Tiananmen Square on TV: Old Wounds

You would think film and television writers would often "rip-from-the-headlines" reference some of the biggest stories of late 1980s and early 1990s, like say the First Gulf War, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc. Yet, you will find precious few dramas addressing the Tiananmen Square Massacre, despite audiences’ familiarity of the iconic images of Tank Man and the Goddess of Democracy statue. It is slim pickings, but the Canadian X-Files knock-off PSI Factor joined MacGyver and Touched by an Angel, by producing the Tiananmen-themed episode “Old Wounds” (S3E13), which currently streams on multiple sites.

Honestly, this show wasn’t very good, but the premise of “Old Wounds” is somewhat interesting. Matt Prager’s paranormal investigative team has been summoned to look into an incident at a tech firm with shady government connections. Adia Carling was testing an immersive VR game when she suffered real world injuries during the in-game battle. Weirder still, wounds spontaneously healed.

The team quickly sleuths out Carling is not from Hong Kong. She is, in fact, an illegal alien living under an assumed name, who was imprisoned and tortured in China for her role in the Democracy protests. Somehow, the VR game reopened the old wounds she suffered while in custody, including the horrific burning of her left arm. She has the psychic powers to physically heal them, but the team’s good Dr. Anton Hendricks must hypnotize her, to help her heal her emotional wounds.

Ideally, one would prefer to see a serious subject like the Tiananmen Square Massacre addressed in a more reflective, less exploitative manner, but there are not a lot of examples out there. Anyone who knows of a Tiananmen Square-themed TV episode, beyond this MacGyver, or Angel, please shoot me an email. Writers Jim Purdy & Paula J. Smith treatment of the Massacre and the subsequent brutal crackdown are not exactly inspired, but director Luc Chalifour manages to convey the cruelty of CCP torture techniques, while adhering to commercial broadcast standards.

Residue: The Evil Book of Slime

It is nice to know a detective like Luke Harding has an analytical mind, even if he has been underemployed on bottom-feeding cases lately. He has already read deeper into a book of forbidden knowledge than many a trained scholar. It is not exactly a page-turner, only partly because of the evil black goo oozing out of its binding. Even though it plays games with his head, Harding has no choice but to read on in Rusty Nixon’s Residue (trailer here), which releases today on VOD.

It started with a strange job for Mr. Fairweather, a sleazy wrestling promoter and low rent crime boss. He was supposed to dig up dirt on ten upstanding-looking citizens, but one really seemed to be as squeaky clean as he acts. Fairweather’s second job was to deliver a package to this straight arrow, but it is nearly intercepted by henchmen working for Mr. Lamont, the city’s real kingpin. Regrouping at his apartment, Harding inadvertently starts reading the book, sealing his fate.

He quickly deduces the book warps readers’ perception of time and reality. Rather ominously, he finds himself doing the same tasks over and over, due to short term memory loss. However, he will get organized, charting the Herzogian explorers progress through the jungle in the pages he has read, while documenting his own progress through the book. It is not a great time for Harding’s grown daughter to crash with him, but he cannot turn her away.

Nixon creates a lot of colorful lore related to the book, giving it some decidedly insidious powers. The father-daughter relationship is also surprisingly engaging. It is only the rival gangster stuff that feels ho-hum. Granted, the book’s ability to wreak cosmic mayhem seems to evolve with each page turned, but it is still relatively true to its Necronomicon inspiration.

James Clayton and Taylor Hickson actually pull-off some redemptive drama as the Hardings. Matt Frewer chews plenty of scenery as Fairweather, even while laboring under a wonderfully ludicrous and gruesome prosthetic (probably bringing back memories of his old Max Headroom days). It is also good clean fun to watch William B. Davis, the X-Files’ cigarette-smoking man, do his thing as Mr. Lamont. Such range he has.

Residue definitely has its rough edges, but its inventive and rather likably nutty. Frankly, it is refreshing to see a gory multi-genre caper that doesn’t double-down on cynicism. Recommended for fans of slimy noir, Residue is now available on VOD platforms, including iTunes.