Finally caught up with these US imports the other night.
Dirt was okay: the plot was predictable, Pee-Wee Herman felt out of place and the ongoing B-plot was hard to pick up. On the other hand, Ian Hart as Don Konkey was great in what little screen time he was given, and the show managed to tread the fine line between glorifying the tabloids and showing the muck underneath the glossy surface. Will give it another shot as I keep hearing fantastic things about Ian Hart, but it felt like the show hadn’t really found it’s feet: that it was holding back.
Holding back is certainly not something you could accuse Dexter of: death, drugs and dismemberment all rolled into one Miami sun-baked package. What makes this different from other cop shows (like CSI: Miami) is that instead of having a lead who spends the whole show posturing (like CSI:Miami) or being smug (like CSI:Miami) or wearing shades even at night (like CSI… oh you get the idea), the lead in Dexter is a charming, confident team player who works in the police lab by day whilst murdering killers the police can’t nail at night. Oh, and it’s a black comedy. Jet black. The opening sequence of Dexter getting up in the morning makes this abundantly clear as blood oranges are squeezed, steaks are stabbed and floss wire is pulled tight. A wonderful, dark, warped and gripping show that I wished I’d seen from the beginning.
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Libelled Lady
A fun film from the thirties staring Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, and most importantly: William Powell and Myrna Loy. If those names don’t mean anything to you, don’t watch the film yet. Instead, get the Thin Man collection and watch them all. Half my wife’s and my enjoyment came from recognising the cast from the Thin Man and seeing them play off each other in a different situation. The film could almost be a prequel, showing how Nick and Nora got together.
The plot is lightweight and Tracy and Harlow are more annoying than comic, but Powell and Loy bring the screen to life. Tracy’s newspaper publishes a story about Loy that turns out to be untrue. Loy intends to sue for 5 million, so Tracey hires Powell to save the paper by faking a scandal about Loy using Harlow (Tracy’s betrothed) as Powell’s wife, but Powell falls for Loy. Which leads to lots of comic sparing, a touching romance and the best worst trout fishing you’ll ever see.
The plot is lightweight and Tracy and Harlow are more annoying than comic, but Powell and Loy bring the screen to life. Tracy’s newspaper publishes a story about Loy that turns out to be untrue. Loy intends to sue for 5 million, so Tracey hires Powell to save the paper by faking a scandal about Loy using Harlow (Tracy’s betrothed) as Powell’s wife, but Powell falls for Loy. Which leads to lots of comic sparing, a touching romance and the best worst trout fishing you’ll ever see.
Shelves
Spent the Bank Holiday weekend picking, buying, carrying, opening, returning, assembling, moving and stacking shelves. I never want to build another shelf again. Some important things I’ve learnt about them:
-As soon as you buy one shelf, it will become impossible to buy any more in the same line, forcing you to have mismatched shelves or to start all over again.
-The only free walls in the house will have electrical, gas, water or all three running behind them.
-If the shelf parts were made level, your floor wasn’t.
-Stores clearly use an equation to convert from storing CDs to DVDs instead of actually counting them as shelves never hold the DVDs they claim.
-Shelves are extremely heavy, but can just fit on the No. 28 bus.
-You always need one more shelf than you bought.
-As soon as you buy one shelf, it will become impossible to buy any more in the same line, forcing you to have mismatched shelves or to start all over again.
-The only free walls in the house will have electrical, gas, water or all three running behind them.
-If the shelf parts were made level, your floor wasn’t.
-Stores clearly use an equation to convert from storing CDs to DVDs instead of actually counting them as shelves never hold the DVDs they claim.
-Shelves are extremely heavy, but can just fit on the No. 28 bus.
-You always need one more shelf than you bought.
