REVIEW: Archer: 1999

Almost ten years after its pilot episode "Mole Hunt" was aired, the great Archer (probably) comes to an end with Archer: 1999, its space-themed tenth season. Of all the genre-themed settings we've had over the last few years, this is the one I've been looking forward to the most. It's not how I'd have done an Archer sci-fi series - I'd have gone for a full-on Star Trek parody - but it's a great celebration of sci-fi tropes and beloved cliches of the genre. In spite of the name, there's not really any Space: 1999 elements in there (not even a single moon is blown out of orbit to become a gigantic wandering base). The main inspirations are clearly Alien - always a source of referential moments in Archer - and Star Wars, with a mix of long haul space capitalism and swashbuckling space adventure.

Not that there are no Trek elements, though. The gladiator battle in episode two could have fit in the original series with no trouble, while the alien critter in episode three, "The Leftovers," is absolutely a Cardassian vole from DS9. There are plenty of other little nudges and secret ingredients, too - there's a certain Firefly-esque flavour to a lot of the proceedings, not least in the retooling of Adam Reed's character Ray Gillette as a space courtesan. He's basically the male version of Inara, only with less poetry and more cake.

The series is set aboard the starship MV Seamus, a space freighter that is somehow both clapped out and tremendously well-equipped, co-captained by Archer and Lana after their marriage ended and they won half the ship each in the divorce. Interestingly, some of the core characters have been brought back to be closer to their "real" versions than previous iterations like Danger Island and Dreamland. While Archer's always basically the same, Lana's role has varied a fair bit the last few years, and Archer has always been pursuing her in his fantasies. Here, their relationship is very much like how it is in the series' reality. Cyril has also been brought back in line after two seasons as a villain, now in a sort-of relationship with Lana (although it gets very little attention) and acting as the ship's first mate and "space accountant."

Cheryl/Carol is basically the same as ever (down to the glue-eating) but is now the ship's crackshot laser gunner, a job which she finds incredibly boring because she's so good at it, while Pam, in her greatest transformation yet, is a huge alien rock monster of indeterminate gender, not that it's affected her personality much. The brilliant Lucky Yates has finished his stint voicing a parrot as Krieger is back, now an Ash-style synthetic human, full of android milk and just as questionably committed to mad science as he ever was in human guise.

Giving the name "Mother" and the early hints as to the Alien-esque setting, I expected Mallory to be a computer, but instead she's a sort of holographic sentience who can appear as either a ball of light or Mallory's recognisable human form. Mysteriously, she seems to be Archer's literal mother in this reality, suggesting she's a recreation of a real human rather than an AI like Krieger. She's still an alcoholic.

Archer: 1999 works as a tongue-in-cheek space adventure, happily sending up the genre while making it clear that Reed and his co-writers love sci-fi and space opera. Some elements that might have translated well to the setting are surprisingly altered. Barry is back, for example, and despite being a cyborg in the main reality and therefore an easy drop into this environment, he's now the fully robotic Barry-6, an IG-88-like killer droid. Although he's a recurring villain, he's significantly less threatening than his nightmarish Dreamland incarnation, and becomes a laughing stock by the end, which might suggest Archer's subconscious slowly moving past his hatred of his archenemy. (On the subject of cyborgs, Ray was basically one by the middle of the main Archer run, so it's kind of surprising he's completely human here.)

The series has the same pros and cons as the previous couple of seasons, only more so. Dreamland worked well by not massively altering the format from where it had been for the previous year, but playing up the setting. Danger Island through itself into the setting, making big changes to story style and worked as an adventure series, but the comedy suffered. Archer: 1999 continues this trend, with the space adventure working brilliantly and looking truly fantastic for the most part but easily being the least funny of the seasons so far. Not that there aren't laughs along the way; episode five, "Mr. Deadly Goes to Town," starring Matt Berry as a sentient weapon of mass destruction, is a solid sci-fi adventure and pretty hilarious. On the whole, though, the reliance on running gags is becoming tired and serves mostly to remind the audience of when earlier seasons did it better. It's hard to disagree when Barry-6 calls it "derivative."

The final challenge for season ten is to tie up the three-year-long Archer-in-a-coma storyline, which intrudes into the penultimate episode before taking up most of the final one. Logic pretty much goes out the window here in favour of weird visuals and call-backs. There's some exploration of the psychological cost of Archer's mental battle as he falls apart, but there's no consequence, as he simply wakes up to see Mallory in his hospital room. Still, it's a nice final scene and strangely moving, albeit equally disturbing in its oedipal way. If this is the final season of Archer as has been stated, then it's a pretty anticlimactic ending. However, Reed has suggested an eleventh season might happen, in which case a final, back-to-basics approach could help round the series off more satisfyingly. Assuming, of course, that Archer really did wake up...

CAPTAIN'S BLOG: DIS 1-14/1-15 & REVIEW

1-14) "The War Within, the War Without"
&
1-15) "Will You Take My Hand?"

Date: 2257, nine months since Discovery vanished into the Mirror Universe.

The Mission: Save the Federation from the Klingon hordes by blowing up their homeworld. How utopian.

Planets visited: 

Kronos: The Klingon homeworld is comprised of a network of huge volcanic caverns, "a planet of cave." Rather implausibly, some of these caverns are big enough to hide a starship in. The dense, green upper atmosphere prevents long-range scans of the surface. There's an area of the planet that has been given to the Orions as a sort of embassy, but it's more of a downtown slum for offworlders, built on top of ancient shrines to the tyrant Molor, which access the volcanic channels beneath the surface. Humans can pass there, although it doesn't go unremarked upon. Food available on the streets includes barbecued Ceti eels and gormangander flesh. The currency on the planet is the darsek.

Delta 2: A desolate, uninhabited class-4 moon in the Veda system. The Disco crew terraform it (very rapidly) using mycelial spores, to help power their spore drive.

Earth: Spacedock is currently in construction in orbit. The Federation president is based in Paris (as in the 24th century). A ragtag Klingon fleet is headed to Earth with conquest or extermination on its agenda.

Future History: No human has visited Kronos since Archer and the Enterprise NX-01 "almost a hundred years ago." (ENT: "Broken Bow" was actually 106 years earlier, so either this is a small inaccuracy or Archer took his ship there again during the Romulan War period).

In the time since Discovery went missing, the Klingons have conquered 20% of Federation space. They wiped out Kelfor 6 by igniting its atmosphere, destroyed Starbases 9 and 12 and the USS Saratoga and then took out a third of the fleet. Planets they've attacked include Nervala, Septra and Iridon, all of which were decimated.

All knowledge of the Mirror Universe is classified, on pain of charges of treason. This explains why Kirk didn't know anything about before being zapped there ten years later. (Obviously it is declassified some time between then and Deep Space Nine over a century later.) The idea of a parallel universe where those lost in the war might still survive is considered too dangerous to allow to spread. (It probably wouldn't be good for Federation unity if the existence of a dominating human empire got out, either.)

Taking the Michael: She's good at giving speeches. She can think of several reasons to rationalise saving the Emperor, but admits that she just couldn't watch Georgiou die again. Understandably, she finds it hard to see Tyler again after he tried to kill her. Possibly she distrusts him because, in Tyler's words, "Klingons killed (her) parents and then (she) fell in love with one," but really, it's hard to see how she could trust him after that. In time, she learns to see him for who he is and comes to terms with what's happened between them. She's still reclaiming her life after the Battle of the Binary Stars and can't handle even more heartache. She's still guilty for making her parents stay at Doctari Alpha to see a supernova, and the details of what the Klingons did to them are pretty horrific. The sound of Klingons laughing takes her right back there and she has to get out. However, seeing people just living their lives on Kronos stops her hating the Klingons. She gives the bomb to L'Rell to prevent a genocide and give the Klingons another way to end the war. For ending the war without compromising Federation ideals, she receives a pardon from the president and regains her rank of commander.

Space Cow: He's acting captain of the Discovery in the absence of a more senior officer. He's not happy about Burnham lying to him about the presence of Kelpiens in the Mirror Universe, but he gets that she didn't want to upset him by telling him that Terrans like to eat his people. He has regained his respect of Burnham. He recognises that Tyler is not Voq and allows him to walk free. He's got the balls to square up to Georgiou when she's practically threatening to kill and eat him. He's the first Kelpien to receive the Starfleet Medal of Honour.

Half Man, Half Klingon: Tyler is now fully Tyler after some emergency neurological surgery, but he still remembers being Voq and everything from his life, which comes in handy. In all respects, he gets off pretty lightly after his actions as Voq/Tyler, and is accepted back by most of the crew very quickly. He is obviously an asset on the Klingon homeworld, being able to speak Klingon (which the natives find funny) and hold his own in a game called "Obliterate Them." He says that Burnham's love saved his life, and says that he chose humanity over the Klingons because they can feel compassion and sympathy for their enemies. Once they've completed the mission he leaves with L'Rell to bridge the gap between the Federation and the Empire.

Vulcan Dad: Worryingly ready to advocate Klingon genocide. On the other hand, he thinks no one should regret loving someone, which is about as soppy and sentimental as a Vulcan gets.He also says he never gets tired of seeing his home planet.

Starfleet's Best? Cornwell takes the Discovery, flanked by Andorian and Tellarite guards, expecting some kind of Klingon trap. She takes command immediately and is quick to agree to take the fight to the Klingons. She interrogates L'Rell and comes away with the conclusion that the only way forward is to take the Klingons out, to the point where she advocates genocide. She's also severely pissed at Lorca's true identity. She's also pretty damned stupid if she thinks she can trust Georgiou to do anything she says.

