Televisual Treats

Bloody hell; a football rant, a review of an old book and now TV. It's like nostalgia only less old and gnarly...

I realised a long time ago that my TV blogs are about as interesting to most people as herpes or cat hollowing, so I stopped doing them. Ironically (possibly) around the time I stopped doing it we (read 'I') culled a lot of the shit we (read 'I') watched and as our (and I mean 'our') TV tastes seem to have narrowed considerably over the last 12 months, this is likely to be quite short. It most probably will have spoilers in it; well, there's no most probably at all, there will be.

However, there won't be spoilers in the following statement: "Jenna-Louise Coleman is very good, no Amy Pond but... but, hasn't this current (½) series of Doctor Who has been utter shite."

Right, that's that out of the way, let's move on.

Do not, under any circumstances, go out of your way to watch or even worse buy the box set of Netflix's Hemlock Grove, you will never be able to get the 9+ hours you spend watching it back and you will wonder what the hell is happening to television if utter shit like this can seep onto our small screens. It tried to be a cross between Dark Shadows, Twin Peaks and a post-modern Universal monsters and ends up having lots of soft porn, ridiculously cheesy dialogue and a plot that is stretched out - super thin - over 13 parts, and quite bonkers (in a bad way), which leaves a very poor taste in one's mouth and outs the likes of Dougray Scott, Famke Jansen and one of the (lesser) Skarsgards as nothing more than just mercenary imbeciles who have no quality threshold at all. It is risible and puerile and should be avoided.

I might pretty much detest most of the SyFy Channel's output nowadays, but it still does Warehouse 13 and that's back for another one of its piss poorly executed schedules. It's the second half of series 4 but feels like series 5 and I'm not about to question the logic behind it except to say the same puzzled scheduling befell Eureka and that got canned.

What Warehouse 13 did so well in series 2 seemed to have gradually been forgotten about once Claudia was made part of the team. The most recent episode finally ties up the ongoing story that has been haunting this series since the finale of Season 3 and it does it by returning to what made this programme so good in the first place - that (father/daughter styled) relationship between Claudia and Artie (and also Pete's unbelievably childish humour). It's still fun to watch; still shocking at times - when you really don't expect it to be - and I think it's a real nerds show, so I can't fathom why I'd like it.

That brings us nicely to the TV series most people have been talking about. We're halfway through season 3 of A Game of Thrones and I no longer like the series. The first two were awesome and inspiring, but I hadn't read the books then so it was all new and brilliant. Then I read the books and I pick every episode to pieces in my head. I see what they're doing and why they're doing it, but equally it's always been something that I cannot get my head around - if a book is good enough to be made into some form of motion picture adaptation, why does it have to be an 'adaptation'? Why can't it just use the book as more than a template? Why can't it actually use the book as its primary source - dialogue, story, plot all based on events in the book rather than just using it as an inspiration for some producer/director to do his own version because he doesn't really like the source material that much. I mean, why didn't Weiss and Benioff just invent their own fantasy/medieval/epic if they wanted to change it, merge it or fuck with it the way they have?

Some of my friends can divorce themselves from the two; but I struggle.

It is brilliantly acted and made, but this 3rd season seems devoid of soul and I don't know if that's a genuine feeling or one brought on by me having read the books. I also expected to write much more, yet I'm not surprised I haven't.

TV has taken on an almost chore-like feel with me of late. I've not really enjoyed a TV series since Shameless (US) finished a couple of months ago and I've been trying to remember something that's been on recently where I absolutely can't miss it or have to watch it as it comes out. I have been enjoying Alan Yentob's series on Primetime TV in the States and I did enjoy It's Kevin, but that's also finished.

And that's about it. If anyone can remember something else I watch (it must be good for me to remember so clearly) then remind me and I might amend this (if I have anything to say).