jamesq: (Default)
This little exchange happened a few months back when a friend and I we're wandering through Future Shop over lunch:
"Turns out I'm the last person on Earth who figured out that Torchwood was an anagram for Doctor Who"
"Since I didn't actually know that until just now, you're actually second-last."
Two coworkers were in ear-shot.
"Third-last," says coworker 1.
"fourth-last," says coworker 2.
I'll probably get at least one comment to this post saying "fifth-last", etc.

Doctor Who and it's spin offs never did it for me, and that's a little odd. It was a show that should have appealed to me. I think I was turned off due to The Law of Fan Jackassery which was at its peak in Calgary exactly when I was introduced to it. People like JB and SG were big fans of Doctor Who and were also such awful wastes of skin, that I couldn't bring myself to watch the show. And the fact that they liked a particular show and were also total gits had nothing to do with each other. Still, it sours you.

Now, of course, Doctor Who is a lot more popular (and therefore farther right on the jackassery curve), but the damage was done. It's not that I think the people I know now, who are Doctor Who fans, are jerks (mostly they're not) - it's that there's so much back story I don't want to do the work to get into it. My window of opportunity has passed.

In general, if I'm to get into a show I need to see it from the beginning. It's why a show like Lost might appeal to me, but I'm probably never going to watch it. I didn't watch it back when it was new and now that it's finished (to general approval of the shows fans, revealing it wasn't a waste of time and effort on their part) I probably will just never get around to checking it out. The hype has died down. It would be like re-watching Twin Peaks (the Lost of its day).

There are exceptions. I've recently plowed through two seasons of Chuck and Castle and found both to be time well wasted.

Still, there is a certain amount of pride in being an early adopter of a show. I was a big booster for the movie Amélie and got a lot of people to watch it. Similarly, a show like Coupling was probably going to be exactly as popular in my extended circle of friends with or without my recommendations, but I like to think it became popular months early due to my efforts.

As pride goes, this is an after dinner mint worth of pride, whereas actually creating something like a TV show or a book is a death-by-chocolate level of pride. You didn't really have anything to do with the thing being created, but by god, you had the good sense to recognize its genius before everyone else!

For self-evidently good things, it's often a matter of good luck and timing rather then superior taste that allows one to be an early-adopter. It was a chance comment about actress Sarah Alexander's good looks in an internet forum that made me try out the show when I saw it for cheap at a store. It certainly wasn't my superior knowledge about British television. For proof, I didn't know that "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who".
jamesq: (Golf Clap)
I saw Micmacs (original French title is "Micmacs à tire-larigot" which they tell me translates directly to "Non-stop Shenanigans"), Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest confection. It was really good, but be warned that in the set of people likely to enjoy Micmacs, I'm damn near dead center.

The best description of it I've come up with is a cross between Amelie and Ocean's Eleven. If that doesn't make sense to you, know that it is a caper movie with a cast of goofy but lovable oddballs.

It has all the usual Jeunet-isms that we've come to expect: The aforementioned goofy characters (from his stable of character actors), weird colour schemes and character angles, scenes of ugly people having fun sex. Oh and it has Marie-Julie Baup, who is one of the most adorable looking women I've ever seen.

This reminds me that I have a Jeunet movie I haven't watched yet. I should do that when I get back into Cowtown.

Another movie I saw in Vancouver was Year of the Carnivore. This was a simple, classic tale: Girl gains boy, girl loses boy, girl gains boy again after having lots and lots of really akward sex.

It's written by Sook-Yin Lee and stars Cristin Milioti as Sally Smalls, the protagonist who works through a lot of hangups during the course of the movie, mostly to positive effects, though she does get humourously-arrived-at criminal charges.

I'm predisposed to enjoying the story of poorly-socialized nerds learning to have relationships - one reason why I liked Amelie - This mostly succeeds there, but does so with a guy I don't think deserved the protagonist. He was a bit of a jerk. Oh well, they can't all be perfect. Along the way are a bunch of sexual situations that are at times funny, and at times funny-in-that-squirmy-contact-embarrassment-way.

Between the two movies, I have to admit I've got a thing for petite and nerdy brunettes. This probably isn't news to anyone who knows me well.

Would I recommend YotC? Sure, maybe not as strongly as Micmacs, but it's still good. It's just not one for the ages.
jamesq: (Default)
Another reminder that Nine's last show will be tonight (Saturday), 7:30 PM at the Pumphouse theatre. It's only $20 folks.

In other news, I didn't get bit on the ass nearly as bad as I thought I would at Weight Watchers on Thursday. So far this week I've been a good boy, despite numerous temptations.

In unrelated archery news, Last week's royal round was 83 and this week's was 91 (93, my archery is getting better, but my math still sucks)! Grand Master Bowman is within my grasp, I can feel it.

Profile

jamesq: (Default)
jamesq

December 2024

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15 161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 10th, 2025 03:26 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios