Used to be I didn't much care about DVD extras. As long as I got to see the main show, I was good. But not so much anymore. I want commentaries. I want making-ofs. I want behind-the-scenes tidbits that make me feel like an insider. And I'm starting to feel a little miffed when I don't get those things.

Acorn Media, God bless 'em, brings us Yanks British stuff we probably wouldn't see otherwise. Like Mobile, the 2007 four-part miniseries that has not yet aired on American TV, and probably won't for the foreseeable future. However, it will be out on DVD here on October 7. So it's a good thing that we get to see something we otherwise wouldn't have (unless we own region-free players, which are not as common in the U.S. as they are abroad, and unless we are willing to shop overseas for DVDs). But someone needs to tell Acorn that text screens of cast biographies, which are the only nods to anything even approaching an "extra" here, don't really satisfy that DVD geek jones.

That said, this miniseries is a wild, outrageous ride through the conspiracy theories of the moment, wrapped in a paranoid, blow-'em-up, all-stops-out thriller. So what if there aren't any bonuses? Take your pick: cell phones give you brain cancer; the Iraq war was a plot to make rich industrialists even richer (did you know that before the 2004 war, Iraq was one of the very few nations left on earth without cell-phone coverage?); corporations are run by evil men; modern life is killing us all, either metaphorically or actually. It's all here.

Across four 50-minute episodes -- directed by British TV vet Stuart Orme and written by John Fay (Robin Hood, Blue Murder) -- that look at events from four different perspectives. We see cell-phone towers across England get blown up, scary drive-by motorcyclists taking out drivers talking on their mobiles in heavy traffic, yakkers on trains get bullets through the head... Is it someone, or more than one someone, with an axe to grind against obnoxious cell-phone users, or is something even more insidious going on? (Hint: It's something even more insidious.)

By the end of episode one, which focuses on a former engineer for a cell-phone company (Neil Fitzmaurice) who is dying of a brain tumor and has a huge grudge against his former employer, I was groaning at how ridiculous the whole thing was. But I was too intrigued to stop watching.

Episode two is all about an army sharpshooter (Jamie Draven) who misses going into Iraq with his buddies and is pretty pissed off at that, so he gets himself into some bad trouble with cell phones. (Yes, it makes sense, actually.)

Episode three is about a telecom exec (Michael Kitchen) with, yes, a grudge regarding cell phones. Connecting them all, in one way or another, is another telecom exec played by Keith Allen, who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham on the new Robin Hood, and is just as evil.

Did I mention the ending, which is so preposterous that I almost threw something at the TV, and yet I loved it anyway?

It's kind of awesome that TV can be so silly as this, and still so satisfying. Even if the DVD packaging leaves a lot to be desired.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson (email me)
film reviews and TV blogging at FlickFilosopher.com

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us