The problem is that the cast aren’t playing their characters, so much as mocking them from within, with a snide imitation… as if the entire story were a feature-length anecdote they were telling to their bar-room buddies, and every line of dialogue was preceded by an unspoken “And then he was like,…” Obviously humour is subjective, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who can enjoy this movie on its own terms… but I find this particular style of writing and performance very off-putting… and it’s a shame, because I’ve enjoyed a lot of writer/director David Wain’s work in the past. If this movie had treated the subject with the absurdism of Wet Hot American Summer, or the sincerity of Role Models, then it could well have been one of my fave comedies of the year… rather than going straight from my DVD player to the “donate” pile. To be fair, there were a couple of lines/beats that made me laugh out loud (most of them involving Alan Alda, as the commune’s slightly frazzled co-founder), and I thought the tripping sequences were great (especially when Paul Rudd turned into ‘The Corinthian’!)… but overall, it was just too mean-spirited and glib to inspire any sustained amusement or affection.

Cast-wise, I know Jennifer Aniston still has a high-profile and a huge fan-base thanks to her work on Friends, but for me she’s long since passed her saturation point… and I was particularly aggrieved to see her get a starring role here, while the incandescent Lauren Ambrose was lumbered with a blurry, back-seat supporting role. “She’s pregnant, and keeps pointing out that her boyfriend is black! HILARIOUS!!!” Meh. I did enjoy the way her soft-focus romantic moment with Rudd segued into a birthing scene, and her strained reassurances about how beautiful and natural the moment was confirmed what a gifted comic actress she is… it’s just a shame she didn’t get more opportunities to work her magic here.

[Skimming through the DVD for screencaps, I was struck by how gorgeous the Elysium commune looked, both inside and out... so top marks to the location scouts and production design team. I want to go to there.]

According to one of Chuck Lorre’s many amusing (and occasionally insightful) vanity cards, he and his co-creator, Dottie Dartland, originally conceived D&G as “a series revolving around a woman whose personality is not a neurotic product of societal and parental conditioning, but of her own free-flowing, compassionate mind”… and one of the things I love about the show is that even when an individual episode’s plotline might seem a little samey on the surface, Dharma always brings a fresh perspective and energy to the old-timey sitcom tropes. And there are plenty of unique scenes and storylines (such as helping a Native American elder to die with dignity in ep 1.7) that could pretty much only occur in a show with such an enlightened and empathetic hippie-chick heroine. She just approaches the world in such an enthusiastic and open-hearted way, I can’t help idolising her, and wishing I could absorb some of her spirit through the TV screen. As far as I’m concerned, Dharma’s the most adorable and inspiring sitcom character of all time… that’s partly down to the writing, of course, but also down to the unbridled joy and playful gusto that Jenna Elfman brings to the role. Bless her.

American shows often take a while to find their groove, so it’s remarkable to see D&G hit the ground running right from the start, with its fertile odd couple(s) premise, combined with an uplifting love story, and a practically perfect blend of supporting characters played by a supremely talented cast. One of the funnest aspects of the show is the role-playing “adventures” that Dharma goes on with her snarly, spiky BFF ‘Jane’ (Shae D’Lyn)… my favourite from this season being the one where they decide to go shopping for Thanksgiving dinner as “Old-fashioned 50s Housewives” (ep #1.5), and convince Greg’s slobby-sleazy co-worker ‘Pete’ (Joel Murray) to ride in their trolley and pretend to be a baby. Fun! Dharma also has an admirably close relationship with her touchy-feely mother, ‘Abby’ (Mimi Kennedy), and pot-addled father, ‘Larry’ (Alan Rachins). I might find the “right-on hippie” stereotypes more offensive, if they weren’t played with such genuine affection, and balanced out by Greg’s equally stereotypical “uptight WASP” parents, ‘Edward’ and ‘Kitty Montgomery’ (Mitchell Ryan and Susan Sullivan). Both couples are funny enough in their own right, but the sparks really fly when they all get together, and attempt to have a civil (or not) conversation.

There were also some fun cameos by the likes of Yeardley Smith, as Greg’s snarky secretary ‘Marlene’ (recurring)… Laurie Metcalf as ‘Spyder’, a fear-mongering self-defence teacher who steals all of Dharma’s yoga students (ep. 1.11)… Lindsay Sloane as Greg’s wayward-teen cousin ‘Jennifer’ (ep 1.12)… and Jane Seymour as ‘herself’, an exasperated English actress who is pressganged into teaching Dharma how to lie to her husband (ep. 1.19).

