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BBC's Robin Hood - season 3 - my take

Like I mentioned earlier, season 3 of BBC's Robin Hood seemed watchable - and it was! Some new characters, and as it turned out, series 3 was the last of the show. It was a relief to hear they'd cancelled it because with the season finale the way it was... it would make no sense to continue with a series 4. Anyhoo, here's a quick run-down of what I thought of the third and final series - spoilers ahead : Kate: Crikey, how annoying was she? Didn't mind the actress, but the character just got on my nerves a wee bit. If she didn't get captured, she tried winning Robin's heart (who, of course, had only just missed his beloved Marian end of season 2, so c'mon) and being a bitch. Kh! Archer: Only just came in at the end and could probably be a fun character if he was allowed some space to develop, but as he only made a short visit, he was mainly just annoying as well. Shouldn't he feel some sort of loyalty toward his half brothers? Eh, didn't get hi

BBC's Robin Hood, season 3

We saw season one when it came out. Had to see if it was any good. It wasn't all that great, but at least it's a heck of a lot better than the atrociousness known as Merlin (the BBC series, not the awesome American miniseries with Sam Neill from 1998, which I love dearly). Didn't see much of season two, but saw bits of it. Season three... wouldn't have been very interested in it if it wasn't for the fact that I found out that not only would Prince John make appearances, he would (more importantly) be played by Toby Stephens. Two sides to this coin. Or actually, I list about five, so that's a well freaky coin as it happens, but I've had some Sheridan's liqueur so I'm excused.

Spotlight Squee: Robert Jordan

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Today, it's a year since the funeral service, so here's my hommage to the Creator. The only downside of writing this entry is that it has made cry, as I do think the world has lost a most magnificent storyteller. A toast to his memory! May he live forever in our hearts! Who is this person? Robert Jordan, pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr., wrote The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on 17 October 1948, served in Vietnam in the late 60s and later took up writing. He's written some Conan books as well, but is most famous for tWoT. He was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis in 2006, and died on 16 September 2007. How did I find this person? A classmate suggested I should read "The Eye of the World", as it was a very good book... and so I borrowed it from the library and started reading. She was not wrong! How long ago was this? Must have been in 1996 or 1997, I think. So what's the deal? It's a world that l

Spotlight Squee: Sam Neill

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The moment has finally arrived! A great big happy birthday to Sam Neill! Here's the story... Who is this person? Sam Neill is an actor and a director, who also has his own vinyard in central Otago in New Zealand. He was born 14 September 1947 in Omagh, Northern Ireland, but moved to New Zealand as a child. Eventually, he became an actor and is perhaps most known to people as Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (films 1 and 3)... but he's been in a myriad of other things. Some more memorable than others. How did I find this person? Well, there are a few different explanations here, because there are a few different occasions. The first one was watching the music video to Michael Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" in school - the theme to the critically acclaimed film The Piano (it's actually rather good, even though it's critically acclaimed). I thought "oh hello" - and I can't have been more than 10 or 11 at the time... Second was watc

Spotlight Squees: The X-Files

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Today is the UK opening of The X-Files: I Want To Believe , so it's quite fitting for today's topic to be that of Mulder and Scully. Also, it'll be the first installment of fictional characters. Who are these people? Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are two FBI agents on a TV show called "The X-Files" (1993-2002). Mulder's the person who believes in all kinds of paranormal things, Scully's the sceptic who is sent in to debunk his work. If you don't already know who they are, go watch the show. How did I find these people? I saw a trailer on TV4 once upon a time. I thought it sounded like a great show, and one of the episodes was on at 8pm instead of 9:10pm, so I was allowed to stay up and watch it. This would've been "Squeeze" (1X02). I wasn't allowed to be up and watch the other episodes, as I was supposed to be in bed, but my sister taped them for me, so that I could watch them the next day when I

Spotlight Squee: JK Rowling

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And the second person to be praised in this series is JK Rowling, seeing as it's her birthday today. Happy birthday, Jo! :) Who is this person? She's the author of the Harry Potter books. If you don't know who Harry Potter is yet, you have probably lived as a hermit under ground the past decade or so. How did I find this person? We got to read a thing with some text excerpts in Swedish class in school, as we were having a big test and were to write something about one of the texts in that brochure or whatever you want to call it. I had heard of HP before, but never read any, and there was an excerpt from the first book, HP at King's Cross. I was instantly taken in by the story and wanted to read more, so I asked a school friend (who had the books) if I could borrow them... and I could, so I quickly devoured the first three and absolutely loved them. How long ago was this? Spring of 2001. So what's the deal? The stories are perfectly bubbly and full of

Spotlight Squee: Ken Olin

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The reason I'm starting with this guy, as opposed to someone that would perhaps make more sense (such as Sam Neill) to most people who know me, is because it happens to be his birthday today. Happy birthday, Ken! :) Loving this piccy btw! ---> Who is this person? He's a TV actor and producer/director. A fact that makes it a bit hard to try and track down stuff he's been in, because obscure TV movies don't always make it to DVD and people can't be arsed to torrent them. He's starred in stuff like Thirtysomething and is a producter on Brothers & Sisters , where he recently guest starred (season 2). He was also working on Alias and made a guest appearance there in season one. How did I find this person? I was channel hopping and came across a movie on the Scifi Channel, called Evolution's Child . The premise of the movie was a little intriguing, so I came to watch it. Interesting links with the Indigo phenomenon, I thought, and then I saw the guy

