Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Graeme:
    At $69.95 you're being robbed at the moment however, Whitcoulls (I love Whitcoulls, and they probably love me) is selling it at $49.95 at the moment.

    Certainly, but being the sad little fanboy I am (who couldn't wait for his fix of Jamie Bamber wearing nothing but a tea towel) I got it the day of release and paid full list. Still, I don't think it's a bad price for a full season box. And, sure, it's extras light compared to the R1 sets - but when everything is pretty much available for free on the show website, I don't see the point of paying the premium for import. There's also the LoTR diminishing returns factor to cosnider - you shell out for the Viagra-cised Extra Super Special Edition, but what are the chances you're going to watch twice the feature-length documentary on the tea lady?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    I/S:

    OK. that makes more sense considering Torchwood is supposed to be in the basement.

    Lambert:

    I think you have a point. Perhaps I'm just getting old, but I'm watching less and less broadcast TV and being more and more picky about what I do bother to watch. And if you're a fan, even with no extras to speak of, $69.95 isn't obscenely expensive for the BSG season two box - and if you want commentaries, the podcasts are free to download from the show site, and there's lots of other tasty extras. Not so long ago, I'd have had to be satisfied with a pile of grotty tapes.

    If free-to-air broadcasters are going to bother shelling out for the rights to overseas dramas, then they better get a little imaginative about building profiles and audiences for those of us who are willing to try something a little more ambitious than Corrie, Shortie, CSi and that venerable old warhorse Lara 'Norder.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Educational? Indeed, I know one parent who wasn't quite prepared for having that level of education foisted upon his kids. We told him that's why they put warnings on the front of shows like this.

    Are you ever tempted to ask what sane parent is watching Outrageous Fortune with their "kids" in the first place? Love it, but it's one of those excellent local kidult dramas nobody is watching on a Saturday afternoon.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    How odd. The censor has nothing to do with broadcast television.

    No, but I'm sure there's someone at TV3 whose job is to rattle the Broadcasting Standards Code and all relevant practice notes and decisions in a vaguely intimidating manner. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Emma Hart wrote:
    Actually, while we're on the subject, I'm betting one of you can tell me, what's that building you keep seeing from the air in Torchwood that looks like a big trilobite?

    I reply:
    Probably shouldn't say the s-word around here :), but it's probably the Millennium Stadium with the retractable roof closed unless there's another big-arse building that looks like a trilobite in Cardiff. (And I know that because I'm a sad, sad geek...)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Ah, if you want sci-fi geek heaven there's three hours of Star Trek on Sunday from 11-ish until 2 - Original Series, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine - which is my favourite Trek show, and roundly despised by purist Trekkies, for the darker, more ambiguous tone of the storytelling and characterisation. (BSG executive producer Ronald Moore was on the staff of DS9, and it's interesting in a geeky kind of way to compare and contrast BSG with a show that dirtied up Gene Rodenberry's shiny happy utopia. Moore certainly seems to have a masochistic appetite for angrying up the blood of already unstable geeks.)

    Hooray for Prime, even though it's taking me a long time to warm up to Stargate: Atalntis. Now, if TVNZ isn't interested in screening the gloriously twisted Life On Mars - because us stupid plebs apparently don't have the attention span to handle quirky multi-episode British dramas on Sunday evening any more -, how about passing it on to Prime? Or is this abother case where you might as well get used to seeing the best drama out there on DVD - and sorry for getting ranty, but why the fuck have I had to buy myself Alan Bennett's Complete Talking Heads on disc? If this isn't right up the alley of the One demographic, what the hell is?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Oh, and could the genius who put the surprisingly watchable American version of The Office up against Scrubs please give themselves a good kicking? Here's a dirty little secret: I tape more programs than I'll ever watch, unless I have another screaming meltdown and don't leave the house for a month.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Radiation: All this, and Lucy too,

    Ep titles are also Shakespearean. A sad indictment of our education system, frankly.

    And what about all those kids who don't recognise the episode titles of Desperate Housewives as Sondheim song titles? Harumph...

    Frakking heck, season two of Battlestar Galactica is soo good and you should all go out and buy it immediately, because TV3 says that it might not screen it until late next year. Yes. By then, season three will be out in a box set of course.

    Though, to be fair, I imagine whoever does the scheduling at Three must have smoke pouring out their ears trying to figure out where to put BSG. Scifi is for kids, therefore 7.30 on Saturday is the perfect slot - until you realise you're starting with a military coup gone spectacularly bad, the very strongly implied rape of a pregnant supporting character is a critical turning point around the midseason mark and then things get really dark. :)

    So, after the watersead on a weeknight? Frak... weren't you paying attention. Science fiction is for kids, while grown-ups prefer doctors, police procedurals and increasingly surreal 'reality' shows.

    Oy and vey...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Island Life: Citizen Key With A Vengeance,

    Rob Hosking wrote:
    Russell's point about the more experienced deputy: a lot is riding on English. Internally especially. The most signficant thing about the leadership change this week is it wasn't contested. This is a caucus which has been bitterly squabbling since at least the end of 1996. The penny has finally dropped that being in opposition sucks.

    Indeed, Rob - and, again, I find it interesting that something which is considered a virtue in the 'real world' (assembling a team on the basis of their talent rather than patronage or surrounding yourself with people you don't perceive as a threat to your own ego/authority) is considered a horrible failing in politics.

    And I don't think it's snide partisan bitchery to note that Key would be very smart to take another message from the Tories - and the ALP, and the Democrats in the US. Center/swing voters tend not to reward oppostion parties that put most of their energy into cluster-fucking each other. Ahead of the last Australian general election, I was surprised that most of my Aussie friends - generally middle-class, not highly partisan urban moderates - who didn't like Howard personally, could reel off a shopping list of Coalition policies that royally twisted their titties but... just couldn't quite trust a Latham Government to keep it together.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Word of the Year 2006,

    Christiant -because 'religious right' and 'fundamentalist' are so last millenium. Also has the added bonus of being rather vague, but specific enough not to offend right-wing fundamentalist Muslims, Hindus, Xenu-worshippers etc.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

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