Body of a Geek Goddess

Supernatural Season 7 - my thoughts so far

2012-01-28T05:08:00.000-08:00

CONTAINS SUPERNATURAL SEASON 7 SPOILERS

I feel bad for even saying this, but I am finding it increasingly a struggle to care about this series of Supernatural. I know, I know, I said that at the start of Season 6, which not only picked up dramatically after a few duff opening episodes, but developed into a strong, entertaining season that had some absolutely killer episodes. So why isn’t that happening with Season 7 – or am I just being a bit of a moan?

Bring back Castiel!

Why am I not liking it? Well, so far I’m not exactly hating it (the way I hated the start of Season 6) but it all just feels like treading water. I have three episodes waiting to be watched, but am struggling to gather enough enthusiasm to spare them the time. The major story arc this season – the Leviathans that have been unleashed from purgatory – is interesting enough, and Mark Sheppard has popped up as Crowley to remind us why he’s the World’s Best TV Actor, but the season so far has a ‘monster of the week’ vibe that feels very Season 1, and a step back from the complex story arcs that made the show so compelling.

What worries me is that this is a deliberate choice: showrunner Sera Gamble has spoken of stripping the show back to basics, of taking ways the things SamnDean have come to rely on – Castiel, the scrap yard, Bobby (sob!), even the Impala. She sees this as refreshing the story: I see it as a massively retro step. Because the problem isn’t that SamnDean came to rely on these things: it’s that we did. The Winchester family shuffle – fall out with one another, make up, sacrifice yourself – was becoming increasingly tired, and making both Castiel and Bobby regular characters gave the show a richness and texture that it lacked. It also gave the boys someone else to react and relate to, rather force the writers to find more and more convoluted reasons for the brothers to fall out. Stripped of these, their behaviour starts to seem irrational and irritating: Sam flouncing off after finding out that Dean lied to him, only for them to be reunited and OK in the very next episode, was a prime example of this pointlessness. I used to genuinely care about their relationship: now I spend much of my time wanting to give them a slap and telling them to grow up. Concentrating just on the Winchesters this late in the game risks turning the show into one of those long running series based on the main couple’s love-hate relationship: there’s only so long you can watch people bicker before you want them to get it on or go home; Wincest jokes aside, with a fraternal pairing you lack even that possibility, so there feels like there’s nowhere else for them to go.

Of course, I could be wrong again: I’m only 8 or 9 episodes in, and like I said, these haven’t, for the most part, been terrible, just a little bit ‘meh’: there’s still time to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Clearly plenty of people still love it: the show just won two awards at the People’s Choice awards. But to me it feels like coasting, when it should have its foot on the pedal: either that, or finally be brave enough to apply the brakes.

Falcon Girl at Fashionably Geek

2012-01-26T03:24:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of the super cute site Fashionably Geek, which is packed full of fun goodies for geeks. I was particularly taken with this Falcon Girl mash up by James Hance, but the site has plenty more where that came from, so do check it out...

Falcon Girl by James Hance

Miss Piggy for Mac

2012-01-26T03:02:00.000-08:00

Always an icon, Miss Piggy is having a moment right now: the advent of the Muppet Movie - still to open here, alas - saw her feted by designers, and now she has the ultimate seal of success: a range of make up to call her own. While I can't say I'm quite as excited by this as I was by Mac's Wonder Woman range, I do love how they've styled her in the adverts...

Miss Piggy for Mac. Fabulous, dahling!

New Fangirl Column - Catwoman!

2012-01-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

Blimey, is it two weeks already since I last wrote my column? Apparently it is. Well, here's my new Fangirl Unleashed column - this time looking at DC's revamped Catwoman. Sexy or sexist?

Never Sleep Alone with Zombie bedding

2012-01-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

My good friend Ms Lemur pointed me in the direction of this awesome zombie themed bedding by textile designer Melissa Christie which is available on Etsy. Don't think I'd be able to sleep in it myself but I do think it's fun...

Sweet dreams...!

What you should be watching next

2012-01-19T03:06:00.000-08:00

Well, now the Christmas and New Year holidays are over, time to turn back to the important things in life: namely, TV. Mercifully, to get us past the post-Sherlock slump, there are some great things coming back to TV in the next few weeks, so get watching...

Charlie Hunnan as Jax in Sons of Anarchy. You need another reason?

Sons of Anarchy returned last night to 5US, but as this is now series 4 in a fairly heavy arc, I would recommend seeking out the earlier series on DVD first. But it's really worth checking out: find out why here.

Leverage: hopefully you will have listened to my earlier pleas to catch up with this show, which is being repeated on FX, but even if you haven't, you can probably jump in to series 3 (starting Feb 7) without much trouble. Honestly, it is SO much fun. You'll thank me.

Psych: I seem to be a voice in the wilderness on this one in this country, and for the life of me I can't understand why - this show is one of the most fun things you'll see on TV. A great cast with great chemistry, smart and funny scripts, lots of in-jokes to keep geeks happy - WHY aren't you watching this? Comes back to Universal in February. (Read why you should be watching here).

Skull Bunny tee from Think Geek

2012-01-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

I love skulls. I love rabbits. I therefore of course love this skull bunny t-shirt which features a rabbit skull, made of rabbit skulls. Seriously, glad Think Geek is a US site or I would be broke...

Awesome skull bunny t-shirt

And let's see that in close up...

Vogue comes to the Simpsons

2012-01-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

Anna Wintour - the Comic Character wears Prada

Grace Coddington

The real Karl Lagerfeld never looks this friendly!

I love these: the biggest names in fashion drawn as Simpsons characters for an upcoming episode. You can read more about it (and see more illustrations) over at Vogue but here for your delectation are Kark Lagerfeld, Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington, Simpsons style.

Peter Dinklage gets a Golden Globe

2012-01-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

I must admit I am sceptical about awards ceremonies - none more so than the Golden Globes, the ceremony that (allegedly, m'lud) nominated the universally panned The Tourist because the judges got flown to Venice, and they wanted Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp to come to the awards. All I care about most of the time is the frocks. But I was pleased to see that Peter Dinklage continues to clear up on the awards front, taking home a much deserved win for Game of Thrones. Go, Peter!

Wing and a prayer

2012-01-16T04:09:00.000-08:00

As I've been saying in a few posts recently, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to support British crafters - and this is also chiming with my desire to buy less mainstream stuff, and spend my money on things that are more meaningful and personal to me.

I stumbled across Nanuk Jewellery while having a trawl through Folksy, and was taken with her angel wing charm necklaces (see below). As - I may also have mentioned - I'm writing a book at the minute where one of the characters is an angel, I decided to treat myself to a piece of jewellery to inspire me. (OK, OK, that's a bit of an excuse to buy something pretty, but hey....) I also decided I wanted it personalsied a bit more - my angel is a bit of a badass, so I toughened up the necklace with the addition of a dagger charm. I had a great buying experience - Louise, the woman behind Nanuk, was helpful and charming throughout the process (I was quite fussy with what I wanted) and only a week later I received a lovely necklace, nicely packaged and made to my specifications. I wore it on Saturda night to a party and did feel a bit special putting on something that I knew had been made for me - and, let's face it, was about the same price as something I would pick up in Top Shop. Now let's hope I also find myself inspired to write by it...

Necklace by Nanuk Jewellery

The rebranding of Kathy Mallory

2012-01-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

I just purchased The Chalk Girl, the 10th book in the series by Carol O'Connell featuring New York detective Kathy Mallory.

I must admit to being intrigued by the fact that the publishers have seized on the Steig Larsson angle, with the tagline "Before Lisbeth Salander, there was Kathy Mallory." In some ways you can't blame them: after all, O'Connell's books feature a heroine who is damaged by childhood abuse, socially malajusted and a computer genius (albeit one who comes in a far more conventionally attractive package - O'Connell is at pains to repeatedly point out how beautiful and expensively turned out Mallory is).

In truth, though, that's pretty much where the similarity ends. O'Connell writes smart New York thrillers that are basically police procedurals (despite Mallory's occasionally fractious relationship with law enforcement, she is - most of the time - a cop). So not a whole lot of similarity to the Scandi sexual and political thriller, then (though, interestingly, she does touch on some of the same misogyny that Larsson covered - the US title for one of the books was The Man Who Lied to Women, not massively far off from the Swedish title for the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, "Men Who Hate Women").

O'Connell also makes the mistake that Larsson did of falling a little too in love with his characters: just as he gave Salander a ridiculous boob job (in what was possibly the most ill-conceived, out of character gesture I've read in a long time, seemingly inserted to make her more conventionally feminine) and made Blomkvist so devilishly attractive, despite his flaws, that pretty much every woman in the books wants to sleep with him. The Mallory books are falling, too, under the weight of their heroine's perfection: damaged she may be, but everyone she meets is at least half in love with her, she gets away with everything and she survives ground-breaking revelation after ground-breaking revelation about her past without so much as a flicker, never mind any actual character development. (So I must admit, keen as I am to read this new book, I am wary of setting my expectations too high...)

As a writer myself, I must admit I'm always fascinated by how books are marketed in an increasingly crowded market place: and I'm not immune (only recently I bought a book because it was pitched with 'if you like Jim Butcher you'll like this'). But sometimes the choices seem almost odd - like the recent rebranding of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware books, which now all bear the slogan 'Alex Delaware is the Crime Reader' - a clear hope that someone will make a movie or TV show with that title, which seems to have sprung from nowhere on a series that has been going for decades). Still, will be interesting to see what readers who fallen for the complicated charms of Salander make of the glacial untouchability of Mallory. If you've read both, do let me know...

Hunger Games Cookbook - WTF?

2012-01-12T03:21:00.000-08:00

God, much as I loved the Hunger Games books, the constant hoo-ha about the film, and the racking up of vast amount of merchandising surrounding it is starting to bore me: at this rate, I'll be so fed up of the whole thing, I won't even bother going to see the damn movie. And seriously, a Hunger Games cookbook? Isn't the whole point of the books that pretty much everyone spends their time on the edge of starvation? Doesn't this seem a tad... off to you?

Don't buy this, you'll just encourage them

Wonderful Wonder Woman cards

2012-01-11T02:27:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned a couple of times already, one of my New Year's resolutions is to support local, independent businesses more - it's a tough old economic climate, so why funnel my money towards the big boys when I can help support small retailers, crafters and artists who are passionate about what they do? As a plus, I get to buy products that aren't mass market and that mean more to me than if they were bought off a shelf.

So it is with UK crafter Britt, a friend of a friend who I contacted after seeing some work on her website with an idea for a greetings card I wanted. I knew she did personalised work, so thought it was worth a punt that she wouldn't laugh at my idea. As talented people are wont to do, she took my basic suggestion and made it better: so behold, these lovely Wonder Woman cards that arrived this morning. I love them - they are beautifully made, bold and have the clean lines of the best of Wondie's costume - and they cost me about the same as if I'd bought them off the shelf in Paperchase.

Britt was so pleased with these she's now selling them on Etsy, where you can check out her whole range (she asked if I minded, to put at ease those who think, 'wait, I order bespoke then it gets sold to other people?!') and is now considering doing a girls of Gotham range. What do you think? If you're really nice to me, you might get one...

Hand made Wonder Woman card by Britt

Unleash the Fangirl

2012-01-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

So, because I need more places to talk about all things geeky, this week sees the start of my fortnightly column one the website Unleashthefanboy - the first one is on the myths about geek girls.

Please pop over and show your support!

Not all girl geeks look like this...

Eternal Law - review

2012-01-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

When you think of the word ‘lawyer’, angelic probably isn’t the first adjective that comes to mind. But ITV1 is aiming to change that with its new high concept drama, Eternal Law.

They're no angels. Oh, wait...

And high-concept it certainly is: angels are not only among us, they are practising law out of barristers’ chambers in York, of all places. (As someone who works with lawyers, I must point out that though they referred to themselves throughout as lawyers – presumably with an eye on the international market, on whom the intricacies of the British justice system are lost – they are in fact barristers, as they appear in court. Pedantic nitpick over.) It boasts a strong cast, headed by Sam West, and with a slew of ‘hey, it’s that guy’ faces, most notably Tobias Menzies (last seen in the Shadow Line) as a superbly slimy fallen angel who is acting for the other side. But is it any good?

Well, it’s always hard to judge a show from its pilot episode, and there were definitely some issues that kept the opener earthbound. Off-puttingly clunky opening credits, occasional moments of portentousness and a plot twist that you could see a mile off put a dampener on what should have been a fun introduction to the team (also, perhaps I wasn’t paying attention, but I’m at a loss to understand why the barristers, having discovered physical evidence that proved their client innocent, didn’t use that and instead chose to rely on a character witness?)

