Weblog | I don't like the word blog, it's ugly. Anyway, new content happens here. (Swedish dito)

About me and the site | Twenty-something male who likes text. Obsessed with things such as books, reality, communication, and one or two tv-shows.

Archives | Things written here since... well, 2001. Some of it is good, some is utter shait.

Books | Books read, not books written. So far I've struggled to maintain unpublished.

Photo | I like my camera and it likes me.

Links | Outwards, away, flee.

e-mail | J. Nicklas Andersson

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League of GEntlemen, third installment

The third and last season of the League of Gentlemen is odd (there is however a movie in the works). Instead of trying to please as many people as possible and really gain viewers in its last run, the League does something else: it goes darker and weirder and probably losing a few of the more fainthearted viewers in the process. And I though that season two was dark.

Everything is fair game here. Possessed arm transplants from “donators” that wouldn’t miss it, mass death in the local Bed’n’breakfast, and even cruel morgue humour. Then comes the last episode and everything goes. It is dark, mean-spirited, twisted and happy at the same time.

Every episode of the season ends with a cliff-hanger (except for the last one), which is a stroke of genius as all the episodes pick up on the previous cliff-hanger and uses it as a jumpstart for it’s own.

The Prisoner

The Prisoner is neat. I’ve so far only seen the first episode, but the other sixteen will follow almost now. The sequence in the beginning I thought was very similar to the one in Danger Man, but that might be a corrupt memory playing tricks with my mind. And it had twists and famous quotes from the get go. Neat. More fill follow as I progresses through the series.

Wonderfalls

Fucking FOX. Can’t someone just LART the fuckers really really hard?

Carnivàle

I’ve seen four episodes of Carnivàle and damn. HBO knows how to do these things. Serious supernatural drama without going all pretentious. It’s basically good versus evil but with a whole lot of gray areas set in teh middle of the 1930s. I think it will all go down to that it doesn’t matter where you got your powers from, but how you use them and that everything has a price.

And I can’t stress this enough, best title sequence ever. I kid you not. I need to see the other episodes now. I’m a tv-show junkie and damn proud of it too.

Commentary notes

Why Steven DeKnight is one of the good guys: on the “Inside Out”-commentary track (Angel 4x17), he says he stole everything from Joss Whedon, Tim Minear and bad Kung-Fu movies (such as Master of the Flying Guillotine which he mentions several times.) And a person who gathers inspiration from the old “You killed my teacher, you swine!” sort of kung-fu can’t be bad.

Angel canned

No more Angel on the WB and after Firefly it seems uncertain if they can be picked up by another network. This is stupid on so many levels, and I don’t say that jsut as a fanboy.

Sure, they say they conisder tv-movies but that’s not a really good option. I want episodes, I want arcs, I want development that doesn’t seem forced.

Look a radio

With a stereo hooked up into the computer-speakers, I once again have the ability to listen to the radio. However, sometimes it can be dangerous. Like last night, when Nattliv happened to begin with Bosse Löthén — one of the best people on P3 and they move him to a time-slot in the night, pure insane troll logic — I just had to listen for quite a while. Lots of talk, just like it should be.

I’ve missed the radio. Even though they play inane music and at times is plain annoying, I’ve missed it.

One Intense Presenter

Full Metal Challenge on Discovery. 27 teams from all over the world compete in different ways (car bowling anyone?) with their homemade machines. Fun, but that’s not the kick. The thing is hosted by Cathy Whatshername from Scrapheap as well as... Henry. Henry as in Rollins. Funny, tattooed guy, kind of intense. Neat.

On DVD soon

Things on DVD this year includes: Jeremiah season 1 in Januari, Angel season 4, Dead Zone season 2, Kung Fu season 1 and C.S.I. season 3 in March, Kids in the Hall season 1 wide release and Buffy season 7 in April and Invader Zim (with commentary track by Jhonen! Jhonen!) in May. I’m not too sure about getting CSI or Kung Fu, but still. And this is just the first half. Damn.

