BBC is doing some good stuff!!!!

Woo, I've just read that starting March 30th BBC2 is going to start airing ...*drumroll*..... THE WIRE!!!!! Yes you read that right!!!! The Wire is showing again on FX on Monday nights but BBC2 reaches so many more people and it's free which means that honestly you have no excuse to watch it. Plus the fact that its on during the Easter holidays means that people don't need to go to school the next day (plus who revises at night). This absolutely fantastic news and I'm going to be doing my best to force as many people as I can to watch. (NB if you do get convinced don't give up after one episode, give it at least the first six and you'll be hooked).

Secondly BBC4 is going start airing Newswipe on March 25th at 10:30, so now we get Charlie Brooker's sardonic wit to talk to us about the news as well as television, that is just made of WIN!!!! Also Charlie is a fan of the Wire so there's a link between those two. Oh and You've Been Watching a panel show also hosted by Brooker starts on Channel 4 very soon another awesome announcement.

Finally something I'm not 100% sure about. Who remembers last years Doctor Who finale? Yeah it was awful partly because of its bloated nature and Russel T. Davies uncanny ability to piss all over a good thing. Well guess what. He's having another go!!! Yes Martha is back (because Freema just loves doing anything attached to the Doctor Who name) as are Rose (HOW!?!?!) and Donna (AGAIN HOW?!?!?!). This is the regeneration story which will be airing sometime next year or possibly New Years as we have the first special in a few weeks followed by the next one at Christmas. Unless they're going to hold back this final two part special until next Spring, they're going to air it over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Whilst the return of Rose and Donna is going to take a lot of explaining, one thing which many people will be happy to hear is that John Simm's Master will be back in these episodes. Something I'm sure IasG14 will be very happy to hear. I hope that Davies can give us a good explanation as to why Rose can be back in the Doctor's dimension and why Donna's head won't explode but I'm not going to keep my hopes up. In slightly more hopeful news, during Steven Moffat's tenure the TARDIS will be redesigned and Cassie from Skins may become the new companion. Here's to the future of Who.

Favourite TV Shows 2008 - #01 The Wire

Honestly, it couldn't be any other show. Believe the hype. With people from TIME, Entertainment Weekly and The Guardian calling it the best show on TV, it's normal to think "stupid critics, don't know a fucking thing about television". However you are fucking wrong, you are so fucking wrong that the only way you could be more wrong is if you tried to deny the holocaust. Trust me, The Wire is unequivocally the best show on television...ever. I might hold Lost as my favourite television show, but The Wire is possibly the only show which can contest that, however I will say that it is better than Lost in terms of what it is. It is just superb. I'm probably going to go around in circles just sort of quietly ranting to myself in a corner. I'm nowhere near qualified enough to actually comment on what this and how it does it so well. It's riveting. I've never seen anything which attempts to do what this show does, and it does it perfectly. It comments superbly on just how fucked up some of America is and all the problems that it has from drugs, police, politicians, dock workers, journalists and the school system. However, and there is no way I can word it better, "no other TV show has ever loved a city so well, damned it so passionately, or sung it so searingly", it's just so fucking true! You can tell that the creator David Simon, loves Baltimore, loves it with all his heart, and yet he knows exactly whats wrong with it. He writes this searing criticism of where the city is going but it just seems like this massive warning saying "I don't want this to happen to my city!" I've seen interviews with the guy and he's oh so intelligent. He's funny and he's up on politics. Most of the stuff I watch is little geeky TV shows, and they're fucking awesome, don't get me wrong, but The Wire is just a completely different level to all other TV shows. It's just a shame that it doesn't get recognised by awards shows (however that's because TV awards are fundamentally broken, but that'll make a good blog later on.

