PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Fisk Series 2

Fisk Series 2 Created by Kitty Flanagan and Vincent Sheehan, written by Kitty Flanagan and Penny Flanagan, directed by Kitty Flanagan and Tom Peterson. There were 6 episodes in the second series and they aired October 26 to November 30 2022. Kitty won most popular actress in the 2022 Australian Logie Awards for series 1. The show itself was nominated for most popular comedy program but did not win. That's like the Emmy in the US. I think she's great in the role and her writing is top notch.

Kitty plays Helen Tudor-Fisk, a probate lawyer at Gruber & Gruber, a small firm in Melbourne that specializes in probate law. Ray Gruber is the head of the firm. She's still dressing in that rather drab brown pant suit. Lucky for her clients she does a better job on their cases than she does picking her wardrobe.

That's Aaron Chen as George, he's the firm's receptionist and webmaster. George is generally good for a laugh.

That's Julia Zemiro as Roz Gruber and Glenn Butcher as Viktor. Roz used to be a lawyer but she got struck down and became a mediator. She runs a small mediation business from the Gruber and Gruber office. Viktor is Helen's father Anthony's partner, he retired and driving Anthony crazy with the regiment of their day to day life. Helen gets him a job at the office, he's just odd enough to fit in.

In the last episode Helen winds up fighting for her reputation and career when a stupid client unjustly turns an investigative journalist on her. Ray steps up to save the firm and Helen. It turns out he was the best defamation lawyer around 20 years ago. The high stress gave him a heart attack at 35 and he settled into the less stressful job of making wills with his sister. Ray gets his power suit out of mothballs, smartens Helen up, and they go kick some ass. The TV station folds like a pack of soggy playing cards, they retract the piece and apologize, they demote the investigative journalist to hosting a cartoon show, make a $20,000 donation to charity and give the firm some free prime time ads. Back at the office the show ends with an even higher note.

This was one of the few shows where I anxiously waited for the episode to air each week. Each week they delivered a show that was funny and characters that were fun to be around. It's nice sense of the absurd and some good physical comedy. Be nice for some streaming service to pick this up. I hope they come back with more series, if they don't I have a dozen wonderful episodes to rewatch.

We Are Not Alone 2022

We Are Not Alone 2022 Written by Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, directed by Fergal Costello. Laurence and Ben are also part of the group of writers and actors that created Horrible Histories and Ghosts. Ben plays the Captain and Laurence plays Robin the caveman.

In this Dave TV production they play the rather inept soldiers that guard Command 78.

The movie opens in the small Lancashire town of Clitheroe. Stewart and his mate Robbie are walking home from the pub. Poor Robbie is killed by a soccer ball size robot that announces the aliens have come in peace. That's Declan Baxter on the right, he's Stewart, the other guy is the alien Greggs, and it's Joe Thomas under that makeup. Some might remember Joe from The Inbetweeners.

The aliens are the Gu'uns and they're from a planet that was destroyed when their sun blew up. They've been roaming space looking for a suitable planet and our radio signals were like an invite. They take over the whole world quick like and divide the planet into Command Areas.

Six weeks after the aliens arrived Stewart arrives at work, the Clitheroe planning office, only to find the aliens have decided to move the seat of government from London to Clitheroe because it's in the middle of the country. The aliens didn't get along with some of the government in London and some of those annoying human's got tossed out an airlock. It's a Gu'uns favorite.

Stewart gets co-opted into helping the aliens with their human relations. That's Stewart, Trator (Vicki Pepperdine), Gordan (Mike Wosniak) and Greggs. The Gu'uns turn out to be just as shit at running things as their human counterparts are and the ideas to make them more likeable to humans take a round about route to success.

Part of the way through the story Stewart gets co-opted by the resistance. He stumbles his way through being a double agent while at the same time developing a friendship with Greggs. Eventually things come to a head.

I enjoyed it a good bit, there were a fair number of gags and I laughed out loud on 3 or 4 occasions. I liked the characters and the production looks fine. The CGI is about average for a smaller budget production. I'd be happy to watch it again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 718

Doctor Who 2 Series 3 Episodes 4-7

 

Daleks In Manhattan April 21 2007 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by James Strong. First of 2 parts.

 

The Doctor takes Martha to see New York in 1930. There have been a number of people who  have disappeared from the Hooverville encampment in Central Park. The Doctor and Martha stop for a visit. It eventually leads them to the huge new skyscraper being built.

 

The Empire State Building is home to the Cult Of Skaro. There are only 4 Daleks left and they want to use the giant radio mast on top of the building to attract gamma radiation to power their device that will merge humans and Daleks.

 

The Black Dalek Sec opens up and his biological self merges with the site's unwilling project manager. A good reminder that there is no retirement plan but death with the Daleks. They'll just kill you, no matter who you are.

 

Evolution Of The Daleks April 18 2007 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by James Strong. Second of two parts.

 

The end result of the human Dalek merger is rather something of a problem for the remaining trio of metal heads. The new Sec wants to make peace and co-operate with other races. He thinks it's got to work better than the plan they've been following so far.

Makes sense to me, there are only 4 of them left at the start of the episode. Of course the three unchanged Daleks don't listen to him. They lit him up like a neon sign.

 

There's a lot of running about battling the Daleks and their pig men. Eventually most everyone is dead and the last Dalek manages to escape. Those pricks always seem to get away. The Doctor and Martha take off for their next adventure.

