strange and random happenstance

I have no idea what I just watched. But I have theories. Theory one; this is about a background character on the procedural show, Black and White, who is able to temporarily break out of the stereotypical Chinatown background actor trope that many are living on a perpetual loop and rise to be someone else only to be villainized when he gets too far from his humble origins. This theory is supported by how the show within the show evolves from an eighties cop drama to a Dick Wolf wannabe procedural to an almost True Detective search for inner truth. But then it's negated by the Painted Faces revealing that the show isn't the point, the point is to use the surveillance state to push a certain narrative. Which doesn't align with what came before, but, this show isn't about explaining anything in the end. Theory two; hell loop or limbo, your choice! While only broadly hinted at by a mural and Chinese mythology before doing a confusing infodump in the last episode this technically makes the most sense, especially with regard to the characters who die and come back in a container down by the docks with their memories wiped and then take up the same roles with no memory of having done this before. If this is the case, then how do you "level up?" Is it dying and starting over on another show? If so, well, then this is Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes but done in the most confusing way possible. And I do think Interior Chinatown wants to be Life on Mars with a focus on the Asian experience but ends up being a confusing mess that ironically does a disservice to the amazing acting on display. Because in the end the only thing you can be certain of is that this is about the Asian experience and how Asians are represented in the media and how there are so many amazing Asian actors out there who have never been given the chance to shine. And here Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng in particular show they are formidable talents. But then I've been a fan of Jimmy O. Yang since Silicon Valley so I feel like the rest of the world is finally catching up to what I already knew. Which is why the ending to this series felt like a personal insult. The Asian characters' stories are in the end negated. They are left behind. Which is irony at the top of it's game. The point of this series seems to have been about giving these characters their story, their time in the spotlight, to rectify the wrongs of what television representation did to them over the years and then Interior Chinatown did them dirty. This show should have known better. This show should have done better. This show did what every show before has done but added insult to injury by saying that they understood. They obviously understood nothing. Except for that delightful crab rangoon joke. That I will allow.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Ashes to Ashes, Asian, Cop Drama, Crab Rangoon, Dick Wolf, Hell Loop, Interior Chinatown, Jimmy O. Yang, Life on Mars, Limbo, Meta, Painted Faces, Ronny Chieng, Self-awareness, Silicon Valley, True Detective

The Uninvited by Cat Winters
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: August 11th, 2015
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Ivy Rowan has been abed with the flu for days. The last night she is to spend at home she awakes to see the ghost of her grandmother. She instantly knows something is wrong. She has only ever seen these uninvited guests, these ghosts, as harbingers of death; someone close to her will die. Her grandmother came to warn Ivy, her father and brother have killed a man. They have murdered the owner of the furniture store, who was a German immigrant. Ivy's brother Billy died the week previously in the Great War and there are rumors that the Germans are responsible for this plague that has descended on Ivy's small Midwestern town. Her brother and father committed this horrible act of vengeance on an innocent man. Though the papers will ascribed the death to patriotic vagrants, Ivy knows the truth. Ivy's mind and body rebels, she packs her belongings and flees into the night. Out in the world, Ivy, the virtual recluse, starts to live life and form friendships amongst all the death. She helps two red cross nurses ferry the ill, she lodges with the widow of a former classmate, but most importantly she tries to make amends to the grieving brother of the man her family killed, Daniel Schendel. She is drawn to Daniel as much as she is drawn to the jazz music playing every night across the road from his store. As their relationship grows more intense Ivy starts to realize that not everything is at it seems. There are secrets too horrific to face so one should just face the music and dance.

One of my friends said that I should have been forewarned that I wouldn't like this book because the blurb declaimed that it was "perfect for those who loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield." To say I loved The Thirteenth Tale would be grossly untrue, even saying I liked it would be a lie... so I should have had an inkling that The Uninvited wasn't for me. But it was the deal of the day on Kindle and that cover... well, that cover has more atmosphere than the whole book and I seriously need to stop being tricked by a pretty cover. The main problem I had was that I was looking for a good Gothic read and while this does have all the elements of Gothic literature it has all these elements without them ever coming together into a cohesive whole and being Gothic. Ghosts, check, virginal heroine, check, olden days, check, laws flouted, check, add to that a horrid plague and well, I am just baffled. I think the reason it failed is twofold. The ghosts aren't scary, they're just a part of the virginal heroine's life during the Great War. On top of that while a world destroying plague is terrifying and does have the Gothic element in spades, the problem is us modern readers aren't scared of this plague. We know what the cause is. You have to take this truth and spin it or distort it in order to keep the horror relevant to modern readers.

