Psychos: Episode 6 (1999)

 

Dropping in cold on the final episode of a miniseries is risky business.  I considered watching the first five episodes before this installment of Capaldi Fall, but I ultimately decided to just go for it.  Overall, not too much fallout; while it probably would have been better not to see the ending first, and I obviously wasn't getting all the details of the interpersonal dynamics between the main characters, I could still follow what was going on and enjoy it a lot.

 

Psychos focuses on the doctors in a Glasgow psychiatric hospital:  their work, their goals, their relationships, and so on.  Episode 6 begins on Thursday the 12^th, and Valerie, an inpatient and severe triskaidekaphobe, is extremely agitated about the day to come.  The story is like a game of Jenga played inside a pressure cooker, continually adding new potential disasters to the mix.  Which block will topple the tower is anyone's guess.

 

One of said blocks is new arrival Mark Collins, played by PC.  Mark is a mathematician who's resistant to the idea that he might be bipolar.  A man enthusiastically intent on working himself to exhaustion, he immediately gets down to business exasperating the staff and whipping patients into a frenzy.

 

I'm a big fan of this performance.  Mark is an infinitely watchable character, and PC plays him so deftly.  It's not the typical portrayal of someone in a manic cycle; he has his thoughtful moments, even his still moments, and yet you can see that his mind is constantly careening at breakneck speed.

 

And Whovians, if you're curious as to what Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra, everyone's favorite Silurian detective) really looks like, now's your chance!  If I hadn't seen her name in the credits, I'd have had no idea it was her.  Even knowing, I could just barely tell.  Also, for the Torchwood fans, look out for Naoko Mori and Indira Varma as well.

 

Accent Watch

 

Another entry in the Scottish column (understandable, since it takes place in Glasgow.)

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yeah.  Admittedly, I tend to enjoy mental-health-related premises, but I'd be interested in going back and watching the earlier episodes.  The doctor characters seem worth exploring further, and I really enjoyed the various psych-ward plots.

 

PC-wise – Oh yeah.  PC's really great here.

 

Warnings

 

Some violence and disturbing scenes.  Also, there's a bit with a catheter.

House of 9 (2005, R)

 

Netflix sent me House of 9 today, and the description on the DVD envelope says this thriller borrows from Agatha Christie and Saw II, so there's that.  I actually enjoyed it a little bit more I was expecting to, mainly because it spends more time on the psychological stuff than the old ultraviolence.  Still, it’s not exactly my type of movie.

 

In this film, nine strangers are abducted and wake to find themselves trapped in a large, sleekly modern-looking house.  There's a disembodied voice on a loudspeaker, as there usually seems to be in these kinds of movies, telling them what's up: the last one standing will walk out with a duffel bag full of cash.  The voice behind the curtain sends no threats after them.  He only manipulates the environment – limiting their food, messing with the temperature, leaving one of the characters with a gun – and waits for them to turn on each other.

 

All the characters chosen for this little “game” come from different backgrounds, selected for maximum in-fighting:  haves and have-nots, white and black, law-abiding and criminal.  As such, they're written more as types than characters.  PC plays Max Roy, a wealthy clothing designer.

 

Among the nine, Max falls on the less sympathetic side of the scale.  He's more than a little classist, quick to judge others, and when thrust into a horrific situation, his first priority is his own survival.  Not a bad guy specifically, just more of a run-of-the-mill snob who looks out for number one when his back is to the wall.  Acted well enough – I could buy Max as a person rather than a sketch.

 

The film also features Morven Christie, who was on Who in “Tooth and Claw,” and that disembodied voice on the loudspeaker?  Downton Abbey's Carson – yeah.

 

Accent Watch

 

Sounds like London.  The Scottish OO's creep through a little bit in the more emotionally-charged scenes.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Meh.  I don't watch a lot of films in this genre, but I'd say it's probably a middling psychological thriller.  I'm sure there are plenty of others more worth watching.

 

PC-wise – Not necessarily.  If you're a big fan, you'll like his performance here, but don't put it on the top of your must-watch list.

 

Warnings

 

A fair amount of language, dark themes, and a little sexual content.  Violence, of course – not super-gory or twistedly inventive.  More like what a bunch of regular people could realistically do when pushed to their limits.

