Boxset Binge #9 - The End of the F***ing World

Adapted from the indie comic series of the same name by Charles S. Forsman the series follows 17 year old James (Alex Lawther) who believes he’s a psychopath and fellow classmate Alyssa (Jessica Barden) who has her own issues including a problematic home life which includes being sexually harassed by her stepfather. Wanting to escape their problems the pair set out on a spontaneous road trip / crime spree.

Switching between it’s two leads who take turn to narrate the story its clear from the start that both James and Alyssa are outsiders. James more obviously as he keeps to himself while observing his fellow students as he attempts to find the perfect victim to evolve his growing psychotic tendances which thanks to some Wes Anderson style framing (which sadly isn't carried past the pilot episode) we see has until now been restrained to various animals. Alyssa on the other side of things feels that she can’t connect with anyone around her as her so called friends want to talk to each other through text messages even when they are sitting across from each other. Equally with her explosive temper and general Don’t give a shit attitude especially with her mother seemingly more focused on living her life of domestic bliss to seemingly notice anything that’s happening with her daughter.

Thrown together the series initially is more focused on wether James will kill Alyssa or not, especially as his every other thought early on seems to be having fantasies of him killing her, but surprisingly its once the series moves past this and focuses instead on these two lost souls finding themselves through each other that the story really starts to find it’s grove with the pair finding themselves soon on the run from the law after a run in with an actual psychopath end messily.

Both Lawther and Barden are great as the leads and really manage to make this unlikely relationship work though the character of James does suffer from being at times limited especially for the first half of the series were he’s essentially limited to his psychotic fantasies and while his character is more redeemed in the second half of the series especially when we find out more about his troubled past. Alyssa however remains a fun and feisty character throughout especially when she’s seemingly unable to find any situation she can’t find someone to fallout with or to subject to her wrath.

Outside of the pairs Bonnie and Clyde antics, the show receives strong support from an interesting mix of characters in particular Gemma Whelan and Wunmi Mosaku as the detectives trying to track down James and Alyssa, while dealing with their own relationship being strained by a misguided advance but like everything in this series nothing should be taken on first impressions and this is certainly the case here as well and to watch them evolve over the course of the series only makes the world more believable as characters are given ample time to be fleshed out into multi-level characters rather than just being included to give a sense of tension to James and Alyssa’s journey.

Certainly this is one of the more unique series of last year it went largely unnoticed despite receiving a strong advertising push. Recently though the series got picked up by Netflix which is possibly the platform that it needs, especially as this fast paced black comedy is still worth discovering.

Filmed In Supermarionation

Title:  Filmed In Supermarionation

Director:  Stephen La Riviere
Released:  2014

Plot: Documentary about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson who developed with their production team the now iconic puppetry technique known as "Supermarionation" which would used on the now legendry cult shows he created including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlett.

 

Review:  If you grew up in the UK chances are that you will have watched at least one show created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. For myself it was an obsession with their work which began with “Stingray” with its promise that “Anything  can happen in the next half hour!” and would later be followed up by “Thunderbirds” and “Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons”. Surprisingly I never put my love for these shows in the same category as the giant monster / Kaiju movies that I was equally obsessed with and which used similar model techniques, with my attention instead being held by the fantastical stories and lifelike puppetry which made you forget you were watching a puppet show.

Clocking in at almost two hours and heavy on nostalgia value this documentary sets out to chart the history of their shows and the development of the “Supermarionation” technique from the now twee looking early projects such as “The Adventures of Twizzle” and “Torchy, the Battery Boy” through to the end of the golden period for their productions which came to a close with the likes of “Joe 90” and “The Secret Service” and in doing so ignoring his later projects  like “Space 1999” and “Space Precinct” which saw him move into live action projects which still contained elements of his miniature work. As such this does mean that this documentary isn’t a definitive history but instead a look at the key years in which Anderson and his team were perfecting their technique.
 

Despite the limited scope of the film this is still a treat for the fans with Riviere not only assembling interviews with both Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, aswell as many of the original voice actors and production team who all have a wealth of stories to share from their experiences working on the show from the evolution of the puppets through to special effects issues such as trying to find a way to make “Supercar” go underwater it seems that there is no subject left uncovered. What would have been impressive enough is only added to further by the fact that the film is narrated and presented by Lady Penelope and Parker from “Thunderbirds” which was certainly an added fanboy bonus.
 

While this is the kind of film which will unquestionably please the established fans, especially with the wealth of classic footage on show here. At the same time its never afraid to show the darker side of the productions with Gerry Anderson in particular frequently voicing his frustrations that he was never able to make the live action productions he wanted and how he instead channelled his ideas into the projects he would become best known for producing, while the brutal fallout from the breakdown of his marriage is thankfully skipped over outside of a passing mention he gives it which seemingly is more to do with adding to the timeline than a major plot point. The rest of the team however seem to relish the chance to discuss their work helping to balance the film out and keep things light hearted and fun without you feeling that you aren’t getting the full story.
 

When it comes to the productions themselves the huge amount of footage really makes the film accessible even if you’re not familiar with any of the shows while for an established fan like myself it was great to see the shows which came before “Thunderbirds” and “Stingray” such as the western “Four Feather Falls” and the more traditional Anderson productions such as “Supercar” and “Fireball XL5” which for some reason never got the same reruns the other shows did. The downside to this of course being that I now have a bunch of shows that I now want to track down as this documentary will no doubt leave you hankering to revisit some of these shows thanks to the careful clip selection only further selling their charms while the feature length adaptation of “Thunderbirds” imaginatively titled “Thunderbirds Are Go” makes it seem a lot more surreal than I remember it being.
 

