Best TV show cast

You know, I normally don't get too anal about what these things mean but "best cast" is dreadfully vague. I could go with "Cast where I loved everyone and their characters without exception" (and I'd have think hard for an ensemble show where both parts of that equation were true). I could go with "Cast that made me go squee because it had loads of my favourite people in it". I could go with "Cast that was just a blinding stroke of casting, where everyone gelled and it showed on the screen."

For that latter, I'd have to nominate the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They're still friends, 20 years later, and if you follow those who are on twitter, you'll know they make a point of meeting for lunches and keeping in touch and look forward to hanging out together at conventions. None of the subsequent ST shows really had that same chemistry - I've heard both DS9 and Voyager had off screen problems. Whatever I thought of the writing and the wish that some characters were treated far better than they were, the actors always made those characters more than 2D cardboard cut outs and there were times when you could see they were having a ball. I see echos of that in NCIS, incidentally, another show where the casting has been spot on throughout.

For the "Squee", NCIS:LA had me at hello. At least for the pilot, where they had Chris O'Donnell AND Louise Lombard. I was less squeeful when they wrote LL's character out after the pilot but they did bring in Linda Hunt so hrm, I may have to forgive them. Eventually.

TNG prolly comes closest to fulfilling the first "best cast" option too but actually, I think Leverage might edge it by a nose. Again, they got supremely lucky with the casting, all the actors own their characters and I love them all, even Sophie who can annoy me but I have to give major props to Gina Bellman, because she keeps Sophie real enough to be interesting. I was all ready to resent her being back this season and dammit if she didn't have me sucked in by the end of the first ep. Bah! Foiled!

So I think the winner is (again) Leverage :)

Well they gave me several heart attacks in the process but England got through to the next round. Where we'll meet Germany. Oh joy. Oh well at least we got out of the group stages :D

Also many congrats to the USA who also went through today. I'm glad because you were robbed of a goal at least twice that I know of. Also you played every match as if it was your last and if we'd done that, we'd be playing Ghana on Sunday, not Germany. A lesson to be observed there.

I got to see history in the making today. Last night at Wimbledon, the match between Nicolas Mahut (FRA) and John Isner (USA) finished 2 sets all when play was suspended. Today they returned to Court 18 to resolve the final set. They played...and played...and played....and played. At 59 games all, play was suspended again and the two combatants will have to return to tomorrow to try and win it. No, that isn't a typo. FIFTY NINE GAMES ALL in the FIFTH SET. Today's play lasted around 7 hours, the match total is now 10 hours long. It is the longest tennis match in history. Not just Wimbledon history mark you, world tennis history. Holy cow o_0 Also, they've both broken the record for number of aces served in a single match, with Isner rocketing down 98 and Mahut right on his heels with 95 (at least one of those saved a match point, btw). It's mind blowing stuff. And I'll be at work tomorrow, probably, although they're scheduled to be the third match out. If the previous two matches last a decent time, I might yet get in when it's 90 all or something ;D

Anyway, time to catch up on the meme. You'll be pleased to see I'm brief this time around :D

( Cut for those that really couldn't care less )

England's performance on Friday was so dismal and dire that I couldn't even work myself up into a proper fury. thessalian was standing by with the Cushion of Mighty Punching in case it was needed for me to vent on, but the most I could manage was a "Bah!" and a brief flail. If we go out, I hope to goodness the fingers get pointed at the bunch of over-paid players who looked like they didn't want to be there. IT'S THE FREAKIN' WORLD CUP! If you don't want to be there, wearing the colours of your country, you're in the wrong sport! I don't care how tired they are or how out of sorts they feel, they should be digging in and flinging themselves at the games with all their heart and soul. Smaller teams with less chances of advancement are showing us how it's done! Feh. Useless articles, the lot of them.

I haven't squeaked about my shiny new shower! It's shiny! And new! And there is honest-to-god water pressure!!! *flails* The novelty! I can stand under it and actually get wet!!! *swoons* I shall be using the plumber I found again, too. I saw a link in the comments to a flist post a while back to a company run by a retired female plumber who has a network of active female plumbers and will put you in touch with someone locally. Which is how I found Harriet and Thess assures me she was competent and brisk. Excellent! Oh and the price? Fantastic. For the purchase of a new power shower, installation, removal of old gunky shower, installation of isolation valve to cold water pipe to shower (so we don't have to turn the water off at the mains to work on it again in the future) ? Under £200. That was about 2 hours of work, too, including actually going out and buying the shower. Oh yes, 'm using her again. I want a quote for ripping out and replacing the rest of the bathroom. :)

And so, Day 14 of the TV Meme! I'm amazed I've kept going this long but it helps that half of my flist seems to be doing it too :)

