Observations on Celebrities watching Themselves

 

Two honest documentaries tell the tale of two global superstars on Netflix 

The insatiable need for celebrity news has come to a head over recent years, the need to know every living detail of the famed and fabulous from what time they wake up to what they eat in their perfect lives. Now as myself and my generation get older, we are always looking back at periods of our lives and also aware that the famous never totally recede from the spotlight. 

Two documentaries have recently appeared on Netflix and both offer opportunities for the subjects to tell their own story of their careers, both stratospheric and both everlasting in many people's eyes. One about a footballer who transcended his sport to the point of becoming a brand in his own right, and the other a pop star who has had two phoenix like returns from the flames.

The first to drop for our binge-worthy tastebuds was Beckham, about the eponymous footballer who came to prominence when still a teenager at Manchester United in 1996, won the treble in 1999 and then left for Madrid in the early 2000s when his name was so big that everybody could name him or recognise the player without even seeing him play live. 

The four-part documentary directed by Fisher Stevens (Los Angeles neighbour), is produced by Beckham and so tellingly, this is the brand making sure the narrative is the one he wants to be told. Now this is not an accusation of manipulation, but the funniest bit when he confronts wife, Victoria, about the type of car her Dad would ferry her to school in and then promptly closes the door on her was reminiscent of another clip from 1996 post-Wimbledon halfway goal when his father, Ted, is being interviewed and the camera whips to a young David poking his head round a door making sure Dad is singing from the song sheet. 

This paints a picture of a man who is reluctant about sharing too much information with a media industry that would attempt to tear him down following the red card he obtained in a crucial World Cup knockout match for England in 1998 as well as mocking him for his fashion style and the relationship with Posh Spice, which many thought would derail his potential but actually his unwavering commitment to being the best player on his team set him apart from others. 

The Beckham documentary, should have served as more of a celebratory piece to a playing career that was better than people remember but a document that is not critical and still used the adage of what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room ethos.

While it was good to reminisce about Beckham's career as a football fan, it was sobering to see the scrutiny his performance was under more than anybody else playing at that time. And yet the production did smack of a Country Life fluff piece with little or no blowback on the man himself 

The second documentary of note, is that of pop star Robbie Williams, who was one-fifth of Britain's biggest band, Take That in the mid-1990s, then left the band to pursue a huge solo career at the turn of the Millennium which was record setting and yet came with a heap of problems from constant media scrutiny to drug abuse and two rehabilitations. 

Produced by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), this documentary is not produced by the person in question, meaning that Robbie Williams is purely the subject in question and under the microscope. The device of Williams' looking at his history on a laptop while in his underwear reclining on his bed serves as a sort of duvet day therapy session for the popstar, with him stopping proceedings on a few occasions because he knows what is coming next and is reluctant to watch it any further. And yet as the film is shot at his home, his daughter Teddy interrupts on frequent occasions meaning we get a sense of past breaking into the present, a future the younger Williams could not have imagined.

Williams' life and career has been one of meteoric rises and very low lows, from the heights of being key to a boy band success it is not forgotten he was a mere 16 years old when it started and yet he was in a band with twenty years old and he notes, that age gap is vast at that time. He was a child in an adult world.

Unsurprisingly, he seeked solace in ingesting anything he could get his hands on from alcohol to cocaine and ecstasy. His first rehab comes at the age of 20, and then begins a solo stint but in partnership with Guy Chambers who wrote all the songs together with on his first four albums culminating in huge successes, based mostly upon the huge hit that was 'Angels'. 

Williams is surprisingly, quite self-effacing and funny when watching himself back and very resentful of the things he has done to people - from his bitter jealousy to Gary Barlow to his casting aside Chambers' swiftly to basically not being able to trust anybody when so prevalent in the public eye.

The third episode which focuses on a very intense European leg of a tour shows the physical and mental torture his body endures going from show to show and as a document it cleverly shows the deteoriation of a body from working to breaking down mentally with shots of steroids injected (big mistake) to looking like a zombie from day to day, yet the pressure to continue on the wheel is paramount as his stage takes up 93 trucks. And yet too much time is given to the disastrous release of  'Rudebox' and the whole series misses his swing band era which was a huge success to his career.

