Spooks spooks spooks

Today arrived, as expected, on schedule and everything, and as also expected it got to 9pm. Spooks was on. Series 7, episode 1. Huzzah!

The bad first:

La la la-ing is required to ignore the blatant political broadcasts they make every so often.
The use of technology is, erm, interesting.
Girlies are not good at fighting. Nope. Especially not little teeny tiny blondies.
They could have made the saddest event in television history (exaggeration? Moi?) a bit sadder. Really. I was expecting at least a small tear-ette to form in the corner of my eye, but no. Oh dead, really? Ah well.


But the good, oh the good:

It's Spooks.
The music and the way it all happens is damned exciting. I forget to breathe sometimes.
Richard Armitage. Very swooshy. (he spoke Russian. thwopp, thwopp)
They're not shy of killing anyone off, you don't know what's going to happen.
Harry Pearce is ace.
The men are manly, the villains are villainous and things are almost as they should be. Apart from the girls failing to be girlie at all it does good.

S'on again tomorrow. Watching the BBC3 first look one tonight would have resulted in being ultimately bereft tomorrow. So, willpower willed out for once. Woo.

Gratituous pic:

Fizz fizz boing boing

Spooks (Spoks? Why can't I type?) series 7 is to be broadcast the week commencing 25 October. Huzzah! That's a maximum of 18 days away. If it's on Tuesdays then that will be 28th October, which is TWO WEEKS TOMORROW.



Except, episode two is dealing with the repercussions of an explosion and Rupert Penry Jones, who is definitely leaving, is not credited. That's just... sob!

But, Richard Armitage... the nicest cure for insomnia:




dribble.

Masterful men of magic and spying

Well, I watched the third installment of Merlin last night and I absolutely loved it. I assume that after the first scene-setting episode they will now continue to follow the format of a stand alone story of bad sorcery that Merlin has to defeat before the end of the episode.

Why did I love this episode? Because I am a girl, and because all the men, even dweeby Arthur, were really masterful and manly. Rrrrr. Also, the characters were all fleshed out a bit more in this episode, particularly Guinevere and Morgana. Colin Morgan does work really well as Merlin, he plays the clever but confused bit well. Particularly notable for his "I will not let this happen" swooshery.

I didn't watch anything else. I've got the following to watch sometime before I forget:

Little Britain USA. Pretty much know what you're going to get here...

Griff Rhys Jones, Losing It, Part 2. I loved the first part of this, because Griff is so very likeable and funny, and it was good watching him lose his temper and talk about it. I'm not so keen to see the second part, because it is about touchy feely making him better guff. But he is marvellous and will presumably carry the show as well as demonstrate suitable skepticism for the touchy feely stuff, so I will watch it and probably enjoy.

Where's Spooks? I need Spooks, even if they do seem set to write out the very lovely Rupert Penry Jones, but compensating by introducing the very lovely Richard Armitage.

Upon searching for the answer to this pressing question (which will undoubtedly be revealed on the cover of the Radio Times, I need only to exercise patience, it will happen sometime) I found all sorts of trailers for Quantum of Solace. This, I am excited about. I've always been a fan of Bond (obviously) but found Pierce Brosnan wet, unconvincing and generally rubbish. Timothy Dalton was fabulous, he was my favourite pre-Craig Bond and I loved the Living Daylights. I can't remember which of the Brosnan ones I liked and didn't like, I know I hated Goldeneye and liked Tomorrow Never Dies, but I can't remember which one of the other two was good and which was unwatchable drivel. Anyway, I LOVED Casino Royale, Daniel Craig is magnificent as Bond (and, shockingly, can actually act) and the film was mostly superb. Except for the whole emotional in love Bond thing, that was too long and tedious and could have done with being trimmed. The Quantum of Solace has Angry Bond, which should be quite a thing to watch.

31st October apparently. Woo.

Autumn watch

It's that time of year for BBC's new season, the series that will finish at Christmas time. Sod the summer, bring on the autumn dark evenings and watchable telly.

First off, and this I am looking forward to, is Merlin, starting on BBC1 on Saturday at 7.30 pm. I saw the trailer for this while waiting for The Dark Knight at the cinema and was immensely pleased it was to be on TV not a film release. The guy who plays Merlin, Colin Morgan, is mesmerising from what I've seen, he has incredible eyes. I'm not overly familiar with the whole Arthurian legend, I know some parts of some stories, but it's not a world I've ever explored in detail. I feel it may now be easy to do so, which is always an added bonus. There are to be five series of this, the first one of which is in 13 parts, so lots of watching there.



Spooks series 7 is imminent. I adore Spooks. It is necessary to suspend all disbelief, but the action is fast paced and I like the cast. One of the things that is good about this is the suspense, this is one of the few dramas that will quite happily kill off a lead character, removing the assurance that all will be well in the end - it usually isn't. Rumour is that the very gorgeous Rupert Penry Jones is to be leaving this series (presumably by getting a new identity as he appears to be immortal), but whether this is true or not, the broodingly sexy Richard Armitage is to join the cast, which is quite splendid news. Not sure of exact broadcast date, Autumn 2008 is the closest I can find. Check the Radio Times.


And finally...
It's back. Series 3. October 1st, BBC2 9pm. Some of the cast can act, some of the stories work, but overall... I love it.