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The Planners
by thedevilinme So what do Shakespeare's Lodge, the Popes Villa and Woodstock Manor have in common? Well, they were all great buildings we will never get to see as they were pulled down by the landowners over the centuries because people kept gawping at them, something we now call tourists, the act of vandalism that sparked the Heritage Movement, mostly ... affluent history lovers who got together and lobbied successive governments to protect the nation's treasures. The world famous Avebury Stone Circle was a brilliant example of that, old black and white photos from the 19th century showing the mighty stones unkempt and people chipping bits off, one stone having a fence and barbed wire wrapped around it because it was considered an awkward hindrance to the landowners back garden, incredulous if you think about the people that once built and moved these mighty monoliths into place to worship their Gods. The legacy today is the often pedantic and over protection of that remaining heritage, over zealous town and country planners keen to stop any progress in new build or knocking down old buildings, especially for the little guy, the theme of this light hearted BBC2 documentary. As you would expect nimbyism is at the heart of proceedings as Little Englanders do battle over who should be able to build or extend what and who should not, a rare case where the middle - classes actually disagree on something. You all know those bored and comfortably off pensioners or irritable neighbors who have the tape measure out if their neighbor's shrubbery is too tall or the fence an inch or two inch over the boundary line, itching for conflict. Many had good jobs once but now they have no power or meaning in life and so always looking for a reason to be, that of the nimbi, somewhat pathetic and extremely British behavior we cringe at, what the BBC do best with their doco's. Because the Tories have ripped up the planning rules so to encourage more building projects a lot of requests have been flooding in, big companies looking to muscle in on the green and brown belt land and residents looking to upgrade the value of their property in case they have to sell up one day. It's also a chance for the well-healed to try and build their dream house in the beautiful countryside or to get some decking down in listed buildings. But the paid and unpaid planners and town councils are stuck in their ways and not as keen as David Cameron on the free for all, determined to protect any building remotely ancient, notable or listed, literally the protector of the 'listing' buildings. The people on the end of the bureaucracy are often hysterical over property encroachment or alteration. The actual planners are unpaid volunteers from the community who visit the sites of new build or complaints about building from locals and judge whether planning permission is worthy, retrospective or current. Whilst they are on site the rules are they can not be lobbied by those involved with the case. Some are progressive and like to see new things go up or on whilst others are not and want to keep the old, at whatever cost. The official paid town planners who officiate the building plans often go against the volunteers, and so then take the decision to the council chamber that has the final say, good old British bureaucracy galore. The episodes... The highlight of the opening episode were the lovely and extremely bright doctor octogenarian couple, who wanted to put solar panels on the roof of their grade two listed cottage, that just so happened to be directly below the historic walls of Chester for all the tourists to see. In Cheltenham, a woman called Geraldine wanted to turn her manicured and floral front garden of her lovely Regency house into a carpark and so drop the public curb, because she finds it annoying to park the 'Beemer' around the back where she has to back blind into traffic. She has spent £10,000 hiring experts for her planning application. The likeable doctors would be successful because their arguments were reasoned around global warming, but the panels were not that needed and they did look silly and out of place, the planners argument, the mischievous doctors not likely to make their money back until they were long dead but making their point on government energy hypocrisy. The posh lady from Cheltenham wasn't so lucky. She seemed to only want the front parking space to keep up with the Jones's as their neighbors did have their BMWs in the front garden. It was nice to see money doesn't buy everything. Episode three involved the attractive Chesham's, a young posh couple who had purchased some brown fields land in the countryside and wanted to build a few houses on it, whilst on the other side of the pretty village much bigger developers wanted to sling up a whole field full in their proposal. It seemed clear cut that the big boys would win but the couple had built up a rapport with local villagers and had rare nimbi support, skillfully playing themselves off as the better option to the bigger developers coming to their little village and spoiling the view and ambience so the village would go against the bigger developer. The Chesham's would win, tears and all, even though they too were obvious property developers. A pretty face makes and a well to do vice makes all the difference. Episode four was the most controversial; the plans for a mosque extension in Rochdale hustled through by the Muslim mayor and his team. Like all mosques around the country they tend to be in all manner of converted buildings in built up areas and cause the mother of all traffic jams on the call for prayer, no chance of taxi on a Friday in any of