3 First Seasons: Veronica Mars / The X-Files / The Wire

The way my "post every day" schedule has worked out, I have exactly enough days left before my anniversary to publish weekly podcasts each Saturday, an archive round-up on the last day, and three complete first season episode guides for TV shows I began watching several years ago...plus, of course, this one introduction for all three viewing diaries.

Tomorrow I will launch my coverage of Veronica Mars, which will be followed by The X-Files and finally The Wire. In each case I will cover the entirety of the show's first season; through July 13, a new episode entry on these shows will go up every day except Saturday. All three narratives document obsessive investigators, but of course they vary in many other ways. Veronica Mars is about a teen detective trying to solve the murder of her friend and clear the name of her father, a disgraced sheriff in a wealthy town. The X-Files follows a couple FBI agents who specialize in paranormal activity. The Wire balances between a Baltimore drug squad trying to bust a heroin ring in the city's projects and the dealers in those very projects. I've been intrigued by all three shows for years, and at the time of this writing have only watched a handful of episodes of each, despite starting them all as far back as 2013 and no later than 2016 (it looks like after an intense week I will now have the opportunity to finally leap ahead in my watching/writing).

Believe it or not, the hardest part of this entry was creating the above image! I didn't have a DVD of The Wire on hand at this moment and for some reason screenshots of that show are really hard to come by. With that out of the way, I look forward to getting to the fun part. In fact as I finish writing this introduction I'm about to dive into the second episode of Veronica Mars (I've already covered the pilot) and for the next few months - maybe just the next month if I'm able to keep a good pace - I'll be absorbed in these three worlds.

Patreon update #18: Mark Frost's connection to Fire Walk With Me & film in focus: Holy Motors (+ Korean peace talks & more) and preview of Vivian/Phyllis character studies

With three weeks to go before my Return rewatch begins (or rather, two weeks and two days given the scheduled date), I'm halfway through the preparatory "Reflections" and done talking about the original series. On this episode I move onto Fire Walk With Me - the film I've discussed more than any other on Lost in the Movies, but with a new twist. I wanted to look at Mark Frost's troubled relationship with the movie, for which he received executive-producer credit without any creative involvement. Tracing Lynch's and Frost's collaboration through their pre-Twin Peaks work, I tease out their differing sensibilities and how these apply to the story of Laura Palmer. What is Frost drawn to in Fire Walk With Me, given its incorporation into season three, and how does his perspective on Laura's last night differ from Lynch's? I think this turned out to be a really interesting topic, and I hope you enjoy listening to it - and continue to share your own thoughts as well.

Speaking of which, I have some more listener feedback this week - one patron offers some fascinating insight into Red (including his connection to The King & I), while someone else shares their thoughts on my public episode: is Eyes Wide Shut a 90s film or a 90s period piece that just happens to be a 90s film? I also finally watched the film that everyone in 2012 was buzzing about; this is my first Leos Carax joint so I'm a bit of a stranger in his world - a distance I felt at times. I was intrigued by Holy Motors' anthology structure and compelled by the way it seemed to comment, perhaps unintentionally, on our present economic situation as well as my own podcast endeavors (that last bit I'm sure was intentional). I talk about the Korean peace efforts and share a very cogent thread on the subject from a reporter whose beat is the peninsula, and I wrap by closing off the #WatchlistScreenCaps period on my site. Next week's archive will delve into the Twin Peaks era of my blogging, a period that my "Twin Peaks Reflections" will dovetail with in the upcoming episode.

And yes, I do know Mark Frost didn't speak with Isaac Asimov on a podcast! I meant Mr. Robot, not I, Robot.

