i miss jack

I'm a big TV junkie, a sucker for tv series and sitcoms. They seem to lend a bit of routine to what otherwise would be a blurred sucession of indistinct days. For instance, for half the year, Sundays are "24 day"... an eagerly awaited moment when anybody who phones will be fast dismissed with a hushed "I'll call you back in one hour". So much that the great climax of the series finale was followed by mixed feelings of rage (You don't do this to a man who just saved the world!!) loss for those empty Sundays that lay ahead and exasperation for having to wait all the way till January to find out what happens to Jack next! Will the chinese figure out he's not dead and go after him? What hecatombe will he have to save the world from?

It's not only 24 that is dearly missed, it appears we'ill also have to wait quite a lot for the second season of Desperate Housewives , which is about to start airing in the states. Apparently, it will only start over here once Lost ends. Of course I also like Lost, such an intriguing plot with so many good characters (I'm rooting for the baddie to get the girl). But can't we have both? Now that Mary Alice's mystery was solved, what will keep us - and the girls - wondering?

And what about CSI? Last season's asfixiating Tarantino directed finale left us begging for more. And although there are reruns in apparenty every other channel, it's oh so hard to find an episode we've never seen before!

I also miss The O.C.: I miss the parties where there is always a drunken scandal or a fight, the endless dance of couples breaking up and getting together again, and most of all, I miss Seth. And Sandy. And Summer. Ewww!

All of this will probably be back in the great month of January, so I guess "watching less tv" will NOT be one of my New Year's resolutions!

more tv

It's More4 and promises to bring us adult entertainment in the shape of smart films, documentaries and extended news broadcasts. Most importantly, they will be showing the new series of the great Westwing and Curb Your Enthusiasm, from Sainfeld creator Larry David. Starting on the 10th October.

fantasy season

Somewhere between Disney traditional animation and hard-core Anime, lie the magic and utterly beautiful worlds of Hayao Miyazaki, the japanese filmmaker who brought us Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. So my expectations were high for his new fairy tale, Howl's Moving Castle and I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint me at all. This exquisitely detailed animated film takes us along a girl's journey through a world somehow hard to locate in space and time, where witches, demons and walking scarecrows are the norm, and a castle walks around on it's own legs. I won't say more, just go and watch it.

Next up, the Curse of the Were-Rabbit is gadget inventor Wallace and his dog Grommit's first full lenght feature. It's got master clay animator Nick Park's signature on it, so you can't go wrong.

Still on the stop-motion animation front, but on even creepier note (right, it's not that hard to be creepier than were-rabbits), Tim Burton's long awaited follow up to the Nightmare before Chrismas is finally upon us. The Corpse Bride isn't a sequel, it's an entirely new story set in the same familiarly dark terrtory. We can expect the old friendly presence of Johnny Depp and Helena Bohnam Carter's voices, as well as another great soundtrack by Danny Elfman. Gee, I'm excited!

On the fantasy side of things, I'm very keen on finding out how they treated two of my favourite books, the fourth Harry Potter and the C.S. Lewis classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And of course, big expectations on what Peter Jackson did atfer the Lord of the Rings. Jack Black starring in King Kong is certainly a good sign!

One last mention goes for the pairing of two legends: writer Neil Gaiman and illustrator Dave Mckean have spawned The Mirror Mask ... Unmissable!

pride and prejudice pride and prejudice DVD

Pride and Prejudice is a book that relies heavily on great characters and witty dialog, so it all comes down to casting. Every single actor in this production is so incredibly appropriate for the part it feels like they were extracted from the original manuscript by means of mysterious witchcraft.

The screenplay also did a very good job of bringing the book alive, as it hardy seems to have a single word that wasn't written by Austen. Without the constraints of film duration, no material had to be sacrificed either.

Maybe I'm being a bit prejudiced, as I haven't even seen the film yet. But as I see it, any other version will always fall short, as the 1995 BBC series is simply perfect.

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