Thursday 20 December 2007
This writers strike
Michael. I am very pleased to hear you have bought the first Spooks series. I may need to borrow that from you. After all I hear these writers who are striking in the US are sticking to their guns. I am very worried about how little good TV will appear in January, which is of course the second most depressing month in the year after April. Already there will be no 24 until it is finished and only half of Lost. Probably will be no Desperate Housewives either. BBC3 seems to have decided that screening any other series of The Apprentice USA is simply too much effort. The Schofield brothers are probably going to be stuck in animated suspension in Panama until 2011. This strike is going to be a real pain as there are very few good British programmes that come out in the early part of the year. So with that in mind I am trying to get into the Unit on Virgin. President Palmer from 24 is in it and appears to believe he is playing the same character. It is quite good but I thought it would be more dramatic and have other twists. At the moment i appears to be an updated version of the A-Team except they have wives in the Unit. Still I will probably be glad of it in January.
Wednesday 19 December 2007
Yes, Spooks
Davie (or Davy) is totally correct with his opinion of last night's Spooks.
I can honestly say that this series of Spooks has been the best British made drama series I have ever seen. Yes. I liked it better than Doctor Who. That's how good it was.
(I'll explain myself here. The last series of Doctor Who was magnificent in places, containing some brilliant episodes, but it also had some really crap ones - notably the ones with the Daleks in New York. This series of Spooks was consistently brilliant. There were no bad episodes. Every one was an absolute classic.)
I haven't watched earlier series, so I bought the first series on DVD tonight. I found it in Tesco for £15. I've heard it's not as good as this series, but I feel it's the least I can do considering how much enjoyment this series gave me.
The other thing I watched last night was the special feature length Battlestar Galactica episode, Razor.
I was a bit dubious when I heard about this - an all new episode, but set a few years ago - what's the point? I know none of the major cast members will die. I know that whatever happens, it won't affect anything.
And after I'd watched Spooks I was even more dubious. Nothing would reach the dramatic heights of the final scenes. I was going to be disappointed.
How wrong I was. I absolutely love Battlestar Galactica, and this episode was one of the best. Just because it's set in space it's easy to dismiss it as sci-fi rubbish, but it's so much more than that. It bears as much resemblance to Star Trek and the like as The Shield does to Jake and the Fatman.
And it had some really good scenes with old style cylons (you know like off of the old series with Face off of the A Team).
If this US writers' strike means that the final series doesn't get finished I shall never watch television again.
What I watched on television last night
I can honestly say that this series of Spooks has been the best British made drama series I have ever seen. Yes. I liked it better than Doctor Who. That's how good it was.
(I'll explain myself here. The last series of Doctor Who was magnificent in places, containing some brilliant episodes, but it also had some really crap ones - notably the ones with the Daleks in New York. This series of Spooks was consistently brilliant. There were no bad episodes. Every one was an absolute classic.)
I haven't watched earlier series, so I bought the first series on DVD tonight. I found it in Tesco for £15. I've heard it's not as good as this series, but I feel it's the least I can do considering how much enjoyment this series gave me.
The other thing I watched last night was the special feature length Battlestar Galactica episode, Razor.
I was a bit dubious when I heard about this - an all new episode, but set a few years ago - what's the point? I know none of the major cast members will die. I know that whatever happens, it won't affect anything.
And after I'd watched Spooks I was even more dubious. Nothing would reach the dramatic heights of the final scenes. I was going to be disappointed.
How wrong I was. I absolutely love Battlestar Galactica, and this episode was one of the best. Just because it's set in space it's easy to dismiss it as sci-fi rubbish, but it's so much more than that. It bears as much resemblance to Star Trek and the like as The Shield does to Jake and the Fatman.
And it had some really good scenes with old style cylons (you know like off of the old series with Face off of the A Team).
If this US writers' strike means that the final series doesn't get finished I shall never watch television again.
What I watched on television last night
- Spooks - it was okay. Kept me entertained, I suppose.
- Battlestar Galactica Razor. The usual scifi rubbish I normally talk about.
What I've just done there is the same joke I did here. Well done me.
Tuesday 18 December 2007
Spooks
Spooks - absolutely brilliant. I had some doubts that the move away from the self contained episode would work but I need not have feared. The series finished tonight and it was a great ending. Poor old Adam has no luck. I hope they are going to do another series like this.
Did not watch Dragons Den last night - never fear readers, I do have it on Sky Plus but last night I was listening to Sir Ranulph Fiennes talking. He was telling us about his trips to the Antarctic. A very good speaker but a little bit mental - why would you put yourself through that kind of pain.
Apologies for the shorter blog tonight - need to take our new four legged friend out for a walk now.
Did not watch Dragons Den last night - never fear readers, I do have it on Sky Plus but last night I was listening to Sir Ranulph Fiennes talking. He was telling us about his trips to the Antarctic. A very good speaker but a little bit mental - why would you put yourself through that kind of pain.
Apologies for the shorter blog tonight - need to take our new four legged friend out for a walk now.
Monday 10 December 2007
December and he is still investing
Apologies to regular readers who will have noted a lack of activity on this blog in recent times. Mickey and I have been very busy and have even appeared in print. We have now got over the shock and are going to make a concerted effort to bring you, the readers, some hard hitting views on TV.
Now given my last sentence I must apologise for harping back to Dragons Den. It is Monday and I have just watched the latest episode. I was very excited when the BBC2 announcer started suggesting that Duncan may consider investing this week. And to be fair to big Dunc as I like to call him, he did invest £75k this week along with his good pal James "look at my chest hair" Caan. There was a catch though. That inventor who he invested in had offered to give Duncan a written guarantee that he would have his money back in 3 years. So really apart from missing out on a little bit of interest he is not actually risking anything. They may as well have a bank manager from Barclays on asking for money to deposit in a high interest current account. James seemed very excited to be able to throw more money at yet another investor. In the background you could see Peter and Theo sniggering at the hapless duo.
