Sunday Blog #5: Doctor Who, The Responder, Abbott Elementary
Time-travelling doctors, determined teachers, and existential police officers
I’d consider myself a decently obsessed, intermediate Doctor Who fan. Intermediate because I’ve watched little of the classic series (1963 – 95): only the first-ever episode with William Hartnell as well as the last ten minutes of The Celestial Toymaker (1966). But for me as a kid, the rebooted Doctor Who (2005) with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant was peak British TV of a kind that doesn’t really exist anymore – where every member of the family piously gathered around one telly on the same day, at the same time, to watch the latest Russell T Davies adventure. Much of the VFX have now dated, naturally, but the stories still have intergalactic power across decades. The stories After Davies (AD) didn’t have the same consistent heft, but there are some gems that shouldn’t be forgotten – especially in the war-torn personalities that Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi provided.
Following Chris Chibnall’s time as showrunner with the first-ever female Doctor (respectably played by Jodie Whittaker), Davies is back for a new era in the series’ history. We’re now starting from ‘season one’ after the 60th anniversary specials (returning Tennant and welcoming Ncuti Gatwa) and the Christmas special, which introduced the new companion Ruby Tuesday (Millie Gibson). It started with two episodes: Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord. The first takes place in a space station similar to that in The End of the World (Davies’ second episode of the 2005 run), with an observation deck upon a newer, colonised version of the Earth as well as a way to boost Ruby’s phone signal across time and space. Oh, and the station is run by babies who operate everything via their pushchairs.
It’s a decent starting pistol with Bridgerton’s Golda Rosheuvel as a guest star and a monster prowling the corridors below. But the second episode is much superior, imagining a world without music leading to apocalyptic chaos. The Doctor and Ruby travel to 1963, when The Beatles recorded their first album. But music is defunct, ignored, and avoided like the plague. Enter the Maestro: a devilish superbeing related to The Toymaker who can manipulate reality to suit their own ends – played by the unforgettable RuPaul’s Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon. They prance and scheme and torture with brilliantly camp antagonism, swiftly becoming one of my favourite sadists in the series. It’s clear that Davies is given free rein, with some of the most bizarre and infectious sci-fi sequences I’ve ever seen on TV. Even the exposition, often laboured in the genre, is somehow enjoyable and – crucially – quick, often spoken when on the move. Although the increased budget lifts the grit from the original, Davies is too good a writer to make it any less entertaining. I’m looking forward to spending the next few weeks with this one.
I was hurt by the news of Bernard Hill’s death. That type of hurt is becoming a regularity, perhaps inevitable with how we watch and view celebrities nowadays: on TV, in cinemas, across billboards and – most vitally – on social media. I felt it with Matthew Perry, Friends being a formative sitcom with infinite clips online, and also with Angus Cloud from Euphoria who died aged 25. Cloud is also clipped regularly with his drug dealer character Fezco charming the introverted future auteur Lexi (Maude Apatow). I didn’t know these people as people, and most of my interactions with them were via the characters they played. Given my undying love for The Lord of the Rings movies, the characters exist in me and so the real deaths hit slightly harder. (I even goaded myself into sobs by rewatching the operatic Battle of Pelennor Fields sequence in The Return of the King, in which King Theoden rouses his soldiers for battle.) Christopher Lee is gone, as is Ian Holm, and now it’s Hill.
Strangely, he’s resurrected straight away in Tony Schumacher’s returning BBC police drama The Responder, playing the formerly abusive father to existentially tormented Liverpudlian copper Chris Carson (Martin Freeman). He brings a similar roughness from King Theoden to Tom Carson, but the latter has little honour left – if he ever had any in the first place.
