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.
BSG 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.
The U2 lads
ABC2 is showing the making of Joshua Tree at the moment, which I’ve got in the background as I read a Ben Peek story to review for ASif! It’s quite interesting, musically, and I have to say – the lads have all distinctly improved in looks over the years! The long hair was really not a happy time for Bono. And Adam Clayton looks heaps better with the spiky short blonde. Interesting.
The word ”archaeology”
I’m watching Time Team, and I’m really enjoying it – they’re at Cirencester, which we visited in January, and they’ve found some really cool stuff – the mosaic in particular is brilliant, and I can’t imagine how thrilling it must have been to discover it.
However, they really pain me when they use the word “archaeology” to mean the stuff that they find: “there’s some really interesting archaeology still to be found.” No, there isn’t. There are some interesting ruins and artifacts to be found, and some arduous digging and cleaning to go through as well, The process of finding the stuff is ‘doing archaeology’, along with figuring out how it all works together and what it means.
Bugs me. Grrr.
Proper Widescreen
We bought ourselves a new TV the other day – it’s a combined birthday present to ourselves. At least, that’s the excuse; mine’s not until October, but hey.
So we’re watching The Fifth Element, which we haven’t done in much longer than normal. And it is great to have it in proper widescreen! It makes a huge difference – wll, ok, maybe not huge, but it really does make it a more pleasurable viewing experience.
And now we get ABC 2, which is nice, so I can watch JTV XL next Tuesday. And Rage/JTV Saturday on a big screen will be fun!!
Life Support
Oh. My. Goodness.
The bro-in-law bought us the first season on Life Support, an SBS TV show from a few years ago that he and Starvin’ Dan had absolutely loved.
We’d never heard of it. For those like us, it’s a spoof on lifestyle shows. It’s got Todd, the handyman; Sigourney, The Modern Woman (who tells you how to have a pleasant home and please your husband); Dr Rudi, a South African doctor who likes to talk a lot about sex; and Penne, a 19 year old who helps people scam their way through life.
We’re only half way through the first episode, I have shrieked a number of times – part in horror, part in horrified amusement. I know it’s deliberately trying to be offensive – they’re pushing boundaries really hard, and it could only work on SBS….
I think we’ll enjoy watching this series, but I think we’ll only be doing one episode a week – it would just be too, too much otherwise!
Randomly Yours, Alex 