Kieran has PDS. He's a Partially Deceased Syndrome Sufferer. He gets medicated with a drug that regenerates living brain tissue. However, what he really needs is a hug from the humans he used to think of as food.
Last night I watched the first of three episodes in the BBC America mini-series "In the Flesh." First a disclaimer: those of you who follow my blog know that I'm absolutely in love with zombie apocalypse stuff. After all, I talk about "The Walking Dead" all the time (at least when it's in season). So this review of the show may just be a little biased.
I LOVED "In the Flesh." The main character is Kieran, a Brit and he's a "Partially Deceased Syndrome Sufferer," and the BBC couldn't pick a more adorable protagonist (well maybe "R" from "Warm Bodies" would be a good substitute). I could feel his emotional pain, his longing to just be embraced by other humans, and it tore at my heart strings. "In the Flesh" took my emotions, grabbed them by the jugular, and body slammed them. I can't wait for part two tonight. Yes, I'm begging to be body-slammed yet again.
And I just want to say, that when his parents picked Kieran up at the PDS facility, they didn't hug him. I kept waiting for the hug to happen, and it never did. Why for crying out loud won't anyone hug him? He's just come back from the dead...he's got memories of eating people and is really broken up about it, and no one in Britain has the compassion to give him a hug? Embedded below is a three minute sneak peak of this series. I totally dare you to watch it. Oh and if you missed the first episode, don't worry. They're airing them again on Sunday. BBC America has been knocking it out of the park for years now. We've got the reboot of Sherlock Holmes, we have the new Dr. Who Series, we had Merlin, Torchwood, and now I have "In the Flesh." PLEASE BBC, you need to make "In the Flesh" a full blown series. IT IS AWESOME! Thank you for giving us the warm fuzzy zombies that we really wanted to just hug instead of shoot in the head. How absolutely brilliant of you.
This last Saturday on BBC America, "A Nightmare in Silver" aired making it the 12th episode of the current season of Dr. Who. I suppose I had unrealistic expectations of the episode as it was written by Neil Gaiman. I did like the return of the Cybermen who, if you don't know, are kind of the original borg (using the term "upgraded" as opposed to "assimilated"). I suppose the thing that surprised me the most about the episode were what I call "The Abercrombie & Fitch" implications. And I guess I don't quite like that.
A&F wants you to know that if you are the child of a white American, this is how you should look if you want to have friends, if you want to be popular, if you want to get sex.
Allow me to explain. If you don't know, recently CEO Michael Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch (when asked why he refuses to make clothes for larger women) responded:
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go after the cool kids...That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't want to market to anyone other than that."
So basically, if you're fat you're ugly. If you're the wrong size, you're ugly. And no one wants to be friends with an ugly person. Make no mistake, I think Michael Jeffries is an asshole. But then I watched "A Nightmare in Silver" and Porridge who turned out to be the Emperor of the Universe proposed to Clara (the latest in a string of Dr. Who companions). And she said "no."
Porridge played by Warwick Davis of Lucasfilm fame. He was a great guy in this show. But not only that, Porridge was the Emperor of the Universe. That's kind of cool, if you ask me. But he'd never be able to wear A&F clothes.
I can't help but think if he wasn't a dwarf (played by Warwick Davis) and looked like Rory or the guy that plays Prince Charming, she would have said yes. What kind of message does this send? Well I got the picture loud and clear. The rules are the same in Britain as they are in America. If you're short and fat, it doesn't matter if you can offer the girl the universe. Because the negative, i.e., being short and fat is the straw that breaks the camels back.
I can't help but think if Porridge had come in the above package instead of being a "dwarf" that Clara Oswold might have said yes to his marriage proposal. And knowing that makes the whole episode kind of stink in my opinion. I don't like the message.
Dr. Who is looking less and less an escape, and more and more a reality check for me. Because even when a man offers to make Clara queen of the universe, if he doesn't "fit the bill" it's an automatic no. And let's keep in mind that Clara is a rather insane character. She's died multiple times in history and one time even ended up a Dalek. So why in all that misery could she not have said yes to Porridge and bid the doctor goodbye and seen where that other path led?
