#emmet ocuana

Bedevilled by an SEO disaster of a title - and the inevitable comparisons with the retroactively disappointing Lost- recent EPIX release From defies lowered expectations.

With slasher-smile ghouls, a mysteriously inescapable town, hints of Viking myth (those runes!) and a mesmerising central performance from Harold Perrineau, this is the latest little cult show that could. 

It’s surprising* how much coverage has zeroed in on Lost, when a more recent comparison would be Prime’s Yellowjackets. While the latter show has a more substantive cast, including a number of headline-friendly former child actors now playing middle-aged characters (saving some ‘where are they now’ features a click) and prestige glamour, FromandYellowjacketsare essentially both survival horror tales with hints of occult dread to a greater or lesser extent.  

I think I’m throwing my lot in with Fromas it’s the scrappier contender, and bingeable in bitesize chunks. But oh - the biting in this show! Again I am reminded that fantasy horror - spectral revenants that tear unfortunate people caught outside at night to pieces - is more palatable to me, because it’s absurd, whereas a story about teenagers resorting to cannibalism to survive borders on realistic. And therefore more difficult for me to watch. 

At any rate - Fromis concerned with the inhabitants of a small unnamed town that is in fact an existential trap. Travellers who happen upon it are unable to leave, with the road out looping back to return them. The terror and confusion of being caught so mysteriously, we learn some recent arrivals become violent as a response, is then compounded by an onslaught of viciously cruel ghouls who attack each night. The only protection is a runic charm residents attach to the entrances to their home, a charm discovered in the surrounding forest by the guilt-wracked Sheriff Boyd (Perrineau), who has reluctantly assumed the role of town authority figure. 

The first episode opens with a family tragedy that introduces From’s audience to the brutal stakes of life in the town. Despite the strange conveniences on offer - food, electricity, and shelter are freely available to the townsfolk - monsters hunt at night and can compel people to open their doors and windows, inviting these bloodthirsty creatures inside. 

What follows is the arrival of two cars to the town, something which apparently has not happened in some time. These new arrivals kick off an escalation of violence over the course of the first season, with plenty of mysterious hints as to the nature of this trap, the monsters that attack each night, and whether there is a purpose to the seeming collecting and sacrificing of people from across the United States to this magically contained location. 

Think Brigadoon, but with monsters (or to tip the hat to the King, Jack Kirby - Brigadoom!). 

At any rate, I quickly binged season one just in time for the announcement that season 2 will be filmed soon. Despite my reservations about mystery box storytelling - I’m in for the journey. Perrineau is great, the supporting cast is wonderful (shout out to Chloe Van Landschoot, Elizabeth Saunders and David Alpay in particular), and the supernatural hijinks are chewy enough that I am intrigued to see where creator John Griffin and his writers plan to take this. 

-Emmet O’Cuana

 *Well….not that unsurprising - they share producers/directors and a star

I was thinking the other day that the closest comparison for Star Wars isn’t fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings, or science fiction series like Star Trek - it’s Dungeons and Dragons.

(yes, I’m aware Galtar has nothing to do with Wizards of the Coast, but look at that thing - that’s a reflavoured light-sabre right?)

Part of the appeal is the structure of the universe allowing for free-form storytelling within it. And that should give licence to tell stories set around the major milestones of events like the Clone Wars, the Battle of Yavin, or Luke joining the leadership on Hoth - what other characters are inspired by the adventures of the heroes to rise up? 

Or, alternatively, what are the unintended consequences of the Death Star blowing up on characters who were raised on a planet being strip-mined for its ores, now further oppressed by the Empire with the rush to build a second Death Star. 

 It’s the stories taking place elsewhere that have potential to resonant more with audiences, because we don’t know if new characters will live or die, and smaller scale stakes do not mean less thrilling than a fight to save the galaxy etc. etc.

Series like The Clone Wars (both versions, although I still rate  Tartakovsky’s higher) and the Jedi: Fallen Order to a greater or lesser extent scratch this itch for smaller stories. But if we could not have a Skywalker or Kenobi (or, ugh, Palpatine) pop up with so much regularity for a while, the dual bad tastes of J.J. Abrams’s weirdly dynastic Risefilm, and Disney’s corporatist recycling of market friendly stories might dissipate. 

So yeah, a little more ‘emergent storytelling’ in the D&D style for Star Wars strikes me as a good idea. 

Which is to say, I watched the latest Obi-Wan Kenobi show and it was fine so far. 

Sung Kang’s casting really brought that silly Fast and Furious gag about Han Seoul-Oh full circle huh? 

-Emmet O’Cuana

So right out the gate - spoilers for this ‘un if you haven’t seen Kenneth Branagh’s follow-up to The Orient Express. 

Stevie and Emmet have thoughts! 

