The Crown – At last I get what the fuss was about, having binge-watched Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD over the Christmas break. Truly excellent television, each hour-long episode feeling you drained and washed out like a full-length feature film. Great performances from top-deck actors, with high production values and powerful scripting from Peter Morgan who after The Queen and The Audience seems to have this genre of imagined history down pat. For my money, the best episodes are in the first season, especially the early ones, when Queen Mary is explaining the demands of The Crown, and where the main theme is the conflict between the Crown and the people who inhabit it. Significantly, the title is The Crown, not The Queen, “the Crown takes precedence” being the key line. Hans Zimmer’s theme music, elaborated by Rupert Gregson-Williams (who also did Wonder Woman), does critical work in establishing the feeling of a remorseless, inexorable, slow-grinding trans-historical force. (Based I think on Purcell’s Frost Scene music, which is actually used in one of the episodes, but here extended and amped up with full symphonic orchestra to tremendous effect, worth the price of the soundtrack album on its own.) Interesting tie-in books too, by Robert Lacey, giving the historical facts behind Season 1 and Seasons 2-3, making it clear just which scenes have been invented to convey (hopefully) an emotional, if not factual, truth.
The Subversive Copyeditor, by Carol Fischer Saller – Wise words from the editor of the Chicago Manual of Style’s online Q&A, and actually not all that subversive, the point being that what an author and a publisher wants (or should want) is not a copyeditor who slavishly follows rules but one who knows what the rules are, why they’re there, and when and how to bend or break them. So not so much use to the thousands of people who email the Q&A with variants of: “please will you tell my boss / wife / husband / teacher that they’re wrong and I’m right.” The most useful aspect of the book is the sage advice on how to work and get on with your colleagues in the production process. A book to dip into and re-read periodically.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse – Now this is a proper Broken Sword adventure game, after the poor showing of the fourth entry in the series: George and Nico sparking off each other again, travelling all over Europe and the Middle-East in pursuit of a gnostic mystery. Nice to have some puzzles which are actually solvable by ordinary people, and clever plotting so that the customary clues-hidden-in-the-painting trope is spread over several scenes throughout the game, instead of being delivered in one big indigestible lump.
Snowflakes are Dancing, by Isao Tomita– A favourite album of mine in the 1970s, when electro-classical based on Moog and other synthesisers was a thing, the trend having been kicked off by Wendy (then Walter) Carlos with Switched On Bach. I still like it; the rich electronic sound palate, like a good orchestration, skilfully brings colour to the Debussy piano originals.
Good Omens – Intermittently hilarious TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s collaboration, a serious rival to the Dirk Maggs-produced radio version of 2014, the great joy being Michael Sheen and David Tennant as Aziraphale and Crowley, the angel and demon respectively, who combine forces to sabotage the imminent apocalypse because they’ve grown accustomed to living in the world and basically rather like it and don’t want it to end. The other elements aren’t as strong, so the middle episodes drag a little where the complicated plot gets very difficult to follow, but the ending is a blast.
The Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath – interesting psychological design book, of which the basic claim – backed up by numerous case studies – is that emotional, impactful and transformative experiences are something which you can arrange and design, and not simply leave to happen if you’re lucky. Many of the examples are from customer service, but it has great implications for learning design.
Pet Shop Boys Ultimate – the soundtrack of the 1980s, rather as Abba was of the 1970s, and like Abba – as Stephen Fry observed – songs which are somehow just much better than pop songs need to be. And some, like ‘It’s a Sin’, are blisteringly powerful in their defiance.
Design for how people learn, by Julie Dirksen – really useful, practical and accessible handbook for learning design, considering each aspect (learning need, motivation, attention, memory, skill development etc) in terms of what’s known from psychology.
Chuchel – clever and amusing puzzle game from the much-respected Amanita Design company, who also produced Samorost and its sequels, Botanicula and Machinarium. I’m not sure I liked it as much as some reviewers, though; Chuchel’s personality is too bad-tempered and greedy to be really funny for me.
Star Trek: Discovery. Season 1 – Yes, well. Much anticipated, and some appealing aspects (anything with Michelle Yeoh in it has to be worth consideration, plus my son designed the space suit used in the opening episode), yet somehow… I just don’t care about the characters very much, except perhaps Michael Burnham played by the very good Sonequa Martin-Green. The manic pace, as in the recent ‘reboot’ movies, doesn’t help; there’s no time to get to know anybody before they're killed, or unmasked as someone else in disguise, or turn out to really be their counterpart from the mirror universe. It’s better than Star Trek: Enterprise, the last of the pre-reboot shows, but it sounds as though Star Trek: Picard may be having the same problem. I want to watch Deep Space Nine again!
Endeavour, Series 7 – a short (three episodes) but excellent series, and if this turns out to be the final one it’ll have gone out on a high.
Age of the Image – Very perceptive four-part documentary series by James Fox. I’m not sure there’s really any overall thesis, but it’s a splendid tour through the histories of photography, film, advertising and manufactured image, featuring great examples – just the ones you’d want them to have bought the rights for.
Wanderlust: Travel Stories – Highly atmospheric portmanteau game or interactive novel, in which travellers meeting on Easter Island tell their stories of journeys past. One reviewer at least loved it, but I’m not entirely happy about the game aspect, because nothing you do seems to be capable of disrupting the overall storyline, which makes one wonder just how meaningful the choices are. Also it’s a bit weird to be playing a game with people journeying all over the place when in real life the world is in coronavirus lockdown.
Doctor Who: emergency transmission – A brilliantly conceived message to fearful children, and the fearful children in all of us if we’re honest. Highly appropriate, because of course Doctor Who is precisely about fear and overcoming fear – and The Doctor always comes through. I think this is the best thing Jodie Whittaker has done as The Doctor.
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