television

I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.
– Orson Welles

Bodkin review: An off-kilter, funny riff on true-crime hackery

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In Netflix’s comedic thriller, Will Forte and Siobhán Cullen seek journalistic absolution and find a whole lot of trouble.

By Jarrod Jones

True-crime podcasts have just as many fans as haters, and there’s a chance that Bodkin, the Netflix series from Jez Scharf that premieres May 9 about a trio of bickering podcasters, will appeal to both.

In a sense, Scharf’s mystery series, set in a beautiful, isolated Irish village, is optimal content for the Netflix binging model. It shares the protracted rhythms of typical true crime in that it’s brimming with detail while stashing its most salacious revelations for the end of each episode, almost as if it’s daring its audience not to hit play on the next one. Episodes are inundated with tin-eared true-crime clichés, but it’s done winkingly by Will Forte, who drops lines like “the more you learn, the less you know” and other such inanities. Its score, by Paul Leonard-Morgan, evokes the plinky earworm themes from investigative podcasts like Serial, a creative choice that seems almost Pavlovian in its design. Bodkin knows what it is, and thanks to this self-cognizance, it becomes more.

Yet, as good as Bodkin is, no amount of quality character work or engrossing mystery can kick enough dirt over how dumb it is to hear the word “podcast” repeated again and again. That might explain one of the show’s better recurring jokes: Gilbert (Forte), a Chicago-based podcaster eager to both please and impress, frequently tells folks from the provincial Irish village which gives the show its title that he’s doing a podcast. The retort we often hear, delivered in that politely barbed manner the Irish tend to excel at, is priceless: “And will people listen to it?”

The humor in Bodkin is, to put it mildly, droll. It sets a mood as much as the dramatic elements of Scharf’s story, and that blend of wit and melancholy mostly clicks. It makes much of the events that transpire in this fictional town feel both conceivable and ridiculous at the same time, even if those barbs are eventually sanded down by kindness and virtue before the end—an inevitability, perhaps, considering Bodkin is produced by Higher Ground executives Barack and Michelle Obama. Still, the series’ off-kilter approach is successful, by and large, and puts steam behind the many intrigues that uncoil during its seven-hour runtime. Continue reading →

‘The End of the F***ing World’ Interview: A Show About Hope

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When the first season of The End of the F***ing World dropped on Netflix, it quickly became a cult sensation, despite many people being initially put off by the idea of a black comedy about a psychopathic teen boy luring a teen girl on a road trip with the intention of murdering her.

You couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters — even James (Alex Lawther), the “psychopathic” weirdo, but perhaps especially Alyssa (Jessica Barden), the prickly, loud-mouthed, opinionated, vulnerable, impulsive, caring, complicated heroine who is one of the best-written female characters in recent years.

Despite how incredible Season 1 was — or rather, because of it — another season of the show felt unnecessary.

While open-ended, the final moments of Season 1 were an exquisite completion of the character arcs of James and Alyssa. Where could they possibly go in Season 2 that would be anywhere near as satisfying as that final line, that final shot?

Time To Breathe

For writer Charlie Covell, the answer lay in the future, with Season 2 picking up two years after the Season 1 finale.

“I wasn’t interested in carrying on directly after Season 1 — I felt the characters and the story needed some time to breathe,” she tells Junkee. “I wanted Season 2 to feel like it had grown up a bit, for it to mature with the characters.”

The time jump allows both the audience and the characters space from the explosive Season 1 ending. We pick up with Alyssa in a very different place — literally, having moved away from her hometown with her mother, but also psychologically. Gone is the brash, argumentative give-no-fucks attitude; Alyssa smiles politely, does as she’s told, goes with the flow, and generally, just tries to get through the day.

For Jessica Barden, this new side of Alyssa was appealing to play. “Alyssa seemed to represent someone who always knew what to say and how to respond, but what happens when that person is struggling and how do you escape the persona you have given yourself? I think a lot of people feel like that.”

Consequences And Trauma

While Season 1 saw Alyssa and James trying to escape the immediate consequences of their actions, Season 2 is about dealing with the far-reaching consequences. The kind that don’t go away so easily, and that can’t be fit into a neat narrative arc.

“Season 2 is hugely about PTSD, and trauma that isn’t necessarily immediate — but buried,” says Covell.

“I think Charlie wrote Alyssa perfectly, especially how someone like Alyssa would respond to a trauma,” adds Barden. “It was not the most expected storyline to come from the series, but one that I think was important to show.”

Where Season 1 explored the way these characters found solace and hope in each other — the way they rescued one another — Season 2 focuses on the way you actually have to save yourself.

Bonnie

The addition of new character Bonnie feels a bit jarring at first, but her own story of trauma dovetails well with the main plot.

Like James in Season 1, Bonnie is haunted by her past, and it’s caused her to lash out in violent ways. Her desire for vengeance drives much of the tension in Season 2, and though her arc doesn’t land quite as powerfully as James and Alyssa’s, it does drive home the different effect the same events can have on people.

Like the rest of the characters on the show, Bonnie is complicated, and she stirs up complicated feelings in the audience. That’s part of what makes The End of the F***ing World so wonderful.

View image on Twitter

What About James?

The elephant in the room amongst all of this, of course, is James himself.

The last we saw of him in Season 1, he’d apparently been shot by police. A lot of fans feared he was dead. The beginning of Season 2 leaves us hanging — we don’t discover what happened to him until well into the second episode.

