Casting, Trailers, Sneak Peeks Scott and Bailey
First of all: How did I not know that Tricia Helfer's going to be on Community until yesterday? And in the Inspector Spacetime convention episode, no less. How did I miss that most exciting casting news of this television season? (Also, I have my fingers crossed that Karen Gillan's going to get her way and show up in that episode).
I quite like the idea behind the lastest Thick of It trailers. Don't bother with clips or the characters, just have the cast being intriguing. Also, it's one of the few times I've ever seen a grown up say 'deep do-do'.
Also, someone has uploaded Malcolm's take on Star Wars onto Youtube. Which is good because it is basically, the best thing ever and needs to be watched by everyone.
And the first sneak peak of the new season of Once Upon A Time has been released, and Lol Regina, and lol my affection for that show. I know on a level it's not very good, but I can't help but be massively excited about the new season and I do really want to see how Regina manages to not get strung up to her own apple tree and murdered. Also, I predict that Dr Whale is Peter Pan, and I will be very disappointed if the Queen of Hearts doesn't turn out to be Regina's mother.
In stuff that isn't upcoming, I mentioned how I had been watching Rizzoli and Isles a few weeks ago. Having finished that show I went off in search of similar shows and found Scott and Bailey. I was a bit on the fence about it the first few episodes but came to love it toward the end of the first season.
So, the show is: Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott are complete opposites and best friends and both police officers and so they fight crime. They also both once got possessed by powerful beings on Doctor Who - Rachel Bailey's played by Suranne Jones who was Idris/The TARDIS in the The Doctor's Wife and Janet Scott is played by Lesley Sharp who was Skye/the Midnight Monster in Midnight. So basically, there is some good acting in this show, and even with those two, the show is still completely stolen by Amelia Bullmore (aka Alex's mum of Ashes to Ashes) as their DCI Gill Murray, who gets all the best lines and really deserves her own spin off if the show wraps up.
Anyway, what I like about it, besides the 'they're women, they're friends, they fight crime' aspect, is that it's probably the least glamorous portrayal of police work I've seen, in that in that it's neither shiny in that the police departments apparently has a billion dollar budget and look like they could be movie stars, neither is it gritty, in that they're not all depressed and desperately underfunded and there's massive amount of intractable problems.
Nope, Manchester (where it's set) in this show looks thoroughly dull, the office they work in looks thoroughly lived in, the actors all look normal, nobody has got super sleuthing superpowers, half the crimes aren't even that tricky to solve (they take a back seat to the personal drama most of the time), nobody gets particularly upset about the murder victims or beats the crap out of suspects - and that's what's so brilliant. Instead of all the usual stuff, the show actually manages to for the most part capture what an actual work place is like, and a female dominated one at that. I'm not a police officer, but it still reminds me of my own office so much. And that wonderful normality totally works in the shows favour when it does get properly dramatic, particularly in episode five of the first season, seeing [Spoiler (click to open)]Janet get stabbed is a properly difficult watch.
Also, it's delightfully not all that focused on the case work, so it doesn't come across as a procedural, it comes across as a well acted and well written drama in which murders tend to be solved. I'm really looking forward to the third series.
I quite like the idea behind the lastest Thick of It trailers. Don't bother with clips or the characters, just have the cast being intriguing. Also, it's one of the few times I've ever seen a grown up say 'deep do-do'.
Also, someone has uploaded Malcolm's take on Star Wars onto Youtube. Which is good because it is basically, the best thing ever and needs to be watched by everyone.
And the first sneak peak of the new season of Once Upon A Time has been released, and Lol Regina, and lol my affection for that show. I know on a level it's not very good, but I can't help but be massively excited about the new season and I do really want to see how Regina manages to not get strung up to her own apple tree and murdered. Also, I predict that Dr Whale is Peter Pan, and I will be very disappointed if the Queen of Hearts doesn't turn out to be Regina's mother.
In stuff that isn't upcoming, I mentioned how I had been watching Rizzoli and Isles a few weeks ago. Having finished that show I went off in search of similar shows and found Scott and Bailey. I was a bit on the fence about it the first few episodes but came to love it toward the end of the first season.
So, the show is: Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott are complete opposites and best friends and both police officers and so they fight crime. They also both once got possessed by powerful beings on Doctor Who - Rachel Bailey's played by Suranne Jones who was Idris/The TARDIS in the The Doctor's Wife and Janet Scott is played by Lesley Sharp who was Skye/the Midnight Monster in Midnight. So basically, there is some good acting in this show, and even with those two, the show is still completely stolen by Amelia Bullmore (aka Alex's mum of Ashes to Ashes) as their DCI Gill Murray, who gets all the best lines and really deserves her own spin off if the show wraps up.
Anyway, what I like about it, besides the 'they're women, they're friends, they fight crime' aspect, is that it's probably the least glamorous portrayal of police work I've seen, in that in that it's neither shiny in that the police departments apparently has a billion dollar budget and look like they could be movie stars, neither is it gritty, in that they're not all depressed and desperately underfunded and there's massive amount of intractable problems.
Nope, Manchester (where it's set) in this show looks thoroughly dull, the office they work in looks thoroughly lived in, the actors all look normal, nobody has got super sleuthing superpowers, half the crimes aren't even that tricky to solve (they take a back seat to the personal drama most of the time), nobody gets particularly upset about the murder victims or beats the crap out of suspects - and that's what's so brilliant. Instead of all the usual stuff, the show actually manages to for the most part capture what an actual work place is like, and a female dominated one at that. I'm not a police officer, but it still reminds me of my own office so much. And that wonderful normality totally works in the shows favour when it does get properly dramatic, particularly in episode five of the first season, seeing [Spoiler (click to open)]Janet get stabbed is a properly difficult watch.
Also, it's delightfully not all that focused on the case work, so it doesn't come across as a procedural, it comes across as a well acted and well written drama in which murders tend to be solved. I'm really looking forward to the third series.