RobertC

A touch of moderate criticism...

Although to this writer, Sammo Hung is something resembling God, "Martial Law" suffers a bit from the "Due South" syndrome: a chronic inability to successfully balance its fine physical comedy with the peculiar wish to be taken seriously as action. It's hard to think of any series which has consistently walked this tightrope successfully - "Xena: Warrior Princess" comes as close as any; largely because of Mesdames Lawless' & O'Connor's on-again/off-again flirtation with overt Lesbianism - & "Martial Law" trips up too often to be considered a complete success.

As Sammo Law, the big fella comes across as a bit of a Shanghai Dudley Doright; & when he sticks with this particular program things work fine - Hung really is a superb comic performer - but the serious stuff tends to come across as unintentionally hysterical. Adding Arsenio Hall to the mix has strengthened the comedy; but not really solved the basic balance problem.

Now when are we going to see Richard Ng take on Hollywood?

Narrative structure has never been Clara Law's strong point; but she usually has some kind of conceptual development to tie her images together... this one tries to float like a dream; & ends up sinking like a stone. Watching it, one can't help wondering whether there was a three hour version either scripted or shot: all the elements for an intriguing take on individual responsibility seem to be in place; but none have been allowed to develop beyond the level of operatic manga. As Gertrude Stein observed (probably unkindly) of Oakland, there's no there there....

Then again: perhaps Ms Law just fell in love with her (admittedly quite stunning) images....

Technically: a peculiar cross between "A Funny thing happened on the Way to the Forum" & "It's That Man Again", "Up, Pompeii" is a music hall-styled satire built around the character Lurkio (Frankie Howerd). From the opening prologue - a story from classical mythology which hardly ever gets started, much less completed - to the final "Salute!", FH is hardly ever off-camera, acting, overacting &/or commenting on the plot, script, camerawork or sets... hardly anyone gets much of a lookin.

About 90% of the jokes are ancient enough to have first been told in Pompeii (the rest are somewhat older); but are played with the carefully-scripted/apparently-improvised style which was FH's trademark. Warning: if the series didn't treat its menfolk even worse, one could easily describe it as misogynistic (it probably is anyway).

If Howerd's peculiar genius (a word often overused; but probably useful in this case) doesn't appeal, avoid like the plague... otherwise: catch it whenever you can....