The Tragedy of Macbeth (c.1599-1606)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (c.1599-1606)

Author: William Shakespeare  |  Page Count: 128

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 

Often referred to simply as Macbeth (as on the Wordsworth edition pictured), the famous play is one of the easiest of Shakespeare's Tragedies to get to grips with for a newcomer, and of the ones I've read is my personal favourite, but not for the same reason.

It's because despite its short length it packs in a ton of good stuff, including the supernatural, prophecy, blood, murder, guilt, conflict, reversals, paranoia, insanity, metaphor, and bold commentary on gender.

Though given less time than her husband, the real star is arguably Lady Macbeth, a woman for whom ambition is so all-consuming that she willingly steps into a world of terrible consequence while fully aware that what she does is deserving of retribution. For Lady Macbeth failure is a greater sin than murder; 'bitch is crazy' in modern parlance. Her famous soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5 highlights it.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Dir. Tim Burton

Replace the image you have of Charlton Heston with Mark Walberg. Things are already bad, but they get much worse. Read on.

In an interesting first act, Walberg flies directly into danger to rescue his favourite space-chimp and, because no good deed goes unpunished in film, crashes in a studio backlot decorated with foliage. Soon after it becomes Marky Mark and the Monkey Bunch and the two-hour running time feels like ten hours.

The Ape City is more advanced than what we'd seen before in live action PotA films. Visually, it looks good (and the apes like to look good too, as evidenced by the barber shop). The resident kids even play basketball in the street! That's the kind of evolution we understand.

Sapphire and Steel (1979-82)

Sapphire and Steel (1979-82)

Dirs. Shaun O'Riordan (Assignments 1, 3, 5)  /  David Foster (Assignments 2, 4, 6)
34 episodes, approx 25 minutes each.

"All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned."

I saw Sapphire and Steel first when I was a kid. I don't remember what age exactly, but it blew my young mind. I saw some of it again in my twenties. It blew my mind once more. You can guess where this is going... yup, and again in my thirties: mind blown.

In all that time I've not encountered anything else quite like it, so in my experience it's unique. It's so unique that I could easily skip the introduction (and indeed the middle section) and go direct to the recommendation, but I won't. Instead, I'll try to give an overview of just what the hell it's all about.

The Past (2013)

The Past (2013)

aka Le Passé

Dir. Asghar Farhadi

A French and Persian language drama about a separated couple who agree to meet up in order to finalise their divorce after years apart. I picked it up because it was released by Artificial Eye (R2), a company that distributes films that are almost always stirring, engaging and/or intriguing.

The story goes to places that I wasn't expecting, but it gets there via an organic methodology and never feels forced. That the unseen barriers and coverings are strengthened by having visible reminders in the environments is surely no coincidence. The locations themselves are utterly believable, each one beautifully lived-in.

It's often heavy going, almost like sharing in someone else's emotional baggage for a few hours, but it has the power to hold the attention without overwhelming or smothering the viewer.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight: Manga Trilogy (2003)

.hack//Legend of the Twilight: Volume 01 (2003)

Author: Tatsuya Hamazaki | Illustrator: Rei Izumi | Page Count: 176

"I'd watch my back if I were you.
Your friend has returned."

A manga trilogy that forms a part of the Project .hack series, the first generation of the .hack universe. It's set chronologically after the first four games that appeared on the Playstation 2 console; i.e. Infection; Mutation; Outbreak; and Quarantine. (See HERE.)

If you're new to The World you'll lack the necessary background and will encounter minor spoilers of events that unfolded in the games. It's not necessary to have played them first, but it's recommended. The book makes some allowances for new fans, but space is limited, so the catch-up is necessarily brief.

If you've a working knowledge of what has gone before, then dive in. Otherwise, you might want to play the games first, if that's an option for you.

Fellside (2016)

Fellside (2016)

Author: M.R. Carey  |  Page Count: 496

'He saw her life as a three-act tragedy with opiates in the role of major antagonist. And her face mesmerised him. It had something better than beauty or symmetry. It had transparency.'

Jess Moulson wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of who she is or how she got there. It's a clichéd, uninspired middle school plot device that I've encountered literally dozens of times before – I even used it myself when I was eleven! Things don't look good for Fellside, but sometimes the quality of the writing can make even that situation interesting again, right? Sadly, that's not the case herein.

A second device runs alongside the first, a situation in which Jess is characterised as much by the thoughts of the people that attend to her as by her own hazy recollections; in essence, we learn about the observer, the observed and the recollections of the latter at the same time as she does. It's all well and good in theory, but Jess is semi-conscious for a significant portion of the book's first quarter, which leads to a lot of similar observations time and again, very few of which are what I'd classify as enthralling.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 1 (1993)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 1 (1993)

19 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

When DS9 launched it ran concurrently with TNG for a couple of years, but differentiated itself from the other show in a number of ways, the most obvious being that it wasn't set aboard a spacefaring vessel.

With a premise that was perhaps (i.e. likely) inspired from an idea that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski pitched to the studio, the action was situated on a space station positioned near a planet. The self-contained environment served as a stop-off point for diplomats, traders, rogues and all sorts of nasty characters intent on doing harm to one another.

The location of the station is both a profitable and tactical one for Starfleet, enabling them to keep a cautious (and controlling) eye on both a newly discovered wormhole and on the aforementioned planet, Bajor, a war-ravaged place recently liberated from an aggressive occupation by the Cardassians.