I’m a fan of Terry Pratchetts books. I’ve read most of the Discworld-novels, and I was a bit saddened when Good Omens fell through as a feature-film. It should be noted that Good Omens is not a Discworld-novel, yet it’s a spectacularly entertaining read none the less.

So, a few days ago I found out that a two-part miniseries had been produced, based on Terrys two first books set in the Discworld. This was called “The Colour of Magic” (note british spelling) and was based on the first book with the same name, followed by the accompanying novel called “The Light Fantastic”. Part one of the miniseries was of the first book, and so on.

Unfortunately it was broadcast on channels not available in Sweden, and it was only thanks to the miracle of file-sharing that I found it.

In the process, I also discovered that a similar mini-series had been produced based on his book “Hogfather” and broadcast christmas 2006. It was broadcast on the same channel as Colour of Magic, and again it was thanks to filesharing that I managed to find it.

I know that I linked to The Pirate Bay, but I urge anyone who enjoys these to try to find the DVDs and show financial support for them as well. I know I’m going to.

—

I watched The Colour of Magic first, and you know - it wasn’t quite up to my expectations. I’m not saying that it’s a bad production, because it isn’t. It’s actually quite good for a TV mini-series. Special effects are perfectly acceptable, production-design is very good, acting is up to par.

But it doesn’t have the pungency of Terrys books, and the story takes a lot of liberties with the source-material. Adding insult to injury in this department, a lot of the story doesn’t really make sense. There’s a lot of things that don’t add anything to the plot, except as filler-material.

Also, I don’t know about the dragons. Admittedly it was quite some time since I last read The Colour of Magic, but dragons are generally a no-no in the Discworld. It’s not that they don’t exist (because they do), it’s rather that they’re not a common commodity. I don’t remember exactly what happened in the book, but that whole bit doesn’t serve any purpose in the adaption. I just felt that it was filler, a poor excuse to show a rather beautiful woman in scantily clothing.

The thing that I missed the most though was the wacky humor that permeates Terrys books. Whenever I’ve read a Discworld-novel I’ve always felt as if I was reading some strange mix of Monty Python and Lord of The Rings. His writing is so textured, he gets every accent and every smell just right.

This was sadly missing in the mini-series. It didn’t have the wacky humor, and the few times it did it just felt pasted-on. The actors are obviously struggling to portray their characters, but somehow everything just falls a bit flat. The texture of the novels just don’t appear. Combined with the liberal deviation from the source material I actually felt a bit bored at times.

Wait! There’s good stuff too. Admittedly it’s not quite what I expected, but it does get quite a lot of things right. David Jason (known to most people as the bloke in A Touch of Frost) is quite good as Rincewind. I always imagined Rincewind as in his mid-late 30s, while David Jason is 68. So at first I cringed a bit, but I warmed to the concept quite quickly. I guess my estimate of Rincewind being much younger probably stems from the two mid-90s adventure games based on Discworld, where he’s portrayed as surprisingly young, as well as voiced by Eric Idle.

Also, Christopher Lee as the voice of Death is just… oh, I’m at a lack of words to describe how perfect it is. Christopher Lee doesn’t just voice Death, he IS Death. Jeremy Irons does an all too brief part as the chilly Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Cohen The Barbarian is as old as I always imagined him to be, and equally grumpy as well.

Should you watch this? If you’re a Discworld-fan, then most definitely. It probably won’t be quite what you expected, but at least they didn’t mess it up too badly, and the production is quite well-done. If you’re not a Discworld-fan, then you might be a bit confused since some things are never really explained, but the fantasy-feel and good looks might keep you happy anyways.

Oh, and Terry Pratchett himself makes a cameo in the beginning and the end.

—

After watching the Colour of Magic I watched Hogfather. Well, not IMMEDIATELY afterwards, but a day or so later. Everyone who compared Hogfather with Colour of Magic said that the former was actually much better then the latter, despite having a smaller budget and less big-name stars. In fact, there are no big-name stars in Hogfather.

I was stoked however. If Hogfather was at the very least as good as Colour of Magic, it would totally be worth it.

And oh boy, was it worth it.

Hogfather is one of my favourite Discworld-novels. It has a very wacky humor, as well as some slight satire of the consumer-driven holiday we call christmas. It also has some interesting philosophical thoughts about religion and the origin of beliefs, but it’s sugarcoated in wackiness.

