Following the Followers

A big reason people watch any series if there is a big name involved. That's why I started watching House. And so I was dragged in by the Baconator himself, Kevin Bacon. The Following is a series that is about a serial killer, who is in jail, and his Following, who are not. Bacon is playing a decommissioned FBI agent who caught the killer the first time, and is dragged in when the killer gets free again. And when the killer is caught again, it's then about those people who he set up as his cult.

And so a lot of this series is about mind games. Why does the killer want to spin out some new thing with Bacon? What plans for him do the followers have? And, for the longevity of the series, who else will turn out to be a follower?

However there are other, less intended, questions. How do various followers managed to get into places and out again, killing as they go, then get suddenly undermined when they come face to face with Bacon? (There's probably a trope for that.) How many people will suddenly be revealed as working for the killer? Will there be more than a usual season of 24? So far, I'm only four episodes in, and yet I've come to the conclusion that every guest star will either be killed or be a killer, and about half the main 'good' cast will probably be unveiled as evil before the season ends. And why are the followers having more soap opera moments than the entire run of Dynasty?

Again we seem to have the problem of Ultimate Evil suddenly needing to get their legs cut off from underneath them in the last moment because Good needs to prevail, but I'll see. There are only 15 episodes, so it shouldn't be too stretched out, but I'm sure they can.

I'm watching for now, but I hear that there will come a lot of painfully contrived set ups to allow Bacon to not die every episode, so I may yet crash and burn the series.

[END]

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Monty on the Music

I was listening to the latest Digital Gonzo where they had video game music, and for some reason, while they were playing Plants vs Zombies, I was reminded of...

Monty on the Run!

This was a game I played many years ago on the Amstrad CPC 464. (Oooooo.) With a green screen monitor, so all those lovely colours I missed. A game that was part of a series (not that I knew this then), and in this game you are Monty, on the Run! So run through various levels to escape. The main gimmick was that when you start, you select five items to help in your escape kit... and while I was good at the game, I worked out two of the items, but no idea what the others were, and thus always got stuck at one point... which was the ending! Gah! Just watched the playthrough, and I completed the game, except I never had the right items to get to the final screen! WAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The most annoying part of it: the damn teleporters! The first time, teleport, fine, you need to go there, but then you need to get through without teleporting, and timing got so annoying! Gah! They were colour dependent, and having what was basically a black and white screen made that impossible.

Anyway, here is the rather catchy theme. And a gameplay video (although I'm sure I took far longer than 12 minutes).

(How about them enemy designs, eh? Or the amazing 'you can travel as long as you are touching something' ability?)

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Too Quick Judgment?

How many people wrote off Fringe as a mere X-Files clone? Or gave up on Supernatural in the first season? Ooh, ooh, pick me! And yet... Fringe and Supernatural got really good (then Fringe crashed at the end). Anyway, the point is some series can have a very rocky beginning.

What then of judging a show based on just a descriptive line or two? Check out this guide to TV Pilots for 2013. How many of them would you pick just based on that?

To be honest, I write off most of the comedies straight away. So many of them are about 'comedian suddenly has to deal with a family situation... COMEDY!!!!!' Urgh. Those plots were overly worn out by the eighties, when I saw them then.

And the dramas aren't much better, because they sound like they are too dramatic and no fun at all. Urgh, emo, not interested. (And more then a few are simply US versions of UK shows.)

And yet there are a few I want to know more about. The Tomorrow People (yes, based on the UK show, at least they hopefully pick the right one to rip off). Sleepy Hollow (which isn't original either). The Blacklist (which hopefully isn't an 'edgy' White Collar). The Sixth Gun (based on the comic, which I haven't read). ... Hmm, I thought there was more than that, but just skimming through now, I can't see them.

Point is, I'm disregarding most of them already. Too quick? Give them a chance? To be honest, I just don't have the time. Let me know if I've missed something truly amazing on the list.

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Talkin' about Half Life 2

Well, not me. But Goose Goose does. And gets very in depth and highly analysis on it. Or rather did. For a reason, the videos he did all disappeared, but people captured them and uploaded / redid them in HQ. This is his commentary for Half-Life 2.


