Hello, hello. A shorter blog this time, just about Doctor Who. Only two more left, and they're looking rather good, with Russel T Davies playing 'how much can we shove into two episodes before they explode?!' But anyway, we've still got all that to come.

Silence in the Library - superb casting, great CGI, a typically brilliant script from Moffat. What more could you ask for? Of course, it's not perfect. The Data Ghost scene goes on a bit (although it is necessary for setting up the later scares) and the cliffhanger is just a lot of shouting (with an obvious resolution) but you can't have everything. Vashta Nerada must be the best name for anything ever... 9/10

Forest of the Dead - Faster paced than the first part and generally a much more exciting episode. Donna's virtual life provides a nice secondary plot (watch Doctor Moon's funny facial expressions! he's hilarious!) and the cast continue to impress. Tennant and Alex Kingston are amazing in their scenes together - provided with great dialogue (and imagery) - 'you watch us run', the Doctor opening the TARDIS by snapping his fingers, etc. River's 'death' scene is the best bit, almost topped by the Doctor's final run to save her. Just brilliant. 10/10

Midnight - a pleasingly decent script from Russel T Davies, who is not among my favourite writers for this series. There's no escaping the fact that this is filler, but if you accept that, it's very enjoyable. The cast are all good, but it is Tennant who holds this together in the weaker moments - such as the repeating stuff going on too long. Some people are gonna find this tedious, as it's basically some people in a box shouting at each other, but I didn't, really. Better than I expected, 7/10

Turn Left - Rose is back, hooray! Thank god, cos without Billie Piper this episode would have fizzled out completey. Catherine Tate isn't bad as an actress, and she just about carries it off, but the story's not exactly interesting...more like a clipshow of series 3 and 4, or a 'best of RTD' episode, with a bit of ATMOS thrown in for good measure. The pre-titles scenes are great, and the last five minutes are amazing, it's just a bit stodgy and uninteresting in between. I just felt the whole thing was fairly pointless, especially as everything looks so good next week. Ah well. The trailer...wow. Should be good. 6/10

Please post comments! We can argue about which ones are good and which ones aren't

Fireexit

Wow, I'm impressed with myself. This semi-regular blogging thing's working for me again . Sooo, we've had a few more Doctor Who eps, the seventh season of Scrubs concluded with an episode meant to be broadcast earlier in the run so it made no sense, I dug out some Buffy DVDs and started getting addicted to that again whilst I should be revising for my GCSEs..., and I'm gonna start reviewing albums, starting with Accelerate by R.E.M.

Doctor Who

Is it just me or does anyone else think this is the weakest series so far? Basically every week I've felt the show's become predictable, not particularly exciting, and Catherine Tate, no matter how good people say she is, reminds me of one of her sketchshow characters. Anyway, these two have been better than the ones before.

The Doctor's Daughter - I sighed when the Doctor was cloned, cos it just robs the show of most of the real father-daughter drama. She's kinda his daughter, but she's a clone...not an ACTUAL daughter. Apart from that, this was pretty good. The Hath look quite cool, and the Doctor's shouty speech at the conclusion is good (if a bit reminiscient of the one in The Christmas Invasion). Martha doesn't get a whole lot to do though, which is odd, and Donna noticing the dates seems like it's been tacked on to make her look clever. So, Jenny's out there...yet another character set to retrun at the end of the series, maybe? 8/10

The Unicorn and the Wasp - I enjoyed this episode more than any other this series. Mainly because it was so daft. The wavey lines for the flashbacks, the Doctor miming to Donna what he needed to expel the cyanide from his body, the sheer ludicrousness of the villain being a giant wasp. All very silly, and also quite enjoyable. The plot's not the best, but it made me laugh and kept me watching far more than Partners in Crime and Planet of the Ood did. Not the best episode so far in terms of drama and all that stuff, but the one that's been the most FUN. 8.5/10

