Just finished watching Ender's Game on iTunes. I've been wanting to get (and read) the book for so long. It's an old tale I've been hearing a lot of good things about, and sounds just like my kind of Sci Fi.

The movie was quite good, and I enjoyed watching the lead character struggle with one dilemma after another. However I feel the viewer was shorted on the psychological implications of his choices. I've a feeling the book is much more in depth.

So guess what? I finally got the book! So I'm off to start reading it. On my iPad, of course.

In case you're wondering, my favorite author is that other outstanding writer, Robert A. Heinlein. Don't watch Starship Troopers. But read it? Oh hell, Yes!

Hawaii Five-O, NCIS:LA, Mom and re-watching that truly awesome brit comedy, Vicious...Starring Ian McKellern and Derek Jacobi as a gay couple, their flat and the stuff that ensues...Truly one of the funniest things in ages...Well, makes me laugh anyways... ...

Oh, and Docky Who...The second part of the Tennant "Alternate World Cybermen"™ one...

Gavin And Stacey!

I'm a HUGE fan of Kevin Spacey, too. Like you, I first saw him in Wiseguy. He came after Ray Sharkey and I didn't think anyone could top that guy, but I think KS did so masterfully.

So anyway, have you seen this one? Inseperable. I won't say too much about it except this: Kevin Spacey in a Batman costume is quite the eyeful.

Finished the current season of "Justified." The first two seasons were the best- but the finale delivered and set up the conflict that was central to the series from the beginning. We will see what the next (and supposed to be last) season brings.

Started on "Person of Interest" from Netflix (DVD)- liking it very much so far.

A couple of months ago saw the end of "Prison Break." That was an excellent show, with strong performances by a lot of people I had not seen in anything previous, And it caused me to take a look at "Crossing Lines," because William Fichtner is also in it. Has been impressive so far...

Loved the first season and bits of the second season of Prison Break. After that it just got repetitive and was hard to follow because every episode had to end on such a cliffhanger.

Last night I watched Night of the Comet. Another blast from the past. "Daddy would have gotten us Uzis..."

This afternoon I watched (or at least listened to), Bill Maher's Religulous. Quite a scathing look at organized religion, and especially its hypocrisy. I would not call it unfair though, as the real scathing comes more from the people he is interviewing than himself. He did his homework pretty well too.

The only thing I kept yelling at the tv about was the whole Virgin Birth business. What a lot of people today forget is that 2,000 years ago the term virgin did not mean someone who had never had sex. It meant either a woman who was young, or a woman who was unmarried. Typically one happened to be the other. So there is was nothing miraculous about a Virgin Mother, or Virgin Birth. It just meant Mary (and the mothers of so many other religious figures like Krishna and Horus), were single moms. It did not mean they never had sex. For example Hekate is a Virgin Goddess. She also has several children. She just never married any of the fathers.

Now on h.e.r.'s advice, I am watching Inseperable. I have not gotten far enough into it to have an opinion yet. Except that it is set in China, and I do not think I have ever seen a modern comedy set there. It is always historical action movies, like Red Cliff, or fantasy action movies like House of Flying Daggers, that I see in China. So that is different.

PoI is on of my proper favourite series ever...It's just a huge amount of giggle inducing (in a good way) fun...I love it hugely...

Coincidentally, we watched our latest episode yesterday...Much fun!...Along with NCIS...

McBoy and I also watched The Phantom Menace...I really, really enjoyed that film...It was really nice to see it again...I still can't see why it got the hammering...As I keep saying, if you're a kid, you'll enjoy it...

Even McBoy, who's all grown up with a 'tash and everything...(Yes he has a way to go before the full-Selleck, but still )...Um...He said, "I don't understand why people have a go at Jar-Jar..."...The kids love Jar-Jar, it's meant for them...

I stand by this film...I love it...It's pretty awesome...

We're going to watch the next one, next week...So there... ...

Game of Thrones did it again! Killed off a major character in the second episode.

"Weddings have become more perilous than battles, it would seem."