The Gilliam Movie That Never Were

This sunday, if you live in Sweden, you must watch SVT2 at 16:25. You must, because they’re showing Lost in La Mancha (imdb). The trouble is that afterwards, I’d probably would want to see The Man Who Killed Don Quijote even more.

Insomnia

The clock is about half past seven and I still haven’t been able to sleep. I’m tired, hungry and bored. I have nothing to watch on tv except MTV and really horrible cartoons. I’m a cartoon fan, so don’t get me wrong. I can watch halfbaked cartoons till my eyes bleed blue ink. But even I have to draw the line somewhere. And that line is here, animecrap and a dubbed version of Ice Age. Oh, and one of the channels had this “educational” cartoon that makes the Teletubbies seem like a good idea. No thanks. Had it been 11:30 I could have watched that Akira Kurosawa documentary, but that time is a few hours away.

Next update, which will happen pretty soonish today (unless I fall asleep because then it might be less soonish and more in the evening kind of way) will have pictures. Gosh.

Screw this, I’ll watch Firefly again.

black books three

Finally, after years of waiting there will — according to Bilbo Baily, and he should know --be a series three of Black Books. Series two will be out on dvd just before series three begins its showcase on the telly. This is good news. Better news would have to include series three of Spaced, but you can’t have everything.

Two peaks

Watched Twin Peaks (imdb) (or at least large chunks of it, about two thirds) this weekend as Björn had the dvds. I saw it first around -92 when they showed it on SVT. At that time, after I saw the first episode, I labelled it as a cop show — albeit a wonky one — and ignored it. Later I saw handful episodes here and there, and I still didn’t get it.

Now, after I’ve seen the pilot for the first time ever as well as most of the episodes it’s much clearer. Should I admit this? Sure, why not. I was wrong. It is a good show, although in hindsight I realise why it was impossible to just dip into it here and there. Everything is dependent upon previous actions and information.

It’s also very funny, which I hadn’t expected. When Pete turned to his presumed dead wife in disguise as a Japanese businessman (it was obvious who it was after one minute of screen time — I know, I’m annoying that way), he said “You’re not from around here, are you?” and I laughed out loud. Previously, when agent Cooper arrived I uttered the words “are you local?” There must be a small shop on the hill outside Twin Peaks. A shop where there will be no trouble. There just has to be.

The Ackroyd Show

What? Peter Ackroyd has been allowed to do a tv show about London for the Beeb? I’m speechless, but not really surprised. I just wish I’ll be able to see it within five years or so.

Buffy season 7 on dvd

Fuck. [via Whedonesque]

Alias

Why didn’t someone (i.e. you. Yes, you) tell me Alias is about to begin on TV4 at 20:00 today? Is it too much to ask for? Is it? Well, it seems like it from here.

This is public service

The idea to open up BBC archives and allow them to be freely downloadable is something I never expected. But now they go a head and do it. I don’t know how long time it will take for something to end up there, but it should make all the Dr Who-episodes available. Yay. And shows by Rik and Ade. Yay. Public service at its best.

A three men league

I’m all giddy here as Thursday approaches. No, I don’t like Thursday as such. I hate holidays. They’re the bane of my existence, the destroyer of my sanity. Like Easter, who needs 72 hours of Sunday? I don’t, but then again I find Sundays to be mind numbingly boring.

It’s just that I noticed that BBC Prime has decided to show the League of Gentlemen. Finally. This means that I can actually watch an episode of six before I buy the dvd. It feels better this way, as I can save some money to other things. If it’s just half as bizarre as I think it is, then it will be all fine. I hope it isn’t as bland and see-one-episode-and-you’ve-seen-them-all as the Office.

I think I’ll watch Happiness an hour before that. Not that I’ve heard anything about the show, which is a bit weird, but it got Mark Heap. How can you go wrong with Mark Heap?

Cartoon trains may crash. Shock. Horror,

A psychologist has come up with the idea that Thomas the Tank Engine can be dangerous. Thomas. The Tank Engine. Dangerous.

