What have you been watching on (proper scripted) telly?

[cobystag]

The finale to Awake was such a disappointment. Up there with Lost in feeling like a waste of time for the last 10 minutes.

[Loki]

Sky Arts Ch 244 just showed an orchestral production called Video games live. Well worth keeping an eye out for. I only caught the last ten minutes or so.

 

I went to watch this live at The Sage a few years back, the whole thing's brilliant. Didn't realise it was kicking around on telly, thanks for the heads up!

 

Hosted by Iain Lee no less.

 

Is that the one where Tommy Tallarico gives himself and his mates huge handjobs on stage? I left that concert thinking what a long way videogame music had to go before it would really be culturally acceptable.

[BiffingtonClyro]

I think this was quite an upmarket thing so to speak. I don't think anyone wanked their cocks on stage.

[King Pitcos]

The finale to Awake was such a disappointment. Up there with Lost in feeling like a waste of time for the last 10 minutes.

 

I only ever watched the first episode, and I won't watch anymore. What was the twist in the end?

[cobystag]

Essentially in one of his realities everything went right, but in the other it all went to shit and he ended up in jail, now fully aware there was still a traitor in his other reality. Then it goes completely fucking daft where he's able to see where the incident happened, he's able to converse with his other life self in prison, his two therapists are there with him as he's walking down a corridor to a white light where he makes the choice to "merge" with his other self, seemingly accepting just the one reality.

 

Happy ending time as the wrongs are righted, but then at the end as he's talking to his therapist, everything stops bar him, he's able to walk into another white light where he's now in a third reality with both wife and son alive.

 

And that's how it ended.

 

Fucking dog shite.

 

Apparently from an interview with the producer that was always the ending as the introduction of the third reality would go further to show how far gone his psyche is, and if anything is real at all.

 

But bollocks to that I'm glad it was canned now.

[niff]

Soccer Aid is by far the best televised charity event in the country. Although a lot of it is the stuff of dreams. Will Ferrell and Mike Myers up front? Big Sam doing team talks in United's home team dressing room?

[PunkStep]

What was the score, who scored etc. I think Kevin Phillips playing was a bit unfair!

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Same could be said for Clarence Seedorf playing for the Rest of the World. The final score was 3-1 to the England XI, Teddy Sheringham, Johnny Wilkes and Kevin Phillips scoring after Serge from Kasabian had put the R.O.W XI in front with a worldy over David Seaman

[Magnum Milano]

Soccer Aid is by far the best televised charity event in the country. Although a lot of it is the stuff of dreams. Will Ferrell and Mike Myers up front? Big Sam doing team talks in United's home team dressing room?

It always seems like it's a case of Williams (& Wilkes) living out their childhood dreams of wanting to be pro footballers to me. The fact that it's the same faces turning out all the time (Wilkes, Theakston, Shepherd, Ramsay, Kielty, Murs etc) does it no favours either. Kielty looked especially awful from what I saw of him.

[Dai]

Im four episodes into Season 2 of The Walking Dead. Its as bad as most people have said. A lot of bad actors, bad characters, and just a contstant stream of emo speeches (which really start to wear you down after a while). You can only really get invested in these pain-filled speeches if you have invested in the characters, but the show hasnt give you a reason to do so. Because of that, you end up with loads of scenes of a misserable woman (the Mother/the blonde) who you dont know or care about, relentlessly moaning about an issue (the missing girl/the dead sister) you dont care about either.

 

Considering the season is only 13 40-minute episodes, its a painfully slow-moving show. You can sort of forgive a 24 epsiode season having a few fillers, but when its only 13, then it shouldnt really happen. The fact that the first episode had two monologues to 'God' in the space of five minutes sort of sums up the show.

[PunkStep]

You can only really get invested in these pain-filled speeches if you have invested in the characters, but the show hasnt give you a reason to do so.

Completely agree with you on this point. I haven't seen series 2, so I'm basing my opinions on series 1, and there was only one person I cared about surviving- and that was Andrew Lincoln. And this was only based on the fact I've enjoyed anything he has previously been in (This Life, Human Traffic, Teachers).