Vivian and Phyllis (May "See the Future" Preview #1 - 2nd tier reward)

Episode 18: Mark Frost's connection to Fire Walk With Me & Holy Motors (+ Korean peace talks & more)

Line-up for Episode 18

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: Kingdom series, Buffy posts, interview w/ Cameron Cloutier

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd Tier Biweekly Preview - Vivian & Phyllis

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: Mark Frost's connection to Fire Walk With Me

FILM IN FOCUS: Holy Motors

OTHER TOPICS: Korean peace talks

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Red in Twin Peaks s3, Eyes Wide Shut as a 90s period piece

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Classics & Completionism" (October 2013 - February 2014), this week's highlight: 90 Years of Cinema alternate Oscars

BECOME A PATRON

How's Annie? (interview with Cameron Cloutier & Amy Ostbo, director & actor from Queen of Hearts, a Twin Peaks fan film)

"For a long time, no itch. But at the same time, there's a thing in Fire Walk With Me where Laura is in her bed and she's visited by Annie. Annie says, 'I'm in the Black Lodge with the good Dale. Write that in your diary.' That little bit right there held a string of dreams." - David Lynch (May 2, 2018)

Twin Peaks lives and so, it seems, does Annie Blackburn. The controversial character, played by Heather Graham in the show's second season in 1991, was notably absent from the recent Showtime revival aside from a few lines about her. Mark Frost's follow-up novel Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier went a little deeper but still left much unsaid (we learned that Annie had been mostly catatonic since her kidnapping and rescue from Glastonbury Grove). As a viewer, Twin Peaks super-fan Cameron Cloutier may have been frustrated by the character's loose ends but as a filmmaker himself, he saw an opportunity. Host of the YouTube channel Obnoxious & Anonymous (a deep well of Twin Peaks content since 2013), Cameron gauged his audience's interest in a fan film about Annie and was able to raise over $20,000 to launch this production (the film's page offers colorful descriptions and updates, and is still accepting funding).

The project has deep roots, extending to Cameron's days as a teenage fan of the show when it originally aired, and particularly to his enthusiasm for the feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which demonstrated Lynch's continued interest in the character (hence the recent quote, as well as Annie's sole incorporation into the third season). In a sustained burst of creativity, Cameron has not only been working hard on a screenplay for this film, he's been crafting eye-catching trailers, including one starring Jake Wardle (green-gloved Freddie himself) delivering a message to Annie through static filters, and a recent, epic ten-minute promo featuring Annie drifting through various Twin Peaks locations, including the infamous Palmer home (whose owner Mary Reber - she actually plays the house's resident in Twin Peaks' final episode! - is a very generous host). The whole preview was shot on site by Cameron and a recent addition to the project, Amy Ostbo. Initially an assistant to the costumer (her sister), Amy's screen presence in the test footage left such an impression that she was cast as Annie herself.

A few weeks ago, Cameron and Amy both joined me for a chat full of energy, enthusiasm, and good humor about this imaginative endeavor. We covered both participants' history with the series (spoilers ahead, if such a thing needs warning), the creation of the trailer, Amy's thoughts about Annie (which may, or may not, surprise you), Cameron's take on The Final Dossier's big reveal, the delightful genesis of the Jake Wardle promo, and lots of other interesting material. Of particular interest may be Cameron's unfilmed screenplay about the Golden State Killer's final victim; his research for that passion project has become a treasure trove for the recent spate of documentaries on the subject. (Coincidentally, in a major news story just a week or so after this interview, police identified one of their own as the likely suspect, decades after his last murder.)

Meanwhile, how's Annie? We'll have to wait until December to find out (as Cameron observes, "I'm fine" may not have been much of a reveal after all), but here are a few clues...or, as Lynch says, "a string of dreams."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (unaired pilot)

Welcome to my viewing diary for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eventually, I will cover the whole series; for now I am posting brief overviews of the film and the unaired pilot as prologues. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (created in 1996/written & directed by Joss Whedon): On a typically blue-sky Californian day in the mid-nineties, and this is very mid-nineties (or earlier, given the House of Pain needle-drop), Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) shows up for her first day at a new high school. And what a school, designed more like the Disneyland version of a Renaissance palazzo than your more usual boxy public building. All is cheery, sunny, and colorful - or at least it probably would be if this episode wasn't just available in washed-out bootleg quality online. The show, however, begins before this bright introduction, as one night a couple breaks into the school, trespassing in the auditorium before the young woman morphs into a vampire and kills Buffy's first victim. When the corpse falls out of a locker with two fang marks in his neck, Buffy realizes she can't escape her destiny: she's a slayer, as immediately recognized by the school librarian Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), clearly sent there in anticipation of her move, to be her handler. Buffy is more interested in being a typical teenager, but that's not in the cards - after rescuing her new friend Willow (Riff Regan) from a vampire encounter, she accepts that she's a slayer whether she wants to be or not.

