butterfly

Heroes - Episode 2, BBC2, Wednesday 9pm

Whoa……someone get me a chair!  Give whoever wrote this episode a BIG(ger) paycheck. 

Watching mild-mannered Mohinder ripping off his shirt and specs Superman stylee to reveal a body so buff it must have been CGI’d certainly made my day!!  Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays Mohinder, must have spent his break locked in the gym. 

Unfortunately ladies, it looks like this vision of gorgeousness will be short lived as the show ended with the power enhanced Mohinder sprouting unsightly growths on his body.  Motherflippers!

Elsewhere, following Bob’s death, mother-from-hell, Angela Petrelli, steps in as Head of the Company. We discover not only that Peter’s first power - dreaming the future - came from her, but that she is Sylar’s real mother!  Now we should have seen that coming. 

We have also found out where Bob got all his money from to fund The Company - he had the Midas touch.  I wonder what will happen to his poor orphaned daughter, Elle, now?  It doesn’t look like Angela holds any maternal sympathy for her.

Volume 3 has definitely started well, revealing the answers to many of our question from the past two seasons and giving us loads more such as ‘Where did the powers originate from?‘, ‘Who is new character Daphne working for?‘ and most importantly ‘Is future Peter really a baddie?‘  - of course not…he can’t be….can he?

At last a decent series to replace Doctor Who, Primeval and all the other Saturday primetime shows that we enjoy watching with the family.

Knowing how rubbish some of these shows turn out to be, I tuned in to Merlin on Saturday with low expectations…..low and behold we all sat glued to the screen and enjoyed every minute of it.  One of the reasons it was so enjoyable was probably down to the brilliant CGI which was created by the Doctor Who special effects team.

We also took great pleasure in ‘character spotting’ ……that is seeing how many characters from our other favourite TV shows popped up this week and no doubt others will follow.  Tony Head who played a scarey Headmaster in Doctor Who was the first and soon followed by Eve Myles, who isn’t very scarey in Torchwood, but had us hiding behind our cushions as the very creepy witch trying to avenge her sons’ death.

This looks set to become a firm favourite in our household so I hope the rest of the series is as good.

Whodda thought it?…..the mysterious hand did belong to Dylan’s father!  He is a very creepy character isn’t he?  I’m amazed that Dylan is such a lovely child with parents as ruthless, controlling and menacing as hers!

Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, Orson’s secret is finally out and although Mike and Susan eventually forgive him, Bree can’t.  With her history you would think she could be a bit more lenient with poor old henpecked Orson!

I’m starting to find Gaby’s selfish and manipulative way’s a bit pedictable and boring to watch, fortunately her and Carlos take in a lodger in the next episode so let’s hope their story gets a little more interesting….

You won’t often find me cheering the Tescopoly, but thanks Tesco for this one!

What next? Maybe they’ll try this new advert style:-

Yeah we all know this is just another opportunity for Charley to satiate his boysish enthusiasm for motorbikes and travelling the world.  The novelty of this series is that he and producer/fellow traveller, Russ Malkin get the opportunity to ‘have a go’ on steam trains, boats and big red London bus and numerous other means of transport that little boys fantasise about!

I like Charley Boorman, despite the fact his participation in these great adventures is all funded by our tax-payers money, because he comes across as a really nice, if slightly bumbling, bloke with a lovely family and no lovey airs and graces.

Although I loved the Long Way Down/Round series and enjoyed the camaraderie and jokes shared by Charlie and Ewan MacGregor, I’m glad Charlie has taken the spotlight in Ireland to Sydney…

We had a brief glimpse of Ewan in the first episode when he rode up to wish Charlie good luck before he set off, but there was no explanation as to why Ewan wasn’t joining Charlie on this latest adventure.  I would like to think it’s because everyone was so outraged by the way he flexed his  ‘I’m the superstar’ muscle and allowed his wife (who couldn’t even ride a bike) to nudge Charley off of the screen when she joined them on The Long Way Down, that the team decided to plan this trip behind his back and only tell him when it was too late for him to join them….!