I suppose the most important aspect of this show is the return and reinvention of the cybermen. Maybe I should have focused on that. Maybe if I had I'd be happier with how Mr. Gaiman brought this bad guy back.
Yes, I enjoyed the episode and the reinvention of the Cybermen as an army of creatures so dangerous it warrants blowing up a planet if you spot just one. They are terrifying in a way that the Weeping Angels aren't. But I didn't enjoy "A Nightmare in Silver" as much as "The Dr.'s Wife," which Mr. Gaiman wrote last year. Also, just mentioning this fact makes me think of yet another point that I'd make to Clara Oswold if I could: the doctor can never love you Clara because he's already married to the Tardis. And that's just how it must be forever and for always. Clara, you should have accepted the role as queen of the universe. It could have been much worse. *Shakes fist at Neil Gaiman. I'd say to Mr. Gaiman if I could, "I suppose you and Mr. Jeffries of A&F have a lot more in common than I thought."
They look remarkably calm given that they are surrounded by Daleks. Those guys are mean.
I've been watching Dr. Who for a little while now on Saturday nights on BBC America. For one, no commercials! Yay. And for two, great production values and special effects. It's easily as good as any Star Trek I've seen and better written by far. I like how the show seems to be able to capture a very human element in nearly every episode even though it's open format basically allows for everything. Just to clarify, I might be using the wrong words in saying "open format" but because the doctor is a Time Lord, basically, any writer can write about anything and it will fit. If you wanted to talk about blue mushroom people that only procreate when pigs eat and defecate the spores out, this could be an episode.
Rory Pond is my favorite of the companions. Who wears vests anymore? But Rory totally makes this look work for him. I think it's the distressed jeans and the shirt tails untucked, the gelled hairdo to look unkempt, and the intense stare that says, "I'm hot."
You know the one thought that goes through my mind when I think of Dr. Who? It's something that a physicist said on one of those science channel shows. He stated that if the universe truly is infinite, then anything that we can possibly imagine can happen. Even if it has a 1 in a gazillion chance--in the scope of infinity it becomes mathematically possible. I'm not a mathematician so I have no idea if this is correct or not. But I have to think, somewhere out there is a flying Tardis. Weird, huh? My brain has no ability to grasp what infinity is anyway, so I'm content to just see what other people come up with.
The adorable Amy Pond. Yay, we get a peek into the Pond life.
I'm really excited for this upcoming season which starts on September 1st. For one, we are getting more of the weeping angels (which is probably the most terrified I've been from a science-fiction television show in some time). Those things were just plain scary, and I think everyone else in the world agrees because "They're back!" And yes, I had trouble sleeping the nights I watched those episodes.
These guys can only move and attack you when you're not looking (so don't blink!).
Plus, I think Rory is handsome and have liked him ever since he's been on the show. I despaired when he got zapped out of existence in an underground episode and am happy that they brought him back, even if he was as a Roman centurion. Amy is beautiful and a wonderful companion for Rory and the fact that they love each other and travel around with the doctor is just really cool. I hope that the two of them survive the season unscathed (even though they are definitely gone after I think five episodes). Rumor is, someone is dying. I know that this will be the last season featuring these companions. *Sniff. I hope that the writers are not reading George R.R. Martin. If you read George, you know exactly what I'm talking about here. I'm also kind of excited about the spinoff series that Amy and Rory are getting online. It sounds suitably quirky, and it's called Pond Life. The first episode premieres this Monday online. So just when Falling Skies and the Newsroom and my trash addiction of True Blood is ending, I get an infusion of Dr. Who love. :) It would be my dream to write just one episode of a show like this. In the least, they should take my suggestion and do a crossover with BBC's other hit show Merlin and feature Bradley James as King Arthur hanging out with the Ponds. That would be made of awesome.