Monty Python vs Harry Potter

Barty Crouch Jr. meets the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup arena (I might have been a little bored when writing this. You might recognise it. ;)) [trumpets] [clap clap clap] ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen. The next contest is between... Serbia, the Balkan baby-crushers, and Mongolia. BARTY CROUCH JR: Want some... VOICE: Thank you, fellows. BARTY: Popcorn. Chocolate buttons. Snickers. Mars bars. Nachos with cheese. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Potato wedges, only half a sickle. Chilli poppers. ALECTO: I do feel, Lucius, that any anti-establishment group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power-base. LUCIUS: Agreed. Amycus? AMYCUS: Yeah. I think Alecto's point of view is very valid, Lucius, provided the Movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man-- MCNAIR: Or woman. AMYCUS: Or woman... to rid himself-- MCNAIR: Or herself. AMYCUS: Or herself. LUCIUS: Ag

We can believe again!

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The second X-Files movie! ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443701/ ) I can't wait! Mulder and Scully back on the screens! X-Files! X-Files! X-Files! :D :D :D July 25 is when it comes out in the US, but we have to wait for 1 August for it to come to both the UK and Sweden. But what's a few days after six years of waiting anyway? Nothing! So sue me. It's one of my all-time favourite TV-shows. I remember when the final double episode was going to be aired. I was living in BÃ¥stad at the time, and had classmates who were trying to talk me into going with them to Pepe's Bodega (a nightclub) on a Saturday night. My response was along the lines of "Not on your life! It's the final X-Files episode ever!!" It was a semi-accepted response, actually. It seemed more valid then "no, I find nightclubs incredibly noisy and awful and I'd rather watch paint dry". Funny that. I remember when "Fight The Future" premiered. Saw it on the opening night

No one knows how the Wheel turns

The Wheel of Time turns as Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, a man died of a horrible disease. His death was not the end. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time, but it was AN end. Robert Jordan has died, aged 58. I found out today and it made me very sad. Another one of my favourite authors to die. I cried the day I found out that Douglas Adams had died, and I have tears in my eyes writing this. No, I didn't know RJ either. I'm crying because I admired him, he wrote a fantastic fantasy series, and he's left a loving wife behind - Harriet - and I feel for her. It's a great loss to lose a partner like that, but it's also a loss to the world of fantasy literature. To Harriet - may the Light shine upon you and give you strength. You're in all of our thoughts. To

Deathly Silence

Finished at around 1:30pm. Now I'm just waiting for others to finish so I have someone to discuss it with. ..., *waiting* I know she said she'd leave some loose ends for fans to speculate about, but... it felt like too many. Like, why not say what people are working with? What happened to some people (are they dead or alive)? And so on. There were also some pacing issues. Super-mega-action-packed start, then it drags on a bit and not a lot happens for like 200 pages before it picks up again. I think I'll have a bit of a ponder about it.

Pulling an all-nighter with HP7

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It has arrived. Busy reading. Queued up at ASDA around midnight. Started reading just after 1am, while having a large mug of strong (yucky) coffee to keep me awake. Have read for 4½ hours, just finished chapter 15, on a pee break / making-some-tea break / computer break... but will have to get back to reading now, before my tea-water gets cold.

Bestest Show Ever!

Look! Someone put these on YouTube! I wuvs them.

Animaniacs on DVD

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I think I even had season 1 on pre-order. Today I found out that they've released season 2 already! Season 3 is on the way later this month. On Region 1, I might add. Region free players ftw. Things I wouldn't mind for my birthday (next month, remember?): o:) Animaniacs are great. (The actor can actually sing that song ^^ still, without the lyrics. Impressive? Hell yes!)

Towel Day

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It's that time of year again! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day When I have anything interesting to report about this, I will. I shall update this post a bit later and reminisce about the past six years of celebrating Towel Day. Actually, sod it, I'll just copy what I sent in to the Towel Testimonials page on the official Towel Day website a few years ago: It was a day like any other. I had been watching TV for some time and then finally decided to do something more constructive with my day, so I switched it off, and picked up my mobile phone. That's when I got an SMS from a friend in England: "Douglas Adams is dead". I asked the standard questions, and was told what had happened. I was in shock, went straight to the computer, and closed down my two websites in memorandum. Later that night, my mother and I were preparing dinner, and I told her I had got an SMS from my friend, and then I started crying. She thought something had happened to my friend

Jeremy's da man

Years ago, I used to watch shows like Ricki Lake and Jenny Jones. Also had Sally Jesse Raphael and Jerry Springer to choose from, but for me, it was mainly Ricki or Jenny. Britain have some of those people too. There's Trisha, for instance, and recently, I've come across Jeremy Kyle. It's interesting to compare British and American trailer trash TV (because let's face it, the people who go on those shows don't exactly live in Kensington or Orange County). Americans are a lot more vivid with the "talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't lis'nin'!" and the gesture that goes with it, whereas it seems the Brits tend to more often be inclined to walk off stage and sulk and be coaxed back out. Oh, much less comments from the audience in Britain as well. The thing I like with Jeremy Kyle is that he's not easy on the people who go on the show. He has an opinion and he's not afraid to use it. Where Ricki Lake would go :O over something, he