indeed, demand) that she declare allegiance to one side or other other.  Choosing to stay unaligned from either side - as, of course, the fiercely independent Bo decides to do, setting herself up as a Private Investigator working with both factions - makes her a potentially important but very vulnerable player in the Fae community.

Lost Girl is a pretty fun urban fantasy show with a likeable cast.  Anna Silk, playing Bo, has the unfortunate task of being the hero, which means that she doesn't get even half as many great lines as Ksenia Solo's Kenzi, but she certainly brings the chemistry with her love interests.  Speaking of which, it's nice to see a show where the main character's bisexuality is never questioned by anyone else, and where consensual sex is never treated as anything but healthy and normal (cheating is considered bad, but that's because it's breaking a promise / lying, not because it is sex).

If a sexy urban fantasy PI show sounds like your jam, go get some toast and settle in for some Lost Girl.

Prometheus Trap (2012)

In the distant future, somewhere in space, the two-person crew of a military scout-ship are awakened from their stasis pods by their android assistant.  He quashes their hopes of having reached their home planet with the news that they have been diverted to find a lost transport ship named the Prometheus, and recover its cargo.

The crew naturally wonder what could be so important that they have been diverted so far off course.  It soon proves that finding out will be no easy matter: most of the transport's crew are dead, and the ship's android is exhibiting very odd behaviour ... behaviour that their own android will soon come to understand far more closely than he would like.

This low-budget film is basically "Groundhog Day, but grim and in space".  I was pleasantly surprised by it overall.  The cast are all competent in their roles - this is something that is not guaranteed when you're in budget film territory - and the director has clearly studied Alien for tips on getting the most out of limited resources.  I'm certainly not saying it looks like a big budget movie, but it does look pretty much as good as could be expected, and the visuals are only outright bad on one or two brief occasions.

Of course, we are in low budget territory so there are some issues with the film.  The dialogue's a bit awkward at time, the pacing is a bit slow, and the (few) action-ish scenes are quite stilted and unconvincing.  Still, if you're willing to put up with a few flaws in the execution, there's a decent if downbeat little science fiction story here.

Falling Skies, Season 1 (2011)

When alien spaceships arrive at the Earth, human governments initially react with caution and restraint, in the hope the visitors may be friendly.

Six months later, those governments no longer exist, the the basic unfriendliness of the aliens has been well established for the rag tag "soldiers" of the 2nd Massachusetts, a resistance unit formed of all those willing to fight, be they trained military, former history teachers, or 13 year old boys.

Even after half a year, little is known of the enemy - six legged creatures the resistance calls "skitters" - or their agenda on Earth.  There are a number of strange elements to the alien's behaviour: why are their robotic troopers bipedal when they are not, for instance, and for what possible reason would they have human slaves gathering scrap iron? 

Of course for many members of the resistance, the "why" of the situation isn't that important.  They focus entirely on keeping themselves and the civilians they defend alive against threats both alien and human.  But of course for those in positions of authority the "why" is a nagging question, since to understand your enemy's motives will help you predict his plans ...

Falling Skies draws heavily on the American War of Independence, to the point of having its main character be a professor who specialised in the period.  Personally, I found his frequent speeches likening their struggle to various 18th century battles got a bit annoying, especially since they ignore some important differences between the two situations: British troops in the 1770s did not have quite the same technological edge that the aliens enjoy, for instance.  A better comparison might have been the Vietnam War, though of course that would have taken a lot of guts for them to do!

My occasional sighs over the "Ra-ra!  Freedom!" speeches aren't a major strike against the show, but there is another issue that I do think is worth mentioning, and that's a character who is introduced in the second episode.  He's clearly going to be a major player in the show, and we're just as clearly meant to find him to be this charming rogue.  The thing is, he's also (in the best case) turned a blind eye to his men committing rape.  So frankly, I hate him and I very much doubt the show will ever acknowledge his awfulness, let alone have him atone for it, so I fully expect to keep hating him for all five seasons.

If that character's not a deal breaker for you, this is an otherwise decent "alien invasion" TV series.

Jessie and Jamie Are Not Together (2011)

Jamie and Jessie are room-mates and lesbians, but - despite the assumptions of many people they know - they aren't a couple.  Jessie would rather like that to change, but she seems rather more comfortable pining unrequitedly while sabotaging her own relationships and getting snippy at the oblivious Jamie for her sexual promiscuity, than in ... well, in doing anything to actually make them into a couple.

But now Jamie will be leaving for New York in only two weeks, so if Jessie ever wants anything to happen, she has to make it happen now.  Will she rise to the challenge?  Or will she just keep singing mediocre songs about how she doesn't have the girlfriend she wants?  Heck, is Jamie even actually the girlfriend she really wants?

You may have noticed the reference to songs, because yes, this is a musical ... well, if "there are four or five short and not very got song and dance numbers in it" really makes a film a musical.  For my money, they needed to commit much harder to this element of the movie (and write significantly better songs), or ditch it entirely.  Probably the latter, since that would be easier.

I must confess I also found it hard to warm to Jessie.  She spends most of the film resenting the woman she claims to love and indulging in a lot of toxic "nice guy-isms".  And I guess I can see that that's maybe the point, and that moving past that toxicity is essential for her growth as a person, but even if that was the goal, the execution just wasn't that enjoyable to me.