But everything about this book was like Gothic Literature turned upside down. You think it will work and it doesn't. I had this feeling from the first pages as Ivy raised herself from her sickbed that this felt like the conclusion of a story. That we missed Ivy's story, we missed her imprisonment and illness, we missed her journey and here we are at the end and she gets her happily ever after. She is no longer in seclusion but enjoying life and getting a chance at love. Oddly enough it turns out I was somewhat astute in this observation. Because the irony is, and this is a big spoiler folks, Ivy is dead. So this whole story happens after her death. Therefore her journey has happened, her day is done, what we read here is some imagined ghostly happily ever after that Christopher Reeve was so desperately searching and then dying for in Somewhere in Time. It's most likely Winters did this setup on purpose, but that doesn't satisfy me. It makes me feel like I was manipulated from page one. I went in expecting a certain kind of book and I basically got The Others, the disappointing Nicole Kidman movie. So if you're looking for a slightly otherworldly World War I book set in the Midwest that will give your tear ducts a workout, go for it.

Your tear ducts won't be the only thing getting a workout, because this book is determined to pull out your heartstrings and beat you to death with them. One of the reasons I like Gothic literature is that it preys on other emotions, fear being the primary one. I don't like chick flicks, I don't long for a good cry, I'm not pining for something new from Nicholas Sparks. I don't want my emotions manipulated. If in the telling of a good story my emotions suffer, well, that's fine, it's the sign of good storytelling. On the other hand, if a story is written just to play merry havoc on my emotions, well, it starts to piss me off. The repeated reveals of just how many of Ivy's friends are actually ghosts besides herself was unnecessarily cruel. Yes, Winters wanted to show that these people were more than just statistics, that each and every life claimed by the Spanish Flu was a life someone missed, a life that mattered, but there's a point when you just can't take anymore. This drain on my emotions was too much to handle. The first time Ivy returns home to talk to her mother, what with everything that's been going on in my own life at the moment I just couldn't deal with it. I wanted this book to be banished from my sight. I wanted it to stop hurting me. At one point I thought, I'll hurt it by giving it one star! But then I thought, no. While this book isn't for me, while it's not what I expected, Winters is still too competent a writer to punish, like she did to me.

What with everyone being dead you can't help to start drawing conclusions to the aforementioned The Others, or to The Sixth Sense, or more importantly to the television show Life on Mars and it's sequel Ashes to Ashes. In particular the television shows spent seasons building your rapport with these characters only to have the finale of Ashes to Ashes reveal that they are in a way station after their deaths awaiting the next phase of their journey, through a pub, The Railway Arms, which leads to heaven. Now let's look at The Uninvited Guests, ghosts, stuck continuing their lives until they go to the Jazz Club and ascend... so basically exactly what happens in Ashes to Ashes without the time slip... this similarity, even if the author has never seen or heard of these shows made me feel like there was nothing truly original in this book. It felt like it was never trying to be it's own thing, just a combination of other things that worked more successfully. With Ashes to Ashes when the reveal was made with the character of Shazzer I lost my shit. This wasn't a narrative that had ever made me cry, but I was so connected to the characters that this undid me. Whereas, as I've mentioned previously, here Winters just repeatedly pulls the rug out from under you. It's not a real connection, it's not real emotion, she never works to get you to feel, it's a false feeling. Whereas Shazzer's death will always stay with me, I don't think this book will stay with me after a few more weeks.

