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Month: November 2011
Competitions
COMPETITION TIME: win a Panasonic DMP-BDT110 Blu-Ray 3D player!
Yes, UK readers (sorry everyone else), now’s your chance to win a Skype- and WiFi-compatible Panasonic Blu-ray player – it does 3D, too. Ooh! – as reviewed last week on this ‘ere blog.
Since this is a blog that runs competitions of skill rather than pure luck (well, usually), I’ve thought long and hard about what kind of competition to run here. Finally, I’ve hit on the answer.
So from now until the end of the month (11.59pm 30th November), anyone leaving a comment anywhere on this ‘ere blog (one that abides by the commenting guidelines) will automatically be entered into the competition. At the end of the month, the person who wrote the best comment – which could mean smartest, funniest or whatever I decide – will win the Blu-Ray player.
Note, if you feel you’ve already written the best comment you’re ever going to write on this blog, just email me a link to the entry on which you left it to enter it into the competition. And if you’re worried I might not write anything between now and then that will inspire you to come up with your best comments, you can leave the comment on an old entry, which you can find either with the search engine at the top right of the page or by using the reviews A-Z or the complete archives list.
I should probably mention at this point that you have to live in the UK and be over 18 (or have the permission of a parent or guardian) to enter the competition and if anyone quibbles, consider these the rules.
Oh, and I should also mention that those nice people at Tesco provided the Blu-Ray player: Tesco Blu-Ray Players or Blu-Ray players from Tesco Direct
UPDATE: You are definitely not going to win simply by saying you deserve it, you like Panasonic goods, etc. The winner be will someone who says something clever (or funny) ON ANY ONE of the the entries on this blog (there are nearly 5,000 now), almost certainly about TV or film, in response to what I’ve written. I’m trying to encourage creativity here!
PS You can enter as many times as you like and you’ve still got until the end of the month!
Pan Am for Dummies
A writer at Pan Am is clearly very pissed off an ABC exec…
Monday’s Piano reunion news
Film
- Ridley Scott working on Blade Runner sequel
British TV
- Holly Hunter reunites with Jane Campion for Top of the Lake
- Royle Family Christmas special cancelled – because there’s no script
- BBC hopes to attract rivals to Cardiff [subscription required]
- Top Boy finishes with 1 million viewers
- Joanna Page to star in BBC1’s The Syndicate
US TV
- Thursday night ratings: Bones and Community up 22%,
- Friday night ratings: Fringe up, Grimm down, Chuck at all-time low
- Jenna Elfman to guest on Shameless
- John Schneider to guest on Glee
- Gary Busey to guest as himself on Two and a Half Men
- Megan Mullally joins Breaking In
French TV
Review: Braquo 1×1
In the UK: Sundays, 10pm, FX UK
In France: Canal+. First broadcast 2009
Once upon a time – i.e. five or six years ago – FX was the place to go to if you wanted to watch the best, most niche US TV shows. The Wire was on FX years before DVD and BBC2 showings made it nearly a household name, while Dexter and numerous other top-quality shows aired only on FX or aired on it first.
Then along came Sky Atlantic and screwed all that up. Have a look at the roster now and yes, there’s The Walking Dead, True Blood and American Horror Story, but that’s three horror shows, only one of which is any good and everything else is just re-runs. And let’s not start on the fact The Defenders is on there. That’s just embarrassing.
So FX came up with a cunning idea: let’s see what countries other than the US have to offer. So it started with Canadian TV. Along came The Border, which wasn’t half bad, The Listener, which was, and ReGenesis and The Booth At The End, which I admit I’ve never seen but which I also admit I don’t feel inspired to watch, either.
But hunting for good quality Canadian TV can be tricky. For every, The Border, jPod, Being Erica or Endgame, there’s a The Line, Men With Brooms, InSecurity, Good Dog or XIII waiting to make you regret your TV-watching decision. FX can’t exactly pack its schedules to the rafters with Canadian TV, particularly since E4’s started nicking Canadian shows as well.
So FX has cunningly decided, just as BBC4 is cutting back on its acquisition budgets and focusing on Scandinavian shows, to capitalise on one of that channel’s other innovations and look close to home for its shows. To France, in fact.
So not only has it been showing the two-part movie Mesrine, starring Vincent Cassel as the eponymous gangster, it’s also acquired Spiral/Engrenages‘s sibling show at Canal+ Braquo, a dark policier about a cop with broad definitions of legality and what he’s allowed to do.
The question is – has FX found the new The Killing or is it about to discover what those of us who have watched French TV for some time now have found: that French TV drama, by and large, sucks?
Here’s a trailer.