Colfer's Hitchhikers Makeover Turns Out To Be Mostly Harmless...

When I first heard that Eoin Colfer, an author whose work I started following when I was a pre-teen, was commissioned to carry on the work of the late, great, Douglas Adams, I was intrigued to see what the finished result would be like. Then I forgot about it until a few days before release. My dad picked it up from the library, so I decided to give it a go in the name of research. I haven’t read the new James Bond book Devil May Care, but the idea behind its publication is very similar. This was written in the style of Douglas Adams, just as Devil May Care was written in the style of Ian Fleming. It captures a lot of Adams’ witty, random style, while making good use of new elements and ideas.

One thing I don’t like is Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged’s elevation from random joke to main character. He went from a funny, little-seen immortal character that goes around insulting people to your average immortal with a death wish. He’s been Flinted, a phrase which here means that he got a bit too much like the immortal Flint from Star Trek for my liking. This was pretty much inevitable with any character development that could’ve been done with his character, and it is pretty fun when you learn that his immortality pretty much has no limits. But that’s the thing; he didn’t really need any character development. Immortals in fiction (because there aren’t any known ones in real life) have gained a reputation for being whiny bitches for some reason. I know I’d be grateful for it if I had that power.

The Vogons make another appearance here as the bureaucratic villains of the series, although the bureaucratic side is played down in favour of the ‘absolute bastard’ side. I mean yes, they’re only doing a job, but they could do it in a nicer way. In an attempt to make a sympathetic character out of a Vogon, the reader follows one who is leaning towards a human way of thinking. This provides the way of saving the Earthling colony.

The writer handles his pre-existing characters well, developing a romance between Trillian and Wowbagger. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn, with the level of obvious love for the original books, that Hitchhikers influenced him in his youth. The new ideas that he brings to the books are using Cthulhu and making reference to the Lovecraft mythos, as well as giving Thor a personality as a Rock God. He also has an intentionally stereotypical (as in, the character is trying to be stereotypical) Irish character. Whether this is because Colfer is from Ireland himself (it serves as the setting for his Artemis Fowl books) remains to be seen.

This book works as a successor to Adams' legacy and in its own right. I found it to be involving, humorous (the cheese and God jokes were pretty funny) and it provides a suitable ending for the series if they decide to end it there. It is a damn good read while it lasts and I think that anyone who likes Adams’ original trilogy of five should get this.

The Evil Monkey Came Out Of The Closet. Gay Pride Is Going To Have A Field Day...

Usual spoiler warnings apply. I’m not the biggest fan of Hannah Montana, so I’m going to avoid making jokes at her expense.

I apprehensively sat down to watch a recent Family Guy episode last night, the slightly appropriately titled ‘Hannah Banana’. The problem with that title is that it is obviously supposed to rhyme, as it does. If you pronounce it with an American accent. However, to those of us who pronounce it ‘Hannah banarna’, it doesn’t work. Maybe it was the lemonade or my tiredness, but I found myself laughing quite a bit. The plot itself felt tired and clichéd, but the jokes were actually pretty funny.

The tired cliché that passes for a plot is as follows: Chris attempts to prove to his disbelieving family that the evil monkey in his closet actually exists, while Family Guy proves to be a late addition to the ‘mocking Hannah Montana’ bandwagon, with a subplot that intersects with the main Peter-Chris one of Stewie & Brian meeting Hannah Montana. It was one of the least surprising twists in history that she turned out to be an android, but it works. It allowed for a nice reference to King Kong, while at the same time turning it on its head with the ‘woman’ taking the small ape up the skyscraper. Peter shows himself to be his usual tosser self when he ignores his son’s homework needs, then gets into an argument with him when the monkey (of all people/simians) helps him with his work. What really grates about this is that nobody called him out on how much of an absolute bastard he was being to his kid. Not even his wife.

