I don’t remember a lot of inspiring science fiction from when I was a kid. There were the occasional movies like Back to the Future and Flight of the Navigator, sure, but when it came down to pure influence on my childhood psyche it was always a fight between Star Trek and Star Wars. These franchises always had staying power in my imagination, and for a long time when I thought about science fiction I thought about these properties. This is before I was old enough for the really good stuff, keep in mind.
Earth 2 is a show that sparked my imagination and stayed in my head for a long time mostly because of how very different it was, or seemed to be, from other science fiction I was seeing. It was my first experience with the space western, and indeed when I watch it now I can’t help but see thematic seeds planted here that will come to fruition a decade later in Joss Whedon’s Firefly.
So what’s Earth 2? Really simple: humanity has used up all of Earth’s resources and now live in space stations orbiting the planet. In addition, a strange affliction only know as The Syndrome is starting to affect more and more children as each generation passes on the stations. Devon Adair is a mother to such a child. A woman of incredible wealth, she’s harnessed all of her resources to charting an expedition to an Earthlike planet 22 light years away. They get there, they crash land, and the entire show is spent heading to the colony site that the sleeping colonists will land at in 17 months or so.
It couldn’t be more a western set in the future if it tried. The Indians are now psychic aliens who live symbiotically with the planet and the evil forces from Earth are trying to subvert this new world and its people to their own aims.
I’m not going to watch the whole season, I think, but I’m glad I revisited it. The quality of a show tends to decay when you watched it and loved it when you were younger. Earth 2 holds up, though. The ideas are great, if not exactly polished. It’s trying very hard to be its own thing, and there’s a magic to that.
Two interesting points about the show that I didn’t know. The first is that Earth 2 is the first television science fiction series to have a female commander. Not Star Trek, Earth 2. And she’s decent. Secondly, and on a sadder note, the actress who played the daughter to Clancy Brown’s character died four years ago. It was both sad and strange to discover that an actress who was younger than I was when I first encountered the show had died in the years between. Her name was J. Madison Wright, and she did good work.
If you have the chance, check out Earth 2.
Calgary author William Neil Scott is married to Tara and will be blogging about the shows and movies he’s watching on Netflix during the free trial month. You can also catch him blogging at www.williamneilscott.com.
I’d heard about Gavin & Stacey in passing a couple of years ago but didn’t really know what it was about. All I knew was that Rob Brydon was in it and I liked him whenever he was on QI, and that it’s a comedy series from the BBC.
Fast forward to the big UK trip Neil and I took in early July when I found the complete series, all three seasons plus the Christmas special, on sale at HMV for £20 (roughly 30 Canadian dollars at that time). I still didn’t know much about it so I wasn’ t sure if it was worth it, but we talked to Neil’s friend James and bought it after he described it as having some of the tightest writing he’s seen on television.
So what’s it about?
Gavin Shipman is a guy from Essex who’s been talking regularly on the phone at work with Stacey West, a nice girl from Barry, Wales (they have sort of a vendor/customer relationship). After six months of talking, they’re finally going to meet, and when they do, they fall in love. But as the creators James Corden and Ruth Jones say in the extras, their relationship is really just an excuse to get the incredible group of people that is Gavin and Stacey’s family and friends into the show.
Other characters include Gavin’s best friend Smithy (played by Corden), Stacey’s best friend Nessa (Jones), Gavin’s parents Mick and Pam, Stacey’s mum Gwen, and Stacey’s uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon). There’s a wonderful coming together of the families throughout the series, plus complicated relationships like Smithy and Nessa’s–they have a child together after a couple of one night stands despite actually being disgusted with each other and have to negotiate parenthood as Nessa gets into a relationship with Dave Coaches (who drives the coach bus).
Each season has a fairly simple plot with the real force being driven by the characters. In the first season, Gavin and Stacey meet, get engaged and at the end, get married. Nessa also reveals at the end of the season that she’s pregnant with Smithy’s child. The second season features two storylines: Nessa’s pregnancy, her relationship with Dave and the birth of baby Neil at the end of the season; and Gavin and Stacey’s negotiation of where they live (they start out at Mick and Pam’s, Stacey eventually moves back to Barry, and they’re back together at the end). The Christmas special features all of them together at Mick and Pam’s for the holidays, Gavin and Stacey’s announcement that they’re moving to Barry and Dave’s proposal to Nessa. And in the final season, Gavin and Stacey are trying to have a baby and Nessa and Dave are planning their wedding, with the wedding episode as the finale.
