watervole | Pretty faces

Pretty faces

I'm predictable, I guess, and I know I've said it before, but one of the things I like about UK TV is that the characters aren't so damned pretty. They still look like real people.

The Guv, let's face it, is not pretty. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Has he got personality? In shed-loads!

'Life on Mars' vs 'Lost'? No contest!

I can only take so many characters with perfect hair and flawless complexion and anorexic bodies. I want people who remind me of my friends - not ugly, just normal.

(I shall now wait for for

lil_shepherd to try and shred me.)

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(I shall now wait for for lil_shepherd to try and shred me.)

I would be quite entertained to see her try to argue that the Guv is a model of masculine pulchritude.

Ah, she suffers from the misguided conception that 'Lost' is a better programme. That's just becasue she hasn't realised what 'Life on Mars' is all about yet...

On the other hand, I suppose we could always try and present Gene as a pin up...

Do you think it would work?...

I agree with every single thing you said. Something pretty to look at is nice once in a while but every single character being pretty is a bit much. And unrealistic.

While there is a mystery in Life on Mars, it's not that much of a big thing, and if we never really find out I'm not going to teat my hair out in frustration or anything. But Lost was all about what had happened and they didn't want to tell you, either. Life on Mars wins before the contest has even started.

THat's it. A bit of eye candy is nice, but I need brain candy as well.

I shan't greatly mind if they don't solve the time travel mystery. I quite enjoy the chance to find my own solutions. I like a show that leaves enough space for fanfic to fill in the gaps, but I don't like to be asked to swallow a never-ending chain of loose ends. One mystery is about right.

BTW, I bet shell-like should have an apostrope, not a comma. The full phrase is 'a word in your shell-like ear', so shell-like is an adjective.

I like the phrase brain candy.

I never knew that was short for anything! I have changed it now.

'Shell-like' is a compound adjective only when used with the word 'ear'.

When used in the phrase, "A word in your shell-like," it is performing the function of a noun.

Indeed, but it still needs a hyphen, which is the point I was making (and wrote apostrophe by mistake! but fortunately she still knew what I meant)

Considering that I have spent the last week watching 'Columbo' and 'Kojak' - no crumpet there, girls, but exactly the same vintage as 'Life on Mars' is supposed to be - both of which are full of characters who look more like real people than Sam, and, indeed, exemplary plotting, characters and, in the case of 'Kojak', realistic settings, I'm not sure what you are getting at.

'Lost'is interesting because of what might or might not happen next - and what has happened before. (I could argue that there is a background reason for all those perfect bodies, but they aren't all perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. My theory, for what it's worth, is that they are in Purgatory. Jean thinks they have been kidnapped by aliens.) This intellectual teasing is the whole raison d'etre of SF and fantasy. It is plain what is going on in 'Life on Mars' - Sam is in a coma. That explains all the continuity errors... it's his idea of the 1970s. Blah.

I really do hope that none of your friends are like dear Eugene...

And for my next purchased series, I give you 'House' which is out this week. No crumpet in that, either, as far as I am concerned, but lots of intellectual challenges. One of the best shows currently on TV.

I give you 'House' which is out this week. No crumpet in that, either, as far as I am concerned

Crikey, your standards must be exacting! I thought they were normally considered an exceptionally pretty cast. Even Hugh Laurie's a stunner, despite the attempt to disguise it behind a bit of stubble and a limp. I'm watching it, but fitfully; I've seen one real standout episode ("Three Stories" - wish they'd junk the formula a bit more often to produce a jewel like that).

Hmmm.

And 'Life on Mars' isn't formula?

Never fancied Hugh Laurie in the slightest. The others are far too bland. Gil Grissom, now...

Clearly my standards are far lower! Laurie's one I didn't really notice until someone did an interview with him and remarked on how good-looking he actually was, and I looked at the photo and thought "good god, she's right". There are a whole group of people like that, whose looks you don't notice until they're pointed out, because they're just not presented to you that way.

Yes, LoM has a formula, but I think it's worked more freely within that formula; I suspect it benefits hugely from having such a short season. Writing an American-length season and coming up with new variations on the formula must be very demanding. Which is why I do share the consensus that Kudos would be wise not to extend LoM beyond its natural span, and I'm praying that span wasn't just one season.

What's really frightening is remembering The Day, when, even though you knew that Gene-men were casually sexist, racist, could easily be bastards, and dipped their wick in whatever honey-pot came to hand, they were still the best option if you wanted a good night out and a great romp afterwards. Face it, would you sleep with ANY of the other 1970s characters offered up in LoM?

(And if you ended up somewhere that wasn't your place, unusual I grant you, due to wifeys lurking in the wings, you usually got a ride home. Or taxi fare.)

LOL I obviously led far too sheltered a life and married too young.

But you're right, I'd take Gene over all the others - charisma and a great sense of fun.

But no brain cells to rub together.

(Yes, I am stirring it, but you did sort of invite me to do so...)

He's got brains too. I think Sam's actually the smarter of the pair, but in a different way. That's essentially what the series is about. (Stir)

Gene realised Vic was guilty long before Sam did.

Maybe, but isn't the whole theme that Sam goes by the book and Gene follows his instincts. Was it logic that made Gene realise whatever it was, or instinct?

In this case, logic as much as instinct. The evidence against Vic was starting to pile up. Sam was trying instinct and his instinct was totally wrong.

Around the same vintage as you - think I'm a wee bit older - and the same locality... but plainly not the same experience [lol]

So with you here. Actual Real People and not a thousand pretty faces all with shiny whitened teeth. The teeth in Smallville make me think the whole bloody town's suffering from kryptonite poisoning with the shiny...

But everyone in comics has pretty teeth, so it's true to its source. And, let us be honest, most Americans have better teeth than we do, at least the younger ones.

Actually, come to think of it, in comics they often don't have teeth at all, but a sort of white strip...

It's no use. I can't help pointing out the obvious fallacy in all this stuff about British TV shows having 'real' looking people and the US shows not having real looking people.

All I have to do is point to the two TV shows previously made by the company which makes 'Life on Mars'; to wit, 'Spooks' and 'Hustle'. These represent UK productions which have more pretty people with great teeth per episode than any of the CSIs or 'Smallville' or anything but 'Lost' or 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Footballer's Wives', come to think of it. Even more unbelievably, too. As Dilys Powell once remarked about another UK production, 'Harry's Game' (about an undercover operation in Northern Ireland during the troubles), "If I was choosing someone to go undercover I wouldn't pick someone (Ray Lonnan) so drop dead gorgeous that he couldn't walk down the street without every female head turning towards him."

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Pretty faces

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UK TV Company does pretty