Television | the m0vie blog

Holy Interactive Lost Character Map!

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Darren

I rarely take the opportunity to get in on some solid internet meme action right here, so please indulge me. With the sixth and final (‘thank god,’ says most of the audience) season of Lost hitting the airwaves on this side of the Atlantic soon, it seems some fan has thought of a nifty and interactive way of charting the various connections between the castaways, whose lives interact in ridiculously unlikely ways before they end up the island. Anyway, it’s an application where you highlight a main character’s name and it’ll connect them to others through numerous smaller secondary characters. Give it a go here, or click the image below.

Not to mention there’s a little Nathan Fillon love going on there, which I think we can all get behind.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: application, internet meme, lost, map, meme, nathan fillon, nerd, Television | Leave a comment »

Family Guy: Something Something Something Darkside

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Darren

Say what you will about the quality of recent seasons of Family Guy (it does go up and down like a yoyo), the Star Wars specials are an ingenious production. Blue Harvest was a fascinating experiment, and attempt to mount a comic retelling of the classic sci-fi mythos in an animated hour-long cartoon. It was a work of genius which worked far better than one might have expected, given the excesses of the show (some where present in the mini-movie, but they were all certainly toned down). So, when a sequel was announced (albeit two years later), anticipation was high. I am pleased to announce that Something Something Something Darkside is just as good as its predecessor.

Brothers at arms...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: blue harvest, family guy, parody, something something something something darkside, special, star wars, Television, the empire strikes back | 1 Comment »

Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part II

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Darren

That was much better. I mean, there’s still a whole host of half-baked ideas clogging up the narrative (the Naismiths, the Master’s superpowers), but it works a lot more fluidly mainly because it manages to both embrace the sheer ridiculousness of what it’s doing (featuring a Star Wars homage in a flight across the Channel and a cantina scene which seems to exist solely to demonstrate all the aliens created during the run) with some fantastic performances. It would be hard to tell if Tennant has ever been better than he is here, but he nails his final episode as everyone’s favourite Timelord. That Russell T. Davies keeps his hand mostly away from that giant reset button installed in his office helps no end.

The Doctor feels the worst New Years hangover ever

Note: This review will be discussing the episode in depth (including spoilers). If you are looking for a quick recommendation, it’s a yes – as if you weren’t interested anyway. It might not represent the best regeneration story ever written for the show (give me The Caves of Androzani) but it is an emotional farewell to the Davies/Tennant era.

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, david tennant, doctor who, john simm, regeneration, review, Television, the doctor, the end of time, the end of time part 2, the master, timothy dalton | 2 Comments »

My Top Ten Shows of the Decade

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Darren

Yep, it’s retrospective time. I’ve done my top 50 movies of the past ten years, so it’s time for me to reflect on my top 10 television shows of the 00s. Prepare to be awed and mazed, shocked and astounded, angered and enraged, by the inclusions (and omissions) from my list. The good folks over at Television Without Pity included their favourite episode in each choice, so I think I’m going to run with that idea.

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: 24, best television, best tv shows of the decade, bettlestar galactica, doctor who, family guy, house, life on mars, life on mars uk, lost, planet earth, Television, the sopranos, the wire, top ten, tv, tv shows | 5 Comments »

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Darren

It’s strange what we carry with us past the end of the world. In The Road, it’s hope for our children carted around inside an old shopping trolley; in 28 Days Later, it’s whatever humanity we can find hiding amid the ruins. For Admiral Helena Cain, what she carries with her after the destruction of her home is what she’s carried with her her whole life: a razor she picked up as a small child to defend herself after the loss of her younger sister. She carries that until she can’t – then she passes it on to her surrogate daughter, who carries it until she can’t. The razor itself is lost with Kendra Shaw, and maybe that’s a good thing. The last member of Cain’s inner circle dies taking all that hatred and aggression and lust for validation and vengeance with her. It’s an important transition. It’s also particularly insightful – given how Battlestar Galactica has generally focused on rebuilding after the fall of society – establishing a functioning democracy, a legal system and even rebuilding Caprica in a form – that this television movie focuses on the flipside of the coin: what humanity takes with it after the fall.

Talk about retro chic...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: battlestar galactica, battlestar galactica: razor, galactica in name only, gino, helena cain, jamie bamber, michelle forbes, pegasus, razor, science fiction, stephanie jacobson, Television, television movie | Leave a comment »

Battlestar Galactica – Season 3

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Darren

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.”

