The Killers: Live From the Royal Albert Hall (2009)

I wasn’t particularly taken with Day & Age, as presented on disc. Here, however, there’s a sincere shimmering vibrancy to the songs. Trust me, I went back to make sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. There’s something dampened and sterile to their mixes on the album itself. Oh, and the one song that was too strong to be held back by the production there? It bleeds out of the screen, here. Further, none of these gentlemen are particularly ostentatious on stage, and none of the theatrics are overtly showy, meaning it really is all about the strength and veritas of the songs themselves.

That isn’t to say that you should put this on and clean the house, or go on an adventure across every other tab you have open. No, there’s plenty of worthwhile visuals and behaviors on display. Ronnie joyously works his ass off and it melts my heart to see Brandon doing something as touching and humble as wiping the sweat off of Dave’s face for him. /swoon

While the vast majority of Day & Age is performed, the singles from Hot Fuss and some of the real…killers from Sam’s Town also appear, to my sheer delight. The back-stage special demonstrates the camaraderie that exists amongst the entirety of their production crew. It’s similar to how Conan O'Brien interacts with his, if the snarky-ness was turned down about five notches. There’s a handful of additional performances from other venues, as well, and I’d say they’re worth checking out. The half-acoustic rendition of Smile Like You Mean It, at the very least.

Hey, Billie Joe, take fucking notes. THIS is how you do 'hey-ho's. In one instance, briefly, and with narrative significance. I expect to see an immediate improvement.

This is available on bluray, but it doesn’t come with the CD of most of the tracks that accompanies the DVD. If you’re a fan of the band, there's no real debate. If you were disappointed with Day & Age, give this a shot and see if you’re similarly won over.

Approx. 2 hours, not counting the extras.

(More) Performances of Note: A Dustland Fairytale; Sam's Town

4½ Long-Since Abandoned Geo Metros out of 5

Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-01)

THE KIDS IN THE HALL [1989-1995]

An optimist says, "The drink is half full." 
A pessimist says, "The drink is half full
...but I might have bowel cancer."

For five seasons, Canada's cult-classic comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall shocked, offended and most definitely humored with it's contemptuous crackpot self-titled sketch show.  Made up of Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson, the five-man act were notorious for doing a damn-fine job at dressing in drag, crushing heads, testing the censors and most of all making sure they were guaranteed to always come up in comedy sketch show conversations.

Unlike most sketch comedies that depend on pop culture and political issues, The Kids cynically tackled several touchy subjects such as sexuality, bigoted stereotyping, mental illnesses, religion and dysfunctional living styles.  Quite often frighteningly clever, they weren't afraid to embrace their nonsensical stupid side either with overly horny chicken ladies or cigar-chomping dirtbags with cabbages for heads.  Some of the many highlights included Thompson's gay bar owner Buddy Cole's lengthy monologues, Foley's silent French-Canadian under-dog Mr. Heavyfoot, McKinney's foolishly "sophisticated" hipster Darill, McDonald's adorably evil stage-entertainer Simon (& Hecubus) and McCulloch's David Lynch style short films that are complimented with the audience's nervous laughter.  

Throughout their five seasons of 102 episodes, The Kids managed to keep a consistent quality that only started to show a bit of downslope in a few of the final episodes when they just got plain weird for the sake of being weird.  However, when most sketch comedians know their material isn't top-notch they wear it on their sleeve with embarrassment but The Kids stuck it out and gave it their all making even the weakest of bits worth your time.  

5 nutty bunnies out of 5

Net Edition: Kamen Rider Backwards-Kiva:Queen of Hell's Castle (2008)

A rare moment of Sosuke being nice to Bomper.

You should watch them before seeing Kiva's dedicated movie, if you are interested.

Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z Net Movies— 26 Rapid-Fire Laughs (2010)

Knights of God (1987)

The fists and crossed swords symbol used by the Knights is a simple but striking and highly evocative design, wordlessly communicating to a viewer that the guiding credo of the order isn't concerned with benevolent protection, it's one of militaristic strength and aggression nestled within colours associated with fascism.

