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[HOUSE OF CARDS]

HOUSE OF CARDS (with Kevin Spacey) is a bit good.

We also started watching BOSCH on Lovefilm. It looks like a good police procedural with added swearing, nakedness and gore.  The dialogue veers between seemingly authentic cop mumble speak to cliched "He's not worth it!". So a bit like a Michael Connelly book then.  Connelly, coincidentally, plays poker (as himself) with Nathan Fillion in Castle.

Oh and we watched the first episode of TRANSPARENT because it has the magnicient Jeffery Tambor in it.  We classified it as TBFTL.*



* Tits, Bum, Fannies; The Lot.

[which countries]

I hope the next time Trident is debated with Cameron (and all others who want it), that the BBC give them a thorough grilling and don't finish the interview without knowing:
a) if they would push the button and more importantly
b) exactly which countries they intend to destroy with these nukes? And don't accept a vague answer of "those who threaten us". Get them to name names.

That would be fair and balanced.

My digital subscription has mucked up and they are still trying to sort it.  Suffering from thrill power shortage...

I feel a bit cheated because I'd been taking my own bags for years. I should get a refund for the 5p before the legislation.

Some shops are sticking the 5p into charity funds.  Which is nice.

I actually don't mind that one. Even clever people do stupid things and miss obvious solutions in stressful situations.

The rest of it? Daft as a bag of frogs.

That was OK.  Not brilliant. But OK.

Of course, she had a sharp stick AND the knife with which she had been whittling it. That's cheating.

Ordered Season 1 on blu-ray.

That fan documentary (focumentary?) was quite interesting. Is Gerry Anderson really that nice and polite?

So unusually for me, I have been involved in a couple of discussions on FB where I have had to point out why people's mouths were full of wrong.

God, it was tiring.

Jim Campbell, I salute you.

Ah. Just realised it's a Morrissey thing.

Grand! I take it Bulbous Salutation is in honour of BB.

Should've opened with the theme tune fucking ROCKS!

I apologise. I assumed this was already accepted as one of the immutable facts on which the universe is built.

[Space:1999]

Annoyed that, twelve days back, I missed the 16th anniversary of our moon blasting out of orbit, I thought I'd check out some Space:1999 stuff.

I recall (and I haven't watched it since I was a kid so could be wrong)  absolutely loving Season 1 as a kid - oddly I liked Season 2 less even though, if I recall, it had more monstery stuff in it and was a bit more run down corridors.

So I watched Episode 1: Breakaway and actually quite enjoyed it. 

The Production Design (and effects) are pretty much top-notch and still mostly stand-up. The pacing is a little off but, hey, that's how they did telly back then. 

Things I didn't remember: 

• The whole focus on the planet "Meta" and how that might be a home for them.
  The whole "space radiation madness" plot which led to the blast off.
  Philip Madoc!
  How interchangeable all the leads are: they struggle to display much emotion and characterisation apart from the avuncular Barry Morse. 
  How little effort they make to try get back to earth. "Oh, we blasted out of orbit. The computer says we're screwed. Never mind." was about the level of it. They could have at least shown an effort by earth to reach them or vice versa.
  How completely stupid the concept is. But, fuck it, I ran with it.
  How, if you didn't know what the concept was, and if they hadn't given it away in the titeles, you'd have been suckered into it being a space mystery stopping us starting a Star Trek mission and then "Bang! Bloody hell! The whole moon has gone"

Things I did remember:

• How fucking cool is the "electroknux" style phaser and the Eagle!
  As much as I love the Enterprise and the Millenium Falcon, the Eagle is gorgeous piece of design. Possibly my favourite spaceship as a child (until the real Shuttle came along).

I shall be watching more. Which season is it that has an alien beastie in the back of an Eagle?  And when do Christopher Lee and Brian Blessed turn up.

Oh and any good "Making Of" documentaries that people would recommend? 

Wasn't getting that far. It just showed up as sold out.

But working fine now.

So tivket booked. Thanks for the heads up.

No. Me too. I should have just booked instead of waiting to check with my little brother.

Do you see any of that in kids films today?  No, you bloody don't.  It's all super-safe saccharine bollocks.

We managed to traumatise Tiny Tips by taking him to see Jackson's King Kong (he'd loved the original and I thought, "What's the worst that can be in it?" without figuring on the islanders being so scary or them actually doing the much talked about insect pit).

We decided that Revenge of the Sith was too much for him featuring decapitations and dismemberments in the "rescue the Emporer" sequence.

(I can't remember which order they came out in and whether the Sith decision was as a result of learning from my mistakes) 

And Dark Knight had some pretty ott stuff for a 12a.

So there is some scary stuff out there (unless ten years ago doesn't count).