Can You Hear Me? By Charlene James and Chris Chibnall

God, Have I Missed This!

Can You Hear Me? By Charlene James and Chris Chibnall

The central point of Can You Hear Me is that they’re finally trying to scare us again. 
Can You Hear Me Is brutal in that it has some of the most nightmarish imagery since Blink-
Of course, it never reaches that level of sheer brilliance, but Can You Hear Me is delightfully unsettling in its approach. 
Of course, most of Can You Hear Me’s horror is psychological, and because of that, very subjective, but I have to give it credit for some of the stuff that will make kids, as in the ancient proverb, “hide behind the sofa.” The problem with Can You Hear Me is that we have too short a series. In either Davies or Moffat’s who, this episode WOULD be a two-parter. 
And yes, it gets awfully bogged up in it’s last half hour, while it spends time setting up the whole central threat for a long time at the beginning, so there’s really about a sliver of what we really want in the middle. We’re here for the weird floating fingers of doom, not the overly long set up, the deus ex machina solution, and the Yaz denouement, all of which takes up a real long time. 
There’s a lot of edge to what Can You Hear Me does, and a lot of what it does I really, really love, but frankly, the set up in Aleppo could be dropped, and we’d have a rollicking story. 
I’m very split on Can You Hear Me, the more I think about it, because as much as I actually like the Chibnall era, I must admit it is the most flawed of the three eras we’ve had so far.

Oh, Brilliant: For once, There’s a pretty weird scene at the end, with 13 and Graham, where I understand both perspectives of a long argument that’s been going on with 13 listening to Graham talking about his cancer. For those hiding under a rock, this has sparked a huge controversy on whether thirteen is justified in her hand waving of the problem, or whether she’s even hand waving it in the first place. I don’t think the writers or 13 had any intention of making this scene so...wrong. Yes, I laughed a bit at 13’s reaction to the whole thing, as it’s not how you should react to this sort of thing in any way, but also I can relate to her with her huge saying she’s socially awkward thing, but also DEAR LORD 13 PLEASE STOP

Graham: The Coolest Thing About The Episode is we dive into what makes the companions scared, and if that scares the audience, that’s a byproduct, as what’s really going on is some deep character examination (for Graham and Yaz anyway, Ryan’s vision is a bit shit) and the absolute highlight of the whole thing is the absolutely petrifying Graham vision involving Grace and his cancer.
It’s one of the hugest punch you in the gut terrifying places that I never expected the show to go into, and I also love Graham opening up to 13 about it, but also THERE ARE MANY PROBLEMS WITH THAT SCENE AS LISTED ABOVE HOLY CRAP

Yaz: No one can say Yaz was underserved here, I absolutely adore this new dark running away story here, (even if it comes absolutely out of nowhere) and Yaz’s end to the story is very moving (even if it takes forever). Yaz reminds me of Clara, and she definitely seems a bit like Series 7/Early 8 Clara in places, with Chibnall saying Over and Over “LIKE YAZ NOW, PLEASE” which I am sorry to admit is kind of working. (I mean, I do like Clara)

Ryan: So, Ryan, is afraid of his friends moving on without him. Cool, cool. When has this ever came up before or even been at least mildly foreshadowed before, because what’s supposed to be a deep look into character is actually not good. 

OH MY GOD THIS WEEKS MONSTER: 
Okay, so I absolutely love Zellin, who has given a shock to the whole series in a way, and is one of the best villains of the entire revival, fight me. The “There is no bogeyman” scene is exactly what the show has been missing, And the imagery of Him and the other spirit walking across the street in the fog is eerie yet beautiful, and holy crap what even is his fingers-

Overall: I’m very split on Can You Hear Me, as it does so much right, so much very right, yet is still subject to the problems of the Chibnall era as a whole. A very good message, and filled with both wise and terrible dialogue. It may be one of my favorite Chibnall episodes, but it reminds me of Nightmare In Silver, which..Um, can’t be a good thing...
High points of episode: 9/10
Low points: 5/10




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