My dad was a big fan of cheesy 70s shows… Wonder Woman, Emergency, CHiPs, The Six Million Dollar Man… Maybe that’s where I got my geekiness. There was no way we could miss Lindsay Wagner’s “Bionic Woman”, where a woman also got both her legs, an arm, an eye and an ear replaced with bionic implants.
That wasn’t that much of a coincidence — lots of hospitals had “Leg, Arm, Eye and Ear” wards back then. Happened all the time! These days, though, Kaiser Permanente gets charged $50 million for the whole bionic refitting.
Take that, Michael Moore!
Done by the same people who brought you the updated “Battlestar Galactica”, this show is full of nods to geekdom — refs to “Blade Runner”, subtle connections to BG (from a cameo by Aaron “Chief Tyrol” Douglas to the whole “bionic = Cylon” thing), and a long lingering shot of the Moon — our Moon — that squelches speculation that this is a BG prequel.
It’s an action show, no better or worse than others. Katee Sackhoff is gleefully over the top as the villainous “first bionic woman. Tada.”, Sarah Corvis. Michelle Ryan’s Jamie Sommers goes from shrieking hysterics to trading one-liners with Sackhoff. Jamie’s bartending gig and rebellious deaf younger sister (who hates her) should make for a good crop of characters to be put in danger each episode.
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“Hyperdrive”, a comedy science fiction show from Britain in the vein of “Red Dwarf” now finishing its second series, was a shock. I’d never heard of it until now, but wish I had. The proud crew of the “H.M.S. Camden Lock” (modeled after the British Telecom tower) goes boldly forth to protect Britain’s interests in a changing galaxy, and save Earth from the evil Shiny Red Robots (who enslave planets and force people to work for minimum wage).
Nick Frost’s Commander Henderson tries take the Lock’s change of mission from a ship of the line in the war against the Shiny Red Robots to a trade mission trying to find alien civilizations who might be willing to open a branch in an industrial park outside Peterborough (“it’s a sideways move!”). Psycopathic first officer York (Kevin Eldon), lovelorn but tidy second officer Teal (Miranda Hart), bewildered ship’s navigator Vine (Stephen Evans) and rebellious science officer Jeffers (Dan Antopolski) round out the cast.
Absolutely hilarious. If you liked Red Dwarf (or British comedy in general)Â at all, you’ll love this.
From Amazon came finally the DVD version of 1996’s “Hamlet” with Kenneth Branagh playing the title role. I’m a huge Hamlet fan, but this is the first time I have ever seen it complete. Every word in the play is on the screen… and yet it doesn’t feel long. The pacing is good, the visuals fantastic, and the language as beautiful and rich as ever. Branagh’s performance tosses away the subtlety of Olivier’s famous rendition, but on the other hand, it’s more approachable for those new to the story of the Danish prince who feigns madness in order to prove his uncle killed his father, the previous King Hamlet, married his mother and claimed the throne the same day his father was buried.
Worth the wait, but make sure you have the four hours free to watch it in one sitting.
70’s & 80’s TV shows from the US were what I lived on on a saturday…I do feel that the current wave of good drama from the US that we are seeing in the UK now is giving me that Saturday feeling once more…am feeling spoilt!
I thought they did a remake of the Bionic Woman? They had bionic breast implants and ran around in red bathingsuits.
@DM: Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Heroes and Doctor Who are why I started watching television again after seven or so years without. 95% of TV may be crap on both sides of the pond, but that leaves 5% you wouldn’t want to miss!
I didn’t know Dad was into those kind of shows. Hmmm So you got Dad in the phase where he watched decent shows. And all I got was PBS – he rarely watched anything not on PBS. pft. Except for maybe SNL and Fantasy Island. I remember he’d watch “Paper Chase” religiously when I was little. Or he’d watch some classical music concert.
But ya know what – I remember getting a bionic woman barbie doll as a treat the day I got the cast off my arm. I chose that doll because she had better accesories. lol
Dad was big into PBS when I was a kid, too. But we watched MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, All in the Family… I’m sure a lot of that was stuff Mom wanted to watch, but Dad would be there too, when he wasn’t off working on something, and the actiony stuff was definitely Dad.
Dad was always talking about movies and TV shows he was watching… he was big into “Lois & Clark” and “Desperate Housewives” at different times.
Admittedly he got pulled into the “dark side” as he got older (i.e. desperate housewives). But I have to wonder if he’d have watched those non-PBS shows if Mom wasn’t there to turn them on.
I adore Branagh and have watched that version of Hamlet multiple times. However my favorite by him is Henry V which plays like so much poetry I can hardly stand how good it is to hear and watch it.
I haven’t seen his Henry V. I loved his Much Ado About Nothing and the widely panned (but not by me!) Loves Labour’s Lost. I’ve seen Henry V live, though, at the Golden Bough Theater in Carmel, CA, where it was re-imagined into modern times. It was gripping.
I wish Branagh would take a look at Macbeth. For some reason, the Orson Welles version bores me to tears. I had more fun at the school production my daughter was in… but then again, she was in it 🙂