 

The main woman is shit, really shit. I really didn't like her in Prison Break and she's even more miserable and meaningless in this programme too. I really hate the older one of the two blonde sisters, and as mentioned on here before the scene with them sitting in the boat talking about their Dad fishing was terrible acting. I feel no sympathy for the little Asian kid or the token black guy they- and the only other two characters I don't mind are the mental redneck with the crossbow and the other cop. But to be honest with these two, the lines are too blurred as to whether they are good or bad- and not in a good way. In a fucking lazy 'oh what shall we do next with them' kind of way.

[Dai]

Finished off The Walking Dead earlier today. To be fair, it did actually pick up in quality from Episode 5 onwards. It's by no means excellent, and it still has pockets of shit scattered throughout, but at least it kicked up the action and tension, so most episodes at least had something decent going for it. The season turned out to be pretty good.

 

The finale sort of sums up the show. The first half was belting, then the second half is average and forgetable, with the characters rehashing old ground about surviving, and Lori/Carl being shit.

 

With a few exceptions, the writers have done a good job to cull a lot of the dead wood from the cast, too. There was no place for Shane once this story had run its course, and I think everyone will be glad to see the back of Dale. His death scene was pretty funny, too. I assume the writers spent the whole of that episode (the execution one, which was shit) trying to make Dale look like the good guy, just to make his death scene have a lot of impact. But by the end of it, I was so annoyed by his constant preaching that I was glad he got killed. Whats left it a pretty decent cast.

 

Ive read that theyre spending the next season at the prison they showed at the end, and introducing someone called The Governor, who's meant to be a good villan from the comics.

[Magnum]

Soccer Aid is by far the best televised charity event in the country. Although a lot of it is the stuff of dreams. Will Ferrell and Mike Myers up front? Big Sam doing team talks in United's home team dressing room?

It always seems like it's a case of Williams (& Wilkes) living out their childhood dreams of wanting to be pro footballers to me. The fact that it's the same faces turning out all the time (Wilkes, Theakston, Shepherd, Ramsay, Kielty, Murs etc) does it no favours either. Kielty looked especially awful from what I saw of him.

 

As regards Williams, he was one of the founders of the event so it seems fair enough he gets to play really, much like how Lenny Henry always gets a spot on Comic Relief and (IIRC) Bob Geldof did a set at Live 8 despite there being no public demand for him to do anything other than give his useless daughter a slap in about 20 years.

 

I love Soccer Aid - as charity events go, it's miles funnier than anything you'll see on the aforementioned Comic Relief. There's always some unintentionally hilarious moments - I'll always remember Gordon Ramsey berating Pierluigi Collina for refusing to give him a penalty after a ludicrous belly flop into the box in the very first match, or Jaap Stam being poleaxed by Craig David about 5 years ago. This year was no different, with Roy Keane clattering that little backflipping cunt out of JLS and Sheringham squashing Ramsey so badly he had to be stretchered off.

[Pier Six Brawler]

Anyone else watched Hatfields and McCoys? Don't know if its been on UK TV yet.

[NEWM]

God knows why I stuck with it (other than to sit and keep the wife quiet I suppose), but The Voice limped home tonight with

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Tom's fat bird

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close(); winning it all. I'm confident they will do actually fuck all with this victory in the long term.

 

I could list a million things wrong with it, but I think what ultimately killed it was the manner in which it was structured. Seemingly in an effort to try not to be an X Factor clone once the Blind Audition and Battle Rounds were done, they fucked people off the show left right and centre, and didn't feature each singer doing a solo performance every single week. So you really had no chance to invest in anybody's personality, certainly not enough to care about the result of the BIG LIVE FINAL!!

 

They video packaged the shit out of everybody tonight, because for the first time in the whole series, they actually had time to do so.

 

As far as talent show TV goes, I enjoyed the Blind Audition and Battle Rounds a lot, but hindsight shows that when the live shows came along, the coaches all started with way too many acts, which meant we could only have two coach teams a week, clusterfuck medleys and massive clear-outs when eliminations came.

 

Oh, also, the production was absolutely fucking crap. Atrocious camera work, some really awkward, stilted conversation between everybody from the presenters to the coaches and singers, and the "V-Room" interviews were turgid and do zero in creating a bit more interest in the singers.

 

I just typed more than I expected just for some fluffy shite like The Voice, but as somebody that happily farts out half a year to shite like the X Factor (and hate myself more and more for it as the years go by), it would have been nice to see this opportunity for something slightly different not get blown. Never mind.