“Monty Python's Flying Circus” had flown long before I ever needed to shave, but their films were still coming out during my teenage and young adult years, including “Life of Brian,” a satire widely banned as blasphemous mockery. It tells the story of Brian Cohen, half Jewish half Roman and born in a stable, a more famous infant sleeping in the manger next door. Lines from the original television series and films became part of the cultural lexicon. But like any wildly successful arts groups, their creativity “runneth over,” and so several members of the comedy troupe took on side projects, including Terry Gilliam's “Time Bandits.”
“Time Bandits” was the first film of three that Gilliam saw as a conceptual trilogy, though the plots were not connected. The star-studded cast included members of Monty Python, as well as Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, and Ralph Richardson. Needless to say, I was not entirely sold when Apple+ recently announced a remake. I knew I'd give it a try, but how could it be any better.
Then I heard a review by David Bianculli on NPR's “Fresh Air.” Bianculli suggested that the news series was actually better than the original film. I found that a little hard to believe, especially given that the leader of the bandits, (well, not really the leader... a plot point!) is played by Lisa Kudrow, mostly known for her role on “Friends.” Lisa Kudrow only has one character. How could it possibly work?
The first two episodes are now out, and Bianculli was right. It is absolutely delightful.
There can be little doubt that advances in film technology helped make this new series more immersive. Today's films give us dinosaurs that look like dinosaurs (we think) and X-Wing fighters that look like they are flying through space, not hanging from a wire. But the real game changer, one we are seeing again and again, is the change of format. When the original British film came out, you could generally reach American audiences in two ways, either a single film of around two hours, or a television series with a couple of dozen episodes. The BBC did shorter runs, but they rarely made it to the United States, and even then as “Masterpiece Theater.” No one was going to give a “Roots” budget to an English comedian.
The shift started with the era of “prestige television,” roughly at the start of the century, when premium cable channels like HBO started experimenting with new formats, series that might run for a dozen or fewer episodes, that might not fit the traditional schedule of network programming. Thanks to streaming, we now have more high quality programs than we could ever watch, and not just from the U.S. And U.K., but from France and South Korea and countless other nations.
The new “Time Bandits” kept the core idea of the original film. It simply adds some new creative and comic talent, and changes the format.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced churches to deliver the old format for worship in a new way, but we are still essentially bound by a format that has been around for centuries. It doesn't need to go away. People still make movies. But I wonder, as I laugh at the new “Time Bandits” series streaming into my home whenever I can carve out time to watch it, what formats and platforms we might be missing in sharing the good news of a faith where heads, hands, and hearts are welcome, and where we aren't waiting for God to come fix all our problems, but instead insist on partnering with the holy.
+Gary
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