A new year has dawned, and it's time for a traditional list of some kind. Looking back at my wish list for 2021, it did come true, partly. There was no new Dickens adaptation, and it was a meagre year for costume dramas overall, but Disney animation released two very solid films which I enjoyed much more than I expected, Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto. On the minus side, they both still followed the new Disney formula, which meant no memorable villains and no romance (to speak of). Chibnall bowed out as show runner for Doctor Who and will be replaced with Russell T Davies, no less (I plan to blog about what to expect from him, and what not to expect, at a later date). I haven't had an opportunity to check out series thirteen, though – more of that below. There was some new Star Wars content, if not as much as I'd hoped; when they announced a squillion new TV series, I didn't realise they meant to release them during years to come, not all at once. I had a good time with the animated series The Bad Batch (though, sorry, no way that Fennec Shand could take out Cad Bane, my favourite bounty hunter), the anime shorts Star Wars: Visions were cute, and The Book of Boba Fett has started out very promisingly.
For 2022, enough interesting projects have been greenlighted for me to fill a list of things which will actually happen (unless postponed by a pi variant of covid or similar) and which I look forward to:
Doctor Who series thirteen (and maybe a couple of specials) As a subscriber to HBO Max, I thought I would have a chance to stream the new series as it aired, or maybe with a couple of days' delay. No such luck. If information gleaned from web searches is anything to go by, HBO Max streams its acquired series approximately six months after they have first been shown in their original channels. So the fastest way for a non-British citizen to get hold of new Who content legally is still through good, old-fashioned DVDs. The good news is, series 13 will be released on DVD as early as the end of January. I can wait that long. Surely.
Though I am worried about the new series, and the possibility that Chibnall could cement his ill-conceived idea of the Timeless Child to the extent that it can no longer be retconned by later show runners, I am still excited about it. Though series twelve was bogged down by the Timeless Child reveal and those awful environmental episodes, I still thought it was a step forward compared to series eleven, so I'm curious to see what Chibnall comes up with next – especially as there will be a clear, continuous story arc this time. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Sacha Dhawan's Master.
The Gilded Age Yes, believe it or not, it's actually happening! This new series written by Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes has been in the works for ages. I already had it on my list of things to look forward to in 2019, and it had been a long time coming then. But now it's finally ready to be aired (on HBO Max – I knew I had it for a reason) on 24 January, and trailers have been released. The drama takes place in late 19th-century New York, and it seems it will display a surprising amount of snobbishness among the rich families in the Land of the Free. I have mixed feelings about being introduced to yet another Dowager Countess Surrogate Character in the shape of the heroine's Aunt Agnes, but I like the shameless tycoon already.
Downton Abbey: A New Era I still remember, from when I was a teenager, a TV column where the cheeky columnist admitted to being sick and tired of dramas inspired by Ingmar Bergman's parents and childhood experiences. "What next, Ingmar's Parents Buy a Horse?" he wondered sarcastically (the "X buys a horse" template being a classic when it comes to naming sequels of Swedish children's books). It has to be said that the setup for the second Downton Abbey film has a hint of The Crawley Family Buy a Horse about it or, following another classic template, The Crawley Family Go on Vacation. The Dowager Countess, who's still alive (how on earth did they persuade Maggie Smith to return?), has inherited a villa in France, presumably from another of her old admirers, and now the family is set to visit it. At some part of the proceedings we will see Tom Branson and his new flame Lucy get married and be introduced to a glamorous female who looks like a movie star and is probably (I'm calling it now) the main antagonist of the film.
I may go more into detail about my expectations and predictions for the film in future (the release date is in March), but for now, I can say that it looks like another slice of simple Downton, much like the first film. It doesn't seem likely that old plot lines from the series will be explored further, and any threat to the peace of mind of the Downton crew, upstairs and downstairs, will be external. I would have liked more complex drama and exploration of the Downton characters we're already invested in, but Downton is Downton and I'll take what I can get gratefully. As long as Fellowes doesn't split up Thomas and his clandestine love interest Ellis, I'll be happy. Oh, and can Molesley and Miss Baxter kiss, at least? Please?
Around the World in 80 Days I haven't read the novel by Jules Verne and I know the plot primarily from an Illustrated Classic magazine (also, a friend of mine had an illustrated version of the actual novel, and I can remember us poring over the pictures when we were kids). In other words, I shouldn't be too fussed over the latest TV adaptation's accuracy compared to the novel, especially as I remember having a blast with the extremely free TV adaptation from 1989 starring Pierce Brosnan as Phileas Fogg. There are some things about the trailer and information gleaned from a British review that give me pause, though. I don't mind them ethnic-switching Passepartout – I don't think it will be too much of a stretch to imagine that Fogg's servant with the cosmopolitan-sounding name (literally meaning "a key which fits all doors") descends from, say, one of the French colonies – but I don't see why they need to add a female journalist into the mix. There's already a female protagonist in the story – Princess Aouda, Fogg's love interest – who joins the guys later. So why do we need this journalist chick? As a female viewer, I feel patronised: I can enjoy the zany adventures of two men fine, even without Aouda, and certainly without an Insert Strong Woman Here character. Though seeing as the journalist is nicknamed Fix, the name of the detective who chased Fogg in the original, maybe she will be revealed to be an antagonist at some point? That would make things more interesting.
I'm also afraid that the TV series will be tiresomely po-faced about 19th-century politics and not half as much fun as the Brosnan version. So why am I still looking forward to it being aired on Swedish TV, or one of my many streaming services? The answer: David Tennant plays Phileas Fogg. With his mixture of thinking-woman's-crumpet attractiveness and comic ability he feels ideal for the part. And I'm not going to look a gift costume drama in the mouth... too much.
Geeky TV shows on Disney + One great advantage of my long Marvel prep in order to be able to watch Loki is that I'm now fairly well-wersed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and I find, much to my surprise, that I tend to enjoy MCU products, whether they are movies or TV series. It's not Once Upon A Time or Doctor Who, but I think I can say that the MCU has made it to the "bronze tier" of pop culture I enjoy, where it sits along with (possibly a bit below) Star Wars content. This means Disney + will be sure to cater to my geeky needs all the year round. When the Star Wars franchise doesn't deliver, the MCU surely will. Only this December, Hawkeye (MCU) was followed seamlessly by The Book of Boba Fett (Star Wars), and so I hope it will continue. However, now I'm watching the geeky series in real time, instead of binging on them retroactively, I will probably experience drought periods where I don't especially fancy what's being offered. Not everything from the MCU is solid gold, and I may have to wait for the second season of Loki until next year.
