TV Shows You're Watching

Tanmann wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

iank wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

iank wrote:Still 2004 Neighbours. Lana has arrived. 

In typical classic soap opera fashion, while she instantly hits it off with Serena when working together at the coffee shop, she barely meets Sky, and unfortunately still manages to unintentionally make a negative first impression on her by innocently saying Izzy seems cool but she's "not sure about the old guy" (i.e Harold, Sky's granddad!). Oh dear. Poor Lana. Foot in mouth disease. 

I think I'll take these a bit slower now rather than burning through them. This is really what I was wanting to see again, but I managed to get the rest of the season too so WTH.

Have to point out the scene with Harold, who is largely over his stroke and back to normal now but still having the occasional out-of-character moment, talking at first negatively about women's lingerie and then going off and starting to wax lyrical. It's Max's reaction that had me ROFL. The look on his face as Harold starts going on about PVC underwear, and then he just slowly turns and walks away...  

Hello, Ian.

My mother used to watch Neighbours in her youth and I vaguely remember it airing on Channel 5 when I was younger, perhaps the episode you're watching now.

The only ones I'd be interested in watching are the ones with this lovely lady in  

Eh. There's been far more attractive ladies in that show.

Gotta provide some evidence, lad

Finally......



This was the talk of my school the next day.

Very nice!

Sky was very pretty, but it was the original Cody and Lana who caught my attention in their day.

At the moment:

- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Doctor Who: 1989 (just finished Ghost Light)

I want to get onto Mad Men next.

I was looking to see if some of those blocked M.I.High videos were available to watch on YouTube and somehow found a large number of Blane/Daisy shipping videos. I didn't even know this was a thing. Is it a still a thing? I watched all of these videos and they're actually pretty fun. I kind of ship them to

There are so many of them  













I'm probably a decade late to doing my own tributes for this show.

Some more Neighbours 2004 episodes, and Lana is breaking my heart again already.

The war between Sky and Lana is thankfully over, and the two have even started to become friends and bond, but Sky is also increasingly confused - and somewhat annoyed - by the obviously fake "Valley Girl" persona that Lana shows everyone else. Although Sky has learned (fairly surreptitiously!) that Lana was the victim not just of a bullying campaign but of an outright vicious assault by a group of girls at her former school, she doesn't know why, and is completely baffled as to why Lana seems to think she has to pretend to be someone else entirely.

It's starting to become clear to us however, with the warming relationship between the two already starting to see Lana cast some unmistakable longing glances in Sky's direction. Poor Lana. She's obviously terrified of letting anyone get too close to her, but also clearly wanting to let Sky do so. Aww. She's breaking my damn heart (again!).

Neighbours? Seriously, what is it with you bloody Brits and neighbours?

I live in Melbourne (yes, the home of the beloved show) and you can't throw a stick without meeting someone who has been an extra on that show.

Ian is an expat living in Aus.
So am I, but he's been here a lot longer than I have.
I'm also in Melbourne. But I'm also aware that Neighbours is shite. I think he only watches it for the attractive girls. I mean what other reason is there?

For me, waiting for The Simpsons or Seinfeld to start when I was at school. That's all Neighbours ever did for me.

My wife is the Aussie, that's why I'm here. She hates the fact that my introduction to Australian culture was Prisoner: Cell Block H, back in the eighties.

That one is a little before my time but I have seen the re-runs on Foxtel.

I'll just quote Billy Connolly:

"I like Prisoner....it makes me feel talented"

When ITV in Britain first went to 24hr broadcasting, it was one of the programs they got cheap from Australia. As it was the only thing on after midnight back then, I ended up getting hooked on it.

Ludders wrote:When ITV in Britain first went to 24hr broadcasting, it was one of the programs they got cheap from Australia. As it was the only thing on after midnight back then, I ended up getting hooked on it.

Hale & Pace did a funny sketch on the set design of that show. 19:43 onwards:

I'll have a look later, ta.
I'm on night shift, so going to bed now.

Ludders wrote:I'll have a look later, ta.
I'm on night shift, so going to bed now.

Night. It's 1am here so I better go to bed too. Obviously not the same bed.

Series 3 of M.I. High. I'm rather enjoying some of these episodes. The main reason I turned it off at the time was more to do with the fact that they reinvented the series without any warning rather than the quality of the series itself. I was a kid at time so I didn't appreciate everything being so different. My initial reaction to this series was very similar to the way I reacted to the Pertwee era. Too many things changed between The War Games and Spearhead from Space and I found that quite alienating. In M.I. High's case more than five main characters are replaced and the school is clearly different from the one they filmed at in the second series. The Rose character in M.I. High (who is my favourite) and The Brigadier in Spearhead From Space are characters I latch on to because they serve as a link to the show's past. There's some really good stuff here and I am warming to the new characters (it's only taken me ten years ) but I do wish they had gradually changed things rather than reinvent the entire series for reasons I still don't understand. They did that with the third series of Red Dwarf and it was tough for me to get into it straight away.


