Review Category: VOD

REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

Let’s get this out there right from the offing: this writer does not approve of unnecessary prequels. Or sequels. Or Generation X fan service nostalgia fests. But let’s put this to one side. Because [SPOILER ALERT] Age of Resistance is f***ing amazing.

The series returns us to that sense of place that was so immersive in The Dark Crystal, while being unafraid to introduce new creatures, new technologies, and new places, expanding the world in an act of exploration, finding hidden parts that were there all along, rather than extra invention. Brian Froud, whose lush character and creature designs populated both the original and Labyrinth, returns to his role but the whole team are clearly immersed in a sense of what made The Dark Crystal work.

The gelflings are a particularly blank slate for them to draw on. They are divided into different clans, each with their own look, cultures and traditions, and the attention gone into the sets and character costumes (each individually tailored) is achingly beautiful. The podlings are also back, as joyful as ever, and there is even (praise Thra) a podling central character! And, of course, the skeksis play a pivotal role and are just as terrifying and grotesque as they should be, with spot-on revoicing (particular shout out to Simon Pegg as the Chamberlain).

As for plot, it is an age where gelfling clans are loyally settled under the rule of the keepers of the crystal, the skeksis, more or less unaware of just how corrupt and malevolent the rulers are. Obviously, given the series’ title, a change is coming, but there will be no spoilers here about how or why, though we will say that the plot has nuance, complexity and shades of dark and light, as well as slapstick and toilet humour to both undercut the darkness and keep younger viewers amused.

As fans might hope, Age of Resistance is dark and terrifying, but it draws back from, or finds hope in, that darkness far more than the film did. It is, as it should be, a series for children, imagination fuel for Gen Xers to raise their offspring on, not (purely) to indulge themselves. There only minor flaws are ones carried over from the original film (e.g. gelfling lip-synching) and so are almost more endearing for their presence, but any issues in that area are very quickly eclipsed by a new awe-inspiring set or creature design or plot twist, so who cares!

Age of Resistance is an entirely unnecessary prequel which makes itself necessary by virtue of being f***ing amazing. Go and watch it. Now.              

REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

In a world where we’re literally spoiled for choice when it comes to new genre shows, it’s nice to know that even the trashiest of dreams are being catered for. Wu Assassins is an example of glorious yet ridiculous trash. It’s a modern-day martial-arts fantasy show, with magical powers, scenery-chewing villains and lots of punching.

Our main hero is Kai Jin (Uwais), a humble chef who happens to be handy with his fists. He does the right thing and sticks up for a friend, which means he ends up having a run-in with the local triads. Of course, he’s related to various gangsters as well, but that doesn’t stop the baddies from having a go.

We meet the rest of the cast: an addict trying to get their life together, the strong businesswoman, the ruthless killer and the undercover cop car thief with a dark past and a killer fashion sense. It’s a show so filled with clichés that we suspect it was deliberately written with a trope-powered drinking game in mind. This show has more lampshades than a branch of Ikea. It’s a series that can’t resist putting in a detail that doesn’t make a lot of sense in context and then explaining it in a throwaway line, normally followed by swearing or over-acting. Or better yet, a spot of very well co-ordinated martial arts action.

Of course, the bad guys won’t stop harassing Jin, and this prompts mystic forces to choose him as the Wu Assassin – an ancient hero charged with taking out a conspiracy of baddies, each of whom has an elemental based power. Each villain is a proper comic-book bad guy. From your stereotypical Chinatown kingpin to an ancient warrior-poet who hails from the ‘land of Celts’, we get a nice range of villainy and almost a full house of clichés. That the martial arts are fun to watch is pretty much a given here, but the pace of the plot is not good. It’s a show that works well in small doses; you can’t binge this without getting a bit bored. But individual episodes are neat; it’s just all a bit samey when shown in one lump.

Though the action scenes are fun, the acting is decidedly wooden. The plot is also second-rate, and we get the sort of character development you’d expect from ’80s tea-time telefantasy. Except with modern special effects. Wu Assassins can’t decide if it’s mid-range drama or if it’s just a dumb superhero show with a bit more martial arts than usual.

The result is a bit of a mess. When the acting isn’t over-the-top, it’s instead so wooden that it floats. They are some fun key moments and some great set pieces, but this is essential top-grade corn. You can tell the budget went on the stunts and not the script though.

REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

1982’s The Dark Crystal is a much loved and unique piece of work from the equally loved Jim Henson Company. The dark tale told entirely with puppetry holds the titles of cult favourite and the largest grossing puppet film of all time. Now, 37 years later, Netflix has released a prequel series to this classic, once again produced by the Jim Henson Company. But does the film retain the spirit of the original?

