Spoilers and me

People often wonder why I am so anti-spoiler. I never used to be, I used to lap spoilers up for everything. For me, part of the fun of watching a TV show, or a film, was reading spoilers and imagining the results, then seeing it on the screen.
But that all changed one day.
Now I'll admit that while I'm anti-spoiler, I am NOT against other people having spoilers. No way. I'm more than happy for people to have spoilers for shows or films. All i ask is that you keep me out of it.

So, the tale of this fateful day that changed me. It was February 1995. The past few months I'd been getting excited for the new Star Trek film to be released: Generations. I was reading magazines and newsgroups about it, lapping up information.
Sure we all knew Kirk and Picard were in it. We knew Kirk was going to die. I think that was the worst kept secret in Hollywood that year.
Then a friend of mine got his hands on a draft copy of the script. He printed it out for me. I was dubious at first. It was one thing to read snippets, but to know the whole thing?
Then it was revealed that it was a fake script. So i read it. The story was pretty good. I gave it to a friend of mine who also read it.
We had made plans to see it on opening night, along with another friend. That night, standing in line, we see the poster for it. The 3rd friend said "Picard?? Is he in it?" We looked at each other. He didn't know ANYTHING, other than the fact it was a Star Trek film.
The film started and within 10 minutes we realised it WAS based on the script we read.
However, the moment Kirk died - the proper death - our unspoiled friend gave out a huge gasp. It was then that i regretted reading, in fact in any of the spoilers.
I wanted that rush he was getting, that emotion.
So it was that I stopped reading up on the big stuff.

A few years later it was announced a new Star Wars film was going into production. At that point I declared I wanted to know NOTHING about it.
I went to watch with zero expectations. ALL I knew about it was it was a prequel story featuring Anakin Skywalker as a young boy.
I think I must have been one of the few who enjoyed the film! It was well worth the hassle.

There were a couple of times when some news had been leaked and my friends wanted to discuss it, but being mature they said "We wanna talk Star Wars!" so I'd leave them to it for a few minutes. I think the main one was when the soundtrack album was released (a week before the movie opened) and it featured perhaps one of the biggest spoilers EVER. One of the tracks is called "Qwi-Gon's funeral".

My philosophy is: I'm going to watch it anyway, why ruin any surprises the writers/director have in store for me?

An open letter to Universal UK

Let me start by saying, I think you are brilliant. Since the announcement was made back in February that you were getting the rights to Flashpoint (All episodes, including the ones which, at that time, hadn't been made yet), I supported you.

I was happy you were treating this show with respect. That you were airing it at a decent time. Even happier once we (we being the fans) realised you were giving us plenty of opportunity to see each episode (3 airings of each episode within 24 hours can't be bad!), and to repeat the run a total of, what is it now, 3 times?

I've had the pleasure and – dare I say it without sounding egotistical – privilege of watching the fan numbers rise on the Producers own Facebook group. Sure not all of those are UK based, but believe me when I say there are a LOT more now than there were before you started showing it.

Alright, I may have been slightly vocal about your episode numbering system and the airing order, but we managed to work around that.

Ultimately though, I was happy. I can appreciate that you didn't want to rush onwards and overdose us with new episodes. You left us on a great cliffhanger with Ed Lane being shot.

But come on now, it's been several months since the last new episode aired and people are getting tetchy over the missing episodes.

Given that some of the episodes we've yet to see have been aired in Canada and the US for over a year now, there are plenty of spoilers out there. You can't blame those who have seen the episodes. They've kept quiet this long, how much longer can they go on being quiet?

I was still loyal though, encouraging people to stay cool. “They'll show them soon..” I would say. Hell, I started a blog entry and updated it twice a week with your schedule. I noticed a gap in the schedules coming up. Could this be it?

Sadly, no. No offence to the Sea Patrol fans, but it seems you're dropping Flashpoint altogether at the end of September.

Which brings me to the point of this. We've been patient, but patience always has to run thin.

On the 16^th of October, the missing episodes will be released on DVD in Canada. Now I'm not suggesting that everyone rushes out to buy this, but what I'm warning is that people will. I know of at least 5 UK viewers who have already pro-ordered. Alright that's just 5 people out of the thousands who watch it. But it could be more.

What I'm worried about is your advertisers. The more people who have to buy it on DVD, the less people who will be targets for your advertisers. And let's face it, you may not care about the viewers – we're not your customers. The advertisers WILL know.