But there were enough good things to make me tune in again to see how it progresses. Sam West – always worth a watch – was great as the cynical angel with the chequered past and only a passing regard for celestial regulations, while Ukweli Roach was entertaining as the fresh-faced newbie, enthusiastic about his new gig while not quite au fait with how the human world worked (there’s a pleasing touch of Castiel about him – he even dresses the same – and a scene where he unceremoniously muzzled an hysterical woman with his hand ‘to stop the noise’, not realizing that’s not quite how you’re supposed to interact with people, was a classic). There’s a hint of a wider, darker storyline (one which hopefully gives the female characters more chance to shine – there’s a lot of potential in Orla Brady’s cool Mrs Sheringham), and some witty scripting (such as when Sam West’s Zac recognizes a friend in a stained glass window portrait). So if you can get your head round the basic implausibility of the show (barristers? York? Why?!) I’d say give it a go. It’s rare for TV drama to try something so original – why not give it a chance?

Why you should be reading Joe Pitt

2012-01-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

I blogged a while back about starting the Joe Pitt series of vampire books by Charlie Huston, but I thought I'd do a short update because a) I'm nearly finished the series now and b) I'm slightly stuff for ideas to write about, as I have had a cold-muzzied head all week that seems to be making me a bit stupid.

Joe Pitt has been described - possibly by me, I forget - as a vampire Philip Marlowe, and the books are a hard-boiled look at a vampire infected New York, a city divided up into clans who all have very different views on whether the wider population should know about their 'vyrus'* - but the one thing they all agree on is that Joe Pitt, rogue vampire, loyal to no clan, is a pain in the ass. The books chart his attempts to get by when pretty much everyone wants to kill him, rope him into schemes that'll get him killed, or... no, that's pretty much all anyone wants with Joe. So, 4 books into the series, how does it rate?

While I really enjoyed the first one (Already Dead), I didn't love the story - so it's taken me a while to come back to them, which was a mistake. The first book, far from being as standalone as it appears, is part of a compelling arc (I imagine the books can be read separately, but they work far better as a series) in which an increasingly desperate Joe finds his options starting to narrow. They are violent, and it takes a while to get used to the stripped back style - they are so pitch black noir they can feel almost parodic, but stick with them and once you have the rhythm of the writing, it's enormously rewarding. Joe isn't likeable, exactly, but he's a compelling anti-hero with just enough heart that it's always him you're rooting for. So if you haven't already, give them a try.

*The one thing that jars is this spelling - it feels like people putting apostophes into names to make them sound sci-fi, and isn't at all in keeping with the no-nonsense style of the book.

My new Star Wars pen

2012-01-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

Nothing in this life cheers me up more than random giftage - you get given a present for no reason? Life is good! So you can imagine my delight when I received in the post yesterday this cute Star Wars pen, with a floating R2D2 from my friend Denise of the murder bathroom. Great start to the year - thanks Denise!

When Sherlock meets Supernatural

2012-01-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

I must admit, despite the fact that most slash fiction is cringeingly cheesy, I am always quite amused by it (which, erm, I realise is perhaps not the reaction it was going for). Frankly I have wasted more hours than is productive watching Wincest/Destiel videos on YouTube in which the forbidden love of Sam/Dean/Cas/some variant thereof is set to the timeless warblings of Taylor Swift - for some reason, it's nearly always Taylor Swift). But I did find this sorta-slash mix up of Sherlock and Supernatural quite charming, possibly because I enjoyed Sunday's show and it was uppermost on my mind.

It's by artist Dauntingfire on Etsy, where there is a whole range of slash related (and some non-slash) Supernatural, Sherlock and Thor illustrations to buy, should you have a hole in your life that requires filling in such a manner.

Image by Daunting Fire on Etsy.

Star Wars Bunnies!

2012-01-02T03:35:00.000-08:00

So one of my 2012 resolutions is to try and use my money to support independent, UK based designers rather than just big chains - I'm going to have to buy stuff anyway, so why not target my spending a little? As shopping related resolutions are always the easiest to keep, I got onto this straight away and ordered these super cute Film Bunnies cards from Hoppy Bunnies on Folksy (yes, yes, I also bought a notebook from the lovely rnge of stuff on offer. Don't judge me!).

If you're really nice to me, I might send you one for your birthday...

Film Bunnies by Hoppy Bunnies (photo by Hoppy Bunnies on Folksy)

2012 Wishlist

2011-12-30T05:41:00.000-08:00

So, it's traditional at this time of year to do a review... (and I did manage a review of books, but that was because I wrote them down... ) Except, as anyone who knows me will attest, I have a terrible memory and no sense of time, so I generally forgot stuff happened, or at least forgot that it happened last year. So instead, here's my wish list for 2012...

The Walking Dead to get good again: while the mid-season finale was a corker, too much of this series has been the crew sitting around angsting, with barely any zombie action to remind you why they are actually running. A sense of threat and some actual storyline would be most welcome for the latter part of the run.

True Blood to introduce some quality control: I've seen the laest season (which comes to the UK early next year) and while I felt it better than the last, it still suffered from extreme patchiness, and tried to cram too many uninteresting story lines into too little space, while also neglecting key characters because it didn't seem to know what to do with them. C'mon, people!

Supernatural to pick up or pack up: ok, so I said this about season 6, which went on to manage a spectacular upturn and produce some of the best episodes of the show's entire run. But so far season 7, while not exactly bad, feels like it's just running over the same old road. Maybe time to call it a day?

The next big thing to... actually engage me. Ok, so this may just be me, but I'm in dire need of a new show to love. American Horror Story, Terra Nova and Falling Skies all left me cold, I'm over Glee, I couldn't be bothered with Black Mirror and I didn't watch Downton. Result: half the time I had no idea what the internet was talking about.

People to stop overloading us with info on forthcoming films until they are actually reasonably forthcoming. I feel like I've already seen the Hunger Games, the Dark Knight Rises and the Avengers... Enough, already!

More homegrown surprises: the rise in quality UK sci-fi has, I'm ashamed, for the main part passed me by (I fully intend to watch both Misfits and Being Human next year, honest!) but The Fades, despite a slightly wobbly start, proved again that the UK can produce quality sci-fi. More of the same, please!

Fix Torchwood (and make Jack pansexual again!) one of the year's biggest disappointments was Torchwood: Miracle Day, which took a great idea and a strong cast and frittered it away. And I've already blogged about Jack's sexuality, so I'll shut up now, but I thought he was a more interesting character when his tastes were a tad more fluid.

Sort the scheduling: honestly, in this day and age it's ridiculous that there are months and months between UK and US air dates. We get that US TV has weird breaks all of the time: We'd still rather see shows with breaks than risk months of internet spoilage.

What I'm most looking forward to... New series (or returning series) of Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Game of Thrones, Leverage (finally!), NCIS, NCIS: LA, Hawaii Five-o, Sherlock, Vampire Diaries, Burn Notice... I may end up staying in a lot.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

I'll be offline till after Christmas now so would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely Christmas (or religious/secular winter festival of your choice. Here's to 2012... may it be better than the movie of the same name.

Santa, can I get a Winchester for Christmas?

Hunger Games Nail Polish

2011-12-21T02:20:00.000-08:00

The marketing for the Hunger Games feels like it has been cranked up so high for so long that I am starting to feel like I have already seen the damned film - can it possibly live up to the hype?

Clearly film studio Lionsgate is hoping so, and is already seeing it as the new Twilight - with, it seems, a whole slew of barely appropriate marketing tat connected to it. Witness Hunger Games nail polish - in this add starring 'Effie Trinket' - apparently the colours are supposed to reflect the districts in the books. But since the books are fairly scathing about the Capitol's obsession with looks and superficialities while the districts around it suffer in poverty - and Katniss is dismissive of all the attempts to 'pretty her up' for the games - selling make up off the back of it seems an odd choice...

Gizmo cake

2011-12-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, Gremlins seems to be on constant rotation on TV - not that I am complaining, it's a great Christmas film. So this cake - part of Cakewrecks Sunday Sweets tribute to the 80s - seems suitably seasonal. (The cake is by Eat Cakes, but I can't get the link off Cakewrecks to work...)

Christmas is Coming with Game of Thrones

2011-12-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

I've seen some great images doing the rounds but put off posting them as I'm struggling to find how to credit them. So, in the spirit of Christmas, I'm posting these ace Game of Thrones festive images with the caveat that I don't have any copyright on them and don't know where they are from - if they're yours (and especially if they are products/for sale) PLEASE contact me so I can credit your genius... If they're not, enjoy before I get a takedown notice... ; )

So, any ideas? I think the middle one might be Critical Art but can't find info....

Merry Christmas!

Bloody nice t-shirt from The Globe

2011-12-15T04:28:00.000-08:00

Proving that our modern fascination with blood and gore isn't actually that modern at all, Shakespeare's Globe has a killer (see what I did there?) range of tees for the strong of stomach. This Out Damned Spot Macbeth tee (also available in black) could have just stepped off The Walking Dead set.

Gore from The Globe

Doctor Who Etch-a-Sketch

2011-12-12T03:35:00.000-08:00

Oh, but this is genius. Who doesn't love Etch-a-Sketch, a toy which in our digital age seems so impossibly retro ("Look, you can draw pictures on it!" "Can't I just download an app for that?")? So this Cyberman shaped Etch-a-Sketch from Amazon warms something deep in my heart...

Cyberman shaped Etch-a-Sketch - love it!

Make your cat a DJ

2011-12-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

I've been crazy busy with a mix of deadlines and guests staying, so apologies for lack of blogging: and look, when I do come back, it's lazy and it's not even about geeks: but I'm sorry, this turntable scratching block for cats made me smile so much I'm tempted to buy it for my friends with felines...

(And, yes, it's by Think Geek).

Scratching post turntables by Think Geek

The Wire Monopoly - It's all in the Game

2011-12-02T02:29:00.000-08:00

Now, I fricking hate board games, and the only one I hate more than Scrabble is Monopoly: but even I could get behind this awesome Wire Monopoly (seen over at The Poke - click their link for larger image) - how can you not love a game that has a square that says "Omar's Coming - lose $20,000"? Alas, it seems at this stage this is just a joke, but c'mon, Hasbro - you do a Doctor Who, Star Wars and god knows what else version - why not The Wire?

Supernatural Season 7

2011-12-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

CONTAINS SPOILERS

So, the boys are back on the road in Supernatural Season 7 - after Season 6, a series that started slow but finished big, how does Season 7 fare?

Well, there's good news and bad news. Certainly the show hits the ground running, and doesn't seem to suffer from the same teething issues that plagued series 6. The Castiel-is-God storyline, which looked like it would be pretty limiting (how do you fight God?) is resolved early on, and while this does mean the series so far is Cas-light, at least Misha Collins gets to have some fun in the role while he’s around.

The new Big Bads, the Leviathans, seem a little unformed at this stage, but have potential, and there are some really clever ideas (the episode where two of them imitate SamnDean in a Tarantino style crime spree (complete with Pulp Fiction inspired diner scene) is fantastic; the show has some great lines - did you ever think you'd hear Dean quote Dirty Dancing? Sam's hell hangover is unsettling (and a good excuse to bring back Mark Pellegrino) although at times it feels a little like the blood thing revisited. There's also enough Mark Sheppard to keep the fans onside – complete with the hint that he might end up being on the boys’ side after all – and Mark Sheppard in a show is never a bad thing.

This series is happy to shake things up a bit: Bobby's scrapyard gets destroyed, and at one stage even the Impala gets put on the back burner, although mercifully not for too long.

But... I hate to say it, but so far I'm not *loving* it. The arc about Dean's guilt over killing Amy, a ‘monster’ Sam knows from childhood feels like an artificial wedge between the brothers: they are in danger of becoming one of those couples who have so much drama their friends stop inviting them out; when Sam walks off on Dean at the end of episode 6 my reaction was less ‘oh no’ and more ‘what, again?’ And after all the whopping great porkies Sam has dished out in Dean's direction over 6 seasons, you feel there's more than a bit of a double standard going on.

And so far the episodes feel good, but not yet great: and while there are some lighter moments (the Buffy reunion episode that sees James Masters and Charisma Carpenter is amusing, and illustrates a pleasing continuing commitment to geek casting, with other familiar faces including Firefly's Jewel Staite and BSG's Michael Hogan) but nothing that even approaches the heights of Season 6’s finer moments.

Overall, the verdict so far? Trying hard, but could do better: this feels like the start of a solid season, but needs some flare to really feel like the show at its best.

What's up with the Walking Dead?

2011-11-29T01:55:00.000-08:00

Maybe it’s just me. Being a certified – and sometimes feeling certifiable – TV lover, it’s bound to happen that sometimes I overdose and end up going off perfectly acceptable shows, but I seem to be on a run of bad luck lately. I blogged earlier about my boredom with the Mentalist: I don’t hate it, per se, it’s just gone from being a ‘must see’ to something I might watch if I’m bored and have an hour to kill. Now the same thing seems to be happening to Glee and, more upsettingly, The Walking Dead.