– The “Mysterious” Song, Crossroads, Part II

The series continues to be one of the most interesting television phenomenon of the last decade as it enters what is, technically at least, it’s penultimate season. This is the point where mythology-based shows typically come apart, crushed under their own weight – the point where they have to start answering at least some of their own questions, rather than simply posing them to the audience. The problem is, as many shows have found out, answering questions isn’t nearly as fun as posing them. Battlestar Galactica, seemingly afraid of the potential comfort that giving those answers would offer, instead opts to delve even deeper into the rabbit hole – picking answers to questions suggested by earlier events and then using that to move the show forward in a fascinating momentum. Because of this weird combination of answers and deeper questions, the show somehow manages to increase its complexity and its fascination year-after-year.

Full of nebulous concepts...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: all along the watchtower, battlestar galactic season 3, battlestar galactica, cylons, drama, exodus, humanity, new caprica, review, sci-fi, Television, themes | 3 Comments »

Verdict on V: Needs More Lizards

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Darren

Well, the first four episodes of V have aired now. It’ll be 2010 (March, I believe) before we see any further action on that front. It seems like a very long break if the show wants to retain its audience (we’re talking the bones of four/five months – a third of a year), but it probably makes sense since ABC decided to clean house behind the scenes. And – looking back over the first four episodes, it seems like a necessary decision. Despite the Obama-centric publicity which followed the first episode, I don’t think I’m alone in being a little bit disappointed with the initial run. Being honest, there are a whole rake of problems with the episodes that have aired, but these are typified by one thing that everyone I’ve been talking to over the past few weeks has observed: it needs more lizards.

I always found Diana oddly a-peeling

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: aliens, anna, diana, invasion, lizards, rats, series, Television, tv, v, v (2009), visitors | Leave a comment »

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Darren

This isn’t about Sharon. It’s about something much bigger than that. It’s about the long term survival of the Fleet. It’s about the way we conduct ourselves in all of this.

Laura Roslin, Sacrifice

You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we’ve done.

– Commander Bill Adama, Miniseries

This year, mankind is its own worst enemy. The remnants of humanity are driven to the bring of civil war not once, but twice. The series lands in its sophmore season running, though it seems to run into a bit of bother balancing itself over a full year. That isn’t to say that it isn’t still spectacular television – far from it – but that there are moments here when the series appears to lose focus (if only for an episode or two at a time). Still, it remains one of the most interesting and dynamic television dramas ever conceived.

It's some kinda storm out there...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: adama, baltar, battlestar galactica, bettlestar galactica: season 2, black market, cylons, downloaded, drama, epiphanies, home, laura roslin, lay down your burdens, pegasus, resurrection ship, review, sci-fi, science fiction, Television | 1 Comment »

Jack and Tony: Brothers in Arms?

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Darren

I had the pleasure of rewatching bits and pieces of the seventh season of 24 with my parents (as they are equally avid fans of the show). We recently completed the final double episode and I have to admit that it only really occurred to me how well the writers had constructed Tony as a shadowy counterpart to their lead. I’ve already expressed my thoughts on the season as a whole, but I just thought I’d make a quick note of some of the more interesting parallels and ponder whether Jack is really so much better than Tony.

Clothes colour coded for your convenience... white=good, black=bad....

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: 24, counterpart, echo, jack bauer, kiefer sutherland, mirror, reflection, shadow archetype, Television, tony almeida | Leave a comment »

Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Darren

Of all the people to survive, he’s not the one you would have chosen, is it? But if you could choose, Doctor, if you could decide who lives and who dies… that would make you a monster.

– Mr. Cooper, Voyage of the Damned

The Waters of Mars is a lot more intense than I was expecting. It started out as a standard base under seige story with more than an echo of the era of the fourth Doctor about it, but then something happened. The Doctor made the decision that he’s made before – and which he explicitly compares in the episode to the decision to watch Pompeii burn in The Fires of Pompeii – the decision to walk away. And then the episode kicks it up a notch and becomes a fantastically appropriate penultimate story for this incarnation of The Doctor.

A Mars attack...

Note: There are naturally spoilers for the episode under discussion below. If you want a recommendation, then here it is: this is the best episode of the new series since Midnight over a year ago. It has some pacing issues and a very standard opening half. But the finalé is a perfect dovetail of the core themes of Davies’ run on the show.

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, bowie base one, david tennant, doctor who, doctor who specials, fires of pompeii, lonely god, mars, review, russell t. davies, specials, Television, the fires of pompeii, the master, the waters of mars, time lords, waters of mars | Leave a comment »