Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So what are you watching tonight?

Duh! I was wondering why they would have her doing such a bad English accent. Funny because I think she is English by birth. I got the long black vs short blond hair though. Guess this sinus infection hasn’t completely rotted my brain.

I do like the fact that the Syfy (just noticed that change too, shows how much TV I watch) gives other work to actors who have been typecast playing scifi roles. Similar to the old studio system methinks. However, IMO you can’t just plug any actor into a series and have it work. The series I’ve loved the most like SG-1, Buffy, Firefly, Babylon 5, Farscape, etc. . . all had a great chemistry between the cast members. Which is why I thought it was a smart move when they brought both Ben Browder and Claudia Black to SG-1 since they already had the chemistry thing going between them, though I still thought the show lost a step later but mostly IMO do changes in the story.

I think they should rename it to Michael Cera vs. The World because he's always the same dude. Fortunately, I don't find him annoying.

I just watched the first disk, 2 episodes, of the 1978/1980 British spy drama series “The Sandbaggers.” Five minutes in and you have no doubt that your not in Hollywood anymore because this show is actually good. Or as one critic quoted on Wikipedia said:



First what this show is not. As said above it’s not Hollywood. It has zero production value; virtually no action; no scantly clad women; no catchy theme music; no stereotypical characters. . . .

What it does have is; good writing; solid acting; good directing; believable stories; a-typical characters; political intrigue; suspense; . . . in short all the things a good spy thriller should have.

I imagine that most Americans will not like this show, thinking it to slow. However, if you liked things like “I Claudius,” or the political intrigue parts of “Ghost in the Shell” and want to see a well done spy series then this show might be for you.

I just watched all three seasons of The Guild

While I would generally not like the format of this show with the webcam recaps of each episode for some reason this really works for me. Clearly It’s Felicia Day that makes it work. I’ve never been a MMORPG gamer but still find a connection to the show from my paper-and-pencil RPG days.

In short this is a web based series about a group or marginally socially functional online gamers. Each episode lasts about 10 minutes and begins with a recap of the previous episode. However, when the episodes are blended together the still seem to flow quite seamlessly. It’s surprisingly well written and acted. The characters represent a broad cross section of potential online gamers not just the “kid living in his moms basement.”

The production values are low but for a web based series not all that bad. I watched the first two seasons online from Netflix and the third season on the shows website. The fourth season is do to start in July.

If you are or ever have been into gaming in any serious way you owe it to yourself to give this show a try.

Where do you find the time?

No WAF or GF or BF (figured I’d better cover that one too ). = huge time saver.

Civil service employee = 11 paid federal holydays/year, 9 day pay period (every other Friday off but 9 hour work days), 208 hours annual leave/year, 104 sick hours/year, work night shift and usually get to leave 1-3 hours early every day so really only 6-8 hour days. 5 hours exercise time a week at work minimizes what I have to do on my time. And to think I use to fight communism.

Low upkeep on house - desert landscape front, don’t water the back, minimal housekeeping (bachelor).

Minimalist cooking - cook all my food for the week in about 2 hours once a week.

In short my life is optimized to maximize “me time.”

Dude, we gotta get you a girlfriend to mess all that up.

Sounds a lot like my life, but I don't seem to find all of the time to watch a lot. I get 200 hours off a year, but no more, I have to take sick leave and vacation out of that, but I rarely get sick. I work 8 hr days. No significant other. Just me any my cat at home. I go to church once a week and to a Wed night pot luck and get together. I have 2 hours a week of yard to mow. A house that needs work, but I've been rather slack with that one. Oh well.

The Guild hardly represents a major time investment. The episodes are way too short. I enjoyed the show all right, but I gave my sister the DVDs of the first two seasons when I was done with them. I watched the third season on Xbox Live. I would agree that Felicia Day is what makes the show work, but she also kind of annoys me. I wasn't expecting to see her in the final season of Buffy.

Auto-Tune the News has a nice recap of season 3 to get you ready for season 4. Not as inspired as their normal stuff, but decent enough.

Thanks Charles, I knew I had seen her before but just couldn’t remember where.