Just another note I’ve been devising for some time. I get a lot of emails from you (well, three) and they all ask (well, not really) ‘what’s the food like over there, Tom?’

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Clamato Juice

Clam. Tomato. This obvious combination has gone relatively unexploited in Australia, but is sensibly brought to the fore in this sensible country. Mmm mmm. Andy and I bought some extra spicy juice. It was yummy. Actually, I think half of it remains in our fridge door. The creation of Clamato juice has obviously led to the ‘Bloody Caesar’, the cousin of the ‘Bloody Mary’.

Poutine

A Quebecian (Quebecish? Quebecic? Je ne sais pas) delicacy, poutine consists of french fries — don’t you be calling them chips, now — covered in gravy and cheese curds. Mmm mmm. Jackson wasn’t a fan. I rather enjoyed them. Joe’s Diner — centre of fine dining as it is — substitutes grated cheese for curds, because they can’t be bothered buying curds. They make up for this however by offering the ‘Mexi-Poutine’ — with Chili instead of gravy. This is DELICIOUS.

Rootbeer

OK, so we’ve got this at home too. But people seem to like it here. Ew.

Cheese

‘Tom,’ you exclaim, ‘we’ve got cheese too!’. Do you ever, you lucky bastards. You should see the cheese here. Bright orange, usually, and about twice the price it should be, coming in rather small packages. An Australian is hard pressed to discern between grated cheese and carrots.

Pop

Soft Drink. Soda. Whatever. Also, don’t come to Canada, ask for lemonade, and expect Sprite or 7-Up or similar drinks. Lemonade is proper lemonade here. Aussies are known for causing such confusion. When asked what we call their lemonade, ‘proper lemonade’ is all I could come up with. Anyone got a better idea? Their system does cause minor irritation, as when ordering our kind of lemonade, you have to guess what kind they’ve got — Sprite or 7-Up. If you get it wrong, you get asked if, say, Sprite is OK instead of 7-Up.

So it’s not really a big deal. But it seemed odd at first.

Pizza

Domino’s only offer two toppings on their meal deal pizzas. Shame, Domino’s, Lack of Pizza Topping Shame. Frozen pizza is also insanely expensive.

A bit of context — Banff is a kind of tourist town amongst the Canadian Rockies, in Alberta. Alberta has two major cities — Edmonton and Calgary, the latter of which is closest to us. Hence it has two major NHL teams — the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. Naturally, Matthew, Andy and I are fervent Flames fans. Matt almost bought a jumper!

But they were $110. So he, uh, didn’t.

Before we left, we had to see them play. So some weeks ago, while Olivia visited us, we went to the Saddledome in Calgary, where the mighty Flames were due to play the Dallas Stars, with only a few games remaining before the playoffs.

The bus trip to Calgary was largely uneventful. Andy and I blocked out the rest of the universe by use of our discmen and iPods respectively. These had to be turned up quite loud, as the bus’ TV had been turned on. We arrived, and immediately went in search of food before entering the stadium. Fifteen minutes later, still searching, we returned to the dome and entered. Things weren’t too expensive — except Flames jumpers which were still $110 — and we all had some super greasy burgers as we sat down in our not terribly good seats. The excitement was palpable… Olivia had bought one of those blowhorn things… Matt managed two different notes… The USA’s national anthem was sung… The Canadian national anthem was sung… By this stage the excitement had died down a bit.

We hardly noticed the game start. Suddenly, the players had begun their spinning around the ice. Suddenly, it looked like Dallas had scored. We weren’t sure though. It was about a minute before the scoreboard was updated. The same happened again. Before we knew it, we were down 2-0. All this inamongst some cheesy sounding organ music, the purpose of which eluded us.

Then, a Calgary player got the puck in the net. WILD CHEERS! FLAMES shot out of gas turrets above the rink! The massive screens displayed a 3D rendering of the word ‘goal’ in several different styles! The FLAMES shot up again!

Then play was suspended for a few minutes as they decided that the goal had been kicked in, and was invalid. This was the first and only time we witnessed the over-elaborate home team goal celebrations. Watching the eventual 4-0 destruction of the Flames became somewhat painful, leaving us wishing that the segment of the game where the players left the rink and hot chicks with snow shovels skated around cleaning the chewed up ice went a bit longer. The high point of the night ended up being ‘smoochcam’, where the cameras would focus on a couple in the audience and that couple would snog for us all. Specifically, the high point was when the camera focussed on two obliging ladies. Man-on-man kisses had clearly been decided alienating of the game’s major demographics.

Universally glum — except Olivia who had managed to enjoy the night, being as she was emotionally unentangled with any of the teams — we jumped on the bus and headed home. Residents of Banff were grateful to hear Matthew announce our return with a jaunty little two-note ditty, and we got home in time to catch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Tom: Welcome to our Angel reviews for season five. Say hello, Andy.