Do you welcome change in a television show or do prefer it being comfy and familiar?

Pepsi Maxil wrote:Do you welcome change in a television show or do prefer it being comfy and familiar?

It all depends on how it's done.

Buffy for instance gradually changed things over the course of several years. It also brought things to their natural end. (Like say the Master being killed at the end of Season 1)

I feel Classic Who was the same. When you watch it back, you can see things gradually changing. Hartnell to Troughton? Ben and Polly, the Daleks and a historical, all ease you into the new Doctor, furthermore the Cybermen being present at the end of Hartnell's time helps to link the two eras.

Similarly Pertwee to Tom is I think the smoothest transition. UNIT, Sarah Jane, the Daleks, the Brig, all help to ease the new viewer into Tom's time.

Of course now and again a big change might happen out of necessity. Like in Buffy, the high school getting blown up at the end of S3 or Troughton being exiled to earth.

Still even then you can get round it by a lot of tricks like bringing back an old character (Spike, the Brig) setting it up before hand (making a big deal of this being Buffy's last year, establishing the UNIT set up, or conversly at the end of Pertwee's era, having him spend less time on earth etc.)

Despite what Paul Cornell says LOL, nobody has ever said all change is bad. Change should not only be taken on a case by case basis, but should always be handled with great care and delicacy.

Sometimes big drastic changes can work like at the end of B7 season 2, beginning of S3, but generally I feel they damage shows if not slowly built up.

Primeval I think sunk for this reason. They lost too many characters in too short a time. Nick, his replacement, Jenny Lewis, the main villain of the series, Laila Hotas, etc all gone in the space of about 10 episodes. It's no wonder its viewers went off a cliff.

I've also said that I think this is what caused a dip in viewers after Tennant left.

As much as I prefer Matt, I do get a lot of RTD era fans being pissed that all links with his era were dropped, or erased literally in the show. It was too drastic and created a schism between RTD and Moff fans that the show never really recovered from.

burrunjor wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:Do you welcome change in a television show or do prefer it being comfy and familiar?

It all depends on how it's done.

Buffy for instance gradually changed things over the course of several years. It also brought things to their natural end. (Like say the Master being killed at the end of Season 1)

I feel Classic Who was the same. When you watch it back, you can see things gradually changing. Hartnell to Troughton? Ben and Polly, the Daleks and a historical, all ease you into the new Doctor, furthermore the Cybermen being present at the end of Hartnell's time helps to link the two eras.

Similarly Pertwee to Tom is I think the smoothest transition. UNIT, Sarah Jane, the Daleks, the Brig, all help to ease the new viewer into Tom's time.

Of course now and again a big change might happen out of necessity. Like in Buffy, the high school getting blown up at the end of S3 or Troughton being exiled to earth.

Still even then you can get round it by a lot of tricks like bringing back an old character (Spike, the Brig) setting it up before hand (making a big deal of this being Buffy's last year, establishing the UNIT set up, or conversly at the end of Pertwee's era, having him spend less time on earth etc.)

Despite what Paul Cornell says LOL, nobody has ever said all change is bad. Change should not only be taken on a case by case basis, but should always be handled with great care and delicacy.

Sometimes big drastic changes can work like at the end of B7 season 2, beginning of S3, but generally I feel they damage shows if not slowly built up.

Primeval I think sunk for this reason. They lost too many characters in too short a time. Nick, his replacement, Jenny Lewis, the main villain of the series, Laila Hotas, etc all gone in the space of about 10 episodes. It's no wonder its viewers went off a cliff.

I've also said that I think this is what caused a dip in viewers after Tennant left.

As much as I prefer Matt, I do get a lot of RTD era fans being pissed that all links with his era were dropped, or erased literally in the show. It was too drastic and created a schism between RTD and Moff fans that the show never really recovered from.

Yes, End of Time and The Eleventh Hour are so stylistically different from each that they almost don't feel like they're episodes from same show. Yes, I can totally understand where they're coming from and why they might not have liked Moffat's era to begin with. I guess I never felt that way because I no longer had any attachment to anything in the RTD era after the specials so I was more than happy to accept anything new. The third series of Red Dwarf did a similar thing where it completely dropped things from the first two years so I feel their frustration. I'm still annoyed that the whole pregnancy plot was glossed over in the opening minute of Blackwards. Fuck off, Rob and Doug

Sadly there isn't a "passing of the torch" scene in the third series of M.I. High so obviously it was very jarring for me when most of the main characters   were neither seen or heard from again after the second series. They explain the absence of three of them, but five of them are replaced with different characters albeit they're similarly written. That is a major overhaul and certainly not something a kid would be able to readily accept if they were attached to the old characters. I don't really have an issue with the new characters now (especially the attractive black girls. They're always a welcome addition   ) but it does feel like a totally different show to me. Apparently they reinvent the show AGAIN in Series 7 so I'll probably have another whinge when I get there

Series 3 of Blake's 7 wasn't so difficult for me to get into. I think it was because Avon, Cally and Villa were still there. The only thing I really missed was the whole Travis/Blake rivalry. There wasn't a whole lot they could do with the Blake character after Star One so it felt natural to me that Avon took over the reigns of the ship and indeed the show.

