What's on the idiot box...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So does anyone else just not give a damn about Clara on Dr Who? I find Matt Smith isn't as interesting without Amy and Rory to play off either.

I certainly don't. I don't mind the casting, but they damn sure didn't a **** job at character development.

 

I simply shout foul mouthed abuse at Dr Who these days. I'm listening to the BBC's radio version of The Jungle Book, and it's hard to conceive a greater contrast in 'childrens' stories.

 

rantrantrant.

I find that to be the only way to watch most episodes of this season. Frankly, it has to be the worst yet.

 

Maybe Doctor Who should feature more women in bikinis, that would be watchable.

[AGX-17]

I'm liking Game Of Thrones this year, and I really don't care about them streamlining some of it for television, but couldn't you have had

 

Jamie killing the bear?

 

They're not streamlining it, they're doing the opposite: padding it with TV-original filler/changing entire storylines (Davos, for example,) making up new ones (Melisandre going to the BWB,) because one book per-season is too fast a pace compared to the rate at which GRRM has been writing.

 

Instead of actually including content from the books that was omitted (e.g. Fist of the First Men.)

Edited May 20, 2013 by AGX-17

[LadyCrimson]

Tried to watch some more episodes of Elementary. When I discovered what they did with the Moriarty chr, I turned it off. I'm all for equality and new modern interpretations and all, but if you're going to make Watson female, Moriarty female (and have Irene Adler = Moriarty (!) ), and Sherlock is a lusty dude who can fall in love, just make a new mystery show with new characters and stop calling him Sherlock Holmes.

 

....Breaking Bad isn't until end of summer or something. Wah.

 

Also: aww, look how young he was...

[Hurlshort]

 

I'm liking Game Of Thrones this year, and I really don't care about them streamlining some of it for television, but couldn't you have had

 

Jamie killing the bear?

 

They're not streamlining it, they're doing the opposite: padding it with TV-original filler/changing entire storylines (Davos, for example,) making up new ones (Melisandre going to the BWB,) because one book per-season is too fast a pace compared to the rate at which GRRM has been writing.

 

Instead of actually including content from the books that was omitted (e.g. Fist of the First Men.)

 

 

I think there are a lot of budget constraints at play too.  They have to recycle sets and limit characters compared to the books.

[Walsingham]

Tried to watch some more episodes of Elementary. When I discovered what they did with the Moriarty chr, I turned it off. I'm all for equality and new modern interpretations and all, but if you're going to make Watson female, Moriarty female (and have Irene Adler = Moriarty (!) ), and Sherlock is a lusty dude who can fall in love, just make a new mystery show with new characters and stop calling him Sherlock Holmes.

 

 

 

How do they put it in Mad Men?

 

"Derivative with a twist"

[Raithe]

I wasn't so stressed by them making Moriarty female, on a certain level it made sense and works with the whole "spider in a web pulling strings" metaphor, and concealing identity behind other people and even then having everyone think you're the wrong sex is great for hiding in plain sight.

 

What annoyed me was the Irene Adler = Moriarty.  Adler was always meant to be "The Woman" in Holmes life. The one who was able to keep him on his toes and still ambiguous on which side of the law she was on without being extreme. She was smart, capable and challenged Holmes and the general perceptions of the time.  

 

On the flip side, Moriarty was Holmes turned to the dark side. Equal brilliance, but manipulative, the counterbalance to that deductive reasoning. They both sought the game between them for matching wits and not having to deal with someone of "lesser abilities".

 

By turning Adler into Moriarty, or rather a fake persona created by Moriarty, you lose out on those elements of Adler, and pushing it so Moriarty has that kind-of-in-love aspect shifts out the balance of the game-playing between M & Sherlock.

[LadyCrimson]

Season ender of Grimm - there have been a couple of episodes this season where I feel like I'm watching the teen-horror flick of "don't go outside!" method. eg, in Grimm, situations that could easily have been avoided if a character was wearing ... a face mask. Or really big sunglasses/safety goggles. But do the chrs do so, even after knowing what they know? Of course not.

 

And yet...I still kinda like the show overall.

[Rosbjerg]

And here I thought Swedes were horrible at making TV and movies..

