Welcome no one and all to Braw's UndergRound Up for the perpetually ground down of 2022, our (obviously) annual unpopular popular culture(?!) look at the past 12 months(-ish). Here we'll filter through Agent Rob's means to (undeserved) escapism in the previous 52 weeks, of which about 2 were spent glimpsing the light at the end of the lengthy pandemic tunnel before Russia's liberation/invasion - ask Waters/Gilmour - of Ukraine cruelly snuffed out humanity's last hope.... So if gorging on 24/7 news feeds of our increasingly burning world isn't quite your thing then it's time to face up to plenty of brackets (like, y'know, these kinda (brackets)) and get your fear on (for want of any better means of kicking things off)....
"Ere, Clive, is, eh, Agent Rob still a c-" "'e is, Derek, that is correct."
In general it has to be said that in UndergRounding Up 2022 Rob realised it was pretty much a year of, er, cultural consolidation (with an unhealthy dose of copy/edit/paste chucked in for good measure). Sure, there were plenty of new films and records to be enjoyed, but they all had a tang of familiarity, if not a whiff of nostalgic sell-by, and it'd be fibbing to say otherwise before we begin....
Take for example MARVEL's 'Phase Four', where they did pretty much as per the previous paragraphs/Phases (although well past it's Avengers: Endgame prime), coasting along on their (too) established green screen train with Thor; Love & Thunder proving that lightning certainly doesn't strike in the same place twice, the titular character's (by now somewhat self-satisfied) mismatch of goofy and serious personas coupled with child death and cancer (sub)plots – if ever the MCU was going to take a bold leap into DCU-esque darkness then this seemed a mighty good opportunity – making for an uneven and ultimately somewhat underwhelming 4th entry in the franchise (within, er, a franchise?). Shang Chi and The Legend of the 10 Rings and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were along very similar entertaining if formulaic lines – admittedly there's nothing truly wrong with spending 2+ hours with any MARVEL film at all - while Spider-Man: No Way Home (which is like, y'know, the second Spider-Man 3 of the third Spider-Man film franchise within a, ah, y'know....) relied heavily on a leaf torn out of Doctor Who's (very well thumbed) book by bringing back previous incarnations of both hero and villain for what amounted to a super slick web-slinging nostalgia fest....
In contrast to all this visually wearying and interchangeable SFX it was nice to lower oneself to the gritty street level of The Batman from Braw fave Matt Reeves of POTA fame, sitting back and enjoying it's realistic and restrained Detective (Comics) approach, proving that like the books themselves, the DCU seems a far better fit for stories that simply do not adhere to any predetermined cinematic continuity. A shame then that they felt the need to shoehorn Barry Keoghan's The Joker in at the very end (because between Ledger, Leto and Phoenix it's getting kinda crowded in that wing of Arkham Asylum of late). Speaking of (the non 'The') Joker, it too was an agreeably disagreeable deep slice of the darker DCU (really recommended only for people who haven't seen Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy and wondered what would happen if you mashed them together in a pot and washed them down with a few hits of Fight Club)....
Agent Rob (and Miss Pennymoney) also had the opportunity to see Professor Xavier in the flesh as local superhero himself James McAvoy rolled into Glasgow in Jamie Lloyd's mesmerising take on Cyrano de Bergerac, a hip-hopping, beat-boxing, jaw-dropping theatrical tour de (X-)force. A good thing too, as it's unlikely he'll be back, ahem. Oh, dear, green place....
It's inevitable that Film4 takes home the Best Films Brawscar(tm) yet again this year by offering up an All-1-2-3-4 of daring and fully immersive world cinema – Mandibles, The Tunnel, First Love, Servants, Videoman, The Warrior, Deliver Us From Evil, Sputnik – that simply excelled itself with their (South) Korean season – Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, The Beast, Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, Beasts Clawing At Straws, The Swordsman – and quality contemporary (mostly) American films, some famous, some not so - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Knives Out, Mandy, Alita: Battle Angel, Vivarium, 1985, Lucy In The Sky, Saint Frances, Lords of Chaos – and the occasional irrepressible cult classic such as Mike Leigh's searing Naked....
Likewise Talking Pictures TV did it's stiff-upper lipped best to screen films from the classic to the cult/curio and the, well, frankly (watchable enough) crap – The Incident, The Hustler, The Raven, The Trial, The Offence, The Bed Sitting Room, The Devil's Men, Perfect Friday, Bear Island, Gas-s-s, Morons From Outer Space, Futureworld, Shatter, Scream and Scream Again - with TCM and Paramount Movies showcasing the wilder west with Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and (the remarkable) Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid as well as the likes of Promising Young Woman, The Running Man, Stardust, Das Boot, Conan The Barbarian, The Odd Couple, Paycheck, Raising Arizona, Hot Shots II and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad....
An extra special mention must be given to Stake Land and The Stakelander, two quite remarkable low-budget films shown courtesy of The Horror Channel (now, er, rebranded as Legend), not remotely scary but wonderfully gloomy and atmospheric with a sleek, minimal soundtrack. Fangers crossed for a third entry. Well worth vampire hunting down....
Please, just don't come back ever again....
