Finding out your husband is a porn baron would be daunting enough for most people. So spare a thought for uptight housewife Sophie (Natacha Langinger) who inherits her spouse’s ailing adult film empire on the day of his funeral in this entertaining French series.
Whilst the premise of the show suggests a potential for raunch, Hard aims more for tittering rather than titillating. It provides some genuine smiles as Sophie has to put aside her naivety to manage the company’s expansive portfolio. Going so far as to bring in an acting coach to help the performers become more believable in their work. Linginder is thoroughly charming throughout. As too is François Vincentelli playing Roy the Rod, the dimwitted star performer whose feelings for Sophie end up being bad for business.
Unfortunately, with only six episodes, each no longer than 28 minutes, Hard feels at times a little soft. There’s not really much room to let the plot breathe and a subplot involving prostitution that surfaces in the penultimate episode feels tacked on rather than organic. However, the show very rarely outstays its welcome and ultimately wins you over.
The disappearance of a child ripples throughout this engrossing Irish drama which, due to various factors, never aired in Australia. Reminiscent of ABC’s dramatization of The Slap, we follow the lives of those close to the titular Amber. Her recently divorced parents who unwittingly use the search to take potshots at each other, a younger brother in danger of being caught in the cross fire and a family friend who uses her journalist connections to launch an investigation of her own. In addition, we see the domino effect the case has on the lives of those who would be considered complete strangers, including a young immigrant and a potential suspect.
Despite deliberately referencing high-profile kidnappings that have played out in the media, Amber never feels like it’s being exploitative. Adopting a non-linear structure that spans two years, it rewinds and playbacks scenes allowing for a different point of view, altering the perspective of the viewer and any feelings they may have already established. Whilst it does veer off into melodrama at times, Amber should be commended for its powerful performances, engaging script and a finale that refuses to present everything in a neat little package.
The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) lands on an Earth ravaged by environmental disasters. If helping a group of bureaucrats and scientists to hold back the next ice age wasn’t enough for the flute playing mop top, he has to contend with the arrival of the Ice Warriors; a reptilian army from the future who plan to take over the world.
Reconstruction is the name of the game in this latest Doctor Who DVD release. Episodes 2 and 3 of the serial – previously missing – have been animated using the original soundtrack. Whilst the animation is the not the most fluid and it does distract at times, The Ice Warriors narrative is strong enough to persevere. It’s also a step up from the rushed VHS links used back in the 90s, which are also part of the extras package on this DVD.
Commentaries for both of the animated episodes have been compiled from archive audio and statements read out by actors. It’s surprisingly touching to hear those who are no longer with us discussing the making of the show 40 years on.
UNIT is providing security for an experimental drilling project designed to penetrate the Earth’s crust. The recently exiled Doctor, played by an impeccably dressed Jon Pertwee, is on hand to advise and hopefully abscond with something to fix his broken TARDIS. Complications in the form of mutants and green goo arise and the Doctor is transported to a parallel Earth where a similar experiment is in the advance stages of blowing up the planet.
Inferno is considered not only to be one of the most popular stories in Doctor Who, but also one of the bleakest. And it’s not hard to see why. It’s rare to have a story where the Doctor is completely out of his depth. As things literally begin to heat up on parallel Earth, Pertwee is superb as he allows the cracks to surface on his usual defiant bravado.
As well as a restored version of the story, the DVD release contains the usual quality commentaries, informative trivia tracks and hit and miss featurettes. Of particular interest is Lost in the Dark Dimension; a candid look at the lengths fans went, including suing the BBC, to get the show back on air after its cancellation in 1989.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name, The End of the F***ing World feels like a Wes Anderson film set in the backwaters of Britain. James (Alex Lawther) is like every other teenager careering towards their 18th birthday. He wants to do something different, he wants to escape being stifled by his father, he wants to kill someone. You know, the usual stuff. Alyssa (Jessica Barden) is spitting fire at the world. She hates her step-dad, she hates school and she’d probably hate James too, but he appears to be nerdy and aloof.
Over the course of eight criminally short episodes, Charlie Covell’s script uses James desire to kill Alex as a springboard into a deeper exploration of growing up, mental illness, and the ache of being dragged kicking into adulthood. Deciding to find her real dad, James and Alyssa decide to run away together, where they soon kill a serial rapist and find themselves on the run from the police.
In some ways, the show is like the reverse of Park Chan-Wook’s Stoker. There we saw troubled teen India realise that she can’t escape the dark feelings that course through her veins, before eventually embracing her desire to kill. James’ homicidal tendencies, as with Alyssa’s rebellious attitude, is revealed to be nothing more than a front. They’re both simply using mechanisms to help them ignore what’s happening around them.
With each episode narrated by the duo, their home lives are depicted are depicted as torturous purgatory that no one else will understand. However, we, the audience, are made privy to the odd glance, a dropped word, a small gesture that manages to paint volumes about things they can’t/don’t want to see. James’ dad, played by Steven Oram, is perpetually cheery, but it’s suggested this is merely a front to hide the fact he’s still mourning his dead wife. Meanwhile, Alyssa feels she can’t talk to her mum about her pervy step-dad, but the audience knows that not only does mum know, she’s scared to do anything about. Despite James and Alyssa’s, shall we say, affectations, they perfectly echo that deep-rooted angst in us all that forces us to believe at that age that we really are alone.
All of which makes The End of the F***ing World sound like you’re playing all your Radiohead albums at once. Far from it, a thick juicy vein of nihilistic comedy runs right through the series. Having shown his repertoire of nervous twitches and stuttering in Black Mirror’s Shut Up and Dance, Lawther brings them out to full effect as the Dexter-lite killer, who goes into panic mode when he finally gets a chance to kill someone. Barden, meanwhile, brilliantly captures that violent frown that only teenagers can do so well. Everything she’s face with is an annoyance of some kind; whether it be meeting her deadbeat, absentee father, or having to clean up after a dead rapist.
All of which contrasts nicely with the series bleak ending. The End of F***ing World is not merely a bombastic title, it’s a forewarning that everything you’re about to see may be for naught. Once the credits for the final episode play, you realise that the show was always going to end this way. Like James’ effect on Alex, and vice versa, the show leaves an indelible mark on you that’s both bittersweet and strangely uplifting.
John Noonan 