 

I've been watching this show "Âkta människor" or "Real Humans" .. Acting is surprisingly good, the story is a little soap but it works. Top notch Sci-Fi. I'm impressed. It's kinda the down to earth A.I about how free will in robots freaks us out.

[Oerwinde]

Been watching The History of the World on Discovery Worlds, I believe its either a BBC production or co-production, either way I'm enjoying it a lot.

 

I hate that I had to axe eqHD, it was essentially what the History Channel should be, nothing but History and anthropology programming. If I could get the channel by itself I would, but its bundled for 6 bucks with two useless channels.

[Hurlshort]

The Bluths are back!

 

The great thing about Netflix is you get the whole season all at once.  The bad thing is I will finish the season in about a day and need to wait another year for the next one...if they do another one.

[babaganoosh13]

14 laps to go in the Coke-a-cola 600, yellow flag. This is gonna be sweet.

 

EDIT: As long as nobody wrecks, or there is no more debris on the track, Harvick is going to run away with it.

 

EDIT: And he did.

Edited May 27, 2013 by babaganoosh13

[babaganoosh13]

Watching some French Open. Michael Llodra was hanging with Milos Raonic, but he's lost it in the fourth.

[Volourn]

"Tried to watch some more episodes of Elementary. When I discovered what they did with the Moriarty chr, I turned it off. I'm all for equality and new modern interpretations and all, but if you're going to make Watson female, Moriarty female (and have Irene Adler = Moriarty (!) ), and Sherlock is a lusty dude who can fall in love, just make a new mystery show with new characters and stop calling him Sherlock Holmes."

 

These types of complaints are silly.

 

If you just want the original just read the original story/watch the first version.

 

The whole point of remakes should be about changing it up and taking a different look at the same material. If it was the exact same thing there'd be no point.

 

 

P.S. I don't watch the show but that sentiment of yours is common and silly it needs to be thrown in the fire of sill shames.

.

[Amentep]

I wasn't so stressed by them making Moriarty female, on a certain level it made sense and works with the whole "spider in a web pulling strings" metaphor, and concealing identity behind other people and even then having everyone think you're the wrong sex is great for hiding in plain sight.

 

What annoyed me was the Irene Adler = Moriarty.  Adler was always meant to be "The Woman" in Holmes life. The one who was able to keep him on his toes and still ambiguous on which side of the law she was on without being extreme. She was smart, capable and challenged Holmes and the general perceptions of the time.  

 

On the flip side, Moriarty was Holmes turned to the dark side. Equal brilliance, but manipulative, the counterbalance to that deductive reasoning. They both sought the game between them for matching wits and not having to deal with someone of "lesser abilities".

 

By turning Adler into Moriarty, or rather a fake persona created by Moriarty, you lose out on those elements of Adler, and pushing it so Moriarty has that kind-of-in-love aspect shifts out the balance of the game-playing between M & Sherlock.

 

Alternatively, Irene Adler's position as the person who could challenge the perceptions of the time is less interesting now (possibly impossible without seeming hipster alternative or making her a cannibal or something) and the rest of the things that describe Adler (beyond her specific relationship with Holmes - the "smart, capable and challenged Holmes" stuff) could also describe Moriarty as well.   And Moriarty as Adler doesn't preclude her as being "The Woman" (who even in the cannon Holmes had 'lost' or "had intellectual admiration for" depending on how you want to read/interpret it)

 

So in that sense, I'm not convinced you've really lost anything with this change; if you accept all the other changes in the show, this one seems par for the course (which makes clear midway through the season from what I've been told that this Holmes had a romantic relationship with Adler, departing wildly from the books)...

[LadyCrimson]

The whole point of remakes should be about changing it up and taking a different look at the same material. If it was the exact same thing there'd be no point.

Since I watch the BBC version of Sherlock, which most certainly does not conform entirely to the "original stuff", plus I'm probably one of the few who enjoyed "Young Sherlock Holmes" despite its silliness, not to mention being at least tolerant of the new Star Trek films, I don't think I'm hugely closed minded to remakes fiddling with chrs, formulas, stories, settings, time periods.

 

But there is a certain point, to me, where a remake becomes no longer related much to the original and you may as well just call it something else, as I said. eg, they're mostly capitalizing on the name recognition, not the material.

