The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 3, Episodes 9-10 – “Mona Lisa’s Revenge” (2009)

More posts on the recent new Who specials will be coming, but I wanted to get back to reviews of past episodes too, so let’s do a bit of The Sarah Jane Adventures today. The Sarah Jane-lite story of series 3 is pretty fun. The kids have to work together to stop an alien threat in a unique setting for them, and I enjoy the creativity and the unexpected turns of the story.

Luke, Rani, and Clyde go on a class field trip to an art museum, where one of Clyde’s pieces won a contest and is on display. Also visiting the museum? The Mona Lisa! But the excitement over seeing the famous work of art turns to concern when the painting is brought to life. Mona Lisa has been stuck on a wall for centuries, and she’s ready to get more out of life. Our heroes have to stop her power trip while also avoiding suspicion from Rani’s dad, their headmaster.

The most interesting wrinkle to this story is that the Mona Lisa who comes to life isn’t the subject of the painting. It’s not even an “It’s Hot Up Here” situation from Sunday in the Park with George—it’s not the subject of the painting who knows she’s a work of art while also retaining her original personality. The enemy here is very specifically the painting itself, a fact that hits home with the museum curator Mr. Harding, who’s been obsessed with it for much of his life. The quiet beauty and enigmatic smile are traded in for a coarse manner, a list of grievances, and a mission to find her “brother,” another living painting in the museum. Before Suranne Jones ever played the embodiment of the TARDIS, she played Mona Lisa, and while I understandably prefer her as the TARDIS, she’s still pretty great here.

The Sarah Jane-lite stories come about in different ways. Most dramatically, she’s been temporarily erased from history, while on another occasion she was simply out of town dealing with a pesky alien. In this serial, she’s physically around but is largely separate from the kids during the main adventure. This is due to Luke, who won’t let Clyde or Rani contact her because he’s still upset from an argument he had with her earlier in the day. It makes for a different dynamic here, because at the start, the kids could call Sarah Jane for help but are instead purposefully trying to handle the situation on their own.

Still, on their own is awfully capable. Clyde’s knowledge of art, and his understanding of the museum overall, naturally comes in handy. They make good use of Luke’s remarkable memory, and he comes up with clever, inventive ideas as well. Meanwhile, Rani brings her practical knowhow and quick thinking to the table.

Even before the alien stuff kicks off, I just enjoy watching the kids on the field trip. Luke and Rani are both more studious than Clyde, but when it comes to an art museum, he’s way more psyched than either of them. Apart from seeing his winning piece on display, which they’re all excited for, Clyde is the one who takes charge, consulting the museum map and urgently teaching Luke some new social norms (like, you know, “don’t touch the artwork.”) And Rani can’t help but notice that Clyde’s “imaginative” art includes a few not-so-imaginary details from their adventures with Sarah Jane. These three are always fun to watch together, and putting them in a story mostly separate from Sarah Jane puts a different spin on things.

His Dark Materials (2019-2022)

I came around to loving Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and the HBO TV adaptation of the series captures it beautifully. This is a gorgeous show that examines the big ideas of the books as it brings the characters to life and delivers on its inventive fantasy concepts.

Young Lyra lives in the care of the scholars at Jordan College, generally running amok with her best friend Roger until someone corrals her long enough to give her a lesson. When the rumors of the mysterious “Gobblers” abducting children hit close to home, Lyra ventures out from the safety of the college into an uncertain world ruled by the theocratic Magisterium. She’s determined to root out what the Gobblers are up to and how it’s connected with the “Dust” that her uncle is studying.

That summary is the same one I wrote for the book of The Golden Compass. Fortunately, the show covers all three books, so we get to a lot more than just that, but it makes for a fine jumping-off point for the series. This show offers up all sorts of major elements from the books: alethiometers, armored bears, witches, windows, Spectres, Angels, and of course, dæmons. While I can’t say how well a non-book-reader would be able to follow everything, all of it works really well for me.

The production design and visual effects are simply stunning. I love the look of the windows and the use of the subtle knife, the CGI on Iorek Byrnison looks incredible, and the sets and costumes do an excellent job of creating the feel of this story. We visit multiple worlds and they all look fantastic, from the eerie stillness of Citágazze to the melancholy blankness of the land of the dead.

If I have one complaint to make about the visuals, it’s that there aren’t enough dæmons in the crowd scenes throughout the first season. Obviously, CGI costs add up quickly, but this is a world where every human has a dæmon, to the point where seeing somebody without one feels sickeningly unnatural. As such, it feels strange to see, for instance, Lyra and Lee Scoresby in a crowd of gyptians, but theirs are the only dæmons we see. From season 2 on, however, the show does a much better job of creating the sense of dæmons everywhere without having to render every single one—we get more shots of birds swooping overhead, salamanders and hedgehogs disappearing into pockets, and so on, enough to remind us that the dæmons are always there, even if we don’t see them in every single shot.

