- Merlin Recap: ‘The Lady of the Lake’ (Season 2, Episode 9)
Posted on 08 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
That which will be given to Freya must be stolen from Arthur, and so Merlin goes all urban-Katniss.
- Merlin Recap: ‘The Sins of the Father’ (Season 2, Episode 8)
Posted on 08 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
Though as the mysterious knight’s identity is revealed, it turns out that the gracious Sir is a gracious Dame: the warrior is Morgause, played by Emilia Fox. So we’re embarked on another instalment in Merlin’s ongoing project to work out what women are good for/at.
- Twenty Twelve Recap — Season 1, Episode 5
Posted on 01 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
One of the key questions they’ve agreed to ask the candidates is what exactly they think the Cultural Olympiad is. A silence falls over the table, before they all hurriedly agree what an excellent question that will be.
- Twenty Twelve Recap — Season 1, Episode 4
Posted on 01 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
But this is the source of Boris’ power (the power pertaining to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, and I’m not making that up) – he offers a powerfully atavistic image of a long-disappeared England for people to either adore or loathe.
- Merlin Recap: ‘The Witchfinder’ (Season 2, Episode 7)
Posted on 01 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
I can’t believe I seem to be suggesting that Merlin is better than The Crucible but it comes closer to reflecting on the way certain identities are criminalised in modern society.
- Merlin Recap: ‘Beauty and the Beast II’ (Season 2, Episode 6)
Posted on 01 Jul 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” as the witches in Macbeth chant. The only person who can save the kingdom is Merlin, armed with his own brand of magic and possibly a reliable dictionary open at the letter “F”.
- Twenty Twelve — Season 1, Episode 3
Posted on 30 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
There’s a fine line between criticising a show and simply describing the show you think it should have been, but when a satire so deliberately tones down reality I reckon we’re entitled to ask questions.
- Twenty Twelve — Season 1, Episode 2
Posted on 29 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
It rather sums up the problem which I noted last episode (and which will appear even more strongly when we turn to look at the show’s treatment of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London) that Twenty Twelve hovers oddly between making fun of the games and treating them as Unquestionably A Good Thing.
- Twenty Twelve — Season 1, Episode 1
Posted on 29 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
Still, nice to know the BBC’s independence is sufficiently robust (despite the continual brickbats cast at is as a state broadcaster) to put on a show like this. Even if one does wonder at times why they didn’t either do the thing rather more viciously, or not bother.
- The Thick of It Recap – Series 3, Episode 8
Posted on 24 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
Tucker’s resignation is the two-headed calf or woman giving birth to rabbits of the modern era: it is demonstrably not natural and probably portends something really very dicey from some quarter or other.
- Merlin Recap: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Season 2, Episode 5)
Posted on 24 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
At first glance it seems absolutely obvious what is going on here: to whit, some pretty repulsive misogyny. The potion with Catrina has to take to keep her looking beautiful has a lot in common with the centuries-old anxiety around cosmetics, a handy stand-in for the ideas that women are liars, that they spend their time trying to trap men and that there is something inherently repulsive about women’s bodies.
- Merlin Recap: ‘Lancelot and Guinevere’ (Season 2, Episode 4)
Posted on 24 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
One of the real points of interest in Merlin is watching the way the show takes medieval/legendary events and tweaks them to fit into the high-school-drama format.
- The Thick of It Recap – Series 3, Episode 7
Posted on 17 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
In other words, he’s committed a terrible crime, not by stealing information, but by stealing attention. In the world of The Thick of It, secrets are a far less marketable commodity than publicity.
- Merlin Recap: ‘The Nightmare Begins’ (Season 2, Episode 3)
Posted on 17 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
Unsympathetic spectators might hazard that her unquiet slumbers have something to do with her invariable habit of going to bed fully dressed in fetching yet surely inconvenient medieval gowns.
- Merlin Recap: ‘The Once and Future Queen’ (Season 2, Episode 2)
Posted on 17 Jun 2012 in Movies & TV, Television
Meanwhile Arthur himself is suffering from tragic royal ennui. He worries that the only reason he keeps winning at jousting is that people are letting him.
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