Wednesday’s wicked witch news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

Tuesday’s “fairly mediocre” news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Royal wedding watched by 24m
  • 5USA gets third season of Sons of Anarchy [subscription required]
  • Sky profits up 24% [subscription required]

US TV

Lara Logan’s back, thankfully

It’s been nearly three months since the terrible sexual assault on CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt, but thankfully, she’s now strong enough to return back to work. I’d like to embed a YouTube video of her coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden, but CBS News won’t let me, so here’s a link – typically insightful stuff from Logan.

However, last night, she went on to 60 Minutes to explain in detail what happened – for the one and only time. It’s very shocking stuff, but shows how brave she is.

Welcome back, Lara. It’s great to see you again.

What have you been watching this week (w/e April 29)?

My usual recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Archer, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Endgame, Modern Family, Stargate Universe and 30 Rock. Watch them (and keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well) or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff. I’ve also decided to add Happy Endings to the recommended viewing, since although it can be a bit silly, it is consistently funny.

Just a few thoughts on a couple of the regulars:

  • Loved last week’s episode of Community – a clips show with clips from episodes that don’t actually exist. How awesome is that?
  • Stargate Universe almost made me cry this week, which is kind of pathetic I know, but TJ getting motor neurone disease was just upsetting.
  • Smallville – Booster Gold turns up. So a bit rubbish basically. Still not long to the final ever episode.

Since the last “What have you been watching?”, I’ve tried

  • Game of Thrones, but gave up after 15 minutes since it seemed very dull. I might be wrong on that, but then fantasy books have never really been my thing.
  • I also dipped back into Hellcats, just to see what they did with Aly Michalka’s sister, who they’ve got to play… her long-lost sister. They didn’t do much though and since most of the rest of the episode was actually quite dreadful Kids From Fame stuff, I decided not to bother watching any more of it and was glad I gave up a while back.

I did record The Crimson Petal and the White, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and United, but didn’t watch them. Were they any good?

But what have you been watching?

“What have you been watching this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?

US TV

Richard Chamberlain _is_ Jason Bourne

The Bourne Identity – brilliant movie, huh? Do you know what isn’t a brilliant movie, though? The Bourne Identity.

Confusing, huh? That’s because you probably didn’t realise that the excellent 2002 movie starring Matt Damon wasn’t the first adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s book The Bourne Identity, about a spy apparently called Jason Bourne who loses his memory after being shot and has to recover his identity. Nope, back in 1988, US TV network ABC adapted it as a three-hour movie which they turned into a two-part mini-series. Except rather than Matt Damon, they got Richard Chamberlain to play ‘Jason Bourne’. And they forgot to get someone decent to direct it. Or give it a decent special effects budget.

Ironically, the 1988 adaptation, which you can watch part of below, while worse is a lot more faithful to the book and it does feature Anthony Quayle, Jaclyn Smith and Denholm Elliott as well, so you might prefer it, particularly if you’re a Ludlum fan.

This is only part 1 – other parts are on YouTube, but you should probably get it on DVD if you like it for some reason.