Sunday 5 April 2009

TV

Today, I'm exactly a week behind on two completely different programmes...

Damages
2x07 New York Sucks
The plot doesn't so much thicken as continue in this episode, though the segments focussing on Uncle Pete are brilliant.
One of Damages' problems is that it has too many balls in the air this season -- a few are good to keep things interesting and complex, but too many and they all just blur. It's still a good show, but I don't think it has that Special Something that made the first season so amazing. I think I might dub this condition "24 Syndrome".
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
5x04 (26/3/09 edition, uncut repeat)
I almost feel sorry for Zac Efron ("star of High School Musical, High School Musical 2 and, er, High School Musical 3") -- he clearly had no idea what he'd let himself in for, or really what was going on. But, then again, I don't.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Wild Wild West (1999)
[2nd watch]
Can you believe this -- and, of course, its (in)famous associated song -- are now a decade old? I saw it on video way back when and quite liked, though was aware it wasn't all that good. Now those flaws are even more obvious, I'm sad to say.
Also, while a lot of the effects work is rather dodgy, some of it still holds good today. Not a huge point in the film's favour, but at least it means there's something nice to look at while the attempts at humour fall pathetically flat.

Articles

A pair of articles related to sci-fi fiction today...

Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination by Michael Arrington
(from TechCrunch)
Initially coming at things from a business blog perspective, it quickly moves on to just being a list of sci-fi books (i.e. don't worry that it's going to try to relate all of them back to business concepts or something). It's a fairly interesting list with several good books. And Frankenstein, which I think is overrated.

And that article links to...

Top 100 Sci-Fi Books
(from Sci-Fi Lists)
Not sure how this list is compiled, and I've not even heard of some of the books, but it's interesting nonetheless. See the parent site for similar lists about film, television and short fiction.