Nerd World News

Wow, I've been busy lately. I write for Starburst and Bad Haven now, so a lot of the nerd rants I'd normally put on here now go on those sites (both are awesome sites - go check them out!) So I thought I'd summarise some of the nerdy topics that have been at the forefront of my mind lately here.

My name is Abby and I'm a Sherloholic

How good were those three episodes?! Or 'films' is probably the more accurate word for them. As a writer they just make my brain sing with joy (and occassionally grumble and mutter about why I'm not as good as they are). But the How Did Sherlock Fake His Death? debate has unfortunately somewhat overshadowed the rest of the damn fine series.

Because before Sherlock took his climactic swan dive (or did he? etc) series two had been a lovely fairytale about a brilliant, isolated man gradually defrosting and allowing other people into his life, ironically opening up the chinks in his armour that Moriarty ultimately worms into in the process. Steve Thompson - a man who, let's be honest, up until The Reichenbach Fall seemed to be the useless brother-in-law that Moffat felt obliged to give work to - did a great job of giving Sherlock's fake suicide dramatic and lasting impact even after you know he's not dead. It was the moment that the audience finally got to see what John meant to Sherlock. Sherlock planned it all, of course, and prepared his fake death as a last-ditch plan. But he naturally assumed that he'd outwit Moriarty and not have to go through with it - until he learns that John's life is on the line. So he destroys his reputation and says goodbye to the only friend he has just to save his life. Sob.

But there'll be a series three! Hooray!

One final note on Sherlock (which, a couple of weeks on, I still can't get out of my head) - how spectacular was the acting, across the board? Benedict Cumberbatch is everywhere right now, and deservedly so, but that rather detracts from Martin Freeman who, in my mind, stole the show this series. Freeman is just so extraordinary at playing ordinary. What he does is so subtle that a lot of people don't even class it as acting, especially not when he's surrounded by excellent scenery chompers like Andrew Scott (so brilliant as Moriarty this year). But who didn't get a little something in their eye as John struggled to come to terms with his loss?

World's Finest

Wait, I'm who now?

On the one hand, this is right up my alley. In the New 52, DC's World's Finest are no longer Batman and Superman - they're Huntress and Power Girl. Two female characters getting a high profile book to themselves. And they're two great characters, too!

Oh, but wait - Power Girl might be the Karen Starr we know and love, but what's this? Huntress is Helena Wayne again, the original Earth-2 Huntress, daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Helena Bertinelli, who existed as a character for 14 years longer than her Earth-2 counterpart, who appeared in the hugely popular JLU animated series, who is the only version of Huntress that most modern comic readers know, no longer exists in current DC continuity. Well, that's just a slap in the face for a Birds of Prey fan like myself. Helena Bertinelli was one of my favourite characters. I read the first issue of her mini-series in the new 52, and it seems they've kept many of the personality traits of the Huntress I know, but without her history with the Birds she just won't be the same.

It seems that the concept for this series is that Huntress and Power Girl are trying to get back home to Earth-2. Now, I'm already ticked off at the prospect of Earth-2. There are rumours that some of the missing characters - including some of my personal favourites like Donna Troy and Wally West - might pop up on Earth-2. But what's the point when they can't interact with the characters who helped define them? Donna should be having drinks with Dick Grayson, advising him on his love life, not another dimension away. And now they're taking Power Girl and Huntress out of the main DC universe too, provided that they succeed in getting home in. Humph.

Secret Six (last time, I promise)

I finally got round to reading the last Secret Six trade last week (I'm a trades girl), and, well, that was emotional. Anyone who thought the "I thought we might be heroes" ending to the Western one-shot was a killer, wait until you see the final issue.

Over the six years or so that we had the Secret Six (on and off) they grew into the most believable damaged comic book family outside of the Batfamily. Their jaunt to hell in this trade and the surprise (although it shouldn't be) betrayal half way through just serve to solidify their bond. But there just isn't a place in that world of superheroes and supervillains for some messed up folk who just want to get by (and possibly one day kill Batman). Looks like DC editorial couldn't find a place for them either. Although, with any luck, the inevitable increase in interest in Bane after The Dark Knight Rises might see more people buying the Secret Six trades, which, in turn, might persuade DC to look a little bit harder for a place to put everyone's favourite psychopaths. Frankly, I don't want to read a DC universe that doesn't have Catman, Scandal, Ragdoll et al inhabiting a dark little corner of it.

Doctor Who vs Sherlock: FIGHT!

It's BAFTA time again, the day in the year where Jimmy McGovern clears a spot on his shelf for yet another gong while fans of cult shows bemoan the lack of awards glory for their favourites. But last year the mold was broken when Misfits walked away with the Best Drama Series trophy. I think that might just be the first time a British sci-fi show has actually won our highest TV honour, and it has increased my interest in the BAFTAs. If Misfits can win, anyone can. The Best Drama Series category is chock-full of my favourite shows: Sherlock, Misfits, Being Human and Downton Abbey. (I'd like to see Being Human pick it up for a brilliant third series and in honour of it's wonderful first series, for which it wasn't even nominated. But I think this one will be between Downton and Sherlock. Any would be a deserving winner though.) I'll also be interested to see if Robert Sheehan and Lauren Socha stand any chance in their acting categories (what clips of them will they be able to show at 8pm? Nathan trying to lick his own balls?) but I was sad to see Russel Tovey miss out on a nod, again.

