Life Stuff
Jun. 12th, 2010 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fyreSince I am utterly hopeless at posting, figured I should dit down and do a summary of what I've been doing/watching lately:
Quick summary is working as much as I can to scrape together flexi-time for more time off. Have had various do's, including sister's hen, my birthday and impending wedding. Beyond that, my only plans are to get away on holiday in October.
Watching:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Seasons: 1-10
Yes, I sat through the whole lot and my opinion remains the same as it was based on the handful of episodes I'd seen before: I love the labrats, Hodges/Wendy is my pairing of choice, I love Nick, Sarah, Grissom and Warrick bore me, Warrick needs glasses very badly since he squints so much, yes we know Catherine is a mother, we get the point. I was pleased when Laurence Fishburne joined up, but that has waned a little now due to various reasons. But as long as I have Nick and the LabRats, I'll be happy.
It's a solid show, though I will admit an affection for the season-long plot-arcs they do. My favourite remains the Miniature Killer. Nice to see a female villain once in a while. Oh, and Lady Heather. Lady Heather is wonderful.
CSI:NY
Season 1-6
And yes, again, worked my way through all available episodes. The cast is as solid as CSI, and the premise is just as efficient at what it does, although the style and colours are totally different (don't even get me started on the day-glo horror that is CSI Miami). It's a narrow line, but I think NY just pips CSI to the post in preferred shows, simply because I like the characters better. Danny/Lindsay makes me very happy, although I'm still twitching over the end of the latest series. I love arcs, but fricking show! I hate cliffhangers.
Moonlight
I decided to give this vampire-show a shot since I adore Sophia Myles. The premise isn't wholly original: guy turned into vampire by the woman he loved, no longer wants to be vampire, but is stuck and works as a PI in L.A. aided by a plucky female investigator. No, no allusions to Angel at all.
It only lasted 16 episode, and it did have potential, but sadly there's only so much you can do with the whole premise of star-crossed lovers and the potential cure for vampirism. Mick's emo about being a vampire does get a bit tiresome, although Beth - Sophia Myles' character - is a bundle of determined, tough attitude and I adore her.
The single best thing about the whole show was Josef, the snarky 400+ year old vampire who is the lead character's best friend, and who regularly pokes fun at him. I'm curious about what they had planned, since they had potential arcs lining up all over the place but never got the change to realise them.
And really, you have to admire a show with the nerve to decapitate a vampire with a rollercoaster.
Pushing Daisies
Premise: Ned, the Piemaker, can bring people back from the dead with a touch. However, if he touches them again, they die permanently. Trouble is if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else has to die in their place. He uses this to fight crime with P.I. Emerson Cod. All is well until his first love dies and he brings her back and... keeps her.
The first season was jarred by the writers' strike, and by the time everything had evened out, this show simply didn't get enough time to earn the audience it deserved. It struck me as the anti-Tim-Burton show in style, appearance and mood. For a show about death, it was so colourful and wickedly sarcastic and catty that I couldn't help but love it.
You have Ned who is cheerfully neurotic, Chuck as the woman he loves but can never touch, Olive (played by Kristen Chenoweth) who is tiny and adorable and not the kind of woman to tick off, Emerson Cod PI who is simply one of the most fantastic sidekick characters ever created, the two shut-in form synchronised swim-team aunts and a whole family affair gone mad.
New Amsterdam
Got this on a recommendation and it had so much potential: accidentally immortalised man living in NY. My major issue with it was the fact that a) native Americans gave a random white man this immortality for stopping one of their girls being killed and b) the only way his mortality is restored is when he meets His One Tru Luv.
However, unlike many shows that deal with the undead/immortal characters, this one actually is quite intelligent. It deals with the lives that John Amsterdam has lived in the past, the women he has loved, and the children he has left behind. This is a man who changes who he is frequently to avoid anyone finding out his secret, and the few people who know are frequently his children who now look older than him.
The stupid true-love aspect aside, it showed the mistakes John had made and learned from in his various lives. And most interestingly, it showed him being a loving and devoted father, even when his child is a pensioner.
Also worth a mention is his sidekick, who I last saw as Gaia in Rome. I find it interesting that so many American shows have a random British actress as the leading lady (Pushing Daisies, Terminator: SCC, Moonlight etc). Unlike his love-interest, Eva Marquez is more than willing to give him a smack on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper when he's an idiot.
