Journal

Quietly we watch the gloaming.

TV

I was watching a bit of the Channel 5 lawyer show, The Pupil. I found it fairly interesting. Most curiously, it reminded me of Channel 8 dramas. That is, it’s like a strange blend of the very well-established local Chinese drama form and the seemingly new and teeming local English drama. The script flowed well, for the most part. At least in my view. Of course, it gets away with it mostly because it’s a bunch of lawyers. Nothing wrong with that. I use that trick too. That said, sometimes someone pops in and says something completely unnatural, and it irks you a little bit.

Extremely dramatic though. Like The Practice or something. I’m sure all my lawyer friends will tell me that it’s nothing like that. The only thing that seems remotely realistic is the fact that there’s a lot of photocopying to be done. Of course, I’m just guessing. Maybe it really is all that exciting in real life. Then, damn, I should’ve been a lawyer.

Although, I think, I should say that the realism bit isn’t actually a problem for me. I’m just pointing it out. Almost no television (except documentaries, of course) would work without throwing realism out of the window. Even reality TV, as you will no doubt tell me.

I’ll keep my eye on this. I’ve been mildly impressed by the recent English shows in some respects. Fighting Spiders, I think, caught my attention for a while (though it was really long with plot threads that I didn’t really enjoy). Red Thread too (until I realised it was really a soap marketed as a gripping drama). The water polo one was completely not to my tastes. The Pupil seems okay, if there’s something about its stock characters that disturbs me.

Trine

Trine is fun. It somehow reminds me of LittleBigPlanet. Except it’s single-player. And you get to smack things. For a 5-dollar game, it’s certainly turning out to be quite excellent.

Tekkonkinkreet

I hope to get to watch Tekkonkinkreet. I’m looking for it. In the meantime, can anyone tell me if it’s any good?

Three Percent

A review of the latest Kenzaburo Oe book to be translated by Grove Press, The Changeling. [via Three Percent]

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