On the box

Hello! Hello! Hello! Where was I? Oh yes, I've been watching stuff again...

The Day of the Triffids

I'm a big fan of John Wyndham, and of the 1981 adaptation of Day of the Triffids (currently £3.99 on play - If you don't have it already it'll be the best four quid you ever spend!). I've mentioned this before, as well as pointing out that it might be more interesting to film The Kraken Wakes rather than adapting Triffids again. Despite all this I was still excited to see how the new version would go.

I have to say that I thought the first half was a little slow, and I think the programme was somewhat self-consciously trying to avoid looking like a retread either of the '81 version, or more recent post-apocalyptic fare such as Survivors or 28 Days Later. Even so there was some good stuff in there, it just took too long for the story to get going. Part two on the other hand was pacey, atmospheric and exciting. There were some lovely sequences, for example Bill hunting the male Triffid, Jo's escape from London and the finale. Of the cast I thought Brian Cox (of course), and Eddie Izzard were excellent, the two children also were very good.

I still feel it was a somewhat redundant remake (but then Turn of the Screw was on the day after it so I guess it's the season (this is about the eleventh time this has been adapted for the screen!)) but given the decent ratings perhaps we can expect another Wyndham adaptation next year. I vote The Kraken Wakes or The Chrysalids!

True Blood

This is another show, like Medium, which I was aware of but had made some weird subconscious assumptions about and decided probably wasn't for me. However even I, belligerent as I am, can only ignore so many people telling me I should watch something.

Based on the series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is brought to you by Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under (another series I've never watched despite many recommendations).

True Blood is excellent fun. It's an HBO show so you can expect some cussing, some fooling about and some general naughtiness. It's also packed, and I do mean packed, with interesting and rounded characters. Actually the town of Bon Temps sometimes puts me in mind of Twin Peaks, or Cicely, Alaska due to the local colour. Putting the main characters to one side there's the inept local police, the Cajun roadworker, the agrophobic vampire, the shell-shocked Iraq veteran... The list goes on.

These people would be interesting even if they weren't littered with vampires, psychics, murderers and... well, no spoilers here. Suffice to say I recommend it. We've just finished watching series one on 4HD, and are now hoping they're going to run on into series two.

Collision

It's a bit late in the day to talk about this now (yes I did start this post a while ago) but what a great bit of telly this was. I'm coming around to this consecutive night thing, especially after Torchie this year, and this certainly kept us interested all week. Lots of lovely performances, especially from Douglas Henshaw and Lucy Griffiths, and a lovely look at how peoples lives can turn upside down for the most trivial of reasons.

The final moments, where time was reversed and we saw what might have been but for an errant wasp, were absolutely inspired and will ensure that Collision lives long in my memory. Excellent television, well done ITV.

Misfits

No, not the seminal horror rockers (although I do recomend their Famous Monsters album), I mean the E4 TV series. A very British, very modern, very clever take on how super powers might actually work in the real world. I'm far from the first to say this but Heroes could have learned a lot from this E4 show. A second series has been commissioned (hoorah!) so that gives you time to catch up on series one if you missed it.

So that's what I've been watching recently. Now we're into early 2010 there's a shedload of good telly coming our way, so here's a taster of some of the stuff I'm really looking forward to...


Being Human series 2 begins on January 10th



The final series of Lost begins on February 2nd



24 Day 8 premieres on January 17th



Survivors series 2 starts on Tuesday 12th January



Chuck is back on US tv on January 10th for it's third series



Law & Order: UK returns to ITV on January 11th

And of course, sometime in the spring...

Being Human again

Remember when I (amongst many others) was going on and on about the Being Human pilot and how bloody great it was?

Well it's back and it's on BBC3 on Sunday nights, the second episode was on last night and if you haven't been watching it you should be. Don't worry though, I'm not going to get all in your face about it just as long as you go now and catch up via the old eyeballer here. Do so now and we'll say no more about it.

I'll probably be banging on about it more some other time when I haven't had to walk through snow for forty minutes to get home from the local train station. In the mean time if you don't want to take my word why not see what Frank makes of it over at Cathode Ray Tube?

Being More Human...

Great news everyone...

A six part series of Being Human has been commissioned, due in no small part I'm sure to the Herculean efforts of big blabbering web mouths like myself, Piers, Oli, Jase, David and many more. Hi five gang.

The Guardian says;

BBC3 controller Danny Cohen has ordered six more episodes of Being Human, the one-off drama pilot about a flatshare between a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire broadcast earlier this year.

Cohen has commissioned the full series of Being Human from independent producer Touchpaper Television, part of the RDF Media group, after the one-off episode was shown in February as part of the channel's drama pilot season and peaked at nearly 450,000 viewers.

Filming on the series, which will once again be written by Toby Whithouse, will start later this year for transmission in 2009.

The BBC said it would confirm casting at a later date. Russell Tovey, Andrea Riseborough and Guy Flanaghan starred in the pilot.

