Wooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo! Fifteen video blogs, two trailers and San Diego Comic-Con interviews! Thank you, YouTube!
In other news this weekend:
1. Medieval re-enactment fair in Warwickshire. The wedding costume is now all sorted bar the shoes, which will cost £painful, but there it is. Also managed to find the German hard rock "Carmina Burana" on CD and some interesting new meads. What a weekend.
2. Robin Hood. Wow, that show just suddenly got better. Sledgehammer politics: tremendously low after the previous three weeks, I think I caught one "nanny state" reference (possibly the most annoying, repulsively knee-jerk political cliche going, "nanny state") but it's up for grabs what it means when the Sheriff says it. After all the overt Bush/Blair quoting, it's a blessed relief. Keith Allen suddenly seems more vicious, and despite the dodgy first few minutes the story was top-notch. I think I'm right in saying, though, that this is the only time Robin Hood has ever been seen fighting one-handed while carrying a doll.
3. Torchwood. I think we're all agreed round here that that was excellent. But next week's looks better!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
CSI: Cardiff. "Now that's what I'd like to see!"
1. Torchwood - good start to the show. The first episode did what a first episode should - established the tone of the series (Joss Whedon with Welsh accents) and introduced the characters. The repellent Owen's "Lynx Effect" scene seems to have caused controversy in some quarters, but we just laughed like drains. Presumably he's going to suffer grievously later on for his despicable deeds. And what price kettle-drum scene changes now that Captain Harkness is indestructible?
Then another episode! M'sieur, with zis double bill you are really spoiling us! Well, every SF show not aimed at a "family" audience (and some that are!) has to have a Sex Alien episode. It's the law or something. There's the second ever episode of Angel, a first-season episode of The X-Files, and all of the original Star Trek. (Because technically, you see, since Kirk was the one with the spaceship who kept interfering with indigenous women, that makes him the Sex Alien. Oh yes, I've got this whole theory worked out. Now if I could just establish a link between anal probe abductions and the permanently surprised look on Dr McCoy's face.)
There's something slightly awkward about Sex Alien episodes - well, I think there is, anyway. Programme makers seem to think so too, since they tend to punt them out early on - oh, go on, lie back and think of syndication, get it over with. Still, third episode's the charm, and the signs are good. Just roll on P J Hammond's episode in a fortnight's time, that's the one I can't wait for!
2. Robin Hood. It's getting better (third episode's the charm, as someone once said). Still 'n' all, we've gone from machine-stitched singlet vests in ep 2 to (unless my eyes deceive me) young Matthew the miller's son wearing an actual modern hoodie, T-shirt and jeans. Surely they weren't really jeans? That and the Reservoir Dogs shot at the end, and the double mention of a "War on Terror" (editorially inserted into a background speech, and the least subtle bit of politics yet) make me ever more doubtful of Dominic Minghella's modern vision of the Hood. But Paul Cornell's script was fantastic. There's something about the Sheriff's "Pretty deaths..." scene that just chills the spine. I feel compelled to tune in again, but I just hope that the show's political "subtext" is going to stop feeling quite so much like a sledgehammer in the face.
3. Doom Patrol. Mmm, Doom Patrol. That is all.
Then another episode! M'sieur, with zis double bill you are really spoiling us! Well, every SF show not aimed at a "family" audience (and some that are!) has to have a Sex Alien episode. It's the law or something. There's the second ever episode of Angel, a first-season episode of The X-Files, and all of the original Star Trek. (Because technically, you see, since Kirk was the one with the spaceship who kept interfering with indigenous women, that makes him the Sex Alien. Oh yes, I've got this whole theory worked out. Now if I could just establish a link between anal probe abductions and the permanently surprised look on Dr McCoy's face.)
There's something slightly awkward about Sex Alien episodes - well, I think there is, anyway. Programme makers seem to think so too, since they tend to punt them out early on - oh, go on, lie back and think of syndication, get it over with. Still, third episode's the charm, and the signs are good. Just roll on P J Hammond's episode in a fortnight's time, that's the one I can't wait for!
2. Robin Hood. It's getting better (third episode's the charm, as someone once said). Still 'n' all, we've gone from machine-stitched singlet vests in ep 2 to (unless my eyes deceive me) young Matthew the miller's son wearing an actual modern hoodie, T-shirt and jeans. Surely they weren't really jeans? That and the Reservoir Dogs shot at the end, and the double mention of a "War on Terror" (editorially inserted into a background speech, and the least subtle bit of politics yet) make me ever more doubtful of Dominic Minghella's modern vision of the Hood. But Paul Cornell's script was fantastic. There's something about the Sheriff's "Pretty deaths..." scene that just chills the spine. I feel compelled to tune in again, but I just hope that the show's political "subtext" is going to stop feeling quite so much like a sledgehammer in the face.
