Sunday, November 23

Glued

...to the screen, that is. I had to giggle at a repeat of the great Doctor Who 'Wire' episode that so royally (haha) took the piss out of us telly addicts.

So has anything been worth watching recently? I can't comment on Einstein and Eddington yet, as it's still sitting on the iplayer. Little Dorrit has also passed me by, though that wasn't a conscious avoidance. I certainly approve of the Dickens revival on the Beeb when it could have just been more Generation Game-type entertainment, or worse, Pop Idol...

The Devil's Whore is worth tuning in to just to laugh at the title (not quite in the Channel 5 realm of unsubtlety, but then, what is?). Performances are generally good, and visually I think a good bit of work went into making it look pretty cinematic, hooray. Some critics have commented that it doesn't quite seem to know what genre it's aiming for – historical drama, period romp, surreal biopic (the devil himself tends to appear occasionally lurking unsteadily on tree branches and Christ Church's roof...)? I'm a fan of mixing it all up a bit though and finding it all rather good fun. I wasn't utterly convinced by Sexby's (played by John Simm...oh shush, that's not the only reason I'm watching) instant attraction to our heroine, viewed as she was across a windy courtyard. Sure Angelica's a gutsy feminist-out-of-water who doesn't mind a good fight, but he didn't know that from one second of silk clad giggling, so it's just lusting like any other bloke at Court at that point. Never mind, he gets to still hang around being broody, and waiting for it all to kick off (not his exact words), whilst a young dashing Cromwell (played by Dominic West. Who may have been the other reason) and other revolutionary chums give the gentry what for. And let's face it, Andrea Riseborough is just fantastic in every way so far. Did they just pull her out of a painting? Great choice.

Just when I was lamenting the loss of Breaking Bad on a Sunday night, FX have come up with John from Cincinnati which sounds like a Paramount sitcom, but is another strange HBO genreless picking. Lots of swearing, drug abuse, suicide attempts and trafficking of illegal immigrants goes hand in hand with random levitations, naive-alieny-visitors spouting protentous offerings and, last but by no-means least, a helluva lot of surfing. Yeah, I'm staying tuned for a bit...

I saw Quantum of Solace a few weeks ago, but other than to say it was enjoyable but not incredible, I'll let people make up their own minds.

Oh dear. Empire Strikes Back is on. Is it really worth spending a couple of hours of your life watching a film you've probably seen 10 times already? Hmm....Well, I'm finding myself hooked on the Beeb's Merlin so there's obviously no sense left in me for rational arguments when it comes to my TV viewing. It's not even as if I'm snowbound this weekend unlike many I'm sure. Tsk, tsk.

I'd like to add that as of this week I will have been to the theatre twice in a fortnight, so I'm not completely devoid of non-Sky+ based culture this winter. No, not completely...

No comments: