Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

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 :)

Not words I ever thought I'd type in a subject line :)

We had a Royal visit at work today, one of my favourites too, The Princess Royal. Anne, bless her, is serious about her charities, one of which is The National Deafblind and Rubella Association. HCC has just launched a new scheme to help deafblind people and their carers and HRH came to officially launch it. Pretty spiffy. I didn't get to see her (the scrum anywhere NEAR the event was ridiculous) but a colleague was lucky enough to see her leaving and get reasonably close. She looked very nice, apparently. :)

Tennis - The Match That Would Not End ended with John Isner winning 70-68. Feast your eyes on that score, folks, because I'm pretty damn sure it'll never happen ever again.

Right, meme and then I must tuck myself up in my pitlet.

( Day 18 - Favourite Title Sequence )

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 )

Which meant I had to go into work. Dammit :P However, I have had food today without feeling nauseous, so that's good.

I was going to post two days worth of meme today but have decided to post two tomorrow, because I want to spend some quality time on Day 15's topic and Day 16 and 17 go quite well together so...

( Day 15 - Favourite Female Character aka This Meme Wants Me Ded )

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! )

I am attempting for brevity today, simply because I don't want mass defriendings by Day 14 :D

Favourite Non-cartoon show:- Blue Peter, no contest. I watched this religiously. Bought the annuals, donated to the yearly appeal, missed it during summer. I am convinced I saw the best years, with first Val, John and Peter and then Lesley, John and Peter, classic stuff. There's like a zillion clips on YouTube and most of them are bloopers but have a rummage if you're curious. The show is still on the air today and is, as far as I know, the longest running children's programme in the world (it debuted in 1958).

Close runners up: Play Away and Why Don't You? (Russell T Davies was involved in the latter - I'm fairly sure he's the reason I stopped watching, now that I realise what changes he made).

Favourite cartoon:- now this is where I have to restrain myself :) I am still very fond of cartoons, although I'm choosey :) I was less descriminating as a kid but the cartoons I watched the most then I will still watch and enjoy now.

1) Tom and Jerry - simply the best. The early shorts are beautiful pieces of animation and should be cherished. The very later cartoons suck rocks but the golden period with Fred Quimby producing were just outstanding.

2) Battle of the Planets - no, I didn't know what it was really about! I just loved the show :D Just goes to show what you can do with careful editing and overdubbing :P

3) Willo the Wisp - this I have on DVD and it's still brilliant :D

4) Scooby Doo - KILL SCRAPPY DOO! Ruined this cartoon but the earlier series are still fun and it has one of the best theme songs ever :D

5) Wacky Races/Stop the Pigeon! - I'm indebted to halcyon_shift for reminding me of this one. Dastardly and Muttley for the Win!!

Stop motion animation:-

1) The Wombles - awwwww! *cuddles* Bernard Cribbins narration for the win! And btw, the children's books the series was based on are fantabulous and should be read to every child everywhere.

2) Camberwick Green/Trumpton/Chigley - stop motion animation at its finest :D Brian Cant was another voice of my childhood :)

3) Ivor the Engine - ahhh perfect :D The soothing welsh toned narration was just wonderful :)

And now I must go about my Saturday - I really need to go shopping, I'm worse than Old Mother Hubbard atm.

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 )

A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving

About two years ago, the Evil TV Show Pusher Also Known As halycon_shift suggested I might enjoy Eureka. It's great, I was told, about a town full of brilliant wacky inventor genius types and the non-genius sheriff and it's got snark.

Meh, I replied. Fish out of water show. Blech.

Totally not like that, it's clever and smart and the sheriff is sometimes the smartest guy there!

Feh beh meer meer whine, I caught a few mins of it once, wasn't impressed.*

Fiiiiiiine, said the ETSPAKAH_S. (Feel free to imagine her sitting back, noting the date and time and waiting patiently. White cat optional.)

Fast forward two years and I a thessalian moved in. She got to interview the lead actor, Colin Ferguson and so I heard about Eureka for a few days. And I got curious, so I eventually got my sticky fingers on Season 1 (rejecting thessalian's dvds cos they didn't have subtitles)and mainlined it. In about 2 days.

"Hey, ETSPAKAH_S! I've just watched S1 of Eureka! It's REALLY GOOD!! *bounce*"

"..."

I am fortunate that she doesn't actually HAVE a fully trained ninja assassin army. Yet.

Advance warning that Day 11 will prolly get posted on Day 12, due to Mitchy's scampering around London on Thursday :)

* - still not sure which episode it was. It maaay have been the chemical spill one.

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.

A show everyone should watch

Not entirely sure what the difference between this and "Day 2 - A show you wish more people were watching" is, but lemmee see if I can cobble together an answer :)

Besides, 'm at work and right now, I have nothing better to do *cough*

First off, I think everyone should turn off every reality show and refuse to watch them. Convince the companies that we want something better on our airwaves, people! More power to your off-button!

And while I'm dreaming, I'd like to win the lottery :P

Back to the question! I'm tempted to say "The Big Bang Theory" because everyone should have a good laugh every week and this show usually delivers that in spades. Also, it has the best theme song EVER! However, I'll concede Sheldon is one of those characters you either tolerate or you wish would DIAF and you'd rather stab yourself with a rusty spork than watch his antics for 30 minutes. Heck, even I occasionally have to grit my teeth and resist the urge to attempt to reach through the TV screen and slap him silly. Still, if you get the chance to watch, you should try it. When it's good, it's brilliant. And hey! Evil Wil Wheaton FTW!

So the show that right now I think EVERYONE should watch is In Plain Sight. It's had its episode numbers cut to 13 this go round because the show runner has been taken ill. So while it's not being cut because of viewing numbers, OUTSTANDING viewing figures for the last 3 episodes wouldn't hurt, right? :)

In Plain Sight is about two US Marshalls who work in the Witness Protection Programme. Each week focuses on a different witness: we see what happened to put them in WitSec and the challenges faced with starting a new life from scratch. The lead Marshall is Mary Shannon, who is blunt, rude, aggressive but always, always looks out for her witnesses, her partner and her family. Played by a lesser actress, she could have been a cardboard cut out but Mary McCormack (West Wing) does a terrific job at making her likeable even when she isn't BEING likeable :) Mary's partner is Marshall Mann (Yes, Marshall is his first name), a walking encyclopedia, way more cerebral than Mary but no less fiercely loyal. Their boss is Stan, played by the wonderful Paul-Ben Victor (BobbyHobbes from I-Man), who puts up with far too much but still manages to remain their boss when it matters.

G'wan, give it a try, you know you want to :D