Metal Reviews

Gonna try and watch some True Blood now, any good?

Also conisdering getting some Deadwood.

Well yeah James Marsters sings in a (rubbish) alt rock band.

I didn't find Season 3 to be bad at all. Season 1 was definitely the best.

True Blood is good, but go in with an open mind or you may find it stupid. I know I did at first, but the more you watch the better it gets.

Not bad, just not as good as what was done before it, and not as good as what's happening so far.

Watched the first two episodes, been thinking exactly that. Plus, sookie means something pretty, err, different in Glasgow. And they say it all the freaking time!

I'm not loving this new season as much as you are. Lithgow doesn't seem super interesting yet. I don't know it'll click eventually.

I was the exact same way with season 3. The skinner just wasn't an interesting bad guy. Anton and Deb was/is annoying. Dexter the family man with problems is kinda lame etc.. But now in season 4 I am use to that stuff, and I am liking Lithgow. But yeah, like season 3 for me, I am sure season 4 will click with you eventually.

I didn't seem to mind those pitfalls of s03 cause I enjoyed the Miguel storyline.

Watched the two first episodes of True Blood today. Very lame, but I'll continue anyway.

Started Curb Your Enthusiasm today. Watching a funny misanthrope get pissed off at everyone is pretty awesome.

Season 3 of The Wire started pretty lame but just finished disc 2 ie episode 4, and it is really starting to pick up. I was almost about to say this show had died, but it made it's comebadk. So far it can do no wrong, is a shame nobody watches it.

cept Zadster

I love the realism of it - real life is not full of action, and watching the characters just go around their daily lives is great.

The best thing about The Wire is that there are no silly plot twists or cliffhangers. The story plays out very naturally.

Lame?? Season 3 is my favourite season (but I yet to see Season 5). It's as close to perfection as you can get IMO.

I just don't like how it started and they were already balls deep into a case. I like the build up to the case, like in seasons 1 and 2. I know it's changing now because they are now getting dirt on Stringer and Avon will be out of jail soon enough, but for me I just don't like the beginning of it. As I said, it has turned around quite nicely. I do love the COMSTAT scenes, they are always good.

Series 6 Peep Show has been a lot better than Series 5. I thought it was on the downward spiral as well.

http://www.cracked.com/article/166_5-re ... hedon-fan/

Heh. I would call myself a Whedonite, having loved Firefly and Toy Story and currently liking Dollhouse and Buffy a lot, but several interesting points are raised.

Pretty good article. Whedon can be a very inconsistent writer and he does have an ego the size of the sun- but there are times when he's on fire and when he is, he can write pretty amazing television (see Buffy seasons 2-3 and 5- all the episodes he wrote in those seasons are pretty much gold). That said, when he doesn't particularly get a concept and characters as well as he did Buffy, he can fail pretty spectacularly- Angel took off and was at its best when Whedon was basically not involved in the show (seasons 2-4), and the few episodes he did write were pretty awful (see Season 5's A Hole in the World, the most melodramatic and silly handling of a character death ever).

His major faults as a writer are lack of subtlety (no show can hit you over the head with seventeen anvils as Buffy could) and a willingness to completely fuck with his story and any continuity to deliver a theme- just look at the way continuity is completely destroyed in the latter seasons of Buffy and the plotless messes of seasons 6 and 7. I strongly believe that good writers develop their themes from the setting, plot and characters- not the other way around.

But his dialogue is pretty sweet. And he can deliver groundbreaking ideas, three dimensional characters and, well, just the funny. Whedon can handle humour in a serious show in a way that few shows can. And the shows he puts forward generally seem to work. I've heard bad things about Dollhouse, but I definitely need to see Firefly at some point.

Anyway, onto Battlestar Galactica season 1. I'm about eight or nine episodes in and am definitely enjoying it- there have been a few exceptional episodes, a bunch of good ones and two in particular that were absolute shit, but any first season is going to have some of those. Generally good acting all around, believable character interaction, interesting exploration of religious themes, and a hilariously entertaining bastard of a character in Gaius Baltar, whose facial expressions make every scene he's in. My one concern is that not much has even been hinted at in terms of overall plot. I'm okay with that- Carnivale and Lost both certainly took their time to get things moving, and they're two of my favourite shows. But it would be nice if we got so much as a hint towards the end of the first season as to the relevance of Helo's plotline, or who left the note for Adama in the miniseries saying that there are only twelve Cylon models, a plotline that hasn't even been mentioned since then. Oh well... If not, at least Baltar will keep me entertained.

Alien 3 was pretty shit, it must be said. 4 was better on a sheer entertainment level. And yes, my god, watch Firefly. And even though Dollhouse is pretty meh so far (ep 5 or so) there's enough to make it watchable.

As for Battlestar G, I've fallen a little behind with it, but so far so good. And yes, Balthar is a great character, but I have soft spots for Tigh(t) and Commander A, too.