Tuesday 14th October: UP AND OUT! Live
Wednesday 15th October: JULY RISING acoustic performance at Hoko 10, with Limp Rizted to follow
Thursday 16th October: DOWN 'TIL WE'RE UNDERGROUND at WHQ
Friday 17th October: FOALS/ESSER (GONZO MTV2 TOUR), York Fibbers - to review for MTV2
Saturday 18th October: The Bunker (well, obviously)
Sunday 19th October: *breathe*
Monday 20th October: BLOOD RED SHOES, Newcastle Academy 2
Tuesday 21st October: FRANK TURNER, The Cockpit, Leeds
Wednesday 22nd October: FRANK TURNER, York Duchess (plus probably Limp Rizted afterwards)
Thursday 23rd October: FRANK TURNER, Glasgow Oran Mor
Friday 24th October: FRANK TURNER, Manchester Academy 3 (plus probably Jilly's afterwards)
Saturday 25th October: Tom's birthday night out
Sunday 26th October: *relax* Again.
As you can see, I am currently at the epicentre of a whirlpool of activity and, as a consequence, I don't have all that much time to sit at my computer, bashing away at the keyboard in attempt to form some coherent sentences. Granted, I have today to take a - somewhat brief - breather, but this doesn't really allow enough minutes, nay hours, for me to intricately piece together the kind of television reviews that I normally spend the better part of my weekend crafting. So, this is your disclaimer, ladies and gentlemen. What you're gonna get may not be up to scratch. Yeah, I said it. Basically, I'm gonna just summarise my thoughts on each of the four new episodes of American programmes that I cast my weary eyes over this week, rather than wax poetic in paragraph after paragraph about their minutiae. So.. here we go.
Heroes continues to be bloody marvellous. 'Angels and Demons' is a prime example of why this show deserves many, many more illustrious seasons to come: it is a wonderful marriage of character development with plot twist, turn and revelation and, as a result, is nothing short of exhilarating. I defy anyone who wasn't rooted to the spot when Peter nearly sliced open his mother's head, Hiro 'stabbed' Ando (hmm... I think perhaps that's not quite how it happened!) or, perhaps more significantly, Maury Parkman showed up and was OWNED by Daddy Petrelli. The reveals certainly come thick and fast toward episode's end and act as a fantastic pay off to the questions and complications that have arisen from the first four episodes. There are a multitude of jaw-droppingly cool moments too: Mohinder's transformation into insane Spiderprofessor being one of them, particularly the superbly executed moments of tension between he and Maya when she's hiding under the table, Claire's encounter with Vortex Guy, the second coolest Hero/Villain we've seen in quite some time, Claire's mom's ultra creepy encounter with Puppet Guy, the coolest Villain we've seen, and of course, Angela's dream, chock full of delicious gore. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Christine Rose is one of the finest actresses to grace our screens in years. She makes the scene in which she reveals that Nathan was experimented upon; while Adrian Pasdar is certainly on fine form, her blend of the sinister and the sorrowful is just perfect. And how about Linderman, huh? All Maury's influence and a kick in the stomach to those 'fans' who didn't have the patience to persevere and just wrote the development off as 'an unbelievable twist in an absurd show'. "Pah!", I say to you all, "Who's coming crawling back now?!"
305: 'Angels and Monsters': 8.9
Wrs: Adam Armus & Kay Foster; Dr: Anthony Hemingway
Fringe gave us its fifth instalment this week after a short absence and it was something of a beaut. The episode's core concept - that a human being could potentially wittingly or unwittingly control electricity - was explored fantastically, offering up a number of hugely memorable water cooler moments: the guy's arm in the mechanical device, the car alarms and lights going off, and particularly the entire pre-credits sequence in the elevator which was superbly shot for maximum effect. The decision to cut from the chaos to a still shot of the ground, from which we view the ultimate collision, was inspired, magnifying the horror of the incident to an even greater degree than we perhaps would've experienced had we simply been treated to an aerial shot or even remained in the elevator. The subsequent exploration of this theme was also very well handled: kudos to the writers for allowing the viewer to care about the outcome of the investigation by beautifully characterising the role of Joseph, and leading the narrative oft-times from his perspective. Granted, we had our usual absurd blast of barely-even-psuedo-science from Walter (electromagnetic signatures to cassette tapes to homing pigeons is um... yeah), but I'm starting to forgive the show for it to be honest, especially following the superb 'The Observer' which effectively began to shift the show's self-imposed rules (did you all spot him getting out of the elevator before Joseph got in? Did you?) Plus, Olivia's characterisation was delicately handled, paying dividends as a result: I actually began to care about her previous relationship with John, and the entire 'part of his consciousness is in yours' angle certainly holds promise for future wackiness. On the whole, a solid effort and further evidence that Fringe is only just getting started.