As a result there is a possibility that the sheer amount of crashes they see on Thomas could frighten them. Seeing lots of crashes on TV means they could end up absolutely terrified of going on a train.”

Which caused me to do a doubletake. The trains in TTTE crash?! Great. Finally some amount of suspense in the show. And now they’re afraid that this might affect the impressional minds of the children to the degree that they believe that every train is going to crash? Hogwash. Kids isn’t stupid. They know more than you think. They will however become stupid if you treat them like they were.

But the report is worrying as it seem to indicate that the real danger of the show isn’t to the kids but to the Railway Enthusiasts Society. Please, do not leave your railway interested father in front of a tv unwatched or he might see something that he isn’t ready for.

Curvespotting 101

In case any Swedish person with impeccable taste has missed it, it is Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV4 tonight at 23:00. Which is better than the 00:10 slot they had given it the last time around. It is also much better because there is nothing else worth watching at the same time. But never mind that for now.

The important bit is that it is the episode called Bad Girls. It’s a great episode and all, but there is one scene in the middle where Buffy and Faith is ion the dancefloor at the Bronze after a slay. The music in that scene is a song by Curve. I realise that this is not for everyone, but I can’t stress this enough. Curve, the band that if we lived in a fair Universe should have been renowned by now and sell much more records than... I don’t know... talentless hacks such as the Beatles.

Not everybody likes Curve though, but what do they know? Right. Nothing at all.

TV and language theory?

The first episode in a tv-show about the language has just ended. (Värsta Språket, very roughly translated it means either a) The Worst Language or b) The Exceptional Language, all depending on how you interpret their intentions behind it.) It was a bit populistic but then again, it was a tv-show so that was inevitable. How do you do 30 minutes about language in tv and at the same make sure that the viewers don’t fall asleep?

People who talk to other people about words, dialects and language in general. It could be very boring. Thankfully they didn’t just bring in a lot of guests to sit and talk in a couch for a half an hour. Another thing was that they didn’t have the usual “preservation of the Swedish Language,” but a far more sensible approach.

It was about words so I’m happy. I like words. But was it only me, or did it have a echo of the seventies all the way through?

Those Fisher Brothers

After watching the last nine episodes of Six Feet Under I realised something. For a long time I tried to ignore it or I tried to tell myself that it was only a mirage. But it wasn’t. Six Feet Under is better than the West Wing.

It is just better executed. The characters evolve and surprise in a different way. It is hard to predict what they will do and how they would react. It dares to be cute, serious and fun in a dark way at the same time.

Unlike the West Wing, it doesn’t get a ticket for overly pretentiousness. Small things are just small things and not the end of the world. The people don’t get whiny when something goes wrong, they get royally pissed. They do stupid things, they mess up big-time.

That it has one of the most beautiful title-sequences I’ve ever seen helps a bit too of course.

TV screen at dusk

TV-night. It all began with Donnie Darko — again. It is a bit cheating though as I watched it on dvd and not a tv-channel. Anyhow, the movie still manages to surprise me. There are a few minor plot holes as well as the figure-out-your-own-version-ending, but up to that point... damn. This is how science fiction movies should be made. I would go so far and call this a true Dicksean movie, although the esteemed Mr Dick didn’t have anything to do with it. The easy explanation: it’s in the same tradition. I want more of this instead of the normal cop-outs that Hollywood produces.

At nine they showed episode two of V. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered it. I wish they could have used some other influences than World War II. The suits, their insignia and everything else about is is soaked in historical reminiscence. It simply doesn’t get more transparent then this. But, as I said before, the special effects still suck. Do they actually believe that we trust them when they say that this is the best they could do seven years after the first and rather cheap Star Wars? Of course, Cleopatra 2525 — oh, it’s so bad I can’t express myself — is made over 20 years after the light sable duelling crackpot story so I should perhaps be a bit more forgiving.

