Songs: A Horse with No Name

I've been rewatching Friends and I rediscovered this song:

TV Reviews: The Crown, Seasons 1 and 2

I love this show so much! It's about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It shows the royals as real people and focuses on relationships between people, not pomp, ceremony and riches. Peoples' faults are not glossed over. They are dealt with candidly, showing that these important people are only human. Prince Philip's racism is portrayed, as is Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten and the Queen Mother's arrogance Margaret's recklessness and Charles's sensitivity. The series opens with the then Princes Elizabeth and Prince Philip's wedding, before she became Queen. A good decision, I think, as the relationship between them is so central to the series. It goes on to cover the death of elizabeth's father, King George VI, the coronation, the Queen and other members of the Royal family, especially Prince Philip who is frustrated by living in his wife's shadow and his lack of personal freedom, becoming accustomed to their new roles and Princess Margaret's ill-fated romance with Group Captain Townsend. The second season focuses on political crises, Elizabeth and Philip's marital problems, Margaret's marriage, meeting JFK and Jackie and Charles's education. It's beautifully acted. Claire Foy is brilliant as the Queen, and Matt Smith is a great Prince Philip.The cast is massive and there is a nice surprise almost every episode, as yet another favorite actor is recognised. John Lithgow is incredible as Winston Churchill. I think he gets him entirely right, very surprising from an American comedy actor! The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, is an interesting character. You start off feeling very sorry for him, as an outcast, who made the wonderfully romantic decision to abdicate so he could marry Wallis Simpson, but later end up despising him, as his history as a Hitler supporter and a traitor is revealed to the Queen. I also never realised that some of the other main characters had such interesting histories. I never knew Prince Philip was part of the Greek royal family, and that his family were forced to flee for their lives, and that he was smuggled out in an orange crate as a baby, as spent his childhood more or less in exile, and that everyone opposed his marriage to Elizabeth. He couldn't see his family as they sided with the Nazis. Or that the Queen Mother was thought to be common, as she was only a Lady at the time of her marriage, not royalty, and that this was fairly radical for the time. Altogether a gripping, well-acted and brilliantly writeen series. It seems to teach that money doesn't buy happiness and that not even these people are free from illness and unhappiness, and that bad things happen when people try to stand in the way of love. I'll be very interested to see how the show develops in the next season, as the timeline progresses and the parts are passed on to older actors. And I'm sure nobody else cares, but I love how in the coronation scene Princess Margaret is wearing the tiara that Meghan Markle wore for her wedding to Harry!

TV Reviews: Legend of Korra, Season 1

Being a massive fan of the original Avatar series I was very curious as to what the makers would do with this.   You might say Korra had a lot to live up to.   Well, it didn't disappoint.   It's set after Aang's death and Korra is the new avatar.   From the very first episode Korra establishes itself as its own show.   It's clearly still part of the Last Airbender world, but it's not just a continuation of a old story.   It's a very different show and Korra is a very different avatar to Aang.   While Aang is happy-go-lucky and gentle and deeply spiritual, Korra is hot-tempered, fiesty and prone to action.   While the majority of The Last Airbender was about Aang trying to master all four elements, and hiding the fact that he's the avatar, Legend of Korra opens with Korra having already mastered three as a child and telling everyone she's the avatar.   Korra's world is more modern than Aang's, with pro-bending being a thing and the industrial revolution being well established, and more political.   Elected officials matter more, and being the avatar seems to count for less.   Korra is manipulated and used.   The whole structure of the series is different too.   Instead of Korra being on a journey and meeting a host of quirky characters, almost the whole series is set in Republic City where Korra is staying.   There's also a tension between benders and ordinary people that just wasn't present in the last series.  

Having said that it's a very different show, there are plenty of nods to the Last Airbender, such as meeting the descendents of Aang, Katara and Toph, and flashbacks to Aang's youth.   And there are some elements that have stayed the same, such as the avatar having a helpful big furry friend.   In this case her name is Naga and she's a polar bear-dog.   I NEED a polar bear-dog!   Big and fierce like a polar bear, but loyal like a dog.   And rideable too!   A goofy male comic relief character also appears in the form of Bolin, a sweet, poverty-stricken pro bender who is infatuated with Korra.   Anyone who cares about the world will also be happy to see the air-benders are doing ok.   After being reduced to one (Aang) in the Last Airbender, they're now starting to recover.   Aang and Katara's son Tenzin has four children who are all air benders.   So although air benders are still very rare, they're not gone yet!  