While Beckham's look back at his career was more celebratory, Williams' look back is a reminder that warning signs were ignored and that mental health in young men, something which has been brought to public consciousness following the pandemic. A lot more is gained from watching Williams dissect his breakdowns than Beckham breaking down a free kick routine.

There is also a social comment, as Williams admits he joined Take That unable to read or write with no qualifications from school, yet he went on to become an Ivor Novello winner for his work yet that inability to communicate properly perhaps led to his unwillingness to speak out and ask for help; whereas Beckham came from a good household, a decent education albeit entirely built around his footballing prowess - he was able to batten down the hatches due to the fraternity he had at Manchester United after the red card at France 1998 and focus solely on performing. For Williams he could only find solace in alcohol or medication due to his lack of trust of others and coming from nothing and no support network there from the start for him

All in all, two fascinating documentaries about two fascinating individuals who were on the front pages for both the right and wrong reasons. Nostalgia yes but tinged with lessons to be learnt.

Beckham and Robbie are both available on Netflix now

Lets Talk About...The Mandalorian

I don't want to say I am out on The Mandalorian. Yet. And yet I am very disappointed by the third series of the winning series so far. I feel the injection of Mando into The Book of Boba Fett was a mistake as it showed the producers of the live-action Star Wars series moving forward felt the only way to keep people interested was to keep giving people the man behind the mask and the creed and the way.

The new series shows Din seeking to bathe in the waters of Mandalore to be redeeming following his removal of the sacred helmet and revealing his Pedro Pascal face to Grogu. That sort of tale of redemption is one that could have been the basis of a series worth of stories, Din's journey to the waters, the obstacles along the way and yet he got there at the end of episode 2 and thus redeeming himself.

There, for this padawan, appears to be a confusion in the storytelling. In Episode 4, The Foundling we have now a tangent where we see Grogu being rescued from the Order 66 attack on Coruscant by the clone troopers by other jedi. This now paints the tale as Grogu being a very important foundling who demands constant attention and support - this made me ask the question is he really a clone of Yoda, did the Jedi use the technology to their own benefit in some way knowing that something bad was going to occur.

Like last week's episode 'The Convert' a tale that revolved around Dr. Pershing and his intrepid partner in supposed asylum crime on Coruscant, that diversion was interesting and heralded a tale where you where given time with periphery characters who were afforded time and a character made more whole. And yet that was bookended by some boring bits involving Din and Bo Katan being welcomed back into the group.

I think the problem they have with the Mandalorian is perhaps the man himself. He is now redeemed. He is no longer a bounty hunter. He is a surrogate father to Grogu. What is his journey now? Or is this series with four episodes remaining just a foreshadowing or warm up to the incoming Ashoka or Skeleton Crew series. What is Mando now if nothing more than a gatekeeper to more content from Star Wars universe. As a fan of that universe for so long I am not going to object to more content, yet you have to make it engaging and worthwhile. The tone of a lot of episodes currently is very plodding and playing with our attention that hopes for more to come, its just a matter of when will that be forthcoming.

Patience is a virtue and must be a part of the creed. This is the way.

Cassian Andor - Transcendentalism

Watching Andor the brand new Star Wars series streaming exclusively on Disney+ one is struck by the balance between two worlds inhabited by Andor, that of nature and outer space.

The brilliant new series created by Tony Gilroy that tells the origin story of the hero, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) of Rogue One and how he became the spark to light the fire amidst the rebellion versus the Galactic Empire.

The first series is following a story arc structure of twelve episodes split into three part arcs. The first three part arc ended with Cassian being taken from his homeland, Kenari, by Maarva Andor (Shaw) where he eventually learns languages, interaction and beliefs of his own away from the indigineous life he was living previously.

The second arc ends with Cassian succeeding in his first rebel mission on behalf of Luthen (Stellen Skarsgaard) as they kidnap a galactic payroll to bankroll the rebels. This again involved Cassian flying in a ship at the conclusion heading to the sky which is never attainable.

This threw me back to the conclusion of the much loved Rogue One, the first film following the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney, that told the story of how the rebels obtained the plans to destroy the first Death Star in the 1977 film A New Hope.

