I'm still alive!

Yeah, it's been a while. University work continues to get in the way of regular blogging and circumstances have meant I've been watching more films instead of tv. I've finally got a few minutes to myself to update but I'm away from my flat so you're getting a slimmed down blog from my iPhone instead. This means the usual colour coding is damn near impossible so I will try and keep it short and organised.

First, Waterloo road returned in a rather subdued style. Without the usual mid season drama, it wasn't really necessery to do any big reveals. Term just picked up where it left off. It struck me as odd that the new pastoral care teacher wasn't fired in her first 5 minutes just for being so bloody difficult, never mind by the end of the day when she had deliberately disobeyed orders from the headmistress. I think this will set the tone for this series. No-one doing as they are told. Takes away from the realism and reminds me it's not real. Not good. Also distracting was George sampsons bad acting. For the first 10 minutes or so. Until I remembered no one on Waterloo road can act and I'd accepted that a long time ago. Last episode toms missing adopted daughter cloe got a mention. You'd think shed visit every now and then.

Also crashing back on to my iplayer, being human, as bloody as ever and still guaranteed to have me in tears of both laughter and sadness... In the space of about 30 seconds. That's the great thing about this show. Toby whithouse has a magical ability to turn from tragedy to comedy and back to tragedy without taking anything away from the authenticity of the moment. It's just a shame that spin off show becoming human does not reflect its sister's greatness. I appreciate their dedication to giving being human's massive online fanbase a little bit extra each week but 10minutes is just not enough time to get decent character development and the plot feels shallow. In short, I just don't care. There's lots of other awesome stuff to be had on the blog though, perfect distraction from the ever increasing pile of assignments on my desk.

iPhone typing hurts my thumbs, so I'm out for now.

Back From Disney!

What's that? Oh you've really missed me. Oh, I've missed you too! Yeah, it's been a bit quiet on the blogging front, because I've been in Euro Disney! It was so super duper awesome! Here's a picture of me and my best friends in front of the magic castle :D

And while we were there, we saw a girl who looked a lot like Lex, from you-tube. James shouted "Lex!" But she didn't turn round, so we figured it wasn't her, but when I got home and checked out her twitter, turns out it was her :O Crazy stuff. Probably the closest I'll ever get to a YouTube celebrity... oh well. On with the TV stuff.

Now, you may recall I was quite devastated to be missing Derren Brown's next big special (Hero at 30,000 feet) which aired on the day we flew out to France. Fortunately I managed to pick it up on 4od on my return. Derren said this was his favourite show to date, but I'm going to have to disagree with him. Though the show had a lovely message to go with it, we didn't really see anything new from Derren, and the show lacked the WOW factor of shows like The Heist and Russian roulette. I'm expecting something new from Derren soon, as he has been filming all summer and I've got a friend who has been to one of his filming evenings. Perhaps another series of Tricks of The Mind? It would make my season :P

I also missed a stunning episode of Casualty while I was away, which I managed to catch up on this morning on the I-Player. In the aftermath of last week’s shooting, someone has to take the fall and Charlie is in the firing line. I spent the majority of the episode on the edge of my seat. Another very strong Casualty episode, when I was expecting them to have a lower episode after all the excitement of last week’s feature length episode. As usual you've got all the heart-warming hospital moments, funny one liners and devastating blows. The whole range of human emotion in one hour. Worth staying in on a Saturday night for... or you know, watching on the I-Player half a week later.

In contrast, this week’s Waterloo Road had a Sex Education Special that felt like an hour long public service announcement. We went through the stories of "The one who thinks sex will make her happy" "The one whose condom broke" "The young single mum" and "The one struggling with his sexuality" With disaster and tragedy all round. The majority of these stories seemed to fly up from no-where. Two of the characters have never been seen before (and will probably never be seen again) and that poor lad has never given any indication of being gay before. Sorry Waterloo Road writers, D-, Could do better.

The Autumn Season Begins

Shhh... Listen... do you hear that? That is the blissful sound of silence. No longer do the kids crowd the streets screaming and dancing and I will no longer have to battle against tweenagers to browse the DVD sale in HMV. Life has returned to a state resembling normality as we are now in September and school is back in session.

Of course it's not just the real world in which school is back in. This week we got treated to two wonderful episodes of Waterloo Road, which as per usual started with a bang. We are welcoming a new Head Mistress in the shape of Karen Fisher (Amanda Burton), who starts with drastic new policies, much to the annoyance of the existing teachers, but it all works out in the end and she solves a lot of the schools problems... much like every other new head in this school. The story line seems much a carbon copy of when Rachel Mason started! Come on writers, get your act together! She's also got a whole host of personal problems including a missing child, a delinquent daughter and a cheating husband... also seems to be showing signs of early depression (though I can see why). From the brief glimpses we've seen it looks like her missing daughter is played by Tina O'Brien, so I can't see her staying missing for very long.