Though there is one thing that might stick. The jazz of it all. Once you realize the characters are dead and it's basically a siren song it makes a little more sense how much the music is driving Ivy. The thing is, while I love certain artists, play piano and even saxophone at one time, I'm not one of those people with music in my veins. If you cut me I will likely bleed ink from being such a word person. Therefore I have a hard time connecting to people like Ivy who hear music and just can't stop their toes tapping. Who can't stop the call of the music as it pumps through their veins. If music is pumping through my veins I'm usually the person wondering if we can turn the music down a bit cause it's loud. Also if there's one kind of music I detest it's jazz. Seriously. Can. Not. Stand. It. Therefore this jazz that runs through the book was annoying but also was antithesis to trying to get any Gothic vibe going. So it alienated me as it blithely made the book more and more the opposite of what I was hoping for. Can we also talk about how depressing it is that these ghosts are drawn to jazz? While it was popular at this time it wasn't until the roaring twenties when this genre took hold, a decade none of these characters are going to live to see. The music and the characters are full of false life. Their story is done, thankfully for me, and it was a bleak one.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ashes to Ashes, Cat Winters, Diane Setterfield, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Gothic, Jazz, Life on Mars, Somewhere in Time, Spanish Flu, The Others, The Sixth Sense, The Thirteenth Tale, The Uninvited, WWI

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte
Publication Date: March 9th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Recommended for: Anglophiles, Mystery Mavens, Card Carrying Members of the Agatha Christie Fan Club, Those Particular Fans of Post War England, Fans of Precocious Heroines
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2★
To Buy

A mile from Buckshaw in the graveyard of Saint Tancred's, Flavia stumbles on a crying woman. Bent over a grave and weeping prodigiously. She turns out to be the beaten and bruised assistant to the famous puppeteer, Rupert Porson, who's show The Magic Kingdom, with Snoddy the Squirrel, is a huge hit for the BBC, not that Flavia would know, her father trusting televisions less then telephones. Their travelling show has hit a hitch. Their van has broken down and they have no money to repair it. The Vicar, Canon Richardson, being a huge fan of the show, suggests that they put on a performance for the parish in exchange for the ticket sales fixing their vehicle. An agreement reached, the details are ironed out, two shows on Saturday of Jack and the Beanstalk. Flavia, in more an inquisitive nature then out of kindness, agrees to help. She gets all the inside scoop on this strange puppeteer, who suffered Polio in his youth and is now a twisted man, outside and in, and avoids all the negatives of home life, mainly Feely and Daphne. Things seem to be going well, the show gets set up, and it is a little magical world where Flavia imagines sitting in Jack's mullioned windowed cottage brewing poisons... but then Flavia gets home and her Aunt Felicity is arriving the next day. So now committed to be in two places at once, Flavia does the next logical thing... gets up at dawn to help the puppeteers so as she can then meet her Aunt's train at the station later in the day. Flavia helps relocate Rupert and Nialla to Culverhouse Farm, where it will be more seemly for them to pitch their tent at the bottom of Jubilee Field, then amongst the dead at Saint Tancred's. But Culverhouse Farm holds misery and darkness. The owner's son Robin died tragically five years earlier, being hanged in Gibbet Wood, where the weird Mad Meg wanders. The fields are tended by a German POW obsessed with the Brontes and a Land Girl obsessed with him. But amongst the other eccentrics of the village, they hardly stand out.

The day of the performance shins bright and Flavia, astride trusty Gladys, whizzes to the Parish Hall. Rupert shows her a little of the magic behind the scenes with Jack and the Giant he will kill. But nothing prepares Flavia for how magical the show really is. She, and the whole audience are transported by Rupert and his puppets... one of which bares a striking resemblance to the dead Robin.... That night Flavia can't wait to see the show again. This time with her entire family in tow, put the show starts off differently. Instead of Rupert's fantastical Mozart introduction, the two old spinster's of the village who run the tea rooms, do their obligatory musical revue and then Jack and the Beanstalk commences. But just as Jack is to slew the Giant, a very dead Rupert Porson falls to the stage. With the whole village as witnesses, they are held and questioned for hours. At the end, it's no doubt that it's murder. But be sure Flavia is convinced of the police's inability to solve this case without her, and she might just be right.

