Television programmes [2]

Really enjoyed the latest episode of Norbett and Strange, getting to the meat of it. Loved all the stuff around madness, really well handled and done, especially its relationship to magic.
Also finally realised why the writers name seemed so familiar, he is one of Moffat's Who regulars!

Yep, Im glad it stepped up a gear starting to get to the bones of it. Ive got the book indoors & I havent bothered to read it, I might one day but its to close to the visuals for me at the mo.

I suspect the book is paced very similarly- and I think after the latest episode the series had to be too- all the secondary characters that come back into play needed their initial periods of introduction and story for it to have the effect it did.

I find it bone crushingly boring.

I did think last weeks episode dragged & hoped it would perk up ? & this week its starting to so thats good I was tempted to look in my book & see how it ends but Im not, hoping its gonna be a cracker tho

I like the pacing, everything has been nicely building, and all the pieces are being put in place.
I also found myself feeling slightly sorry for Norrel in the last episode. How did that happen?!

"A faery hill? That's just silly superstition." says the time traveling lady.

Mrs Figg wrote:I find it bone crushingly boring.

The book or the show?
I find either unlikely!

Stumbled as I was video browsing onto an old episode of The Young Ones.
Very weird watching it again, it struck me how pioneering it was- yes its very hit and miss and there are a lot of misses, but boy were they pushing the format of the sitcom- you can see the groundwork for stuff that came afterwards- oddly particularly in the US animated market- the way the plot can go off into something intangible, surreal or just mad as a a cat for no good reason is very Family Guy in particular.
Also in this particular episode the cost of the cast now would be huge- this one episode has as guest stars in it - Emma Thompons, Stephen Fry, Robbie Coltrane, Tony Robinson, Ben Elton, Griff Rhys Jones and an elephant.

Anyway enjoy this sordid and insane tale of four students sharing a flat (Rik the self-deluded, self important git, Vivian the psychotic punk, Neil the hippie everyone hates, and cool guy Mike, the perpetual student)-

Forest Shepherd wrote:

Mrs Figg wrote:I find it bone crushingly boring.

The book or the show?
I find either unlikely!

the show. nothing ever happens.

I read through a bit of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (the book) after work yesterday and rather enjoyed it; I might get it for my beach reading in August.

I lost count but surely that wasnt the final episode of J.Strange & Mr Norrell ? I was enjoying that. seemed to get to the end quicker than I felt. The book ive got of it is a great big chunky volume, lots of episodes there Hey ho, one less thing to watch on TV,

Yup that was the last one- 7 one hour episodes.
I don't know how it compares to the book but as a piece of Tv I thoroughly enjoyed that- no idea what you mean about nothing happens Figg- tons happens, it just does it at its own pace. In fact that's the second slow paced drama from the BBC recently (Cromwell the other) which I have thought were superb and whose pacing, allowing them time to breath, develop plot and character, was a huge benefit.

Further to me noting for the first time last episode it was adapted by one of the regular Who writers, I noticed this week the whole series has been directed by Toby Hayes, another Who director (Pandorica 2 parter and the Impossible Astronaut 2 parter both being under his direction among some others).

Welp, the first of the wannabe-GOT epic fantasy adaptations is almost here, and it's Shannara. The first trailer/behind the scenes preview was shown at San Diego Comic-Con. I knew it was set in a post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest but did the books make that clear so early on? I've never read them but for some reason I thought they didn't. Anyway, I kinda doubt I'll watch this, but it's something to keep an eye on in case it ends up getting good reviews/word of mouth (which would surprise me).

Wait, based on Sword of Shannara? That was the most derivative LotR knock-off going. I read the first book, not at all impressed - and never got the impression it was post-apocolyptic.

Me too Halfy- read Sword many years ago when it first came out, and my overall impression was amazement tht it had got published, it was like a fan fiction version of LotR's- hero who lives in peaceful idyllic village until a mysterious wise man pops up to tell them about the big bad- as far as I can remember the only plot difference was instead of going to destroy the Ring they had to go find a sword to get rid of the big bad.
I dont remember so much as a hint about it being set post apocalyptic- but then I was so unimpressed with Sword that I didn't read any more of the series.

Actually it was reading Shannara and then the Thomas Covenant books that made me realise I wasn't actually a fan of fantasy literature at all, I was and am just a Tolkien fan.

They're actually skipping Sword and going straight into the second book, Elfstones of Shannara, presumably because the first one is such a rip-off.  I'm told that the subsequent books are somewhat more original.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Actually it was reading Shannara and then the Thomas Covenant books that made me realise I wasn't actually a fan of fantasy literature at all, I was and am just a Tolkien fan.

I sometimes feel similarly.  There are a small handful of fantasies that I like almost as much as LOTR (not all of them books), but the vast majority of fantasy that I've read leaves me bored and/or disappointed.  I'm still not entirely sure if the fantasy stories and worlds that I do love is because they really are head-and-shoulders above everything else or if it's just because I carry nostalgia for them. (Not that I still love everything I read at that age, or even every fantasy. And I'm pretty confident that Tolkien is still the best.)  But yeah, the fantasy scene in general doesn't do much of anything for me.

same here - makes me reluctant to admit I'm a Tolkien fan because you get instantly lumped in with fantasy fans. I'll admit to liking science fiction in public, but not fantasy.

I wonder if there's as much of a disconnect between other single-author fandoms and the rest of fantasy literature.  I know GRRM is deeply involved in sci-fi/fantasy fandom, but his profile has become high enough that he has many readers who aren't into fantasy in general.  And Harry Potter was marketed as children's/YA rather than straight-up fantasy.  But I don't know if there's similar feelings in, say, the Wheel of Time fandom.  Though I've read plenty of threads on WOT and generic fantasy forums that complain about Tolkien not really being that big of an influence.  Heck, David Eddings devoted most of a prologue to that topic for The Rivan Codex, which was especially hilarious coming from him of all authors.

Speaking of novels that made me feel the disconnect between myself and more general fantasy fandom...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/comic-con-name-wind-novel-807447

I couldn't get very far into The Name of the Wind but I don't envy whatever screenwriter tries to make it fit into a 2-3 hour movie.

Im looking along my bookshelf now and I am struggling to find fantasy there I would actually recommend outside Tolkien- theres Pratchett but its parody and satire really disguised in a fantasy setting.

The Talisman is an interesting one, its sort of fantasy more than anything else- and has some interesting ideas in it, written by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

Gaiman is fantasy

Eldorion wrote:Welp, the first of the wannabe-GOT epic fantasy adaptations is almost here, and it's Shannara.  The first trailer/behind the scenes preview was shown at San Diego Comic-Con.  I knew it was set in a post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest but did the books make that clear so early on?  I've never read them but for some reason I thought they didn't.  Anyway, I kinda doubt I'll watch this, but it's something to keep an eye on in case it ends up getting good reviews/word of mouth (which would surprise me).

Yeah I see the MTV logo and I don't even want to watch the video.