Oooohing: Mirror's Edge - the first person jumper

Mirror's Edge looks like an interesting game - dealing very effectively with what until now has been the blight of the first person perspective game genre - moving effectively around the space.



This is the official blurb from EA.

In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly utopian paradise, a crime has been committed and now you are being hunted. You are a Runner called Faith - and this innovative first-person action-adventure is your story.

Mirror's Edge™ delivers you straight into the shoes of this unique heroine as she traverses the vertigo-inducing cityscape, engaging in intense combat and fast paced chases. With a never before seen sense of movement and perspective, you will be drawn into Faith's world. A world that is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous. Live or die? Soar or plummet? One thing is certain, in this city, you will learn how to run.

Watching: The Hollowmen

I caught The Hollowmen last night - the new show from the people at Working Dog who have previously brought us The Late Show, The Panel, Frontline, The Castle and Thank God You're Here.

I'm a believer that you need to give any new show a few episodes to find its feed - the first episode has a lot of work to do in introducing characters and scenarios and setting "the vibe" and the following shows then build on this to develop something which is either great, average or mundane. It takes time to flesh out characters and they are a core part of what makes a show work.

Working on this principle, I'm happy to give the show a bit longer to get going - I liked what I saw last night but I don't remember actually laughing at anything. It seemed partially as though in their focus on covering important social/political issues (the government response to childhood obesity), they didn't quite have time to bring the funny.

I could see where it was meant to be funny - Santo Cilauro's role as the team pollster allowed him to rephrase focus group comments into bureaucratese but even this seemed a little forced and repeating the gag a few times didn't make it work any better. There also seemed to be a heavy focus on finding laughs in the nuances of language used in the halls of power but I got the feeling that this would be a lot funnier to insiders than most people (myself included.)

The show is played very cynically, very subtly and very drily and I suspect it was far more accurate than we'd like it to be. At the same time, this could be one of the reasons that I found it almost a little disheartening - which may be why it wasn't as funny as I'd have liked. Shows like The Games and Yes Prime Minister have both managed to skewer similar territory very effectively, with equal levels of cynicism and yet drag a lot more humour out of the experience.

As I've mentioned, the characters are a key element in any show and need to be given time to develop - as yet, they all seem a little grey and samey. Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro seem to have dragged large chunks of their Frontline characters into the show - Santo still has that timid, dorky but likable thing going on and Rob is still a bit hopeless - though much less self important now. (Not that this is a huge problem, I liked both of these characters but am already a little tired of Sitch's new shtick of never having a pen).



Lachy Hulme as the head of the Central Policy Unit seems the most likable, everyman kind of character - trying to actually come up with good policy in the face of organisational disfunction and Merrick Watts (of Merrick and Rosso fame) puts in a good show as a wily advisor in the department. As yet, the rest of the characters are really yet to emerge - but as I say, all in time.

I was a little surprised that it's such a hugely male dominated environment - figuring the upper levels of the Public Circus would be a little more PC and have a few more senior women but then again, these guys would have done their research and maybe it's how it is.

I liked the way the show just dived right into the action, assuming that viewers would be cluey enough to work things out as it went along and was able to really dig into a social issue - again, I have to draw conclusions to Frontline in the way that this was done. (Which is great, as I loved Frontline).

I just hope it can be as funny as Frontline, because after a point, cutting as it might be, it could well turn out more depressing than entertaining.

If you like politics and social issues, smart tv, Frontline, The Games, Yes Minister or even The West Wing, give it a go.

You can watch full episodes online at The Hollowmen website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/watch (But the video player only seems to work in Internet Explorer - hmmm).

Awwwing: the techno kittens

Looking forward to: The Hollowmen

The Hollowmen is the latest show by the Working Dog folks, the people behind The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel and Thank God You're Here. On this form alone it would seem like a must watch for at least the first two shows (which in my mind is how long it takes to get a sense of show's potential).

The fact that it's based around politics in Canberra and takes what looks like a Frontline type approach to the whole exercise - broad general humour mashed up with smart social comment - for me makes it an absolute must.

It's set in the Central Policy Unit of the federal government -

a special think tank personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him in the most important job of all - getting reelected.

It's all about the world of public servants and political advisors - the unelected "power behind the power".

They've been very careful to keep the details scant - the most you can get is from the website at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hollowmen/#/home, which does offer some promise.

It's a little interesting that is taken so long to come to screen - given that the idea first came up when Santo Cilauro was making a documentary in 1996 about Paul Keating's last election campaign. Harder to get it made while little Johnny was running the show?



(Not entirely sure if there is some subtle point being made by using music from a New Zealand band on the promo - perhaps the sound designer is a kiwi)

Watching: Vexille

It's been a while since I've seen a new anime (and particular in a cinema)but now that I've seen Vexille, I'll be making more of an effort.



While it's still full of robots, nanotechnology and well more robots, Vexille tells a fairly straightforward story for anime which would be at home in a Hollywood sci-fi action blockbuster. Actually, scratch that, this leaves the aforementioned blockbusters in its dust, even though it's easy to see the influence that these films have had on Vexille.

The CGI has enough artistic style added to it to avoid any kinds of uncanny valley issues and in the process creates a sometimes impossibly beautiful world that truly demonstrates the eye-candy power that this form of animation has to offer.

To talk about the story in anything but the scantest detail would be to give away what is a pretty cool plot which in the tradition of great sci-fi has plenty to say about where we might be going and what happens in the wrong people (i.e big business) are making the decisions. Vexille works well because it is able to bring these elements to the screen but at the same time offer enough character insight to make them sympathetic.

Suffice to say, if you're not averse to robots, action and awesome special effects, Vexille is well worth a look. I may even go back for another go. Within the first two or three minutes of the film I had this big nerdy "that's-so-awesome" grin creep across my face which didn't leave for hours afterwards.