Yup, even bored with Klaine now

So well-documented are the problems with Glee that I can’t even be bothered to waste a lot of time on them. The novelty of the show has worn off, the story-telling continues to be random and inconsistent (the Quinn getting her baby back storyline?), the writers have no idea what to do with half of the characters they have created (is Sue the bad guy now, or what?) and the shoe-horning in of the Glee Project winners has been the tipping point for me: that pasty faced Irish kid actively makes me want to turn off the TV, and I’ve barely managed to sit through an episode since he came on board. (It is telling that I currently have an episode sitting on my Sky planner and keep thinking, mmm, can I be bothered to watch it? So far the answer is no.) Even the appeal of Kurt and Blaine has started to pall, mainly because Kurt is back to being whiny, so there’s really nothing to hold me: and the fact that the show is currently losing viewers in droves suggests I’m not the only one disillusioned.

To some extent, this was inevitable: Glee always felt like a show with a built in expiry date, and even the second series had big swathes of mediocrity. Far more surprising to me is the rapid deterioration of what was one of the best new shows of the last year: yes, Walking Dead, I am looking at you.

So what’s the problem? Is this also just a great idea that has worn out its welcome? I don’t think it is. Season 1 of the Walking Dead was stunning: horrific, scary and cinematic, but based around the relationships of the survivors, so it still felt human and affecting – it asked how YOU would cope in the event of an apocalypse. Season 2 started well: it’s still one of the best looking shows on quality, with its washed out template for a world that has lost all colour, and the early episodes seemed to skillfully balance the human dilemmas of the band of survivors, with the visceral threat that was all around them.

So what the hell happened? Well, for a start, the last 3 episodes have seen the survivors shacked up with the family of a not-as-nice-as-he-seems patriarch, so the sense of threat has receded with this shelter. There has been so little actual zombie action that if you went off to make a cup of tea you could miss it completely and come back and mistake the show for one of those daytime family dramas about city folk relocating to the countryside and not getting on well with the neighbours: then there’s the huge stretches of time that have been spent on the increasingly tedious search for a missing child (heartless as that sounds, there’s only so much screen time the viewer can give this). The Shane/Rick dynamic is starting to falter as instead of making Shane a conflicted guy making hard choices, he is becoming a cackling bad guy. Worst of all, the plucky survivors seem to have all suffered a blow to the head and become downright stupid: leaving aside the ridiculous and much-publicised nonsense that an adult woman would think overdosing on the morning after pill would bring on a miscarriage, the show seems to spend most of its time dealing with the idiocy of the characters rather than any external threat.

So, is it over for the Walking Dead? I hope not: I hope this is simply a stumbling ground for a show that lost its footing when showrunner Frank Darabont left at the end of last season. I’m certainly willing to give it a couple more hours of my time. Frankly, I’d better – otherwise I’m running out of TV shows to watch.

Comic Book Sounds Bracelet

2011-11-29T01:53:00.000-08:00

Yup, still on the Brit crafts theme, with this 'comic book sounds' bracelet by Cosmic Eden, who has a great range of geeky goodies on the site. Though I am slightly sad to see that this is a very DC bracelet - where's SNIKT or BAMF?

Comic book sounds bracelet by Cosmic Eden

Han Solo in Carbonite chocolate bar

2011-11-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel like this blog is just one long post for Think Geek, but they just keep putting out such good stuff it's hard not to get sucked in. Take this - Han Solo in Carbonite chocolate bar! How could you bring yourself to eat it? (I would, of course - it's still chocolate!)

Han Solo in Carbonite chocolate bar from Think Geek

Billie Piper in Reasons to be Pretty

2011-11-27T06:45:00.000-08:00

So, last night I bagged another star in my 'see sci-fi stars on stage' campaign, the lovely Billie Piper in Reasons to be Pretty at the Almeida. Alas, I found the play itself disappointing - my reaction singularly at odds with most of the critics, who seem to love it - but she was good, and, hey, another one off my list!

Billie Piper in Reasons to be Pretty

From Badger to Crowley: Mark Sheppard's best roles

2011-11-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

It’s my fervently held belief that almost any TV show can be improved around 85% by a light application of Mark A Sheppard. (It’s a scientifically arrived at figure, honest). Luckily, casting directors seem to agree, as this most loved of character actors seems to pop up in virtually everything. So, in honour of the fabulous Mr S, here are, in reverse order, my favourite Mark A Sheppard roles. Which shows would YOU like to see him in?

Burn Notice, Terry Prescott – in one of this enjoyable show’s tightest episodes, Sheppard plays a bad guy who robs a bank: alas, it happens to be a bank Michael Westen is inside, and Sheppard’s frustration as his robbery is thwarted by a mysterious ‘Keyser Soze’ type character is an utter joy to watch. PLEASE let this character make a reappearance!

Firefly, Badger – part of the tragedy of this show being cancelled was the fact that we wouldn’t get to see more of Sheppard’s shady fence Badger. A man not to be trusted as far as you can spit, he only appeared in a couple of episodes, but was one of the show’s most memorable figures.

Doctor Who, Canton Delaware – Sheppard’s appearance in the Impossible Astronaut was one of the best cameos in the series, with his signature laid back cool only slightly dented by the Doctor. Am I the only one who sees enormous possibilities in the fact that his character turns out to be gay? Stick him in Torchwood and let him have an affair with Captain Jack: even everyone’s favourite pansexual space adventurer might just have met his match…

Medium, Charles Walker – Although Sheppard often plays slimy bastards, he rarely plays out and out villains, but Medium showed just how terrifying that smooth charm can be when utilized for evil. Playing a murderous doctor who possesses victims and causes them to commit crimes, Sheppard shone in the role, and even got to show his versatility when he played Walker’s innocent but haunted ancestor.

Battlestar Galactica, Romo Lampkin – one of the most mysterious figures in a show where everyone was ambiguous, rarely has an actor’s own charisma and mystique come so well into play: everyone watching would have recognized Sheppard from his various genre roles, but he used that to create a lawyer who was a legend in his own lifetime (or possibly his own mind) and whose story took one of the most surprising arcs.

Leverage, Jim Sterling – a self-confessed ‘self-serving utter bastard’ Sterling is the nemesis of good guy Nathan Ford, the only man as smart as he is, and the thorn in the team’s side. Sheppard completely inhabits the role, hinting at something more complex than just a bad guy but still being hissworthy.

Supernatural, Crowley – if ever an actor was born for a role, Mark Sheppard was born for Crowley. From a slippery demon who only cares about his own pleasures to the King of Hell who introduces the damned to the concept of queuing, Crowley is a delight: his deadpan one-liners and putdowns are always there to punctuate the SamnDean mythology, his teasing of Bobby got under the old guy’s skin, and his relationship with Castiel – a power struggle that sustained the latter part of Season 6 – is endlessly entertaining, with Crowley never bested, even when he’s beaten. Roll on Season 7 – and I can’t be the ONLY one who longs to see Sheppard take on this demon’s namesake in the long discussed adaptation of Good Omens, can I?

R2D2 folding chair

2011-11-27T04:02:00.000-08:00

Ah, Think Geek, how you tempt me. How cute is this R2D2 folding chair? Perfect for all your picnic/camping/beach needs.

R2D2 folding armchair

TARDIS cushion by Just Jes

2011-11-24T01:55:00.000-08:00

Yet more British crafty goodness - I'm on a roll! - with this lovely (and very affordable) Doctor Who themed cushion by Folksy crafter Just Jes.

TARDIS cushion by Just Jes

Star Wars poster

2011-11-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

More British craft goodness: how cute is this pen drawn Star Wars poster from Chatty Nora?

Poster by Chatty Nora on Folksy

She also does some cute Harry Potter inspired goodies, and a nice range of Christmas cards.

Talk Nerdy to Me

2011-11-22T01:21:00.000-08:00

More great British craft stuff: this lovely Talk Nerdy to Me necklace by the splendidly named Tea Please retails at under a tenner on Folksy. Cute!

Talk Nerdy to Me necklace (and photo) by Tea Please

Star Wars cards by LuluBell Crafts

2011-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

Words cannot express how much I LOVE these Star Wars cards by LuluBell Crafts on Folksy: if I hadn't already bought my entire supply for this year, I'd be buying them b the dozen (am hoping she does them again next year). Beautiful hand-finished cards at very affordable prices and a British designer, so you can probably buy them now and still get them for Christmas. I shall try and overlook the fact that a designer who works in paper spells stationery wrong twice on her site, though...

Darth card by LuluBell Crafts on Folksy

Yoda Card by LuluBell Crafts on Folksy

Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom

2011-11-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

While the press last week might have been steamrollered under the Breaking Dawn hype machine, I was off to see a less prestigious - but, I'll wager, a much more fun vampire production, the musical Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom, at the Hen & Chickens theatre (well, the room above the Hen & Chickens pub) in Islington.

As the title probably implies, this wasn't a a po-faced vampire swoonfest, more a delightfully silly romp through a bastardised - very bastardised - version of the Stoker classic. At just over an hour long it was fairly slight (though that's not necessarily a bad thing) and many of the jokes were cheesy, but the performers were enormously likeable, the good humour catching and the physical comedy well exexcuted - so if you just fancy an uncomplicated comedy with some laugh out loud moments, why not give this a go?

More fun than R-Patz

Mysterious masks from Masque Boutique

2011-11-21T02:39:00.000-08:00

As regular readers know, I am trying to feature more UK stuff on this site, mainly because I get nagged otherwise, and also because I can't *just* write about Think Geek, even if I wanted to. So I am more than happy to plug this site, Masque Boutique - recommended by a friend, as she knows the creator - which stocks these lovely masks. (Masques? I can never be sure...)

It stocks a whole range of masks (let's go with that) at a range of prices, though my favourites (unsurprisingly) are the fetish masks (there's a lot of nicely steampunk ones) and these gorgeous 'Gossip Girls' filigree masks. You might also want to check out the range of mini top hats and fascinators, and they do bespoke orders...

Gossip girl mask by Masqueboutique.com

Love this - very Matrix. Mask by masqueboutique.com

Now I just need to get an invite to a party...

Crystal Head Vodka

2011-11-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

Skulls and booze - two things I know many of my readers like, so why not combine the two this Christmas with a bottle of this super stylish Crystal Head vodka? It's not particularly cheap - retailing at around £190 - but you can obviously re-use the bottle to your heart's content. (Image courtesy of Style Raconteur, who explains a bit about it here.)

Wanna buy? Selfridges is selling...

Go Star Wars crazy at Play

2011-11-18T05:23:00.000-08:00

I am often castigated for posting cool things that are only available from the US (yes, TV Twin, by you) so in answer to that I would say: get thee along to Play.com, where there is a wealth of coolness awaiting you. On an only cursory scrawl, I found these great Star Wars sweetie tins, Han Solo ice cube trays and this amazing Darth Vader cake tin (will someone please bake me a Darth Vader cake?) And they offer FREE delivery on most items.

What are you waiting for? Go Play! (Just search under gifts - Star Wars for a ton of goodies...!)

There's a whole range of these sweetie tins available, but this Stormtrooper is cute

Perfect for your party? (R2D2 also available)

Come to the Dark Side. The Dark Chocolate side, that is.

Any other cool UK retailers I should know about? Let me know!

Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar

2011-11-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

Few things in the world can't be improved by being rendered in Lego, but it's the meeting of Star Wars and Lego that is the true melding of genius: I don't know any geek who isn't utterly charmed by seeing their favourite characters reduced to those little bricks. So, you can imagine how excited I was to receive this awesome Lego Star Wars advent calendar for my birthday from my amazing friend C. That's 24 days of Star Wars Lego festive fun! It'll go perfectly with my Cylon Christmas decorations... (I am, of course, still going to get a chocolate one... well, tradition is tradition!) Thank you, C, you are a geek's best friend.

Star Wars Lego Advent, available at Amazon

Merry Christmas from Boba Fett

2011-11-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

Think Geek has such a great range of Star Wars holiday gifts (Snowglobes! Tree toppers!) that, frankly, I could do nothing but post items from their catalogue from now till New Year. But I shall show some restraint, and instead try and post about cute stuff from lots of places. But I do love this Boba Fett decoration, even if it's so pricey ($60!) that I can't imagine buying it and being able to buy Christmas presents... (though they are currently offering a free t-shirt with orders over $25 so that might take away the pain...)

Boba Fett decoration from Think Geek

Spock Santa hat from Think Geek

2011-11-17T02:34:00.000-08:00

This is so simple, but I love it: a Christmas hat with Spock ears! Think Geek (of course, who else?) also does a great Yoda hat too - in the more traditional red - but I think the Star Trek insignia on this just pips it to the post...