A brilliant episode, loved every moment of it. The wedding was very well done; all the little conflicts throughout the scene really built the tension and then of course

The wedding has really set up the rest of the series. I noticed that Illyn Payne hasn't featured in the show since season 1 (actually he may have appeared in 2), so they've had to use other characters to fill his role. Little change, but for some reason I really noticed it this episode when Bronn was with Jaime.

I know who's responsible. The hints were dropped in the episode.

Indeed. Oberyn with his woman and Cersei and Tywin's conversation was icy and tense. The entire episode was very good. Ramsay and his woman hunting that girl in the woods for sport shows how demented he is, and also we see a broken Reek.

"Everything has changed."

The Purple Wedding did put things into motion. Illyn Payne was in season 2 as well. They replaced him with Bronn because the actor who played Payne(Wilko Johnson) has terminal cancer of the pancreas. They used Bronn instead.

Ooooh, I recently bought Wilko Johnson's single with Roger Daltry...Awesome song...

You're enjoying GOT a bit then?... ...



Oh, btw...Five-O and NCIS:LA for me last night...


Oooooh, we also saw, over the weekend the Magnum season 7 opener with Dana Delaney... ...Dear God that woman is gorgeous...*Sighs*...Anyways, loved it...Really good episode...

We feel like we're heading into the home straight with Magnum now... ...

Not so much "now watching" as "watched last night", but Judge Dredd.

I used to love this film, and I hadn't seen it in years, so I thought I'd dig out the dvd.

Terrible mistake.

I hated it.

Riddled with continuity errors, plotholes you could park a moon comfortably inside, and most of the time when there was gunfire ricocheting off the walls there was nowhere it could have actually come from.

That film is now ruined for me

Dredd supposed to be very good.

Haven't heard any bad things about it.

Judge Dredd isn't too good

Dana Delaney is definite sigh material. I wish Netflix would add China Beach...

The old Judge Dredd movie with Sly Stallone was a groaner. They got too grandiose, what with Rico and him trying to take over the Judges Council, the ABC Warrior (like who is going to get that?), and of course the committed the cardinal sin of Dredd without a helmet.

I rewatched the new Dredd with Karl Urban again a few nights ago for about the fifth time. That was really good. They kept the story simple, Judges trapped in a block vs. a druglord, and it works. It is just as much a standard cop movie as it is a sci-fi movie, so it is really accessible: Drugs are bad m'kay, drugdealers kill people, Judges kill drug dealers.

Plus Karl Urban kept his helmet on the entire time, and he always had a scowl. He nailed Dredd.

I really enjoyed Dredd...I found the DVD whilst looking for something else the other day...I may have to rewatch it meself now... ...

Aaamywho, just watched Doctor Who - The Idiot's Lantern...The one with Maureen Lipman as The Wire...The alien thing that uses the TVs to suck your brain's energy out and leaves you a faceless vegetable...*Insert satirical comment here*... ...

Finished watching all four seasons of Archer on Netflix. I love it because the whole series is full of running jokes. It's like the entire show is centered around inside jokes, intentionally bad puns, and over the top attitudes.

I have been watching The Shield lately. I am loving it. Michael Chiklis makes an outstanding anti-hero. He's as dirty as a cop can get. He even kills another cop. But you can still root for him because the bad guys are usually worse. That includes the captain who wants to put him away, not because he believes in the law, but because he wants to bust other cops to make a name for himself and go into politics.

House, season 1

The closest thing you'll get to a modern Sherlock Holmes.

Check the funny pic thread

Also isn't the closet thing to a modern Sherlock Holmes both Sherlock and Elementary ?

Well, I just finished watching the first season of All Things Great and Small on Netflix. It was quite fun recognizing the stories I had read so many years ago, way back when I first discovered the second book in the series in seventh grade. I suppose you could blame Mr. Herriot for planting that seed in my mind that it was what I wanted to do when I grew up.

In any case, it occurred to me that while I had read and reread the books through high school and college, I did not read them during vet school, nor during the 19 years I practiced veterinary medicine. But now that I am out of it, I am enjoying the series immensely.

