"...another year over..."

I've kind of been a little lazy on the ol' blog this year, as the number of posts contained here attest, as well as the large gaps between posts. Must try to improve this in the new year. Anyhow... 2011... what did you bring us...?

Well, politically speaking there was the realisation that Cameron and Osborne managed to succeed where Blair and Brown failed. That is, they appear to have achieved an end to boom and bust. The nation rejoiced, until they realised that meant we were stuck with bust...

Actually, much about the government continued to depress and annoy. The announcement, the day before the public sector strike on November 30th, that after a two year pay freeze for public sector workers (2011, 2012) that the next two years' pay increases would be capped at 1% (2013, 2014) was rather less a case of bad timing, and more a case of perfectly calculated timing by Osborne. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Prime Minster's questions continues to be a fascinating insight in to the machinations of government, and really makes you wonder how they ever get anything done. However, the reaction to Cameron's "Calm down, dear"comment was somewhat overblown, and totally out of perspective. I'm no great fan of his, but if you're going to berate him at least do it for something worthwhile, not because he quoted a Michael Winner TV ad.

The braying that goes on in the chambers when PMQ is on does Parliament no favours. The number of times the Speaker, John Bercow, has to upbraid unruly MPs for their behaviour is astonishing. These are meant to be the people governing our country; yet they act worse than a pack of unruly school children. And this applies to members on both sides of the house. When a member stands up to ask a question, I want to hear that question. And when the Prime Minister answers, I want to hear the answer. That's the point of it.

I can't help but wish more of the Houses of Parliament was available in an easily downloadable format. Only PMQs really is via a Guardian podcast, and that's not always entirely reliable. Other debates can be watched on parliament.gov (I think that's the right site), but you can't download the audio to listen to on your iPod on the way to work. There's been a few debates this year I wouldn't have minded listening to in full. Notably, the phone hacking one.

The phone hacking hoo-ha can't really have been any great surprise; back in the day when you could listen in to any old mobile phone conversation (with the old analogue mobile networks), the papers were at it al the time. There were whole conversations of Princess Di's printed, for example. So, if there were a way to listen in to voicemails, then it's not a stretch of the imagination to think that the press would do so... and, indeed there had been all sorts of mentions of it in years past. Piers Morgan even mentioned the trick in one of his books (though it should of course be noted that at no point in his books does he state that he ever hacked, or sanctioned the hacking, of a phone). But, a surprise it was to many, and in the end caused the closure of an entire newspaper. An action which many thought an over-reaction. It's not like they were the only paper to use the tactic.

The best single of the year arrived suddenly, at least to me, in the last fortnight of the year. On the way home one day very close to Christmas, Tarrant (standing in for Wrighty) played a song that entranced me. It was playing just as I was parking, and unusually I stayed sat in the car listening to the whole song to its end, even after the point Tarrant started yakking over the end. This song was Dance by The Brilliant Things, and as the band's name would suggest, it is quite, quite, brilliant.

Of the films I saw this year (and I am well aware there were some glaring omissions that I never got around to seeing; TTSS, and ROTPOTA, to name but two) my favourite came as quite a surprise to me. Not only was it a documentary, but also it was about a sport that I'm not overly enamoured with. This movie was Senna, which told the story of Ayton Senna's career in F1 racing; it was absolutely wonderful. All the footage was contemporaneous, and totally eschewed the "talking head" approach to documentary making that seems to be all pervading. All interviews were from the time, with none looking back from a 2011 perspective. This was quite a refreshing approach as it allowed the story to unravel as it happened, with everything seen as it was with no modern spin put on things.

Really, I would urge everyone reading this to watch Senna; even if you have no great interest in the sport.

The saddest thing on telly this year was the last ever episode of Spooks. It should have been expected that there would be no happy ending... but when it arrived it was devastating. The final shot of Harry, back at work, answering the phone... knowing how it could have played out, what the happy ending might have been. It just gave you a big lump in your throat. And you just knew that Harry would remain with 5 for the rest of his days.

The third generation of Skins arrived, and were probably the least impressive lot yet. The main trouble for me was that I really didn't think they gelled as a group anything like as well as the first two generations. It's not like I expect them all to be bestest of buddies or anything (that would make for terrible drama), but I just didn't think the group worked. There were individual episodes that were really great, but on the whole the weakest season yet. It'll be interesting to see where they go with Season 6, which must surely be on telly very soon in the new year.

