German TV!

You know, I realized I've almost completely forgotten the German language. Seriously, I had studied it for 15 years and I now have to fish for words! *cringes* I need to do something about it ASAP. So, I was thinking I should get some German TV show on DVD...

I settled on 3 options:

Alarm für Cobra 11, starting with the season where Semir gets yet another new partner - seriously, it's courting death to be his partner! - and it's Ben, who's hilarious and they have so much chemistry together. I've always loved this show but I lost my interest in it when Tom was killed ;_; Tom and Semir were perfection pure! But Ben... Ben's so awesome it almost makes up for what they did to my poor Tommy.

Der Letzte Bulle is a hilarious show about a cop who ended up in coma for 20 years. But now he's back and solving crimes - with the attitude of a 25-year-old and outdated opinions that totally clash with his partner's eco-friendly, vegetarian attitude. Henning Baum is simply awesome as Mick!

Mit Herz und Handschellen and Henning Baum once more! This is an old show for which he got the German TV award. It's about a male-female cop duo where the woman is all tomboyish and mouthy and the guy is every mother-in-law's dream come true - but! He's gay. And he's as non-cliché gay as they get - he's this Thor like blond and muscled giant who's open about and perfectly comfortable with his sexuality and in a long-term relationship. Gosh! \o/

So yeah. All these shows are rather cheap, €14.99 for a season, which is not bad. And I really need to jumpstart my German language skills! Luckily, Xmas is right behind the corner...

Thor

I watched the movie with the audio commentary by Sir Kenneth Branagh himself. He talked the whole movie through and he had so many great things to say about the actors in general but he also talked about the whole filming process, about the various decisions he made etc.

He praised Chris Hemsworth's acting talent and comedy timing and also his willingness to go shirtless - that was actually pretty hilarious, Branagh talked about how he asked Chris very carefully if he would be willing to take off his shirt and Chris was all "Man, I've trained for 5 months to get in shape, of COURSE I'm taking my shirt off!" LOL!

Branagh talked very warmly about Tom Hiddleston too with whom he had worked many times before, both on TV and in the theater. And I agree with him, Tom's fantastic as Loki. It took me 3 viewings but I'm starting to get why so many people are obsessed with him. I still don't like woobie!Loki fics, though. He's a god of mischief with a cruel sense of humor, for Christ's sake!

I loved how much Branagh praised Jeremy Renner even though Hawkeye was only in one scene. And also with how much affection he talked about Natalie Portman and Jaimie Alexander, about Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo and all the other actors. It was really sweet.

I watched only one of the deleted scenes, the one with Thor and Loki before the coronation - and I'm rather disappointed that they didn't include it in the movie. Sure, it would've upset the pacing but I think a scene like that was really needed as a proof that yes, Loki actually really loves his brother, he isn't just a scheming, backstabbing bastard. I think that this fact, his love for Thor, hasn't been established well enough, not here and not in The Avengers. And I think it's too bad because it really was and is needed. And I hope they'll rectify that in Thor 2. There needs to be at least a scene like that IN THE MOVIE if Loki is to be seen as a three-dimensional character. Because right now, all I see is a crazy megalomaniac willing to kill his brother for power.