House of Cards
I’ve just finished watching all 13 episodes of the new ‘House of Cards’ on Netflix. It’s taken me 4 days. I’m surprised it took me that long. Thats my recommendation in short form but allow me to go into a bit more depth.
First just a bit of background. ‘House of Cards’ was first a book, then a BBC TV Series and now a Netflix original drama starring Kevin Spacey. I saw the original BBC TV show about 2 years ago and loved it, in a ‘how haven’t I heard of this before’ kind of way. It follows the almost Shakespearian anti-hero Francis Urquhart (Underwood in the remake) as he devises a plan to take revenge after the newly elected Prime Minister/President goes back on a promise to make him Secretary of State (citing his influence as Chief Whip being too important to lose with a tight majority) and he sets his sights much higher than the cabinet post he feels was rightfully his. Read more 
The Dark Knight Rises: Good Film, Great Final Act
Before I start I’m really keen I don’t spoil anything about Rises for anybody who hasn’t seen it (or even colour anyones expectations). So to summarise, i’d highly recommend seeing The Dark Knight Rises in the cinema, but i’d also suggest watching or rewatching both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight before you do.
If you have seen Rises read on for why it’s a much better final act than it is a film, and it’s a pretty damn good film.
Veronica Mars : Thoughts
Previously on Can’t Shut Up About:-
Veronica Mars, I can’t shut up about Veronica Mars, and it’s all Williams fault. But I have to admit that at first I didn’t take to it, and that’s Williams fault as well, he as well cant shut up about it and gave it a lot of praise which it frankly deserved but had be thinking “go on, impress me”, when I sat down to watch the first episode…
If I have convinced you … your homework is to watch as much Veronica Mars as possible so next weeks follow up post makes sense to you.
Last week I waffled on at you about Veronica Mars, telling you to go on, watch, it’s great. I also promised a follow up piece this week. So hopefully you’ve gone away, become a hermit and watched all 3 seasons in a week and you can now read this follow up piece with some understanding of what i’m talking about and without me spoiling anything for you. Yes, for the first time on Can’t Shut Up About i’m going beyond the basic introduction to tell you what I didn’t like and things the reasons I didn’t get into it when I first watched. Read more
Veronica Mars : An Introduction
Veronica Mars, I can’t shut up about Veronica Mars, and it’s all Williams fault. But I have to admit that at first I didn’t take to it, and that’s Williams fault as well, he as well cant shut up about it and gave it a lot of praise which it frankly deserved but had be thinking “go on, impress me”, when I sat down to watch the first episode.
It’s my belief that the show is best watched cold, without any preconceived ideas, because so much of the core of the show is best discovered slowly, by yourself as the layers slowly unwrap in front of you.
So if you have heard about Veronica Mars and thought it intriguing, don’t read further, go watch, its great. Read more
Mad Men : An Introduction
Mad Men:
A term coined in the late 1950s to describe the advertising executives of Madison Avenue.
They coined it.
If you only watch one fictionalised American 1960s period piece make it Mad Men, no other TV show i’ve seen gets under the skin of the period and the American Dream quite like. From a distance the American Dream has always seemed like some of a enigma, a contradiction. It’s roots in the desire to be free, independent and (financially) self sustaining are hard to argue with, but from the outside looking in it can also look like greed, naked ambition and consumerism wrapped up in patriotism to mask its true meaning.
Is the American Dream achievable? Or is it a mirage? Does achieving it bring happiness or is it all a front, a cover to sell soap flakes? These are all the questions you’ll likely be contemplating whilst watching Mad Men. That Mad Men is able to have all of these questions bubbly just below the surface without it being obvious, or preachy or sounding like a history lecture it what makes the show so remarkable. Read more
Stargate Universe: An Introduction – Updated
update 09/07: post updated with some better clips from the pilot episode
For my first full regular length rant i’ve picked Stargate: Universe, a show I’ve already had some success with in getting people to watch. It’s probably only fair to point out that thanks to the bean counters at Syfy the has been cancelled after 2 seasons, but that shouldn’t put you off as there are still 40 episodes of great scifi here, also the season 2 finale works well as a series finale (but that’s actually another rant).
A Stargate is a device which allows travel to other planets & galaxies via a stable wormhole. Prior to Stargate Universe the franchise had consisted of the original 90s movie, the Stargate SG-1 TV show which ran for 10 years and 2 TV movies, and then the Stargate Atlantis show which ran for 5. The cancellation of Atlantis and the pick up of Universe where announced at the same time, much to the anger of some fans who believed Atlantis was being cancelled to make way for Universe.
The early plot for Universe focuses on attempts to dial a gate further away than we’ve ever previously dialled and we will find on the other side. Read more
The Wire : The Dickensian Aspect
Anybody who has seen The Wire will know what a brilliant piece of work it is, and yet it remains something of a mystery to those who haven’t seen anything of it (There are two groups of people when it comes to The Wire, those that love it, and those who haven’t seen it). Read more
I’m Not There
Just re-watched “I’m Not There“, love that film, sums up perfectly everything I love about Dylan, the idea of constantly trying to find yourself, figure out who you are, trying to be a better you, whoever that is. That will probably sound like waffle to a lot of people, probably to a lot of Dylan fans as well. Some Dylan fans may even think i’ve completely missed the point of most of Dylan’s music and the film, since they get a completely different message from Dylan’s music, for me the fact that different people hear different messages and take different things away is the point.
CTU: Provo Available on Youtube
The below post was originally posted on one of my other sites “24fans.com” earlier in the year.
It’s been a while since we’ve had anything newsworthy to post, my apologies for not posting more regularly with news on the 24: Movie, unfortunately the only news is, their is no news, and it didn’t seem worthwhile posting until I have something slightly more up beat to discuss. So i’m pleased to tell you that I bring you news of “A ’24′ Film” (Just not “The ’24′ Film”).
A few years ago during the longer than normal break between seasons 6 & 7 due to the WGA writers strike, I posted several fan made efforts to help us all get our fix. By far the best of these was CTU: Provo, a feature length film which tells the story of a terrorist threat to Utah posed by Tree Hugging Eco-Terrorists & 70′s Teen Idols turned bad and the efforts of CTU’s regional office in Provo to stop them. (You can read my original review here). Read more
24 : Fade To Black
What made ’24′ great was taking an idea so simple people couldn’t believe it hadn’t been thought of before, and doing it perfectly. The simpler a situation the show was depicting, the better it was, the purer it was.
Day One, A Federal agent is torn between his duty to protect a Senator, and his duty to protect his family. That’s all Day One was. Try as you might you won’t be able to come up with a similar one sentence description for Day Eight. Certainly there are parts which have been just a simple, the most simple an idea was Jack’s fight for justice during the last 7 hours. Which is why these last 7 hours where the best of these last 24. Why certain parts of these last two where so touching, emotional and even moving, whilst others where simply plot. Read more