Patrick Macnee has died aged 93. The man is such a legend that I feel a proper tribute blog must be in order.

@bluesqueakpip, @purofilion and @arbutus—

Sounds like the first meaning, then. That is, there’s no such thing as ‘Celts’, really, because it’s just a romantic way of saying ‘Welsh’

There are at least two Irishmen of my acquaintance who would take major exception to that. (But that doesn’t mean that they’re in any way correct to do so.)

This…[Read more]

@purofilion — RE. Torture in Farscape, I wouldn’t know as I’ve only seen a couple of episodes really. And it’s been removed from Netflix UK so I shan’t be catching up on it anytime soon unless I can get hold of some boxsets quickly.

RE. Game of Thrones. I must admit that by the end of s4 I was getting pretty bored of it all. So much so that…[Read more]

Thanks to @bluesqueakpip and @fatmaninabox for dealing with the spammage. Have been rather indisposed today….

@purofilion — Watched a bit of the first season of Peaky Blinders but just couldn’t get on with it at all. Nicely made, good performances and an OK script but seemed to me to be a prime example of what I was talking about above RE. the Beeb. Seemed commercially and suit-driven rather than out of a creative impetus. Someone sitting down and saying…[Read more]

@purofilion — I suspect it all comes down to numbers in the end. Neither Firefly nor I assume Farscape got high enough viewing figures (meaning that advertisers are reluctant to spend vast sums to advertise during these shows) and therefore that the suits can justify cancellation in favour of something more lucrative.

Genre TV has an added…[Read more]

@pedant — I think the only reaction to that story is ‘oh my giddy aunt!’

@fatmaninabox — congratulations!!

@purofilion — yeah, I think one big point of Firefly that even in the future, people are still people. It’s no more obvious than in the primary motivation of most of the crew — find a job, get money, keep living. Compare that to the Star Trek series where humans have moved beyond money and commerce and ‘live to better themselves and the rest of…[Read more]

@purofilion— here’s how it was:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/13/joss-whedon-criticises-jurassic-world-sexism

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/05/avengers-age-of-ultron-director-joss-whedon-quits-twitter

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/05/jurassic-world-director-backs-joss-whedons-criticism-of-sexist-clip

Basically…[Read more]

@purofilion—

Yes, the marketing did foreground the River As Badass babe thing. Probably because they seemed to want to capitalise on Joss’s Buffy credentials. But it’s maybe interesting to bring up, bearing in mind the shitstorm that Joss has found himself at the middle of in the past month.

And just for yuks, here’s the Serenity trailer of the…[Read more]

@purofilion — that’s a lot of cash. I’d say Netflix is definitely your way to go. It costs £6.99 a month in the UK, so I imagine it’s roughly the same in Oz dollars and for that you get an ‘all you can eat’ kind of deal, so yes, you can watch what you want when you want. Most of AG Who is on there, as is BSG, Firefly, Farscape, Orphan Black and,…[Read more]

@gamergirlavatar — Haven’t seen The Flash yet but I hear good things about it. Of course, I have an inbuilt bias towards Marvel over DC, so I have that prejudice to get over first.

@phaseshift — Yes, I think even if it goes south, s1 of Daredevil can always stand as a damn fine piece of TV and a good example of what the Netflix streaming model can possibly achieve.

Dead right on Gormenghast. A great adaptation too. I remember being quite bemused at the time at all the bad press it got. I thought it was nigh-on perfect with…[Read more]

@purofilion — funny you should mention it but I’ve been working on the blog today. Should be up later. Apologies for the gorram delay.

RE. Wallander. I really rate the Branagh version. Mrs Fish virulently disagrees with me, but, hey, Mankel agrees with me, so there. I thought the first season was pretty good too. I thought David Warner put in…[Read more]