Flavia is back and even more wonderful then in her first installment, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. She still is up to chemical machinations... but it's her ability to unsettle people and ask the questions that need asking and being silent when you need to be silent, that makes her the best detective Bishop's Lacey has ever seen, sorry Inspector Hewitt, you are going to have to step up your game. More fast paced, the pages just flew under my hungry eyes, I just could not put this book down. From Flavia's newest revenge on her sisters, to the Bronte loving Dieter... this book just sprang to life off the pages and made me a participant of the goings on at Bishop's Lacey. But aside from all the layers of intrigue and subplots and mysteries, it was the puppeteer who kept this book strung together.

While most people of my generation think of the Muppets when they think of puppets, the British have a much more storied tradition of puppetry. I'm mainly talking about Punch and Judy, that terrifying duo that embraces violence and hatred for laughs. Until now, I didn't think that anything would capture the malevolence of them like the "Destroying Angel" episode of Midsomer Murders, but I was wrong. Alan Bradley has succeeded where even, in my mind, Neil Gaiman failed. The thread of those two malevolent puppets that strings it's way through this story is just brilliant. I think it has to be said, that only with the knowledge of writing for television and writing for children could anyone have captured the underlying menace and messy lives of those people involved with British Broadcasting. Haven't you ever thought that the people behind such "innocent" fare, like the writer's of Camberwick Green, had to really be mentally disturbed to write that kind of show? That's why people latched onto that parody Life on Mars did... because it's secretly what we've always believed to be true! Puppetry, whilst funny and light, also has a dark, ominous, evil side that ties into the Punch and Judy zeitgeist, that Alan Bradley has tapped into here.

If there's one wish for this book, it was that the ending was a little more... messy. It seemed to tie up a little too neatly. Things might not be as dark and foreboding as they look, and I kind of wanted them dark and foreboding. I am happy that Flavia did not get held hostage again, totally avoiding the cliche of damsel in distress, that brought the previous book down a star... but still, not quite perfect yet. I might have been willing to oversea the faults if Dieter had come in again at the end. You know... I think I might have fallen a little for that POW with the Bronte complex... I don't think I've even met a more fascinating man. Why does he have to be fictional?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Bronte, Buckshaw, Camberwick Green, Flavia De Luce, Life on Mars, Midsomer Murders, Neil Gaiman, Puppets, Reading Challenge, Rupert Porson, The Weed That String's The Hangman's Bag

So the second two-parter of the season and the second hard review, cause as I've said before, you can't judge a half, you have to judge the whole. And with the Weeping Angels, I think part two detracted from what could have been an awesome one-parter. With "The Hungry Earth" Steven Moffat yet again delivers on the promise to bring back monsters from the Doctors past that aren't the Cybermen and Daleks. The Silurian's have returned and the make-up is unbelievable. In fact, just that alone made the episode cool. But I also liked the return of the writer Chris Chibnall, who I know some fans are vehemently set against, mainly cause of the Cyberwoman episode of Torchwood, but that had Russell written all over it and Chris also wrote for Life on Mars, so he's cool in my book. I also like the kind of close knit, small group of people trapped Stephen King Under the Dome style and having to fight the ground beneath them in a small Welsh villiage. It was very spooky and eerie, and one of my fears when I was a kid was quicksand, and seeing Amy being pulled under the earth, totally creeped me out (and yes, they did pull her through the earth, into a car pit underneath). But again, this episode is all set up for the reveal of the "monster" at the end and the three hostages for one the Doctor proposes to the few Silurians he believes are hanging out under ground, otherwise called a few million... and cliffhanger to next week...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:54 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Chris Chibnall, Cybermen, Daleks, Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Silurians, Stephen King, Steven Moffat, The Hungry Earth, The Weeping Angels, Torchwood, Two-Parter, Under the Dome

