"...cook/cock..."

Okay, in my previous post referring to the first episode of this third season of Skins, I opined the opinion that in my opinion the character of Cook is, not to put to fine a point on it, a cunt.

The second episode was the Cook episode, and the plot - well, I say plot - revolved around his birthday shenanigans. So, with this episode we got to know Cook a little better and to evaluate whether the initial impression that he is a cunt was, in fact, an accurate representation of his character. I must say, I was wrong.

I underestimated his level of cuntiness.

He is an extremely massive cunt. He is the Crown Prince of Cunts. 

But, despite being an extremely massive cunt, he is immensely watchable; you're kind of wondering what he's going to do next, and to what depths of cuntiness he will descend to. It's kind of spellbinding in this respect. It takes something to have a character who's such an extremely massive cunt and yet still make him compelling viewing. It worked with Tony in Season 1, and it's worked here again.

I found myself warming a little more to JJ this time, and have realised he's more of a twat than a cunt. 

And the thing about the Good Twin being the lesbian rather than Naomi was rammed home this episode with a single line between the two when Naomi said "Why does your sister think I'm gay?" Subtle... nah. 

But, two episodes in, I think they've managed to pull of this cast renewal perfectly. I was initially really doubtful it would work, but it has refreshed the show somewhat. This is, of course, not to denigrate the original cast, but every story has to have its time, and the two seasons we had with the orginal cast were - odd episode here and there aside - wonderful. I'm going to enjoy the two years we'll have with this gang...

...doesn't mean, however, I don't miss Cassie immensely...

"...random shoes..."

Ooh, it's been far too long between posts, so here's a sort of catch up on things. Admittedly mostly TV things, but...

Skins Season 3

It was a somewhat bold move to replace virtually the entire cast for season 3 - no Tony, Sid, Michelle... No Cassie. etc - with essentially just Effy being retained (though Pandora, a one episode character from Season 2 is now elevated to a cast regular). The overall feel of the episode was somewhat like each year's new Season of Grange Hill; only with much more of a turnover than that show. So, if we take the Grange Hill analogy a little further, we have said goodbye to Tucker Jenkins (Tony) and friends, now we say hello to Zammo McGuire (Cook) and friends...

Initial impressions of the new characters are mixed. Within minutes of the show starting I'd already decided that Cook is a cunt. Mind you, I spent the whole of Season 1 thinking Tony was a cunt, so plus ca change... The opening sequence of Freddie skateboarding down Park Street in Bristol (about half the external scenes in any given episode of Skins are shot in this area) set the tone perfectly, and was suitably over the top. Initially I thought he was a cunt, too, but mellowed to him as the episod went on. As soon as I saw JJ I though, fuck me, he's a cunt. And that didn't change. Though, he does show potential as the UK's answer to Jack Nance. 

And, ooh. Twins in their smalls. Marvellous. And get this, one of them's a good twin and one's an evil twin... now in what school based drama on CBBC did we see that before...? And only Skins could get away with knowingly calling a character Naomi Campbel, who is apparently a "rug muncher" who tried to get it on with the good twin. But, clearly, given her fact about herself she gave in class, "people tell lies about me", it's obvious that it's not her who's the lesbian it's the good twin. 

Um. Are there other new characters...? Obviously we still have Effy and Pandora, but they're old favourites. Ardal O'Hanlan's teacher who doesn't want to be a teacher was a masterstroke; he was playing totally against type and it took me a few minutes to actually realise it was him. Just great. 

As a season opener, set the task of introducing the new cast it was a pretty damn fine episode. It clearly wasn't as great as the show's peak (Season 1's Cassie episode), but it was good enough. Now let's see if they can keep it up.

Hustle Season 5

Within about, ooh, 30 seconds of the season starting it became obvious why Season 4 of the show suffered so badly. It needs Adrian Lester. From the moment he gave his first knowing look to camer you knew this was Hustle back on form. That Jamie Murray and Marc Warren aren't in it, and thus far Robert Vaughn's appearances are little more than cameos (he was even completely absent from episode 2) does not seem to matter in the slightest; Lester holds the show together. The show's plots continue to be ludicrous and over the top and entirely unrealistic, but that's part of the show's charm. The way how threads interlink can be marvellous; most notably in the third episode where you think you know everything that's gone on, but then suddenly there's another couple of twists to come. And it's just so entirely satisfying.

