There Is A Large Cat

He is not amused.  The large cat probably wants to be left alone to chill for a while about now.  He's an absolute unit, though.

The End Of The Grumpy Cat Situation

At least the poor cat won't be bothered any more.  You hope the world will survive.  And that somebody besides Owl Eyes will show up to the funeral.  If the Dems don't nominate Sanders and Trump is reelected, the Trump years will have lasted longer than Grumpy Cat.  Sad.  Thanks, Hillary!

Outside It's America

Pretty much.

Not-At-All-Grumpycat Situation

Doctor Who Special Rates A Huge Meh, But Paul McGann Was On The Tee Vee

The Dr. Who special was pretty awful.  I had no use for Matt Smith, but Jenna Coleman has really been getting better, and neither of them had much to do in the show.  I was pretty stoked to see the Paul McGann webisode at the beginning of the 50th repeat, though; that was cool.  Probably not the opening you expected.  Long before last night, we had seen way too many Dr. Who stories where the Doctor faces all the enemies at once but nothing too interesting happens.  It's past time to see the Doctor in stories that aren't about titanic existential battles, and instead are compelling and entertaining stories on a more believable scale.  Maybe the new guy is up to it in ways Matt Smith never could have been, and we will get some Dr. Who that is not so annoying and dumb.

It Was, Is, And Always Will Be Christmas Eve In The Drunktank

Virag's TV Movie Reviews: An Adventure In Space And Time (2013, UK)

That's how you do it!  With all the sequels, reboots, and rip-offs that pass for cinema these days and suck moose cock--I'm looking at you J.J. Abrams, and your atrocious movies--the Beeb got it pretty darn right with An Adventure in Space and Time.  The cast is fine, the story is compelling and human, and it all makes for an entertaining flick.  This thing was free, and it was way better than most movie movies you'll pay to see any time soon.  Go figure.

Five(ish) Doctors Funfetti

No Eccleston, but the three of 'em, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, and Sylvester McCoy, looked like they were havin' a brilliant time, busting on each other and getting their families along with Capt. Jack, Moffat, RTD, the Caucasian Guillermo del Toro, Magneto, kids of Doctors, wives of Doctors, and everyone else to have a laugh.  It was pretty good all-around.  Paul McGann has always been a DW trooper, and the Tom Baker thing should have been a big ole clue to anyone paying attention regarding the for-realz 50th show.  "So, you're in The Hobbit?"

Oh, Yeah, 'Nightmare in Silver' Was Awful

I had forgotten.  Neil Gaiman turned the Cybermen into Star Trek: Voyager-era Borg.  Awful.  Can't we all agree that the heinous Amanda Palmer proves that Gaiman is an irredeemable douchenozzle and not to be trusted with even the silliest of franchises?

And while we're at it, how fucking pissed is Warwick Davis that he is not Tyrion Lannister?  I mean, Davis is British and Dinklage isn't.  Davis could be gettin' all that GoT cash, but apparently Dinklage was their first choice.  

Pro Tip To BBCA: Don't Remind Us Eccleston's Doctor Was A Thing

Last night, BBC America must have been in the Eccleston era of their Doctor Who extravaganza, and "The Parting of the Ways" was on the tee vee in stunning HD.  I was in and out, but I did catch enough of the stuff in the last half hour or so to bring back all the feels that we didn't have at the time for Christopher Eccleston, Russell T Davies, Noel Clarke, Camile Coudri, Billie Piper, and John Barrowman in their first blush of youth and enthusiasm.  There was much that was good there--and better in comparison with what came after--with Eccleston's Doctor being a revelation, and Barrowman looking like kid as Capt. Jack.  The latter DW looks strained and awkward more often than not; the Beeb made a huge fucking mistake by pushing Eccleston out so quickly, and as hard as they are tryin' to make the 50th stuff special--see what I did there?--reminding us little people what might have been with Eccleston as the Doctor is not really in their best interests. 

Night Of The Doctor

Holy shit!  Paul McGann!  Steven Moffat is widely disliked for his shallow and clumsy handling of The Doctor after RTD, but this fucking thing is pretty amazing for seven gods-damned minutes, and it is both excellent fan service and a wonderful big wet kiss to the lovely and talented Paul McGann, who never got his shot at being The Doctor on tee vee but was always gracious and appreciative of the the franchise as a whole.  What the fuck, Moffat?  Nicely done.

4th String Jaegers Tumblr

Are these things analogue or not?

Finally, Tumblr Does Something Useful

Better than Grumpycat pictures mashed up with Bathory lyrics.  Really, what could be better than Morrissey and Chuck Schultz in the same frame?  Elvis needs boats.

