TMINE

Meme of the Week: your favourite ‘TV transplant’

8 July 2009 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

No. Not that. Well, not unless you really want it to be, you sicko.

No, this week’s Meme of the Week is inspired by Frasier, Ashes to Ashes, After M*A*S*H, etc. You have a favourite TV character – or merely favourite TV show. You take that character or a character from the show and you transplant them to a new environment. That’s a ‘TV transplant’. So…

What’s your favourite TV transplant?

I’ve given you a couple already, but feel free to suggest your own: after all, TV is littered with plenty of spin-offs (K9 and Company, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Private Practice, Going Straight, Highlander: The Raven). But what’s your favourite?

For advanced students, what’s your least favourite, or perhaps you’d like to create your own: Frank Spencer on Batllestar Galactica? Neil Burnside on The Brittas Empire? Jack Bauer on Pushing Daisies? What do you fancy?

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 3 July)

3 July 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

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

What have you been watching this week? (w/e 26 June)

26 June 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Gosh. So many new programmes on, all of a sudden. Have you been watching them?

Tried to give ABC Family’s Make It Or Break It a whirl, drawn in by the fact that Frasier‘s Peri Gilpin (Roz) was in it, but once I realised it was mostly about athletic teenage girls in leotards, I figured I shouldn’t watch it any more, not being either a teenage girl or a teenage boy.

Also over in the States, Burn Notice had a good episode that managed to play with the formula cleverly, while Samantha Who? returned for its last few episodes.

In the UK, l tried Psychoville, but it seemed a bit predictable and didn’t add much new (that Dawn French character, for example, just felt like a certain job centre woman off League of Gentlemen/Marjorie Dawes off Little Britain). Mitchell and Webb was very good this week, and even Sir Chicken Digby Caesar (or whatever his name is) had a dose of pathos added to him to make his return welcome. But not a huge amount else on, as far as I could see.

I also managed to polish off via my new iPhone (review next week, probably) the whole of Children of the Stones and the last bits of Moonbase 3 (probably both coming to a Lost Gem near you soon).

But now, I’m off to watch the still-enjoyable Royal Pains and last night’s episode of Burn Notice as well. Ain’t lunchtimes great? See you later for Sitting Tennant…

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!

Meme of the week: your favourite fake accent

24 June 2009 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

It can’t have escaped your attention that more and more TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic are now enlightened enough to include foreigners in their cast. In fact, you’d be hard-pushed to find a US TV show that doesn’t include at least one person from Britain, Ireland or Australia in their numbers.

Sometimes these actors are allowed to keep their own accents, but other times they’re made to fake an accent. So this week’s meme is a relatively simple one:

What’s your favourite fake accent?

It might be your favourite convincing accent (eg Hugh Laurie in House, apparently), it might be your favourite absolutely appalling accent (eg Phil Glenister in Demons) and it can be from any country in the world. If you’re stuck for a TV show, you can resort to a movie if you want.

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

Happy fourth birthday to The Medium Is Not Enough

22 June 2009 Rob Buckley 23 Comments


A birthday cake

Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, four years ago (sort of – it was yesterday actually – subject to blog migration, blog splitting, blog reunions, etc), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its first two posts: previews of the just-deceased Prison Break, the not-unpopular Supernatural and the still-unseen Global Frequency; and tedious cruft about The Omega Factor (which I’m really not going to write a review of after all, except when I get stuck for a Lost Gem).

What we’ve learned this year
In our fourth year, we discovered the following ten exciting things:

  1. David Tennant is as popular sitting down as he is standing up.
  2. That while captioned pictures of David Tennant sitting down will get you lots of comments and even interest from the weirdest locations, ultimately, articles about Joanna Page or Ali Larter, preferably including the words ‘naked’ or ‘sex’, will attract vastly more interest from Google – albeit not many comments.
  3. Ali Larter’s and Joanna Page’s popularity are considerably dwarfed by Sarah Beeny’s, even without the use of the word ‘naked’ or ‘sex’. Either that or there’s something going on with the housing market at the moment.
  4. David Tennant fans are more loyal and dynamic than Richard Armitage’s, although Richard Armitage’s head turns out to be the Muse of haikus.
  5. Six episodes may – or may not – be the natural length for any TV series.
  6. No amount of begging will make anyone watch programmes on S4C.
  7. Heroes is finally getting better.
  8. You all still loves Doctor Who. Well, almost all of you.
  9. The best invention in the world is Rob’s Great Blonde Elevator.
  10. Twitter allows me to make passing comments on TV shows that I can’t quite be bothered – or have time – to blog about.

Changes
Over the last year, there have also been a few changes.

  • We finally got a proper URL, rather than the cack old one I used to use.
  • We’ve seen the launch of Random Acts of Ali Larter, which approximately three people understand the true point of, including me. But even if you don’t, you can still enjoy it.
  • Dick Heads came, went, then came back again.
  • Sitting Tennant’s logistics became somewhat trickier and now involves flowcharts on a wall.
  • The new ‘Meme of the week’ seems to be doing quite well for itself.
  • People really do want to help their fellow TV viewers in ‘What have you been watching this week?’
  • There were some quite weird title sequences back in the 70s.
  • Canadian TV has come on by leaps and bounds of late, although appears to have run out of money as well.

    I’d like to say a great big thank you again to Anna, Lisa, Marie, Matt, Rosby, Scott, Stu_N, Stu, other Scott, Stuart, Iko, Poly, espedair, kaballa, Electric Dragon, Linda, cindylover1969, Fraser, Kev, Craig, Lesley, Jonathan, Cackle Jr, Murray, Mark, Toby, Phoenix, Persephone, Jane, TemplarJ, Vin, Chris and Andrea for continuing to hang around and contribute with always entertaining comments.

    I’d also like to thank Dan, Rev/Views, Aaron, Jaradel, Nik, Joe, Bob and Sister Chastity for joining in with the fun this year.

    Apologies to infrequent commenters and anyone I left out but my brain hurts – you know what I’m like with names. But you’ve all been absolutely wonderful to be here, join in and interact with my baffling ramblings.

    Fingers crossed, the fun’s just going to keep on rolling on for another year. Hope you continue to enjoy your stay! And if you have any suggestions for what else you might like to see on the blog, please let me know below.

    Have a nice week,

    Rob