Note: In case you’re as confused/disappointed as I was by the lack of “Outtakes” promised on the back of the (UK) boxset, they’ve actually been hidden away as “easter eggs” across the three discs. They’re barely worth the effort, but in case you’re a completist like me: Disc One… select the episode “The Ex-Files” from the main menu, then Down to “scene selection”, and press Left until a yin-yang symbol appears, then press Enter. Disc Two… select “The Second Coming of Leonard”, then Down to “disc main menu”, then Left. Disc Three… select the Special Features menu, then down to “Reaching Your Inner Dharma”, then Left (this time hearts appear, instead of a yin-yang).

I wasn’t especially keen to see Avatar (2009) at the cinema, because of its epic running time… but, weirdly for such a popular movie, I’ve never seen a copy of the DVD going s-hand in any of the shops I frequent, so I was actually quite excited when I read that Ch4 would be showing it on Sunday evening.

For those who don’t know, this Sci-Fi/Fantasy flick is set in the year 2154, and stars Sam Worthington as ‘Jake Sully’, a paraplegic marine, whose scientifically-inclined twin brother is killed by a mugger shortly before embarking on a perilous mission to a distant planet called Pandora. Much expense and effort has already gone into breeding his brother’s “avatar” (a sort of remote-control meat-puppet that a person can project their mind into, in order to interact more successfully with alien species, and survive otherwise hazardous environments), and since Sully’s a suitable genetic match, he’s offered the ride in his deceased sibling’s place. Previously the avatars have only been driven by touchy-feely intellectuals, who’ve made very little headway with the native inhabitants, a race of giant blue cat-people known as “Na’vi”, but Sully’s meat-headed arrogance intrigues them, and he proves to be a far better fit for their hunter-dominated culture. The Na’vi’s acceptance of Sully’s avatar, alongside his budding romance with a tribal leader’s daughter (voiced by Zoe Saldana), gives him unprecedented access to their society, which the scientific team (led by Sigourney Weaver) hopes to exploit for diplomatic and xenoanthropological purposes… while their corporate paymasters hope to profit by convincing the tree-hugging Na’vi to abandon their homes, which they’ve rather inconsiderately chosen to build on land loaded with an extremely valuable mineral named “unobtanium”. However, ‘Eywa’, the Na’vi’s mother goddess, seems to have other plans for the new arrival, marking him out as “The One” who might finally rid their world of the pesky, greedy, disrespectful intruders once and for all. Conflict!

I would make a snooty comment about spending so much “cheddar” on telling such a formulaic and cliché story, but writer/director James Cameron more than made his money back, so I guess that point is moot. It’s always a bit dodgy when someone depicts a white, Western male casually infiltrating a foreign tribe/alien race, and somehow becoming their greatest warrior/de facto leader/saviour practically overnight… but I have to say I did rather enjoy immersing myself in this movie. As a hippy-dippy type I appreciated the eco-friendly moral, even if I didn’t get quite as strong a spiritual buzz off of it as I thought I was going to… and the CGI landscapes were all very lush and exotic-lookin’.

Really though, the main draw for me here was M-Rod’s turn as ‘Trudy Chacón’, a weirdly cheerful chopper pilot who is sympathetic to the Na’vi cause, and happily fights for their team in the big finale. Although she doesn’t have very many scenes, it was great to see M-Rod playing such a chirpy character for a change, and I was glad that she turned out to be one of the “good guys” in the end. Apparently Cameron has been wanting to work with M-Rod ever since he saw her in Girlfight, and technically we never see her character die on-screen (as such), so hopefully she might come back to pick up another hefty paycheque if he goes ahead with his plan for a full trilogy. (Idle guess: In the third movie, the Na’vi find a way to seed the ravaged Earth with new life, and teach the human population how to talk to trees and stuff).

Fun fact: One of the commercial breaks actually featured an Army recruitment ad… which struck me as a rather odd choice, considering how this movie depicts most military-types as mindless mercenaries who will happily firebomb innocent civilians (including women and children) whenever their bosses order them to! Then again the gun-ships and mecha-suits did look pretty cool, so maybe it’ll work…

The character didn’t have a single line of dialogue, and is credited only as ‘Dirty Hippie Girl’ (which, btw, is probably the funnest kind), but “hippie” sightings are so rare in comedies these days, I have to take ‘em where I can get ‘em!