Last year I said this about The Wire:

The Wire is a novel. There is no other way to describe it, if you miss a single episode you’re fucked. However the show includes a massive array of characters and each episode focuses on multiple plot points, and it makes it work.

and it sticks. The Wire is exactly like a televised novel. Not some shitty novel. This is one of those almighty amazing novels which is just so great you read it one sitting (I've done that many a time). The Wire may just be one of the storytelling pinnacles of television. The story feels realistic. You might think I'm bullshitting you but I'm not. The Wire doesn't have characters who can survive a million bullets, moving islands, superpowers or people that can wake the dead. It has real people, many of whom are actually played by people from Baltimore and not professional actors. Speaking of which the acting in The Wire is possibly the highest level I've ever seen by an ensemble. There isn't a weak link at all. It's like they're all operating at 110%...honestly.

Last year The Wire was at number 5 last year and this year it's number 1. Really the main reason for that is I just fucking got it this year. Last year I knew it was god but I wasn't too sure. This year Season 3 grabbed me by the balls and season 4 by the heartstrings. Season 3 and 4 of this show combined are one of the strongest showings of any show ever (it's stronger than Veronica Mars Season 1). I've spoken about television perfection before and I would say that this show is one of the few that has obtained that. Yes Season 5 is a bit weaker but it's still fucking better than 99% of the shit that currently airs. The Wire is that once in a lifetime show. Something which may never be bettered and something deep I hope isn't, because if I die and something better than this is made? Well I won't be able to do anything because I'm dead but I'd be quite miffed wherever I've ended up.

Here's Charlie Brooker of Screenwipe's opinion:


Honestly I would love to go on but The Wire is something that you need to experience. I could talk about Michael K. Williams portrayal of Omar or Andre Royo's portrayal as Bubbles. But then I might take away some of the joy of getting to experience these characters, as they are some of the strongest written in a fucking long time. Everything on this show comes together in the most satisfying of holes. The acting, writing, setting, directing, dialogue and characters. If you're looking for an amazing show to sink you're teeth into then this is it. It's 60 episodes long and is quite honestly one of the best experiences that you can possibly have sat in front of a television. You might not be interested in black American lifestyles, but this show will make you interested and just hold you by the neck showing everything you don't want to see. Drug overdoes, murder and gang wars. Along with the dirtiness of politics, prostitution and the police force. How shit the school system is and what do the newspapers really miss?

This is my final plea. If you haven't seen this show then do it. Don't give up after 3 episodes because the dialogue is so thick with slang, stick with it and you'll come across one of those hidden gems of television. Something you can treasure for ever as you are one of the select few to experience it. But remember your tissues for Season 4.

I do wish there could be more episodes of the Wire, because I would love to put it as number 1 next year. But there won't be. I'm just glad I got to watch this masterpiece before it ended. It truly is astonishingly amazing. Something which shouldn't be passed over.

Of The Wire

Right I would like to preface this next blog post by saying that I am in no way whatsoever qualified to soliloquise what makes The Wire so bloody awesome (more awesome than The Dark Knight which as I’ve made clearly is pretty darn awesome).

I would also like to say that The Wire isn’t my favourite show on television (still belongs to Lost), but it is safe to say that The Wire is well and truly the best show on television. Not just at the moment but all time.

Now as to why The Wire is so fantastic. Well The Wire is so fantastic because it is so brutally honest with the viewer. Whilst it isn’t solely for that reason, it is definitely a big part as to why this show is superb. No other show on television is able to show with such brutal honesty the police, the drug trade, port workers, school systems, politics and now in season 5 a news room.

Of course the acting and the writing for this show are superb. In particular characters such as Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), Stinger Bell (Idris Elba), Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West)…. ah screw it the entire cast is flipping awesome and it’s a sight to behold that even within a cast of over 30 main characters (which makes Lost seem small) there is hardly a weak actor in the entire bunch.

The story is long and over arching, a lot like Lost except without the centric episodes devoted to certain characters and weird fantasy type moments. The Wire is completed grounded in reality to the point where all the music is diegetic (apart from the montages that finish off each of the seasons). The Wire isn’t one of those shows where you can sit and surf the net for an hour and still understand what has happened in the preceding hour. You have to be concentrating 100%, which is in no way a strike against but something that you must be prepared for if you do watch. Another thing about the show which again in no way is a negative point is that the plot moves at very slow pace and so takes a while to get into the main plot of the series. But it’s still the best show on TV even when its setting up all of these little plot points and layering it’s characters to a point where they look like onions.