(via)

Joss Whedon's Torchwood

Wow.  The same way that Game of Thrones was redolent of the Dune tee vee movies, I was having serious Torchwood sensory overload when I finally watched the first episode of the Shield show.  The show itself was wicked clunky, but they had a bunch of stupid shit to unpack, and Whedon and Disney are hoping that the unabashed squee of the fans will buoy the ratings long enough to advertise the next Thor and Captain America movies.  My two main quibbles: the Colson thing and the hella stupid flying car.  Rather than have Colson's return be a long, cheesy buildup to an army of clones, cyborgs, androids, or LMDs, Whedon should have done the more realistic thing and have Colson really, 100% simply saved with 2012 human medicine, with his death simply being Fury being a dick to the Avengers.  That would have been so much better.  And the flying car looked cheap on the HDTV, while the concept is just fucking tacky.  (Sponsors aside, Whedon should have had Colson's team driving the mini Range Rovers just like Torchwood.  That woulda' been a wink that told us he knew how derivative the whole exercise is.)

The line about sweaty cosplay girls at Stark Tower was pretty neat.  You know who you are.

Fukushima Ice Wall: Next Comes The Night's Watch

If you build it, you will need a committed group to maintain it and protect it from Godzilla.  There's no way to have the wall without the crows.  As Japan is the land of the kamikaze, I'm sure they will come up with a creative and efficient way to man the wall.  Winter is fucking coming.  And spring and summer and fall and winter again.  Fukushima ain't goin' nowhere.

You'd Be Grumpy In Peru Back Then, Too

Especially if you were this cat, apparently.  The stupid cat meme is never gonna go away.

It's True

Less Than Two Weeks For An Anti-Abortion Slam Dunk In Texas

Like I said--and a shitload of others also said--anybody who was paying attention knew that the asshole Republicans would run over any opposition the second time.  I can understand that plenty of folks get upset by the vile things Republicans do on a daily basis but might not have as much experience in how our awful politics works as more seasoned operators and observers.  Any of the men and women and boys and girls who were feeling smug after Wendy Davis embarrassed the Republicans should have known better.  If they didn't then, they do now; consider this part of your political education.

Hail Satan! Texas Is Sure As Shit Hell Central!

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So, I Watched The First Season Of Game Of Thrones

I had the opportunity to watch the first season of Game of Thrones on DVD--not Bluray, if that matters.  (I also read the first three books; more on that in a minute.)  Watching the show, I got a huge Dune vibe from it.  It really felt like a cheesy science fiction story, especially because of  all the talk of 8,000 year old castles and ice walls and other silly shit.  Fantasy, schmatasy, all the bullshit they were slinging around was seriously low-budget scifi.  Mostly, the first season--the first episode, even--showed that they had four really compelling actors, and fuck the books, the complete GoT tee vee show story should have featured 006, Fred Flinstone, Ronon Dex, and Peter Dinklage for as long as they could keep the show going.  The most thrilling revelation of the first episodes was Mark Addy's fucking brilliant work as King Robert; the deal with Martin should have been sweetened with an extra $100 Olive Garden gift card to allow the HBO producers to give up the dumb story of the novels and make a show where Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, Drogo, and Tyrion Lannister go around the world and fuck up all the people in the endless, and ultimately pointless, books.  If the fangirls and other assorted dweeby assholes bitched too loudly, they could have a secondary story for the kids with the dragon girl with the nice ass and the bastard kid solving mysteries or riding dragons on Pern or something, but let's face it, the rest of the actors on that show are pretty shitty once you get past Bean, Addy, Momoa, and Dinklage.  (I get that Charles Dance and the guy who plays Bronn and the luminous Gwendoline Christie come later and are awesome, but they weren't there at the beginning, so fuck them.)  Seriously, the characterizations in the book are pretty thin and beyond hackneyed, but as tee vee people, if you couldn't see the problem ditching 75% of your most amazing actors after 10 episodes, well, we can see what happens, unfortunately.  I was able to watch the shows one after the other, but if I had been forced to wait a week between, I think I would have forgotten all about it and been none the worse off.

I blew through the first three books, too.  All I can say is that the writers who crank out Harlequin romance novels must be pissed they aren't getting tee vee money as well.  I know George R.R. Martin thinks he's writing an epic story about brutality and harsh politics in a harsher world, but what he's really done is write a shitload of interminably tedious books filled with trite and clumsy word salad that are much less believable and much less entertaining than The Young and the Restless.