We love Tilly: Breaks the ice by going to eat with Tyler, which helps other crewmen come round. She helps Burnham come to terms with things and go speak to Tyler. She wasn't expecting a wartime career, and considers her Mirror self's actions pretty horrifying, which makes her all the more determined to do right by people in this universe. She's starstruck by Georgiou until she realises she's the evil version. On Kronos she's able to play the hardass part pretty well until she's too out of her element, and gets high on volcanic fumes. After the success of the mission, she is accepted into teh command programme. She's never been to Vulcan before.

Captain Killy: Tilly's evil Mirror counterpart subjugated the Betazoids and wiped out the people of Mintaka III (q.v. TNG: "Who Watches the Watchers") which is pretty harsh, considering they only have hoes to defend themselves with.

Spores, Molds and Fungi: Unsurprisingly, Stamets is coldly furious when he meets Tyler. When he asks if the guilt of Culber's murder is tearing him up, he is pleased, saying "Maybe you're still human after all." He can navigate the spore drive so well by now that he can easily tell the difference between solid rock and a cave just from the feel of it and can jump the ship right into a cavern.

Evil Philippa: Spends a fair bit of time bitching with Sarek over whose version of Burnham is best. After initially demanding to go back to her own universe, she takes her place as captain of Discovery, pretending to be MIA Captain Georgiou who isn't dead at all, honest, no siree. She is completely incapable of pretending to be a balanced Federation captain, gets angry when Detmer calls Kronos the Klingon homeworld (because animals apparently don't have homes) and looks about ready to stab anyone who questions her. She beats the crap out of a bound L'Rell, mostly just for the fun of it. She was born and raised on Pulau Langkawi in Malaysia (Michelle Yeoh is from Ipoh, inland and further south, but Ipoh's a bit of a dump to be frank). Burnham lets her go, and she is later approached by Section 31 (in an extra scene).

Alien Life Forms: 

Klingons: Yes, it's true: Klingons have two dicks. They also have higher muscular density and mitochondrial activity than humans. The Species Reassignment Protocol that was tested on Voq involved flaying his skin, cracking his bones, cutting up his heart and sanding down his fingertips, all while conscious, because Klingons. (So Arne Darvin is much harder than we ever thought.)

L'Rell admires human courage after her interactions with Cornwell and the Discovery crew but is still fully in support of a powerful unified Klingon Empire. She is saddened by the fact that the Houses have broken apart again. She uses the threat of the hydrobomb to blackmail the Houses to reunifying the Empire, leaving her as ruler and potentially having huge consequences down the line.

In the Mirror Universe, Kronos was annihilated by Starfleet and the Klingons reduced to scattered exclaves.

Orions: A whole bunch of them live in the "embassy" area on Kronos, doing the usual Orion criminal activities. Some of them are surprisingly up on ancient Klingon cults and their stomping grounds. Refreshingly, after the big redesign of the Klingons and the lesser redesigns of the Andorians and Tellarites, the Orions are portrayed by people painted green. More of a pale fern green than the usual bold leaf green.

Trill: There are Trills in the Orion town on Kronos (although at least one of them is a fake).

Starships and Space Stations: 

USS Discovery NCC-1031: The first thing the crew do when back in the Prime Universe, even before starting repairs, is repaint the ship to Federation standards. The ship swapped places with its Mirror equivalent, which was destroyed by Klingons almost immediately. The Discovery's cloak-breaking algorithm is distributed to the fleet as soon as Cornwell takes command but it's probably too late to make a difference.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701: Shows up at the end of the final episode, transmitting a distress signal and under the command of Captain Pike. It looks rather different to how we remember it - still the same general shape, but redesigned to fit in with Star Trek: Discovery's aesthetic. I actually really like it.

Starbase 1: In Earth's backyard, Starbase 1 is home to dozens of starships and thousands of Federation personnel. Now it boasts only a few hundred Klingon life signs, and has been tagged by House D'Kor.

Future Treknology: The drone carries a hydrobomb which causes an enormous buildup of steam when dropped into the volcanic network, which will explode out through the crust of the planet annihilating the atmosphere and rendering it uninhabitable. Lorca collected some Nausicaan disruptors which the away team use to start a trade with the Orions.

Trek Stars: Clint Howard, who plays the creepy old Orion bastard in the final episode, has the distinction of being the actor with the longest Star Trek career. His initial appearance, as creepy young child-alien Balok in TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver" was in 1966, a whole 51 years before this episode. Howard also appeared as a human in 1995 (DS9: "Past Tense"), and a Ferengi in 2002 (ENT: "Acquisition").

Sexy Trek: Like all evil parallel universe women, Emperor Georgiou is bisexual, and gets it on with a pair of Orion prostitutes. There's a lot more skin on display than we're used to in Trek, most of it green. Did I mention that Klingons have two dicks? No wonder Worf was so popular with the ladies.

Space bilge: Starbase 1 is 100 AU from Earth and is now under Klingon control. This would put the Starbase at the fringes of our solar system - this should mean the Earth is under imminent threat from the Klingons, rather than being treated as a distant outpost. It's also shown as being in orbit of a class-M planet, and there's definitely nothing of the sort that close to Earth. The Starbase is also described as being over a light year away from the Discovery, which makes it extremely close in starship terms and by no means a chore to warp to.

L'Rell is very easily able to convince the Klingon Houses that she can destroy the planet with what appears to be a generic remote control and no way to back up her claim that it's linked to a massive bomb.

Quote, Unquote: "Logic dictates that each farewell may be our last." True of all times, not just war.

The Review: A very satisfying end to an uneven but exciting first season. The first half drags a little but gives way to a second part that ups the ante, although it does end rather quickly and neatly. It's entirely reasonable to see the Federation's leaders get desperate enough to resort to genocide against the Klingons - they are potentially facing the same themselves - but it's also tremendously disappointing. Thankfully, the script doesn't for one moment side with this idea and makes it clear that there has to be another way. Burnham has developed into a more comfortable, more confident character, back to the self-assurance she had in the opening episodes. Rather than a complete reversal of her decision to square up to the Klingons there, her decision to use the bomb to force the Houses' to end the war is using the Klingon ethos of "might is right" in a mindful way. (Albeit via L'Rell, which could come back to bite her.) It's also wonderful that, after the script going out of its way to remind us just how bloody awful the Klingons are in this series, Burnham manages to look past her experiences and recognise that most of the Klingons are just people living their lives. It's even better that she sees this after spending an evening surrounded by crims and gamblers, instead of the best of society.

Tyler's story comes to a satisfying conclusion, although it will still be fascinating to see how he develops in the coming season. Saru and Culber get good moments but are a little overlooked, yet it's hard to complain when we get so much quality Tilly time.

The appearance of the Enterprise at the end was an obvious way to round out the series, but what else could they do? It was inevitable, but it was nicely staged and personally I love the redesigned version of the iconic ship, certainly more than the recent movie version. Ending the episode on the classic theme was a nice touch as well. On the other hand, it's becoming increasingly hard to reconcile this wartorn 23rd century with the timeline we know. I'm intrigued to see how the events here develop in the second season.

REVIEW: The Cloverfield Paradox

So, this one has gotten a bad press, and to be fair, I can see why. It's a bit of a mess, narratively speaking, and the shoehorned in link to Cloverfield, while it no doubt helped get the thing made, works really poorly. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the film. It's a schlocky sci-fi horror in the vein of Event Horizon, with a dash of Alien, a touch of Gravity, and plenty of derivative but mostly effective nonsense. Spoilers follow.

The Cloverfield Paradox started life as The God Particle, a spec script by Oren Uziel, until it was picked up by J.J. Abrams, who rewrote it to become part of his Cloverfield mythos. The original Cloverfield, which came out way back in 2008, was good fun and a new take on the Daikaiju genre, before the fake found footage style had become overused and stale. This was followed up, unexpectedly, by 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016, which I haven't seen but is reportedly another movie which was rewritten to tie into the Cloverfield universe. The God Particle focused on a particle accelerator experiment that still forms the core of the finished movie. (Presumably it was somehow about the Higgs boson, and there's a line about that fundamental particle in the finished script, that doesn't really tie into anything.)

The finished film is set in 2028, when an major energy crisis has put the world on the brink of all-out war. Germany and Russia, in particular, are at each other's throats, but seemingly the whole of Europe is a tinderbox. To find a new source of perpetually renewable energy, Space Station Cloverfield has been set up in Earth orbit, to begin experiments with a gigantic particle accelerator which will potentially unlock infinite energies from space/time. The search for energy combined with unknown perils is common enough in sci-fi now that it's almost become a subgenre in itself. The space station is the modern day haunted house, or in Doctor Who terms, an isolated base under siege. Tensions are high among the international crew after two years locked up together without results, and then, finally, the accelerator works and produces a stream of powerful energy. Unfortunately, it runs out of control, damaging the station and knocking everyone for six. When they recover, there's no sign of the Earth.

It takes these top tier scientists a long time to realise that they've moved along Earth's orbit and that their view is being blocked by the sun, and longer still to realise that they've actually passed into a parallel universe. Increasingly bizarre horror situations occur for under-explained reasons. It mashes together a number of sci-fi ideas that don't work terribly well together logistically. In fact, none of the plot really makes much sense, so I can entirely understand why some commentators had such a hard time with it.

