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In other news - I am off out of town for a week.  Going to Darwin where the Australian government has just declared war on Aboriginal people.  THat is actually not why I am going but I reckon it will take up a fair bit of my time while I am there.  I am so angry at fucking Johnny Howard.  This is a clear election ploy - aimed at the basest instincts of white Australia and all it will do is further damage and traumatise Aboriginal communities.  I don't even think that this is an honest conservative response to a problem - if it were he would have spent the money on social workers and places to put children to keep them "safe" (which was such a fucking failure the last time the Aust govt did it that we are still feeling the fucking effects).    If it were honest he might have sent more coppers but he would have sent other stuff as well.   No this is an entirely dishonest, cynical and borderline fascist response.  I am so very very angry about this. 

Address for my newly set up insane journal account

http://katesnotes.insanejournal.com/

It's been ages since I updated this journal. I have started studying and it tends to take all my mental energy. I have over the past month or so since I last updated seen a fair few episodes of various tv shows.

So Dr Who -
Ugly Betty, I still like this show but I find it incredibly difficult to catch all the episodes because channel seven has been possessed by the devil and has put it on at 730 on Sunday night.  There is simply no worse time for TV.  There are always a million things going on including having to have Sunday dinner with the family.  I am almost on the verge of purchasing a digital recorder so that I can watch the show.  My video recorder is crap and doesn't work properly anymore.   

Heroes, I haven't commented about Heroes before in this journal but it is one of my very favourite shows.  I love Hiro and I love Claire. I love that the plot is still holding together throughout the entire season.  I can barely wait from week to week to see what happens next. 

Finally, on a random note I keep seeing John Barrowmen everywhere. Sometimes it seems I can't turn the telly on without him popping up.  And I'm living in Australia where we don't get him on chat shows and realtiy shows as well.  I was watching The Producers the other and suddenly he popped up as a stage Nazi, then I flicked passed De-Loverly (sp?) and he was there singing Cole Porter songs (and I think sleeping with Porter the movie was subtle on that point).  The De-loverly oddness was compounded by the fact the Lucius Vorenus turned up soon after apparently playing a detective or bouncer or something. 

I have been quite distracted recently because I am just starting to get into my thesis.  This tends to make me a bit other-worldly and forgetful.  However, I should probably write up here about some Tv shows. 

First, Ugly Betty -

Second, Dr Who -

My reaction to Smith and Jones

Ugly Betty was fun last night but not spectacular. I think this is partially because of the absence of my favourite character, Betty's nephew, Justin. He is such a fun and funny wise child. I read an interesting article today about the difficulties of having a queer character who is a child. Apparently the creator makes the point that because he is pre-pubescent Justin queers gender not sexuality as such. Anyway here is a link to the article in http://flowtv.org/?p=137

I have been catching up with the last series of "Life on Mars". I have been enjoying it but somehow it doesn't make me jump for joy. I think this is because the show feels just slightly melancholy. Still I am looking forward to seeing the new season when I get a chance. I also deeply love the soundtrack. I have looked at a few websites and can't find a commercial release of it.

I have decided to occasionally post some of my thought about tv shows to this journal.
I have been watching Torchwood recently and at first I was disappointed. This was partly my fault because I had rather expected too much. Looking back over the 7 or 8 shows that have been on so far I realise that it took the show a couple of episodes to hit its stride. The first two eps were just trying too hard after that they settled and started to improve.

I think my favorite so far was the one with the fairies - the fairies themselves were interesting and spooky and Jack's relationship with Estelle was so sweet.

I also liked Countrycide - it was deeply creepy and I quite like Gwen/Owen. I had thought Owen was a badly written and unpleasant character but he has improved. I liked Owen and Gwen even more in this week's episode Greeks Bearing Gifts. I found their banter funny and I liked the way they were sort of dodging around each other. It felt a little realistic as well as quite sweet - just the way people in new relationships are around each other.

I also really liked Tosh in this episode. Prior to this week I had no idea what Tosh was like and I therefore had no opinion on her. But this week we finally got a look at the girl and I liked what I saw. I think I realised that I liked her when she found Mary in front of her flat and said something to the effect of "oh you would know my address too".

Unfortunately the two characters who haven't impressed me yet are Jack and Ianto - this is annoying because I really want to like them. I loved Jack in Dr Who and I want to continue to love him but he needs to both lighten up and stop overacting. The first issue can be fixed by the scriptwriters and there have been some excellent Jack moments (eg with Estelle, with the Pterodactyl, and with Tosh in Greeks bearing gifts) so far so it is apparent that the scriptwriters do in fact have some idea what to do with him - they just need to be more consistent. The overacting problem is hopefully something Barrowman can overcome with time - he didn't overact so terribly in Dr Who so he is capable of it. The directors could help him to tone down a bit.

Ianto still feels a bit wooden to me though I did like the excessive melodrama of his thoughts in GReeks bearing gifts - he could also be a fun character given a bit of time.

So that is my much too long-winded opinion of Torchwood so far.