Fazzinchi

Whoops, Apocalypse!

Okay, so Stephen Merchant isn’t playing any further role in 24… much to my disappointment. It was only a cameo after all. However, it’s still worth tuning in to the adventures of Jack and his ticking clock, if it’s OTT death and destruction that floats your boat.  It was another double-header week on SkyOne as they tried to catch up with the US broadcasts to encourage folk to stop downloading it with their current favourite BitTorrent supplier.  Hour three (8:00am to 9:00am) was (more…)

Come In Number Six

The second part of “Exodus” (the fourth installment of series 3 in the new Battlestar Galactica) saw the end of the occupation of New Caprica… the clue was in the title I guess, and there was plenty more intrigue as the last remnants of humanity continued to battle against their oppressors.  The Baltar storyline is wonderfully underplayed (by Jamie Callis) as his initial self-absorbed personality has been manipulated and coerced by the cylons to the extent that he was seen here (more…)

Guess Who’s Back?

After the announcement that Battlestar Galactica was to be remade (or “reimagined” as the marketing folk would have it) and news started to leak out about the production, for example news that Starbuck was being cast as a woman, all hell broke lose amongst fandom to the point where these people were “openly dissapproving” to the stars of the show when they made public appearances.  Indeed, there are people still who do not watch the new Battlestar Galactica because they (more…)

Where did all the television go?

As September begins, I eagerly begin to cast my beady eyes over the listings magazines in search of that most rare of summer sightings, something worth watching on the telly. Currently, my Sky+ planner has a single and rather lonely looking “series link” set up to make sure that I do not miss the final three epsiodes of Lost. Admittedly, in my most humble of opinions, one Lost is worth three of most other things on the box but that does not make up for the fact that there is a paucity of new, quality material available during August. There are drought conditions both inside and out.

Now I know that the execs and the powers-that-be realise that almost nothing will get them substantial ratings at this time of year, a distinctly off-putting factor for the commercial outfits. The viewers are off on their holidays, enjoying the sunshine, or having a BBQ and they last thing they want to do is be tied to the TV, but is that any reason to give up? To illustrate, BBC1 tonight (4th Sept) at 7:30…. Open All Hours (!), while SkyOne is force feeding us four back-to-back episodes of The Simpsons. ITV (as if anyone is watching) have a line-up from 6pm to 9pm that goes: News, News, Soap, Soap, News, Soap. Admittedly at 9pm, things start to look up with Dalziel and Pascoe going up against Caroline Quentin’s Life Begins, but it’s September now… three weeks ago things were even more bleak.

I probably shouldn’t complain, it gives me a fighting chance to watch some of those DVD’s that have been gathering dust for a few months, and I can always find some sport somewhere thanks to the omni-present SkySports network and their 5 channels of 24-hour action. May be sport is the answer, we saw back in June and July that it can work: bung the World Cup on and you get millions tuning in to watch Paraguay v Sweden. However, for an industry that is, we are led to believe, crammed with “creative types” I’m sure someone should be able to come up with an idea or two for the summer.

John The Gorilla

I never usually watch wildlife programmes. I may have written here before about the fact that, regardless of the splendour of the photography or sheer amazing capacity of life to exist and thrive in the most extreme of conditions, I generally get a bit bored. I feel guilty even admitting this, as there is something noble and worthy about the format that seems to encapsulate all that is good in programme making, and in these days of lowest common denominator television that, indeed, is something worth celebrating. Perhaps it is just that I prefer the more human element. Anyway, a friend of a friend was appearing in this episode of Sky One’s Last Chance To Save… so we sat down to watch the show, and I’m really glad that we did. Presented by one of the mountaineers from the magnificent Into The Void, the giant gorillas of the Congo were simply amazing animals; it well may be their undeniable “human” qualities were what appealed to this cynical viewer or it may the fact that there are a mere 30,000 in existence. Last chance to save, indeed.

“I feel like the President of the USA. Mr Bad Guy, yes I’m everybody’s Mr Bad Guy”
The Other Viewer and I proudly have more 50% free on our Sky+ planner for the first time in months, but this is a good news/ bad news story. “Good” because it means we’ve blitzed our way through the final 6 episodes of 24 and are getting rid of that pesky backlog (one day I may even watch the rest of Jimmy McGovern’s The Street). “Bad” because my campaign to upgrade to the 160Gb system (or even HD) isn’t looking so compelling. Anyway, 24…. what a show! So long as you can keep buying into a concept that the most indestructable of heroes since Captain Scarlet, then there’s something genuinely appealing here. I confess that by the end of this fifth season it was starting to seem a little like we’d seen it all before but hey, I can watch great TV more than once, ya know. However, we did get a great cliffhanger that promises some newness when series 6 returns.