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Peep Show

Peep Show is a bit of secret brilliance. Good job on Hulu for getting on the train; perhaps it will reach a wider audience now.

After an amazing first season, the show ambled along for a few years on its own inertia. Since series 4, the show has not only regained its mojo; it has ramped the bizarreness and the discomfort to inspired new levels, all the while keeping Mark’s and Jeremy’s characters right where we recognize them. There’s just enough character development to open up new situations and to keep them from devolving into self-parody. Meanwhile the entire world is going bonkers around them.

“Man Jam” is a pretty good one. This is the one where Jez gets the job as record promoter, and decides to sign up the band that had just dropped him. The best part is probably his image suggestions to Super Hans. Meanwhile Mark is… what is he doing in this episode? Oh, he’s being all creepy about Dobby while playing FDR versus the Cybermen with Gerrard. Standard stuff there.

(April 7th, 2011 @ 10:41am)



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All-Star Superman

Without actually checking the credits, the animation here reminds me strongly of the fellow who did Aeon Flux and that cartoon about Alexander the Great. It has that same lanky angularity, and the almost grotesque caricature of the human form. Granted, if it is his work then it’s a more refined and mainstream version of his style.

As with most of these direct-to-DVD DC movies, this appears to have been based on a well-known arc from the comics — a sort of a “what-if” tale that explored the last months of Superman’s life as he slowly died of a sort of super cancer brought on by over-exposure to the normally healing radiation of our sun.

It’s all well-done enough, and it passes the time. There’s something lacking in the pace. After the first act, the movie meanders with little hint as to where it wants to go or what exactly its narrative priorities are. My wife wandered away halfway through, and I was half inclined to follow. Perhaps it’s due to condensing the events of a lengthy serial into a single short narrative, as there’s a fair amount procedural storytelling: first this happened, then this happened, then this other thing…

The ending is a bit understated as well, which in itself wouldn’t be a problem. When one has spent half the movie waiting for something relevant to happen, though, one does expect the conclusion to repay that patience. I’m not sure if that happened here.

Ah well. It’s pretty good. I’ll still take Justice League Unlimited any day.

(April 6th, 2011 @ 10:42am)



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