Stuff I Watched: Small(ville) Review

June 13, 2011 2 Comments

lois lane, bullying

Image by Joelk75 via Flickr

I’m hardly watching any telly at the moment, largely because – shock, horror – I have a life.  I’m making the most of the whole “having a life” scenario while it lasts, so you’ll have to make do with one paltry review.

Smallville: E4 (Recorded 7th June, Watched 7th June)

Finally we get to see the uneagerly awaited tenth and final season of Smallville.  It’s been a long time coming, some - including me –  might say that it was unnecessarily long.  E4 finished screening season 9 before season 10 began to air in the US, so why have we had to wait for the series to conclude before it has been shown over here?

Well, the prolonged absence meant  I had absolutely no clue what was going on. OK, I had a bit of a clue, but would it have been too much trouble to cobble a “previously on…” feature together?

It’s undoubtedly the most annoying programme that I continue to watch and I’d be tempted to give up if the end wasn’t in sight. Oh, they do so many, many things badly.  This episode’s examples include: the Lex clones who looked nothing like him, several crap resurrections (death is truly meaningless in Smallville), Lois having made a Superman suit (why? how?), the return of Jonathan Kent (??), most of the acting, Oliver in baby oil being tortured by someone for some unknown reason and Chloe being swapped for Oliver in a hood. I could go on, it was virtually unwatchable.

The best thing about the show remains Erica Durance as Lois Lane, and, no, not just because she exceedingly hot. She is so much better than everybody else in this that she’s being done a disservice.  Plus, you know, she’s really hot.

Anyway, it might be rubbish, but I’ve read that Blue Beetle and Booster Gold make an appearance later in the season, so there’s no way that the 13-year old me will let me stop watching.

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Stuff I Watched: Who is a Machine?

June 7, 2011 2 Comments

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond

Image via Wikipedia

Doctor Who: BBC One\HD (Recorded 4th June, Watched 4th June)

I love Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who and this series has been great, so far, so the expectations were literally sky-high for the “mid-season finale” (if you can actually have such a thing).  Inevitably, it didn’t quite live up to those literal sky-high expectations, but it gave it a good go.  All the pre-title stuff with Rory the last centurion (not to be confused with Denver the Last Dinosaur) was great – despite them having Amy do the whole “sounds like she’s talking about The Doctor, but actually talking about Rory” thing again.

The episode was a rollicking ride, so to speak, despite a lack of any real plot and a few seeming inconsistencies.  The big reveal\cliffhanger was so well signposted – even before the “Melody Pond” revelation – that they only way it could have been shocking is if River wasn’t Amy and Rory’s sprog.   I didn’t quite understand where the Doctor raced off to, so at least that was intriguing.  Any lingering doubts about the episode soon evaporated when I saw that the series would recommence with “Let’s Kill Hitler”.  That’s how you tease an audience.

What was, perhaps, most striking moment of the episode was the blatant cunnilingus joke between the Lizard woman and her Victorian maid lesbian lover (yes, really).  Part of me is proud to live in a country where this could crop up in Saturday tea-time family entertainment.  The other part of me was horrified.

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grave: BBC 2 (R 6th June, W 6th June)

Adam Curtis’s spellbinding series drew to a close last night, with an exploration of…errr… I think it was something to do with humans being seen as machines juxtaposed against the horrors in Rwanda.  It was something like that.

My confusion is not purely down to the complex nature of the ideas presented.   I currently have the attention span of a teenager, primarily caused by my iPad addiction.  I watched the first half of this episode on the telly, but flicked over half way through to watch it on iPlayer on the aforementioned iPad.  As I tried to find where I was up to, I realised that I didn’t at all recognise the narration that happened just before the point I was up to.  I believed I had been paying relatively close attention, so I’m obviously not as good at multi-tasking as I thought.

The problems caused by my complete absorption in the electronic device seemed incredibly apt considering what I was (half-)watching.  Probably.  Like I said, it was pretty hard to understand.

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Stuff I Watched: Game of Bores

May 18, 2011 3 Comments

I’m really struggling to get any telly watched lately, and I’m busy for the rest of the week, so I’m sneaking this in now.

