Not a TV thing, but Joss Whedon had a run scripting the X-men comics series, and it was some of the best stuff that title has ever seen. His atypical handling of a character's oh-so-comics-typical return from death deserves to go down in comics history as one of its finest moments and, hopefully, will evolve the way other writers handle it.
So while I haven't seen the movie yet, I'm unsurprised to hear that he did an excellent job with the Avengers film.
Of all the superhero films I've watched in the last several years in continued hope of recovered adolescent wonder, The Avengers was the only one that delighted rather than disappointed.
The Sister Rosetta episode itself was fairly by the numbers but some amazing archival footage - never seen the England stuff before at the train station or her final Copenhagen gig.
And as a lapsed Russian learner I enjoy testing what I can still understand (which is a fair bit I've been pleased to find, none of the main Russians AFAIK are actually Russian so they're speaking slower than a native speaker... good for me.)
We've just started watching the second series of Elementary, having missed the first series. The first episode took a bit of getting into, but we really enjoyed the second. We'll have to search out the first series. It does show how good the original Sherlock Holmes books were that two very different contemporary versions, set in two different cities, can both be outstanding.
Just discovered that our local library has copies of season 5 of Mad Men and season 2 of Downton Abbey. We're on a waiting list now, hopefully get them soon or it'll just have to wait until Netflix puts them up.
I watched all available episodes of Luther. Something like 10 episodes. I don't know if there are any others out there. It's a good show, not great. There are many aspects of the show that I can see people having qualms with. I stuck with the show long enough to start enjoying its pacing and cadence.
I watched the first episode of Firefly last night. It wasn't bad. I'll probably watch a second episode eventually. Hopefully it gets better. Right now, it seems like a smarter version of Babylon 5.
We watched the first couple episodes of some detective show called "Wallinger." I picked it solely because I thought it might provide some cool b-roll shots of Sweden, and maybe be an okay detective show to boot. Katie rolled her eyes when I suggested it, said that all the librarians were in love with that show. Despite her sardonic predisposition, I hit the play button anyway. I fell asleep half-way through the first episode; Katie fell in love with the show and was primed to watch episode two the next day. We had a mini-marathon, watched maybe the first 4 total.
Much to my surprise, we're really into Portlandia. I didn't think I would enjoy it that much.
I'm still enjoying Bob's Burgers. We're hitting up old episodes of The League.
Nip/Tuck, House of Cards, The Riches, Jericho, Lost, and Dexter are all on my/our short-list.
We went through all of the Kenneth Branagh Wallender. Enjoyed it a lot, a bit grim of course. You got a lot more than b-roll of Swedish scenery, as you have seen! Apparently there is a whole tourist industry that has grown up around Wallender sites in Ystad.
Jonah - series 3 of Luther is due to be broadcast here starting within a few weeks. If you have watched 10 programmes you have seen all the currently available episodes. I think there have been 3 series of the BBC version of Wallander, each with 3 episodes.If you can cope with sub titles there are more than 20 episodes of the Swedish version, which for many people, is far superior to the English version. Also, of course, both are adaptions of books by Henrik Mankell, well worth a read if you like that kind of thing.
We are enjoying the spat of Scandanavian detective series - they go into far more depth then many British/American detective series, much slower pace of getting to the end. The good news is that another series of the Bridge is being made, which we really liked a lot.
@Greg - Yes, netflix has nine episodes of Wallindger.
Also, an update:
Gave up on Firefly last night. Just couldn't make it through the second episode. It got a bit tedious, though that might have as much to do with the show itself as it does me and the kind of show I'm looking for at the moment...not a great match, y'know.
Tried watching the first episode of Nip/Tuck, gave up half-way through. Felt like I was already guessing exactly what was going to be happening in the next several episodes. Maybe the show isn't as predictable as it gives the impression of being, but I didn't feel like sticking around to find out. Maybe some other time.
I've gone through every episode of the West Wing on netflix. What a great show. Such a shame they didn't run for one more season. They certainly had the material to do it.
We watched one of the Swedish Wallanders, and I really liked it. Haven't found the time for more though. I don't know about the other version - I'm not a huge Branagh fan. Is the British one set in Sweden with everybody speaking English? Because I hate that. I can suspend disbelief for almost everything except for a film set in the wrong language. Especially when it's Russian. Especially especially when it's set in Russia or a Russia submarine and everybody's speaking English with a Russian accent.