In short, the story is about how Hogfather (the Discworld-version of Santa Claus) goes missing, and Death (yes, THE Death) has to fill in for him for various convoluted reasons. Much of the humor derives from Deaths lack of… well… humanity.

The story is a lot more complicated, but that’s the short version.

So, how good was Hogfather? Let’s just say that it was everything that was good about CoM, and everything good that CoM should’ve been. Hogfather sticks very closely to the source-material, even taking a lot of dialogue verbatim from the book. The story is to my recollection exactly as in the book, and everything happens like in the book. It’s a very faithful adaption. Which I find somewhat interesting, since it’s the same bloke who adapted and directed both CoM and Hogfather.

David Jason appears in this one as well, although here he portrays Albert, Death’s butler and right-hand-man. It was a bit confusing at first, but David Jason is obviously a somewhat versatile actor and fit snugly into the part of Albert. Death isn’t voiced by Christopher Lee though, and his predecessor doesn’t have quite the same Deathiness to the voice.

Other than that the casting is spot-on. Susan (the granddaughter of Death, don’t ask - it’s complicated) is perfect, just as I imagined her. The wizards are perfect, and one of my many favourite actors makes a beautiful performance as the pragmatic and slightly whimsical Mustrum Ridcully, the archchancellor of Unseen University.

So is this worth watching?

Well, unless you’re rather daft and haven’t caught on to me really liking this one yet, then let me spell it out for you: yes, it’s very, very watchable. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Discworld-fan or not. Unlike CoM, Hogfather has plenty of the wacky humor that was sorely lacking in CoM. It has the Discworld-texture, the feel is right there. And best of all, despite it’s alleged much-lower budget it still has decent special-effects and good production-value overall.

I’m having a hard time deciding on whether to write about these two subjects. So, I’m going to forge ahead and actually write something about them. However, since neither really is involving enough to qualify for their own post I’ll just slap ‘em together and combine them.

—

I discovered Gnome Do a few weeks ago. Or was it maybe longer? I really can’t remember. Gnome Do is a neat application that takes a lot of inspiration from Quicksilver. Mac users will most likely be familiar with Quicksilver since it’s a very popular application. I wouldn’t say it’s genius, but it’s pretty damn smart none the less.

Gnome Do is very similar. I’ve been using the Gnome Deskbar for a year, and it has a lot of similarities as well with Quicksilver. Gnome Do however is much more similar and even though it’s less powerful than the Deskbar in some ways, it’s also more powerful than the Deskbar in other ways.

Do is in very early stages of development right now, but it’s fully usable. It installs easily for us Ubuntu-users, which is nice. The only real drawback in my opinion is that it’s written in Mono, the free implementation of Microsofts proprietary .Net-language. I have some minor philosophical grievances with that, but Do runs fine and is very fast.

—

I earlier today noticed that a TV-series based in the Terminator-franchise had been launched. It’s called “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and is a complete and utter turd in every department. I will never understand why everyone is so desperate to keep raping what was once a great franchise. I absolutely love the first two James Cameron-helmed movies, and consider the third one to be a turkey of galactic proportions. After that I became really disgusted by how various producers seem intent on keeping on ruining this excellent concept with cheezy crap.

This TV-series strongly underscores that disgust. I watched the pilot, and it’s absolutely awful. Wooden acting, boring scripting, silly “effects” and overall just horrible abuse of excellent subject matter. I don’t understand why people couldn’t leave it be after the second movie, when even James Cameron himself stated that he was finished with the concept.

No, the “Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a mediocre production at best, and at it’s worst it’s an insult to us fans. It’s completely trite, derisive and clichéd. Avoid at all costs.

My lovely girlfriend Ann-Sofie remarked the other day that I had become very grumpy and negative in my latest posts. As always she was quite right with this remark, and I decided to not write anything more until I felt more cheery and positive.

This proved a bit tougher than I initially thought. You see, she’s not here with me right now. She’s down in the south of Sweden visiting her parents and siblings, and I always get a little extra cranky when I’m without her. She balances my moods, bla bla bla, all that romantic crap. If you want a Hallmark card, go to the store.

Well, anyways. I thought long and hard and at last I found a subject that actually made me happy to write about. Ironically enough it’s something as shallow as a TV-series.