Lost Season 5

Two episodes in, and it remains the best show on the box. I love the way how the show keeps changing and renewing itself. Every Season has its own flavour and tone, and it is this constant change that helps keep the show fresh. These opening episodes don't let up; they constantly move things along. It's hard to see at this stage, for example, how Ben and Jack will get the rest of the Oceanic Six back to the island, or even if they are able to find the island as either the island, its inhabitants, or both, have become unstuck in time and are bouncing to and fro. The mysteries of this season are somewhat tantalising, and it will be interesting to see how they unfurl...

In other news:

• In Poland they have Cherry flavour Jaffa Cakes. Well, they're not actually Jaffa Cakes, but they're exactly the same type of cake. 
• It was very sad to hear the news of the death of Tony Hart; again via the medium of a FaceBook friend status update...
• Garry Bushell has a book out of his opinions. I understand the manuscript was written in green crayon.
• Tender Trap are doing a gig for the first time in a couple of years. Yay!

"...half a dozen of the other..."

Facebook is a great thing, but it does seem increasingly the case that my friends' status update/news page does seem to be the first place I read about people croaking it.

Today, it's probably the saddest one so far in that Patrick McGoohan, star of the 60s TV show, The Prisoner, has died. 

The bloke was a genius; he was probably also stark raving bonkers. The Prisoner is one of those shows that, even after all these years, isn't fully understood. Things seem, odd, random and bizarre, yet somehow in the context of the show, they work. McGoohan knew how it all slotted together, and what things meant. Unlike others, though, rather than have Basil Exposition explain the plot, he made the show in such a way that things could be interpreted, and argued about. That's what makes good telly. And that why, probably, the forthcoming remake (of which McGoohan had zero input; fools) will probably be a pale imitation.

The world will be a little sadder without him.

"...mind the gap..."

I was listening, the other day, on my MP3 player to the Popjustice compilation album (being the third best compilation ever* and I can't help but wonder why every MP3 player I have ever had is incapable of playing songs without a gap between them. There always is a gap. For most albums you probably won't notice as gaps are naturally built in between songs. But with an album like Popjustice where all the tracks either bleed in to each other, or crash straight from one to the other, it's really glaring and noticeable. Also, it's obvious with things like The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It strikes me as really odd that with all this modern technology that this seemingly simple thing isn't a standard. Am I just unlucky with the MP3 players I've bought (I've had about 5) or are they all like this? And if they are all like this, why? I mean, surely it's not rocket science to get tracks to play seamlessly in to each other? 

* - because someone will ask: 1 - There And Back Again Lane, 2 - Rough Trade Indiepop 1 (incidentally... will we ever get Indiepop 2...?).

"...the power of Christ compels you..."

Okay, whilst browsing the Roobarbs DVD forum, I came across a thread about the poor quality of the Blu Ray version of the William Friedkin movie, The French Connection, which included a snippet from an article mentioning how the forthcoming Blu Ray version of The Exorcist will be treated. Read it and weep;

A couple of things...

Firstly, what is with this fiddling with the colour of the film? A  B&W print combined with a bluish print? WTF? This sounds most weird, and if it works as badly as the fiddling with the French Connection went - it's been described thus; "The colour has been almost disconnected from the image. It bleeds horribly and looks like something from a dodgy VHS copy." - The Exorcist will look like something spewed forth from Regan's mouth.

Secondly, the edit on the Blu Ray; just the 12 minute extended "Version You've Never Seen Before"? Well... despite the name being about a decade out of date, releasing this version and this version only is a mistake. Never mind that the original edit is a much better one than the extended version, and that the four major cuts were all cut for good reasons... oh, no... Whilst Friedkin's statement that "people wanted to see everything" is perfectly true, this is does not mean that people wanted this extended version to supercede the original. We wanted to see these scenes because we were curious to see what they were as The Exorcist is such a brilliant film. When we saw them, as glad we were to have seen them, it was obvious why they were cut. 

It is the original version of the film we all fell in love with, the pace of it, the way it looks. That's the film we want on Blu Ray. That's our Exorcist. The extended version is a mere curiosity, and curiosity has been sated.

I wonder what Mark Kermode thinks of all this...?

"...wow..."

At the end of yesterday's blog entry I added, almost as an afterthought, that the person Steven Moffatt should cast as the companion alongside Matt Smith's Doctor Who should be Hannah Murray. So, here's a bit more about it...

Hannah Murray came to fame as one of the stars of E4's Skins, playing the anorexic character Cassie. Her performance there was quite superb, and a good showcase of this is in the second episode of the first season, which centred around her character. It is a testament to her acting skills that you are drawn in to the story, and her struggle with anorexia. That last shot of the episode of her about to take a bite out of some food just brings a tear of hope to your eyes. She did, to my mind, give the best performance in the show.