Buffy

Once More, With Feeling - just brilliant from beginning to end. Although the songs are the main talking point here, what I think is just as great are the plot developments, such as Tara finding out Willow's been messing with her memory, and Buffy revealing to her friends they dragged her out of heaven. Anthony Head and James Marsters are great singers, and their songs are probably the best, but none of them are bad. There are also some very funny moments and lines here ("So that's it, you've just come to pump me for information? / What else would I want to pump you for?"). One of the best Buffy eps. 10/10

Hush - a great concept for a show. Everyone gets their voices stolen, so mime and writing on cards become commonplace. The scene where Giles explains what's going on is hilarious, and the Gentlemen are both terrifying and very, very funny. 9/5/10

Something Blue - Willow's grief over breaking up with Oz is very well portrayed, as is her friends' reactions to dealing with her. But the spell she casts, causing all sorts of mayhem is what stands out as being one of the funniest things in Buffy. Giles trying to get drunk to drown out the sounds of Buffy and Spike kissing, and all that stuff is great. One of the highlights of Season 4. 8/10

Restless - my all time favourite episode of Buffy. A whole episode of dreaming, basically, leading to some incredibly weird, and some very funny images, while also delving deeper into the characters. Giles's song is great, and there are some truly memorable lines ("We need to build a fort. / I'll get some pillows"). 10/10

Scrubs

It's painful to see one of my favourite shows sink to a low quality, especially when it's been so good for six series. Season 7 ended with an episode set mainly in a fairytale land, as Dr Cox tells his son a bedtime story. The trouble is, it's not really very funny, so everything ends up looking weird for no reason. If this show returns for an unconfirmed eighth series, it needs a strong linking plot and some decent jokes, two things this series has been decidedly lacking in.

Music

R.E.M. - Accelerate

Yeah, I know they're an old band, and most of my friends say "R.E.M.? Oh, my mum likes them!" but I don't care, I like them . This is their recently released fourteenth studio album. One of the most aggressive, fastest, and definitely shortest thing they have put out in all their years of music making. 11 mostly short, biting rock songs with crashing guitars and well-written lyrics. Here's a link to the two singles so far from the album. The first, Supernatural Superserious features some very loud guitars , while the other, Hollow Man, has a nice combination of guitar and piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_We6ubpUHZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2PbySA3DAg

Please post comments, I'll try and blog again soon.

Fireexit

Hello, hello. A few thoughts on Series 4 of Doctor Who, plus Heroes and Scrubs.

Doctor Who

1) Partners in Crime

A surprisingly weak plot for the new Doctor Who, I found this one pretty disappointing. The Adipose are cute but not brilliantly realised, and the bits where people have them moving around underneath their clothes look ridiculous. On the plus side, Catherine Tate does just fine as Donna, Tennant continues to be a great Doctor, and the Rose surprise is a good one - this show should do more things like that. 6/10

2) The Fires of Pompeii

I wasn't sure about this one... It didn't impress me as much as I think it should have. However, the effects are amazing, the Doctor fighting people with a water pistol is EXACTLY what this show is about, and Tate is very good at the end as the Doctor breaks the rules of time. 7/10

3) Planet of the Ood

There's some good stuff here, mainly the brilliant Ood - one of the best alien species in Doctor Who, who are rightfully developed into more than 'those creepy squid faces from the Devil episodes'. But the story's so slow moving, taking ages to get anywhere and Tim McInnery is a bit miscast, coming across as just another unmemorable cliched villain. 6/10

4) The Sontaran Stratagem

Okay, first thing's first - the Sontarans are silly. Well, they are. They're hilarious. But it seems the Doctor Who team knew this too, and so Christopher Ryan (General Staal) gets some decent dialogue to work with. Martha's back! Hooray. I like her more now. The clone plot thread seems a bit pointless though...The pre-titles sequence is, as RTD pointed out in Confidential, a rather adult way to begin the show, and it works. 8/10