The last few years I’ve noticed and enjoyed the increasing trend of networks around the world actually producing TV-series worth watching. Sweden has a fairly long history of producing fairly high-quality shows, but now even the American networks realized that people were getting fed up with silly sitcoms or low-budget cop shows. I mean, how many times can you redo Ally McBeal and Law & Order? After a while it gets kinda old.

This all started with 24, a series I immensely enjoyed but haven’t watched the last season or two of. I probably will though, it’s just a matter of priority. Another show that captured my imagination was Lost. Unfortunately though, I’m rather ambivalent as to whether I will watch the fourth season or not since it seems the only lost people on that show are the freakin’ writers. A show that started off so brilliantly then got solidly shafted with nonsense plotlines and cheap gimmicks to make people keep on watching it.

But, I digress.

I like my TV-series like I like my coffee. Dark and broody, no sugar or milk. Or that would be how I’d like my coffee if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a sissy who likes lots of cream and sugar in my coffee. Never mind, I’m trying to prove a point here!

The first thing that these new shows had and which the old-skool ones were missing was production value. Lots of it. No cheap sets, no cheap effects. Just a lot of high-octane production value. This is evident on both 24 and Lost, but also on shows like CSI.

The second thing that started getting me hooked on the boob-tube once again was that shows started branching out in rather weird and unfamiliar territory. Plots were getting a lot more freaky, and creators started mixing genres like some demented bartender. Plots were crossing over between genres, mixing everything from western to scifi to thriller-mystery.

(Sure, there were a few shows before this “new wave” that also had that, but they lacked the production value and instead became quirky cult-favorites)

Which brings me to why I’m writing this post. I’m going to give praise to a show that was cancelled but thanks to dedicated fans have been renewed for additional episodes.

That show is Jericho.

I’d read about it a few months back, and read about it’s cancellation and the efforts of fans to bring it back. I’d never heard about it before, but the basis of it made me very intrigued.

I mean, a post-apocalyptic drama set in a small Kansas town (named Jericho) revolving around how it’s citizens cope with life after seeing a nuclear blast in close-by Denver, Colorado and later learning that several nukes went off all around the country. It sure made me perk up my ears, and I decided that I would do my usual test to see if it whets my appetite for more. I would watch the first four episodes and decide after that if it was worth my time.

I did the same thing with Heroes this spring, and both me and Ann-Sofie got completely hooked on that one. I promised that we would watch this together, and make it a “thing” we do.

Unfortunately, Sunday or Monday I got really bored, and since there were no movies or anything worth watching on I decided to be sneaky and watch the first episode of Jericho. After that it was all down-hill, and yesterday evening I watched the 22nd (and so far last) episode of that show. I had gotten completely addicted, almost worse than with Heroes, and definitely much worse than how I got hooked on 24 or Lost. Much, much worse. I had a hard time NOT watching it nonstop, the only thing truly stopping me from watching all 22 episodes in one go being that a binge-watching was probably not a good thing to force upon my already weak grip on reality.

So, I spaced it out over a few days.

At the risk of sounding like a complete fanboy, but Jericho is AWESOME. The only thing I didn’t really like was the reason behind the nukes, I would’ve preferred something… more chaotic. Not so “conventional”. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, especially not since I want to watch this again when Ann-Sofie gets home. That’s the only thing I didn’t completely like about Jericho. Other than that it’s an excellent time-sink for anyone with the inclination to spend 22 hours watching it.

Just make sure to drink your fluids and eat at least something every now and then. Other than that, go NUTS! (har har, that’s an inside joke!)

So, earlier today my girlfriend and I watched the entire first season of The IT Crowd. I’ve seen it once before, but I had absolutely no qualms about seeing it once again.

For those of you who’ve missed it, it’s this absolutely awesome little TV-show focusing around the adventures of three people working in a IT-department of a fictional corporation in London. It’s filled with nerdy humor, british absurdism and gags that will make you howl. The first season was a sleeper-hit and immediately gained a solid fanbase. I was blown away by it, and so was aforementioned girlfriend.

It might sound rather heavy watching a whole series of a show in one go, but since there’s only six episodes and each episode is around 15-20 minutes it’s a lot easier than normally. Also, most of the time you’ll be howling at everything that happens to the characters.

After dinner we watched the second season which wrapped just a few days ago. Again, it’s only six episodes and about 15-20 minutes per episode. I was really wondering which territory the creators would take the show into, and it was quite interesting. Again, it’s filled to the brim with british humor and some really hilarious gags. This season was a complete howler just as the first one was.

