2011 was a total shite year for frogbats everywhere. But besides that, let’s see what events shaped the flying amphibian landscape of nerdom.

Good news came with the firing of Benitez. Inter actually had a chance to play football once “Fat Man Benitez” as puppet Mourinho referred to him was gotten rid of!

Best shows on TV -

QI – funny, witty and well quite interesting! Stephen Fry acts as ringmaster and Alan Davies as his punching bag in this hilarious panel show featuring a interesting general knowledge factoids .

Game of Thrones – It’s Lord of the Rings with sex and violence. Plus it was filmed here in parts. The show proved to be better than anything I anticipated. The royal buttfur approves.

The Killing – I have resisted the temptation of seeking the original Danish version. The americans did good enough a job though it proved infuriating at the end. They should’ve ended it with a solution and started a new investigation the following year. Buttfur slightly ruffled but(t) pleased!

Transformers Prime – Yay a new TF cartoon but one which is dark and moody and well written and voiced. The toys are also far better than anything the movie has offered!

Modern Family and Community strengthened as best sitcoms on the box this year with their third seasons whilst Big Bang remained watchable but is so far lacking the spark of previous seasons. Surburgatory is growing in my esteem. Ringer and Revenge both were entertaining newcomers to the drama lite. Castle and The Good Wife continue to be watchable fluff whilst Person of Interest and Terra Nova disappointed, Dexter was perhaps the best of the better returning shows. Franklin and Bash was cute, and Downton Abbey was strangely addictive for an upstairs downstairs period soap opera. Boss was excellent and they did well to keep it to just 8 episodes. Mrs Brown’s Boys was idiotic but funny in parts – and played an interesting take on the post post modern self awareness that Community so artfully employs. Mad Men was soporific whilst Spartacus 0.5 proved that amped up sex and gore can almost hide the lack of a story. Mad Men in skirts aka Pan Am was a fail and I couldn’t even bring myself to watch American Horror Story (i’m a chicken). Boardwalk Empire was a bit boring but picked up towards its season’s epilogue.

The BBC kept up its greatest contribution to mankind (Sir David Attenborough) busy with a great new series Frozen Planet and Brian Cox sent me to bed completely baffled with Wonders of the Universe. If anyone claims to fully understand more than half of what’s on that show, don’t believe them.

Movies

I was so desperate for something decent to watch I downloaded movies from the forties! Otherwise, the Clooney / Gossling Ides of March was my favourite – when Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman are your supporting cast you know you have a great movie.

Drive – Beautifully shot and well acted, criminally short screentime for Christina Hendricks and her talents.

Puss in Boots – flawed but funny as hell! I love cats and they did a great job in keeping puss grounded in his kittyness. The golden egg jumpsuit… well that’s all I’m saying.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes – great retelling of the Ape’s origins almost instantly cancelling out Tim Burton’s shite fest. Andy Serkis should be nominated at the very least!

In the comic book genre, Captain America, Thor and X-Men first class were watchable, relatively enjoyable but not amazing. The genre flipping Dale and Tucker vs Evil was pretty good and Paul was fun too. Kung Fu Panda 2… well didn’t finish even half the film so there… The Guard was fun whereas the Inbetweeners was a solid British retelling of American Pie – and it reminded me of tourists’ perspective when they visit a place like here. The Devil’s Double was well acted – but it was easy for Malta to act as 90′s Baghdad!

TBC

Terra Nova for the uninitiated was one of the most widely anticipated genres shows to hit the network in 2011. Its premise was readily summed up by anyone who read the show synopsis as being part Avatar, part Jurassic Park with a little bit of Lost thrown in. Basically, in the future the earth is completely screwed up. A time fissure is discovered and people start migrating to prehistoric earth to start a new colony.

Terra Nova started out quite mediocre thanks mainly to the bad dialogue (more about that later). The obvious getting to know the place / monster of the week sort of stories that plagued the first half of the season did not help either and it lead me to stop watching the show.  After the first 6 episodes I’d have rated the show C-.

Since the other shows I started watching were either on hiatus or had ended their season, I picked up the show again from episode 6 or 7 and watched through till the last episode – the quality did improve as the story shifted. The story arc hinted in the first part of the show began to come into its own and took over the show. The first bunch of antagonists… we find out that the human antagonists – “The Sixers” had a more devious overlord behind them. This new evil mastermind helped the show greatly, as it became more focused and thus more entertaining.

The show ended well enough – in that it was a satisfactory conclusion to the protagonists’ saga but it also hinted at something interesting to discover if the show gets renewed for a second season. If it weren’t for the first half of the season I’d have rated the show higher but it manages a solid B for its second half. The strengths of the show were its ambitious b-movie concept and ultimately, its story arc was quite satisfying and provided some couple of hours of light entertainment. Fun is something that is hard to come by these days from network fiction, and cable shows tend to be a bit too serious and forget the fun component all too quickly. The production values on Terra Nova have come under scrutiny due to its high budgets and set back. The show’s location filming is great and its high point. Some of the SFX are passable to good but there are moments where a jaded audience used to better will chuckle at the bad quality of the effects (the fishing trip for example).