As with the Last Airbender, it's the characters that make the show so appealing.   Korra's calm, dignified air bending teacher, Tenzin, his hilarious children, sweet, funny Bolin, awesome Naga and evil Amon are all unforgettable.   And as for this storyline, it's tense and full of intrigue and betrayal, with a healthy dose of teenage angst thrown in as well.   Benders are being captured by rebels and having their bending taken away.   In the end Korra herself has her bending taken.   For a few tense minutes you wonder if the series is going to go for a very bold decision.   Having an avatar who can't bend.   But she gets it back quickly.   Perhaps a little too quickly in fact.   It feels like a bit of a deus ex machina.   And the final episode where Amon is finally defeated is....emotional.   So emotional.   I won't ruin it for you.  Watch it!

           

TV Reviews: The Addams Family

I watched the original Addams family TV series from the 60s.   I was very familiar with the 90s film, and the cartoon series, but I'd never seen the original before.   It's well-worth a watch!   You probably don't need to watch the entire series, because to be honest, the gags are the same in every episode.  

The characters all have a certain warmth that they don't have in later encarnations.   Morticia and Gomez definitely steal the show!   John Astin makes a very funny and incredibly enthusiastic Gomez, and his gymnastics are very impressive!   He also did the voice of Gomez in the cartoon series.   Just a little bit of trivia that makes me happy.   Carolyn Jones's Morticia is warm and refined.   Jackie Coogan plays a very goofy Uncle Fester, and Ted Cassidy makes a perfect Lurch.   They all lack a lot of the creepiness the family has in more modern versions.     

I would say that for special effects, the show definitely suffers compared to the later encarnations.   Thing is very obviously just somebody's arm in a box, and the meat eating plant is very obviously fake.   The sets are also comparatively much less elaborate and varied.   But if you can forgive that, the show does have a lot of old-time charm.   A very interesting look at what tv used to be like.

        

TV Reviews: Planet Earth

Planet Earth is a truly impressive David Attenborough documentary.  Everybody knows and loves David Attenborough, and I think this offering is definitely among the best things he's ever done.   It takes us through some of the most interesting habitats on the planet and has some really extraordinary footage.   Each episode deals with a different type of environment, such as mountains, caves and deserts, and takes us to different kinds of each across the planet.   Each episode also has a charming little section at the end which gives us an insight into how some of the filming was done.   It's fascinating!   Some highlights for me include seeing Ethiopia's amazing volcanic landscape, snow leopards, the Pantanal, the Lechuguilla Cave, the Borneo rainforest, a baby humpback whale and undersea volcanoes.   Gorgeous and all very interesting!

TV Reviews: The Big Bang Theory Season 5

I love The Big Bang Theory.   It's definitely one of my favorite tv shows.  I love the characters and the writing is so clever, and it's full of nerdy geeky jokes which I understand!  It's my staple program to watch in bed when I'm ill.   It never fails to cheer me up.   Season 5 did not disappoint!   It followed on seamlessly from the previous seasons and had the same energy and humour.   Sheldon and Howard's girlfriends Amy and Bernadette are by now well established in their roles and make excellent additions to the group.   The series is dominated by the build up to the big season finale, namely Howard and Bernadette's wedding and Howard's trip to space.   There are plenty of mentions of wedding plans throughout and arguments about Howard going into space.   And of course the big event we've all been waiting for happens as well, which is Leonard and Penny getting back together.  We all knew it would!   We all know it's right!   But once again the course of true love does not run smooth for them.   This isn't a fairy tale.   And perhaps my favorite moment of the series was Sheldon and Amy finally becoming an official couple.   It was so cute and funny.   Of course with a group of such "interesting" personalities there are always going to be interpersonal difficulties and this series deals with quite a lot of them.   Both Sheldon and Amy, and Bernadette and Howard encounter difficulties in their relationships, like Sheldon being selfish and Howard's shady past, but they both get through them.  Sheldon and Leonard also have problems with their friendship for the same reason.   The issue of Raj's loneliness is also dealt with pretty thoroughly too, with him falling for Penny, his phone, a gold digger, then asking his parents for help for help finding a wife, then finally getting a dog from Howard and Bernadette.   Poor Raj.   I also enjoyed a cameo from yet another Star Trek actor, this time Brent Spiner.   It made my inner Trekkie child very happy.   All in all a very strong continuation to a great series, and I can't wait to see Season 6 (Yes, I know it's been out for ages!   I'll get to it!)

Films and TV

Hello!  Here are some reviews of some of the films and TV shows I've watched lately. 

First up, Shaun of the Dead.   I have mixed feelings about this film.   I really enjoyed this up to a certain point, and then it went downhill for me.   It's a fairly typical zombie movie, with a hilarious Simon Pegg and Nick Frost take on it.   It's silly, quirky and typically British.   But I stopped enjoying after Simon Pegg's character had to shoot his mum.   I know that it wouldn't have been a zombie movie without that moment, but I really hated it.   Apart from the comedy my favorite aspect with this film was the cast, which included so many of my favorites.   As well as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Dylan Moran and Penelope Wilton were in it as well, all of whom I love.   And it made me stupidly happy to see Lucy Davis in it as well.   I loved her as Mariah Lucas in Pride in Prejudice many years ago, and hadn't seen her in anything else since.   But that's probably just me.   But yes, loved it until everyone started dying.

