SciFifty

Ricky Gervais is a clown, and I say this in the ancient sense of Comedy/Tragedy.  His blend encompasses fun, shame, sorrow, and all the aspects of human emotion in between.

His seminal show, "The Office" is quite a different animal to the version we see on this side of the Atlantic. We like a little pathos and some snarkiness, but have a hard time laughing at characters that are pathetic and/or reprehensible. The Steve Carell version is mostly very amusing, but I must admit to having adjustment issues. But one should not expect an import to travel verbatim and if it did, why bother watching?

Funnier than The Office (British version) is Extras. Here is the ongoing travails of an ambitious bit-player who aspires to actually say something on camera. Once that happens, his dreams and hopes know no bounds, leading him to terrible choices.

His sidekicks are played by Stephen Merchant {also his writing and directing partner] and Ashley Jensen. They are clueless and unbearably sad, respectively.  Unlike other comedies where guest stars are brought in as stunts during sweeps week, the guests on Extras are an integral part of the story because of the show biz setting. Two of the stand-our guests are David Bowie and Daniel Radcliff.

If you haven’t yet caught up with Extras, run don't walk to your local video outlet where you can find both seasons one and two, plus the totally excellent series finale.

Posted by webninny at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"You can't change Destiny." Harsh words for Dean to hear after being treated to a flashback by his own personal angel.  This season we learn that while Dean was in hell, Sam was going down his own dark and shaky path in the company of a minor demon familiar to us, and using his own considerable powers to defeat evil.
 
When Dean is pulled from the pit, Sam keeps his pursuits to himself. Dean has real trouble accepting the presence of God, but if He does exist why is He interested in Dean Winchester?
The Angel explains that he is needed to do God's work, this little bit of information does not help Dean at all, hence the time warp.
 
In the not too distant past Dean finds his own as yet unmarried parents and we find out some very interesting things:

• Dean and Sam's mom Mary belongs to a family of hunters of which she is a reluctant member.
• Dad John is not in the hunting business, yet.
• The yellow eyed demon inhabited his Grandpa, Sam
• His mom made a deal with old yellow eyes.

 
No action on his part made any difference - you've got it - "You cant change Destiny." Our writers have led us to watch the brothers following different, separate paths and keeping dark secrets from each other. But at the end of the episode the Angel informs Dean that Sam is going the wrong way and if Dean can't stop him, "We" will. More ominous than a royal "We."

Posted by webninny at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For a long time I could never bring myself to watch Smallville, because even though I know that you have to suspend disbelief, Tom Welling as a teenager? Please. And Kristin Kreuk over-acting her good/evil/good machinations proved more than I could bear.
 
The last several episodes however, are growing into the Superman mythos while still maintaining the series' own style.  The addition of the Green Arrow as a regular and the appearance of the J.L.A.are leading to more exciting and involving plot lines.
 
Introducing Clark's future nemesis as a helpful {and hot} medic whom Chloe finds attractive thickens the stew, alas poor Jimmy.Finding Clark at last at the Daily Planet is fun, lets just hope that we don't get to the point where his taking off or putting on a pair of glasses will impair everybody's vision.

Posted by webninny at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The next time you go to Crackle to catch Rescue Me webisodes, (you are catching them, right?), be sure to check out the 30 Second Bunnies. You can’t really understand the meaning of "that's just wrong" until you’ve seen the bunnies acting out Reservoir Dogs. I'm just saying.

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Television may well be a vast wasteland and soap operas its warehouse district, but surprise, not all daily drama has to be melodrama. I have checked into Salem and Port Charles and Springfield many times over the last twenty years and its true, Stefano DiMera is still raising himself from the dead, Lisa Hughes is on her eighth or ninth husband, and on soaps, doctors are more often engaged in carnage than caring.

The bottom line is that if all sense of reality left the building with Elvis, censorship is alive and well and the stories seem to be aimed at teenage girls. Other countries take a more evolved attitude from EastEnders  about small town English life, to Clara Sheller from France and Germany has several including Verbotene Liebe. All deal with almost real people and situations. Oh still soap opera, but aimed at a more adult audience who can choose to watch or not.

In my humble opinion, the most important soap opera news in quite a while hails from Turkey.  Called "Noor," it is extremely popular and is beamed to millions across the Arab world, from Bahrain to the West Bank. It is reviled by religious leaders including the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia who denounce it for presenting “wickedness, evil and moral collapse."

Story lines include dating, drinking and feature the marriage of a couple in which the husband supports his wife's decision to have a career in the fashion industry. Small steps seemingly innocuous to us but a giant leap for our neighbors to the East.

Strange to think in some circumstances a simple soap opera could be as avant-garde as science fiction.

Posted by webninny at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The BBC has been known in the past to continue a show long past the series should end. For instance, a show which included the titular star, Blakes 7, continued long past Blake's departure.

There is however a difference between a largely camp show and a quasi-historical one. I as a viewer would have reasonable expectations of finding Robin Hood in a show called, Robin Hood.

If Jonas Armstrong leaves the show at the end do series three, how about "The Other Guys in Sherwood"?? 

 

Posted by webninny at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Most commercials are so annoying that you will perform sleight of hand to grab the remote and turn down the volume. But funny bone control-grabbing exceptions right now are the ads for the Sci-Fi channel’s Eureka.
 
The show revolves around a small town inhabited mostly by geniuses working on various projects which at any moment could rain havoc on the earth. The commercials are for oddball products supposedly invented in Eureka. For once, the product lives up to the hype; the show is very entertaining with a good cast and well written scripts. If you need to catch up you can find at least seven episodes on SciFi.com.

Posted by webninny at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

David Tennant is an excellent Doctor Who. He is a little manic, but I always attribute this to his training to play to the back of the house; he is a "serious" actor able to run the gamut from science fiction to Shakespeare and back.
 
When he was offered Doctor Who, I am sure he gave it great thought; he knew that the character is an institution in the British Isles and lately across the various ponds. He probably expected to lose some of his privacy and have to change his everyday activities, but nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. 
 
When you go to a theater to see a friend’s show, and offer support, you might expect to be recognized and asked for your autograph, but when Mr. Tennant went to see Catherine Tate’s performance, he was driven from the theater by crazed fans that stopped the show brandishing sonic screwdrivers.
 
Let’s hope this can be put in some kind of perspective, i.e. not all fans are insane, and when it comes time to decide whether or not he wants to star in series 5, Mr. Tennant will make his decision based on other considerations, like the enormous paycheck (for the BBC).

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