Before investing Duncan did give us a moment of pure drama though. An inventor had demonstrated his magnetic light bulb. The Dragon's seemed mildly interested. Duncan however quite rightly pointed out that if a Force 8 Hurricane blew through his house in Darlington, the light bulbs may fall to ground and smash and his children would have their feet shredded as they ran over the shards of glass. A very valid point Duncan - keep this up and you will soon get the Watchdog gig.
Now given my last sentence I must apologise for harping back to Dragons Den. It is Monday and I have just watched the latest episode. I was very excited when the BBC2 announcer started suggesting that Duncan may consider investing this week. And to be fair to big Dunc as I like to call him, he did invest £75k this week along with his good pal James "look at my chest hair" Caan. There was a catch though. That inventor who he invested in had offered to give Duncan a written guarantee that he would have his money back in 3 years. So really apart from missing out on a little bit of interest he is not actually risking anything. They may as well have a bank manager from Barclays on asking for money to deposit in a high interest current account. James seemed very excited to be able to throw more money at yet another investor. In the background you could see Peter and Theo sniggering at the hapless duo.
Before investing Duncan did give us a moment of pure drama though. An inventor had demonstrated his magnetic light bulb. The Dragon's seemed mildly interested. Duncan however quite rightly pointed out that if a Force 8 Hurricane blew through his house in Darlington, the light bulbs may fall to ground and smash and his children would have their feet shredded as they ran over the shards of glass. A very valid point Duncan - keep this up and you will soon get the Watchdog gig.
Worst. Show. Ever.
Once again I have gone weeks without a post (apologies to our hundreds of readers), but today I saw a programme that demanded my scrutiny and needle sharp criticism.
Today a programme arrived on my screen that makes one of Britain's best known entrepreneurs, Peter Jones' ill-fated vanity project Tycoon look like The Sopranos.
Britain Sings Christmas is an epic show in which a choir of top celebrities, including Diarmuid Gavin (sp?), ABC's Martin Fry and Janine from EastEnders sing the top ten Christmas songs according to a poll, and the British public get the privilege to vote as to which one of the tunes is the best. And Kate Thornton presents it! She's still working!
It is everything I hate - a Christmas special celebrating Christmas songs. Celebrities being cheerful about these godawful mawkish travesties of music. The title. Britain Sings Christmas. What does that mean? Can a country sing Christmas? The website even has a clip of James Blunt (James Blunt!) talking about why he thinks some Christmas carol should be the best one (I'd have looked at the clip to find out which one, but my PC is so bad now I can't play videos). One of the songs is that Carey squawkfest All I Want For Christmas Is You. And did I mention that it's presented by Kate Thornton?
Yes, yes, I know it's for charity, but really. Just because it's for charity doesn't necessarily mean it's good. How about Britain Vomits, where a selection of top celebrities such as Katie Hopkins from the Apprentice, Midge Ure from Ultravox and Anton du Bek (sp?) off of Structly Come Dancing eat a selection of raw diseased meats and month old dairy products (as chosen by the British public). The first to fill a ten litre container with their sick wins £10,000 for the charity of their choice. Would that be okay?
What I've been watching recently:
Today a programme arrived on my screen that makes one of Britain's best known entrepreneurs, Peter Jones' ill-fated vanity project Tycoon look like The Sopranos.
Britain Sings Christmas is an epic show in which a choir of top celebrities, including Diarmuid Gavin (sp?), ABC's Martin Fry and Janine from EastEnders sing the top ten Christmas songs according to a poll, and the British public get the privilege to vote as to which one of the tunes is the best. And Kate Thornton presents it! She's still working!
It is everything I hate - a Christmas special celebrating Christmas songs. Celebrities being cheerful about these godawful mawkish travesties of music. The title. Britain Sings Christmas. What does that mean? Can a country sing Christmas? The website even has a clip of James Blunt (James Blunt!) talking about why he thinks some Christmas carol should be the best one (I'd have looked at the clip to find out which one, but my PC is so bad now I can't play videos). One of the songs is that Carey squawkfest All I Want For Christmas Is You. And did I mention that it's presented by Kate Thornton?
Yes, yes, I know it's for charity, but really. Just because it's for charity doesn't necessarily mean it's good. How about Britain Vomits, where a selection of top celebrities such as Katie Hopkins from the Apprentice, Midge Ure from Ultravox and Anton du Bek (sp?) off of Structly Come Dancing eat a selection of raw diseased meats and month old dairy products (as chosen by the British public). The first to fill a ten litre container with their sick wins £10,000 for the charity of their choice. Would that be okay?
What I've been watching recently:
- I'm still persevering with Charlie Jade, on FX. I'm only eight episodes in though and it's getting increasingly difficult to watch. Things happen in it and the plot is progressing, but it's just really really dull. I wish I didn't have this strange compulsion to finish watching a series once I've started.
- The Riches. This has really grown on me. At first it was all a bit "yeah okay, it passes the time" sort of thing, but I'm really enjoying it. I have nothing further to say, other than Minnie Driver was in the worst film ever made, Hope Springs.
- Spooks. I've come into Spooks very late. I'm going to have to buy the DVDs of earlier series, as I absolutely love it. It's so good that it cancels out the badness of Robin Hood, and still leaves enough positive to counteract Bobby Davro in EastEnders.
I must confess that I only watched the first two minutes of Britain Sings Christmas. I tried watching more but as soon as I saw Simon Bates was in the choir I had to turn off. Bates is dead to me and I won't have him on my television. There. I've said it.
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