Take down your 'castle', twat told

[danny la rouge]

Who needs netflix when London Live are showing a good film or two every day?

Is London Live a Freeview channel?

 

[hash tag]

it is, at least where i live. Channel 8 on mine, currently showing the Goose That Steps Out, Will Hay

 

[existentialist]

I thought this thread was about a chap who was trying to look after the greenbelt n farming and stuff, having built his own house to live in.
So, he is back in court next week
Castle site would otherwise be 'stinging nettles and rubbish'

He was due in court yesterday. No idea what the outcome was.

 

[existentialist]

Looks like he showed up: Salfords farmer Robert Fidler accuses council of trying to 'destroy' his life

Hearing due to continue Nov 9th.

Either there's a lot more that went on behind the scenes (not the haybales) over the years, or Mr Fidler is beginning to lose the plot a bit.

But surely the bottom line here is that he went to considerable trouble to deceive the LA and anyone else about what he'd done, in the belief that he'd found an excellent legal loophole to exploit. It's hard to square that with the story he appears to be trying to peddle, of a kind of conspiracy against him from the outset.

 

[danny la rouge]

it is, at least where i live. Channel 8 on mine, currently showing the Goose That Steps Out, Will Hay

Sounds great. Channel 8 is BBC Alba where I am.

 

[hash tag]

im sorry.

 

[danny la rouge]

result, a bargainouse price for so many hours of tele

I'm trusting it gets good. I've seen episode 1 now, and I have to admit if it wasn't for all the people telling me how it's worth sticking with, I wouldn't have finished the episode. It didn't grab me at all. In fact, I'm thinking they were lucky anyone stuck with it until the good episodes I'm assured are coming.

 

[bi0boy]

I fucked it off 3/4 of the way through episode one. I've never admitted that on here before.

 

[DotCommunist]

it must be trying for those who don't enjoy a police procedural. It gets there though. Given my incessant praise of even the worst Who episodes and the ropiest of sci fi I wonder if I'm turning into this bloke wrt televisual fiction:

I'm right about the wire though, it really is brilliant






cheesy peas

 

[danny la rouge]

it must be trying for those who don't enjoy a police procedural. It gets there though. Given my incessant praise of even the worst Who episodes and the ropiest of sci fi I wonder if I'm turning into this bloke wrt televisual fiction:

I'm right about the wire though, it really is brilliant






cheesy peas

I like police procedurals as a rule. But not as a matter of course; they have to be good. This, I have be frank, was ropey. If it was something I just happened across without knowing anything about it, it would have been off before the end of the episode.

I read police procedural novels. Some of my favourite TV is pp. So it's not like the genre isn't my thing. It's just that this episode shows no promise.

 

[DotCommunist]

I read police procedural novels.

so its you keeping the Rebus author in the style he is accustomed to eh

 

[DotCommunist]

It's just that this episode shows no promise.

did the lady wife concur with your judgement?

 

[danny la rouge]

did the lady wife concur with your judgement?

She doesn't want to watch any more. I think I've convinced her to watch another this evening.

 

[maomao]

Took me 3 goes at the first episode before I bothered with episode 2.

 

[danny la rouge]

so its you keeping the Rebus author in the style he is accustomed to eh

Martin Beck is more my thing.

And I'm into the Berlin Noir books atm.

 

[danny la rouge]

Took me 3 goes at the first episode before I bothered with episode 2.

That's the thing, though. Without the reputation it later gained, would you have bothered?

 

[existentialist]

I've just realised that danny la rouge isn't talking about the ongoing #twatcastlegate proceedings

 

[DotCommunist]

That's the thing, though. Without the reputation it later gained, would you have bothered?

personally, I'd have just put it down as an average cops n robbers show and vaugely followed it cos I have nothing better to do.

But people who have steered me right before bigged it up so I gave it the old school try and was rewarded. A similar thing happened with Salman Rushdies books, but a mate told me to persevere so I did. Still don't rate satanic verses though but I no longer consider magic realism to be a wankers form.

 

[Idris2002]

my elders tell me the radio version was proper hilarious but I've never sought it out.

I've told this story before, but when the radio series was running my speech therapist told me that I would enjoy it, as I was very like Marvin.

maomao - I thought the film was HHGTTG as it should be done.

 

[maomao]

That's the thing, though. Without the reputation it later gained, would you have bothered?

Maybe, it looked interesting, just hard work. Stops being hard work after a couple of episodes though.

maomao - I thought the film was HHGTTG as it should be done.

People like you should be shot.

 

[danny la rouge]

Still don't rate satanic verses though but I no longer consider magic realism to be a wankers form.

I like magic realism that you know is magic realism from the outset. Magic realism that's thrown in on the last paragraph is a count's truck.

(I'm on my phone and that last autocorrect is staying because it made me laugh out loud for real).