On the other hand, I think they made the mistake of taking it too seriously. While it sets itself up a scientific drama, it very rapidly becomes clear that this is anything but, and it's best watched as the melodramatic nonsense it is. There's a lack of tonal consistency, but this can work if taken far enough, and it just about does here, with outright horror mixing with earnest futurism, conspiracy theorism mixing with heartfelt family speeches and extreme danger mixing with bizarre moments of humour. Again, the Doctor Who comparison works: just like DW, the film throws together a bunch of ideas and genres and sees what it can get away with. The best moments are the most out-there: the shifty Russian guy goes crazy and then explodes into a shower of worms; Chris O'Dowd's laconic engineer gets his arm bitten off by a wall, only for it to crawl back to him and write him a note. (“My arm saved us!”) Neither of these events is met with any real explanation, other than that having two dimensions in contact produces weird results.

So, it's nonsense, but creepy, entertaining nonsense. It wouldn't work nearly as well if it weren't for a really excellent cast. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is the star of the ensemble, as believable and likeable as ever as Hamilton, a woman who has lost her children and so endures separation from her husband, using her mission as a way to cope and atone for her sense of responsibility for the tragedy. She's an excellent lead and holds the film together, but the whole cast are pretty great here. Daniel Bruhl plays the German physicist Schmidt, who is the target of some conspiracy theorising himself, which turns out to be true in one universe but not the other. David Oyelowo is the rugged station commander, Kiel, the beautiful Zhang Ziyi is Tam, the Chinese chief physicist (who speaks only in Mandarin throughout). Completing the crew are Aksel Hennie as Russian engineer Volkov, John Ortiz as Monk, the medic, and the aforementioned Chris O'Dowd as Mundy, although I still see him as Roy from The IT Crowd. One of the nest turns comes from Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Jensen, the chief physicist of the other reality, who is discovered almost fused with the station itself after it materialised in place of its counterpart. She acts as a rational but dangerously unknowable element throughout.

A weaker element of the script is that it continues to jump back to events on Earth, as Hamilton's husband (played well by Roger Davies) learns of the station's disappearance while trying to deal with catastrophe all around him. To begin with this works with the narrative, as we're not always sure which reality we're following, but once it's clear that the wartorn Europe seen on news reports is Jensen's home, it's clear that something stranger is happening in the primary reality. Helpfully, some nutcase has already appeared on TV earlier in the film, spouting his own conspiracy theories about how the experiment will tear open the universe and unleash demons into the past, present and future. It's a terribly hackneyed piece of exposition that robs the eventual reveal of any mystery.

I mean, we know it's linked to Cloverfield so we expect the final reveal that the great big monster from that film (or another great big monster rather like it, the timing is askew here and the two films don't even necessarily occur in the same reality). The script is never sure whether it's meant to play this as a surprise or ass an origin story, and it falls between the two stools. The link to Cloverfield is the weakest element in a confused production, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with this silly film, as long as you don't take it too seriously.

TREK REVIEW: Discovery 1-12/1-13 - "Vaulting Ambition," "What's Past is Prologue"

The grand two-part finale arrives... except that there are two more episodes to go. Initially the series was set for thirteen installments, and this certainly plays like a finale, ending on a stonking cliffhanger that will, in fact, be resolved next week.

Nonetheless, this is a lot of fun and a satisfying bit of pulp drama. That's how you have to watch it. These episodes are wild nonsense. This is Star Trek at the fighting-and-explosions end of the spectrum, not the philosophy-and-debates end. The best episodes combine the rough-and-tumble with the clever stuff. There's not much of the latter here. This is rayguns-and-fisticuffs through and through.

Essentially every fan theory/rumour about Discovery has turned out to be true, with the exception of the idea that this is another divergent timeline rather than the "true" Trek universe, which might actually come to pass, what with the history-nobbling Klingon victory revealed at the end. So, Lorca is in fact the evil Mirror Lorca! This isn't a massive surprise - there were clues along the way, after all - but still, it's less satisfying than just having him be a hardass bastard of a captain who does well during wartime. Given that this is Mirror Lorca, and that he has been grooming Burnham to be his right-hand woman (and possible replacement ladyfriend) and also grooming Stamets to develop the spore drive that allows interdimensional travel, you have to wonder what his actual plan was. After being zapped to the Prime Universe when an ion storm hit while he was transporting (just like Kirk and co. back in "Mirror, Mirror"), he then sets out to get himself back... and then, what? Get himself locked in a torture chamber for days? Being bloody lucky the Emperor doesn't just blow his head off as soon as she looks at him?

Still, it worked out well for him, for a while at least. The reveal was just grand: Lorca's apparent inability to recall a lost lover's name because he has never met her, turning out to be nothing more than epic trolling on his part, to get him to the point when he can murder his jailer and escape. And let's be fair, Jason Isaacs playing a full-on evil villain is always worth the entry fee. He's clearly having fun here (Lorca and Isaacs). It's a shame he dies, really, falling through that very Star Wars-like chasm into a broiling hyperspace engine. Unless, of course, he's been zapped into another dimension... (no, he's dead.)

Wonderful to have Michelle Yeoh back, playing a slightly more three-dimensional (although not much) evil villain. I can't imagine that Burnham's saving her will end well. They do have some good chemistry, as much as two stoic and grim-faced women can. I love that the Emperor carries a sword and that it's not just for display purposes. Burnham's awesomeness reaches peak absurdity in the second part, as she uses her Vulcan martial arts to take down whole platoons of Imperial Starfleet troops and escapes time and again. True, neither the Emperor or Lorca actually wants her dead, but still, she's basically at superhero level here.

The Terran Empire is less a dark reflection of the Federation here, and more the equivalent of the Klingon Empire. There are parallels throughout in the ways the two empires are represented. Their fascistic, xenophobic, convinced of their own superiority as a race, needlessly cruel and they even eat their opponents (although the Terrans come of worse here: the Klingons eat Georgiou's body because they're adrift and starving; Mirror Georgiou reverses it by eating Kelpien slaves just for pleasure). There are no decent people in the Imperial Starfleet, it seems, and we don't see any non-Starfleet humans in that universe. There's no Smiley O'Brien to remind us that even the worst cultures can have some decent individuals. No, they're all bastards. Weirdly, after all the continuity points between TOS and Enterprise and Discovery, the Terrans are revealed to be a genetically different race, with a physical weakness to bright light. There's no way this could have been taken as a clue to Lorca's origins, because there was no hint of it before in any Mirror Universe episode, and it makes the existence of parallel versions of the same people even more unlikely. The best way to take it is a poke at how the Mirror Universe is literally a darker version of Star Trek, but it's still silly.

But then, Star Trek has never had the most stringent or believable approach to science. The mycelial spore drive, for example, isn't much more ridiculous than teleporters or quantum fissures. I had expected it to be destroyed by the end of this season, and while it looks like its been depleted, it is apparently still there. I can imagine Starfleet putting a ban on spore drive travel due to its environmental impact, but it's hard to believe that no one else in the Galaxy will ever discover the possibilities. Especially as its impact stretches across universes and through time. It's a bit vague whether the Empire understands what spore drive is: The Emperor doesn't seem to know about it until Burnham tells her, but there's some kind of spore system driving her gigantic flagship, the Charon.

The mycelial network is pretty much a magic plot contrivance, doing whatever any given episode needs at the time, but that's no different to any of the other magic space phenomena seen throughout the series (in particular, it brings to mind the Nexus from Star Trek Generations). It does allow us to have some of the best Stamets scenes in the series so far, putting him with both his less moral Mirror self, and his lost love Hugh Culber. Does this mean that there might be a way for Culber to come back? Given that Stamets might not even survive the end of the series (each spore drive jump taking its toll, after all), maybe we'll see the couple reunited in fungal afterlife. I hope he does survive, though. He and Tilly - who have some lovely interplay in the second half - have quickly become my favourite characters on the series.

Our alien friends don't get as much attention in these episodes, although Saru does get some strong material when he takes command of the Discovery and revitalises the crew's spirit with his "no-win scenario" speech. It's a nice nod back to the old Kobayashi Maru test from The Wrath of Khan and later the 2009 movie, and a strong sentiment, although the characters do go on to labour the point a bit. On the same note, it's good to see more of the other crewmembers, who have mostly been in the background till now, such as Owesukun (Oyin Oladejo), the cybernetic Airiam (Sara Mitich) and Detmer (Emily Coutts), perhaps unique as a character who's sexier in the Prime Universe than she is in the Mirror. Voq and L'Rell get some material in the first part that seems to be leading up to a major make-or-break moment for their characters... and then disappear completely for the second half. I imagine the Discovery's brig is getting pretty busy now.

This was an exciting climax to the Mirror Universe storyline which was threatening to run out of steam. There are still plenty of unanswered questions: what happened to the Mirror Discovery? Is the Prime Lorca alive in the Mirror Universe, or was killed on the Buran? How come Kirk doesn't know anything about the Mirror Universe when he's zapped there in ten years time? Just what will happen to the Mirror Georgiou in the Prime Universe? How many people on the Discovery are actually who they say they are? Maybe Saru's secretly the dictatorial overlord of another universe's Keplien Empire.

REVIEW: Black Mirror Season Four

That least festive of series, Black Mirror, returned over the New Year, and I have made gradual progress working through it. This is a series that I cannot, without powerful willpower, watch all in one go. Too bleak, too thought-provoking. I'm pleased to see the variety of styles and themes that made season three so interesting continues, with the expanded run allowing Brooker and his co-creators more scope to try different things. I decided to watch the episodes in the suggested order this time, primarily because the first episode was the one I was most looking forward to watching.