Andy: Hello Andy. I’m not an Angelholic, but it’s a darn sight better than Buffy.

The new direction of this season is highlighted from the very beginning, as an archetypal ‘Angel saves the girl’ moment is concluded with publicity photos, chauffers and indemnity waivers. A flabbergasted Angel is lost for words, and all the characters seem unsure if the move to Wolfram & Hart is going to work. As, indeed, are we.

I’m not. I know things are going to go wrong, without spoilers. The episode continues with the Angel Team recapping what happened to them after last season’s cliff hanger. What it fails to explain is what everyone remembers of last season given the memory wipe about Connor. Hopefully this will be cleared up later this season and not become a confusing grey area like we’ve seen on Buffy these past seasons. I’m worried about such problems given that last season was almost one big episode. The writers will probably selectively remember events of last season. Too convenient for my liking. The memory wipe has left the group friendly again, presumably so Wolfram and Hart can tear them apart later on. Eve feels like she will get on my nerves soon. Too self absorbed for a bad guy, as she surely will be. I pray she’ll have a sensible plan and not something hole ridden.

These memory issues are a problem. Wesley has paradoxical stubble if he’s not actually gone through all his Connor-related traumas. On a wider level, I’m interested to see how they’ll be playing this Wolfram and Hart thing. Will we have many court cases? Will we always have irritating characters like Fries that our heroes have to put up with? While I enjoyed a lot of this episode, these two elements weren’t my favourites. Fries is possibly the least interesting and amusing character ever seen in a Whedon-penned episode, unless you count Caleb. And Eve is trying my nerves also — I hate characters who say everything as if it’s in inverted commas.

On the upside, it does look like the good guys have some kind of plan. I was worried that they’d just sit there in their law firm and wait for things to go wrong. It should be a lot greyer fight against evil this year. Buffy was always very black and white, good and evil. I presume the plot for this episode is a typical tricky problem that will be encountered this season. The solutions will not simply be a matter of finding out the weak point of the monster, they’ll require some compromise. They may end up fighting more humans, as demons are usually definitely evil and can be killed without consequence. (Although not always, e.g. Lorne and Doyle) They can’t kill all their evil clients as Eve pointed out, but they should be able to stop a lot of bad guys. The amount of good they do I think is measured in the number of bad guys stopped, not how many they didn’t stop. As for the rest of the episode, some funny dialogue and unfortunately, Spike.

There are some really good Doctor Who novels out there. Novels that can stand on their own, but gain power from being in a long-running series. Novels that explore fascinating themes in ways you probably couldn’t do nearly as well outside the format. Novels that break and twist genres gleefully.

The concluding book of a recent universe-shattering arc of stories, ‘Sometime Never…’, is not one of these books. It reads like a season finale of an adventure TV show, and it wouldn’t be a bad one at that. But as a novel — it lacks a lot. These failings became apparent at the start, when a whole bunch of occasionally painful exposition was relayed entirely in dialogue, reading more like the start of a Buffy arc episode, complete with handy lines to pop in any neccesary ‘Previously, on Doctor Who‘ segments. And in this respect it doesn’t really get better.

In other ways, it does. There’s a pretty nifty plot here, with an ending that makes a reasonable amount of sense, provided you’ve bought one particularly dodgy spot of temporal dodgy physics earlier on. Newish companion Trix has some very nice moments, especially with the two lost princes in the Tower of London. And the ideas and explanations for previous books in the arc are very neatly put together.

Indeed, this book would work wonderfully as a plot-advancing episode in a TV show. But as an individual work it’s kind of lame. I doubt sincerely that an outside reader would make any sense of it at all — a lot of the most resonant sections for me involved past books, if not past episodes of the TV series.

Ultimately, this is a book about ideas, and not style or execution. Sadly, some of the ideas are rather dull, even if they’ve been well thought-through. It’s certainly only worth reading if you’ve struggled through the interminable ‘alternate universe’ arc, in which case it may make you feel better about those books. But frankly it’s a bit tragic that the adventures of the Eighth Doctor are coming to an end after such a poor run. With a new series coming, change is on the way — and this can probably only be a good thing.

Christopher Eccleston is the new Doctor Who!

Of course, I’d never heard of him, but apparently he was in 28 Days Later and the husband in The Others. This is all very exciting.

Well, for me, not for anyone else…

Our travels through the US and the selling of all our nice stuff approach. It might end up being a stressful last week or so here. Hopefully we’ll end up with enough money and useful things like that!

… continued from Part Two.