Britain's big cities and towns now. The predominately white middle-class planners - paid and unpaid - recommended the mosque should change their plans to improve its onsite parking and so suggested to the council that a 'No' would be appropriate. But the owners of the mosque crashed ahead and were clearly expecting the planning permission to be bullied through on race grounds and so didn't care, which proved correct, Shari Law in action! Last weeks episode featured a rather silly bloke from Rochdale, who complained about some flats being built at the end of the street on every technicality he could find, the sort of bloke who contest speeding fines for unclear signage ect. After being knocked back by the council on the excuse that there was not enough room to turn his builders van when the flats were up he tried again there weeks later saying the building works could endanger the local kids lives, all of them Asian, perhaps what this was really about, another ten houses full of them not what he wanted. The flats would be built. The other plonker on the show was the CCTV Man, who had six cameras on his modest three bedroom house, one roving eye snooping over his neighbor's fence, the problem. The Flag of St George was flying proudly, matching his tattoos. He was either extremely paranoid of crime, a lottery winner or a drug kingpin committing the crime. Needles to say two of the six cameras had to go. Again it's all about chasing little and often pointless victories for likewise people because they have nothing better to do. The series has been funny and entertaining and skillfully edited to enhance that joy of British nimbism, all manner of characters on the planning committees of this fine land and equally bonkers and pompous householders rubbing up against them. The council planners are the paid professionals and can only go by the rule book whereas the unpaid planning committees revel in the power afforded to them and right little jobsworths. We love that stuff and this put together to make you chuckle at all concerned eccentricities. It's on tonight on BBC2 and the last in the series but you can see them all on the BBC 'Iplayer' and on the various catch ups. It's well worth a look guys to wind down after a days work. Read the complete review |
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Once Upon a Time - Series 1 (DVD)
by compbren After my current favourite TV show 'Fringe' ended after 5 seasons I was stuck for something else to watch. I saw 'Once Upon A Time' season 1 DVD going cheap and thought I would give it a go. Buying TV Series DVD sets is a favourite pastime of mine, and I have so many that I didn't actually watch the DVD until about 2 months from buying ... it! Anyway, 'Once Upon A Time' is a fantasy drama series about your favourite fairly tale characters. When I read the synopsis for the series I was a bit unsure about it, would it work? would it be any good? It is written by a couple of the guys who did 'Lost' and that was a great series (early on in the set) so I decided the give it a try. The Plot (Without giving too much away): In Fairy Tale land, the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) is plotting revenge over her land after her step daughter Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) awakens from her evil sleeping curse and marries Prince Charming (Josh Dallas). Queen Regina has been long after revenge on Snow White after an incident in her earlier years which she blames Snow for. The Evil Queen has decided that everybody must be punished and sets about a curse that will destroy the Fairy Tale land. The Queen is planning to take everybody from the Fairy Tale land and take them all to a place where there is no magic and where their memories will be wiped forever. Upon learning about this curse Snow White and Prince Charming set about trying to stop the Queen and seek advice from a rather shady character Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). He has his own issues with the Queen and tells a pregnant Snow and Prince that the curse will not be broken from 28 years and their unborn daughter will be their saviour. Snow and Prince are told that their daughter, when she is born, must be sent through to 'our' land via a magic wardrobe and they'll not see her for 28 years. Faced with this heartbreaking decision, Snow and Prince place the newly born daughter into the wardrobe and pray for the best. Just as the curse is about to take place Prince Charming is fatally stabbed. The next part of the story involves a young boy named Henry turning up at a woman's house claiming to be his son. Emma Swann is shocked that the boy she gave up for adoption 10 years ago has now showed up and agrees to take him back home to a town called Storybrook. On the car journey home, Henry reveals a book full of Fairy Tales and claims to Emma that she is the only one who can lift this curse. Emma instantly rejects the claims and returns Henry to his adopted mother, who he hates. Viewers can see that his adoptive mother is the Storybrook Mayer, otherwise known as Regina (The Evil Queen). After a couple of encounters with the locals, Emma decides to stick around for a while...The following morning time has started to move for the first time in 28 years. In Storybrook, time hasn't moved for 28 years. All the residents have false memories and have not aged since being placed under the curse. Snow White is now a timid School Teacher known as Mary Margaret, Prince Charming is now a John Doe after being in hospital unconscious for the past 28 years, Rumplestiltsin is the local Antique/Property dealer known as Mr Gold (get it?). Many questions need answering and will be answered throughout the season such as who knows