There was good news at the annual Missing Believed Wiped event at the BFI in December with the return of two previously missing Dr Who episodes; Galaxy 4, episode 3, and The Underwater Menace episode 2. The latter was probably the most new episode of Dr Who I'd seen all year, and only went to reinforce how sad it is that the majority of Patrick Troughton's episodes of Dr Who remain missing, believed wiped...

A sad thing Dr Who related was that the new animated version of the never completed Season 17 story, Shada, was turned down for a DVD release. This version had been privately commissioned by Ian Levine, using as many surviving cast members as possible (the only notable omission being Tom Baker; whose lines were performed by Paul Jones, who does a decent impression of the great man). This version uses all the existing filmed footage, and animates the rest. It's a great shame that as things stand it's not going to get a much wider audience, as it's without any doubt the best version of Shada yet made (the other three being the 80s version with on screen text describing the action, the 90s version with Tom narrating the gaps, and the 00s version with Big Finish remaking the entire thing replacing Tom with Paul McGann). With luck, the position on this will eventually change and it will get the release it so very much deserves.

Of course, the other two sad events in the Dr Who world were the deaths of Nicholas Courtney, and Elisabeth Sladen. I made the mistake of reading Doctor Who Magazine's tribute issue to Courtney on the train to work; by the time I'd got to Tom Baker's tribute there were tears in my eyes. I made sure I read the Sladen issue safely ensconced at home.

So, farewell then, 2011... and hello 2012. What will you bring? Certainly not the end of the world due to "Mayan prophecies" or any of that load of old Tottenham... : )

"...life can always start up anew..."

Do you remember the first time we saw the second cast of Skins? That wonderful sequence where Freddie hops on his skateboard at the top of Park Street and dodges his way past all the obstacles on the way down, before meeting up with Cook & JJ. Cook already on, what, his third or fourth pint of the day and they'd not yet started their first day at college. And Effie's dad crashing the car, and Cook pretending he'd crashed in to him, and the old granny sticking up for him, and Effy looking call in the car. And as she walked away all three of them were in love with her...

...it seems like such a long time ago now.

Of course, then it was a really brave thing. Axing, essentially, the whole cast (bar Effy, obviously), and replacing them with completely new characters. It was like Grange Hill on an epic scale; there there was always the turnover of characters, as each year left the school, there was another new year waiting in the wings. But as that was set in a secondary school and sixth form college, each character could be there for up to seven years, so even if some left, there was always a core of characters from the previous series there. Not so, with Skins. Such a wholesale change of cast shouldn't have worked; but it did.

Whilst it's true the old cast were missed, we soon grew to love the new one. We became as invested in this mob's lives as we were in the previous.

Now, we're going to have to go through it all again, as Seasons 5 & 6 (already confirmed as definitely happening by E4) will again have a completely new set of characters (no word on if there's an "Effy" as yet, but if there is, the smart money's on Karen...). This last Thursday we bade farewell to Cook and company with an episode that managed to be both inspired genius, and a massive disappointment at the same time...

Most episodes of a TV show have to do just one thing; be a damn good episode. That's all. There's no denying that was what we got. However, there are a couple of exceptions whereby an episode has to do more. One of these is the first episode of a show, which has to get you hooked on the show's premise and characters; the other is a finale.

The Skins season 4 finale was a damn good episode, but it failed as a finale.

Now, I'm not saying I expect every loose end to be tied up, every question answered, or that kind of thing; just that there should be some kind of satisfactory ending to the characters. It doesn't even have to be a definite ending. Take for example, the end of Skins season 2, which was the finale for the first set of characters. That was an episode that did indeed work perfectly as a finale. You could have ended Skins right there and it would have been seen as a coherent whole.

That whole episode was all about moving on. You had Chris, who had just died, and the rest of the gang coming to terms with his death (the coffin stealing sequence was just brilliant; as was the scene on the beach), and you had the characters moving on to the next stage in their lives. There was the moment when Maxxie was heading to London, with Anwar feeling left alone; until he makes a spur of the moment decision to go with him, changing his life completely. There was Sketch with her totally screwed up existence. Jal's eulogy to Chris. The scene with Tony & Michelle in the car at the airport when they break up. Sid searching for Cassie in New York, and coming so close to finding her... even with the cut away before we see if he notices her or heads off it doesn't seem like a cheat... and that last shot, of Effy in the bed, smiling a cheeky smile that (at least to my mind) brought back echoes of Alex in A Clockwork Orange. It worked.