In post-civil war Britain (2020 AD) the Knights rule with force, guns and border patrols, killing any who dare resist their control. It's a children's TV show but the killing doesn't happen off-screen; there's more hard-hitting acts of violence shown than you'd expect to see in a production with such a classification. In today's culturally sensitive climate it would probably be labelled as YA.

The Welsh resistance, onetime fishermen who now hold automatic pistols and machine guns, refuse to accept the fascist regime. They're the biggest thorn in the Knights' broad side. The resistance group put their lives on the line in the fight for freedom. Prior Mordrin (John Woodvine), the Knights' leader, is obsessed with crushing their cause; he formulates a dangerous plan to make it happen.

Problematic civilians who aren't killed are sent to "Education Retraining Centres"; i.e. internment camps. It's there that the story begins to have a more direct focus, having had the foundation for such laid prior to the relocation. The young protagonist, Gervase Edwards (George Winter), is tested both emotionally and physically by his captors, ironically preparing him for what's to come.

It's abundantly clear that a lot is at stake, more than just personal freedoms, but it doesn't reveal the full extent of exactly what it is until later, deep into the final third. However, the episodic conflict may well lose a large part of a modern audience before that happens because of its slow progression, the conflict is often fought through a dialogue-heavy battle of wills, which is a dramatic change of pace from the armed war of attrition undertaken in the borderlands.

The complexity is extended to the inner-workings of the Knights. Brother Hugo (Julian Fellowes), the Prior's second in command, is a sadistic, power-hungry and ambitious individual with a comb-over, the sort of officer that's not to be trusted.

If you find that the series holds your attention even in the quieter moments then there's much to be gained from sticking it out to the end. There's a hasty wrap-up that really ought to have been given more time to breathe, but overall it's quality TV that puts emphasis on depth of character and conviction over all else.

13 episodes, approx 26 minutes each.

4 rising tides out of 5

Kamen Rider Agito Special: A New Transformation (2001)

This was aired between episodes 35 and 36 and you’ll want to watch it then, too, as this conveys all of the emotional significance behind Agito’s final form. The debut of it in the show itself (in episode 37) assumes you’ve seen this as there’s not much in the way of specific explanation. It's worth noting that G3 Mild appears here.

Knightmare (1987–94)

As a young Faustus I loved all things fantasy and supernatural. Fighting Fantasy books, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels, HeroQuest gaming sessions, etc, so it's no great surprise that Knightmare fit perfectly into my life.

Four adventurers (kids under 16) entered the Castle of Confusion in the hope of conquering its dungeon. One wore the Helmet of Justice, which limited what he/she could see, and entered the dungeon proper. The remaining three stayed behind to act as guides, able to see on a screen where their friend was, to direct and keep the Dungeoneer from falling into imaginary pits of doom and suchlike.

The rules of the game were overseen by Treguard the Dungeon Master, pictured above, a noble(ish) born Saxon, he would give occasional clues and hints to either help solve a puzzle or feed the team's nervousness. Treguard rocks!

Even though it was all for the children, the adults were the real stars. They treated the chroma key (blue screen) locations as a kind of stage, treading boards that weren't there as enthusiastically as they would if they actually did exist. In short, they were a theatre troupe doing what they do best: bringing theatrical life to an otherwise empty space. In addition, they had to ad lib when the kids turned out to be more stupid than they'd anticipated for, which was often. It's not unfair to say that some of the contestants hit every branch of the stupid tree when they fell.

Each year the dungeon would shift, offering new challenges and presenting new recurring characters. Even Trequard (Hugo Myatt) got himself an aide or two, my favourite being the elf Pickle (David Learner), who started out a little annoying but grew into a truly memorable part of the show in his second year.

