TMINE

Question of the week: what will you be watching this year?

6 January 2010 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Quite a simple question of the week to start things off this year:

What will you be watching in 2010?

Are you looking forward to a new show (Human Target) or the return of an old show (Doctor Who)? Will you be giving up any programmes (FlashForward) or returning to watch an old favourite after a lull (Lost)? Will you forgo TV in favour of the Internet, DVDs or the cinema? Or do you, ambitiously, have a TV New Year’s Resolution?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

What do you want from the blog this year?

4 January 2010 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

As usual, it’s the annual/whenever I get wibbles question for the readership – what do you want to see more of or less of on the blog?

  • We already discovered that a few people liked the reviews of the main Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays (Eternal Summer one coming soon) so they’re staying, but do you want reviews of other Big Finish ranges, assuming I can take it?
  • Daily News is staying
  • More Who/less Who?
  • More Sitting Tennant/less Sitting Tennant?
  • Weird Old Title Sequences?
  • Fewer/more Dick Heads?
  • More/fewer reviews of British shows (although how fewer would be possible, I don’t know)?
  • More/fewer reviews of American shows? Or timed to appear at different times?
  • Episode-by-episode reviews of any particular series?
  • More/fewer competitions or types of competitions (District 9 one coming up soon, maybe)?
  • More/less technology stuff?
  • Question of the week?
  • What have you been watching?

I’ll just say hands off Ali and Jo – they’re staying, although, if anyone wants, say, “Julie Benz on/and hedges”, that would be perfectly acceptable. Indeed, any suggestions for new features that don’t require an immense amount of work will be entertained.

The most popular search terms: November-December 2009

16 December 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Yes, it’s true. Joanna Page is now popular than Satan. It might not seem so at first from the top two search terms, but have a look at the top 16 terms

  1. satan
  2. david tennant
  3. joanna page
  4. joanna page fhm
  5. my ugly best friend
  6. joanna page naked
  7. californication
  8. Joanna Page nude
  9. Lie to me
  10. casanova
  11. ali larter
  12. richard armitage girlfriend
  13. the medium is not enough
  14. richard armitage
  15. joanna page fhm pics
  16. joanna page underwear

Spot anything?

Question of the week: should there be Christmas specials?

16 December 2009 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Probably the last question of the week this year, unless you all fancy another one next Tuesday, say. But to round off this year, I’m going to ask the unthinkable:

Should there even be Christmas specials?

Lots of shows do episodes set at Christmas (or Thanksgiving). However, scheduling being what it is, they can be delayed – so House‘s Christmas special ended up being shown in January last year IIRC. They also make less sense during re-runs, when they can be shown in any order. They can also be extremely lame or even offensive (think episodes where Jesus really does come down to make the world a better place – or does he?).

So to avoid these kinds of mix-ups and lamenesses, should writers steer clear of Christmas and other holiday-related episodes? Or is it all good fun and appropriate and only namby-pamby liberals would think otherwise?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

What have you been watching this week? (w/e December 11)

11 December 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

I’ve mostly been in Israel this week, and since my charger got lost with the luggage, didn’t dare watch anything on my iPhone. So I’ve not been watching much. However…

  • Dexter – Great ending, but quite an obvious episode.
  • Stargate Universe – Great ending that you could see coming, but weren’t sure they’d have the guts to carry through on. Although it doesn’t have the charisma, the acting or the characters of BSG, I’m actually starting to like SGU more. I think it’s because of the lack of mythology weighing it down and the fact it really carries through on things that BSG usually only promised.
  • Community – A week behind here. But three eps that are only ‘okay’ in a row? How disappointing. I’m still liking it, but I’m hoping Dan Harmon will write some more episodes soon.
  • Misfits – Really enjoying this now. A good temporal mechanics ep last week and quite a gutsy episode last night with some real emotion as well as comedy. The dumping scenes were especially enjoyable, but all the Simon stuff was poignant.
  • Gavin & Stacey – Cracking fight scene with Stacey and lots of in-jokes: for example, the red-haired Welsh girl who Dino tries to chat up in Welsh is in Caerdydd where she’s the one whose Welsh is rubbish. Possibly my favourite ever G&S episode.
  • Cast Offs – I’ve been reviewing this for a magazine so I don’t want to repeat myself. But it was brave, with some great individual episodes (Gabriella’s last week for example). But overall, I didn’t find it hung together well enough and there was a certain schizophrenia (sorry) about the direction.
  • The Thick Of It – Some really good one-liners, but again this series has been mostly dramatic and tragic rather than funny.
  • Paradox – My God, this is a stupid show. But it’s really compelling. The thing I love most about this is that it’s almost like an old-style 80s adventure game: as soon as everyone looks really stuck on the problem they’re trying to solve, mysterious scientist guy with the ridiculous dialogue will literally come in through a door, unbidden, say “This image clearly represents x”, where x is the answer, then walk out again. It’s a brave show that dares to be that obvious.
  • Men of a Certain Age – TNT’s new show with Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher. I’m still watching it and hopefully full review later, but despite the fact it’s getting good press in the States, I’m not impressed so far.
  • Modern Family – A pretty funny Christmas episode, with some great moments, but not epic. Loved the ‘cool dad’s’ punishments/apologies though.
  • 30 Rock – still a week behind, and last week’s was something of a return to form, with some very funny moments involving a high-def camera and The Hunt for Red October.

What have you been watching though?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).