5) The Poison Sky

The first episode this series which I've gone away from feeling satisfied. Martha's underused, but hopefully she'll fare better in next week's ep, which looks great. Nice reference to the gas-mask zombies, Rose again (!) and a good cliffhanger. Best ep yet, I think. 8/10

Heroes

1) Four Months Later

A fairly strong opener, if very slow. A whole new lot of plot-lines begin, and look to be just as good as last year's, if not better. Hiro's scenes are the best by far, but the Matt/Mohinder/Molly dynamic is interesting, too. 8/10

Scrubs: Season 7

This begins airing in the UK this week on E4, but I've seen the first 10 episodes through downloading, on youtube, etc. Bit disappointing overall. The first couple of eps are good (the cliffhanger resolution to Series Six is awful though) but there just aren't that many funny bits... Also, there's not really any proper plot for a couple of shows, so everything's a bit directionless. Episode 10's very funny though.

Thanks for reading, please post comments

Hello everyone, it's that time again where I come back, blog once and disappear for months! Hooray, everyone rejoice and do funny dances... Well, I'll just blog and if I don't come back for awhile, no matter. New Doctor Who! End of Torchwood! It's snowing outside! Aah!

TV Reviews

I've posted a couple of Dr Who and Torchwood reviews but here's an overview of series two of Torchwood, and the new Doctor Who...

1) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: about as good a series opener as Torchwood is capable of, and I mean that in a nice way. Immediately, all the baggage of the team not getting on, and all the silly swearing has gone and been replaced by buckets of humour and a cool Time Agent for the team to fight. James Marsters is great as Captain John and for the first time, this show is fun. 9.5/10

2) Sleeper: a far slower episode than the previous one, but it needs to be. The change from emotional drama to full out alien invasion is done with skill and the final sequences are really cool. 8.5/10

3) To the Last Man: it's Toshiko's time to shine and she does, so congrats to her. I didn't quite get my head around the plot the first time but I think I do now . It's a bit slow in places but moving also so it's okay. The last bit where the team use some random alien tech to project Tosh back in time is a bit odd though. 7.5/10

4) Meat: a bit gross this one, and the CGI's not great in a couple of shots, but it's great that Rhys finally gets to know about Torchwood. 7/10

5) Adam: a good idea but the flashbacks are laughably cliched and badly acted, and Barrowman's "IT WAS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!" and "No! It gets dark! We have a fire! Mum joins us!" lines are hysterical. 7/10

6) Reset: Woo, Martha, the companion I never liked. She's good in this though, and the story's interesting, ending in a genuinely shocking cliffhanger. 8/10

7) Dead Man Walking: a case of throwing loads of plot elements together and seeing what happens. All the Weevil stuff is great, as is the creepy girl at the beginning, but Martha ageing has no effect on anything and the fight with death looks a bit silly. Burn Gorman's very good here though. 8/10

A Day in the Death: an interesting way to tell the story and Burn Gorman's performance really bring this to life, although there are tons of things they don't explain like how come Owen can still talk, and all that stuff. The scene where Owen cannot save the old man is heart-breaking. 8.5/10

9) Something Borrowed: a ridiculous episode seemingly played for laughs. Best bit is when Rhys holds up the broken chainsaw and Jack storms in with a BIG gun. 6/10

10) From Out of the Rain: dull, tension-less and definitely not scary, this is probably one of the weakest episodes to date. 4/10

11) Adrift: a very strong episode with a ton of emotion. Eve Myles leads the episode with ease and there's a strong sense of unease and darkness present throughout. 9.5/10

12) Fragments: they had to do this episode some time or other and now is fine with me. Some very interesting tales here but the end is the best bit. John! Gray! Owen not at all hurt despite the fact he was standing next to a bomb and can be hurt very easily! 8.5/10

13) Exit Wounds: the Torchwood crew prove again that they know how to do season finales. Jack goes through a lot of hell and James Marsters excels again, plus the decision to kill off two main cast members is shocking and handled very well. Tosh and Owen's final scenes are among the best in Torchwood ever. 9.5/10

Doctor Who

Voyage of the Damned: I didn't like this one, sorry. Kylie's very pretty to look at and the effects are superb. A few good bits but the plot is ridiculous, the villain really is crap and the episode's too long. 6.5/10

Partners in Crime: very silly one this, see my full review for more waffle. Catherine Tate's good though, and wow! Rose! 7/10

More blogging coming soon... Maybe... Please comment!