Yes it is in Sweden with all actors speaking in English (no fake accents thankfully) - perhaps that is why I prefer the Swedish version! The only problem with the Scandanavian programmes is that I have to watch intently to read the sub titles, I can't be on my ipad looking at emusers or whatever.
There was a new two part crime drama on BBC over the last couple of nights - The Shetlanders. We still haven't watched it, but I heard a comment on the car radio this morning praising it, amongst other things, for being like one of the Swedish/Danish crime dramas.
Our favorite British crime show was A Touch of Frost. We watched the entire series together. Maybe it's a little cheesy? But I enjoyed the pacing and the bit of realism. So different from all the American crime shows that I watch tons of commercials for and have no interest in.
Yes we used to watch A Touch of Frost too, and were sorry when David Jason decided to retire. I did try reading one of the books but gave up as it just didn't seem the same! I liked the humour side of it, not so in your face as some series. We started watching a new series last week, Broadchurch, that has some of the same feel as a Touch of Frost
Especially especially when it's set in Russia or a Russia submarine and everybody's speaking English with a Russian accent.
Gee, whatever could you be referencing. :P
I find the whole idea that historical shows/movies tend toward English accents so funny, as if it's more "realistic" than an American accent. If I ever filmed a movie about Ancient Greece I'd have all the actors speak with Philly accents...
If I ever filmed a movie about Ancient Greece I'd have all the actors speak with Philly accents...
OMG! Did you ever happen to see that turgid Odysseus made-for-TV with Armand Assante in the lead? The outstanding moment was the guy who played the kid in Bonnie and Clyde (was it C.J. something?) as "Aeolus, gad of da wind" like fresh outta Brooklyn - it was an interesting, to say the least, interpretation.
I hate to say it, but most Americans don't like subtitles. I know I have to be ready to totally focus on a movie with subtitles, but often find it well worth the concentration. I remember telling my mother about Life is Beautiful, but forgot to mention that it's in Italian with subtitles. She maybe made it through five minutes of the movie.
One of the funnier/odder examples of English and accents is a redubbing of the dialogue in The Road Warrior into American English (for US Release) instead the original Australian.
I was at a writing conferences and one of my professors was on a panel about getting a novel made into a movie, in this case the movie is Lawless, based on the book The Wettest County in the World about a family of rural Virginian bootleggers. After the film, one older person complained that the dialect was too hard to understand.
It always kills me when I see a documentary (who am I kidding documentary=reality show) with someone with a major southern/cajun/other accent and they use subtitles.
I love that they are actually using Russian on "The Americans", because I also get irritated by Russians speaking accented English to each other.
Another question: Why do characters in fantasy shows ("Game of Thrones" for example), have to have a British accent?
But there is no such thing as a British accent. I struggle, eg, with some variants of the Scottish accent - a recent TV programme had subtitles for some Scottish speakers. There is what has become known as BBC English - an upper middle class variant, based around what those classes spoke in the early C20th - that even the BBC no longer uses. Think Downton English and you are fairly close. But I hear supposedly English English speakers on US TV programmes and they seem unreal to me.It is, of course, all down to artistic license.
And I am certain most Brits don't like subtitles too, which is why, eg, the Scandinavian detective programmes get put out on BBC4, a minority channel
I agree, but that doesn't stop people from believing that there is one proper way to speak English. Recently, I was teaching some people a few Irish songs. Members of properly trained choirs, they softened all their r's, which made the songs sound a little off. Unfortunately, when I asked them to "use more rhotic enunciation," I got giggles.
I love that they are actually using Russian on "The Americans", because I also get irritated by Russians speaking accented English to each other.
If this kind of thing catches on it could actually have significant educational value. More people might become aware of that many people in other countries do not in fact speak English.
I had to LOL GP. We English, and probably Americans too, assume that everyone else ought to be able to speak our language. OK true now for some people in some countries but not everywhere. But, and this is probably just relevant to GP, I was at a booK launch on Rethinking the Curriculum at IoE 10 years or so ago where an MFL expert argued that we no longer needed to justify MFL as necessary for travelling overseas as most places now people speak English well!! Not sure I agree, though.