Is it too late for you to show the missing 18 episodes? I don't know. But please bear this in mind when you come to think about what to do with Season 5 (which starts in 2 weeks time in Canada...)

Flashpoint Airing and DVD Order

Following on from some discussion with friends, there is confusion over episode airing orders on Flashpoint. What I'm presenting here is the original CTV Canadian Airing order, along with the CBS and ION running order for the US, and Universal UK (for the UK). In the US, Season 1 contained 9 episodes with the final 4 moved over to Season 2. However the DVD release contains these 4 episodes as part of Season 1. I'll admit to not knowing how ION labelled the episodes they had. Until a DVD release comes out, we'll go on the assumption that they are "Season 4b".
The DVD releases line up as the episodes do.
Canadian: S1 has 13 episodes. S2 has 18 episodes. S3 has 13 episodes and S4 has 18. S5 (when released) will have 13 episodes.
US: S1 has 13 episodes. S2 has 9. S3 has 16 episodes and S4 has 13 episodes.
UK; Only S1 has been released, with 13 episodes.

Episode name	Canadian	US	UK
	Season 1	Season 1	Season 1
Scorpio	Episode 1	Episode 1	Episode 1
First in Line	Episode 2	Episode 2	Episode 2
Element of Surprise	Episode 3	Episode 3	Episode 3
Asking for Flowers	Episode 4	Episode 4	Episode 4
Who's George	Episode 5	Episode 5	Episode 5
Attention Shoppers	Episode 6	Episode 6	Episode 6
He Knows His Brother	Episode 7	Episode 7	Episode 7
Never Kissed A Girl	Episode 8	Episode 8	Episode 8
Planets Aligned	Episode 9	Episode 9	Episode 9
Eagle Two	Episode 10	Episode 10 (Aired as Episode 1 of S2)	Episode 10
Backwards Day	Episode 11	Episode 11 (Aired as Episode 2 of S2)	Episode 12 (Labelled Episode 11 but aired after Haunting the Barn)
Haunting the Barn	Episode 12	Episode 12 (Aired as Episode 3 of S2)	Episode 11 (Labelled Episode 12 but aired before Backwards Day)
Between Heartbeats	Episode 13	Episode 13 (Aired as Episode 4 of S2)	Episode 13
	Season 2	Season 2
Business as usual	Episode 1	Episode 1 (Aired as Episode 5)	Episode 14
The Fortress	Episode 2	Episode 2 (Aired as Episode 6)	Episode 15
Clean Hands	Episode 3	Episode 3 (Aired as Episode 7)	Episode 16
Aisle 13	Episode 4	Episode 4 (Aired as Episode 8)	Episode 17
The Perfect Family	Episode 5	Episode 5 (Aired as Episode 9)	Episode 18
Remote Control	Episode 6	Episode 6 (Aired as Episode 10)	Episode 19
Perfect Storm	Episode 7	Episode 7 (Aired as Episode 11)	Episode 20 (Rarely shown)
Last Dance	Episode 8	Episode 8 (Aired as Episode 12)	Episode 21
Exit Wounds	Episode 9	Episode 9 (Aired as Episode 13)	Episode 22
		Season 3
One Wrong Move	Episode 10	Episode 1	Episode 24
Never Let You Down	Episode 11	Episode 2	Episode 25
Just A Man	Episode 12	Episode 7	Episode 26
Custody	Episode 13	Episode 4	Episode 27
Coming To You Live	Episode 14	Episode 5	Episode 23
The Farm	Episode 15	Episode 3	Episode 28
You Think You Know Someone	Episode 16	Episode 10	Episode 29
The Good Citizen	Episode 17	Episode 9	Episode 30 (Not aired on first run)
Behind the Blue Line	Episode 18	Episode 6	Episode 31
	Season 3		Season 2
Unconditional Love	Episode 1	Episode 8	Episode 1
Severed Ties	Episode 2	Episode 11	Episode 2
Follow the Leader	Episode 3	Episode 12	Episode 3
Whatever It Takes	Episode 4	Episode 13	Episode 4
The Other Lane	Episode 5	Episode 14	Episode 6
Jumping At Shadows	Episode 6	Episode 15	Episode 8
Acceptable Risk	Episode 7	Episode 16	Episode 9
		Season 4
Collateral Damage	Episode 8	Episode 1 (Aired as Episode 17)	Episode 5
Thicker Than Blood	Episode 9	Episode 2 (Aired as Episode 18)	Episode 7
Terror	Episode 10	Episode 4 (Aired as Episode 20)	Episode 11
No Promises	Episode 11	Episode 3 (Aired as Episode 19)	Episode 10
I'd Do Anything	Episode 12	Episode 5 (Aired as Episode 21)	Episode 12
Fault Lines	Episode 13	Episode 6 (Aired as Episode 22)	Episode 13
	Season 4		Season 3
Personal Effects	Episode 1	Episode 7	Episode 1
Good Cop	Episode 2	Episode 8	Episode 2
Run Jamie Run	Episode 3	Episode 9	Episode 3
Through a Glass Darkly	Episode 4	Episode 10	Episode 5 (Only shown at midnight)
The Better Man	Episode 5	Episode 11	Episode 4
A Day in the Life	Episode 6	Episode 12	Episode 6
Shockwave	Episode 7	Episode 13	Episode 7
		Season 4b Ion took over Broadcasting rights.
Grounded	Episode 8 (Episode 12 on the DVD)	Episode 1	Episode 12
The War Within	Episode 9 (Episode 8 on the DVD)	Episode 8	Episode 8
Cost of Doing Business	Episode 10 (Episode 9 on the DVD)	Episode 2	Episode 9
Wild Card	Episode 11 (Episode 10 on the DVD)	Episode 3	Episode 10
New Life	Episode 12 (Episode 11 on the DVD)	Episode 4	Episode 11
Call to Arms	Episode 13	Episode 5	Episode 13
Day Game	Episode 14 (episode 15 on the DVD)	Episode 6	Episode 15
Blue on Blue	Episode 15 (Episode 16 on the DVD)	Episode 7	Episode 16
Team Player	Episode 16 (Episode 14 on the DVD)	Episode 9	Episode 14
Priority of Life	Episode 17	Episode 10	Episode 17
Slow Burn	Episode 18	Episode 11	Episode 18
	Season 5	Season 5	Season 5
Broken peace	Episode 1	Episode 1	Episode 1
No Kind of Life	Episode 2	Episode 2	Episode 2
Run to Me	Episode 3	Episode 3	Episode 3
Eyes In	Episode 4	Episode 4	Episode 4
Sons of the Father	Episode 5	Episode 5	Episode 5
Below the Surface	Episode 6	Episode 7	Episode 7
Forget Oblivion	Episode 7	Episode 8	Episode 8
We Take Care of our Own	Episode 8	Episode 9	Episode 9
Lawmen	Episode 9	-	Episode 10
A World of their Own	Episode 10	Episode 6	Episode 6
Fit For Duty	Episode 11	Episode 10	Episode 11
Keep the Peace (Part 1)	Episode 12	-	Episode 12
Keep the Peace (Part 2)	Episode 13	-	Episode 13

