OnlyDanno

Heroes Nightmares

Danno — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:33:59 +0000

Ive finally caught up on Heroes. What with work and everything recently I had got a bit behind but now Im up to date - in terms of BBC terms (which I think is only a couple of episodes behind the US). First impressions? Im not sure to be honest. Season 2 took me a while to get used to, yet now I look back on it quite fondly as a thoughtful, ‘discussion’ based series. We got more depth to the characters and it provided a respite after the all-action series 1. Season 3, of which I am at episode 3, has done the same frustrating that that a lot of shows do ie Prison Break. Its dismissed and got rid of characters (admittedly who may return) for the sake of keeping the franchise fresh. Keeping in mind how far I am in the series and that this list may because defunct as the series progresses, heres my ‘niggles’ about what ive seen so far.

Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh were enjoying being new age dads throught series. Molly now serves no purpose so shes quickly dismissed early on with the line “shes somewhere safe”. How are we supposed to believe a characters emotions when they can change so dramatically ? Going from laying their life on the line to protect her, and “I’ll never leave you’, to getting rid of her in an instant?
When did Mohinder cross the line into Nutty Professor? He was always the voice of reason - within minutes of the first episode, hed lost the plot.
Along the same line as the Molly thing… Claire Bennett, so attached to West throughout series 2, has now forgotten him totally.
Nicky Sanders. (Im aware this story is still developing but it strikes me as this) Series 2, they had no clue what to do with the Nicky character. Her strength powers were boring and split personality thing confusing. Series 3, lets change her powers with a twin Nicky arriving. Asking a bit much of the audience that one. And what happened to the muscle mimic she rescued from the fire? Either way, if Nicky was going to die, she deserved a bigger send off than that. Poor Micah. Lets hope they keep him.
Sylar. I realise he will change and be an evil bastard again, but working with Noah? Come on!

My point here is that they seem, to me, have asked a lot of the audience. Not only are we being asked to forget characters we have invested time in, not only are we being asked to accept extreme character changes, but they then throw in a whole load of new characters in one go. Apparently being a Hero isnt that special anymore, it seems everyone can fire flames from their anus this series.

Thankfully they let Hiro and Ando return to series 1 form… and as annoying as it can sometimes be, at least their characters are consistent and likable still.

I really love Heroes, and Im sure by the end of this series I will think it has been fantastic. I just get annoyed at that moment when a new season begins, and the writers and producers expect the viewer to have a memory loss. Unfair.

Moonlight

Danno — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:18:52 +0000

I know it seems like I watch a lot of TV. That’s because I do. And last night I plunged into another series, and its all a bit odd really. I’ve always been able to get into sci-fi. Space, aliens, flying police boxes… its all good with me and I easily become consumed by it. I’ve never, ever ‘got’ vampires though. I didn’t watch Buffy and didn’t have any interest in the whole phenomenon. For me I guess scary monsters crosses the line into something I cant relate to. However, i was pleasantly surprised by “Moonlight“. I picked it on a whim from the ‘on-demand’ listing on BT Vision, and for the first few minutes of the pilot I was very very cautious. It all seemed to be trying a little too hard to be clever and stylish and yet at the same time it kept throwing in cheap vampire gags. However, by late on in the first episode, I found I was beginning to warm to ‘Mick St John’ and his life as a good vampire. The more vulnerability his character showed, the more likable and watchable he became. I quickly moved onto episode 2 and was really glad to see it all settle down. The story was an interesting twist on the standard good versus evil vendetta, and Alex O’Loughlin really started to pull it out of the bag in terms of the vulnerability factor. Its clearly early days for me and this series, but it may just have turned around the whole vampire/fantasy tv genre for me. All they need to do now is drop the cheap vampire gags. Bloody awful.

James is back…

Danno — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:18:56 +0000

There’s something about James Morrison I really like. Simple, good tunes, and a decent modest singer. Its good to have him back.