The Evil Monkey finds himself being less evil in this episode, due to the need for Chris to have a potential replacement father figure to take over from Peter, even though everybody knows that’s never going to happen. It’s the typical family sitcom situation, which is what Family Guy is when you come down to it. A ruder, topical version of The Simpsons.

Their true views on Hannah Montana are given one line in the show, in which the show and the music are called awful (by the monkey, who you think would be tone deaf). It’s nice to see that Family Guy has no need for the ‘the opinions of the characters within the show do not reflect those of the producers’ disclaimer. Because other than a ruder version of The Simpsons, that is essentially what Family Guy is. A platform for the producers’ opinions, and boy do they have opinions. Opinions and old footage of Conway Twitty, but let’s not go there.

This episode was good because they picked an easy subject to mock, as anyone who’s not the target audience could probably find something to mock in Hannah Montana. It was also good because they kept to writing actual jokes that were funny, not airing political opinions about recent events. I liked this one, and it felt like a return to form for Family Guy. By some peoples’ standards, maybe not as good as the early seasons, but there is a seemingly inevitable decay in the quality of animated shows the longer they last. So for anyone interested in Family Guy or who has seen most of them before, I’d definitely say check this one out.

I Hate Being The Bearer Of Not So Good News...

I started up my Wii’s iPlayer feature today and spied with my adequately proportioned eye, something beginning with R.

Russell Howard’s Good News, a topical comedy show on BBC Three (that one with Two Pints). My impressions of this show during the six-week run have been fairly mixed. For the most part, I don’t really like it that much. Yes, I will sit down and watch it, but it’s not really that great. It’s good if you just want a cheap laugh, as most people will at about 10 on a Thursday evening when it goes out. To the uninitiated, this show is a combination of Russell Howard standing on a stage and random clips from that week’s news, edited in a way that makes it seem funny, along with specially filmed bits that relate somehow to the events being talked about in that episode. You can see the same format done with roughly the same amount of success on Have I Got News For You. And as with this show, it’s not one of the best shows out there.

The main humour of this show comes from introducing a recent news item, saying something cutting about it, and then playing a clip that makes the people involved look drunk or stupid. It relies very much on out-of-context remarks played for humour, which isn’t very funny. Sometimes this makes it seem like the show’s editors must have a very easy job, as all they have to do is find clips on the internet or recent news shows. One clip on the episode I watched today came straight from YouTube. It was that one with the guy getting a football in the face; I’m sure you’ve seen it a thousand times before.

One of the things that turned me off this show was seeing a man in a giant rat costume get ejaculate-style goo fired all over him. It made a bit more sense in context but IT FUCKING SHOULDN’T! There is never a time when that should make the slightest bit of sense when you are describing it to someone else. This is also why I don’t like the hat-trick of Conway Twitty appearances in Family Guy, because if you try to describe it to someone else, they would say “uh-huh. And the funny part?”

A feature of the first few episodes that they seem to have mercifully abandoned now is the comedian at the end of each episode, which is odd because I thought they were supposed to have the warm-up guy at the beginning. I was watching one of the early episodes with my brother, and one of the only comedians I watched on the show was Phil Kay, who we pretty much skipped because he wasn’t funny (as I am informed happened throughout the run of the early episodes whenever the comedian came on). We stopped Fast-Forwarding at one point and he was throwing leaves into the audience and dancing like a madman. We gave each other a worried look and continued Fast-Forwarding.

Followers of Russell Howard since his appearances on Mock The Week can’t go in expecting the same amount of laughs or they will surely be disappointed. That’s the thing about this show; as I said earlier it is very good if you want a cheap laugh in the evening. But a cheap laugh it will most definitely be as anything more is sadly lacking.

Musical Musings...

I only realised this when I was talking to Best Mate Daniel recently, but the musical tastes that I have mostly stem from my time playing 1980's-a-thon Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. To me, nothing beats grabbing a really nice car and blasting down the road playing Beat It or Waiting For A Girl Like You on the in-game radio. It was a cracking game, and probably one of my top ten. This was the point at which I started taking an active interest in 1980's music, pretty much to the exclusion of all others. After playing it, I also started remembering my parents playing older music in the car (such as Genesis) when I was younger and liking it.

