New Torchwood :O

Torchwood will return! "Glorious news", I thought, upon reading the text message from my friend. I love Torchwood. It's everything I want from my sci-fi. Intrigue, danger and romance. The happiness soon wore off after reading a little more about what we may have sacrificed to keep this show.

Firstly, the BBC appears to have been reluctant to make a new series. In retrospect this decision was probably made a while ago. They killed off the majority of characters at the end of Children Of Earth. Coming back would now involve the creation and integration of several new characters, which might be quite difficult for fans to warm to. It seems the BBC has caved because they are receiving funding from an American TV network "Starz Entertainment". They use a "z" instead of an "s". I hate them already. The show was formerly produced solely by BBC Wales, but the new series will have input from "Starz" and BBC Worldwide. BBC Worldwide is the commercial division of the BBC, which sells BBC shows to networks in other countries. Little BBC Wales appears to be playing with the big boys on this one.

I've got some concerns about what this new arrangement will mean for the show. We full well end up with the "Torchwood America" many people want to avoid. One of the charming things about the first two series of Torchwood has been the location. I've got a bit of a thing about Wales, and I found a new threat to Cardiff every week to be very amusing. All of course rotating around the mysterious rift. The new series will be shot partly in America and feature filming from around the world. Sounds like fewer Welsh accents for starters. They've also promised that the new series will have "global stakes". It's a worry that they might be forgetting that Torchwood is meant to be a Doctor Who spin off. The point is Torchwood takes care of Cardiff, and leaves the big stuff for The Doctor. Going too far away from this system will destroy the beautiful relationship between the two series. And I'll miss the crossovers. I love crossover.

Really, my main concerns here are the same as my concerns for Being Human America. I'm worried that they feel they need to change things to make it more suitable for an American or global audience. Bigger explosions, stereotypical characters and meeting in Starbucks to discuss emotions.

I don't want to sound like I'm trashing American TV. Some of my favourite shows are American, like Friends, Glee, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, but I want to keep my British shows British and the thought of Torchwood leaving Cardiff is a very sad one.

Complaints about Britains Got Talent

Some people are NEVER happy. As long as there is television there will be people who don't like what is shown. Such is life. One of the reasons people watch TV is to discuss it and there a few more pleasant ways to while away a Sunday afternoon than arguing about last nights episode of Dr Who. Sometimes though, there comes a time when whining to your friends is just not enough. There comes a time to take action.
There is a specific office to deal with complaints about the media. It is commonly referred to as Ofcom or "the media watchdog". It handles many complaints every year on such things like impartiality, commercial references and offence, and decides whether appropriate action needs to be taken. It does often not matter how many complains a show or advert receives, but rather the rationale behind the complaints. There have been advertisements taken off the air on the basis of only seven complaints. If you find yourself extremely bored I recommend you check out their website. It's pretty interesting stuff.
I mention this due to a news article on the BBC website which caught my eye the other day.
You might recall my earlier blog about Britain's Got Talent. Monday night's show featured Stevie Starr, otherwise known as "The Regurgitator". The dude is pretty odd to be honest. As part of his act he swallows and regurgitates several objects. It's pretty gross, but also very entertaining. I don't reckon he actually does it. There's got to be some sort of trick, but that's not really the issue here. The story was about a number people who had called Ofcom to complain about his act, because they felt that children might try to copy his act, which included swallowing a whole light bulb. Firstly, if your kid can swallow a whole light bulb, they're a bit of a freak aren't they! Send them off to the circus or something! Joking aside, there were, to my knowledge three warnings to "not try this at home". Ant and Dec said it before he went on, Stevie said it before he started his act, and Ant and Dec said it again after he'd finished the act! What more do these people want? I mean, you wouldn't want your four year old operating a kettle, but people do that on the television. Maybe they need to keep a better eye on their children rather than leaving them to play with light bulbs.

Being Human... in America?

A ghost, a vampire and werewolf live in a house in... BOSTON?!? The rumours have been confirmed! The American channel SyFi is doing a remake of Being Human. Actors and such are yet to be confirmed, but they are just starting to release drips and drops about the show. The first thing that occured to me is, why? I mean, the English version of BH is great! How would re-hashing the story with American actors in an American city be anything other than a massive waste of money. It's not like Americans don't speak English!
The shows creators went on to justify their remake my saying they are going to change the whole dynamic of the show, in order to make it more appropriate for an American audience. So far, I've gathered that they seem to be turning our beloved characters into stereotypes. George will become "The Geeky One", oh, and they are changing his name to Josh. Is George difficult for American's to say? Or is it just a very british name? Mitchell is going to become "very obviously Jewish"... uh... because all american shows need to contain a certain number of minorities? Goodness knows. There's been no word of what they are going to do to Annie yet, but my money's on dumb blonde.
The thing that really gets me about this is that I've not heard a single American go "ooh yay!". Popular opinion seems to be that they would prefer to get the English version on a more widely available channel. Because there's nothing wrong with it!!!