 

The Lazarus Experiment May 5 2007 Written by Stephen Greenhorn and directed by Richard Clark.

 

Mark Gatiss plays a 75 year old business man who's invented a machine to reverse aging. He's the test subject and he looks much younger. The Doctor suspects that things aren't looking so good on the inside.

 

Sure enough Mark turns into a monster that sucks the life energy out of the locals. He's not bothered by the killing, they're unimportant people. The Doctor isn't on the same page and soon he has to put an end to Mark's life. It was for the best, he was a scumbag.

 

42 May 19 2007 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Graeme Harper.

 

The Tardis drops the gang onto a space ship that's about to fall into a sun. Another story where nearly everyone dies. Just less of them, it's a small ship.

The last story was OK but the least interesting of the lot. The rest were busy and entertaining.

Friday Night Movies 918

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On 2022 Story by Dean Fleischer-Camp, Elisabeth Holm and Nick Paley, screenplay by Dean Fleischer-Camp and Nick Paley, directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp.

A guy finds he's got a talking shell called Marcel living in the house he's renting. He's a film maker and he decides to make a film about Marcel. It becomes a big hit on YouTube. Marcel is featured on 60 Minutes in a story that helps reunite him with his family.

It's humorous and silly. I got a few laughs but I thought I would get really tired of Marcel if I had to live with him. Not one I would need to see again.

Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell 1995 Written and directed by Shinichi Fukazawa. Filmed in 1995 but not released until 2012. Shinichi wanted to make an over the top ghost story like The Evil Dead but still keeping true to the Japanese ghost story.

A body builder invites his ex-girlfriend and a psychic over to look at his dead father's haunted house. His father had killed his lover and buried her body under the floor of the house. That dead lady lingers in the house, she's still murder mad, and the psychic is the first one to fall under her ire. The body builder tries to keep his ex alive but that doesn't work so well.

It's pretty low budget and the actors are pretty poor. It's fairly wacky and a bit over the top. It was alright but I wouldn't need to pick up a copy.

Die Seltsame Grafin 1961

Die Seltsame Grafin 1961 Based on The Strange Countess by Edgar Wallace, screenplay by Curt Hanno Gutbrod and Robert A Stemmie, directed by Josef von Báky until he fell too ill to continue, filming was finished by Jürgen Roland. Another Rialto Film production.

It was shot at Tempelhof Studios in Berlin with location shooting at the Schloss Ahrensburg. Nice place.

 Klaus plays a bad guy who wants to kill a young woman. His attempt fails but he's ready to try again.  murder leads to a 20 year old murder and a countess with a secret. Joachim Fuchsberger plays the Police Inspektor, Brigitte Grothum plays the young woman, Eddie Arent plays the comic relief and Lil Dagover plays the Countess. There's plenty other characters to keep an eye on. There's plenty of activity on screen most of the time and the story moves along at a nice pace.

I enjoyed it and would watch it again. You can see it at the usual place. See link above.

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice Series 9

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice Series 9 Aired September 16 to November 18 2022.

Jo Brand hosts the show with Tom Allen appearing each week. There are three guest panelists and the baker who left the tent that week puts in an appearance. They chat and there's often a game to play. Tom interviews the audience bakers who show up with deserts. Some of them are quite good. It's usually good fun and that's A-OK with me.

The Great British Bake Off Series 13

The Great British Bake Off Series 13 Aired September 13 to November 15 2022. Presenters Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas are joined by judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.

That's all the bakers. The smiling lady on the right of the bottom row is Syabira and she was the winner of the series. I don't know that I would eat all of her bakes. She has some unusual flavor combinations. It was a nice mix of types of people and a mix of baking styles.

Enjoyable as usual.

The Big Night 1951

The Big Night 1951 Based on the novel Dreadful Summit by Stanley Ellin, screenplay by Joseph Losey, Stanley Ellin, Hugo Butler and Ring Lardner Jr, directed by Joseph Losey.

Pretty much a family drama with a gun wielding young man. Nothing much special about it. Pretty much average. Doubtful I'll bother watching it again.

5 Against The House 1955

5 Against The House 1955 Based on a Jack Finny story with a screenplay by Sterling Silliphant, William Bowers and John Barnwell, directed by Phil Karlson. Phil would later direct two of my favorite Dean Martin pictures, The Silencers and The Wrecking Crew. I haven't seen a lot of his pictures but I also liked 99 River Street and his two Charlie Chan films, Dark Alibi and The Shanghai Cobra.

 

A heist film with Guy Madison, Kim Novak, Brian Keith, William Conrad, Kerwin Matthews and Alvy Moore. The guys plan to rob a casino in Las Vegas. Things don't go to plan. Entertaining. Decent copy on YouTube currently.

Pie In The Sky Series 2 - 5

Pie In The Sky Series 2 - 5 Created and written by Andrew Payne. The four series aired between January 15 1995 and August 17 1997.

Richard Griffiths is a police detective in a small town and a chef at his wife's restaurant. He's sort of semi-retired and works when his annoying boss calls him in to stir things up. Richard is much smarter than his boss and a much nicer person. Maggie Steed is his wife and the rest of the cast changes a bit through the 4 series. The scripts are good and the cast does well by them.

Despite there not being too many murders in the series the crimes are varied and interesting enough not to need the dead littering up the place. It has a good sense of humor and I enjoyed that. I'd watch them again but probably won't buy the DVD set.