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Sunday, April 05
Netflix’s Lost in Space S01E01-05 Spoiler Free REVIEW
If you haven’t already watched this, you need to >>>
The Orville S01E03 “About A Girl” REVIEW
The Orville aims for drama and… hits! >>>
The Frankenstein Chronicles S01E03 "All The Lost Children" REVIEW
The Frankenstein Chronicles S01E03 “All The Lost Children” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on ITV Encore, Wednesdays
Writer: Benjamin Ross, Barry Langford
Director: Benjamin Ross
Essential Plot Points:
Episode The Third: In which a red dress becomes blue
- We discover Flora is with child
Review:
We’re halfway through The Frankenstein Chronicles now, and not really any closer to finding out who was responsible for the original abomination. There haven’t been any more creatures, reports of missing bodies, or murders. These days it’d probably get filed as an aberration and revived as a cold case for some past-their-prime detective. Yet, even though the trail has gone cold, our inspector doesn’t give up, he presses doggedly onwards…
The majority of this episode concentrates on Flora (Eloise Smyth). She was one of Billy “The Child Snatcher”’s girls, but is now under Marlott’s protection. Errand boy Nightingale takes her dress shopping, where we find out she’s pregnant. Worried that she will do the child harm, Marlott seeks to have her stay with Lady Harvey’s brother (Sir Daniel Harvey, played by Ed Stoppard), in his hospital. This, of course, has the added advantage of giving him the opportunity to snoop around the place.
Sir Harvey offers alternative medicines in his care for patients, which would be outlawed by the Anatomy Act. On a tour of the hospital Marlott comes face to (rotten) face with a tertiary phase syphilis patient, and sees what may become of him.
The Inspector also goes to call on Mary Shelley, to ask her about galvanism. She tells him how many friends and family members she has lost and asks would he not, “Defy God’s laws to be re-united with those we love”? We also get a little more background on Ms Shelly, disowned by her parents as her family name has been brought into disgrace because of her “accursed masterpiece”.
Some action in an otherwise character-led episode comes in the form of a chase between Nightingale and the grave robber Pritty (Charlie Creed-Miles). This starts with an exploding door, and ends in a bloody nose. Nightingale finally gets his man after everyone else has managed to (easily) give him the slip.
The end of the episode gives us a cliffhanger, with Marlott and Pritty descending into a tunnel under the city used for moving dead bodies around unobserved.
Halfway through the series and not much has moved on from episode one. We’re still no closer to finding the responsible parties, and no beasts to speak of. Perhaps our inspector needs galvanizing more than some of the bodies.
The effects of syphilis show us something a little more visceral: with Marlott on the mercury again, seeing hideous visions of himself in the mirror.
The Good
- Some nice effects showing the horrors of syphilis
- Concentrating on characterisation is all too rare these days.
The Bad
- Still no closer to finding anyone, or anything, responsible for the initial body
The Random
- The latin “Cave Baestium” as written on floor of the hospital should probably be “Cave Bestiam” – beware of the beast. Odd as the show is usually pretty good on the details.
Review by Arthur Scott
• Read all our reviews of The Frankenstein Chronicles
The Muppets S01E03 “Bear Left Then Bear Right” REVIEW
The Muppets S01E03 “Bear Left Then Bear Right” Review
Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Nell Scovell, Steve Rudnick (teleplay); Dave Caplan, Gregg Mettler (story)
Director: Randall Einhorn
Essential plot points:
- Kermit feels too awkward to tell Fozzie that the sketch he gave him to read is terrible, so instead he bluffs and says it can’t be on the show because it’s good enough to be a movie.
- Fozzie promptly quits and goes off to write a screenplay, leaving Kermit feeling terrible.
- Miss Piggy is furious when guest Christina Applegate plays a video of the porcine diva falling face-first into a cake during a party. Miss Piggy wants revenge.
- Gonzo is about a meet a woman he met through a dating website, but is nervous because his profile picture was actually a picture of Liam Hemsworth. So he ropes in Liam to tell his date it’s not really him.
- Fozzie’s replacement, comedian Nick Offerman, is a bit of a dick.
Review:
There are some wonderful lines in this episode (“I should just sell my house and move back to Mississippi,” says Kermit at one point. “Lower taxes, all the mosquitoes you can eat – I can make that work…”). However, for the third week in a row Fozzie gets a huge chunk of the story, this time elevated to the A-plot, and it’s fast becoming clear that while the hapless bear is adorable and funny in small doses, he’s such a clueless doofus that he can also be annoying if he’s around a lot. Perhaps it would be wise to let him rest for a while and give another member of the huge Muppets cast a turn in the spotlight, eh?
Still, with Fozzie out in the woods trying to be a writer (“I swallowed a bug!” he cries, channelling River from Firefly for a moment), Parks & Recreation legend Nick Offerman gets a few scenes to make us chuckle. You can’t help feeling he’s a little wasted, mind you, particularly when he can be as funny as he is here. Luckily fellow guest star Christina Applegate is charming to the max, even volunteering to end up with a face full of cake to save Scooter’s job, while Liam Hemsworth seems to enjoy being referred to as “Mr Handsome Man” and gets to deliver the line: “I’ve been gorgeous since birth, but I have struck out at few times. Just at a super-high level.” You can’t fault the calibre of stars on this show so far, or their ability to be good sports!
The Guests:
- Liam Hemsworth
- Christina Appelgate
- Nick Offerman
The Good:
- Rowlf the dog turning up wearing a cone to stop him “biting at his stitches”. Naturally, he simply takes it off so he can bite them anyway. Brilliant.
- Fozzie being unable to hang up a phone is surprisingly funny. (Kermit, mournfully: “It’s been 30 minutes…”)
- The repartee between Gonzo, Pepe and Rizzo as they tutor Liam Hemsworth is marvellous. Pepe is definitely becoming the breakout star of this series!
- Best Quote Fozzie: “You ever been shot with a tranquiliser dart?”
Kermit: “No, but I did lick my third cousin once and the walls started melting, so I feel ya, bro’.”
The Bad:
- Chip the IT Guy is absolutely terrifying. His eyes blink in such a disturbing fashion he could be a horror film monster. And is he supposed to look like Michael Keaton? Because he does…
- Kermit and Fozzie’s, “You tha man!” exchange isn’t as funny as everybody seems to have expected it to be. Unless you consider the irony that they’re not, er, men at all.
- Yes, yes, this is a silly TV show full of puppets, but Fozzie keeps driving without looking at the road ahead. You keep expecting him to die at any minute. Please stop doing that, big guy!
- Is this episode’s pun-tastic title genius or tragic?
Reviewed by Jayne Nelson
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