Friday, 24 August 2007
Pilots, Pilots Everywhere
It’s the start of the Edinburgh International Television Festival today, and most of the channels are cancelling vast swaths of their existing shows (goodbye Celebrity Big Brother, we’ll not miss you!) to make way for a range of exciting and innovative home grown programming. In other words, the old popular shows are costing us too much so lets ditch them for something cheaper. Now in general I approve, but it really depends on what they replace the timeslots with. Channel 4 is going to spend more with small indies (ones with less than 2 million turn over) to help support growth in the sector, or do they want companies that are a little more… eager for work and willing to get paid a little less? I’m sure it’s not that. Then there’s the big furore about trust in broadcasters (cue Paxman, exit pursued by an angry controller). That’s going to eat up the training budget and cause the less-then-body-builder-physiqued producers the more than occasional hernia when they try to carry the new editorial standards guidelines into meetings.
There’s also been a few interesting general trends in commissioning lately. Both BBC3 and Channel 4 have upcoming series of one off pilots. BBC3 has 6 dramas coming later this year:
Six For Three
and Channel 4 has ‘Coming Up’, a series of 8 original half hour dramas:
Coming Up
It’s nothing new, and has worked very well in the past (Seven of One led to Porridge, Open All Hours and the less successful The Magnificent Evans) but this feels like a way to test the waters before commissioning a full series, rather than intentionally constructing a series of short dramas. Why does that make a difference? Well, for one thing I’d be interested to know what budgets these got, and for writers, creating a one off drama so that it can also be turned into a series can lead to a confused mess of open ended plot points and sudden resolutions. Hopefully these won’t fall victim to these problems, but the fact that most of the BBC3 shows feature “a group of teenagers in [insert location/situation here]” isn’t a good sign. On the other hand, one of them features a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf flat sharing, so it’s not all predictable.
There’s also been a few interesting general trends in commissioning lately. Both BBC3 and Channel 4 have upcoming series of one off pilots. BBC3 has 6 dramas coming later this year:
Six For Three
and Channel 4 has ‘Coming Up’, a series of 8 original half hour dramas:
Coming Up
It’s nothing new, and has worked very well in the past (Seven of One led to Porridge, Open All Hours and the less successful The Magnificent Evans) but this feels like a way to test the waters before commissioning a full series, rather than intentionally constructing a series of short dramas. Why does that make a difference? Well, for one thing I’d be interested to know what budgets these got, and for writers, creating a one off drama so that it can also be turned into a series can lead to a confused mess of open ended plot points and sudden resolutions. Hopefully these won’t fall victim to these problems, but the fact that most of the BBC3 shows feature “a group of teenagers in [insert location/situation here]” isn’t a good sign. On the other hand, one of them features a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf flat sharing, so it’s not all predictable.
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Four Films
The Bourne Ultimatum
Go. See. This. Film. It's worth rewatching The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy first as there's lots of shout outs to the previous installments. The film's cracking and Paul Greengrass is a stunning director. Oh, and in case your wondering, no the title doesn't make any sense.
Transformers
Bad acting. Bad dialogue. No plot. Shakey cam. But it's *Transformers*! If that doesn't mean anything to you, you either skipped the film or thought it was a waste of time. And it is. But it's *Transformers*! (Oh, and Shia LaBeouf is great. Looking forward to him in Indi 4)
The Simpsons Movie
Really enjoyed this. I know a lot of people say it isn't as funny as the series but a) the series hasn't been funny for years, b) the original series didn't have to sustain a 90 min plot and c) spider pig. Can he swing from a web? Course he can't, he's a pig.
Hairspray
Wasn't looking forward to this for one reason: John Travolta. In drag and in a fat suit. And he very nearly ruined the film for me. But the rest of the cast were wonderful, Christopher Walken dances, and the whole thing is so fun and uplifting it's hard not to leave with a big grin on your face.
Go. See. This. Film. It's worth rewatching The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy first as there's lots of shout outs to the previous installments. The film's cracking and Paul Greengrass is a stunning director. Oh, and in case your wondering, no the title doesn't make any sense.
