Hex This!

Why is it that everywhere I turn, there’s a little bit of magic?

I’ve managed to pick up the first season of the Hex series on DVD first premiered on the BBC a couple years ago. The sale price at Best Buy was dropped down to nearly half which motivated me into buying. And getting a glimpse of the TV show that has rave reviews from the mother country.

I’m not sure why the price became as cheap as a Goodwill shelf sale. I wouldn’t call it magic. It’s down right luck that I grabbed it cheap.

But the Hex series is about magic.

It’s an interesting idea about the Medenham Hall, a native English school nestling in a lovely countryside, where a battlefield of demons and ghosts soon rise from the ashes of an ancient war. It’s a classic battle between good and evil set on the lonely college that’s set on the McBain estate grounds where original witches originally lived.

The soldiers of old, these witches, were eventually burned to the stake.

And now a new generation of witches are rising on the same earthly grounds.

Led by the lovely Cassie as played by Christina Cole. You might have sent this actress before in the third season of Doctor Who entitled The Shakespeare Code. And not surprisingly, she plays yet again a witch in that episode.

Cassie helms the first part of the series as a witch leading a fight against an older enemy that takes form of a foreboding demon/stalker type in Azazeal. He stays within shadows. He manipulates people. He is a fallen angel who takes to matters of darkness. And his power seems to be slowly growing with or without the witches who stifle his progress.

It is this ancient battlefield that sets its sights on the ongoing battle between Azazeal and the witches.

What’s interesting is the number of influences from the Angel and Buffy TV shows from the Joss Whedon days. We see more of his writing snips in today’s television media. There’s more leaning towards stories about teenagers here and their sexual awakenings. Their fear of relationships and constant worries of doing what’s right. The stories revolve around youngsters not being able to fit into their peer groups. An issue many young people face today.

In the first episode, like reaching an adolescent stage, Cassie touches an old Voodoo vase that has been passed down through the generations in secret, and it awakens her magical powers.
Though, like any child, she is unable to control it.

At first, she uses it to spy on her friends or make a fool out of boys. But her powers grow and she takes the battle to Azazeal when she learns more about him. He is the constant antagonist.

Another part of the series focuses on an excellently written gay character Thelma played by Jemima Rooper. She is killed off right away at the beginning of the series only to be resurrected as a ghost. She is funny, warm, a little shy, and especially smart. Strangely enough, it is her character most audiences will identify with because of her loneliness. Yes, ghosts do eat potato chips.

Fact is, Thelma is more useful as a ghost than she was when living. Because she figures a lot of things out that Cassie doesn’t, becomes an important player.

The worst ambush on the series is the final departure of Christina Cole in the series. It was her presence that seems to remain a focus in stories. She is replaced by another witch Ella Dee who I'm unable to stand. The redheaded witch that follows in Cassie’s footsteps looks like she's a crackwhore 24/7 with her baggy eyes. And she has no charisma as did Cole. The original character is sorely missed.

The series then feels like a woman’s magazine written by women for women. Some of the later stories have a soap opera trend with people falling in love with one another and it hurts the progressive saga of good vs. evil in the earlier stories. It is the unfortunate shift of different lead characters that might’ve led to the downfall of the series. It was eventually cancelled in April of 2006 after the second season ran with just 19 episodes under the belt.

But it is an interesting glimpse into the teenager’s life as the series deals with abuse, suicide, illness, loneliness and sex which often defines the person’s life and who that person will be for the rest of their lives. The series delivers a snapshot photo of the teenager’s life at its most pivotal.

No spirit or witch is safe on these school grounds. And hell isn’t always a nice place to visit here.

Life without Doctor Who?

It’s a thankful thing that viewers come across a series like Doctor Who pulling them along on a whimsical ride through the greatest adventures of time and space. In the form of a beat-up, old British Police Box.

Yeah, it’s an antique in today’s standards.

So is the TV series. And yet, through a creative jolt, the series has found a new audience and has recently enjoyed high ratings shooting through the roof.

We’re hitting a down-time with the series right now. It’s slow-going for fans who are without usual addictive dose of the Doctor’s good strides through time travelling. They'll need to wait until the months of April or May before season four graces the screens for another thirteen hour Who fest.

But until then there’s really nothing. Except for the Christmas special coming out on Christmas Day. There’s a chance of sitting cozy in one’s seat while the blanket of cold snow rests softly against the grounds outside. Entitled "Voyage of the Damned", it might be a highlight of one of the Doctor’s travels when viewers find out what exactly happened with the Titanic and its tragic demise back in the early 1900s.

The episode looks great already. And it’ll give relief to the Doctor Who fans during the long period without the series. There’s a new companion in Kylie Minogue, a popular singer in England. But hopefully she’ll have presence enough. Especially when she’s on the same stage with the ever charismatic David Tennant, the tenth actor to take part of the Saturday evening television tradition.

After the Christmas episode, fans will again have to discover different ways of filling their steady diet of Doctor Who. Otherwise it’ll be another few months of waiting. And more waiting.

But time is always on the Doctor’s side. That’s what makes his character so enduring.

