September 3, 2010

Time to Plan Santa List(by utubeacct2008) + New US Shows Coming This Autumn to the UK + Spy Game Vid by manipenni05



Few photos just because it's a lovely, breezy Sat morn here - the sultry heat has finally lifted and there's a bit of crispness in the air...burnished autumn leaves, pumpkins carved into jack o'lanterns & crunching fallen leaves underfoot cannot be far off...

I don’t watch any of the following listed US shows, however hubster never fails to see ea new episode for 3 of them. **Asked his opinion of those and included his verbatim remarks.

>From today’s on-line Guardian:

3 Sept 2010 - The latest US TV imports

Conspiracies, zombies, assassins, cops – there's plenty to get your teeth into in the latest shows coming across from America

Is US TV out to get you this year? We've got not one, but two conspiracy thrillers on the horizon, plus a zombie invasion, conmen, assassins – and a lot of undercover cops. Here's a quick look at some of the best of the new US dramas coming to UK screens this autumn.

Rubicon - BBC4

AMC's conspiracy thriller is all hidden clues in crosswords, clandestine meetings in libraries and (very) slow-moving plots – the perfect show to settle down with in the long winter months. James Badge Dale (The Pacific, 24) is the junior intelligence analyst who starts to wonder whether he's working for one of those ultra-secret societies who are out to control the whole world. Miranda Richardson, Arliss Howard and Roger Robinson are all involved, somehow.
(**hubby’s assessment: “it’s probably the most intense & complex conspiracy theory show I’ve ever watched. It’s worth your time.”)

The Event – Channel 4

"The assassination plot … is not the event." "The disappearance is not the event." "The CIA cover-up is not THE EVENT." Another giant conspiracy to keep you guessing this autumn. But where Rubicon seems to be drawing on The Conversation, Three Days Of The Condor and The Parallax View, the reference points here are more 24, FlashForward, Lost … and possibly even the X Files. What's so secret that the secret service haven't even got President Blair Underwood on their "need to know" list? Hmm.

The Pillars Of The Earth – Channel 4

Big, bloodthirsty epic about the fight to build a cathedral in 12th century England, based on the novel by Ken Follett. Ian McShane (no stranger to muddy battles after his days in Deadwood) is wrangling with a cast that includes Matthew Macfadyen, Rufus Sewell, Donald Sutherland, Sarah Parish and Hayley Atwell.

Dark Blue - Five USA

Dylan McDermott (The Practice) teams up with Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) for this undercover cop squad drama where they plot against drug dealers from one of those dimly lit HQs that look a bit like pool halls.
(**the hubs said “I like this one even better than Rubicon - extreme undercover cops..lots of action---it’s shoot ‘em up and love ‘em up.”)

Nikita - Living

Hong Kong action star Maggie Q follows in the high-kicking high heels of Anne Parillaud, Bridget Fonda and Peta Wilson to play the rogue assassin who's looking to take down Division, the mysterious agency who trained her. (Didn't they used to pop up and give Jack Bauer a hard time at CTU?)

The Walking Dead - FX  (Ricrar:  Brits will have an opportunity to see Strike Back's Collinson as a gun-toting, 10gal hat wearing western sheriff)

The True Blood vampires will be back soon but, until then, maybe it's time to let some other monsters into your life? Based on a cult comic and produced by Frank "The Shawshank Redemption" Darabont, The Walking Dead offers at least the possibility of seeing Andrew Lincoln being eaten by zombies, which should make it worth a look. It's also produced by AMC – the American home of Mad Men and Breaking Bad – which suggests there should be a lot to it than hordes of lurching undead stalking malls.

Hawaii Five-0 – Bravo

You know the names, you know the number and you'll be familiar with the theme tune: this re-imagining of the classic cop show brings Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight), Scott Caan (Ocean's Thirteen), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) together as an all-new elite squad dishing out island justice. Masi Oka (Hiro in Heroes) is also on board as the team's coroner.

Also back …

The mighty Mad Men return with a new office next week on BBC4; (**again from DH: “I’ve enjoyed this 60s throw back to a unique era. The plots get slightly repetitive, there’s lots of alcohol consumption & womanizing“)

..terrestrial viewers get a chance to wallow in the Southern gothic of True Blood's second series on Channel 4 – the third (with added werewolves prowling the Bon Temps woods) is on FX later in the year. Medics Nurse Jackie (BBC2) and House (Sky1) are also both set to return - but who'll be the first to get an iPhone stethoscope app storyline?