USS CALLISTER 

I've written at more length about this episode, and its antecedents in Star Trek and The Orville, here, but in terms of a quick review, I have to call this one an absolute winner. It's true that you'll get more out of this episode if you're a Trek fan, but there's much, much more to it than just being a bleakly comedic riff on the old franchise. This is about as far as Black Mirror has gone into the fantastical side of science fiction, primarily because of the Trek-like virtual world, but also because of the unlikely technological developments it shows. (Being able to duplicate someone, right down to their complete memories and personality, in a digital world from a DNA sample, is ludicrous pseudoscience in the finest Trek tradition.) Huge plaudits to the entire cast, but especially Jesse Plemons as the sadistic Daly, convincingly sympathetic until the moment he reveals himself to be a monster. Cristin Milioti and Jimmi Simpson are also brilliant. This is a strong story of the abuse of power, combining horror and humour to tell a stonking sci-fi tale. There's even a pretty uplifting finale, which is nice, considering the harrowing stuff that is to follow.

ARKANGEL

Milder on first glance, this is, to me, far more disturbing than the opening episode. It's the episodes that tread closer to real life, that you can actually believe might someday happen, that disquiet me most. It's entirely believable that not only would a concerned parent microchip her child (something that's actually been talked about by pet-chipper developers), but that they would willingly extend that to watching everything they see and do, even censoring their experiences. This is a much more predictable episode than most, but that's not to its detriment, with events taking us down a horribly inevitable path. Rosemarie DeWitt excels as the overly protective mother Marie, making her sympathetic even as she bulldozers down her daughter's boundaries and acts with utter stupidity. By the end of it, you feel incredibly sorry for her, in spite of her bringing on absolutely everything that happens here herself. Brenna Harding is also brilliant as her daughter Sara, although it's pretty much impossible to believe she's a fifteen-year-old girl. It's a powerful reminder that young people need to experience the world in their own way if they are to become functional adults, and is a generally uncomfortable experience of a life with a complete lack of privacy and respect. Jodie Foster was a great choice for director, and gives the episode an indie-ish feel that contrasts strongly with the season opener.

CROCODILE

Bloody hell, this one's grim. They like to keep the nasty ones for the middle of the season, don't they? Something of a companion piece to "Arkangel," once again exploring how invading people's own experiences and memories crosses a very important line. The difference here is that the people who have their memories explored accept the process, and it's done in order to help solve crimes and assign responsibility for incidents. Andrea Riseborough is brilliant in this, but then, she's brilliant in everything, and becomes pretty terrifying here as her character Mia becomes ever more desperate in her need to cover up her role in a manslaughter. It's a slightly frustrating episode, with Mia being spectacularly stupid, agreeing to the memory viewer even when given the opportunity to back out (no one reads the T's and C's, do they?) Of course, you could view it differently, as her willingly delve further into murder and allowing herself to be compromised so as to give herself an excuse to kill, but Riseborough doesn't play it like that. No, she just digs herself further into her own grave. Kiran Sonia Sawar is also hugely impressive as the unfortunate Shazia. It's nice to have a cast of Scots and Northern English after two America-based episodes, although this was filmed in Iceland rather than the initially proposed Scotland. The overall feel of the episode is more like one of those Nordic crime dramas than anything else: cold, bitter and snowy. The ending works well, though.

HANG THE DJ

As with series three, an unremittingly bleak episode is followed by a lighter, romantic episode. This is the "San Junipero" slot, so it's forever going to be compared to that episode. To begin with, I wasn't particularly keen on this one. The idea of a dating app that pairs you up with people for pre-decided periods is a great idea for an allegory on modern dating, but the situation is so artificial it's hard to accept that anyone would stand for it. People will stay with someone they hate for a year out of some obligation to their family, or because they're trying to recapture something they once had. No one would ever do that because an app told them to. The episode gets better as it goes on, though, as the true nature of the environment is revealed. Frank even guesses the entire truth when he's chatting with Amy, but it's thrown out in such a glib way that it's only as more clues become apparent that the truth of the simulation becomes clear. It's all signposted quite clearly, and the similarity to previous VR-based episodes makes it feel kind of inevitable,  but it's played out in a very satisfying way. It helps that the two leads, Joe Cole and Georgina Campbell, are so likable and have such easy chemistry, right up to that final scene. Still, it's no "San Junipero."

METALHEAD

Exceptionally good - one of the best episodes of Black Mirror yet. Brooker continues to try different styles and genres for the series and this is entirely unlike any of the episodes we've had so far. It's a much more straightforward story than we usually get, a very simple tale of technology gone bad. Wisely, Brooker keeps the history of this post-apocalyptic Britain mysterious; we don't know if the dogs have caused the collapse of society or if they have simply taken advantage of it. The dog is modestly terrifying; they could have designed it to look mean, bristling with weapons, but instead its unassuming until it activates and is completely impassive even when hunting Bella down. It's all the more frightening for it. The fact that it the dog is based on the very real BigDog system developed by robotics firm Boston Dynamics, which was apparently turned down by the US military purely because it was too noisy.

An episode like this wouldn't work at all if it wasn't realised well, and this is almost perfect. Maxine Peake, one of our best actresses, carries almost all of the episode on her own, with long stretches free of dialogue, and is absolutely enthralling throughout. Combined with stunning direction by David Slade and a powerful and effective score, this is a remarkable piece of television. The ending is devastating.

BLACK MUSEUM

Although Black Mirror episodes can be watched in any order, this time the final episode in the set actually feels like a finale, or at least, a straight line under the series so far. If this does turn out to be the end of the series altogether, it would stand well as a final episode, but equally if we do get the hoped for fifth season, it would work perfectly well just as another installment. There are supposed to be Easter eggs for every episode so far in "Black Museum," and while I'm not well-versed enough in the first two seasons to spot everything (I urgently need to go back for a re-watch) there were plenty of little nods that I spotted. Does this mean that, as some viewers have concluded, all of Black Mirror actually takes place in the same fictional universe? I find it hard to square up some of the versions of the world we've seen so far, but seeing that most episodes are quite self-contained (or entirely virtual), it's not impossible. ("Metalhead" would, naturally, have to take place after everything else, or at least everything set in the British Isles.)

This episode definitely takes place in the same universe as "San Junipero," giving us three short stories that together chart the progress of the one-day miraculous technology that will allow true life after death in an immersive virtual environment. It's a nice change to have an anthology episode - only "White Christmas" has done this before - and it keeps everything pacy and interesting. It's a shame, though, that we couldn't have "San Junipero" as a single happy story. All technological and social developments exist on the back of exploitation and callous experimentation, and it turns out that San Junipero's development from the early day's at St. Juniper's hospital is no different. (Also on the subject of comparing the two stories, the use of Sandy Shaw's "Always Something There to Remind Me" is a stroke of genius that beats even the use of "Heaven is a Place on Earth.")

The three quite different stories are cleverly used to chart separate events in the incremental evolution of the mind-copying technology. The first part, based on the unpublished short story "Pain Addict" by Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame), is the most viscerally unpleasant, but also the least horrifying in its implication. Addiction we can understand, even if it is an addiction to something as extreme as severe pain. I found the actual graphic mutilation scenes, although far tamer than what appears on cinema screens, very difficult to watch, while my lady Suz, an unrepentant chilli fiend, loved the analogy of wanting hotter and hotter chillies to get the same hit. At least with the damaged Dr. Lawson (an excellent turn from Daniel Lepaine), there is initially a good reason for his poor decision. The other stories just make you scream, "Why would you do that?!"

The middle third was the most unsettling for me. It's perfectly understandable why someone would want to continue their existence, even in a very limited form, vicariously through their partner, if the alternative was a vegetative state, but it's also inevitably going to turn into some kind of personal hell for both of them. But the idea of downloading someone's mind into a toy, unable to move, barely able to communicate, is absolutely horrifying. Carrie (Alexandra Roach) is left with an even worse existence than her post-car crash coma. The revelation that she's still "alive," trapped in legal limbo as an exhibit in the museum, is just chilling.

The final part brings everything to a climax. The first two stories have blackly comical moments, but this is purely a dissection of human cruelty. It's no coincidence, I'm certain, that it's the Black Museum. Clayton Leigh (a good performance on limited material by Babs Olusanmokun) is a black man, (probably) innocent of the murder he was executed for. The idea that a holographic copy of someone should be kept in a cage and repeatedly tortured is appalling, but also very believable. People can be spectacularly cruel, and it takes very little to dehumanise someone to the point where their suffering can be viewed as nothing more than entertainment. Of course he had to be black. It's a non-too-subtle allegory on the treatment of black people in America still today.

Holding everything together are our museum owner and his lone customer. These could have been thankless roles, but they are absolutely crucial and pull this episode together into a powerful revenge tale. Letitia Wright - Gyanese-British playing American playing British - is the only likeable presence in the entire episode, right up to her hard-as-nails turn at the end. English actor Douglas Hodge also portrays a realistic American, with his Rolo Haynes being a sort of sci-fi snake oil salesman, utterly amoral and completely without conscience. It's unusual for Black Mirror episodes to feature proper villains; most of the time, even the worst characters are misaligned protagonists. Even Captain Daly in "USS Callister" was sympathetic in a sad, warped kind of way. Rolo, however, is utterly reprehensible, making Nish's final act of vengeance all the more satisfying. Rolo is left screaming, trapped in electronic amber for her amusement, and we cheer his comeuppance. I guess we all have some of that cruelty within us.

TREK REVIEW: Discovery 1-11 - "The Wolf Inside"

CAUTION! DETECTING SPOILERS

OK, Discovery fans, you owe me a tenner.

Not for realising Ash Tyler is actually Voq - it would have been more interesting if he hadn't been, and last week's episode all but confirmed it anyway - but for pegging Georgiou as the Emperor. She was the odds-on favourite there, with Harry Mudd at 10/1 and Sarek at 33/1, but still, I claim my kudos. Anyone else would have been a let-down, though. It had to be Michelle Yeoh back for an encore.

