Imagine a world where cops are armed but they never shoot anyone. Imagine a world where the mental ill are treated with respect, even when they kill people. Imagine a world where there’s an entire police unit dedicated to investigating crimes committed by the mentally ill so that they can be helped and treated.
No need to imagine. That world is Canada.
Allegedly.
‘Inspired’ by real-life incidents, Cracked sees Canadian police officer Aidan Black (David Sutcliffe) get a touch of PTSD and start doing inappropriate chicken impressions. When he returns to work, still not quite right – ‘cracked’ even – he’s given a chance to help on the newly formed Psych Crimes Unit, where he’s to work with psychiatrist Daniella Ridley (Stefanie von Pfetten), another cop (Luisa D’Oliveira) and a psychiatric nurse (Dayo Ade) in helping to investigate crimes committed by the mentally ill, and then, using his unique insight and compassion, talk to them a lot.
And while on the one hand it’s a delight to have a show that doesn’t think banging everyone to rights or shooting them, particularly if they’re mentally ill, is a good idea, it doesn’t half expose the fact that for most drama, something has to happen for them to be interesting.
As we all know, Dan Harmon, the creator and showrunner of the totally excellent Community, has been fired. He’s off to pastures new, leaving NBC to appoint some ex-Happy Endings producers as showrunners in his place. The resulting worry is, of course, that season four of Community, the premiere of which was delayed from mid-October for no good reason, isn’t going to be anywhere near as good as a result.
Well, here’s some footage from the premiere and I’m going to say… it’s not. It looks like it’s been written by someone who’s seen Community, but doesn’t getCommunity. Hopefully, I’m wrong.
As I’ve mentioned before, the second Totally Serialized is about to take place in London. Featuring international cinema and TV, as well as UK shows such as Doctor Who and Peep Show, it’ll offer you the exclusive chance to see:
The first episode of the mini-series Labyrinth, based on the multi-million selling novel by Kate Mosse, followed by a panel Q&A with cast and key creatives
The UK premieres of innovative French shows Rebound, Spin and The Church Men
A panel on TV screenwriting with Jack Thorne (The Fades, This is England), Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars) and French screenwriters
The world premiere of Flight of the Storks directed by Jan Kounen
The world premiere of Jo attended by Jean Reno
A comedy medley of French and British sitcoms (The Thick of It, Peep Show, Kaboul Kitchen, Workingirls)
A Skins revival to say goodbye to the cult show ending this year, with a screening of the very first episode and a Q&A with the creator Bryan Elsley
A night of Doctor Who fun with fancy dress, music, quizzes and a writing masterclass with Toby Whithouse.
Full details of what’s on are here and here’s a trailer:
And I have a pass to give away to one lucky person for all of Friday 18th’s events, which will include:
The UK premiere of the first episode of Spiral series 4
The UK premiere of new Scandinavian sci-fi show Real Humans
Episode two of the French political series Spin
A Q&A with actor Grégory Fitoussi
Here are some trailers – yes there will be English subtitles:
To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is leave a comment below before midnight on Tuesday 14th January, after which the results will be announced. Good luck and spread the word!
These days, superheroes are all the rage in movies. TV series? Not so much, beyond Arrow and a few series stillin the works. But back in the 70s, TV was the natural home of the superhero, it seemed, with Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel/Shazam all getting simultaneous adaptations, and made-for-TV superheroes and heroines like Electra Woman, Dyna Girl, Isis, The Man From Atlantis and the Bionic Woman also getting a look-in.
One of the biggest comic book adaptations was The Amazing Spider-Man, which ran on CBS between 1977 and 1979. Starring Nicholas Hammond (a former von Trapp child from The Sound of Music), it sees mild mannered university student Peter Parker get bitten by a radioactive spider and as a result, become incredibly strong and gymnastic, as well as acquire the ability to stick to walls and ceilings and anticipate danger. With a little bit of scientific and engineering ingenuity, he even manages to create “web shooters” that enable him to shoot sticky and extremely strong webbing from cartridges on his wrists, so that he can swing from building to building, tie up criminals and so on.
After initially ignoring the responsibility of his new powers, Peter eventually decides to fight crime and gets a job as photographer on the Daily Bugle so that he can pay for his night-time endeavours – usually by taking exclusive pictures of himself as ‘Spider-Man’.
The show started as a back door pilot TV movie back in 1977…
…and was picked up for five episodes as a mid-season replacement in 1978. These initially did well, earning 16.6m viewers which made it CBS’s highest rated show. However, CBS, wary of being known as the ‘superhero network’ (since it already carried four other superhero shows), cancelled it. It then changed its mind and picked up the series for another eight episodes which aired sporadically: six in the autumn and winter of 1978 and a final two-hour episode in the summer. After that, the show was officially cancelled.
It’s fair to say no one was particularly happy with this Amazing Spider-Man. Fans objected to the changes made to the Parker storyline and the lack of any of Spider-Man’s super-villains from the comics. Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, despite being a consultant on the show, thought it was too juvenile. Production values weren’t great either, with the show being filmed in Los Angeles despite being set in New York, and Spider-Man noticeably always played by a stunt double rather than Hammond. With such sporadic air dates and lack of commitment from CBS, it’s no surprise that not only did J Jonah Jameson, the editor of the Daily Bugle, get played by a different actor in the series than in the pilot, Peter’s Aunt May was never played by the same actress twice.
Nevertheless, both the TV movie and the final two-part episode were released in cinemas around the world, the second movie benefitting greatly from having extensive footage shot in Hong Kong.
Since then, though, The Amazing Spider-Man has faded in many people’s memories. Unlike The Incredible Hulk, which has seen frequent repeats, DVD releases and a series of comeback movies in the 80s and 90s, The Amazing Spider-Man has instead languished in edited forms on VHS and laser-disc, the planned comeback TV series and movies never happened, and repeats have been few and far between.
But good old YouTube to the rescue. Here’s the title sequence and a playlist of all the episodes, you lucky people!
