Of The New Television Season

Yup it’s that time again, the beginning of the television season. So with all the shows back (except for 30 Rock which starts in about a month and those mid-season shows), here is my list of the favourite first episodes of the season in descending order i.e. 1-Heroes.

The Office: Weight Loss

The Office Season 5 premiere was superb. I haven’t laughed so much in a while. From Michael ripping up the tickets when Holly invited him out for a date to Angela going off to sleep with Dwight whenever her fiancé Andy spoke to her, it was all hilarious. There was even the continuation of the one of the shows best practical jokes, Holly thinking that Kevin is mentally disabled, leading to an extremely awkward scene when she is proved. But perhaps greatest of all was Jim proposing to Pam, at first I thought he was going to break things off for a while, but he actually proposed!!! Yes The Office does work better as 20 minutes rather 40, but if the longer episodes maintain this level of quality I really don’t care.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Samson and Delilah

I started watching Sarah Connor Chronicles over the summer and it was definitely interesting. However it was season 2 that has gotten me truly hooked. In this pilot we got an answer to the question ‘what happens when a good Terminator goes bad?’ What followed was 40 minutes of Cameron chasing John and Sarah in the aftermath of the explosion that finished season 2. The season has only continued to get better since this episode, with the last 2 episodes being particularly great. Sarah Connor also proved in this episode and the season 1 finale that it is the best show for choosing songs to be put over action scenes. Finally this episode also introduced to a type of Terminator not seen since 1992 in the second Terminator film for what promises to be a truly great season.

Pushing Daisies: Bzzzzzzzzz!

Pushing Daisies is back! This episode leaps right into the shows amazingly fast paced dialogue and primary colour palette. It had everything that we could possibly want from an episode of Pushing Daisies. Interesting murders, wacky characters, plenty of twists and some of the best set design on television. The fact that this show creates brand new locales for every episode is particularly amazing. This week we’re at a honey make-up facility, next week at the circus and then god knows where. It was cool to see the aunts finally coming out of the house and great to see that everything unanswered from last season came up last episode, Chuck’s dad, Ned’s dad, Lilly being Chuck’s mother, Emerson having a lost daughter (as well as his fascination with pop-up books) and Olive being a ‘sawn-off shotgun full of secrets.’ It’s great to have the wackiest show on television back.

How I Met Your Mother: Do I Know You?

How I Met Your Mother returned to screens in its normal hilarity. A lot happened in these 20 minutes. Stella said yes to Ted. Barney is still pining for Robyn and Marshall is still unemployed. How I Met Your Mother really does have the most heart of any show on television at the moment but it’s also the funniest, yes I did rank The Office higher but How I Met Your Mother I believe is the funnier show. If only for Neil Patrick Harris and the awesome amount of awesomeness that he brings to Barney and every single thing he does and says. I’ll be back every week to sample the 20 minutes of awesome that this show brings week in week out.

Dexter: Our Father

My number 2 show of 2007 is back with a slightly weaker season opening. That is in no way a bad thing, because Dexter always takes a few weeks to show you where the show is going to take you this year. In season 1 it was Dexter versus a serial killer. In season 2 it was Dexter versus the Miami Police Department. This year I don’t know where the series is going to go but I do know that it will revolve around this years special guest star Jimmy Smits. By the time that the season gets into its story proper, I have no doubt that the tension starts to rise and the action gets incredible just like the past two seasons have shown why Dexter is one of the best shows on the television, even if Doakes is sadly no longer part of the cast.

Chuck: Chuck versus the First Date

Chuck is again back. This episode is technically a second pilot for the show, to reintroduce those people who haven’t seen the show since January. It does a great job. It was great to see the ‘Chuck must die’ story come back and the ending leaves a lot of questions. What does Fulcrum really want? Will Chuck and Sarah actually get together? Will Casey ever cease to be awesome? The show is a great set up to one of the most fun shows on television. Whilst it’s not a masterpiece like The Wire nor do you have to concentrate for 40 minutes like Veronica Mars or Lost, its just great fun to watch Chuck muddle his way through work, love and spies.

My Name is Earl: The Magic Hour

My Name is Earl fell from my graces last year. I thoroughly enjoyed season 1 but seasons 2 and 3 seemed to have lost the magic. However this and the following 3 episodes are beginning to restore my faith in the show. Whilst it will never be as funny as The Office or How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl may just be able to find what made its first season so great, particularly if it keeps up the big name guest stars like Seth Green (quite possibly the highlight of the season 4 premiere).

