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.

TV

Primeval
3x01 Episode 1
ITV's Doctor Who rival is still nothing like as good, packed to bursting with cliches in both its action and its dialogue (there are whole sequences that go by without a single non-cliched line being uttered). It can be passable entertainment at times, but the sheer volume of niggling flaws have me literally shouting at the TV.
And I can't let a Primeval comment go by without mentioning Cutter's ridiculous new haircut -- or, rather, lack thereof. Someone fetch the trimmers!
Also, scheduling it against Robin Hood wasn't such a good idea, at least as far as I'm concerned (hence why I'm a week behind -- yep, it's Demons all over again).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Robin Hood
3x02 Cause and Effect
Sword fights for no reason? Utterly implausible escapes? Action, action, action? Yep, Robin Hood has finally got it right! This is what I've wanted from the series from day one, and only rarely got before now. Hopefully it can keep it up.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Total Wipeout
1x09 The Total Wipeout Awards
I caught glimpses of Total Wipeout throughout its run. Essentially, it's people trying to run hard obstacles courses, failing and falling into water. And it's much funnier than it has any right to be. This is just a "best of" presented in a slightly different format -- don't worry, you don't have to suffer illiterate acceptance speeches if you choose to watch it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt
and
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End by Hans Zimmer

The scores for the Pirates trilogy provide great music for writing big action-adventure blockbusters to. My personal preference lies with the first film's score -- yes, it can be repetitive, but the bit it repeats is brilliant. The albums for two and three have their moments, but they're more scattered.

Articles

BBC Charged £150,000 Over Sachsgate. Fine? No, Not Really… by RedJolt
(from FaceJolt)
"They’ve taken £150,000 away from the BBC, which means we can have £150,000 less good programming in the near future, and given it to Ofcom."

Metrodome in April by Dave Foster
(from DVD Times)
Remember Lordi, that crazy Finnish rock band who won Eurovision a few years back? Well, they're now starring in a horror film. No, really. Have a look about it here.

Personal web data to be stored for a year by Robert Verkaik
(from The Independent)
"Bloody Europe again," you might think, but you'd only be half right. So I'm told, Brown thought it would be too controversial here (too right) and so had it pushed through in Europe. (And let's not forget, we still haven't elected this man.)

Student submits worst application ever? by Sarah Rollo
(from Digital Spy)
"A horticulture student was left red-faced after sending a job application to a Welsh attraction from the email address 'atleastimnotwelsh'."

Virgin1 launches Dr Hoo, a year-round online only drama by Matt Warman
(from Telegraph.co.uk)
My various travels around the web led me to uncover this series on IMDb, an intriguingly-named entity starring some moderately well-known names (Ian Hart, Elaine Cassidy, someone who used to be in EastEnders) about which there was next to no info.
A little more digging unearthed this article. Turns out, it's some webseries that supposedly runs year round, though Virgin seem to have uploaded 10 three-minute episodes and left it be for the time being. Connections to a certain immensely popular sci-fi show referenced by the title seem to be minimal, although I haven't actually watched it yet so can't say for certain.
If you're interested, you can watch it for yourself here.

new reviews at 100 Films

A couple of new reviews have been posted over at 100 Films since my last update, and they are...

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)

once again more a spy thriller than a traditional detective tale. That’s not to say Holmes’ abilities as a detective aren’t present — in fact, he does a very reasonable amount — but if you switched him for a generic British Intelligence agent the plot would be unlikely to suffer

Some Like It Hot (1959)

a very funny film even 50 years on. It rattles from situation to situation at an occasionally surprising pace, literally without a dull moment. Not that there’s anything wrong with slower old films, but its certainly spritely for its age.

There are currently 10 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, not to mention two shorts and another review of something previously seen. Updates as and when they're posted.

TV

I've Never Seen Star Wars
1x04 Emily Maitlis
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

K9 MIPTV Trailer
Read my thoughts on this trailer here.

Moving Wallpaper
2x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
A brilliantly ludicrous finale to the second series. Fingers crossed for a third -- when it's good it can be great -- though I'm not confident.
It's a shame Renaissance is just a 9-minute online thing (to be found here, or currently papering over the ITV.com front page) rather than the fully-fledged TV special promised by the marketing of the show. I swear some of the actors flat-out lied during the promotion for this -- possibly to keep the ending a secret, but really, I suspect, to make people think it was still relevant and worthy of being on TV.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Wire
1x04 Old Cases
Read my (brief) thoughts on this episode here.

Articles

Cinema's third attempt at 3D by Mark Savage
(from BBC News)
Interesting article on the pros and cons of the current trend towards 3D in cinema. There've been a lot of articles on this topic lately, but this is the first I've seen that expresses any genuine skepticism about it. Which is a good thing, because for all the plaudits being thrown around by major filmmakers, there are a number of reasons that this isn't really up there with Sound and Colour in the pantheon of Great Revolutions In Cinema. I mean, you didn't have to wear special glasses for either of the other two, did you.

