Is The Reason I'm Suddenly Into Watching Comic Book Shows The Fear Of A Hard Brexit?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday. Whilst the wife was out for the evening helping a friend I and daughter spent the time watching comic book shows on the TV. And we had a good time. I'll chat about the shows we watched later on (though some of them I've chatted about before) but as we were viewing the thought entered my brain.

"Why after all these years am I into comic book heroes again?"

I had assumed as I've written about before simple nostalgia was the reason. The Flash seems to be like a comic book made flesh. Fantastic in effect and plot but done in a way that your belief as an adult is suspended.

Now though I'm wondering something completely different. I'm wondering whether in the face of Brexit, with the possibility looming of a hard Brexit (where even today the morning's headlines are of warnings from the NHS over a shortage of medicines) my subconscious is seeking some sort of rescue where impending disaster is averted at the last minute.

I've not hidden my desire that the UK should be broken up. But as I've also said no nationalist wants the UK to be broken up because of a hard Brexit (even if it turns out that it's the best thing to do and has to be done) because of the misery that the hard Brexit would have inflicted upon families across Britain (except of course for the rich Brexiteers who helped cause this and would have probably gone into foreign exile by then).

What the United Kingdom as a whole needs is a hero/heroine. What it's getting are villains and idiots.

And so to yesterday evening. Daughter and I watched:

The Flash: Having gone through series one daughter and I have moved to season two. And it works. We watched two episodes and daughter was quicker to understand the possibilities of parallel Earths than me. Episode three ended with the return of Tom Kavanagh as chief villain(?) ...we shall see.

(As a quick aside I must see if I can download Ed, a show Tom Kavanagh starred in. One of those quietly seemingly simple but effective shows not unlike the Gilmore Girls that America does produce well).

Krypton: This was the new show. Where the hero is apparently Superman's grandfather. Being in his twenties he doesn't know that yet. Instead he's doing what men in their twenties do. Drinking, fighting and having sex (thankfully not shown - my finger was hovering on the remote at that point).

Krypton is, interestingly run as a dictatorship at that time through a mysterious masked figure. It also has wealthy and poor areas. It is, essentially a futuristic Gotham city.

Everybody speaks in British or Irish accents, except an American from the future. He warns Superman's grandfather of the arrival of Brainiac (I remember him from the comic books) from the future intent of destroying Krypton and therefore destroying Superman before he's even born.

That is the clever part of the plot. The Batman prequel on TV, Gotham, suffers because whilst you may not know the route you know the destination. You know the child Bruce Wayne is going to be the Batman for example. No mystery there. So the idea that a villain from the future is coming back to change history at the very least creates some tension.

Worth moving onto episode two anyway.

Krypton: A divided society facing impending danger. That's a Brexit metaphor. As is...

Black Lightning : A society teetering just this side of social collapse. It is realism with a fantastical edge alright.

I've chatted before that Black Lightning is not just a superhero for the Afro American community but also for mature men with wife and kids everywhere. He's tired. In this episode he faints. He takes medication. He's determined but weary.

(As an aside wife came back during the middle of the episode and on a particular scene. I told her to look and see if she recognised the actor playing a newspaper editor.
"Is that Huggy Bear?" she said.
And yes it was. Huggy Bear from the seventies cop show Starsky and Hutch.
Daughter looked as if we had just had a conversation in Mandarin)

But although a prequel where the original was based on a comic book perhaps the closest metaphor to a hard Brexit is a programme I've been watching without my daughter.

Fear The Walking Dead. Where slowly but surely disaster strikes and society as we know it is gone forever.

And that is definitely a hard Brexit metaphor.

Until the next time.

The Insomniac Meanderings Post:I'm Going At Last To The Eisteddford Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As I write this it's 4:25am on a Saturday. Later than I've woken up in the past couple of days but still of course too early.

Today then, after unforeseen and unwelcome delays I'm going to the Eisteddford. On a day which will apparently worsen in the afternoon. Timing is everything. Still I am going which is the important point.

Anyway for the moment it's dark out there. Premiership football season is about to start. It's one of those signs that the high point of summer is beginning to turn. You know what? I think because I've spent the first two months of this year looking after my mother when she was unwell I think my brain is still in June mode.

I actually have, weather permitting a plan for tomorrow. To see the Welsh Rugby League Cup Final in Sardis Road Pontypridd. One of the teams competing will be the Valley Cougars who kindly offered to take round their ground but work issues eventually prevented me from doing so. What it does mean though is that there's a team I can support.

5:31am. Daylight peeking through. Electric light switched off.

6:02am. Breakfast. I'm in a porridge state of mind (with a dollop of jam of course). Meanwhile very sunny out there now. Not fooled though. The weather forecaster said this was going to be like this early on.

Just found out that McDonald's are opening their first "luxury restaurant" with knives and forks and a string quartet with the meal. Baring in mind I don't eat McDonald's anymore my first thoughts were:

1) Just like a Wimpey's used to do.

2) This will be every McDonald's if there is a hard Brexit

Friends is apparently the most popular streamed show in Britain this year (not Black Lightning? A disgrace).I've written about Literary Switzerland when you're neutral about a writer. Ditto Cinematic Switzerland re films. Now comes Televisual Switzerland with Friends. I don't dislike it. Just don't understand the passion for it. Wife/daughter love it. Must be me. Have the exact same view of The Simpsons.

Anyway time to get ready for the Maes.

Until the next time.

The Superhero Summer Continues Where I Accidentally Discover The Comic Book Hero For The Weary Mature Man

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

One of life's quiet pleasures is when you discover something you like completely by accident. That happened to me yesterday evening.

As a family we had done some shopping (which included Morrissons in Barry - Never again - Wish my phone hadn't run out of power so I could go into detail) and returned home. We'd agreed that we'd watch a superhero movie on Netflix which we bought for the next few months to cover those moments in every school summer holiday when things are, well, dull.

Whilst considering which superhero film to choose (and the choice was surprisingly small) the phone rang. It was a friend of the wife's.

Now there is a rule I've found with the wife (and I'm sure I'm not alone here that every third conversation turns out to be a marathon and not a sprint.

This turned out to be one of them.

So instead we looked at TV superhero series. Which is where Black Lightning comes in. Based on the DC comic.

Black Lightning is a retired superhero (Jefferson Pierce) and current school principal who is forced to return to crime fighting when his daughters are threatened (now obviously there's a lot more to the plot than that.But regular readers know that I make every effort not to spoil things).

 Daughter and I watched three episodes. We were hooked.

Now the focus has been (rightly) that this is an African American family. But for fifty four year old man like me I noticed something else. For whilst the hero is younger than me. He's older than most super heroes (not obviously including those cryogenically  out of storage Captain America style).

He has an ex wife he still loves, teenage daughters, a job. He has problems. Problems that being able to attack  villains with electricity can't help.There is a weariness to him which we can relate to. The TV series has made him the hero for the older guy. Other than his powers and the effect on his family he lives in a world you recognise

The cast is perfect. One person stood out though. Was looking at the youngest daughter and thinking "I know her from somewhere". Even the wife stopped her conversation and said the same thing.

It was daughter who provided the answer. She was a star of a Disney channel sitcom. The sort of sitcom that daughter begged you to watch with her when she was too young for you to say "Sorry. I'd rather watch the football" .

And you know you're getting old when you remember such a star in a Disney Sitcom when now in Black Lightning she's drinking, smoking and talking about sex!

So older guys. A superhero for you and me has arrived. Enjoy it.

Until the next time