3. Doom Patrol. Mmm, Doom Patrol. That is all.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Another productive weekend
Yesterday's Robin Hood contained some bogglesome material, I must say. Ha, now we've got you tied up, you can take your clothes off! Bit quick to suggest that, weren't you Much? No, we can't bring a woman to the forest. Why not? Well, she'll get in the way of all the manly bondage voyeurism, you see. And remember kids, "subtext" is an anagram of "buttsex" (someone else's joke, but worth pilfering). Still, put the ponderous political commentary to one side and it was more jolly teatime adventure telly. Got to have something to watch while we wait for Doctor Who and its many beautiful spin-off children to bound onto the screen.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
CSI: Sherwood Forest
1. Saturday evening - The Rocky Horror Show at the Bristol Hippodrome. A jolly evening. The audience was a good 'un - lively, but not abusive, even after dry ice engulfed the first half-dozen rows - and it looked as though the director, or the preceding week's performances, or both had braced the cast for the audience responses. Some nice set-work too. Mind you, I wouldn't have said it was a three-standing-ovations performance - surprisingly tame in places where it ought not to be tame, and a wee bit flat in others. Still 'n' all, jolly, and I commend all the lead cast, particularly the men, for the ease and flair with which they danced in high heels.
(Edit: This was, however, the early evening ("matinee") performance - I've since been told the later show was much filthier. Still, I can now say I've seen a "12A" Rocky Horror, something I wouldn't have imagined existed.)
2. Saturday night/Sunday morning - With one of The Lovely Jo's friends (a fellow RHS-goer) staying overnight, we watched Neverwhere again in its entirety. Sad to think that I was denied the sight of this when it originally aired on TV.
3. Sunday evening - Robin Hood, the BBC3 repeat viewing. Or should I call it "CSI: Sherwood Forest", with its gritty juddering edits and jerky zooms? I imagine left-liberals everywhere, myself included, will point to hints of a liberal interpretation of the outlaw - veteran of an expensive war fought at the behest of a foreign political power (the Pope, in this case) returns home tired of bloodshed and campaigns against harsh wartime legislation imposed by the wicked Sheriff. So just to be ornery, I'll mention that Robin also demonstrates a rather Blairite consumerist philosophy when he's addressing a roomful of nobles: the best way to support our forces abroad is by lifting taxes so that the peasants of Nottingham can spend money at their Wednesday market, i.e. by propping up the consumer economy at home. C.f. Tony Blair telling us all that the best way to beat the terrorists is by going shopping.
Well, if that doesn't get me comments, nothing will.
A pretty good show, though. As the "difficult first episode" it shows great promise, the last ten minutes in particular. Good characters, good dialogue. Shame the Sheriff couldn't have levied a tithe on cosmetics, he'd've made a fortune from the well-lacquered dolly-peasants littering the countryside. I look forward to more stirring adventure capers next week.
(Edit: This was, however, the early evening ("matinee") performance - I've since been told the later show was much filthier. Still, I can now say I've seen a "12A" Rocky Horror, something I wouldn't have imagined existed.)
2. Saturday night/Sunday morning - With one of The Lovely Jo's friends (a fellow RHS-goer) staying overnight, we watched Neverwhere again in its entirety. Sad to think that I was denied the sight of this when it originally aired on TV.
3. Sunday evening - Robin Hood, the BBC3 repeat viewing. Or should I call it "CSI: Sherwood Forest", with its gritty juddering edits and jerky zooms? I imagine left-liberals everywhere, myself included, will point to hints of a liberal interpretation of the outlaw - veteran of an expensive war fought at the behest of a foreign political power (the Pope, in this case) returns home tired of bloodshed and campaigns against harsh wartime legislation imposed by the wicked Sheriff. So just to be ornery, I'll mention that Robin also demonstrates a rather Blairite consumerist philosophy when he's addressing a roomful of nobles: the best way to support our forces abroad is by lifting taxes so that the peasants of Nottingham can spend money at their Wednesday market, i.e. by propping up the consumer economy at home. C.f. Tony Blair telling us all that the best way to beat the terrorists is by going shopping.
Well, if that doesn't get me comments, nothing will.
A pretty good show, though. As the "difficult first episode" it shows great promise, the last ten minutes in particular. Good characters, good dialogue. Shame the Sheriff couldn't have levied a tithe on cosmetics, he'd've made a fortune from the well-lacquered dolly-peasants littering the countryside. I look forward to more stirring adventure capers next week.
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