The Lair of the White Worm (1988, R)

 

This is possibly the strangest outing I've had thus far, and since The Love Child includes multiple conversations with a toilet, that's saying something.  The Lair of the White Worm is very loosely based on a horror story by Bram Stoker (which is slightly less famous than a certain other work of his.)  However, the film is both a modern update of the story and a decided B-movie, all gore and ominous music and phallic imagery.  I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from this movie, but what I got wasn't it.

 

The Lair of the White Worm kicks off when a young archeological student unearths a 2000-year-old reptile skull in Derby.  The locals tell him the tale of the D'Ampton worm, a folklore monster allegedly slain by the ancestor of the village's current lord, and it soon becomes apparent that the creature isn't as mythic as everyone thinks.  The worm turns out to be a tremendously fake-looking giant snake (it'd feel right at home with the Mara from classic Who) with vampiric venom, and it's up to the lord (a very young Hugh Grant – even before Four Weddings and a Funeral!), the student, and two sisters from the village to defeat it and its comely acolyte.

 

PC plays Angus Flint, the archeological student.  Angus is passionate about science and enjoys folklore, though he initially scoffs at the idea that the two could be connected.  He believes mainly in what he can see, but once he has seen, he's quick to get on board and start talking practical solutions, which makes him a desirable candidate for any monster-slaying team.  

 

As far as performances go, it's a little silly, as it seems to should be – I'd imagine it's hard to do otherwise when your character is discussing pornographic cave paintings or siccing mongooses on vampire snake-women.  Still, PC grounds Angus enough that he stays relatable, and you hope he doesn't end up as anyone's dinner.  Also, he sports some epically ridiculous '80s hair.

 

I should mention – bizarre as the aforementioned vampire snake-woman is, she's kind of great.  During the course of the film, she quotes both Oscar Wilde and Citizen Kane, just cuz, and her idea of playing with her food involves challenging her would-be victims to Snakes and Ladders.

 

Accent Watch

 

Three words:  Angus, bagpipes, kilt.  Safe to say he's Scottish.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Possibly, if you like campy B-movies.  It was kind of fun in a really cheesy, lurid, whacked-out way.  Just know that this movie is insane.

 

PC-wise – Maybe.  He has a major role and, while playing Angus was never going to win him any acclaim, you might enjoy watching him run around in such a goofy film.

 

Warnings

 

Lots of gory, uber-fake violence, a little swearing, and a fair amount of sexual content, including nudity and all the phallic imagery you can shake a stick (or a snake) at.

Torchwood: Series 3, Episode 5 – “Children of Earth: Day Five” (2009)

Series 3 of Torchwood builds to a frenzied close in this gut-punching finale.  Feeling they’ve been handed a Hobson’s choice by the 4-5-6, the government sets its reprehensible plan into motion, and it’s up to Jack to neutralize the alien threat, and even more urgently, to save the world from itself.  Unfortunately, Jack is faced with a terrible choice of his own.  I’m telling you, that RTD, he really knows how to go “to the pain.”

 

And Frobisher… PC has a few scenes in this episode that are just jaw-droppingly stunning.  He can show so much emotion without a syllable of dialogue and with such minimal changes in his expression.  After everything he’s given to his government – his years, his peace of mind, the morals he must have had once – it cares about him so little, and there’s a horrible sinking moment when he finally realizes it.  If you were to take screenshots of the beginning and the end of this moment, the physical difference between the two would be fractional, but they’d convey entirely different emotions.  Honestly, one of the best performances I’ve seen from him so far.

 

Final words for Torchwood:

 

Accent Watch

 

Okay, I know I said RP, but I kept second-guessing myself throughout.  What’s interesting is, I think he generally sounds RP in scenes at work – with his staff, the prime minister, and the 4-5-6 – but the Scottish comes through a lot in scenes with his wife and daughters.  Since his wife is Scottish (the character – not sure about the actress), that could’ve made it harder for him to keep the RP going.  He wouldn’t be the first actor to struggle in that area, and PC isn’t an accent ninja to start with.  But we’re talking lots of Scottishness.  I almost wonder if Frobisher is a Scottish man trying to sound posh for his job (apparently he’s never met Malcolm Tucker, proof that a Glaswegian can get ahead in government,) but that might be giving PC a bit too much credit.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – I’m still not sure.  There’s definitely stuff to like – some fine storytelling, great acting, effective directing – but also major flaws and incredibly dark material.  Some fans love “CoE,” and others stopped watching Torchwood over it.  Use your best judgment, I guess?