Also - Emmet has a comic story with Jeferson Sadzinski, Cardinal Rae and Marcela Corrêa Müller titled How To Win A Raid in the second volume of The BeBop from Bird’s Eye Comics. The anthology is now being Kickstarted, so please share and support. 

Hopscotch Friday is relaunching - as a podcast. So join us, Stevie and Emmet, for a pop culture discussion of deep cuts and pillow talk.

Hopscotch Friday is relaunching - as a podcast. So join us, Stevie and Emmet, for a pop culture discussion of deep cuts and pillow talk.

Ten years ago Emmet had the opportunity to interview Larry Cohen, to promote a visit to Australia as part of MonsterFest October 2012. This episode features segments of their conversation, released as a tribute to mark the 4 year* anniversary of Cohen’s passing. 

During their conversation, Cohen raises his feelings about the use of CGI effects in horror cinema, how his themes have allowed a new generation of film-fans to rediscover his films, as well as shout outs to Bruce Campbell, Quentin Tarantino, and The Big Lebowski. 

Also for no apparent reason Emmet decides to shit on Sydney as a filming location!? 

Hopscotch Friday is relaunching - as a podcast. So join us, Stevie and Emmet, for a pop culture discussion of deep cuts and pillow talk.

an (almost) perfect combination of comic and film lore!

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has been tempting me for months now with its near universal acclaim - and bright, colourful promotional images. 

That the game’s developers went all in on the James Gunn space opera parody with yacht rock fun was something many fans and reviewers called out as a highlight. I can see why, blasting Soft Cell’s Tainted Love during a fight scene (did Bioshock Infinite do it better though?) is fun. 

But on top of some technical issues with the volume of the music itself (I am probably missing something, but the jukebox on the Milano communal area sounded constantly muted to me), it was the waves and waves of the same types of enemies that the Guardians have to wade through that sticks in my craw. 

That said, I loved the space llama. 

The two main aspects of the game that I personally enjoyed were the quality of the writing, ably combining elements from the Gunn movies with the Abnett and Lanning comic runs (plus some deep cuts to Jim Starlin’s cosmic Marvel comics writing), and the James Gunn films; in addition the relationships between these Guardians was very emotionally engaging, something I would credit to both the writing team and the actors. 

Kimberly-Sue Murray nails Gamora’s bruised hopefulness and polished cynicism so well - the daughter of Thanos here gets audibly excited whenever the topic of mental health is raised, and I found that cute, tragic and funny in equal measures. 

Alex Weiner’s delivers a vocal performance as Rocket Raccoon that parallels Bradley Coopers, but has a quality of its own that again, will make you cry at the hurt feelings of a space raccoon. The Guardians as a whole are all very good, but Gamora and Rocket really stood out for me here. 

A quick shout out also to Mylène Dinh-Robic as Meredith Quill and Sarah Levesque, who almost steals the whole game as Lady Hellbender. 

Which is all to say this game soars when the player has to negotiate the relationships between Peter Quill (Jon McLaren) and his crewmates. The story takes in not just a quest to uncover the secrets behind the rapid conversion of planets to an obscure faith known as the Universal Church of Truth (there’s that nod to Starlin’s Warlockrun), but Peter’s desperate efforts to keep the morale of the Milano’s crew positive. 

There are arguments, break-ups, and depending if you play your choices correctly, satisfying resolutions. 

Thank goodness this Guardians story is not entirely bound up with daddy issues (well, that is, unless you consider SPOILER an example of same). Again the merging of the comics and films canons is handled in such a way that the spirit of Gunn’s version is retained, but we don’t have the interminable ‘what makes Peter so special’ stuff that I found frustrating. 

Especially when it was bound up with the Ego stuff. Yes, in the game Peter is back to his comics canon version of being the illegitimate son of an alien from Spartax. 

There ARE mommy issues aplenty though, and beginning the game with Peter as a child being greeted by Meredith on his 13th birthday is a masterstroke. 

I must confess, I spent a good half an hour just using Peter’s Walkman, fastforwarding and rewinding a tape to follow the lyrics by a band named ‘Star-Lord’ (think Kiss, if every member of Kiss was Ace Frehley), just reliving being a teenager in their bedroom, with posters and books scattered as signs and signifiers of a developing individual personality. I loved the game’s opening. It set up expectations for emotional storytelling that the writers nailed at multiple points (see Gamora and Rocket, once again). 

Marvel’sGuardians of the Galaxy is also a victim of the game industry’s expectation for a popular title, in that it serves up the aforementioned ‘wave after wave’ of opponents. 

Sure you’ll get a button mashing experience out of it, but any temptation to replay this game for me means assessing how many hours I want to spend blasting goons, with occasional breaks for some very well acted, well written, and genuinely funny interludes with these characters. 

So, consider this a qualified recommendation. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a game I enjoyed and had a lot of fun with. I almost wish it was a smaller, indie title that I could dip back into just to hang out with these characters. 

-Emmet O’Cuana