Ah, voyeurism
I missed all of the “Who do you think you are?” episodes on SBS – UK and Aussie – and I was a bit sad about that, because although it’s not entirely my thing I do like a bit of this sort of personal history. Fortunately, my darling mother (she of the apricots) taped those of Bill Oddie and Nigella Lawson. I’ve just now got around to watching them, having had the video waiting for me for weeks. Bill Oddie’s was quite sad – his mother in a “sanitorium,” or asylum, for much of his childhood; he has very few memories of her, and basically no good ones. It was quite interesting hearing his reasons for researching his past.
Nigella comes from a tradition of caterers, which I think is hilarious. I didn’t know she was Jewish, so that was fascinating too: her great grandparents came, respectively, from now west Germany and Amsterdam. The history of Jewish migration and experience is one I know little about, and I wonder just how well researched it is; I would guess fairly well. It gives quite a different view on early modern history in Europe (and, I am sure, on medieval too) from what you get if you simply focus on the Christian European experience.
Productive and critical
Watching four Roman DVDs, for school, and I think I’m going to send all four back. Three are a series – republic, empire, ‘building and empire’; the other is a stand-alone. The stand-alone was definitely for younger kids, which would be fine – since this is for yr7 kids – but the background music was appalling. The others… well, I think they’re just a bit boring. I’m sure I can find docos with more interesting narration, and less bad music. They also feel a bit dated, although I think they’re actually fairly recent; they’re just leaving me cold.
On the plus side, though, since they’re all 30-45 min long – being average, I’ve been skipping through the chapters a bit; has made it a lot faster than I expected! I’ve got a couple of French and Russian Rev (eek! They’ve just shown a clip of a picture from a brothel – one of the awfully explicit ones; really not sure if I can show this to my 7s!) DVDs to preview, too, and a couple of other Roman and ancient Greek ones – hopefully they’ll be better than these.
House
I’ve thought this vaguely in the past, but watching the end of season three on DVD solidified it in my head.
TV’s Dr Gregory House is Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
No wife/girlfriend; drug habit; musical; detective; slightly antisocial; bizarre techniques.
This can’t be accidental, surely. The writers didn’t have to make House musical, for instance.
What is it about dysfunctional people that make them so fascinating to watch or read about??
the HELL?!
Channel Ten, in its Infinite Wisdom, has changed the time for Torchwood.
Midnight! Tuesday night/Wednesday morning!
Midnight?!?!
Seriously! indeed. That is so … unspeakably annoying. Admittedly I usually tape it, but – !! I had to go to the Ten website to find out when it was on because it sure as hell wasn’t announced anywhere….
Grr.
OK, over it now. Until tomorrow when I have to set the video.
FarScape Season 3
So I really wondered how they would resove the whole two-Crichton thing.
Ouch.
Most definitely not what I expected. Impressive, while heart-breaking.
Doctor Who
The writers of The Shakespeare Code (ha! I say again: ha!) must just have had so much fun writing this episode. You get to include lots of nutty references to Shakespeare; a few other famous lines that Shakespeare isn’t allowed to steal; and you get a nice reference to Harry Potter as well! Very nice, very clever! And you set up a confrontation between the good Doctor and Good Queen Beth; I really hope they come through with that. I love her costume; it would be a shame to waste it on a 30 second spot.
And they definitely hinted at Shakespeare being bi. Ha! and again – ha!!
Doctor Who
I am very excited about the new Dr Who season. Having gone out last night, I taped, and only just remembered to watch it. Squee!
As a friend of mine said, one of the nice things about this episode (and the Christmas ep, too) is that they allow the Doctor to grieve for Rose, which makes him more… approachable, if not more human. Not that I’m a really great connoisseur, but I don’t remember any particular sadness at the departure of previous companions. I think this is the function and result of having a younger and, frankly, sexier doctor: if he was completely and utterly callous (rather than just the short-term callous we all know and love), then he wouldn’t really be very much fun at all.
So the new girl looks good, although I am a little dubious at shoving the sexual tension right in your face from the get-go – and is it just me, or are they making the Doctor more come-hither as well? This first episode was quite enjoyable… especially “Look! I even brought a straw!” with which to suck your blood.
Doctor Who
I just saw an ad for Torchwood, which will be on Channel Ten… and a little while ago, I saw an ad for Doctor Who, on the ABC. It’s going to be a weird, weird season of TV.
Very weird.
But hey, on the flipside, being on Channel Ten might make it cooler for the young ‘uns and spark a revival/discovery of interest in Who. Which can only be good.
Stargate Atlantis
Oh. My. Goodness.
Henry Winkler! On Atlantis! Playing some sort of Tommy Lee Jones Under Siege mercenary character.
Totally cool.
Stargate Atlantis
Having finished SG-1, we decided that we’d give Atlantis a go – having ‘met’ the cast in one or two of the SG episodes, and because we needed our fix. We’ve got so used to having TV shows to watch on DVD – SG, West Wing, Firefly… and J isn’t a fan of FarScape, so we thought: why not? And weve just signed on for Bigpond movies, so we made this our first request. The first four disks turned up within a few days, and voila – away we go.
I like Major Sheppard; he is going to be very entertaining. Certainly in the tradition of Jack O’Neill, but different enough that it’s not annoying. Rodney is definitely going to get on my nerves, and I’ve just realised who Dr Weir reminds me of: Janeway. And that is not a good association, as far as I am concerned. I was wondering early on whether they’d get their very own pet alien, as with SG1, and at the moment it looks like that will be Teyla – although I think IMDB says she’s only in a few episodes. Which is good, because I’m getting a bit sick of her shoulders-back-boobs-out posing.
So far, Atlantis is great – after three episodes. It’s also different enough, so far, from SG1 that it doesn’t just feel like a rehash of the same old stuff. It’s a lot more alien, which makes sense since the whole place is alien. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of it.
