The Second Coming – ITV

Various thoughts are running through my head, having finally seen this drama in it’s entirety. I’m amazed there hasn’t been more hysteria in the media about it, considering the subject matter – it’s the Second Coming of Christ, and this time he’s a normal man from Manchester. Already I can hear the fundamentalists foaming at the mouth. Scripted by Russell T Davies (No stranger to controversy, having written other dramas such as “Bob and Rose” and “Queer as Folk” before this one) it’s definitely a thought provoking work – although the knee-jerk hysterics will completely bypass that side of it.

One thing it reinforced for me is quite how good an actor Christopher Eccleston really is. If he’s not the second coming of christ, he’s definitely way up there in the pantheon of acting deities. Both the acting and the scripting were superb, neatly avoiding problems like how the Son of God avoids omniscience – it’s not going to be a decent drama if he already knows how it all ends.

I’m not going to give too much of the story away, even now it’s been transmitted – there was so much to go into, so many ideas and concepts that were brought into it, and the finale for it was a very impressive way to avoid all the potential problems of showing a vision of Judgement Day. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting it to work out the way it did – Jane said that the ending was a let down, and in some ways I agree, there were a couple of things that didn’t feel completely right about it, but within the limitations of the format, it worked fine for me. Nice to see some decent drama finally coming out of British TV – there’s been a definite dearth of it in the last couple of years, and between this and some of the other dramas over the last couple of months, let’s hope it’s a corner turned, heading towards better productions again.

Internet Rarities

Now there’s something you don’t see every day – a Virtual Voodoo Doll. Just in time for Valentine’s Day too. What could be better?

Weird thoughts again

Yes, Five is having “slightly dodgy film week” from the look of it. Tonight was “Deep Blue Sea directed by Renny Harlin. And it struck me that Harlin is a man obsessed with a certain type/look of woman. He married Geena Davis, and then had Saffron Burrows star in Deep Blue Sea. See if you can spot the similarity…

Scary, isn’t it?

OK, Bloody 00’s Saxophone too

In connection to the post below, about the 80’s Saxophone fetish (and the sixties, according to Peter‘s comment on the subject) it looks like the entire thing must run on a twenty year cycle, give or take. I was listening to the media’s new sacrificial goat TaTu’s album, and one track is utterly obsessed with a sax solo…

Scary, but true.

Bloody 80’s Saxophone

OK, I confess, I was watching Lethal Weapon on Channel Five Five, and during it something occurred to me.

What the hell WAS it with films in the 80’s (Particularly American ones) and saxophone music on the soundtracks? Seems like every mainstream film from the mid to late 80s in particular had to have a sentimental “memories” scene or love scene with a saxophone soundtrack. Fortunately it seems to have faded out again in the 90’s, and I don’t think it’s been witnessed since (thank the Lord), but you can be pretty sure that if you’re watching a film with a sax on the soundtrack, it’s from the 80’s.

I’ve no idea of the reasons why it started, but I’m seriously bloody thankful that the trend has faded out again.

Cashless Society

There’s an interesting piece on CNN about France introducing a “smart” card to replace cash. It’s a decent idea in this case because it’s not storing any personal data, and like cash, if you lose the card and someone else picks it up, they can use it instead.

Site referrers

Sometimes the search requests I see on the logs the brought people to this site are too bizarre for words. Yesterday, the following ones brought people to this site. (I’ve included links so the google search page can be seen)

• Get me the names and email addresses of contractors in russia updated 2003 – Ranked #1
• Drawing fucking nuns – Ranked #17ish
• UK citys direction driver – Ranked #5 and I’ve no idea what it means either
• Decomposing fruit tate modern – Ranked #1. (which must piss off the artist who did it).

And yahoo lists me under

• Find the perfect medical profession – Ranked #2

The world is a very strange place sometimes.