For the fans this will no doubt be the film you’ve been waiting for and even with its weighty run time and limited scope there is still plenty here to ensure that you’re not left disappointed, especially when Riviere hits all the main favourites while digging out a few surprises along the way. This is a great slice of classic cult TV while ensuring that Anderson and his teams puppet work is never forgotten.

Five Things to Love about Chris Carter

Today my wife Lily is celebrating her birthday and in honour of this I thought it would be a great chance to look at the “Five Things to Love about Chris Carter”, who it’s safe to say she is a huge fan of, combining it into oh so many aspects of our life, including our engagement which just happened, to be tied in with the UK release of the second film.
Chris Carter is most notably responsible created one of the most popular and influential TV Shows ever, drawing heavy inspiration from shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” to create his legacy “The X Files” which in turn spawned two feature films and three equally great spin off shows Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm, which despite none of them reaching the same benchmark set by “The X Files” still proved that there was more to this world he created than the personal odyssey of Mulder and Scully and while it might not be as highly regarded today, as it was back at the height of it’s popularity, it’s influence can still be felt even now eight years on from the final revel of “The Truth” which as the 2008 film “The X Files: I want to Believe” proved, the quest for still continues.
So allow me now to present to you, my top five reasons to love Chris Carter.

(1) The Mulder-phone
Mulder’s phone over the course of nine seasons, became kind of a inside joke for the fans of the show, seeing how it always had signal whether he was locked in vaults, lost in the woods or deep underground, he always had perfect signal which for someone like myself who can’t even get a signal in his own house, really makes me wonder what network he was on, to get such amazing coverage!

(2) He created Geek-Chic
There are some people out there who believe that “Geek-Sheek” was a creation of Josh Schwartz and in particular the portrayal of the character Seth in “The O.C” by Adam Brody, which he would then carry on to pretty much any performance from that moment on, to ever increasingly grating levels. Those who believe this are sadly wrong, for it was truly Carter who first made being a geeks cool, not only with the likes of “The Lone Gunmen” but more with “Mulder” who lets be honest is probably the biggest geek of them all, not only obsessing over the unexplained while also processing a worryingly keen interest in pornography, he is without a doubt the biggest geek in the show, with his personal knowledge proving that it’s far more than a professional interest. Still these geek out moments would provide over the years some of the most memorable moments of the show, which are still fondly remembered even now, adding to the humour and scare mix which proved such a potent formula and which would later prove equally successful for Joss Whedon and his “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” reworking.

(3) Making us root for the bad guys
It’s not an easy thing, to create a character so delightfully evil that you not only despise them, but can’t help but admire their evil ways, but from “The Cigarette Smoking Man” to “The Alien Bounty Hunter” as well as my personal favourite “Alex Krycek” if there is one thing Carter has always had an eye for when it came to characters, it would have to be said that his most interesting creations, were always those standing in the way of the truth.
Over the course of his career and through the shows he has only added to this back catalogue, though for myself Krycek will always be the one who stands out from the pack, which could largely be down to the fascinating journey his character took, from his first appearance as a goody two shoes replacement partner for Mulder, to his ever darkening persona with every setback he suffered from losing his hand to being locked in a vault, Carter used them all to add only make him even darker, memorably having Krycek use his prosthetic hand to batter a confession out of one unlucky captive.
He would prove that he hadn’t lost any of this eye for the darker characters or the ability to get into the heads of these characters, as he proved in the “The X Files: I want to Believe” bringing a whole new spin to the Frankenstein mythos, which even included a two headed dog, which alone deserves it’s own mention.

(4) The monster of the week format
One of the worst things about most series today, is the need to constantly have a running storyline, making it really frustrating to get into anything new, that you’ve missed the first few episodes off and while there might have been the main conspiracy storyline in “The X Files”, which for myself eventually became overly complicated and confusing, the episodes which I most fondly remember are the “Monster of the Week” ones which no doubt is the reason I loved the first season of “Millennium” with it’s focus on a different killer each week, while the second season focused more on the Millennium group, causing my interest to wander.
The most interesting aspect of these episodes was also how quickly Carter moved away from the traditional monsters, such as Werewolves and Vampires who in total only amassed around five episodes, throughout their various appearances in the Carter universe, with Carter and his writing team instead more interested in creating their own monsters such as the flukeman and the extreme contortionist and liver eating Eugene Tooms, which in turn only added to the scare factor, seeing how these weren’t familiar creatures but instead something new and much more unpredictable and when it comes to revisiting any of the series, it will always be one of these episode that I’m more likely to dig out, rather than anything from the main storyline, especially when it was these episodes which kept me with “The X Files” especially when it began to lose it’s way in the final seasons.

(5) Giving Wong and Morgan their break
Without a doubt the two guys responsible for more top 10 X files episodes than any other writer, they created some of the shows most memorable and effective episodes for both “The X Files” and “Millennium”, before leaving to create the sadly short-lived “Space: Above and Beyond” which in turn would prove a heavy visual influence for Paul Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers” (1997).
Since getting their break on the show they have since moved more into film, with their credits including “Willard” (2003) and “Final Destination 1 & 3” (2000 / 2006), but it thanks to Carter that they first got this break, were it could be argued they created some of their best work.