Here ye, here ye! Gather round, for it's that time of the year that hasn't ever occurred before. It's the First Annual Bouffant Productions Awards!
Best Show of the Year
Runners Up
- Game of Thrones
- House of Cards
- The Walking Dead
And the Winner is...
Breaking Bad
Yes it comes as no surprise that Breaking Bad won. But the swan song of Walter White deserved to win with the most astonishing episode of television this millennium, Ozymandias. The Walking Dead was a fantastic first half of season 4, and I look forward to the next half next year. IT was unsurprising how great Game of Thrones was, but it also had the very depressing Red Wedding, and so I always find it hard to re-watch a series when one episode is so depressing (see Dexter's finale season).
Worth A Mention
- House of Cards
Netflix's political drama was not something I ever expected to watch, but from it's very first scene I was hooked. If American politics isn't your cup of tea, do it for Kevin Spacey's southern accent and ruthless determination.
Best Film of the Year
Runners Up
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Monsters University
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
And the Winner is...
Gravity
Probably another no-brainer, but watching Gravity up on the big screen in 3d was definitely the greatest cinema experience of the year. Whilst it might not hold the same weight on the small 2d screen, it will always hold the number 1 spot for me for 2013.
Worth A Mention
- Fast and Furious 6
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Fast and Furious franchise is great. The stories are simple, the acting isn't going to win any oscars, but god damn are those films fun. And with Paul Walker's death, I think he deserves this.
Best Game of the Year
Runners Up
- Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
- GTA V
- Tomb Raider
And the Winner is...
The Last of Us
Never before have I spent so long wandering round and admiring the scenery in such a linear game. The Last of Us has an unparalleled level of brilliance, even with GTA V, I just found myself so much more immersed in The Last of Us's world. Congratulations Naughty Dog, you once again did a brilliant job!
Worth a Mention
- The Wolf Among Us
Telltale proved with The Wolf Among Us that they have found the same art to storytelling that Naughty Dog found with Uncharted and The Last of Us. I decided to mention TWAU over The Walking Dead season 2 because everyone knew that WD would be great, but no one knew if TWAU would carry that same level of power.
Best Song of the Year
(with this award, things will be a little different. I'm going to pick the song of the year that I came across this year, regardless of whether it came out this year or not.)
Runners Up
- 1977 by Ana Tijoux
- Bang Bang by Will I Am
- Not Your Kind of People by Garbage
And the Winner is...
Kiss of Fire by Hugh Laurie and the Copperbottom Band
Hugh Laurie is not the sort of man that most would think of as a musician, but by God can he play! Having had the good fortune to see him play twice now (the first at his very first show in London in an old church and getting the opportunity to sit 3 foot away from him) I can honestly say he puts on one hell of a show.
Worth a Mention
- Odds Are by Barenaked Ladies
I'm recommending this song, because I was in the music video! When I went to visit Rooster Teeth in 2011 for the very first RTX, we shot a video where we all dressed up as zombies and advanced on Geoff and Gus, and when Barenaked Ladies asked Rooster Teeth to shoot their music video, they reused the footage! Plus its a really cheerful and catchy song.
Best Book of the Year
(again with this one, I don't tend to read current books, so it's whatever book I read this year that I enjoyed)
Runners Up
- Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
- A Storm of Swords by George R R Martin
And the Winner is...
Never Go Back by Lee Child
Plain and Simple, because I love Lee Child books. Jack Reacher is freaking awesome!
Worth a Mention
-The Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Yeah its a poem, but it's the best poem I've ever read. So go read it.
And that wraps up this years Bouffant Productions Awards. Congratulations to all that were nominated. Hope you all strive to be even better in 2014.
And to all my readers, have a great New Year and I'll see you in 2014.
Showing posts with label breaking bad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breaking bad. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
I return!
Yes, that's right folks, I'm back!
Sorry I've been gone so long, partly it was because I just forgot, but the times when I remembered, I couldn't think of anything to say.
But now I do have something to say, and its on the topic of finales
SPOILER ALERT
I will be talking about the finales of LOST, Breaking Bad, and Dexter. You have been warned.
Breaking Bad finished this week, and I can honestly say I couldn't pick fault at it. I know some people werent super pleased that Walt essentially got what he wanted, after everything he has done, but I was ok with it, because ever since his hair grew back he kinda stopped being Hiesenberg. So I liked that there were parts of Walt returning.