Despite that little moan by me, I really do hope Charley and Ewan are reunited for a third Long Way show….just barr the spouse!

Isn’t it strange watching a show that’s already teetering towards storyline endings and end of season cliffhangers when it feels like it has only just started!

So it looks like Orson’s secret (mowing down Mike) is finally out of the bag, Lynette is getting some much needed male attantion after her run-in with cancer and… holy moly you just knew he couldn’t be dead!…I’m guessing the creepy looking hand cutting a photo of Dylan Mayfair out of a newspaper has just got to belong to her missing father.

I have just checked out the Desperate Housewives website and noticed a couple of strange things:

1 Dylan Mayfairs cast photo seems to have disappeared since last week - how strange - is it because she is more attractive than the rest of the cast (only my humble opinion of course).

2 Danielle Van De Kamp appears to have had an Extreme Makeover in her cast photo, she has changed from possibly the plainest, sourfaced girl in the show (of course it was a close run with Julie Mayer) to Miss Glamour Puss.  Isn’t great what effect some curling tongs and a bit of eyeliner can have?

With the huge void left by Doctor Who do your kids need a fix to fill the sci-fi gap until the specials air?

Get them to check out The Sarah Jane Adventures new updated website.  The iplayer is showing a sneak preview of the new series 2, due to air this autumn and there are lots of games and interactivity to keep them amused.

If you are a Doctor Who fan and can overlook the slightly wooden acting then it’s worth a watch.  The preview shows a VERY scary looking clown and the series also features everyones favourite character….K-9!  If they missed the first series it’s being repeated on Sunday’s at 3.05pm on BBC One.

So the summer that never was is officially over, the kids have gone back to school and, hurah!, we have some decent programmes on our tv’s again.

I’m glad the Desperate Housewives have returned, but it’s been so long since the writers strike severed the show mid-season that I had trouble remebering what exactly had happened at the beginning of this series.  Another thing that struck me was that the dialogue seemed a bit stilted, especially noticable in the conversation between Gaby and Edie.  Did anyone else think that or was it just me?  Are they using new writers?

Anyway, it was still great to be able to watch something that didn’t involve reality tv or sport again.  I stared in envy at Gaby’s perfect figure and wondered how they are going to write Eva Longoria Parker’s rumoured pregnancy into the show considering Gaby can’t have children…and I have started to ponder what little plot twist will eventually explain Katherine Mayfair’s husband’s disappearance.

I know all clues are pointing to her murdering him in self defence…but it can’t be that obvious….can it?

ariel-view

Britain from Above - BBC1, Sunday 9pm

As much as I hate being forced to take a break from my favourite TV genre’s, namely sci-fi and trashy dramas, it does leave me free time to view excellent programmes such as Britain from Above.

This also has the added bonus of leaving me smugly feeling that I have also had a bit of an education when I can quote phrases such as  ‘did you know the English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world carrying over 400 vessels on its busiest days?’  Or, and this really is special, ‘the water that we pour out of our taps is the same water that we were flushing down our toilets less than a week ago’……nice!

If you haven’t seen the show I highly recommend it and you can catch up on any episode you have missed via the website, which is worth a visit just on its own merit.  Fantastic for showing the kids that there is life beyond Nintendo!

‘E4 Laughs at Edinburgh’ - The Podcast Series

If you’ve ever thought that the Edinburgh Festival sounds like a bit of a laugh, but you’re too skint (can’t be arsed) to travel all that way - then E4 have a solution.

The likes of Jim Bowen, Jim Jeffries, Reginald D Hunter, John Pinette and last year’s ‘If Comedy’ award nominees Andrew Maxwell and the King of Hospital Radio, Ivan Brackenbury, will be bringing their favourite acts from the festival to the E4 Udderbelly and new E4 Cow Barn, at the Edinburgh Festival.

E4 will give a twice weekly slice of the best and most exciting new comedy talent to emerge during the festival to download as a podcast or listen to on the E4 site.