It took me a long time to get into the show Life on Mars. It's bizarre mix of reality and non-reality and the fact that it always kept you guessing and wondering were at the same time frustrating and fascinating. But once I embraced that the show was not so much about Sam Tyler as it was about Gene Hunt, it seemed to make some sort of sense. This is Gene's world, Sam's just a visitor. Therefore when Alex Drake dropped into Gene's world I was immensely trilled. Here was someone who, perhaps, knew a little more about what was going on, due to her studying of Sam's case file, as well as being a potential love interest who could verbally spare with Gene with a side of sexual tension. When we last saw Alex and the crew after a convoluted series two, she had woken up in the present day but was somehow still in a coma back in the 80s with Gene Hunt on the lamb because they didn't know his shooting of Alex was an accident. We pick up three months later and it looks that they have upped the surreality but have a strong focus. Sure we're not sure how Alex went from the present day back again, but she, like Sam wanted to go back. Where Sam went to save them, Alex went for answers. Alex went for Hunt. We're promised answers, we're promised conclusions. For a show that lives in the land of convulsion and dreamscapes the thought of bringing it to a cohesive ending is at once scary and exciting. If they can do it will everyone be happy? I can't be certain. The new DNC officer Jim Keats seems to know more than he's saying and seems to be wanting to help Alex out of the world of Gene Hunt. But despite a mildly interesting and diverting kidnapping plot it was the last five minutes that galvanized this episode more than any of the previous series of Ashes to Ashes. Jim Keats will unmask Gene, though I deeply hope that Gene does not turn out to be the villain that Keats is foretelling. And could everything hinge on Sam Tyler? A subject rarely brought up, yet obviously pivotal. I can't wait till next week when Alex opens up that desk drawer and sneaks a peak at Sam's file. Until then, like her, I will still dream of Gene Hunt.

Each week I am going to do a Gene Genie Awesomeness Scale as well as an Alex Drake Drab Scale.

How awesome was Gene tonight? On a scale of 1-10, an 8. The driving the Quatro and shooting at people dream sequence was a perfect 10, as was his way of waking up a coma victim, just slap them in the face, but overall, not enough screen time.

How awful was Alex's clothes tonight? A 9! Highest ever, mainly due to the good new haircut, she really can't be blamed overmuch for the ugly sweater and shoulder pads... at least it wasn't the fur coat!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:21 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Alex Drake, Ashes to Ashes, Gene Genie, Gene Hunt, Life on Mars, Quatro, Sam Tyler

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte
Publication Date: March 9th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Challenge: Thriller and Suspense
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2★
To Buy

A mile from Buckshaw in the graveyard of Saint Tancred's, Flavia stumbles on a crying woman. Bent over a grave and weeping prodigiously. She turns out to be the beaten and bruised assistant to the famous puppeteer, Rupert Porson, who's show The Magic Kingdom, with Snoddy the Squirrel, is a huge hit for the BBC, not that Flavia would know, her father trusting televisions less then telephones. Their travelling show has hit a hitch. Their van has broken down and they have no money to repair it. The Vicar, Canon Richardson, being a huge fan of the show, suggests that they put on a performance for the parish in exchange for the ticket sales fixing their vehicle. An agreement reached, the details are ironed out, two shows on Saturday of Jack and the Beanstalk. Flavia, in more an inquisitive nature then out of kindness, agrees to help. She gets all the inside scoop on this strange puppeteer, who suffered Polio in his youth and is now a twisted man, outside and in, and avoids all the negatives of home life, mainly Feely and Daphne. Things seem to be going well, the show gets set up, and it is a little magical world where Flavia imagines sitting in Jack's mullioned windowed cottage brewing poisons... but then Flavia gets home and her Aunt Felicity is arriving the next day. So now committed to be in two places at once, Flavia does the next logical thing... gets up at dawn to help the puppeteers so as she can then meet her Aunt's train at the station later in the day. Flavia helps relocate Rupert and Nialla to Culverhouse Farm, where it will be more seemly for them to pitch their tent at the bottom of Jubilee Field, then amongst the dead at Saint Tancred's. But Culverhouse Farm holds misery and darkness. The owner's son Robin died tragically five years earlier, being hanged in Gibbet Wood, where the weird Mad Meg wanders. The fields are tended by a German POW obsessed with the Brontes and a Land Girl obsessed with him. But amongst the other eccentrics of the village, they hardly stand out.