It only lasted 8 episodes, which probably came down to the lame true-love-conquers-all aspect, especially since his 'true love' turned out not to be. The whole affair had been too easy, and I really had hopes that if it went further, it would turn out that Eva - if anyone - was the woman he had been waiting for and was right beside him the whole time. It would have been a nice little twist, and while twu-wuv would have still been annoying, it would have been more tolerable than the blonde bint who fell on her back for him the minute her divorce came through.
Going Postal
Another in a line of Pterry adaptations, this one has as high production values as the previous two. However, as with the others, it also suffers because so much of Pratchett's wit is in the sarcastic narration. If you take that away, you may have a good story, but you find you hardly care about the characters at all.
That said, the casting was excellent. Charles Dance was Vetinari as he should be played: understated, knowing and with a tiny, tiny glimmer of amusement when no one is watching. Richard Coyle surprised me as Moist von Lipwig, especially since I only knew him from Coupling. But it was Claire Foye as Adora Bell Dearheart (no mention of Spike at ALL) who stole the show. She made their relationship crackle. And lastly, David Suchet as Reacher Gilt. I don't care if it's a cheap joke, having Reacher standing on his tip-toes to try and be eye-to-eye with Vetinari cracked me up ;D (Also worthy of note are the backing characters of Drumknott, Stanley, Mr Groat (Andrew Sachs has a lot to thank Russell Brand for), Dave (from the Pin Emporium) and the High Priest of Offler)
Naturally, changes had to be made - Reacher became more openly malevolent rather than a scam-artist like Moist, Moist was haunted by guilt (this annoyed me) and Spike's smoking addiction was seen to be a result of Moist's crime, which is the thing he felt most guilty about. At least a good 5-10 minutes of the show were spent making a point that Smoking Is Bad. I felt it was unnecessary and pointless. Just because Spike smokes and looks cool doing it doesn't mean I'm about to start.
I'd say on the whole it's worth a look. As long as you can overlook the changes and resist the urge to beat your head on a desk over the anti-smoking message.
Quick summary is working as much as I can to scrape together flexi-time for more time off. Have had various do's, including sister's hen, my birthday and impending wedding. Beyond that, my only plans are to get away on holiday in October.
Watching:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Seasons: 1-10
Yes, I sat through the whole lot and my opinion remains the same as it was based on the handful of episodes I'd seen before: I love the labrats, Hodges/Wendy is my pairing of choice, I love Nick, Sarah, Grissom and Warrick bore me, Warrick needs glasses very badly since he squints so much, yes we know Catherine is a mother, we get the point. I was pleased when Laurence Fishburne joined up, but that has waned a little now due to various reasons. But as long as I have Nick and the LabRats, I'll be happy.
It's a solid show, though I will admit an affection for the season-long plot-arcs they do. My favourite remains the Miniature Killer. Nice to see a female villain once in a while. Oh, and Lady Heather. Lady Heather is wonderful.
CSI:NY
Season 1-6
And yes, again, worked my way through all available episodes. The cast is as solid as CSI, and the premise is just as efficient at what it does, although the style and colours are totally different (don't even get me started on the day-glo horror that is CSI Miami). It's a narrow line, but I think NY just pips CSI to the post in preferred shows, simply because I like the characters better. Danny/Lindsay makes me very happy, although I'm still twitching over the end of the latest series. I love arcs, but fricking show! I hate cliffhangers.
Moonlight
I decided to give this vampire-show a shot since I adore Sophia Myles. The premise isn't wholly original: guy turned into vampire by the woman he loved, no longer wants to be vampire, but is stuck and works as a PI in L.A. aided by a plucky female investigator. No, no allusions to Angel at all.
It only lasted 16 episode, and it did have potential, but sadly there's only so much you can do with the whole premise of star-crossed lovers and the potential cure for vampirism. Mick's emo about being a vampire does get a bit tiresome, although Beth - Sophia Myles' character - is a bundle of determined, tough attitude and I adore her.
The single best thing about the whole show was Josef, the snarky 400+ year old vampire who is the lead character's best friend, and who regularly pokes fun at him. I'm curious about what they had planned, since they had potential arcs lining up all over the place but never got the change to realise them.
And really, you have to admire a show with the nerve to decapitate a vampire with a rollercoaster.
