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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Through the Round Window... What You Watching?

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Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:29 / 13.07.03

In the style of the 'what are you reading...?' thread in Books, a thread for mentioning of stuff, individual shows, documentarys, dramas, that are worthy of mention but not their own thread.

Eddie Izzard's Mongrel Nation. This was a three-part show that was on the Discovery channel about a month back, all about how a lot of what we consider 'English' is in fact, something we picked up from other cultures. The first program dealt mainly with what happened when we were invaded, by the Romans who gave us money for example, and the second and third places were more recent, so it was us invading other places, or trade and immigration (hygiene didn't become important until the mid 19th century when the Indians wouldn't have anything to do with the recently arrived English because they ponged so much). Very interesting, with Eddie's typical enthusiastic delivery.

Newsnight. I've been getting into this recently, and especially with the current strained relations between the Government and the BBC there have been some gems, last Tuesday Jeremy Paxman seemed to be saying the Government was lying about something without actually using the words and Gavin Estler was visibly irritated when Peter 'I'm Free' Mandelson tried to use the Alistair Campbell spat to deflect things in a discussion with Michael Portillo about the current mess the Government is in.

Anyone else?

21:19 / 13.07.03

Well tonight I'm going to watch the Day of Wine and Roses just because I've been a big fan of Jack Lemmon's ever since I saw The Apartment.

21:59 / 13.07.03

Bareknuckle tale of alcholism seemingly! Let the good times roll.

12:43 / 14.07.03

Tuesday nights on channel 5. You've got CSI in its various forms, which is slick glossy televisual entertainment, and then followed by the shield, which you can read about in its own thread. And when I'm not working I like Quincy, which can now be found on ITV at lunchtime. It's terrible really, but it gives me something to watch while I eat my lunch. I'm also really enjoying the new series of scrubs, though why they had to move it to a friday night I don't know.

13:00 / 14.07.03

Quincy is terrible!? There will be no more of that sort of talk! I wonder how much ITV paid BBC to buy the rights?

Yeah CSI is ok, basically just an updated Quincy with more gadgets and I thought someone a bit better was going to die last week when they said a part of the team!

Smallville of course but last nights episodes were kinda crap.

What else, Ground Force Rocks!

There must be more but I can't think of anything, doesn't seem to be much on at the moment and weekend TV seems to have become really shite or maybe it was always like that...

Columbo when it's on of course but last nights episode was terrible (most of the new ones are) but Columbo without a murder! WTF.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

23:18 / 14.07.03

I tend to go from obsession to obsession and currently it's The World Poker Tour, which is odd to be entertained by people playing cards.

I also watch the WWE more than I should, but they are getting much better...and if HHH would get injured again, the shows would be great.

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:10 / 15.07.03

The Secret Life Of Us, third (?) series. Alex is returning. And I spend most of my time yelling at that twart Evan to stop channelling Ben Mendelson...

07:03 / 15.07.03

Dawson's Creek, the new and final series. Bad hair and worse beards, too much focus on Dawson and Joey, even though Dawson is, amazingly, almost human now. The show now has two real life British people in it, which is a small miracle as most US shows seem to like to get someone in from the Dick Van Dyke school of bizarre vocal stylings.
Sex and the City, which I've always liked, even though I probably shouldn't. It's one of the only things I can stand to watch at the moment. It's slick and it's funny and that counts for a lot.
CSI is over for the minute, I think - the third series, I mean. But I was watching that consistently - tv highlight of the week, in fact. Am not watching much tv because I can't bear it at the moment.

10:31 / 15.07.03

I always enjoyed Homicide: Life on the Street, but C4 showed it at such ridiculous times and so inconsistantly. Love the title sequence.

I discovered last night on my landlords digital setup, that it's showing every day at 10pm on Hallmark. This sounds good, but in practice I'll never remember, have time, etc to watch it every day. I'll have a stab though.

12:41 / 15.07.03

cholister, i am addicted to sex & the city! i have three of the box sets (they are less than £15 at hmv) and watch it constantly.

my favourite thing to watch right now has to be bo selecta. my favourite is craig david. i laughed my ass off when he went to the doctors and said, i need a remedy!
friends tell me that it's total student comedy, but that doesn't make it any less funny.
it's proper bo, i tell thee.

12:42 / 15.07.03

hee hee

Foust is SO authentic

15:24 / 15.07.03

Ah, the Canadian Book TV channel shows Homicide twice daily, once in prime time. Life is good. Best series ever.

Don't tell me I'm the only one here that watches Blind Date?

Warrington Minge

16:18 / 20.07.03

anyone else watch Diagnosis Murder with Dick van Dyke and his family, relatives, friends etc.
I know its crap but its strangely addictive?