The rules were unevenly enforced; it could be overly-harsh one minute and too forgiving the next, depending on how thick the kids were. It started out pandering to them, but soon got bored with that approach. In S3 the cast toyed with humiliating them, successfully, and in S4 the level design almost sent a few of the clumsier ones to the casualty ward. When a team who knew what they were doing featured, the show became the thing that it was envisioned to be: magical.

112 episodes, approx 25 minutes each.

4½ watchers of illusion out of 5

Kamen Rider Kiva (2008-09)

Dennis Potter’s Karaoke (1996)

The first part of Potter's final work was broadcast two years after his death. He wrote it with the full knowledge that he was dying, which makes viewing it a deeply poignant experience. You might expect the situation to have pushed him towards tapping into the bleaker side of his talent, but there's a huge amount of darkly wry humour in the script. There's also a feeling that inevitability can't be conquered, so it should be thoroughly mocked instead, as best we can.

The main protagonist is a screenwriter named Daniel Feeld. Daniel, played with intensity by Albert Finney, is diagnosed with the same painful medical condition that killed Potter in real life, so it's fair to assume that it's at least partly autobiographical in nature. His most recent work is causing grief for both himself and the director of the TV adaptation (Richard E. Grant). It's fiction but, as is already established, fiction often has a modicum of reality in it.

When Daniel, in his real life, encounters people who resemble his written characters he begins to feel somehow responsible for what happens to them.

The director, the one filming Daniel's burgeoning fiction, is tethered to a single scene that repeats over and over for both him and us. As he struggles to make sense of it, the wider story and the parts each person plays within it, like we do in our actual lives everyday, begins to resonate more and more, driven forward by Daniel's need to prevent his words becoming someone else's reality.

The journey toward completion sends tendrils of consequence into the fates of everyone involved. The people at the centre of the drama obviously get it the worst, but even the ones on the periphery are affected.

I mentioned at the beginning that Karaoke is the first part of Potter's final work. The second part is Cold Lazarus (see HERE), which came out the same year.

4 episodes, approx 50 minutes each.

4 artistic temperaments out of 5

Kamen Rider Agito (2001-02)

 

Kamen Rider W (2009-10)

I'll leave this bit, here, out of respect to the friends who helped me write it:

The purple and green of W’s base form speaks to the fundamental theme of the series: one does not exist without the other, because they exist within one another. Philip’s sins mirror Shoutarou’s and their strengths and weaknesses complement and compensate for one another’s. The concepts of compassion, justice, human frailty, fear, loss, and community are examined, but far eclipsing of those is the exploration of the true nature of family.

Kingdom Hospital (2004)

aka Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital

American author Stephen King took Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier’s eight episode miniseries, Riget (1994), turned it into a thirteen episode English language series and relocated it to Lewiston, Maine. There's sure to have been many other changes too, but since I've not seen the original I can’t say what they are. Von Trier shares an executive producer credit, suggesting he was agreeable to the adaptation or at the very least happy to whore the concept out.

Peter Rickman, the person we’d traditionally most readily identify as the main protagonist, is admitted to the titular hospital after a serious accident. An accident, incidentally, that mimics King’s own hospitalisation almost verbatim; although I suspect the talking anteater is very much fiction. Peter is a painter, not an author, but his onscreen role is similar to King’s background role: both men help rewrite a story as it happens from a point that's both distant and crucially central. Even though he's a key player, perhaps even the most important one, he’s only one part of a larger whole, one small element in the daily workings of the institution.

The building is modern but has foundations that extend backwards in time to the Civil War era. Before it was a hospital it was something else entirely, and before it was a place of saving lives it was a place where many lives were lost. Yes, it’s the old 'I built new shit atop some old shit and now the ghosts won’t leave me alone,' scenario. Part of what makes it different is the aforementioned talking anteater. It’s CGI but it’s really rather good considering it’s a TV production.

