Pour Some Gravy On Me Just some stuff

I can only apologise for the last installment of ‘Stuff I Watched’, it was so half-hearted that I’m almost embarrassed to have published it.  That said, I’m such a whore for hits that I urge you do go read it, by clicking here.  Hopefully this post will be a little more interesting.

How Not To Live Your Life: BBC HD (Recorded 20th Oct Watched 21st Oct)

Sadly, this was the last episode.  The second series has been even better than the enjoyable first, and this episode was possibly the funniest yet.  The plot veered dangerously close to traditional  sitcom territory; Don agreed to be best man for a boorish school friend and persuaded Sam to be his pretend wife (fake name = Garden Danbury).  It’s all credit to them that they managed to pull off this Terry & June storyline.  It was also impressive how they managed to make the episode sweet and romantic, whilst Don stayed largely in character; where did that come from?

Don has definitely become a more sympathetic character over the course of series 2, but it’s been done really naturally; Sam obviously having an effect on him that Abby never did.  The ending was nicely ambiguous (unless I just misunderstood it); did Don finally put his infatuation with Abby to one side, or was he just thinking with his dick?  If it was the latter, you wouldn’t exactly blame him; Garden Danbury is really quite beautiful.

I wonder where they’d go if there was a third series?  Part of me wants to see Don and Sam together, but it wouldn’t make for a very good sitcom.  Either way, fingers crossed for series three.

Stargate Universe: Sky One (R 20th Oct W 21st Oct)

This doesn’t seem to have really got going yet, but I’m starting to suspect that’s just the vibe that they’re going for.  I quite like the idea of the slow pace, but something has to happen occasionally. Robert Carlyle has been reduced little more than shouting irritably; he plays an potentially interesting character, but he seems woefully underutilised.

With the life support systems being fixed in the first three episodes, episode four saw the failure of the power systems.  With death seeming imminent, the crew took turns leaving ‘talking head’ messages, and these were a real mixed bag.  Some were well acted, but others were absolutely appalling; overall, they were the least subtle way possible to introduce some of the supporting cast.

Eli seems to be the heart of the show and it will be interesting to see how he develops over the course of the season.  It’s also refreshing to see someone on US TV who is neither stick thin nor
comically fat.

Flying in to a star is quite a cliffhanger, but I’m guessing that it’s just going to refuel.  Sadly, I don’t feel that I know enough about any of the characters enough to care their fate.

Hung: More 4 (R 15th Oct W 22nd Oct)

Yet another new HBO comedy drama – what are they trying to do to me?  I feel like they’re mounting a campaign to personally rob me of any free time whatsoever.  Insanity by quality programming – the swines!

Hung is the story of a high-school teacher who has loads of bad luck and ends up having to become male prostitute in order to make ends meet.  It sounds such a stereotypical concept for a quirky, ‘adult’ drama that they could well have used the ‘Quirky Adult Drama Concept Generator’.  The first half of the episode felt as though someone had taken the output from that generator and then just gone through the motions.  This might be a little harsh as I spent the first half of the show writing the Sherby57 post, No Rascal Here, so perhaps I wasn’t giving it the due attention.

At this stage, I was preparing to write that I was only going to give it another episode to prove itself, as I’m desperate to avoid another True Blood situation.  But, the last quarter of the episode grew on me more than I thought it would, so I’m prepared to be a little more lenient.

The Flying Car: Daredevils: Channel 4 (R 20th Oct W 22nd Oct)

Channel 4’s excellent ‘Daredevils’ strand continued with the slightly lacklustre story of two blokes driving/flying to Timbuktu in a car.  I was looking forward to it beforehand but perhaps I was expecting too much.

A flying car conjures up the image of some spectacular George Jetson-style vehicle, but the reality is that it is basically a beach buggy with a fan on the back, with a parachute-style wing hanging off the back.  It’s a great achievement by the designer, but it’s not what you think of as a ‘flying car’.

I was slightly puzzled that, since it was billed as the world’s first practical flying car, this was the first time that was hearing about it.  Surely it must have been on the news at the time of the expedition.  Maybe the press were as underwhelmed by the design as I was.  On their second test flight, on a beach, a gust of wind resulted in them ending up in the sea, which potentially ‘ruined the wing’.  Surely it could be fixed with just a big washing line.

Somehow the documentary was really dull and any adventure was sucked out of it.  The last portion of the trip was all on-road as they had crashed in to a tree and couldn’t fly any more.  Considering that they want to sell them, it all seems a bit unreliable.  That said, I do really want one.

They’ve yet to find a buyer.

Life on Mars ‘USA’: FX (R 18th Oct W 22nd Oct)

I wasn’t going to comment on this, but I felt I had to.  I tried to give the first episode the benefit of the doubt (despite my long list of gripes), but I’m happy to now say that it’s an absolute traversty.
I managed to last to the first ad break before deleting.  At least it’s one less thing to watch per week.