Monday 12 January 2009

TV

Argumental
1x10 (12/1/09 edition)
Annoyingly, I missed last week's episode 9, and it's not repeated. It's on Dave for Chrissake, the channel that exists for repeats -- why wasn't there one of their only (pretty much only, anyway) original programme?!

Broken Saints
Chapter 8 Lomalagi
Chapter 9 Personas
Chapter 10 Trinity
Things actually happen! The story moves forward! My God, what is the world coming to?! "And so it begins," Shandala says in Chapter 8, and I'm inclined to agree with her -- but why did it take two hours to get there?!

Films

Anne Frank Remembered (1995)
[#4 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Articles

1 million smite ITV's Demons by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"New fantasy drama Demons lost almost a million viewers Saturday. The supernatural series made an encouraging start last week with 5.75m (24.1%). The second episode averaged 4.83m (20.4%)... The most-watched programme of the day was Lottery gameshow In It To Win It, which pulled in 6.86m (28.9%) for BBC One."
Oh dear for Demons -- but how the hell did that wind up as number one for the day, especially on a Saturday?!

Golden Globes bring tears, tributes and upset wins by Maureen Ryan
(from chicagotribune.com)
"“Well done, Winslet,” Ricky Gervais said to the actress, who got one Globe for her work in The Reader, a Holocaust drama. “I told you -- do a Holocaust movie, the awards come, didn’t I?”" Nice Extras reference.

Someone rescue 24 from bland stories — now! by Maureen Ryan
(from chicagotribune.com)
"If familiarity with 24 doesn’t quite breed contempt, it has, by this point, bred a certain amount of indifference...
There are droning scenes in Sunday’s season premiere that literally stop the show cold... the biggest problem is that by now some elements of 24 are distressingly predictable. There’s no computer system or firewall that snarky hackers can’t subvert or disrupt. There’s always a mole among the good guys. Characters who flinch at the idea of torturing suspects are portrayed as hopelessly naive...
Despite an extremely uneven start to the season, there’s always hope that, as Jack Bauer so often does, the show may pull off an unlikely rescue -- of itself. Or we could all be in for another very long day."
(The rest of the article includes some spoilers for the new season; but they're all from the first ep and quite widely known.)

Plus, see here for more thoughts on the Golden Globes.

Golden Globes result

Winslet and Slumdog sweep Globes
(from BBC News)

"Kate Winslet has won two awards at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, winning best actress for Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for The Reader."

Now that was unexpected.

Elsewhere, British efforts also cleaned up: "Slumdog Millionaire was named best film drama, one of four awards Danny Boyle's Mumbai-set movie received [also director, screenplay, and score]. Other British recipients included Sally Hawkins, named best comedy actress for her role in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky... John Adams British co-star Tom Wilkinson was also recognised, winning a best supporting actor prize for his role as Benjamin Franklin."

Plus, "Irish star Colin Farrell was named best actor in a musical or comedy for his role as a hit man in black comedy In Bruges" and "Irish actor Gabriel Byrne was named best actor in a TV drama for In Treatment." (Though Cranford was shockingly overlooked in all the TV categories.)

Despite the amazing turnout for our fair isles, the Americans managed some notable wins too, including... "Heath Ledger was given a posthumous supporting actor prize for The Dark Knight, accepted by director Christopher Nolan, who said the late actor would be "eternally missed but never forgotten... All of us who worked with Heath accept with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride."

"Mickey Rourke was named best actor in a drama for The Wrestler. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona was named best comedy, ahead of Happy-Go-Lucky and Mamma Mia. WALL-E was named best animated feature, while animated documentary Waltz with Bashir received the best foreign language film prize. Steven Spielberg was presented the Cecil B DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field"."

And a small splash of disappointment too:

"But there were no awards for Doubt, Frost/Nixon and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, despite them having led the field with five nominations apiece." Don't be surprised if Frost/Nixon is a tad more successful at the BAFTAs, considering its British roots -- hopefully a nomination, if not an award, for the always-excellent Michael Sheen.

Still, well done Britain! Chances of a similarly good result in six weeks at the Oscars? Slim, I would imagine.