At that film's conclusion, Andor and Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) are on the beach of Scarif, they have succeeded and the plans are away in the hands of Princess Leia providing hope to the rebellion. While that portion of the mission is completed, Andor and Jyn are about to be destroyed by the Death Star itself. They stand together embracing each other, knowing that despite their impending doom they are confident that what they have done will change the course of the galaxy.

Yet it is this closeness to nature, the rich green of Scarif to be the last resting place of Andor is fitting as he was born on a leafy planet such as Kenari - in essence it is a return to Paradise for him.

So for me, Andor in the new series is being portrayed a salt of the earth soul as very much, high on morals but looking out for himself firstly, tired of the empire he thinks a difference can be made and is eager to do so at any cost. He does not discriminate when using his blaster, we knew as much at the commencement of Rogue One when he very much went Of Mice and Men on an informant of his. Already he has killed three people in cold blood in six episodes when he feels threatened by someone's rationale.

Yet for me, it is no coincidence that Andor is comfortable in any climate or is so fond of nature he is most at peace when in nature, it also got me thinking about Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem 'Nature' where he lays about the essence of transcendentalism and gaining a divinity through nature, you can only understand reality through studying nature.

Andor is a proponent of this due to his being born within nature and being nutured by nature somewhat - how to live and survive - before he is taken from his planet by a starship and absconded halfway across the galaxy via hyperspace. That episode at the end of Ep 3 'The Reckoning' shows us Andor like we have all before staring into the vastness of space, a new sort of nature for Andor to explore and attempt to touch the untouchable but forego the relationship he has built up previously with the wood and trees. He would now live in a world of greys and darks, built up environments of cement and concrete, with buildings as tall as redwoods and animals are scared of people and do not live in harmony.

And so begins Andor's journey

But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. In the woods, is perpetual youth 

And so begins Andor's journey into this beauty, one that he must have thought unattainable. The stars smile upon him and they promise him much, but it is down to him/man to obtain his reward. Emerson goes on to mention that the stars are unattainable, yet with technology at his disposal, they become reachable. Nature evokes poetry, simplicity and childlike wonder - the advent of technology to Andor is a shock to the system as Fiona Shaw's character first meets Andor smashing up consoles of a crashed spaceship, his fear of the new immediately strips away his innocence to create this now young adult full of anger and rage at this new way of life.

In the woods, is perpetual youth 

This could have been written for Cassian. Born within nature, and part of it. Emerson writes, in the woods we return to reason and faith. And at the start of the series, Cassian is looking for his sister a meaning or relic of his past life, and in the series so far he is surrounded by builidngs but nature is not far away. The Scottish Highlands substitute for Aldhani, and you can feel the howling gust of winds in this Star Wars galaxy - yet Andor looks at home and comfortable; as Emerson writes, he finds something dear and connates with the wilderness far more than in streets and villages.

The need to reach the horizon is as beautiful as his own nature, and for Andor that is an attempt to return back to his wilderness and a place of belonging. This is indicative of his rebellious character, someone who is unsure when his reckoning shall occur, but nevertheless always looking over his back, gun at hand.

The remaining six episodes of Andor promise a lot and I for one cannot wait to see his relationship with nature bloom further.

Book of Boba Fett: Episode 2&3 thoughts

 

THE TRIBES OF TATOOINE

While the second episode in the new Disney+ series was a better overall outing than the premiere episode by this viewer - it for me showed the problems with streaming in both a positive and negative context.

The episode again used the present day of Boba Fett after the Sarlaac Pit and laying claim to Jabba's throne coupled with a flashback narrative of Boba being taken in by the Tusken raiders of Tatooine and being embedded into their tribe.

The use of the contrasting flashbacks and present day narrative, is that while both is necessary the flashback ultimately overstays its welcome. Too much is made of the tribe life, yet the introduction of the train (an homage to actual history of colonials shooting buffalo as they rode past on trains in the days of the Old West) is another feather in the cap to build upon the world of Tatooine and the ignorace of it being just Mos Eisley.

