MSU

Episode 7 ... Holy shit!

Yeah, it wasn't great. Sheldon's dance and Amy's secret (if a little predictable) reaction raised a smile, and I guess it's nice that the writers are even trying to acknowledge that Raj is meant to be a more prominent character. I'm not sure how much I believe the relationship with the janny, but it's probably better than the time they tried to convince us he'd go out with a cute barmaid.

Saw Arrival tonight. There's one utterly honking line in it, right at the end, literally with seconds to go, that almost ruined it for me, but despite that I loved it. Amy Adams for the Oscar, likes.

Aye, that was the best bit for me. Quite clever and then Victor calls him chief right after it. I've smiled my way through most of the series. Not a huge amount of laughter but more than I had for that live show debacle from a couple of years back.

Yep -- loved that line too. Didn't spot Yul, but I noticed that the two techies are called Felix and Sylvester, ie cartoon cats, and one was obsessed with a bird.

I live in Michigan, which helps enormously. When I lived in Scotland I used to bit torrent it the day after transmission. It was a little uncomfortable watching it with my kids. My wee boy looked like he understood enough of what was going on to blush. Thankfully, he didn't have any questions. Not quite ready for the sex dungeon conversation just yet.

I'm loving the show. The atmosphere is incredible and it seems like there's hardly a single line of dialog that doesn't carry real weight. But with only 4 episodes left in the season, it's still more interested in asking questions than answering them, which is a little worrying. I hope it doesn't go the way of Lost (which I also enjoyed despite it being infuriating), where it was perfectly acceptable to spend a season going, what's in the hatch? what's in the hatch? what's in the hatch only for it turn out to be a Scottish bloke and then spend the next season going, well, how did he get there? and why is he punching in those numbers? Answering one question with two new questions gets a little boring after a while.

Coupla nice bits of Radiohead (Fake Plastic Trees and Motion Picture Soundtrack) in this week's episode. Plus, Thandie Newton is awesome. On the downside, Annoying English p***k is back.

A much better episode this week. The scene with the Klingon and Amy's made up language was great. Plus, Penny's tits.

How very fucking hell!

Agreed, but I also got goosebumps at the Hopkins scene with Dolores when she asked if they were very old friends, and he said no, he wouldn't describe like that at all. Bloody hell, that was good.

If anything, I'm left more convinced of the dual timeline theory.

Anthony Hopkins acts the f**k out of episode five. Ooft, sers.

Yeah, you're right. Good point.

I agree with an awful lot of this. I watched this last week's episode and when the missus asked what it was about a couple of days later, the best way I could describe it was "Raj and Stuart sneak into Howard's hot tub because they think he's out of town." Doesn't exactly sound like a sit-com firing on all cylinders. I'm all for character development but the ways in which the characters have developed has basically strangled out the type of comedy it used to be. Sheldon's quirks are dialed down, Leonard's more accepting of the remaining quirks and now has Penny so DGAF anyway, the writers haven't had a clue what to do with Raj for about five seasons, Howard's unrelenting skeeviness is a distant memory now that he's bagged Bernadette and is going to be a father, and Amy -- rather than being a female Sheldon -- is just one of the gals. Everything's become settled and there are no questions left now that Sheldon has pegged Amy. I mean, I guess they'll get married on the final episode or something, but all the little trials and desires these characters used to have are gone. There was an episode way back when the gang dress up as the Justice League of America and Penny's ex, Zack, joins them and it felt to me at that point that they needed Zack to be a recurring character to give the other guys someone to bounce off and cause a bit of friction with the ladies. And that was season four, FFS! Judging by the way CBS is fucking about with its day of the week -- used to be a Thursday, moved to Monday for the start of this season, now moved back to Thursday -- it looks like its days might be numbered anyway. Probably for the best, especially as <controversy>Silicon Valley is doing comedy about this type of people far funnier than BBT ever did.</controversy>

My thoughts on your hidden comments: Anyone given any thought to this theory doing the rounds?

Alan's new book -- Nomad -- came out yesterday. Listening to the audiobook just now at work and it's just as funny as We Need To Talk About Alan. Brilliant-coffee-down-the-nose stuff.

I just came a little bit.

Yeah, I remember that mission too.

I've been back on forth on this pretty much every time Ed Harris is on the screen. I'm not sure what the makers want us to think about him but because visually he's so like the Yul Brynner character, it's easy to assume that he's the baddie and although we're probably meant to think he's human. I wonder if he's actually the hero of the piece and a self-aware robot who has learned to become invincible and who thinks that finding the heart of the maze is how he escapes into the real world.

I had similar thoughts, but then I haven't heard if it's going to be a multi-season deal. Maybe it's ten episodes and done. Given its reviews, HBO probably want to milk it for all its worth, but it's hard to see where the story would go after robot banjo / unbanjo happens. There's a reason why it was a 90 minute movie. I enjoyed episode three but maybe not quite as much as the first two. Next week looks a cracker, tho. Actually, it looks like season two is in the pipeline so I'll just STFU as I clearly don't know what I'm talking about. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/westworld-season-2-hbo-release-pipeline-a7353541.html

Absolutely loved Red Dead Redemption aka Grand Theft Horse. Played it through from start to finish three times. That moment when you unlock Mexico, and you're riding through the changing landscape, and the sun's just starting to set, and the Jose Gonzalez tune kicks in. Ooft. Just magnificent. Shat myself a few times with cougars and bears etc. Favourite instance was after a major gunflight a mile or so outside of town. My horse got killed and I'm hoofing it on foot back to town, fending off bandit attacks left and right, the town creeps into view, it's getting closer and closer, and I'm so chuffed that I've survived out in the wild and endured the bandits for so long and with a few slivers of life left I'm just about to get to town when a fucking wolf jumps us and rips me to bits. Pig's tits.

Absolutely loving this so far. HBO does this kind of thing so well. High production values, great acting and lovely wee touches like Black Hole Sun and No Surprises on the player piano. The Ed Harris character is so intriguing. Like he's supposed to be the Yul Brinner role, who was a robot, but seems to be human here, but maybe not, and is he really the bad guy? Only downside for me is the wee English nyaff that writes the narratives ... if they gave out Emmy's for Most Unconvincing Swearing in a Drama ...