Month: May 2011

Thursday’s “20 years in the remaking” news

12 May 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

  • NBC picks up Prime Suspect, Smash, Whitney and Up All Night
  • Mos Def joins Dexter
  • Shawn Ryan working on Nickel for FX
  • Hugh Grant nearly replaces Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men
UK TV

Review: Atlantis

11 May 2011 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Atlantis

In the UK: Sunday 8th May, 9pm, BBC1. Available on the iPlayer

Ah, drama documentaries? Is there a more benighted category of programming? The idea is simple: documentaries are dull things in which people who know stuff talk to you; a drama-documentary makes it all exciting, and it comes to life since it’s dramatised.

However, while there’s the occasional exception – usually when there’s a reasonably good amount of evidence to go on – the average drama-documentary combines the worst aspects of both dramas and documentaries: not enough information for a proper documentary, too little time to do a decent, well written story for a drama.

So it is with Atlantis, BBC1’s recent one-hour documentary about the Bronze Age volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini (aka Thera) that destroyed much of the island and pretty much ended the ‘Minoan’ civilisation that had thrived on both it and the nearby Crete for 1500 years. It was this that possibly inspired Plato’s tale of Atlantis over 1,000 years later. A combination of history documentary, geology documentary and a doomed romance, Atlantis wasn’t without its merits and indeed in some areas was very good, but it wasn’t on a par with any of the great Bettany Hughes’ documentaries on the subjects, even though she was one of its advisors.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Review: Atlantis”

Film

Question of the week: should casting be colour-blind?

11 May 2011 Rob Buckley 19 Comments

Thor

So this week, we have in the cinemas a movie called Thor, all about (Marvel’s version of) the eponymous Norse god of Thunder. It’s already got a lot of people worked up. We have the pagans who don’t think it’s a proper depiction of their gods for starters. But we also have the comics fans who are annoyed that Idris Elba is in it.

Now quite how you could object to Idris Elba being in anything, even Luther, I don’t know, because he’s awesome. But people are objecting that he’s playing a character who’s white in the comics.

Idris Elba as Heimdall


Heimdall in Marvel comics

So today’s not at all explosive question is

Should casting be colour-blind? Should you cast the best actor for a role or the best actor who also looks the part for the role?

For those of you who want to go to advanced classes, let’s consider the movie Suture in which Michael Harris…

Michael Harris in Suture

…and Dennis Haysbert…

Dennis Haysbert in Suture

…played identical twin (half-)brothers.

UPDATE: I’ve now included a clip of Suture so you can see what I mean:

As always, answers below or on your own blog

Sitting Tennant

Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant (week 17, 2011)

11 May 2011 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Sister Chastity's Sitting Tennant

I know, I know. It’s Wednesday, not Tuesday. Sorry, but what with public transport, evening classes, The Apprentice, blah de blah de blah, I didn’t have time last night. But first thing Wednesday morning is close enough, right?

Anyway, to make it up to you, here’s Sister Chastity’s winning Sitting Tennant of the week. I’m almost inclined to give bonus points to anyone who can actually now write a caption, even more bonus points for ones that aren’t smutty. But I don’t want to set anyone impossible challenges.

  1. Hebbie: 100
  2. Sister Chastity: 75
  3. Rullsenberg: 55
  4. Erin C: 45
  5. Janice: 15
  6. esgaril: 10
  7. theriverlady: 5

It was Marie who came up with the definitive (meta-)caption last week so a big 10 points to her; five points to everyone else, including new arrival kallan – a warm hello to kallan! Thank you for joining us and I hope you enjoy your stay!

Good luck with this week’s competition everyone.

  1. Marie: 105
  2. Rullsenberg: 85
  3. Toby, Electric Dragon: 60
  4. SK, Lisa G: 45
  5. theriverlady: 35
  6. Jane Henry: 30
  7. Virpi: 15
  8. Joe B, whoficwriter: 10
  9. Hebbie, kallan: 5

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the Sitting Tennant gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.

The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Tuesday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Tuesday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.