A New Find in the Form of Castle

As a self confessed Joss Whedon fan, I was hugely looking forward to his latest offering - Fox's Dollhouse. I was however, left disappointed with the show, and eventually gave it up all together. The thought to return has occurred to me from time to time, especially after hearing just how much the show improved from midway through onwards, and I have viewed mere minutes of later episodes, which didn't leave me with much of a feeling that this show was worth sticking with. Now, that does sound slightly harsh, but in all fairness, I did give it half of its run, perhaps even a litte more than that. But, I just couldn't get over my initial disappointment that this was actually a show from Joss Whedon. He's a complete genius, and leagues above any other writer on TV. But Dollhouse just didn't sit well with me.

Which brings me to ABC's crime drama Castle. Starring Nathan Fillion, of course from Whedon's axed "space western" Firefly. I turned to Castle after, aside from being a pretty big murder mystery fan, to see just what one of Joss' alumnis was up to. And I liked what I saw. After loving Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother, eagerly anticipating anything with Sarah Michelle Gellar, relishing Felicia Day's The Guild, loving Tom Lenk's Pepsi add(!) and keeping a close eye on Amber Benson's flourishing career as a novelist, I was hoping to be equally entertained by another recognisable face. But getting back to the actual show for a moment, I was pleasantly surprised by Castle.

Going into it, I expected it to be the usual, run of the mill, US cop show. But it was actually a fun mix of comedy, drama, mystery, and crime. However, what really made the show for me, was Fillion's fun and adventurous turn as bored crime novelist Richard Castle, who is called in by the police, after murders mirroring those in his books being to spring up, to help them in their investigations. He was arrogant but charming, funny and immature but also smart and resoruceful, and it makes for such a refreshing to change to see a crime show which doesn't take itself so seriously! Apart from perhaps Psych and Monk, I can't really think of any other crime drams on TV which take a more light-hearted approach, and isn't made up of people walking around for forty minutes, in suits, testing DNA. As we all know, crime is a serious matter, but this is TV, we want an escape every now and then, and Castle makes for perfect escapist TV and more. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the more serious TV from time to time, and when with a slightly different angle, the crime show genre can be successful. Medium, for one springs to mind as an example which does something different to other crime shows.

Now, I have no idea how well it will fair post-pilot. Of course I understand it to be fairly formulaic, but I hope (and expect) as with Psych, the lead will really own the show. I hope to watch the second episode soon, but for now, Castle's pilot gets two thumbs up from me.

And sorry for the sligh anto-Dollhouse ramble at the start! Hopefully, I will get around to watching those final episodes soon, and maybe my opinion will change?

It's been a while

It's been a long time since I posted in this blog, but it's been summer so I've been to busy to post, and at other times to bored to have anything decent to post about.

Anyway...

Earlier this month I did a week at a newspaper, my local The Whitehaven News. It was actually a lot of fun, and it was good experience which I was in total need of. I got a few things published (which I'll post links to at the bottom of the post) which my Dad is very excited about. Every time someone comes round, he gets the clippings out! But I've hidden them now, so he won't be able to find them next time :)

But it did make me realise that perhaps journalism is something I might want to go into. The original plan for uni was to actually do a journalism degree, but after freaking out in case I didn't want to be a journalist, I settled with the more useful and less scary English Language. But now I'm thinking I want a bit more experience in that field, so hopefully something will come up this year. I know I'm doing creative writing as one of my modules which may include some article type assignments, but truth be told, I'm just excited to get away from grammar for a bit! I still don't know what a transitive verb or an adverbial clause is. I mean, probably I could make a guess, but it will be no where technical enough for it to be right :D So that's why I'm excited for creative writing, there's a bit more freedom. And hopefully, there won't be too much, let's share with the rest of the group sessions.

So yeah, summer is coming to an end, less than a month until I'm back at uni (it's welcomed! I'm so bored with home now!). Oh, and as promised those articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Okay, so it's beginning to look like this summer isn't going to be a waste of time after all! I've finally got some work experience booked at a local newspaper which is very exciting. It's not until August but I can't wait, I've never really done anything like it before so it should be a great learning experience and hopefully a lot of fun as well.

I'm also hoping to get some volunteering done this summer as well, I've always wanted to do some just because it's nice to help people out and I think it could teach me a lot about helping others. So wish me luck that I find something.

On a completely unrelated note, Big Brother is back and as trashy as ever. I hate the show with a passion, I like the idea of it but the execution is all wrong. Take out the game show aspect as well as the public interaction and the tacky gimmicky tasks and what not and then you'd have a pretty interesting social experiment show. Bring in a diverse group of people and see how they live together, not put a hoard of wannabe C-Listers! But with all that said, I have, as ever been sucked into it. Not as much as in previous years, but my curiosity has got the best of me and I have been following it quite well. It's no Apprentice or American Idol but it should keep me entertained over the summer months when usually TV is pretty poor.

Life. I need one. Seriously. Today the only time I left the house was when I took the dog out. I need something to do with myself for the next three months while I'm away from university. A job I would like, but I doubt I'll get one. Who is going to give me a job for three months knowing that I'll be going back to uni and when they can get some kid who is still at school to do it for less money? Grrr! I hope my life doesn't suck this much after I graduate. But that's two years away, which is two years to figure out something to do after those two years. Damn!

I had my first exam yesterday, one down one to go and then that is it for my first year at university! Strange huh?

Anyway, heading home today, joy a three hour train journey awaits me! No actually, I'm hoping it'll be a quite train today, I want to get stuck into Eclipse (Twilight part 3). So far it's got of to a bit of a dull start with not much going on yet, but I'm only on chapter 5 at the moment - these damn exams are taking up all of my time! At least it's the summer holidays soon, then I can get lots and lots of reading (and hopefully writing) done. I've currently still got Stephen King's IT and Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage to read as well as a couple of other's I want to check out.

When did I sign up to this thing? Hold on while I check...

2007! WOW! I didn't think it was that long ago. Well it's by time I put this place to good use. Not that I expect thousands of readers or anything, but it's a pretty nifty place to post my thoughts from time to time even if it does end up just being for me. Well, where to start?

I really haven't been up to much lately, I think the most excitement I've had in the past week was the American Idol final. Sad Adam lost, but whatever, he seems to be doing okay. I have been back at home since my uni term ended (my first year is almost over - scary huh?) and my first exam is tomorrow. Nervous? No not really, despite doing like ten minutes of revising. It doesn't matter though, I have three hours alone on a train in the morning I can do some then. But apart from that nothing. We are moving house soon, back to our old house. I actually can't wait, our garden up there is much bigger and we actually have grass and a patio, yes I said grass and a patio! Hopefully it'll be a nice summer so I can spend some days in the garden with a book, how heavenly does that sound? Pretty heavenly I'd say. Although I do burn easily, so I'm going to have to make sure I have sun cream, and my hayfever needs to be under control as well. God I sound like an old woman!

I guess that's it for now, I just wanted to put this place to good years after having it since December 2007, that's what just over a year? Or a year and a half? I know my maths sucks!