A (quiet) day in the life..

So I finally had a day to myself..
No work, no plans, no football matches, nothing, nada, nowt on the cards at all.. Oh joy of joys, I knew this day would finally come to pass!
Not that I'm complaining about how hectic things have got recently, it's been a blast, but every now and then it's good for the soul to kick back, relax and just chill the fuck out..
..and, to be honest, I was pooped! ;)
..and it meant I got to spend some quality time with my beloved Sky+ box as, I gotta tell you, I had a lot of quality viewing to be done.
First up was the new series of Battlestar Galactica which has just started on Sky One (well, to be honest, they showed the pilot episodes last week, the actual series only kicks off on Monday). Now I must admit I had mixed feelings about this as I was a big fan of the original Battlestar Galactica series.. I still maintain that its good viewing even today (I'm sorry but, for me, the Cylons in the original series were WAY cool.. that whooshing red beam at the front of the Centurion's head (an idea later revisited in the front of KITT) and the ships they flew were pretty fucking cool too). I know some people out there say that it was camp and cheesy, and it's true that they did re-use the same special effects shots every week.. but I never cared at the time and it was still fabby.Let's not forget that it was obviously good enough to get George Lucas all upset, as he tried to sue the producers of the show, saying that they ripped off Star Wars (a case he lost!!).
But anyway, the new series...
Well the special effects are far better, they've thrown some serious dosh at the programme and it does look slick.. It was very weird that Starbuck is now a woman (rather than being played by The A-Team's Dirk Benedict) although still enjoys card games and smoking very large cigars and even odder that Colonel Tigh is now white. The plot is, undoubtably, a bit more grown up with there already being tension between Adama (who'd prefer a military response to the Cylon attack) and the Colonial president who just wants to keep the human race going. And of course Baltar, the man who (unwittingly in this version) commits treason and sells out the humans to the Cylons now has a British accent (as us Brits are allowed to be portrayed as evil in American films and TV shows as we're far too polite to kick up a fuss about stereotypes)..
But is it as fun to watch?
Hmm.. of that I'm not convinced..
It takes itself all so seriously that I'm not sure..
I actually found the space battles to be a bit dull as there were no swooping dog fights (these days all of the Cylon ships seem to be equipped with 100 megaton nuclear devices which means they don't have to fly paricularly close to a target to cause any real damage). Also, as the characters look like they may crack their faces if they smile, I didn't particularly care if any of them lived or died. It's all too grown up, and really it seems to me that if a sweeping Space Opera takes itself too seriously then all it really does is render it open to for much piss-taking..
Maybe it will improve once it becomes an ongoing series (and I have it marked for recording tomorrow night to give it a chance), but it certainly hasn't impressed me much yet!
I also found (completely by accident) that a new series of
Q.I. was back on BBC2 (and BBC4) on a Friday night. This is a fabulous show, and one of the few really funny things on TV at the moment (at least until Little Britain comes back on Tueday). Why is it never advertised? Do the Beeb not realise what a gem they have in their schedules? I had no idea that it was back (I'm not one of these people that buys a TV guide every week so if something doesn't get advertised or unless I happen to find it on the EPG, then I'd never know anything was on).. but I'm glad it is. As someone who seems to have a brain that is a sponge for mindless trivia this show is like a font for all knowledge.. Like who knew that the U.S. Army dressed mexican bats in little waistcoats filled with Napalm and tried to use them to destroy Japanese villages and towns during the war? (Another indication that fact truly is stranger than fiction). Genius.
Oh and yes, there's been lots of Mutant X.. What a show.. It was worth getting asthma and being signed off for a week just so that I found this little gem in the afternoon TV schedules.. And, contrary to what Leon might think, it's not just due to the fact that Victoria Pratt plays Shalimar Fox.. (although I have to admit, she's not exactly tough to look at!!).
Anyway, that's the Hard Drive on the Sky+ box cleared down a bit (it needs to be -there's a lot of cool shows on this week) and a nice lazy day of TV watching with absolutely nothing that I didn't actually want to watch. Fabulous.
Dunno when I'll get another slobby day like this, but every now and then, it's good to be a couch potato!