It was a good year for superheroes.  Most specially because of  Wonder Woman, not because it was the best of its genre this year necessarily but because for the first time with a superhero movie I didn’t have scroll through hundreds of images to find one where a woman was centre screen, in charge.  I wrote about the film, how it made me feel, the exhilaration of seeing all the tropes I love about superhero movies but with a woman, a glorious, magnificent woman, where usually there is a man, or mainly men (quite possibly glorious and magnificent in their own right, but still).

I loved Guardians of the Galaxy 2, warming to it despite a phase when I wearied of some of the schoolboy humour, until I realised what that was telling us about these lost children, and how they were forming a strange, new family.  There was plenty of daft humour too in Thor: Ragnarok,  as one would expect given that Taika Waititi was directing (responsible for last year’s delightful Hunt for the Wilderpeople and for What we do in the Shadows).  And it was perhaps a sign of changing times (and not a moment too soon) that Valkyrie is played as a cynical, world-weary, boozy mess who comes through when she is needed, such a male archetype.  As well as obviously kicking ass in a most splendid way.   Spiderman: Homecoming  was charming, funny and really used the notion that Spidey is an adolescent boy, cleverly and with heart.  Logan, though, of all the films that belong broadly in that genre, was the one to break your heart.  With gripping valedictory performances from Jackman and Stewart, and a mesmerising and terrifying one from Dafne Keen.

Star Wars is not so much my thing.  I did enjoy the first trilogy, albeit critically, but I never felt them to be mine, and I have never even seen the prequels (nor do I intend to).  But I loved The Force Awakens, and I loved Rogue One, and I look forward to seeing The Last Jedi before long.

War for the Planet of the Apes was brilliant – referencing Biblical epics, Westerns, Apocalypse Now, Schindler’s List and probably other genres and specific films as well, whilst maintaining the power and emotional heft of its predecessors.

My efforts to find an image for each film in which a woman is prominent were doomed in the case of Dunkirk.  That’s fair enough, given the premise, I didn’t expect women to feature other than in traditional roles – as nurses, or serving tea and jam sandwiches.  There has been a more serious issue raised, that of the absence of non-white faces.  I don’t honestly believe this was a deliberate whitewashing, nor do I accept that just because Farage liked the film it was a pro-Brexit parable.  But it would have taken very little to ensure that there were visible representatives of the Royal Indian Army Services Corp companies, or the lascar crewmen on British merchant vessels that took part in the evacuation.  They were there, and this could have been conveyed without changing the basic structure of the film and its deliberately narrow focus on a few of the rescued and rescuers.  But having said that, whilst watching the film such considerations never crossed my mind.  I was overwhelmed, by that intense focus, by the score which built and built the tension until it was almost unbearable (and the use of the Elgar Nimrod as the first of the little ships appeared reduced me, predictably enough, to sobs), and by the non-linear structure which forced one to concentrate, to hold those strands together even as the direction teased them apart.

The opposite for the next two movies – three women foregrounded in each of them.  I wrote about Twentieth-century Women for International Women’s Day,

and Hidden Figures we missed at the cinema but caught on DVD – uplifting and inspiring even if, oddly enough, the sexism and racism they encountered was actually ramped up for the benefit of the story.  Who would have thought that could ever be necessary?

Baby Driver was beautifully described by Empire as:

not a film just set to music. But a film meticulously, ambitiously laid over the bones of carefully chosen tracks. It’s as close to a car-chase opera as you’ll ever see on screen.

Even if the narrative arc (young man in debt to gangster does ‘one last job’ and finds out there’s no such thing) is traditional enough, the choreography, the seamless blend between diegetic and exegetic music, make it entirely original and massively enjoyable.

La La Land inspired me to write about musicals.   It was gorgeous and delightful and poignant and much more that I wanted to say was expressed so well in a piece on the marvellous That’s How the Light Gets In blog.

 

And one more cinema outing, a rather lengthy but entirely captivating one, for Bertrand Tavernier’s Journey through French Cinema.   It is what it says, a journey and a personal one at that, through French film from Tavernier’s first childhood moment of enchantment, on through the decades as he goes from a kid in the audience to a film maker himself.  I believe there’s a follow-up in the making, bringing his journey more up to date, to which I will happily commit as many hours as it takes, as soon as it’s out.

Mind you, speaking of French cinema, I should really note that we did go to see Elle.  However, my feelings about that film are so predominantly negative, that despite my overwhelming admiration for Huppert, and despite moments of brilliantly black comedy, I shall pass over it without substantial comment.

On to the smaller screen.