My Response: 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the film

Welcome to my viewing diary for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eventually, I will cover the whole series; for now I am posting brief overviews of the film and the unaired pilot as prologues. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (theatrical debut on July 31, 1992/written by Joss Whedon; directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui): The story begins, briefly, in the middle ages when we might expect to find vampires and vampire slayers, passing rituals down through the generations to fight the undead. But then, with a sharp shift even in the font of the graphics, we are in a mall with a bunch of Valley girls, pop rock blaring on the soundtrack. What could these two worlds have to do with each other? Buffy the Vampire Slayer very consciously sells itself as a high-concept mash-up, albeit a light-hearted one. It's right there in the title of course (a vampire slayer named Buffy??!) which the show retained, but it's also highlighted in the posters, which mix the iconography of vampires - specifically the deadly wooden stake which hasn't changed much over the centuries - with the fashion of early nineties Southern California high schoolers. And the film makes the most of these juxtapositions, contrasting its gothic action with the bright day-glo colors popular a quarter-century ago on the West Coast (at least its southern, non-grungey precincts). The characters are also studies in contrast. Buffy (Kristy Swanson), the materially spoiled but emotionally neglected daughter of a couple yuppie socialites, discovers she has incredible martial talents and powerful instincts. An initially creepy but ultimately harmless older man named Merrick (Donald Sutherland) awakens her to these latent skills, letting her know that he and she are inheritors of an ancient tradition, in which Watchers train Slayers to battle vampires. Eventually, she must survive on her own, with only the intermittent, occasionally feckless help of Pike (Luke Perry), a slacker whose best friend received the bite of immortality.

My response:

The Kingdom II - "Pandemonium" (episode 8)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 22, 1997/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): "The sun turned so red, mum/And the night so black./Little Brother's dead, mum/And Mona can't come back./Aage's roaming out there, mum/So we lock our doors./There's a draught upon my pillow, mum/Will the Kingdom be as before?"

Sigrid's elevator is dropping down many levels beneath the ground floor (the numbers on the display are all negative). She has already discovered a Satanic cult worshipping deep down in the hospital, and identified Camille - the sleep technician whom we've hardly seen since season one - as a member of this cult. Now she's plummeting into Satan's realm, but then so is the entire hospital. Jørgen's "hook" has become homicidal; if the character's misanthropy once had some charm, since his resurrection he has become an irredeemable fascist, nearly exterminating Mona (until the blocks she plays with on her bed spell out something about Helmer, which he thinks he may find useful). His eugenicist urge finds a more drastic outlet at episode's end; as Christian prepares for his blind Falcon run, a worker rushes off to watch the monitor (a month's salary rides on Christian's fate) and leaves Jørgen in charge of a switchboard that holds the power to the hospital's machinery, and thus the lives of many of its patients. An elderly, gentlemanly figure of Death (Ingolf David) rides in the back of Christian's ambulance, warning, "It's going to be a busy night." And that busy night will begin in the very vehicle he rides in, with some of the ensemble's youngest characters. As the power goes out at the hospital, Christian can't receive commands from the dispatcher and he crashes into Mogge and Sanne. Little Brother is finally dead too, his belly distended, his gigantic limbs and fingers limp, his head resting on the floor. His own mother, after his endless pleas, cut the strings holding him in place while singing him a lullaby. Now, however, she has second thoughts, screaming into the night for the baby's father, consenting to give him what he wants - power over and through them - if he will bring her child back. The frame is engulfed by a flash of light, an almost atomic explosion...and The Kingdom ends, forever, right on the cusp of its biggest moment. Of course!

