December Round-up: TV & Books

The Christmas / New Year period was fairly busy for some reason, and it's only since this last weekend I've been able to unwind, at least that's how it feels. So I'm going to do a quick catch up on the stuff I've been watching and reading to bring me up to date to start the new year. 

Back at the end of 2011 I loved every minute of Forbrydelsen II / The Killing II (2009). While not as long or perhaps as compelling as the first series, the second still held my rapt attention. Sarah Lund returned to Copenhagen to track a series of killings involving the army and incident in Afghanistan many years before. Grisly murder scenes and lots of pensive Lund moments mixed with new politician Thomas Buch's investigations into his predecessor's conduct as Justice Minister combined for some pretty exciting TV. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL and it was super intense. The intelligent way that The Killing handles plot, character and drama makes it one of my favourite show of the year. Roll on series 3!

Another returning series was Merlin: Series 4, which kicked things up a notch early on by dispatching Uther (and Lancelot) and crowning Arthur King of Camelot, before treading water with some ho-hum warlock-of-the-week episodes before shifting gear again on the overarching plot and marrying off the new king to Gwen. Still no sign of Merlin revealing his magical secret to his best mate and boss, but there were more interesting developments that almost got forgotten in the final episode of the series when the boy magician finished off evil Agravaine! I'm sure that's going to come back to haunt Merlin and add some angst to series 5.

The small yet perfectly formed Rev came back with a new series that saw some big name guest stars in Reverend Adam Smallbone's tiny congregation. Still funny, endearing and often unexpectedly, refreshingly rude, Rev still feels like a hidden gem.

While in Crewe for New Year I had the 'pleasure' of watching a few bits and pieces on my in-laws' new 3D TV, including some Kylie concert, a bit of a CGI movie and a whole programme in the form of nature documentary The Bachelor King 3D. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough the over-long one off followed the life and times of a king penguin - at least it purported to do, until the closing credits revealed that the penguin lead was actually 'played' by several different birds. The 3D was a nice touch, but as I've said before, watching something in 3 dimensions does not improve the actual experience. It's a novelty and nothing more, and after 75 minutes with heavy 3D glasses it's also a bit of a headache. The programme was good, though didn't shed any new light on the lives of a well-documented species.

TV short Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas was charming though distinctly odd. I understand the conceit of talking mammoths, sloths, etc, but I just cannot credit the presence of a human Santa Claus or the very notion of Christian Christmas many thousands (millions?) of years too early. I know it's a kids' holiday special but come on! Paradoxes aside, the short was a lot of fun and made me want to finally watch the movie sequels to the not-quite-classic-but-better-than-most-cgi-movies original.

I found time to read a couple of books over Christmas. The first I actually received as a gift last year, The Interrogative Mood (2010) by Padgett Powell. A bizarre 'novel' constructed entirely throughout its 164 pages by a random string of questions. It's an odd beast, and not really my idea of a novel, but it's hardly non-fiction either. Occasionally there seem to be groups of questions that link but there is no connected through-line. Strangely the overall impression of the book is that whatever it is, it works. It really has to be read to be believed.

More straightforward was Kate Mosse's Labyrinth (2005), an epic grail quest that feels incredibly sedate compared to the Da Vinci Code. I say grail quest, it's not until the last third of the novel that the relic evens merits a mention. Before that the story is split between Alice in the present and Alaïs in the 13th century as the former pieces together bits of the life of the latter until both narratives cleverly converge in the same cave in the French Pyrenees. I rarely had this book out of my hands over New Year, I very much relished the dual-narrative style, the subject matter and the wonderfully drawn characters. I particularly liked Alaïs' experiences in a foreign country and a dim and distant past for the fact that both aspects of her life were so different and original. Where Dan Brown's book felt like a thriller for the MTV generation, Labyrinth was more like a 20 part Danish drama, slowly unfolding over time to reveal a deftly plotted adventure.