Public Address - Radiation (Home)

Campbell Lives! | Mar 25, 2005 11:57

Yes, they would swear like Tony Soprano on a bad day and make nasty suggestions regarding the course of action their rivals should take. No, not Deadwood, silly, the heads of news and current affairs at the country's television stations. Remember, folks, we're paying Biffo Ralston to call it as he sees it and he did a fine job of reflecting media attention back onto TVNZ.

It made him sound worried though. If they're going to watch a current affairs show at all, Aucklanders especially, and young people in general, are surely more likely to watch Campbell Live. It's certainly doing what it should be doing: setting its own agenda. It looks like a proper show, whereas Paul Holmes looks under-resourced and a little bit sad. Perhaps they're spending all the money on Paul's salary. I think they should just run with all the tearjerking interviews Paul's been doing lately and turn it into an antipodean Barbara Walters-type thing.

Meanwhile, Deadwood is looking like goddamn art, don't you think? EB Farnum's lone rant about Al Swearengen a couple of episodes ago was straight-out theatre. I swear there's less swearing now than in the first episode – David Milch knew it would cause a fuss, although he has written in defence of the language. He is quoted in this New York Times opinion piece. I guess we've been spoiled by too many Sunday westerns and episodes of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. It's not even The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, although Timothy Olyphant is channelling Clint Eastwood a little in his portrayal of Seth Bullock.

Woo-hoo, Mal finally got laid! And with Julie Cooper too! Although in the best tradition of hero gets the girl-hero loses the girl (see: Starsky & Hutch, Miami Vice et al), she died at the end. Sigh. And are there any more sexy words than "I plan to take things real slow"? Except maybe "Relax, hon, I'll do the dishes" that is. I should point out at this juncture that Firefly fans will know what I'm talking about. There's only about one ep left, but we will not be totally Whedon-less, as TV3 has scheduled season five of Angel next, which should take us close to September and Serenity the movie. It's interesting that DVD sales are now beginning to drive the market a little bit. Strong DVD sales resurrected Family Guy. It's unlikely that will happen with Firefly, because Joss is just too damn busy being a big-shot movie director and all. Hell, between Deadwood and Firefly, I'm beginning to talk like Calamity Jane! Motherwhaka!

Some of you good folks (okay, I'll stop now) have noticed that The Wire has rolled over into season two. If you start now, you won't miss too much, as the show tends to unravel like a novel. This time it's set in working-class Polish culture down on Baltimore's docks, but there's Greeks, Russians and the drug dealers from the projects still in the mix.

Meantime, reader Shaun is appalled by:

The Inspectors on Tuesday night. The Marketing Manager or PR consultant for the White House should get a fairly decent bonus this year. In the course of the half-hour show the White House was featured in all three segments of the show, shown as a very "clean" establishment, the manager was able to show the new "features" of the venue including a lovely smoking deck upstairs, and the pool table where one can, if one wishes, play nude pool with one of the establishment's employees. As someone who works in the marketing industry this, along with all the show promos during the previous week, would have literally been worth thousands of $$ in exposure. I hope they didn't get funding from NZ on Air.

Millsy shares a CSI: Miami drinking game:

You simply drink each time Horatio puts on or takes off his sunglasses. You'll drink more than you expect!

Perhaps there's a similar one for CSI: NY. Anytime there's blue lighting perhaps? No, wait, that would be all the time.

Sir Ian McKellan is to appear in Coronation Street. And the new Dr Who is quite good.

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Swear Engine | Feb 26, 2005 14:05

Now, I like a good bit of cussing as much as the next gal. Heck, I've even been known to use certain plosive expletives myself. But did anyone else find the swearing in Deadwood's first episode distracting? I didn't think it would matter, but I was so busy thinking, "Would they really have cussed like Tony Soprano on a bad day back then?" that I missed what was going on.

And there seemed a certain cynicism in that Calamity Jane was the first to use the c-word. Equal opportunity swearing! There's something a wee bit playground about it; they were just cussin' for the effect. Anyways, if you'd like to know the tally, here's where to find it. Meantime, HBO keeps a Dead Cu – er – Count.

So I was feeling a bit let down and there was a Somalian model masturbating with her new clitoris on Nip/Tuck – and who doesn't want to see that? – and I forgot to watch the second ep on Monday, except for the end. I'm told it was much better than the first. The video recorder will be ready next week. Good to see Wormtongue with a regular gig too – under that stick-on moustache, he's Doc Cochran.

There's an incredible profile of Deadwood creator David Milch in the Feb 14 & 21 issue of The New Yorker, btw, in which Mark Singer describes how Yale graduate Milch once spent a whole year typing the same 12 pages every day. Consequently, for obsessive-compulsive reasons, he doesn't go near a keyboard and instead lies in a room surrounded by about 13 assistants and screenwriting students and kind of channels the characters while others type. He talks about ego suppression and his idea of storytelling being spiritual. It doesn't seem to available online, but it's worth having a look at Magazzino.

If I'd known CSI: Miami was such a riot, I might have watched more often. Or maybe it's just funny when Horrible Horatio visits NY, as in last Sunday's "crossover" episode, which introduced new franchisee CSI: NY. I swear, William Shatner wrote the script, which was something like:

Horatio: "We. Want. This. Guy – AsYouKnow, Miami. Has. The. Death. Penalty."
Mac: "So. Does. New. York."
Horatio [smugly]: "Yes. But. You. Haven't. Executed. Since. 1976."
Mac [sighs]: "Politics."

New York was bathed in a cold, blue light; if it wasn't winter, it looked like it; and suddenly, there's Horatio, standing in a dark apartment, in New York in the winter, with his sunglasses on bathed in a kind of orangey glow. He brought Miami with him!

It was funnier than Green Wing which, on first inspection, seems to be a mix of The Office and Scrubs. The Brits generally don't seem to feel the need to create loveable characters, unlike the Americans, who are so desperate for you to tune in next week that even their baddies are goodies – hey, even Al Swearengen was a little glassy-eyed and pathetic when the hooker that he'd beaten up put her gun on the side table and got into bed with him.

I like Tamsin Greig very much though, since Black Books, so will give Green Wing another go. Incredibly, Tamsin was in The Archers. Here's an online chat with her from Black Books days.

I think it's good that Paul Holmes is tucked away on Prime now. I wonder if the demographics will settle down: Paul Holmes will be a sort-of Flipside for senior citizens and talkback radio idiots; Close Up will be mum-and-dad mainstream who want to be told what to think; and Honest John Campbell's show, Campbell Live, will capture the young(er) folk.

Here's something interesting from the NY Times about how the Oscars are being sexed up for the ratings. Also, Chris Rock isn't going to hold back, according to the LA Weekly.

Holy crap, The Wire has been fantastic. It's one of those rare series in which you actually forget that people are acting. The Sopranos is maybe the only other one that does that. There's only about four eps left though, people, so it's possibly a bit late to get into it. It's had three seasons in all, but it may not get a fourth. There's a Save The Wire campaign of course.

Did anyone see the new, improved Battlestar Galactica? I didn't, but does anyone else think Number Six is suspiciously like Seven of Nine with fewer clothes?

Lastly, it's reported that Joel Silver wants Joss Whedon for a Wonder Woman movie. I wonder if Joss would be better at one of those ensemble things, like X-Men, but if anyone can, he's the guy – you've gotta say that he really likes women in the best possible way. I'm thinking Lucy Lawless for Wonder Woman! Yes!

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