Well, there is a little more. Helmer has already had quite an episode - he is elevated in the Lodge, married to Rigmor (who, after all the roundelays, acquired the Mona report herself and now uses it to keep the sour Swede in her clutches), and forced by Mogge's desperate blackmail - mentioning an official Helmer knows back in Sweden - to give the student a passing grade on his exam. Meanwhile, even without the anesthesiologist's report, Mona poses a threat. When Helmer finds out she can deliver messages via her blocks, and that his name is featured among these messages, he kidnaps the little girl in a laundry basket and placing her on a circular conveyer belt to avoid detection. When her box returns, it is empty - where has she gone??? And that brings us to the final button, placed after the von Trier outro, as Helmer flushes some more incriminating material down the toilet and mutters that the only thing to make his night worse would be for Dr. Jönsson, the Swede whom Mogge dug up, to show up at the hospital. And sure enough, this new character (Philip Zandén), introduced over the show is over, appears in the darkened, candlelit building in the middle of the blackout. "I bring greetings from Dr. Helmer," he says to the official who stumbles across him, "from his wife and seven children in Borĺs."

My Response:

The Kingdom II - "Gargantua" (episode 7)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 15, 1997/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): I should have known. Although the stakes seemed incredibly high at the end of the previous episode, they are quickly dragged back down to earth at the start of "Gargantua." Helmer has been merely wounded by an apologetic Rigmor. Jørgen was rescued by a man who wanted to sing a funeral dirge for his corpse. Despite all the intervening leaps, we're back where we were before, with Jørgen and a wheelchair-bound Helmer still trying to outwit each other for Mona's anesthesiology report. Hilariously, there is a "chase" inside the archive room as they inch toward/away from each other just slowly enough not to trigger the alarm. Another hilarious Helmer chase involves a bailiff with a yellow envelope calling the surgeon to court; Helmer is warned of this threat by another snobbish Swede, his lawyer (played by notable guest star Stellan Skarsgård, fresh from the director's international triumph Breaking the Waves). Ole's attempt to impress Sanne ends in a whimper; she cares more about her slasher films than the fact that he's become the "Falcon" she was so infatuated by. As if looking for another avenue to prove himself in, the new ghost-driver tells a dying man (injured and eventually killed by, I think, the previous driver, not Ole) that his family will be provided for and decides to do one last ambulance run - a blind one in this case, with the windshield obscured - so he can earn enough money to fulfill that promise.

Sigrid and Bulder pal around with Hansen (Otto Brandenburg) all episode, initially - harmlessly enough - in hidden rooms, sussing out dream-clues about the nature of the hospital. Bulder is guided through a vision in which he travels deep into the bowels of the Kingdom and rearranges the stone-hewn letters of its Danish name ("Riget") so that they spell “Tiger.” When a tiger materializes before him, Bulder turns into a bird (albeit, to the great annoyance of Sigrid, one that can't fly). Sigrid takes these clues as a reference to the painting she saw in her near-death experience, and Bulder digs up a magazine reproduction of the image, that he clipped back during his "hippie phase" in the early seventies. His mother deduces that the tiger is the hospital, the serpent in the tree above it is the doctors, and those uncanny birds of passage are the spirits (perhaps Bulder, even in his visionary state, could not turn into a flying bird because he lacks the spiritual nature of his mother; he's too - literally - down-to-earth). Here's where Hansen becomes dangerous; the amateur pilot suggests flying them into the airspace above the hospital, where spirits may haunt the atmospheric corridors much as they haunt the building’s. As they ascend to the heavens, Satan is afoot below; the "ghost" of Age Krüger returns to see his son, now dubbed Little Brother, and is identified by another spiritualist as not a ghost at all, but a demon (at which point he instantly grows two horns and flees before snapping them off his own head). He is the one who killed the priest last time and as his son, part-demon himself (but determined to be good), prepares to die it seems that two Udo Kiers may be too much for this rickety structure to handle.