Spock hat from Think Geek

Dracula toy theatre

2011-11-17T02:29:00.000-08:00

So, I will be doing a lot of Christmas gift related posts over the next few weeks: I know it seems a bit early, but some of this stuff has delivery times to be taken into account. So first up is this absolute delight from the National Theatre Bookshop - a pop-up Dracula theatre by Edward Gorey. It includes 3 stage sets, retails at less than £20 and so would be a perfect gift for the mini-Goth in your life.

Edward Gorey's Dracula available at the NT Bookshop

American Horror Story

2011-11-16T04:48:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to like American Horror Story. It looks great - the advertising campaign has been slick and clever, the visuals are impressive, and the cast is packed with people I liked, and there are some simply splendid ideas in it (most notably the intriguing idea of the maid, who appears to most people as an old lady, but to Dylan McDermott as a foxy young minx). But honestly, I couldn't even make it to the end of the first episode. The whole thing just felt enormously heavy handed and try-too-hard: Look! We're spooky! Look!, which gets exhausting, and there wasn't a single character I really cared about. I like both Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott, but they don't have great chemistry - their tragically obviously signposted fight-that-turns-into-a-shag was so lacking in spark I switched off at that stage.

None of which is going to stop me posting this gratuitous shot. After all, he is naked a LOT in the show...

Why The Mentalist is over for me

2011-11-14T02:42:00.000-08:00

Season 4 of The Mentalist started this week, and I must admit to being keen to see where it went after last season’s finale, when Patrick Jane finally confronted and killed his nemesis Red John – or did he? I posted at the time that I hoped the series would use this watershed as a chance to do a bit of a reboot: the formula has got a little stale, and whereas Patrick used to be a quirky rebel whose maverick ways get results, too often he was starting to come across as an obnoxious prick with no social skills. So did the series take this exciting new opportunity? Of course it bloody didn’t.

Of course it turns out that while the man Jane killed was a Very Bad Man – he and his wife have a girl chained up in their basement to prove it – he wasn’t Red John. He must know Red John – who, for a lone killer, seems to have a network of operatives that would put most people’s Facebook friends list to shame – but he wasn’t the man himself. Because Jane helped rescue aforementioned girl, and made a speech about deserving revenge (which turns out to be a Big Lie, him having realised the lack of Red Johnness in his victim), he somehow manages to get off shooting someone in cold blood, with the big reveal at the end being that His Hunt, like Celine Dion’s heart, Will Go On.

But really, must it? Does this mean we have another series that is more of the same? Having played the ‘he’s just an ordinary guy’ card, presumably when/if we do unmask the real Red John he’ll have to be more interesting: so either someone we thought was dead (Terri the unfortunate psychic?), a key member of the team (which is possibly why the head of the unit came over all comedy villain at the start of the episode), or the devil himself, otherwise the whole thing will be a massive anti-climax (though I must admit to liking my friend Steve’s suggestion, that the killer be Patrick Jane, who is revealed to have psychotic episodes).

The problem is I no longer care. The show has hit a wall for me, and now it’s missed the opportunity to do something bold, even the ever entertaining Cho isn’t enough to make this must see TV for me. I suspect I’ll dip in and out of it, but this season feels like the moment when it just became a ‘murder of the week’ show, and that’s simply not enough to keep me hooked.

Gratuitous wet t-shirt photo, you say?

Twilight Torture and Elm Street Nightmares

2011-11-12T01:43:00.000-08:00

As you know, many of my friends like horror books and movies, and many of my friends like blogging, so I'm always happy when the two collide. So just a short post today to point you in the direction of a couple of rants: my friend Mrs Gold's hilarious account of reading Twilight (as it's entitled My Twilight Torture, you can guess how much she enjoyed it) and Linda at Postcard of a Painting's less than impressed take on the Nightmare on Elm Street remake...

Cute geeky plushes by Kittyzilla

2011-11-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Another find from Twitter chum @njaron: these super cute plushes (or cuddly toys for us Brits) by Kittyzilla, as shown by Super Punch. This one's Hellboy, but go to the site to check out the full range...

Hellby plush by Kittyzilla

Vampire Fangs Bottle Opener

2011-11-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

My Twitter chum @njaron is fast becoming my go to gal for all things cool and creepy, so I have to thank her for pointing me in the direction of this super cute vampire fangs bottle opener from Gama Go. It's a bargainous $10 so the ideal stocking filler for the fang fan in your life. (Yes, I know it's early, but one has to consider shipping...)

Vampire fangs bottle opener by Gama Go!

Supernatural Season 6: the final verdict

2011-11-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

So, Supernatural Season 6 has finally finished in the UK (although Season 7 is well underway in the States) – so what’s the verdict? I was looking back over some old posts recently and was pretty outspoken in my view that the show should have ended after Season 5, when its original story arc came to a close. Which just goes to show – what the hell do I know?

Because after a rocky start, this series of Supernatural has been an absolute joy. Sam’s return from hell at first seemed a massive misfire – he’d leave Dean thinking he was dead for a whole year? – but when this was explained by his lack of soul, the series found its feet, with Padalecki getting great mileage out of Terminator Sam, and his often comic bemusement at that strange thing known as morality. The relationship between the brothers and Bobby also deepened: I liked how you finally got Bobby’s side of things, such as when he berated them for being self-centred when he was facing his soul crisis with Crowley, and we got an insight into his friendships and relationships that nicely filled out the character. It was good to see that for Bobby, like for SamnDean, nobility and the greater good often falls at the fence of family: a great example of this is the episode set in an alternate timeline (or sorts) where the Titanic didn’t sink and Ellen and Jo survived – with Ellen being happily married to Bobby, who is quite willing to let history be changed if it means he gets to hold onto his wife.

Admittedly some of the more standalone episodes felt a bit 'monster of the week'ish, and while I liked the Eve storyline, it didn’t grip me as much as it could have, but the overall story arc couldn’t be faulted. The war in heaven and Crowley’s machinations in hell were a delight, hardly surprising with actors as good as Mark Sheppard, Misha Collins and Sebastian Roche (as the deliciously louche Balthazar) as the main players. The start of the series was worryingly Castiel-lite, but as soon as Collins made his reappearance, he’s stolen virtually every scene he’s been in, with only Sheppard matching him for screen presence, his snake like demon a perfect foil for Collins' slightly tarnished angel. The writers were clever in how they ‘reset’ Castiel – after him being part of the team last season, it would have been too easy to simply continue that this: instead they bring him back battered and scarred by a war in heaven, frustrated at the Winchesters’ lack of understanding of the scale of battle he faces and ultimately willing to pay any price to win it, which means the character has moved on forever from just being a nice bit of comic relief. (In fact, in parts he is heartbreaking: it’s clear that Dean has come to care about him – steady on, there, shippers – and think of him as family, and Castiel on some level knows that, making Castiel’s betrayal, no matter how good intentioned, all the more brutal. (Though can I say it again – Good Omens! Anyone who has read the book will recognise the scene where Crowley introduces a queuing system in hell as part of the Pratchett/Gaiman’s philosophy on small evils...)

And can we mention the funny? This season has had some absolute corking episodes, from the Western (how sweet is Dean’s enthusiasm?), the Twilight pastiche, the aforementioned Titanic episode... and then the French Mistake. Possibly the funniest episode of Supernatural ever, this tale of the Winchesters being transported into the actual TV show could have been them totally disappearing down the rabbit hole, but instead ended up being laugh out loud and one of the best episodes of TV. Not just of the series. Not just of the show. But ever.

Bring on Season 7!

Battlestar Galactica notebooks from Think Geek

2011-11-03T04:01:00.000-07:00

I love Battlestar Galactica. I love stationery. So you can imagine how much I want these Battlestar Galactica notebooks from, yes, Think Geek.

It's the cut off corners that make me want them more - Battlestar Galactica notebooks

Actual Soft Kitty

2011-11-03T03:57:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned - in a shameless bid for sympathy - that I am suffering from a rather stinking cold this week. I really wish I had this cuddly toy from Think Geek, which plays 'soft kitty' when you press its paw. As it is I shall have to content myself with watching my Big Bang Theory DVDs...

I think Sheldon would approve

Keep Calm and Carry on my Wayward Son

2011-11-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, this whole 'Keep Calm and Carry On' thing has been done to death, but as a die-hard Supernatural fan, how could I resist this cheeky little number from Cafepress?

Want, right? Tee from Cafepress

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T02:21:00.000-07:00

I always seem to be an unintentional Grinch when it comes to Halloween - the parties are always at times/places I can't make, I have other, non-Halloween plans, or this year, I have a stinking cold and want to stay in bed and feel sorry for myself. But if you aren't already partied out, you might enjoy Jezebel's guide to half-assed Halloween costumes, or if you fancied letting someone else do all the work, why not check out Revenge of the Grand Guignol at the Courtyard, for a night of suitably spooky theatre?

Revenge of the Grand Guignol by Theatre of the Damned

Or stay in and read this great entry by my blogging chum Mrs G about what she learned from the movie Halloween.

Why you should be watching Leverage

2011-10-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

One of the casualties of the takeover of ailing channel Bravo by Sky was the US show Leverage, which seems to have been left in limbo for months. This is a real shame, because it’s a fantastic show – funny, slick and smart, it’s basically a US version of Hustle with more guns and explosions. Luckily, the gods of TV have seen sense, and it is now returning to FX, albeit at the ungodly time of 6pm on a Thursday evening (I’m hoping for better placed reruns). If you’re not already watching Leverage, here’s why you should be.

Great cast – led by Oscar winner Timothy Hutton, the cast are an absolute delight, and include Brit beauty Gina Bellman, geek favourite Christian Kane and a host of great guest stars, including Wil Wheaton and Jeri Ryan, who did a stint on the show to cover for Bellman’s pregnancy. They also have real chemistry, making them one of the most believable teams on TV.

Great lines – some of the best banter on TV, particularly the odd-ball bromance between Kane’s hard man Elliott and ubergeek Hardison (played with joyful aplomb by Aldis Hodge).

Have you ever been to Kiev? The cakemaker of Kiev could whoop all our asses. This is the BUTCHER.

Geek joy – this is a show happy to embrace its inner geek. Not only do you have the unbridled geekiness of Hardison, but it’s clear the writers aren’t strangers to the joy of geekdom, from the crowd pleasing casting of Wil Weaton as Hardison’s computer hacking rival, to a stream of Star Wars one-liners, to a running in-joke about Doctor Who.

The women kick ass – you know I can’t resist a kick-ass woman, and it’s great to say that Leverage fixes the one main problem of Hustle, which is that most of the time all the girls get to do is be pretty and distracting. Here super-thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf) gets to blow things up and kick people and to be as oddball and eccentric as Elliott, making it clear this isn’t just a game for the boys.

It’s a fantasy for our time – just like the shows it can be most closely identified with (the A-Team, Burn Notice) this is a show about fighting for the little guy; the whole point of the team is that yes, they are a bunch of crooks, but now they do bad things for good reasons. ‘The rich and powerful, they take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide... "leverage". In a world where we face daily reminders that the rich are running wild when everyone else suffers, how can you not buy into this show?

It’s slick and suspenseful: it’s rare you’ll guess all the twists and turns (even if you do, there’s a lot of fun to be had on the way) and the show moves at a tremendous pace, making it one of the most enjoyable rides on TV.

It is quite aware how ridiculous it is, and has enormous fun with it: Leverage both builds and then happily punctures its own mythology. So Elliott, for instance, isn’t just kick ass – he’s impossibly kick ass; Parker isn’t just a masterful thief, she’s bonkers and unbeatable. The show builds these mythologies then has fun plays with them: there’s huge amounts of joy to be had from the deadpan way both of them reveal hints of their pasts, and there’s always a sly nod to the audience at the same time, the ‘look what we got away with’ grin that keeps you onside rather than going ‘c’mon, that’s insane!’.

You don’t have to be in on the story arc, so you can jump right in: it’s very loose. Basically, insurance investigator Ford became a disillusioned alcoholic when his young son died of cancer, having been refused funding for experimental treatment by the very firm Ford worked for. At the start of the show Ford is approached by a shady figure to carry out a robbery to steal back some design plans: he assembles a team from his underworld contacts – the very people he has spent years tracking - to carry out the robbery only to be double crossed. The team seeks to right the situation, and gets a taste for being the good guys. Once you know that, you can pick up the rest as you go...

Mark Sheppard! Yes, one of the best characters in Leverage is Mark Sheppard’s supremely slimy Stirling, who plays Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton’s nemesis). Any show with Sheppard in is watchable, and this is one of his best roles – he plays it with a relish that makes you almost on his side...

So go on, watch it. You’ll thank me.

Leverage starts on FX on Thursday at 6pm.

Stormtrooper Earrings

2011-10-30T03:26:00.000-07:00

Star Wars fetishist that I am, it's hardly surprising I love these super cute (and very affordable) hand painted Stormtrooper earrings by my old favourite Little Fairy Cult.

Handmade Stormtrooper earrings by http://www.littlefairycult.co.uk/

Ewok Cat is purrfect for Halloween

2011-10-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

The Star Wars blog drew my attention to this great post by Stella Four, where she dresses her cat as an Ewok for Halloween. Check out the full post for even more pics!

Ewok cat by http://www.stellafour.com/

Skull crayons from Colour Me Fun

2011-10-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

I seem to be on a bit of a skull theme at the moment - maybe it's with Halloween pending - and so I couldn't resist these super cute (and super cheap!) crayons from Colour Me Fun, a UK site which specialises in all sorts of colourful and playful crayons (they even do space invaders ones - it's almost enough to make me want children!). Check out the site here, but hurry - these skulls are a limited edition!

Skull crayons by http://www.colourmefun.co.uk/

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards

2011-10-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

So... the bad news is, I didn't win.

The good news is... I got to go to a fun party, met some nice women, got some free booze and a great goody bag, plus I got to wear a nice frock and dig my silver shoes out. So total result, as far as I am concerned.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me!

Geek art by Barry D Bulsara

2011-10-25T01:14:00.000-07:00

As readers will know, I love Folksy and Etsy, and I stumbled upon (though not Stumpled Upon) these great images by Barry D Bulsara, who sells a range of gorgeous prints on the site (all v reasonable, too - they start at only £25!). My favourites are these two: the homeless Stormtrooper and the sci-fi convention. You can check out his Folksy shop here.

Art by Barry D Bulsara (http://www.barrydbulsara.com/)

Sugar skulls are super sweet

2011-10-24T02:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the lovely Little Fairy Cult for pointing me in the direction of these lovely sugar skulls by Etsy seller Dembones. She does a whole range of sugar skull products, and they are both reasonably priced and beautiful - so why not treat yourself?

Skull sugar cubes by dembones on Etsy

The Force is with Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been frozen in carbonite, you will have been reading reports of the Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy LSE protests against bankers' greed an excessive profits, and the American 'I am the 99%' movement. I couldn't help but notice when the New Yorker did a feature on signs being held by the protesters, there were a fair amount of sci-fi themed among them (including 'Bankers are Cylons', and now 'John OccupyWallStreet Simpson' has posted this ace little number on his Facebook page... Luke IS the 99%...

Princess Bride cast reunion

2011-10-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

How old does this make you feel? 25 years after the original film, Entertainment Weekly did another one of their awesome reunion issues, beautifully illustrated with images of the cast. It's utterly charming, but if you can't pick up a copy you can at least feast your eyes on this... (Also, I really liked how Mandy Patinkin - who has a tendency to come across occasionally as po-faced and Act-OR-ly - seems a realy decent guy with a sense of humour in this, happy to admit that his iconic line is still quoted to him on a daily basis...).

Go to ew.com for more pics!

New look Apollo and Midnighter - the verdict

2011-10-17T02:21:00.000-07:00

So, if I’m honest, the massive reboot of the DC Universe means little to me: although my new found ability to download comics has rekindled my interest in the genre (while doing some fairly major damage to my wallet), I’ve always been more of a Marvel girl (if not, alas, a Marvel Girl), so have been content to limit myself to downloading X-Men titles, and indulging my new-found addiction to The Authority.

But having discovered that the Authority characters are being folded into the mainstream DC Universe and are therefore part of the reboot, I decided to check them out. The verdict? Hmmm.

I’ve already documented my love of The Authority, and my crush on the Midnighter and Apollo, who are now one of my favourite ever superhero pairings. (Second only to Scott and Emma: it's the snark, I can't help it). Admittedly, as I am reading my way through the backlist (not necessarily in the right order, either, which can make it all a bit confusing), some of the stories are better than others – the art can be really patchy, and the storytelling occasionally repetitive (how many world ending wars can one team take part in?), but I’m still finding a lot of to love. And most of that would be in the relationship between Apollo and Midnighter. So how does this fare in the reboot? Will they still be the couple we know and love?

'Old look' Apollo and Midnighter

When the news broke that they were being integrated into the mainstream, in a new-look Stormwatch, the main concern from fans was the understandable fear that they were ‘too gay’ for the mainstream universe and would be watered down accordingly – suspicions that seemed to be confirmed when it was announced that in the first issue they definitely weren’t a couple: they hadn’t even met. The writers have been quick to assure us that this is so that we get to see the Apollo/Midnighter relationship from the start, and while there might be ups and downs on the way, there are no plans for them not to be a pair. In other words, we get to enjoy the whole will they/won’t they flirting safe in the assurance of the writers, fearing a fan backlash, that they most definitely will. So that should be OK, right?

Now admittedly, I have only read a couple of issues of Stormwatch so far, but I am just not sure. I’m the first one to hold my hand up and say I get ridiculously over-invested in fictional characters and their relationships - not ‘post hate mail to the people who killed Ianto’ invested, but I do care about them. That’s half the fun. One of the reasons I could never get behind the Ultimate X-Men was the decision to make Colossus gay: I approved of it intellectually (God knows the Marvel universe needs more gay characters), but the Kitty/Peter love story is one of my favourites of all time, and I’m not interested in a world where that doesn’t happen. Likewise, what I like about the Apollo and Midnighter dynamic is that it isn’t a new relationship: it’s a mature marriage between two men who have worked and lived together for years. So they bicker, they fight, they are occasionally divided by world-ending disasters, but they love each other (and you know what a sucker I am for that whole cross-the-universe-split-the-space-time-continuim-be-reincarnated-I-will-find-you romance). I also adore the fact that they are parents: the contrast between hardcore (occasionally homicidal) heroes and devoted dads is a great one. Two of my favourite scenes in the books are just a couple of small scenes that bookend a story: when toddler Jenny, with the impeccable timing of small children everywhere, seeks to join her dads in bed at almost exactly the wrong moment – Midnighter sternly sends her back to her own bed the first time; the second, when he realises that she faces monsters no child should ever see, and she is allowed to seek comfort with them, safe in his assurance that they won’t let anything happen to her. It’s both moving and charming, and adds a dimension to the characters that simply isn’t there in the new incarnation.

Even superheroes have parenting issues

Which of course is the problem with the new reboot: it only comes in one flavour, and if you don’t like it, you’re stuffed. (As I understand it, anyway – like I said, not a huge DC girl – someone correct me if I’m wrong). With Marvel, you had the choice: don’t like the Ultimates? Go back to the original, with all the convoluted backstory and history: which is exactly what readers like me did. (And, for the record, I am loving Warren Ellis’ work on the Astonishing X-Men). I know the reboot is doing some great things, but it worries me that it’s taken pretty much the only characters I cared about in the DC universe and turned them into characters I... don’t. Judging from some of the feedback online, I’m not alone. Time will tell, of course, but we could just be looking at the New Coke of comics – and that isn’t good for anyone.

New look Stormwatch: on the plus side, they got rid of Apollo's Fabio hair

Zombie monkeys!

2011-10-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

The Walking Dead comes back to the UK this week - yeah! I look forward to being chilled and repulsed. Though I have to say the zombie apocalypse wouldn't seem to scary if the zombies looked like this super cute zombie monkey from Think Geek.

Banana brains?

Star Wars candlestick

2011-10-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes - OK, a LOT of the time - I am really pleased Think Geek is a US-based site. Or I would never have any money. Though I would have these super cute Star Wars lightsabre candle sticks (they are currently out of stock, but you can pre-order for Christmas).

May the Force be with your dining table

Alexander Skarsgard on the cover of Wonderland magazine

2011-10-16T05:24:00.000-07:00

I saw this copy of Wonderland magazine, featuring Alexander Skarsgard on the cover, in the airport but the mag is so thick I didn't buy it in case it tipped over my luggage allowance. But, oh my. (And the photos inside are pretty smoking, too... )

Terry Pratchett is up to Snuff

2011-10-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

I must admit to having a small squee of joy when, a few months ago, I discovered that the new Terry Pratchett novel Snuff was going to be about Sam Vimes. While I love all Pratchett books, the ones I go back to time and time again are the character series: the witches, Tiffany Aching, and the City Watch. Given my love of crime novels in general, this should hardly be surprising, and the fact that Pratchett has created one of the best and most convincing coppers in fiction – while making him a man who has to deal with vampires, dwarves, magic and inter-species conflict – just makes me love him more.

Of course, there have been plenty of glimpses of Vimes in Pratchett’s last few books: such is the cohesion of the Discworld universe that a character with as much influence as the Commander of the City Watch casts a long shadow: he turns up briefly in both Unseen Academicals (where we learn that the police are called Sammies) and I Shall Wear Midnight. (I always enjoy, in these books, see a character who in their own titles is treated as a hero seen, as it were, from the outside: so while William de Worde gets to be the romantic pioneer of the printing press in his own story, he’s seen as pretty much a pain in the arse to everybody else; likewise Moist von Lipwig sees the Watch as a bunch of spoilsport and slightly dumb coppers whenever he encounters them). But this is the first full blown outing for Vimes since the excellent Thud, and it is every bit as enjoyable.

Like Thud, though, Snuff isn’t as light a read as critics of Pratchett would have you believe. While he remains one of the funniest writers around, Pratchett is also one of the most humanist (slightly ironically, admittedly, since he writes so much about non-humans). As he has aged, and matured as a writer, his books have become increasingly dark and angry: not alienatingly so, but in a natural reaction to the injustices he sees around him. So while, for instance Thud deals with religious extremism and Going Postal unchecked capitalism, Snuff returns to the theme of racism that was touched on in Unseen Academicals, but in a far more hard hitting way: here he addresses the idea that if you view people as subhuman (often because they live in a way that is alien to you, or they survive in degradation, no matter that such degradation has been forced upon them) it is all too easy to see them as things, and treat them accordingly. So when Vimes, on a forced holiday from his job, stumbles upon a murder that is dismissed because the victim is ‘just’ a goblin, you know that he isn’t going to let this one lie, and he uncovers a truth that is far darker than simply one murder.

Taking Vimes and Sybil out of Anhk-Morpork is a masterstroke: while I missed the rest of the Watch (who make only a fleeting appearance), Vimes is always at his best as a man out of his element and out of his depth, and this is increasingly hard to believe when he is in a city where he commands such power. Stick him in a country house (very Downton, very topical) where he’s seen as an upstart oik and he isn’t sure how to talk to the servants, and he is already entertainingly on the back foot. It’s also lovely to get a better insight into his domestic set up: I love his relationship with Sybil, and here it is lent a depth and nuance that has only been hinted at in the earlier books, making you realise that this is one of the best marriages in fiction.

Managing to combine a breathless, action packed pace, broad comedy, moral outrage and great characterisation is an impressive feat, but one Pratchett has once again proved himself adept at. Fans won’t need telling to read this: and they certainly won’t be disappointed.

[Note: if you haven’t bought it already, worth noting that Waterstone’s are offering a special edition that includes a short story].

Star Wars cupcakes

2011-10-16T04:45:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of shopping in New York. A lot of shopping. And among that shopping, there was quite a lot of random gift buying, because I like buying presents for no reason: if I see something and think, 'ooh, such-and-such would LOVE that' then, providing it's not too costly, I will quite often buy it, even if it in't for any particular occasion, or the person in question is not someone with whom I would normally have any gift exchanging relationship. This is, if I'm honest, more selfish than not: there are few things that give you a bigger buzz than giving someone a present you know they will love, and I regulalry see things I want to buy, but don't actually want to have. So it's win-win!

So, when I was in Williams-Sonoma (is that what they call it? I'm hopeless at shop names) and stumbled across a whole range of Star Wars related baking goodies, I simply had to buy them, even if the closest I come to baking is complaining about the heat on a sunny day. Luckily my friend Denise, of the murder bathroom, is both an excellent baker and a Star Wars fan, so was able to utilise these Star Wars cupcake stencils to make these lovely looking cupcakes...

Alas, I don't live anywhere near Denise, so can only imagine how nice these taste...

Way Station, Brooklyn

2011-10-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

One of the things I was desperate to do this trip to NYC was to go to The Way Station bar in Brooklyn - because it's a Doctor Who bar! Well, to be honest, a bar with a sci-fi and Doctor Who theme, but that is good enough for me. And I wasn't disappointed...

In fact, it's fairly impossible to be disappointed when the first thing you see on entering is a TARDIS. The staff were remarkably good natured about the fact we all had to get our pictures taken with this before we even ordered a drink (clearly, that's why a lot of people come here). We had hot happy hour so bought ourselves some very reasonably priced - and amazingly strong - cocktails. Saucily I was tempted to drink a Captain Jack, but I settled for a Dark and Stormy Night, followed by a blow-your-socks-off Pan Galatic Gargle Buster (yes, there was a Douglas Adams theme as well: clearly Brit scifi works here). Slightly bizarrely, when we went to sit in a booth at the back of the bar the staff didn't turn any lights on for a good half hour - so we sat in the dark with our drinks, enjoying the decor and the ambiance, if not the visibility.