But the category everyone is excited about in Best Actor. Mainly because Doctor Who and Sherlock are going head to head, with both Matt Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch nominated alongside Jim Broadbent and Daniel Rigby. But we don't care about them. This is the Doctor versus Sherlock Holmes, people! It's a Christmas special dream! Let's take a look at the contestants:

Matt Smith - The Doctor

Believe it or not, this is the first time a Doctor Who actor has been nominated for the role. Does that mean that Matt Smith is better in the role than Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant were, or just that BAFTA are now finally acknowledging that sci-fi acting is still acting?

Frankly, he's brilliant in the role. (Whether he's better than the others is a discussion for another blog). His is a completely bonkers performance. He somehow embodies childish exuberance and ancient weariness at the same time and never reads a line quite how you'd expect him to. He is a sheer force of nature and finally proved that he can do the serious stuff as well as the comedy with his heartbreaking performance in The Doctor's Wife, looking utterly bereft as he says "hello" to his TARDIS for the first and last time.

But will voters be able to see past the fact that this is essentially a children's programme? Smith's performance could be a bit too off the wall for some tastes and the fact that he doesn't have a huge body of work behind him to show his range could dent his chances. Plus, some people could say that based on interviews he's pretty much just playing himself. So far his performance in series six is even stronger than last year, so maybe he deserves to win it next year instead.

Benedict Cumberbatch - Sherlock Holmes

I'm rewatching Sherlock at the moment and remembering just how bloody brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch is in the role. Magnetic, commanding, intelligent - like Matt Smith, you can't take your eyes off him. It's not until a second viewing that you realise how good Martin Freeman is too in the less flashy role of Watson. Cumberbatch makes a character with very few likeable traits absolutely loveable and has surprisingly good comic timing.

He also has the advantage of being a two-time BAFTA nominee. He's got the CV to back up his nomination and prove his (very impressive) range and with his strange, angular face he's the poster boy for a new generation of great British character actors.

Putting him at a slight disadvantage is that Sherlock was on TV almost a year ago and he might not be fresh in voters' minds, whereas Matt Smith is galavanting in front of them every Saturday night. Also, his performance in Sherlock is inseperable from Martin Freeman's. The show and the performances are utterly dependent on the chemistry between the two of them. It would be hard to honour one performance and not the other.

If it was up to me and a gun was at my head I'd give the trophy to Cumberbatch. But only if I could give it to Smith next year, soley for The Doctor's Wife. Of course, after all this speculation the award will almost certainly go to Jim Broadbent, because who doesn't love Jim Broadbent?

Either way, there's going to be a man in that hall tonight who wins no matter how it all turns out:

Steven Moffat: The Man of 2010. Congratulations!

TV of 2010

2010 has been a rubbish year for just about everything except TV, and it's been a pretty damn great year (for once) for British TV! Here's my top 10 of 2010, the only criteria being that these are all shows that screened for the first time this year in the UK, so I might be a little bit behind the US shows.

(Incidently, if I was including all the programmes I saw for the first time this year number one would be The Wire, since I finally got the box set this year. People aren't exaggerating when they say it's the best show ever. Go watch it.)

10. Being Human - Series 2

Series 2 showed a drop in quality from the first series, but it was still must-see TV, and Russel Tovey is never less than heart-breaking as the werewolf trying desperately to lead a normal life and just getting werewolf Tourettes for his efforts. This series also introduced the wonderful Ivan (yay!) then killed him off (no!). If they'd let him live, this might have been higher on my list.

9. Nurse Jackie

This strange little beast - half-hour episodes but not a sitcom - has been overlooked a lot but is one of my hits of 2010. Edie Falco makes Jackie a real, flawed person, both hero and villain at the same time and the supporting characters were all fantastic. Jackie saying "fuck you" into the severed ear of a rapist before flushing it down a toilet was one of my TV moments of the year.

8. Ashes to Ashes - Series 3

A2A may be Life on Mars' jealous cousin but it finally hit its stride in its last series with the addition of the devilish Jim Keats and boosted roles for the supporting cast. But it only really makes this list for an ending that beat Lost to it - and did it better too. Although it did take me two viewings to get over my anger that - SPOILER - everyone was dead and to realise that it was actually the best ending they could have done.

7. Downton Abbey

This was a hell of a surprise - an ITV costume drama that was actually good. It was great fun, a soap for posh people, treading just the right line between class politics, romance and back-stabbing. Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton and Hugh Bonneville flew the flag for classy acting but the real stars were a scheming gay footman and his bitter ladies maid sidekick.