 

PC-wise – My first instinct is to say, “Yes, yes, yes – why aren’t you watching it yet? – yes!!”  However, I realize I should temper that a little.  PC is fantastic as Frobisher, but Frobisher is an awfully dark character who does some majorly bad things.  If you tend to hold actors accountable for the actions of their less savory characters (if, for instance, you can’t bring yourself to like Guy Pearce because Mondego was such a d-bag in The Count of Monte Cristo,) then seeing this role might make it hard for you to take to him as the Doctor later on.

 

Warnings

 

I know I’ve already mentioned the violence and the dark subject matter, but this episode has a couple of particularly upsetting scenes of violence, both involving children.

Torchwood: Series 3, Episode 4 – “Children of Earth: Day Four” (2009)

 

Seriously, what happened to Russell T. Davies?  He used to be all about hope and the goodness of decent, ordinary people; his time at Who was full of it.  But somewhere along the way, he seems to have utterly lost his faith in humanity.  Did someone kick his puppy?  Was he devastated by his own ending to series 4 of Who?  My pet theory is that when he was writing “Midnight,” he gazed too long into the abyss, and the abyss gazed into him.  Either way, his watchcry shifted from “Humans are wonderful!” to “Humans are the greatest monsters of them all.”  It grips the final episodes of “CoE,” and it plays a featured role in Torchwood’s “Miracle Day” as well.

 

In “CoE:  Day Four,” the 4-5-6 continue to be awful, evil, and gross – naturally – but there’s more than enough evil to go around.  The 4-5-6 put the screws to humanity, leaving the world’s leaders with a horrific choice to make.  The sequence in which a group of U.K. politicians discuss their options is possibly the most disturbing collection of scenes Torchwood has ever come up with.

 

Frobisher divides his time between attending these terrible meetings and playing the messenger to the 4-5-6.  I’m not gonna lie – his actions here are basically the opposite of pretty.  The most heinous stuff is left to the prime minister and the other politicians, and Frobisher at least has the decency to look like he’s about to throw up and/or cry the whole time, but let’s just say the phrase “Nuremberg defense” comes to mind more than once. 

 

It’s weird that I haven’t mentioned the actual members of Torchwood yet – just goes to show how different “CoE” is than the first two seasons of the show, that it takes four paragraphs to get around to mentioning the lead characters.  In this episode, Jack takes a shot at the Doctor’s go-to move, the one that allows him to save the day at least a few times every season.  Only trouble is, Jack’s not the Doctor.

 

I should also mention that this episode and the next one are positively notorious within the Torchwood fandom.  Both of them caused a massive outcry, and a number of fans parted ways with the show over the events of this episode in particular.  I maintain that Moffat takes the bigger pleasure out of trolling his own fanbase, but RTD sure knows how to hit ‘em where it hurts.

Torchwood: Series 3, Episode 3 – “Children of Earth: Day Three” (2009)

The 4-5-6 have finally arrived on earth.  Goodness knows they like to make an entrance – you don’t possess all the world’s children and make them speak in unison when you want to slip in quietly.  If they had their way, they’d address the entire planet, but that’s one item on which they can’t call the shots.  All diplomacy is going on behind closed doors, doors that Torchwood can’t get through.

 

For those who don’t watch Torchwood, let me give you an idea of the action of this episode:  a gang of shadowy, gross-looking aliens riding a pillar of fire down from the sky isn’t even the biggest moment.  Translation?  There’s a lot going on – more on the secrets from Britain’s past, plenty of creepy kids being creepy, and a pretty shocking revelation about one of the Torchwood team.

 

Of course, with Torchwood on the outside desperately trying to look in, the 4-5-6 problem is in the hands of the British government.  The only trouble:  everyone remotely important isn’t about to touch this thing with a ten-pole foot.  So, while the prime minister, UNIT, and an international panel of political players watch a live recording from a safe distance, John Frobisher is the one marching into the lions’ den.