In the middle, the West Wing part two of In the Shadow of Two Gunmen. Slow, unmerciful and just all around great. Not as moving this time around, so I had time to enjoy it more without Aaron Sorkin pushing my buttons. All those flashbacks? Haunting. I’ve never seen flashbacks work so smooth before. Usually they break the narrative and make everything fall to pieces. But not this time. Amazing.

Now, Buffy season two. Only on vhs so far, dvd planned as soon as I get money. I like Spike. I want a lot more of Spike. I’ve only seen up until the middle of third season, but from what I’ve heard none of the newer bad guys can measure up to the Mayor.

Can you believe that there are people out there that don’t believe in the compelling power of a tv screen? It’s almost as good as a good book. No, I tell a lie, any books are better but that doesn’t mean that tv is bad. Quite the opposite. (I think I’m rambling here.)

A dubious phonecall later...

I watched Letterman yesterday for the first time in what feel like eons. And this only because Ola called and told me to, he never said why but I figured that out eventually. Tom Waits was there — you see, we’re one week behind the US schedule. His performance won’t win him much new fans, as it was kind of bland and awkward and just not the right setting. Waits is suppose to play in smoke filled small clubs where one sits and nurse a whisky during the entire show.

As a guest after his performance, however, is a completely different matter. The man is a genius. “They recognise you... at the dumpsite!” but obviously not in the music store.

-- Normally one releases a double album these days, but you chose to release them as two normal albums instead. Why?
-- Well, if it works out I’d like to take credit for it. But if it don’t... if it don’t I find someone else to blame.

The Oscars are going down

Whoopie Goldberg. Why God? Why? (For the record, I can’t stand her. She’s just not funny, period.)

Steve Martin was good last year, why not bring him in again. I don’t think Goldberg has the guts to make fun of Russell Crowe an entire evening. Tell me it is just a ploy, please.

I don’t really know why I care really, except that I watched last year and thanks to the presenter this year, I can sleep. Sleeep. I think I need more tea.

I'm the last to know

I was reading through Follow Me Here when I saw something frightening. To my great shame I must admitt that I had missed it totally. Spike Milligan is dead. Not so surprising that he was of a rather high age, but still. Why has this not been given more cover than it did? Had Mr Milligan not been an old comedian but a young musician instead; lets say 23 years old, couldn’t play the A-chord on guitar to save his life and who died because of a speedball OD than they would have given him a worldwide cover and huge headlines on the front of every paper. People who knows what they’re doing gets nothing, and this makes me sad. All this means that the chances of a new series of the Goon Show is even less than the chances of a new Monty Python season. After all, The Pythons are all alive minus one, but all the Goons are gone period. Damn.

Pushed into the clouded future

They — the forces of planning the when, where and how of tv scheduling at SVT — is evil to their rotten core. Sort of anyway. At first they hade though to show a re-run of the first season of West Wing now in March. They have of course changed their mind, and pushed it ahead a bit. Into the summer. Instead they’ll show both the first and second as reruns this summer, three nights a week up until the next season begins. But, I stutter, it is along time till then.

This is not good for my withdrawal is beginning to show. My throat hurts. It might be because of some other cause, but I take the easy way and blame whatever I want to. Can people blame disasters and catastrophes in nature on God, I can blame my sore throat on those in charge of scheduling.

Uneventful

The Other Niklas wanted people he know to update these journalish pages more often. But I wonder. How fun is it, even though it happen to be correct and quite true to life, to read long descriptions of me reading the Merchant of Venice while occasionally taking a break to cheer me up while listening to the Frantics [new people can read and listen here].

Right, not much fun at all. My life, as it is today, is rather meaningless. I don’t even watch tv on sundays anymore, apart from the Simpsons of course. I just sit there and write small crappy texts with an average exitence of five minutes before I erase it again. This is not the kind of life that makes good writing material. I hope more things will happen next week, as they inevitable do.

Horrible, bad, stupid Fox

Nonononononono!

From Gotfuturama.com (by way of the cult at Orbyn)

FOX keeps telling that the show isn’t cancelled but put on hiatus for a year till the backlog of episodes are aired. While there might be a show called Futurama being picked up in 2003 that won’t be “our” Futurama as the original crew is leaving for other projects.