My Response:

The Kingdom II - "Birds of Passage" (episode 6)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 8, 1997/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): Sigrid lives! Albeit only after she (temporarily) dies. Jørgen dies! Except he doesn't...except he's about to...maybe? Life and death are confusing matters in "Birds of Passage." Judith's grotesque baby continues to grow (and is expected to die soon); Moesgaard falls under the sway of Ole (Erik Wedersøe), the manipulative shrink in the basement; and mystic-healing charlatan Philip Marco (Fash Shodeinde) temporarily convinces Sigrid and Bondo that he's removed - and eaten - their diseased organs through a sleight of hand involving cow's blood. Among the younger crowd, Christian (Ole Boisen) objects to "ghost-driving," a popular sport where the mysterious "Falcon" (Thomas Bo Larsen) speeds around town in an ambulance, racing against traffic on the wrong side of the street while the students bet on his survival. Mogge and Sanne love the game and admire Falcon, considering Christian a predictable bore. Determined to impress his crush, Christian takes over for Falcon one night, speeding into one of many tense strands in this episode's cliffhanger climax. Despite these different subplots, episode six is largely focused on the Sigrid and Jørgen material.

The episodes kicks off when Sigrid herself kicks off. The dying Mrs. Drusse is swept into a vision of the afterlife - her spirit floats up to the ceiling and then above the whole hospital and city, before she finds herself in a long corridor leading to a room with two doors. One is tall and one is small, and a much happier Mary emerges from the tall one to let Sigrid know that her time has not yet come. The old woman is relieved to hear she is not responsible for the spirits roaming the hospital, but she's concerned to learn that a great task is at hand: "It will come to pass at Christmas," Mary warns her. "You must go back." Sigrid is also struck by a painting of a tiger in a tropical landscape, with black birds of passage flocking overhead. Back in her body, Sigrid organizes a meeting of invisible spirits, using water and chalk dust to commune with these ghosts. This eccentric but peaceful event takes a disastrous turn, however, when the friendly priest wanders into the lecture hall and is violently attacked by paranormal forces, who appear to tear him to shreds.

Meanwhile, Jørgen's fate is coming to a head; Helmer has learned that the Haitian poison only makes its victim appear to be dead - if he applies the antidote within a couple days, the corpse can be resurrected. Unfortunately, the fallen doctor is scheduled to be cremated so Helmer races to stop the process, eventually seizing the casket with both hands while a conveyer belt pulls them toward the flames. Out of nowhere, at the worst possible moment, Rigmor shoots her lover in the back, forcing him to collapse and lose his grip on the casket just as Jørgen's eyes open inside and fire consumes the box. Rigmor may not have killed Helmer, but it's a cinch she's killed "Dr. Hook." That is, if anything's a cinch on this show...

My Response:

Patreon update #17: Twin Peaks season 2 & Séraphine (+ cartoon classics & more)

Originally I planned to review Before Sunrise this week but, after rewatching the film, I realized at the last minute that June 16 would make a more suitable date (at least for this site's cross-post; the episode will publish earlier in the week). A few months ago I had seen and reviewed Séraphine, a biopic about a French outsider artist from the early twentieth century so I was able to bump it up a week on the schedule without a problem. I also discuss the second season of Twin Peaks, attempting to view it both as the complicated, multi-part narrative it was and also as something with an overarching character of its own. This is a relatively quiet episode overall - there's no "Other Topics" section to speak of, and I've reserved most of the listener feedback for next week too. By the way, thank you to all patrons - I reached $100 this month! I hope you continue to enjoy the work I produce.