The characters were a good mix, though again you feel that there are too many white people lording it over the others. The acting improves especially as the show becomes more action oriented, the actors become more familiar with their roles and most importantly there’s less of the super cheesy dialogue that plagued the opening shows. Let’s put it this way, Spielberg was attached as a producer but the dialogue seemed to come from a George Lucas screenplay!

So were the reviews slagging Terra Nova off correct in their assessment? Absolutely. However, the problem is that on network tv, shows rarely have a chance to find their feet. It took ST:TNG two whole years before coming into its own. And the opposite is true.. shows that start off well like Heroes fail after their first season due to the pressure placed on the shows to be a constant hit. Unfortunately genre shows that cross into the mainstream appear to happen once a decade – TNG in the 80s, the X-files in the 90s and Lost in the 00s.  The show have two trek alumni on board – Brannon Braga and René Echevarria serve as showrunners – there’s also a Maltese connection to the show with Jon Cassar covering production and directorial duties.

Links: Official Terra Nova Site | IMDB Entry | Wikipedia entry

Here’s a quick rundown of what the flying amphibian watches or rather receives on Mondays.

Boardwalk Empire S.2 – Very much a slow boil this season – not as enjoyable as the first but still a very solid show. Beautifully shot and great acting – however it’s gone mad men slow this season but the story seems to have picked up steam as we head towards the end. Worth sticking through till the end though I think this season was flawed with being too slow in the beginning and too much going on towards the end. Some might see it as a crescendo, I thought it was bad pacing.

The Walking Dead S.2 – Definitely a gripping tale. You don’t like to enjoy zombies to enjoy this show about human struggle in adverse conditions (it’s the main reason lost was so successful too). Fears about Frank Darabont’s departure from the show impacting the quality seem to have been laid to rest for now (but you know what happens to dead things in the walking dead…). I’m looking forward to the second part of Season 2 and am thankful there’s more than 6 episodes in this season.

Dexter S.6 – Perhaps the most enjoyable of my early week dramas. Seems a bit lighter than previous years in tone and the side characters stories are a bit more compelling. Though the new arch villains don’t appear to be as scary as Trinity, the apocalypse is always an interesting theme as Dexter tries to get to grips with religiosity around him. The ending is something that I thought might have happened earlier in the show but at this point I thought it would never happen. Gald I was proved wrong for a truly great cliffhanger

A mixed bag of heavy and light over the past two weeks beginning with Martin Scorsese’s best flick since Goodfellas (the Aviator and Gangs of New York were abysmal IMNSHO). The Departed pits an in form Jack Nicholson against Di Caprio’s state trooper undercover agent. However, Matt Damon steals the show as a crooked trooper. Also watch out for an Oscar nominated turn from Mark Wahlberg (who’d have expected him to get so far?).

An Inconvenient Truth is Al Gore’s documentary film presentation of his slideshow on the nastiness that is global warming. Although slowed down by interludes featuring more personal commentary by Gore, the slideshow is actually entertaining viewing. Gore manages to bring to the table concepts, facts, and figures that can easily confound people and yet manages to present them in a compelling and easily understood manner. Check out the bonus features on the DVD to find a lengthy update. It was powerful enough to prompt family members to begin waste separation at home. The Question now is will Mr. Gore announce his presidential candidature at the Oscars where he’ nominated in the best documentary category! Oh and a quick plug for the film’s unsung hero – Keynote : Apple’s answer to powerpoint and soooo much better.

Flushed Away brings Dreamworks’ CGI skills with Aardman’s brilliant character design, story-line and British wit. Though I was partly rooting for the amphibians, this is perhaps the best CGI cartoon since The Incredibles and Ice Age 2. Watch out for blink and you’ll miss ‘em gags and the brilliant Le Frog and his hench frogs. Haven’t watched Happy Feet yet, but this flick was much better than decidedly average Cars and Monster House which are up for the best cartoon feature.

Last but definitely not least is Little Miss Sunshine, a quirky little film which follows a family rally round their 7 year old in her bid to win a beauty pageant. Hilarity ensues or should that be sniggers and wry smiles ensue? It’s definitely enjoyable and watchable with an unexpected, understated performance from Steve Carell as the suicidal, gay uncle Frank.

K, I like movies. Who doesn’t? Thought I’d share my thoughts with you, oh worshippers of the immaculate buttfur. So this weekend I watched (on DVD but I’m evaluating the movie and not the bonus material as I usually don’t have time to watch that stuff).

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