Fringe: Pilot

Fringe the only new show on the list, from J. J. Abrams, the man who created Lost. Fringe could definitely turn out to be a great show. However so far it is just showing a great potential. The cast is great, the effects are good, and all the fringe science is really cool. It’s just there is something missing, which I sincerely hope that they find because this show could quickly turn to be one masterpiece of a show. However I will say that it truly is Damon Lindelof that made Lost what it is, even if J.J is the person who gets most of credit for creating the show (also we can’t talk about Damon unless we mention Carlton Cuse as well, because those two are the best writers in the television world. Period.)

Heroes: The Second Coming

Heroes, Heroes, Heroes. Goddamn it! Get your finger out. This season should be awesome!!!! It’s all fucking there!!! Heroes, Villains, Superpowers, you’ve shown you can make that awesome, just look at season 1!!!! Please I have so much faith that you’ll turn this around. So far you’ve not been bad but there’s so much you’ve wasted. Focus on one or two storylines an episode, don’t do the future thing again next year and get rid of the fucking Mopider story. You’ve got one of the best casts on television, Zachary Quinto, Kristin Bell, Masi Oka, Greg Grunberg, Hayden Panettiere and Jack Coleman, plus that’s just main characters!! Christopher Eccleston, Malcolm McDowell, Stephen Tobolowsky, George Takei, Jamie Hector, Francis Capra, Andre Royo, Seth Green and Breckin Meyer!!!! Really it’s not the actors fault at all with all that awesomeness in one place it should be easy to make this incredible, but it’s the writing that brings this down. Too many stories in on episode make it feel bloated as does the repetition the show has. On paper season 3 sounds great, it’s just the execution that hasn’t impressed me so far. So please make the show as great as it used to be, a true rival to Lost’s thrown as best show on television.

That’s the current television first episode reviews (except for 30 Rock) for you. It might not be all of them, but it’s the ones that I watch. Now I’m looking forward to new Lost, Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas’ new show ‘Cupid’ next year. Television is only set to be getting more awesome.

However I do have plea to all American readers. Please, please, please don’t let Pushing Daisies, Chuck or Terminator get cancelled. Viewing figures for these shows are down and the networks might just cancel them. Please save the shows. Save them please. We don’t the Old Adventures of New Christine or Knight Rider to survive if it means Pushing Daisies will die. If they do die then I’ll just have another reason to hate Americans (along with your butchering of Red Dwarf, Sarah Palin and the cancelling of Veronica Mars). Don’t come to me crying when you realise that 90% of television is shit if you won’t save the shows that truly deserve to survive. Unlike horse shit that’s being going on far too long *cough*According to Jim*cough*Boston Legal*cough*Smallville*cough.

No clear up this time, it’s still exactly the same as last time just minus this post so look for movie and book reviews (this will be all the television (unless something amazing happens) until my top 10 shows of 2008.)

Of Fables

Alright I would like to start of by saying I have no problem with any sort of medium that tells a story. Books, television, film, music, theatre etc. However there was one medium I also had a problem with, which was comic books. I followed certain comic book characters (Spider-Man and X-Men mostly) and knew a lot about their story arcs. However I never felt like reading them. I had always preferred long novels than to read little snippets of dialogue with lots of pictures. That along with the fact that these comics had been running for years and had hundreds of issues to read, comics having a geeky stigma around them and the things I had seen they seemed difficult to read.

However this all changed last year. Last year I was suffering 'Lost' withdrawal. I had watched seasons 1-3 in quick succession (only a few months between seasons), however now I had to wait 9 months till season 4 was on Sky One. So I needed something to do and came across an influence the writers of Lost had credited, Watchmen. A comic book by Alan Moore, is on of the biggest influences on how Lost is written. So I bought it looking for something to read, not caring as long as it was similar to Lost. And I did read it. Then I realised I thoroughly enjoyed it. And then I read it again. Then I started recommending it to people. Currently my copy is in the position of a close friend due to the movie trailer which was released a few weeks ago so he can have a knowledge of the story before it releases.

Realising that Watchmen really was amazing (and there will be a blog post about it when the movie comes out) I tried to find more comics to read. Not Spider-Man's and X-Men. Other comics. Not necessarily the ones about superheroes but the less well known ones and critically acclaimed ones. This has led me to find such series as Sandman (Neil Gaiman, friend of Terry Pratchett, bought this one after I read Good Omens a very funny book by them both) and Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughan, a writer on Lost). Both of these are great reads and really interesting. I've also read such comics as The Dark Knight Returns and the Fountain, again I loved both. However there is one series I love the most out of all of these, and that is Fables, the subject of this blog.

