• 31Jul 07

  Heroes Unmasked - BBC world exclusive, so why don't they repeat it?

  So BBC 2 here in the UK finally got to air the first and second "Heroes" episodes of Season 1 last week - probably one of the last channels in the world to do so I mean the US started Season 1 in September 2006 (yes, some 10 months ago), the episodes were available for, ahem, download mere hours later and most countries had started airing by Jan-Mar 2007.

  In fact, the UK premiere of "Heroes" was actually on the subscripton-only Sci-Fi Channel and they went through the entire 23-episode run of Season 1 before BBC was even allowed to air one episode ("sloppy seconds" is how one UK newspaper quaintly put it). So we have net downloads *and* a UK cable/satellite channel already beaten the BBC to the punch in the UK, but they still decided to repeat the life out of each and every "Heroes" episode!

  The first week saw the first two episodes air consecutively on BBC 2 on a Wednesday, only to be repeated the following night (ridiculous! A show shouldn't be repeated the very next day, IMHO) and yet again on Sunday evening. I think they're also showing the "next episode" on BBC 3 on Wednesdays, shortly after the one that airs on BBC 2 on Wednesdays as well (I suspect not many people know about that...).

  Anyway, the sad over-repeating of "Heroes" isn't the reason I'm posting this entry up - it's actually about the mini-documentary "Heroes Unmasked" that is being produced by the BBC and each 10 minute segment airs on BBC 2 after each Wednesday episode of "Heroes". It's a *world exclusive* and has plenty of interviews with the actors and also clips from season 1 thrown in. So you'd expect such a tasty morsel to be repeated like the main "Heroes" episodes? Well, NO! Incredibly, with two channels between them (BBC 2 and 3), they have decided not to repeat any of "Heroes Unmasked", which considering the crazy repeat schedule of "Heroes" itself smacks of sheer idiocy.

  Needless to say, the scheduling morons at the BBC let the first "Heroes Unmasked" start late by 7 minutes, so I lost the last 2 minutes of my recording and I was completely fuming at the lack of repeats of "Hereoes Unmasked' and the disastrous scheduling of what was supposed to be a big BBC 2 event.

  This is *exactly* the circumstance that BBC's new iPlayer Beta (which I've joined to see what all the fuss is about) is supposed to help out - they keep the last 7 days of BBC progs online (don't ask me why online versions of TV programmes self-destruct after7 days - another piece of BBC ludicrosity if you ask me). Great, so I'll log in and find last Wed's progs...only to see that 9.00pm is blanked out - no Heroes or Heroes Unmasked online at all - arrrrrrgh!

  Mind you, I surf/watch videos using Linux + Firefox + mplayer - the best and most secure combination available today...and completely wrong according to the Microsoft-loving BBC, who say that the iPlayer stuff can only be run using Windows XP Service Pack 2 + Internet Explorer + Windows Media Player 10! More lunacy from those BBC idiots methinks (yes, you can't use Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, Firefox, Opera, Safari or any other media player to view the iPlayer stuff - this is completely appalling for a national broadcaster with a public service remit).

  So how did I get to see Heroes Unmasked's first episode then? Well, no repeats on any BBC channel, not available on the iPlayer service (or indeed *any* legal video download service in the world), so I looked on the P2P networks and what do I spy? A BBC HD copy of "Heroes Unmasked" - I downloaded it for free in 5 minutes with no DRM and viewed the final 2 minutes in quite impressive quality (better than my Freeview box can display it). *Now* you know why the BBC's iPlayer service is doomed!

  • Posted Jul 31, 2007 1:13 pm PT
  • Category: TV
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• 28Jul 07

  New Bionic Woman...not breaking new ground?

  WARNING: This posting contains spoilers!

  The new Bionic Woman series (with Michelle Ryan in the lead role) was recently leaked onto the Net so I, ahem, got to see it probably at least 6 months before the UK airs it. It got me thinking that really this show is just far too long coming to make much of an impact nowadays.

  I recently bought the first season of the original "The Bionic Woman" on DVD (only 6 pounds!) because I loved that 70's show. OK, it wasn't groundbreaking in the way "The Six Million Dollar Man" was (it's just a female spin-off), but the fact that a woman took on the lead role of a major 1970's US TV series - and in a strong role at that - was something to shout about back then.

  Between the old and new series, we've had a constant stream of equally strong female "kick-ass" leading roles - "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", "Dark Angel" and "Alias" perhaps being the three most obvious - so some of the original's impact has been lessened some 30 years on.

  So how did the first episode of Bionic Woman fare? "So-so" is probably my initial verdict - they crammed in too much into the first episode in my opinion. I'm actually quite pleased that the stroppy deaf sister of Jaime is being recast - hopefully she'll be less stroppy which annoyed me (she'll not be deaf, though that wasn't annoying). Spoliers coming....

  Jaime is now the *2nd* bionic woman (first one is another female kick-ass refugee: Katie Sackhoff...ironically the female version of Starbuck in the excellent Battlestar Galactica remake), she sleeps with her boyfriend only minutes after recovering from her bionic implants (Lindsay Wagner was *never* in bed with a lover as far as I can remember!), nothing happens with her bionic ear in the entire episode and her bionic eye is way too much like Arnie's visual display in Terminator 2.

  Plus points include some quite good action sequences - though having a hand-to-hand fight with Katie Sackhoff in the very first episode was surely far too early in the season? - and daring to show Jaime running at full speed (though it was in a forest and she was strangely warped by CGI meddling, don't ask me!), which is something the original bionic shows hardly ever did. I miss the classic da-da-da-da-da bionic sound effects from the old shows though - it's all completely silent this time (and no slow motion either, which was a cheap effect anyway).

  I guess it'll all boil down to the writing - Battlestar Galactica showed that if you get decent scripts, you can make "seriously good sci-fi", even when the original was quite cartoonish (hey, I bought the original series on DVD!). Time will tell if "Bionic Woman" can pull off the same trick or not - I'm not so convinced about it myself. At least Michelle got to act a bit more than than her current stint in BBC 1's "Jekyll", but at this point, I still prefer Lindsay Wagner's version of the character...

  • Posted Jul 28, 2007 2:29 pm PT
  • Category: TV
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• 9Jun 07

  OK, Picket Fences really is coming out on DVD

  I blogged earlier in the year that Picket Fences - one of the best US dramas of all time, IMHO - was finally coming out on DVD. Well, after many delays - primarily due to music rights I believe - amazon.com now has Season 1 slated for a US DVD release on 19th June.

  Predictably, there's no sign whatsoever of a UK DVD release (barely anyone knows the show here in the UK, because it was never broadcast on network TV - you had to have cable/satellite in the 90's to see it). It's this sort of scenario that pushes people to source the show from "elsewhere" - if the DVD box set came out in the UK at a reasonable price, I'd snap it up, but there's zero sign of that happening.

  • Posted Jun 9, 2007 5:48 am PT
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