The tropes and cliche of donning tribal garb is there, the trippy journey to obtain his branch for his stick are predictable as well as telegraphed.

THE STREETS OF MOS ESPA

The third episode for me was again an improvement, a shorter running time yet it was very much by the numbers in terms of building character arc and narrative.

Boba is done with the flashback, and the flashback ending abruptly with the re-introduction of Black Krrsantan as an assassin on Boba's head. The fight is okay but shouldn't a crime lord have better protection in his own home. What follows is a visit by the twin Hutts who apologise and give Boba the black wookie as a gift, one that Boba immediately releases.

Then a visit to the mayor leads to the slowest chase since Barnaby Jones was on the air, with some bad CGI with many an obstacle in the busy streets of Mos Espa - culminating in information being given up far too easily.

The early introduction of Stephen Root in a supporting character role bodes well for future episodes, and the formal announcement of the Pykes as the main villains with the prospect of war incoming.

After three episodes, I remain indifferent and underwhelmed by the show thus far, this is a combination of pacing and the back and forth. Now we may have the prospect of an actual story in real time taking place, yet the action feels forced and predictable yet the anticipation cannot be ignored

Episode Four for one cannot come soon enough

Book of Boba Fett: A Template Laid Bare

 

The Book of Boba Fett premiered on Disney+ on 28th December, providing a treat for Star Wars fans around the world during the festive period.

Using a now common narrative tool of dual narratives - we begin where the post-credits Mandalorian sequence ended with Boba Fett taking the seat once held by Jabba the Hutt in his eponymous palace flanked by Fennec Shand.

The episode starts with Boba in a tank recuperating from exertions and his nightmares return as he reflects, with us the viewer thrust into his dreams as he is within the Sarlaac Pit where he famously fell during the Return of the Jedi. We see Boba fight out of the creatures stomach, his hand bursting through the sand a la many a horror imagery, reaching for the sky.

Once out of the desert, he lays awaiting rescue. Unfortunately, the first people to encounter him are the scavenging Jawas who strip him of his mandalorian armour leaving him to waste away. Then he is taken in by a Tusken raider tribe where he has to endure slavery and torture from a youngling raider who is going through a rite of passage with Boba as the task at hand to overcome.

This story of Boba overcoming adversity to reach the level of nomadic stature when we encountered him in the second series of the Mandalorian where he retrieves his armour is next to the story of him becoming a crime lord in the same guise of Jabba. He meets many a new suitor, people wishing to win his favour and encounters a representative of the Mayor of Mos Espa, Tatooine's second city. Usually these people pay the crime lord, but the majordomo wishes for payment from Fett. 

Boba wishes to meet the Mayor but as they leave The Sanctuary they are ambushed and the best set piece of the first episode takes place with plenty of action, fighting and the opportunity for Shand (Ming Na) to parkour around buildings chasing the attackers.

That strand of the episode ends with Fett on his haunches being held up by now loyal duo of Gamorreans. We then return to five years prior where Boba is in servitude to the Tusken raiders - he and a Rodian have to dig for water by the teenage Tusken. They then encounter a Harryhausen-esque creature with four arms.

Boba shows industry and inventiveness to defeat the monster with only his hands and the chain that binds him. The Tusken allows Boba to walk unaccompanied back to the village where he is given a gourd - a sign of respect and that he is made in their eyes. He is now on a voyage to learn the ways of the desert which takes us up to his first (re)appearance in the Mandalorian when dressed in Tusken robes and garb.

While the episode is not as kinetic or thrilling as other chapters of the Mandalorian would eventually be, yet if memory serves the first ever episode of that series was along the same lines with the need to build up character and atmosphere. There are going to be lulls in this series due to the quiet intense character that Boba is along with the equally reserved Shand.

The bond between Fett and Shand will be key to this series - the mutual respect the two have for each other as outlaws in an albeit lawless galaxy - this wish to live and die by their own sword; they share looks that speak volumes to each other and can say things with a raise of an eyebrow merely to instruct the other. This is empowered by the totem that is Temeura Morrison as the title character, years of wear and tear on his face and body exuded a host of emotions to convey.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Jon Favreau, the template of the western has long been establised with the outsider being welcomed into a forbidden tribe to earn his spurs so to speak, to then rise up and take control of a town or county through his grit. In this instance, the western genre has been extrapolated and put onto the science fiction/fantasy world of Star Wars again to winning effect.

Whilst watching I may have been guilty of looking at my phone on occasion, but there was enough to maintain my attention and ultimately look forward to the next episode on Wednesday in the New Year. As always, this is appointment viewing and not to be missed.

Follow me on Twitter @NextToTheAisle

Thoughts on McMafia

The BBC’s production is not ground breaking, it is not the greatest thing you have ever seen – in fact we have seen something like it before The Night Manager starring Tom Hiddleston for one. Yet there is a magnetism and charisma about the entire production, not so much about being proud of itself but you know you are watching a programme that is top quality from acting to writing to care of location scouting to costume design.

Undoubtedly, the show rests on the still relatively young shoulders of James Norton, who gets the leading role as Alex Godman – the hedge fund manager who is a legitimate businessman, yet the son of a Russian family that had to leave the motherland following a turf war involving a rival gang.

The necessity of giving Alex an ambiguous surname is one that works into the hands of the viewer – is Alex a good man or merely a God amongst men – he must follow an unfamiliar path for BBC protagonists and one more familiar to American crime shows; like Walter White, he is a good or nice man to begin with, but our hero must endure some pain and suffering changing his natural persona of one from wholesomeness to one of malevolence.

Alex goes through traumas of becoming distant from his fiancée, forcing her to leave the house they share; he talks more Russian as the season progresses (Ep. 6) as he slowly morphs into the head of the household as his father becomes more frail and reliant on alcohol.  

While the production is in love with the cities it visits from the sub-continental warmth of India to the glamour of Israel; you also admire the coldness of Eastern Europe of Prague and Moscow; to the sheen of West London.  The show makes great pains to say this series is as much about the attachment to family as our attachment to money and power; money can come and go, yet family will remain and the ties that bind will be stronger than bonds in banks. 

Vadim (Merab Ninidze - brilliant) struggles with the daughter wanting to leave Russia for education, they are filmed joined at the hip on long walks mirroring Alex and Rebecca’s union – Benes (the Czech fixer) tells Alex they will attack the one you love most for Alex this is Rebecca and for Vadim it is his daughter; the loss of one will break the other.  Harm, though, still hits Rebecca despite Alex’s attempts to remove her from the frame.

The ending of the series, left this viewer, in a state of part confusion, part frustration as the series morphed from hopefully a standalone series of unique stature to one that is merely the beginning of another series with hallmarks of The Godfather coming to the fore; with Alex becoming a Michael Corleone surrogate and Rebecca very much the Kay Adams/Diane Keaton role; one that may or may not keep Alex grounded in reality as he becomes the head of a new Mafia organisation.

The series makes this succinct point; money makes the world go round - there will be human cost and tragedy throughout; but the old traditional way of doing 'mafia' business has changed in this new technological age, computers and business acumen hold the key to breaking new ground in new territories and regions.  Someone will die and someone will profit from such deaths.

McMafia is available on the BBC iPlayer now and on DVD for Home Entertainment to keep

Television in 2018

A new year brings the promise of new resolutions, promises and the belief that this year will be the better than the last. This belief extends to the arts from cinema to music, painting to sculpture. But never more so than in television, is the leap made clearer than in television where channels propel new stellar productions to the forefront of the schedules in the hope for recognition and ratings.

From the return of stalwart shows Silent Witness to the BBC One and Vera to ITV, to the return of actors in new shows like Kiri on Channel Four starring Sarah Lancashire in a post-Happy Valley world to the high concept Hard Sun on BBC One.

There are changes a plenty not just in terms of the shows structure but how we watch them.  Last year the water-cooler show was Doctor Foster, the five-part second series was must-see television for one night a week showing the demand for such shows to get people talking about it the next day or immediately on Twitter and social media.