The 2012-2013 New Season of TV shows!

It's that time of year once again, when us proud couch potatoes settle back in our chairs, ready for the onslaught of new TV shows.  The TV execs have had 12 months to come up with some really ground breaking ideas to wow us into watching their shows, and (because let's face it, this is what TV is all about) make us sit there through the adverts.

So, I've had a look at the new, forthcoming shows from the major broadcasters. ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and Fox. Now I'll admit right away this isn't a complete and definite list of EVERY new show coming out - and in fact some might still get dropped - but it's an almost complete list.

I've only dealt with scripted shows, so no reality or game shows. 

So, without further ado, here is the list.

Sitcoms:

1600 Penn: Bill Pullman stars as the head of a dysfunctional family living in the White House.

Animal Practise: Set in a vets, with a monkey nurse.

Ben and Kate: Hilarious fun with a brother and sister who are opposites of each other.

Family Tools: A useless bloke takes over the family hardware business. With hilarious consequences.

Friend Me: (Shoot me now, please..) Sitcom based around 2 friends working at the Groupon website. No, seriously...

The Goodwin Games: 3 siblings reunite when their father dies, but in order to get their share of the will, they have to play Trivial Pursuit. Or something. I read the story outline 5 times and i still don't get it...

Go On: Matthew “Chandler” Perry stars as a sport reporter coming to terms with the loss of his wife. Yes, apparently it is meant to be a comedy...

