How Drugs Work (Short)

Recently I've been enjoying a show called "How Drugs work" on the BBC i-Player. It's particularly useful as I've just started a psychopharmacology module on my degree, but I'd suggest it's useful for anyone who's curious about drugs, because it gives a very balanced view on why people use them, therapeutic and medicinal uses and the downsides. The first one was about Cannabis, following some absolute stoners, a reasonably well adjusted young woman with a job who smoked in the evening to cope with stress, and an older woman with MS who used a medically prescribed form of cannabis to cope with the severe symptoms. It's pretty amazing what a wide range of users there are, and I definitely feel a lot more informed. The show takes several dives into a more neuroscientific view, but CGI makes it easy to follow what's going on, even for someone without a scientific background. The program on MDMA or Ecstasy was slightly less balanced, and showed a lot more of the dangers, but even here they found positive use in people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. There's a few more to be shown yet, the next one is tonight BB3 9pm.

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.

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.