| R.B.7 10 A V I E W 2 0 1 0 |
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IM 448199 |
| R.B.7 10 A V I E W 2 0 1 0 |
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IM 448199 |
(click here for the ration book rules) (red text = new items; + = new points to existing items) (pale text = repeated items unseen; murky text = taped items) |
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| WEEK THREE A new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures turned up this week. It had an annoying "child snatcher"-style character invading peoples' dreams. All very derivative. It ended with K-9 being packed away again, which made things all the more annoying. And there was far too much "aren't we great as a team" bullshit and tearful farewells. It was quite disgusting. At the other end of the spectrum we have Boys from the Blackstuff, which this week gave us the much-celebrated "Yosser's Story", complete with over-quoted dialogue. In fairness there's not much dialogue beyond the oft-quoted stuff. The scenes are cobbled together rather disparately but this adds something really, and the resultant tale of a proud man's inability to cope with an ever-disintegrating world he doesn't understand is rather special if, at times, slightly hamstrung (if such a thing is possible) by its imbalance between harrowing tragedy and pathos-smeared black comedy. But it is this unsettling imbalance that has made the episode so memorable. Also getting a maximum score was Matthew Collings's Renaissance Revolution: an hour on a single painting, complete with zooming close-ups and texture-revealing angles. It reminded us that Leonardo couldn't draw cats, that Michelangelo was a prick and that Matt Collings is brilliant. The best art programme since Jay Hunt killed Tim Marlow. WEEKS ONE & TWO Sorry I've been so shit of late in getting this column up. But hopefully it's given you time to properly digest last quarter's graphs. I saw The Inbetweeners last week. Bit of a mess, I thought, but with an occasional moment of very light amusement. Thought I should mention it. Also seen a fair bit of X Factor recently, though I couldn't bring myself to bother putting it on the scorecard: this last weekend was two and a half hours of adequate karaoke; quite the improvement on the bullying and contrived melodrama of previous weeks (karaoke is not nearly so hateful). A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss has Mark Gatiss in the title, alas. While it is nothing monumental or staggering, it is just about acceptable. I seem to have rather generously given it 2pts. I can be nice when I want to be. All Our Working Lives proves to be an interesting and well timed piece of documentary revisitation, and is very interesting from an economical perspective: a better advert for protectionism I've yet to see, though that would be a simplification of a very complicated picture. And then there's Boys from the Blackstuff which last week gave us Julie Walters in a scarcely irritating role (that's two in a row - clearly she could just about act in the early '80s). Firefly is ticking along nicely, though is yet to look anything above my pithy summary from last month (Blake's 7 on the set of Deadwood). In Our Time is back, and is most welcome for so being. Likewise Kermode & Mayo, which flirts with becoming a collection of in-jokes but always manages to just about hold together some semblance of decency and occasional greatness. Richard Herring's new vehicle is less inspiring though by no means dreadful. I'd promise to do better reviews this quarter but I fear I won't be able to keep it. I will at least try to make a moderate effort. In the mean-time, I have much to watch on the iPlayer. |
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