Jack Yan on Vox

Sam Tyler goes back to 1973 (the ﬁrst time)

2008-10-11T22:40:58Z

For my American friends who saw US Life on Mars on Thursday, here’s the original scene where Sam Tyler is struck by a car and sent back to 1973. Bear in mind that the original UK episode was 17 minutes longer, so these scenes are a bit longer as w...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Democratic name jokes are harder to make

2008-10-11T01:31:11Z

The trouble with the Obama surname from a humour point-of-view is that the senator from Illinois and his wife are the two most famous people bearing it. There are no others who are comparable. For example, antipodeans can keep using ‘Ah, McCain...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

US Life on Mars gets a thumbs-up

2008-10-10T06:09:04Z

US Life on Mars got off to a good start. The script was neatly changed (though I wonder about the whole Colin Raimes kid scene at the end replacing the Sam on the rooftop one), and it still worked. Jason O’Mara gives a far, far better performance...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Pop-up type

2008-10-09T13:30:33Z

Got in one of these at work. Very clever, and in New Zealand at $32·99 (UK at £9·99). No idea where we’ve put it, mind. Hopefully this means we have given it away to a child. I think our cover might be different, showing all the characters in t...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Let’s sell Canada to pay off the national debt

2008-10-09T12:01:41Z

Hey, the Governor is right: the Washington Memorial looks nothing like him! I am not sure who the actor is, but he does a good impersonation of Gov. Schwarzenegger. The lines are excellent.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Nationality, natural-born citizens and the presidency

2008-10-09T10:23:57Z

[Cross-posted] I now think Biden, McCain, Obama and Palin have had me direct a joke at them. I am an equal opportunity critic. I like to think, therefore, that I can comment on certain US issues in a bipartisan fashion. On a friend’s blo...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Last pre-broadcast reviews for US Life on Mars

2008-10-09T05:58:18Z

The Los Angeles Times has both a video and a written review of tonight’s US Life on Mars première. Mary McNamara finds it largely positive; Robert Lloyd has a few minor reservations. Hop over to the site to see a few more clips; by (my) morning we...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I am a maverick outsider reformer

2008-10-09T05:38:39Z

It’s been a while (a year?) since I gave a TV interview—the al-Jazeera spots don’t count because the question is prepared long beforehand and I have had a day (or days) to get ready. Yesterday, Nick Wang fired a few good questions my way, not j...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Forget the bridge to nowhere, let’s debate the issues

2008-10-09T05:07:15Z

With any election campaign, and now being involved as a political candidate myself for the New Zealand Parliament, my observations stem from the point of view of ‘Would I do this?’ For example, I wouldn’t have tried making fun of Sen. Barack Ob...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Stop the Planet of the Apes, I want to get off!

2008-10-09T01:39:35Z

Not getting much done at work today. Some clever netizen took the Planet of the Apes: the Musical songs from The Simpsons and married them to clips from the film.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend