Category: 42 Word Reviews

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord

by Russell T Davies; dir. Ben Chessell (BBC, 2024)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord” by Russell T Davies; dir. Ben Chessell (BBC, 2024)

Maestro presents as a seriously deranged threat—albeit one that would have hit home harder had (a) Gatwa’s Doctor an established track record (beyond happy-go-running-away), and (b) they not been meekly sacrificed to a larger story arc (plus delirious show-choir song-and-dance routine).

Doctor Who: Space Babies

Doctor Who: Space Babies

by Russell T Davies; dir. Julie Anne Robinson (BBC, 2024)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: Space Babies” by Russell T Davies; dir. Julie Anne Robinson (BBC, 2024)

Part exposition for new watchers, part setup for the rest of the series, but mostly just the only story that Russell T Davies could come up with having pulled the title ‘Space Babies’ from a random text generator. Ebullient but rather forced.

Father Brown, Series 4

Father Brown, Series 4

(BBC, 2016)

TV poster: “Father Brown, Series 4” (BBC, 2016)

Series Four focusses less on social issues and more on striking humorous sidenotes to Kembleford’s ongoing binge of cosy murders. (Bravo the pineapple byplay in ‘The Sins of the Father’!) A new inspector, even more one-note than his predecessors, detracts a little.

The Truth

The Truth

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2000)

audiobook read by Matthew Baynton (Transworld, 2023)

Book cover: “The Truth” by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2000); audiobook read by Matthew Baynton (Transworld, 2023)

A curious instalment. The satire is atypically direct, and while the characters sprout like humorously shaped vegetables from page to page, their various plot roots shrivel in the shadow of the truth/news as entity unleashed—which may well have been Pratchett’s point.

The Dark Tower (2017)

The Dark Tower

dir. Nikolaj Arcel (2017)

Film poster: “The Dark Tower” dir. Nikolaj Arcel (2017)

The performances can’t be faulted, and Dark Tower intrigues so long as one isn’t already familiar with the source material. Still, most of the worldbuilding remains under the surface, the plot nosediving into improbable gunslinging skills versus edgy villain with motiveless plan.

Temporal Gifts

Temporal Gifts (Shadows of Otherside #8)

by Whitney Hill (Benu Media, 2023)

Book cover: “Temporal Gifts” by Whitney Hill (Benu Media, 2023)

More of the glorious same. Arden’s best intentions bring nothing but trouble in a world plagued by duplicitous humans, Othersiders and gods. The story moves faster than ever, for once ending not on a cathartic up-note but rather calamity fraught with anticipation.

Tulsa King, Season 1

Tulsa King, Season 1

(Paramount+, 2022-2023)

TV poster: “Tulsa King, Season 1” (Paramount+, 2022-2023)

Short episodes, short season. Tulsa King attempts crime drama plus comedy with dollops of character redemption, but misses on all counts. Stallone looks passably like Robert De Niro… until required to act. (Long speeches and emotional expression—any range—prove especially cringeworthy.)

The Invocations

The Invocations

by Krystal Sutherland (Penguin, 2024)

audiobook read by Kit Griffiths (Penguin Random House Australia)

Book cover: “The Invocations” by Krystal Sutherland (Penguin, 2024); audiobook read by Kit Griffiths (Penguin Random House Australia)

Itchingly dark, powerfully feminist. There is nothing cosy in Sutherland’s depiction of witchcraft. Instead, ‘The Invocations’ recasts the bleak horror of ‘House of Hollow’ as a visceral manifestation of (societally ingrained) misogyny, endured and countered by three resilient, resolute, sorely representative 17-year-olds.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

dir. George Miller (2024)

Film poster: “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” dir. George Miller (2024)

The War Rig sequences, through their rapid-fire ingenuity, best showcase Miller’s vision of unsettling, dystopic abandon. Beyond these, Furiosa leans a bit too heavily into deranged campness. Chris Hemsworth walks a particularly wobbly tightrope. Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy are more convincing.

The Island of Lost Maps

The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime

by Miles Harvey (Random House, 2000)

Book cover: “The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime” by Miles Harvey (Random House, 2000)

Slightly frustrating non-fiction that strays far from its central story (the serial map thievery perpetrated on American libraries by Gilbert Bland). Harvey’s extensive research leads to some diverting asides, but equally into a drawn-out narrative of his own existential crisis as researcher.

Derelict Space Sheep