The dark crystal: age of resistance – a review

For the last few generations the vile Skeksis have ruled over the planet Thra, using honeyed words and deceit to keep the Gelflin population under control. But the Skeksis’ time is coming to an end, there is a resistance growing.

This’ll be another longspun article before I get to the actual review. I rather enjoy writing my reviews like this because it allows me to get some of my personal thoughts in whilst being different than the many (many) ‘this-many stars-rated reviews’ you can find online. I actually want you to read my thoughts and musings. But I’ll always allow you to skip to the important bit: did I like it!

Thank heavens for titles.

The golden cage of television.

“We are currently living in the ‘golden age’ of television!”  this is a phrase that gets thrown around all the time nowadays and it’s only partly true. Yes, there are a lot of very good television shows being produced. But the best of those are on demand only; behind a pay-wall. ‘Normal’  television doesn’t have remotely the budget Netflix or Amazon prime has so, as a result, these shows rely on tried-and-tested favourites like comedy shows in favour of grand sweeping sagas. So, are we really talking about television here?

Then there’s another thing to consider: not all shows work. On both normal television as on demand shows get scrapped all the time. Each year when studios bring out their plans for the next television season some shows will get the chop.

As it has always been in television-land; it’s a case of survival of the fittest.

But, then, what changed? The grand-sweeping experience of cinema stories made their way to the small screen. Game of Thrones can easily stand on equal footing to The Lord of the Rings. Breaking Bad is the Scarface of the 2000s. Sharp Objects fits wonderfully next to the Oscar-winner Gone girl.

There’s been a merging going on. A merging in which not only the televised stories got better (no more three-seasons dragging out of ‘we-were-on-a-break’/’will-they-won’t-they’) but also the budget of series increased to showcase some spectacular visuals.

The debate

There’s a reason why there’s currently a debate going on about disallowing Netflix and the like to compete at the Oscars. ‘TV’ can be considered equal to classical cinema in every part. But –and this is the debate- ‘the other way around’.

When I see Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia walking across the roof of that train he just raided, on my very small TV mind you, I know in the back of my mind that I’m supposed to see this (wonderful) shot in a cinema on a big silver screen. I should be overwhelmed by its size, not squinting to read the subtitles.

The 2000s on demand series then, were tailor fitted for a television-screen. There is no wish to make things larger than life, no matter how large TV-screens get.

In short the stance is: Stories made for television don’t use the same tools of ‘aw and wonder’ as the big screen does, therefore it has no place at the Oscar table.

I disagree of course. In fact, I believe that a movie like One flew over the cuckoo's nest works better on a smaller screen to entice the drama. The bigger the screen the less the audience accepts a character as ‘one of them’. But (to stay with Jack Nicolson) ‘the elevator doors’ of The Shining need to be seen on the grand screen.

Nostalgia

So why this lengthy introduction with me telling you something you already know? Because there is another pinnacle of television we are currently living in: the ‘golden age’ of nostalgia!

Again, this isn’t entirely true. Movies and TV-shows always loved to grab back at things from the past.

For a short while it was even rather evident when a new generation of moviemaker came to be

because they would tell a story about the decade of their youth (Boogie Nights, Super 8).

But, nowadays, this notion of making a sequel to an older movie is more prominent.  I argue that Internet-nostalgia called those movies into being. It’s the post-post-modernistic world in which all there’s left is to look back.

So we’ve got: Blade Runner 2049, It, The Thing, The Hitcher, Halloween, a new Indiana Jones and many, many others on the silver screen. And, on the smaller screen it’s Lost in Space, The twilight zone and now The Dark Crystal (and I didn’t even mention Star Wars/Trek).

And then there are series like Stranger Things which loves to nod and point

to the past but still manages to tell a rather unique story.

This current focus on nostalgia cynics might call this a cash-grab. And, to be honest, I sometimes feel like this as well. But, then again, look at what we got for it:

We’ve got a television medium that has ‘grown up’ and is now on equal footing to its silver screen big brother. It has over a hundred year of ‘pure art cinema’ to take inspiration from. Plus, inherent to the medium, it has more time to tell the story it wants to tell than its older brother.

It took Peter Jackson a lot of effort to get The lord of the Rings-trilogy movies produced. I argue that, nowadays, he would’ve simply called Amazon (as is currently happening). Not to mention the fact that his extended cuts are the ‘real’ movies; the man needed time.

 

Political Skeksis? To sidetrack a bit on the nostalgia timeline. When The Dark Crystal was released in 1982 Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States. I won’t be too harsh on the man but for two things: he was a famous person before he became president. And he, pretty much, made the U.S.A. dependant on big business instead of the other way around. That’s as far as I’ll go. So, of course, when the original the Dark Crystal came out people compared the Skeksis with the GOP-administration. Go forwards thirty years. Now there is another famous person president. And, once again, his GOP-administration is, pretty much, messing with the American economy in favour of big business (a massive tax-cut, trade-wars, trickle-down-economics). Can you blame the very first episode having a Skeksis say the words: “Sad! Very sad!”? Taking this reasoning a bit further the Gelfling are awfully naïve. They are like children here (moreso than the Podling were in the original movie)! They want nothing more than to keep things like they were and are willing to follow any lie that promises this. Could this be a stab at ‘populist politicians’ winning worldwide? Shoot! Now, I’m committed on being political.

The Dark Crystal

Which, finally, brings me to the Dark Crystal: age of resistance!

You need to understand the above to truly appreciate what makes this show such a triumph.

To be able to create the Dark Crystal in the first place the creators used the current hype of nostalgia to get funding (which, thanks to ‘on demand’ is now far more than in 1983).

But, once they got that, they earned their keep by allowing such visual creativity in the project that its lasting splendour will be hard to ignore in the years to come.

Then, the show builds upon this by using the television-staple to tell an eight-hour The Lord of the Rings-like sweeping story. Eight hours in which the viewer is pulled into this marvellous magical landscape, learns the lore of the lands, understands each and every character and is moved by the smallest of details. In short: it gets the viewer even more invested than the original movie ever could.

In fact, the Dark Crystal: age of resistance compliments the original movie in every way.

With ‘on demand’ moviemakers have to coerce the viewer once again. Betting on nostalgia might be a safe bet for now. But I argue that it is variety that wins over calculated-pragmatism in the long run every time. Especially if the people behind it are so devoted to their vision. Whereas most ‘cynical-cash-grabs’ will be forgotten in the future; I dare to predict/hope that the Dark Crystal: age of resistance will live on.

This has everything to do with the hand-craft involved. The Dark Crystal: Age of resistance feels hand-made. I’m certain several shots and tricks were pulled from the computer but most of all it are real puppeteers playing the parts live on set. It are the puppeteers who are the real actors here -something the celebrities providing the voice-acting are all very aware off.

The Dark Crystal: age of resistance has a devotion to acting that shines through this tale of Thra. That combined with some fabulous mythology and a keen eye for detail makes this show something you easily return to time and again.

Of course there are some nitpicks to mention (there always are). But that shouldn’t bother you when The Dark Crystal: Age of resistance is such a loving work of art.