Friday 28 December 2007

Christmas Viewing/ Watching/ Reading (but not eating)

Well as usual, TV was pretty crap, but that should be of little surprise. I haven't watched what was probably he best thing on TV Harry Hill's TV Burp because it clashed with Eastenders. I have sky plussed it though and will watch it later tonight. I'm sure it was the best thing on.
So was Eastenders worth watching instead? Well, finally, for two episodes, it was. After the longest build-up in history, the Max/Stacey affair was finally revealed. Having them all discover it at once via the DVD was genius. It's a shame the child who plays Lauren couldn't act. She was unable to show emotion on her face, and was completely out-acted by her little sister, the annoying one with the guinea pigs, who normally breaks into song every five minutes. Luckily, everyone else involved acted pretty well for once and the fall out was all exactly what I wanted to see as a viewer, although perhaps not on Christmas day (slit wrist with your turkey?)
Will Bradley take Stacey back? Probably! Bless him. Max proved himself to be as evil and selfish as expected. Boo! Unfortunately yesterday we were back to all the usual dross, with Parklife, Stephen (Didn't Go To) Acting School Beale, and Ronnie and Roxy (with her My Little Pony hair and frowny forehead). Zzzzzzzzzzzz. Give Phil Mitchell a new year drink, for fuck's sake.
Coronation Street wasn't quite as good as Eastenders, but I enjoyed the whole christmas present mix up and a good old festive beating. The question is, would ANYONE put up with Rosie's personality, no matter how good looking she is?
Deal or No Deal is normally pretty good over Xmas but instead of doubling the money, they decided to ruin Christmas by making it a charity thing. Zzzzzzzzz! I don't want to hear your sob story at Christmas. It's too depressing if they're dying and then they lose. It's just cruel! I was quite disappointed. No doubt they couldn't afford to double the money now they aren't rinsing it out of us via the phone-in competition.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed Love Actually again, but perhaps inspired by this my mum made me watch Serendipity which was fucking awful! How unlikeable are Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack in it? I wanted to punch the pair of them. Just the word 'serendipity' makes me want to crush my own fingers with a a hammer rather than ever hear it again. Piss off. I was rooting for their girlfriends and boyfriends in it, as the leads were a selfish, smug pair of twats.
Just about the only other decent thing on at Xmas was Extras, which was the final ever episode. Quite an odd one this, as I watched it early with my boyfriend (we downloaded the US version as it was on earlier). Apart from some very strange American references in it (Kramer and Ryan Seacrest instead of Jade Goody and Same Difference- I mean, do Americans pander to us like this? I don't think so) I really, really enjoyed it. It's not laugh out loud funny, but Ricky Gervais' social (and emotional) commentary is always spot on. The cameos are alright, but they don't make it. I loved the Big Brother stuff, of course. I watched this again at my mums when it was on BBC1 and it went down like a dodgy mince pie. No one laughed once except me and everyone complained that it was boring and not funny. So I think it will probably split opinion and get slated in some parts. But Ricky is still the best.
Oh and further to them making the references more American in it- what's the point when half the jokes are around 'Barry off Eastenders', Dean Gaffney and the Carphone Warehouse? I find it quite patronising.
Oh, I also watched I Am Legend over the Christmas period and it was very enjoyable, up until the point... oh, I'd better not ruin it, should I? But yeah, you'll know what I mean. Is it a zombie overload in moviedom yet? Or do we still like them? I think I still like them a little, and Will Smith is OK, despite the ears.
Oh and I read a book over Christmas that my best mate lent me, which is the first book I've finished in fucking yonks. I've been reading Morrissey: The Albums for 6 months. But I read and finished The Illumination of Merton Browne, by Justin Shaw, which was a tale of a chav who liked to read (a lot) and is somehow incredibly loveable despite him being up to all sorts. It's very easy to read, which is lucky, because I'm lazy. It would make a good film, probably, which is what my mum always says about my stories. So yeah. Read that.

2 comments:

Shep said...

I flipped over to Eastenders early so that we wouldn't miss Doctor Who. Then had to explain to my seven year old how shit Eastenders is, and why they show inappropriately themed soaps just before a kids show. The thing seemed awash with Gingers as well, what's that about? OK have one cheeky one that gets into scrapes and fall off ladders and shit...but come on BBC. That's not what my £131.50 was supposed to support. This isn't Channel 5. Or Five. Oh God.

I read books. Lots of them. And last night we watched Gervais, which was pretty disappointing. As was his last live show. I'm expecting not to be overly impressed with Night At The Museum 2 either. The last decent thing he did was that chat show.

Over Xmas we watched stuff like Atonement, No Country For Old Men, 2 Days In Paris...and didn't once touch the Christmas Radio Times. Funny that.

lightupvirginmary said...

I went to the royal albert hall to see ricky and thought it wasnt as good as the other two stand up shows he did. Where is there to go with comedy once you've hit the big time? I guess it just ends up a bit elitist.
Last night I watched Mirror mask which was bizarre, like nothing I've seen. That might be good for the kids... it's quite Labyrinthy but also... really strange.