Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

“You’re a classy man, Tony Blair.”

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No, I haven’t completely lost my marbles—that’s one of the hilarious lines from Life on Mars, which Darin and I just finished watching. For those of you who haven’t heard the hype, it’s the story of Sam Tyler, a DCI in 2006, who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. Did he really go back to 1973, or is he in a coma? And if he is in a coma, how on earth did he imagine 1973 in such vivid detail?

The show is absolutely wonderful, and John Simm (who’s in practically every frame, because the entire series has to do with his POV) is fabulous as Sam Tyler. The big breakout star from this is evidently Philip Glenister, who plays DCI Gene Hunt (or, Gene ‘unt, as everyone calls him), and he’s completely hysterical as the foul-mouthed, old-school policeman who does not understand any of Tyler’s wacky innovations to police work, such as “surveillance” or “profiling.”*

The first episode of Series 1 and the last episode of Series 2 are completely brilliant. (That ending! It’s the feel-good ending of the year!**) The episodes in between range from the good to the really, really good, with some utterly hilarious lines, and not just the anachronistic one from the title of this entry. The depiction of 1973 does make it seem like they’re on a completely different planet. (Although, as Darin put it, if you could actually get someone from 1973, they’d probably watch this show and point out tons of anachronisms. Doesn’t matter. Close enough.)

If you want to see it, either demand Region 1 DVDs of it or, er, find other ways of getting it. I didn’t watch it on BBC America, but since each episode was 55-60 minutes long and filled with swearing, they must have chopped the hell out of it.

David E Kelley is remaking this series for the US. So…one guess: it’ll be set in Boston, 1973. I’m also going to wager one of the first story notes from the network is, “Change the ending,” because there is no way an American network would approve that. (Cable: maybe.) I haven’t the slightest clue how they would drag this show out for 22 or 24 episodes a season. It is primarily a police procedural in time travel garb, and police procedurals have become extremely tired and stale of late. (Cf. Life, a show I love and miss—Damian Lewis: fabulous; police procedural part: oy.)

* When we started watching the show, Darin said, “You know who the guy playing Gene Hunt reminds me of? Colm Meaney.” And when I went to the IMDb page for the American version, lo and behold: Gene Hunt will be played by…Colm Meaney.

** If you don’t know what the ending is, don’t seek it out. I unfortunately got spoiled by Alan Sepinwall, so I knew what was coming, but Darin was like, WHOA.

Filed Under: TV

Morning round-up

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• So, there is a movement afoot to take next year’s Foothill New Works Festival to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Pretty much the major reason why we wouldn’t do it is if the American dollar goes to, I dunno, 3 or 4 to the British pound. But! Doctor Who as Hamlet! I am so there! Must. Go. To. UK. Somehow. Go, Apple stock!

• Please to watch this absolutely brilliant four-minute-long opening credits sequence for The Kingdom, which manages to cover the salient history between Saudi Arabia and the US. I still have no interest in seeing this movie (despite the presence of the ever-awesome Jason Bateman), but this sequence: Wow. When’s the last time you saw a credits sequence this memorable? (For that matter, when’s the last time you saw a credits sequence? Seems like they’ve been missing from every movie we’ve seen recently.) (Via Making Light)

• Speaking of movies you should see or Netflix immediately: The King of Kong. I have to say, I wasn’t that thrilled about going to see a movie about a showdown between two Donkey Kong players (I don’t even like arcade games), but this documentary about what happens when a guy decides he wants to beat the high score in Donkey Kong is fabulous. I am so happy Darin and I went out of our way to see it in downtown San Jose.

• Have you ever said to yourself, “Self, I need a Hostess cupcake that’s bigger than my head”? Well, if so, Nicole at Baking Bites has felt your pain, made the band-aid, given you pictures and a recipe.

• Jon Carroll gets right on the whole no-gays-in-Iran thing, discovers there are some who “believe that Iranians will like any group of Americans that doesn’t try to kill them.”

• There are approximately 8 million people in the greater Los Angeles area, at least 2 million of whom have SAG cards. And the producers of the number one hit show on TV from last year couldn’t find at least FIVE who could do a decent Irish accent for the opening show of the season?

• Speaking of the fall season, is there anything out there that I absolutely, positively must catch amongst the new shows? We watched Moonlight because of Jason Dohring (he of Veronica Mars fame), and our JD love remains intact because he was the only good thing in this amazingly horrible pile of dreck — he managed to deliver unsayable dialogue with panache. The rest of the show was poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly stitched together. We had to turn it off halfway through, and we never turn off shows.

We’ve also watched Reaper (yay, Ray Wise, but we liked this show much better when it was called Brimstone) and Chuck (yay, Adam Baldwin, but sorry, dude: you’ll find a better show eventually).

Darin really likes Mad Men (the portrayal of women’s roles in 1960 gives me the heaves — let me just put it this way: I hate it when I hear a woman mutter that she doesn’t believe in feminism, and this show perfectly dramatizes why).

• My God, Torchwood is silly stuff. The big mystery to us is how Captain Jack kept his American aviator’s coat in such perfect condition for the past 60 years — perhaps he had one made up in alien fabric.

• Have you ever said to yourself, “Self, I need a wrist rest that’s both useful and funky”? If so, the people at the What On Earth catalogue have felt your pain and produced the Baguette Wrist Rest. (Via Nicole at Baking Bites.)

• The ever-fabulous Otto passes along the best of Craiglist Boise:

2 COWS OR MORE – $1

Reply to: sale-437692507@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-01, 11:32PM MDT

HERE IS THE DEAL IF YOU WANT TO RAISE YOUR BEEF I HAVE THE PLACE.LETS TALK
CALL xxx-xxxx
——————–

Free Llamas–You catch, you haul

Reply to: see below
Date: 2007-10-02, 10:00AM MDT

We have three llamas that we don’t have time for. They’re free, but you need to catch them (in a corral) and haul them. One young male, one adult male and one adult female. These llamas have NOT been trained for packing. Please call Tony at xxx-xxxx.