6. Mad Men - Series 3 & 4

British viewers got two series' of Mad Men this year thanks to the BBC rushing out series 4 before the rights switch to Sky in 2011 (boo!). Series 3, in particular, was sublime, shaking up the entire format of the show, finally giving Don and Betty their big confrontation (and a divorce) then dodging expectations to pull a light-hearted heist caper out of the bag for the finale. I found series 4 slightly weaker, but Don's arc was fascinating and The Suitcase, a near two-hander between Don and Peggy, was beautiful television.

5. True Blood - Series 2

Some say it was better than series 1. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it was damn good, mainly for the following reasons: Jason's adventures with the Fellowship of the Sun, the line "smite me, motherfucker!", Godric, Bon Temps unlikely A-Team, the adorable romance between Jessica and Hoyt, and of course, Eric. Lovely, bastard, naked Eric. Yum.

4. Glee

Had the quality not dipped in the second half of the first series, Glee would have been higher on my list. It's an absolute phenomenon and deservedly so. The mix of near-the-knuckle jokes, weird adults, high school cliches, soap opera plotting, song and dance and Sue Sylvester is spot on - when they get it right. I worry that it's getting too kiddie-friendly for its own good, but at the top of its game it's the best and most original US show of the year.

3. Misfits - Series 2

While Being Human's second series was a slight disappointment, Misfits managed to actually be a step up from its first. As filthy and funny as ever, it became darker and delved deeper into its own mythology without sacrificing tone or losing what we love about it. Simon became an unlikely sex symbol, Alisha became a good character and Robert Sheehan continues to be the best youg actor on TV. It also pulled off one hell of a game-changing cliffhanger. Nice work guys.

2. Sherlock

This makes the list almost on the strength of its first episode alone, which was the most perfect hour I saw on TV all year. Benedict Cumberbatch was magnetic as Sherlock and Martin Freeman surprised everyone. The two of them have been the best bit of casting all year - up there with Matt Smith as The Doctor - and the programme lives and dies on their chemistry. Mark Gatiss also somehow got away with giving himself the plum role of Mycroft. Luckily for him, he was good.

1. Doctor Who - Series 5

We all expected great things from Steven Moffat and he delivered on all fronts with a great series arc, wonderfully written episodes of his own (The Eleventh Hour and A Christmas Carol stand out), a great choice of guest writers (Richard Curtis and Simon Nye surprised with their episodes), and guest actors (especially Sophie Okonedo and Tony Curran). But the one thing we weren't expecting was for Matt Smith to be that damn good. Karen Gillan let the team down a little, but Alex Kingston is wonderful.

Same story, shiny new time period!

The national excitement over Sherlock is finally dying down now. Were we all so thrilled because it's the best programme the BBC have put out since Being Human? Because Benedict Cumberbatch is curiously sexy? Or because its success was such a surprise after all the nay-saying that had been going on from the hardcore fans who did not want a single inflection changed from Arthur Conan Doyle's original, let alone a entire era? And why is it that these days people seem to rank an adaptation by how faithful it was to the source material? Any attempts to change original are met with outcry (in the case of The Golden Compass the complaints were justified, but others actually improved on the source material, as with Watchmen’s ending). But why the resistance to change, especially since in recent years modernised classics have actually been better than their stodgy, faithful counterparts?

People have been putting Shakespeare into the modern day on stage and screen for years without anyone complaining. Back in 2005 the BBC screened its Shakespeare Retold season, a series of modern day updates of his plays, which turned Macbeth into an angry chef (played by James McAvoy, no less) and Much Ado About nothing was transplanted into a news studio. These were inspired by the success of the BBC’s Canterbury Tales two years earlier, which put Chaucer’s 14th century stories into settings including a karaoke bar and touched upon such modern hot topics as illegal immigration. But perhaps Shakespeare and Chaucer are far enough in the past now for audiences to see them as fairy tales and parables, classic story structures ripe for updating.

More recent are Jane Austen’s novels. It feels like every year we get a new Austen adaptation and every one of them involves bonnets and breeches. It’s a shame since Clueless is possibly the best screen adaptation of Emma that I’ve ever seen and ITV’s Lost in Austen was an absolute joy, treading the fine line between honouring the subject matter but still having fun with it. And of course Pride and Prejudice is still the template for just about every modern romantic comedy made, with Bridget Jones and Bride and Prejudice being the two that most readily admit to it.

Steven Moffat, one of the writers behind Sherlock has priors in this field. Back in 2007 he brought us Jekyll, a modern day twist on the classic story. A sequel more than an adaptation perhaps, and one that had mixed results, but its innovation was never in question and the modern setting worked to its advantage. In the same year ITV brought out a modern day Frankenstein, written by Jed Mercurio and turning Dr Frankenstein into a female geneticist.

Why do people insist on revering these old stories to such an extent that we set them in stone? These novels and plays are classics for a reason, and a dodgy adaptation here and there, faithful or otherwise, will hardly dent their reputation. So why not have a little fun with them? I'd love to see a modern day Oliver Twist addressing the problem of homeless children. Or Dr Faustus as a politician selling his soul to the devil to become Prime Minister. Or maybe even Tess of the D’Urbervilles re-imagined as a Kill Bill-style bloody revenge thriller...