Canal Road is finally playing it's last episodes but I think I missed one. *pouts* I actually preferred this show over Underbelly but it didn't have the hype and died a quick death. On second thought, maybe I missed several episodes because those characters weren't living together last time I saw this. Dang it. It's a Brooke Satchwell centred episode too. She's the actress that I've been thinking about lately because she was trapped in that horrible massacre in India.

When she dreamed her teeth were falling out I about squirmed out of my chair. It reminded me of that dream from Alias when Sydney pulled the tubes from her guts. Or whenever I see someone clamp a metal object onto an eye (hello A Clockwork Orange). There's just some things that are nasty and cause instinctive recoil. Teeth and blood clanking into a sink from someone's mouth....*shudders* Must be why it's a common dream and a common metaphorical image.

Brooke's character, Bridget, has an N.F.R. tat over her heart. Awesomely dark. (Not For Resuscitation for those interested.) Potentially problematic if someone is trying to kill her. Just slightly. Heh.

She wasn't my favourite character on the show but I'm really enjoying this episode. Great acting. I believe she's dying. I'm still undecided on whether I want to get this series on DVD. There aren't many Australian series I like and I do want to support quality homemade stuff. Hmmm.

I got the job!!! :) Starting on the 24th!!! Need to buy lots of corporate clothes and shoes. Comfortable heels hopefully (if such a thing exists, I'll find it). I'm so excited!! Plus, no SELLING. No bullshit product pushing!! *hugs non-retail job* I hope I'm good at it.

I'm planning on saving up big and being stingy until March when Jo's lease breaks. Then I'll think about moving somewhere else with her since her landlord is being an ass.

On Rush:

WHAT???? They killed Grace???? *sputters* I....eh. What the hell? She was the only female character I liked on this show. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? I'm doubly pissed because I was in the shower when this happened and came back to them toasting her. I sat there going "wtf??? Is she...did they...why can't I have TiVo so I can rewind??" I'm still in disbelief. The good thing about Australian shows is that I can be in a state of disbelief because I have no idea where to look for spoilers. But still. Part of me keeps thinking they've taken her into protective custody because her car got bombed. And I still don't know what she died from because of the shower. She just passed out and then died later...was it a congenital heart condition? Was she poisoned? Who the hell blew up her car?

*confused*

I found the last episode of Rush fascinating despite the lack of pace. Callan Mulvey being so emotional at a car accident scene is gut wrenching if you know even the bare facts of the actor's real life. When he was gazing about in a daze and then wandered off to fall apart essentially, I definitely felt uncomfortable and sad.

It was a lot like seeing Joaquin Phoenix perform a character torn up by the shadow of his dead brother. Sometimes character and actor issues cut so close together that it feels very raw to the audience. A surprising and effective choice for the show.

Oh. lol Watching channel nine news they mentioned how some reviews of the American (mis)translation of Kath & Kim was so bad that they should cut off trade with Australia. Hopefully they were just being sarcastic and overly snarky but do grow up. I doubted it would ever be a hit or strike the right note in the US that it did in the UK. The UK gets the humour because they are familiar with Australian soaps and probably have a similar sense of humour. And when you call it tacky....DUH STUPID. It's taking the piss out of people who think they are superior but actually look ridiculous. And there's a lot of people like that.

My first reaction when finding out the show was getting a US version was "Bwuhhhh?" It's a satire of Australian suburban life. It's meant to be tacky, over-the-top and pretentiously low class. Then I saw a preview and it had Selma Blair playing Kimmy. Bwuhhhh? Kimmy is not meant to be attractive. That's half of the joke. She's meant to be slightly overweight, convinced she is beautiful, thus when she wears a g-string with tight, hipster pants it's twice as bad as a beautiful girl committing the same fashion faux pas. She's not meant to look good in a g-string and Selma Blair is beautiful. If she played a tacky character it would seem more like she lacked class ala Paris Hilton, which is very different to Kimmy on the Australian version.

I know the US TV studios are running out of ideas since they've already done a US version of Ugly Betty and NZ's Outrageous Fortune is also in the making (and probably others that I don't know about). But how did they think this show would ever translate when it's so culturally dependant? When I first heard about it I thought the only way it would work is if the writers looked at their own society and made it markedly different from the original.

But the cast is so pretty that I don't think they got the concept at all. It's funny because they had it on the news here that the show was slammed almost universally over there. And even the newscaster looked amused. Heh.

TV I'm trying while fandomless:

Carnivale, Fringe, True Blood, HIMYM, Rush and Deadwood.

This is what I am watching via DL anyway. I think every single one is a different genre. Huh.

I've heard good things about Mad Men but have yet to watch it. Thoughts? Is it just good and well made or is it my thing?

Why aren't I watching season three of Dexter? I like watching Dexter on DVD in one or two shots. It's one of the few shows you can do that without noticing too many continuity errors (or at all) and it's fun (even though the credits get really annoying that way).

( Super short HIMYM premiere thoughts )

I haven't started watching Carnivale yet even though I have several episodes because, since it's already over, I figured I'd wait until I had them all in case I liked it and wanted to watch the next one NOW. I've heard very good things.