05 | Billy (306)

Written by Tim Minear & Jeffrey Bell, Directed by David Grossman

Psychosis is always good for a laugh. We’ve got a crazy villain who can make men become violent mysoginists, and it’s Angel’s fault he’s loose. In some ways, it’s pretty easy to make a character go insane and then give him angst about it afterwards. But after Wesley’s impressive axe-weilding rampage, Alexis Denisof plays the final scene so perfectly that it more than makes up for the somewhat basic premise. Also worthy of mention is Cordy’s maturing into a character who can stand on her own against Lilah and manage a certain amount of heroics. And Angel’s concern at his tendency towards melodrama.

The episode also benefits from a few avoidances of cliches. Fred, the still reasonably vulnerable Pylean refugee, gets to knock both Wesley and Gunn out rather painfully. Angel is completely unaffected by Billy’s power, thus sparing us a crap scene where he struggles to regain control. And, of course, Lilah gets to save the day. In a way, I’m surprised I decided to put this one so high — but it’s a perfectly implemented one-off story, and there just aren’t enough of them in the world.

LILAH: I’m sorry, but this deep chivalric concern, coming from the only man I know who definitely wants to kill me, is a bit much on a day like this.

04 | Reunion (210)

Written by Tim Minear & Shawn Ryan, Directed by James A. Contner

Picture this, gentle readers. Last week, you had the coolest cliffhanger ever. Angel went through one of his top five painful ordeals, but won the heart of the human Darla… and then, out of the blue, Drusilla the Vampire Slayer Slayer appeared, and reconverts your loved one as he watched. You tune in next week, thinking, ‘well, things can’t possibly get any cooler than that’. And then you get crazy Darla-Drusilla-Angel fight scenes, some very good Lindsey material as he confronts the consequences of his actions, mass murder, and Angel’s fall from grace as he condemns the Special Projects division of Wolfram & Hart to get eaten by their aforesaid projects.

While coping with some pretty darned depressing stuff, the episode is also one of the wittiest — Gunn’s confusion over who’s related to who now, and pretty much all of Drusilla’s dialogue. And we have yet another killer cliffhanger. Season Two really did rock, didn’t it? Well, mainly. Even though I’ve put this up here, I feel I should mention the AWFUL scene with the Powers that Be trying to distract Angel with saving a troubled teen from suicide. “Careful boss, this one’s about ready to snap, crackle and pop!” My god. Possibly the worst line of dialogue ever in the series.

What? Eh? Oh, talk about the good stuff. Sorry. I should mention David Boreanaz — Angel’s brooding obsession with Darla has now perfectly matured into a reckless mission against both her and Drusilla, and Boreanaz’s acting is excellent.

WESLEY: So, you did find them, then? Where are they now?
ANGEL: I don’t know.
CORDY: But you know where they’re going to be?
ANGEL: Not exactly.
WESLEY: But yet, you have your suspicions?
ANGEL: Actually, I don’t.
CORDY: So, it’s more like a hunch?
ANGEL: Wouldn’t say hunch.
CORDY: Could you say inkling? Please tell me you can at least say, inkling.

03 | Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? (202)

Written by Tim Minear, Directed by David Semel

They don’t do enough of these any more. One off episodes written like they’re a movie, and not just things to place in between last week’s episode and next week’s. Another hole in Angel’s mysterious hundred years of soulfulness is filled in, as we see him come dangerously close to establishing Angel Investigations 50 years earlier. Paranoia, racism and blood are dealt with in surprisingly subtle ways (mostly), and in fact the episode is so understated one can occasionally think it a bit dull.

It’s not. It’s damn near perfect. The scenes between Angel and Judy — both old and young — are beautifully written and acted. Angel’s ‘hanging’ is a nice explanation as to why things hadn’t looked up for Angel before the 1990’s. The only irritating things are the constant interruptions by Cordelia and Wesley. Sometimes the dialogue on Angel is sharp and taut — other times, it’s a bit like this. But there’s not enough of it to spoil the episode.

JUDY: I’m not one thing or the other. I am nothing.
ANGEL: I know what that’s like.

02 | The Prodigal (115)

Written by Tim Minear, Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Please, Tim Minear, come back to _Angel _. In this near perfect season one episode, we follow Angel’s first few days as Angelus, meet his family, and discover the original, tragic source of his romantic name. Paralleling this plot beautifully is the relationship between Kate Lochley and her father, and the further decay of her friendship with Angel. And of course, we have the magnificent set piece where Angel is forced to look on at the doorway as Jack is murdered by vampires — the perfect dilemma for a vampire hero.

Despite being a largely serious episode, this story works best as a companion to the comedic Sense and Sensitivity — also by Minear. Both episodes end with Angel silently watching Kate and her father, knowing how Kate feels, but not being in a position to help her. Ah, I miss Kate too. But not enough to watch Law and Order.