This was a fun, silly episode, disguised behind some grimdark events and soul searching for its characters. The Mirror Universe is an intrinsically silly concept that makes very little sense if you analyse it at all. Why do the same people end up on the same ships living such similar lives in spite of human history being so very different for the last two hundred years? Why do the same people meet, across light years, in both realities? It's absurd, so it's best to just sit back and enjoy the silliness. (This silliness was enhanced by last night's episode of Lost in Space on the Horror Channel, which saw the characters visit their own mirror universe, inhabited by their antimatter counterparts. I was very disappointed that John Robinson's alter ego wasn't called Ron Jobinson.)

There were three main strands to this episode: Burnham's depressing roleplay in Mirror Starfleet; Tilly's attempt to save Stamets; and Tyler's inevitable reversion to his true nature. All three strands were woven together cleverly, so although the episode felt a bit like the necessary middle-of-the-trilogy installment, the overall story moved on in satisfying ways. Credit goes to the writers and to Martin-Green for making Burnham's struggle so immediate and painful. As captain of the ISS Shenzhou she is at once in a position of considerable power and utterly powerless, having to go along with the execution of prisoners guilty of "malicious thought" and watch her own captain be tortured. Even in her own cabin she gets little chance to be herself, since she is doted on by her slave, the Mirror Saru. (Burnham says that she has seen no Kelpiens onboard, out of respect for Saru, and frankly, having no Kelpiens on that ship of horrors would be the best result for him. I doubt they did well under the Empire.)

Burnham tries to help the rebels on Harlak, a ragtag group of Klingons, Andorians and Tellarites that are the closest thing this universe has to a Federation. Another thing I called right - that Mirror Voq is the leader of the rebels - although there's no only so much satisfaction to be gained from guessing the bleeding obvious and shouting "I could have written this." So happy to have some recognisable alien races in Discovery, even if they are the Mirror Universe versions. Like the Klingons, they've been revamped for the new era, with new make-up designs. The Andorians are a fair development from how they looked on Enterprise, with more built-up faces, and their eyebrows (long since an optional accessory) replaced with mini-antennae. I wasn't so keen on the Tellarites initially, considering them a bit too much of a departure from the older styles, but again, they're actually not that different from the Enterprise versions and the warthog tusks are pretty cool. There's a bit of an issue with the modulation of alien voices, which makes them difficult to understand. At least when they're choking on Klingonese we get subtitles. Nonetheless, I was still unreasonably excited to see Andorians.

It was also inevitable that we'd see Mirror Sarek, rocking a goatee beard, which much be about the only thing he has in common with his son in this universe. You thought Prime Sarek had a problem with Spock joining Starfleet, imagine how the Rebel Prophet feels about it? Sarek's there primarily to give Burnham the green light so that she can chat with Voq and the rebels, and that's only permitted so that Tyler-Voq can lose his shit when he sees his alternative self and screw everything up. The fact that we've basically had the reveal of Voq last week could undermine this strand, but seeing Tyler and Burnham get together properly when we already know he's a Klingon spy makes it all the more chilling. 

There's some very sloppy writing in here, though. Do none of the Mirror crew think it's even slightly odd that Tyler starts barking in Klingon and that this doesn't require some further questioning? Why does the crew of the Discovery assume that Stamets killed Culper, when he's been catatonic for so long? Don't they have CCTV on this incredibly advanced starship? Stamets's fake-out death is also pretty cheap and underwhelming, although it's saved somewhat by his strange mushroom-fuelled vision in which he meets himself (or is it his Mirror self?)

It'll be fun to see where the Mirror Universe sage goes next, although I hope it isn't dragged out for the whole remainder of the season. I'm also intrigued as to how much they're planning to tie this into Enterprise (will Georgiou turn out to be Hoshi Sato's descendant, as some fans have suggested? The last we saw of the Mirror Universe had her setting herself up as Empress) and how it will fit in with the Mirror Universe's "first" crossover in the original series.

TREK REVIEW: Discovery 1-10 - "Despite Yourself"

Star Trek: Discovery returns from its mid-season break to begin chapter two, which looks set to be the saga of the Mirror Universe. It's a bit of a wrench sideways for a series that has so far been almost wholly concerned with the war with the Klingons. The big revelation that the ship has been stranded in the Mirror Universe is actually no surprise whatsoever - it was pretty well signposted that they'd travelled between universes and there have been several hints along the way - but it's still exciting to back in Star Trek's favourite parallel continuum.

The Mirror Universe is an extended joke that can wear thin quickly, but for now, this is tremendous fun. We've just about gotten to know the characters well enough to make hearing about their nasty parallel counterparts fascinating. One fan theory has held that Lorca is actually from the Mirror Universe anyway, but unless he's a very good actor he's just as shocked to be in another universe as the rest of the bridge crew. It'll be interesting to explore whether Mirror Lorca is truly a freedom fighter or whether he wants to take the Empire for himself.

I'm not so enamoured with Burnham this episode, impressive though she is in the combat scenes, but that's mainly due to the other characters getting the bulk of the quality scenes. Anthony Rapp manages to continue to impress as Stamets, even though he spends much of the episode unconscious and/or delirious. It's going to be a very upsetting scene when he fully regains consciousness and discovers his partner Culber has paid the price of trusting Tyler. That was a genuine shock, as even though Culber was never the most significant character and potentially a bit disposable, he was so inoffensive that it was a surprise to see him bite it so suddenly.

So, the big mystery of Ash Tyler turns out to be... exactly what we thought it was. Although L'Rell never comes out and says, "Yeah, your name's Voq and you're an undercover Klingon agent," it's basically been confirmed. In a way, I think it's a pity, since it's the most obvious explanation, and also lessens the impact of Tyler's PTSD storyline. A major storyline dealing with wartime abuse is to be praised, and to reveal it's all warped/implanted memories cheapens that. Nonetheless, Shazad Latif is absolutely excellent throughout the episode, really selling the anguish and confusion of Voq/Tyler.

The episode really belongs to Mary Wiseman as Tilly, though. It's a massive, and questionable, cliche, that evil fascistic women must be sexified, but wow, Tilly in this episode! The most likeable character in the series gets to play against type as the evil "Captain Killy," the most vicious woman to ever fight her way to the captaincy of a ship. The idea that the crew could redecorate the entire ship, repaint the hull, recarpet the bloody place and synthesise new uniforms in about a day is pretty hard-to-swallow, but when worth it when it allows us the entertainment value of Tilly ad-libbing her way out of a confrontation with an imperial starship.

Just tons of continuity in this episode, from the Shenzou turning up as an imperial ship,to the Organian System, to the references to the Enterprise two-parter "In a Mirror, Darkly," and the fate of the starship Defiant. It sits on just the right side of intense fanwank, and adds something to the episode. It's a real fan-pleaser.

I think I'll carry on reviewing episodes until the season ends, if only to track how the series develops and how wide off the mark I am in my predictions. The new mystery is the identity of the "faceless emperor." Almost undoubtedly this is the Mirror Universe version of a character we already know. The smart money's on Georgiou, what with Michelle Yeoh being the biggest star in Discovery's arsenal and still involved heavily in the promo circuit - plus Burnham being a favourite of the emperor. 10-1 it's Harry Mudd, though. That would be a laugh.

REVIEW: Archer: Dreamland

Archer is possibly the best, most definitely the funniest, animated series of the 21^st century so far. Over its now eight seasons, it's moved from international espionage, through adventures under the sea and in outer space, to season-long adventures in cocaine smuggling and the PI business. And now, it's become a film noir, albeit a batshit crazy one.

Season seven ended with Archer grievously wounded, face down in a swimming pool. As we enter season eight, subtitled Dreamland, we find he has been lying in a coma for three months. In his head, he has conjured up his own fantasy world, set in 19-something (probably about 1947; amazingly, this is the least anachronistic season yet). Like the previous run, Archer is part of a PI agency, only this time, it's just him and his partner. Or at least, it was.

Following the death of the great George Coe in 2015, Archer's long-suffering valet Woodhouse has been absent from the series (although he was recast for a single season for Archer Vice). In a surprisingly touching sentiment, Dreamland is not only dedicated to Coe, but the death of Woodhouse is the driving plot point, occurring both in “reality,” and in Archer's fantasy, in which Woodhouse was previously his partner. Which is a hell of a step-up, even if he was still a heroin junkie.

The season-long arc revolves around Archer's quest to discover who is responsible for his partner's murder. It's the most coherent storyline we've yet had from a season of Archer, which was pretty all over the place even during the Vice story, but as Archer himself says, he does have a tendency to get sidetracked. Limiting the run to only eight episodes helps, of course; there just isn't room for too much meandering adventure. Archer's fantasy world is populated by fictionalised versions of various characters from the series, including all his former-ISIS chums. Some of the changes are fairly minor and predictable: Cheryl/Carol is now Charlotte Vander-Tunt, even richer than her “real” counterpart and just as unhinged; Lana is a lounge singer who you don't want to mess with, and Mallory is the owner of said lounge, the Dreamland club, and also a mob boss. Known simply as “Mother,” she slips into that role extremely comfortably.