Britains Got Talent

Well way to make me eat my words Britain's Got Talent. On Sunday I criticised BGT for a lack of variety in their auditions, and yet the live shows have thus far proved me completely wrong! The first show has shown a wide range of "talent" (a term I use rather loosely). The first night alone showed amazing variety, kicking off with Bollywood dancers Threebee (I must confess they upset me, my friends and I were going to call our band The Threebies, in honour of Pheobe Buffay and the fact that there's three of us... it's probably for the best... we can't sing, write or play instruments :P), moving through singing Olivia Archbold and Josh Mead (nothing to write home about), camp cruise star Kevin Cruise (amusing... but talented? I thought he was going to die on stage, a man who needs to get fit), more dancing from Tobias Mead (similar to George Sampson to be honest. I prefered his audition because it was a little bit different). Surprise of the night was Sean Sheehan. I'm sure wood chopping is very difficult, I certainly couldn't do it, but it's not a very entertaining act. He tried to liven it up with a bit of singing but this distracted him from the chopping and... he didn't do very well. He should be glad he's got all his fingers left. At the same time, good on ITV for going for something a little bit different as opposed to all the singers and dancers. Stevie Starr otherwise known as The Regurgitator. A true variety act. It's not like anything I've ever seen before and very entertaining... in an icky sort of way. I'm convinced it's not real, especially the whole key, lock, ring shebang, but it doesn't make it any less fun. Half the joy is trying to figure out how he's doing it. Deserving winners tonight were of course Spelbound (I am reassured that it is Spelbound not Spellbound, but it makes me die inside). This magnificant act merge cheerleading and serious gymnastics to astounding effect. Several times they made me gasp outloud in fear for their lives, particularly when one stood on another two with a third balanced on his head! It's gotta be seen to be believed.

Pulse- New BBC drama

Well something mildly interesting happened to me this weekend. I got a nice little alert requesting I watch a pilot for a new BBC show and offer my opinions. The show is called Pulse and is described as Supernatural, Medical, Horror Drama. That seems a bit wordy for a genre. I'm not sure it'll catch on. I'm not really fan of the whole horror scene and medical horror is the worst to be honest. It's the cutting and implanting and... it's icky. However I am fond of the supernatural drama side, and since it's on the BBC, I didn't really think it could be that scary.
For a pilot, it was pretty good, and like most BBC shows, I expect it will get better from here. The first episode follows a girl called Hannah who has just resumed training at a hospital after "going crazy". Well, I'm not sure how crazy she went, but this immediately makes me wonder whether or not she's really cut out for medicine... but I guess everyone deserves a second chance. Long story short she finds out there's something weird going on at the hospital to do with a patient being given injections in the middle of the night that aren't recorded on his chart. Of course you can see it coming straight away that no-one is going to believe her because she's "the crazy one".
Looks like this is going to be one of those "edgy" BBC3 dramas where "edgy" means everyone is having sex with everyone else. Just once I'd like to see drama with "edgy realism" where not everyone was a slut. I don't live like that, and neither do my friends, so why do so many people on tv? Alright, maybe one or two people in a group might behave like that, but not everyone! Balance is key.
If you're worried about the horror side, I'd say not to worry. Obviously it's not suitable for kids, but anyone over the age of 16 should be okay. There's a lot of blood splattered about, but I'd say the worst part would be when the guy wakes up on the operating table... but that might just be a personal phobia.
A fun game when watching any BBC drama is looking out for people you've seen before. Spotted in this episode was Gregg Chillin as Rafee Hussein. You might recognise him from The Queens Nose, Being Human or Nearly Famous (a channel 4 show that no-one else in the world seems to have seen). Nothing wrong with using the same actors over and over again, he's a good actor, though it does distract me for several minutes while I try to figure out where I've seen them before.
In conclusion, it was a strong show, and I certainly want to find out what's going on at that hospital. If you're interested, you can watch the pilot online now, and send your own comments direct to the BBC just click HERE. Or you can wait until it's BBC at 9pm on thursday the 3rd of June. Me? Well I'll be watching The Big Bang Theory on Channel 4, so this might be one that I follow on the i-player.