about the curse? After watching the Pilot episode, I managed to watch a further 3 in a row as I was instantly hooked. I never thought this show would be my thing but it's clever, fast pacing and has some great cliffhangers. The main plot is well thoughtout, the characters are complex. Unlike Lost the story doesn't drag on too long and the finale reaches a fantastic conclusion which sets about a change for Season 2. I love the little twists the show takes on classic fairytales, for example, it's safe to assume that in this programmy Grumpy is the 'leader' of the severn dwarves, not 'Doc' like in the classic tales. Rumplestiltskin is a fascinating character too and I like what they have done with him regarding several other fairytale characters too (think Beauty and The Beast). The show introduces many fairy tale characters throughout the season. It is also a bit like Lost in the way that each episode tends to have a 'flashback' episode as to when a Storybrook character was in their Fairy Tale land and these Flashbacks tend to pose more questions too. You find, for example, what made the Evil Queen the way she is. On a different note, I love the Evil Queen, just when you think she's showing some signs of redemption, she tricks you and goes back to her evil ways. I still don't buy that she's 100% evil though judging by some of the Evil Queen centric episodes later on in the season. I don't have many negatives about the show either. The casting is great although I would say that I find Prince Charming a bit of a wimp compared to the expectation of this hero, although a twist in around episode 8 or 9 may explain that. Also, some characters you see for one episode and never see again (ie Hansel and Gretal) so it seems strange that they have a H&G centric episode and they're not heard from again. Also, you may find that the 'main' story arc gets a bit slow pacing every now and then. For the majority of the show you are willing for Emma to believe the curse, but to be fair to the writers, would you actually believe fairy tale characters are living among us? I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy watching this show. It has the same basis as Lost but it is not as complicated and suitable for the whole family. If you're looking for a fantasy drama then look at this! Roll on Season 2! Read the complete review |
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Dollhouse - Season 1-2 (DVD)
by Decanus I've liked Joss Whedon for a long time, way back to the early days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, through Angel, Firefly and up to his (deserved) ascent into the A-list by writing and directing The Avengers movie; bet you didn't know he co-wrote Toy Story and wrote several best-selling comics series, as well, including X-Men. The mans a ... talent. When he pitched Dollhouse to Twentieth Century Fox back in 2007, it seemed a no-brainer; he would produce it, direct several episodes and write several episodes. He also had lined up Eliza Dushku to star. In fact, Fox was so eager to get going, they launched a viral marketing campaign online, as well as foregoing the usual 'quality control' tactic of ordering a pilot episode first, before committing; instead, they placed an immediate order for 13 episodes. Whedon had a five year arc planned for his show (ideal for maximum syndication revenue in the U.S) and alongside the tv episodes had plans for webisodes to add depth to the Dollhouse universe. Alas, the 5 years and the webisodes never materialized. So what's it about? Dollhouse is an underground organisation that provides 'dolls', or 'actives' as programmable humans who can be made to do anything, be it a girlfriend, an assassin, a spy etc. 'Dolls' have their own memories wiped, and are then programmed with what they need to be; at the end of their mission, they are wiped again, in readiness for the next mission. Why do the 'Dolls' do this? for reward. They sign up for a tour of duty, and their original memories are saved for them on hard drive, ready to be re-inserted when they finish their service. The main character we follow is Echo, played by Eliza Dushku, based in the Los Angeles Dollhouse (there are various Dollhouses around the U.S). She is unique in that, even after her personality is wiped, post mission, she remembers things and becomes more and more self aware, despite being a 'blank slate'. We also follow the support staff at the LA House; Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) is the boss,Topher Brink (Fran Kranz) is the programmer, and Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix) is Echo's handler, a rare moral voice in the organisation. There are also other 'Dolls' that come and go. Another main support is FBI Agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) who has been trying to prove that Dollhouses exist. Season 1 (12 episodes) "Ghost" "The Target" "Stage Fright" "Gray Hour" "True Believer" "Man on the Street" "Echoes" "Needs" "A Spy in the House of Love" "Haunted" "Briar Rose" "Omega" You probably read the above and thought 'what a great premise'; well it was, but the execution was not done so well. Considering this season was only 12 episodes long, it takes six episodes before we really get going; lot of background detail is thrown at us, some character motivations etc, and the bad side of this premise can be a lazy 'adventure of the week' attitude. Not bad episodes, just require a lot of commitment to the long term story, and for some people it was too much hard work and viewing figures started to fall. For me, they needed to intercut character development with some exciting storylines early. The first really good episode is 'Man on the Street', which really does drive the series forward well. In fact, the entire second half of the first season is much better, with a good mix of stories - 'Echoes' gives us more history on Echo, 'Needs' breathes a little more life into the other 'Dolls' and throws the viewer a genuine surprise at the end, and my favourite episode , Haunted, in which Echo is imprinted with the mind of a dead woman and attends her 'own' funeral to try and discover who killed her. 