March Stalls 2009 Madness by Brandon Gray
(from Box Office Mojo)
Once you get past the opening paragraphs that seem to add fuel to the "Watchmen flopped!" fire (it didn't), this has some realistic points to make. Such as, "expectations were so unrealistically high that it was the sole new nationwide release for the first weekend of the month, and overall business suffered from that dearth of counter-programming." (Emphasis my own.)

Talking of Watchmen...

Watchmen Second Run Confirmed
(from WatchmenComicMovie.com)
Chances of it hitting the UK, in my opinion? Slim. Chances of it being outside London if it does? Nil.

You Wouldn't Steal a Car... by Helen O'Hara
(from the Empire Blog)
Empire weighs in on the whole Wolverine leak fiasco. Makes for some interesting reading, as do the comments.

K9 series MIPTV trailer

Here's the trailer for Doctor Who spin-off (sort of) series K9, which has been floating around the web for the last few days. It was created for the MIPTV trade conference in Cannes and is technically unfinished. Watch it (if you want), then read more after.

In case you haven't heard of this series before, it's a Doctor Who spin-off... sort of. It's not made by the BBC and it's not connected to the Who production office (unlike Torchwood and Sarah Jane), but it does feature a revamped version of the Doctor's robotic dog companion, K9. And it is the self-same K9, because the original model appears at the start of the series.

How can this happen? Because copyright for the tin dog lies with the guy who co-created him, not with the BBC.

Will the series be any good? Hard to tell from this trailer, which is aimed at the trade and features unfinished music, titles and -- most importantly -- voice-over work. As kids' shows go it looks OK enough, but nothing more. Also, it was shot in Australia, so the over-posh British accents are occasionally amusing.

The Wire 1x04: Old Cases

The more The Wire continues, the more certain I become that it is indeed a grower.

Some shows start and grab you immediately; they can then either build on this or throw it all away (more often than not it's the latter, sadly). Others are quite good and improve, others are just bad and stay bad. But The Wire is that very rare thing -- possibly unique -- where you start off uncertain because it only works the more of it you see. And, I suspect, its true quality (however high that may or may not be) is only revealed once you've seen the complete season -- or, to put it another way, the complete story.

Also worthy of note from this episode... well, many things, I'm sure -- but the one bit I wanted to mention is a great sequence in which Detectives McNulty and Bunk analyse a cold case crime scene without saying a word bar variations on the word "fuck". (In practice, this is less Tarantino than it sounds here.)

Poem of the Week: Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carroll

I was rather surprised to discover I hadn't had this for Poem of the Week yet (I'd merely suggested the idea a couple of months ago), and so, in need of a speedy one this week, here it is.

As usual, first the poem, then some brief notes.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Jabberwocky is, of course, a nonsense poem, and quite possibly the most famous of them all. It was originally published in 1871 as part of the novel Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, both of which are fairly nonsensical in themselves. (They're also both great, quick reads, incidentally, if you've never read them.)

Interestingly, it's managed to take on quite a life of its own beyond this. As well as its independent popularity and featuring in some of the adaptations of the Alice books, there's been both a feature-length film adaption by director Terry Gilliam and, before that, a short film featuring the whole poem by Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer. I've seen neither, so can't vouch for either's quality.

TV

The Wire
1x03 The Buys
For my thoughts on this episode, look here.

Articles

Lots today, on all sorts of subjects, so let's get going...

Checklist: Fad Wars! by Bonnie Burton, Pete Vilmur & Pablo Hidalgo
(from Star Wars official site)
There's been a helluva lot of Star Wars tat produced over the years, and here's a catalogue of some of the worst. No, younger readers, it's not an April Fools -- all this stuff really was made.

Quint has seen the first footage from Neill Blomkamp's District 9 at ShoWest! by Quint
(from Ain't It Cool News)
This sounds brilliant -- I am now massively more hyped for it than I was before and can't wait to see the trailer. Also, I personally really enjoyed Cloverfield, enough to put it in my Top 10 of 2008 (which you'll see is relevant if you read the article).

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation To Get UK Premiere In London
(from Fan Cinema Today)
But sadly not a wider release.

Tauntaun Sleeping Bag
(from Think Geek)
This started out as an April Fools joke, but clearly proved too popular: "Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life." Yup, really.

Top Hollywood classics get advertising makeover by Cal
(from Heroes of the East)
Amusingly satirical April Fools article on putting product placement into classic films.

Wallpaper sparks transphobia complaints by Daniel Kilkelly
(from Digital Spy)
I guess you had to be there...

We Don't Want Your Wolverine Reviews!!! by Beaks
(from Ain't It Cool News)
You've probably heard about the Wolverine leak by now -- the "April Fools that wasn't", as I like to call it -- but here's a bit from AICN just in case.

The Wire 1x03: The Buys

Three episodes in and The Wire is definitely growing on me. It's also becoming much clearer why people refer to it as "a novel on TV".