Game of Thrones: Sky Atlantic (Recorded 18th April, Watched 17th May)

A large part of me not watching much telly recently is my current iPad addiction, but this was recorded WAY before I purchased the divine device.  With five episodes recorded – clogging up my Sky Planner –  I thought it was about that I forced myself to finally watch the first.  Forcing yourself to watch something isn’t really conducive to enjoyment.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been dancing around my house, exuding an abundance of excitement at the broadcast of a brand new, big budget HBO series, but my unenthusiasm has known no bounds with regards to Game of Thrones.  I know exactly why, too.  It’s the presence of the f-word.  No, not fuck.  I love a series with loads of fucks in it.  The f-word I refer to is, of course, fantasy.

Ugh. I shuddered even typing it.

I would have thought my aversion to the genre was for pretty self-evident reasons (ie everything about it, but especially the music), but people love all that swords and sorcery stuff, so who am I to comment?

So, what’s it about?  Some people with English accents – some genuine, some well dodgy – knock about in castles and talk about portentous stuff to do with kings.  Some people – well, some beautiful women – get naked for no apparent reason.  People ride horses and have swords.  There are some outdoors scenes that look like a higher budget version of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.  Mark Addy plays some kind of king.  Sean Bean plays some kind of man in a fur cape, with a much chubbier face than I remember.  A midget gets a BJ.  There’s a lot going on, I’ll say that for it.

Bah.  I got 43 minutes in before giving up and deleting all the episodes. What a relief.

This has left me with a lingering thought, though. Did I really think it was that bad, or did I just use my prejudices to prematurely give up on it, so that I could catch up on my recorded programmes quicker?

I guess we’ll never know.  Sky Atlantic continues to slightly disappoint me.

The Night Shift: BBC 4 (iPlayer, Watched 17th May)

With too much telly to watch, and not enough time to watch it, isn’t it the perfect time to catch up on an Icelandic comedy on iPlayer?

I heard about The Night Shift on Rufus Hound’s excellent comedy-focused podcast, What’s So Funny?, and I immediately set it to record on my Sky Planner.  Annoyingly, I had missed the first 6 Episodes.   I don’t know how this happened, because my scouring of the Sky EPG is quite meticulous.  Anyway, I hate missing any new comedy programmes, and I love subtitled stuff (snob), so I was overjoyed to find all the episodes still available on iPlayer.

The show is a single-camera, fly-on-the-wall style show about three guys working the night shift at the petrol station.  There’s not much more to it than that.  It was a worry that the subtitles might drain away all the comic-timing, but this is a comedy of awkwardness, and so many of the laughs come from the painful pauses.  Oh, those beautiful, painful pauses.

It’s well worth a watch, so get involved.

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Stuff I Watched: Spiral

May 10, 2011 3 Comments

So, in my quest to write about “proper stuff” (see here), please welcome back Stuff I Watched.  I had wanted to write about more than one programme, but time is not really permitting this week.  You’ll have to make do with this.

Spiral BBC 4 (Recorded 7th May, Watched 7th May)

Last Saturday saw BBC4 screen the final two episodes from season three of the uber-grim French police drama, Spiral.  I’ve read quite a few press pieces which have touted this as a replacement for uber-grim Danish police drama, The Killing.  I’d like to point out to those journalists that some of us have been with Spiral since 2006, so nurrr.

It’s one of those series that is so emotionally draining that the programme-makers need two to three years rest between seasons.  After the events of season three, though, it may be a decade before we next meet our Parisian law-keepers (I think they still, just about, qualify as law-keepers…sort of).  In short: Laure totally unravelled before our eyes, leading to an ill-advised affair with a rival cop; Gilou accidentally shot someone, resulting in the team falsifying evidence to save him; saintly Judge Roban resorted to ransacking his own office and breaking his own strict moral code; hapless newcomer, Arnaud, was blackmailed for sleeping with a minor; and poor Pierre resigned from his beloved career as a public prosecutor and ended up being falsely accused of raping a client. Oh, and let’s not forget Josephine, who continued to just be Jospehine (her list of crimes is too long to list).

They’re just the incidental details. The main plot threads have seen Laure’s team track down a sadistic serial killer with links to a ruthless prostitution ring, whilst Judge Roban has investigated shady goings on at the town hall; an investigation which threatened not just to end his career but see his own brother incarcerated. Since it’s clearly not an easy watch, it’s a good job that it’s an incredibly rewarding series.

Episode 11 felt like it was just filling time and tidying up in preparation for the finale (which isn’t to say that it was bad). The most significant moment came when Josephine signed her soul to the devil (aka Mr Szabo), with the intention of helping Pierre, rather than her usual self-serving motives. Elsewhere, Dylan, he who accused Pierre of rape, showed his truly sinister side by wearing a Man United scarf.