'Omega' sees the escaped Doll Alpha (a genius driven mad by the memory implants) come after Echo, which leaves things on a thrilling conclusion It is very much a season of 2 halves, first half average, second half very good. There is an interesting side story to Season 1 as well; the original first episode 'Echo' was never broadcast for some reason, and bit of it chopped up for other episodes. However, contractually, Whedon had to supply Fox with 13 episodes, so he made a 13th episode that was never shown, 'Epitaph One'; this episode is et 10 years in the future, and seems to show a city destroyed by the Dollhouse orgsanisation, and we learn the fate of the current 'Dolls'This is now available as a bonus extra on the dvd set. Season 2 (13 episodes) "Vows" "Instinct" "Belle Chose" "Belonging" "The Public Eye" "The Left Hand" "Meet Jane Doe" "A Love Supreme" "Stop-Loss" "The Attic" "Getting Closer" "The Hollow Men" "Epitaph Two: Return" Season 2 nearly never happened, as viewing figures had been average at best, but positive feedback from fans persuaded Fox to commission a second season. Season 2 begins with picking up the pieces from the attack by Doll 'Alpha' at the end of season 1. The first two epsiodes 'Vows' and 'Instinct' are again a little adventure of the week for me, Echo playing a dodgy businessman's wife and a dead mother, respectively. We are under no illusions now though that Echo is anything other than a split personality; she has multiple personalities in her at all times, and she can seemingly call on whichever bits she requires from each personality, a kind of 'Super-Doll'. For me, they never learned their lessons from Season 1, as the first half of the season is a bit uneven. New plotlines start up; we meet a Senator planning to bring down the Rossum Corporation, who run the Dollhouse programme, FBI Agent Ballard joins the organisation to bring it down from within, Echo leaves then comes back, and we meet the crew at another Dollhouse. These always just seem like interesting diversions, and we never get to settle into a coherent storyline that carries us along. 'A Love Supreme' is the episode we have been waiting for, when the terrible future of 'Epitaph One' begins to come into play. We discover 'The Attic', where retired and 'broken' Dolls are sent, and we discover more background to Rossum and the Dollhouse programme. The episodes from 'A Love Supreme' to season closer 'Epitaph Two' are excellent, as we finally get the exciting, rollercoaster story we were expecting all along. The final episode takes us back to that dystopian future where Dollhouse tech has created zombies out of us all. and that was the end of Dollhouse. No amount of fan support could persuade Fox and it was cancelled in late 2009. It is fair to say it was a half lump of coal, half diamond and that as good as some of the ideas were, the show was just too inconsistent overall. This set, which includes all 26 episodes made, also has a ton of extras that really add depth to your enjoyment of the show. We get a nice mix of audio commentaries (some by Wheedon), outtakes, deleted scenes, and documentaries/ interviews. Its a package well worth your money. Would I recommend? Yes. Read the complete review |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / Director: Philip John, Daniel O'Hara / Actors: Damien Molony, Michael Socha, Kate Bracken, Phil Davis, Steven Robertson ... / DVD released 2013-04-08 at 2entertain / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / Actors: Karl Pilkington, Warwick Davis, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant ... / DVD released 2012-12-24 at 2entertain / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television - Alan Partridge / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / Director: David Lambert, Declan Lowney / Actors: Steve Coogan ... / DVD released 2013-03-11 at 2entertain / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / To Be Announced / Actors: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten ... / DVD released 2013-05-20 at Warner Home Video / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / DVD released 2013-02-18 at Channel 4 DVD / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / To Be Announced / Actors: Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal, Mark Boone Junior, Maggie Siff ... / DVD released 2013-09-30 at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Features of the DVD: Box set, PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / Suitable for 18 years and over / Actors: David Threlfall ... / DVD released 2013-02-25 at Channel 4 DVD / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / Actors: Angie Harmon, Sasha Alexander, Lorraine Bracco ... / DVD released 2013-03-18 at Warner Home Video / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television - NYPD Blue / TV Series / Suitable for 15 years and over / DVD released 2012-12-10 at Mediumrare / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Television / TV Series / To Be Announced / Actors: Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield, Hannah Simone, Jake M. Johnson, Lamorne Morris ... / DVD released 2013-09-30 at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Features of the DVD: Box set, PAL |
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