PCP Vol. 2, No. 5: Antarctica, Androids & Adult Animation
Hello all,
Welcome to another edition of Pop Culture Picnic! It's been an eventful couple of weeks, hence my lack of blog posts, but I am trying to catch up now. Hopefully, I'll be able to review some of the other shows I missed out on next week, but until then, hope you like this week's reviews!
Movies
Postcards From London (2018)UK. Directed by Steve McLean. Viewed at the 2018 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
Extremely strange, deeply literate film about a young man who finds himself drawn into a world of knowledgeable male escorts who take to educating him on high-end queer culture. It's hard to really get a firm hold on this film, seeing as it almost seems to need a thesis to really work out the thematic importance of its myriad references to queer art and film. As a gay nerd, I loved all the nods to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Caravaggio, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Joe Dallesandro, Francis Bacon and more, but it feels like I need at least a few more viewings to really make sense of it all. And that's not even mentioning the main character's Stendahl Syndrome, the bright gaudy colours or the strange deliberate stagey nature of the film.
TV Series (New)
What an utter delight this show was. Turning expectations for reality shows on their head, it foregoes personal dramas, instead focusing on the spirit and joy of baking. It's one of the purest shows I've ever seen, with light innuendo and politeness between the contestants. They actually seem to like and respect one another, which makes this an easy show to love. I wouldn't want every reality TV show to be this friendly (RuPaul's Drag Race lives for the drama), but as a weekly breath of fresh air, it was a very sweet treat indeed. Rating: A
In its third season, Mr. Pickles moved ever further away from its central premise. While the preceding seasons had done occasional episodes where Mr. Pickles wasn't at the centre, almost all of the third season relegates him to a supporting character in his own show. While this is frustrating in a macro sense, it did provide many amusing episodes on a week-by-week basis. These include a renewed focus on the Sheriff (maybe the show's most frequently funny character), disturbing boob-swinging Linda and Tommy's bullies. That said, the finale, traditionally Mr. Pickles' most epic game-changing episodes, did not disappoint, resulting in a crazed showdown between Grampa and the satanic dog, which reminded me of Breaking Bad's penultimate episode 'Granite State'. It combined eccentric action, strangely emotional moments and tantalising hints to provide something intriguing and memorable. It's this combination of long-running story lines and insane ultra-violence that makes Mr. Pickles much, much better than it has any right to be. Rating: B+
Week-By-Week
Samantha Bee's much-hyped hour-length Puerto Rico special was sadly a bit of a letdown, feeling tokenistic and taking away from the usual strengths of the show. It had to separate time between too many reporters, so we don't get anything particularly hard-hitting or memorable. That's a shame because at it's best, Full Frontal is capable of being both funny and thought-provoking, as demonstrated by the recent 'Racist Roadshow' segment, which proves that there is not enough Ashley Nicole Black on our screens.
TV Series (Classic)
I was late to the Westworld party, only catching up early this year, but somehow I managed to avoid the spoilers. That was a good thing, because it is built like a complex puzzle, as we struggle to figure out its mysteries and its questions. I've never really been a fan of this kind of long-game mystery, because by definition, it keeps its cards to its chest, but that can make it hard to gain connection with the characters. If someone's holding a huge secret from you, how can you trust anything they do? How can you engage emotionally? And, to be fair, there is a bit of that in Westworld. Sometimes it feels like it's being too clever, as we wait for the rug pull. But often, it overcomes this issue by canny choices.
It's not a perfect show. Dolores and William are this show at it's most prestige TV obvious, and every time we cut back to them, it feels frustrating and dull, dragging me out of the show. However, soon there'd be something to drag me right back. Like the strong performances by Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright and the aforementioned Thandie Newton. Or the stunning, cinematic visuals and the exceptional Ramin Djawadi score. It made for an addictive, thrilling watch and I cannot wait to return to Westworld, its mysteries and its characters for what looks to be bloody, exhilarating second season. Rating: A-
This adult animation revolves around a dishevelled group of washed-out superheroes (read: parody of), including the very old Titanium Rex (Bryan Cranston!), the recently reanimated 40s super-soldier American Ranger, evolved cat Cooch, junkie-Hulk Brad, sarcastic recently-Jewish robot Jewbot and teenage rich kid Black Saturn. It never really gets off the ground, it's targets too widely parodied to really make any kind of significant impact, but the characters have some nice chemistry. The most intriguing area raised so far is the Batman/Joker-esque relationship between Saturn and skull-faced clown nemesis Groaner. But SuperMansion would rather make a dirty joke than character development, which is fine, but that at least needs to be consistently funny. At its worst, this feels like an extended Robot Chicken sketch. Rating: B-
Anime
The premise sounds ridiculous when you first hear it; four high-school girls go to Antarctica. It sounds like just another cute girls doing things anime cliche, and maybe in lesser hands it would've been. But it's not. A Place Further Than The Universe is one of the best things I've seen this year, because it embraces and deepens our preconceptions about the idea. How are four girls going to get to Antarctica, you ask? Well, by getting a day job, working their butt off and somehow working their way through the minefield of getting funding for an expedition. But why would they want to go anyway? The answer to that question is what distinguishes this from so many other anime I've seen.
I'll remember A Place Further Than The Universe for its nuanced understanding of friendship, for its stirring spirit of adventure and for how it proves that first expectations can be very, very wrong. It's what makes this one of the best series' of the year. Rating: A
This moving series began as an awkward potentially gross older man/younger woman romance but thankfully blossomed into something more graceful; a mediation on how friendships and close personal connections can help us move on from a traumatic event. For Akira, her crush on her twice-her-age boss, Kondo, helps her accept and move on from a leg injury, while for him, Akira allows him to remember his youth. It helps that their relationship never goes beyond, a crush and a hug, which helps to keep a potentially iffy premise more palatable.
What an infuriating hilarious series this turned out to be! What began as an aggressively weird, often offensively annoying, yet occasionally so funny that you made embarrassingly loud noises ended its run in exactly the same way. At every turn, Pop Team Epic seems designed to rile you up, from its structure (each episode is divided into two identical segments, except the voice actors are different genders) to its punchline-less 'jokes'. It is a show that relies on the most obscure pieces of internet culture and is frequently close to impenetrable.
Yet, somehow I ended up enjoying Pop Team Epic. Maybe because the really strong jokes were so, so good or because the friendship between Popuko and Pipimi is often so weirdly delightful. Still, the often hit-or-miss nature of the series and it's trolling structure makes for a series better enjoyed in small segments than in longer form. Still, I can't hate any series that introduced the world to this glorious piece of madness. Rating: B
To be honest, Mr. Osomatsu's second season was never able to reach the zany, parodic and occasionally deeply sincere first year. However, it remains a funny series because it remains so focused on these six lazy NEETs and their friends, who are too lovable to hate. Strangely, the season's best episode was also it's most sincere, a stand-alone story about Iyami which is so sweet you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. That it never does helps it standout.
Other wonderful segments of this season include horror movie parody 'Chibita's Revenge', Todomatsu being fired for becoming too cool, the tear-jerking 'Sanematsu-San' and the penultimate episode featuring the Matsu's trying to grow up. It's such a sweet, sad episode, because I for one would never change a thing about these slacking, cynical brothers. While never reaching peak comedy, this second season continues to be frequently amusing and likeable. Rating: B
What have you been watching these past few weeks? Let me know in the comments!
David Gumball-Watson
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