Whereas the gen-2 cast's finale, mostly, really didn't. There were too many characters whose "resolutions" just came from out of nowhere. Thomas's sudden Harvard Scholarship, and Pandora's extra exams she'd taken being the most obvious examples.

But. As I said earlier, this was not a bad episode. It was a damn good one, as there was so much in it to love. Naomi's declaration of love for Emily was beautiful. Wonderful writing. Brilliantly acted. Also, I actually ended up liking Cook by the end of it (see previous Skins entries in this blog). I do really, really love the show; it's probably the best contemporary drama series around at the moment. I just found this last episode, when judged as a finale, to be so very frustrating.

Which is a shame.

I get the feeling that the show suffered from its cut from 10 to 8 episodes. I wonder how much of the season had been scripted by the time this cut came through, and whether they tried as best they could to cram the ten episodes in to 8, by cutting various elements, and whether these elements would have ensured there was a more finale-esque feeling to that last episode, and that things that appeared to come from nowhere had been seeded beforehand.

I'm still wondering exactly what the point of Freddie's death was. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those loons that's going "oh, noes, Fred's dead, I'm never going to watch again" or anything; I just cannot see why you bother with as shocking a climax as episode 7 had, and to more or less completely ignore it in the finale. I mean, it's not like these characters are ever coming back or anything. In Season 2, Chris's death had a massive impact on the characters, and it became the centre piece around which that season's finale was built. So, I guess they figured that they'd done the whole grief and moving on thing with the show then. But this was a different death. A murder. And there's a whole range of things they could have done.

Instead, he's barely mentioned all the episode, and only Karen seems worried he's not around. They just seem to think he's run away or something. Really, it strikes me that the only reason for having Freddie killed off is in order to get a scene like the very last one with Cook. And even that came from nowhere. With hardly any time left in the episode, Cook notices a figure watching them, follows, finds Freddie's blood stained clothes and twigs he's dead. The phrase "deus ex machina" is somewhat overused in many circles, but seems to apply here perfectly... that last confrontation, however, was great... where it cut off was not.

'Cos you just know that at some point early in Season 5 there'll be some offhand comment whereby they'll be talking about a court case or something, and it'll either be Freddie's murder, or Freddie and Cook's murder, or the Doctor's murder, as it'll have been in the news or something, or gossip around the college and it'll be just like Grange Hill when Jonah left to go to another school... I hated that kind of thing then, and I still hate it now. Little info dumps telling you all about the stuff that's happened off screen that you, really, should have seen on the screen.

The really odd thing is that had that been the very last episode of Skins, ever, with no more to come, I would have liked that ending more. It's that knowing that we'll almost certainly get comments about it next season that sours it. As the last ever shot, it would have worked. But it'll just be relegated to a footnote in a random scene in season 5. It deserves more

"...awaiting an audience..."

Ah... Skins... what were they doing with that ending...? That last episode (which rather annoyingly completed excluded the twins, Naomi, Panda and Thomas) ended with somewhat of an anticlimax. The first had ended with that wonderful Tony gets hit by a bus (or was it a car? I forget now) cliffhanger, and the really odd "Wild World" moment. Season 2 ends with you just willing Sid to find Cassie, with that moment where they're so close to each other... and you just don't know if he's going to turn his head (and, of course Time to Pretend - but more on music in a minute)... and there's that cut to Effy in bed with a smile that oozes the same kind of charm and menace as Malcolm McDowell at the very start of A Clockwork Orange... but Season 3...

That last episode was actually a very good one. It brought to a head all of the things that had been bubbling throughout the season. Seeing Cook's dad really helped you understand the reasons as to why Cook is the way he is; the two Cooks were two peas in a pod, behaving in essentially exactly the same manner as each other. Cook Sr even tries to hit on Effy. There were so many things that were right about the episode. Perfect blend of drama and humour throughout (the Granny steeplechase was a partcicular highlight). But the ending... the boat speeds away.No-ones saying anything. They've reached some kind of understanding, and appear to have all made up. Though Cook looks a little contemplative. And finally Freddie says... "So, what do we do now?" And that's it. It just felt so underwhelming. It's almost as if they weren't confident of getting a Season 4, and decided to leave all the storylines at a place where if this occurred there would be some kind of a conclusion. It just felt a weedy way to end the season, and if there's one thing Skins never normally is, it's weedy. Even when there are things that are utter wank, it's never weedy.

