Episode 869: New British Shows

Went to see George Ttoouli to pick up my reference for MOE. Talked a bit to him about my Shakespeare creative project and came away oddly more certain of what the play is going to look like now. Tom Cornford's recommendation to read Pirandello's Six Characters In Search Of An Author was definitely a good one, although the version I've read is the adaptation by Rupert Goold and Ben Power. Might still read a translation of the original version, or at least see the 1972 film adaptation that I got out from the Library today. All this does mean, however, that quite a lot of the research I was gathering weeks ago is now only mildly relevant at best. Oh well! Not actually going to do any work today anyway. Have just finished watching the premieres of two UK shows, Bedlam and Outcasts. The former is kind of like Ghost Whisperer, but with more menacing spirits. Fairly interesting, but not exactly breaking the mould. Nice to see Ashley Madekwe back on TV though. The latter is a science fiction drama, so that in itself is pretty much reason enough for me to watch it. Apparently, it bears some resemblance to Battlestar Galactica (including starring an alumnus of that show), but since I haven't seen that (yet), I don't have to judge it for that. I can see some philosophical questions being raised in it, and it makes me wish that British series didn't have such short episode orders on the whole. I guess it means that you can't afford to pad out the plot, but sometimes, you just want more space to explore stuff in. I can totally see Outcasts working as a solid science fiction novel though, which I think is a good sign. Bold (and potentially, stupid) move though, killing off the most interesting character on the show in the first episode.