This & That

I'm a big fan of American TV shows (West Wing, Dexter, Sopranos, Battlestar et al) and enjoy digging into a good DVD box set.  Currently catching up with Deadwood and we've just finished watching season 2.  A lot is made of the language which is, well, very salty - but maybe what isn't remarked upon quite so much is how complex, rich and satisfying the scripts are.  Added to this are some fantastic performances - not least Ian McShane who's Al Swearengen is the dark heart of the show.  Al is monstrous, conniving, brutal and cunning.  But he's also pragmatic, proud, thoughtful and blackly comic.  This is the sort of role actors must dream about and McShane has grasped it with both hands.

Richard Matheson's I am Legend has been on my 'to read' list for years but only recently got around to it.  It's easy to see why Stephen King lauds it, for it provides a blueprint for his career - taking a genre staple and applying it to a modern setting.  So here, Matheson updates the vampire story of myth and sets it in 1950s America.  A scenario such as this has been played out in novels and movies countless times since then, so it's difficult to feel how truly radical this would have been on publication.  However, what still stands are themes of loneliness, alienation and obsession.  Also, there is a lovely twist in the finale, as the protagonist Robert Neville (last man on earth and dedicated vampire slayer)  realises that he is now the creature of myth - a lone monster who attacks his prey whilst they sleep.

I had never read any W Somerset Maughan.  For some reason I thought he wrote stories about a bucolic England set between the wars - with hindsight I realise that I must have confused him with HE Bates.  Anyway.  I picked up a copy of Collected Short Stories (volume 3) and these centre upon a man named Ashenden who is enlisted by the military to serve as a spy during the Great War.  Ashenden is by profession a writer - a novelist and playwright- whose understanding of human nature is seen as vital to the role of spy.  Many of the stories are set amongst hotels and bars in mainland Europe (particularly neutral Switzerland) and Ashenden encounters a series of vivid characters - ex-pats, titled Europeans and aristocrats - all of whom are agents of at least one government.  And whilst these charcaters dine, play bridge and drink with one another they attempt to gain some piece of information, impart some morsel of bogus news or get their opponent to venture across a national border, where they will be captured and shot.  It's not obvioulsy exciting stuff, but the stories accumulate to chilling effect . 

After many years driving to work, I spent a few months travelling in by train and tube.  To pass the time I filled the ipod with podcats and have of late discovered Frank Skinner's show on Absolute radio.  To my mind, he's funnier and more engaging here than on tv and less one dimensional than his stand up material might lead you to believe.