If you’re into british humor and have nerdy tendencies this show will really blow your socks off.

Technorati Tags: british humor, the it crowd, comedy, television, sitcom, english humor

“Antalet TV-kanaler är direkt proportionerligt till hur lite det finns att titta på. Ju fler TV-kanaler, desto mindre finns det som är sevärt.”

–Petter Senften, 2007

Det fanns en amerikansk författare som i mitten av 60-talet publicerade en bok som utspelade sig i den fjärran framtiden. Författaren var Frank Herbert, och boken var Dune. Boken utspelar sig nånstans omkring 10 000 år in i framtiden, på en fjärran ökenplanet vid namn Arrakis.

Arrakis (eller Dune, som många kallar den) är den enda källan för en unik substans vid namn Melange, en krydda som bl.a. möjliggör att man “viker” rymden och reser genom den. Tack vare sina unika egenskaper är Melange den mest värdefulla substansen i hela universum, och det pågår en ständig maktkamp om Arrakis. Arrakis är en glödande sandboll, hemvist förutom till kryddan även till gigantiska sandmaskar och obeskrivligt brutala sandstormar.

Jag läste Dune första gången i början av min gymnasiegång. Det var min vän Micke som rekommenderade den, och jag läste den. Ironiskt nog funkade inte den episka stilen i böckerna på mig, men icke desto mindre har jag varit fascinerad av den detaljerade framtiden som Frank Herbert beskrev i Dune och dess fem uppföljare.

1984 gjordes det film på Dune, och även om ambitionerna för det projektet var väldigt höga blev resultatet ganska ljummet. Man misslyckades gravt med att fånga den svepande berättelsen om den karga planeten, och misslyckades med att få med mycket av stämningen från boken. Filmen är underhållande att se, men tyvärr nästan uteslutande för sin kitsch-faktor och inte för att det är en speciellt bra film. Det är tyvärr inte en speciellt bra film, nämligen.

Men hoppet växte när det kom en miniserie för sex år sen. Frank Herberts Dune hette den, en miniserie i tre långfilmslånga delar. Jag såg den när den kom, men mindes inte speciellt mycket av den och efter några timmar med Wikipedia på skärmen (och Dune-relaterade ämnen) bestämde jag mig för att se den igen.

Miniserien gör en mycket mer rättvis tolkning av boken, och jag finner inte mycket som jag kan gnälla på med den. Den är inget mästerverk, men oavsett om man gillar scifi-fantasy eller ej tror jag man kan finna spänning med den. Den blev så populär att en uppföljare godkändes, Children of Dune, baserad på de två nästföljande böckerna i serien. Children of Dune visades 2003, och även den möttes med godkännande av Dune-fantaster.

Den ska jag se om igen nästa vecka. Men om man vill ha ett vackert stycke eskapism berättat mot en bakgrund av science-fiction och fantasy - då rekommenderar jag att man antingen läser böckerna eller ser den här miniserien.

Hittade den här filmen på Youtube. Innehållet är en liten snutt där man filmat under röstinspelningarna till Family Guy. Rätt skoj att se hur ägarna av rösterna ser ut, och det är imponerande hur Seth MacFarlane själv står för de flesta rösterna, samt byter blixtsnabbt mellan dem.

Ett TV-program som jag nu sett två gånger av och som jag verkligen fastnat för är Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Det är ett fantastiskt härligt program där Penn Jilette och hans tystlåtne kompis Teller sätter lite griller i huvudet på oss kring olika saker.

Det senaste programmet som jag precis såg på TV6 var om Feng Shui som påstår sig vara en “vetenskap”, och man passade också på att på ett enormt underhållande sätt skjuta i sank myten om att flaskvatten är renare än vanligt kranvatten. Jag har länge hävdat att man betalar överpriser för glorifierat kranvatten när man köper flaskvatten, och Penn & Teller underströk precis samma åsikt på ett mycket skoj sätt.

Så, om ni är skeptiskt lagda till mycket av det skitsnack som accepteras i våran värld bör ni antingen söka er till närmaste fildelningsnätverk eller bänka er framför sexan när de sänder detta program i framtiden.

