What TV Show Are You Currently Watching?

[Lamplighter]

There's an article in NY Times this morning about a show called "Portlandia" (PDX).
Has anyone seen the show... what do you think ?

[DanaC]

Being Human is back!!!!

Oh. Oh I love Mitchell. And Georgie-peorgie. And Annie's so sweet.

I was particularly pleased to see them back, having attempted the other night to watch the US remake's pilot episode.

To be fair, had I never seen the original, or had the US been the original, maybe I'd have liked it. It wasn't completely horrible. It's definately no Life on Mars(US), or indeed Red Dwarf(US). They've taken the basic elements and given it an American flavour. Also to be fair, this is the pilot, and they've tried to stay very close to the original series here, basically setting out much of what went on in the first series through the pilot and first couple of eps, then veering off onto their own turf with the premise set.

The original Being Human had some obvious flaws. It was made on a shoe string so the effects are ropey as fuck. The plot goes a little flat mid season then picks back, up from time to time things seem rushed. The North American version has a bigger budget, and a longer run, so it should be able to do the story more justice. The trouble is, there didn't seem to be much chemistry between the three leads. Their friendship didn't seem believable.

The dialogue isn't as good. To me anyway. And the voice over pieces are less subtle with much more in the way of outright exposition. Stuff that came through the interplay of character and plot is said outright by the characters far too often. The vampire's first scene has him discussing his love of the whole 'living breathing thing', quoting death related poetry and pointing out how beautiful death really is.

Terrifyingly, his date of the evening, then invites him in for a drink. Seriously, girlfriend? No warning signs?

Probably not fair to pick on a specific piece of dialogue or scene and judge the whole show on that. I couod easily find a scene or two in the original if I wanted to trash it.

But overall, it just seemed to lack a warmth, and lightness of touch. And chemistry. I'll give the rest of the series a go, because you really can never judge a programme by its pilot. Once they depart completely from the British series, they may find their feet and be worth watching in their own right.

There's a definate trade-off. Some good for some bad. The vampire underworld is more convincing in terms of overall scale, but the menace is too obvious. What made the vampire leader Herrick scary, was that he was entirely unremarkable until he chose to be scary. He was charming and avuncular and completely believable as a trusted man. What makes the vampire leader in BH US scary is a more overt sense of power and menace. Which works in its own way.

Likewise with the werewolf. The fully transformed werewolf in Being Human is complete pants. It looks, as various critics have noted, like a bloke in an alsation mask. very unconvincing, cheap effects. In Being Human(US) they've gone the CGI route. Which makes for a much more convincing wolf.

Unfortunately, they also CGI'd the transformation. The transformation scenes in Being Human were fantastic. The combination of Russell Tovey's performance, horribly physical animatronics, and rather brilliant use of the power of suggestion, make these scenes very, very visceral. They've taken their cues from American Werewolf in London. And it works brilliantly, giving a real sense of bodyshock.

The transformations in Being Human(US) aren't nearly as visceral. They serve the purpose of plot and character development, but they lose some of the horror.

Anyways.

Being Human season 3 began last night on BBC3. I loved it. was glad to see Mitchell's appalling crime near the end of season two wasn't just left behind with that season's conclusion. There are consequences.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

There's an article in NY Times this morning about a show called "Portlandia" (PDX).
Has anyone seen the show... what do you think ?

I still have very high hopes that one day Lamp will answer my question about why he uses the airport designation for where he lives????? sigh...

[DanaC]

Bitch!

:p

[Shawnee123]

But I've asked him a few times. I'm just curious.

[glatt]

I wasn't even aware of airport designations until the advent of Travelocity. Now they are second nature. At least the local ones and the big ones.
IAD
DCA
BWI

[DanaC]

I know m'dear. It just started such a shit storm the last time i couldn;t resist :P

[Shawnee123]

Yeah, LAX and the like. I mean, I know what they are but I've never heard anyone use them as location before. Thought maybe it was some old-timey thing, like when phone numbers were like "Pennsylvania 6-5000."

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I know m'dear. It just started such a shit storm the last time i couldn;t resist :P

I'm saying this with as nasally a Brooklyn accent as I can muster: ya rat bastard.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I still have very high hopes that one day Lamp will answer my question about why he uses the airport designation for where he lives????? sigh...

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

But I've asked him a few times. I'm just curious.

Sorry Shawnee,Foot3 answered once and I thought that scratched the itch.

No biggy... PDX is my trivial and lazy way of distinguishing between Portland OR (PDX) and Portland Maine (PWM)

[Shawnee123]

Ohhhhhhh. Thanks Lamp. I missed the explanation. Yeah, I'm a bit obsessive. Thanks for telling me.

[Pico and ME]

I missed it too, Shawnee.

[GunMaster357]

[None]-[None]-[No channel]

Last time I took time to really follow something on TV was September, 11th, 2001

[Datalyss]

Ever since seeing this thread in my "New Posts" 5 days ago, I've been wondering; why the resurrection attempt.

[Bullitt]

Robotech season 1, episode 22