Promos for the 6th season of House, including some ‘Snakes on a Cane’ teaser spots. The logo was designed by Hugh Laurie as a gift to the cast and crew, but the producers realised they could use it for marketing.
I have seen every single episode of House and don’t remember any of the medical story lines. I get my kicks out of watching Laurie play a smart prick every week and out of the interactions with the other regular cast members.
One of the many perks of running Whedonesque.com, is…
Hang on. There aren’t a lot of perks, really, other than the pleasure of being boss of a site that’s well respected and much quoted. Yeah, we got invited to the Serenity premiere in Los Angeles. But I live in Amsterdam. Which means I never get to go to premieres, conventions, screenings or other meetings. When the Paley Center in New York invited us for a panel discussion on television and online fandom, one of the USA based mods got to go, but I could not. And unlike many of our members, I’ve never met any of the actors, or Joss.
All of this is perfectly fine with me. Yeah, I run the site, but I also run U2log.com and a couple of other sites. I’m not the biggest fan, I don’t keep up with all the news, I don’t know episode titles by heart, I couldn’t tell you which of the writers wrote what. I like communities, but I don’t get too involved. (My pet theory is that people who like to run online communities are actually all mysanthropists deep down.) I consider this a good thing. A little distance from the subject matter is essential. It helps keep me objective. And possibly sane.
I do receive a fuckload of annoying PR in the Whedonesque inbox, all about stuff that means nothing to me, not being American, not living in America. And probably wouldn’t mean anything to me if I were American, living in America. But I digress.
Perks. I has one. A kind soul gave me access to the Dollhouse screener, which contained an unfinished version of ‘Ghost’, the first episode. In case you’ve been living in cave, Dollhouse is Joss Whedon’s new television series for Fox, starring Eliza Dushku and Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett. You can read a synopsis of the show on Wikipedia. It is set to premier on February 13.
I remember catching my first glimpse of Buffy on TV (it was the sixth episode of the series’ first season: ‘The Pack’) and feeling compelled to keep watching it, unable to flip to another channel. Like being drawn in by Bob Ross’s hypnotic voice.
Oh Friday Night Lights, I am going to miss you so much if you don’t return. The show was rescued from cancellation by a last minute deal between NBC and DirectTV to create a 3rd season, shown first on DirectTV, then on NBC. The final episode of season 3 was aired on DirectTV last night. Whether or not we get a 4th season remains to be seen, it will have to do really well when it returns to NBC, starting tomorrow.
I love Battlestar Galactica, which I’d probably say was my favourite tv series the last couple of years, but it’s tough viewing. Friday Night Lights is easy viewing, but still smart. It sits comfortably between adult drama and teen soap. It has been the most life affirming, heart warming, tear jerking – in a good way -, uplifting thing in my torrent list for the last three years. And I don’t want to say goodbye to these characters just yet.
I’m sorry, but the first scene made me laugh so hard I couldn’t take the rest of the story seriously at all. Because Barrowman running in and shout-acting ‘Stop, nobody touches him until I get back, is that clear…’? That wasn’t television. That wasn’t a musical. That was the local elementary school’s 6th form’s first rehearsal of the drama teacher’s play.
Verdict: Really, really bad Buffy, without the making sense.
Surprise, surprise. With Jade Goody gone, the evil coven (Jo, Danielle, Jack and Cleo) are laying into Dirk Benedict and Jermaine Jackson, since they’re now afraid to go after Shilpa. Their new bullying tactics? Among other things Hiding Dirk’s (macrobiotic) food and taunting them with it, and waking him up during the night. The latest plan involves dressing Jack up as a woman. They think it will hurt Jermaine since he’s muslim. The mind boggles. Jo is full of glee as she talks about how close to ‘breaking point’ Dirk and Jermaine are.
Cleo: “He takes his macrobio diet seriously as he believes it helped him beat cancer.” Jo: “So what.”
Yes, it’s time to burn your Sclub7 discs.
Oh, you’re not watching CBBUK? Count yourself lucky not to be drawn into this car wreck television.
Sezer. I don’t remember anyone more annoying or vile on television, except perhaps the (fictional) Billy from Six Feet Under. He’s just repulsive, the accent, the clothes, the attitude. He, Imogen, Grace, Mikey… the self appointed ‘cool kids’ (a.k.a. The Plastics) of BB UK S7, must be eliminated.
If I had to choose to live with any of these people I’d pick Peter, Nikki, Richard, Glyn and Lisa. I think I did live with people much like them in my student years. Nikki’s just hilarious once you get past the shock of her total ineptness – she’s a decent middle class girl underneath the trashy outfits. Pete’s a genuinely good guy. Richard is someone you wouldn’t want to get too close with, or you’d get hurt, but would be ok to have as a fun and mildly outrageous colleague. Glyn… ordinary boy. Lisa… more or less ordinary girl.
Which leaves Lea, who isn’t annoying, or entertaining, or anything. She can go next week.
Update: Oh, fan-bloody-tastic, he’s out with 91.6% of the votes.
Sad but true: I’m refreshing my favourite bittorrent page every few minutes, because I want to see David Hasselhoff cry on American Idol. right. now.
As for other bad television… I have succumbed to Big Brother (UK). Oh noes!
My only previous experience with the show was the finale of BB 1 (NL), seven (?) years ago. Yes, I have been strong for the best part of a decade. Anyway, not going to explain myself. Just… freakshow! They must all die a thousand deaths, these uncouth members of Generation Beck’s, these loose moraled bullies, these sluts and dunces. Vile Sezer in particular, with Nikki ‘want a pony or I’ll hold my breath till I explode’ a close second and Richard the scheming bastard third.
Listening to Michael Geoghegan’s Reel Reviews podcasts has rekindled my interest in film and I picked two classic movies on DVD today (both of which I have seen before): Once upon a time in the west, and Scarface. I hope I’ll start paying more attention to film and filmmakers again, like I used to.
It got me thinking about films that I *haven’t* seen or may have forgotten about. For example, I’m not sure I’ve seen It’s a wonderful life, but I *must* have because you couldn’t switch on the television in the early 70’s or James Stewart was on it.
Anyway, here’s a list of classic films I should have seen but haven’t (and I’m vaguely using IMDB’s list of Top rated 250 movies as a guide):
Casablanca (Seen bits. Bogart never says ‘Play it again, Sam.’)
It’s my intention to remedy these gaping holes in my cultural upbringing this year. (Made a quick trip to the video store… they only had the two Kurosawa films on DVD, none of the other ones.)
I’ve made ‘best film’ lists before, but here’s a short list of films I’ll never forget seeing, for whatever reason.
"Once a group reaches a certain size, each participant starts to feel anonymous again, and the person they’re following — who once seemed proximal, like a friend — now seems larger than life and remote. “They feel they can’t possibly be the person who’s going to make the useful contribution,” Evans says. So the conversation stops." […]
"The 25:5 rule states that at least 25 percent of demand is for 5 percent of tasks; that 5 percent of content is read by 25 percent of people. The 25:5 rule is a type of distillation of the 80:20. Viewed in graphical form it creates a Long Neck." […]
