redfiona99 | Entries tagged with krimis

Because of the thing, I have been catching the end of random episodes of the Father Dowling Mysteries. The end of one episode this week had thingy who played Ken Molansky, who you know I had the worst crush on when I was wee, playing Sister Stevie's ex-boyfriend. The Sister Stevie who I also had the worst crush on at that age.

Now somehow, despite my grandmother being a detective-show fiend, and liking the aforesaid Father Dowling Mysteries, I had never seen this episode. This is probably for the best, as 10-year old me would probably have spontaneously combusted, but oh ... I was basically *hearts eyes* for the duration.

Crossposts: https://redfiona99.livejournal.com/1228579.html

Y'all have failed me on the actress heads-up front.

Vanessa Ferlito is in NCIS: New Orleans!!!!!

This is not a drill!!!!

She's the new series regular (replacing spoiler). And, get this, the character is canonically a lesbian. Oh Bellisario productions, you are spoiling us.

Crossposts: http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/1102517.html

Re-read it on Friday.

This is not my favourite Christie, it's not even my favourite Poirot, but it's definitely a masterwork. This is where Poirot gets to show he doesn't need the cigarette ash and bits of cloth to solve a mystery as he re-investigates a murder that occured 16 years before. It's also a nice antidote to those mysteries where the detective is given more information than the reader. Here we are given exactly the same information as Poirot and allowed to try to figure out whodunit along with him.

It's not perfect, I found the characterisation of Philip Blake a bit flat, but I love all the little character details for Poirot, like when he tells himself off for thinking in nursery rhymes (again) and how he chooses to present himself to the five people present on the day of the murder.

Definitely worth a read.

( LibraryThing Suggestions )

Not unexpectedly, I have read several of these. :)

( LibraryThing Unsuggestions )

Rather more unexpectedly, I have read one of these. Hunter S. Thompson would be proud that he breaks algorithms :)

When I saw the adverts for this I thought I'd give it a try. And then missed the first three episodes because I was busy.

So I started on episode 4 which while it's a non-traditional point to start watching the series at least made me think that it would have settled down and got it's early season bumpiness out of the way. Having now seen episodes 1 and 2, I think it had and unfortunately they all share the same major weaknesses.

( Spoilers for episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of Ripper Street beneath )

Just wondering whether nitrous oxide (or whichever NO-variant it is) has suddenly become a party drug in the US, because after many years of hearing it's name in the past tense for that usage, suddenly three krimis in a row have had it as the drug of occasion (Miami, SVU and then New York).

NCIS is back in my good books because the wildly right wing military krimi is the one that pointed out how wrong it is was that it's so much easier to get a warrant to raid a mosque than it is for any other religious building.

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The uptick in US drama has had a good effect on UK drama, and even better, they've realised that British TV doesn't have the money to outslick US TV so they're going back to the kitchen sink. Score one for realistic drama. It's even more fun when it's the fantasy dramas that are doing kitchen sink (a la 'The Fades').

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I know it doesn't need saying, but Danny Houston (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0404111/) can act. Just seen 'The Proposition' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/) and yes, well, it plays exactly how you'd imagine an Aussie based Western written by Nick Cave would run.

Enjoyed is the wrong word, but it's good.

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Adverts:

The adverts have been doing some fun things again.

I particularly like the new Guardian one, even if I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be getting from it.

Watch on YouTube

One of the Aldi ones is class too - http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/23225.htm although they're all quite fun (http://aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/7232.htm), I particularly recommend the tea one.

Rant first: Dear various estate agents but one in particular. I'm not a mind reader, if you're thinking of a property for me but don't tell me about it, I will not know about it.

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The TV has been remarkably good recently.

Channel 4 had one of their 15 minute 'Coming Up' shorts called 'Hooked', which probably had too much material for its run time, but what it was was golden. 4 on Demand link is here - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/coming-up/episode-guide/series-6/episode-7

( Spoilers )

ITV3 is reshowing the second Whitechapel, which is always better than I remember it. Mostly because they don't try and sell Rupert Penry-Jones as anything other than a tweedy (if deeply principaled) geek. And they give Phil Davis something to do. If you want me to like your show, giving Phil Davis something to do is a really good way.

( I also like (spoilers) )

Despite the better efforts of the Christmas break, I'm catching up with Covert Affairs.

( Episode 1 x 9 - The One In London (official name 'I can't quit you, baby') )

( Season 1 Finale )

I've seen the advert for 'This Means War' (the Pine vs Hardy for Reece Witherspoon film), I can see why you all hate it. I'm also stuck with the problem that I find neither leading man attractive. However, I will say that Chris Pine seems to suit rom-com more than Kirk. (Yes, I'm being mean, yes, I'm a horrible, stuck-in-the-mud reactionary.)

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I'm a hoarder (I really can't help it), so, you know, most things get kept, particularly newspapers. When it comes to things I particularly and definitely collect include stamps (pretty, pretty stamps) because I'm lucky enough that my Mum has friends all over the world and lots of places have astonishingly pretty stamps and because one of my Mum's penfriends does to and they have a sort of exchange going on. I also collect coins, a habit I picked up from my Opa. Not valuable coins, just ones with pretty designs. At the minute I'm focused on the 2012 Olympic design 50ps. I have, unfortunately, dragged my mother into the madness because she drags Colin in and he likes investigating things. So I'm a magpie, my Mum's interested and Colin likes to put things in order. We're a terrible 3-headed collecting hydra.

