Other Doctor Lives: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “We’re on Our Way Now” (2021)

Music video acting is interesting. It’s like, yeah, it’s acting, but it exists in this weird in-between space. The storytelling strokes in a music video can be overly broad, while at the same time, the identity-less characters that actors play can be drawn rather blankly. You’re not necessarily looking for who the character is, you’re looking for how the video makes you feel.

Like a number of music videos that tell stories, the tale in “We’re on Our Way Now” isn’t necessarily the same one told by the lyrics, although they both stir up a similar response. The song is a moody rock venture—when I realized that Noel Gallagher used to be in Oasis, I wasn’t surprised. It’s about a lost opportunity: seemingly a lost love, a lost chance that may have been snatched away by death. Right from the start, it’s wistful, entreating, “Remember what might have been.” The pre-chorus features the mournful lines, “Good luck in the afterlife. / I hear the morning sun doesn’t cast no shadow,” and the chorus, while melodically brighter, is still hung with glints of regret.

The video also asks us to consider what might have been, or perhaps what once was. We follow a man and a woman in two different scenarios—personally, I get the feeling that we’re looking at the past (the happier passages) and the present (the sadder ones,) but the former might also be a “road less traveled” kind of thing. In the happier passages, the two are clearly a couple, in love in easy, uncomplicated ways like walking through the park or driving through the city. In the sadder passages, we don’t know exactly what’s happened, but it seems they don’t have each other: the man is leading a lonely reckless life, while the woman stares into the camera with tears in her eyes.

Given that there are basically two “characters” in the video, it’s no surprise that Matt Smith plays the man. I’ll admit that his performance pulls me in more in the sadder passages. Whether he’s nervously looking out the window or lying listlessly on the bed of his small upstairs flat with a bag full of money (like I said, a lonely reckless life,) I feel like I’m being invited into his situation, whatever it might be. I want to know more, and I want to know what have happened between him and the woman (played by Gala Gordon.)

But while the happier passages are more boilerplate, they’re valuable for their contrast to the other scenes. These shots of a couple contentedly in love—are they the life the man used to have, and if so, what went wrong? Are they the life the man might’ve had if he’d not gone down a different path?

Accent Watch

Not applicable—he doesn’t speak onscreen.

Recommend?

In General – I think so. I wasn’t familiar with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, but I liked the song and the video is interesting.

Matt Smith – Why not? It’s not a super demanding role, but it’s four minutes out of your day, so if you like Smith, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Joel Fry-days: Alice and Steve: Season 1, Episode 3 (2026)

*Spoilers for episode 2*

This one is touch-and-go on the Joel Fry front for a bit, but I’m cautiously happy with where it goes and looking forward to seeing what happens next for Daniel. The rest of the episode is pretty enjoyable too—more focused on the relationships and less on public humiliation, which makes it less painful to watch.

After Alice had an epic flameout during her vindictive dinner party in episode 2, Daniel decided to chaperone a school orchestra trip he’d recently turned down, badly needing some space. So while he goes to Antwerp (alongside a colleague who’s most definitely attracted to him,) Alice is left at home as the main caregiver for their teenage son Dom. This doesn’t go great—she immediately cuts herself while attempting the cook, and who should arrive at the hospital to bring her home? Steve, obviously. And despite Alice’s efforts to give him the cold shoulder, circumstances conspire to remind her what Steve means to her.

Throughout their marriage, Daniel has basically always been there to do most of the caregiving/cooking/household tasks/etc., so Alice being on her own is a major adjustment, and she doesn’t handle it well. After she hurts herself “proving” she can cook, her hand is bandaged up to the point that she can’t do much without assistance, from buckling her seatbelt to turning the pages of a book. So, Dom’s the one who ends up doing the cooking. But even beyond her negligible household skills, Alice’s parenting is further hampered by her selfishness. The hospital told her that someone needs to be with her for the rest of the day, and when she finds out Dom is going to a party with his crush and Steve offers to stay, Alice tries to bribe Dom not to leave.

That said, this episode is actually Alice’s best showing to date, because when Dom has a crisis in the second half of the episode, she steps up. She offers Dom (and Rome, his crush) emotional support and reassurance during a tough time, and she gives some practical advice to the party full of high teenagers. Furthermore, the situation allows both her and Steve to get out of their own way, at least for a little while, and team up for the sake of someone else.

Our character of the week is Marni, who teaches music like Daniel. She’s the one who first invited him to come on the orchestra trip and is way into him. So between Daniel being angry with Alice and going off to Antwerp with Marni, I was definitely concerned about how this was gonna play out. I thought the actress playing Marni looked familiar, but until I checked IMDb, I never would’ve guessed this was Lydia Wilson, who played Matilda in Requiem! Her hair is completely different for the two characters, so I didn't recognize her. Another connection to a past Joel Fry project, which is neat.

It’s clear that Alice takes Daniel for granted and treats him badly, and she doesn’t exactly cover herself in glory when she drops him off at the school to go on the trip. When she asks, “Are you ever going to forgive me?”, he smoothly replies, “Are you ever going to apologize?” Still, that doesn’t mean I want to see a cheating storyline for him. Not to mention, I’m not convinced that Marni would be that much better than Alice. In episode 2, she emasculates him less than Alice, but she still emasculates him, and here, she leans in hard coming onto a colleague that she knows is married with kids.

Fortunately, though, this storyline takes an interesting turn, and I’m very curious to see where it goes next. I won’t spoil the details here, but I can see several possibilities moving forward. A couple of the options would be disappointing, another interesting, and another downright exciting! We’ll see which path the show takes—I know which one I’m crossing my fingers for.