Not much happens in these books plot-wise, but they are the ultimate in character-driven stories. Not just the animals and the hills that make up the Dales, but the people themselves too. I am enjoying getting reacquainted with Siegfried, Tristan, Helen, and Mrs. Pumphrey (with Tricki-Woo), old Mr. Dean with Bob, Mulligan and his big wolf wanna-be Clancy, and Mrs. Bond who works for cats.

It's a nice relaxing pace, and a change from characters who are so pretentious and self-absorbed and wrapped up in their own woes. Mr. Herriot is not one of those, but rather a humble person who is not shy about sharing his most embarrassing moments. Most of the fun are at his expense, and he writes it well. There's tears, yes, but along with that are plenty of laughter. He gives us a blow-by-blow account of his disastrous dates with Helen, where he does not come off looking quite as suave as he would have liked. His social life is a string of calamities and faux pas (faux pases?). He can't go anywhere without the practice calling him out. And his patients and their curmudgeonly owners are forever humbling him. But he has his moments, where I want to stand up and cheer him on.

I do still have those old paperbacks occupying a prime space on my bookshelves somewhere. So maybe I'll pull them out, dust them off, and sit down with them. After I finish watching the next five seasons, that is . . .

Dad (and the rest of us) loved those books! Since we were "dog people" from way back, they really spoke to us. I can still remember Dad reading the parts about Tricky out loud, with the rest of us laughing.

On-topic- just to be different than I usually am...

We are watching the final episodes of this season's Parenthood.

The Amazing Spider-man 2...

Results as follows...

McBoy and McWife - "Awesome!"

McB and McDaughter - "Meh..."...

It's alright...Not as good as the first one of these re-dos...

Although, I admit I've never been a big Spidey fan...And the first three (Tobey McGuire ones) left me so bored...

The first of the Andrew Garfield ones I was actually impressed with...Possibly because it impressed me...Which is hard to do with a Spider-Man film...But this one...Way too long...Takes ages to set the villains up, which I know you have to do in order for them to be Credible™...But still, takes so long...

Oh, and one of the main things in the trailer, the Rhino fight...Pffft...Just don't even bother...One of the biggest sleight of hand moves I've ever seen a trailer do...

Still, Emma Stone... ...And for old times' sake...Sally Field... ... ...Oh, who am I kidding?...Probably would still... ...

Didn´t that come out in like 1998?

Nah, that was Spider-Man 2...See the difference there?... ...


Lookie here...

Ahh... So the first 2 wasn´t Amazing™...

*Shrugs*...*Smiles but respectfully refuses to comment*... ...

Star Wars - Attack Of The Clones...

I really enjoyed this one...Yes, it contains Cheesy Lines™, Bad Acting™ or at least These Lines Are So Bad How Can I Actually Act This Crap Well?™ and Obi-Wan's Dodgy Beard™...

However, I really enjoyed watching it again...

Next week, it's the film that started the Clone Wars series off...Just for continuity purposes... ...

Gladiator

I do love this film

As do I, m'friend...As do I...

"Shadows and Dust..."... ...


Erm...I saw your thing about SHIELD the other day...I agree, it's trying too hard...Certainly Coulson and May are always excellent...But the whole thing is getting...Boring...*Shrug*...

Like McWife said though, we may as well stick with it to the end now...

Hill's ( ) turning up in a couple of episodes, and Nick Fury's supposed to be in the finale...So yeah, even if it does get cancelled, at least we did the one series...

Besides...McBoy's fallen for Skye... ...

Yeah, like I didn't fall deeply in lust with Ming-Na the instant she growled at the rest in that first episode... ... ...

Oh, we just watched a couple of Magnum P.I.s...The one with the deaf artist who witnessed a massacre at a bank...And the one with the hooker from the previous series who'd come back to look for her sister...Who's also a hooker...And not the T.J. variety... ...

Hill and Fury are turning up?

Actually after the last episode I was expecting Fury, but Hill's a nice bonus. Seems a good enough reason to watch the rest of the series

Now it's just a question of "will it get too cheesy to be bearable?" before the finale...