The day of the performance shins bright and Flavia, astride trusty Gladys, whizzes to the Parish Hall. Rupert shows her a little of the magic behind the scenes with Jack and the Giant he will kill. But nothing prepares Flavia for how magical the show really is. She, and the whole audience are transported by Rupert and his puppets... one of which bares a striking resemblance to the dead Robin.... That night Flavia can't wait to see the show again. This time with her entire family in tow, put the show starts off differently. Instead of Rupert's fantastical Mozart introduction, the two old spinster's of the village who run the tea rooms, do their obligatory musical revue and then Jack and the Beanstalk commences. But just as Jack is to slew the Giant, a very dead Rupert Porson falls to the stage. With the whole village as witnesses, they are held and questioned for hours. At the end, it's no doubt that it's murder. But be sure Flavia is convinced of the police's inability to solve this case without her, and she might just be right.

Flavia is back and even more wonderful then in her first installment, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. She still is up to chemical machinations... but it's her ability to unsettle people and ask the questions that need asking and being silent when you need to be silent, that makes her the best detective Bishop's Lacey has ever seen, sorry Inspector Hewitt, you are going to have to step up your game. More fast paced, the pages just flew under my hungry eyes, I just could not put this book down. From Flavia's newest revenge on her sisters, to the Bronte loving Dieter... this book just sprang to life off the pages and made me a participant of the goings on at Bishop's Lacey. But aside from all the layers of intrigue and subplots and mysteries, it was the puppeteer who kept this book strung together.

While most people of my generation think of the Muppets when they think of puppets, the British have a much more storied tradition of puppetry. I'm mainly talking about Punch and Judy, that terrifying duo that embraces violence and hatred for laughs. Until now, I didn't think that anything would capture the malevolence of them like the "Destroying Angel" episode of Midsomer Murders, but I was wrong. Alan Bradley has succeeded where even, in my mind, Neil Gaiman failed. The thread of those two malevolent puppets that strings it's way through this story is just brilliant. I think it has to be said, that only with the knowledge of writing for television and writing for children could anyone have captured the underlying menace and messy lives of those people involved with British Broadcasting. Haven't you ever thought that the people behind such "innocent" fare, like the writer's of Camberwick Green, had to really be mentally disturbed to write that kind of show? That's why people latched onto that parody Life on Mars did... because it's secretly what we've always believed to be true! Puppetry, whilst funny and light, also has a dark, ominous, evil side that ties into the Punch and Judy zeitgeist, that Alan Bradley has tapped into here.

If there's one wish for this book, it was that the ending was a little more... messy. It seemed to tie up a little too neatly. Things might not be as dark and foreboding as they look, and I kind of wanted them dark and foreboding. I am happy that Flavia did not get held hostage again, totally avoiding the cliche of damsel in distress, that brought the previous book down a star... but still, not quite perfect yet. I might have been willing to oversea the faults if Dieter had come in again at the end. You know... I think I might have fallen a little for that POW with the Bronte complex... I don't think I've even met a more fascinating man. Why does he have to be fictional?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Bronte, Buckshaw, Camberwick Green, Flavia De Luce, Life on Mars, Midsomer Murders, Neil Gaiman, Puppets, Reading Challenge, Rupert Porson, The Weed That String's The Hangman's Bag

Gene Genie will return April 2nd! The press release has been pressed and set free into the wilds of the interweb! After last seasons cliffhanger I've been waiting with baited breath. Will all really be revealed about Gene? How are Alex, Gene and Sam connected? Will Sam make an appearance? Or even Annie? Gah! It's so hard waiting and to think of the eight weeks as this unfolds... sheer excitement is the only thing to be said! As it says on Philip's website: "It's time to get into the Eighties mood for the very last time because the award-winning BBC One drama, Ashes to Ashes, is back for Spring 2010. The highly-anticipated finale sees Philip and Keeley Hawes reprise their roles as that most un-PC of policeman, DCI Gene Hunt, and his sassy partner DI Alex Drake, along with Dean Andrews as DI Ray Carling, Marshall Lancaster as DC Chris Skelton and Montserrat Lombard as WPC Sharon 'Shaz' Granger."