The show's appalling camerawork, direction and oddly placed music made me hate it. If not for Diane Ladd’s character, self-professed psychic Sally Druse, and the mystery surrounding the little girl pictured on the cover (Jodelle Micah Ferland) I’d have given up long before the end. Things do start to get better by episode four, but there’s so much wasted potential that it’s a struggle to make it that far.

A large percentage of the many subplots serve little purpose other than to extend the running time or increase the level of weird. More effort to make them a valuable counterpoint to the core story would've helped tighten the narrative.

The highlight of the whole endeavour is the opening credits that resemble a Dave McKean and JK Potter-esque hybrid of imagery that does eventfully have some relevance even if it appears not to for the longest time.

13 episodes, approx 40 mins each (the first and last are double length).

2½ jonesing rats out of 5

THE KILLING - Season Two [2012]

"Linden, we caught the bad guys."

"Really?  Who's that?"

AMC's under-the-radar crime drama The Killing comes back for a second season of moody lighting, rain, grey area characters, rain, slow-burning suspense, rain, gloomy realistic performances and did I mention rain?

After enraging viewers at the end of the first season by not revealing Rosie Larsen's murderer, showrunner Veena Sud promised that the end of this season would wrap everything up.  Being loosely based upon the Danish series Forbrydelsen and it's three separate narratives, Sud & co. used it only as a inspiration and trailed off into her own direction, making the killer unknown to fans of the original series.  

Just like the first year, season two takes its time unfolding the story and revealing character arcs at a hypnotizing pace that probably won't appeal to folks looking for their "wrapped up in 44 minutes" CSI fix.  The slow-burning reveals are worth it if you're a fan of patient methodical storytelling, as it comes to a powerful conclusion that will rip your heart out, stomp all over it and give it back with the hopes of the wounds making it only more calloused.  There's a few questionable plot threads that threaten to trail off but they all manage to meet up at the end, with the exception of a few character bits that are better left unanswered.  

As much of a critical darling The Killing is, it was never met with much in the way of viewers and was cancelled after this season with the the threat of never releasing it on DVD.   Fortunately loyal fans backlashed and the idiots at AMC opted to renew it for a third season with the promise of the case being wrapped up at the end of the year.  Still, the inevitable DVD release was given a shoddy "manufacture on demand" release exclusive to Amazon.com and that was only after the announcement of a third season.  

It's dark, tragic, honest and beautiful and sometimes that's the comforting place to be.

13 episodes.  44 minutes each.

Buyer's Guide:
Available in DVD box sets only as "manufacture on demand" sets exclusive to Amazon.com.  

4 monarch butterflies out of 5

Kindred: The Embraced (1996)

Kindred could've been great if it hadn't been cancelled midway through its first season. It's loosely based on the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, which is something I have no firsthand experience of.

It follows the safe and successful route of having a human form an uneasy alliance with a non-human, but it places them in a dark Noir environment. It eschews the usual gothic overtones that vampire shows usually have in favour of a more realistic, mafia style. It reminded me of Copolla’s Godfather (1972) in many ways; the main bad guy, Julian Luna, even looks like Part III's Andy Garcia.

Julian is the "prince" of the city; he oversees the five vampire clans, known collectively as the Kindred. Each of the Kindred have a different agenda and work secretly behind the scenes to attain it, but there are laws in place that govern how much they can do alone. Those same laws are designed to protect and sustain their anonymity so the humans don't begin to hunt their kind. That hiding in the open is known as the Masquerade. The five vampire clans can cause it to get a little confusing, but it gave the show a lot of scope for future story lines.

The biggest failing is SF Police Detective Frank Kohanek, the main good guy; his acting is forced and melodramatic. Mercifully, he isn't always the main focus of each episode and as it gets deeper into clan politics he's featured even less.

When Frank isn't in it, it gets good. It's still flawed, I've yet to see a first season of anything that isn't, but it gets more right than it gets wrong.

The characters (except for the aforementioned Frank), the city, and the Masquerade are all believable. If you want some vamp action that's not targeted at teens and deals with adult themes it's worth watching. Sadly, it was shelved after 8 episodes, so we'll never know how it would've played out.