Fables for those of you don't know is a comic book version of all your favourite fairy tales after their stories have finished. It's also not just fairy tales but books like Narnia, Oz and Alice in Wonderland. The thing is it takes really interesting spins on the classic characters, a fairly adult twist. Prince Charming is a playboy who was married to Snow White, Cinderella and Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and now fucks any girl who looks at him. The Big Bad Wolf (Bigby Wolf for short) is the sheriff of their community. Jack of Fables is the same Jack from nearly every tale featuring a Jack, Jack Frost, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Jack Horner and so on and so on.

The reason all these Fables are together in one community? Because they have been taken from their individual Fable words by the Adversary (and the reveal of who that is is extremely cool.) This means that many of the Fables now live in a community in New York called Fabletown (catchy huh?). Here they live a life away from the Mundy's and the Adversary's troops, with their Mayor; King Cole, Deputy Mayor; Snow White and many other Fables from an extremely long list that continues to grow. Many of the Fables remain in the 'Homelands' ruled by the Adversary with strict authoritarian ruling. Which means that Fables in the Homelands and those in Fabletown have come to a head at various points (memorably in the March of the Wooden Soldiers and Boy Blues one man mission into the Homeland).

Currently I am only at issue 59 which means I'm 17 issues behind where many of the other readers are at. However so far the series has been packed with amazing moments. From the March of the Wooden Soldiers, the reveal of the Adversary and Blue's accompanying rampage across the Homelands and the many,many unexpected romances that have cropped up along the way. There are so many great characters in this series and thankfully many of them have a back story already in place and are given far more depth than in the stories in this series.

Fables is a great series that I would recommend to almost anyone looking for something cool and interesting to read. It's not particularly taxing to read but it is damn fun. Only 16 issues till major changes in the status quo (still don't know whats going to happen but I do know that the Homelands and Fabletown are going to war.) I'll be posting some more impressions when I get to issue 75 so that should be up fairly soon.

EDIT

Alright I've finished the first 75 issues. All I can say is that I love this series. I would defiantly rank it up there with some of favourite books of all time. The tale that is told is just so interesting. The Fable universe is rich and at the end of this first part of the story I've been treated to so many amazing moments. I've recounted a few above but I would also like to add scenes like Genie arc as well as the issue 75 which was just incredible and just changes so many things.

I'm going to give a score to Fables now. The story is so rich and is constantly surprising. The characters are all amazing (personally favourite is Boy Blue) and the artwork is stunning. Fables definitely deserves a 10/10

Also RIP PC

Of Swearing

Alright this is long overdue but needs to be said. What the fuck is everyones problem with swearing? Why do the vibrations our voice boxes make course so much fuss? Why is saying "poo" more acceptable than "shit" or "crap" when they have the same meaning? I know it all comes down to context, but nowadays shit and crap are perfectable ways to say faeces. Teenagers will swear freely all the time, some don't even know they're doing it. My view on this whole thing probably comes from a lack of context in which the word was originally created, however overtime the useage of this word has just been whitled to a point where they no longer swear words. They are merely words to say in normal conversation. Fuck doesn't have to be used when angry anymore merely in normal converstaion. Words like fucktards can now be terms of endearments instead of insults. Yes the word is still used to insult people but due to useage in every day conversation their is no bite to the word. It is merely used to show anger. The insult and crudeness of swearing has been lost over time. 50 years ago people would have had their mouths washed out. Nowadays you can hardly go into a cinema withough having the word fuck endlessly forced down your throat. There are movies titled "Fuck" and "Young People Fucking", we have now reached a stage where to a younger generation the word fuck means nothing and to the older it is still vulgar. Words like "nigger" and "poof" have been taken back by the demographics originally they were supposed to oppress and now they to are used as terms of endearment in their culture. Swear words are losing their bite and there will soon come a time where no one will cringe when they hear someone saying "fuck", "cunt", "shit" or "cock". Movies are still rated on swear words. Some movies are only 15s because of the amount of swearing, however in this paradoxial world I have seen 8 year olds with fouler language than some 15s. Yes the blood and violence still warrant a 15 but when we come down to whether or not someone should see a movie depending on the words said in it isn't that a bit bollocks? Swear words are on a downhill slope to a point where they will just become "words". There is no way we can stop this. Current generations have no knowledge of what these mean. To them they are just to be used if angry or in place of any noun, adjective or verb if they get stuck. Eventually when the avant garde have died swear words will become a part of our cultural lexicon. Whilst other words may replace them the current swear words "fuck", "shit", "cocksucker", "cunt", "piss", "tits" and "motherfucker" will be taken into the normal lexicon and used by people everywhere. In 50 years time not only will we have the first generation of technology literate grandparents but also the most foul mouthed grandparents ever.

