Author: HORansome

So it turns out that I’m not having as much fun with the new series of ‘Life on Mars’ as I did, say, at this time last year. The problem is easily identifiable; Gene Hunt is no longer a sympathetic character; he is, in fact, now a cunt (a word that will soon become acceptable profanity because the BBC, the last bastion of hope for the English language, are easing up the restrictions (Oh, sorry, I should have noted that this blog entry should only be read after the watershed)).

This is a problem for two related reasons. (more…)

Well done me; I finally managed to predict how a season of BSG would end. I deserve a medal pr something similar.

So, ‘Stargate: SG-1’ is over… except that it is now transitioning to TV movies. The final few episodes of season ten felt rushed and overburdened with plot, but then the last episode comes along and it does what SG-1 always did best; small, character-driven stories based upon being in what seems like an impossible situation of their own devising. If shows have to end then ‘Unending’ is a fairly good ‘Goodbye.’

Still, it will be a little weird to have no SG-1 but a new season of ‘Stargate: Atlantis.’ And does this mean Hermes is dead? Whatever the case, hearing about SG-1 but not seeing their exploits will be unusual.

Meanwhile, in cancelled TV-land, I have been watching ‘Snuff Box,’ the Matt Berry/Rich Fulcher show that was seemingly created from watching their performances on ‘The Mighty Boosh.’ It’s a sketch show that has elements of sitcom and, whilst it is a trifle off-beat, was well worth getting into. None of the jokes have punchlines; I’m sick of punchlines at the moment.

Hmm… What else. ‘Saxondale,’ Steve Coogan’s latest sitcom, is fun. I’ve not yet watched ‘Nathan Barley,’ Chris Morris’ sitcom of a few years back. That should be very interesting. I wonder if it is as ‘Jam’-esque as I think it is going to be.

Say what you will about Lovecraft’s great ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ but you would be hard pressed to claim that it has a striking narrative. The story is, in essence, a travel narrative. Scientists A and B explore the ruins of a city and learn its history. There’s no complex psychological portraits, no clever character work, just a series of pieces of exposition. What the story does well is present an alternate history of the Earth, one that downplays humanity and suggests that we are but a cosmic accident; unimportant, unwanted and unlikely to survive.

Which is why it is such a good story and one I could read and re-read again and again.

A little like my fascination with the first ‘Tomb Raider’ game. (more…)

A lot of people have been dissing (for lack of a better word) ‘The Fountain,’ Darren Arronosky’s latest film. It’s a little hard to see why; it’s a film with striking images, a simple but very moving plot and some fine acting. It is also very much a film in that it really is a story that works on the screen; you can’t really imagine this being a worthwhile graphic novel or stageplay but as a film it doesn’t just work, it constantly challenges exactly what you think cinematic work should be. It resembles, to my mind, the original ‘Solaris,’ a nominal SF film that was really just a careful examination of what it is to be human. ‘The Fountain’ asks the same questions about ‘death’ and the ‘want to live.’

I’m in two minds about ‘The Fountain.’ Is it last year’s best film or this year’s? It come out internationally last year but it only arrived here now… Whatever the case, it’s certainly going to be hard to beat.