I think innate Targaryen awesomeness is supposed to enable the rightful ruler to sit on it, like pulling a sword out of a stone or walking into a funeral pyre.

That might be why it got cancelled.   How I Met Your Mother, for example, has spun half a dozen joyless seasons out of one plotline that people are apparently waiting to see resolved.

If Happy Endings has a plot it's about romantic entanglements.   Based on last night's ep, Penny-Dave-Alex is apparently a thing.

The whole thing just makes me a bit depressed, to be honest.   Like watching the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible, or something.

Wot's on tonight: unofficial UK version:
Home Grown: The Crow Road (10.30pm BBC4)   Re-showing this drama after the untimely death of Scottish author Iain (M) Banks.   I read the book ages ago so this is a chance to catch up.   RIP.

The quality of Bron is roughly proportional to the episode number.   By about half way through the characters crystallize and it all gets much more personal.   I found the last few truly gripping.

I think Scorsese just made such successful gangster movies that all his other stuff just gets ignored.   Over the years he's done all sorts of interesting things and they're weirdly under-appreciated.

I think supernatural horror relies on the innately terrifying property of a breakdown in the laws of nature.   People in movies diregard warnings about ghosts and monsters because, like me, they don't believe they're living in a horror movie.

BBC had a great surrealist mini-series called The History of the World Backwards.   It was sketches/dramatisations of world historical events in the wrong order, with authoritative-sounding rationalisations.   Last sketch was a de-evolving cave man trying and failing to survive the onset of an ice age.

Wot's on tonight: unofficial UK version:

Well, one copycat is just lame, but dozens makes an actual funny.

I just watched an episode and found it perfectly pleasant.   But I checked and it's been cancelled already.

I'm going to do one of these a day this week and see if people want to talk about UK TV.   It will be restricted to the free stuff I actually get though!   So everyone chip in with their picks too.

What's On Tonight: unofficial UK edition

Look at the picture above.   For some reason, that's the version of the show we were being sold.   The actual show is a much snappier ensemble comedy.

It's like TV easy listening.   Easy watching?

thanks for the link.

I heard they're making a film of that.

I met Kate Beaton once at a convention thing.   I said 'Hello, are you Kate Beaton?   I've been reading your webcomic for ages, it's great!'

Honestly I'd much rather hear a simple 'William Faulkner, Fuck Yeah!' than loads of people going on about how much work it is to read a Pynchon novel but surely it's good for the soul or something.