Age of Resistance sees the viewer return to Thra, where the Skeksis have tricked Aughra, the spiritual embodiment of Thra, to “look after” the Crystal in exchange for an orrery so she can view the heavens. Therefore, the Skeksis are in control of Thra and rule over the diverse clans of Gelfling. However, a chain of events unfold: Rian (Taron Egerton), a castle guard, discovers the Skeksis’ diabolical plans for the crystal and he becomes a fugitive for knowing too much; Brea (Anya Taylor-Joy) a bookish Gelfling princess learns unsavoury truths about the Skeksis and attempts to make her “forget” follow; meanwhile, Deet (Nathalie Emmanuel), a Gelfling of the underground Grotton clan, discovers something that is causing an unbalance amongst the planet’s nature and sets off on a quest up top to right these wrongs. It is only when these individual parties unite that the real resistance against the Skeksis begins.

So, the overall verdict of Age of Resistance? Incredible. Firstly, the decision to do it as a 10 part series gives a much wider scope; you explore Thra in more depth without the story feeling either rushed or boring, and you root for all of the characters despite there being many more than in the original film. Next, the puppetry is as fantastic as ever; yes, there is a minuscule CGI element for practical reasons, but everything designed and operated by the Jim Henson company is done with such skill and heart that it makes some wholly CGI films look like a complete cop-out of talent! On the subject of talent, the voice cast is Age of Resistance is stellar with no one overshadowing the other cast or the story: it includes Mark Strong, Helena Bonham Carter, Mark Hamill, Sigourney Weaver, Eddie Izzard, Lena Headey, and Andy Samberg, to name but a few, with special mention to Simon Pegg for seamlessly reviving the Chamberlain (SkekSil) character from the original film.

Age of Resistance sits as an equal to The Dark Crystal film. Its puppeteering and voice expertise will hopefully see a much-needed revival for puppetry in the film industry as a whole.

WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

The realism of Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling lies in its slight exaggerations of progress and regress. It playfully skewers corporate greed, sticking its perspective-tipped point into iniquity without ever taking itself seriously or indulging itself too frequently. It’s a colourful, candid special that sets the bar absurdly high for other ’90s ‘toons itching for revivals. The original series had a penchant for saucy satire, and Static Cling makes sure it never forgets that. From quietly including a slimy carny reading the latest issue of PlaySlug to depicting a mogul as a dismissive booger-miner, the show’s satire covers all its bases and has a blast doing it. So yeah, Static Cling is everything we hoped it would be. And so much more. 

Static Cling follows Rocko and company as they transition from cosmic flotsam to reintegrated members of a wildly different society. Fishes out of water on their own planet. Rocko, the only one genuinely appalled by this new world, must drag Heffer, Filburt, and his dog Spunky along with him as he seeks out the creator of an off-air television show. In many ways, Rocko symbolises the laments of those wishing for a simpler world. At the same time, though, he represents the opportunity to embrace progress and accept those who need it in order to feel safe (more on that shortly). Neither of these things is difficult to spot and appreciate. Static Cling isn’t subtle, and it isn’t shy. It knows what it wants to say and says it beautifully. Even more impressively, the special’s insistence on working transgender representation into its world only strengthens the effectiveness of its message.

In some ways, Static Cling emphasises the importance of representation more directly and more powerfully than almost any piece of media currently available for consumption. Its aims and intentions are obvious, and both work unbelievably well in the world that series creator Joe Murray crafts. The special may cause discomfort in some, but it’s the kind of discomfort they need to feel in order for them to hop aboard Rocko’s train of thought. Static Cling is ballsy enough to champion the marginalised and smart enough to accomplish it without abandoning the show’s lovably strange approach. Murray and his team absolutely have a hit on their hands. 

Who knew that a talking, TV-obsessed wallaby could heft such a heavy mirror? 

REVIEWED: SEASON 4 (EPISODES 1 – 4) | WHERE TO WATCH: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

Garth Ennis’s Preacher is one of the fastest-paced comic books of all time, taking its ragtag heroes on a hectic road trip around America, from Texas to New York and beyond, barely stopping to breathe in-between. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Preacher, by comparison, is a continued exercise in frustrating wheel-spinning and narrative inertia. It took a whole season to get out of Annville, at which point they then spent two whole seasons milling about in some guy’s apartment and the family ranch.