But despite the implied villainy of his character, Tom still carries a weight of difficult empathy, worn down by years and years of shame. Chris struggles to separate the monster from the man, especially given the creatures he faces night after night. Equally, in Nietzschean fashion, the abyss of darkest Liverpool stares back at Chris and a monstrous skin grows on top of his own. Despite the hard grit of the series, swirling around themes of mental health, domestic violence and skewered morality, it’s exceedingly bingeable. I wanted more than five episodes, but I imagine it’s a difficult show to produce – particularly with Freeman in the lead role. He gives what’s perhaps the best performance of his career, certainly out of the projects that I’ve seen. No sign of the passive good guy of The Office or the pompous introvert of The Hobbit movies or the heroic veteran of Sherlock. Not even his antihero role in Fargo offers the same kind of nuanced integrity. Chris is ostensibly unlikeable, yet intrinsically sympathetic. You want him to find good. You want him to find a way out. You want him to find peace. But will his consequences outweigh his actions?
In a time when the ‘extreme left’ and ‘PC crap’ – as claimed by Jerry Seinfeld – are apparently destroying television, Abbott Elementary proves (again!) to be a decent example of a great contemporary sitcom. I have my own personal attachment to the series because my sister’s a teacher, and it’s the closest I can get to being a fly on the wall – almost literally, given the mockumentary style. Now in its third season, Abbott Elementary has cemented itself in the zeitgeist: clear not only after winning four Emmys, but also via massive cameos (Bradley Cooper makes a star-striking appearance).
Only the first six out of 14 episodes have been made available on Disney+ in the UK, the season comparatively shorter because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes. Writer, creator and star Quinta Brunson near-narrativizes this into the series by having a five-month time-jump. Her caring, optimistic protagonist Janine Teagues moves out of the classroom and into District – hoping to make real changes in the school system, especially at Abbott. Aside from that, not much has changed and that can be to the series’ detriment. I was hoping that the most annoying character in the show, the dumb and selfish principal Ava (Janelle James), would improve her style after completing a course near Harvard University. But the teachers don’t like this new and improved Ava (for reasons that still confuse me) and so make her revert back. I understand sitcom characters need to be consistent and Ava is often funny, but I don’t find her especially charming or entertaining. There are times when she’s borderline sociopathic when the welfare of the kids is concerned.
But the jokes are funny and consistent with the underlying poignancy of teaching in a school without many resources. Janine being in District is a brilliant move, with her realising that every process is buried under returning circles of red tape. She has to balance bureaucracy with her innate sense of duty and care.
ON TV THIS WEEK
Better Off Dead?, BBC One/iPlayer (Tuesday 14 May)
I remember questions of euthanasia being key subjects covered in Philosophy and Ethics lessons at school. An integral figure in the argument for the right to die was Terry Pratchett, who wished for death via assisted suicide after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Ostensibly, despite our natural aversion to such practices, I would agree that the continuance of someone’s life should be under their control.
However, the actor and disability advocate Liz Carr argues against the idea from a legislative standpoint – describing the wider implications on disabled people whose lives are often judged to be not worth living by ableist society. In her new hour-long BBC documentary Better Off Dead?, Carr interviews influential voices in this area like Lord Falconer and even travels to Canada, where assisted suicide is legal.
Bridgerton season 3 part 1, Netflix (Thursday 16 May)
I’m still surprised at myself as I continue to enjoy this sexy and ridiculous period drama, which shows Regency London through American eyes (prone to exaggerate). Over the past year and a half, I’ve grown enamoured by narrative romances – especially in books like It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover and the fantasies of Sarah J Maas. It’s probably due to the unique deficit of romance in my actual life...
But I like that I’m invested in the will-they-won’t-they between the clueless Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and the secret gossip writer Penelope Featherington (a scene-stealing Nicola Coughlan). Split over two parts, season three of Bridgerton follows their gradual coupling. However, Colin sees Penelope as a friend and she is still hurt by his insults at the end of season two. She chooses to make the effort to find a suitable husband, and Colin – under the veil of friendship – wants to help in this endeavour.
The Big Cigar, AppleTV+ (Friday 17 May)
On-screen depictions of the Blank Panther Party seem to be increasing in recent years, especially in cinema with co-founder Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Illinois chairman Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. Now, AppleTV+ turns to the other co-founder Huey P Newton (André Holland) and his evading capture from the FBI under the cover of a fake film production made by Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) in The Big Cigar.
Although much of the series is fictionalised, the ‘basic elements of it are based in truth,’ said Holland in an interview with The New York Times. It’s a testament to the time: when the New Hollywood reigned, melding art with politics. Schneider was a key force in bringing films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show to life, but this series crucially isn’t about him – it’s all about Huey Newton and the Panthers.