Other characters are changed in unexpected ways. Cyril, always a dick but pretty sympathetic in a pathetic sort of way, becomes an out-and-out villain as a crooked cop. Pam undergoes a sex change, albeit with the same face and voice, as his partner Detective Poovey. Her personality is much the same as usual, albeit less sex-crazed. Then there are characters who slip into the postwar environs just perfectly: Ray is a musician for an otherwise all-black band, and Krieger is Krieger, as always. A very welcome addition to the regular cast is Jeffrey Tambor as Trexler, Mother's opposite number once again as a rival crime lord. Oh, and Barry's back, although now he's called Drake and he's more insane than ever. (Other Barry's back as well.) Seriously, his storyline comes to the fore in the final two episodes and he is absolutely terrifying.

Everything is done in Archer's signature style, with action, violence and inappropriate humour to spare, and the animation is gorgeous. Although the story is more concise, there are still plenty of bizarre non sequiturs. It's a weird set-up, all told, with the story never quite clear about how much is real or not. Everything is supposedly in Archer's head, but not only does he have flashbacks to WWII, there are long scenes that don't involve him, and involve knowledge that is kept from him. There's even a running joke concerning Poovey's fantasy involving a dozen Chinese whores (really, it's easier to watch it than to explain it), which is supposedly a fantasy in the mind of a fantasy character. Possibly, just possibly, this really is a parallel universe, which just might be born out by some of Archer's dialogue in the last episode. If so, it makes the events mean something more. Because, after all the developments and twists, there's no real resolution. I wasn't expecting Archer to wake up, but for there to be some kind of psychological resolution for him. Even after a thrilling adventure, it all feels a bit inconsequential.

Which might not matter if Dreamland focused more on humour than story. Try as it might, this season just isn't as funny as the previous ones were. While the last few seasons haven't quite lived up to the original ISIS years, they've still been pretty hilarious, while Dreamland feels a bit tired joke-wise. The adventure makes up for this, but only until that last episode, where it all feels a little pointless. Season nine has already been revealed to continue Archer's fantasy, in a new setting as Danger Island. Maybe we'll get some kind of closure with the tenth, and final, season. Or maybe there'll be a different fantasy setting with every episode. Personally, I'm still holding out for a Trek-themed “STARcher.”

This review was typed in Georgia.

REVIEW: Black Mirror Season Three

A recent bout of sickness has led me to engage in a project known as "catching up with Netflix." One of the series I'd been looking forward to catching up with was Black Mirror, the third run of which was released exclusively on the site back in October. So, I was a couple of months behind, but blasted through it just after Christmas when the missus was away and now I've finally gotten round to recording my thoughts.

I'll look at the episodes individually, in the order that I first watched them rather than the set order (completely arbitrary in a series of this nature, in any case). Firstly though, general observations. This is, inarguably, an Americanised take on the series, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. To start with, it's not as if it has been stripped of its British identity entirely. Three of the episodes are set in the UK, British actors appear in both British roles and otherwise, and, partiularly in the episodes penned by Charlie Brooker himself, there's no getting away from the distinctly British flavour of cynicism that pervades the series. It still feels like Black Mirror. And making the series more marketable to American audiences is a necessary step in having Netflix create this third series, which has brought it to far wider critical and audience attention. It's also allowed a much higher budget than the previous runs, leading to twice as many episodes and a remarkable cast, which has further increased attention. This can only be a good thing. Another six episodes are due in the near future, and after the mix of material we had with season three, I'm very intrigued to see what directions they will go in.

NOSEDIVE

The first episode of the series, and it's clear that this is where a lot of the casting budget went. Bryce Dallas Howard is the headline draw here, but there's also Alice Eve as the horrendously shallow Naomi. For me, though, the standout performance is Cherry Jones as "Who gives a shit?" Susan, although Daisy Haggard's staggeringly banal high flyer sticks in the mind too. 

A world where everyone's social interaction is recorded and rated on social media is disturbingly easy to imagine, and there has even been an attempt to market an app like this: Peeple, which thankfully had its more insidious elements removed after poor feedback and seems to have failed to catch on. This is the only episode of the third series that Brooker didn't write, although he did set out the storyline, which extrapolates the idea to its inevitable conclusion: a society in which the very economy is based on "likes." Rashida Jones and Michael Schur developed this into a fine script with an admiral lightness of touch, low on exposition but easily understandable. Howard manages to keep her character Lacey likeable, in spite of the fact that she's really quite a terrible person throughout, both when she's desperately clawing for ratings and when she's angrily over the whole system. 

The chain reaction of events that lead Lacey's points to crash and burn unfolds with agonising inevitability. It's a brilliantly structured tale, but the final scene, though cathartic, doesn't really work for me.

HATED IN THE NATION

Watched next due to recommendation from my friend Nim, this was the best episode of The X-Files I've seen in years. One of the best casts out of the lot, with Kelly MacDonald and Faye Marsay sharing a gloriously uncomfortable sort of chemistry. Faye Marsay is blatantly one of the best new faces in television, and hopefully her recent appearances on Game of Thrones, Doctor Who and this is the beginning of many great roles. And then there's Benedict Wong as one seriously cynical agent. This episode, more than any, could kick off its own series. 

"Hated in the Nation" is an episode that goes further down the sci-fi adventure route than Black Mirror usually does. The great strength of this series has been the sheer variety of genres expressed across its half-dozen episodes. This is positioned as the finale, seemingly to justify its extended runtime, and it's an excellent mix of sf, police procedural, horror and political scrutiny. The use of robotic bees as a replacement for the real kind that we're currently wiping out is a fine central conceit as it is, but combining it with the episode's real subject - the seemingly unpoliceable trolling of social media - makes for an incredible mixture. 

The disturbing thing is that we can empathise with people using the #DeathTo tag, even more so once they know it actually has consequences. From the Katy Hopkins-like columnist who attacks the disabled, to paedophiliac former ministers, we can all identify with hating these people enough to wish them dead. Ultimately, though, everyone faces the consequences of their actions. No one gets away this time.

SAN JUNIPERO

Watched next on the recommendation of just about everyone, this is by far and away the best episode of the series, and also the least typical. Unique amongst Black Mirror episodes in that it actually has a happy ending, "San Junipero" is best watched with as little introduction as possible, since a lot of the pleasure is working out just what is going on in this strange world of perpetual Friday nights. Then again, it's also wonderful to watch again, knowing the truth and noticing the little clues peppered throughout. It's achingly romantic; who'd have thought Charlie Brooker was such a softie underneath? I watched this alone first time round, and immediately wanted my girlfriend Suz to come back home from her New Years holiday so that we could watch it together.

What really makes it such an excellent piece of work is the combination of Brooker's script and the wonderful performances of Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The two have an astonishing chemistry, but while Mbatha-Raw is excellent throughout, it's Davis who truly shines, with a heartbreaking, awkward and hugely loveable performance as the oddly-named Yorkie. Added to which is an eighties soundtrack, a potent philosophical message and a timeless sf concept, making for a truly superb hour of television. It's another episode that could potentially spin a sequel, but that really seems like it could spoil it. It's so perfect as it is. I plan to write on this one again at length, but for now, I suggest you watch it if you already haven't. Probably the most beautiful hour of television I've ever seen.

SHUT UP AND DANCE

I was a little disappointed with this episode. It's one hell of a slog, but that's the point, making the viewer experience the hell that Kenny is going through, step by arduous step. Alex Lawther is absoutely brilliant as Kenny, engendering real sympathy, while also being supremely aggravating in the patheticness of his plight. Finally, after he's been through an unrelenting series of humiliations, we find out that he's not the sympathetic character we originally thought. In this respect it forms a companion piece with "Hated in the Nation," putting us in the uncomfortable position of sympathising with the trolls rather than the vicitms of their attacks, be they nasty little paedos or just people who made a stupid mistake.

What sets this apart from every other episode is that it could happen now, with current technology, and involves now explicit science fiction elements at all. Indeed, it's not so different from something that has already happened, to some poor teenaged sap who thought he was talking to a hotty on the internet, only to have his pictures and Skype videos used as leverage in an attempt to blackmail him into paying money he didn't have. That young lad killed himself, something Kenny tries here, and thus this episode cuts close to the bone, while never really hitting greatness.

PLAYTEST

Black Mirror has had plenty of episodes with horror elements, but this is the first out-and-out horror episode and as such, it works very well. "Playtest" doesn't really have anything to say; it's purely terror in descending steps, each scenario of the virtual reality more harrowing than the last. And, to be fair, it does this very well, with a great central performance from Wyatt Russell. His character, Cooper, is a bit of a dick, but a likeable one, and the worst that can be said about him is that he doesn't call him mum often enough. This is unusual, in that most characters in Black Mirror suffer because they've done something that, arguably, means they deserve it. Cooper goes through hell because of a simple mechanical fault due to his flouting of the "no mobile phones" rule, which is rather excessively cruel even for this series. Still, this is in keeping with the genre of the episode; the victims in horror films are frequently innocents. On the other hand, "Playtest" could still be considered a warning against technology; the ever-more sophisticated nature of our entertainment and computer systems will take us into unexplored territories with unpredictable outcomes. All I know is that I would never, ever consent to having any system explore my subconscious fears. It's bad enough having them in the subconscious; bringing them to life is a monstrous idea.

MEN AGAINST FIRE

Undoubtedly the simplest episode of the run, "Men Against Fire" is predictable and tells a well-worn story, but nonetheless an important one. There have been a number of productions with a similar premise, from episodes of The Outer Limits and Voyager to The 5th Wave last year (although that one I take on advisement, I haven't seen it). This is a simplistic tale about the dehumnaisation of the enemy, but it works well, and while it plays its hand early, it's predictable enough that this doesn't really matter. We know from the outset that the "roaches" will turn out to be ordinary humans, but there's still some original elements here. It's an interesting touch to have the dehumanised faction be white, eastern Europeans, while black and white westerners form the ranks of the army. It adds some complexity by revealing that Stripe (an impressive Malachi Kirby) voluntary signed away his memories to join this campaign of ethnic cleansing. It ends with him making a horribly difficult choice, one that reflects every time that we turn a blind eye to some cruelty or try to forget an injustice. One thing thing I'm certain of: if the American military could doctor their troops minds like this, they'd do it in a shot. 