That person is working on the next two... and just finished Episode 1. And here is a low grade version of Episode 2.

(He also mentions a Half Life commentary, but I haven't seen that.)

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Look for that Diet Perfectly

On one hand, I need to educate myself more about diet and healthy eating. On the other hand, this documentary could easily be just another example of someone promoting the latest flavour of randomly changing nutritional whims.

In the first part we learn that every diet, every discovery about how we should eat properly, what foods to avoid, is wrong. The second part goes on about how we can use technology to uncover how we ate over the last millions of years. Leading to the third part, in which we should eat like them, which basically seems to come down to avoiding grains.

Um... right. So if everything is wrong, then we know this is right because...? Because 'that's how we used ta does it, dagnabit!' And the new bad guy has shifted from carbohydrates, to fat and now on to grains. (I tell ya, if corn every gets declared the enemy, the entire economy of America goes down the toilet.. so that'll never happen.)

And, of course, all the people who talk in these things are fit people, regardless of what diet they are recommending. We keep hearing about how there's an obesity epidemic, but how come in health documentaries, the epidemic is only in crowd shots? Statistically, some of these people should be over weight, even if it is because of big bonedness!

Anyway, as ever, it comes down to good balanced overall nutrition, proper eating sizes, and exercise, and consult your doctor before taking on some latest media hyped health advice.

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A Spec of Ops

Spec Ops: The Line came out, and then, after it had a chance to sink in, everyone went crazy about it (where 'everyone' = the few people I read who are into gaming). There was this big twist, and how to talk about it would ruin the game, seriously you guys, you need to play this game.

Being a military shooter, I wasn't going to play this. I'm barely able to play any kind of shooter game, and military examples just don't interest me. However, now, finally... I've watched the LP. And... since I don't play military shooters, and was only watching, and already knew the twist, I can't say it blew my mind. The LPer, having played it before, wasn't showing his mind being blown either (which it might have the first time around, he didn't say).

However, I want to address one particular point. One question that continually occurred to me, but no-one answered because my questions were ignored as being from someone who isn't noticed, is: "How does this work if this is someone's first foray into military shooters?" It's supposedly such a devastating take down of the military shooter genre that I wonder if it can work if one isn't saturated in said genre.

And having watched the videos, and not being a military shooter, I might be able to get a little closer than others to answering this. What this watches is as 'here's a decent story that happens to be in the military shooter genre'. I've seen lots of games of decent stories, Mass Effect to name one that comes to mind, and yeah, I see similar 'story + shooting here'. If this is so innovative to military shooters, it's beyond me to contemplate.

I think some of it is 'hey, you military shooter, look how much mass murdering you are doing!' But since one mass murders in other genres, I'm not seeing this as needing to point fingers at this genre in particular. Perhaps I was into military shooters more?

So yes, people were up in arms, and tell me this is an amazing thing. But telling me it is amazing is about as amazing as I will work out it is, because it reminds me a lot of other big video games out there. Perhaps, then, I should stay away from military shooters if this is seen as innovative?

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DW Episode 7.2.1

I have no idea what the episode number is so... oh, and I'm guessing Dave worked out what the title referred to three months ago, 'cos he does that.

So at last Clara joins the Doctor to be a companion. More or less... well, we know she's going to say yes. And character wise, she's pretty much the same as already has been introduced, with extra computer hacking skills... although this is an episode where hacking skills is equated exactly with ability to randomly strike keys on the keyboard, and not just the couple of mouse clicks we know it would really be.

Can't say I'm overly impressed by the plot of the episode, but it was supposed to be more about introducing the new girl and not about the menace, much like Rose. And then it all got linked in with the Great Intelligence. Not sure how it relates to, eg. Web of Fear and the like. Messier connection than last time. But we have our over-arching villain of the piece. Yay (said without enthusiasm.)

And clearly I forgot about the new TARDIS interior, because I was amazed by it anew. Less impressive was the extremely clumsy edit between getting to the TARDIS door and then going out on the plane (changing the background lighting didn't help). And those were the spoon heads... not the Cardassians...

Overall, it was a 'we really want this to be a big come back for the second half the season', and it was about as inspired as the last time Moffat did it.
Next week: The Doctor shouts a lot. Again.

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