Dexter, on the other hand, had quite the depressing finale. I don't know if it's because it's final season aired alongside the final season of Breaking Bad, but the whole season felt a little underwhelming. I know that the show has seen a decline in writing performance since season 4 ended, but the stories were always interesting and unique. But I think everyone expected the final season to see Dexter go up against the people he worked for for so long. It may have been unsurprising, but I think that that is what the show needed to do. We all knew he couldn't get away with murdering people forever. But regardless, it was an interesting story, and an interesting (yet depressing) finale. Deb suffered at the actions of Dexter, and in the shows final scenes, he drops her lifeless body into the ocean before sailing off into a storm. Then right at the end we see the shell of his former self sitting in an empty room, completely lost.
But here is my main point that I wanted to talk about.
Damon Lindelof was one of the creators of LOST, and on Monday morning he retweeted hundreds of people admiring the finale of Breaking Bad and telling him that is how you end a show. He later went on to write a blog about how he is done with trying to defend his show and it's finale. I feel sorry for the man, I loved LOST, and whilst I was upset that there were several things that were left unexplained, I can't fault him for the direction he took his show in. I like to write, and if one day I get around to writing my own book or show, I would expect people to respect my creative decisions. If I had made LOST, I would have focused more on attempting to survive on an island, rather than the supernatural aspects, but that it would have been more like Castaway.
I feel sorry that so many people think its ok to just blatantly insult Lindelof about his decisions when it was their own choice to sit and watch 6 seasons of his show. To give him credit over Breaking Bad, at least no one guessed how LOST would end. I don't know anyone who watched Breaking Bad that thought Walt would survive. Same goes for all the people insulting Dexter's finale, no one thought Dexter would be left alone in a woodcutter's house.
I guess my point is this, I will never insult a television show/book/film's creative decisions. It's not my place, I might not be left happy afterwards, but at the end of the day, it is their choice how they end their work, not mine. I didn't like the incestuous side plot that Dexter teased, but it certainly got people talking about the show, and that's the point of including it. If they didn't take risks, no one would have watched it past the first episode.
Speaking of excitement, Second Solace chapter one has been submitted to my tutors, and in 9 days I will get my results. I'll then spend a few weeks making it as good as possible before it goes out into the big wide world.
Toodles
Sorry I've been gone so long, partly it was because I just forgot, but the times when I remembered, I couldn't think of anything to say.
But now I do have something to say, and its on the topic of finales
SPOILER ALERT
I will be talking about the finales of LOST, Breaking Bad, and Dexter. You have been warned.
Breaking Bad finished this week, and I can honestly say I couldn't pick fault at it. I know some people werent super pleased that Walt essentially got what he wanted, after everything he has done, but I was ok with it, because ever since his hair grew back he kinda stopped being Hiesenberg. So I liked that there were parts of Walt returning.
Dexter, on the other hand, had quite the depressing finale. I don't know if it's because it's final season aired alongside the final season of Breaking Bad, but the whole season felt a little underwhelming. I know that the show has seen a decline in writing performance since season 4 ended, but the stories were always interesting and unique. But I think everyone expected the final season to see Dexter go up against the people he worked for for so long. It may have been unsurprising, but I think that that is what the show needed to do. We all knew he couldn't get away with murdering people forever. But regardless, it was an interesting story, and an interesting (yet depressing) finale. Deb suffered at the actions of Dexter, and in the shows final scenes, he drops her lifeless body into the ocean before sailing off into a storm. Then right at the end we see the shell of his former self sitting in an empty room, completely lost.
But here is my main point that I wanted to talk about.
Damon Lindelof was one of the creators of LOST, and on Monday morning he retweeted hundreds of people admiring the finale of Breaking Bad and telling him that is how you end a show. He later went on to write a blog about how he is done with trying to defend his show and it's finale. I feel sorry for the man, I loved LOST, and whilst I was upset that there were several things that were left unexplained, I can't fault him for the direction he took his show in. I like to write, and if one day I get around to writing my own book or show, I would expect people to respect my creative decisions. If I had made LOST, I would have focused more on attempting to survive on an island, rather than the supernatural aspects, but that it would have been more like Castaway.
I feel sorry that so many people think its ok to just blatantly insult Lindelof about his decisions when it was their own choice to sit and watch 6 seasons of his show. To give him credit over Breaking Bad, at least no one guessed how LOST would end. I don't know anyone who watched Breaking Bad that thought Walt would survive. Same goes for all the people insulting Dexter's finale, no one thought Dexter would be left alone in a woodcutter's house.
I guess my point is this, I will never insult a television show/book/film's creative decisions. It's not my place, I might not be left happy afterwards, but at the end of the day, it is their choice how they end their work, not mine. I didn't like the incestuous side plot that Dexter teased, but it certainly got people talking about the show, and that's the point of including it. If they didn't take risks, no one would have watched it past the first episode.
Speaking of excitement, Second Solace chapter one has been submitted to my tutors, and in 9 days I will get my results. I'll then spend a few weeks making it as good as possible before it goes out into the big wide world.
Toodles
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Sad times and spoilers
Just as a quick warning, there will be some spoilers in this post. I warn you now, read at your own risk.
So today has brought me sad news. I've found out that two shows I really enjoyed, Mathew Perry's "Go On" and "Happy Endings" have both been cancelled. This really is sad news, both programmes were consistently funny throughout. I'm disappointed that Go On wasn't renewed for a second season, at no point in the first season did I find the program to subside, and there were many exciting ways for the writers to take Mathew Perry's comedic widower, Ryan King. But at least that show got a happy ending with Ryan finally finding peace in his wife's passing.
Unlike Happy Endings.
I will admit, I wasn't surprised to find out that Happy Endings wouldn't be returning. With many shows, I seem to hear about them long after they first air, but with Happy Endings, I saw it day one, and I loved it. I never liked Penny, but as the show progressed she stopped being less of an annoying anchor dragging down the show and more of a not-so-amusing side character. But overall, I enjoyed the show. It was nice to have a show that just remained silly throughout, yet made you genuinely care about the characters. When Alex and Dave got together at the end of season 2, I was ecstatic. I can't help it, but I get so sick of writers doing the whole "will they, won't they" crap, it was tedious in Friends, and it hasn't got any better.
But as Season 3 drew to an end, Dave and Alex come to the realisation that they never really had a break, they never had serious relationships whilst they were split up, and thus use that as an excuse to end their year long relationship. I was disappointed to see them split, but I was ok knowing that they would probably do the whole relationship stuff during the next season before deciding that they did truly want to give it another shot.
And then ABC cancelled it.
SO now, just as at the end of "The Unit" we are left with these two characters that we care about splitting up, and thats it. No resolution, no happy ending.
With Breaking Bad and Dexter both ending later this year, How I Met your Mother (which I will discuss more later) only around for another year, I'm getting quite worried at what we will be left with. This happened a few years ago when Prison Break, Lost, and 24 were all nearing their end, but I knew there were other shows out there, now I struggle to think of a handful of decent shows.
Right, onto my second rant.
You may have noticed I posted in red at the top that there would be spoilers. I have no issue with people posting spoilers, so long as they take precautions that the spoilers are either hidden, or not blatantly obvious and on show. I can also understand leaving spoilers for a few months or so before revealing them, giving people a chance to catch up on whatever they may spoil.
But what I cannot forgive, are when shows like How I Met your Mother, a show that we have waited 8 YEARS to find out who the mother is, wait until immediately after the show airs in America before posting a giant photo of the mother on their Facebook page, thus popping up unexpectedly in everyones news feed. Everyone outside of America, or those who were unable to watch it at it's first airing, logged into Facebook and had the main event spoiled for them.
I managed to barely miss it thanks to my girlfriend who happened to warn me of the spoiler just seconds before I logged on, thus giving me a chance to go away and watch the episode beforehand.
Now that I have seen it, I will take now as a chance to play Devil's advocate, as the episode ends, we see the gang all making their way to Barney and Robin's wedding, Ted with a gift to win over Robin, Marshall with the news that he is to become a judge, and then finally a woman's boots walking. As we pan up we see the iconic yellow umbrella, and then finally, the face. She says one line and then it cuts to black, so the reveal isn't all that groundbreaking. I am surprised they didn't show her the moment Ted meets her, but I can also see their reasoning for showing her at the end of the episode making her way to the wedding. I can't remember the name of the actress, but for those who watch 30 Rock, she played a blonde bimbo constantly flirting with the staff, before Liz revealing she isn't who she says she is, and thus she revealing she created the persona to flee from her abusive husband (hopefully not a sign for her and Ted).
At the end of the day, it was a real dick move by whoever runs the Facebook fan page. They should have realised that they have fans all over the world that would only have been able to watch it when it first aired if they illegally streamed it online (and they probably would have had to wait hours for that to release). They did it previously when Barney and Robin got engaged and caused the same problem then and it looks like they haven't learned.
