(no subject)

[pensnest]

Today, I made banana cakes. When I attempted to peel a breakfast banana, it was that gross overripe sticky ew thing, and there were three more in the fruit bowl (very firmly wrapped so as not to afflict the rest of the fruit with their banananess). But the cake smells good, and I'm hoping the slugs will enjoy the skins and the hedgehog will enjoy the slugs. Mmm, juicy!

*

I'm semi-addicted to watching Lewis, which is being recorded on my Virgin media box in apparently random order. One oddity I have noticed is that there are lots of shots of the river in which a smallish crew, usually a pair or a four, rowis gently into view—and the crews are always women. Well, there was one mixed double scull, but otherwise I've only noticed female crews. I suspect the filming company did a deal with one of the women's boat clubs to provide scenic authenticity, but it does seem… odd.

I've put the full boxed set on my Christmas list. With luck I shall be able to watch them all next year and do a proper survey. I suspect that detailed examination would reveal that the same four women do all the rowing in any given season!

Comments

[nopseud]

Did I hear someone say...Lewis?

(At this point you need to imagine me going full meerkat alert pose.)

Lewis is awesomesauce! It's one of my faves to rewatch late at night on ITV3. Hathaway is delightful, and it has that same level of low-key batshittery in the plots that makes Midsomer Murders so entertaining. My favourite ludicrous plot is probably secret!former!child!murderer, which I think they use at least twice, maybe three times.

I bet it is the same rowers. And Lewis is really weird if you know Oxford, because they're forever walking through one collage lodge, ending up in a different college quad, and then going through a door into a third college building. It makes the acting seem a lot more impressive when you realise they've had to pack up and move locations several times over one continuous conversation.

Do you have any favourite eps yet? If I had to do a top three, I think it would be A Life Born of Fire (inventive murders, good murderer, A+++ Hathaway angst), Whom the Gods Would Destroy (interesting murders and murderer, actually with a very similar theme to ALBoF), and And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea (great characters all round, has Neil Pearson and Haydn Gwynne from Drop the Dead Donkey). Counter Culture Blues almost made it, because Joanna Lumley is in it and she's so so so good, as is Simon Callow, but the ending is super, super sad. The Great and the Good and The Quality of Mercy are definitely the best for Lewis angst.

Now I'm looking at an episode list, the whole first three series are solid gold, really. After that they do start to get more variable in quality, but I'll still happily rewatch most of them. And some of the episodes towards the end are ridiculously shippy, which is nice.

God damn it, ITV need to shap themselves and commission Hathaway. It's all very well having Endeavour, but I need modern day wacky murder shenanigans, not depressing 1960s gloom.

[pensnest]

I wondered how the show would look from the POV of someone who actually recognises the colleges! It is *very* pretty, which makes a nice change after so many grungy things shot in darkness. (Midsomer murders is pretty too, of course, but very definitely silly.) And lots of bizarre academic references, which is amusing.

I really want to watch this all in the right order! I liked the one with Neil Pearson, also very much liked the one with Toby Stephens ***pining*** for his long lost love, although that may have been because Toby Stephens pining. And being very pretty indeed. Ahem. Oh, yes, I have seen Counter Culture Blues, too, good stuff.

Hathaway angst is of course always a good thing, and an episode in which Hathaway wears jeans and a Run DMC T-shirt is, I feel, a thing of joy. Though I probably wouldn't love him quite as much if he were the lead rather than the sidekick-in-chief.

So, on the subject of enjoyable telly, have you seen Black Sails?

[watervole]

You two have now got me watching Lewis.... Never tried it before, but there is lots of it on Netflix.

Just seen Whom the Gods Would Destroy and I'm wondering if the guy in the wheelchair was actually the guy who hit Lewis's wife.