Radiation by Fiona Rae

Welcome back (my 9-5 has kinda gotten in the way too).

Unfortunately, we didn't get freeview until I'd missed a couple of nights of Friday light, and I didn't feel like getting into it late (the Olympics didn't help).

I've been waiting for someone somewhere to rave, however, so thanks :-)

Friday Night Lights: if you haven't seen it, the movie starring Billy Bob Thornton, which was based on the book, is good sporting-movie stuff too.

I like the show, but I have two nits to pick: clearly, hardly any of those people are from anywhere near small-town Texas, and they have *wildly* varying accents. (Of course, those in the know tell me that lots of people on Coronation Street don't 'talk right' either.) My other issue is not exactly about everyone being 'too pretty' - that's sort of a given in these shows - but that everyone is *way* too well-dressed. These people should be wearing clothes from Wal-Mart, dammit! At least the coach is wearing those awful khaki shorts...

Hey, I didn't know TV week was available for all to read on the Listener website! I'm new to this Internet thing, but it seems more and more worthwhile all the time.

And congrats on the new blog, although TV News sounds like a blog about the News on TV. Maybe just to my untrained foreign ears. It has been duly bookmarked, anyhow.

My other issue is not exactly about everyone being 'too pretty' - that's sort of a given in these shows - but that everyone is *way* too well-dressed. These people should be wearing clothes from Wal-Mart, dammit!

Well, if you want to get really nitpicky about it shouldn't everyone on Battlestar Galactica be looking a little scruffy after three plus years (in show-time) without the opportunity to go shopping? :)

clearly, hardly any of those people are from anywhere near small-town Texas, and they have *wildly* varying accents.

Sure, but we can't all be Meryl Streep darling. :) And poor bloody Anna Paquin is getting a pasting over her rather wobbly Bayou brogue in __True Blood__ (which HBO has renewed for a second season after two episode and reviews that could politely be described as well-mixed).

TVNZ Ondemand is getting some good stuff up there. They've started putting up concerts - only Frank Sinatra and James Blunt so far, but it will be interesting to see what else they come up with.

"John Campbell looks somewhat dazzled by his new, ultra-bright lighting set up as well. HD can be so cruel."

No one can beat "The Daily Show" set, It's easily the best looking newsdesk in the world, others should just copy it.

Sure, but we can't all be Meryl Streep darling

Just as well, my cat used to go crazy whenever Meryl Streep was on the telly, trying to claw her face off.

<quote>Just as well, my cat used to go crazy whenever Meryl Streep was on the telly, trying to claw her face off.<quote>

Even felines are infuriated by her fake accents, it seems.

No one can beat "The Daily Show"...

Let me stop you there, because that's all you need to say.

I just watched Friday nights show, with Tony Blair as guest. It was brilliant and yet surreal. I mean, like, this is Comedy Central. Tony Blair (with no product to sell - unless you consider his new job at Yale a product, and I don't) is doing an interview on Comedy Central! WTF?!

Only one small problem with the Letterman lists. Every show also features David Letterman, rendering the whole thing unwatchable. Pity.

Just as well, my cat used to go crazy whenever Meryl Streep was on the telly, trying to claw her face off.

Heh... Meryl Streep is odd -- I admire the pure technique but am curiously unmoved by the actual performances. She's the thespian equivalent of a House and Garden feature -- yes, it's terribly chic, but you just couldn't imagine anyone living in one of these exquisitely decorated, architecturally designed "spaces".

I know that the set design of 3 News has to be the opposite of TV1's, but the new glass-and-steel gymnasium look is a bit cold don't you think?

My initial response on the weekend was "you can see legs". I had occasionally wondered if they just had casual wear trousers/shorts (since you only saw their top halves). Perhaps they did and now they can't anymore?

And TV3 seemed to have stopped the presenter switcheroo they used to do a year or so ago on the weekend. After the weather they'd come back and the male / female presenters had changed seats. It seemed to happen fairly consistently, but only on Sundays(?). A friend of mine had a theory that they swapped as one seat was nearer the Exit door and one of them had a bus to catch...

My initial response on the weekend was "you can see legs". I had occasionally wondered if they just had casual wear trousers/shorts (since you only saw their top halves). Perhaps they did and now they can't anymore?

That was my reaction. It was very weird to see legs like they couldn't afford to put a modesty panel on the desk.

Only one small problem with the Letterman lists. Every show also features David Letterman, rendering the whole thing unwatchable. Pity.

Couldn't disagree more. Of course (and I don't say this in the spirit of competition with Fiona, it's just that she doesn't post them that often) if one wanted a Letterman list one could go here and bear in mind that NZ is always two weekdays behind. Voila, or, as a real estate agent quoted in the Listener recently put it, WHALLA!

And all we need is a water feature, some mood lighting and a newsreader in a tub of goo and we have this...

BTW, does anyone else find the blue and hot lime green graphics somewhat puke-making?

Apparently not..

But I'm waiting for someone to go off about how the new colour scheme is evidence of Three's clear National-Green bias. What a shame nobody told Duncan Garner. :)

"I just watched Friday nights show, with Tony Blair as guest. It was brilliant and yet surreal."

Yep, that was the best interview I've ever seen of a world leader. Blair
was struggling and stewart was just asking him quite simple questions that "real"journalists are terrified of as they may come across as, gasp "combative" and "not polite".

John Stewart should really run a presidential debate.