Note: The AV Club review of this episode highlights how Schmidt has become the show’s surprise “breakout character”, thanks to Greenfield’s genius performance, and peculiar pronunciation choices. Say it with me: Chut-er-nee.

For those who don’t know (and shame on you for that!), this cult classic stars Edward Woodward as ‘Sergeant Howie’, a rather priggish “Christian copper”, who receives an anonymous letter from the remote Scottish island of Summerisle, imploring him to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young girl named ‘Rowan Morrison’ (Geraldine Cowper). From the very moment he first sets foot on their harbour side, Howie finds himself taunted, ridiculed and tempted by the inhabitants, who follow their own peculiar, neo-Pagan religion, and are not averse to cavorting naked in public to practice their faith. They stonewall his investigation at every turn, referring him to their de facto leader, the eccentric ‘Lord Summerisle’ (Christopher Lee), whose grandfather cannily recognised the potential in their fertile soil and warm local waters to establish a thriving fruit farm, which has ensured the island’s continuing fame and prosperity. He also used his influence to drive out Christianity, and re-establish the “Old Gods” of nature to their former prominence… Gods who must be praised and appeased, with sacrifices great and small, in order to ensure a successful harvest. Uh oh!

Ultimately, the story is a game of cat-and-mouse between two devout, determined men, but there are several female cast members here worthy of note: The first is Britt Ekland who plays ‘Willow’, the sultry, seductive barmaid at an inn where Howie spends several fitful nights, trying to ignore the lusty noises emanating from her neighbouring bedroom. Diane Cilento plays ‘Miss Rose’, a teacher at the local school, who Howie censures for explaining the phallic symbolism of the Maypole to her class of young girls… and later finds consorting with Lord Summerisle. Ingrid Pitt plays a ‘Librarian’ who hampers Howie’s investigation… and Irene Sunter appears as ‘May Morrison’, Rowan’s cheerfully forgetful mother. Although Ekland, Cilento and Pitt are all incredibly beautiful women, and play their parts very well, it seems a little strange to cast them as born-and-bred Scots here, since they originally hail from Sweden, Australia and Poland respectively… but there’s no point picking away at all the contemporary business decisions that compromised the film’s verisimilitude, because overall its awesomeness is unimpeachable.

For ages I’ve been making do with a copy of the “theatrical cut” that I received free with a newspaper some years ago, but now I’m glad to say I have the two-disc boxset, which includes the extended “Director’s Cut”. For various horridious reasons we won’t go into here, the “restored” footage is noticeably poorer than the material around it, in terms of picture and sound quality, but it adds so much to the story and the characters that it’s easy to forgive these occasional glitches. I think it’s a testament to the high calibre of the script and the performances that this film retains its lyrical power and enigmatic majesty despite all of the technical snafus and petty “office politics” that might have broken the back of a lesser work.

[This post written while listening to The Mediaeval Baebes... who do a very good cover version of the Maypole song on their album Undrentide]

For those who don’t know, this cult “space opera” tells the story of ‘John Crichton’ (Ben Browder), an American astronaut from present-day Earth, who finds himself flung through a wormhole into a distant corner of the universe while testing an experimental spacecraft, dubbed “Farscape 1”. He emerges in the middle of a dogfight between a fleet of fascistic space-cops known as “Peacekeepers”, and a misfit crew of escaped prisoners who have somehow gained control of their transport vessel, a living biomechanical ship named ‘Moya’. After accidentally pranging the ship of a prominent Peacekeeper, who immediate crashes and burns on the surface of a nearby moon, Crichton has no choice but to ally himself with the escapees, and hope that he can stay alive long enough to figure out where the hell he is, and how he can get back home again.

When I first started watching the show, I found Crichton quite annoying, with his cocky, devil-may-care antics, and constant wisecracks… but second time around, I find him far more sympathetic, because I know that in later seasons he’s going to start going full-tilt batshit. In fact, it helps to imagine that he starts going crazy as soon as he first sets foot on Moya, and that his apparent bravado is just a front he’s putting up, while he struggles to cling to his ebbing sanity. How else can you explain his compulsive reliance on pop-culture references which his alien companions could never possibly be expected to understand? They’re his only link back to his homeworld, after all… he has to filter every mind-warping new experience through the TV shows and movies that he’s seen, in order to process them without becoming a gibbering wreck. But it isn’t all bad news for Crichton, of course, because he does get to share a ship with three of the coolest, comeliest women in Sci-Fi/Fantasy history.  I’m not sure how he wangled it, but Browder seems to spend half his time on-screen either nuzzling or frotting his female cast-mates, while “steadying” them or catching their fall! Lucky git.