REVIEW: SENSE8

Sense8 is a tricky beast to review. I've been trying to get my head round it for a week or so now. It's certainly an extremely impressive series, in its writing, acting, direction and editing. It's an eye-opening, thought provoking and brave story, one that asks fascinating questions and plays with ideas that aren't commonly found in genre television. It's also an immensely frustrating series, at points almost descending into self-parody as it hops between characters in increasingly ludicrous situations, and refusing to clearly explain its premise.


This last observation isn't a criticism. The lack of a clear-cut explanation for the central characters' mysterious link adds to its power and mystique. It's an unique set-up: eight individuals, from different backgrounds, separated by thousands of miles and by differing cultures and upbringing, somehow linked, experiencing each others' experiences, memories, feelings and abilities. Eight young, very attractive individuals, because at the end of the day, this is still pop genre TV and plain people aren't allowed to be stars.


The series' genre trappings are quite subtle, only gradually being fed into the narrative. The focus is, at least after the gripping prologue, firmly on the introduction of the characters. We learn about them through their interactions with each other, and those in their everyday lives, and very slowly, the facets cross over. By the twelfth episode, all eight sensates are inextricably involved with one another, moving in and out of each others' lives to help each other survive. The science fiction elements are drip fed, and although by the end, the sensates are using their various skills like a body-swapping superhero team. Not that any of them display any superhuman attributes, beyond the central psychic link, but some of them are so phenomenally prodigious in their field that they might as well be. There's a bit of an X-Men vibe here, particularly with Jonas (Lost's Naveen Andrews), a sensate from the previous generation, who begins with as a Professor X-like guru but whose trustworthiness and philosophy later make him much more of a Magneto figure, preaching his kind's superiority over ordinary humanity.


Despite these sprinklings, Sense8 is not a superhero show. It mixes genres with merry abandon, throwing in elements of police procedurals, gangster flicks, Mexican melodrama, martial arts movies and Bollywood. The blend of characters are chosen well, and reflect the Wachowski's preoccupation with identity, particularly racial, sexual and gender identification. It's a similar sensitivity to that which they displayed in their adaptation of Cloud Atlas, but while that can fairly be described as a noble failure, this is a qualified triumph. I should think that much of this is down to the influence of their new writing partner, J. Michael Straczynski, whose knack for balancing complex ongoing plots is well known. Nonetheless, this is a Wachowski production through and through. Most notably, I feel, in its inclusion of a transgender character. While trans characters are becoming more prevalent on television (at long last), they are still poorly represented, both in quantity and quality of characterisation.


Lana Wachowski is one of the most notable transwomen in popular media today, and I would imagine that her experiences have greatly informed the characterisation of Nomi Marks, a lesbian transwoman played by real life trans actress Jamie Clayton. Nomi and her girlfriend Amanita (Freema Agyeman, well known to genre fans as Martha Jones in Doctor Who and Torchwood) are stand-out characters in this series. Straight people don't often realise the complexity and politicking of life in the LGBTQ community, and trans folk are often marginalised in what should be the most accepting of communities. It helps, of course, that Clayton is one of the most beautiful transwomen performing today, but that accepted, her performance here is absorbing and sympathetic, with Nomi and Neets becoming a joyously real, often OTT and very likeable couple. Fan fiction and art featuring them is already proliferating online.


Sexuality and self-acceptance is at the centre of another sensate's character arc. Lito Rodriguez (Spanish actor Miguel Angel Silvestre) is a successful Mexican actor, whose career relies on his good looks and appeal to female audiences. It would be catastrophic for his career if the media learned of his relationship with Hernando (the adorable Alfonso Herrera). Lito's journey is one of self-discovery and self-acceptance, and his relationship becomes more complex (incorporating his former beard Daniela [Erendira Ibarra] into a panromatic trio) and stronger as he faces up to what is truly important to him. Of the three romantic relationships that exist prior to the sensates' contact, it is notable that it is the non-traditional, homosexual relationships that are the strongest.


It's Kala Dendakar (Bollywood actress Tina Desai), whose relationship is rocked by her connection to the others, although, to be fair, it was on shaky ground to begin with. A devout Hindu but also a talented and well-educated chemist, her life is defined by a complex relationship between tradition and progress. She is torn between marrying the rich and desirable Rajan (Purab Kohli), and holding out for love, the tragedy being that everyone around her believes she is marrying for love. Kala becomes especially closely linked to Wolfgang Bogdanow, a Berlin safe-cracker played by Max Riemelt. The two of them begin an unlikely transcontinental romance, which works well purely because their pairing is so unexpected. Both actors sell their infatuation, in spite of their polar opposite personalities, and although their relationship is doomed from the start, it's heartwarming. Wolfgang is a wholly sympathetic but utterly nasty piece of work, but only because of his horrifically tough childhood.


Somewhat left out of the group dynamics are Sun Bak (the Wachowski's Cloud Atlas collaborator Bae Doona), and Capheus (British actor Aml Ameen), although they both have gripping stories of their own and provide vital assistance to the group. Sun is a Korean businesswoman, caught in the machinations of her father and brother, but whose extraordinary prowess with martial arts makes her the most remarkably useful of the group, even as her own life enters a terrifying downward spiral. Capheus, contrastingly, is the least privileged of all the sensates, living in the poverty-stricken outskirts of Nairobi. The grim reality of his life, struggling to support his mother, who is suffering from AIDS, contrasts with his infectious optimism and lust for life. His special ability is simply damned fine driving, but he adores Jean-Claude van Damme, a charmingly retro obsession. He drives his little bus, Van Damn(!), eking out a meagre living, and like Sun, he is drawn into a criminal life through no fault of his own. Both of their stories would make exciting series in themselves.


Most central to the narrative are Will and Riley, whose experiences push the story forward throughout. Will is an Chicago cop, played by Stargate Universe's Brian J. Smith, whose investigation of the opening scene's murder involves him at the very core of the narrative. He's very much the “ordinary guy” one of the eight, the straight, white American guy who represents the inevitable bulk of the audience. His investigatory skills, paired with Nomi's hacktivist past, make him a driving force in the plot. Riley Blue, played by the truly beautiful Tuppence Middleton, is an Icelandic DJ living in London, living on the opposite side of the law to Will due to some poor choices, and haunted by a heartbreakingly tragic past. Really, it's astonishingly bleak, and the gradual revelation of what Riley has suffered makes up much of the final act. Riley and Will share their own romance, and become the most inextricably linked of all the sensates, although all eight of them influence each other throughout the series.


The story rolls along, mixing love, lust, fear and excitement. The plot is, to be fair, rather all over the place, but the individual elements and characters are captivating enough to make it thoroughly enjoyable. The action scenes, of which there are many, are exhilarating, and there are elements of genuine horror. The series isn't afraid of showing graphic violence and bloodshed, although it's the more understated moments that are most affecting. I found the scenes where Nomi is drugged, bound, incarcerated due to her supposed psychological illness, and the threat of impending surgery, genuinely difficult to watch (although this is a particular phobia of mine, to be fair). Still, this is adult material. What has attracted the most commentary is the sex, of which there is also plenty, from the outset. Male and female nudity is frequent, and there several sex scenes, culminating in an almost unbearably erotic scene in episode six that can only be described as a psychic orgy. However, the violence and sex both feel honest, never gratuitous, and in fairness, it's less than Game of Thrones has been getting away with for five seasons now.



The final episode, while it does well to bring together all the sensates in a single “mission,” focuses heavily on Riley and Will, to the detriment of the other characters, although Nomi's default position as team leader is a pleasant touch. Even after twelve episodes of slow burn, it's still clear that there is a vast amount about the series' concept that we do not know, which, combined with some inconsistency concerning the presentation of the eight's powers, is frustrating. A second season is clearly required, for although some of the characters' storylines have come to a head, others are ongoing, and the central conspiracy is very much unresolved. However, for all the occasional frustration at the story's opacity, it's refreshing to have a genre series that respects its audience's intelligence rather than simply spelling things out. A fascinating, if imperfect, exploration of humanity, I look forward to seeing how it develops in its next season.

REVIEW: Marvel's Daredevil

Now, that's how you do it.


It's understandable that some people are starting to become a little fed up with superhero films and series now. As the new big thing, they have become ubiquitous, and for every geek who looks forward to the next snippet of comicbook movie news, there's ten people who got bored with it all around when The Avengers was in the cinemas. Which is a pity, since there are some genuinely very good productions out there. Still, it's not too much of a surprise that many people were unenthused by the news that Marvel/Disney had five series planned for streaming on Netflix. Superhero overkill, it might sound like. However, going by the first of these series, Marvel have finally found their niche for television. If anyone asks which of the many comic-based shows are worth watching, then Daredevil is what I shall tell them.

