THE BEST OF 2019 BEGINS... WITH TV

after dropping out of the Tory leadership campaign, he joined the Dublin Murder Squad...

2019 is no one's idea of a good year, and enough nonsense, high crimes, and yes, conduct unbecoming, has washed under the bridge so far to make it a low-water mark of the new century, so far. But, as often happens, when the times are darkest, the popular culture is best (see the 1940s and American film).

Television has been having a golden age for so long now, it is almost trite to mention it, and Netflix is offering so many great movies on TV (including the latest Breaking Bad semi-squib), it is hard to keep up. In a year of absurdly-superb televised plenty (and then there's that odd guilty pleasure, Evil...) a few shows stood out, even so, from the pack (though others came close, morally or aesthetically and could and will make many end of year lists).

The three that struck me most were:

1. Chernobyl
The sense of dread, horror, realism, and scientific and political accuracy was rendered so forensically, it was hard to ever turn away from the most informative nightmare you will hopefully ever experience. The acting, especially from Jared Harris was at near-genius level, and the acts of idiocy and stoic heroism so gripping, each episode was both inspiring and deeply dispiriting. At one point it was ranked at IMDB as the best TV show of all time. It will probably never be bettered in terms of its genre, whatever that comes to be called.

2. Euphoria
HBO hit the zeitgeist's nerve this year like a needle striking a deep vein in a junkie paradise. From the eerie brilliance of its soundtrack, to the breakthrough acting, no TV show has ever exposed the dark heart of the teen years in such bleak, nihilistic, and frankly, erotic, enraged and engaged ways. Not only funny, but also deeply scary, this was like one trigger point after another, a constant unsafe foray into the art of darkness, the darkness of young hearts, and minds, and bodies, and perhaps even souls. All identities, fluidities, needs, desires, perversions, and digital intoxications, were present and accounted for, no hashtag left unturned, no soiled peccadillo ignored. This will be the time capsule of the American 2019 - what it was to be alive here and now. Probably amorally-ethical, like Dostoevsky, it was like Rebel Without A Cause and Blue Velvet. Zendaya's BRILLIANCE makes her the star of this time.

3. Dublin Murders
The BBC offers so many murder shows, one wonders if the British are all killers deep down; maybe; or armchair detectives. Based on the clever and popular Tana French literray mysteries, enigmatic, mournful and intelligent, this was unlike any other detective show we've seen since The Killing or True Detective - existential anguish, supernatural possibilities, and perverse inhibitions - all whispering in the leaves of the improbably lush Irish woods. Particularly striking was the male lead, a lean, gaunt, impossibly beautiful Killian Scott, who could be the next James Bond. Conleth Hill (from Game of Thrones) was a surprise as a grumpy boss-copper; and Sarah Greene was also excellent.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Search This Blog