meddow | Entries tagged with house

I have recently discovered that Hugh Laurie and David Strathairn will be locked in a room together in a future episode of House. Actually, maybe I should word that statement like this: two of the three amazingly talented over-fifty actors with great big soulful eyes that I lust after like there's no tomorrow are going to be shoved in a room together for an episode of House. Squee!

I watched the first episode of series three of Skins. Sadly, I didn't find the new crowd particularly endearing. Worst bit was the writers having Cook, who is like an annoying cross between Tony and Chris minus their redeeming features, torching Sid's old locker. Not exactly the best move if the writers want me to like this guy, or not be at all bitter about their being no more Sid. I haven't given up of the idea of watching series three, but it may take some time.

What I have been successfully watching the show for which Margaret Thatcher allegedly wrote fanfic: Yes, Minister. Of course, I spent the entire time comparing and contrasting it with The Thick of It. Given the very similar set-ups of the two shows its hard not too.

It's actually quite fascinating not only comparing the political changes (Yes, Minster's all about the minister vs. the civil service with the media not that much of a focus, whereas TTOI is more the minister vs. the spin doctor/PM's all-powerful enforcer with the media having the characters constantly under siege, sometimes literally) but also how sitcoms have changed over the years (the very scripted, studio, Yes, Minister which could almost be a radio play and sticks to the genre, vs TTOI which tries to appear as unscripted as possible, with roaming camera work which allows for more visual humour and occasionally breaks out of it's genre and takes a turn for the dramatic).

Really, the best points of comparison are Party Games and Spinners and Losers in which both shows take on the storyline of the PM resigning and the search for a successor, which with Yes, Minister is carefully orchestrated and takes place over the course of a week or so, whereas in the latter TTOI episode it takes place over the course of one night and has the characters running around like headless chickens trying to correct or take advantage of the heir apparent's 'wobble' in support.

Comparisons aside, Yes, Minister, is freaking hilarious, and age doesn't seem to have affected it much at all. I haven't got around to watching Yes, Prime Minister yet though. I've actually just started on the first series of Star Trek: DS9.

Oh, and if there was an epic show down between Sir Humphrey and Malcolm Tucker, my money would be on Malcolm. Not just because he's far nastier (I'm sure Sir Humphrey would not take well to being shoved into a wall by an oxbridge-detesting Scot and instructed that if he doesn't do x immediately, he will have his balls chopped off and then preserved in a jar to be displayed in the lobby as an example for the rest of the civil service), but because Malcolm doesn't explain his schemes to underlings (it actually makes for far more compelling viewing that way as well).

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son

Number list of mostly random but sometimes related thoughts time!

1. The other day I was thinking about who in RTD's Who universe, the same ideas keep on being used throughout with new spins on them (for example, the idea behind Father's Day was used in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane, and that evolved into Turn Left, or the repeating motif of the bride, and something occurred to me: ( cut for speculation based on casting spoilers and the ending of Children of Earth )

2. Watched V and was really disappointed. The buzz coming out of comicon was that it was brilliant, but the dialogue was appalling at times, the characters really thin and the whole thing was executed with the subtly of an anvil (it really doesn't get more heavy handed than a crucifix falling over and shattering as the space ship enters orbit). Plus it felt so rushed.

3. The latest episode of House was also disappointing. Although is about time the writers managed to find an excuse to get Hugh Laurie back in a period costume.

4. In other Hugh Laurie-as-the-Prince-Regent related win: I cannot believe I did not know of the existence of this Annie Lennox music video until a couple of days ago. Though really, who would pick John Malkovich over Hugh Laurie?

5. I miss Blackadder.

6. I've really gotten into FlashForward after the last episode. But then, how could I not with the casting that show has. Last episode had Sulu, Shakespeare and River Song investigating some crazy nihilist cult lead by Leoben. Not to mention, the huge disaster at the heart of it was apparently caused by the alliance of Meriadock Brandybuck and Steve from Coupling.

7. A trailer for Invictus has been released which is a movie I really want to see for many reason, rugby being one of the few sports I will actually watch on occasion, and I do remember watching that particular World Cup match when I was a kid (of course, I was cheering for the other team, and it will be interesting to see how the media in NZ covers the movie since it's widely believed that the All Blacks were deliberately poisoned before that match). I really want to see some day a movie made about another the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand, which was another time rugby and apartheid mixed. I just think the mixture of the two teams playing against each other against the violence between police and rioters outside the stadiums would make for an awesome sports movie. That's me though, if I made a sports movie it wouldn't be feel good flick, it would be about violence, politics, racism and New Zealand's screwed up national psyche.