 

This is where PC really starts getting a chance to sink his teeth in.  He’s just pitch-perfect in all his scenes with the 4-5-6 – he’s clinging to ambassadorial scripts and protocol, but his face and his body language tell you the tension is ready to snap him in half.  His expression when he realizes the prime minister is sending him in again is quietly devastating, and all the what-a-great-honor-this-is rationalizing can’t make him any less terrified.

 

Also, there’s a phone call between Frobisher and Jack that reaffirms my belief that we should’ve seen Torchwood interacting with the Home Office before all of this starting going down.  Even something brief at the start of CoE, something to show what Frobisher and Jack’s relationship is like, what the Home Office thinks of Torchwood.  Scenes like this one would’ve been greatly improved by seeing even a glimpse of their history.

 

Warnings

 

This episode starts off the very dark subject matter that’s just going to get darker through the rest of series 3.

Torchwood: Series 3, Episode 2 – “Children of Earth: Day Two” (2009)

 

While episode 1 already lets viewers know that series 3 is going to be a different sort of Torchwood – long scenes are spent away from the team, establishing new characters like Frobisher and other government workers – “CoE:  Day Two” begins the truly decisive break from the way it used to be.  Forced to flee from unknown attackers, our heroes are on the run; their usual high-tech resources are nowhere to be found, even everyday helps like bank accounts and mobile phones are off-limits, and Gwen has her civilian husband in tow.  It’s a tall order just to stay alive, let alone discover who keeps taking over the world’s children.

 

As Torchwood scrambles to make contact with one another and avoid detection, the Home Office is hopping with activity.  There are old secrets to keep, bodies to monitor, and alien instructions to follow to unknown ends.  And at the heart of it all is John Frobisher. 

 

The inconspicuous pencil-pusher has his hands full juggling all the plates these aliens, known only as the 4-5-6, have thrown into the air.  As usual, he keeps his head down and follows instructions, but that may not be enough this time; the prime minister acknowledges that Frobisher’s comprehensive involvement places him squarely on the front lines. 

 

But, though work is obviously an enormous part of Frobisher’s life, it’s not the only part.  He’s also a husband, as well as the father of two girls who’ve been repeatedly commandeered by aliens over the past few days, and the struggle between government man and family man is far from decided.  His wife demands to know what’s happening to their daughters, and he hides behind the Confidential Secrets Act, offering vague reassurances that do little to allay her fears.  However, when the children are taken over yet again, his most urgent phone call isn’t to the prime minister or the Home Office’s scientific advisor, but to his girls.  I like that push and pull.

 

I also want to say, I like the idea of a government department that knows about aliens.  Unit and Torchwood are the front-line folks, the ones with the fancy guns and heart-pumping chases, but here’s this dull-looking office of regular non-thrill-seeking people approaching these threats from a bureaucratic perspective.  It would’ve been fun to see glimpses of it earlier in the series.  Granted, we might not have had PC in the part if Frobisher had been a longer recurring role, but I like the references he makes to Torchwood, Jack, and the like.  Too bad we couldn’t have seen them interact at all before the events of “CoE” – I’m trying to imagine Frobisher in a meeting with Jack right now, and it cracks me up.  Definite missed potential there.

 

Warnings

 

Add occasional swearing to the Torchwood warnings.  Lots more violence than in episode 1, including a few very grisly images.  A couple naked bottoms as well.

Torchwood: Series 3, Episode 1 – “Children of Earth: Day One” (2009)

 

Here’s another PC role that I saw a few years ago.  I was consuming Who and Torchwood at the time, and imagine my surprise when, a few short weeks after I saw PC as a Pompeii granite merchant on Who, he popped up again in Torchwood – as a major player of series 3, no less!

 

Torchwood is, of course, a Whoniverse show spun off from the mother ship.  Former companion Captain Jack Harkness, everyone’s favorite time-traveling omnisexual with a penchant for World War II fashions, heads the allegedly-elite, alien-fighting Torchwood team (although his group, Torchwood Cardiff, has always seemed more than a little ragtag).  Series 3 finds a short-staffed team facing a global alien threat, and “CoE:  Day One” kicks things off creepily. 

