Archive | TV RSS feed for this section

TV Review: BBC’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)

23 Jun

It’s completely absurd, and yet I was completely along for the ride. I hand it to the British who go about their comedy without warning or apology. Take it or leave it, but The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy British humor and societal commentary at its best.

The title credits from the 1981 BBC miniseries reading "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — Adapted from the BBC Radio Series," displayed in metallic lettering against a starfield background.

In a way, it’s that absurdity, that choice to disregard the logical in favor of a radical representation of what life would be like if humans were completely annihilated. One though, Arthur Dent, is lucky enough to come face-to-face with the terms of the galaxy’s bureaucratic existence and its role in the inconvenience of life, the universe, and everything.

A still from the 1981 BBC miniseries showing Zaphod Beeblebrox with his prosthetic second head visible over his left shoulder, seated next to Arthur Dent in the cockpit of their spaceship. Both are wearing colorful, eclectic 1980s sci-fi costuming.

We begin with Arthur’s house about to be demolished for a bypass. But so is Earth. Thankfully, his friend, Ford Prefect, is an undercover researcher for the next edition of the intergalactic travel guide, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Ford finds a way to get them off Earth seconds before the Vogons, the universe’s most bureaucratic species, reduce it to rubble.

The Vogons don’t destroy Earth because they’re bad, but because the paperwork was filed on time and no one from Earth objected to the plans on display millions of miles away. It’s quite a commentary.

It’s six episodes of traveling in a bathrobe, stolen starships, a two-headed President of the Galaxy, a depressed robot named Marvin, whose vast intelligence makes him paranoid and depressed, and the search for the answer to the question of life.

A personal shoutout to Marvin – the paranoid robot engineered with Genuine People Personalities who loathes his existence and feels everyone should be as miserable as him. Depending on the day, he is completely relatable.

Arthur Dent, wearing a plaid bathrobe, sits on a rock beside Marvin the Paranoid Android — a boxy, silver robot standing to his left. Both look off into the distance.

Yes, this is 1981 BBC. Expect effects and props built solely from imagination. Although I quite enjoyed the old computer graphic overlays used throughout.

As the Guide tells us on its front cover, Don’t Panic. Sit back and enjoy the journey into one of Britain’s greatest comedic outputs (and cult followings).

P.S. The 2005 film staring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin, does not disappoint either, but I recommend watching the TV series so you get the full scope of Douglas Adam’s created universe and farcical renderings of authority and management.

The TV series is available on Kanopy here. (Free with your Hoboken Public card).

DVD in the BCCLS system here.

Bluray in the BCCLS system here.

Interested in the book? Reserve it in the BCCLS system here or borrow as a digital audiobook here.

Comment below your thoughts once you’ve had a watch.

Hit subscribe to get weekly updates on posts from the Hoboken Public Library!

Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Tags: ,

In Search of Edgar Allan Poe (PBS on Kanopy)

19 Feb

Edgar Allan Poe is much more than the gloomy poet of The Raven or the macabre short story teller of The Tell-Tale Heart. The PBS documentary on Kanopy, In Search of Edgar Allan Poe, stylizes and weaves a much more eye-opening (and I’d say heartbreaking) ode to one of American Literature’s greatest.

Image featuring a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe against a dark background with a full moon and a silhouetted raven perched on a branch. The text reads “In Search of Edgar Allan Poe.”

It’s two 90-minute parts, exploring Poe’s imaginative brilliance, his inspiring resilience, and his undying ambition through life-long hardship.

More Than the Macabre

Poe, of course, is rightfully celebrated as the inaugural king of haunting tales. This special taught me that he was also one of the most innovative writers in our country’s history – before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Poe trailblazed the detective story with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Before Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, he experimented with science fiction through stories like The Balloon Hoax. And his fascination with cryptology in The Gold-Bug helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle acknowledged Poe’s influence in his first Sherlock Holmes story – Watson compares Holmes to Poe’s detective Dupin.

The closing credits roll like a who’s who of authors influenced by Poe. 

Poe’s Unity of Effect is also explored, the theory that every word, every line, every image in a short story keeps the reader grounded in one emotion – fear, grief, dread, isolation, etc. And that stories at their full potential should be enjoyed in one sitting. 

The documentary also confronts many misconceptions, particularly about Poe’s personal life and alcoholism. He had demons and addictions. There’s no denying that. It’s tragic and heartbreaking, yet the series unmasks a man marked by early loss, financial struggle, and deep devotion to his ailing wife – massive anxieties and demonic possessions all intermingling with his fascination for the writing craft.

And while Baltimore may claim him as one of their own, the series reminds us that Poe also belongs to more than just Baltimore. In Philadelphia, where he wrote The Tell-Tale Heart and grew his dream of starting a literary journal, and in New York City, where he penned The Raven, he lived out his last days in a cottage with his ailing wife in the Bronx. Here, he wrote his romantic ode to her, Annabel Lee (You can visit the cottage for tours.)  

I came away both haunted and in awe of this literary genius and how much modern storytelling has this man’s dark yet imaginative mind to thank. 

Watch now on Kanopy: In Search of Edgar Allan Poe (PBS)  (Free with your library card)

Comment below your thoughts once you’ve had a watch.

Hit subscribe to get Hoboken Public Library Staff Picks to your email!

Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries