meddow: Lix Storm (Default)
Being that my travel plans have been postponed, for the first time in what feels like forever, I've actually had free time.

In recent television, the SJA finale was wonderful. The Brigadier was underutilised I thought, I was expecting something a little more School Reunion-ish. But Mrs. Wormwood was the magic. Heroes managed to shock me and come out with an episode which I would actually describe as 'good'. Meanwhile the latest Sanctuary episode was so god-awful I cringed all the way through. At least it was laughably awful rather than offensively awful. Hopefully, Sanctuary's sudden drop in quality is an anomaly and Heroes's sudden rise is not.

I was given by my wonderful flatmates a copy of The Dark Knight for Christmas and I've been checking out the special features today, of which it's pretty light on. However, I really kind of love those little Gotham Tonight fake news segments. I'm a big fan of fake non-fiction. Instead of watching that universe, it takes you inside it. I always thought back when The West Wing was my major fandom, how wonderful it would be to pick up a news magazine and see Bartlet on the front.

Also watched the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 again (aptly named 200), which is quite possible one of the greatest episodes of television ever since it's pretty much a fourth wall bending prodigy of itself (and nothing escapes the lampooning), and also Star Trek, Farscape, Thunderbirds, The Wizard of Oz, Ewoks, the recent plethora of zombie movies, 'younger and sexier' television, shipper pandering and batshit paternity revelations. Best bit in my opinion is not one of the skits, but simply the bit where Teal'c calmly says "I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."

And finally, watched a wonderful little docudrama, The Worst Journey in the World, about Aspley Cherry-Gerrard written by and staring Mark Gatiss. Cherry-Gerrard's another Antarctic explorer, blamed by some at the time for failing to save Scott, Bowers and Wilson. He was eleven miles from where they died, but didn't press on, instead obeying Scott's order not to risk the dogs. Anyway, the winder before the ill-fated pole expedition he went the journey with Bowers and Wilson to retrieve an Emperor Penguin egg. It was horrific, but they all survived, Bowers and Wilson to die later and Gerrard to be psychologically scared for life. More interestingly is that Cherry-Gerrard is a bit more meta about his experience than most if not all other polar explorers, posing the question of whether the suffering was worth anything. I really need to get a hold of and read his book.
meddow: Lix Storm (Default)
I can't decide which movie I'm looking forward to least: Watchmen, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 or Y: The Last Man.

Watchmen I've said before that I don't believe should have been made. 300 sucked. I don't think it's going to be any better. Pirates Four has caused me to lose a considerable amount of respect for Johnny Depp. I love the first three movies and y'all know I've been involved in the fandom, but even I can see it's flogging a dead horse.

Y was looking alright for a while until the director announced that they were making the heartbreakingly sad but perfect ending happier, and making it much more about Ampersand. I’m sorry, but they've got some of the most interesting female characters committed to graphic novel, they've got a world in the midst of huge political upheaval and massive social change which acts as a wonderful commentary on gender in modern society, and they've got Yorick/355 which I ship so damn hard, and they're spending more time on the monkey? Are they kidding?

Fail, Hollywood. Fail.

Now if I were a producer, I would be making a Captain Scott biopic. I know there's already one out there, but that was made before his legacy was revised and he starting being viewed as less of a hero and more a man whose flaws killed him (and four others). I've been thinking this for some time since I've always been fascinated with Scott, but at the moment I'm reading Ranulph Fiennes' biography of him. The first chapter of that put me onto the tale of Franklin's lost expedition of the Northwest Passage, another one in which everyone died, but this one's got at 100 year old mystery, scurvy, lead poisoning and cannibalism. All that and I'd never heard of it before. I think this is the start of a phase of me reading a lot of explorers' biographies. I just wish I had more time to read.

Profile

meddow: Lix Storm (Default)
meddow

February 2014

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9 101112131415
16171819202122
232425262728 

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 26th, 2025 03:43 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios