Posts tagged ‘tv’

Well, knock me over with a feather. I wasn’t expecting this.

An M-rated spin-off from Doctor Who set in the modern day, starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack. A kind of sci-fi crime show soap thing. Written by Russell T. Davies.

That comes to 27 episodes of Who-ish television per year. I just hope Davies doesn’t do too much writing on Torchwood. I don’t want him burning himself out too soon. When the Doctor starts sending people “straight to hell”, or twenty useless brats join the TARDIS crew, we’ll have our clue.

But, wow.

So, the new iPods are out. As the rumour sites had been alternately predicting and denying, they play videos. The American iTunes Music Store has an arrangement with both ABC and Disney to offer such shows as Lost and Desperate Housewives as 320×240 movies for US$2 each.

So do I get one? To replace the struggling battery on my current iPod would cost me $100; the 30GB iPod is now $403 for a student and the 60GB is $538. And you can get them in black. Hmmm. I was kind of hoping that the iPod would have a widescreen, that would just be a very tall display normally, and then be turned on its side to watch TV. But that would have made it kind of a long iPod. The new ones are quite small, thinner than they’ve ever been before.

The idea of watching my innumerable TV DVDs re-encoded for iPod use on the train is appealing, but having black bars on an already teeny screen seems a waste. I also have a certain reluctance to get the ‘first generation’ of iPods with video.

Meanwhile my lovely iMac was superceded — the new ones come with built in webcams, a remote control (and software to show large-type menu options when using it) and a few smaller additions/subtractions. I’m vaguely jealous, but I’m also aware that this moment of supecession must come to all technology. Imagine how my iPod feels.

So… to iPod or not to iPod?

Finally got part two of Season 5 of Angel the other day; my collection is complete. It’d be the first time I’d ever owned all the episodes of a TV series, if it wasn’t for that cheating Firefly with it’s all in one boxed set.

The DVD’s quite good — a better than average gag reel, a whole bunch of commentaries, including a Joss Whedon one, and four little documentaries. The one that looks at the series as a whole is particularly nice. I hate it when people making shows act as if their last few seasons were the only good ones, and these folk don’t. Which is nice.

Unfortunately the Joss Whedon (and Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof) commentary is for ‘A Hole in the World’ and as a result they’re all sad and quiet for about half the time. Ripped off! They do apologise sincerely. Alexis Denisof continues to sound exactly like Kermit the Frog. Anyhow, this purchase means that I might actually review the last two episodes. At some point. Maybe.

Joss Whedon talked to ABC Radio National while he was hanging out in Australia recently and had this to say:

Every now and then you read something that is in your work that you hadn’t seen — a trend, or a concept, or connection that’s absolutely valid that you absolutely did not intend, that you just wrote — and that’s the thing that makes it art.

I mean if it’s just a product that you stick out there that people eat up and then they go on their day, it ain’t art. If it’s bigger than you, it’s art.

This is what clever people are for — to point at when they say things better than you can.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been away for a week and I’ve been having withdrawal symptoms. Especially since a massive newsworthy event happened over in the USA and they weren’t able to cover it. But they’re back, and I thought I should mention this for those of us not able to see it.

Given the recent crisis, reporter Ed Helms was considering how many major disasters the Bush Administration could handle before it actually suffered. A huge list was presented — the completed items were:

• Abu Graib
• Bin Laden
• Chalabi
• Deficit
• Enron
• Failure to find WMDs
• Halliburton
• Iraq
• John Bolton
• Katrina

But apparently, the Administration will not suffer politically as long as they manage to avoid at least one of these:

• Locusts
• Mars Attacks
• North Korea
• Osama and Jenna
• Pregnancy: Osama and Jenna
• Queer Revolt
• Rodents of Unusual Size
• Syrian War
• Tigers
• Unicyclists (nuclear)
• Voldemort
• WWIII
• X-rated tape: Osama and Jenna
• Yam Shortage
• Zero People left on Earth

I love this show. I’ve said it before, possibly on this blog, but Australia needs CNNNN (or someone else) to stand up and serve us the way The Daily Show serves the USA. It’s not like we haven’t cloned every other show they make, and it’s got to be better than our sketch comedy.