8. Finally, I have developed a crush on David Strathairn. Is that weird?

Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: Annie Lennox - Walking on Broken Glass

Haven't been up to much lately. Have been watching a lot of TV though:

Flash Forward - I've seen the first two episodes of this show and I am completely hooked. The first episode was sort of the half way point between Lost and the first season of Heroes – Lost in its visual style and feel, but Heroes in it's theme of 'can you change the future?' - but in the second episode it comes onto its own. The second episode opening with the kids I felt was absolutely fantastic. Plus the writers seems to subscribe to the Steven Moffat school of making everyday things as creepy as hell to scare the audience.

Plus, on top of the awesome regular cast, which includes Joseph Fiennes, Jack Davenport and John Cho (Shakespeare! Norrington! Sulu!), Alex Kingston was in the pilot, Shohreh Aghdashloo's got a guest role and I believe Gina Torres is going to be in the next episode. Oh, and I actually give a damn about the love triangle. That so rarely happens. But then, the husband is Joseph Fiennes and the other man is Jack Davenport and there's a cool fate vs. free will aspect to it, so it's one of the hottest and most interesting love triangles that I've come across.

Only major problem that needs to be fixed is the clunky exposition dialog. It's not a Heroes level of bad, but it's still bad enough to let the show down.

Glee - Still ridiculously in love with the show, although I'm finding the pacing and the amount of things happening in an episode a bit weird. My favourite bits of late were the football team dancing to 'Single Ladies' and the sing-off between Lea Michele and Kristen Chenoweth to 'Maybe This Time'. And I ship Kurt/Finn.

House - The opening was so very good it nearly made up for the disappointment I felt with the season five finale. Nearly. It depends where the Huddy story goes (hopefully away to die). The next one was back to the same old, and was a bit of a miss. Although I've moved from hating Foreman/Thirteen to just finding the relationship boring, which I suppose is a positive step.

SJA - In case you haven't seen them: pictures have emerged of David Tennant's guest stint, and they are very squee worthy. Although, I do have concerns about the episode based on it's title.

Current Mood: hungry

With fall tv premiers happening soon, this is about the time when I go on a tv cull, deciding what to watch and what to not watch. But this year, I seem to be watching very little so I don't need to drop things to make room. Of the new shows last year, the only one I really checked out was Fringe, and I got bored of that pretty quickly and stopped watching. I keep on meaning to give up Grey's Anatomy, but somehow I keep watching despite myself. Last season's House finale disappointed me a lot and I loathe Huddy, real or imaginary. (For me it's House/misanthropy, House/Wilson/misanthropy or House/Wilson/Amber), but I'll probably still end up watching that as well.

But yeah, in new shows I'm quite excited about Glee, because the pilot was adorable, I seem to love musical television shows and I loved Popular back in the day, which was by the same guy (anyone else remember that show? It was a lot more witty than normal teen fare). Flash Forward's getting a bit of hype, and I can't help but love the cast, but the central premise seems just a bit dull. I'll check out the pilot, but if it doesn't get interesting quickly or turns out to be as frustrating as Lost, I'll probably not watch.

In the battle of the next potential BSGs, I'm really exited about V, which unfortunately doesn't premiere until November. I've got little to go on aside from buzz, but the buzz is good. I've seen the pilot for Caprica, which has an even further away premier date of January. I liked it a lot, but it's more Rome than BSG. That's not a bad thing as I loved Rome and I'll certainly watch Caprica, but the setting gives it such a different feel to its parent show and its certainly weird that my mental comparison goes first not to the show that spawned it, but to a completely different and not at all related show. But then, I think of BSG as Rome in space, since, aside from the religious aspects, it has a similar mixture of military matters, political intrigue and personal drama. Actually, it struck me the other day that Lee and Zarek from Sine Qua Non to Blood on the Scales are kind of like Octavian and Mark Antony, the inexperienced adopted son vs. the second in command for to be the heir to Julius Caesar's (Roslin's) throne. (And if Zarek is Mark Antony, I would suppose that would make Gaeta Cleopatra...).

Anyway, back to what I was talking about, Stargate: Universe actually has the most BSG-esq premise, but I'll only watch if it gets good reviews. I trust the Stargate writers to do lighthearted, snarky and slightly cracky. I don't trust them to be able to pull off serious, intelligent and dark.

One thing I have noticed lately is that aside from the likes of Doctor Who, Grey's and House, most of the television I watch these days I don't watch when it originally airs. Lately I seem to discover it on DVD some time after it originally aired and often after the series has ended (as is what happened with Rome, BSG and Life on Mars), and by the time I've gotten into it everyone else has moved on. So I'm determined to be more onto it with my show watching.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On

1. I redesigned my lj. I'm kind of proud of it because for the first time, I myself did the header and modifications to the colour scheme myself (from a layout from

the_fulcrum). I went to a bit of a BSG theme. Next up is to redesign my profile.

