Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Tag: TV

Film review — Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter’s three-picture deal with Alive Films in the mid-to-late ’80s produced only two features: 1988’s They Live and this one, from the year prior. They Live is generally feted as a cult classic and a high point for Carpenter, but let’s be honest that Roddy Piper and Keith David’s shared charisma does a lot of the heavy lifting; the budgetary limitations really show in its final act, which renders what’s meant to be a global conspiracy of alien dictatorship middlingly local. More…

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Film review — Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is such an icon that his story deserves to be told without glossing over the failures that make his career trajectory that much more interesting and compelling. So let’s have another run at this one some time; we’ll need more than two-and-a-half hours, but so be it. More…

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Weaknotes for f/e 21 December 2019

I’m still not quite sold on the utility of these weaknotes when my blog already pulls in tweets from the stream of consciousness of my daily life (of which I care to share) but I suppose there’s some worth in sitting down to take stock, and see what’s stuck from the previous days (or weeks). As for this past fortnight? Mostly depression about the awfulness of the UK general election. That and I’ve hardly seen the sun come out this month. More…

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Forty-plus years of Super Sentai tokusatsu covered in about eight minutes. Interesting to see how blatantly toy-oriented the Japanese shows are compared to the western adaptations. #video

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Wire, performing songs from their classic first three albums live on German TV’s Rockpalast in 1979. #video

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What Ever Happened To Brendan Fraser?

Turns out, he got old, then found a new direction. “It’s so cool to see leading men become great character actors later in their career,” says a producer quoted here; indeed it is, and Fraser comes across as such an intelligent, sensitive and likeable guy in this GQ profile, that I’m quite looking forward to watching him in Trust now. #link

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Andrew Ellard’s social stories

The writer and script editor collecting tweeted thoughts on various TV and film type things. Can’t say I agree with everything, and certainly not his take on the Ghostbusters reboot (it’s not a fraction as funny as it thinks it is, and I fucking hate the Holtzmann character). But his tweets on Rogue One get to the nuts and bolts of why it doesn’t really work. My own review is superficial in hindsight, too forgiving of its flaws, but it’s a fairly superficial movie that I was evaluating in the context of a greater disappointment. #link

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Santa Clarita Diet

Drew Barrymore in Santa Clarita Diet

Just piping up to recommend Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix, if you haven’t seen it already.

Think a mildly gore-splattered Desperate Housewives with the sensibility of 30 Rock. If that floats your boat, give it a couple of episodes to get going and find its tone; by the third, you’ll know.

For me, it’s all in the combination of great writing — especially in the fleshed-out characters and relationships — and spot-on casting. You can’t go wrong with Drew Barrymore, though Timothy Olyphant is the real standout. Who knew he had such a gift for comedy?

Anyway, if Netflix keeps doing shows as entertaining as this, it’ll make the subscription worth keeping.

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Stranger Things and the problem with ‘plotblocking’

In this house we’re probably the only people who haven’t seen Stranger Things among all the world's Netflix subscribers, but the issue discussed here is one that’s been a thing a lot longer. And it’s a problem with story-arc shows in general, when the main narrative thrust is too slow-burn to let the individual episodes stand alone. #link

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The Guardian: How TV news failed to keep up in 2016

There’s no good reason why TV news producers can’t make better use of the web and social media as channels. They’re brands people can and do trust, but their absence from Facebook and the like only leaves a void to be filled by the fakes. #link

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Lazyweb request: a social network for TV

I’ve been thinking a lot about television recently — more so since we got our first PVR last weekend. I hadn’t felt I was missing out in not having one before (apart from the programme clash conundrum); I’d always been in the habit of scheduling myself around my favourite shows, and didn’t think that would ever change.

But it’s been three days now and I’m already converted. It’s really been one of those ‘you don’t really know until you try’ experiences. From now on TV will be fitting into my schedule, not the other way round.

Now, while I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s part of the ‘democratisation of television’ or anything, thinking about it does lead naturally to ideas about how the TV audience behaves in the networking age — and how this audience isn’t adequately served.

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