Regardless of where we go from here, Joel Fry is fantastic in this episode. He’s so good at navigating Daniel’s reactions to what goes down. There are moments where he’s naively content, where he’s shocked, where he’s embarrassed, where he’s puzzled, and where he’s defensive. In particular, his final scene in the episode is really great. It’s the one that has me the most intrigued, and maybe even hopeful!

Another bit I love: when a server from the hotel bar tells them they’re closed for the night and Marni can’t convince him to make them one more drink, Daniel has the most ridiculously cute response. He gives a few quiet, tentative boos to the server, then waves to him and apologizes with a smile. A delightful moment, wonderfully played by Fry.

Y tu Luna también: Maya and the Three: Episode 1 – “Quinceañera” (2021)

*Premise spoilers.*

I’ve seen this miniseries more than once since it first came out, and I’m pleased to be watching it again for Y tu Luna también. Even though I know episode 1 isn’t as strong as what follows, it’s still a solid, entertaining start to a fantastic series.

In the Mesoamerican-inspired kingdom of Teca, Princess Maya longs to be a warrior like her father and three older brothers. But on the dawn of her coronation on her quinceañera, she seems fated to wind up a diplomat like her mother, a destiny she fights against with every ounce of her being. However, her coronation is interrupted by a messenger from the gods, with a pronouncement that upends Maya’s life and points to the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.

Maya and the Three comes from the mind of Jorge R. Gutiérrez, who made The Book of Life. It’s immediately easy to see his fingerprints on the miniseries. The animation style is similar, with wild proportions like some characters with shoulders three times as broad as their waists and another with a nose like a tree branch. In this one, though, the Mesoamerican detailing in the architecture, clothing, and face paint is exquisite—Maya’s coronation outfit is one of my favorite “overly-elaborate princess dresses” that I’ve seen. The stylized action is also animated really well, and once the gods enter the picture, the animation goes to a whole other level.

Another Gutiérrez stamp is the humor. It’s frequently loud and frenetic, sometimes leaning into gross-out gags. There are kooky reaction shots and silly slapstick, which might tempt the viewer not to take it seriously or consign it to the “kids’ stuff” pile, less sophisticated than the better Pixar or Disney outings. But in amongst the fast-paced goofiness, there’s also a lot of sly jokes and priceless line readings.

When it comes to the story, there’s nothing mindblowing at this point. Maya as the scrappy princess who wants to fight Like the Boys isn’t breaking any new ground. Of course she sneaks off to seek glory in the fighting pits and comes home on the day of her coronation with a black eye, and of course her mother has her work cut out for her to make Maya “look like a princess.” Maya’s fraught relationship with her mother conjures up memories of Brave, at one point nearly blow-by-blow. Maya is tough and brave, but she also has a lot of bravado, and she can be a brat to her mom when she feels stifled. On the positive side, though, when she goes too far, she feels bad and almost immediately tries to take it back. Rather than just blaming her mom for everything she chafes against in her life, she’s able to recognize when her own actions are making things worse.

Zoe Saldana, who also starred in The Book of Life, plays Maya with plenty of brashness and swagger, but she has more introspective moments too, not to mention a silly side. The rest of the cast includes a veritable who’s who of Latine talent, so rather than go through everyone who makes an appearance, I’ll pace myself over the course of my reviews (Diego Luna is in seven of the nine episodes.) Gutiérrez himself is a hoot as Maya’s meathead warrior-king father, full of over-the-top reactions and goofy deliveries. Meanwhile, Gael García Bernal plays Maya’s brothers, a.k.a. the Jaguar Triplets. The brothers don’t have an overabundance of lines, so I might just be hearing things, but to me, each of them sounds just a tiny bit different while still recognizably having García Bernal’s voice.

Luna plays the pivotal messenger from the gods, the awesomely-monikered Zatz, the Prince of Bats. His arrival on the scene is a certified moment: he rides into Teca on his flaming skeletal steed, and you can hear the spurs on his stylish black armor jangle as he dismounts. Everyone in the crowd is terrified of this mysterious stranger, and yet, when he takes off his helmet and tosses his hair, some of the people most definitely swoon (there’s a healthy amount of female-gaze thirstiness in Gutiérrez’s work, and I appreciate that.)

So yes, the first two things we learn about Zatz are that he’s very intimidating and very hot. After dropping a major bombshell into the story, he moves to claim Maya for the gods and bring her back to the underworld. Although aligned with the bad guys, he gives the humans a warning that he’ll only fight them if they resist—I mean, not quite the stuff a mensch is made of, but it does display a bit of honor for someone in a villainous position, a trait that runs beneath his entire appearance.

Between the animation and Luna’s vocal performance, which has a bit of extra growl to it, Zatz cuts a cool and imposing figure. I especially like the moment where he calmly announces, “We are done here,” and immediately demonstrates that he could waste Maya’s father and brothers any time he wanted to. We also get, “Be well, Princess Maya. I’ll see you soon,” which manages to be ominous and slightly alluring both at once.

And that’s episode one! Initial takeaways (even though, as I’ve said, I’ve seen the show multiple times before):

Recommend?

In General – Yes. Even though this first episode stills within fairly typical narrative bounds, the miniseries has enough going for it to encourage going further.

Diego Luna – For sure. He’s only in two scenes in this episode, but he already makes a major impression—Zatz is cool, badass, and mysterious. My first time watching, I definitely wanted to know more about him at this point!

Warnings

Cartoon violence, scary moments for kids, some gross-out humor, and thematic elements.