Friday 20 March 2009

TV

Moving Wallpaper
2x03 Episode 3
2x04 Episode 4
Still quite funny, but would benefit from a companion show still. Hopefully it'll get picked up for a third series and they can have Renaissance (or indeed something -- anything -- else) running alongside it again.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Not Going Out
3x07 Marriage [season finale]
Another bit of a desperate episode, though still with a few hearty laughs. And you wouldn't guess it from the episode itself, but this appears to be the last of the series.
Or, all things considered, perhaps the last ever -- is Not Going Out on the way out? (Yeah, I just wanted to get that pun in.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
Edit: Turns out there's one more episode, but the BBC have cancelled the show and decided not to show it. It should be on later in the year however.

And in TV news, starting Monday 30th March, BBC Two are going to be showing The Wire from the very start. They'll be showing one episode a night too, so it should go by at a nice pace. Most importantly, I can finally see it! For more details, have a look here.

Articles

7 Coolest Movie Con Jobs by James White
(from Total Film)

Could Warner Bros. Be Putting The Kibosh On R-Rated Superhero Films? by Casey Seijas
(from MTV Splash Page)
Not all that surprising, considering, but still potentially a shame.

DMCA Take Down Notice: The NYTimes Goes to War & Wants to Shut us Down
(from Apartment Therapy)
Blogs have been around for about 16 years now (though how long they've been widely known about is a different matter), but it seems some old media still can't adapt to how useful they are. The New York Times are of course within their legal rights to both do this and do it this way, but it does come across as underhand and almost cowardly.
Personally, I won't be bothering to read their site any more -- when there are so many valid news sources on the web, why go to one you disapprove of? Losing me won't exactly have a huge impact on their hits, but still.

Also see some of my thoughts on this year's Hugo Award nominations here.

2009 Hugo Award nominations

Specifically looking at "Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form" here, as I came across these on a Doctor Who fansite...

2009 Hugo Award Nominations
(from The Hugo Awards)

Once again, Doctor Who gains multiple nominations for this year's Hugo Awards.

Who has received many nominations in the past few years, often receiving multiple nods where other shows can only manage one, undoubtedly due to the sheer variety of styles and content offered by the show. And incoming showrunner Steven Moffat has won every year.

This year, in my opinion, he doesn't deserve to win again -- his two-part Silence in the Library story was a bit sloppy, a weak plot hung on some truly excellent ideas. Russell T Davies' Turn Left, on the other hand, turned the series on its head to excellent effect -- it was both better sci-fi and better drama. Also, Davies' has been produced a relatively huge number of high-quality Who scripts over the past few years -- he deserves this one in recognition of his entire contribution as much as anything.

Both may fall to the competition posed by Battlestar Galactica in its final year (though it will surely be eligible for the 2010 awards too, so perhaps it will take it then) or the power of Joss Whedon's fanbase in the shape of internet sensation Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Poem of the Week: The Ballad of Dr Manhattan's Change of Fortune

by Richard Nelson

Watchmen's been out for a good few weeks now, and here's the final part of a trilogy of poems about the film. Well, related to the film -- the first two were rather tenuous, whereas this one was composed by my good self in the wake of the film... and the Internet discussions about it, which seemed to focus around one particular member of the cast.

When it was normal-coloured he
had trouble getting laid,
but then there was the accident
which changed its fleshy shade:

No longer was it ugly, pink
and changeable in size,
but now a constant, hanging there;
pleasant blue to the eyes.

His fascinating phallus lets
him have it his own way:
he can have any girl he wants
('cept Silhouette -- she's gay).

This is the first instance in a long time where I've posted a poem of my own composition. Just because I'm writing more doesn't mean this will be occurring more often.

Who Watches the WALL-E?

Too remove all the magic, this is clips from WALL-E edited to the soundtrack from the first Watchmen trailer. It's better than that probably makes it sound.



Also available in HD.