Loving this genre of music turned my mind against most modern music for some reason. But I don't mind. In my opinion, when I hear music like 'Crank That Soulja Boy' or whatever, I think to myself that I'm not losing much. I'm not saying that all modern music is bad, just that it tends to be too loud/emo/samey for my tastes. There are some modern songs that I do like, same as there are a few 80's or 70's songs that I don't like.

Bizarrely though, my absolute favourite 80's song comes not from Vice City or looking for music as a result of that, but through Guitar Hero 3. As I said in one of my earlier blog posts, Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favourite musicians of all time, and one that I would love to have met when he was alive. 'Texas Flood' is my favourite song ever. It's good to listen to it with headphones on with a cup of something nice by your side (I recommend tea or hot chocolate).

Most of the music I like comes from programmes I like, hearing the song and seeking it out for myself. Life On Mars is particularly excellent in this regard, with lots of classic music being cleared and aired to enhance the atmosphere of the time. This is more or less how I got into the who, and it was a pleasant surprise during the spin-off series, Ashes To Ashes, to hear a song I already had that I thought was an obscure song: Music For Chameleons by Gary Numan.

This is why I don't really like people asking me what I have on my iPod, because I see my music tastes as a personal thing, so I don't like it when people grab my iPod, then criticising my music tastes because it's not what they're into. These people need to learn a little thing called the live and let live philosophy.

"I Need A Hiro..."

This blog contains many spoilers. Many! This blog is only recommended if you have been keeping track of the latest series of Heroes online.

So I was watching the latest episode of Heroes last night when something occurred to me. I'm probably right in saying that we have all known someone like Resident Irish/Prick Samuel at some point in our lives. An utter dick, who doesn't care about anyone but himself but who claims to hold other's interests at heart. Maybe not a murderer, but he might as well be, for all the crap he gives about humanity. I and many other people call this a poisonous friend. It was pretty nice and gory when he shot his brother in the throat with a rock though, I actually winced when I saw the way it went in.

It was nice to see Sylar Classic again in all his evil glory, but it does unfortunately mean that they can never kill him again. The only way they can kill him is if he chooses to kill himself (which he really should, as he's pretty much lost any right he had to live) and tells them where to shoot him on his body. Kind of like the "I cannot Self-Terminate" scene in Terminator 2. Does anyone else think it would be pretty cool if they had some sort of Terminator homage to highlight this? Complete with awkward-to-watch-with-your-parents sex scene.

I think that four seasons in and with a full carnival of specials to make up, they really started scraping the bottom of the barrel for powers. In the expanded universe, there are two people with utterly stupid powers. One person is named Little Miss Goldenrod, and she has the power of Gold Mimicry. Yes, Gold Mimicry. The other person and the one with possibly the stupidest power of all is known as Caleb, and he has the power of:

FUCKING

SPIDER

MIMICRY

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that right. Spider mimicry. As in, he grows 8 huge spider limbs from his back. I can't tell what prompted them to come up with that, or what they were smoking, but there it is. I will give it to them though, they are slowing departing from X-Men's shadow, because I'm pretty sure nobody in the X-Men universe can mimic a spider. I think Spider-Man is the closest they have to that. And even he doesn't have spider-legs growing from him. It would make that secret identity a lot harder to maintain.

Thanks to Peter absorbing his brother's flight ability, no-one in the show can heal Hiro anymore. And now he has flight, which as anyone who knows me knows, I think of as an absolutely useless offensive power. Speaking of Hiro, I did think Samuel was being a real douchebag to Hiro but he should've seen it coming. I mean, he is never going to give Charlie back. There is a very real possibility that he doesn't actually know where she is in time and space. I did like the expression on Samuel's face when Hiro disappeared though. That combined with the cultural references made for a fun moment.

All in all, it was a pretty interesting episode, and I'd certainly recommend checking it out.