Tag: television

immersion therapy

breaking bad meth lab

I’m currently watching Breaking Bad every spare moment I have. I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago, and am completely desperate to catch up on Netflix so I can watch the final episode when everyone else does. I’ll be writing more on the subject when it’s finished, but I made these comments on a Facebook thread, and wanted to record them for posterity. Or, at least, as an aide memoire 🙂

  • No idea. If you like beautifully plotted stuff, with extraordinary character development. moments of sheer laugh out loud black comedy, beautiful and clever direction and cinematography, and acting from some people which is peerless, then watch it. It is extraordinary television.
  • I loathe explicit violence in films, and avoid ones with it in. There is, of course, violence in BB – given the nature of its subject matter, that’s unavoidable. But I don’t find it gratuitous, or overly gory or drawn out. Oh, and I find it challenging, intellectually – my emotions are drawn hither and thither. It’s brilliantly plotted, written and performed.

For years and years, I have held that The West Wing is the best television ever made. BB has knocked it off its perch. Watch it.

p.s. Every home should have a Lego crystal meth lab. Even the mother of my 6 year old grandson said so.

dated Triffids

One of the television series I have very fond memories of (of which I have very fond memories?) is the 1981 version of The Day of the Triffids. I’m a huge fan of John Wyndham’s books, and I reread his entire canon every couple of years, and I recalled this series being outstanding.

So I was very pleased to discover it running on BBC 4 yesterday. I’d missed the first 3, but I set the Tivo and settled down to watch the rest. Oh dear. Oh dearie me.

I won’t criticise the effects, because I think they were terrific given the constraints of the time. But nobody seems to have been employed for their acting, not even John Duttine (who I remember with great fondness from To Serve Them All My Days. The music was … extraordinary. The titles were, I suppose, of their time and it’s a good job design has moved on since then.

I was so disappointed. But I shall fish out the books and read them all again instead – the pictures are always better in one’s head anyway.

G.B.H.

GBH G.B.H. is a television series from 1991 (I think), written by the incomparable Alan Bleasdale. It is, allegedly, based on the antics of one Derek Hatton, deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in the 1980s.

starring Robert Lindsay, Lindsey Duncan, Julie Walters, Michael Palin, and a host of other respected British actors, it was compulsive watching, and for ages I had a season pass set up on the Tivo to try and catch it on UKTV, but then we replaced Telewest with Freeview, and we lost those channels.

then I discovered that there was a boxed set of Bleasdale stuff released last month, and I put it on my Amazon wishlist, because we have not much money at the moment, and much to watch already.

flicking through the Freeview channels via the Tivo on Sunday night, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Wasn’t that Robert Lindsay in the official car? Yes! on More4, there it was, episode 1, and it had only started literally 2 minutes earlier. I hit the record button at speed, and set up the season pass.

we watched the first episode last night, and it is every bit as good as I remember. And now I’ll have to buy the set, because there’s no way I want to wait another six weeks till the end.

farewell to the West Wing

so, to nobody’s surprise, I suspect, here’s the confirmation from the Washington Post that series 7 will be the last.

[don’t read the link if you haven’t caught up with series 6 – there be some mild spoilers there]

I think it’s as well – although Sorkin didn’t set out for it to be that way, it was about Barlet’s presidency just as much as his staff, and for me it simply wouldn’t work with another president.