Also new staff wise is the stunning Francesca Montoya (Karen David), Head of Spanish. Not sure why they need a Head of Spanish, since there is no one else in the Spanish department for her to be head of. Spanish seems to have replaced French as the only language taught at this school. The two French teachers, Stephanie Haydock and Jo Lipsett have disappeared without explanation! I'm really not sure how this school gets through any of its exams... apart from English, the only fully staffed department.

Casualty also returned to our screens this week, after a 1 week absence. It made up for this loss with a feature length episode! Yay! My Dad keeps telling me I shouldn't watch Casualty as I "can't handle it". Excuse me if I find the death of several college kids upsetting! I'm not going to give much away about this one, I recommend picking it up on the I-player. Even if you've never seen Casualty before, now is a good time to pick it up, as the plot of this special episode takes place completely out of existing plot lines, showing the hospital dealing with a great amount of pressure after a shooting in a college. I hope the rest of the series can keep up the drama all the way through autumn. Now, go on, what else are you going to do with the next hour and a half? Click Here

X-Factor has also shot back onto our screens with the usual array of delusional wannabes, quiet superstars and diva strops. Yes, it is becoming one big massive cliché (if I hear "1 million percent yes" one more time, I'm going to beat Simon Cowel to death with a math textbook), but it's still sociable Saturday Night television! Worth sticking with through the auditions, but only time will tell if the talent will keep me interested through the live shows.

This Weeks Recommendation: I'm dying to watch Derren Brown: Hero at 30,000 feet on Wednesday at 10pm on Channel 4, but I'm going to be out of the country! Yes, I'll be jetting off to Disney Land Paris, obscenely early on Wednesday morning, but I hope there's nothing stopping you enjoying it. I'll be catching up on the magic some time Monday. For those of you who have been living under the proverbial rock, Derren Brown is a Psychologist, Illusionist and Showman who performs seemingly impossible feats using his odd array of skills. The man himself says this is his favourite show to date, so it will be well worth a watch. Enjoy, and I'll see you some point next week :)

P.S. The rather wonderful James Raynard (CottonWoolWorld) was lovely enough to give me a shout out on his latest vlog! Isn't that nice of him? Since he said very nice things, and is a clever, interesting and funny guy (and has, what I've been told is "an adorable English accent") you should go check out his videos! HERE

Football *headdesk*

NO I'M NOT WATCHING THE FOOTBALL!!! *takes deep breath* NO I'M NOT WATCHING BIG BROTHER!!! *breath*... it's okay... I'm fine... Seriously though, the entire world seems to have stopped moving. The football is all anyone can talk about, and if you do manage to escape, it's all about Big Brother. I'm a student, who’s finished for the summer; my days follow a rather lazy pattern which often involves watching Scrubs at 1pm... or 2pm on E4+1 if I've slept in, so I was pretty put out to find out my favourite hospital comedy had been replaced with... footage of people not doing much at all really... and occasional shots of the sky. What is the point!!! I wasn't overly upset though. I'm used to this crap from channel 4, I consoled myself that it wasn't as bad as the time they axed my morning FRIENDS fix to show people sleeping. I flipped over to ITV in hope of finding the Loose Women having a good bitching session, to find that had been replaced by the football! I gave up and went back to bed. I later found out I'd been a little harsh with ITV. They were showing Loose Women at the same time (12.30pm), just on ITV2.

I'm not overly upset over loosing either of these shows though. They are daytime TV, and let’s face it; I should be doing something a little bit more productive anyway. What really gets to me is that BBC didn't show Waterloo Road on Wednesday! There are only two episodes left and this series has really been dragged on for long enough! It seems to be the first thing to go when the BBC need to rearrange a few things, usually with no notice. I know it's not one of the BBC's shining stars, but it is on its 5th series! It can't get there without a loyal audience, and we deserve a little more respect. So in summary, I expect this blog is going to get a little quiet, due to a complete lack of decent TV!

On the bright side, Saturday night TV went ahead as usual. Since Britain's Got Talent has finished I've got a little bit of a gap in what was a rather comfortable schedule, but I filled it in with Doctor Who Confidential, a show I usually watch on the Sunday morning while trying to build motivation to get out of bed. Doctor Who was awesome, but I'm aware I just sound like a bit of a screaming fan girl when I go on about it, so I'm just going to say, can't wait for next week, and I hope nobody dies... or stays dead... wow my Saturday night is going to be really empty in a fortnight... I might have to get a social life or something.