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( TNA spoilers )

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Ah the Numbers episode I haven't seen but wanted to. The one where Edgerton is a murder suspect. ( Spoilers )

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I'm going through my yearly WIP sorting, and I'm doing some serious pruning and shoving of things into the 'never going to be finished' folder. One WIP though, an AU, has gone so far OOC that I'm thinking of reworking it and turning it into an original fic and seeing if I can sell it on. Not entirely sure where to, mind, although that can wait until I've finished writing it.

First of all ( Poirot:Hallow'een Party (spoilers inside) )

Good job on all fronts.

Thorne:Sleepyhead was less well done. I managed to catch the end through use of the V+ box.

Part of the problem is that they totally got Thorne wrong. Not totally wrong, but the feel of him was off. In the books he's well aware he's mildly ridculous, and several other characters point that out to him too. ( (Spoiler) they also changed )

They kept Alison, who is the most wonderful character in the book, and the one I was most scared of them changing, but they turn the interesting, spikey, short-cropped grey-haired Anne Coburn into someone far more traditionally comforting (and cast long, blonde-haired Natascha McElhone). None of that should be taken as a diss on the actress, who played the now somewhat under-written part as well as it could be.

They also changed the plot. Now I grant the book's plot made sense only in the book but it made sense, and was part of the whole thing that our lead character and his hunches are not always right and the great male hero complex is not a good thing, and the tv show lost all that.

However, I shall be the first to admit that I was watching this for Aiden Gillen. I was intrigued when he was cast, especially since the Radio Times made such a thing of him being in it so I watched the first episode and all he got to do was be background pathologist guy/best friend/mildly suspicious.

I did wonder why he'd taken the part, and then I remembered that this is a man who was in a WWE film, he has no sense or shame.

( Then I saw the 3rd part (mostly squeaking about Aiden Gillen below) )

So yes, I'll be watching more of it, but still for the wrong reasons.

Having seen how long this entry has gotten, meme later.

Appointment with Death was so so, they changed too many details of the original story, but if they're building up to what I think they're building up to, they will be forgiven. Even more than that, I think they've been plotting this.

UK shows don't do arcs all that often, or at least not until recently, the seasons are a bit too short for that. This is especially true of things that are only occasional treats like the later Poirots have been. But I think they're planning to do it properly.

Basically, because of budgets and the like, they've had to leave the big hitters of the Poirot canon till later, such as Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. They've also started doing to Ariadne Oliver stories so you can tell we're getting quite close the the end (counting the ones in the can but not shown yet, we've got 10 stories before Poirot is done). And they're going to do it properly.

( Spoilers for all of Poirot )

If ITV are doing this deliberately, and if they manage to pull it off, I exempt them from a year of my criticism.

I hope

nwhyte got to the UK safely, not just because it's a pain in the neck not being where you want to be at Christmas, but because I'd love to know if he's as boggled as I am over one of the bonus rounds on University Challenge.

Other than that, also on a TV tip, I am very annoyed that the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have been shunted off on to More4. No, Channel 4, and the rest of the broadcasters, you don't get to abdicate your responsibilities like that. Am I more cheesed off than I might otherwise be because it's a biology year and it's on a topic I am very interested in [botany], yes, but really, given the state of science education in the UK, we need all the help we can get to get children interested in it, and this year's, so far, has been so very good.

On a tv making me happy tip, I get a new Poirot on for Christmas, An Appointment With Death, the Ustinov version of which was one of the first Poirot's I saw. It also features Mark Gattiss, John Hannah and Tim Curry. I am watching it, even if it clashes with Dr. Who. My little grey cells require it.

There's also the Tennant version of Hamlet, which I am still iffy about, except Gregory Doran is the director and I loved Coriolanus when I watched, so I'm booked on Boxing Day as well, or the video is, anyway, as Mother dearest is videoing it for me.

I don't collect Hamlets in any way (whistles) but he's going to have to go some to beat Kenneth Branagh, who is still my favourite.

I also don't collect Holmeses, and was therefore in no way embarrassingly excited by seeing a Holmes I hadn't seen before, when I saw Murder By Decree (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079592/) last night. Christopher Plummer's Holmes was a little too soft but he made a good fist of it, and I'm mildly in love with James Mason's Watson, because he got it that it's not that Watson is not clever, it's just in comparison to Holmes.

The story itself wasn't up to much, but the atmosphere was very good.

So I'm bored and watching the TV, and see that a Poirot is coming on (it turns out to be After the Funeral, which is the one with Michael Fassbender in) so I turn it on. Anyway, I catch the end of the news.

So 100 years ago, West Auckland played Juventus in what is held to have been an almost forerunner of the World Cup. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8173000/8173881.stm

Back then there was a huge gulf and the story generally goes that they were only invited there by accident, but some how they won.

Now the gulf is even greater with West Auckland being an amateur club, average attendence 100, and Juve being baby-eating, cheating Juventus. Despite the baby eating, they agreed to a rematch. Now, yes, it was mostly a junior side, but they put 3 of the first team out.

It would be so much cute but so what if it wasn't for who they interviewed afterwards. Gianluca Pessotto.

He's alive and well and functional and I spent the next five minutes crying.

For those that missed the history a full version can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessotto

The longer is that after the match fixing scandal before the 2006 World Cup, Juve having been caught red handed, he threw himself off a building in disgrace (he'd played with them for 11 years and was moving into the management/admin side). It was decidedly touch and go, but thankfully the doctor's said he'd be fine. In fact, the Juve contingent of the 2006 winning team brought the cup to him. So I knew he was not dead, but I didn't realise the recovery had been complete and he's team manager now and ... well, it makes me happy to see him alive and well.