EDIT: Fixade att man fick Error 412: “Precondition Failed” om man försökte navigera bort från detta inlägg. Det fastnade i mitt grovmaskiga men fruktansvärt effektiva nät mot referrerspam som jag skrivit om tidigare.

Jag blev lite dyster av att skriva det förra inlägget, och bestämde mig för att pigga upp mig genom att se på Top Gear. Top Gear, för er som inte vet det är ett lätt vansinnigt brittiskt program som uteslutande handlar om bilar.

Gärna snabba och svindyra bilar, men bilar överhuvudtaget är temat. Det har en udda humor som jag uppskattar, och de är inte sena att driva med sig själva. De har dessutom väldigt bra smak vad gäller bilar.

Det avsnitt jag valde att se var det andra avsnittet i fjärde säsongen, från 2004 om jag inte minns helt fel. Jag hade inte sett det förut, men valde det baserat på två saker:

1) En nunna kör monstertruck
2) Mercedes SLR Mclaren

Vad jag fick som bonus var en helt hysterisk bit. Det är nämligen så att Top Gear har ett moment man kallar “Star in a resonably priced car” där man tar någon som är mer eller mindre känd och de får köra en mellanprisbil runt banan, och sedan loggas deras tid mot andra deltagare.

Den här gången var det en professionell hypnotist vars namn jag inte minns som var deltagaren. Det roliga var att förutom att köra en bil runt banan (och svära och grimasera på ett mycket underhållande sätt) så hypnotiserade han en av programledarna - Richard Hammond, den korte och rent allmänt smått hysteriska killen.

Jag trodde jag skulle dö av skratt!

Först hypnotiserades han att helt glömma bort hur man kör bil. Han satt i bilen och vred på alla rattar och spakar, och hade INGEN som helst aning om hur man körde bil. Först var jag helt övertygad om att han fejkade, men jag tror inte man kan fejka den typen av okunnighet. Det var hur som helst ett fantastiskt segment. Senare i studion blev han hypnotiserad att tro att en trampbil var hans nya fina Porsche 911, och han körde runt i den “bilen” alltmedan han gjorde motorljud. När Jeremy Clarkson senare rammade hans nya fina “bil” blev han helt utom sig.

Måste ses!

Nunnan som kör monstertruck var skoj (bilar med 1500+ hästkrafter är alltid ballt) och testet av den svindyra Mercan som körde hysteriskt fort och bromsade på nolltid var även skoj, men Richards hypnotisering var behållningen.

Alltså, nu börjar jag bli lite less på CSI-seriernas utsvävning i omöjliga saker. Visst, det är TV och det är menat som underhållning, men när man gör en serie som utspelar sig i den verklighet som vi vanliga människor lever i tycker jag att man till viss del får hålla sig inom ramarna.

Jag ser ett relativt fräscht avsnitt av CSI: Miami. Inte nog med att de har fantastiska datorer som låter “bzzzztzzzbzzzt” när man scrollar text, de har också superscanners och datorer som kan ta reda på typen av handske baserat på ett dimmigt avtryck på någons arm!

Okej, om en digitalkamera är tillräckligt liten för att passa inuti en penna (inte omöjligt, det finns små kameror i mobiltelefoner) så är upplösningen allt annat än otrolig. Vi snackar maximalt VGA-upplösning. Dessutom är optiken så otroligt himla sunkig så det skulle nog krävas ett mirakel för att ens få ner såpass många pixlar till sensorn. Men enligt CSI-serien kan en sån kamera ta bilder i minst 4-5mpx.

Dessutom. CSI trollar ju lite med knäna och skriver kommandon på tangentbordet och vips så har de zoomat in en tatuering på killens handled. Helt otroligt. Om jag zoomar en bild från en digitalkamera på 5-6mpix får jag ett tjog med pixlar som mest påminner om bostongurka, men inte CSI. Nejdå, de zoomar in och man ser nån fräsig FilmOS-rutin som bearbetar bilden och plötsligt har de en kristallklar bild på snubbens bläck.

Och det där himla handskavtrycket. Man kan inte avgöra om nån rullat legoklossar på killens arm eller om någon nypt honom, men CSI har ju såklart sin Laser Scanner Deluxe Limited Edition 3000 och scannar av den och inte nog med att de får mönstret till hur man syr handsken samt vilken fattig kines som sydde den, de får dessutom reda på hur gammal den är och hur många ägare den haft!

Go CSI!