No more 3rd tier (+ next episode soon)

Episode 17: Twin Peaks season 2 & Séraphine (+ cartoon classics & more)

Line-up for Episode 17

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: Kingdom series

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: eliminating 3rd Tier

WEEKLY UPDATE/work in progress: interview w/ Cameron Cloutier (Twin Peaks fan film about Annie & research into Golden State Killer)

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: Twin Peaks season 2

FILM IN FOCUS: Séraphine

OTHER TOPICS: A new approach

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "The Watchlist Hits Toontown" (August - October 2013), this week's highlight: #WatchlistScreenCaps - Cartoon classic marathon

BECOME A PATRON

The Kingdom II - "Death on the Operation Table" (episode 5)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 1, 1997/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): Who could that "death on the operation table" belong to? The season finale left many options: Bondo, receiving his new liver (no, he's still with us, albeit looking extremely depleted); Judith, giving birth to what appeared to be a full-size man (she survives and is even drawn to be a mother - for a time); her baby, choking and screaming as it bursts from her body (as it turns out, he just has the head of a full-size man attached to a small if weirdly-proportioned infant baby)? Instead, the victim of fate's caprice is the character most obsessed with death herself until now. Sigrid Drusse is discharged at episode's beginning, uncomfortable with recent events and guilty with her role in releasing new spirits upon the hospital. She immediately returns as a patient - a genuine one this time - when she's struck by an ambulance in the parking lot; after hovering in critical condition all episode she appears to die in the end, floating above her body as a transparent spirit, ready to join the ghostly ensemble she studied for so long. Notably, Helmer is implicated in both events pertaining her to her demise. She's hit by the ambulance while distracted by Helmer's rushed re-entry to the hospital (on roller-skis for some reason), and later flatlines as a direct result of Jørgen passing out just as he's about to resuscitate her (a loss of consciousness caused, it seems, by Helmer's possibly fatal Haitian poison, gulped down in a cup of coffee).

Elsewhere, the hospital seems slightly hungover from the feverish night before. Mogge attempts to break free from Jørgen only to discover that a videotape exists of him removing the head from the refrigerator. Officials continue to badger the staff, in this case objecting to the arrangement of beds, while the elder Moesgaard has completely lost his former vigor and confidence, wandering the corridors of the Kingdom in a daze before stumbling across a quack psychiatrist forcing a patient to beat a drum in the basement. Helmer comically dithers between poisoning and not poisoning Jørgen, based on the arrangement of coffee cups at morning meetings as well as information he receives from a cheerfully spiteful Rigmor (she, along with the meek, malleable Sanne, played by Louise Fribo, contribute to a motif of male-spiting feminine irrationality). Elsewhere, mundane workplace romances, rivalries, and political jockeying take place; the hospital is as haunted as ever and some characters are in crisis, but for the most part we are distinctly post-climax, and what we're building toward now is uncertain. But when Judith's baby, its limbs outstretched like a spider's legs, grabs its mother and screams for her attention, spittle flying in every direction...things don't look good.

My Response:

The Kingdom - "The Living Dead" (episode 4)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on December 15, 1994/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): Helmer is in a wonderful mood! He grins at the young hooligans who eye his car every morning when he parks outside the hospital; as always, he removes his hubcaps but this time he hands them over to the young men directly. He laughs, embraces, and beams his way through the hallways, elevators, and offices of his workplace on what he's certain will be his last day. After all, "Dr. Hook" has discovered his secret, and by now the anesthesiologist's report has surely been exposed. Of course, it isn't. As always, Jørgen would rather blackmail than destroy and he's intent to hold Helmer's impropriety over his head. Helmer has other ideas, recruiting a Haitian employee of the hospital to accompany him to the Carribean where they will track down a posion that turns people into zombies, something Helmer learned from Rigmor's book about the secrets of voodoo. Elsewhere in the Kingdom, another book about ancient rites becomes relevant...Sigrid convinces the hospital priest (Nis Bank-Mikkelsen) to open an old tome on exorcism. Despite burying Mary's tubed cadaver beneath the pavement out front, the girl's spirit continues to haunt the hospital.