And so to the finale. On the plus side, Laure finally caught up with Ronaldo (the serial killer), but you should know, by now, that all didn’t end well. On the way, Ronaldo killed one of the pimps and managed to torture another young woman, although she thankfully survived. Also, Arnaud committed suicide, just to make sure the tone didn’t veer too close to a happy ending.  As with the season two finale, Pierre and Josephine were bit part players, but the bit they did take part in – involving a kiss that threatened to set the TV on fire - was compelling. Poor Roban’s case wasn’t resolved, but he did get to give his boss a terrific lecture on doing the right thing.  He’s like the French Columbo, or something.

With the episode, and the season, rapidly drawing to a close, the cops cornered Ronaldo in a suitably seedy warehouse.  Inevitably, it’s Laure that finds him and feels compelled to shoot him before Gilou and Tintin are able to make an arrest. Unsurprisingly, they decide to cover for her as she is dejectedly hauled away for questioning. It’s the only way fitting way that it could have finished.

Apparently seasons four and five have already been commissioned.  I can’t wait to see them, but I dread to think what our unhappy band of brothers is put through next.

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Some Rubbish About Blogging

May 7, 2011 13 Comments

I was asked last week who I fancied most from off of the telly. It seems a simple question, but you can’t just answer flippantly. What if you just dive in there and then forget about someone you particularly have your eye on, and then you remember, but you’ve already left the person who asked you. They’d never know the truth! It’s doesn’t bear thinking about.

Luckily I was able to go with my stock answer of Holly Willoughby and the matter was closed. Or was it? In the back of my mind, I knew there was someone else on TV that I had recently declared “mega-fit”, but I couldn’t think who it was. It was a literal and metaphorical nightmare. I said nothing more to my companion, but, deep inside, all was not well. At this juncture, I’d like to confirm the following points:

a) The person who asked me a question was a girl, so I wasn’t being a sexualist.

and

2) There is a point to all this. Please bear with me.

A couple of days later, I realised that the name I had been searching for was Sarah Shahi. Never heard of her? Google her now.

Done?

Yeah, she’s amazing, isn’t she? She’s currently starring in Fairly Legal (Sundays, 8pm, Universal Channel) if you’d like to see her moving and talking. And why wouldn’t you?

After making my realisation, I remembered that I had mentioned her on this blog a few times, when she was appearing in cop-show, Life. I searched the blog and had a read of those old posts where she was mentioned. Surprisingly, I found myself really enjoying them. I decided to read some more of my television-themed posts and ended up totally engrossed in them. I think I read them all.

So, what did I learn from this experience? Firstly, it showed the power of having a blog as a diary. It was amazing what memories came flooding back, even if those memories were essentially just what happened in TV shows.

More importantly, I discovered that my old posts were actually much better than I had given myself credit for. I won’t say too much more for fear of sounding arrogant, but they were bloody great. Plus, there’s nothing more rewarding than laughing at your own jokes.

In a recent post, I pondered my lack of hits recently and came to the conclusion that it was due to a lack of regular updates. Whilst this is likely to have had an effect, I realised that I have stopped writing about actual stuff. Hopefully in the near future I’ll resurrect some of my old blogging topics and blow you away in a flurry of wordage. Stay tuned, blog-lovers.

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Stuff I Watched: Bored To Death

April 6, 2011 3 Comments

The launch of Sky Atlantic was one of the most exciting televisual events for years.  All of HBO’s content on one channel, along with the best of Sky’s other US imports?  What wasn’t to love about it?  OK, so many people objected to Murdoch’s monopoly, but from a programming perspective, it was all gold.

The reality, for me, hasn’t lived up to the expectations.  I gave up on a number of shows after one or two episodes, out of boredom (Blue Bloods, Big Love, How to Make it in America). I made it up to episode 4 of Boardwalk Empire only because I was convinced it would suddenly get better.  It didn’t.  It’s one of the most crushing disappointments in recent TV history.  Some stuff I love, but I’ve seen before and enough times not to watch again (Battlestar Galactica, Curb Your Enthusiasm).  There’s another batch of shows that I’d like to watch, but they’ve not shown them from the first season (24, Weeds, Entourage).  The only programmes I’ve been watching are The Sopranos – which is amazing, but I’ve seen them all before – and Treme.  It has to be said that Treme is excellent – the cast, script and style are all up to the standard you would expect from the creators of The Wire – but it is still a slight disappointment because I don’t yet love it (very harsh, but true).