( You want me to choose just one?? Can't and shan't! )

Other stuff first - had a fantabulous time in London Wednesday evening and Thursday. Wednesday I scampered out of work early and got into London in plenty of time to find my hotel and dump my bag. Hotel - not one I'm going back to. For the price, I expected much more than I got, but it was ok, I was only in it for about 8 hours :) (The George Hotel on Gloucester Place for those taking notes). I didn't hang around but headed straight out to Belgo's and got there about 7.15, meaning I was on hand to welcome Melissa, Mike and Byran. Melissa is someone I know from rec.arts.mystery, we met back in 2002 when Bouchercon was held in Austin, Melissa's home town. It is entirely because of Melissa that I experienced the joy that is chicken fried steak at Threadgills and have been whimpering to go back ever since. I'd met Mike briefly that trip but as Melissa was a couple of months pregnant with Bryan at the time, it was the first time I'd met Bryan :) Let me say that right off the bat, I've seen older children behave way, way worse than Bryan after two gruelling days of tourism and frankly, for 99% of the time, he was a joy to be with. Mostly, he was happy to curl up with a book or his iPod, we barely knew he was there.

Rik and Carol arrived a bit later and everyone got along splendidly which was grand - Melissa came over in 2007 and so had met Rik and Carol then so that made it easier. Food was inhaled - I had mussels and Melissa got the lobster; I will post a pic of the carnage, it was pretty spectacular! Beer was consumed and there was much happy yakking before we all waddled off in various directions.

Thursday I met the Coopers at the Tower of London and we gleefully scampered around. Thanks to Melissa's skilled planning, we got the Jewel House long before the seething hordes and so were able to really take our time admiring the Crown Jewels. Still breathtaking, no matter how many times you see 'em. Lot of restoration work being done at the Tower but enough was open to hold our interest. I have to confess, I wasn't feeling terribly well in the morning, I was dehydrated for some reason and felt a bit crap. So I let the Coopers clamber all over the place and on a couple of occasions, I elected to sit outside and slurp water and enjoy seeing the Tower on a truly glorious sunny day. By lunch, I felt lots better.

We finished the Tower earlier than expected, thanks to beating the crowds, so we hopped on an open bus tour and did the Red Route, which took about 2 and a half hours to do and was fantastic. I was THRILLED to discover that nowadays you get lil' headphones (like on a plane) and you plug into a socket next to your seat on the bus and get a recorded commentary. So much easier for hard of hearing meece!! Lots of languages offered too, there were sockets for 8 different nationalities judging from the flags. I actually learned new bits of trivia and it was a very well done narration, nicely mixing in standard history with interesting tidbits about persons and places.

After the tour, the Coopers went back to their hotel and I found a pub to curl up in and slurp a cold drink and have a light snack. I scoffed flatbread with chicken, chorizo and mature cheddar cheese - OM NOM! Then I scampered over to the Ambassador's Theatre (where I saw Idina in 08!) and re-met up with the Coopers to see Stomp. Fantabulous show, absolutely brilliant - if you get the chance to go, do, you won't regret it. Then after the show, it was time to say goodbye *sniffles* No idea when I'll see the Coopers again but it was lovely to spend some time with them and generous too - Thursday was Melissa's birthday! - and I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

On to the TV Meme!

( Belated Day 11 )

( Day 12 - bit long )

This needs to be show, not tell :)

From Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, "Timescape"




In other news, work is quiet, the World Cup hasn't given us any fireworks yet (although Brazil v. North Korea tonight was excellent) and tomorrow I finish at 4pm and scamper off to London to see Melissa from Texas, whose over here with her family for a visit. There will be feasting at Belgo's tomorrow night (OM NOM NOM!) and then Thursday I have the day off and will scamper with them around the Tower of London and catch Stomp in the evening :) Busy day but should be fun.

I had an entry all typed up for TV Meme, Day 8, and I've left it at work. Oh well, will post two days tomorrow :)

Work is...depressing. To the point, I think I'll see if I can have a word with Cheryl and come up with some structured work for myself because this ad hoc day to day stuff is driving me ding dong. I am bored out of my tiny little mind, and with all the talk of more reorganisations and possible redundancies, I do not want to end up as deadwood in the office.

Still job hunting :)

Your favorite show ever

Oh. Dear. Gods.

How the hell can you choose just one show? Huh? I watch a lot of TV, I've been a TV addict since I was old enough TO watch TV and there is no way I can pin it down to just one show! I ask you! And besides the sheer number of shows, how can you compare a comedy that leaves you giggling helplessly to a drama show that has you hooked to an action show with explosions and car chases??