First up is ‘Aeryn Sun’ (Claudia Black), a disgraced, human-looking Peacekeeper, who is drummed out of the service after she’s held captive by Moya’s crew, and becomes “irreversibly contaminated” by their empathy and compassion for others. She begins the series as an elitist, trigger-happy snob, but eventually warms up to her wary crewmates… and even finds herself feeling “the human emotion you call love” for Crichton. Er… sort of. The two of them have one of the most confusing “will they, won’t they” relationships I’ve ever seen, simply because it’s sometimes rather hard to know for sure which reality they’re in when they do hook up, and if it still counts when they get back to the real reality. If you see what I mean. Aside from being exceptionally beautiful, Black’s very good at portraying the character’s initial arrogance as well as her later vulnerability, and it’s always fun when she takes charge and starts laying the smack down. Her commanding performance is especially impressive when you see how sweet and smiley she is in the “behind the scenes” interviews.

Next up is ‘Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan’ (Virginia Hey), a blue-skinned, bald-headed Delvian Pa’u… or priestess, if you prefer. Blessed with pain-relieving powers, and a stock of home-made medicines, Zhaan is the closest thing the ship has to a doctor… although she’s also proven herself more than capable of kicking ass, should the need arise. Zhaan’s probably my second favourite character overall, because she’s so chilled and enlightened, and I enjoy getting a vicarious hit of “Zen” off of her… even if she is tortured by her darker demons from time to time too. Hey does a great job with the character, portraying her grace and nobility… and you have to admire her dedication as an actress, shaving her hair and eyebrows, and wearing all of that skin-suffocating make-up for three straight years! I mean, I’m sure it was a rewarding role, but probably not worth sacrificing your health for…

And finally there’s the most adorable alien of all time, a grey-skinned, doe-eyed Nebari chick named ‘Chiana’ (Gigi Edgley). Arriving fashionably late in ep #1.15, Chiana is a super-cute scoundrel sentenced to receive an electroshock lobotomy by her own ultra-conformist kind, for committing the deadly serious crime of being a horny, antisocial kleptomaniac, with the unbridled, off-kilter sensuality of a Goldfrapp album made flesh. Thankfully she manages to avoid her date with brain-death and find sanctuary aboard Moya, where she quickly insinuates herself into their ragtag family, while kissing, kicking and crying her way into our hearts! Fun fact: Edgley was initially only hired for a one-shot guest spot, with Chiana doomed to die at the end of the episode… but everyone loved her so much that she was promptly granted a reprieve and written into the remaining episodes. And thank goodness they did, because Edgley brings a whole new energy to the show. It can’t have been easy for her joining an established cast that late into production, but by the end of the season it feels like she’s been there the whole time! Bless.

(Of course, it doesn’t hurt that all three actresses are Australian… as everyone knows that “Aussie” is one of the Top 5 Sexiest International Accents. Fact!)

Overall, there are times when the show can be quite cheesy and corny and cartoony, but it can also be quite funny and unsettling and artistic and innovative too. One of the things that sets it apart from a lot of the other big name Sci-Fi franchises is that the main characters aren’t Establishment figures… they aren’t military-types with matching uniforms, a rigid chain of command, and a set of approved protocols or prime directives to follow… they’re a bickering band of random renegades, who have to survive on their wits and improvise their way out of every pickle they get themselves into. And I doubt you’d ever see a crew member of The Enterprise arriving late to their captain’s rescue because they were delayed by a sun-flare-induced “photogasm” while crossing a desert! As a collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the series is also blessed with a wealth of animatronic puppets, which help to flesh out the universe with properly alien-looking characters of all shapes and sizes, rather than just the regular people-with-prosthetics that you find on every other Sci-Fi/Fantasy show.

My only major complaint about this season would be that it ended on a major cliff-hanger, which left me jonesing for season two! Dammit!

