Purple Realm

So, shocking news for us, when watching Season 4 Part 2 of Supernatural a few weeks ago, we learned that Kim Manners passed away in January. January! I was rather shocked at this news, the man has been responsible for so many popular tv shows... Most known probably being The X-Files.
That guy was responsible for many of my hours lost in a truly enjoyable show... Tv just won't be the same.

I know I'm a little behind in the world of tv - My regular readers know that wait for whatever we watch to come out on DVD before we see it.
Today, Season 4 of My Name Is Earl finally drops through the door, and we're three discs in before I realise that "The Final Season" is printed everywhere, all over the box and all the discs. The bastards have cancelled it!

So many interesting shows have been cancelled in the last few years...
Pushing Daisies, a charmingly delightful black comedy that only made it 2 seasons, Dead Like Me, another really intriguing 2 season show cut short (there is a film I've yet to see) and Arrested Development, the offbeat, irreverent comedy I've fallen in love with made it to season 3 before being axed (thankfully they were notified and were able to finish it - and there's also a film due for this) to name but a few.

Yet, stupid reality shows full of barely talented morons and sob stories are going season after season.

I'm out of touch with the media, news-wise. Perhaps even in taste? Or is that the network executives? Or just the general population..?

Ah, tv. Teams of writers cramped into small, humid rooms combine everything they've ever seen, heard and thought of, much like dreams, to create a fictional life with its own backround, life story and personality.
Once created, the parade of thespians begins, lines read and emotions high to find a perfect fit to bring the person made in scratchings on paper to life.
It can be a lengthy process, or remarkably quick. Some say it's luck, others say it's fate.
I say it's television, and sometimes the combination of the thespian and the words on the paper become something rather wondrous indeed - and I shall detail one of these for you now.

This month's fictional character:
Name: Tobias Fünke.

Appears in: The tv show Arrested Development.
Played by: David Cross.
Character info: Tobias is a husband and father. He was an analyst/therapist - and the first and only man to combine the two into one word...
Such business cards alerted the police to investigate him for a while.
He had his medical license revoked, and so he begins to try and realise his dream of acting, which he's just terrible at. He's also a never-nude (he cannot be completely naked, ever), and extremely homosexual, although only he himself is oblivious to this fact.
Why I love him: He's so deep in the closet, he's pretty much in Narnia. He puts so much gusto into every little thing he decides to do. He's excitable, overreactive, and just downright hilarious.
My favourite Tobias moment: During a few episodes, he decides to win over his family by posing as a british nanny, Mrs Featherbottom. The combination of Mrs Doubtfire and Mary Poppins is hilarious.
A couple of quotes: [Excited at the prospect of getting an acting job] "Ooh, I can just taste those meaty, leading man parts in my mouth!"
[When he's painted himself blue and is asked if he had someone do it for him] "No, I'm afraid I just blue myself."
"If I may take my acting pants off for a moment and pull my analrapist stocking over my head..."

I can't really do him justice with typed words. The live action is funny, and I love the show...
And he is the character of the month.

I think it was February this year, we were visiting Leicester to view an apartment, and we were looking in Zavvi for a new DVD. We saw a bunch of boxsets marked "Warner Teen" - Warner Brothers' TV series that'd been categorised as perfect teen programmes. Stuff like The OC, Smallville, and Supernatural. Well, Mik was rather taken with this boxset of the first series of Supernatural, so, a little reluctantly I agreed that we should buy it.

The show is pretty much based around brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers of a small, disrupted and definately unusual family, trying to unravel the mystery of the death of their mother, and save some people on the way.

Ya gotta give the show a chance, as at first it's half-entertaining at best, but you know, it just gets better and better.

The chemistry between Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) is just delightful, the boys being total opposites, and the petty insults flying back and forth is just hilarious.

I suppose this show is rather like Buffy - but for those of us with a taste for classic rock and good old mythical lore. It's just... It's bloody good, okay? It's just got a great mix of everything, especially when you get to season two. It's got hilarity, grossness, old lore, excellent twists and turns, and a continuing storyline beneath each episode's seperate story.

Season two was totally awesome, but then, as I found last week, Season 3 was released.

Now, we all know that most TV shows have been heavily disrupted by the writer's strike. Prison Break 3 was a shadow of what it could've been, Heroes 2 became a whole different story to the plans of the producers, and frankly it left me disappointed...

But, holy crap, this did sooo not happen with Supernatural 3. We watched the whole thing in like, three days and it was more creepy, way more funny, just fucking awesome!

I can honestly say that now I'm bordering on fanatical. I'm pissed that there's no more for a while. I can also honestly say that for me, it is the best series of anything I've seen in years, and the entire show itself, definately in my top three ever.

If you haven't seen this, I urge you to give it a chance, just get through the whole first series before you give up on it. It's worth it, and I am shamed at my initial reluctance.

I everything about this awesome show, and I don't care. It rocks, buddy.