So, in all that matters, the show is dead even if it does continue. Fuck. Double shait. All this while the Simpsons can go on no matter how stale it has become. There is something wrong at the Fox-building. Perhaps there is an unwritten law that states that if a show is funny it can’t continue.

The good things, they're off the air

On the telly they hurl huge testicles on the ice towards an even bigger bullseye and I don’t quite get it. What is the fun in banging the chestnuts together like that? And if the floor is so dirty, at least one of them should have been wealthy and smart enough to buy a vaccum cleaner and bring along. But no. That would be far to logical, wouldn’t it?

So this is the olympics. Colour me bored and unimpressed...

21:15

I rarely listen to the radio nowadays. There was a time in my youth when it was constantly turned on, but those days are gone. The left when I made the awful discovery that they mostly played shit.

However, I can see on the look on your face that you suspected this however, there is an exception. The national government funded channels have these wonderful imaginative names of P and a number from one to four. As you’ve already guessed, quick of wits as you are, P stands for Programme. On Sundays for forty-five minutes on P2 they have a show dedicated to Jazz recorded before 1950 and it is good, solid entertainment four almost an hour. Gosh and wow.

Today I discovered that if I walk around I would cause static in varying degrees depending on where I stood and that was the only channel that is affected by this. Fun? No, not particularly. It is much more annoying that I first thought it would be.

The best elevator moment through the ages

A man enters an elevator. It is a tired man, but he stands tall although his gaze is sad as if he just lost everything. This is as expected as this is what he has. Once, not long ago, everything was his. Power, wealth and control. Other powerful men bowed before his will and feet, afraid for his wrath. And now everything is gone, fallen through cracks he never knew existed or brushed over in false confidence.

He push the button marked with the floor number to which he is headed, and by doing so one can see the initials W.R.H. that probably embroider his coat. If he is aware of the other man present in the elevator, he didn’t show it. W.R.H. probably ignores him, as he must possess the knowledge that this man was the catalyst to his loss. The other man however is not content to be ignored like that and extends his hand as a man greeting another.

“Mr Hearst, I’m not sure you remember who I am. My name is Orson Welles.” He then continued to invite William Randolph Hearst to the premiere of Citizen Kane but the man was dead silent all the way down.

My God, what wouldn’t I give to be in there at that moment with a camera?

(Yes, I’ve just seen RKO 281 again. Fun, despite some minor fictionalisations. If this is one of them then Mr Welles himself is guilty, but who cares? It’s a good story.)

In search of something better

There is nothing good on the telly until 21:15 when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead begins. Up until that moment, they show the worst crap ever spawned by human minds: the Swedish try-outs for the European Song Contest. And this is only part two of far too many; the other channels are equally bad. I need either more beer and even perhaps a whisky or one of those Brain Slugs from Futurama.

No. No. No. Please god stop! They are apparently up to song four and boy, I feel violated. This has got to be the worst thing since some bright young person came up with the idea of self-mutilation. Why do I watch this? Am I insane? Video might save me... Yes… Salvation.

Damn. The tape didin’t rewind fast enough, I saw song number five. I will not find peace in this lifetime.

The real president

My god! Boo seems be be right about the West Wing hitting the DVD shelves here in Europe (i.e. the whole shebang is encoded for region two). the twentyfifth of March this year, the first half of season one is released. Eleven shows, three dvds — look how my hand shake, I’m ecstatic already.

Something wonderful

Now this is scary. Tomorrow the 31th December, the last day of this year, something wonderful is going to happen. No, it has nothing to do with the new year. Sod the new year. That day only exists to eat Tacos according to the ancient traditions.

No, tomorrow afternoon TV2 here in sweden, at 16:00 sharp, they’ll show the first part of the Gormenghast mini-series. If I catch anyone not watching, I’ll be very sad and don’t know what I’ll do. I mean, it got Christopher Lee in it for christ sake. Sure, it’s not perfect but that doesn’t matter really. Nothing is perfect. Nothing at all (with the exception of the Gormenghast books of course).

