A Good Friday Good Watch

So today, we decided to watch all six of the Star Wars films.

We started at 11.30am. It is now 11.30pm and we have just started Episode 6: Return of the Jedi.

It has been a lot of fun and I'm not going to surprise anyone when I say that the original trilogy is better than the prequel trilogy. But maybe not for the reasons you think (bad acting, too much CGI, REALLY bad dialogue, heavy-handed exposition, Jar Jar Binks!).

No.

It's because I wasn't a child when the prequels came out and that is who they are squarely aimed at.  As was the original trilogy. But I WAS a child then. I wonder, if people that were children when the prequels came out prefer them and think the original trilogy is dated?

I like Star Wars. I don't LOVE it, but I do like it. My hubby LOVES Star Wars. He is one of those fans that bought the original videos. Then bought the remastered re-release videos. Then bought the DVDs. And then the blu-rays. Then we went to the cinema to see Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D. I have watched this and thought:

"Madness"

But then, I own 5 different versions of Serenity in various formats, so I'm not in a position to really criticise.

A Weighty Issue

This has been said many, many, many, many, times, but actors and actresses in many of today's TV shows and films are too dang thin! I have had enough now. And here's why.

A certain US TV show - we will call it Femme - has a lead actress who is 5ft 5" and weighs a reported 103 pounds. To us Brits that is a whopping 7 stone(ish)! When this show started, I was looking forward to it as I had been a big fan of the original film. The pilot episode started and visually it was stylish and classy - just as I had hoped. The main actress came on screen looking as beautiful as expected. Nothing out of the ordinary here. In the next scene, however, she had a fight with a much larger man, knocked him unconscious, put his body on a trolley and pushed him down a corridor. A corridor with thick carpeting on the floor.

There was no way a woman her size would have been able to do that!

No. Way.

I turned over.

A certain Hollywood film - we shall call it Pepper - had a very well known actress in the lead role. This actress is 5ft 7" and her reported weight is estimated somewhere between 99lbs and 120lbs. In a scene in the final act, the actress has a fist fight with a male actor of 6ft 3" (and a possible 225lbs!) and KNOCKS HIM OUT!!!!! DAFAQ!!!

I am aware that the studios show us the beautiful people. The aspirational people. The people, that if we look at them for too long, will burn our very eyes with their beauty!

But who says that this image of beauty is a woman with a body like a young child with an oversized head?

I would like, if I may, to point you in the direction of a certain TV show called Suits. There are 3 main female characters in this show and, yes, they are very slim. But they are not ridiculously so. They actually have (whisper this) boobies  and hips and they maybe even wiggle a little when they walk!

Don't get me wrong, I am not against people of any size playing any role - unless it affects the believability of a premise. I know that all films and TV shows are a work of fiction, with each creating their own 'world' and rules within those worlds.  I've already posted on my love for Being Human and, as many of my twitter friends will know, I am a big fan of many other supernatural-ly shows. I know how to suspend disbelief. I can do it LIKE A BOSS!

To a point.

And I've reached my point

("Hurrah" I hear you cry!)

Being Human, Being Over

First of all, let me say WAAAHHHHHH!

Thank you.

Secondly, let me also say that this will contain spoilers if you aren't up to date with the latest, and final, series of Being Human.

Right, here we go.

I only started watching Being Human a year ago. It was one of those shows that friends would assume I watched and when I told them I wasn't watching it, would say "You should. You would LOVE it!"

So I did and I did!

We bought the first 3 series on blu-ray and watched them through quite quickly (understatement). Within one episode, I had completely bonded with the characters and their stories. I really enjoyed the "Britishness" of the show - quirky humour with a dark edge. One minute, you are laughing with George and Mitchell and the next they are ripping out your heart.

Sometimes, the characters literally ripped out hearts and other organs! And I loved this too. I am a 37 year old. An *cough* adult *cough* who grew up on Freddy and Pinhead. And dagnabbit I want to see adult programmes and films. And Being Human was that and not in the "15 year old boy's wet dream" True Blood sense of Adult. Being Human was adult in the "growed up" sense. It was intelligent, funny but violent. In fact, the werewolf transformation that George and Tom et al go through is so well done and the pain of it so realistic, it rivals the transformation in 'An American Werewolf in London'. The noises of the bones shifting and breaking along with the screams of Russell Tovey are chilling - have a look here (NSFW)

And now I've mentioned the 3 new characters (I know I didn't really but just go with it!) let me just say that I also loved them. I loved Hal's old fashioned sense of decorum, Alex's bravery and Tom's, well everything (it's the Midlands accent and those big, sad eyes!). I know a lot of people didn't like the change and let me just say that, if it had been these three from the beginning you would have loved them as much as you loved George, Mitchell and Annie. I know it wasn't and that is a shame but how brilliant were Hal, Tom and Alex in the last series??  I think my only regret with the final series was the fact that George, Mitchell and Annie didn't get that happy ending.

I truly appreciated the way in which all the characters were 'human' - trying to do their best and sometimes failing. Sometimes spectacularly. I, generally, am not that keen on shows where the characters don't fuck up. I like to see them learning and adapting, but ultimately trying to do what's 'right'. 

Isn't that what Being Human is?