Rumour has it that there will be another Christmas special, and even though the story is really well wrapped up at this point, I’m still glad to hear it because I’d love another visit to that story.
The verdict
Gavin & Stacey is hands down one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. James was right–the writing is incredibly tight, and the performances are excellent with every phrase, look and action loaded with meaning. The show does so much more than follow the typical sitcom form and despite having only a half an hour to work with per episode, most episodes walk that fine line of being funny, sharp, poignant and occasionally heartbreaking. It does a great job of taking everyday situations, like a wedding, and making them recognizable, funny and lovely.
I’ve been spending the day deconstructing my response to this show because it’s been so strong and what it really comes down to is that I developed a very emotional response to the show in a way that I’ve never been able to with any other sitcom. I love 30 Rock and firmly believe it’s one of the best shows on television at the moment, but I’ve always felt an intellectual connection to it. And after watching all the extras for Gavin & Stacey, I think the reason I’ve had such an emotional response is that the creators and everyone involved have an emotional investment in it. They’re not just there for the paycheck, they truly love these characters and their stories.
So watch it. Not only that, but find it and buy it if you can. It’s a show that’s not only worth watching, but worth owning. You’ll thank me later.
Dixie Carter died today at the age of 70. Like many, I’ve always thought of her in relation to her character Julia Sugerbaker from Designing Women, a genteel southern woman who wouldn’t bow to anyone.
Check out this clip and remember how fantastic she was:
The Daily Beast is pointing to the current Betty White mania in the US to ask if 80 is the new 30.
If the Facebook fan page for “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” is any indication (501,524 fans as of this writing, and yes, I’m approximately fan 30,000), the answer is probably yes.
In what’s sure to be a great show, Betty White has been confirmed as one of the hosts for a Mother’s Day SNL show on May 8 along with former SNL greats like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, and Rachel Dratch.
Oh, and she’s 88 and set to be one of the co-stars of the new sitcom Hot in Cleveland. Check out the first clip from the forthcoming show (from what I can see, she’ll be the best part of it).
Last month she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SAG Awards and her speech was priceless:
May she keep acting for many more years to come, and may I kick as much ass as she does when I’m 88.
According to the New York Times, Mattel is releasing what will probably be the coolest Barbies on the block.
“The characters to become dolls are Don Draper, the show’s leading man; his wife, Betty; his colleague at the Sterling Cooper agency, Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager who was Roger’s mistress.
That two dolls represent a relationship outside wedlock, and Don Draper’s propensity for adultery, may be firsts for the Barbie world since the brand’s introduction five decades ago. But for the sake of the Barbie image, her immersion in the ‘Mad Men’ era will go only so far: The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.”
It’s a shame they don’t come with little packs of Lucky Strikes or a mini-bar stocked with vodka and scotch.
Excellent news! EW is reporting that a sequel to the HBO masterpiece Rome is “well on its way”.
“Rome creator/executive Bruno Heller [...] has finished a script for Morning Light Productions, which financed the development and will produce the film. Series stars Kevin McKidd (Lucius Vorenus) and Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo) will likely sign onto the movie, which picks up in Germany four years after the series ended. The next step for Morning Light is to find a director and a studio, since HBO Films won’t be involved.”
It would be fantastic if McKidd and Stevenson reprised their roles of Vorenus and Pullo, especially since that was the true love story (if you will) of the show, but given the way season 2 ended, I don’t understand how they would bring the Vorenus character back.
If you haven’t seen Rome yet, I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s lavish, sexy, bloody and so well-written it’s difficult to stop watching. Not only that but the acting is excellent on all fronts. Buy it, watch it, and make everyone you know watch.
I’d heard about 
If the Facebook fan page for “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” is any indication (501,524 fans as of this writing, and yes, I’m approximately fan 30,000), the answer is probably yes.
“The characters to become dolls are Don Draper, the show’s leading man; his wife, Betty; his colleague at the Sterling Cooper agency, Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway, the agency’s office manager who was Roger’s mistress.
Excellent news! EW is reporting that a sequel to the HBO masterpiece 