Hard Sun is an interesting case; a thriller with dystopian tendencies predicting the sun to explode in five years causing the end of our planet and how dealing with this world-ending event puts things into perspective. Yet the show premiered on a Saturday night at 9.30pm, with all six episodes of the series available on BBC iPlayer at once in a box set to allow viewers to watch the next episode immediately if they so wished.  The BBC attempted this at the tail end of last year with Gunpowder with relative success. The Corporation looks to be changing its ways with that of the audience needs and wants in the current climate.

McMafia is the stand-out show on offer though from British television. Reminiscent of The Night Manager, featuring a breakthrough role for a young British star to translate to the worldwide audience in a story with global reach wearing its expense on its sleeve. 

McMafia is an eight-part series which had a two-part show over New Year's Day holiday to entice the audience; it now sits at 9pm on Sunday for the water cooler effect.

Whilst it does not have the sheer wow factor of Tom Hiddleston's stab at a James Bond audition coupled with the telling adaptation of John Le Carre's source material, James Norton does embody the role of Alex Godman (has there ever been a more egotistical name) with relative ease sashaying from one suit to a tuxedo and jet to yacht as travel of choice; the supporting cast help with the reality of the world falling around him. The Night Manager had a glamorous cast of characters, whereas the Godman family and their rivals look more experienced at life and feel the pain and ache of having to leave their beloved Russia in exile.

As an audition for Bond, we have not yet seen Norton do necessarily atypical Bond things apart from fend off a choke-hold and wear a suit really well; whereas Daniel Craig has a ice-cold steeliness when he plays Bond, Norton has a somewhat laid back feel when he is smiling that would not translate to the iconic role of 007; but that does do a disservice to what he has done in three episodes of Alex - slowly he is getting warn down by the world he is step by step entering, becoming less and less of an investment banker and more an international money launderer to save his family's name and reputation, the hope being they can return to Russia.

Next of Kin began on ITV on Monday 8th January, a six-part global drama featuring a mixed-race marriage and the abduction of a British-Indian doctor in Pakistan against the backdrop of a terrorist attack in London.  Featuring a cast of talented actors, the series paints a multi-diverse London correctly but looks at well to do people in terms of class structure; both siblings are doctors, the female doctor's husband works with the government.

And that perhaps may be the one criticism of all these shows is that it focuses on middle-class individuals and not the problems that beset the working class population around the country. With all the series mentioned set predominantly in our capital city, London, there is a myopic window of the world being served to a licence-paying audience.

Kiri (Channel 4) is set around Bristol and deals with the sensitive issues of a mixed-race adoption and social services, written by Jack Thorne, it may well harken back to a gritty social realism more in common with Ken Loach and Alan Clarke than anything served up by the BBC in recent years; even Gunpowder is about upset middle class rebels wanting to blow up upper class people because they are against their policies.

It is indicative that the most socially political aware programme is based around characters outside of London; a city that is afraid to acknowledge people near the poverty line, whereas other cities do not have a problem with this awareness.

The Young Pope

Paolo Sorrentino, noted Italian auteur of such critically acclaimed fare as This Must Be The Place and last year's Youth, like many film directors has turned to the television medium to tell a greater story where he can tell it over 10 hours instead of the pre-requisite two hours you have in film.

Sorrentino, such a stylish and visual director from his earlier films to the more deliberate methodical dramas such as The Great Beauty, certainly lands on his feet in Rome.

It tells the story of a young (by Pope age) American Cardinal, called Lenny Belardo played by intense broodiness by Jude Law who has been recently appointed the new Pope Pious XIII. When we first meet Lenny he is giving his first public homily to St. Peter's Square - in which quickly becomes a satirical swipe at Catholicism and its blindness to the world with its ever changing notions of acceptable decorum and relationships.

Lenny then wakes up from his dream, and we are equally flummoxed; are these the actual beliefs of a young Catholic in modern day society, is Sorrentino speaking on behalf of all Catholics or embracing the laissez-faire mentality of current real Pope Francis, who did not question same-sex marriages for instance.

Lenny is introduced to his new cabinet most notably Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando), an Italian whose true love is Napoli FC, who was overlooked for the top job and is eager to rock the boat. Whilst Voiello wants to control Lenny, our new pope is certainly not forthcoming ignoring his suggestions of cabinet positions and inserting as his special advisor, Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) the woman who took him into the orphanage at a very young age and has mentored him to this moment.