Genius iTunes

Danno — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:27:52 +0000

iTunes is the one piece of software I use every day without fail, no question. In some way shape or form I always have music on, having transferred all my CDs to the Mac some time ago, and having spent way too much money on the iTunes music store. I was, therefore, looking forward to the release of iTunes 8 in a really nerdy way. I really wasnt disappointed. What’s interesting though, is it isnt that remarkable in terms of an upgrade. Everything is the same as it always was in effect. However 2 features have made it an upgrade I wondered how I did without.

The new grid view for albums is what I have been hankering after for a while. An easily accessible way of getting to the artists and music in my collection is genuinely now at my fingertips, and as much as I love the prettiness of COver Flow, I never found it an easy way to find what i wanted. The new grid view solves that easily. One click plays an entire album, a double click shows all the albums by an artist. If Apple are attempting to replicate the feeling of browsing a real life CD library, I think this is a big step towards it. A couple of little extras would be good in the next update (even though they are just cosmetic really): A nice little ‘flip over” animation equivalent to what I get on the iPhone would be a nice addition when I double click an album and maybe even, in common with the iPhone, the vertical alphabet listing down the grid view to allow a quick jump to a section.
The Genius feature. Subtle yet increasingly clever, it generates playlists based on recommendation from the iTunes store and other users. The first two playlists it created for me were genuine Genius, pulling out songs from my library I hadn’t heard in an age. Yeah so ok you might get the odd song in there which doesn’t fit, but in time this will improve, and you only have to hit delete to remove any stray ones! It’s a feature which I love for the simple reason its refreshed my library and kick started my listening again. Brilliant

I havent used any other media player in years now after originally spend years trying out different ones. The day iTunes came along everything changed, and in my opinion changed for the better. Its done me, and the music industry and lot of favours.

Prayers answered?

Danno — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:06:34 +0000

According to this article on Digital Spy today, Catherine Tate is to make a return to the Doctor Who specials when it returns to out screens. As one of the best assistants yet, with a character who has so much more of a ‘Who’ life to live, this has to be a great decision. Donna’s life was cut prematurely short and Im hoping this will be a way of getting her back permanently. And Wilf! The problem is they are also rumoued to be bringing back John Simm as the Master. This doesnt go down well with me. His episodes were weak and his acting crossed the line of cheese in my humble opinion… I guess we cant have it all our own way though.

World Record for me?

Danno — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:00:29 +0000

So for years now Ive suffered a problem with one of my eyes. I’m short sighted anyway, but in the lest few years my vision has got worse. Ive been sent from optician to Royal Eye Hospital to Neurology for brain scans and still they come up with nothing and leave me to it. So I book myself in at a small village, high street optician and try and get it sorted once and for all. I wasnt expecting the best eye test ive ever had - but I got one. An hour and a half of every test imaginable and some answers to the question I had been asking for a while. We all have floaters in our eyes I know that - but strangely I was delighted to hear my optician say “Whooaa.. thats a Guinness Book a Records floater in your eye…!!” Apparently, all these problems Ive had for so long seem to come down to a massive floater. The fact that nothing can be done about it almost doesnt matter now that i finally have an answer and have had a thorough test. My question is, why when I have been to High Street chains of opticians like Dolland and Aitchison and Specsavers, could none of them have told me what a small independent one did? Why did their eye tests last no more than 15 minutes? Shouldnt there be some control over how these people run their essential medical trades? We put our trust in them and without knowing it can be let down. Suffice to say that if youre in Bookham looking for an optician, try Donner Optometrists on Church Road and try and get an appointment with Mrs Alexander. You wont regret it.