Last summer she appeared in the Polly Stenham play, That Face, at the Duke of York's Theatre, alongside a certain Matt Smith. She is soon to be seen in one of the new Marples, entitled "Why didn't they ask Evans?"

There is a Facebook group set up to, somehow, try to get word to Steven Moffatt to plant her name in his mind so that when casting for the companion starts the first name that springs to mind is Hannah Murray. If you're on Facebook take a look, join, and tell all your friends. Especially if one of your friends is Steven Moffatt...! 

Here are some pictures:

And links:

Wikipedia

IMDB

"...doesn't your balloon ever land...?"

It's been a rather hectic week and a half for Doctor Who fans, with two rather important things. First up was the fourth, now annual, Christmas special. Entitled The Next Doctor, the plot teased us to think that the Doctor had met a future incarnation of himself in the shape of David Morrissey. Initial speculation centred on how the episode was absolutely certain to be an adaptation in some form of the Big Finish audio CD, in which the Doctor bumps in to a person claiming to be a future incarnation of himself in the shape of, erm, Christopher Biggins. In this story, called The One Doctor, the other Doctor is revealed to be a con man called Banto Zane (Panto Dame, anyone...?). However, it was soon obvious that the only similarity the stories shared was that each had an alternative Doctor.

Prior to its broadcast, there was also much speculation (once the "One Doctor" theory had been explcitly denied by Russell T Davies) that Morrissey's Doctor was truly a future Doctor and was in fact, literally, going to be the next Doctor, the one to take over from David Tennant. Again, this was not to be the case.

Anyhow... enough of the speculatory talk.

What we ended up with was, to my mind, the best of the four Christmas specials thus far. It's apparent early on that Morrissey is not a real Doctor; the only question is that if he's not the Doctor, who is he? Like all good mysteries, the clues are seeded throughout and in hindsight, once you know the answer, it's rather obvious. Blatant even. But that first time you see it, when Tennant says "I think I've worked it out...", and it's only halfway through the episode (I was convinced Russell would keep us waiting until the end...), it's such a wonderful moment. As Tennant explains everything to Morrissey, you can see the latter is really struggling to come to terms with what he's being told; the sheer strength of the performances of both Doctors is what really elevates this episode up. I really wanted Morrissey to be a real Doctor, to be the next Doctor, but it was not to be. His performance is one of the very best guest appearances throughout RTD Who. 

The episode is not without its faults, however; the most notable and glaring one is the Morrissey plays no part in the climactic scenes with the Cyber-KIng. Yes, he's there on the ground; but frankly he should have been up there in the Ballon with Tennant. Given that he had previously stated that he'd never been up in the balloon - his Tardis (Tethered Arial Release Developed In Style!!!) - and that was one of his ambitions, you really would have thought that Russell could have come up with a conclusion that put him there, in the thick of the action once again showing how it was his own courage that made him do the brave things he did, rather than just from the memories he had gleaned from the info-stamp about the Doctor. Really, the more scenes with DT and DM together, the better I say.

Anyhow, despite this minor qualm, it made for a great episode, and as I said earlier, the best of the Christmas Specials to date.

But... if David Morrissey was not to take over from David Tennant... then who? We did not have to wait for long.

The sudden announcement that the Eleventh Doctor would be announced during an edition of Doctor Who Confidential sent Dr Who forums in to meltdown. The OG forums spent the best part of a couple of days going in to, and out of, and back in to "patron only" lock down mode. Speculation became rife again as to who it would be with most commentators seeming to think it was a two horse race between Paterson Joseph and Chiwitel Ejiofor. Either of which who would have been great.

Meanwhile, over at the betting exchange website, Betfair, out of nowhere a new favourite emerged. Someone whose odds, at the time betting on the site closed at about half four on Saturday, were down to 1-10 (that is; bet a quid, and your winnings would be 10p...). Could this have been because people "in the know" as to the new Doctor's identity were out to make a few quid by putting money on to, what was to them, a dead certainty?

This person's name was Matt Smith, and sure enough shortly before 6pm on Saturday January 4th, he was announced as the eleventh Doctor.

Dr Who forums, once again, went in to meltdown. The reaction to his casting was somewhat mixed, most notably relating to his looks. Many people were whinging because "I can't believe they cast such a pretty-boy as the Doctor" and equally as many were whinging because "I can't believe they cast such an ugmo as the Doctor". Some of the vitriol and hate that spewed out was, to my mind, somewhat sickening, and went far beyond jovial mickey taking and in to the realms of out and out abuse. 