And if I'm honest, I kind of want to see Fury shout "I have had it with these <censored> agents on this <censored> plane!!!" It won't happen, but the mental image of it's funny as hell

AVGN - Day Dreamin´ Davey

Dragonheart.

In my opinion one of the finest films ever made

I agree, it's awesome.

Five-0...NCIS:LA...Vicious...

Aaand Docky Who - The Impossible Planet...The first one of the two set on the starbase thing that's been built on the planet in stable orbit around a black hole...As you do...It happens to be where they imprisoned the original Satan...(Hence why the next episode is called The Satan Pit, as it happens...)...Much hijinks and the first appearance of the Ood...And, sadly, the only appearance by MyAnna Buring... ...

Still watching The Shield. I really like Michael Chiklis' portrayal of Vic Mackey. At the end of the first episode he kills someone (don't want to give away too many spoilers sweetie), which makes him seem really ruthless. But the more we see of him, the more we learn how rare an occurrence that is. He only did it because he felt he was pushed into a corner. In other episodes we see that he certainly likes to use violence, and to rough up suspects. He even tortures someone at one point by holding his face down onto a electric stove burner. But given the guy had murdered dozens of people by putting tires around their necks and setting them on fire, not to mention raping children and tattooing their faces to mark his territory, I could not say I felt sorry for him. In fact, I kept thinking Vic should kill they guy. He didn't, and naturally it came back to bite him.

I think the latter really illustrates one of the things you need for a successful anti-hero. Their antagonists need to be even worse, and in The Shield they are just completely beyond the pale. Vic is a bad man, no doubt about it. But he also does a lot of good to try to balance it out. He simply sees violence as a necessity to do his job, and he is willing to not only bend rules, but outright break the law himself, and enrich himself, in the process. He's definitely not a sociopath. We can often see his horror at the things he sees on the street, and his sympathy for the victims. But he has no empathy for the people he sees as the enemy.

All in all he comes out as a very complex and well written character. He can be very likeable, and he can be one right bastard.

Still watching even more of The Shield. I just got to an episode where they caught a serial murder rapist, heard the actor's voice, and then it dawned on me who it was. Clark Gregg, a.k.a. Agent Coulson! Yes, our favorite Shield agent was a very bad man in a past life.

I love watching old shows and recognizing people like this, in roles before they became famous.

And when James Rolfe is all big and famous, there I´ll be to say I knew of him well before it happened

I meant famous to the general public, not just gaming nerds

Yeah!...We love that too... ...

Clark Gregg is just awesome...He's definitely one of the main reasons to be watching that little Agents of....Show...

I have still never seen Agents of Shield. Waiting for it to be on dvd.

So, with Being Human over, Vikings done, Bitten dissapointing and Game of Thrones not yet done. I~m watching National Geographic's Taboo. What we consider taboo is normal for other people in diferente cultures, and since I'm open minded to controversy customs, I was fascinated by it.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is great.

Person of Interest is always pretty awesome stuff...Glad it's managed to keep getting series...

Up in the air still, though, is Agents of SHIELD...I admit, however, that the Captain America 2 tie-in episode that we had last night was pretty special, for once...After weeks of ho-hum episodes, that one was actually an properly hexcellent hour of telly...

*Applauds the Whedon brother and the other creator wench that wrote that there episode*...Well done them peoples there... ...

Damn, I knew I forgot something yesterday.

Luckily it's repeated this evening.

Wait, there's one more episode, isn't there? That was it?!

Decided to revisit Farscape. It starts off kinda slow but once you get into it, the characters are loveable. I like that two of the leads were also in Stargate SG1 for a few seasons. I prefer Stargate and Battlestar Galactica to Farscape but it isn't bad at all.

Just wait until you get to the Federation Starship SS Buttcrack!

It's definitely more quirky and humor oriented than other sci-fi shows. To the point of being ridiculous at times but it is entertaining.

We had the Star Wars, Clone Wars film they launched the series with on last night...I missed the last third because I was mostly asleep... ...

I guess I wasn't enjoying it then... ...

I would love to go back to watching Farscape, but I can't. For some reason the discs just cause massive vibrations when I try to watch them. I can actually hear the humming over the show.