@greg, depends whether you only want talk to a certain range of educated people who live near airports and/or work in the 'hospitality' industry. Last estimate I saw, 75% of the world population do not speak English.
Comments
So while I haven't seen the movie yet, I'm unsurprised to hear that he did an excellent job with the Avengers film.
My wife loves that show. She's been trying to get me to watch, and I've seen bits of it. Seems very well done.
Craig
Just discovered that our local library has copies of season 5 of Mad Men and season 2 of Downton Abbey. We're on a waiting list now, hopefully get them soon or it'll just have to wait until Netflix puts them up.
I watched all available episodes of Luther. Something like 10 episodes. I don't know if there are any others out there. It's a good show, not great. There are many aspects of the show that I can see people having qualms with. I stuck with the show long enough to start enjoying its pacing and cadence.
I watched the first episode of Firefly last night. It wasn't bad. I'll probably watch a second episode eventually. Hopefully it gets better. Right now, it seems like a smarter version of Babylon 5.
We watched the first couple episodes of some detective show called "Wallinger." I picked it solely because I thought it might provide some cool b-roll shots of Sweden, and maybe be an okay detective show to boot. Katie rolled her eyes when I suggested it, said that all the librarians were in love with that show. Despite her sardonic predisposition, I hit the play button anyway. I fell asleep half-way through the first episode; Katie fell in love with the show and was primed to watch episode two the next day. We had a mini-marathon, watched maybe the first 4 total.
Much to my surprise, we're really into Portlandia. I didn't think I would enjoy it that much.
I'm still enjoying Bob's Burgers. We're hitting up old episodes of The League.
Nip/Tuck, House of Cards, The Riches, Jericho, Lost, and Dexter are all on my/our short-list.
We are enjoying the spat of Scandanavian detective series - they go into far more depth then many British/American detective series, much slower pace of getting to the end. The good news is that another series of the Bridge is being made, which we really liked a lot.
Also, an update:
Gave up on Firefly last night. Just couldn't make it through the second episode. It got a bit tedious, though that might have as much to do with the show itself as it does me and the kind of show I'm looking for at the moment...not a great match, y'know.
Tried watching the first episode of Nip/Tuck, gave up half-way through. Felt like I was already guessing exactly what was going to be happening in the next several episodes. Maybe the show isn't as predictable as it gives the impression of being, but I didn't feel like sticking around to find out. Maybe some other time.
I've gone through every episode of the West Wing on netflix. What a great show. Such a shame they didn't run for one more season. They certainly had the material to do it.
There was a new two part crime drama on BBC over the last couple of nights - The Shetlanders. We still haven't watched it, but I heard a comment on the car radio this morning praising it, amongst other things, for being like one of the Swedish/Danish crime dramas.
I find the whole idea that historical shows/movies tend toward English accents so funny, as if it's more "realistic" than an American accent. If I ever filmed a movie about Ancient Greece I'd have all the actors speak with Philly accents...
OMG! Did you ever happen to see that turgid Odysseus made-for-TV with Armand Assante in the lead? The outstanding moment was the guy who played the kid in Bonnie and Clyde (was it C.J. something?) as "Aeolus, gad of da wind" like fresh outta Brooklyn - it was an interesting, to say the least, interpretation.
One of the funnier/odder examples of English and accents is a redubbing of the dialogue in The Road Warrior into American English (for US Release) instead the original Australian.
I was at a writing conferences and one of my professors was on a panel about getting a novel made into a movie, in this case the movie is Lawless, based on the book The Wettest County in the World about a family of rural Virginian bootleggers. After the film, one older person complained that the dialect was too hard to understand.
I love that they are actually using Russian on "The Americans", because I also get irritated by Russians speaking accented English to each other.
Another question: Why do characters in fantasy shows ("Game of Thrones" for example), have to have a British accent?
Speaking of Thrones. Watch this: School of Thrones. GREYJOY!
Craig
And I am certain most Brits don't like subtitles too, which is why, eg, the Scandinavian detective programmes get put out on BBC4, a minority channel
If this kind of thing catches on it could actually have significant educational value. More people might become aware of that many people in other countries do not in fact speak English.