 

[equationgirl]

I like magic realism that you know is magic realism from the outset. Magic realism that's thrown in on the last paragraph is a count's truck.

(I'm on my phone and that last autocorrect is staying because it made me laugh out loud for real).

A new urban meme perhaps?

 

[danny la rouge]

So, we’ve watched the first four episodes of the Wire now. Here’s my thoughts so far.

To be fair to it, the extraordinary hype it has had could never be lived up to by anything. I expected to like it a lot, but I also thought I’d take the hype with a lot of salt. However, from what I’ve seen so far it’s difficult for me to see how the reputation happened. And it’s amazing that people stuck with it for the good stuff I’m told is coming. (Don’t worry, I’m open enough to still be hopeful).

Let me tell you a bit about what I like. I like the Sopranos, which I think is probably the finest show of recent times; I like Mad Men, although I have been a bit disappointed by the later series (and I haven’t yet seen the final stretch of the last series, so no spoilers please: I’ve bought the DVD box for Mrs La Rouge’s Christmas); I like Scandinavian Noir, a love that started for me with the Martin Beck books. (Although I did think the Killing ended in a ludicrous and very disappointing way). I dislike “action” films. I much prefer slow burning, subtly observed interpersonal drama. I’ll take character over plot given the choice, and I like to be shown, not told.

I hear the Wire is a slow burner. Good. That sounds like my sort of thing: I like the films of Claude Chabrol, ffs. Nobody burns as slowly as him. But so far I’ve not seen a slow burner. What I’ve seen is a generic cop show, with clichéd and two dimensional characters who aren’t people but types. Four hour-long episodes is plenty of time to flesh out character; you don’t get that luxury in a film. The Sopranos hit the ground running. You could see the quality from episode 1. You could appreciate the observation straight away. The characters were strong enough, complex enough to carry contradictions almost immediately, even the most cartoon-ish of them, like Sil.

I hear the Wire is unlike any other TV programme. I’m not seeing that so far. So far what I’m seeing is very like a lot of average cop shows, with all the genre boxes ticked, and nothing extra to pull you in.

I hear it’s a totally different hyper realism. Really? When does that happen? There’s nothing new in what I’ve seen so far. (I’d recommend those reviewers watch some old films, like Serpico for example).

So, yes, I’ll give it another couple of episodes so see if it finally finds its feet, but so far what I’ve seen is distinctly average at best, and at times actually pretty ropey. I think I’ve put in enough hours now for a little reward. If someone now revises the schedule and tells me actually it doesn’t really get going until half way through series 2, then I’m going to have to take their word for it: I’m not going to put in that much time in the hope of reaching a constantly receding horizon.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Best thing about the Wire is Omar, and maybe Idris Elba.

Rest of it is fair to middling.

 

[kabbes]

If it helps you: I would say that if you don't like it by the end of the first series, you're not going to like it. Whatever the crossover point is, it comes well before that point.

For me, it got good once Lester Freamon hit his stride. I think that was about mid-way through the first series, so you're just about there. I think if you're not enjoying it within the next few episodes, give up.

Omar is great too, but more in the later series, if I remember rightly.

ETA: I just looked up the first season. Episode 6 is called "The Wire" and for good reason. Episodes 1-5 are like the introduction -- not just to the characters but to the whole scene -- and it's that episode number 6 that really kicks off the story proper. That fits with my memory of it being about half way through the first series.

 

[danny la rouge]

And I forgot to say: Dominic West's accent is very distracting - he keeps slipping out of it.

 

[danny la rouge]

ETA: I just looked up the first season. Episode 6 is called "The Wire" and for good reason. Episodes 1-5 are like the introduction -- not just to the characters but to the whole scene -- and it's that episode number 6 that really kicks off the story proper. That fits with my memory of it being about half way through the first series.

Ah, OK. It's good to have that marker. Cheers.

 

[Santino]

Something I've noticed on re-watching series 1 of The Wire is that characters I thought were supposed to be one thing turned out not to be that thing. Not because of anything the programme 'tells' you about the characters, but because of the assumptions I brought to it based on my experience of other, less good TV shows. Because it seems like an ordinary police procedural you fill in some of the gaps with the conventions you know, but this is a mistake. (Although, of course, one of the pleasures of The Wire is the way that it subverts those conventions. It just doesn't signpost that it's doing so.)

 

[DotCommunist]

once Lester Freamon hit his stride.

not for me but I can see why you would like that, cos it is great. Its like this broken old bloke they chucked away who stopped giving a flying fuck ages ago. Then as the case starts to intrigue him and he starts to bring the old skills to bear you start to see that fucking hell, they had had a copper this good at his thing and they chucked him on the shit heap?

 

[Orang Utan]

Who needs netflix when London Live are showing a good film or two every day?

Not much choice and you need a telly and a TV licence.