Helloooooo everyone . I had all my stuff to post about Family Guy and Placebo and then it vanished from my computer...not quite sure how but ah well. So instead there's a shorter thing on Family Guy, as well as TV and music reviews and stuff from Mock the Week...

TV

Family Guy - I've now seen series one and five. I think five is infinitely better, with the first season relying too much on a couple of weak jokes an episode that aren't really that funny. Whilst series five has the classic first two episodes PTV and Brian Goes to College that never fail to make me laugh! The good: good performances from the cast, great one-liners, likeable characters. The bad: too much of a reliance on jokes irrelevant to the actual story, an occasional lack of plotting, sometimes just going over the top and becoming stupid.

Twin Peaks - after re-discovering the DVD of series one on my shelf, I re-watched it and was reminded of why I liked it so much the first time round. This really is an excellent show. Despite being made at the start of the nineties, the age doesn't really affect it. At first glance, this is a murder-mystery show that is absolutely bloody bonkers, and I suppose it is - with a lot more to it than that. The characters are engaging, and you get to know them, and want to know more about them. FBI Agent Dale Cooper is one of the most likeable lead 'good guys' there has ever been, with his great obsessions with 'damn good coffee', cherry pie, strange investigation methods and frequent comments to his Dictaphone which he addresses Diane. Most of the leads for the murder investigation come from weird dreams and visions involving giants, men called Bob and Mike, and a dancing midget in a red room who speaks backwards. Yes, really.

The 4400 - once upon a time I loved this show. Its first season, and some of the second season dealt with the emotions of the characters so well. But on the outset of the third series, and continuing into the fourth, it seems, over-arching plots have over-ridden the character stuff, and the show's just become a bit boring, to be honest.

Music

Placebo: Placebo - this band's first album, and a very good one it is too. After initially disliking the songs here, they grew on me immensely, and now Come Home, Bionic, and Hang on To Your IQ are among my favourite songs. 9/10

Queens of the Stone Age: Lullabies to Paralyze - criticized by many QOTSA fans for being a weak album, I disagree for the most part. Songs such as Little Sister, I Never Came and Burn the Witch are great, and the album only begins to tail off towards the end, with some longer, less interesting entries. 7/10

Razorlight - Razorlight - a million times better than their previous album Up All Night, there are no tracks on here I dislike. Favourite songs: Before I Fall to Pieces and Los Angeles Waltz. 10/10

Bands and some of their songs I'm listening to at the moment

Queens of the Stone Age - Sick, Sick, Sick / Little Sister / Into the Hollow / I'm Designer

R.E.M. - The Great Beyond / Losing My Religion / Nightswimming

Placebo - The Crawl / Allergic / This Picture / Come Home

Fall Out Boy - This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race / Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Angels and Airwaves - It Hurts / Distraction / Start the Machine

Mock the Week

-- Unlikely lines to find in the Bible --

"St Paul's third epistle to the Corinthians: 'Dear Corinthians, I've written to you twice now. No reply. I don't know how you do things in Corinth, but where I'm from, that's a bit rude.'"

"And God said, 'Right, that's all the fourteen commandments, now will you remember all of those?'"

"Table for twelve, Jesus? I can do two sixes at 8:30."

-- Unlikely lines to find in a James Bond film --

"I'll have an egg roll, scrambled, not boiled."

"Everything's ready for your mission, Bond. All you need to do is fill out this health and safety risk assessment."

"We'd better slow down, there are speed cameras."

Thank you for reading, bye byeeeeeeee

Fireexit