"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Our featured TV series this week is Being Human Series 2, two episodes longer than the previous and so +2 episodes as good. Once again, all three leads are given an arc to go through and are left in an intriguing place in time for Series 3. If vampires were the threat in the Series 1, here it's humanity itself. I hesitate to call humans the "villains", as some of our characters really do go down a dark path. Riveting television. The DVD includes seven featurettes that mix behind the scenes footage with plot element discussions. Letting Disc 1's menu cycle a few times will bring you to a bonus menu that contains a half-hour's worth of CenSSA webisodes made by one of the baddies, Lloyd. One complaint overall about the extras: Not enough Lenora Crichlow!
Over at Kung Fu Fridays, we watched the most entertaining Return of the Five Deadly Venoms AKA Crippled Avengers, a highly acrobatic and gory revenge story by sadistic director Chang Cheh. This is as close to a comedy as we're likely to get from him, mostly through the character turned into an idiot by a brain vise. He joins a team made up of a blind man, a deaf-mute and a legless man to fight an armless villain and his evil father. Kung Fu, of course, solves everything. Great action, fun comedy, and some very nice use of sound and visuals to create the world of the sensory cripples. As with other Shaw Bros. "sequels" from Dragon Dynasty, there are no extras on the DVD.
Books: This week, I read Lance Parkin's The Eyeless, reputed to be among the best (if not THE best) New Who novel in print. Well, it's certainly among the most mature, and often read like some of the books did before they went "younger readers". The 10th Doctor arrives on the planet Arcopolis to deactivate a universe-destroying weapon and is pressed for time when strange aliens called the Eyeless show up to collect it for themselves. Driven by moral dilemmas and relatively complex characters, with philosophical discussions and unusual POV narration, The Eyeless may well be the richest New Who novel in print, and perhaps even the best no-companion story in Ten's complete canon. Deserving of its reputation!
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Hamlet 2000
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Fodor (2007)
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Tennant (2009)
DVDs: Our featured TV series this week is Being Human Series 2, two episodes longer than the previous and so +2 episodes as good. Once again, all three leads are given an arc to go through and are left in an intriguing place in time for Series 3. If vampires were the threat in the Series 1, here it's humanity itself. I hesitate to call humans the "villains", as some of our characters really do go down a dark path. Riveting television. The DVD includes seven featurettes that mix behind the scenes footage with plot element discussions. Letting Disc 1's menu cycle a few times will bring you to a bonus menu that contains a half-hour's worth of CenSSA webisodes made by one of the baddies, Lloyd. One complaint overall about the extras: Not enough Lenora Crichlow!
Over at Kung Fu Fridays, we watched the most entertaining Return of the Five Deadly Venoms AKA Crippled Avengers, a highly acrobatic and gory revenge story by sadistic director Chang Cheh. This is as close to a comedy as we're likely to get from him, mostly through the character turned into an idiot by a brain vise. He joins a team made up of a blind man, a deaf-mute and a legless man to fight an armless villain and his evil father. Kung Fu, of course, solves everything. Great action, fun comedy, and some very nice use of sound and visuals to create the world of the sensory cripples. As with other Shaw Bros. "sequels" from Dragon Dynasty, there are no extras on the DVD.
Books: This week, I read Lance Parkin's The Eyeless, reputed to be among the best (if not THE best) New Who novel in print. Well, it's certainly among the most mature, and often read like some of the books did before they went "younger readers". The 10th Doctor arrives on the planet Arcopolis to deactivate a universe-destroying weapon and is pressed for time when strange aliens called the Eyeless show up to collect it for themselves. Driven by moral dilemmas and relatively complex characters, with philosophical discussions and unusual POV narration, The Eyeless may well be the richest New Who novel in print, and perhaps even the best no-companion story in Ten's complete canon. Deserving of its reputation!Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Hamlet 2000
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Fodor (2007)
II.i. Ophelia Affrighted - Tennant (2009)
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