Severe Jam Damage

So I’ve uh, been watching some of the new season stuff - don’t ask, don’t tell right?
anyway here’s a brief run-through:

Flight of the Conchords
Stars: No one you’ll know - ok its Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie… See? You still don’t know them.
Plot: New Zealand band move to New York and try to break into the music scene.
Thoughts: I’ve watched the first three episodes. The re-curring joke ‘Are you English?’ ‘No we’re from New Zealand’ grows tired very quickly. The songs (yes, that’s right, I said songs) are like something French and Saunders would write on a bad day. The Monkees this ain’t.
Final Comment:: Put it this way, I’ve got 5 episodes and have only been able to watch three.

Bionic Woman
Stars: Michelle Ryan (ex-eastender) some other people, and Katee Sackhoff (BSG) wearing make-up.
Plot: Same as the original, Jamie Sommers is in a horrific crash gets bionic ear, eye, arm and legs.
Thoughts: Actually its not quite the same, there is a much darker reason for Jamies’ accident which - call me twisted - I kinda liked. Michelle Ryan has taken to the American accent quite well, there’s no trace of her eastender roots, and she’s also cleaned up pretty good as well. I’ve only seen the first episode and there were small touches of ‘Alias’ and ‘Dark Angel’ which I hope they don’t continue to pursue as I wasn’t really a fan of either of those shows. The CGI looks pretty good (although I kinda miss the original ‘cha-cha-cha-cha-cha’ when she jumps), fight scenes weren’t bad either.
Final Comment: Could be a slow burner, this was picked up by NBC so there’ll be money behind it. I guess they are hoping to continue the success they’ve had with Heroes.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - Pilot
Stars: Summer Glau (’Firefly’ and ‘The 4400′), Lena Headey (’300′ and some other stuff) and Thomas Dekker (Heroes - he was Clares ‘friend’.)
Plot: Begins after T-2 and messes with the storyline so that 3 never happened.
Thoughts: Ok, so I’ve only seen the pilot, but the first 10 minutes were excrutiating. I don’t know if Lena Headey was still struggling with her American accent or what, but it was stilted and awful. Then it settled down and became a pretty good action show, good pacing and the characters seemed to settle in a bit. They seem to have a great set-up for when the actual show premieres (I think its March in the states.) Sarah Connor is younger (in the pilot they mention she was 19 when Kyle knocked her up with John) and the timeline is arseways, but considering I’m not sure what the original timeline was anyway, that might not be such a bad thing.
Final Comment: Another one that could be quite entertaining if they don’t mess it up.

Reaper
Stars: Well it’s directed by Kevin Smith, but the actors are pretty much unknowns - at least to me. Bret Harrison (reminds me a bit of Jake Ghyllenhaal) plays the lead role of ‘Sam’.
Plot: Sams parents sell his soul to the devil, so in return he becomes a bounty hunter for escaped souls.
Thoughts: Given that this is a Kevin Smith thing there is plenty of twisted humour in the show. Sam is cute and likeable even if he is a slacker, his mates are quirky enough to not be phased (too much) when he tells them the truth and there’s a wee hottie for love interest.
Final Thoughts: Could be ok, if Smith keeps the adolescent humour to a minimum. Trouble is it’s on CW and they don’t have a great track record with some of their shows. Chances of us getting it over here? Pretty low, unless Channel 6 scoops in. Then again RTE might just surprise us, but I don’t think so. We’ll probably have to wait a couple of years before Sky catches on, or Channel 4 and by that time it will probably be cancelled in the States.
Edit: Thanks for the update Priscilla, I got it wrong. Only the first episode was directed by Kevin Smith.

Heroes, Season 2
Okay so this isn’t strictly a new show cos I’ve already devoured series 1 and I’m hooked. But I just wanted to stick it in here. Have watched episode 1 of season 2. Despite my reservations about the Irish accents, it’ll probably be another good season. Some good setups in the first ep, if they can keep up what they did for season 1 they’ll have another winner on their hands. Good, entertaining fun.

WORST IRISH ACCENTS EVER.

That is all.

Of COURSE Bennet’s first name is Noah.

It’s only taken me the summer to figure it out. doh!

I meant to blog about this on Wednesday but as with every other thing I meant to blog about lately I haven’t had the time or patience to string more than two words together at any one time.
Anyway, what was my point?

oh yeah, Heroes.

The first season is finished and I watched the last episode there on Tuesday night thanks to er, modern technological advances and eh, stuff. Channel 6 is showing the first season here, but they are only at episode 14. Now that its finished I’m wondering what to do, pretty much all the shows have ended this week - Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Lost ends on Monday and Ugly Betty is finished next Thursday - which makes me sound like an awful couch potato, but really I’m not. I only watch a few shows (Grey’s season 3 has just started back on Living) so I don’t really watch THAT much telly.

Which reminds me, feckin’ BIG BROTHER is starting next week, so I really WILL be avoiding the television for the summer - or at least trying to.

Hmm, this was going to be a post about ‘Heroes’ and how much I loved it, and what wonderful eye-candy (episode 20 especially!) was on show and etc, etc. It was the small touches that I liked to pick out. Not the Stan Lee cameo, or the number of times the ‘Godsend’ symbol showed up, or George Takei’s licence plate (NCC-1701). Unlike Lost (season 1) I wasn’t so caught up in the mystery of it all. I just enjoyed it for the characters and plot in which the writers actually rewarded us viewers with ANSWERS.