As always a good deal of crime fiction.  The dramas noted below are not an inclusive list of what we watched.  There were others that were workaday, or that strained credulity with plot craters and characters who behaved with a stupidity that was at the same time predictable and utterly inconsistent with what we already knew of them.  I’m not going to name the guilty parties, just those that we were gripped by and that managed to avoid the worst clichés and pitfalls of the genre.

Sherlock: The Final Problem certainly didn’t give us genre cliché.  What it all meant, and indeed, whether it meant anything at all or was just a clever game, is uncertain.   The Guardian‘s reviewer was a bit cross about it, but identified two main strands in the narrative:

One was a subtle, beautifully crafted backstory about Sherlock’s childhood. The other was a fun if unfulfilling gameshow of wild hypotheticals, where everything was at stake yet it often felt as though very little was.

It was frustrating and baffling but it didn’t make me cross, I was perfectly willing to believe both that it did mean something and that it was just a fascinating puzzle that I would probably have no chance of unravelling.

Line of Duty series 4 was just superb.  Thandie Newton’s Roz Huntley was absolutely compelling, and the plot twisted and turned as we were made to question everyone’s motives and integrity, at least briefly.  It had the classic LoD set pieces in the interview room, plus shoot outs and chases, and a plot that at least started to weave together strands from series 1-3, whilst leaving plenty to look forward to in series 5, which cannot come around too soon for me.

The Missing had only one character in common with series 1, the grizzled detective (Tchéky Karyo) who I was very glad to spend another few hours with.  Keeley Hawes and David Morrissey were both excellent, as always.  The narrative begins, in a sense, at the point that one might expect it to end, with the return of their missing daughter.  Of course, it’s not that simple, it’s complex and agonising, and unexpected.

Broadchurch 3 was much better than 2 (which I quite enjoyed at the time but actually struggle to recall what it was all about, really, apart from Joe’s not guilty plea).  The handling of the rape case was generally excellent even if the resolution left a few dangling plot threads that didn’t quite make sense.   Julie Hesmondhalgh was wonderful, as were, obviously, Tennant, Colman and Whittaker.

Strike was an excellent adaptation of the first two of Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling)’s Cormoran Strike novels.  Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger were perfect in the lead roles, and I look forward immensely to the adaptation of the third and any future novels in the series.

I Know Who you Are was a fairly bonkers Spanish series in which most characters were pretty despicable, and one of the two genuinely sympathetic people didn’t make it out alive.  The only morality that prevailed was Family and within that there was a hierarchy of loyalty – to attempt to murder one’s sister in order to protect one’s son was seen by most characters (including the intended victim) as pretty reasonable.  It was all thoroughly enjoyable.

Unforgotten 2 was profoundly different, as Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar unpicked another cold case.  They are both deeply sympathetic characters and the whole thing is imbued with a kind of compassion and empathy that draws in the damaged people whose lives have been twisted in various ways by the past crime.

Rellik very cleverly subverted the way in which the detective story must follow a retrograde narrative path, starting with the crime and working backwards, by starting with the crime’s (apparent) resolution and working backwards and backwards, until in its final episode it leapt back to the beginning/end and a shocking dénoument.  The structure took a bit of getting used to and never quite stopped being unsettling, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  It was produced by Harry and Jack Williams (The Missing) and featured, amongst other excellent performances, the wonderful Rosalind Eleazar as an early suspect.

Witnesses was the second series of the French crime drama starring Marie Dompnier.  This one also stars Audrey Fleurot, who we know from Spiral, and whose return in that series we look forward to impatiently.  Witnesses was compelling and baffling and ended most enigmatically (none the worse for that – I’d rather have honest to goodness open endings than ostensibly tidy endings that actually leave loose threads all over the place).

Fargo 3 brought us not one but two wonderful female cops.  Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) and Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval).  And not one but two Ewan McGregors, as he plays twin brothers.  One David Thewlis was more than enough, however – his villain was quite the most revolting, viscerally unpleasant character I’ve seen on screen for some time.  That’s a compliment (I think) to the writing and the acting. Lord knows where this one is going next but we’ll be more than happy to go along.   Fargo also introduced the wonderful phrase, ‘unfathomable pinhead-ery’ into our vocab, for which we are truly thankful.

 

Telly sci-fi had an altogether brilliant year.

Agents of Shield had an outstanding season with a multi-layered narrative that messed with our heads and our hearts.  Beautifully played and written, and quite breathtaking.