SERVING GIRL: Oh, his lies sound pretty when the stars are out, but he forgets every promise he’s made when the sun comes up again.
DARLA: That wouldn’t really be a problem for me, actually.

01 | Five by Five / Sanctuary (118-119)

Written by Jim Kouf, Tim Minear & Joss Whedon, Directed by James A. Contner & Michael Lange

There have been a lot of good Angel episodes over the years — it’s been one of my favourite television shows for five years, and one of the most consistent. Well, with a bit of a blip in season four. But it’s never quite gotten as amazingly cool as it was here. The connections between Faith and Angel begun last year on Buffy are developed excellently, while the differences between Buffy and Angel’s methods are also contrasted interestingly. We also get the first real hardening of Wesley’s character as he stands up to Faith’s torture and the Watcher’s council — the same Wesley who this time last year was ready to talk after the merest threat of broken kneecaps.

After the painful and tragic first episode, Sanctuary contains so many brilliant moments I recall my jaw being consistently on the floor when I first saw it. Buffy! Wolfram and Hart! The Watchers! A helicopter! Kate! Angel telling Buffy what a whining bitch she is! Amazing stuff. While the Wolfram and Hart elements may look traditional now, it’s interesting to note that this was in fact a major turning point for the law firm — after a different lawyer every episode, suddenly three return, and plot together against Angel. This would get old later, unfortunately.

These episodes — and I’m counting them as one as you may have noticed — are definitely the archetypal Angel episodes, at least for the early seasons. Angel clearly explains to Buffy the difference between his show and her show, for those of us who hadn’t gotten it yet. And from this moment, it was clear which had the most potential for the future.

WESLEY: I was your Watcher, Faith — I know the real you. And even if you kill me, there’s just one thing I want you to remember.
FAITH: What’s that, love?
WESLEY: You — are a piece of shit.

Conclusion

While choosing these episodes, I began to worry that Angel, like Buffy, would have reached the end of it’s consistent quality after it’s third season, given that I wasn’t tempted to put any season four episodes in my list (though ‘Sacrifice’ would get an honourable mention). Angel‘s fifth, and most likely last season has however redeemed the weaknesses of the fourth, and proven that there was life in the old show yet.

Congratulations to this show, for proving the most enduring of all Joss Whedon’s tv projects.

I’ve put (working) comments up around grapefruit now, and removed the link to the rather useless forum. Unless anyone has any major objections? No?

All previous comments will have to be put back of course…

Canada remains beautiful but there’s precious little snow. Banff looks positively normal. We’ve extended our contracts at Joe’s for one more month, and I should be home on the 27th of April, just in time to get a few hours sleep and see Radiohead.

Rain? What’s up with this? It’s supposed to snow here, dammit. I should qualify my ‘rut’ statement and say that while it is a lovely place to live and we’re enjoying the experience, we just spend a lot of time going to work, being at work, leaving work, buying food, eating food, and playing Xbox, and not that much else. We did mean to walk up Sulfur Mountain today, but it was, as I say, raining and miserable.

Not that we knew this when we decided not to go. But it’s a good excuse and doesn’t involve the truth of alarm clocks being turned off and such things.

In good geek news, it turns out the writer of ‘Coupling’ will be on the writing team for the new Doctor Who series, which makes me hopeful that even if it’s crummy, it should be reasonably funny. He’s also (not) famous for the ‘Curse of the Fatal Death’ Who spoof.

We promise to take the camera into Joe’s Diner soon and show you all our workplace. We should’ve done it yesterday, it was deathly dull. To liven things up I took the ‘ten cup challenge’ and drank 10 cups of coffee in 80 minutes. This made the shift marginally more exciting.

Well, the film commenting didn’t work at all, but now it does. So go to it, and make it screw up if you can…

Anyhow. At work, we’ve been hiring new buspeople regularly. At first they were all blokes but recently things have taken a turn for the better. Somewhat irritatingly though, none of them are geeky enough for me to make lame Star Wars jokes about their padawan status.

Matthew and I hired Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance the other day, and have been playing it non-stop in an attempt to finish it before we return it on Friday. I’m a hot elvish sorceress who has until recently been next to useless and has had to hide behind Matt’s archer a lot. However he also had a few problems and had to hide behind me.

This caused a few problems as one might guess. But things have taken a turn for the better as we both have massive swords, tough armour and I can shoot ball lightning at people.

But my plate mail doesn’t suit me at all. Clearly all the armour was made for men. Typical.

Say, you could all try a new comments system I’ve put up on the film reviews. It may not work, which is why I’ve only tried it there for now. See what you think. It might serve more useful a purpose than the crazy busy forum…

Canada’s still nice but life is sliding into a rut…