Saturday Night & Eurovision

Ah Saturday Night. The one night a week that there is bound to be something good on TV. Many a family across the UK come together for some well earned "family time". Sadly, I find myself without family at the moment. Not that there's anything wrong with them, I'm just living at university at the moment. Nevertheless, my enjoyment of Saturday night TV is not diminished. 6.30pm usually finds my cross legged in front of the box, ice cream in hand eagerly enjoying the latest episode of Doctor Who. This comes much to the disgust of my housemates, who would rather do anything else. Last Saturday they declared that football took priority and cast me out on the street. Undeterred ended up cross legged on a sympathetic friend's floor. It'll take more than football to keep me from my weekly who fix.
After Doctor Who, I've been watching Over The Rainbow, the Andrew Lloyd Webbers latest search for a new Broadway "star", but that finished last week. I really didn't enjoy this series as much as I have done the previous ones. I miss John Barrowmans wit and campness. The show just isn't the same without "Fantastic! Fantastic! Fantastic" Mr Barrowman. Another frustrating element is that I was expecting a search for a male star this time. I love watching the girls sing but those Josephs had... appeal the girls just can't deliver.
We're currently in the midst of another round of Britain's Got Talent, a show which conclusively proves... Britain THINKS It's Got Talent. There's some sheer rubbish ends up on this show (and a lot of it even gets through to the next round), but I guess that's part of the fun. What really gets to me is the amount of singing acts that turn up. You have to wonder why they don't audition for the x-factor if they really want singing success. Last years winners Diversity have also inspired a multitude of dance acts, mostly repeating the same old stuff we've already seen many times before. They really need to step up their game if they have any chance of winning. This is another show that's just getting old now. For a variety show, it needs a bit more variety if it wants to avoid getting stale.
Lastly, I've been following Casualty. This is seen to be a rather odd choice, in fact I don't think many of my friends watch it. It all started as something I did with my mum, but now it's a show I watch every week. Most of the time I question why I do, as it's possibly the most depressing show I watch. There's death, disease and misery (and that's just the doctors!). The current appeal comes from following the stories of the F2s, the trainee doctors. Maybe I just relate to them because they are young, starting out in the world, trying to find their feet, or maybe it's just because they only started over Easter so I've been able to follow their entire story and I'm not being confused by some part of the back story that happened over a year ago. That said, the show seems to be loosing F2s at an alarming rate. They started off with about 12 and they seem to be down to two... I'm not even sure where they all went! But Yuki is my favourite, so I don't mind :D
So, I think I've established, Saturday Night Tv is one of the highlights of my week, but I was quite content to ditch the usual schedule this week in favour of EUROVISION! This year saw a rather condensed show. They ditched the naff VTs of each country's scenery, daft hats and weird trivia in favour of a pre-midnight finish. Not complaining, I got to watch the whole show on campus and still manage to get a late bus home. UK were... well we were rubbish. Come on Pete Waterman, it's 2010. We've moved on from the 90's, it's time for you to move on too. Or retire... on second thoughts, just retire. Perhaps the right singer could have made it work, but Josh Dubovie was out of tune, and not even in time with the music. The saddest part was the look on his face about half way through, when he seemed to realise just how bad it was. BBC news this morning reports he is "still smiling", but this must be a brave face for the cameras. I don't blame him. He shouldn't have been put on the stage! UK just doesn't take the competition seriously. Turkey's entry MaNga are MTV award winners, and accordingly came second. Britain have got some great artists, but we have something against sending people who are already established. Imagine if we stuck Robbie Williams up there. We'd win by a landslide.
I expected Cyprus to do better, but it seems no-one really warmed to the fact that they'd nabbed a little welsh lad to sing for them. Perhaps Wales should consider entering solo next year? With talent like that, I reckon they'd do quite well.
The winner Lena... she was okay... From the black lipstick I was expecting something a little more alternative from her. She was referred to as "The German Lilly Allen", but I think that's a bit of an insult to Lilly Allen. The song... well it didn't make sense to me, containing stunning lyrics like "I painted my toe nails for you". Is this considered a romantic gesture in Germany? Personally, I just paint my toe nails when I'm bored, or I know I'm going to be wearing strappy shoes. I don't think I've ever painted them for someone else... Upon winning Lena came across as quite the diva, refusing to hold her trophy or flowers claiming she didn't have the strength... she was also reported to be very subdued in later interviews. Guess it was past her bed time.