Television

It seems like at the moment the global mainstream film industry is in pretty bad shape with the big production companies needing guaranteed money makers to stay afloat.  Because of this we are seeing a lot films like Meet the Parents 3, Shrek 4 and any number of films involving a comic book character.  This is stifling creativity because they are unwilling to take risks and the public is being forced to see a load of dross in the cinema a lot of the time.  For example I hear they are making the Hangover 2.  You know it's going to be terrible because it's not a film that is geared towards a sequal and will just be spoiled.

On the other hand tv has never been better.  A lot of this is coming out of the US with HBO continually producing shit hot shows like the Wire, Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiam and Entourage.  Basically watch anything HBO shows and it will be good.  Their latest potential masterpiece is Boardwalk Empire which recreates Atlantic City during prohibition in the 1920s and 30s.  It's got a typically great cast led by Steve Buscemi (legend) and has Martin Scorcese as an executive producer (he also directs the pilot).  Other US tv I'm loving at the moment is The Office and Modern Family.

British tv will always struggle to compete with these fantastic HBO shows because of lower budgets but theres still some good stuff being produced.  The Inbetweeners has recently finished its third series which had some hilarious moments and I believe they are doing a couple more special episodes before a concluding film which I can't wait for.  The BBC also recently brought back Sherlock Holmes with Martin Freeman from The Office as Watson, and Benedict Cumberbatch (great name) as Holmes.  These episodes moved the Holmes and Watson characters into the 21st century to see how they attempt to solve crimes in a modern landscape with current technology, while maintaining a lot of the classic personality traits you know from the stories of late 19th/early 20th century.  Another show I've been watching is How Not to Live Your Life which is a comedy starring a guy called Dan Clark as Don Danbury.  This show involves him often doing a narrative and talking to the camera and will often cut away to dream like sequences where he goes through different alternative scenrios for certain situations (maybe you need to see it to understand).  Anyway, I think ulimately the point I am trying to make is there is a lot of great tv around at the moment so it's a shame so many people are obsessed with crap like the X-Factor.

Poker has started well this month so hopefully I can carry this on and book a decent final month for 2010.  I have played quite a lot of funny hands recently so I should pull out some of the best ones to put in this blog but I cant be bothered at the moment.  PKR has announced that they have a new pro which looks very much like its Japete (will find out for sure tomorrow I think).  If it does indeed turn out to be him he definately deserves it.  Really nice guy who has played on PKR for a long time now and had a lot of good results recently.  I do hope that becoming a PKR pro doesn't set off an extra boomswitch like BrotherMuzone suggested, I don't think my bankroll could stand it as I already lose every pot I play with Japete!

I'll leave with a picture that always makes me laugh from a great show....

Freak book haha!