 

For one minute, every child in the world has gone blank, standing stock-still and dead to the world – no warning, no reason.  Clearly, something has the ability to control the children, and it’s up to Jack and co. to figure out who and why, not to mention how to stop them.

 

Torchwood aren’t the only ones on the job, however.  Outside-the-government-beyond-the-police organizations are one thing, but the civil service is another.  Enter John Frobisher, played by PC.  Frobisher is the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, which, among other things, handles the U.K.’s response to its ever-increasing number of alien attacks and infiltrations.  Unlike the average British citizen, who insistently denies alien existence, Frobisher has the inside scoop – by all accounts, he spends his days up to his eyeballs in alien-related paperwork.

 

Episode 1 shows Frobisher to be an unassuming man with a mundane attitude about the extraordinary nature of his work; when he finds a UNIT colonel waiting for him at the office, he just groans and hopes it’s a simple extra-terrestrial encounter for once.  It’s actually the more human aspects of his job that get to him – the Home Office has a rather extreme response to personnel issues – but he quietly does as he’s told with a pit in his stomach and a stiff upper lip.

 

Accent Watch

 

RP, pretty sure.  Some Scottish bleeding into the vowels, but the ‘R’s decided it for me.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Hard to say.  Torchwood’s third series is a huge point of contention for fans, and I know I have some definite issues with later episodes in this run.  Still, I have a hard time not recommending something in the Whoniverse.  Captain Jack is Captain Jack, after all.

 

PC-wise – He hasn’t had too much to do yet, but I’m gonna say yes.  Frobisher is a civil servant PC played during the Thick of It era, but he’s so different from Malcolm Tucker, and that’s fun to see.  (Plus, having seen this before, I know what fantastic work PC does later in the series!)

 

Warnings

 

Creepy images mostly, and dark subject matter.  Some violence, and a little sexual content.

Prime Suspect: Series 3, Episode 2 (1993)

The second half of this story is filled with twists and shocks; every time I thought I knew who killed the boy and why, Jane would turn the corner and another bomb would drop.  In addition to a tense, intricate mystery, there's some fantastic character stuff, for Jane as well as a few of her fellow officers.  Just really excellent, gripping television.

 

Oh, and in addition to the actors I mentioned yesterday?  This episode features a young Jonny Lee Miller doing some absolutely top-notch work.  I love Britain.

 

And PC.  Oh, wow.  Vera struggles throughout the episode with the thought of opening up to the police, terrified of what she knows and of what will be done to her if she tells.  PC is superb from start to finish, but there's a heartbreaking scene near the end that is pure master class.  It makes me shiver a little just to think about it.

 

On a side note – whenever I watch something involving transpeople, I'm hyper-aware of pronoun usage.  A few interesting things to report here.  First, Jane is the only officer that almost always addresses Vera by her preferred name.  However, when speaking with her colleagues, she generally refers to Vera by her birth name and uses male pronouns.  I wonder why that is.  Does she only use the male designators because of how the other officers would otherwise react?  Does she personally think of Vera as male but uses her preferred name out of respect when questioning her?  Is calling her “Vera” just a means of earning her trust and getting her to open up?  The inconsistency is an intriguing choice.

 

Also, there's a scene in which Vera refers to a transgirl as a he, which raised up immediate red flags for me.  I can't imagine that she wouldn't have used female pronouns, even if the girl hadn't begun to transition yet – bit of uninformed writing there.

 

The last word on both Prime Suspect installments.

 

Accent Watch

 

I'm gonna go with RP.  There's a scene where Vera is talking with a friend, and her friend's extremely Northern accent clinched it for me; she just doesn't talk like that.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yes.  Very well-plotted mystery, and Helen Mirren does no wrong.

 

PC-wise – Definitely.  Just definitely.

 

Warnings

 

Some additions from yesterday.  This episode has a lot of discussion of sexual abuse against minors, including a couple of difficult scenes recounting specific abuses.  There's also some S & M gear, and a few characters attempting self-harm (not in an S & M way.)

Prime Suspect: Series 3, Episode 1 (1993)

 

This was a PC project that I had my eye on from the start.  Come on – Ciarán Hinds, David Thewlis, Mark Strong, and the glorious Helen Mirren?  I'm there.  I'm halfway through this two-part season and... well, let's just say I'm not disappointed.