  




Next, the Mighty Boosh.   I watched all three seasons.  Basically I would describe it as "What the hell is this and why can't I stop watching it??".   Quirky doesn't even begin to describe the oddness of this TV show.   It revolves around the lives of Vince Noir and Howard Moon and all the bizarre adventures they have.   The costumes are wacky, the sets are cheap and very homemade looking, the stories are completely bizarre and I'm not even sure what makes it funny.   But somehow it is!   Perhaps it's the comedic genius of Noel Fielding.   Or maybe the songs.   I don't know.   I like it, but I have idea why!  

And finally, Rough Science.   Being a massive nerd, in my opinion this is just about the best TV series ever made!   They take a handful of scientists, drop them somewhere in the middle of nowhere with minimal equipment and get them to use their scientific knowledge to make things and do things.   The experiements don't always work, but I found it truly amazing what people could accomplish and bodge together and invent in just three days, using bits and bobs they found lying around.  Science rules!   The first series saw the team on a mediterranean island doing things like working out where they were, making a compass and building a radio.   The second series was set on a Carribean island doing things like mapping the island, making suncream and insect repellent.   The third took place in New Zealand, with the emphasis being on gold mining.   Using various methods the team eventually collected enough gold to make a gold pendant.   The fourth was space themed and was filmed in Death Valley, California.  The fifth was ocean themed, filmed in Zanzibar and the sixth was filmed in the San Juan mountains of Colarado.   I really enjoyed all six series.   They did some really impressive stuff.   Science at its best!   A really well done series!

     
  

Films and TV

Thought I'd do a quick review of some stuff I've been watching over the last couple of months.

Firstly the cartoon Avatar, The Last Airbender.   I loved this!   I borrowed all three seasons off a friend and really enjoyed it.   It's an anime style cartoon series about a boy who is destined to save the world from the evil Firelord by controlling the four elements.   The animation is impressive, the characters are all fantastic and there are some very funny lines.   In the earlier episodes the storylines were pretty simple but by the end of the series the storyline was pretty complex and constantly used elements from past episodes which I imagine might make it pretty confusing if you didn't watch all the episodes in order.   I quite liked how the break-neck pace of the story was broken up every now and then with a heart warming episode just about various characters just hanging out and being themselves.   It made it playful and a bit quirky and not all business.   Though my favorite aspect of the show wss definitely the characters.   They are all really well written and have oodles of personality.   And Princess Azula is one of the scariest villains I have ever come across!

Next, the film Into The Wild.   This was about a young man who leaves his home, family and money and sets off on a journey around North America by himself, taking very little with him.  He eventually starves to death in the Alaskan wilderness.   I very much enjoyed this.   Again, this was full of interesting characters and was a bit different.   It was well written and there was something very peaceful and compassionate about it.   The soundtrack was just lovely and altogether the film made me want to run away from home and have an adventure myself.   The only part I didn't really enjoy was the end.   I have nothing against killing off the main character at the end of a film.   If it's done right it can be great, but in this case I just felt that it didn't really fit with the rest of the movie.   But then I looked it up and the reason they did it is because the film is based on a true story.   Oh.

      


And finally, the King Kong remake.   I'm sure it goes without saying that everybody already knows what this is about: a giant gorilla who falls in love with a woman and eventually dies falling off the Empire State Building after being shot down by planes.   I have to say I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to!   What I enjoyed most was that it was very true to the 1933 original, both in plot and in feel.   Although not a particular fan of the original, with its ridiculous plot and gratuitous fight scenes (I had to play Angry Birds while watching to get through it), I cannot stand it when remakes simply use the name of an old film and then proceed to tear it apart.   This remake seemed to merely expand on what was already there.   At three hours it is a bit of long slog, but I have to say I very much enjoyed the additions.   The heroine has a lot more personality in this version and they've thrown in a little Stockholm Syndrome for good measure.   I did think that Fay Wray might have made the wrong choice in the original, as Kong saved her from all manner of dinosaurs and giant beasts and all the hero ever saved her from was one very distracted gorilla.   In this version there are some very touching moments between woman and gorilla and it is genuinely upsetting when Kong is killed at the end.   The only really big change made to the original story is that Ann falls in love with the thoughtful writer, rather than the pretty boy actor, whic fits very well with her added personality.   I also quite liked how they just took the ridiculous plot of the old film and went with it, rather than attempting to come up with some sort of credible explanation for it all to satisfy modern audiences.  Being an Andy Serkis fan, I enjoyed his performance (both of them) and I thought Jack Black made a very good Carl.   Perhaps an odd choice, but it worked really well.   And after all, when have I ever not enjoyed something Pete Jackson has done?