Pushing Daisies
Premise: Ned, the Piemaker, can bring people back from the dead with a touch. However, if he touches them again, they die permanently. Trouble is if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else has to die in their place. He uses this to fight crime with P.I. Emerson Cod. All is well until his first love dies and he brings her back and... keeps her.
The first season was jarred by the writers' strike, and by the time everything had evened out, this show simply didn't get enough time to earn the audience it deserved. It struck me as the anti-Tim-Burton show in style, appearance and mood. For a show about death, it was so colourful and wickedly sarcastic and catty that I couldn't help but love it.
You have Ned who is cheerfully neurotic, Chuck as the woman he loves but can never touch, Olive (played by Kristen Chenoweth) who is tiny and adorable and not the kind of woman to tick off, Emerson Cod PI who is simply one of the most fantastic sidekick characters ever created, the two shut-in form synchronised swim-team aunts and a whole family affair gone mad.
New Amsterdam
Got this on a recommendation and it had so much potential: accidentally immortalised man living in NY. My major issue with it was the fact that a) native Americans gave a random white man this immortality for stopping one of their girls being killed and b) the only way his mortality is restored is when he meets His One Tru Luv.
However, unlike many shows that deal with the undead/immortal characters, this one actually is quite intelligent. It deals with the lives that John Amsterdam has lived in the past, the women he has loved, and the children he has left behind. This is a man who changes who he is frequently to avoid anyone finding out his secret, and the few people who know are frequently his children who now look older than him.
The stupid true-love aspect aside, it showed the mistakes John had made and learned from in his various lives. And most interestingly, it showed him being a loving and devoted father, even when his child is a pensioner.
Also worth a mention is his sidekick, who I last saw as Gaia in Rome. I find it interesting that so many American shows have a random British actress as the leading lady (Pushing Daisies, Terminator: SCC, Moonlight etc). Unlike his love-interest, Eva Marquez is more than willing to give him a smack on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper when he's an idiot.
It only lasted 8 episodes, which probably came down to the lame true-love-conquers-all aspect, especially since his 'true love' turned out not to be. The whole affair had been too easy, and I really had hopes that if it went further, it would turn out that Eva - if anyone - was the woman he had been waiting for and was right beside him the whole time. It would have been a nice little twist, and while twu-wuv would have still been annoying, it would have been more tolerable than the blonde bint who fell on her back for him the minute her divorce came through.
Going Postal
Another in a line of Pterry adaptations, this one has as high production values as the previous two. However, as with the others, it also suffers because so much of Pratchett's wit is in the sarcastic narration. If you take that away, you may have a good story, but you find you hardly care about the characters at all.
That said, the casting was excellent. Charles Dance was Vetinari as he should be played: understated, knowing and with a tiny, tiny glimmer of amusement when no one is watching. Richard Coyle surprised me as Moist von Lipwig, especially since I only knew him from Coupling. But it was Claire Foye as Adora Bell Dearheart (no mention of Spike at ALL) who stole the show. She made their relationship crackle. And lastly, David Suchet as Reacher Gilt. I don't care if it's a cheap joke, having Reacher standing on his tip-toes to try and be eye-to-eye with Vetinari cracked me up ;D (Also worthy of note are the backing characters of Drumknott, Stanley, Mr Groat (Andrew Sachs has a lot to thank Russell Brand for), Dave (from the Pin Emporium) and the High Priest of Offler)
Naturally, changes had to be made - Reacher became more openly malevolent rather than a scam-artist like Moist, Moist was haunted by guilt (this annoyed me) and Spike's smoking addiction was seen to be a result of Moist's crime, which is the thing he felt most guilty about. At least a good 5-10 minutes of the show were spent making a point that Smoking Is Bad. I felt it was unnecessary and pointless. Just because Spike smokes and looks cool doing it doesn't mean I'm about to start.
I'd say on the whole it's worth a look. As long as you can overlook the changes and resist the urge to beat your head on a desk over the anti-smoking message.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-12 10:44 am (UTC)Missed you!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-25 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 05:57 pm (UTC)Re: Going Postal. I think this was one of the more successful adaptations simply because none of the casting was jarring (the assassin guy was just... off in Hogfather and Rincewind was awful in The Colour of Magic two name the two that annoyed me the most). Like you, I found Moist's unnecessary guilt in this adaptation annoying, but figured we'd just have to put up with it. I think it captured the spirit of the book at least, even if they lost some of the humour in the process. One has to wonder why they can't film the Discworld books more like they filmed Hitchhiker's guide...