IN CINEMAS THIS WEEK
IF, dir. John Krasinski
This is a strange turn for actor-turned-director John Krasinski, who made a dent in modern horror cinema with silence-based alien thriller A Quiet Place and its sequel. Then again, that film was a strange turn for an actor largely recognised for playing Jim in the American version of The Office. IF is a family film that looks to be a combination of Pixar’s Inside Out and the noughties Cartoon Network show Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends: following a young girl who can see the former imaginary mates of kids who’ve since grown up. Ryan Reynolds also stars.
Hoard, dir. Luna Carmoon
I love strange films, and strange horror films are even better. Not understanding, especially in this age of constant information, is a special kind of terror – one that many aren’t keen to accept. You can sense it in the trailer for Luna Carmoon’s debut Hoard, which follows a woman whose childhood traumas resurrect into adulthood. Also stars Joseph Quinn from Stranger Things 4.
IN THE WORKS
New batch of Lord of the Rings movies scheduled for 2026. Nearly two years after Prime Video prequel The Rings of Power dropped and nearly 21 years since The Return of the King released, Warner Bros. announced that a new Middle-earth tale is due in 2026. But the most exciting aspect: the original writer/producers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are returning, and Andy Serkis (aka Gollum aka Sméagol) is directing the first instalment – appropriately called The Hunt for Gollum. The focus is intriguing when you consider that the recent video game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum did so badly, and that a fan film with the same title was made in 2009. Maybe the fan film shares the same premise: lifting from JRR Tolkien’s appendices, in which Gandalf enlists Aragorn to find Gollum to prevent information spreading to the Enemy. But maybe that’s too thin a concept, since we know Gollum was captured and did lead the Nazgul to The Shire. Regardless, I put my trust in those creators. I know lots of people are sour after The Hobbit movies, but I controversially admire them. And I like Rings of Power (kind of). I can’t wait to see what Jackson, Walsh, Boyens and Serkis will achieve.
Vanity Fair publish their first-look preview of Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film Kinds of Kindness. Lanthimos is one of those directors who started weird – literally: he came from a film movement called Greek Weird Wave – then grew famous then dialled that weirdness down. That’s not to denigrate The Favourite or Poor Things, which are strange spectacles to behold, but the obscurer arthouse oddities of Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer creep deeper into your soul – even if you don’t quite understand them. Kinds of Kindness appears to return to Lanthimos’s roots; he’s even reteaming with his writer Efthimis Filippou. The film is a vaguely connected triptych that involves severing ties with a boss, a marriage in crisis, and a mysterious search. It also stars Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau. I find Lanthimos’s hands-off approach to his actors fascinating; Plemons even called his experience on the film ‘a big experiment’. In fact, in order to help Plemons adjust to the Lanthimos way of working, the director asked him and his co-star Mamoudou Athie to play out a regular dialogue… while performing John Cleese’s famous ‘funny walk’ from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Footage please.
Shogun star/producer Hiroyuki Sanada closes deal to return as series’ protagonist Lord Yoshii Toranaga. I have to be honest: I didn’t realise Shogun was originally meant to conclude as a limited series. I thought it’d run and run, like the medieval epic it deserves to be. In thinking that, I didn’t see the last episode as an ultimate finale but the transition to another chapter. Sanada’s deal means that a second season – not confirmed yet – is potentially happening, which I’m exceedingly excited about. You have to wonder why Shogun wasn’t originally a multi-season affair; I can only assume that execs were frightened by subtitles. Its critical and commercial success around the world is an encouraging sign, opening a new path not only for the series but for ambitious, high-budget television in general.
TRAILER PARK
Fancy Dance, dir. Erica Tremblay
Ghostlight, dir. Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
Good One, dir. India Donaldson
Mother, Couch, dir. Niclas Larsson
Treasure, dir. Julia von Heinz
The Commandant’s Shadow, dir. Daniela Volker
Handling the Undead, dir. Thea Hvistendahl
A Quiet Place: Day One, dir. Michael Sarnoski