all five horizons

I am watching the first episode of Britannia High while sitting on my sofa with the duvet. Some thoughts:

• Original idea by Arlene from http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/ and someone else OR a rip off of Fame?
• Are we meant to believe that Lauren is fat?
• OMG the guy from Coyote Ugly is a teacher! Already guaranteed me watching next week.
• This IS a rip off of Fame - they just told the black street kid he needs to wear tights and he moaned - who is this guy, Leroy??
• I am quite happy that the songs are written largely by Gary Barlow. This bodes well for it having some catchy tunes and not falling flat.
• Nice song number - it may be Fame for the Noughties but it is much slicker.

Verdict? Will be watching the next episode tonight.  Also? I am so ready for High School Musical 3. I hear Zac Efron gets in the shower...

Very exciting indeed:

I have been trying to write this post for bloody ages and I have just now found the right words. It is one thing to snark about crap like Dawson’s Creek but I am concerned that I won’t be able to convey just how bloody brilliant this show called Friday night Lights is.  It is simply superb acting, superb writing and the production is something for other shows to aspire to.

After hearing plenty of good things about FNL, I thought I should give it a try. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to like it, since it was about a small town in Texas and its obsession with high school football. Now I have seen it, I cannot believe how have I not watched this programme earlier. I devoured seasons 1 and 2 within the space of about a week and I am totally smitten. This show is about so much more than American Football. It is about family, community, love and strength. It is a show full of true-to-life characters with the most realistic dialogue I have seen on TV in a long while.

Teenagers argue with their parents exactly as they do in real life with all the high-pitched nonsense and hard-done-by huffing that is familiar to all of us.. But it is about football too and even that is thrilling and has me completely engrossed. Since watching the show, I have series-linked the NFL catch-up show on Sky Sports. I may even have to check out the college football showing on NASN.

Back to the show, though. It centres around the high school football coach, Eric Taylor (played by the delish Kyle Chandler), his wife Tammie (played by the gorgeous and fabulous Connie Britton) and their family. It shows how football governs their lives along with everyone else in Dillon, TX. The high school kids who play are playing for their future or just because it is all they know. The kids who don’t play have to find a place for themselves in a town where not being a Panther means you are a second-class citizen. Here is a little bit more about the a few of the characters:

Julie Taylor (played by Aimee Teegarden)

Julie is such a typical teen - sweet but spirited and snarky. Her dialogue with her parents is spot on and her ‘love’ affairs painfully real: the reliable boyfriend who becomes a bit boring (although in hindsight is still dreamboat-like and the nicest person ever), the older rocker dude who is ultimately a bit unsavoury and the crush-worthy teacher who is dancing on the line of appropriateness.

Matt Saracen (played by Zach Gilford)

Zach Gilford speaks very affectionately about his character, Matt Saracen, and it’s not hard to understand why. He is one of the good ones. He looks after his grandmother who is suffering from dementia, his father having left him to handle things while he goes to Iraq in something a little more selfish than simply serving his country. His mother abandoned him years ago. Having worked his way into the heart of the coach as starting quarterback (filling the big shoes left by Jason Street’s injury), his confidence grew. However, things are far from plain sailing.  I am really interested to see his arc for season 3.

Tim Riggins (played by Taylor Kitsch)

Oh my, where do I start with Riggs? He is your classic bad boy with a heart. He may sleep around, drink all day and generally act more like an unemployed 25 year old than a high school student but he is not a bad person, really. He is hot as hell, too.  Like, über-hot. He dances on the line between football success and glory and complete ruin. It is pretty hard not to completely adore this character.

I will talk more about the rest of the characters later. This series is back on DirectTV (and then back to NBC in January) so I urge all you US readers to watch it so it doesn’t get cancelled. And everyone else buy the DVDs. I just have so will be sharing those with you soon.

I having been following X Factor closer this year than I have for a long while. There seems to be a much better quality of singers/groups than in previous years (Shane Ward was dead cute but his voice is pretty forgettable). And I have also been really pleased with the replacement of Sharon Osborne (who confuses being forthright with being a rude bitch) by Cheryl Cole. I was convinced I would hate her - she has not had the best press - but I actually have warmed to her. That is until Sunday night when she sent home Hannah Bradbeer. Her voice was just amazing and she was something a bit different. I would have chosen her over Alexandra Burke who is a good singer but nothing we haven’t already seen. Anyway, she is gone but here is her first audition:

One last thing - can you all pleased stop crying now? It is so bloody annoying watching you kids (and the over-25s too) blub constantly. I know you are worried that not crying might make it look like you are cocky or not interested but it is so boring watching you harp on about this being your only chance. If you want it so bad, try getting a record deal the old fashioned way like hundreds and thousands of singers have before you. GOD.