Who needs lights when the drinks are this bright?

The TARDIS is actually the bathroom: I'd hate to be here on a busy night, because each of us spent an age in there photographing the beautiful Doctor Who murals. That kind of thing will cause a queue. (I texted my Doctor Who loving friend Tom the next day to tell him I had peed in the TARDIS, only to received a terse text back that I had now ruined his childhood. But honestly, you would, wouldn't you? We all did, anyway....)

The Way Station is actually in a nice bit of Brooklyn - we only had a short walk to a street of nice bars and restaurants - so I'd heartily recommend it to any Who fans in town. (Or fans of cheap, strong cocktails, for that matter...)

Halloween Jewellery from Little Fairy Cult

2011-10-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned Little Fairy Cult before, because she is a very nice lady who makes Supernatural inspired jewellery, but I couldn't resist posting about her super cute Halloween themed pieces. These adorable ghosts are part of a range that features bats, pumpkin and Frankenstein heads - and at less than a fiver a piece, would be a fun finishing touch to a Halloween outfit for adults or kids. If you'd like something more sophisicatedy spooky though, check out this rather wonderful engraved zombie necklace - at first glance it looks fabuloulsy vintage, but once people get close enough to check out the image...

Cute ghosts from Little Fairy Cult

Zombie necklace by Little Fairy Cult

MacabRE and RE

2011-10-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

My friend J pointed me towards this site in response to my post about the skull teacups. RE is a lovely little shop based in Corbridge, dedicated to all things weird and wonderful, and with a strong sustainability ethos - much of their stock if recycled, reused or repurposed. I'd recommend it. (It also tends to be, dare I say it, a bit cheaper than Not on the Highstreet.)

For the purposes of this blog, though, I am particularly taken with the MacabRE section, featuring lots of skully goodies, perfect for your Halloween party. These skull salt and pepper pots - an absolutely bargainous fiver - are a particular favourite, but do check out the range, as in their RElic section, they also do a fantastic range of Mexican Day of the Dead stuff, too...

Some brains with your chips?

A skull with your tea?

2011-10-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

If I were organised enough to have tea parties, or to ever drink my coffee out of anything but my Supernatural and True Blood mugs, I would totally buy this utterly charming 'upcycled' vintage tea cup set by Melody Rose, available at Not on the High Street. They also do some lovely vintage pin up pieces. I warn you, though, Not on the High Street is one of those addictive shopping sites. You may be there for hours...

Tea cup set by Melody Rose, http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

Donnie Darko Rabbit Mask

2011-09-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Is this Donnie Darko the scariest Halloween mask ever? (Then again, the Escapade site that sells it also sells Snooki costumes. Perhaps that is scarier.)

Run!

Then again, there is also much fun to be had on the site figuring out where they got copyright and where they didn't: so you have official Nightmare on Elm Street, Prince of Persia etc costumes, but a Harry Hill costume is 'bald comedian costume', Jessica Rabbit is 'screen siren' and Madonna is 'Queen of Pop'...

Alexander Skarsgard in Melancholia

2011-09-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

I seem to have developed an aversion to Lars Von Trier based on nothing more than the fact he seems a bit of a dick, but I may have revise my opinion - or at least start going to see his films - as I have only just realised his latest, Melancholia, has the hot casting double of Kiefer Sutherland and Alexander Skarsgard. Luckily, being a film swot/LvT fan, Ms Lemur is going to see it and will report back on whether the levels of hotness/sex/nudity justify a visit to the cinema (am I a discerning viewer, or what?) so I don't have to suffer if it's not worth it. Apparently it's about the end of the world. Though if Armageddon meant I got to be hitched to Alex S, bring it...

He does look like he's about to bite her...

Scott Bakula in Terrible Advice

2011-09-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

So, ticked another sci fi star off the list of my scifi stars on stage: last night saw Scott Bakula in Terrible Advice at the Menier. (I actually bailed at the interval, because the theatre was unpleasantly hot, but still at least I got to see the guy from Quantum Leap) and I can attest that, slightly saggy man boobs aside, he looks in great shape - he sent most of the first half of the play in shorts, so you get to see that he is still boasting an impressive six pack. The play was in preview, so while I didn't love it to bits,it's hard to give too much of an informed judgement, but it had some funny moments and the acting was good, but if you go I hope it's on a cool night...

Remember to vote for me in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards: Lifestyle category! (Use the subtle pink button on the side...)

Top ten couples in sci-fi!

2011-09-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

In reverse order…

10. Mal and Inara, Firefly
One of the many, many sad things about the Firefly cancellation is we never really got to see this relationship play out, but Nathan Fillion’s flirting is always a delight, and Morena Baccarin is one of the most beautiful women on the planet, playing it with just the perfect amount of cool, so what we did see was just lovely. Standout scene: when Mal mistakenly accuses Inara of giving into Christina Hendricks’s advances (well, you would, wouldn’t you?) not knowing she in fact got drugged by kissing him: “I knew you kissed her!”

Random excuse to show Nathan's arse? Nonsense!

9. Zoe and Wash, Firefly
Another Firefly one, here, but delightful to me because of the role reversal: the kick ass woman and the guy who stays on the ship and worries. Not quite as cool as the real life pairing enjoyed by Gina Torres – who is married to Laurence freakin Fishburne, but one of the relationships that made Firefly such a joy. Standout scene: When Mal and Wash are kidnapped and the bad guy gives Zoe a choice between her best friend and husband, and she doesn’t hesitate even one second. Go, that girl.

8. Adama and Roslin, Battlestar Galactica
In a show packed to the brim with compelling relationships, this managed to be quietly lovely, and also overthrow the inherent ageism in so many shows, when only the young and the telegenic are allowed to fall in love. That Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell are such fine actors meant that you felt every emotion, and made their final parting all the more heartbreaking. Stand out scene: “I love you!” “It’s about time!”

7. Apollo and the Midnighter, The Authority
I’m currently a bit obsessed with this pair – they’re gay and they’re superheroes, what’s not to love? Not only are they well-written and relatively well-rounded characters (well, they are also a little bit homicidal – or a lot, in Midnighter’s case) but their relationship adds a fascinating layer to the Authority comics, subverting as it does the stereotypes of most comic books (even in this day and age, no one expects superheroes to be gay, especially not superheroes who take quite a lot of pleasure in lopping people’s heads off). That theirs is the Big, Cosmic, Cross-the-Universe-be-reincarnated-for-you kind of love makes it all the more enjoyable. What? I’m a sucker for that kind of romance. Standout scene: In a bleak vision of the future, an ageing Apollo, having long been exiled from his now-insane lover, summons present-day Midnighter to get him to prevent the events that spiraled so disastrously. Knowing that if he succeeds, this Apollo will cease to exist, he asks for one final kiss…. *blubs*

8. Emma Frost and Scott Summers, The X-Men
Speaking of cross-the-universe romance, I was a child of the 70s, so got into the X-Men when it was at the peak of the Dark Phoenix storyline – one which I still love (and think holds up well) to this day. But whereas Scott and Jean had one of those big, eternal, I’ll always come back for you romances, it was only when Jean was reincarnated one too many times and Scott went for someone a little more normal and a little less cosmic that he actually became more interesting. Combining Summers’ solemnity with Frost’s snark has made them an absolute delight, and the fact that Emma – who is supremely confident in all other areas of her life – is never quite sure Scott has shaken off his wife’s ghost just adds to the depth of their relationship. Standout scene: “Codenames only when we’re on a mission. My codename isn’t darling.” “Then we should change it, immediately.”

7. Jesus and Lafayette, True Blood
Slightly biased by my crush on Kevin Alejandro here, but the Jesus/Lafayette relationship was one of the few in True Blood that didn’t make me want to punch someone. And by someone, I mean Sookie. Standout scene: The first time they are in bed together, Jesus spins some bullshit story about his jaguar tattoo, only to be totally called on it by Lafayette and admitting it was his high school emblem.

6. Xander and Anya, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I know, I know, it should be all Buffy and Angel or Buffy and Spike but honestly, I always got tired very quickly of the Buffster’s moping. (And I liked Angel and Cordy more anyway). But Anya and Xander were a fantastic pairing, which made the way the writers handled their parting all the more shoddy. Standout moment: I’ll Never Tell.

5. Allison and Joe Dubois, Medium
Infuriating ending aside, this was probably the nicest and most stable marriage on TV, and many, many is the night I have sat there wishing I was married to the lovely Joe. He’d be fine with my insomnia, for a start. Realistically flawed people with a marriage that had its ups and downs but was never less than a genuine love match. Standout scene: so many, but a personal favourite is when Allison is possessed, and when he gets her back, Joe cries. Blub again!

4. Willow and Oz, Buffy
It’s a tough one this, because I really liked the idea of Willow being a lesbian, and I loved the whole Tara and Willow arc, but I just love, love, loved the relationship between Willow and Oz. Possibly because being a nervy, gobby woman who loves the idea of a quietly confident, laconic man, this was my ideal relationship (um, well, sexuality, werewolf problems, height issues and infidelity aside). Standout scene: Oz, don’t you love me? *breaks down weeping for a week* (me, that is).

3. Apollo and Starbuck
Another Apollo in the list, but obviously a very different one. The reimagining of Starbuck as a woman was always going to open relationship possibilities, but the mightily fucked up pairing for Lee Adama and Kara Thrace was one of the most compelling things in the Battlestar Galactica reboot, and even while you knew just how doomed it was, and how destructive it was both for them and anyone else caught in the crossfire, you couldn’t but help those crazy kids would work it out. Plus, they both looked fantastic in vests. Standout scene: Hard to pick just one, but I’m going to go for when Apollo comforts a battered and broken Starbuck in the locker room, and you know right then that no matter what she does, he will always forgive her. (I can’t actually remember which episode it is from, just that it was a scene of such power it made me tremble. Blub again!)

2. Mulder and Scully
The Foxy believer and the sexy sceptic: oh, how hot was this pairing? Their will they/won’t they shenanigans actually bored me, but I loved the later series – before it went off the rails after the baby and Mulder went AWOL – when it was basically accepted they were crazy about one another. It also helped that Scully got more and more beautiful as the seasons progressed, as Gillian Anderson blossomed into an actress you can’t take your eyes off. Standout scene: the ending that should have been, when, baby in arms, they kiss.

1. Han and LeiaOh, you always knew it would be, didn’t you? Child of the 70s, like I said. The template for all sci-fi romances to follow, much copied but never beaten – the scoundrel and the princess, neither of them being quite what they first appear to be. Cooler than carbonite, hotter than high noon on Tattooine, my god we all loved them… and still do. Standout scene – c’mon, you need to ask? “I love you.” “I know.”

Vote for me in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards!

2011-09-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted that I have been nominated in the Lifestyle Category of the Cosmpolitan Blog Awards - partly because, y'know, yay me, but also because part of the rationale for this blog was not only to give me a forum for wibbling on about all things geeky, but also to push my agenda - and I do have a little agenda - that it's actually fine for women to like sci fi. It doesn't make us square, and it isn't incompatible with liking arts, or fashion, or anything supposedly more 'feminine'. So to be recognised in such an unashamedly 'girly' magazine is fantastic. So, erm, please vote for me. (Click here to do so).

Here is a bribe:

A vote for Tracey is a vote for more pictures like this. And, erm, intellectual commentary, also. Obvs.

Vote for me! (Wait, did I say that already?)

Gay characters in comics

2011-09-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned in a previous post that my research into gay characters in mainstream comics had made me fall in love a bit with The Authority - I have now moved from Warren Ellis' initial run on the book to the far more brutal, if still very enjoyable, Mark Millar run. Millar does like his wholesale slaughter, as his run on the X-Men proved, and famously penned one of the most controversial scenes in the series, [SPOILER] when it is implied that Apollo is victim of a rape (followed by one of the most vicious - and literal - revenge scenes in comics, when Midighter shows his lover's assailant just what happens when you mess with his man). I have to say I like Millar, and his ideas are great - the scene where the Authority turn up to a battle with hangovers is a classic - I do miss Ellis, and Jenny Sparks...

So, if you'd like to read the original piece, it's here - although puzzling illustrated by a picture taken from the annals of slash, when the whole point of the piece is that gay characters are no longer the reserve of slash fiction. Sigh.

(This scene, by the way, is from Millar's run, by artist Frank Quitely.)

The couple that plots bloody revenge together, stays together

(Speaking of... I just googled Midnighter and Apollo for an image here, and one of the searches came up with Midnighter Apollo slash fiction. How can you have slash fiction about an actual couple? Surely it's just fan fiction. It can't be slash if they're already together...!)