I don't think people like Paul understand the difference between good change and too much change. The Whittaker era doesn't actually resemble Doctor Who because they were too hasty in changing things up presumably because they were embarrassed by having Doctor Who elements in the show at all.

P.S. I haven't actually seen much of Buffy so thanks a lot for spoiling The Master's death for me. What's the point of me getting into it now?

Pepsi Maxil wrote:

burrunjor wrote:

Pepsi Maxil wrote:Do you welcome change in a television show or do prefer it being comfy and familiar?

It all depends on how it's done.

Buffy for instance gradually changed things over the course of several years. It also brought things to their natural end. (Like say the Master being killed at the end of Season 1)

I feel Classic Who was the same. When you watch it back, you can see things gradually changing. Hartnell to Troughton? Ben and Polly, the Daleks and a historical, all ease you into the new Doctor, furthermore the Cybermen being present at the end of Hartnell's time helps to link the two eras.

Similarly Pertwee to Tom is I think the smoothest transition. UNIT, Sarah Jane, the Daleks, the Brig, all help to ease the new viewer into Tom's time.

Of course now and again a big change might happen out of necessity. Like in Buffy, the high school getting blown up at the end of S3 or Troughton being exiled to earth.

Still even then you can get round it by a lot of tricks like bringing back an old character (Spike, the Brig) setting it up before hand (making a big deal of this being Buffy's last year, establishing the UNIT set up, or conversly at the end of Pertwee's era, having him spend less time on earth etc.)

Despite what Paul Cornell says LOL, nobody has ever said all change is bad. Change should not only be taken on a case by case basis, but should always be handled with great care and delicacy.

Sometimes big drastic changes can work like at the end of B7 season 2, beginning of S3, but generally I feel they damage shows if not slowly built up.

Primeval I think sunk for this reason. They lost too many characters in too short a time. Nick, his replacement, Jenny Lewis, the main villain of the series, Laila Hotas, etc all gone in the space of about 10 episodes. It's no wonder its viewers went off a cliff.

I've also said that I think this is what caused a dip in viewers after Tennant left.

As much as I prefer Matt, I do get a lot of RTD era fans being pissed that all links with his era were dropped, or erased literally in the show. It was too drastic and created a schism between RTD and Moff fans that the show never really recovered from.

Yes, End of Time and The Eleventh Hour are so stylistically different from each  that they almost don't feel like they're episodes from same show. Yes, I can totally understand where they're coming from and why they might not have liked Moffat's era to begin with. I guess I never felt that way because I no longer had any attachment to anything in the RTD era after the specials so I was more than happy to accept anything new. The third series of Red Dwarf did a similar thing where it completely dropped things from the first two years so I feel their frustration. I'm still annoyed that the whole pregnancy plot was glossed over in the opening minute of Blackwards. Fuck off, Rob and Doug

Sadly there isn't a "passing of the torch" scene in the third series of M.I. High so obviously it was very jarring for me when most of the main characters   were neither seen or heard from again after the second series. They explain the absence of three of them, but five of them are replaced with different characters albeit they're similarly written. That is a major overhaul and certainly not something a kid would be able to readily accept if they were attached to the old characters. I don't really have an issue with the new characters now (especially the attractive black girls. They're always a welcome addition   ) but it does feel like a totally different show to me. Apparently they reinvent the show AGAIN in Series 7 so I'll probably have another whinge when I get there

Series 3 of Blake's 7 wasn't so difficult for me to get into. I think it was because Avon, Cally and Villa were still there. The only thing I really missed was the whole Travis/Blake rivalry. There wasn't a whole lot they could do with the Blake character after Star One so it felt natural to me that Avon took over the reigns of the ship and indeed the show.

I don't think people like Paul understand the difference between good change and too much change. The Whittaker era doesn't actually resemble Doctor Who because they were too hasty in changing things up presumably because they were embarrassed by having Doctor Who elements in the show at all.

P.S. I haven't actually seen much of Buffy so thanks a lot for spoiling The Master's death for me. What's the point of me getting into it now?

Sorry about that LOL, to be fair when you watch the episode it's pretty obvious that he is going to die. Remember Buffy pioneered what is now known as the Big Bad formula, where each season has one or two villains as it's main threat who is killed in the finale, only for a new one to take their place, so each season of Buffy has a new badguy.