From Film4 et al to 'top of the film flops' where Terminator: Dark Fate sat like a great fat undercooked Christmas turkey (itself carved from hopeless leftovers). It's as if a bunch of studio execs watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens* and decided that Box Office Gold simply involved getting the old (acting) gang back together to have them spout tired catchphrases while less charismatic screen photocopies toiled with a soft turd reboot of a plot. If anything it's even worse than the flat battery that was Terminator Genityls. Not that Arnold Schwarzenegger's old 80's sparring partner Sylvester Stallone could do much better (aside from an oddly deft closing montage) as he bled every drop of (Last) Blood from Rambo's cinematic corpse. And just to prove it ain't all about taking down easy targets there was Martin Scorcese's The Color of Money (crappy brown!) and Clint Eastwood's absolute dud Absolute Power going to show that even old masters have their off days. Huge props to Clint for The Mule tho.... *Star Wars bashing will likely return next year.
But fear not, for filming on (Mad Max) Furiosa has wrapped - that'll give all those 'mediocre' soft studio cash grabs a deserved (hard re)boot up the a$$. Roll on 2024....
In absolutely no contrast to any of the above – see, even writing about the pop culture formulas is just a formula in itself – Jodie Whittaker's likeable enough Doctor Who bowed out in 2022 with 2 long specials and a final really long extra extended special special, Chris Chibnall evidently reacting to Auntie Beeb's truncating the number of episodes by simply bumping the running times up (and up and up). As per the aforementioned leaf that Spider-Man ripped out/off, the good Doctor turned matters up to an unheard of 13 with a finale that jammed in as many surviving Whos and 'who's that?' companions as you could shake a sonic screwdriver-shaped stick at. Geez, they even got William Russell in there – last seen taking a whizz at Collectormania Glasgow in 2014....
Nice to sea you again....
The episode also provided 2022's most puzzling scene, Agent Rob wondering if Sacha Dahwan's manic (post-Ledger Joker) take on The Master as Rasputin singing, er, Rasputin was in fact the modern show's absolute zenith or ultimate nadir.... Either way he still had the tune in his head the next day while he still reeled from the chutzpah of regenerating the 13th doctor back into the 10th (but actually 14th) Doctor. If only they'd made more of the Yaz/Doc dying dynamic as matters drew to a close - there's no denying that could've been time for a real tearjerker. More mystifying still is why they didn't air the finale over 2 consecutive nights – there was an obvious cliffhanger post-sing-and-dance-along – and once again just like this who-review #chop Nu-Who in two!
"I'm sorry, but I'm holding Blake's 7 back...."
A good chunk of early 2022 was spent binging on Blake's 7 (thankfully just completed before Forces TV vanished from our screens as suddenly as it arrived). It was incredible how the first 2 series seemed to run along the lines of world events, the mounting threat of the excellent Star One invasion arc creating genuine on (and off) screen tension. A shame then that it concluded with a damp squib and the following two seasons, now bereft of Blake and Avon's bickering and replacing the actor of the villainous Travis, saw increasingly, er, diminishing returns. Still, episodes never seemed to drag over their running time and we did get to see the very Ultraworld that inspired The Orb's momentous track, and there's no denying that Paul Darrow's was the genuine star (making) turn, his Avon coldly quipping his way into the legion of 'the greatest sci-fi anti-heroes of all time' – just don't ask Rob who else qualifies for said title....
Televisually MAD MEN impressed pretty much across its full run (with only a handful of so-so episodes), the super sharp suited retro drama playing out deftly and realistically – viewing seasons near back to back didn't expose the sort of ridiculous character arcs/relationships and events that plague less grounded US dramas. So what if John Hamm's puzzled Don Draper gurning wore a little thin over the years, but there was always Peggy, Pete and Roger on hand to keep the creative ideas flowing....
Atlanta served up a third season that expertly toyed with the formula, indeed they shredded the rule book to a cringing middle-aged white man degree, while Peacemaker showed that James Gunn is able to walk that very fine line of good and bad taste, er, assuming ultraviolence and jokes about mental health are your thing in the first place. Bored to Death (thanks Missing!) provided daft affable private dick laughs and Star Trek: Prodigy made a decent fist of warping the Star Wars: Clone Wars animation template....
Elsewhere the BBC's The Tourist proved they could make slick adult decidedly un-BBC (in a good way) drama that, in spite of a wobbly ending, lived up to some of the(ir own) hype. The same could not be said for Killing Eve's final season, the episodes as lifeless and joyless as Jodie Comer's assassin's eyes. It didn't help that the show's whole 'jolly Russian killers' approach arrived at the very moment that troops were lining up and up along the borders of Ukraine. Doh!
Certainly Agent Rob never thought that ITVX would save Christmas, the 'rebooted' app offering up (the South Korean) The Host and 70's conspiracy thriller Capricorn One as well as a host of vintage television classics such as The Prisoner, Space: 1999 and Sapphire and Steel, a 30 minute dose of the latter – helped no doubt by the utterly luminous Joanna Lumley – papering over Xmas scheduling that lacked any sort of fizz whatsoever (even the ever-reliable once-a-year bumper Radio Times has unfortunately ditched it's tried and tested festive format for a more streaming/less Rob friendly version)....
And what a better way to sign off than with an near-copy of last year's 'end of part one', only this time Rob's happy to announce that he reunited the remote – found languishing in 'deep storage' – with its parent Samsung VHS/DVD player, by posting it on to VideOdyessy in Liverpool. So hold that happy thought until 'part two' (music, books and comics) arrives in 4 weeks time....
The Orb - A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld
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