I hope this time, the fans rage manage to make some heads turn, but I doubt it. People will continue to spoil things for others, I just wish they wouldn't.
Anyway, this is far too long a rant.
I'll keep you all updated when I start Second Solace.
Farewell
So today has brought me sad news. I've found out that two shows I really enjoyed, Mathew Perry's "Go On" and "Happy Endings" have both been cancelled. This really is sad news, both programmes were consistently funny throughout. I'm disappointed that Go On wasn't renewed for a second season, at no point in the first season did I find the program to subside, and there were many exciting ways for the writers to take Mathew Perry's comedic widower, Ryan King. But at least that show got a happy ending with Ryan finally finding peace in his wife's passing.
Unlike Happy Endings.
I will admit, I wasn't surprised to find out that Happy Endings wouldn't be returning. With many shows, I seem to hear about them long after they first air, but with Happy Endings, I saw it day one, and I loved it. I never liked Penny, but as the show progressed she stopped being less of an annoying anchor dragging down the show and more of a not-so-amusing side character. But overall, I enjoyed the show. It was nice to have a show that just remained silly throughout, yet made you genuinely care about the characters. When Alex and Dave got together at the end of season 2, I was ecstatic. I can't help it, but I get so sick of writers doing the whole "will they, won't they" crap, it was tedious in Friends, and it hasn't got any better.
But as Season 3 drew to an end, Dave and Alex come to the realisation that they never really had a break, they never had serious relationships whilst they were split up, and thus use that as an excuse to end their year long relationship. I was disappointed to see them split, but I was ok knowing that they would probably do the whole relationship stuff during the next season before deciding that they did truly want to give it another shot.
And then ABC cancelled it.
SO now, just as at the end of "The Unit" we are left with these two characters that we care about splitting up, and thats it. No resolution, no happy ending.
With Breaking Bad and Dexter both ending later this year, How I Met your Mother (which I will discuss more later) only around for another year, I'm getting quite worried at what we will be left with. This happened a few years ago when Prison Break, Lost, and 24 were all nearing their end, but I knew there were other shows out there, now I struggle to think of a handful of decent shows.
Right, onto my second rant.
You may have noticed I posted in red at the top that there would be spoilers. I have no issue with people posting spoilers, so long as they take precautions that the spoilers are either hidden, or not blatantly obvious and on show. I can also understand leaving spoilers for a few months or so before revealing them, giving people a chance to catch up on whatever they may spoil.
But what I cannot forgive, are when shows like How I Met your Mother, a show that we have waited 8 YEARS to find out who the mother is, wait until immediately after the show airs in America before posting a giant photo of the mother on their Facebook page, thus popping up unexpectedly in everyones news feed. Everyone outside of America, or those who were unable to watch it at it's first airing, logged into Facebook and had the main event spoiled for them.
I managed to barely miss it thanks to my girlfriend who happened to warn me of the spoiler just seconds before I logged on, thus giving me a chance to go away and watch the episode beforehand.
Now that I have seen it, I will take now as a chance to play Devil's advocate, as the episode ends, we see the gang all making their way to Barney and Robin's wedding, Ted with a gift to win over Robin, Marshall with the news that he is to become a judge, and then finally a woman's boots walking. As we pan up we see the iconic yellow umbrella, and then finally, the face. She says one line and then it cuts to black, so the reveal isn't all that groundbreaking. I am surprised they didn't show her the moment Ted meets her, but I can also see their reasoning for showing her at the end of the episode making her way to the wedding. I can't remember the name of the actress, but for those who watch 30 Rock, she played a blonde bimbo constantly flirting with the staff, before Liz revealing she isn't who she says she is, and thus she revealing she created the persona to flee from her abusive husband (hopefully not a sign for her and Ted).
At the end of the day, it was a real dick move by whoever runs the Facebook fan page. They should have realised that they have fans all over the world that would only have been able to watch it when it first aired if they illegally streamed it online (and they probably would have had to wait hours for that to release). They did it previously when Barney and Robin got engaged and caused the same problem then and it looks like they haven't learned.
I hope this time, the fans rage manage to make some heads turn, but I doubt it. People will continue to spoil things for others, I just wish they wouldn't.
Anyway, this is far too long a rant.
I'll keep you all updated when I start Second Solace.
Farewell
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