An opening title for Bored to Death

Image via Wikipedia

Thankfully, I’ve just added a show to the list, the excellent Bored To Death (Mondays, 22:20), possibly the saviour of the channel.

OK, that last comment was total hyperbole, but I’m trying to make an exciting post here, so bear with me.

Bored To Death is a bit of an odd-fish, but in a good way, like a surprise chippy tea, rather than a haddock left to rot in an air vent.  It’s ostensibly an off-beat detective show; frustrated, borderline alcoholic writer, Jonathan Ames (a parallel universe version of show creator, writer Jonathan Ames) turns private investigator after his girlfriend leaves him.  So far, so like a million other gimmicky detective shows.  What sets this apart is two-fold.  Firstly, it has the atmosphere of a really cool, indie-flick.  The fictional Jonathan is even played by cool, indie-flick actor Jason Schwartzman.  The second thing that separates it from the pack is that it’s really funny.  With the overall “indie” vibe of the series – replete with quirky sidekicks ably played by Ted Danson and Zach  ”I wonder what that’s worth as Scrabble” Galifianakis – it could get away with only being marginally funny and generating knowing titters from clever character interaction.  It doesn’t; it’s hilarious.  Each episode is only a half-hour long, and it’s effectively just an unusual sitcom.

So, I’ve probably over-hyped it now and ruined it for you all, but give it a try anyway.  There have only been two episodes screened, so far, and you can probably catch the second on a repeat. Sometimes, repeats are your friend.

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My Monday Night

September 13, 2010 13 Comments

So, I was going to write a post about how angry other drivers make me, but then I just couldn’t be bothered. I couldn’t face looking at the stupid laptop any longer.

Anyone normal would have just walked away from the whole blogging thing for the evening, but I could never be described as normal. Instead I opted to fire up the old WordPress iPhone app and knock together another ridiculously self-indulgent bit of bloggery. So here we are. Congratulations to anybody who has managed to get this far.

As I type, I’m trying to watch the first episode of new BBC sitcom Him & Her. I’m 11 minutes in and close to giving up. It’s just making me feel old. That’s it, I’ve given up.

Part of me already regrets deleting it. It feels like a crime to give up on a new comedy so easily, but I don’t need to watch someone have a poo. They didn’t even have any splashing sounds. If you’re going to do it then you might as well see it through properly.

I’m back on The Gadget Show. I usually like to wait until it’s finished before I watch it so that I can whizz right through the boring bits. That accounts for about 45 minutes of it. Some of the ‘challenges’ that they have to complete are woeful. Right now they’re trying to make a gadget referee for a football match. How I wish I could fast forward.

Oh dear god. Here comes the infamous Gadget Show competition. What would you actually do with all those prizes were you to actually win? They wouldn’t fit in my house. It costs £1.50 to enter. I don’t know if that represents good value or not. Rest assured, I won’t be entering.

Hang on! I’ve got ten whole minutes that I can fast forward through. I feel so ashamed at my amateurism.

Right. I think it’s probably time to have a brew. Since you’re all too lazy to make me one then I’d better go myself. I’ll speak to you soon.

Night x.

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Post Recycling – August 2009

August 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

Last month I gave the impression that writing Post Recycling was a chore and that I was happy there were only 4 posts to review as it would make my life easier.  I do realise that this makes me sound a bit mental, as if I’m only continuing to write this feature because I’m somehow forced to.

I do enjoy PR because it’s interesting to look back over stuff that you wrote a while ago and to see what you were up to, what your state of mind was and how your writing has developed (or hasn’t developed).  The only downside is that it’s quite time consuming (to do it properly) and I’m very lazy.  They’re not ideal bedfellows.  Anyway, that’s my excuses out of the way and it’s time to look back at what I was writing about last August.

In Icke, I talk about an interview I stumbled across on TV with David Icke.  I try and be a bit clever and draw parallels with Icke’s nonsense and religion, but I’m not really good at that sort of stuff. I’m better when I stick to crap jokes.

I wrote quite a lot about Liverpool FC this month.  It’s not surprising as you were still able to be optimistic about the Reds this time last year.  Strangely, though, my first football post, Season’s Greetings, starts with me stating how apathetic I was feeling toward the impending season.  This makes me feel a bit better about being indifferent later on in the season when we were doing crap. I also point out that Arbeloa would be a loss for the Reds’ squad and I don’t think this has been picked up on enough by the media.