 

Prime Suspect was a long-running British crime drama, starring Mirren as DCI Jane Tennyson.  Series 3 finds her starting a new job, heading up a vice squad.  As first days go, she's not exactly eased into it.  She arrives the morning after a dead rent boy has been pulled out of a burned-down flat.  An investigation into the boy's death quickly begins to point toward larger implications:  there's a menacing pimp, a secret stash of child pornography, and pressure from above not to delve too deeply into the case.

 

PC plays Vera Reynolds, a timid transwoman brought in for questioning.  She owned the flat in which the dead boy was found, and the police suspect her first of killing him and later of knowing more than she's telling.  

 

This is a really great performance.  In the interrogation room, Vera is like a delicate, spooked bird.  She's just lost her home, someone she knew has died there, and she's being treated like a criminal, a freak, and possibly a criminal on account of being a freak.  She doesn't visibly flinch as the officers repeatedly call her Mr. Reynolds, but you can feel her flinch.  She's a very evocative character.  You can feel her distress and confusion, the shame that's being thrust upon her, and most of all, the fear of what will happen if she reveals what she knows.

 

I'm excited to see the second half, both so I can figure out who murdered the boy and why, and so I can see more of Vera!

 

Accent Watch

 

It sounds mostly RP, but there might be a little northern thrown in there.  Many of the characters have northern accents, which could be biasing my ears.  Also, Vera's voice is pretty quiet and pitched up a bit, so it's a little harder to tell.  I'll try to figure out for sure next time.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yeah.  It's a good mystery, the acting is great, and Jane is an excellent leading lady.  She's tough and smart, and she has a driving curiosity that's just so admirable.

 

PC-wise – Yes; PC is stellar.  Even though I can't say he looks too much like a woman, he really seems like one, and his Vera is greatly sympathetic.

 

Warnings

 

Lots of frank discussion of solicitation, sex, drug use, and pornography, all involving minors.  “Thematic elements” puts it mildly.  However, it's pretty much entirely kept to discussion – nothing explicit is depicted.  Probably on par with some of the more intense Law & Order:  SVU episodes.

The Crow Road: Episode 4 - “Rory” (1996)

The last episode of The Crow Road builds to a great climax, but slowly – sinking realizations and a growing, creeping sense of foreboding as Prentice starts putting things together and the secrets begin to take shape.  Lost things are found, something that was there all along is truly seen for the first time, and stories are put to rest.

 

Obviously, since this episode is called “Rory,” and the miniseries is driven by Prentice's search for the truth about his uncle (trying to reconcile a lost man's stories at the behest of a dead woman – I like that,) there's a lot happening here that I should mention under no circumstances.  Overall though, I think the mystery is a pretty good one, and once you know the score, you can see the hints that were scattered along the way.

 

As for PC?  Again, I don't want to give too much away.  I'll just say that there's a really lovely flashback of Uncle Rory and a young Prentice going out to see a group of standing stones.  It's the only flashback that features just the two of them, and I really love their dynamic.  Such great uncle stuff – he's the caring adult doting on the child, but he also lets the two of them get away with things a parent wouldn't allow, and he never talks down to Prentice.  Seeing this scene, I can very easily believe that they would have gone on to have much the same dynamic that they do in Prentice's subconscious.

 

It's not a huge role, but it's a very well-executed role.  Rory interacts slightly differently with each major character, and yet there's still a distinct unifying Rory-ness that runs through all his scenes.

 

The last word:

 

Accent Watch

 

Still Scottish, of course.  Aside from Danny Boyle movies, I haven't seen a lot of specifically Scottish film/television, and PC’s filmography is quickly expanding that.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Very much so.  I liked this a lot – better add another book to my reading list (can’t just read different version of Neverwhere one right after another.)  The characters and relationships are so well-drawn, and I adore the themes of memories and stories.

 

PC-wise – Yeah.  PC is none too shabby in this small but important role.

 

Warnings

 

In addition to the previous warnings for The Crow Road, “Rory” has a few more violent scenes and some dark subject matter.  Also, there's one sex scene here that's a little longer and better lit than most of the sex in the other episodes.