Friday, March 27, 2009

CHARLIE BROOKER'S NEWSWIPE

You have to question the state of modern television when some of it's finest programmes are generally about how crappy the medium can be. Although you could argue that Harry Hill's TV Burp is essentially a vehicle for mainstreaming the madcap comedian's lunatic shtick there's no denying it remains a well aimed and pretty funny show.


Better still is Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe which doesn't just na
vel gaze the idiocy of the industry but repeatedly pummels it in the proverbial gut. To be fair he also gives praise where praise is due and if anything it's a very British primal scream at a medium that resonates such nostalgia in people like myself, promises so much, yet routinely disappoints if you're looking for anything above the level of repetitious mediocrity these days.

It's also one of my favourite shows of the past gawd-knows-how-many years and it's perhaps only the BBC who would commission and continue to produce a programme that red flags the dubious nature of much of it's own content
.

Well Brooker is back with a brand new season of a Screenwipe offshoot - Newswipe. Once again it's a acerbic, satirical but ultimately razor-sharp examination of the way news media has become a lazy, twisty, turny, truth-stretching Machiavellian in the living-room corner.



Whilst we're talking about a BBC series well worth catching let me also swiftly recommend something new from a similarly subversive individual of a slightly more mature vintage : Alan Whicker's Journey of A Lifetime. What could have been another cheap-jack talking head clip-show is elevated to an elegant tribute to the man himself as the intrepid well-traveled Whicker revisits the locations and subjects of his most-fondly remembered shows from his last 50-odd years as a broadcaster...

A true, one-of-kind legend, it's always a pleasure to spend some time in the gentleman's company and retracing his televisual steps in this fantastic series is no exception.


Thursday, March 19, 2009

PLEASE SAY SOMETHING

I can't quite put my finger on why I like David O'Reilly's award winning Please Say Something so much, but I do know that's just one of the many reasons why I like it so much! Here it is:


Monday, March 16, 2009

Japanese Spider-man Streams his Subtitled Web!

This may not be news to those "in the know", (as they've no doubt been in the know for quite awhile), but during the seventies small-screen superhero renaissance a live-action Spider-man not only clung to the sides of skyscrapers Stateside, but also leapt into living rooms in the Land of the Rising Sun!

Japanese Spider-man was a wee bit different from the familiar neurotic teenager Peter Parker: he didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider during a field trip - he was madcap motorcyclist who gained his powers from a UFO called "The Marveller".

Nor did he face his regular rogues gallery of Green Goblins, Dr Octopuses or Kingpins - just Professor Monster and his kinky lady sidekick Amazoness, along with gaggles of goons from other worlds!


Just like many a future Japanese costumed crime-fighter he also piloted his own giant robot - the Leopardon - which came in particularly handy when an adversary grew to Godzilla style proportions during a confrontation (which they invariably did).

You could even buy a transforming toy version of the Leopardon to battle your household pet!



For many years the only way to see the show was via dodgy grey market VHS bootlegs, but it eventually found it's way onto unsubbed DVD in Japan, in turn appearing on dodgy grey market torrent sites. Nonetheless, this treasure trove of psychotronic superheroics has never had an official release in the west - a terrible shame when it seems to contain more entertainment value than the three big budget Spider-man movies combined.

Just witness Spidey being driven fruit loopy by a killer boy band!!



Well Marvel.com have done the right thing and official subtitled the series, releasing a new episode online
every week!



A great way to rot you mind even further each Thursday!