To tide you over for the next two weeks, Sport Relief did a little golf parody video. While it's not as magnificent as a new episode, or even 2008's stupendous Top Gear cross over, and the Tiger Woods joke is unfortunate (see, this is what happens when public opinion can change in an instant), Gene Hunt golfing is a site worth seeing.



And as for 2008's excellence:

Posted by Miss Eliza at 6:18 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Alex Drake, Comic Relief, Gene Genie, Gene Hunt, Golf, John Simm, Keeley Hawes, Life on Mars, Philip Glenister, Sam Tyler, Sport Relief, Top Gear

Name: Philip Glenister

First Impression: William Dobbin in Vanity Fair, when he hits his head on that lamp in the entryway.

Lasting Impression: Life on Mars, season 2, episode 7. Could I be anymore specific? I don't think so. But it's the episode where Gene Hunt is wrongly accused of a crime. It made me realize for the first time that this was really Gene Hunt's show and Sam, well... he didn't matter so much. My love of Gene Hunt is not unique, they so made Ashes to Ashes just for him, despite Keeley Hawes being the "big name."

What else you've seen them in: Besides being featured on my blog before... From losing life and limb in Cranford while educating the local youths, to Hornblower to more modern works, like Calendar Girls with Helen Mirren and State of Play with his Life on Mars co-star John Simm. Philip Glenister has been around for quite awhile, but it took a little Gene Genie to get this man some well deserved recognition.

Can't believe it's them: He looks so little in Hornblower, but then all those big named stars who started out here did... Jamie Bamber, Ioan Gruffudd.

Wish they hadn't: Demons... a Buffy-esque show with Mackenzie Crook where he donned a bad American accent... best just to forget about this one for all involved.

Bio: I love me my Gene Hunt! Plus is it just me or has he aged into his looks more?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Ashes to Ashes, Cranford, Demons, Gene Hunt, Hornblower, Keeley Hawes, Life on Mars, Mackenzie Crook, Philip Glenister, Spotlight, Vanity Fair, William Dobbin

Name: John Simm

First Impression: As Sam Tyler on the only Life on Mars worth watching.

Lasting Impression: The Master. He has just the right amount of maniacal glee... of course they still could have edited him a bit.

What else you've seen them in: Simm has been busy acting... from the original State of Play miniseries to Cracker, to Canterbury Tales to The Devil's Whore, there's no knowing where or when Simm might show up on tv... but Christmas day I have a feeling he'll be bleached and on BBC 1!

Can't believe it's them: Remember the season 2 premiere of Spaced where Daisy returned from India. Remember the mystery man at the airport which landed Daisy in trouble? Yes, that was Simm in a totally memorable role, though he never said a word.

Wish they hadn't: Nothing so far that I detest... though if he doesn't make an apperance on the final season of Ashes to Ashes we might have words.

Bio: Manchester United supporter... I knew you had to have that fact.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ashes to Ashes, Canterbury Tales, Cracker, Doctor Who, John Simm, Life on Mars, Manchester United, Spaced, Spotlight, State of Play, The Devil's Whote, The Master

So recently I had an urge to rewatch Life on Mars... could be a need for a John Simm hit, he is The Master afterall. Or could be the need for a Gene Hunt fix, Ashes to Ashes season three does seem a long way off... at least they only have two more episodes to film! But once again, I forgot how funny the Camberwick Green spoof was.


For those who don't know, it was a kind of crappy early animation show from England in the 60s, reminiscent of the crappy 80s animation Hattytown which aired on Nickelodeon's pinwheel... which now that I google it, was also from about the same time period, wow, talk about time warp...

I digress... anyway, seeing as I'm trapped inside with the cold winter wind blowing I tend to get in a crafty mood. I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool to have my own little Gene Hunt and Sam Tyler dolls... lucky for me someone already did a how to video. Enjoy!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Animnation, Ashes to Ashes, Camberwick Green, Craft, Gene Hunt, Hattytown, John Simm, Life on Mars, Nickelodeon, Nonce, Pinwheel, Sam Tyler