[Walsingham]

There's a good discussion of these issues on Vaginal Fantasy, Felicia Day's book club on Goodreads/Youtube.

[Amentep]

The whole point of things going in the public domain is for creators to, essentially, riff on the concepts created by previous generations.

 

With that in mind, I don't see anything done in ELEMENTARY that actually divorces it from Holmes anymore than other productions that aren't direct adaptions of a Holmes story.  Certainly its no less far afield than say, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE 22ND CENTURY or any of the Holmes-Cthulu stories that are out there...

[LadyCrimson]

Yes...I should have also stated that tolerance for how much alteration with original source material is always going to be individualistic. I tend to be more annoyed with major chr. personality changes (Holmes being a womanizer, Spock being a lot more outwardly emotional) than actual setting (time period) or props (cars vs. carriages). I might not like that in Kubrik's The Shining he used an axe instead of a mallet, or the way they did the ending, but not to the point I'd say don't call it The Shining. But if the personality of main characters changes drastically, to me it's no longer the same character.

 

I liked the series House largely because of the almost Holmes/Watson aspect of House and Wilson, but I wouldn't call that show "Dr. Sherlock Holmes, in the 20th century." Or in CSI:Criminal Intent, Goren was like a cross of Holmes and Columbo. All great. But don't call it/Goren CSI:Columbo.

[Amentep]

I took Spock being emotional in the new movies as a reflection of where he was in "The Cage" (which isn't really fair, given that the Cage had a differrent conception of Spock, however it establishes the idea of a younger Spock being quite emotional prior to the original timeline Kirk-lead Enterprise).

 

Sadly, most aesexual characters will never be translated to media without change. The Downey Holmes films did, several earlier Holmes films did. It makes the characters more typical male leads, but makes them less interesting in many respects. And realistically you're right, there's no reason why Elementary couldn't be new characters modled after Holmes et al other than trying to trade on the Holmes name (but House did it successfully, so its not impossible even if I didn't ultimately like the show).

 

[Raithe]

Oh, and the BBC have announced that BBC News - Matt Smith is to leave Doctor Who  at the end of the year...

 

 

 

Matt Smith is to leave his role in Doctor Who at the end of this year, the BBC has announced.

 

After four years as the famous Time Lord on the BBC One show, viewers will see Smith's Doctor regenerate in the 2013 Christmas special.

 

The 30-year-old actor said working on the show for three years had been "the most brilliant experience".

 

Doctor Who marks its 50th anniversary in November with a special episode, which Smith has already filmed.

The BBC said Smith's "spectacular exit" was yet to be revealed and would be "kept tightly under wraps".

 

Smith first stepped into the Tardis as the 11th Doctor in 2010. Taking over from David Tennant, he was the youngest actor to play the role.

Speaking after the announcement, he said he was "incredibly proud" of what the show had achieved over the last four years under Steven Moffat, the show's lead writer and executive producer.

 

Smith also thanked fans around the world for their "truly remarkable" dedication to the show.

 

 

 

[Zoraptor]

Not really unexpected news. Initially I thought he was going to be a terrible choice, but he's probably ended up being #2 on my favs.

 

Lol, 11th Doctor??? BBC news where r ur fact checkers????

[Oerwinde]

Hopefully if they are also keeping Jenna Louise Coleman, they cast someone who has some chemistry with her. Matt Smith did not.

[LadyCrimson]

I've been watching episodes of Ssn1 "Emergency!" - I loved this show as a kid so it's hilarious seeing some of it again, now and then. Pretty influential series of the 70's.

 

My Netflix instant-queue is way too big....

[Raithe]

Heh.

 

"After last weeks episode of Game of Thrones, maybe they should change its acronym from GoT to OMG!..."

 

I managed to snag a couple of episodes of NTSF-SD-SUV.  It's a little weird with some amusing bits. Although seeing Kate Mulgrew wearing an eye-patch and coming out with such lines as "I'm going out,  getting drunk and getting my freak on!" or "the war will never be over as long as there are japanese people on american soil!" with Captain Janeway style hair flicks does make me chuckle.

[Walsingham]

*grabs Raithe by lapels*

 

A nine letter abbreviation? Seriously? WHAT THE FETH IS NTSFSDSUV?