What abuse there was that wasn't centred on his looks was instead heaped on his age. So, he's 26. Get a grip. This is the actor that has been chosen for the part by Steven Moffatt, and frankly I trust his opinion a lot more than any of the nay-sayers who seem to think his young age and his pretty/ugly looks automatically mean he's unsuitable to play the Doctor. There have been several people claiming they will never watch the show again calling the casting things like "absolute bullshit" and "the worst decision ever" and various other things like that. 

I mean, give the chap a chance. At least wait until you've seen at least his regeneration scene, or even better, his first episode, before saying such things. But, I guess this is Doctor Who fandom we're talking about here where given all the spiel about how this is a show that can go anywhere and do anything, how the Doctor is always fighting for the underdog and for giving people a chance, that so many people who purport to be fans have such closed minds. It's sad really. You can see why Russell referred to some sections of fandom as "mosquitoes"...

I'm optimistic about how he'll turn out. I trust Steven Moffatt to get it right, and for him to place the future of the show on the shoulders of Matt Smith, then I have no doubt he knows exactly what he's doing. If I was casting, I can't say I'd have picked Smith - I'd have gone for either Adrian Lester or Stefan Dennis - but that's part of the fun of the announcement of each new Doctor, the surprise, and wondering how he'll turn out. Smith was certainly a surprise - well, until the Betfair betting patterns made him a dead cert - and it's surprise like these that make being a Doctor Who fan so exciting. It's hard to imagine how Smith will approach the role at this stage, but it's going to be fun finding out. 

Spring 2010 is going to be a great time for telly as not only is that when this new era of Doctor Who will start, but also when Lost ends... 

Epilogue:

• I have now passed a milestone in that for the first time in my life the incumbent Doctor is younger than I am. Makes me feel so old...!
• And how long will it be before we find out who Smith's companion will be... I reckon it should be Hannah Murray. She would be great! 

Spot the difference #1

BBC News headline:

"Fatal crash plane hits rail line."

BBC News text from corresponding article.

"It ended up between two lines where the track forked, missing the tracks."

Hmm...

"...and a happy new year; let's hope it's a good one..." part 2

There was a decent amount of damn fine movies in 2008. Most notable was The Dark Knight, press about which was dominated by the untimely death of Heath Ledger. This had the unfortunate effect of various people claiming that the movie was only being praised so highly as he had died out of some sort of misplaced sympathy. This is, of course, a bunch of Tottenham. It was praised so highly as it was a damn fine movie, and Heath's role in it as The Joker was a wonderful scene-stealing performance which was the first time a movie Batman villain has been superior to their 60s TV series counterpart. You could see elements of Cesar Romero's performance in Heath's - most notably the laugh at time, and the way he keeps bobbing about. But, the best thing was that on first watching you really have no idea what he's going to do next. His very last scene in the movie, hanging upside down, where he tells Batman that they're going to keep on doing this for the rest of their lives - Batman won't kill him due to his moral code, and he won't kill Batman as he's too much fun to have around - is a neat reversal of a scene in what had previously been the key text on the Joker - Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. It's all the more saddening that at the end of the movie, The Joker is still alive, presumably carted off to Arkham; a scene in the asylum with the Joker in the third in this series of movies would have been a certainty had Heath not died. 

Other good movies:

• I Am Legend: probably the best film Will Smith has ever made. That he spends about half the movie acting pretty much on his own, with just a dog for company and manages to make it entirely captivating and convincing is quite a feat. 
• Wall-E: probably the best CGI cartoon since Toy Story. Even after you've seen it about a gazillion times due to a small child insisting they see it again. And again. And again.
• The Mist: a rather engaging "base under siege" horror movie set in a supermarket. You never really learn the true nature of the threat, and the ending has to be seen to be believed. The DVD version has a black & white version of the film on it. Sounds intriguing...
• Hellboy 2: the first movie was somewhat underwhelming, but this sequel takes all the things that were good about the first, expands them, and makes a movie that's much better than I expected. I love the smoke guy...

Best reads of the year were T is for Television by Mark Aldridge & Andy Murray, and Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre. 

The former is a marvellous book all about "The small screen adventures of Russell T Davies" which looks at RTD's writing career right from the start, including all the obscure things you probably never knew he wrote, up to the latest season of Dr Who. There are loads of nuggets of information there, uncovering all sorts of things about his career. 

The latter is an exploration of various misunderstandings, or outright lies, about matters scientific; things like so called miracle pills, the work of Gillian McKeith, bad stats, the media's misuse of science, and the MMR scare. The approach is one suitable for all, as complex topics are discussed in a manner that all should be able to understand. 

