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

[Ian]

Buffy - Restless. The bizarre 'dream' episode that ended season 4 (the traditional 'big' climax having taken place the episode before). Major league WEIRD.

[Ian]

X Files: Monday. The "Groundhog Day" episode with Mulder and Scully trapped in a bank robbery that ends with everyone blown to bits.... again and again and again and again and again....

Classic.

[Rebecka Fan]

Three's Company.

[Ian]

Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma. Stupid but fun and Colin Baker, in his first story, is hilarious in it. Some very funny moments. Hardly a classic, but this much-hated yet entertaining story is in no way the worst Who of either the classic or new series, not by a long, long way.

PERI: Look at you! Just look at you! I've never seen anyone who loved himself so much with less reason!

[Ian]

Eureka season 2 final. Not bad. Hope we're done with the Artefact storyline now, though, since it was never all that interesting to begin with.

[Ian]

Started Arrested Development season 1 again. Still VERY funny.

[Ian]

X Files: Arcadia. Delicious little comedy horror about a "planned" community that's REALLY obsessed with its petty little rules and regulations. Mulder has way too much fun pretending to be married to Scully when they go in undercover.

[Ian]

Lost. So creepy. What has happened to sweet Claire? "This is my friend."

[Ian]

Doctor Who - Tooth and Claw. Good, spooky fun. Nice turn from Pauline Collins as Queen Vic. "The correct form of address is "Your Majesty"," she declares - before blowing the chief villain's brains out.

[Ian]

Saw K9 & Company (a one-off Who spinoff from Xmas 1981) last night. Still great fun. It's an entertainingly old fashioned story, spooky at times, funny at others (if not always intentionally). Even its naffer qualities have an endearingly loveable charm to them, from the truly hysterical opening credits (best theme song ever - "K9.... K9.... K9.... K9... K9" ) to the ludicrously shifty and suspicious behaviour of Howard and Juno Baker (especially her!) - which turns out to be all the funnier when it transpires that they are about the only villagers NOT in the crackpot witches coven!

I rather love K9 & Company.

[Ian]

Started Frasier from the beginning again with the very first episode last night. Still brilliant comedy.

[Ian]

Started Ally McBeal season 2 last night. To be honest, the first ep - aside from the introducton of Portia De Rossi as "Sub Zero" Nelle - is a bit crap, actually. The 2nd ep, on the other hand - hilarious!

[Ian]

'Old' Home and Away. The conclusion to the "Summer Bay Nutter" story highlights the difference between TV then and now; with the reveal of his identity played both very low-key and for sadness (a decent man rendered mentally ill by circumstances beyond his control). Nowadays it would be resolved with explosions.

[fish]

Explosions in Summer Bay?
Now that's something I'd pay to see.

[Ian]

X Files: Field Trip. Wonderfully creepy episode with a great central premise, scary because, given we know of the real life existence of both magic mushrooms and carnivorous plant life, the notion of a fungal organism that digests its victims while keeping them so stoned they don't even realise where they are or what's happening to them, has an eerie plausibility to it. Scully's delusion is particularly creepy and highly amusing, given she gets her 'logical scepticism' thrown back in her face - word for word - even as she begins to suspect reality ain't what it used to be. A classic.