While we’re on the subject though, I did stumble over an interview with Juno Temple the other day, in which she explained the disappointing paucity of her presence: “‘Sneeze and you’ll miss me,’ she shrugs, adding that she shot quite a few more scenes than made it into the finished film. ‘But they all involved drug-taking. They couldn’t show those because it was a PG12 or whatever – it was for young girls so they had to cut those scenes. Which I understand and think, “cool”.’” Well, I respectfully disagree… there’s nothing “cool” about cutting cute hippie chicks out of movies, dammit! Still, that might explain why her character evolved into an eco-warrior for the sequel? Wind-farms are pretty controversial, but not quite as controversial as teenagers getting hopped up on goof balls!

Shame someone can’t release an “uncut” version of this movie though… maybe make it a double-pack with an uncut version of Wild Child, for extra drunken depravity points!

The Independent is a “mockumentary”, starring Jerry Stiller as an infamous indie auteur named ‘Morty Fineman’, who has supposedly made over four-hundred flicks! The hilarious fake titles are all listed at the end of the movie, running alongside the credits, and some kind soul has added them to the Wikipedia page, so I highly recommend you have a read. Fineman is definitely a filmmaker after my own heart, as he tries to communicate serious socio-political messages via the medium of trashy B-Movies (complete with incidental T&A)… and I can’t help wishing that I lived in an alternative reality where something like The Eco Angels (1971) was actually green-lit, instead of yet another Spiderman reboot! Plot-wise The Independent is a bit of a shaggy dog, but I found it quite entertaining… and Garofalo gets some funny scenes as Morty’s long-suffering daughter, ‘Paloma’, so it did scratch the itch a little. I still can’t quite figure out how they managed to grab such an eclectic cast of cameo players though… I mean, where else can you see Ron Howard, John Lydon, Ben Stiller, Fred Williamson, Karen Black, Nick Cassavetes, Jennifer Elise Cox and Brian Posehn (metaphorically) rubbing shoulders together?

As it happens, Wet Hot American Summer also boasts an impressively overqualified cast. Garofalo stars as ‘Beth’, the director of a children’s summer camp, who develops an adorably dorky crush on ‘Henry’, an associate professor of astrophysics, played by David Hyde Pierce (who happens to be staying at the camp for no apparent reason). Not only does she get some very funny scenes with him and the rest of the cast, but she also spends the majority of the flick rocking a super-cute hippie-chick look that set my heart aflutter! Meanwhile, a gawky counsellor named ‘Coop’ (Michael Showalter) struggles to steal the girl of his dreams (Marguerite Moreau) away from her hilariously petulant pretty-boy beau (Paul Rudd)… who is blatantly cheating on her with a random hottie (Elizabeth Banks), when he should really be stopping the younger kids from drowning. Coop is aided in his quest by the camp’s chef, a shell-shocked Vietnam War veteran played by Christopher Meloni, who also happens to be an inspirational dance instructor in his spare time! On top of all that rom-com tomfoolery, you get Molly Shannon as a depressed art teacher, Judah Friedlander as her arrogant ex, Michael Ian Black as a virgin counsellor with a marked lack of interest in women, and Amy Poehler as an insanely demanding “stage mother” type, who treats the camp’s talent show like the D-Day landings. Phew!

Overall, WHAS is fairly uneven. It’s deliberately pitched as an absurd parody, so a lot of the jokes involve mocking clichéd story conventions… which consequently leads to a deliberate inconsistency between scenes, and derails any hope of an emotional or comedic arc. That said, if you view it more as a series of sketches with recurring characters and locations, then it has a pretty high hit ratio… and there are enough genuinely hilarious high points to keep you hanging in there through the less successful bits. Although I’m quite happy with the edition I have for now, I do find myself coveting the R1 release, which apparently has a commentary track (featuring Garofalo herself) and several deleted scenes on it. Gah!

Ooh, and if you’re WHAS fan, you have to check out this awesome cartoon of all the main characters, drawn by Glen Brogan!

