The Spying Game

Caught In The Net didn’t think there was anything that could rival The Cleveland Show as our fave new animated series of the year – good on you 3e for beating RTÉ to the Irish rights – but that’s before we clapped eyes on the FX Network’s 1960s spy thriller pastiche, Archer.
Debuting two weeks ago in the States, the wisecracking and decidedly non-P.C. Sterling Archer is equal parts James Bond, Maxwell Smart and Bill Hicks, which is as holy a trinity as we can think of.
“Archer is set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other,” explains the www.fxnetworks.com promo blurb.
Aimed firmly at an adult audience – some of the language in the opening reds still under the bed Skorpio episode made even us blush – it hopefully won’t be long before Archer gets a terrestrial TV outing on this side of the Atlantic.
‘Éclair Way To Heaven’, ‘Grilling In The Name Of’, ‘Your Love Is Like Kebab Medicine’… sorry, we’re just fooding-up a few song titles in honour of Hellbent For Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook.
Along with Philomena Lynott’s Sunday Brunch Lamb Roast, which was a big favourite of Philo’s, there are somewhat unlikely contributions from the likes of Autopsy (Mummified Jalapeno Bacon Bombs), Toxic Holocaust (Bondage Rolled Steak), Anthrax (Stuffed Cabbage) and Anvil (Thundering Beef Brisket).
Best of all though is the recipe for Black Metal Berry Pie contributed by Australian corpse paint merchants Sadistik Exekution who mightn’t be able to rustle up a single decent tune on their current Fukk II album, but are dab hands with a pastry brush. Find out more at www.bazillionpoints.com.
It rather puts us in mind of the excellent Please Feed Me: A Punk Vegan Cookbook that was published back in the day by Dublin’s Hope Collective and is archived on book.google.com.
It’s not due in Irish cinemas for a few weeks yet, but warp.net/films has exclusive stills from Chris Morris’ new “jihadist comedy”, Four Lions, which got a standing ovation last month at the Sundance Festival.
Already a bête noire for “down with this sort of thing!” types in the UK, its extremely funny trailer surfaced this week on YouTube at the same time as daily.greencine.com scored a major coup by bagging a podcast interview with the notoriously microphone-shy Morris.
Which just leaves time for quick visits to www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zQEvNze_0k (bank employee gets caught looking at nude photos of GQ model on live TV); www.signalfmhaiti.com (listen to the Port-au-Prince radio station live); and www.evenlodepartnership.co.uk (official website for Alex James’ Blue Monday and Little Wallop cheeses).