16:30 / 27.07.03

Is anyone else watching new 'Dawson's Creek'? It's super-slashy atm, with Pacey and his little slicked-back stockbroker colleague.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

00:10 / 28.07.03

Since moving to Spain I've been watching a lot of telly, using the excuse that it'll help me learn the lingo. Apart from gameshows presented by women wearing sequins and lots of orange makeup, chat shows where women wearing sequins and lots of orange makeup talk to celebs (most of whom seem to be women, orange, sequins etc) and CNN, I'm watching mostly the same kind of stuff I watched back home only dubbed into Spanish. Currently there's Will y Grace on 5, whilst Channel Plus is running series four of Buffy Cazavampiros. Oh, and Smallville's on at the weekends but I don't really like it.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:22 / 04.05.05

Is anyone watching House? In the UK it on the Hallmark Channel, which is barely one small step up from not being shown by anyone ever, on Sunday nights. I've just watched the pilot and really liked it, Hugh Laurie playing a grumpy, unshaven but unfortunately quite staggeringly brilliant doctor with those CSI-style icky shots of sharp things penetrating the soft bits of human beings. I've only watched the pilot so far but if they can keep this quality up throughout the season this might be big...

...So I'm just going to go look for a website to see if it's been cancelled yet, as all shows that I get into from the start tend to do.

14:35 / 04.05.05

I think that it’s been recommissioned, as it’s doing quite well in the ratings. There was a tale that Laurie was to play Perry White in the forthcoming Supes film but doing House s2 prevents him from doing so, dunno if that’s truly the case.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:04 / 04.05.05

I had a brief fascination with Nanny 911 until I realized there were still like dozens of movies that I own and have not yet watched. But it was fun while it lasted.

19:40 / 18.09.05

The new series of Hex. I often find that the second series of these things is a vast improvement on the first so I'm giving it a chance. It's made me laugh once, at a very cheap joke mind, and the costume is spiffy. Hopefully less of a Rosemary's baby/Carrie number this year too.

23:16 / 18.09.05

I like watching CSI. Sometimes, I say something cryptic and cock my head slightly, in my mind it's like NAAARRR NAA-NA! DO-DO-DO-DO

07:25 / 19.09.05

I've been watching House now that it's on channel 5. Each episode is exactly the same, but Hugh Laurie as House is absolutely brilliant.
Apart from that I enjoyed the recent BBC documentary on the UK's coastline, I think it was called "Coast". Suprisingly watchable and very enjoyable. It made me want to go hiking, which is rare for a (lazy) city boy like myself.
I've also started watching "Space Race" on BBC 2, which is very interesting but slightly ruined by the bad dramatisations, but the topic is so fascinating you remain intrigued anyway.

10:59 / 19.09.05

I am, despite the deplorable dip in quality it has taken, still watching Without A Trace. I think I'm still waiting for it to snap out of the personal lives of the characters plots and go back to cold procedural season one plots which often had sad endings. It is, for me, the televisual equivalent of the Manic Street Preachers, an always silly pleasure which is becoming increasingly difficult to justify to other people.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:22 / 14.10.05

Supersize She. A Channel 5 show about a female body builder. It's... just so... Oh God. She's been a bodybuilder since she was fifteen and is now about 27, doesn't have any life outside body building, and, oh god, such an empty life. She wants to be Miss Olympia so she can retire at the top of her profession but the program presents her as having no interests or life outside what she's doing to her body. An extreme bodybuilder prancing around on stage to 'Barbie Girl', gleushushshushushushush!

"Body building isn't a sport or a hobby, it's who I am."

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:08 / 18.10.05

And while we're at it, these ... Swap shows, where famous people get swaddled in latex amd are supposed to look like a different age, race, sex... They instead manage to look like someone covered in latex. Next week, in a show that is sure to annoy some Barbeloids 'Jenny Bond gets transformed into a chav'.

So Channel 5 seem to have given up on that brief attempt to go upmarket.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

17:58 / 04.01.06

Balderdash and Piffle, all very good and interesting. I liked the Mark Ravenhill section on 'polari'. So why do they feel it necessary to go over the top with Victoria Coren taking the evidence for the earliest use of a word to the Oxford English Dictionary people to argue that BBC viewers have found an earlier use of the word than they've got? I really don't care about what the OED think is the earliest use of 'pear-shaped' or 'gay'. I want to know about the words, I'm not interested in who's smarter out of the British public and Oxford.

18:04 / 04.01.06

Right now, i'm watching the new season of Scrubs, which just started last night. Two new episodes. I swear, i never get tired of this show, even after watching the first two seasosn over again(onDVD), and downloading and watching eps from the more recent seasosn. This show is consistently funny, fresh, and brillaint. The writes are without a doubt the best in the business at this point. You never know how to view this show...it's not a comedy, not entirely...nor is it whole drama....nor is it a complete study on character...it is all of these things, and even after five years, i have yet to be disgusted by a single episode. I hope this show goes on for atleast another two yrs. I am also watching the newer Family Guy Episodes, as well as The Simpson's, American Dad, and Futurama. I'd have to say that at the moment, these are my absolute favorite tv shows. Nothing much else on that i've come across that's worth my time before the tube, except for maybe a Discovery Channel show called I Shouldn't Be Alive.