Bow down to The Authority

2011-09-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

As I may have mentioned a few hundred times already, I bought an iPad recently, and the newfound capacity to download comics has reinvigorated my love for the genre (though it has also seriously depleted my wallet – being able to merrily download things at any time of the day or night has some fairly damaging financial repercussions). Now, being a creature of habit on the comics front, I have mostly played it safe – there are a lot of X-Men titles saved in my library – but it has also given me the chance to investigate some new titles. And I have fallen a little bit in love with one of them – namely, Warren Ellis’ The Authority.

I came across The Authority in the course of some research I was doing into gay superheroes (don’t you really want my job?) because two of the central figures in the Authority team are gay. Apollo and the Midnighter are basically Superman/Batman analogues (though Ellis, who created the team, as described Midnighter as ‘the Shadow by the way of John Woo’), but having really enjoyed Ellis’ work on the Astonishing X-Men – he writes with a dry, barbed wit that I love – I knew to expect more than simply slash fiction. I wasn’t disappointed – the Authority is the most fun book I’ve read in ages.

The book is part of DC’s more ‘adult’ Wildstorm universe – and it shows. It’s really quite exceptionally violent (Midnighter makes Batman look like a bleeding heart liberal, the body count is phenomenal and one of the storylines is about the team combating an alien race intent on turning the earth into a giant rape camp – you won’t get that in a Superman book), but it’s all done with such aplomb I couldn’t help but be swept along. The head of the team is the supremely take-no-prisoners English gal Jenny Sparks (at one stage she volunteers Apollo for a life-threatening mission – when the usually stoical Midnighter protests that he might die, Apollo dryly notes ‘if I did Jenny would just bring me back to life and put me back to work – how can you not like her?) She has now joined Agent Abigail Brand as my favourite kick ass gal of the moment. (I am totally loving Brand in the Astonishing X-Men series – both for her kinkalicious relationship with Beast, which brings out his playful – dare I say kittenish?* – side, and her willingness to blow the shit out of anything that gets in her way).

Do not mess with this woman. She will blow up your planet.

I also cannot tell you how much I am liking Midnighter and Apollo. I’m still in the early stages of the book (so I’m basically 10 years behind the curve!), so not much of their relationship has been revealed, yet - it’s only in issue 8 that you realise they even have a relationship, and it’s subtly and beautifully played, but I know what’s coming and I approve, and I also think they work enormously well as characters, both separately and together. Midnighter’s approach to violence is half Batman, half Wolverine: given to statements like ‘I won this fight before I even showed up’, he is always the one keen to just get in there and hit things, and I must admit I like that in my superheroes. Apollo is much less homicidal, though not above bringing major pain to the deserving, and though I like him a bit less than I do his (at this stage, future) husband, he’s made more interesting by being in love with a man whose philosophy is so much more extreme than his own. It helps that, in Ellis’ hands, the pair have a real chemistry: I’ve always thought Ellis is a great writer at capturing that interesting mix of a relationship within a team (his take on the Emma Frost/Cyclops pairing is second only to Whedon’s, in my opinion) and this comes through here. (A favourite moment so far was the reunion of Midnighter and Apollo after the aforementioned near-death mission – a wordless and subtle embrace that happens in the background of a scene, only to be punctured by the casual, ‘get a room, you two’ from one of the other characters).

"You'll die." [Blub!]

So far I’m only 8 issues in, but I’m smitten: and the best thing about discovering a comic that has already been going for years? A whole lotta backlist. Suddenly I have the urge to do some downloading...

*you totally won't get that unless you read the X-Men.

How cute is it that Midnighter gets married in a white version of his costume?

True Blood Season 4 finale

2011-09-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

CONTAINS SEASON 4 SPOILERS

So, Season 4 has wound up in the States - an annoyingly long time before it ever hits UK shores (January, by the way, if you're interested). The question is... was it any good?

What other reason do you need?

There was a lot to like, certainly: for a start, what SFX calls the 'Bon Temps shirt shortage' was still much in evidence, and the sex scenes were as frequent as ever, so there was plenty of man flesh on display (and lady flesh, though I was obviously less interested in that - and, in fairness, the show has about 5 parts shirtless guy to 1 part naked lady, so it's far easier to notice all the underclad men than the occasional flash of boob.) There were some great storylines, and after an initial wobble the season's Big Bad was a good one: the idea of the witches versus the vampires worked, and though it wobbled a bit, it played out well in the end, while the idea of vampires living in a PR obsessed post-Russell Edgington world was a great one, and used to fantastic effect. The Eric with amnesia was fun (though overstretched) and the relationship between Jesus and Lafayette was a joy, as were the many romantic ups and downs of Jessica, who is fast becoming one of my favourite characters. I also liked King Bill - it was an interesting turn to his character, and his prickly relationship with the Authority was well played and addd a nice level of threat. And of course, as always, Pam was just ace.

But there were also problems: the unevenness that has characterised the last two seasons was much in evidence, with too many plot lines struggling for attention: Sam's tedious brother Tommy and his shapeshifting, Lafayette and Jesus' magical abilities, Andy's V addiction, Jason's kidnapping and rape by a bunch of werepanthers (and his subsequent fear he'd be turned), Terry and Arlene's baby... it was at times too much, and because the show wanted you to care about everything, it was occasionally hard to care about anything. I could have quite happily lost a few episodes if they'd cut out some of the flab.

That said, having watched the last four episodes last night, I think the season ends on a strong note; once the battle with the witches really kicks off, the action ramps up a gear and many of the boring subplots fade into the background. There were bits I didn't like - while Bill might be induced into a murderous rage by being called a 'puppy dog' for Sookie, both his and Eric's willingness to sacrifice themselves and all-comers to save Sookie's life is getting a bit much. I'm getting as bored of what Pam calls 'Sookie's fairy vagina' as much as Pam is: does everyone in the show have to be in love with her all the time?

The finale was a corker, clearly setting up next season (the return of Russell Edgington? Yet more Bill-or-Eric-or Alcide tediousness from Sookie?), but also committing some fairly wholesale slaughter on a cast of familiar characters: having killed off Tommy earlier (which, while clearly played for poignancy, I'm afraid raised a small cheer in my pitch black heart), the showrunners got rid of Alcide's equally annoying wolf girlfriend, the scary blonde bint from the Authority (I shall miss that glacial bitch) and, heartbreakingly, Jesus - killed at the hands of his possessed lover, Lafayette - their bittersweet farewell ("Don't leave me!" "Dude, I'm dead, you're a medium, I'll always be around." Um, it was sweeter than it sounds written down...) was a real tearjerker, and it'll be interesting how this affects Lafayette next season. (Though I'm with the Fug Girls on their, "dude, stop being so open to possession. There must be an amulet or something." Maybe he could get a Winchester tattoo?). The closing shot of the season was Sookie cradling a shot and bleeding Tara - so is she dead, too? True Blood can certainly go out with a bang...

So, in summary, I'd say that though the early episodes can be frustrating, stick with it: overall, it still manages to be one of the freshest, funniest an most exciting shows on TV. Roll on Season 5.

Walking Dead Season 2 poster

2011-09-22T00:56:00.000-07:00

I must admit to being in two minds as to whether I can sustain interest in the Walking Dead into another season (I don't love zombie movies/shows, and while I really liked the first season, the set up had the feel of something with the potential to get tired quite quickly). It will be especially interesting to see how it fares with a new showrunner on board. But I have to say, this rather beautiful poster for Walking Dead Season 2 has me quite psyched...

Quote of the Day
- I saw your body!
- Do you want to see it again?
Ah, flirty Jack. Torchwood: Miracle Day

A Supernatural birthday

2011-09-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

Having a Winchesterly birthday already, since I got this great card through the post today from my friend Clare.

When do I get to unwrap my gift?

Peter Dinklage gets the Emmy!

2011-09-20T02:48:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of deserved wins at this year's Emmys, but few cheered me quite so much as the sight of Peter Dinklage with the shiny gold prize. Because, never mind the fact that it takes some serious chops to stand out in a cast as strong as that of Game of Thrones, you still have to get past the historical prejudices of the awards panels when it comes to sci-fi or fantasy shows. Luckily - for us as much as for him - Dinklage's performance as Tyrion Lannister simply blew the competition away, landing him a richly deserved Best Supporting Actor Emmy. (I was also pleased that Margo Martindale won for her turn in Justified, another much deserved win, and the Modern Family bonanza. Though - sniffle - no Tim!)

And to illustrate this post, I simply had to use this picture of Dinklage and his super cute wife: because really, how pleased does she look for him? (And as that's their first child she is pregnant with, it's clearly shaping up to be a bumper year in the Dinklage household, so good on the pair of them.)

You can see a full list of the winners here, and if you're new to Dinklage's work but Game of Thrones has given you a taste of what a fine actor he is, you could do worse than check out his film The Station Agent.

Torchwood and Medium: two disappointing finales

2011-09-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a week of disappointing TV this week, as Torchwood: Miracle Day and the last ever series of Medium came to a close, neither one going out in quite the way I would have hoped.

Yes, I know this isn't a picture from Miracle Day

That the finale of Torchwood was a letdown shouldn't have been a massive surprise, given that it's been a season dogged by uneven quality, with the narrative tautness of previous series Children of Earth lost as a potentially intriguing idea was squandered over an overlong ten episode run. While there were some great moments in the finale - notably a kick ass but poignant Gwen, a return to cheeky form for Jack, and the clever Mexican standoff - it was plagued by the same problems that marred the whole series. The interesting moral and political issues raised by the 'miracle' seemed to form a core part of the story (and the Oswald Danes arc) only to be abandoned; 'the families' were introduced too late and explained too little, and with so little idea of what they hoped to achieve from the whole thing, vague mutterings of 'it's only the start!' aside, it was hard to feel the requisite triumph when their plans were foiled. It also felt like very little pay off at the end of ten weeks of waiting, which was a shame because buried in there somewhere were the elements of a great show, but became once again one where the characters are more interesting than the material they are given.

It feels like a double disappointment because Torchwood is so a show I want to like, and have never been able to get into, for this very reason of 'one week it's great, the next it's bonkers' patchiness, which it seemed to have overcome by having one strong narrative arc (though I'd still argue that as operatives, they are too often the worst kind of useless; even in Children of Earth, Jack managed to trigger carnage with his 'wow, I wonder why that didn't work' genius idea for beating the aliens, which seemed to consist of barging in and being a bit shouty.) I follow writer Jane Espenson on Twitter, and she's been live tweeting the episodes, showing an admirable passion for the show, which makes me feel all the worse for the fact that my over-riding instinct on Thursday was to reply, 'but why wasn't it better?'

Of course the really sad thing is, I'm still hoping they make another series...

Far more upsetting to me than Torchwood was the final ever episode of Medium, which aired on Living last night, and which felt like a very poor exit indeed for a once great show. Medium has regularly been reprieved from the axe at the eleventh hour, but I wish that this time it hadn't, and that our final glimpse of the Dubois family had been at the end of Season 6, toasting the future at the wedding of Lynne and Lee. Season 7 has too often felt tired (the entertaining 'freaky Friday' episode aside) and also felt like the writers, knowing this time the show was ending for good, have given up; the whole storyline of Scanlon and Allison falling out felt badly handled, with both of them acting in ways that felt miles away from the people they now were. Sadly, the finale is probably the weakest episode yet, and an unhappy note to go out on.

How I will remember the Dubois family

Now, in fairness, I must admit I have an attitude to most characters in genre TV and literature that can be described as one part fangirl to one part executive producer: keep 'em alive, we might need them for a sequel! So when I heard that Joe died in the final episode, I was upset because I love his character and I love their relationship, which has been the heart of the show from the start. It simply felt wrong to me; that buying into the show at all, you were buying into a premise of this couple, destined to be together, to grow old together and live out their days in some post-TV world. Killing Joe felt in some way a betrayal of that, so I was against it without even seeing the episode, but the way it was actually handled was nothing short of shabby.

Because despite what I said above, I realise sometimes characters have to die, or there would never be any tension in TV. I've no objections to deaths that actually have some narrative purpose, even if that purpose is to illustrate the random cruelty of unexpected death. But surely deaths in a show finale - a show fans have spent seven years being invested in - should mean something? They should be about sacrifice, or should heighten the tragedy - think Jack watching the plane leave the island, Spike sacrificing himself for the universe, Wesley's final tragic moments as the demon who inhabits the woman he loves asks him if he wants her to lie, Angel announcing he's always wanted to kill a dragon as he faces up certain death. Death can, of course, be sudden and cruel - poor Ellen at the end of Torchwood found that out - but I came away from Medium feeling like they just couldn't think of a way to end the show, so felt like they had to do something 'big'.