2. Speaking of BSG, I signed up for the

bsg_bigbang. Twenty-thousand words by October. I learnt my lesson from the

tardis_bigbang last year – no time travel plots with twists that do my head in when writing it. Instead it's going to be a nice linear more character driven New Caprica story.

3. Lame video store that did not have any Star Trek movies besides the franchise-killing Nemesis bought itself Star Treks I through V. I'm going to check them out one of these days.

4. In the mean time, I watched Blade Runner for like the first time ever and not only did I understand how much Red Dwarf: Back to Earth was a spoof (I knew it was a bit of a spoof, but I didn't realise the extent), but also, I get the deal with the pigeon in the BSG final now. It was very educational. Kind of like when I watched The Untouchables and finally understood why there was a baby in pram in every single movie made in the 1990s.

5. I'm stoked Jack Davenport's pilot got picked up as a series. Shame Katee Sackhoff's didn't. I know it was basically Law & Order: Cold Case in a market already oversaturated with procedurals, but I for one would have watched it for Katee Sackhoff.

6. I don't think the season finale of House was as good at the episodes leading up to it. And I'm so used to season finales of House having some massive twist, I kind of guessed it a minute into the episode – which possibly ruined it for me. Still, I hope Amber sticks around for at least the first couple of episode of next season.

7. The latest episode of Ashes to Ashes, however, I think was one the best yet so far. I'm loving the mystery at the heart of it.

Current Mood: listless

Even though I hate most procedurals (with the exceptions of House, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes), I've decided to check out the first episode of Law & Order UK because, I miss BSG so much I'd watch any member of the cast in anything, even procedurals so I'll very likely check out Lost and Found when it comes out for Katee Sackhoff, and Mary McDonnell's episodes of The Closer when they air, and kind of want to watch Dollhouse even though I don't like the premise just because Tahmoh Penikett is in it as an FBI agent (there is a definite trend there: star in BSG and become a TV cop)

Plus I can't help but think of as 'Apollo and Martha fight crime!' Although, if I had to pick a random character from Doctor Who and BSG to team up together an fight crime, I'd probably pick Jack Harkness and Gaius Baltar, or Donna Noble and Saul Tigh, or Ten and Laura Roslin, or Nine and Starbuck, or the Master and Head!Six, because all those team ups would be dysfunctional in completely entertaining ways.

But I digress. Surprisingly, I really liked it despite figuring out things a long time before the characters and will probably catch the rest of the series.

Also, I've been really enjoying House lately. I've been a bit 'meh' about the show through most of season five, but lately I've gotten hooked again. This may have everything to do with bringing back a certain character I adore, and Chase and Cameron finally getting actual lines and even scenes and plotlines. Hell, Thirteen and Foreman seem to have become 60% less annoying, leaving Cuddy the only character bugging me. I really hope the show keeps Amber around next season. She wouldn't be the first character on a TV show to exist solely in another character's head.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Scissor Sisters - Laura

Calling people on my flist involved in House fandom: anyone know any good House/Amber/Wilson, or just Amber gen or Amber/Anyone fics I should read? Not being in the fandom, I'd really appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

I've been raiding the graphic novel section of my local library, and have stumbled across Astro City, which is a gorgeous series about the lives of superheroes and the citizens in a world where they're the accepted norm. It differ from the usual tales by focusing on issues that don’t often come up, such as there's an issue following the city's leading hero and heroine on a date.

And I picked up Runaways vol. 1, which is about a bunch of teenagers rebelling from their supervillain parents. It's written Brian K Vaughan, whom I've become a fan of after reading Y: The Last Man (I'm also ridiculously excited that Pia Guerra is illustrating Doctor Who: The Forgotten). The reason for the raid was that I got antsy awaiting the last volume of Y - I've deliberately avoided spoilers and have been dying to know what happens for months.

In movies watched, I managed to find a romcom staring Cillian Murphy (yes, you read that correctly) and I've continued on with my mission to explore Aaron Eckhart's back category, although Conversations has been on my radar for a while now because of the Helena Bonham Carter factor (I think she's wonderful).

Conversations with Other Women (2005, dr. Hans Canosa)
Assets: Helena Bonham Carter, the guy who plays young Aaron Eckhart is really hot.
Warnings: None

( Read more... )

Film Rating: 5
Aaron Eckhart Fangirl Rating: 5

Watching the Detectives (2007, dr. Paul Soter)
Assets: Originality (sort of)
Warnings: It's a romcom, but don’t expect it at all to be like others of the genre

( Read more... )

Film Rating: 4
Cillian Murphy Fangirl Rating: 4 ½

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

After much terrible weather the sun has finally come out and some inconsiderate neighbour has decided to make sure everyone cannot leave their homes or open their windows since the street stinks like rotting fish.

