Hitch-hiker’s Guide was amazing in its time. I listened to the radio play hundreds and hundreds of times as a kid. The TV show was a tone-perfect adaptation. 

The recent(ish) film was an abomination, unfortunately. That peculiarly British sense of deadpan sci-fi humour simply can’t translate to an international megabudget movie. It doesn’t work. They tried, bless ’em. Stephen Fry was a good shout as the book. Zooey Deschanel was a good Trillian. Sam Rockwell actually made a decent Zaphod Beeblebrox. But that aside, it was a trainwreck. Even Bill Nighy was mis-cast.

Love this:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/20/petition-netflix-cancel-amazon-prime-good-omens-christian-neil-gaiman-terry-pratchett

Finished Parks and Recreation

Wow. Thank you to whoever it was who introduced me (and subsequently my partner) to this. I'm generally not into comedies and was suspicious at the start. The first season had a few funny moments but I found Lesley boarder line annoying not funny. Then S2 it clicked. It's not really about Lesley, it's about everyone else around her. It was like that moment  as a kid you figure out that Homer is more important than Bart. The interplay of the characters, the sincerity in which they speak to eachother, it's so so natural. You feel like it's spontaneous and feel like it's true. 

The characters are all brilliant, the repetition (but not over kill) of jokes is brilliant. The final episodes nod to "library" was the icing on the cake - in a good way. By the third and fourth series you know the characters so well you can anticipate how they will react to things, how they will talk and what they will say. Again, this is no bad thing. Most scenes end in a smile and some episodes had me laughing to the point of tears in my eyes. 

The piss-taking reminds me of the office banter (sorry I don't usually like that word) that we have in my office. Without it we wouldn't be as close. It's the familiarity of being able to insult or take the piss or challenge eachother than makes people get closer. The sense of achievement solidifies this. 

Lesley and her waffles, Ron and his meat, Tom and his money, Donna and treat yo self, Andy and shoe shining/karate, April and her dislike for everything (kinda!), Ben not getting little sebastien, Anne Purkins, Anne Purkins, Anne Purkins, and Chris, literally the happiest guy in the world. John Ralfiao and his money grabbing sister, Jam the Jamster, the Douches fart noises, Jerry and his names/clumsyness and hot wife! Tammy! Run!! 

It's been emotional, i've loved almost every episode. I'm so sad it's at an end. Brilliant, top tier TV.

Good Omens:

The poor dears.  What are facts to believers?

Getting a bit fed up of The Handmaid's Tale. It better get to some kind of conclusion this season or I've had enough.

Bah.

Gremill wrote:

Commander Lawrence is looking to be a great character.

I disagree. I think he’s looking like a great actor making something good out of a pretty shoddily sketched character.

is this Gilead any resemblance of Stephen Kings Gilead?

Gremill wrote:

Where you see shoddily sketched, I see conflict, contradiction and a back story begging to be told. What a great actor though, forever known as Josh Lyman.

I guess I just don’t have faith that the backstory will get told. I hope to be proven wrong!

Mentioned it on twitter yesterday but I was recently looking up the best bits of Mark Lamarr on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He was absolutely brilliant. Timing, impeccable. The fucking id parade names... Streams of tears. The unassailable peak of panel shows.

Buzzcocks turned shit as soon as Lamarr left. He was the core of that show. Can’t bear Amstel.

I thought Amstel was great. So was Lamar, TBF, although I always found Lamar pretty unlikeable.

Peak of panel shows for me is probably a toss-up between Would I Lie to You and early Have I Got News for You. Taskmaster does get an honourable mention too.

Yossarian wrote:

I thought Amstel was great. So was Lamar, TBF, although I always found Lamar pretty unlikeable.

I have enjoyed Lamar’s shows more when I’ve watched them later than I did at the time. Amstel’s delivery meant that he could say things far closer to the bone while not seeming as attacking.

"Oh no, Preston is leaving!"

lol