The Second Baker Theory

I don’t think many care about this byut I do, so there. In the “Arc of Infinity”-story arch, right at the beginning of Dr Who’s 20th season, Colin Baker has a small role as the chief in command over the Gallifreyian guards. My mind boggled a bit when I realised this.

This means that when the Doctor regenerat in the end of the 21st season, his mind takes a rather arrogant and selfish personality, which causes his body to take the form of the most arrogant and selfish person he has meet. Well, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Roadside attractions

Why had nobody told me that Kevin P. Smith should appear on Jay Leno with a Roadside Attraction-spot? Well, I saw most of it and it was fun. Kind of like a Michael Palin travelogue, but different.

Tough Choice

I should probably either sleep or study for tomorrows Am. Culture-exam, but I can do neither. There are things, flecks of illuminated dots, on the telly. Now, the real choice is between Darkman III, which probably sucks unbeliev’ebly much. Or, on another channel, the Platoon, which is rather good despite being a war-movie.

The question is do I dare to watch Arnold Valdsooooo or what-ever his last name in a sequel of Herculesian proportions. Nah, if seen enough crappy movies this week.

Look! It's George!

I’ve just seen the first episode of Curb Your Entusiasm and I’ve come to the conclusion that I like it. The humour was, as expected, pitch dark. I didn’t quite like all the improvisations which sometimes didn’t go unnoticed. I like the hand-camera and how they used it.

Did the show feature one normal person? Probably, but as Mr. David himself was present in every single frame it didn’t seem that way.

48 million kilts?!

Should I read some more than five pages out of The Buddha of Suburbia, which I should have read until Tuesday next week, or, should I continue to watch Monty Pythons Hovering Carnival until dawn? Decisions, decisions. I think… Yes, Monty Python. Until tomorrow, probably late afternoon, when I’ll write some more about the week that was: Stapler machine.

Finally!

Right now, this very minute, a new season of Simpsons starts.

On the telly early in the afternoon

Certain things that become clear when laying in bed sick are:

Monty Python is fun. I’ve watched their 30th anniversary, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian in one sweep and all I can say is that Graham Chapman was a genius.

Steve Irvin is insane. I want him to be bitten by a poisonous snake just once for laugh. It might not be nice to wish this but that way, he would probably not say things such as “It’s gorgeous” or “Oh boy, it’s cranky now!”

Ricki Lake makes your brain rot. Nuff said. Why did I even watch this? Five minutes of my life I’ll never see again, and those where supposed to be spent on being the best time in my life.

Soon into withdrawal

The pictures from the unaired Buffy-pilot reminded me that I need a new Buffy-fix soon — which will happen as soon as they release the third season on dvd. See. The symptoms have begun already. (Prolific)

Search among the cassettes

The BBC Archive Treasure Hunt is, in my opinion, a very important project. Support and help them if you can.

Sammo Hong

New episodes of Martial Law with the unimitable Sammo Hong right this minute. I must watch.

The cats won't even eat it

They just aired a commercial for a cat-food, which, according to my logic must be pretty horrible. They couldn’t get a normal “cat-actor” as all the rest of their compeditors. Oh, no. That seemed to be too hard. So instead the animated it. Yes, they actually did a rendered cat. It didn’t look too bad, like something out of Shrek I guess. Yes, this means that it did look a bit like plastic, but it was still better rendered than the abomination known as Phantom Menace (See? No link). But if the cat has to be made in a computer, how does the wretched food actually taste?

A three minute Frantic-skit

I had to do a transcript, I just had too. When I don’t watch movies or listen to music, this is what comes out of my speakers.