Now that the show’s fourth and final season is upon us, one would be forgiven for expecting a little urgency from Jesse Custer and the showrunners. The season begins promisingly enough, with Jesse and Tulip mounting a rescue attempt for Cassidy, held at the Grail’s underground headquarters in the Middle East. Cass is freed, Tulip and Featherstone have another brutal showdown, and Jesse jets off to Australia. It’s starting to look like Preacher is on the move! And then… everyone sort of just stays where they are, for another excruciating three episodes.

As ever, the things the show gets right, it gets very right. Its villains are beautifully realised, with Herr Starr and the Saint of Killers looking and acting exactly as though they just stepped off of Ennis and Dillon’s comic book page. In some places, there’s even improvement – underutilised as she may be, Ruth Negga’s Tulip O’ Hare beats the book’s wet blanket deep into the ground. It’s worth it too, for the spot-on adaptation of Cassidy’s transformation into a vampire, set in period Ireland.

The biggest problem remains Jesse Custer and his chemistry-free relationship with Tulip, Cassidy and himself. Never has Dominic Cooper felt so little like the Jesse we know and love as when he sits outside of the Jesus DeSade (!) mansion, umming and ahhing as to whether he should rescue a child from the grip of a literal child molester. Sure, the subplot gets us a cool Oldboy-esque fight sequence, but it’s simply not Jesse Custer. And without that, this show isn’t Preacher.

Even if this weren’t an adaptation of an iconic comic book series, its languid pacing and lack of momentum would remain a serious issue. The aggressive commitment to ensuring that no one ever gets anywhere leaves Jesse stranded in contrivances for episode after episode. And yet it’s too witty to dismiss entirely; too inventive to give up on, in spite of the interminable plotting and endless procrastinating.

The end nigh, Preacher remains its own entity. With the grand showdown between God, Hitler, the Saint and Starr still to come, it’s unlikely that we’ll get Alamo (even if Jesse does get his eye patch by then). For those of us who have stuck with the show through thick and thin, or simply never read the source material, it shows just enough flashes of brilliance to stick through to the end. However, the back half of Preacher will have to pull a miracle out of the bag for this not to be remembered as a disappointment and a missed opportunity.

WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX

Jhonen Vasquez’s infamous 2001 Nickelodeon series was on rocky ground from day one. It was expensive to produce and, despite critical-acclaim, the ratings were consistently low when compared to its peers. Further to that, it was always intended to be a show that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable on children’s television, and that made it particularly vulnerable to media controversies.

After being unceremoniously cancelled midway through production of its second season, an episode was cited in a 2005 juvenile murder case and seemingly put any hopes of a revival to bed, once and for all.

Despite all of that, the show amassed a devoted cult-following that put it in good standing when, in 2015, Nickelodeon realised they were sitting on a mother-lode of shows to mine as part of the then-new trend of television-revivals. They’ve been kicking about countless nostalgically-driven projects designed to appeal to grown-up millennials ever since.

In 2016, an Avengers-style crossover movie, Nicktoons, was officially announced, featuring everyone from the Rugrats to Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, but with no further updates in the last three years, it’s likely that the project has been quietly axed. Two projects that did make their way through production, however, are TV-special revivals of Rocko’s Modern Life and, of course, Invader Zim.

After a strange, last-minute decision to sell both of these to Netflix (rather than airing them on Nickelodeon as originally planned), Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling was released to critical acclaim, with Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus hot on its heels. While Rocko took the approach of directly addressing the 23 years that had passed since the show’s end, Zim plays out more like the series finale that the show was never given back in the noughties.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Invader Zim centred around its titular alien-invader who (poorly) disguised himself as a human child in order to attempt to prepare Earth for invasion by the rest of his species. He was routinely thwarted by Dib, a sort of Fox-Mulder-if-he-was-a-child character and one of the only humans capable of seeing him for the alien that he is.

In Enter the Florpus, Zim finally realises that his fellow Irken aliens have no intention of ever coming to Earth, having only sent him there to get rid of him, prompting him to enter an emotional crisis.

Remarkably, to say that it’s been 17 years since the show last debuted a new episode on television, Enter the Florpus feels as though Invader Zim has never been gone. If it weren’t for the switch to widescreen and HD, there would be nothing to clue a new viewer into the fact that this wasn’t produced back with the series, nearly two decades ago.

The show was always a darkly funny and incredibly inventive production, incorporating often beautifully-twisted sci-fi concepts. Enter the Florpus is a fairly typical Nickelodeon TV-movie in that it retains everything that made the show work – its humour, its characters, its tone – but it suffers from messy pacing and (surprisingly to say that it features Earth colliding with alternate realities) not having quite enough scope to feel like more than an extended episode of the series. Still, it’s an enjoyable 71 minutes and an absolute treat for fans to have one last outing.