BBC Interactive: The Well

I’ve not had the chance to actually have a go and watch the episodes and play the game yet, but The Well looks quite interesting.  The BBC state that goes with the series:

“The Well is an eight-week drama event, created by Melvin Burgess – the godfather of young adult fiction – that plays across multiple platforms including online, social networks and TV. The story is launched first online (social networks), and simultaneously on BBC TWO (TV) and bbc.co.uk/thewell (online), where the audience can explore a scale replica of the main location for The Well – the derelict house where the well is discovered.

Between TV episodes the audience can enter the house to explore the environment, and by completing a series of tasks and challenges (13 x flash games), they can unlock hidden drama content: revealing the terrifying backstory to the drama and getting one step ahead of our characters. As the story develops, the drama f lows between the TV episodes (4 x 10 minutes) and the 3D immer sive game (3 x 20 minute levels); when a character hides an item within the house on TV, the audience can immediately go online, solve a puzzle, and uncover the item from its hiding place.

The story has been woven across these multiple platforms, and the more the audience engages with the story (on TV, online and on social networks) the more they can deepen their experience of the drama and our characters.”

You can view and play the well at the BBC Website

Psychoville

7 episodes of pure brilliance is how I’d class Psychoville, created by 50% of the League of Gentleman team Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Filled with dark humour, genuine laugh out loud moments, bizarre and odd, everything you’d expect from Reece and Steve. A collection of strange characters lead us through the 7 episodes with the loose tag of someone knowing what they have done. As we move through we find more information on the backstory for each character and the overall arc’d plot. Standout characters include Mr Jelly the hook handed clown (and in the later episodes his elderly companion), Mr Lomas the blind toy collector and Joy (the brilliant, deliciously deranged Dawn French). It starts off a bit slow in the first couple of episodes but by the third it is must watch TV. Episode 4 is an inspired homage to Hitchcocks Rope. Episode 6 is pretty devoid of any humour as it takes a real turn to the dark side and the finale is satisfying enough. I don’t want to give too much away apart from to say, if you liked LoG, you’ll like this. DVD and Blu Ray is already out and it may still be on iPlayer.

TV Review: Torchwood – Children of Earth

I’ll admit I haven’t watched much Torchwood, despite being a pretty big Dr Who fan. The few episodes I’ve caught have been utter rubbish and the reviews have seemed to backup my own feelings. So, how did I end up watching Children of Earth? I have to say, the trailer sold it to me. It looked creepy, exciting and exactly the kind of drama I like. I’m not sure quite how Russell T Davies has managed to turn this round, but the mini series is a British sci-fi classic.

Split into 5 days (shown over 5 consecutive nights), the plot is that of an alien race coming to earth to take 10% of our child population. The race, called the 456, have been here before and took 12 children in 1965. This time they want more though and it affects the whole planet, not just the UK. The plot mixes up sci-fi elements, human drama, politics and family. RTD has done quite a remarkable job of pulling all those plot elements together into one cohesive whole and at times they pack a punch as well.

The alien/sci-fi side is the backdrop to the whole story, as all good sci-fi should be, it is there and allows the other elements to work around it rather than being front and centre. The 456 are really creppy, first using children to convey their message in eerie scenes that see children just stopping dead and then speaking in unison. When they finally arrive, all we see is some creature shape in a mist filled tank. It evoked a great sense of 60s sci-fi and things like Quatermass.

By far the strongest part of the story though is the political angle. Starring the magnificent Peter Capaldi as a civil servant who has to deal with the 456 and the Prime Minister. Capaldi gives a great layered performance, showing all his feelings and emotions at times just using body language and facial expressions. His scenes with the 456 are incredibly well done, considering he is just speaking to a room full of mist.

Day 4 is easily the highlight of the show, everything that has come before seems to come to a head in Day 4, before the climax of the final part. There is a wonderful scene where the politicians decide which 10% of the child population to sacrifice. Often these kind of scenes come off as bashing you over the head message scenes, but here RTD and the actors have managed to pull of a scene that had me glued to the screen not believing what they were saying and deciding.

The final episode wraps things up nicely. There are some great scenes with children being forcibly removed from schools, there parents and hearded onto buses. As for the ending, yes it was a bit rushed, but it at least had its basis in the storyline. Lets just say it is dark and makes one of the central characters pretty irredeemable. I’m still shocked they actually used the ending they did.

Overall then, this is a great piece of sci-fi drama. Elements of it are causing lots of debate across the net, which generally means it has had an affect on people and was well written. If you’ve not caught it yet, got onto the BBC iPlayer and get it watched.

Supernatural 4×22 “Lucifer Rising” (spoilers)

21 episodes of pure excellence and we finally get to the season finale of Supernatural. This is a show that really has gone from a pretty decent monster of the week format to a heavily arced plot and character heavy show. Will they or won’t they have Sam and Dean up against each other? Will they or won’t they release Lucifer from his prison? After the way season 3 went, where most people didn’t expect them to actually send Dean to hell, I think most people had this time guessed that they may play through with this scenario. The finale gave us exactly what we expected …

Now that probably sounds like a criticism. Far from it. The episode was a strong one. We get plenty of fantastic character moments, a bag full more backstory, betrayals and conflicts, everything we come to expect from the show. After such a strong season though and after the fact they did go that extra step in season 3, they were not going to top it this time. So, what do we find out …

Lost Season 5 & 5×16/17 “The Incident”

So, Lost season 5 draws to a close with a mind boggling, blow you out of the water episode. The wait until January 2010 is going to be painful as we’re left to ponder of the events of the season and the finale. Continue on to spoilers ….

Review: Caprica (Pilot)

After the success of Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick have decided to try and expand the universe with a prequel show dealing with creation of the robotic Cylons in the Colonies. So it sounds a bit Terminator leading up to Judgement Day crossed with a bit of Philip K. Dick and with Moore and Eicks touch for creating good, dark character drama.

The first information on the show told us it would be about two families who have dealt with a tragedy. We’d get information on how the robotic Cylons belief system came about and the build up to the first Cylon war. In all honesty, it sounded, well, a bit dull. So, how was the pilot? I have to report it was pretty good. It’s gorgeously shot, well acted and certainly feels in like it will be a part of the BSG universe.