TV stuff

This blog is like the no. 68 bus. You wait ages for an update, then two come along in quick succession.

Ever since the last episode of Heroes, I've been unable to commit to any other series. I know it's silly, but I'm in mourning for SpongePete and his permanently furrowed brow. Actually Flying Man was more my type...

We decided that Ceej was old enough to start hiding behind the sofa, so family sat down for Dr Who on Saturday. This marks Ceej's first steps into the world of geekdom, and I'm proud to say that she enjoyed every minute. Actually, so did I. I worried about Catherine Tate, but I enjoyed her performance, and she made David Tennant work harder, which is always a good thing. Though I do wish they'd stop him changing suddenly from cute jokey Doctor to Serious Godlike Being about 40 minutes in. You can almost put a timer on it. I also liked this week's cute alien babies made out of HUMAN LARD.

BBC4 also showed the first ever Daleks episode, which had First Doctor William Hartnell playing a grumpy old man in a cardboard set. It also featured his granddaughter Susan, who I still want Russell Davies to resurrect as a bitter abandoned woman in her late forties.

I've been dipping into Mad Men, and it's a bit too glossy for me. Producers seem to be indulging in a bit of nostalgia for a time when men were men and women wore teeny skirts and giggled when they got their bottoms pinched. Nowadays when we get our bottoms pinched, we're empowered by our sexuality or something. But apparently it's different from then.

So Mad Men pre-dates The Feminine Mystique. Men wear suits and smoke and indulge in casual anti-semitism. And they sleep with their secretaries/bohemian divorced artist types. Women sit at home and bake cakes, looking desperate. Everything is very shiny and new, and even the nervous breakdowns are beautifully rendered. I know it was written by an ex Sopranos bod, but what I loved about The Sopranos was its tawdriness. Carmela's awful living room, the stupidly upholstered cars, or Paulie Walnuts' sweaters... Mad Men is a bit too artfully rendered for my liking.

One last thing. BBC4 is re-running original Batman shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Last week Vincent Price cracked some awful gags as Egghead; the week before Shelley Winters was Ma Baker...and was Adam West really taking it that seriously? Tune in tomorrow...