Now onto Series 5 of The Wire. Series 5 begins a year after the end of series 4 and continues the poor state of disrepair that Baltimore is enduring. Marlo Stanfield still rules the streets of West Baltimore. Major Crimes is getting nowhere in their investigation meaning that there are more than 20 unclaimed bodies in the morgue. Mayor Carcetti is trying to get the school budget under control which means diverting money from the police funds leading to the police moral being at an all time low. They aren’t receiving overtime pay for their work and have to drive rusty cars around town on their patrols. The media is completely out of touch with what’s happening in Baltimore. Oh and McNulty is drinking again.

So all in all just another average day in Baltimore. And it can only get worse from here. Yup it looks like Baltimore is going to get a lot worse over the coming weeks hopefully leading up to an awesome ending (which from what I've heard is pretty special). So the series premiere of series 5 has shown that not a lot is going to change in Baltimore and we're going to get all the normal killings and indepth introspectives into the lives of a group of people who have never had such a heart felt look at their culture before.

LONG LIVE BALTIMORE

P.S. Lost Comic-Con panel gave us this awesome video.

Is that Daniel Faraday I hear in the background? 30 years in the past?

Also, finally a release date for The Fall in the UK. October 3^rd I can hardly wait (luckily Heroes, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock will be back on by then).

Favourite TV Shows 2007

Well here is my list of favourite television shows and episodes of 2007. It was quite a year, looking forward to what 2008 brings.

1. Lost
Lost is the best show on television, Period. I have yet to come across a show which can beat it in terms of story or characters. The story is continually engaging and characters like Ben, Locke, Desmond and Eko keep me coming back for more and more. Whilst Season 3 started slowly it got into its stride and then kept going only to slow up during that ruddy tattoo episode.

OMG LOST SEASON 4 = FREAKING AWESOME

2. Dexter
Dexter is the best show on television (wait didn’t I already say that?). Okay best show that doesn’t involve an island. Dexter had a superb first season and the second is even better. Dexter has had me drawn in with suspense and amazing acting since the first episode. Michael C. Hall deserves every acting award under the sun for what he’s done with the character of Dexter.

3. Firefly
A show I ashamedly only watched this year, Firefly was an awesome show which I binge watched in a day along with the movie Serenity. Firefly is a show that shouldn’t have been cancelled and gets this high on my list not only because it’s amazing but because I want to show it my (belated) support and pray that it comes back in any shape or form.

4. Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies is the best new show of 2007. The style and concepts are perfect and help give the show a real Tim Burton-esque feel. The show boasts lightning wit and has already become the critics darling. My only wish is for its continued sucess around the world. Which is I am pledging to get as many people as I can to watch it when comes to the UK. Even if it does mean that I will have to watch ITV1 *groan*

5. The Wire
The Wire is a novel. There is no other way to describe it, if you miss a single episode you’re f*****. However the show includes a massive array of characters and each episode focuses on multiple plot points, and it makes it work (unlike the stodgy mess that Heroes has become). The Wire is another show that I did not get into until this year but unlike another show that I started watching this year (24) I’m gonna keep this up till it finishes

6. South Park
South Parkis hilarious. It’s crude yet socially applicable at the same time. South Park is the only show I can think off that can take the piss of events going on in the real world whilst having an array of characters that are completely off the wall (talking poo and a towel, come on!!). However South Park makes it work and provides continuous laughs week in, week out.

7. Doctor Who
Oh Doctor Who you’re still an awesome show but can you please get rid of the Deus Ex Machina endings you seem to incorporate into you’re finales? You have an awesome build up towards the last episode of the series but they always end up disappointing. Episodes like Blink, Family of Blood and Utopia show that you are still one of the best shows on TV. So I want you to make me a promise next year Stephen Moffat is going to write the finale. Okay?