Guys With Kids: A sitcom about three guys who try to raise their children.

How to Live With Your Parents: Sarah “Scrubs” Chalke moves back in with her parents. Sometimes these sitcom title designers are paid WAY too much money!

Malibu County: A woman moves her family from Nashville to Malibu.

The Mindy Project: Comedy about someone called Mindy and her everyday life. Created, produced and starring Mindy Kaling.

The Neighbours: A new family move into a neighbourhood to find all their neighbours are aliens.

The New Normal: A woman becomes a surrogate for a gay couple.

Next Caller: Two DJ's become radio phone-in hosts. With hilarious consequences.

Partners: From the makers of Will and Grace comes a sitcom about a bromance.

Save Me: A sitcom about an Angel. With hilarious consequences.

Drama:

Beauty and the Beast: No need to tell you what this is about. Stars Smallville's Lana Lang. Sorry about that.

The Carrie Diaries: Sex in the City, for teenagers. No, seriously...

Chicago Fire: The day to day lives of a bunch of – go on, guess – fire fighters working in – go on, guess again – Chicago.

Do No Harm: Modern day Jekyll and Hide story about a surgeon who changes every night into something – or someone – else.

Elementary: US version of Sherlock Holmes. With Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes, Lucy Liu as Watson and Aiden Quinn as Lestrad (who isn't called Lestrad.)

Emily Owens, MD: A new student nurse turns up at hew new hospital to find some old classmates there. Or something. It's a teen-angst medical drama.

The Following: Kevin Bacon stars as an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer. Sounds brilliant. It's on Fox. It'll last 2 seasons.

Last Resort: Military Drama about the crew of a submarine. Brilliant Cast (IMO): Scott Speedman, Robert Patrick, Dichen Lachman, Daisy Betts, Autumn Reeser...

Made in Jersey: Legal drama starring Ames from Human target, and Agent Cooper from Twin peaks.

Mistresses: US Remake of the British mystery Drama about adults going around having affairs. Or something.

The Mob Doctor: A surgeon gets involved with the mob. Title says it all really :)

Nashville: Musical Drama starring everyone's favourite regenerating cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere. It's about Country singers. In Nashville.

Red Widow: A widow continues her husbands business. Which was to say, he was organising crime.

Vegas: Michael Chiklis is a mobster, Dennis Quaid is the sheriff trying to put him down. Set in Vegas in the 60's.

Zero Hour: Created by Paul “Prison Break” Scheuring.

Horror, Supernatural and Sci-Fi:

666 Park Avenue: The new couple in an apartment think their entire block may be haunter. Locke from Lost is the villian. Sounds good enough reason to watch to me.

Arrow: Based on Dc Comics Green Arrow. Basically, a modern day American Robin Hood-type figure.

Revolution: JJ Abrams produced show about... Look, It's JJ Abrams. It'll be worth watching, ok. Not that I'm biased or anything :)

Others:

Cult: Mystery show about an investigation into a series of crimes based on the stories of a TV show. Starring Robert “T-Bag” Knepper! Say no more!

Hannibal: Psychological Thriller based on the work of Thomas Harris, featuring everyones favourite cannibal, Dr Hannibal Lecter. Mads Mikkelsen stars as Hannibal.

Infamous: A Mystery Soap Opera Drama about some woman who dies and the investigation into her death. Might turn into a Twin peaks type thin. Who knows...

And last by most certainly least... I know I said I was avoiding mentioning gameshows, but this one just had to be mentioned.

Oh Sit!: On the CW network. An hour long game of Musical Chairs.. No, seriously...

Happy Viewing!

Flashpoint Uk schedule. A Universal Guide.

So, for the past few months Universal Channel UK (113 Sky (150 for +1), 162 VirginTV (163 +1), 8 TalkTalkTV) has been airing the critically acclaimed Canadian show "Flashpoint". 

The season numbering by Universal is off, due to them putting seasons 2 and 3 together, so to avoid any further confusion, i shall mention episode numbers [with notes in these square bracket things (which have probably got some official name, but I think Square Bracket thing sums them up quite nicely.)]

Universal UK have the rights now to all 5 seasons, which consist of 75 episodes in total. Scorpio [#01] to Keep the Peace [#75].

The aim of this entry is to keep updating it with the forthcoming schedule from Universal Channel UK.

All episodes air at 6pm, with a repeat at midnight and then a second repeat the next day at midday. All 3 airings are of course duplicated on the +1 channel (7pm, 1am and 1pm respectively.)


26th-30th November: 
Monday:  Grounded [#52]
Tuesday: Call to Arms[#57]
Wednesday: Team Player[#60]
Thursday: Day Game[#58]
Friday: Blue on Blue [#59]

3rd-7th December: 
Monday:  Priority of Life[#61]
Tuesday: Slow Burn [#62]
Wednesday: Broken Peace [#63] (Labelled as Season 5)
Thursday: No Kind of Life [#64]

Friday:  Run to Me [#65]

10th-14th December:
Monday:  Eyes In [#66]
Tuesday: Sons of the Father [#67]
Wednesday:  A World of Their Own [#72]
Thursday:  Below The Surface [#68]
Friday:  Forget Oblivion [#69]

17th-21st December:Monday:  We Take care of our Own [#70]
Tuesday: Lawmen [#71]
Wednesday:  Fit for Duty [#73]
Thursday:  Keep the Peace - Part 1 [#74]
Friday:  Keep the Peace - Part 2 [#75]

You can follow Universal Channel UK on twitter @UniversalChUK or on facebook

How they laughed.

When I was young I got teased a lot. Made fun of. Mocked. Why? Because I was different. I had strange hobbies. I enjoyed odd things. I spent a lot of time sitting in front of my computer, doing (or so it seemed to everyone else) nothing much at all.

I was laughed at because I would happily spend all day tapping away at the keys.
And then the Internet came along, and suddenly everyone wanted a computer. Computers were cool.
I played computer games, and they laughed at me. But then Playstation, Wii and Xbox came along, and now it’s cool to play computer games.

I was laughed at because I liked Sci-fi.Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who.
In 2005, Doctor Who came back, and suddenly it was cool to watch Doctor Who.
In 2009 Star Trek returned to Cinemas, and suddenly it was cool to watch Star Trek.

They mocked me because I read comic books. I enjoyed the stories of Spider-man, Hulk and the X-Men.
Then graphic novels started to influence the world of movies and TV, and now it’s cool to read comics.

I read HUGE books with maps in the cover, about far away lands populated by strange people and mythical creatures. And they laughed at me . Then Lord of the Rings was made and it was cool to like this. Game of Thrones continued the tradition.

I can’t forgive anyone who laughed at me, because I know now what I always knew. I’m the pioneer of cool. Want to know what I’m into now; what will be cool in a few years? I’m not going to tell you. You’ll laugh at me!

Flashpoint comes back to the UK!

An armed man takes a hospital ward hostage, endangering the lives of the patients.
A bank robber runs into the street, using the manageress of the branch as a shield, daring the police to shoot him.
A convicted murderer takes an off-duty policeman hostage and demands to speak to a prosecutor.

Three instances of bad people who deserve what they get from the authorities. The authorities in this case being the SRU – Strategic Response Unit – of the TV show Flashpoint. When the SRU are called in you know bad things are going on. They try and deal with situations in their own unique way, which is different to most other TV shows. While most would have the team burst in, guns blazing, taking down the bad guys, the SRU turn up and talk to them as people.
Sure they have the back-up plan of going in and shooting, but they talk first. Why are they doing what they're doing?

And that is the beautiful thing about this show. The suspects – or Subjects as Sergeant Greg Parker prefers to call them – are treated as people. As each episode unfolds we learn WHY they are doing what they're doing. What drove them to pick up a gun and point it at someone?
And by the end of the episode, if you let the story carry you along, you'll find yourself feeling the exact same emotions as the characters.

And now the United Kingdom has the chance to experience this. Finally we're getting this show in a proper time slot.
For the past few years, ITV network have had it, and have shown an episode here and there, different times, different days. Show it when they've got time. No advertising or promotion so the only viewers were those who happened to channel hop at half 1 in the morning and stumble on it.

But all that changes on March 19th. Universal channel UK (113 Sky (150 for +1), 162 VirginTV (163 +1), 8 TalkTalkTV) is showing it from the first episode. As with all shows, if you haven't seen it before I would recommend giving it a couple of episodes to get used to it. If you're not enjoying it by the end of the bank robber episode then I'll never bother you again :)