New Who copied the Big Bad formula, but it didn't do it very well, as it more or less used the same three villains every year.

The whole point of the Big Bad formula was that it was to give you a whole new villain and dynamic every year.

I don't think Red Dwarf was quite as bad, as it was only one cast member who left. I do agree though that not resolving the cliff hanger was shit. Rob and Doug sadly have a bad habit of doing that.

Just finished the Verdict episode of Boston Legal.

Katey Sagal (one of my all time favourite actresses) guest stars as the mother of a young boy convicted of killing his lover. There were quite a few shocking twists in this, but the worst SPOILERS was when we found out the boy is in a a relationship with his mother (who really killed the boy's lover because she was jealous.) Worse even than that is the fact that the mother got away with it!

Katey Sagal has made a reputation out of playing bitches, badasses and tough girls, but I'd say this is the most evil character she has ever played.

Series 4 of M.I. High now (yes, I've been binging). I've really accepted these new characters (I guess they're not really "new" anymore) and also the direction they're taking things in. One character I never thought I'd feel so strongly about is the SJW character Avril. I've actually really taken to her because despite her confrontational attitude at times she is genuinely a nice person and vehemently believes in solidarity and justice.

She is described as a "non-conformist", and someone who "cares too much about everything." I don't consider either of these things to be bad traits. A girl who cares about everything is more desirable to me than a girl who cares about nothing. She doesn't believe in encouraging competitive behaviour because it "goes to fuel teenagers' feelings of inadequacy and failure." This is true to an extent. She also goes to school in her regular clothes on international clothing day because she is against stereotyping an entire nation by dressing up. Certainly nothing with that either.

The character isn't very popular. One person on YouTube remarked that she represents Tumblr. "She is often portrayed in a negative light and an obstacle in the few fanfictions that include her" says her wiki page. Well, I better set that right when I get around to writing my fan fiction. She's misunderstood and generally isn't treated with much respect. She seems quite lonely and the boy she fancies doesn't want anything to do with her. I would love to have been obsessed over by such a girl when I went to high school. I also like the fact that she's a goth girl.

I'm not a social justice warrior, but I do think people like PJW and that Irish guy focus way too much on the worst of them rather than acknowledge that some of them aren't like that. I think it was Burrunjor who said the days of making a living mocking SJWs are now gone. To be honest, they were all the things they criticised others for being.

burrunjor wrote:

Katey Sagal has made a reputation out of playing bitches, badasses and tough girls, but I'd say this is the most evil character she has ever played.

I looked up her appearance and she looks very good in that. When was that filmed? Have you also seen pictures of her from the 1980s? She looked amazing back then as well.

CommanderMaxil wrote:I looked up her appearance and she looks very good in that. When was that filmed? Have you also seen pictures of her from the 1980s? She looked amazing back then as well.

It was filmed in 2006 I believe. Just after Futurama. (I don't care what anyone says Leela is sexy. The idea for the character is sexy, but Katey's voice just sells it.)

She did look gorgeous in the 80s. I loved her red hair, though to be honest she was one of these people who could pull off any look.

She was one smoking red head.









But she was also a really sexy, sophsticated brunette too.







Finally she's also a gorgeous blonde.

Nope.

Julia Louise Dreyfuss for sitcom hotties.

They're both nice, but the most gorgeous sitcom actress is Rebecca Schaeffer from My Sister Sam. We'll never know how gorgeous she would have looked had she reached the peak of her perfection. She was so natural.

burrunjor wrote:

CommanderMaxil wrote:I looked up her appearance and she looks very good in that. When was that filmed? Have you also seen pictures of her from the 1980s? She looked amazing back then as well.

It was filmed in 2006 I believe. Just after Futurama. (I don't care what anyone says Leela is sexy. The idea for the character is sexy, but Katey's voice just sells it.)

She did look gorgeous in the 80s. I loved her red hair, though to be honest she was one of these people who could pull off any look.

She was one smoking red head.









But she was also a really sexy, sophsticated brunette too.







Finally she's also a gorgeous blonde.

Redhead Katey is the most enticing for me.

Series 5, episode 6 of M.I.High

Whenever a show does a "spooky"episode it almost always ends up being my favourite and that's certainly the case here. What a wonderful episode that was! I've been at school at night time and it can be so creepy walking down the corridors on your own. I particularly enjoyed the lighting in this one and the fact that one of the main characters was having a panic attack which made things much more tense. I really wish ghosts had actually been in it but it doesn't really matter as the ninjas were effectively creepy. I don't think they've filmed at the school at night before so that made it feel unique. I don't remember NuWho being anywhere near as creepy. This episode is exactly what Class should have been.

I don't want to finish this series because I know everyone leaves at the end