Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post an individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Cries and Whispers

Click here to read the review

Contagion

If anything, Steven Soderbergh’s drama about a rampant epidemic suffers from a lack of emotion. A well researched, informative film about the spread of diseases, the hazards in human interactivity and the desperation inherent in a populace focused on self-preservation. There are some solid performances from Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle and especially Jude Law and Kate Winslet. The problem is that the film never attaches the viewer to the characters with any measure of reliability. Damon and Winslet get the most sympathetic portrayals and Fishburne gets as couple of good scenes, but for a film about the devastation of the human population, there wasn’t enough sorrow or consideration to the plight of the dead. We see it all through the eyes of the characters, but never get to share in a needed dose of catharsis.

The Legend of Hell House

This supernatural thriller along the lines of The Haunting stars Roddy McDowall in one of his crazy, characteristically wonderful performances. McDowall lays it on thick at times, but late in the film, he’s just so brazenly over the top that it proceeds directly from cliche to sublime. The story itself is a bit unusual and the plotting seems dull and tedious, but the chills are strong throughout and the film’s climax is well worth the wait.

A Fish Called Wanda

I normally love British humor. I’m a fan of a number of British series including Absolutely Fabulous, Fawlty Towers and The IT Crowd. Yet, there’s something about A Fish Called Wanda that isn’t quite funny enough. The performances are all solid and fun and the plotting is fairly spot-on, but much of the humor just lays there and a lot of the more abusive segments of the film feel mean more than they feel funny. Still, there are enough enjoyable elements in the film to make it a pleasant diversion.

Leverage (Season 3, episodes 13-16

When this show gets into the meat of its season story arc, it tends to get good and this season’s plot is definitely a fun one. If they could have tossed the superfluous episodes (yes, even the lovely Christmas one), it could have been a stellar season. Hopefully they learn something for next year.

Star Trek (The Original Series): Shore Leave

Interesting concepts don’t necessarily make great episodes. Take this one for example. An overtaxed crew, much in need of shore leave, discovers an entirely uninhabited planet. Things aren’t all as they seem when certain mental images manifest themselves into reality and the crew of the Enterprise must discover what is playing with their minds and trying to kill them. There’s no commentary on the human condition in this episode, except in its penchant to believe all it sees and wish for things that are long gone. The performances aren’t bad and some of the ideas are fun, but that’s all the episode is: a whimsical waste.

Star Trek (The Original Series): The Galileo Seven

Giving Mr. Spock an opportunity for center stage, Leonard Nimoy doesn’t disappoint. While investigating an anomaly, the crew of the shuttle Galileo crash lands on the only planet in the vicinity able to support life. They must work against time to repair the shuttlecraft and decide who may live or die to give the shuttle enough buoyancy to lift off again. Several incidents occur, including multiple attacks by a dangerous indigenous population who threaten to kill them all. Spock uses logic to support his decisions while the crew around him question his ability to lead when he can’t let emotion help him choose. The episode gives us a nice glimpse into the psyche of Spock who follows logical dictates to the infuriating letter, yet must grow enough to develop a sense of self preservation and a protective mien. The episode has a number of annoyances, including a commissioner constantly reminding the Captain he has a short time remaining to abandon the search for his missing crew and a handful of bits of overacting.

Star Trek (The Original Series): The Squire of Gothos

It seems like a common choice of science fiction stories, an immature alien creature who toys with the stars. This is another one of those episodes. While it’s done incredibly well, it’s entirely predictable and lacks an emotional resonance that a lot of other episodes in this series have. Still, there are some solid pro-acceptance choices here where certain racist or specist comments are looked at poorly by the characters. It adds some semblance of depth to an otherwise straightforward episode.

Star Trek (The Original Series): Arena

Another good, albeit simplified episode. Showing the human penchant for violence, yet its capability for mercy is a common theme of Star Trek and other programs. It is done fairly well here and though the Gorn is obviously a man in a lizard suit, for the period, it was actually a rather effective costume, the eyelids even blinked. Shatner doesn’t do anything especially original here in terms of acting, but it’s a good diversion regardless.

Star Trek (The Original Series): Tomorrow Is Yesterday

The first of many sojourns to “modern” Earth in Star Trek history is handled with care and only a modicum of theoretical science. Pulled through a black hole in space and time to a period in the late 1960s where the crew of the enterprise, attempting to stop a fighter jet from attacking it, inadvertently destroys the ship but not before transporting its pilot aboard. This creates a potential for paradox as the man they beamed aboard may not be returned because of the future knowledge he possesses. The episode tackles the complex idea that any interference in the past may drastically alter the future. Care and concern must be taken to ensure that the timeline is preserved. The episode does a nice job of keeping that in control and making the audience believe it. And on top of all of that, the episode was somewhat prophetic. Although Kennedy had promised that by the end of the decade we would land a man on the moon, nothing was yet certain and missing the 1960s window was fast approaching. When this episode aired in 1967, there was no way to know for certain that the moon landing would occur in time, yet the writer chose to say it did. And when, trapped in the late 1960s, the crew of the Enterprise references the moonshot taking place in the time period, it felt like a foreshadowing of history.

Star Trek (The Original Series): Court Martial

An intriguing episode where Captain Kirk is put before a court martial to face charges that he jettisoned a sensor pod with a crewman aboard when regulations would not have permitted it resulting in the crewman’s death. For the first two thirds of the episode, the audience should remain riveted to the tense courtroom drama wherein Kirk faces diminishing hope of reprieve after a series of evidence, including a visual record shows that he committed the crime. Not particularly forward thinking, the episode then twists itself with a fairly common courtroom drama trick suggesting things are more complicated than they appear. I think I would have been more fascinated had Spock’s testimony preserved the Captain’s career instead of going in the direction it did. The final altercation feels tacked on. A good drama with an unsatisfying conclusion.