With the help of Jørgen, the Drussers perform the requisite rite but also testify that Mary's killer was the doctor Age Krüger (Udo Kier), who was also - unbeknownst to all but Mary's mother - the father of the little girl (information delivered in a vision to Sigrid in the hospital basement). The trio force the little girl into the wall which they then brick back up, in the midst of a blackout and a catastrophic tour of the hospital by a Parliamentary delegation. Apparently they left the hole open too long because the end of the episode sees an outpouring of spirits...as well as something more catastrophic. Judith's pregnancy is growing more and more ominous following her ultrasound. Jørgen and others (including even the ghost of Mary herself) convince her to get an abortion; not only is her fetus developing way too fast (supposedly only three months pregnant, she is sporting a massive belly by the episode's end), the photo booth snapshots of her absent lover reveal that he is apparently a ghost. In fact, he's not just any ghost, by the diabolical Krüger himself. Judith's decision is framed as a poignant one, something that's best for her but also for the baby whom we're encouraged to pity. And then...in a scene straight out of Alien the flesh of her stomach is poked outward by the writhing being within and as something explodes violently through her birth canal and onto the operating table it isn't a fetus at all but a grown man, soaked in blood and gasping for air -- Krüger himself.

My Response:

The Kingdom - "A Foreign Body" (episode 3)

Welcome to my viewing diary for the two-season Danish miniseries The Kingdom. Every day (except Saturday) I will offer a short review of another episode. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on December 8, 1994/written by Tómas Gislason, Niels Vorsel & Lars von Trier; directed by Morten Arnfred & Lars von Trier): Bondo decides to go under the knife. Thanks to Helmer, he's learned that although he cannot do an autopsy on his rarely-diseased patient, he is authorized to do an organ transplant. But who will be the recipient? Helmer suggests another chronic case, but Bondo, troubled by the ethics of that idea, realizes he is a match with the donor and submits himself to science. In an equally hilarious and horrifying gesture, Bondo allows the diseased liver to be placed in his own body, long enough for it to become his property, before eventually replacing it with another transplant. After this, he can conduct experiments with ethical impunity. Elsewhere, this is definitely the "archive" episode, dominated by a search through the Kingdom's written history (one of the dishwashers notes that this lofty scientific information is in fact "a history of pain, written in blood"). Two - no, three, no, four - characters attempt to access the high-security records room, mostly for the same purpose (or rather, different purposes pertaining to the same object). Helmer, who has strenuously tried to avoid the subject of his botched surgery on young Mona, is confronted by an inconvenient detail. A potentially damaging anesthesiologist's report was itself damaged - by a coffee stain. So far, so good, it seems - at least for a surgeon who appears to be covering his own path. Unfortunately, Moesgaard casually informs the worried doctor that there's a duplicate of this document locked away in the hospital archive. Helmer confronts Rigmor, asking why she only destroyed one copy with purposeful coffee stains. When pressed, he refuses to admit why he considers the report so damning but seems determined to destroy all evidence that something went wrong.

Jørgen also wants to get his hands on that evidence, for blackmail rather than evidence. We see how his M.O. works firsthand when he acquires Mogge's cadaver head, stuffs it into his locked refrigerator, and forces the terrified young man to do his dirty work (Mogge finds out that during a security test every night, the archive door is unlocked for a half-hour). Jørgen also has a more willing - and subtle - collaborator in Judith, making calls to retrieve Helmer's document. Meanwhile, Sigrid and her son have their own reason to break into the archive: the old woman wants to find the dead girl's burial record after several more ghostly encounters (including communion with a haunted candle and a car chase with a phantasmic ambulance). All of these threads coincide during that nightly half-hour, in an artfully orchestrated roundelay of nervous, duplicitous encounters and near-encounters by a half-dozen hospital staff and patients all trying to tap into the secret space. Somehow only Jørgen and Judith succeed at attaining Helmer's record, to the horror of the Swedish surgeon as he spots them looking at it while he operates on Bondo. Sigrid and Bulder, meanwhile, get Mary's record but discover she isn't buried anywhere. Instead, the form notes "internal use" and Sigrid repeats the term, trying to figure out what it means, until she stumbles upon a shocking revelation: Mary is right there in the room with them, not as a ghost but in physical form - a corpse floating in formaldehyde in a tube for the past seventy-five years.

My Response: