214 posts tagged “2008”

Go back one year and this was how Tom Beck was promoted in his first season of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. There were a few episodes I didn’t see, judging by this RTL promo.

Remember last year when I took the mickey out of these in the City Life newspaper?

   The first one is obvious: Melbourne is misspelt. The second one is also obvious: Circle is misspelt, there’s a missing apostrophe for the possessive, and capitalizing a definite article is technically incorrect. I remember we had a bit of fun with this as they were in huge letters, the former across the top of a tabloid-sized page.
   The question one has to pose is: did they get it right in 2009? Let’s see: Well, that’s a good start. Someone hired a proofreader at long last. Or turned the spellcheck on.
   Let’s see how the second one went: One fewer error, but still two to go. Note the prize money has reduced to a recessionary $150 this time around. The text, which also has a few issues (based around consistency of English usage), remains the same as last year.
   Any bets on the 2010 edition? Will the apostrophe for Winners’ be there? Or is there only one winner, in which case it’s Winner’s? I remain none the wiser.

The largest car maker in the land was effectively nationalized. It then killed more brands and product lines, even ones that could have survived.
   Chrysler, hanging on to unloved mainstream sedans such as the Avenger, was in a deep crisis and needed a European manufacturer to take over its operations.
   Ford, resisting the urge to go cap in hand to the government, stayed its course and solidified its market share, despite its own union troubles. It managed to shore things up and grow from there.
   USA 2009? No, UK in the 1970s.
   This is not a political post—it’s just pointing out how history repeats itself. I also have a funny feeling the US scenario will play out the same way as the UK one did.
   British Leyland was broken up further and its “volume” operations—despite making fewer cars than London Taxis International—are owned by the Chinese state.
   Chrysler UK no longer exists. Its plants wound up making Peugeots.
   Ford UK might not be as strong today as in the 1980s, but it still has a good market share.

Let’s see: State of Play, remade. Life on Mars, remade. What are the chances the Americans will redo Tuesday?
   I think there is a conspiracy to remake anything that John Simm and Philip Glenister appear in.

Darn it, Selma Blair has a heck of a great voice.

I knew Kevin Spacey is a very good actor, but I had no idea he is a brilliant impressionist. I loved his Johnny Carson.

At a friend’s friends’ home, and just viewed this. Bonnie, whom I met at this party tonight, was costume designer for this 48-hour film entry:

This was hilarious. Note: there is usage of the f word.
   Back to the party before people think I am odd for blogging while drinking a sauvignon blanc.

A slightly odd Ashes to Ashes on Monday night. There are clues that Alex has been found by the emergency services and that a crash crew is two minutes away, furthering her first-series theory that she could literally be living seconds of her life while days whiz by in 1982.
   Last night, Matthew Graham’s script was good for some of the Gene Hunt lines, and the freemasonry parts were suitably spooky, but there was relatively little from the stalker that we saw in Ashley Pharoah’s first episode last week. I don’t have too much to add, other than the use of a Leyland Princess for the opening car chase, to which Gene utters, ‘Death of a Princess’—again tying in with the Lady Di boat in the first episode last year, and the many Princess Diana references last week (Pont de l’Alma, England’s rose, and 1982 TV footage). And why does Alex keep hearing a helicopter?

   Alex’s body in 2008 must be somewhere connected with Diana—maybe the pier is named for her? Anyone a bit more familiar with the Greenwich–Milwall area?
   Next week, the preview indicates that Morph will appear, in the same manner as the Camberwick Green parody in Life on Mars and Zippy and George last year. Roland the Rat is also scheduled for an appearance in this second series.
   The cast of Ashes to Ashes has been told the entire plot and Marshall Lancaster (whose role has been expanded this year—and I like this direction) has been quoted as saying it is far more complicated than we expect. I think we can presume that it’s “real” and not just in her head—Alex has somehow done a Quantum Leap into someone in 1982. Unlike Life on Mars, there are scenes without her, indicating that the characters have lives outside of her mind. But is there any spiritual meaning behind Gene Hunt?

I rather liked Craig Ferguson’s jokes at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It was a shame that his fellow media colleagues didn’t know a good laugh when they heard it.
   I have found this with political humour in the United States. I have had political jokes fall well flat, and this is due to the politeness of Americans. Democrats don’t want to offend Republicans in the audience, and Republicans don’t want to offend Democrats in the audience. Net result: little laughter.
   The only times one can get a bit more extreme is in areas which are staunchly one way or another (e.g. then-Sen. Obama at the DNC and Gov. Palin at the RNC).
   He dissed The New York Times as much as Fox News, Vice-President Cheney as much as Sen. Clinton, Bill O’Reilly as much as Keith Olbermann, and he even had a go with the media in general. However, I loved his closing which was a great way to bring everyone together. Also notice that Mr Ferguson got a standing ovation.

So what’s the deal with ‘England’s rose’, Princess Diana, and Alex Drake? Have we moved from David Bowie to Elton John this year? Why is there a Lady Di reference in the two series of Ashes to Ashes so far (think back to series 1, episodes 1 and 2)?
   There were some great Life on Mars-esque touches with the new series of Ashes to Ashes: viz. mystery phone calls and glimpses of the present day (2008). But those who liked Alex Drake’s self-awareness about the situation she might be in might not take to the darker tone of the new series; those of us who like an extra mystery thrown in, à la Life, will love it.
   The problem was the relative absence of surprises, especially after the way US Life on Mars ended (can’t get more whack than that) but Alex Drake’s mystery stalker, who taunts her with a red rose and even captures her momentarily, is enough to keep me watching. (Also, what is it with tunnels—both the one where Diana and Dodi were killed and the motif used heavily in Spanish Life on Mars, La chica de ayer?)
   I know there are those little things appearing in the show that couldn’t have existed in April 1982, such as the particular model of Audi Quattro or Roger Allam’s Rover SD1 (it’s a Vanden Plas, launched December that year), and on Twitter someone mentioned the SLR camera wasn’t available.
   But as with Life on Mars, it’s telly. Was it good telly? I say yes, with viewer numbers peaking at 7·2 million in the UK last night—identical to the première.