Anyhoo, the most recent incarnation of this archetype occurs in St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, via ‘Celia’ (Juno Temple) and her tag-along tribe of “Ecos”. As I mentioned in my previous rambling post about the film, her character plays a pretty crucial part in kicking off the plot, and could also claim extra credit for engineering the denouement, but in-between we don’t really get to see or hear very much from her. She was also a rather peripheral character in the first film, unfortunately… and one of her best scenes ended up discarded on the cutting room floor. For shame! I‘m beginning to think that the “Meet the Tribes” bonus featurette might actually be my favourite part of this whole DVD, because it gives the individual characters a lot more room to breathe… and it was great to see Temple team up with the adorable Daisy Tonge, to brag about their manure-fuelled VW van and show off a skirt made from recycled bras! There’s also a neat line about how “homework is a waste of paper”, which is exactly the sort of character-specific, school-based humour I’d like to have seen more of in the film itself. Ah well, no use crying over spilt patchouli oil!

Oh, and in case you were curious about that bra-skirt…

Spaced

The BBC apparently had high hopes for Hippies, and who can blame them? It was written by Arthur Mathews, of Father Ted fame, and boasted an incredibly talented cast, including the aforementioned Pegg as ‘Ray’; Darren Boyd as the shy, easily befuddled ‘Hugo’; Julian Rhind-Tutt as the languorous, urbane ‘Alex’; and Sally Phillips as ‘Jill’, a slightly confused but committed Feminist. There were also some top-notch cameos by the likes of Peter Serafinowicz (bullying Pegg once again!), Kevin Eldon, Dave Lamb, and the legendary Eleanor Bron as a “Mrs Robinson”-esque seductress. Sadly, however, it was not a critical or popular success, and a second series never materialised. Obviously I’m the last person who should be trying to analyse “where he went wrong”, but if I had to make a guess it would be that Hippies was a period sitcom that required a certain pre-existing interest in the wacky clothes, slang and attitudes of that time, to fully appreciate a lot of the jokes. It is, in essence, a live-action cartoon set in a fond pastiche of a bygone age… as opposed to (fellow Ted creator) Graham Lineham’s The IT Crowd, which is a live-action cartoon set in a modern office environment. In this case, I think familiarity breeds contentment.

Whatever the case, as a fan of the idea of The Sixties (as opposed to the much duller reality), this show was right up my alley. I love the costumes, and the hair, and the music… and I identify to a greater extent with the characters, and their struggles to wrap their heads around the “new consciousness”. As far as a politics go, the characters all know how to talk the talk, but they aren’t quite so sure how to walk the walk. And I can certainly relate to that. If I were ever forced to describe myself using only sitcom characters as reference points, I’d have to say I was a combination of Ray, Hugo and Jill from this show… in the body of Garth Marenghi.

One of the interesting things about Mathews and Linehan’s most recent creations is that they all feature a main cast of three men and one woman. Whether that’s the influence of Seinfeld creeping in or not, I can’t really say… but it seems to work in their favour, as hilarity often ensues from the men’s attempts to understand or relate to the token female character. Whether they are cloistered priests, awkward techies, or arrogant millionaire playboys, they’re all equally clueless where the “fairer sex” is concerned. This conflict is even more apparent in Hippies, where the men are all trying to be “right on”, but remain rather condescending and inconsistent in their support for Women’s Rights. A prime example of this comes in the third episode, where Ray and Alex discuss an upcoming issue of their paper, devoted to the subject of Sex:

RAY: I thought it would be a really good idea to give Jill a whole half-page to write about sex from the woman’s angle.

ALEX: A whole half-page?

RAY: Yeah. Women have sex as well, don’t they?

ALEX: Yeah, but they have, uh… women sex.

RAY: And that must be… bizarre. But don’t forget, they are 30% of the population.

It is later revealed, in a post-credits gag, that Ray couldn’t find room in the magazine for Jill’s contribution. They then have a good hearty chuckle at Alex’s ludicrous suggestion that in the future women might have their own magazines in which to write about their views on sex! Of course, Jill isn’t the optimal advocate for equality either. Her insistence that no one think about her bottom, at any point during the day, only leads poor Hugo to obsess over it. And while her proclamation that “women are going to be the men of the 21st Century” makes a semblance of sense, she stammers and babbles herself into a corner when challenged to explain further. Throughout the series, it’s strongly suggested that most of her ideas and attitudes are being fed to her by a more militant lesbian friend called ‘Cynthia’… who Ray despises for thwarting his constant attempts “get off” with Jill, when really his own arrogance and insensitivity are more likely to blame. I mean, just because a girl starts taking male hormone tablets and grows a full, bushy beard that puts your own to shame… that’s no reason to kick her out of bed, is it? Um…