Other shows will often wrap up subplots within an episode, or handily remind you of them in a recap -- even ones that are also one long story, like Damages (I think I'll be making this comparison often through the series). The Wire, on the other hand, merrily plays little things that seem to have resolved themselves within a scene, but are actually setting things up for a future episode. This is done without a single opening recap to jog the memory. Perhaps best of all, many of these little things aren't absolutely essential to understand the ongoing plot, but do deepen character and events considerably.

For example, take the opening of this episode, in which D'Angelo argues against the violent way Baltimore's drugs trade is run. All his points are directly lifted from the police interview he had in the previous episode. You can understand the scene just fine without remembering this, but it's so much richer if you do. Similar little moments play out throughout the episode(s). I suspect this is one of the main reasons it's attracted such a devout following.

While I'm still not convinced it's the Best TV Series Of All Time Ever, the way its true quality is revealed gradually means I'll be reserving final judgement until at least the end of the season, perhaps even the end of the series.

24: Unaired 1994 Pilot

This clip has done the rounds around the 'net a couple of times now, so figured it was about time I shared it.

It's probably a bit too long, and if you've never seen 24 you won't get it, but otherwise it's very funny.

TV

The Apprentice
5x02 (1/4/09 edition)
Not entirely sure how or why I found myself watching this (for the first time ever, I should add). It's just as rubbish as I always thought it looked, to be honest, so I shan't be bothering again
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ashes to Ashes Series 2 Trailer
The first series of Ashes suffered in some quarters by comparisons to its parent show, Life on Mars. Is it as good as Mars? Probably not. But it's certainly a well-above-average drama and I'm very glad to see it back, and this specially-shot trailer was certainly a lot of fun. Hopefully they can make it as far as the proposed third year, and then I suspect it will be time to leave the LoM universe alone. But you never know...

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead Trailer
With so little new Who this year its good to see that this Easter special -- our only televisual dose until Christmas -- looks so promising. My initial thoughts are that it looks a bit like Voyage of the Damned crossed with Pitch Black -- two things I love, incidentally, so in my opinion this is a Good Thing.
It's also entertained me that the trailer confirmed a Saturday 11th broadcast date. From some speculation somewhere a whole raft of people had got it into their heads that Sunday 12th was the confirmed date and have been bandying this around as fact. It always amuses me when something like that happens... and yet, these people never learn.

I've Never Seen Star Wars
1x03 Rory McGrath
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wire
1x02 The Detail
Already becoming more engrossing, though yet to grab me as much as some other one-long-story series do. Let's put it this way: I think I may be able to see why some fans prefer to wait and watch it all in one go.

Articles

Number 2 Has Got Number 6 All Bottled Up, In New Prisoner Poster by Charlie Jane Anders
(from io9)
A fairly cool poster for what will be an interesting remake. The presence of Ian McKellen in the cast certainly suggests quality. Also included, a poster for the new Day of the Triffids. Dreadful poster, wonderful cast.

Review of State of Play by Shonette Laffy
(from Total Film)
While they come out on the positive side, it still doesn't sound great to me. But we'll see.

Simon Pegg Exclusive by Nick Setchfield
(from SFX)
A good interview with "alpha geek" Simon Pegg, covering Tintin, working with Spielberg, and various other future projects. Perhaps best of all, it confirms that Thomson and Thompson will look alike in the Tintin films, despite being played by the physically-very-different Pegg and Frost.
Apparently this interview is part one of two (or more), so eyes peeled for the rest.

And for a list of lists (related to films), have a look here.

Total Film lists

I'm posting this separately from today's main articles post because, quite simply, there are rather a lot of them. All can be found at Total Film's website (where there are many, many more) and all written by Sam Ashurst.

10 Unbelievable Future Movie Posters
Total Film's attempt at an April Fools joke. Unfortunately very few are believable enough to pull that off; plus the sheer volume of posters included and the facetious tone at the start of the article give the game away immediately. And I swear I've seen that Avatar poster as a real one on numerous sites... which is no guarantee of authenticity, of course.
Among the others, the New Moon one is believably dull, the Riddler Bat-sequel one is believably 'til you reach the pathetically-handled title, and the Harley Quinn Bat one is easily the best. I don't imagine they'll actually use Quinn in the next Bat film, but if they did I can well imagine she'd look like that.

The 10 Worst Sequels Of The '80s
Only 10? They must've been spoilt for choice.

The 16 Endings They Didn’t Want You To See
A mix of ones that aren't missed (Brazil, Blade Runner, y) and some that are superior (I Am Legend). Be warned, there are some serious spoilers in this list.

The 17 Worst Movie Posters Of 2009
Some of these aren't actually all that bad. And some really, really are. My favourite is the one for Fired Up, which is literally just a big "F U".

TV

Argumental
2x02 (30/3/09 edition)
In which Rufus Hound summarises four years' of Doctor Who's arc plots in one very long sentence. Impressive.

The Wire
1x01 The Target
With BBC Two airing The Wire rather late at night, I'm intending to watch every episode the next day -- so, the episode that was actually on TV this evening was 1x02 (just in case this has confused you).
For my thoughts on this episode, look here.