Other questionable characters such as fellow American Cardinal Dussolier (Scott Shepherd), who is alluded to like young flesh by foreign speaking Cardinals and Sofia (Cecile de France), the young head of marketing who embraces Lenny's ideal that his image should not adorn any merchandise and he remain invisible to his public. 'Only Jesus is present, I am nothing' as he states.

The difference between this being a run of the mill, behind the scenes drama of a world usually closed off to the public is that Sorrentino has tweaked the role of Lenny somewhat into that as a archetypal figurehead of that other Italian institution, the Mafiosa.

Law plays Lenny as a newly appointed head honcho of a criminal organisation; his way or the highway, he smokes openly, flaunting the line between confessional confidentiality by asking a priest to be his mole by telling him what people think of him in passing prompting a changing of positions in his cabinet swiftly and without remorse. You can sense Law had immense fun playing Lenny; with the ability to spin words to his will and a presence to match his movie matinee idol looks.

The cleverness of the premise is that this Pope, as played by Law, can run and run if Sorrentino maintains a hold of this vessel. Law is certainly an individual you want to keep watching and the neat twist on him being in question about his faith and the layers he hides despite apparently being without sin demands our attention.

The Young Pope has enjoyed some decent reviews since launching on Sky Atlantic, but in the newly released box-set on DVD and Blu-ray it warrants a rewatch.

The Young Pope is available on DVD and Blu-ray now from Aim Publicity 

This Is Us

The new NBC show which is appearing on Channel 4 is one of those shows that comes along once in a while, and it is the sort of feelgood show that a nation in crisis needs.  Offering escapism from the trying nature of day to day life, the series offers a heartwarming glimpse of a life full of homespun notions of goodness and wellbeing.

Starting out with a silly Wikipedia reference, stating that any person shares their birthday with 18 million other people on the planet, we witness four people sharing their birthday. They are all 36, and it seems this is the mid-point crisis level for all three people.

Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) is with his pregnant wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) who is expecting triplets on his birthday.  When her water breaks they rush to the hospital.  We then switch to Kate (Chrissy Metz), an obese woman who is keen to lose her weight this time in spite of self-help post it notes adorning her fridge, she has a twin brother Kevin (Justin Hartley), an actor at a fork in the road of his career, between being taken seriously as an actor in spite of appearing in lowest common denominator comedy where he frequently takes his top off to show his washboard abdominals.

The fourth person is black man Randall (Sterling K. Brown - who was excellent in The People vs OJ Simpson), a modern day successful professional who has found his biological father by way of a private investigator. Randall is reluctant to make contact with him, as he left him outside a fire station on the day he was born.

Having seen shows of this sunny disposition before (Thirtysomething, Ally McBeal) falling into the trap of having a good cast without the necessity of a solid script, This Is Us has the admirable quality of having a well written script that helps bring the best out of this well assembled ensemble and vice versa.

The script is clever as well such as when Randall describes his interaction with his father to his wife, as if it is some lame sitcom like 'The Man-ny' which Kevin is appearing in within the show; this willingness to refer to the intertextuality of lives and how similar people may watch the same shows in spite of racial differences is indicative of this unified world the show wants to picture.

The moments Randall confronts his estranged father and Kevin's breakdown on the set of his sitcom are neither histrionic striking the right balance between being heard and making sure they are said in the right way. Even the pediatrician who delivers Jack and Rebecca's triplets gives Jack a pep talk in the hall after the birth; it could be construed as too sweet for a serious moment, but the balance between the light and the delivery by Gerald McRaney is expertly handled.

While moments of saccharine may grate on bah humbugs in this seasonal time of year, those moments are necessary to the plot such as the birth of children or reunions of lost family members. The show does not ask too much of its audience, nevertheless, it leaves you smiling and beaming.

The reveal at the end of the pilot episode of the connection between the four thirty somethings is a real eureka moment of plotting by creator Dan Fogelman, ably assisted by co-directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. The twist allows for a more expansive exploration of the characters which will certainly get this viewer returning for more of this show's positivity.

This Is Us screens at 10pm on Channel Four weekly.