TV: 24 is now officially crap...

Last night was the final straw. I've long been a fan of 24. In the beginning it was seminal and ground breaking. Now? It has become a parody of itself and I'm not going to bother tuning in for season 7 (or the inevitable season 8, 9 etc).

WARNING: Spoiler alert - divert your eyes if you haven't seen it yet!

After the truly affecting train yard scene with Ryan Shappel in season 3 perhaps we had hit the pinnacle. Season 4 started to loose its way. It ticked all the boxes but you felt you had seen it all before. Season five started badly. You knew they were in bad shape when President Palmer got smoked (I know, I know, he's gone to do his own show 'The Unit'). Then season six made a bad situation worse when Wayne Palmer was Commander in Chief (the man has as much gravitas as Ken Barlow). However, nearing the season six finale, here was the killer moment for me... Jack's nephew being taken away by Doyle and placed in the helicopter. You know the bit - as it lifts away the kid looks directly at us and though we can't hear it, we see him mouthing 'UNCLE JACK!' It was SOOOOOOO trite. The smell of cheese was so pungent it was enough to make a Frenchman blush. I literally laughed out loud.

I put up with more 'Copy that' than I care to mention. I suffered countless 'Right now I need you to...' and so many other catch phrases but NO MORE! The seasons' plot has more holes than a teabag! How easy is it to break into CTU? I mean are they really expecting us to swallow the notion that all you have to do to break in CTU is to put on a muscle vest, enter the sewers and as long as a giant turd doesn't stop you in your tracks you can hold the entire place to ransom?

ENOUGH! Just like so many other successful series before, 24 has made the transition from artistic pioneer into executive cash cow (Remember X-files?) and every week you can hear the 'moo's' as that poor old cow is milked for all it's worth.

Ah well, it was good while it lasted.

Roll on Lost season 4...

FILM: The Golden Compass aka The Northern Lights

For me, the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman is the finest trilogy of books ever written. This December the first episode in the trilogy, 'The Golden Compass' (known in the UK as The Northern Lights) makes it to our cinema screens. The cast bodes well (Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green) and they couldn't possibly have better source material. It's the one thing (bar Christmas and Boxing day dinner at my Mum and Dad's) I'm really looking forward to this Christmas. Book your ticket now.

POLITICS: The thin end of the wedge?

My elder brother mailed me the following link British Army may turn to foreign bullets

I find such a development extremely worrying. We are in the UK, after all, an island nation. Is it not bad enough that we source a vast percentage of our food from abroad (thanks to the shambolic way the current Labour government has treated farmers and failed to police the vice-like grip of supermarkets on our produce procurement)? No, it seems our electorate are ploughing headlong into scenario where, without the support of the EU, we will be emasculated in every conceivable way.

Here is the thin end of a (very large) wedge. In fact, many would argue the thin end passed us by many moons ago and this is merely another single case of our independence as a nation being signed away.

I ask you, what sense does it make for an island nation to be reliant on others for fuel, food, lawmaking, defence, border control? And yet these decisions are no longer within the power of the UK government to make alone. Is this what layman people in the UK, who believe the EU is a good thing for Britain, really want? Can anyone sensibly argue we will be better off run by the people who thought up the woeful Euro currency, the Hips packs, a borderless journey from EU member state to EU member state, the fortnightly bin collection, countless pieces of red tape for businesses and best of all, the truly worrying EU constitution? This the vision you want for the UK?

These decisions, whilst bad enough to stomach ordinarily, are rendered objectionable by the fact that we, the people of the UK, have never been given a vote on the matter. And with good reason. It is my utmost conviction that were we given said vote, the majority of voters would decline the wholesale surrender of our long fought independence (or more simply, being in the EU).

"Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves. Britain never, never, never, shall be slaves" Or maybe, after all, we shall.

FILM/TV: When will Hollywood wise up?

More and more recently I am finding the cinema a complete let-down. I simply can't remember the last time I came away from a trip to the cinema enthused with the film I had seen.

Compare this to the current crop of TV coming from the US and you can't help but fear for the near future of Cinema. Shows like Lost, 24, Heroes etc simply put the vast majority of cinema releases in the last few years to shame. Look at this years Oscars - absolute drivel, 'The Departed' for best film? It's not bad, but best film?

I can't help feel that the problem is not inherent in the form of Cinema (self contained piece, 90-120 mins long) but rather the way the Hollywood machine is run.

You can imagine the exec's criteria being...

Big star = guaranteed audience
Familiar concept = easy marketing
Special effects = great trailer = easy marketing
Big franchise = guaranteed audience

Factors are all geared around opening the film - getting bums on seats for its first couple of weeks plus selling the marketing rights to a burger chain and any other possible pieces of marketing pap (birthday cards, action figures, toilet roll etc)

Now, compare that with TV. Commercial TV at that. They simply HAVE to have a quality show. It's not enough to satisfy people for a couple of weeks, the seasons state-side run 20-25 weeks. Then you have to come back the year after and do it all over again. So how do they get it right? What ingredient are TV exec's/producers adding?

Writers. In film land, whilst good scripts almost certainly exist, as soon as they are sold the original screenwriter is waved goodbye and the script is re-written for the talent (Actors, Directors etc) - almost always diluting the quality of the original script. Don't believe me? Do a search for some spec scripts and compare them to the shooting script (the shooting scripts is what they ran with after 3-4 different writers had been all over it and pulled it all out of shape at the request of the studio/director/actor).

Doesn't really happen in TV land, at least in the US. The story creator is nearly always given an executive producer status and stays on board with the project throughout its run. Guiding it, shaping it - ensuring that what they first dreamt up remains for the shows duration. That's not to say they write it all, or even write the best episodes. It does however ensure some consistency, some adherence to what sold the idea to the network in the first place. A principal lacking in film scripts.

'A camel is a horse designed by committee' a metaphor that could perhaps describe the fate of many a good film script?

POLITICS: Long haul flights responsible for global warming on Mars

My first question after reading this story was 'Mmmm, How will Gordon Brown tax us for this?' I refer to this story on the National Geographic. Evidence presented from NASA indicates that the ice caps of Mars are also melting. Of course, the obvious implications of such a discovery makes two scenarios possible...

1. Mars is awash with 4x4 cars, long haul flights and 3rd world countries burning fossil fuels in abundance.
2. The current global warming of Earth, like Mars is actually being created by changes in the Sun's temperature, not the hyperbole you are being fed by the likes of the BBC.

I know where I'm putting my bets...

GPS: Starbuck Point Of Interest file (Tom Tom)

I made this last year and forgot to post up. It's a Points Of Interest file (POI) for all Starbucks shops in the UK. If you have a Tom Tom GPS device just download the zip file and copy the two files (excluding the 'readme') onto your Tom Tom device and hey presto! Instant Latte on the move.

If you've found this useful, be a sport and send me enough for a Latte on paypal (paypal address is ben@frain.freeserve.co.uk).

Here is the Zip file, cheers :)

NEW: Gallery section added

I've added a gallery section to the website here. For two reasons. Firstly, it's a demonstration for clients of the functionality that can be added to their site. It's a very economically way of showcasing products or repositories of technical drawings etc. It also allows the upload of audio and video files so podcasts and the like can be easily stored.

Secondly, as I'm always taking photographs it gives me a chance to share some of them. I've not uploaded them at full resolution but there are some good ones up from the Royal International Air Tattoo. It also means that I can start uploading videos into the gallery also. Time permitting I will be adding some footage from Microlighting, Mountain Biking and the like...