There's a qualifier, though. Daredevil is dark as hell. “Dark” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, and it's usually pretty meaningless, but in the case of Daredevil, it's very apt. Daredevil is cynical and unflinchingly brutal. I'm genuinely impressed by Disney for allowing something so bloody to go out under their name. I'm usually the first to condemn an adaptation for being needlessly grim; you only need to look at the recently leaked trailer for Batman vs. Superman to see something that's had all the joy mercilessly sucked from it. With Daredevil, however, the darkness has a point. Life is vicious and unjust, but we can try to fight against that injustice. Sometimes, violence must be met by violence, but in doing so, we risk becoming what we are fighting against. It also helps that the darkness is not relentless; there's plenty of humour and quieter, more philosophical moments to offset it. While Arrow just dragged on and got boring, Gotham can't seem to balance its tone between grimdark and absurd, and Marvel's own Agents of SHIELD has taken a season and a half to become must-see TV, Daredevil set itself as a self-contained story, told over thirteen chapters, perfectly balancing the tone so that it was an intense, powerful, and entertaining experience.


That said, I absolutely wouldn't want all of Marvel's productions to be like this. The Netflix set is set out to be the street-level section of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, harder, dirtier and distinctly unsuitable for kids. Marvel's great strength on screen is their variety, with different films hitting different marks. Someone who loved Guardians of the Galaxy may hate Daredevil, however, they are to my eyes both excellent adaptations of very different comicbook properties that each do their own thing very well. Daredevil in comics has long been a very dark affair; the series so far hasn't come close to some of the depths to which the comics have plunged. There's still the future, of course; after the team-up series The Defenders, presumably late next year, I would be surprised if we don't see a second run of Daredevil. That said, the showrunners have killed off a surprising number of major characters, including one I would have sworn would make appearances in other series. It makes for an unpredictable viewing experience, and unlike the comics (or The Avengers movie), I don't think we're going to see dead characters returning to life.


Daredevil has always been a great concept: the blind lawyer who fights crime by night, empowered by enhanced secondary senses and martial training. A character who has to juggle twin identities, who fights to protect his city without the aid of superhuman strength, just skill and determination. So far, so Batman, but unlike Bruce Wayne (or his current TV stand-in, Oliver Queen), Matt Murdock doesn't have a vast fortune behind him to make things easier. That's the strength of this adaptation, compared to the previous cinematic version (which was enjoyable enough, for all its flaws). It's a ground-up approach, with Murdock arriving on the scene in little more than simple black clothes and a black bandana. It's not an origin story – god knows we've had enough of those of late – but it's an early draft of a character, learning how to be the superhero he's destined to become. He doesn't even get called Daredevil until almost the final scene of the series; something that many modern superhero adaptations go for, leaving the often corny names out until in-universe media coin them. Instead of an origin story, we get a work-in-progress whose beginnings are sketched in with detailed flashbacks. It helps Murdock become the most three-dimensional character in a cast that is full of them. Indeed, none of the major characters feel anything other than entirely real, and even lesser characters have depth. No one comes across as rushed or sketched-in. This is a vital part of the series' success; not only in the fundamentals of making a compelling drama, but also in bringing a lesser known property to the screen.

The cast are, to a one, absolutely compelling. Charlie Cox is not the man I'd have cast as Murdock, which just goes to show how little I should be listened to, because he is note-perfect. Handsome and confident, but tempered with a certain awkwardness that it's never quite certain is real or put on, Cox's Murdock is a deeply flawed individual who struggles to balance his inherent anger and violence with his need to do the right thing. Daredevil is unusual in that he is a religious superhero, his Catholicism both a source of strength and conflict. Cox is himself from a Catholic background, and has said that he found this element of the character easy to recreate. His accent is also note perfect, at least to my admittedly untrained ears. What must have been far more challenging is playing a blind man, something that is incredibly difficult for a sighted person to convincingly portray. Both Cox and Scott Glen, as Daredevil's mentor Stick, are entirely convincing as blind men with preturnatural precision in their bearing and skills. It's quite remarkable.


It's difficult to single anyone out for particular praise, because the cast is so very good throughout. Eldon Henson makes an excellent Foggy Nelson, a character who has previously been ignored or poorly presented in adaptations. While he has his moments of comic relief, Henson's Foggy is no useless comedy sidekick, rather representing the ordinary but skilled, hardworking and noble other half of the Nelson and Murdock firm and friendship. Henson is physically right as well; odd-looking but certainly not unattractive, but nonetheless not up to the same grade as Cox's good looks, There's a real charm to his performance, and genuine poignancy to his, as he sees it, betrayal. The central trio is completed by Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page. What could have been nothing more than a mutual love interest for Matt and Foggy, has instead been a headstrong and entirely compelling character. Karen's presence is the catalyst for the entire plot, but she is no mere plot device; the trouble she gets into are a direct result of her own investigations, no less than Matt's injuries are a result of his actions as Daredevil. Woll is really quite something, dominating scenes even when she is not the focus. Indeed, she often takes attention away from Matt and Foggy's interactions, and that's not simply because of her stunning looks. I hope if there is a second series we get to learn more about her past; there's a great deal more to be done with the character that I am certain Woll can illustrate brilliantly. An interesting fact is that Woll's real life partner is suffering from a degenerative disease that will eventually rob him of his sight. Without wanting to trivialise their experiences, I wonder if this allowed her a certain insight into playing someone close to a blind character.


The remaining cast are equally as impressive. Again, it's impossible to call out to everyone, but there are certain actors who are especially deserving of praise. Vondie Curtis-Hall is an excellent choice for Ben Urich, the stalwart reporter for, in this version, the New York Bulletin. A wonderfully characterful actor, Curtis-Hall is a perfect choice for the old city boy who's seen and weathered it all. Bob Gunton is as watchable as ever as Leland “The Owl” Owlsley, wisely portrayed as a straightforward criminal type rather than the more outlandish supervillain of the later comics. He's a slippery one, if a little obtuse. Both Rosario Dawson and Ayelet Zurer are excellent in their roles, Claire Temple and Vanessa Marianna respectively. Although neither of character exists for anything other than their relationships with the show's hero and villain respectively, both are equally as well-rounded and three-dimensional as any of the characters. Claire Temple, integrated with the character of Night Nurse (a wise streamlining of concepts), in particular could do with more exploration, but given her character's links in the comics to other upcoming characters such as Luke Cage, I think it's a certainty we will see her again in the remaining Netflix. As for Vanessa, I doubt we shall see her until any second Daredevil series, which is a pity. Zurer's scenes with D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk are a highlight of the series, a complex, dangerous but believable relationship between two formidable individuals tied together by real love and affection.


Yes, Vincent D'Onofrio. His performance as the Kingpin is quite incredible, possibly the most remarkable performance in the series. While physically impressive, D'Onofrio does not have the gigantic stature that the comicbook character has, nor his previous screen incarnation as portrayed by Michael Clarke Duncan. This doesn't matter in the slightest, however. D'Onofrio portrays the crimelord as man barely suppressing a furious rage, one that threatens to erupt with terrifying brutality at any moment. He is absolutely terrifying, but nonetheless, a hugely sympathetic and complex character. His refined exterior contrasts with his thuggish true face, yet there is real love there, for his mother, for Vanessa, for his right-hand man Wesley (albeit, in that case, an undeniable and distracting Burns/Smithers vibe). An astonishing meeting of fine writing and acting, Wilson Fisk is the standout character of Daredevil, more compelling even than the hero. He is, of course, the dark reflection of Matt Murdock, a man who puts on his own sort of disguise to remake the city in the image he sees fit. Both are trying to change Hell's Kitchen to something greater, but their methods and goals are at odds. Nonetheless, the two men become dangerously similar when pushed to extremes. Both are moulded by the hard lessons they learnt in childhood. There are fascinating parallels. The Kingpin has long been a favourite villain of mine, since his major role in the nineties Spider-Man cartoon series, but it's opposite Daredevil that he comes into his own. D'Onofrio's portrayal is the most powerful version ever, and I would be astonished if we have seen the last of him. Certainly, the actor himself is keen to return (he has shown particular enthusiasm for appearing opposite the new Spider-Man.

Daredevil is also visually accomplished, in a very different way to the glitz of Marvel's big screen outings. Elastic's beautiful, haunting title sequence sets the scene, introducing us a dingy, dirty city that nonetheless has a certain visceral beauty. Excellent cinematography by Matt Lloyd elevates the surroundings to a theatrical arena, the bold use of colour enhancing environments. Most impressive are the fight scenes, of which there are many. Although they are of course choreographed, they never feel like they are. The fights in Daredevil are tired, dirty and bloody. There's been a trend for screen fights in recent years to be more physical and believable than the dances of previous years, but Daredevil takes it to another level. There's one fight, at the end of the second episode, that simply blows all competition out of the water. Filmed in a single long take, imperceptibly switching between Cox and his stuntman, it's utterly, brutally, astonishing. No Hulk vs. Iron Man smash is going to top that for sheer impact.

The tying in of Daredevil into the MCU is handled especially well. While there's the occasional jokey reference which feels a little out of place, for the most part it is done with restraint and skill. The ruinous setting of Hell's Kitchen is an intrinsic part of the Daredevil story, but in reality, Hell's Kitchen no longer truly exists, having been greatly cleaned up and gentrified to become a fairly desirable neighbourhood they'd rather be known as Clinton. The writers of this series have used the so-called Battle of New York, the invasion and destruction that occurred in The Avengers, to reduce the area back to its decrepit roots. Beyond that, links are few and far between, with most comicbook characters included unique, thus far, to this series, and realistically portrayed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long run. There are still unanswered questions, most notably regarding Stick and the Japanese criminal organisation he turned up to fight (which I presume to be the Hand). Murdock will, at some point, fight as part of The Defenders against an unknown foe, and it would not be a surprise if he had some role in the great battle that will come at the end of the next phase of Marvel movies. Until then, there's the hope of another season of Daredevil itself. Matt, Foggy and Karen may have triumphed against injustice for now, but they've painted a very big Bullseye on their heads.