TVON: New Year’s Eve Dr. Who And More
Dr. Who Special 1-1-22 – I have not been that fond of either the twelth Dr. Who – a fine actor but even so, Peter Capaldi, or the current Dr. Who, Jodie Whittaker, the first female incarnation. Jodie is a talented actress but she’s not right for the part, she’s too manic and aimless, and way too human for a timelord. Also, too many travelling companions with three, and too many new faces (everybody except Executive producer and head writer Chris Chibnall was new). In the New Year’s Day special she is joined by two companions, including Mandip Gill, the only companion left from 2018 -and who in this battle with the Daleks that occurs in a time loop, is outed by the other companion , the sublime working class scouse John Bishop. John tells Dr. Who that Mandip is in love with her but Jodie doesn’t want to hear it. The NYD special “Eve Of The Daleks” is the best of the season, a thrilling little adventure and worth your time (Grade: B+) (BBC America)
Being The Ricardos – a hugely disappointing attempt to get behind the Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy and show the real couple. Aaron Sorkin is meant to be doing biography but it doesn’t have the ring if truth (for one thing, it compresses a couple of known facts, Lucy being outed as a communist and also becoming pregnant in the same week) but it would have survived it if not for the horrifically cast Nicole Kidman, who can’t do the comedy to save her life, and looks as though she’s just had a facelift)and Javier Bardem who neither looks nor acts anything like Desi Arnaz (Grade: C) (Amazon Prime)
Carol – the Todd Haynes 2015 movie stands up well as a story about seasonal romance between two women during the 1950s, an age when it was a dangerous variant. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara have never been better -as in never for Mara. Between the NYC in the 50s, and the shifting sexual carefulness it should be a Christmas perennial (Grade: A-) (Rented)
Amadeus – the Milos Forman masterpiece stands up to repeated viewings and, perhaps, a bad piece of casting with Tom Hulce’s odd like quirk genius isn’t that bad and bad boy. F. Murray Abraham is outstanding as the embittered and jealous Salieri court composer. (Grade: A)
The Book Of Boba Fett – In Disney’s ongoing efforts to have Star Wars imitate MCU, here is a very disappointing new series about the clone and bounty hunter, left for dead in Episode six, and resurrected to take over from Jabba The Hut. A remarkably weak sci fi Western… but that’s only the first episoide so maybe (Grade: C) (DisneyPlus)