Inside Man

Danno — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:55:05 +0000

So as my long summer holidays come to an end, I’m still playing catch up and squeezing in a few more films I didnt catch when they were released. Today’s was ‘Inside Man’ with everyones favourite Denzel Washington, and Ive got to say, I really enjoyed it. Recently Ive been getting a bit frustrated with the predictability of films. Everything seems very formulaic and nothing tends to hold my attention in the way I hope. I came to Inside Man with this pessamistic attitude - however I was pleasantly surprised. This is a film with a just a slight difference. It follows the ‘cat-and mouse’ power games between a bank robber and a hostage negotiator, both of whom are smart men. Its a simple well-worn premise but its told in a way which maintains interest and tension, yet in a very relaxed style, so that youre never quite sure which way the plot will end. One device I always love in films - possibly linked to my craving for unpredictablility - is ad-lib scenes and this film contains many quite clearly improvised moments which make the whole thing even more watchable and very real. Throw in a handful of English actors alongside the always brilliant Denzel and Im bound to be happy. In addition there is also an underlying moral message throughout about respect for your fellow human beings which adds a sense of ‘feel good’ to the film which is a little unexpected, but which works in setting the story in a bigger picture. For its individuality and comfortable performances, alongside a great story and Spike Lee’s unpredictable direction, I’d have to say i really rate this film and would recommend it to anyone seeking something just a little bit outside the standard thriller blockbusters.

Prison Break: Back on Form

Danno — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:13:56 +0000

Just to add to my last post about Prison Break - Season 4, its worth saying episode 2 is a definite return to form. The drama is back, the cliffhangers are back, and it has returned to a more subtle storytelling style compared with the first episodes slap in the face “this is whats what” style. Good to see the subtle introduction of a new character too! James Hiroyuki Liao as Roland lightened the episode and immediately became a likeable character. I have to say though, as much as I like Sara, and missed her in season 3, she seems a bit of a spare leg at the moment. Good to the show back on form though - Im definitely looking forward to the rest of the season now the clean up is over.

Prison Break: The Big Clean Up

Danno — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:54:22 +0000

So it’s back. And it works like this. Episode 1: Let’s clean up all the shit left behind by the prematurely cut short season 3, set up a new premise to drive the season, and introduce all the old favourites to make sure everyone keeps watching. Dont get me wrong, I really like episode one - it was great to have the show and characters back again. The contrivances to get us to the end of episode one at a point where we have all the drama set up for the rest of the season was a little too much though. Season 3 wasnt that bad, but someone somewhere assumes it was, based on viewing figures Id imagine. So within half hour we’ve supposedly wiped out Gretchen and definitely Whistler, the driving forces behind season 3, and we’ve brought back Sarah, the driving force of Seasons 1 & 2. All evidence of Season 3 is now removed from our minds by the company. It couldnt be more obvious that they are saying to the viewer “Please forget and forgive us for Season 3 and invest in Season 4 again. Thanks” And the thing is, I will. I like the style and the never ending hugely contrived “cliffhangers”. I like the mysterious, but ever so slightly silly “company” stuff. I like dumb-ass Linc going round killing everyone who waves at him, and Sucre harping on about Monte Cruise. In the end Ill watch because I like the characters and thats based on all three seasons that went before. The show is always going to suffer because its orginal idea is now a distant memory, but with stong characters we care about, it can succeed again. I think I just felt a little ‘miffed’ that the time I invested in Season 3 was unceriomoniusly wiped from my mind in an instant.

Rest in Peace

Danno — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:32:10 +0000

This is probably an odd post, but one I felt like making. Recently friends of mine lost a close friend to cancer. She had known for a while she was going to die and had made appropriate arrangements. What’s interesting was the choices she made. I had heard about ‘Green‘ burials a lot in the past, but only in the sense of mocking conversations and uncomfortable quips - so when my friends asked if I would accompany them to her graveside one day recently, I was unsure what to expect. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. If ever the phrase ‘Rest in Peace’ was demonstrated, it was here. A beautiful corner of English countryside set aside as a burial ground. There was no tombstones, or oversized monuments, but simply trees which had been planted to mark the simple graves of lost loved ones, alongside a small lake and plentiful wildlife. It was peaceful, calm and an escape.

Ive always thought that when I go, I dont want people to feel they have to sit at my graveside feeling sad. I want to give those i leave behind the option of going to an area of beauty to be happy and calm, while remembering me and also having an escape from their daily lives. It would be a final gift to them and another part of the beautiful English countryside preserved and established for future generations. Everyone wins so why do we mock such things?