True Blood is the slowest download ever and I'm only downloading because it's a vampire series based on a series of books. I haven't read the Sookie Stackhouse books but I'm hoping it means there's slightly more plot and direction than the average vampire show. Do I kid myself? We'll see. I'm open to trying vampire shows.

( Fringe thoughts. )

( RUSH thoughts. )

Are there any new shows I should be watching?

Dear Channel Nine,

I hate you right now. I watched Scorched. When it was advertized, I originally thought it was a mini-series. Then I saw it was only a film. Don't get me wrong, it still could have been a good film but it was OBVIOUSLY cut to pieces to make it movie length.

The first hour was really well paced and then in the second hour things started to go wrong. Sections jumped forward without flowing quite right. ( For example ) My continuity nazi had a schism.

Great concept, great actors (how many times have you seen Georgie Parker play a villain?? Trippy!) and even though there were dubious patches, I thought it had the markings of a great drama. And then it got cut to shreds and I thought "it really sucks they had to squeeze this into two hours because I'm sure the missing scenes would have made it really wonderful." I didn't expect what happened next:

"SCORCHED coming soon to DVD with over two hours of footage too HOT for TV."

WHAT??? TWO HOURS??? You mean the other half of the mini-series that would have made the second hour fluid story-wise? I have to BUY the second half of the series?

*glares*

Screw you channel nine. I might have been enjoying it and part of me wants to see if it's better in its entirety but I have PRINCIPLES. *glares*

They can't say they didn't have the air time because this was their production, the people who made the 13 episode strong Underbelly, and they could have made air time for a four mini-series. It was ONE extra night, one movie bumped. Plus, they can't say the unaired footage was like Underbelly Uncut because Underbelly had a lot of gratuitous sex and violence that was unnecessary to the storyline and THAT was what the bonus footage was made up of. The storyline on TV had no problems. Scorched obviously won't have two hours of similar footage since this had no sex scenes, no language and any violence was against nature. Grrrrrr.

( The good that tempts me to see the rest )

When I got home last night I was still wide awake so I stayed up to watch a couple of Olympic events. While gymnastics was on, it suddenly occurred to me, why I’ve felt like there’s been something important missing from channel seven’s broadcast of the Olympics this year.

Where the hell are Roy and HG? Where is THE DREAM? I loved it best in Sydney, naturally, because this was their home turf. But when The Dream went to Athens it was still freakin’ hilarious (in the winter Olympics too). It was such a breath of fresh air when Roy and HG started to take the piss out of the games, help the Australian athletes wind down after their events (and some foreign athletes too). No Fatso the Fat Ass wombat. No “hello boys” comical male gymnastic commentary? (Actually, it’s now wonder I figured it out when watching the gymnastics, heh.) No pointing and giggling at the male sprinters who don’t wear underwear and are unfortunate enough to be seen running in slow mo?

Normal commentary with well-informed commentators is so BORING. *mourns*

( I miss The Dream. )

ETA: Okay, I was late to enlightenment as usual. They WERE axed. *shudders* Apparently because of time zones (although China basically has Perth's timezone and I'm sure lots of people would have stayed up to 1am to watch the show, or the middle of the day - whenever. People WORSHIP this show). It's seriously the best take on the Olympics I've ever seen and I always look forward to the Olympics because of this show. Timezones weren't the only problem, they also claim security is so tight they wouldn't have been able to have an audience at the show if they filmed it there and this show needs an audience. Fair enough, but I also agree with one of the people that commented on this article - the show doesn't need to be filmed in Beijing. Sure, we'd miss out on the hilarious interviews - but my favourite part was the spoof commentary and they could do that from anywhere.

( And who replaced them??? )

I'm so searching YouTube for the memories. Prepare thyself, Flist. Either you'll be annoyed, you'll remember with me, or you'll find something new to chuckle over :)

Triple J did give Roy and HG some air time for Olympics coverage though so, even though it's not going to be the same, I'm going to tune in to The Golden Ring tomorrow. I also couldn't resist joining the Facebook group out of guilt I hadn't heard about the petition before...sigh.

But here's the first clip. Gymnastics commentary naturally.

Booooooo. He was the only character I still liked on this show. Why did they have to go and kill him?

Damn. I miss the days of Claire.

*crosses fingers for really bad soap opera revival*

YAY!

Dexter is on right now! Wheee!

My newspaper is informing me in very glowing terms that Dexter is about to arrive in Supernatural's timeslot once the season finale airs. WOOHOO! I really hope it gets good numbers but at least it's on Channel Ten, the channel used to losing. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Dexter is a blood-spatter expert for the Miami police department who kills other serial killers and psychos in his spare time. Now if only he could fit in a vist to the Big Brother house....A modified network version has been rejected by Ten in favor of the oiriginal in all its gory glory, which will begin on July 6."

On Big Brother: heh, but I think it's against the code of Harry, darnit. I also find it great that they're just going to air it after 9pm so they don't have to edit out the curses and the gore. What I don't get is why if they're going to keep Dexter - a cable show - as is, they felt the need to edit the "gore" out of Veronica Mars (seeing Lilly's head cracked open etc.) Channel Ten you boggle my mind but in this case, I'm letting it slide due to awesomeness. Honestly, they'd have to hack the show to pieces to clean up the language and the violence, why not just warn people? Still, I expect lots of complaints and lots of praise and I can't wait.