Clear up: Due to competition from IaSg14 I will be picking up blog posting. Don't know how often just whenever I feel like it. I'm thinking my next post will be talking about Fables then afterwards I may let of some steam about America (although mostly Sarah Palin). None of this is set in stone however. I also aim to post reviews of old movies and tv shows. Namely my favourite movies of all time (I'll do the Darren Aronofsky 3 in one posts), Veronica Mars Season 1 and The Wire as a whole (last nights finale was fucking epic althought not quite as good as the Season 4 finale).

Of International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Yarr 'tis international talk like a pirate day...me harteys


Coming very soon a rant about swearing, more reviews of books, television and movies and hopefully iasg14's payback for this review of Ugly Betty. Better make it good and evil or otherwise there really is no point in me wasting a post over it.

Of Anticipated Movies

Those of you remember may remember back a few months when I posted a list of my most anticipated movies. Well that list remains unchanged (however I have seen both The Fall and Redbelt, The Fall I will watch again to get proper bearings on). However I do have a couple of films to add and some things to do to the order. So heres the list which has evolved into a top 10:

1. The Wrestler - I freaking love Darren Aronofsky. All three of his films are fantastic and two of them are in my top six. So I can safely say that I am psyched for this one. Especially with all the buzz, it having just won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice film festival and Mickey Rourke being pegged with an Oscar nomination. Now all I need is a trailer to show people. Also excited for Arronofsky's future movies The Fighter and Robocop.

2. Watchmen - I really, really loved the Watchmen graphic novel, so a movie adaptation has me interested no end. Also if it has to come out at 3 hours to do a service to the original source material then so be it. If the price of awesome is being that long then so be it (Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings have both proven that a long run time is in no way a hinderance of awesomeness).

3. Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Alright I am intriqued by this one. Its a movie about a man who ages backwards and who falls in love with a girl who ages normally. Also its directed by David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt and if these twos previous colaborations are anything to go by (Se7en and Fight Club) this is a match made in heaven.

4. Quantum of Solace - A sequel to Casino Royale which was a brilliant movie. This movie promises to be more epic in every way possible. Whilst its a different director its still Daniel Craig and if you dont know that Daniel Craig is awesome you should be slapped right now.

5. Angels and Demons - I enjoyed Angels and Demons. Yes its trashy but its enjoyable to read. The twists are unexpected and whilst Da Vinci was a little self indulgent I'm willing to put some faith in this one. As long as its at least a 15 and they don't pussy out of showing some of the more imaginitive deaths in the book (paticulalry FIRE). Oh and Ron Howard (the director) is directing an Arrested Development movie which will be hilarious.

6. The Neverhood - Now we move into the what ifs. Here are the movies that aren't currently filming and have no proof that they will exist, but I'm still psyched for 'em. As you may know I love The Neverhood, it's my favourite game ever. So I really want this movie made. We need more claymation movies. Aardman are the only people who seem interested in doing them so I hope that Douglas Tennapel can get this one made. Also it'll be great to give the wonders of Willie Trombone to the masses.

7. Veronica Mars - Hell Yes!!!!! How can I not be psyched? Whislt nothing is written in stone yet just the fact that there will be a script for a movie of one of my favourite tv shows ever has me pumped.

8. The World's End - Yup it's the third entry in the Blood and Ice-Cream Trilogy. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are wickedly funny and the promise of more Pegg, Wright and Frost is awesome. The third "part" is still shrouded in secrecy. No one the genre or the setting. All we know is that it will contain a Mint Cornetto and lots of blood and laughter.

9. The Hobbit - It might not be Peter Jackson (especially after his falling out with New Line) but it's directed by Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth. The movie is gonna be in two parts, the first a telling of the Hobbit and the second some sort of prequel to Lord of the Rings. Whilst no one knows whats gonna happen in the second movie more Lord of the Rings is only a good thing right? Also del Toro is directing a film adaptation of one of my favourite books Slaughterhouse-5. Wonder if he'll take any ideas from Lost?

10. Open Hearts - This one I'm not to sure about. I've seen it's been in pre-production for ages. Garden State is one of my favourite movies ever and a new Zach Braff movie can only be good especially with Scrubs ending next year. If the movie doesn't come out soon I'm going to have to check out the original Danish version

Trailer Roundup:
Watchmen


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


Quantum of Solace

Of Red Dwarf One Hour Special

Red Dwarf One Hour Special? To be filmed in October?

FUCK YES!!!!!!!

Of Screenwipe

Alright I aim on making this short and sweet. Please watch Screenwipe. It is deftly funny and an interesting look at the world of televsion. Series 5 will be on BBC in just a couple of months and even if you haven't seen any of the previous episodes don't worry and almost the entirety of the show can be found on Youtube. In fact below you will find the entire of the first episode. Yup that's right. Not a review in site. Just a plea to watch the show.