What TV Have You Seen?

[Frankenhooker]

David Simon is making a show about the rise of the porn industry in the 70s/80s, set in New York, including 42nd Street, The Deuce will star Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Sounds absolutely awesome.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nosferatu42

She's been in Doctor Who twice recently as well.

Yes. To me she's Doctor Who's Claire Higgins.

She even reads some of the audio adventures the Beeb are producing regularly.

[iank]

X Files: Field Trip. When a young married couple vanish in the woods and are then found as skeletons inside of just a couple of days, Mulder and Scully set off to investigate.. and find themselves in for one hell of a trip. I love the cleverness of this episode (Scully's hallucinatory experience is particularly amusing; there's something deliciously satisfying about having everyone parrot her own "plausible" theory (that she doesn't even believe herself) at her word-for-word, much to her own horror)) and there's an eerie plausibility to the nature of the menace that makes it genuinely unsettling (SPOILER for anyone who hasn't seen this episode!). There are fungi that span several acres, often underground, there are fungi with hallucinogenic properties, and there are plants that feed on living organisms, making this particular threat feel like something that could genuinely exist. That said, I would have loved to have heard the writers pitch this one to Chris Carter: "It's a giant killer mushroom!" As Mulder notes, "Sounds like crap when you say it."

[iank]

Started Earth 2 this afternoon. I remembered this short-lived (just the one season) mid 90s SF show as being pretty good, so picked up the DVD set and... it's still pretty good, actually. A bunch of colonists/refugees fleeing from an overcrowded Earth and a corrupt government (nothing much changes then) head for a habitable planet 22 years away, but while their wake-up from cryo-sleep goes fine, getting down to the planet turns into a bit of a disaster and once there, they find it may not be as uncharted or as uninhabited as they thought... This is a pretty decent stab at genuine SF on TV and I remember being disappointed it didn't last longer; there's even a trace of Lost in here somewhere. Also very sad that the actress who plays the little girl True has already left us; died of a rare form of leukemia at just 22. Awful. But this remains a pretty decent show and I'm glad I picked it up to see again.

[Frankenhooker]

RIP Log Lady.

Catherine Coulson has lost her battle with cancer.

[iank]

Yes, very sad to hear this.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

It is sad news, but she left an indelible mark on television and popular culture.

[Justin101]

I finished watching Firefly for the first time yesterday, as a Whedon fan I was very curious about the show and how it's held in such great esteem with fans and critics alike. For the first few episodes I couldn't quite grasp what all the fuss was about but it wasn't until episode 5, 'Safe' that I had realised I was well and truly sucked into the 'Verse.

Each episode just got better until number 14, 'Objects in Space' it just ended... I had read books about Joss Whedon in the past but it had slipped my mind that they were given no warning about cancellation and it wasn't until I watched the gag reel that I remembered, the title card came up and it said (i'm paraphrasing) "This gag reel was edited together to be shown at the Firefly Christmas party, that turned out to be the wrap party just nobody knew it".

Over the Christmas/New Year break after they had finished up for the year Joss was given the call that Firefly had been pulled and he had to tell the cast and crew not to come back to work in January!

I'll be watching Serenity at some point in the next week or so

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I finished watching Firefly for the first time yesterday, as a Whedon fan I was very curious about the show and how it's held in such great esteem with fans and critics alike. For the first few episodes I couldn't quite grasp what all the fuss was about but it wasn't until episode 5, 'Safe' that I had realised I was well and truly sucked into the 'Verse.

Each episode just got better until number 14, 'Objects in Space' it just ended... I had read books about Joss Whedon in the past but it had slipped my mind that they were given no warning about cancellation and it wasn't until I watched the gag reel that I remembered, the title card came up and it said (i'm paraphrasing) "This gag reel was edited together to be shown at the Firefly Christmas party, that turned out to be the wrap party just nobody knew it".

Over the Christmas/New Year break after they had finished up for the year Joss was given the call that Firefly had been pulled and he had to tell the cast and crew not to come back to work in January!

I'll be watching Serenity at some point in the next week or so

It was a great series! For months after I had seen the full series I was going around calling everything "Shiney" use to annoy the wife!

[Demoncrat]

The Returned returning!! Ahem. This French series held me right to the end of the first, so am v glad about this