You should own both books. 

"...and a happy new year; let's hope it's a good one..."

I guess it's a tradition, or an old charter, or something that everyone doing a blog should do a post reviewing the previous year. So this be mine.

The year started with the US writers' strike in full flow. This had a massive impact on pretty much every TV show, and meant truncated seasons, postponed episodes, and even in some cases shows being axed. My initial assessment that Heroes would be the show that suffered least proved somewhat wrong. The theory went that as Volume 2 was going to be the first 11 episodes of Season 2, and these 11 episodes were completed that this would merely mean Volume 3 was delayed. However, when they made V2 Ep11, they completely reshot the ending, ensuring the Volume 3 we had was completely different from that which was initally intended. Then, when Volume 3 did arrive, as good as it was there were some rather strong feelings of deja-vu with many re-treads of previously well worn ground. On top of that, there was some really quite bad continuity flubs (most notably the Sylar & Elle flashback). 

Lost probably suffered least in that its fourth season was truncated by just 2 episodes, from 16 to 14, and these removed episodes will be added to Seasons 5 & 6. It also happened that Season 4 of Lost was the best telly all year. This season managed to answer questions, and heap on more layers of mystery, and managed to do both seamlessly and without appearing forced. The new characters - the freighter folk - slotted in really well, and now it's as if they've been there all along. Michael Emerson deserves special mention for his performance as Ben. He's really been through the wringer this season, and he always makes for compelling watching. The scene where Keamy is holding Alex, Ben's adoptive daughter, hostage with a gun to her head is on the face of it a typical "Ben in a problem" scene. You know he'll find a way out of the predicament, save Alex and whup Keamy's arse... It's what he does. As he later says to Locke; "Don't you ever learn, John, I always have a plan." But then it all goes wrong, and Keamy shoots her, at point blank range, in the head... We then cut to a shot of Ben, shocked, stunned, thinking. The expression on his face... oh, it says more than any line of dialogue ever could. 

BSG had only ten episodes of its final, fourth, season shown, and really it wasn't that great for the most part. Early episodes trundled on by, and frankly had I been watching Season 1 of a show, rather than its last, I would have stopped watching. This is the main trouble with BSG; it's a show of extremes. Episodes like 33, and the New Caprica episodes, and Pegasus are wonderful slices of telly. But there are also depths like most of Season 4 thus far. It just seemed to meander along, and it wasn't until the last three episodes where it finally kicked in to gear... leading to one of the biggest surprises, the arrival on Earth. Now, everyone thought that would be in the very last episode. But, no, ten more to go. Question is, will these last ten be a high or a low...? And who is the twelfth Cylon? It's either someone dead, or someone on that Cylon ship right near the end of the last run...

Doctor Who had another great run of episodes. The new Davros was performed really well (although he does make my three year old daughter fall to the floor in spasms of laughter every time she sees him), and the big finale this year was essentially a celebration of Russell T Davies' Greatest Hits. But the best episode this year was Midnight, which was more or less a ghost story set in a single room. It was spooky, atmospheric, and kept you guessing until the very end. And even then it didn't really explain what the monster was... just wonderful. 

Other random TV bits:

• Diana should clearly have won the X-Factor. Cloth eared buffoons.
• Knight Rider came back, and it was as cheesy as ever.
• John Sergeant shouldn't have quit Strictly Come Dancing, and Rachel should have won.
• Stefan Dennis remains the best thing in Neighbours. 

Possibly the most surprising thing to happen this year was Guns 'n' Roses releasing their much awaited album, Chinese Democracy. The only other thing that was possibly so surprising was that it turned out to be a damn good album. It had been something like 14-15 years in the making so should have been a complete mess, but in the end it turned out really well, and is probably the second best of the four proper GNR albums. It started with a siren, a warning almost; and the first time we hear Axl's voice he is literally screaming. It's great. It's a damn fine collection of songs, with a couple more potential singles on there. It's really much better than anyone could have hoped for. If rumours are true there is a chance of a GNR tour next year... but with most of the original line up together again. Including Slash. But I'll believe it when I see them walk out on stage.

Another band returning after a long absence was Even As We Speak who performed a one-off gig earlier in the year. To see them was a truly great sight to behold. They even had Shelley/Orlando's Tim Chipping filling in for absent members. One of the very best performances I have ever seen was at the start of the gig when Mary did a few songs on her own, accompanied only by her guitar. The performance she did of Bizarre Love Triangle was so perfectly judged, with an eerie haunting voice... just bliss, sheer bliss. 

More tomorrow...