I finally caught House's Head/Wilson's Heart and it was very sad. I think I found it far sadder than my flatmates since I adored Amber and House/Amber/Wilson is my House OT3whereas everyone I know seemed to hate her. I have no idea why.

I can't wait so see how House tries to fix his relationship with Wilson this time, it seems like they may have broken up for good, and well, it wasn't entirely his fault, but it was enough of his fault for Wilson to be justified in holding it against him until the end of time.

I seem to be all about OT3s these days what with Bruce/Rachel/Harvey as well.

Meanwhile I'm starting to find myself getting all excited about season three of Heroes, even though I'm quite sure it's going to be as bad if not worse than season two. Was it the spoilers that’s got me interested in the show again? The trailers? Nope. It was the cast photo that really drove home why I like the show:

( The insane levels of prettiness (casting spoilers) )

I think it's official that Heroes is the show I just cannot quit.

My excitement about SJA series two should go without saying. I'm loving nearly every one of the spoilers that has leaked out about it. The big challenge is for it to be as good or even better than the first series, since it set a pretty high standard.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Massive Attack - Karmacoma

It’s Thursday, and on Thursdays I always seem to find myself asking the same question – why the hell do I watch Grey’s Anatomy? Really, I know why, it’s because every week I tune in the hope that Izzie, George, Meredith, McDreamy and Burke will get killed off. Or that Addison, Callie, Bailey and Christina will decide that they’re too good to be on the same show as the horror that is George/Izzie (particularly Callie) and form some kind off kick ass crime fighting team and solve murders or something. And I know these things aren’t going to happen, because like with every TV show I watch, I’m spoiled to hell. Yet I watch every week, even though I always end up screaming at my TV because I despise some of these characters so. very. much. Why? WHY?

At least it’s the season finale.

Speaking of season finales of medical shows, does anyone who is in the House fandom know what’s going on with the casting for season four? Am I getting my favourite pretty Aussie suck-up back next season? Because as far as I’m concerned, it’s just not House without Chase.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: The Muttonbirds - Don't Fight it Marsha it's Bigger than Both of Us

I'm going through a major Rolling Stones phase at the moment. I think it's because I've been watching my S1 House DVDs again. So the the Chase icon has been dragged out. Jesse Spencer is just wonderful.

My power bill this month is going to be the death of me. I’m really not helping since I’ve decided my favourite place in the world to be at the moment is the shower. It’s my second best place to think and my

femgenficathon entry has me a bit stuck.

Speaking of fic, I started writing fanfiction in November because there were not enough of the stories I wanted to read out there and I was an absolute nervous wreck about how it would be received. I wrote so much as a kid and I wanted to be an author when I grew up, but somewhere along the way in high school I convinced myself I wasn’t a good writer. I’m not sure what it was, probably a combination of the spirit-crushing creative writing section of the School Certificate English exam or the fact I spent so much time being a science geek and emo that I forgot I could be creative.

In the past two days I’ve been recced in two rec communities, which is so great (and thank you both

jadeddiva and

theregoesyamum). A year ago I would never have expected I could be capable of writing anything halfway decent. If I never wrote anything I would probably still think I'm a crap writer.

People can slag off fanfiction for not being real writing and uncreative and whatever. But through writing fanfiction I’ve got my confidence back and along the way I’ve rediscovered a childhood passion.

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want

Damn it, I had to find out what happened on House and now I’m completely spoiled. When will I learn that spoiler whores never prosper?

As I’m in serious essay research mode at the moment, my brain is in perfect condition to come up with strange theories involving the Harry Potter books so I can write them up on my LJ to avoid doing work. Forgive me if this has already been discussed two million times already.

( Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Stellar* - Violence

Well, made it all the way through my first season of House DVDs and have spent the last few days completely obsessed with Dr. Chase, to the point where I had to get an icon. What can I say; I have a soft spot for blond sycophantic Aussies. Cannot wait until they release season two, I have a commitment on the night it is on and always miss it.

The weather is getting colder since winter is coming, so I’ve had to rearrange all my furniture so I can plug my heater in. The architect who designed the house I live in the 60s decided that power plugs were going out of style and decided to spare us potential useless eyesores by only giving us one socket a room. How thoughtful. Mine doesn’t even have a switch, so my room is a mess of switchboards and extension cords. I’m sure I’ll have to move everything around again when I inevitably find some mould, but for now it will do.

Meddow’s DIY tip of the day: A bottle of Tequila will make a halfway decent substitute for a hammer when trying to fix draws.

Current Mood: predatory
Current Music: Split Enz - Message To My Girl