Looking ahead to early 2011

Sky's deal with HBO will kick in next year, with Martin Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire (Ricrar comment: After a brief glance at this trailer on HBO‘s website, my impression is the HBO hallmarks of authentic  detail in costumes, architecture, period language are definitely apparent;  however, at least in the trailer, there’s an over abundance of thuggish gangland violence. Granted, Atlantic City during the roaring 20s was in no way a mild mannered place, but being constantly grossed out by brutality is not my idea of entertainment. That said, OH will probably thoroughly enjoy it.  Afterall, ‘The Godfather’ is considered by most men to be the best movie ever made.)

David Simon's Treme and the "fantasy Sopranos" Game Of Thrones all on the cards.
(Ricrar: We’ll subscribe for at least 6mos to HBO in order to view Game of Thrones. Recently they’ve produced a few spectacular series. ‘Rome’ and the aforementioned & much anticipated GoT are two of them.  Never understood the handstands over 'The Sopranos'.)

Sky1 has also bought Ride-Along – a new cop show from The Shield's creator Shawn Ryan starring Jennifer Beals, and Lone Star - think The Riches with a dash of Dallas. Over on More4, meanwhile, there's Shameless USA, with William H Macy putting a Chicago spin on Frank Gallagher's messy family guy.

Still waiting for…

Breaking Bad. Are Five ever going to show the second series of this brilliant show again? That quick run last Christmas went by way too fast. And what about the third? Surely Bryan Cranston's Emmy win this year should ensure that it gets a proper slot?


Oh yes, who wouldn’t entrust electronic access to their home to an organization that refers to it’s artistic products with the phrase “damn near any surface” Ha! Is that how Michaelangelo pitched his Sistine Chapel frescoes?:)
[couple choices demonstrated above]

Clever new service offered, BUT it would be wise to make sure you know exactly the full capability of the technology used other than that described below. The on-line ad reads..

>Put a classic work of art directly on your wall

Museum heists are nearly impossible to pull off, unless you're Pierce Brosnan. Or Sean Connery. Or Catherine Zeta-Jones. Pretty much any non-English British person can do it . Assuming you're not any kind of British, get classic works without navigating laser-tripped alarms, with Art Fusion Murals.

Dallas-based AFM will transpose reproductions of priceless paintings directly onto damn near any surface in your home; started in LA, the outfit perfected its process servicing commercial clients like The Venetian casino, presumably with works from Picasso's Blue Man Period. The process is simple: go online to nail down the wall, door, floor, window, ceiling, or curved alcove you'd like to cover, then select your masterpiece, after which you and a rep will go over measurement instructions; they'll show up in two weeks to install it, or you can actually slap the thing up yourself if you live outside of North Texas, or you're just confident you won't screw it up. Don't worry, you'll do fine. People in Norman are naturally good at this kind of thing. The Renaissance- & Impressionism-heavy selection numbers nearly 200 (from Van Gogh's "Starry Night in Arles Over the Rhone" to Bierstadt's 1868 “Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California”), though just about any piece by an artist dead for 70+ years is fair game; AFM can also focus on a particular section of a work, or even apply the treatment to a hi-res image you supply (Beer-stat's "Among the Sierra Nevadas"?).<

2 comments:

Musa said...

New photo of Richard on the set of Spooks from Digital Spy, also a mention of a future article:
http://www.digitalspy.com/about/the-assistant/a249030/pigeon-detectives.html
I'm waiting for the TV interviews to come :) Being out here in the wilderness I used to mind spoilers, but no longer. I find despite all the info out there, there are always surprises once I see the actual episodes. Glad the dry spell is over -LOL

Ricrar said...

Just read your post, Musa, re the Digital Spy photo that I've already posted. Really appreciate your heads up on items that could easily fly under my radar:)

Still no RA sightings since his BAFTA appearance -- sincerely hope he's taken this quiet period to marry the future mother of his children before SB2 takes him off again for extended shoots. We'd probably never know if that were the case---he will no doubt keep her in deeeeep cover. We don't bite, do we?..well not usually anyway;) haha

That's his perogative but how have many other celebrities managed to be somewhat open about their significant others without any difficulties in that regard? Beginning to feel like part of a band of threatening vultures who would swoop down and steal his beloved if her identity was ever revealed. *giggles* Actually, that could easily be his sub-conscious fear.