8 episodes, approx 45 mins each (the first episode is longer).

3½ tears of blood out of 5

Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire (2009)

"The Golden One?"
"That's the slightly less cliché way of saying the Chosen One."

Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is a satirical fantasy show jointly produced by the BBC and Comedy Central that pokes fun at the clichés of the fantasy genre along with some other more modern jabs meant just for the audience. It follows Kröd Mändoon; an inept, but sincere rebel warrior; as he fights a revolution against the comically tyrannical Chancellor Dungalor. Kröd is supported by Aneka; his pagan, sexually liberated girlfriend who prefers to fuck to get her way despite Kröd's protests; Zezelryck; a warlock lacking in magical ability; Loquasto; an ogre-like companion who uses a crossbow and is more likely to hit Kröd than the enemy; and Bruce; the prison boy-toy of Kröd's mentor. Together they adventure to stop Dungalor from bringing his plans of treachery to fruition while dodging soldiers, bounty hunters and monsters.

If any of that evoked pictures of epic high fantasy, reel in your expectations. The show is closer to a one camera sitcom than to Lord of the Rings. It is first and foremost a comedy that just happens to be in a fantasy setting with some decent, low-budget action. Besides the jabs at fantasy tropes the majority of the comedy comes from both Kröd and Dungalor's rather idiotic ways of dealing with traditional fantasy tasks. Kröd is prone to losing his sword and important artifacts or is distracted by failing to keep Aneka from banging any willing dude with a cock and a pulse including enemy soldiers and Dungalor is a rather cheerful sociopath that relies on his underlings to get things done. There are laughs to be had, but it follows a pattern with Kröd as the butt of jokes that can wear thin pretty quick. The show's 6 episodes end before it gets too tiresome though. So short and sweet with some decent humor, B-movie action and fan-service provided by India de Beaufort as Aneka.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on DVD, iTunes and Netflix.

3 Giving a bi-sexual cyclops an underwater tongue jab on his "flesh snorkel" out of 5

THE KILLING - Season 1 [2011]

After the tremendous success of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead it was quite apparent that the AMC network was on a winning streak.  Unfortunately with the triumphs of those three shows, a little murder mystery series snuck in through the backdoor and somehow got lost in all the hoopla.

The Killing, inspired by the Danish series Forbrydelsen, is a compelling crime drama that absorbs the viewer's interest into it ever so slowly with it’s moody atmosphere and subdued character arc reveals. 

Developed by former Cold Case writer Verea Sud, The Killing aims to stand apart from the legions and legions of other crime dramas littering the airwaves these days and it does so by leaning closer to a similar storytelling style as Twin Peaks.  Instead of wrapping up the mystery in one episode only to stumble into a whole new one the next week, The Killling follows a single case over the entire season. 

Following the murder of a Seattle high school girl Rosie Larsen, it shows how the case heavily affects three different plot lines and reveals how each character has a secret to hide.  It's absolutely heartbreaking, awkward and disturbing how well it's portrayed by the ensemble cast.

Beautifully shot, with Vancouver, Canada standing in for Seattle, The Killing makes the most of the rain, the clouds and of course: the dark.  With the screen engulfed in shadows and nary a color to brighten things up, with the exception of the dead girl’s clothes and room, it sometimes feels just a little too heavy for the average viewer.

It's slow pacing and story stretched out over the full season requires patience from the viewer and that ultimately killed it's ratings.  Which is a shame, because it's such a brilliantly structured series that never gets overly complicated or silly to ruin the mood.

13 episodes.  55 minutes each.

Episodes to see:

Watch them all.  They’re all part of a complete story that stays solid from start to finish.

Buyer’s Guide:
Available on iTunes & Amazon in Standard & High Defintion editions.
Available on DVD & Blu-ray on March 13, 2012.

4 cigarettes out of 5