BBC Wales head of drama Julie Gardner, who was one of the show's executive producers, said: "BBC drama is always looking for diverse and surprising pieces, and Being Human hit the spot with its irreverence and wit."

Cohen added: "Of all our recent drama experiments on BBC3, Being Human struck the most powerful chord with the audience. At its heart is a bold and adventurous concept and I'm looking forward to seeing how this is realised across a series."

Being Human

From what I had seen of this before broadcast I expected Being Human to be out and out comedy. I had raised my eyebrow at it occupying an hour long slot; not the conventional length for a sit-com. In fact it turned out to be quite a dark drama with some moments of humour.

It seems like a fairly obvious premise with hindsight but I can't help feeling that quite a few execs must have taken a lot of convincing to say, 'ok, let's make the show with the vampire, the werewolf and the ghost that share a house in Bristol.' I was struck about half way through that it was sort of like a twenty-first century Addams Family.

The name Toby Whithouse must have carried a lot of weight. He's written for Who, Hotel Babylon, Torchie and was the creator of No Angels. That's a smart track record. Being Human is a worthy addition to his cv. I'm a cynical bastard and no matter how much I want to like something I can usually spoil it for myself ('Ouch, that was a bit over acted.' 'Ooh, I would have preferred if X had Y.' 'Lord, I don't like that theme tune, and why is it sung by Dennis Waterman anyway?'). I was captivated straight from the start.

The characters are brilliant; Mitchell (Guy Flanagan), the reluctant vampire with a soft eastern European accent; all sad eyed and ancient. George (Russell Tovey) the neurotic, obsessive compulsive werewolf who wants to keep his condition totally separate to his normal life. I loved the little box motions he kept making with his hands. Finally there's Annie (Andrea Riseborough), killed a year earlier but stranded due to her attachment to the house she bought with her boyfriend. The script and the underplayed performances really brought these characters forward and made them believable and appealing.

In addition to the humour inherent in the premise, there are foundations laid for future arcs. A malevolent coven of vampires poised to prey on humanity (and led by the deliciously evil Adrian Lester), the mystery behind Annie's death and whether she can or will complete her 'journey', and George's struggle with his own nature.

Honestly, I'd like to say there was something I didn't rate but I thought the whole programme was awesome. It was well directed, the music was good, the effects were good (and not too frequent). It was subtle and engaging and bloody good telly. You will probably know that it was intended as a pilot, it's not yet known if it will be developed into a series. I think it should be (you may have guessed), so I've signed this petition along with a lot (about fifteen hundred so far) of like minded folk.

If you didn't see it then check it out on the lovely BBC iPlayer, there are still four days for you to do so. Then sign the petition or the monsters will get you.

It's an update...

I've dumped Opera. I don't feel very good about myself and I'll always be friends with it but I've been seeing another browser for a while now and it's serious...

Anyway, I've finally come round to Firefox, and more significantly Thunderbird and I think you probably should as well. Too many visitors to this site are still using Internet Explorer and they really should know better. I can tell, you know. I can see everything you're doing right now. Yuck.

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Hit a bit of a snag as far as SWF '08 goes. No day tickets this year and a ticket for three days will set me back three monkeys (or something). Bum. The wallet just won't stretch that far when I'm buying a house this month.

But that's ok. I still feel my energies should be going into generating spec scripts and developing my skills. I can always go next year, with a years-worth more work behind me. Hell, I'll be 33 in a couple of months - it's not like I'm against the clock.

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I'm on leave this week so it's binge-writing time, in between bouts of packing and appointments with solicitors. Actually today wasn't a great start. Sat in front of the laptop for ages trying to make something work to no joy before moving on to a different problem. Amusingly the answer came to me hours later while I was doing the dishes.

I'm hoping to get one big project finished this week. It's been hanging around for ages and I really want to clear the decks before moving to our new home - and my new office.

Over at the Jobbing Screenwriter the Barron has been showing off his (very) shiny new desks. I won't be starting off with anything so flash but I'm very excited about having a space to write again. It's six months since I had a desk - never mind an office. I have stolen his notice board system though, don't tell him.

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Elsewhere in the Scribosphere the redoubtable M. Arnopp will be enjoying a screening of his short film what he wrote, Look At Me, in a seedy Soho kinema tomorrow evening. The Island of Dreams is transmitting big blog love in the direction of ole London town and hopes the event is a smashing success. Good show Jase.

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I know the Writers Strike is all sorted now, but does that mean I have to get rid of my little blog badge? I'm pretty fond of it. Maybe I can keep it as a warning to anyone else who fancies playing tough with writers?

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Well, that's it for now. I'll probably chip in later this week with some thoughts on Ashes to Ashes (précis - Started poorly but improving), Being Human (Bring us more of this genre television of which you speak), and of course Torchwood (They don't have any torches, but they've all got wood).

Until then then... then.