Friday 19 May, 2006

My friend the television

Veronica Mars, originally uploaded to Flickr.

I thought I'd give people a bit of a round up of my televisual (and movie watching ) life lately.
Exciting event number 1: Watched the very last, totally final, never to be seen again episode The West Wing. If one was going to be objective I would say it probably wasn't fantastic but it did the job - as, perhaps, did the bottle of champagne Virginia and I opened for the occasion. I cried. And I figure they were hamstrung by the death John Spencer. Too much real shit had gone down for them to feel able to go for the dramatic plot twists. Very, very sad it's over. Even lesser West Wing is greater than most TV.

Exciting event number 2: Thanks to my half-brother Luke, watched all of the first season of Veronica Mars on DVD. (Hey, I've just started a PhD. What else do you expect me to do?). Loved it. Kristen Bell is just wonderful as Veronica. Never the victim. Not so sassy you want to shoot her. Her sometimes boyfriend, Logan,played by Jason Dohring, is both hot and bad. Best (and non-creepiest) father daughter schtick you'll see on TV. Enrico Colantoni as Keith Mars is wonderful. He loves his daughter, and treats her as an independent, intelligent person. Who would have thought? Percy Daggs III is as good as his name promises. It's been compared to Buffy, which is a good comparison, but it's different enough to stand on its own. (Alyson Hannigan has a small role in the series).

Exciting event number 3: Watched the first season of Love My Way. Absolutely brilliant. Hire it, buy it, get Fox. Whatever. Best Australian television drama going. It shows you how far off track the commercial stations are getting. And it really, really made me miss Sydney.

Moderately exciting event number 4: Deep breath here. Mission Impossible 3 (I will not call it MI:iii or whatever the fuck). I thought it was much better than most reviews suggest. The Australian gave it 4 stars and I'm with them. Perhaps people just can't get past the Tom Cruise thing. But I could, and thought it was great. Philip Seymour Hoffman is awesome as the bad guy.

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