What sort of week has it been?

[bookzombie]

Overall, not bad I have to say. I know I shouldn't say this out loud but work seems to be settling down a bit again; this week has been reminding me of what I like about the job.

Non-work wise, I finished Devil May Cry 3 on the PS2 yesterday, which was fun overall but even on easy mode had some horrendous, temper inducing sections!

Also yesterday I finished George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows which was as always hugely enjoyable. I couldn't help but snigger a little at the author's note at the end which said that the next book, A Dance of Dragons (or something along those lines) would be out the next year. This note was written in 2005 and the last publication date I saw for the book was spring next year.

Also much enjoyed was Soundings, Gary K. Wolfe's collection of reviews and Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland, which I mentioned a few days ago.

We've been watching Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip, the already cancelled Aaron Sorkin show. Overall I have been very much enjoying it, Matthew Perry particularly is surprisingly good, but I can understand a little why it was a flop. For a start off the bits of the comedy show we see are just not that funny. Harriet, the woman who is the lead in the comedy show is as dull as dishwater. Nothing against her performance, but Amanda Peet seems far to young to be convincing as a studio president. But the biggest problem I have about the show is this: the 'show within the show' is supposed to be a topical comedy programme, but the whole 'show outside the show' is given the same serious treatment (bordering on portentousness) of The West Wing, which seems to be over egging the pudding, frankly.
Still, I'm am enjoying it in spite of my reservations.

Oh yes, and we've just come back from seeing Harry Potter V, which actually does a good job of slimming a hugely over-written book down to something that is both manageable and quite entertaining. Mind you, it didn't escape our notice that the small children sitting behind us were getting rather audibly bored...

Comments

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

I am of the opinion that Hollywood is now making movies with the DVD release most in mind. This trend may yet spell the end for the cinema though not intentionally, I'm sure the studios would prefer to continue having their cake and eating it too. The problem is the temptation to add more and more to the movie to make it seem better value when on DVD. This will make it harder and harder to cut it down to a suitable length for cinema viewing without the story losing sense. In the end it may make more sense to release a 4 hour miniseries for TV and use that to convince customers to buy the 5+ hour (plus extras) version on DVD. That's what I'd do anyway.