Telly News

[meddow]

I'm a bit 'meh' about Merlin, the BBC's family-friendly Doctor Who replacement since it sounds a bit like Robin Hood version 2.0, and not even Richard Armitage's scowl could keep me watching that Robin Hood. But the casting is interesting. Arthur is an unknown to me, but Merlin is the teenager off Midnight, and Santiago Cabrera (i.e. Isaac the hot prophetic painter off Heroes) is Lancelot. That last bit of casting has me particularly excited.

Speaking of Heroes, the publicity is heating up about season three. I'm a bit 'meh' about that also. I have a strange relationship with the show since if I haven't watched an episode in a while I can't seem to remember why I liked it so much. And then I have to remind myself it's because Noah Bennet is the greatest characters on telly and general prettiness of the cast combined with the impressive direction makes it really really ridiculously good looking. Still, I wish it would take itself a little less seriously sometimes, because it's really not intelligent enough to pull off being so pretentious. And the really need to kill off Sylar, he's gone way past his expiry date as a villain and is starting to smell.

Anyway, the latest promo trailer is here.

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Everybody keeps talking about how hot Richard Armitage is, but I find him unattractive/scary looking. :/

I spent almost the whole of the first season trying to convince myself I could get into Heroes and I have NO IDEA WHY. It's so unlike me to force like that.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Have you seen North and South? Because he gives Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice a run for his money in that one.

I very nearly gave up on Heroes after the first two episodes, but my flatmate was watching it and I was still in mourning for Nine, so I decided to keep going until CE's guest stint was up. It really only clicked with me at about episode 14, and then I was obsessed. Even then my love is conditional. If they ever get rid of the Bennet family, I'm gone.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Claude was the only thing about that show that kept me remotely interested between episodes. I liked other characters, chiefly Noah and Nathan and Zach (why the hell would they just drop that kid, he was great support?), but they didn't really keep up my interest, and the dialogue was generally stilted beyond belief. And I still don't get the big deal about Claire and the supposedly great acting job. Other than liking her relationship with her dad and Zach, mostly she was fine to occasionally bordering on a really uncreative, circular approach to angst (but then, stilted dialogue does connect to rudimentary personality-building skills).

[meddow.livejournal.com]

The kid had to go off and become John Conner and save the world from evil robots or some such. Claire I quite liked during series one, it wasn't until the second series when she started to annoy me - but that was because she had learnt nothing from the first series, and it was the same arc all over again, but now with added stalker boyfriend angst. Ugh.

The dialogue does make me cringe at times (sometimes I think it's a competition to see how many times they can get the word 'destiny' into one scene). Often it comes down to how well the actors can sell it, some of them can and some of them can't. Unsurprisingly, my favourite characters seem to be played by the actors that can sell it (Noah, Nathan, Claude and Angela). But there are so many gorgeous shots, and the artwork is so pretty and the plot compelling enough (usually) for me to live with it.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

The thing I noticed was some of the characters are given dialogue that sparks with character, whereas the rest are just given cardboard. I don't understand it, because they seem capable of producing something that sounds decent if not great.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Heroes is weird like that. I can never remember why I love it until I watch an episode and go "OH THERE IT IS!". Or maybe I'm just strange.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Well there's me as well, and judging form the fandom newsletter going into hibernation I think we're not the only ones.

BTW, since I can't go near your journal for fear of being spoiled, how did you get to see TDK so early? It's not openning until tomorrow (and I have to wait until Saturday *cries*)

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Once again, my friend Stu has come to my rescue. He is the manager of the local cinema here, and he told me that they get the reels early and they do a test run to make sure that it is running alright. Films are usually separated on about 8 different reels depending on the length so they have to wind them together for the projector and then they test run it to see if they have the order right and the frames the right way, etc. So what I got to see this morning was the rest run which is basically a free screening in an empty theatre to make sure it is fit to show to the public. Hence I recommend you always make friends with a cinema manager because they let you see cool stuff like this early!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

That is awesome! My mother works in a video store so I get to see the new releases before they're on the shelf and free rentals when I'm home but that's nowhere near as cool as seeing movies a day in advance in the theater.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have to give up Stu when I leave, which sucks. I'll have to befriend a cinema employee when I get to London. Heh. That is also how I got to see Hulk and Kung Fu Panada early too. LOL.

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Eh, if you watch the commentary tracks on the DVDs, the pretentiousness fades (well, except for the one commentary track with George Takei. For some reason, I just don't like listening to that guy talk when he's not acting). But everyone else is pretty cool, especially the tracks that have Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, and Sendhil Ramamurthy chatting together.

I really like Sylar, but if they're going to keep him around, they need to give him something else to do beyond "let me hunt people down, cut open their brains, and steal their powers."

If they have to get rid of anyone on the show, I really, really hope it's Peter. I loathe him and his stupidity. "No, Hiro, I'm not going to trust you, even though you killed Sylar and tried to save the world with me. I'm going to trust this random dude I found rotting in a prison cell."

But I must agree with you on one thing: Noah is and I suspect will always be made of moral grey awesomeness.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I love the commentary tracks, I think it was the Godsend and Five Years Gone ones that had been cracking up the entire way through. My complaint about the pretentiousness arises out of Mohinder's voice overs, which I think need to go away.

I have the opposite view on Sylar. I want him to remain the killer, and I really do not want him to have some form of redemptive arc. I thought he was one of the greatest villains ever in series one, and everything since has been undermining that. Although, I very much agree with you on the Peter is too stupid to live point. And he's far too powerful to be interesting. There's just nothing he can't do, which makes him boring. Whereas Noah's just brilliant because he's weaker than nearly everyone he comes up against, but still manages to come out on top most of the time using only his cunning.