It didn't help that the episode built around this event was so totally unengaging. We cared little for the case Allison was involved in, and once it got into the realms of amnesiac plane wreck survivors it was clear that what was happening was an extended dream sequence, so simply felt like going through the motions. Even the undeniably sweet ending, when, having passed away peacefully in old age, Allison is reunited with the still faithful Joe, throws up issues once you think about it. Because dream sequence teenage Marie made the point that Joe could haunt them all if he wanted, but he hadn't - while this is obviously there in the dream sequence to fuel the 'he's alive!' speculation, it's a valid point. So when Allison meets Joe’s ghost 40 years after his death and goes, 'you waited?' does this mean he hasn't appeared to her in all that time? Why on earth not? His own father has been popping in and out of the family's life since after his own death; why should Joe not do the same? The whole thing felt ill-thought out. A coda explaining that in reality Allison and Joe Dubois still live happily together with their kids made killing his fictional incarnation seem even more random and pointless (and you have to feel more than a bit sorry for the real couple, seeing one of them merciless cut down on screen). Only the rather lovely shots of the cast that made the final seconds reminded me that this was once a show to love.

Luckily, all these years of reading comics, where there are generally several different timelines and continuities on the go - combined with an imagination so vivid that I often dream whole episodes of TV shows that are so convincing that I end up confusing with what I have actually watched on TV, has given me the ability to watch a disappointing season, wind back to where I wanted it to end and just pretend that nothing after that was real. Just as in my head the X-Files ended with Mulder and Scully kissing and cradling their baby son, so Medium ended with champagne at a wedding, and the last time I saw the Dubois they were smiling, toasting what I know will be a long and happy life together.

Keep Calm I'm the Doctor t-shirt

2011-09-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

I know the whole 'Keep Calm and...' thing has been seriously done to death, but I can't help liking these Doctor Who related tees, the first from - yes! - Think Geek (who, Hitchhikers' fans should note, also do a Don't Panic and Carry a Towel one).

Available from Thinkgeek.com

This second one is from Forbidden Planet

From Forbiddenplanet.com

The Book was Better t-shirt from Think Geek

2011-09-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Actually, sci fi is pretty well served by adaptations (Blade Runner, the Princess Bride, True Blood, Game of Thrones...) but this 'The Book Was Better tee by Think Geek still made me laugh.

Give your cat its own TARDIS

2011-09-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

I seem to be on a roll with Doctor Who feline related stuff, so I couldn't resist this TARDIS cat climbing frame, as seen at SFX via Icanhascheezburger.com

It actually does look bigger on the inside...

Too much sex in Torchwood?

2011-09-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have been watching Torchwood (don't tell me how it ends! I won't be watching the finale till the weekend) might be interested to read this piece I did for So So Gay on sex in sci-fi (if you're interested in arguments around the cut scene, I'd recommend Jamie Pohotsky's defence of the BBC decision - it's not an article I agree with, but it makes for interesting reading and it's always good to read a different point of view to your own...

What do you think?

Yeah I know this is Jack and Ianto, not Angelo, but it's so sweet...

Rizzoli and Isles: Episode 1 reviewed

2011-09-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

(This should almost be spoiler free, and certainly I'm not including any major spoilers). I posted yesterday about how the poster for Rizzoli and Isles had given me fairly severe misgivings about the new series, and after watching last night's episode on Alibi, I really can't say I know what I think of it yet. So here are just a few comments and impressions: I'll try to come up with something a little more coherent a few episodes down the line...

The casting: Angie Harmon actually surprised me. While obviously way too pretty for the part, she managed a rawness and prickliness (most of the time) that gelled with how I thought Rizzoli should be, and I liked her family relationship, established fairly economically at the start. I was much less keen on Sasha Alexander: while I like her as an actress, and was quite fond of her in NCIS, she always seems very 'surface' to me, with very little going on behind what you can see. This is pretty much the opposite of Maura Isles, so it jarred, as did the decision to make her wear a collection of almost girlish outfits, which is definitely not what she's like in the book...

The chemistry: I'd give this a C+, maybe a B for effort. While I think it's a shame the decision to start the series when Rizzoli and Isles are already friends, thereby missing out on all the fun of an odd couple getting together (erm, so to speak), I understand it, but I found the friendship less than convincing, and too full of girlie cliches, like Sex and The City with guns. Again, it's early days so we can see how this develops, but it didn't grab me the way I hoped it would.

Everyone else: having Lorraine Bracco as Rizzoli's mum was a great piece of casting, and Bruce McGill as Korsak was also fun. I am not 100% convinced by Billy Burke as Gabriel, though he grew on me, and as the Surgeon, Michael Massee brought his usual sinister charm. Future episodes promise Chazz Palminteri and Donie Walhberg, so there's clearly plenty of money been spent on the casting, which bodes well.

The story: condensing not one but two novels into 45 minutes was always going to be a hatchet job, and it showed: while it was good to give Rizzoli a bit of a backstory, the whole thing seemed inordinately rushed, so I hope that future episodes will allow the stories to develop a bit more. And there were some really annoying touches of whimsy - did I forget that Isles had a giant turtle in her house, or Rizzoli a yappy dog? It felt like the programme makers didn't have enough faith in their characters, so had to make them 'quirky' and 'loveable'. Why can't we just have a couple of strong, interesting women?

The verdict: not a must see, but not terminal. I'll certainly give it a few more episodes...

Hotel Chocolat Hedonism Skull

2011-09-14T04:10:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Hotel Chocolat, and I must admit I love this Damien Hirst inspired gold-leaf covered chocolate skull, called, fittingly, Hedonism. Though as it costs £50, I can't see me - or anyone in my salary bracket - buying it, so I shall content myself with just admiring from afar. (Though if you do like spooky treats and want some quality chocolate for Halloween, they do a nice range of skulls and Halloween themed treats, starting around the far more reasonable £10 mark...

Worth buying for the lovely packaging alone...

More sci-fi stars on stage

2011-09-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Those who follow this blog will know that when I'm not immersed in geekery, I am a theatre lover (as well as reviewer for Exeunt). So I do love it when the two strands come together, and when I see sci-fi stars on stage. This can range from the 'big names' (James Earl Jones, David Tennant, Christopher Ecclestone, Gillian Anderson) to the lesser well known, but it always adds a frisson of geeky joy.

So this week I've had a double blast: I saw Primeval (and S Club 7's) Hannah Spearritt in the delightful The Belle's Stratagem at the Southwark Playhouse, and Eva Magyar, who brought her wonderfully expressive features to the role of doomed Mamma Magneto (Edie Lensherr) in X-Men: First Class, in the fantastically enjoyable Wild Bride at the Lyric Hammersmith. (Speaking of X-Men: First Class, I have also seen James McAvoy on stage. Alas, I am still ravingly jealous of those of my friends who saw Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma...)

Looks a bit different in the Belle's Stratagem

Rizzoli and Isles come to the UK

2011-09-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoi and Isles books, the series of thrillers featuring the down to earth female cop and the glacial Medical Examiner, so I am both excited and trepidatious at the idea of the TV series (which starts on Alibi tonight in the UK). For a start, neither of these women look like the unkempt and frazzled 'plain Jane' cop in the books (I mean, I know it's Hollywood, but come on, both of these women look like they just stepped out of a beauty salon). And what is going on with this poster? The 'come hither with handcuffs' is bad enough, but why is the ME slicing up an apple? Is it some symbolism because in the books she falls in love with a priest? Did they just not want to show a skull? It's not like there isn't a dead guy in the picture. I don't get it, and it worries me, because it really doesn't bode well...

Well, at least the show is on tonight so I can report back then...

RIP Andy Whitfield of Spartacus: Blood and Sand

2011-09-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

Sad news today of the tragically young death of Spartacus: Blood and Sand star Andy Whitfield, who died after an 18 month battle with cancer, aged just 39. You can read a nice tribute to his work in the Guardian blog here. I'd like to join fans around the world in sending my condolences to his friends and family.

Spoonflower scifi fabric designs

2011-09-10T03:23:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned jewellery maker Little Fairy Cult before - she does a nice line on Supernatural inspired jewellery - but I also have to thank her for putting me onto the wonderful site of Spoonflower. It's a beautiful site that sells fabrics - some really lovely pieces - but of course I was drawn by these sci-fi themed ones: Join Us on the Dark Side and Madman in a Blue Box by Studiofibonnaci, just some of the Star Wars/Doctor Who themed pieces they sell. (They also have some nice ideas of what to do with it, worth checking out.

Buffy Season 8: Last Gleaming

2011-09-09T06:13:00.000-07:00

So, with Buffy: Last Gleaming (Volume 8) Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire comes to a close, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy – if ultimately enjoyable – ride.

It can be tough to translate TV shows or films into comics – some of the early Buffy spin offs are fairly abysmal – but creating a ‘season’ of books following the end of a run reduces a lot of those problems. For a start, you don’t have to fret about fitting into continuity the way you do, say, if you’re doing a Supernatural spin off that has to be fitted into the structure of an ongoing show. It helps, too, that Josh Whedon is a skilful and experienced comics writer (if you haven’t read his run on the Astonishing X-Men, go buy it now. Go on, I’ll wait). There’s also of course no budget to contend with, no network bodies to chop around your show, no actors deciding what they really want to do is direct, no having to shoot half your scenes from the neck up because one of your leading ladies got pregnant and you can’t work it into the script. If you can write it, you can have it – even the sky isn’t the limit. But as another comic hero is so keen to keep reminding us, with great power comes great responsibility, and as Whedon himself admits in the sign off to the final volume, he perhaps got a little too carried away with the freedom to know when to rein it in.

Of course, there is no harm to giving flight to an imagination as fertile as Whedon’s, and season 8 has much to love. Inhabiting a world where Buffy is at the head of an army of slayers (the Angel episode that saw her partying in Rome is dealt with in a clever piece of retrofitting), coping not only with the everyday threat of vampires, but with the return of old enemies and the emergence of a new, anti-slayer force called (I kid you not) Twilight. Freed from the restrictions of budget, this Buffy is as likely to time travel, head into space or fight giant monsters in Tokyo Bay as she is bash a vamp in an alley, and there is fun to be had in the cast of thousands and the globetrotting. Although he didn’t write the whole season, Whedon’s trademark wit and razor sharp writing is much in evidence – there isn’t a single line uttered that you don’t believe would come from these characters – you will quite often find you hear the actors voices in your head as they speak – and there is humour and tension aplenty. (You can tell that much of the writing comes from Buffy alumni – now BSG and Torchwood scribe - Jane Espenson.) There’s also a lot of clever storytelling, and an acknowledgement that the cultural language around vampires has changed in the years since Whedon himself help create it – both in the fact that Harmony becomes a superstar and the obviously non-accidental Twilight references. I actually gave up on Buffy after about season 6, but picking up these books reminded me how much I really loved these characters, and there can’t be much higher praise than that.

But blowing up the slayer story to a global scale somehow diminishes it at the same time. I found it increasingly hard to care as Buffy and her band (including some very welcome return faces) fight more and more monsters, and a story that includes Buffy literally shagging a new universe into existence was borderline embarrassing. Whedon is also, as ever, a little too casual when dishing out death among longstanding characters, with one particular demise very shoddily handled – to my mind, it shouldn’t have happened at all, but if it did, Whedon didn’t need to go all JK Rowling and barely give it blink time. The artwork, while generally decent, occasionally fumbled, too, so that sometimes I found it hard to tell who people were supposed to be, though covers are a thing of utter beauty and worth the price tag alone.

The success of these books has proved that even in these pro-vampire times there is still an appetite for the Slayer to kick fanger ass, and Season 9 is on the cards – though it is interesting that Whedon has said that it will be more a 'back to basics' book, presumably now he has got all the ‘they’d never let me do this on the telly’ fireworks out of his system. (Face it, the budget he’s working with on The Avengers could pay for dragons in space if he wants them). So, even if you’re not sure you’re a comics fan, Season 8 is a worthy follow on to one of the most groundbreaking shows on TV. Give them a go, you won’t be sorry.

Vampire Diaries Season 3 - trailer and posters

2011-09-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

Ah, thanks lovely people at EW and SFX for whetting my appetite for Season 3 of the Vampire Diaries - which looks likely to air in September in the UK - with this trailer and these fruity themed images (it's all about temptation, apparently, though you can't help feeling there's a sly dig at Twilight in there). I am also fairly awestruck by how many instances of gratuitous shirtlessness they manage to cram into such a short clip. Keep that up for the season, and I'll be happy.

Also, is it just me, or does Nina Dobrey seem like the kind of woman who would be a right laugh in real life? I don't know quite what it is about her, she just gives off the air of someone who you could share a bottle of Pino Grigio and a joke with...

Damon was struggling to eat his toffee apple without making a mess...

Quote of the Day:
Immortality without God? That's just another word for hell.
Ultraviolet