Oh, and the last line is (almost) the same as the last line of the last episode of the last season of Buffy...

One thing I must also mention about Skins is the music. Back at the end of Season 2, the last couple of minutes of the action (from Sid arriving in NY) and over the end credits, they played a wonderful track; that was Time to Pretend by MGMT. And I found myself adoring, so I went out and bought the album. I immediately wished I hadn't as most of the album is tosh. Time to Pretend remains the only track from it I've ripped to my MP3 player. 

So, at the end of the first episode of this season when I heard the track playing over the end credits, I downloaded the album to see if the rest of it was any good. Within a day, I'd ordered all three CDs that band had released, so impressed I was with the one I d/led. This band is Asobi Seksu, and you must buy all three of their albums. Though, if you want to try just the one, get Citrus. I haven't been this excited about a band in ages, and the more I listen to them, the more I love them. Sheer beauty!

(Note; if you're waiting for my regular Lost post, it'll be up here when I've seen the episode a second time. There's a few things to say about this one...!)

"...others, others, others, OTHERS..."

Okay. So, in some sort of effort to pretend that this blog isn't really just a Lost blog at the moment, here are some thoughts on TV shows other than Lost:

Skins

My opinion (see previous posts) of Cook really hasn't changed. I'm still hoping for something bad to happen to him. I just can't work him out, though. He's odd. His reaction to when Naomi spurned him was unexpected; I expected anger, but instead he was very calm and cool, and even indifferent. Odd. Still, we're clearly building up to something. 

Whilst I'm still loving this season, I'm finding I'm loving it less than previous seasons. I do still miss Cassie et al, and although this new lot are a decent enough bunch, I'm not really sure they gel as a group. Like previous seasons, it does veer between absolute genius and utter wank. The episode with the school elections at one stage seemed to be heading towards making a point about how politics these days is all about personalities and not policies; but it never quite got there. We just got a riot, which didn't work at 

Still, overall it remains well worth watching...

Battlestar Galactica

BSG is nearing the end of its run now; three episodes to go by my reckoning. Again, this is a show that veers between absolute genius and utter wank, and I've never quite been able to figure out why. Until a day or so ago. Broadly speaking you can tell how good an episode is depending on which of these categories it fits in;

1 - militaristic episodes where either the Cylons are on the attack, there's a threat of attack, or there are factions within the fleet causing trouble; episodes like 33, or the Pegasus 2-parter, or the New Caprica arc, or the recent mutiny. They have all been stunning examples of great drama. Episodes that have kept you on the edge of your seat, and left you gasping for breath at the audacity of the things that are happening. The second of the mutiny episodes was breathtaking, it completely floored me. This is BSG on top form.

2 - any episode that focuses on prophecies, or Caprican Gods, or the Cylon God or any kind of mystical gumph. Sometimes I lose the will to live when watching these. They're not always all bad, but there always seems to be way too much padding. I mean, how many times do we have to see sodding visions of a Six taking Hera away...? Puh-lease!

And this is the fear I have for the forthcoming finale; that it will veer too far towards the latter, and not close enough to the former. 

Law & Order: UK

Strewth! This moves at one heck of a pace. There's enough plot in each episode for a 4 hour Lynda La Plante style mini-series. Sometimes you can blink, miss a scene, and miss a vital plot point. Still, for what it is, it's enjoyable hokum. 

Neighbours

I'll miss Harold. Ramsey Street won't be the same without Jelly Belly... : (

Lost

Oh, okay, I know I wasn't meant to speak about Lost here, but... 

...the promo pictures that have been realeased for the next episode of Lost are very intriguing...

 (Those of a really sensitive disposition towards spoilers should look away; even though what I'm about to say isn't really what I would call a spoiler; it's what I would call a teaser, in that it will tell you a little information about the episode, but gives no context.)

...they show Sayid, as expected in 1977. However, there is a shot showing Sun with Ben and Frank. So, she must somehow be in 2008 in the same time frame as the Ajira plane. Now, the question that this raises is this; why did Kate, Hurley, Jack and Sayid get caught in the time-flash that occurred as the plane approached the island, and Sun didn't? My presumption was that the time-flash affected the O6, which was why Ben wasn't caugt in it. Locke didn't go either as at that time he was still "dead". But an O6 split... that puts a different spin on it. It couldn't be at all contrived to give a delay to a Sun & Jin reunion, could it...? 

"...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!

"...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