Without spoiling too much, his fate ties beautifully into the themes of trauma and grief that recur throughout the season, and his narrative concludes in a way that is sure to leave fans satisfied.

For Covell, a happy and hopeful ending was vital. “Because otherwise it’s so bleak! No, seriously — what was important for me was to suggest, tentatively, that there was a happy ending,” she says. “I think hope is important, particularly the way the world is at the moment.”

That’s one thing both seasons have in common: in addition to the incredible performances, writing, soundtrack, costuming, set design and all the rest, of course.

For a show titled The End of the F***ing World, it leaves you feeling remarkably warm and content. Which is, frankly, pretty damn necessary.

The End of the F***ing World is currently streaming on Netflix.

Source: ‘The End of the F***ing World’ Interview: A Show About Hope

How Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’ Subverts Teen-Movie Tropes

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Netflix' Sex Education
Netflix’ Sex Education

Late in the second season of Netflix’s Sex Education comes a scene familiar from multiple teen movies: the ritualistic dissemination of a person’s private notebook, weaponized to cause maximum chaos. You might remember this exact scenario from Mean Girls, when Regina George papered her high school with xeroxed pages of the same Burn Book she’d helped create, sparking a fracas of hysteria and recrimination. Or from the end of Cruel Intentions, when a journal is handed out in bound copies at Kathryn Merteuil’s brother’s funeral, sealing her downfall.

The setup is enough of a trope to feel hackneyed, until you realize how Sex Education is subverting it. The person doling out secrets in hope of causing chaos isn’t a teenage girl looking for revenge, but a middle-aged man grasping at the last vestiges of his waning power.

When Sex Education debuted early in 2019, it felt like a delightfully earnest (and anglicized) patchwork of teen classics: the raunch comedy of American Pie, the small-town romanticism of Stranger Things, and the British oddball kids of Skins and The End of the F***ing World, with the sweet sex-positivity of Big Mouth thrown in for good measure.

The show seems to exist in a parallel universe that’s both our own (there are cellphones and STI outbreaks and horny teenagers) and entirely alien (no one ever goes on social media, every store in the mall is a small business, the action takes place in an idyllic English community where it never, ever rains).

Source: How Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’ Subverts Teen-Movie Tropes – The Atlantic

Derry Girls star salutes kindness in her time of need

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Derry Girls’ Siobhán McSweeney took time on Friday’s Late Late Show to pay tribute to how her co-stars looked after her following the death of her father, describing them as “just gorgeous”.

Derry Girls‘ Siobhán McSweeney took time on Friday’s Late Late Show to pay tribute to how her co-stars looked after her following the death of her father, describing them as “just gorgeous”.

The Cork actress, who plays Sister Michael on the hit Channel 4 show, told host Ryan Tubridy how the cast and crew of the series threw their arms around her during her father’s illness and when he passed away.

“Awful things happen,” she said. “And I’ve had a litany – as everybody does – in the last while, just a run of things.

“But a really beautiful upside of all these dreadful things is that people are so kind to you.”

“Dad died during the filming of the second series and I’m sure you know, but Derry and Cork couldn’t be further apart,” McSweeney continued. “It’s a long old drive and there are no flights.

“Dad was in the hospice in Cork and I was filming in Derry and Belfast and trying to get between the two. Despite the best, the best, wonderful intentions of the production company, there was a lot of practical stuff you couldn’t really [plan for].”

“After Dad died it was my first time going back to Belfast,” she recounted. “I was going back into the apartment. I was broken-hearted, I was scalded, I was not good at all. You know, you have your little wheelie suitcase and I thought, ‘I don’t even have a bottle of milk for a cup of tea’. You know when you just want a cup of tea and [to] go to bed? I was like, ‘I can’t face it. I can’t face it’. And I just thought, ‘Oh, sure I don’t even have the heating on or anything’.

“They’re extraordinary people”

She needn’t have worried.

“I walked in and the flat… It was like a Disney film. The heating was on; there were those cosy socks, slippers. Basically, the girls – and by the girls I also include Dylan [Llewellyn] who plays James – they’re the girls – got the key to my flat and filled the flat, filled the fridge with wine, tea, milk, microwave meals, fruit, veg. Loads of wine, thank God! They know me well! Loads of teabags; they had the heating on.”

“They’re extraordinary people,” she said. “But it’s indicative of the whole production, really. People worked so hard to make sure I had a lot of time with Dad. They did it gently, not looking for thanks.

“There’s still stuff I don’t know that it’s only seeping through, but I’m very grateful for them. I wish I had something funny or quippy to say about it, but it’s true: they’re just gorgeous.”

“Thankfully, I was at a dreadful play, so I’m not dead! So bad theatre saves lives!”

McSweeney is currently staying with friends after an electrical fire in her flat in London, which was caused by a double adapter.

“I had one by my bedside, bedside locker,” she explained. “Apparently, they’re dreadful. And if they fall out by more than 1.2mm, which is nothing, it creates an electrical arc, which can spark. And it did. It started smouldering. My bed was next to my bedside locker, obviously, and it started smouldering on my mattress, which released toxic fumes. Thankfully, I was at a dreadful play, so I’m not dead! So bad theatre saves lives!”

McSweeney said there was “an awful lot of damage”.

“I’m still out of the flat. I’m relying on my friends. The flat was destroyed. Because not only was it the fumes from the fire itself, it’s [also] the smoke damage. Everything was ruined, unfortunately.”

She now intends to work with a charity to raise awareness of fire safety.

Source: Derry Girls star salutes kindness in her time of need