This is a dense story with lots of moving parts, and as I said in my reviews of the books, it doesn’t always seem like all the disparate elements should fit together. But the books make it work, and for the most part, the show does too. At the same time that it juggles all the large-scale plot stuff and world-hopping, it also makes space to explore the series’ themes and allow events to resonate for the characters. There are changes—in particular, following Will in our world prior to him meeting Lyra in season 2 is a good one—but it always feels like His Dark Materials and stays true to its origins.

The cast is great across the board. Dafne Keen, who made such a huge impact as X-22 in Logan, is a wonderful Lyra; she’s stubborn and a bit bratty, but she’s also clever and daring. I wasn’t familiar with Amir Wilson, who plays Will, but he’s excellent, equal parts emotionally intelligent and pragmatic. Among the adult cast, everyone turns in fine work. James McAvoy is every inch Lord Asriel, proud and brilliant and determined to a fault, and Ruth Wilson brings both soft menace and ferocious twisted love to Mrs. Coulter. After reading the books, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, but I wound up loving his performance—so many of his characters have this jittery energy to them, but even as Lee goes on adventures and gets himself into trouble, there’s a steadiness to him that really works. There are too many other memorable appearances to name them all, but just as a sample, the cast also includes Andrew Scott, Nina Sosanya (lately of Good Omens,) Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who I still remember best as Eko from Lost,) Anne-Marie Duff, and Clarke Peters.

Warnings

Violence (including violence against children,) disturbing images, language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Polite Society (2023, PG-13)

I didn’t get a chance to see this one when it was in theaters, so it was one I periodically searched for until it finally came up on streaming services. I finally had a chance to see it on Amazon Prime, and it’s fantastic!

Ria dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, but no one seems to believe in her except her older sister Lena. But when Lena starts dating a too-good-to-be-true rich guy and dating quickly turns to engagement, Ria smells trouble; she takes it upon herself to rescue Lena from the handsome, charming Salim.

This is the feature debut for writer/director Nida Manzoor, who created the excellent We Are Lady Parts, and Polite Society sizzles from start to finish. I love following Ria as a driven, imaginative, contrary protagonist. She views her life like the action films she longs to be a part of, and a number of scenes blur the lines between reality and martial-arts-laced fantasy sequences. The movie keeps you guessing as to whether things are really as she sees them. Have Salim and his mom gotten their hooks into Lena for some nefarious purpose and only Ria can save her? Or is Ria just searching for an excuse to keep her sister from moving on without her? Further complicating things is that Lena is on a “break” from art school and not sure if she’s going to go back—if Lena gives up on her dream, what does that say about Ria’s?

I just can’t say enough great things about this movie. The action is super cool while also offering up some fight choreography tinged with humor. In addition to the well-versed-in-tropes fight scenes, I love how it’s emphasized in further ways that Ria treats her life like a film—to that end, the score is used to especially good effect. The film is so funny, with tons of great banter that’s rooted in the specificity of the characters, and it brings out even more humor through its editing and soundtrack. Amid all the action and jokes, it also has some heartfelt things to say about family, growing up, and dreams.

Priya Kansara is wonderful as Ria—she’s funny, badass, and surly, and the story knows just when to let us glimpse behind her tough exterior and show us her vulnerabilities. Ritu Arya (who I recognize from Doctor Who’s “Fugitive of the Judoon”) does a nice job as Lena. I enjoy that, while she’s the object of Ria’s “mission,” Lena herself takes an active role and has her own perspective in the story. The two actresses have simply glorious sibling chemistry together and knock it out of the park in their shared scenes.

The rest of the cast is topnotch as well. I like the nuance we see with Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza as Ria and Lena’s parents—they love their daughters and want what’s best for them, but they don’t always go about that in the way the girls need. Akshay Khanna is effective as Salim, Lena’s dreamboat guy and Ria’s worst nightmare, and Nimra Buchra (who recently played Najma on Ms. Marvel) is great as Salim’s very involved mother. Rounding out the cast are Shona Babayemi as a bully at Ria’s school and Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri (Sister Frances from Call the Midwife!) as Ria’s friends, a couple of goofy besties who are up for all kinds of shenanigans but are still willing to confront Ria when they think she’s going too far.

Warnings

Violence, language, sexual references (including brief nudity,) drinking, and thematic elements.