It’s been gone for a while now, and its lustre is starting to dull, but Babylon 5 is still one of the most popular sci-fi shows of the 90s.
So some no-doubt crowd-pleasing news is that creator J Michael Straczynski reveals that he’s going to be making some direct-to-DVD anthology shows featuring Babylon 5 characters at Warner Brothers’ request. Production starts in September, with the release of the first DVD in Q2 2007.
Got a bit of junk mail through my door last week. It was extolling the virtues of Sky. I have Sky. What a waste of paper.
I’d normally just have junked it, but things change and sometimes you miss new services, so I decided to leaf through it anyway.
I got to the “mixes” section. Sky works like this: as well as the free channels and the premium channels, such as Sky Sports, that you pay for separately, there are a whole range of paid-for channels like Sky One that you get in bundles with other channels. You decide which of the six entertainment “mixes” contain the channels you’d like it and order none, two, four or six of them.
So I looked through the mixes, noted that there were only two that had channels in that I liked, noted further that I was paying for six mixes and immediately cancelled my subscription to the unwanted four.
The result? A poorly targeted marketing mailshot actually cost the offending company subscription revenue. Result! What a heart-warming tale.
Actually, I did have to decide whether I’d prefer the “style and culture” mix or the “knowledge” mix, since you can’t subscribe to just three mixes (two or four only). I went for ‘knowledge’ rather than ‘style’. Not sure if that was a mistake.
Which would you have picked? You can find the list on the Sky web site.
Because it was rubbish?
Oh, you meant other than that. ABC explains all over here.
Psych‘s now up to its third episode, so it’s time to pass verdict.
Since the first episode, there have been a few changes, mostly for the better. Dulé Hill has more to do. The supporting cast has less to do and so spend less of their time trying very hard to be wacky. Attached junior blonde female detective has been fired and replaced with a single junior blonde female detective, providing a possible romantic interest.
Corbin Bernsen is providing an interesting father figure for the show. Instead of just being the forbidding Dad who could never show his son any love, he’s metamorphosed into one of those really manly, pre-meterosexual men of a certain generation, who can gut fish with a penknife and always have a stick of wood for stirring paint with. So instead of just seeming cold and uncaring, he’s now a far more sympathetic figure who wishes his highly slacker son could grow a backbone and take some responsibility for a change.
Said slacker, star James Roday, has toned his performance down a bit, too. My wife has also pointed out that while he might, at first inspection, look like he’s doing a Will Ferrell impression, he is actually doing something closer to Ben Stiller in some aspects.
I agree it is possible that there were Ben Stiller impurities in the homeopathic Will Ferrell tube.
As for the plots, basically, the show is Monk with a different angle. The look’s the same, the feel’s the same. It’s Monk. Which isn’t a bad thing, if you like Monk, but it’s not to everyone’s taste.
It’s untaxing, unchallenging, amiable, and slightly amusing – kind of the US light-comedy version of Midsomer Murders. An enjoyable enough way to while away your time.
I’ve uploaded the exact first minute of Angela’s Eyes. Now, you decide: would you have turned it off when I did?
Since I’ve had a chance to time myself, it turns out that I actually turned off after only 50 seconds. That’s got to be a record.
http://www.youtube.com/v/hB0WXPMWAVw”
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