Oh the joy
I have finally found someone else who likes BSG! Hallelujah!
The story goes like this:
Friend happens to find out we have been watching it – not sure how; maybe I confessed I was tired because we were watching it too late at night. He then admits that he got hooked on the first season. But – and here is the tragedy of the story – he doesn’t have broadband and didn’t know that the second season was out on DVD. So you know what he’s been doing?
Oh yes. Reading the scripts.
So I fed his addiction and gave him season 2 – which he watched in the holidays – and then season 3. He just finished season 3 last night, so we were able to have a good old yak about it today. It was so nice to talk to someone else about it!! Somehow talking to the person you watch it with – that is, J – isn’t quite the same as finding someone who has watched it independently.
Sideshow
Having just watched Paul M’s new show, I will be fascinated to see how long it lasts. There was a bit of swearing, which was amusing given the timeslot – which McDermott kept emphasising, like a little kid trying to push his parents’ buttons. Truly he is like a mischevious boy, who is so cute that no one is willing to tell him off.
I like Tripod – they are incredibly talented, and their song tonight I could relate to: honey I love you, but can we just wait until I’ve finished this level? I’m not a huge fan of the Kransky Sisters, and their story tonight – about one of them being punished by her mother – was really in poor taste. Flacco is always amusing, and Ed Byrne was hilarious…. The show will survive if, and only if, it continues to get guests of the same quality as this.
And if Paul occasionally sings, that will help a lot too. 🙂
Robin Hood
We saw the final episode of this in the UK – oops. But it did get us quite excited about the fact that ABC bought it, and it started tonight.
It’s pretty bad, and pretty good at the same time.
Bad:
Oh, the action
The music – very Superman/Star Wars
So, so may cliches
Two arrows at once?!
Robin is short
Good:
Oh, the action
Robin has to work for Marion
The music – very Superman/Star Wars
Very, very modern
OK, so overall it was pretty bad. Definitely no Ivanhoe, Will Scarlet is no Christian Slater, the scenery didn’t even try to emulate 1190s reality (1190s? Didn’t he mention it was Urban II’s crusade??). But the sheriff – he is SO bad; and Guy of Gisborne, from what I have seen in this and the final episode, walks that wonderfully fine line of being bad but evoking a fair amount of sympathy from the audience – enough that it makes things a little bit uncomfortable for them, And, to make matters worse in the UK, just after the final episode was the Christmas episode of the Vicar of Dibley, in which the actor who plays Guy was the romantic lead… very, very funny.
I think I will be watching more. If only to find out how the Arabic girl (oops, slight spoiler there) makes it into the Merry Men.
Life Support
I’ve mentioned this show before – SBS’ faux lifestyle show from about 5 years ago. We’re watching the tenth and last episode right now. In ep 9 and 10, it really went downhill. There were a couple of funny-ish sections in them, but overall they’ve been very disappointing. A bit repetitive, a bit gross, and just dumb. Nowhere near as funny as the earlier episodes. It’s not a huge surprise that it didn’t get a second season.
TMNT
I cannot believe that they are making another movie of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Of all the daft 90s shows to bring back as a film….
Transformers is completely different. Because they haven’t already had a movie made about them. With Vanilla Ice doing the title song. Or MC Hammer.
The M*A*S*H swap over
Just saw the episode where Trapper goes home and BJ arrives – never have seen this one before. I missed the very start, so I didn’t see Trapper’s reaction to leaving and missing Hawkeye; but I did see Hawkeye’s reaction, and they really did like to make their characters human – it was fitting to see his distress. And BJ’s arrival was pretty much as I expected; he fit right in.
It still amazes me that they killed Henry; that must have been yesterday – wish I’d seen it, as I never have.
I do love M*A*S*H. Such a great show.
Ivanhoe
If the 1997 (?) adaptation of Ivanhoe is accurate, then I know a few things about Walter Scott:
1. He didn’t like the Templars.
2. He didn’t much like most of his characters.
3. He was a vicious old bugger who liked inflicting, or at least imagining, pain on other people.
I really enjoyed the portrayal of John. Young, childish, scared, weak – with a streak of ruthless cruelty. The scene with Richard, John and Eleanor is hilarious, with her treating her sons like children and ordering them around… just a pity that it was so ahistorical, since Richard was her favourite and she would have had problems with Richard spending little time in England in favour of Aquitaine, as he did. Which brings in the other ahistorical bit, with Richard and John both being abe to communicate with the Saxons very easily… unlikely, since neither of them spoke English, and I doubt that many of the Saxons – the peasants, anyway – spoke Norman. But, tut; so many people make these assumptions.
I really enjoyed Blois Guibert’s character – he was so very bad, and then to twist his heart in such a way as to make him fall for Rebecca was a terrible, tragic thing. And Christopher Lee as the Grand Master – superb!
I bought a second-hand copy of the book a while ago… not sure I can read it any time soon, now.
Bad, bad…
In looking for that last link, I think I opened up a great big box of trouble for myself. Yes, it turns out there is a great deal of Muppets on YouTube. Who’da thunk it?
I love Harry Belafonte, so finding that little gem warmed the very cockles of my heart. And I’m not sure when exactly the Star Wars bit was made… either it was right at the time, in which case I guess Mark Hamill really was the star you wanted, or it was a lot later and Mark Hamill was all you could get… looking at Hamill, I think it’s the former, because he’s not toooo ugly yet.
The chocolate… and the moose
My husband is totally obsessed with the chocolate moose skit from The Muppets. Mention chocolate, and he will generally say something like “and then de moose.”
BSGÂ baby
We bought the pilot of the new BSG a couple of weeks ago. We’re watching it right now. Gosh it’s good. And it’s interesting on a couple of levels, having almost got to the end of season 3 (not quite up to where America is, because our friend hasn’t come through with them yet…). The blokes who put on weight and lost hair; Starbuck looking quite young, although just as cocky and arrogant as I remember enjoying. And spotting the people I now know are Cylons! Eeek.
Ooooh Helo giving up his seat for Baltar… makes me mad.
And hearing the music for the first time, again – like when the raiders arrive – very poignant.
I do like this series, I have a friend who refuses to watch it because she loved the original so much… I think the original is one old series I won’t watch, because I like this one so much.
Randomly Yours, Alex 