My next football post, Piss Poor Punditry, slags off the press for writing off Liverpool’s chances.  I can only apologise to them for my idiocy.  I clearly know nothing about the beautiful game.  That said, I think a lot of the points are valid.  Maybe the pundits just got lucky in predicting Liverpool’s demise.  Anyway, I do redeem myself somewhat by pointing out the Football Fan Hypocrisy.

I mention the post Gone West (Wing) only because it’s quite long and so it’s worth a re-read.  It’s my thoughts on The West Wing after watching the final ever episode, but I also manage to slag off Star Trek: The Next Generation in the same post, which really seems quite a feat.

Remember when I actually used to read books?  So do I (just about).  This month saw me write the post Reading Habits – An Introduction in which I explain the rules I employed when selecting books to read.  Yes, I really did have a set of rules. I know. I’m a loser.

Ah, happy memories as I share some of my photos of Wire @ Wembley (Warrington Wolves winning last year’s rugby league challenge cup).  I ended the post hoping that it wouldn’t be another 20 years until we got to Wembley again.  Well, my dreams came true and we also went this weekend.. and we won again!  I also published some photos of the Warrington Wolves Homecoming.  I went to this year’s homecoming too, but I didn’t take any photos as they would have been identical.  Just look at last year’s and use your imagination.

And that’s all I have to say about August 2009.  If you’d like to read all the posts then click here.

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English Premier League – Norway’s National Sport

August 14, 2010 Leave a Comment

With the new Premier League season starting today, where better to be than Norway, the home of English football.

In a country where everything is ridiculously expensive (we’ve just had a chicken kebab for dinner that cost £8), the national sport of English football seems curiously subsidised.  The subscription for the Premier League TV package costs £19 per month, but this includes coverage of most matches over 3 channels.  Much of the pre-match build up and some of the commentary is even in English.  It’s quite unbelievable.

Anyway, we’re in the middle of watching Tottenham v Man City (how Spurs aren’t winning is a mystery), so I’m going to concentrate on that.

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Two Weeks of Sherby57: 18th July – 31st July 2010

August 4, 2010 Leave a Comment

Like a teenage badger who thinks he’s hard because he’s got a flick-comb, I return to entertain you with romcoms, nonsense and tales of derring do.  Sit back, relax and enjoy the last two weeks of The World of Sherby57.

Sunday 18th

Doppelganger! – A Tale of Adventure – A thrilling story from olden times (era not specified), when a woman meets her doppelgänger and almost nothing else of interest happens.

Monday 19th

Gravy Wars – Another chance to listen to my podcast in which we learn of Hulk Hogan’s significance in ending the second world war.

Tuesday 20th

Cyril’s Day Out – Another micro-literary fiction classic about a man on a day-trip to Llandudno.

Wednesday 21st

INPUT REQUIRED (Widnes Supercomputer) – The blog temporarily ran a live webchat with Widnes’s first supercomputer.  Read this post to find out what happened.

Thursday 22nd

Perception – A Story –  It may be set in a crazy future in which people live in pods, but don’t be fooled.  This is as romantic a romcom as you’re likely to read.  Unless you’re in the future and I’ve already written a more romantic one.

Sunday 25th

Wool Shop Songs – A story from my youth about singing for buttons.

Monday 26th

Mastersherby57 on TV – Another roundup of the week’s TV.  This edition features: The Erotic Bin Men of Old London Town, Ken Bobbins is Interesting and Jacques Villeneuve’s Barmy Army.

Tuesday 27th

A Man Sat in a Box – Some nonsense about boxes.

Wednesday 28th

Listen – Wah, wah wah.  Do you want to know a secret?

Thursday 29th

Joe’s Diner – A Story – Wow, another romantic romcom of the highest calibre (my opinion).  You’re all so lucky to have me.

Friday 30th

My Prophetic Dream –  My first Plinky attempt on TWoS57.  It’s quite a lame joke.

Saturday 31st

My Neighbours – A Poem – Another Plinky post.  It’s rubbish, but I felt compelled to finish it.

Fighting Evil With Corn Flakes: The Sherby57 Story – Yet more Plinky madness, but this time I like it.  It’s the first chapter of Sherby57′s memoirs and it’s very moving.  If any publishers are reading, then I’m happy to complete this whole book for a modest advance.

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