The bits I loved were more subtle. The camera work is amazing, tilted shots, perspective, focus. Those shots you’d expect to see in a comic book panel, but without being a hokey Batman homage. Episode 17 ‘Company Man’ is an example of those little touches. (and the later episodes as well, which I WON’T spoil for those who haven’t yet seen them.) The zooms across the front lawn, tilted perspectives in the hallway, its all good.

Can’t wait for Volume 2!

Photo courtesy of HeroSite.net

In the office the third lift over is always breaking down. Arrive at floor and ‘ping’ the doors open 2 inches and then stop. This means standing around in the lift for 5 minutes until the doors reset themselves and close, then shoot you up to a floor you don’t want to be on. Once the doors open we are so happy to be free of the lift that we walk back down to the sixth floor, rather than take the chance on the lift doors getting stuck again.
Never, never, never has a man the likes of the Diet Coke Bloke come abseiling to our rescue. Our office is full of overweight, middle-aged men in glasses who guffaw loudly at their own jokes and sport large red whiskey noses. Which, if I told you where I work would make perfect sense.
Think, old school.
Think, old boys club.
Think, money.
If anyone did come abseiling into the lift it would be one of rather large and out of shape security guards. Then again, I guess Coke wouldn’t sell half as much if the Diet Coke Bloke had a beer belly and combover.

Just sayin’ like.

Got this from Nat King Coleslaw…

Hilarious.

George Takei responds to Tim Hardaway

Here’s a bunch of opening scenes for CSI: Miami edited together into one seven minute ‘Carusoism’.

My favourite so far is at about the 3.47 mark.
‘’No matter how you cut it the war sucks!’
‘Frank…. it’s a killer’

oh no wait a minute… it’s the last one…
‘We’re goin’ to Brazil!’

Spam UP
‘Now with the new taste of black pepper’

Good lord, I’m not kidding. I’m here at home today, not feeling the best and propped up with pillows and this ad comes on the telly with all these happy people eating Spam. Spam salads, Spam sandwiches, Spam god knows what.

One of the lines actually goes:
‘Spam Up! For your anniversary!’
And theres an old fella putting a platter of spam in front of his oul wan and the table all set with flowers and candles.

I can see this becoming a cult ad. Much like the ‘GO WALKing!’ thing that was running a couple of years ago.

Here in Fair Eire (apparently we’ve lost our fada) the telly box has been showing season 2 of ‘Lost’ for the last few weeks. I think at this point we are only about 4 episodes behind the States, unlike the UK where Channel 4 has only just begun to show season 2 and I’m guessing the Aussies are still wondering What’s In The Hatch. So if you haven’t seen any of season 2 you might be better off skipping this entry as it contains spoilers.

So season 2 and new characters… Ye what?

How bloody big is this island anyway? By my reckoning it’s got the following population:

Originals
They started out with um, 42 people, a bunch of extras died, then Boone died and lastly Shannon. It hasn’t been mentioned lately how many are left living on the beach \ cave \ hatch but a guesstimate would put it at about 35.

Tailes
They started out with 23 people. The first night the ‘Others’ took 3 people, then they took 9.
There are only 5 of them left when Jin, Sawyer and Michael find them so where the other 7 disappeared to is not explained.

Others
God only knows, there were 4 of them on the boat and anything from 7 to 14 tromping through the jungle past Jin and Eko’s hiding spot. Then of course there was the big moment when Jack and er, Beardy Bloke come face to face and Jack taunts him that there are only a few of them on the island. Cue massive lighting up ceremony, but we don’t see any other humans so lets just put the Others at a comfortable guesstimate of er, 18. Oh wait I forgot the 12 that were abducted from the tailies group. So maybe 30? Oh yeah and Cindy as well, which makes 31.

Random Wandering Mentallers
As so often happens when you go on holiday with friends, relatives or total strangers who you crash landed with sometimes you just need a bit of ‘Me’ time. And Craphole Island is no different. By my reckoning we’ve got the following peeps stumbling around the island by themselves:
Desmond, after 3 years of pressing buttons and living on the set of ‘That 70’s show’ you would imagine he would be delighted to have someone to talk to, but no.
Rousseau, everyone’s favourite Crazy French Lady, all she’s missing is the cats.
Michael, hopefully by this stage he’s got laryngitis. Either that or he gave the writers a good smack as screaming ‘WALT’ while running through the jungle is not exactly a good way for an actor to get his chops.
Walt, who it would seem has pretty decent wifi coverage. When he’s not chatting to Michael through IRC on a Commodore 64 he’s appearing like Banquo’s ghost just stepping in from the rain for a wee chat, jabbering a load of backwards nonsense.

So that’s another 4.

Other Species
In addition to the humans there also appear to be polar bears, wild boars, Kate’s horse, Vincent the dog and the Smoke Monster.

By my calculations that makes 74 human types and an unknown number of animals.

Now that’s a lot of things on an island to not be bumping into each other on a much more regular basis than they have been. Yet, apparently this lot can wander about freely without ever seeing any indication that anyone else on the island exists.

That’s about it really. Sorry there wasn’t more of a point to the entry, but it was just something I was thinking about there the other day.

just got this through email.

Well, it made me laugh. Lost Rhapsody
BTW: I have not seen ANY of season 2 yet, so no spoiler type comments here please!