8. Heroes
Heroes started of really well. The story and characters were awesome and there was definite sense of motivation, then the season 1 finale happened. It was terrible. Heroes could have still made my top 5 shows of the year if it came back in the autumn with all the bravado it seemingly left behind the season’s penultimate episode, but sadly it didn’t and suffered for it. We didn’t want more build up; we wanted super powers and action. Then there’s the fact that they became too bogged down with the cast. Too many stories per episode meant that the pacing faltered and urgency was lost. Episodes like Company Man where there are only one or two storylines and the shows strength and they should make more like it. This making me sound negative isn't it, Heroes was good but then they just couldn't carry the story and the writers have admitted they screwed up so I can't wait for the next batch of episodes (a re-powered Sylar already has me salivating)

9. Chuck
Chuck is another new show. Chuck is a show that encompasses a lot of the changing perspective of the world. Not like religion or stuff like that but on the view of geeks. Geeks used to be the stereotypical bloke who wears white shirts, plays dungeons and dragons and lives in his mother’s basement. However shows like Chuck, show that it is the time of the geek. Zachary Levi is a natural fit as the awkward Chuck and really with the amount of references to geek topics (video games, gadgets), it’s a show I wouldn’t miss for the world.

10. Top Gear
Oh Top Gear why do have be so difficult? You’re not a comedy yet you’re funnier than most shows on television. Really Top Gear is a show I shouldn’t like. But I love it. I want to put it higher but…I can’t. Because of what it is, a magazine show. I have a loathing for all things without a storyline. Only Top Gear has been able to slip past my net and I intend to keep it that way.

Honourable Mentions:

Jekyll

My Name is Earl

Scrubs

I loved all these shows but they just didn’t do enough to make my list. Jekyll was a great show. But since it won’t be back next year I didn’t want to put it on my list. Scrubs had a lacklustre season (even if My Musical was great) and My Name is Earl failed to deliver as much as it did in its first season.

Maybe Next Year:

Veronica Mars

Started watching this a few days ago and already I can tell it’s gonna be good. Shame it got cancelled, but as we can see with Firefly I don’t really care if a show got the boot or not

EDIT - Having watched most of season one of Veronica Mars (binge watched it over the holidays not in time for this blog update) I can safely say that it would have made my list of favourite shows. The show is amazing. Funny, dramatic and damn good yarn. I HEART VERONICA MARS is all I can say (why didn't I start sooner?!?!?)

Favourite Episodes:

1. Flashes Before Your Eyes Lost

Just wow. Sheer awesome. Best hour of television I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

2. Blink Doctor Who

Stephen Moffat is a genius. Blink showed his incredible skill and talent and was only let down by the bit at the end when he tried to scare the little kiddies and even that was only a few secs long.

3. Pie-Lette Pushing Daisies

Not many shows can get me hooked just by watching the first episode, but Pushing Daisies did and with style (and a large slice of pie)

4. Through the Looking Glass Lost

The series finale of Lost showed how amazing the writers were with a twist at the end that I sadly spoiled for myself and wish I hadn’t. Still and awe-inspiring episode though.

5. Top Gear the American One Top Gear

The funniest hour of television ever, I nearly wet my self on multiple occasions. Top Gear doing what it did best, have three guys piss around in a couple of cars for a few days and film it.

6. Fantastic Easter Special South Park

By far the best episode of South Park the year. A pitch perfect spoof of the Da Vinci Code and at the same commented on how stupid the idea of an Easter Bunny was.

7. Ariel Firefly

A highlight of my year was buying Firefly on DVD. Ariel was the highlight of that experience. Ariel was Firefly at its best and hate awesome plot points and character moments (that scene with Jayne and Mal at the end was awesome)

8. Out of Gas Firefly

When I saw a bit of this on television I thought it was just a flashback episode but it was so much more. The story played out in a non-linear fashion and really showed how creative some writers are.

9. My Musical Scrubs

My Musical was wickedly funny episode featuring so many jokes from Scrubs’ past. The songs were great (Guy Love being the best) and even had its poignant moments that make Scrubs one of the funniest but also dramatic shows on television.

10. Company Man Heroes

Company Man is Heroes at its finest. One story line with lots of the main characters interacting with each other, and the flashbacks helped fill in Mr. Bennet’s past. Also it was the final episode featuring the amazing Christopher Eccleston and the last episode written by Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller.