Filmography
May. 17th, 2010 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyDoctor Who: Carnival of Monsters
This is the first Jon Pertwee Doctor I've seen, and do you know, it also features Tenniel Evans? Of course, that meant trying to explain the Navy Lark to G, which meant finding on-line episodes, and was that ever a trip down memory lane. We listened to "Nato Joint Exercise" and "Missing Blankets", and I was full of joy. G was bemused, but he often is once I get onto my nostalgic moments of the BBC Light Programme.
That has nothing to do with this episode, which is ultimately one of those rather odd self-contained stories that doesn't have much to do with anything except providing good old-fashioned entertainment and monsters made out of socks. The TARDIS transports itself into a sort of vivarium, a Miniscope, in which all the exhibits are living but miniaturised. The Doctor and his companion, Jo, find themselves on board a ship in the Indian Ocean trapped in some strange time loop, where the ship's occupants go around and around, repeating the same actions in the space of about half an hour or so. Eventually they work out how to escape this particular pod, but then have to find their way out of the machine.
The parallel plot, outside said machine, involves the machine's owners (a travelling entertainer and his glamorous assistant) who have landed on a planet which isn't terribly good with entertainment as a concept, and the political machinations of one inhabitant who is plotting to overthrow his brother. As I say, it is all terribly silly - but it's good fun, and we enjoyed it, and for what it tries to do, it does very well. Four stars.
Incidentally, I'm not entirely sure what I think of Jon Pertwee as the Doctor yet, but I must say, he looks nothing like Chief Petty Officer Pertwee has done in my head for almost twenty five years.
30 Rock series 1
We decided to try some 30 Rock when we started Heroes, partly because I'd recently read a feature in the New Yorker about Alec Baldwin and the series, and I was curious. Oh, and Tina Fey obviously was best known for her work on this before she was best known for her Sarah Palin impressions, so that was another reason. G decided he wasn't into this, but I made it to the end of the series. The conceit is that the plot follows the life behind putting together a TV sketch show, and the lives of the people involved in said show.
Now, I have to say that it is very hit and miss. Very. There are some episodes that definitely slid just a bit too far into cringe factor (that kind of awkward/humiliation comedy that The Office in its British incarnation did so well) - and I just don't like that kind of thing At All. It also obviously wants to be a television series that addresses racism, and sometimes the ways it tries to do that feel awkward (this gets better as the series goes on, I think). But on the other end of the scale, there's some amazing character acting and some wonderful moments of sheer, very me-friendly randomosity, and really, really funny scenes.
Why, yes, I do see a little bit of me in Liz Lemon, the chief protagonist and head writer of the show. I can't help it. However, I do also see a little bit of me in Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin's character), her completely managerial and acquisitive and uber-capitalist boss, so I don't quite know what that says. The best bits really come from Liz's interactions with Jack - they come from such completely different places and yet in some ways are very similar. I also love the scenes of admin work when Liz bounces off Pete (Scott Adsit), the show's producer - it's a very different kind of vibe to when you get all the writers sitting together bouncing ideas off each other, but it's an equally creative, inventive kind of relationship that generates some lovely moments.
There are other characters I'm not so keen on, mainly Jenna (Jane Krakowski), who is a really bubble-headed showbiz lime-light seeker, the kind of celeb - you know, I don't even remember the word, the sort of blonde perky bunny that gets put on the front of magazines not wearing a great deal and smiling vaguely, with a rather dull interview inside. I know why she's included, and I appreciate some of the comedy she generates, but she does rather fall into tired stereotype land just a leeetle too often for my comfort. Plus she tends to be the focus of the cringe humour, and as I say, I don't enjoy that kind of thing much.
That aside - I figure I might give season 2 and go and see how I feel, because there were definitely some diamonds here, as well as some clear examples of people finding their feet. I'm curious whether they managed to. Three stars.
This is the first Jon Pertwee Doctor I've seen, and do you know, it also features Tenniel Evans? Of course, that meant trying to explain the Navy Lark to G, which meant finding on-line episodes, and was that ever a trip down memory lane. We listened to "Nato Joint Exercise" and "Missing Blankets", and I was full of joy. G was bemused, but he often is once I get onto my nostalgic moments of the BBC Light Programme.
That has nothing to do with this episode, which is ultimately one of those rather odd self-contained stories that doesn't have much to do with anything except providing good old-fashioned entertainment and monsters made out of socks. The TARDIS transports itself into a sort of vivarium, a Miniscope, in which all the exhibits are living but miniaturised. The Doctor and his companion, Jo, find themselves on board a ship in the Indian Ocean trapped in some strange time loop, where the ship's occupants go around and around, repeating the same actions in the space of about half an hour or so. Eventually they work out how to escape this particular pod, but then have to find their way out of the machine.
The parallel plot, outside said machine, involves the machine's owners (a travelling entertainer and his glamorous assistant) who have landed on a planet which isn't terribly good with entertainment as a concept, and the political machinations of one inhabitant who is plotting to overthrow his brother. As I say, it is all terribly silly - but it's good fun, and we enjoyed it, and for what it tries to do, it does very well. Four stars.
Incidentally, I'm not entirely sure what I think of Jon Pertwee as the Doctor yet, but I must say, he looks nothing like Chief Petty Officer Pertwee has done in my head for almost twenty five years.
30 Rock series 1
We decided to try some 30 Rock when we started Heroes, partly because I'd recently read a feature in the New Yorker about Alec Baldwin and the series, and I was curious. Oh, and Tina Fey obviously was best known for her work on this before she was best known for her Sarah Palin impressions, so that was another reason. G decided he wasn't into this, but I made it to the end of the series. The conceit is that the plot follows the life behind putting together a TV sketch show, and the lives of the people involved in said show.
Now, I have to say that it is very hit and miss. Very. There are some episodes that definitely slid just a bit too far into cringe factor (that kind of awkward/humiliation comedy that The Office in its British incarnation did so well) - and I just don't like that kind of thing At All. It also obviously wants to be a television series that addresses racism, and sometimes the ways it tries to do that feel awkward (this gets better as the series goes on, I think). But on the other end of the scale, there's some amazing character acting and some wonderful moments of sheer, very me-friendly randomosity, and really, really funny scenes.
Why, yes, I do see a little bit of me in Liz Lemon, the chief protagonist and head writer of the show. I can't help it. However, I do also see a little bit of me in Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin's character), her completely managerial and acquisitive and uber-capitalist boss, so I don't quite know what that says. The best bits really come from Liz's interactions with Jack - they come from such completely different places and yet in some ways are very similar. I also love the scenes of admin work when Liz bounces off Pete (Scott Adsit), the show's producer - it's a very different kind of vibe to when you get all the writers sitting together bouncing ideas off each other, but it's an equally creative, inventive kind of relationship that generates some lovely moments.
There are other characters I'm not so keen on, mainly Jenna (Jane Krakowski), who is a really bubble-headed showbiz lime-light seeker, the kind of celeb - you know, I don't even remember the word, the sort of blonde perky bunny that gets put on the front of magazines not wearing a great deal and smiling vaguely, with a rather dull interview inside. I know why she's included, and I appreciate some of the comedy she generates, but she does rather fall into tired stereotype land just a leeetle too often for my comfort. Plus she tends to be the focus of the cringe humour, and as I say, I don't enjoy that kind of thing much.
That aside - I figure I might give season 2 and go and see how I feel, because there were definitely some diamonds here, as well as some clear examples of people finding their feet. I'm curious whether they managed to. Three stars.
