What Are You Currently Watching (on tv/dvd)?

[fish]

Just finished watching My Life As A Dog, made in 1985 and directed by Lasse Halleström.

This has to be one of the best films about kids growing up I've ever seen. Brilliantly acted by the whole cast and many very eccentric characters portrayed. eg. The young girl hiding her boobs so she can play in the boys soccer team, the guy who spends all his time repairing his roof, the uncle who's building a folly on land he doesn't own and our hero "Ingemar" reading from a lingerie catelogue to the ill old man downstairs. Seriously strange people but all very nice, not a villain anywhere.

My only regret is that I have yet to identify Ralph Carlsson's character "Harry". I must be too busy reading the subtitles and given that it's 13 years before FÅ he will obviously look a lot younger. I'll certainly be watching it again though.

[Ian]

Roseanne season 4 final, last night: On the day that Roseanne has lost her job, she and Dan are forced to tell teen daughter Becky that her "college fund" is non-existent, and the family is barely able to keep up with the house payments, they discover that little DJ is in the running for the winner of the local spelling bee championship and, at the final, get a little overly exuberant while in the audience.

OTHER PARENT: Jeez, it's just a spelling bee.

ROSEANNE: Maybe to you, pal, but it's all we've got!

[Ian]

Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday. Mm, pretty good. The first episode is a bit too chock a block with technobabble in place of real dialogue and Adric and Tegan are both at their most irritating, obnoxious and wooden, but there's some big ideas and cool concepts, Davison is remarkably assured in what was hist first recorded performance in the role, and the guest cast are mostly fine too. All in all, not great but still pretty good.


And the story always gives me a chuckle for the way some of its imagery (some of the spaceship sets, and the "Ancient Greek" character of Bygon) look like they've wandered straight out of the "Burt gets abducted by aliens" storyline from Soap!

[fish]

....the "Burt gets abducted by aliens" storyline from Soap!

Now that was funny.


I loved Soap. What a classic.

[Ian]

I love Soap too. Adored it as a kid and got 'em all on dvd a couple of years back (had to import the last 2 seasons from the US, they stopped after season 2 over here ) and it's still an absolute classic.

[fish]

I suppose one of the few advantages in paying lots of money to Rupert for all those channels of Fox crap, is that occasionaly something good comes on.
Like every few years or so they show reruns of things like Soap, Red Dwarf, Skins, Sugar Rush, etc, etc.
Last weekend they reran all of the Doctor Who episodes of (I think) the current series. Not that I watched them all but it lasted best part of a day.

But it's mostly crap.
I mean, for the one remaining Lucille Ball fan still alive the're still showing I Love Lucy reruns from the 50's.

Ahh, quality tv. What would we do without it?

[Ian]

Even compared to a decade ago, TV is certainly in a sorry state these days. Where's the Buffy's or The X Files' or the Seinfelds et al? There's Lost, which finishes next year anyway and... not much besides.

[snaps]

Even compared to a decade ago, TV is certainly in a sorry state these days.

Very true. don't watch much now anyway. Ive watched re-runs of Poirot so much I know the scripts by heart now. Re-runs of Wycliffe is a highlight (do you get that in Oz?). No real successor to scripts like Wire in The Blood. And all these pairing of comedians who think they would have been good enough to hack it in the Comedy Store days. Absolute pants! The only really talented pair is Armstrong and Miller. OMG, talking of Lucille Ball, next thing you know someone will come up with the idea of doing a show based on a dizzy redhead!

[Ian]

What gets me is, down here of late, the few things that are good - like Lost - end up dumped in awful timeslots like 10.30 or 11 at night! Back in the 90s there was rarely a night that didn't have at least a couple of great shows on. Nowadays it's either dvds or what I taped from the ridiculously late transmission the night before!

I'm not sure whether we get Wycliffe or not. The name rings a vague bell, but no more.

[snaps]

Wycliffe is pretty much minority taste. Based on the 20 or so books by the late W.J. Burley they have been considerably updated to contemporary times. Although set in Cornwall the series were produced by bigger budget companies. They are less cerebral than Morse which means you can drink and watch at the same time without losing the plot. The characters could perhaps be more dramatic, but what of Burley endures is his taste for the tough seedy underworld and dodgy local characters well away from the tourist pretty-pretty PR claptrap of Cornwall. I also had a major crush on Wycliffes side-kick I wonder if you can guess which one from this piccy?

[Ian]

It's the guy in the middle, isn't it?

[fish]

"The guy in the middle?"
I'm sure Snaps has better taste than that. I'm not game to pick which of the other two but I think she looks nice.

[Ian]

Heh heh. I'm just pulling snaps' pigtails.

[snaps]

Goodbye Cruel Worlde.jpg

[Ian]

PMSL!


Jonathan Creek - The Grinning Man. A welcome return for the duffel-coated one, well up to the standard of previous installments. The sinister central mystery - since the 1930s, eight people have disappeared forever upon staying the night in a locked attic room in a creepy old mansion - is a belter, with a truly nightmarish resolution. Nasty!

The new girl's pretty hot too.


Also: Skins ep 7. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but MAN, Kathryn Prescott is adorable.