And there are shows that probably cover all of the above :P

*ponderponderponder*

OK, I'm going to rule out programmes that weren't scripted series (like Morecambe and Wise specials, The Two Ronnies, Not the Nine o'Clock News) and ignore children's programmes like Willo the Wisp and Mr Ben. In making this list, I noted there were few British shows on here which is a shame as I know there were shows that I adored, like The Bill in its early days, and Juliet Bravo. But JB has never been released on any media at all and I think The Bill is only partly available: not being able to rewatch and rewatch does affect the old memory :)

Two honourable mentions for children's programmes at this point: Grange Hill and Blue Peter. Fantastic shows and I never missed them: even my Mum watched them! I do wish it was physically possible for the BBC to release DVDs of Blue Peter but technology will have to make far bigger leaps to make that possible because of the sheer volume of DVDs it would involve!

So let's break it down by age :)

As a kid (prior too, ooh, age 12 I'd guess), I think it would have been a toss up between Charlie's Angels (don't judge me!) and Starsky and Hutch, two shows that I will still re-watch quite happily, even the bad episodes, which says something for their staying power. And of course there was original series Star Trek, which was always a must watch. One of my favourite episodes of TV ever comes from ST - Balance of Terror.

In my teens, there were shows like Fame, Cagney and Lacey, MacGyver and The Bill.

During university, there was Star Trek:The Next Generation to re-capture my imagination. Everyone else was watching Twin Peaks (blech) while I was catching up with the Enterprise D :)

Post-university, and there were the various Star Trek spin offs, along with Babylon 5, on my to be watched list. That I could now by tapes of these eps to rewatch no doubt helped. Oddly, I'm having problems remembering crime shows I'd have watched during this period. I know I must have, because I always do. *shrugs*

Over the past decade, with the advent of the internet and access to TV shows on a level previously unimagined, I've watched whole rafts of shows. Xena:Warrior Princess was probably the first show that dragged me into the world of fandom and crazy fans. And is probably the reason I don't go to those lengths any more.

In recent years, crime shows have been my love and joy - Cold Case, Numb3rs, Without A Trace, NCIS, CSI (Vegas) etc etc. The current very long list of shows I watch (minus those that were cancelled this season) is The Big Bang Theory, Private Practice, Nurse Jackie, NCIS, NCIS:LA, Justified, Leverage, In Plain Sight, Burn Notice, Criminal Minds, Eureka and White Collar. It is just as well that some of these shows air during the summer o_0

But this does nothing to narrow down my favourite show ever. MacGyver is a close runner, so is Xena, so is (don't judge, dammit!) Charlie's Angels. But all the while I pondered this, I kept coming back to the Star Trek family. Of all the shows I rewatch, I suspect Next Generation and ST:Voyager are probably in the top 3 in terms of numbers. What can I say? The original series captured my imagination and Next Gen re-kindled a love that just won't quit. I adore Voyager, for all its flaws, and there are some truly superb episodes of all stripes and colours scattered through its seven seasons. But I think it's predecessor just gets the nod, in part because when it was good, it was sometimes truly amazing. And you had Patrick Stewart who could make dialogue sound like Shakespeare even when it wasn't, plus a stellar back up cast.

Soooo, after all that, my favourite show ever (to date) is: Star Trek: The Next Generation.

(I may change my mind later :P)

2. A show that you wish more people were watching

Leverage, no question. I keep nudging people towards it *glares at jenni411* (And while I'm at it, I shall glare at commoncomitatus about Burn Notice) and it's got "good enough to get renewed" viewing figures (all hail the tv gods) but everyone should be watching this show, dammit! It's smart, clever, terrific cast and the showrunners really know what they're doing in terms of balancing action with character development. There are many network show runners that could be taking tips on how to create tension and excitement without going over the top or having half the characters sleep with the other half (I'm looking at you, Shondra Rhimes).


Runners up:-

Nurse Jackie - a very black dramedy with the truly outstanding Edi Falco in the title role. It's doing very well and has already been renewed for S3, I believe (S2 finale was last night), but it could be a lot bigger. This one gets me because the lead character really isn't that likeable - she's a cheater and a liar with a painkiller addiction - and yet, between the terrific writing, the superb acting and a fantastic supporting cast, it keeps you watching. Haven't seen the finale yet and it's the only finale that I've been impatient to get home to see (apart from Justified's, but that's for tomorrow :D)

In Plain Sight - another one where the lead character isn't terribly likeable most of the time, but has juuuust enough redeeming features to keep you watching. Plus the snark is a thing of great love :) It also has the hook of making you root for criminals a lot of the time - the setting is the Witness Protection Programme of the US Marshals and it features a different case every week. Just enough personal development to keep the characters real and, again, the cast has the acting chops to really deliver. Try it some time :)