-- Okey, give me a number seven lock pick.
-- Right here.
-- I’m gonna grab that million bucks out of the insurance company on the forty-fourth floor and be gone.
-- Won’t the guard hear you picking up the lock at the door?
-- He’s not there. His bladder is as regular as a clockwork. See, there’s no one at the window. Just like I planned it.
-- Oh, you got the door!
-- Yeah, just as I planned it. Wait, the other guard passes about now. [fotsteps] Just as I planned it. Okay, now we go. Follow me! The elevator should be arriving about... Ah-ha. [bling]
-- Just like you planned it?
-- Yeah, now get in. Get in! Push the forty-fourth floor.
-- Right.
-- It’s an express elevator, so we should be up right... about... now.
-- Just like you planned it?
-- All right, hold back.
-- Hold back?
-- Stay back, there’s a tv-camera at the end of the hall.
-- Ahh! What would we do?
-- Nothing. Because I figure a meteor is gonna come crashing down from outer space — through that wall — and crush the camera.
[a whistling noise followed by a crash]
-- Ah, just like you planned it.
-- Yeah, that’s organisation for you.
[a tapping sound]
-- Oh-oh. Look out there on the window — a priest!
-- And a pigeon too. I’ve got a gun.
-- Waste them.
[the sound of a gun, followed by a falling body that hits the ground]
-- That was that.
-- That was a surprise.
-- No, just as I planned it. That’s why I brought the gun.
-- Now the safe.
-- Right, to blow this safe wide open we need the dynamite.
-- You didn’t say nothing about dynamite!
-- Don’t worry, give me the five dollar bill from the bag...
[a knocking and a door that opens]
-- Hi, I’m J.J. Cannaire. Would you like to buy this dynamite for only five dollar?
-- Just as I planned it.
-- “As I Planned It”-transcript from Frantic Times, show 59

Today it's West Wing-day

Today it’s Tuesday, here in the far to warm Sweden this means that it’s the end of a weeklong wait. It’s finally West Wing-day. One episode a week is ridiculous. I need more. My psyche and tv-watching butt can’t take it anymore. And as if that was not bad enough, I know in the back of my head that it won’t last long either. Only twenty-two weeks, then the season is over. What the hell am I supposed to do the other thirty weeks?

I know that I shouldn’t worry yet, as we’re only up to the second episode in the second season today, but I just can’t get rid of the feeling that it will soon be at end and I’ll go back to the gutter.

This is no perfect world

In a perfect world, there would be no war, no Barbara Streisand and lots of good things on tv. The books should have been cheaper and Futurama would be hailed as a greater event than the second coming.

But this is not a perfect world. Books are not as cheap, Barbara Streisand exists and they are planning a new Star Trek series — I thought we’ve had enough by now. And in one episode they have Jeffrey “Re-Animator” Combs as a guest. As I hope this is a better place than an everlasting hellpit, I do hope they use him correctly. What would be better than having Combs run berserk on a spaceship, trying to frankenstein a monster from the remains of the former crewmates of Enterprise.

An episode like that would have brought tears of joy from my eyes. Combs, while being no Bruce, is usually a neat actor. Almost on par with Christopher Walken.

Futurama: closed for the season

– Is that my beloved torso you’re chopping off? It is! It is my beloved torso!

I would, if I thought it was any use, ask why. But I won’t, the answer is too simple. They have run out of episodes. But still. I want to see more. Futurama can’t just end like that, not without being replaced with newer episodes of said show. What else is there to see on tv?

Should it just stand there on the shelf, all goofy looking and for no apparent use? Or, yes. That’s the purpose of the tv: to see movies on dvd.

Academic choices

Sometimes I get these really bizarre ideas. Like now when I suddenly and quite unexpected decided that I need to learn how to get up crap-thirty and sleep at night. It’s hard, and in some way quite, quite mad. Sure the mind works, but not in any way it use to. But I must do this, it’s a matter of life and death of my academic “career”.

I need this, but that doesn’t mean that I want to. Because dammit all to hell, I want to watch M*A*S*H which they show far to late at night. The sacrifice is too great for me too feel at ease. Thank God that the chances are that Fox — the unbiased (because they tell me so) media company — will release the first season of Futurama on DVD.