Orphan Black reached its fifth and final season, having maintained its form throughout the four years that it has been running.  The weight of the series is carried – seemingly effortlessly – by the awesome Tatiana Maslany, who plays not only various clone ‘sestras’ but at various times plays one of them masquerading as one of the others.  It’s dazzlingly done.  It also stars the rather wonderful Maria Doyle Kennedy as Mrs S.

We’re not far through Star Trek: Discovery yet, but from episode 3 on were hooked.  Yes, OK, that coincides with the arrival of Jason Isaacs, but it’s not just because Jason Isaacs.  Sonequa Martin-Green is excellent, as is Anthony Rapp, and Mary Wiseman as cadet Tilly.  It’s visually brilliant, and the plot is loaded with moral ambiguity from which it does not flinch.  It promises much and we look forward to it developing further.

I remain loyal to The Walking Dead even though no one could claim that it’s unproblematic.  The tone and pace are extremely uneven and it depends far too often on (a) plot armour, (b) magically inexhaustible ammo and (c) people who we know are capable of good judgement behaving with unfathomable pinheadery.  Nonetheless, I cannot envisage giving up on it.  I have to see how this plays out – and  there are episodes which grip and compel and convince.

Possibly the only one of my top TV shows which features in the critics’ lists is The Handmaid’s Tale.  I also read the book for the first time, as part of my 60 books in 60 days challenge.  So much has been said about the series that I don’t feel I can add anything especially insightful – it was horrifying and terrifying and brilliantly done.

And of course there’s Doctor Who. I wrote about the (to me, brilliant) news that the next Doctor will be a woman.  Nonetheless, much as I look forward to seeing what Jodie Whittaker brings to the role I will need to grieve first for Peter Capaldi’s doctor, who I have loved – and for Pearl Mackie who has been a wonderful companion.   PC’s final series was excellent, and the finale was heart-stopping and moving.

“I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, because I hate someone, or because I want to blame someone. It’s not because it’s fun. God knows it’s not because it’s easy. It’s not even because it works because it hardly ever does. I do what I do because it’s right! Because it’s decent! And above all, it’s kind! It’s just that… Just kind. If I run away today, good people will die. If I stand and fight, some of them might live. Maybe not many, maybe not for long. Hey, you know, maybe there’s no point to any of this at all. But it’s the best I can do. So I’m going to do it. And I’m going to stand here doing it until it kills me. And you’re going to die too! Some day… And how will that be? Have you thought about it? What would you die for? Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand is where I fall.” — The Doctor

 

 

Three docs worth mentioning.  Suzie Klein’s Tunes for Tyrants explored 20th century music in the context of Nazi and Stalinist oppression.  She’s an excellent presenter and the material – and the music – was fascinating and powerful.

Bowie’s departure from this dimension was – for me amongst others – the greatest loss of  2016, a year of losses.  Bowie – the Last Five Years brought us the final phase of that extraordinary story, as he worked on his last two albums,  and the stage musical Lazarus.  We were reminded, as if we could forget, not only of his talent, but of his humour and intelligence, his warmth and wit.   And that last body of work is not only a worthy finale to his career but imbued with a sense of mortality and the fragility of life.

Neil Brand is one of my favourite music-explainers.  Charles Hazlewood and Tom Service have got that nailed in terms of classical music but for the music of stage and screen, for the popular song, Neil is your man, and The Sound of Musicals was a delight.

 

We loved Poldark, and not just for the scenery.

The Replacement was a bit bonkers but both Vicky McClure (see also Line of Duty) and Morven Christie (also in The A Word, series 2 of which isn’t covered here only because it’s yet to be watched) were excellent.

And another favourite of mine, Suranne Jones, was magnificent in series 2 of Doctor Foster.

We got to see Jodie Whittaker pretending to be a doctor in Trust Me.  Plot holes a-plenty (unless they’re just an indication of a second series coming up?) but well done, and well played by JW – looking forward to her being a real Doctor shortly.

Homeland was on excellent form, with the dynamics between Carrie and the new female PotUS adding a new dimension to the plot.

And Spin took us back into the shadowy world of French political manouevering.

It wasn’t all screen based culture.  I made several visits to Leeds Grand Theatre for Opera North productions, some of which I reviewed for The Culture Vulture  (see the  Reviews page of this site, which also features my review of the Sheffield Crucible’s production of Julius Caesar).  I also saw at Leeds Grand a magical production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, at the Crucible, an intense Desire Under the Elms, and in the Crucible Studio various splendid Music in the Round chamber music concerts.

So, thanks to all who’ve shared these delights with me.  Liz, Viv, Arthur, Ruth, Aid, Dad, and of course him that I’ve been watching telly and going to the pictures and going to gigs and plays with for >40 years…