105: 'Power Hungry': 8.7
Wr: Julia Cho & Jason Cahill; Dr: Christopher Misiano
Okay everyone, I know this is gonna come as a bit of a shock so I'm just forewarning you before I actually type it. Are you ready? Okay. Here goes. Shawn Pyfrom was actually in Desperate Housewives this week. A lot. There. Feels good, doesn't it? Shame he spent most of it in a suit and not out of a suit, or out of most of his clothes for that matter, but hell, I'll take whatever morsels I can get. There were no hot, juicy snogs with hot, juicy boys either, which is obviously depressing, but his storyline held its own and was fairly innocuous... and a whole hell of a lot more interesting than last week's Solis pity party. Granted, we're still on the same 'oh woe is me, look how far from grace I've fallen! Waaaaah!' motif but at least the whole thing was handled with a lot more reserve and panache in 'Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else' than it has previously been. And now that I've mentioned that thematically leading title... 503 was very much the children's episode, from Danielle returning with a simply fabulous new look darling, and a vegetarian, Jewish six year old to boot, to Juanita bullying poor little MJ. What can sometimes be something of an off-putter for television drama actually turned into the best thing about the episode, thanks to some skilful writing from show stalwart Joe Keenan. The effects on the respective families were the interesting part and allowed for some superbly pitched moments, such as Orson's scolding of Bree over allowing Benjamin to be lost to his real parents or, indeed, the hilarious front-lawn fight between Susan and Gabrielle, leading into a lovely reconciliatory scene, with booze, in Gaby's house. It's worth mentioning that Dave's story picked up the pace somewhat here too, and was delightfully intertwined with a smirk-inducing nugget of a C-storyline involving Tom's longing to form a garage band to boot. I concede, Housewives writers, I am now dying to know exactly what this guy's history is and what his plans are for Wysteria Lane. Well done all, you've intrigued again. Best episode so far this season and one that can certainly hold its own amongst the big guns of years past.
503: 'Kids Ain't Like Everybody Else': 8.5
Wr: Joe Keenan; Dr: Bethany Rooney
Oh, and let's have a shirtless Shawn Pyfrom just for good measure:
And that brings us, finally, to South Park's breast cancer episode. I'm not gonna say all that much other than that it was a vast, vast improvement on 'The China Probrem' and that it certainly felt like a great deal of effort was put into both the writing and the execution of the episode. It was good to see a whole host of familiar faces back - Wendy, for starters, Bebe, Craig, Clyde, the Kindergarten kids, Ike and, of course, your favourites and mine, the goth/emo kids! Let's have a warm round of applause for these guys, shall we?
While 'Breast Cancer Show Ever' certainly wasn't laugh-a-minute, roll-around-on-the-floor-in-hysterics funny, it certainly amused (particularly all the references to titty cancer), and the central plot of Cartman trying to worm his way out of an encounter with Wendy was flawlessly executed. Matt and Trey did an excellent job of keeping the viewer guessing as to whether the face-off would actually occur and, of course, what the outcome would be. I'm tempted to say this was a triumph for character development, of all things, in a comedy show but I suspect Eric will be, rightly, back to his usual ways next week. Still, it kept me entertained and that's certainly a whole hell of a lot of steps back in the right direction.
1209: 'Breast Cancer Show Ever': 8.5
Wr: Trey Parker; Dr: Trey Parker
Right. Done. Now to add to my schedule. See, it doesn't end at the 26th. While I have taken the following week off work to recharge my batteries, I'm finally gonna do what I've said I would for ages and go out every single night of a single week in Newcastle, doing different things (but largely, clubbing. It's just that you can't really on the Sunday night.) So...
Monday 27th October: The Cooperage
Tuesday 28th October: Get Y Sk8s On
Wednesday 29th October: Limp Rizted (with The Automatic... for Hallowe'en)
Thursday 30th October: Stone Love
Friday 31st October: ??????? Somewhere for Hallowe'en... but not Legends!
Saturday 1st November: RANCID at Newcastle Academy, followed by The Bunker
Sunday 2nd November: EASTPAK ANTIDOTE TOUR feat FLOGGING MOLLY, Newcastle Academy
So yeah. Busy.
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