What have you been watching this week?
Not much here, I'm afraid. I'm currently working my way through episode two of The Philanthropist which is slightly more offensive but slightly more involving this week. That Mitchell and Webb Look was a little bit lacklustre. The Daily Show was a bit tatt, thanks to that women off Flight of the Conchords, who couldn't have worse comic timing or lines if she tried. Top Gear was fun. But that's about it really.
You?
As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please
July 3, 2009 | Reply
I recorded 'The Listener' last Thursay, but when I finally got around to watching it on Saturday, found it was a Farrah special. Should've figured that wtih the deaths of Farrah and Michael Jackson that day, one of them would own that 10 o'clock hour, courtesy of NBC news ....
"Virtuality" would have made for a great stand-alone TV movie had it not been intended as a pilot for a series that will never be now. (It might have garnered better ratings had it not been for all of the media coverage on the death of Jackson.) I think it would have been interesting to follow Captain Pike in a series where he would only be a computerized hologram programming (probably with AI and exponential growth of his sim character), but now we'll never know.
Sunday night was the biggest night of DVR recordings for me, with nine hours of programming. I think my DVR pulled a groin muscle! 2 'Merlin's, "Impact", 2 'Criminal Intent's, 'Hung', 'Z Rock', 'In Plain Sight', 'True Bood'. ['Poirot' had to be fobbed off until Monday night.]
NBC again showed two episodes of 'Merlin' back to back, these two with Michelle Ryan as Nimueh, which mostly just required her to stare into a pool of water. She could have tossed off the gig just before boarding the plane to Dubai for all it involved.
No way I was going to miss that episode of 'Poirot' - "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" brought back Zoe Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver!
'Better Off Ted' had the best episode of the series so far, but that may be due to my enjoyment when characters who are usually friends are at each other's throats. More comedy gold comes out of that, it seems. (The "Christmas funny hats dinner in November" episode of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' comes to mind.) I'm so glad the show's coming back in the fall, but I have a fear it's not going to find its audience. Which is a shame because it's so damned good!
TCM had a slew of "Perry Mason" movies from the thirties the other day. But the one I wanted to see was "The Case Of The Curious Bride" from 1935. It marked the film debut of Errol Flynn as the murder victim. His work consisted of lying under a sheet and a dialogue-free flashback at the end as we saw how he died. From what I read online, two years later, he teamed back up with this director, Michael Curtiz, for "Captain Blood" and his career sky-rocketed.
Other than that, the pickings were non-existent this week. Which may be a good thing since I'm still not done watching all of Sunday's shows. ('True Blood' still to go!)
But just this morning I discovered http://www.tv4u.com/vintage.asp with lots of old fifties (American) TV shows! So far this morning, I watched episodes of 'My Little Margie' (which started my search because of the death of Gale Storm), 'See It Now', 'Biff Baker USA', 'Dick Tracy', and 'Judge Roy Bean'. I better pace myself, from now on just an episode a day; otherwise, I'll never get anything else done!
July 3, 2009 | Reply
I've been terrible this week, apart from watching a little more Big Love, which I'm glad to report is very good, I've just been sat mesmerized by Knightmare. Despite everything I still find myself tense, anxious and shouting at the screen 'SIDESTEP LEFT' at moments. It's like wandering back into childhood and finding out that at least one part isn't being seen through rose tinted goggles.
And that makes me a very happy individual indeed.
July 5, 2009 | Reply
I've been catching up with Fringe this week.. its pretty funny and obviously honed from finest TV cheese but very entertaining. Not much else apart from that, I was not surprised to learn Robin (in the) Hood was canceled... I expected that after Primeval was. I guess Saturday nights will be game shows with Ant and Dec and Pop Idol again. Still looking forward to Strictly this year as always (tragic but true!)
July 5, 2009 | Reply
I watched series 2 of Ideal.
I also watched a few episodes of season 1 of True Blood. I didn't like it enough to keep watching it last year but what with all the good reviews season 2 has been getting, thought I would give it another chance. I am slowing getting into it. It's just a bit jarring when it is so negative about people.
Thanks to Rob saying it was on (somewhere) I watched an ep of Samantha Who. It was disappointingly out of sequence.
I loved Mitchell and Webb this week. I like it when they poke fun out of groups of people I quietly dislike.
Highlight of the past week: Virtuality.
Absolutely amazing. I loved every second of it. Wonderfully conceived scifi. I am not sure where it would have gone with what Toby mentioned but it was certainly fascinating and I can see that it could have asked some Deep and Big questions given the opportunity.