After season four of the Doctor Who series, there’ll be a brief hiatus as the fifth year will be put on the backburner. So no Doctor Who in 2009. This creative move on Russell T. Davies’ part has become a controversial one with the fans. Some think it’s a bad move considering it’s too early to take a break. Others, like myself, believe it will help boost the creative aspect of the show. It might be a good decision on their part.

But some might forget something. There’s still three one-and-a-half hour Doctor Who specials throughout the period. So it’s not going to be an entirely empty pause. Plus it keeps David Tennant on the job while he has other acting duties to perform. I’d like to keep him around for as long as possible.

And it’s good that’s he’s coming back for season five after the hiatus. So is Davies. Which means they’ll be both well-rested through the period.

Doctor Who has survived the wilderness years before. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t again.

When it was cancelled in 1989. I was shocked. I didn’t think it would ever come back again, not in any shape or form. And there’s been so many attempts to bring it to the TV screen. Finally, it happened. And it works just fine for me now. I’m delighted at its renewed, sudden resurgence. 2005 remains a hallmark moment of TV history when the Doctor grabbed Rose by the hand for the first time and told her to “Run!” And I’m already running along with him.

I'm hooked again.

But there’s been a time when I didn’t even know of the series. I shudder at the thought as the old British TV formula became so heavily ingrained in my life. I guess my life would be empty without it.

My mother used to have the series tuned in on PBS as background noise when I was a kid. I was just finishing up seventh grade and enjoying the summer months off. Then I was mesmerized for the first time when I saw the strange mummy-wrapped figures in the “The Pyramids of Mars.” And there’s a man with a long, trailing scarf running through the woods. It’s the Doctor. Played to perfection by Tom Baker.

And I was fixed with the stark imagination of the series. It’s remained a part of my life that has since I was nine-years-old. That seems so long ago. And I couldn’t imagine making a departure from the series. It’ll never happen. It’s one of the best series on TV.

Life without Doctor Who?

Unthinkable.

Magic Time

Magic.

Which brings us around to a little known film called The Illusionist.

A brilliant tapestry of deceit and wonder burdened with magic. It feels like you’re caught in web of intrigue. Not to mention it’s a love story. Houdini would’ve been proud.

Because I have watched the film The Prestige, another excellently made film about magic, I did not go see the film Illusionist based on the fact that I’ve seen a film like it already. It makes for difficulty that the two films were released around the same time. The other film, The Prestige, earned higher markings as they had an incredible star power, not to mention both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. It was a heavyweight film that rolls through the audiences like a steam engine, massive and exciting.

So I didn’t go see the Illusionist.

That was a mistake.

Seeing this film, it breaks my heart that I haven’t done a review of this before.

Director/Screenwriter Neil Burger captures the imagination of the early twentieth century. It was at a high time for pretender magicians and supernatural interest in the audiences. There was not a break from believing in other worldly matters.

It is a romantic story. There’s no doubt about this. But there are complexities and layers of the story that involves three people in a troubled romance. Ed Norton and Jessica Beil are childhood lovers who seek to find a way to their soul-searing romance… the fact that they belong to different classes doesn’t help much. She’s a rich girl. And he’s a poor fellow.

The film works as a minimalist one. Everything seems confined, fixed. Even the sets in which the magician performs regularly his acts of miracles seem lonely. It is a bitter thing, his stage. He is a loner who works his wonders. Norton, as always, is a fine actor. And here, he clearly conveys the inward tortured soul of a man who knows no heart.

Norton has traveled across the Easter and Western worlds, and also in the deep pockets of the African jungles, to learn the greater secrets of magic. It’s about a journey to the secret chamber of his heart. The ideas and concepts of magic has opened new doorways for him, broadened his experiences. Only to find the woman of his love, a figure of his childhood memory, is being engaged to a brutal, dictatorial bastard. A Crown Prince Leopold deliciously played by Rufus Sewell who is using his marriage to further his own ambitions and goals.

Norton loves her for who she is. A beautiful woman. The prince loves her for only one thing. Power.

And downward the slippery slopes of politics does the three main characters go. Yes, it feels like a melodrama of sorts. The people in it are hopefully and madly in love. But the picture is painted differently when the apparent death of Beil’s character sets to shred the story apart. And you feel sympathetic for Norton’s lonely, tragic feelings.

Think again. I won’t tell you everything about the film’s ending. But his artistic mastery of illusions and strokes of genius plotting makes him a bitter foe and a remarkable opponent. It feels like a game of chess between him and the Crown Prince. Their anger towards each other over the loved one.

Their madness grows. The supernatural thread of the story continues to mesmerize the audiences until they are in riots. But Norton promises that he’ll bring down the royalty. He becomes a Machiavellian of magical arts.

The film makes for a stunningly visual feasts, picking up little details that makes it feel like a silent movie. The lovely countryside scenes boasts of a sadness and loss. The eerie glows of street lamps cast a dim, scattered light across the cement roads and the dark alleys that make for Vienna’s finest lovely sites.

But it is the magician that plays his last hand that doesn’t feel like he’s cheated you. Instead, you feel like you’ve gone along for a ride. And there’s a certain elegancy in that punches through the story’s more romantic charms. And it leaves you a kind of witness looking through the Gypsy glass orb. Letting you see a peek into the future.

A worthy admission of filmmaking that shouldn’t be neglected.

Is there such a thing as magic?

You might be surprised.