Forget yesterday

So kindly forget a lot of the goodwill that I gave Torchwood: Miracle Day yesterday. I've just watched the second episode when Jack gets poisoned and Gwen manages to mix up an antidote using bits on a plane. Now I'm all for suspension of disbelief but this was absolute bobbins. She didn't even measure out the ingredients.

Sigh.

It's a miracle (day)

To say I was dubious about the new "Americanised" version of Torchwood would be somewhat of an understatement. 


Now, I'm in a tiny sci-fi minority in so much as I quite enjoyed the Torchwood TV show, but have never really given a crap about Doctor Who. Don't ask me to explain why, it's just always left me cold. I think if I sat down and was able to watch it from the beginning I might change my mind, but we haven't reached that point yet, so I'm still firmly in the "Who gives a crap" camp (bad, bad pun, I know). 


And I think that my general apathy towards the good Doctor is why I liked Torchwood when so many Doctor Who fans don't - I don't see it as the poor cousin, I see it as the more grown up uncle who drinks and smokes and has sex. 


Not that the show was perfect by any stretch of the imagination - each series could have done with being a few episodes lighter, and most episodes could have lost a few minutes, but for all it's flaws it was for the most part entertaining and in it's own way ground breaking. What other show can boast a gay (or bi-sexual) action hero as the leading man? 


Plus, it's British, and at a time when I truly believe that the Americans are truly crushing us when it comes to creating good, high-concept adult science fiction, I want to support British shows like Torchwood and the (unfortunately ill-fated) Outcasts as best I can. And before you say it, Doctor Who is clearly popular enough without my support.


And so we have Miracle Day, when the everyone on Earth inexplicably stops dying. This time Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper (the only survivors of the original team), are joined by Mekhi Phifer and Bill Pullman, who I haven't seen since he was rousing US Troops in "Independence Day", which must have been about 15 years ago. Oh how the mighty fake US Presidents have fallen. There's also a pretty blonde CIA Analyst who at the first sign of trouble forgets all of her CIA training and runs around terrified. Oh, and who could forget Gwen's husband Rhys, who has somehow become even more annoying and petulant since the last series. This is highlighted when Gwen and Rhys learn of the fact that no-one on the planet is dying, do the maths and work out that the planet will be overrun in four months and the food will completely run out. Rhys then begins yelling at Gwen telling her not to get involved as someone else can sort it out. Now at this point, everyone thinks Jack has disappeared forever, and Torchwood no longer exists. They don't know of any Torchwood equivalents in other countries, so to the best of their knowledge GWEN IS THE ONLY PERSON ON THE FRICKING PLANET QUALIFIED TO INVESTIGATE THIS. But no, hiding away at your country retreat is a much less selfish option Rhys. Tit.


The American parts of the show don't quite mesh, leaving it feeling like someone has taken a half-an-hour episode of Torchwood and spliced in some bits of a bad episode of 24. Which is a shame because I think the central idea behind the series is probably the best one they've had for any Torchwood yet. The scene where Mekhi Phifer is trying to leave the hospital is unintentionally hilarious, as he ends up looking like Lee Evans from "There's Something About Mary". Entirely out-of-context from the rest of the episode.


But, I've only seen the first one so let's see how it develops. 

Trail and Error

So in the ongoing tradition of my Friday Haiku series (which is apparently popular with no-one but me), the theme this week is about the mysterious MH trailers that keep popping up everywhere:


A boot crashes down
Heroic developments
Mystery unfolds


I already shared a link to the first one last week, and here is the second one:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA2JRrp4Qyc&hd=1


Interesting times...

Unprofessional Environment

So my office seems to be an increasingly geeky place to work, which can only be a good thing.


The white board by our printer has somehow become the place to post existential comments, which lately has evolved into complete geekdom, with a drawing of a Flux Capacitor (I'm convinced that's what it is), along with the comment "It's what makes time travel possible").


There are also random quotes from Adam and Joe, including "Why be Denny Different" and "Maybe you shouldn't be printing HERE!" - a direct riff on  Pierce Brosnan in "Taffin".


Maybe I've just got Graduation Goggles on (esoteric HIMYM reference), but all in all, if I end up leaving soon I think I'll be sad to go.

Totally worth recalling

So I posed a question to my friends the other night:


"When is it a good time to watch Total Recall?" 


The answer is, of course, "always"; which is why I was somewhat worried to hear of the impending remake with Colin Farrell. 


Let me start with saying that I like Colin Farrell, he was far and away the best thing about Daredevil (although let's face it, the bar was pretty low), and he has the ability to convince in both serious and comedic roles. However, whether he's ready to step into the iconic shoes (from here they appear to be tied but I will go in for a closer look) of Arnold Schwarzenegger is another matter entirely.


As with a lot of the reboots of older films, they are promising a more "serious" film, without the Arnie one-liners. Now, admittedly, I'm a fan of silly actioners chock-full of one-liners, as my whole-hearted defence of "Welcome to the Jungle" will attest to, but I worry that by losing the comedy, you lose what made the film such a cult favourite in the first place (although it might have been the chick with three boobs). And whilst Colin Farrell probably won't need to rely on the one liners in the same way that Arnie did to cover patchy acting, I still think that those kind of 80s/90s "fun" action films are something we're severely missing in today's cinematic landscape.


Of course, I'm open to giving it a chance and am happy to be proved wrong. I just think it's a real shame that an entire generation will grow up on this Total Recall and will miss Arnie shooting Sharon Stone in the head and proclaiming "consider that a divorce". 


Either way, once it's released, you can be sure that it will be time to "get your ass to Mars".  

There's something (cat)fishy going on

So "Catfish". The main question to ask yourself after seeing it seems to be "is it really a documentary"?

The story is certainly gripping and as you follow the group of documentary makers to meet the family that one of them has formed an unlikely Facebook friendship with. As you travel with them and their anticipation grows, so does the sense of impending doom. Can everything that happens be taken at face value, or is there something more sinister going on.

Once you do meet the family and realise what has happened, the result is incredibly uncomfortable, with you feeling both pity for the culprit yet at the same time somewhat incredulous that they would play with someone’s feeling the way they do. And I think that’s why there was such a furore over whether or not the documentary is real or staged.

It does feel a little too neat for a documentary. Ultimately though, be it a documentary or a mockumentary it’s an interesting (albeit strangely uncomfortable) watch, which leaves you with question resounding in your mind:

“Do you know who your Facebook friends are?”

Reaching new lows

Define laziness:


Drinking wine from a tumbler because my wine glasses won't go in the dishwasher and I just can not be arsed to do any washing up.


Yup, that's how I roll. I feel both proud of my ingenuity yet equally disgusted with myself. Oh well.