Hawksmoor....From The Bleed.

18:58 / 04.01.06

Hawksmoor, have you seen this thread? It was such a great opening post, it's a crime that it disappeared so quickly.

20:09 / 04.01.06

Thanks...although the text was a bit too secual, i do agree with the writer in saying that Scrubs is one of, if not The Best, things on tv right now...or for that matter (in my opinion, ever). 'Preciate it.

Hawksmoor...From The Bleed.

01:13 / 17.03.06

Did anyone see Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe? Tucked away late on BBC4, there were only 3, last one was tonight (repeated Friday or Saturday I think). Essentially, it was his Screen Burn column from the Guardian Guide but, like on TV and everything. I thought it worked pretty well. The usual mix of critique, hyperbole, anger and puerility, but with smart use of the medium (the behind the scenes 'how much does this programme cost?' bit in the first episode and some choice retro clips spring to mind). I'm actually struggling to remember much from it, as it's quite fast moving, but there were some good jokes about music channels and Anthea Turner tonight and generally some wonderful descriptions that were both funny and strangely true ("phone-in quizzes are like broadcasting a 24hr coconut shy"). I laughed quite a lot (and probably more than at Nathan Barley...)

Did you see it then?

06:33 / 17.03.06

Not seen last night's yet although I do love CB. My favourite bit so far was the compilation of horrific bits from Animal Hospital which went on so long you can't hellp but think "oh my god, who gets off on watching something his horrible?"; sudden cut to CB pretending to open his flies. Genius little statement on the emotional pornography of suffering.

10:12 / 17.03.06

There are only three episodes? Awwww, maaaaan, that was one of the best shows on telly. Charlie Brooker could probably gob in my face and I'd still think he was the funniest bloke in the media. It's rare that I see anyone on TV where I think "Thank god, somebody else thinks like I do". The bit about Deal or No Deal was excellent, and the 'satanic' Nicky Campbell segment was inspired. He is the anichrist.

The irony is, programs like Screenwipe only getting three episodes is exactly the kind of stuff CB was railing against in the programme. Argh, it makes me want to go set fires and run in circles, screaming.

BBC4's whole approach to thursday nights is fucked anyway. They've got Question Time and This Week (usually) on One, so they go and put the funny political stuff on opposite it. The Thick of It, The Late Edition, Mark Steele, Screen Wipe... Gah! Any other night of the week, just not thurdays!!

BTW, did anyone used to read CB in PC Zone, back in the day. It really warped my 12-year-old mind, but I've never met anyone else who read it at the ame time. Any more CB fans in the 'blith?

10:59 / 17.03.06

I only caught about 5 minutes of the show, but didn't Brooker describe the 3 episodes as a pilot?

If that's the case we may well be seeing more of his tellyhead in the future.

11:01 / 17.03.06

Raising my hand for much of Brooker’s stuff – all the way back to his cartooning in the late lamented ‘Oink!’ comic in the late 80s. TVGoHome in particular.

Must catch the Screen Wipe repeats, though I know some people have suggested it’s rather derivative of Victor Lewis-Smith’s work. Though that’s not a bad template for that kind of programme, let’s face it…

As for what I’m watching? Not a lot: Prison Break, CSI, House, and My Name Is Earl. And that’s it, really. Almost wish TV actually WAS pay-to-view, I’d surely pay less than £120 per year...My god, there’s not a UK-originated show there, I’ve just realised. What kind of limey am I ?

Jawsus-son Starship

12:49 / 17.03.06

Prison Break. And Supernatural. Monday is the new tuesday since CSI Miami went mental and had an episode with a fucking tsunami!!! And the Horatio jumped out of an exploderisingded building in a Hummer. Mental.

CSI Original is still cool and the gang.

13:24 / 17.03.06

all the way back to his cartooning in the late lamented ‘Oink!’

Blimey, I never realised he did stuff for Oink! He'd have only been about 16. Were they strips or just little cartoons?

Aye, Boboss, he said "that's the end of our three pilots". I do hope there are more. It was clearly made not long before broadcast, as most of the reviews were current*, and it'd be great to have a weekly CB TV fix, though I'd miss Screen Burn (he's been away the past few weeks, presumably due to making SW)

Just remembered some other great bits: Redubbing music over opening credits. 'Ace of Spades' for Question Time and 'So What' by the Anti-Nowhere League for Parkinson. You kinda have to see it for full effect, really, but it worked beautifully (particularly the sentiments of the latter)

(*as was the research, such as the clip they showed at the end last night of some twot on Quiztime TV slagging off the programme)

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