Doctor Who: Resolution Is the Pick of the Week

It is a new era for Doctor Who. There is a new actress playing the Doctor (there is an actress playing Doctor Who!). She’s got an all-new set of companions and Chris Chibnall just took over the reigns as the showrunner. As if that wasn’t enough changes this past year, they moved the long-running tradition of Christmas specials to New Year’s. I was pretty bummed by that idea because we typically spend Christmas with my wife’s family and it’s become something of a tradition for us to watch Doctor Who after a lovely Christmas Day full of good food and presents. This year we were driving home while the special was on and missed it completely. I still haven’t finished the regular season, actually, as my DVR screwed up and didn’t record them.

I am not in love with what I’ve seen, which pains me to say. After all the hubbub over Jodie Whittaker taking over the role of the Doctor and the subsequent sexist backlash, I really wanted this season to knock it out of the park. While I like Whittaker in the role, the stories have not been great. I’ve said it before about this season and it’s worth saying again, the bad guys have been pretty forgettable. Doctor Who needs good villains and it’s got a great back catalog filled with fantastic villains, but it seems like with all the new stuff they’ve added in this season they forgot to create an interesting enemy. Maybe that gets better in the episodes I haven’t seen. Fingers crossed that this New Year’s special has something fantastic in store. If not, there is always next season. Which is one of the great things about Doctor Who: it is always changing.

Also out that looks interesting:

A Star Is Born: Bradley Cooper directed and stars in a story that Hollywood apparently can’t stop remaking (this is at least the fourth film with the same title and plot). Cooper is a country-rock music star who discovers a young up-and comer (played by Lady Gaga) whom he takes under his wing with dramatic results. I’ve never seen any of these films, and I doubt I’ll start with this one. But it’s garnered good reviews.

Robin Hood. Speaking of stories Hollywood can’t stop making, this ones stars Taron Egerton as Robin, Jamie Foxx as Little John, Eve Hewson as Maid Marion, Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and F. Murray Abraham as Cardinal Franklin.

Overlord: American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day to carry out a crucial mission but instead of Nazis they find supernatural monsters. It was produced by J. J. Abrams.

Death in Venice (Criterion Collection): Based upon the book by Thomas Mann, this Italian production by Luchino Visconti changes the protagonist’s career from novelist to composer (thereby allowing in music by Mahler) but keeps the story of a man moving to Venice to escape a disastrous career move and falling in love with a young boy.