Byte Size: Idiot Box – Part III
A scattershot selection of newish TV programming.
Well, shit. Didn’t that year disappear in the blink of an eye? The end of 2022 looms just over the horizon, which means it’s time to wrap up my Idiot Box series with a final list of quality streaming selections.
There’s a little something for everyone here—epic fantasy adaptations, cerebral noir-adjacent sci-fi, spooky horror anthologies, Shakespearean mob violence and spy revenge thrillers—so whatever your fancy, pick a show and dive in. Enjoy!
House of the Dragon (HBO)
Synopsis: “An internal succession war within House Targaryen at the height of its power, 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen.”
I think we can all agree that the last few seasons of Game of Thrones were definitively bad, right? Watching David Benioff and D. B. Weiss speedrun through the most successful television show of the millennium just so that they could jump ship to Disney for a Star Wars film series that would eventually get shitcanned was bittersweet and more than a little frustrating.
Well, I’m pleased to report that HBO’s first spin-off production for George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy universe is well and truly on a redemptive arc. House of the Dragon hits all the familiar beats as GOT: fiery dragons, castle intrigue, sword-swinging battles, meetings and scheming, and, of course, those lovely incest taboos. It’s a whole lot of fun, so do check it out.
The Peripheral (Amazon Prime)
Synopsis: “Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own.”
I’ve always enjoyed the work of cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson. While his narrative worlds virtually leap off the page with rich, engaging prose, I do feel like they can be a little too dense and intricate for faithful screen adaptations.
Thankfully, Amazon’s take on The Peripheral seems to be doing a bang-up job of honouring the tone and thematic core of Gibson’s 2014 novel. If you’re a fan of Blade Runner and partial to watching (the good) episodes of Westworld, then this should be right up your alley.
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
Synopsis: “Bizarre nightmares unfold in eight tales of terror in a visually stunning, spine-tingling horror collection curated by Guillermo del Toro.”
Prolific Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is a director known for his strong visual style and some of the most memorable and inventive monster designs in contemporary cinema, including the Academy Award-winning, Spanish-language Grimm fable Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and the 50s sci-fi/fantasy drama The Shape of Water (2017).
In his first foray into television and/or streaming, del Toro has grouped together a veritable who’s-who of acclaimed writers and directors to curate a spooky horror anthology series that feels akin to The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Each of the eight episodes here offers something a little different, and I’m particularly fond of the entries from Ana Lily Amirpour and Mandy mastermind Panos Cosmatos. Jump scares abound.
Gangs of London (AMC+)
Synopsis: “Tells the story of London being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of its international gangs and the sudden power vacuum that's created when the head of London's most powerful crime family is assassinated.”
I’m a real sucker for depictions of kinetic mob drama on-screen, and no one does them better than Welsh director Gareth Evans, best known for his work on The Raid film series and 2018’s Apostle.
Moving his hyper-violent storytelling to the grim urban locale of England’s seedy underbelly, Gangs of London is chock full of gratuitous headshots, white-knuckle fistfights, impassioned speeches, patriarchal trauma, and Shakespearean betrayal. Season two finds the Wallace clan desperately picking up the pieces after season one’s cliffhanger climax, as potential rivals eye off their territory and make plays for dominance.
The Terminal List (Amazon Prime)
Synopsis: “A former Navy SEAL officer investigates why his entire platoon was ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission.”
Is it weird to see Chris Pratt in something that isn’t Marvel, Lego, or Jurassic Park-themed? A little. However, I will remind readers that this is the same man who brought us the unending joy of Mouse Rat… so he’s got range, is what I’m saying. As an adaptation of Jack Carr’s 2018 “airport Dad fiction” novel of the same name, The Terminal List is essentially a spy thriller in the vein of Shooter.
Special Forces guy thinks that working for the government is a noble profession necessary for the protection of others until said government betrays him for “reasons” (i.e. money; it’s always profit, folks), and our protagonist is then forced to suffer great personal loss, go on the run, and use his particular skill set to bring justice to those who have corrupted his patriotic ideals. The show desperately wants to play out like a libertarian power fantasy, but it actually leans much closer to a leftist critique on military overreach and the documented abuse of Deep State establishment organizations. It’s dark but in a good way.
Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (AMC+)
Synopsis: “Based on Anne Rice's iconic novel, follow Louis de Pointe's epic story of love, blood and the perils of immortality, as told to the journalist Daniel Molloy.”
With all the hype surrounding vampire fiction (and its many inferior genre subsets) over the last decade or so, it’s nice to finally see some pointed love returning for the O.G. contemporary spin on horny bloodsuckers, Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire.
I read Rice’s original 1976 novel in my early teens, and I still adore it to this day. I also really enjoy Neil Jordan’s 1994 film adaptation, even if I think Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are very 90s Hollywood picks for Louis and Lestat. In this latest adaptation, now in series form, the story becomes slightly more contemporary in a temporal setting and a whole lot queerer. If you enjoy steamy sex scenes and the period piece thrill of an exposed neck vein, you’ll want a bite of this one.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime)
Synopsis: “Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.”
2022 has been a real boon for fantasy lovers with The Wheel of Time, the aforementioned House of the Dragon, and, of course, who could forget Amazon’s highly anticipated, billion-dollar venture into Tolkien lore, The Rings of Power. I’ll cut right to the chase: For the most part, I really enjoyed this. It’s a lofty epic that lands on the same register as Peter Jackson’s iconic The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (The less said about those abysmal Hobbit films, though, the better.)
You’ve got sweeping mountain vistas, sumptuous visual storytelling, lighthearted character beats, and ample Tolkien plot elements. They’re all here, and it all works. So, I really don’t care for the whiny racists and misogynists downvoting the show purely because it’s gone “woke” with a lady protagonist and black dwarves or whatever. STFU and crawl back into your troll hole.
Andor (Disney+)
Synopsis: “Prequel series to Star Wars’ ‘Rogue One’. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero.”
Since their acquisition of the franchise in 2012, Disney has had a pretty spotty record with Star Wars properties. Their sequel film trilogy was an unevenly mixed bag: Episode VII is warmed-over nostalgia, Episode VIII is a brilliant, subversive detour, and Episode IX remains a colossal misfire. Standalone entries like Rogue One want to be galactic Ocean’s Eleven meets Saving Private Ryan, while Solo felt like filming a Wikipedia page. The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are both pulpy bounty-hunter romps weaponised to sell toys, while Obi-Wan Kenobi largely felt like an exercise in wholly unnecessary lore revisionism.
So, believe me when I say that Andor is the best Star Wars property on screen since The Empire Strikes Back. It’s that good. Like, legitimately, dead-ass good. Great, even. Helmed by Rogue One co-writer Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Trilogy, Michael Clayton) with direction from Toby Haynes (Black Mirror) and writing from Beau Willimon (House of Cards), among others, Andor consistently elevates itself from typical prequel fodder into a ruthlessly anti-fascist excoriation of power and corruption, focusing on the sacrifices one must make for the sake of rebellion and hope. There’s a good reason film Twitter is going bonkers for it.
