Friday, July 25th, 2009
06.30 Futurama
07.00 Arrested Development
07.30 Catweazle
10.00 Hammer House Of Horror
Futurama. Season 2, Episode 14. "Mother's Day" Robots rebel under the leadership of Mom.
Most of the humour in this one stems from the idea of really old people having sex. Farnsworth must seduce Mom (a recurring baddie on the show) in order to save the world. The robot controller is hidden in her bra. Of course. Women are always hiding things in their bras. On TV. I've not yet met a woman in real life who hides anything in her bra. But I live in hope.
Story-wise, it's a lazy one. Mom programs her robots to take over the world, and her children identify Farnsworth as the one who can put a stop to this madness and seek him out. So it's a lazy trundle from Point A to Point B in this one. Not complainin', just sayin'...
It's also one of those episode where the regulars characters are pretty-much together for the whole episode. Bender runs off, to join the revolt, but the rest of them function as a unit for the remainder of the episode.
The Farnsworth sex scenes are funny, but not as funny as the show thinks they are.
Arrested Development. Season 2, Episode 3. "¡Amigos!" Everyone heads to Mexico.
The first strained episode of Arrested Development. All the zaniness doesn't quite hang together, especially in Mexico where it is just a group of people who keep running up to, and then away from, one another. For no obvious reason. A lot of running and jumping doesn't always make for great comedy. Even on Arrested Development, sadly.
Gob's attempts to find a real friend is, likewise, a bit too strained to work properly. It's neither funny not touching. It's just there. For too many scenes.
Gene Parmesan is one of the episode's high points. Not because of Martin Mull, who is oddly muted in his performance, but because of Jessica Walter's hilarious reactions every time he reveals himself in disguise. For that alone, I wish Gene had appeared more.
The other funny bit, of course, is the fact that they forget Ann and leave her behind.
Catweazle. Episode 2. "Castle Saburac" Catweazle finds a home.
A direct continuation of episode one, but with more comedy and more of a sense of adventure. And it sets up important elements of the series to follow.
Everyone in the Bennett household is still talking about Carrot's odd behaviour the night before, and - to Carrot's surprise - the scruffy 'wizard' is still running around the farm buildings. When he catches up with him, our young hero forces him to take a bath and clean up his act a little bit.
The discovery by the housekeeper of Catweazle in the bathroom, and the later theft of his own clothes from the washing line, give the episode it's comedic highlights with the clothes line stuff being especially funny. Sam, the farmhand, is the only one to see Catweazle and bears the brunt of everyone's suspicion and ridicule. It's very obvious comedy, of course, but Neil McCarthy makes it work.
This then leads to the adventure portion, with Sam giving chase to the poor wizard through the woods/countryside. Some of this stuff (especially in the old house) is very exciting and well staged/filmed by Quentin Lawrence.
Eventually Catweazle finds a home to live in (for the duration of the first season) and - more important - we at home get to see that he really can work magic (he hypnotises the housekeeper so that she cannot see him) and that sometimes his magic will fail to work (he cannot do the same when it comes to Sam!). This neat duality allows him to be both exciting and comedic. The perfect lead for a series that must appeal to children as well as adults.
Hammer House Of Horror. Episode 1. "Witching Time" Couple battles witch in remote cottage.
The premise is similar to Catweazle, the role of protagonist switches from one person to another, there are some unanswered questions, but the story zips along and it's great fun (if not exactly scary).
The story opens with the focus on David Winter, working all alone in a very old country cottage. His wife makes a brief appearance (when they speak on the telephone) and we learn that she is having an affair. Apart from that the story stays with David. There's a sudden, strange storm and David finds a mysterious woman who claims to be a witch, who has travelled forward in time to escape persecution from Witchhunters. David doesn't believe her, of course, but he comes to realise that she's definitely to be feared.
From here until the mid-point David's behaviour gets slightly more erratic as he appears to be the only one who can see this mysterious woman. Eventually his wife returns home (from working in London) to take care of him. At first she thinks he's having a break-down of some sort, but some mysterious happenings soon convince her that her husband is telling the truth and she sets out to save her husband and, of course, her marriage.
Which is all very unusual in storytelling. Usually, if we find out that the wife of the 'hero' is off having an affair we dismiss her as an unsympathetic character and 'hate' her. Which is what 99% of these narrative's want us to do. No so here. Prunella Gee makes a great charismatic lead and, as soon as she shows up to try and save her husband, we start to like her. The writer never makes it clear why she was off having an affair, but it's obvious that she cares deeply for her husband despite her wanderings and her decision to end the affair and try and help her husband is very welcome (if under-explained).
There's also the matter of the dog. Much of made of it disappearing. But the story never mentions the mutt again. In any context. Which makes me wonder why they bothered showcasing his disappearance. Maybe just for atmosphere...
The climax arrives far too soon (this would have made a very watchable feature) but sends the story out in style with a good old fashioned girl fight as David is trapped in a burning building.
Highlight? Hammer House Of Horror (good fun)
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