I am happy with the whole ’skip-forward-four-years’ thing. It makes sense. But one of the downsides to this structure is that we are meant to buy Lucas’s love for man-faced Lindsey even though they have no chemistry on-screen. By not seeing the genesis of this relationship, it is hard to believe. I know that he is meant to be harbouring some deep feelings for P Sawyer but his repeated assurances to everyone that he loves Lindsey seem to be completely transparent. For this storyline to have any tension, surely we are meant to believe that he really believes himself that he wants Lindsey and not Peyton. CMM does not really help matters here - he emotes as well as your average petrol can. God, he has been doing this for long enough now that he really shouldn’t have to fall back on his patented Pained Look number 3 whenever the camera is pointed his way.

Depsite of this (and myself), I still love this show. So naff it’s good, is probably the best way to describe it. I am starting at the beginning soon so watch out for more ranting. It doesn’t quite evoke Dawson-level ranting but it can get close. And the FF button gets used a LOT.

Anyway, I am still hoping Lucas comes to his senses just as Jake rolls back into town and whisks Peyton away but since Bryan Greenberg is unlikely to return to the show, I think I better keep dreaming.

P.S. Please note we are still watching Season 5 of One Tree Hill here in the UK!

Seth MacFarlane is a funny bloke. Simple as.

There will be more, as far as I understand it. Go check it out.

The recent dearth in decent TV has led me to some very dark places, The Hills being a perfect example. I had seen these fools all over the gossip pages and wondered who they were and why people cared. I now realise no-one cares but for some reason, we can’t look away either. It is totally car-crash TV. It has been a long time since I have watched a TV show with so much venom and hate.  In fact, the last time, it was Dawson-related and he was just a character. Spencer and Heidi are supposedly real people and they are such complete douches. Why do I still watch? I do not know. Maybe it’s the glitzy LA lifestyle which seems so foreign, vacuous and intriguing. Maybe it is just to see what Spencer will do next. I keep waiting for someone to tell him he is really quite ugly. Because he is. He is not a player. MTV decided to repeat the entire first three seasons (we are half-way though season 3 now) and I was powerless to resist. Whitney seems like the only decent person on the how although I also really LOVE Elodie for telling it straight to Heidi:

You don’t even know what’s wrong and what’s right anymore. It’s so sad. Well, I’m gonna finish up on this, so, see ya.

Heidi’s face was just priceless.

These girls I can tolerate even though Lauren and Audrina show an extraordinarily bad dating choices amongst their other failings. At least they have not touched Spencer which makes them good people in my book:

These two? I want them to leave my TV (and the planet if possible) asap. I beg you, please do not procreate.

I am hoping the new season of TV will lure me away from this madness as I am not sure how much more of Spencer’s curly mop and mad eyes I can take.

I am so psyched (does anyone say that anymore?) about the new TV season which is *almost* here (well, it’s a month away and most of it won’t be over here but you know what I mean).  One of the shows I can’t wait to return is The Office.  Love the new promo - I have missed you guys!

On Monday night, we went to see The Dark Knight at the Birmingham IMAX.  I had avoided reading too much about it beforehand since I already felt that I had seen too much on the internet and in the trailers.  I was concerned that some of the big screen moments would have less impact having seen the trailer several times.  I needn’t have worried.  Firstly, I am really glad that we made the effort to go to the IMAX.

Entire sequences were filmed for the extra big screen and this really added so much to the overall movie including immense panoramic shots, high-octane action sequences and an extreme close-up of the grotesque but brillant Joker.  The hour-long wait to get our seats was completely worth it for the literally jaw-dropping IMAX scenes.

Heath Ledger’s performance was indeed inspired and would have been heralded as iconic even without his tragic death.  Christian Bale proved again that he really is Batman and his portrayal of both the dark knight and his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, perfectly encapsulates the very different personas. Maggie Gyllenhaal did a great job as Rachel Dawes (shame she was not cast in Batman Begins too since she had less to do in some respects in this film).  Her face-off with the Joker was gripping and not a melted wax face in sight.  Finally, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent was the biggest surprise for me since he was less featured in the marketing campaign/trailer and as such, was a bit of an unknown entity.  I was really glad because it meant that whilst I knew the general story of Dent and who he becomes, I had no clue how much would be covererd in this film.

Christopher Nolan delivered another superb piece of filmmaking with The Dark Knight.  To bring so much emotion, passion, fear and morality to a comicbook character is at once admirable and satisfying.

I watched the final act of Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Saturday and was not disappointed.  Surprised?  Yes.  Moved? Yes.  Entertained?  Absolutely.  I just read Stephanie’s post about this piece of filmaking history and she hit the nail on the head. I won’t even try to say it better myself so I encourage you to click on through to her fantastic post.  Here is a taster and something which rang completely true for me:

Joss Whedon is the only director I know who can have you rolling on the floor in laughter until he decides the laughter should die. And then it’s gone. Just like that.

The Deltoids of Compassion « Dube’s World.

ps I never really got the Nathan Fillion thing until I saw Firefly in full and now I am smitten.  Even when he is playing a vain, arrogant douche of a super-hero.