Transformers
Bad acting. Bad dialogue. No plot. Shakey cam. But it's *Transformers*! If that doesn't mean anything to you, you either skipped the film or thought it was a waste of time. And it is. But it's *Transformers*! (Oh, and Shia LaBeouf is great. Looking forward to him in Indi 4)
The Simpsons Movie
Really enjoyed this. I know a lot of people say it isn't as funny as the series but a) the series hasn't been funny for years, b) the original series didn't have to sustain a 90 min plot and c) spider pig. Can he swing from a web? Course he can't, he's a pig.
Hairspray
Wasn't looking forward to this for one reason: John Travolta. In drag and in a fat suit. And he very nearly ruined the film for me. But the rest of the cast were wonderful, Christopher Walken dances, and the whole thing is so fun and uplifting it's hard not to leave with a big grin on your face.
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Moving House
We've moved!
After several weeks (months?) we're finally settled in our new home 4 doors down from our old one (we love Wandsworth). We've our dining table, bed, coffee table, TV, Sky+, piano and in a few weeks should finally get our sofas (we're on a futon for now). Oh, and we have internet!
Some tips for other movers:
-Sky needs a BT line. BT take ~a week to get a new line set up for you. So time your Sky set up to happen the day after BT install the line. And book them both before you move in to save time.
-Sky take up to 3 weeks to get you online *after* BT confim the line. And BT take up to 5 days to confirm the line. So be prepared to be without the internet for up to a month, even if you plan things carefully.
-Argos suck. Their online system sucks. Their store ordering policy sucks. Their customer service is great. Just kidding, it sucks. Once you actually get the stuff in your house, it's pretty good. But just trying getting it there...
-PJ's Emporium in New Malden does gorgeous oak furniture. And they're friendly. And they delivery quickly and within a small time window. We love PJ's.
-John Lewis sucks. Their delivery service sucks. Their phone system sucks. Their customer support sucks (apart from Denise who actually knows how to help you). Again, once you actually get the stuff it's pretty good, but my goodness it's a battle to get it (Agincourt with fewer French).
-Parents are wonderful. This is true in general, but especially so when moving house.
-You *never* finish unpacking (seriously, we have a box from 18 months ago that we never opened at our last house. Or maybe that's just us being lazy. Think I know which it is...)
-Work for an understanding company who let you work from home so you can take delivery of things. In turn, make sure you actually *do* the work, and plan for your day in advance so you can cope without internet (see above).
Well, that's the highs and lows of my wife and I's last month. How have you been?
After several weeks (months?) we're finally settled in our new home 4 doors down from our old one (we love Wandsworth). We've our dining table, bed, coffee table, TV, Sky+, piano and in a few weeks should finally get our sofas (we're on a futon for now). Oh, and we have internet!
Some tips for other movers:
-Sky needs a BT line. BT take ~a week to get a new line set up for you. So time your Sky set up to happen the day after BT install the line. And book them both before you move in to save time.
-Sky take up to 3 weeks to get you online *after* BT confim the line. And BT take up to 5 days to confirm the line. So be prepared to be without the internet for up to a month, even if you plan things carefully.
-Argos suck. Their online system sucks. Their store ordering policy sucks. Their customer service is great. Just kidding, it sucks. Once you actually get the stuff in your house, it's pretty good. But just trying getting it there...
-PJ's Emporium in New Malden does gorgeous oak furniture. And they're friendly. And they delivery quickly and within a small time window. We love PJ's.
-John Lewis sucks. Their delivery service sucks. Their phone system sucks. Their customer support sucks (apart from Denise who actually knows how to help you). Again, once you actually get the stuff it's pretty good, but my goodness it's a battle to get it (Agincourt with fewer French).
-Parents are wonderful. This is true in general, but especially so when moving house.
-You *never* finish unpacking (seriously, we have a box from 18 months ago that we never opened at our last house. Or maybe that's just us being lazy. Think I know which it is...)
-Work for an understanding company who let you work from home so you can take delivery of things. In turn, make sure you actually *do* the work, and plan for your day in advance so you can cope without internet (see above).
Well, that's the highs and lows of my wife and I's last month. How have you been?
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