TV Tidbits

► TNT greenlit a new show, formerly known as Maxwell and King. It's based on David Baldacci's books and produced by Shane Brennan (NCIS:LA). It stars Jon Tenney (Fritz in The Closer) and Rebecca Romijn (Mystique in the original X-Men movies) as Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, a pair of PIs and former Secret Service agents. Source. Ten episodes were ordered to air this summer.

► Syfy canceled Alphas after 2 seasons: source. I watched S1 but never bothered to go back when S2 started. It wasn't bad but it lacked... something. To its fans, you have my condolences.

► Lifetime didn't pick up The Secret Lives of Wives for a series after all. It should've starred Salli Richardson (Allison in Eureka) and Joe Flanigan (Sheppard in SGA), among others. Oh well. It wasn't my cuppa anyway, though it would've been nice to see Joe on TV again.

Book #9

"Full Dark House (Bryant & May #1)" by Christopher Fowler

Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠

An intriguing mystery and lovely, lovely characters. Bryant and May reminded me so much of Holmes and Watson! I especially loved Arthur Bryant, his obsession with everything otherworldly and supernatural and his odd sense of humor. That was wonderful. I loved these characters, both their young and old versions, though I preferred them old and settled in their ways, best friends for 60 years. Beautiful.

So why 3 stars? The book was way too long and a bit too convoluted. And the strange jumps in POV were rather annoying. I mean, to change POV between one paragraph and the next? Who does that?

Still, I will definitely read the next book in the series because I adore the characters!

The Return of the King, part 1

Sheesh on a pogo stick, with all the added scenes, this movie is 4 hours long! The extended editions are all cut in a half, more or less, and this time, it ended just when the orcs were about to attack Minas Tirith with the Grond. And it's way too late to continue watching! Grr!

You know, seeing this battle... I can understand why Peter Jackson used Azog as the leader of the orcs in The Hobbit. A strong adversary, a charismatic enemy leader is needed too. In the battle of Minas Tirith, I really miss an orc leader. Yes, there's the leader of the Nazgûl, but he's up there, in the skies...

The best part of this movie? Gimli and Legolas and the drinking game! "I feel something; a slight tingle in my fingers." LOL! Éomer's face! Gimli's crossed eyes. And Legolas totally unaffected. Aren't elves simply awesome? And then later on, when Aragorn went to recruit the army of ghosts and Legolas followed him - Gimli was all reluctant and then, "Well, this is a thing unheard of! An Elf will go underground, when a Dwarf dare not! Argh, I will never hear the end of it!" and he ran after them. And then, when the ghosts started appearing, Gimli's "LEGOLAS!" LOL! Gosh, I just love these two.

I was glad that Théoden didn't make a scene when Aragorn left, that he understood that Aragorn was doing what he felt was right.

I'm somehow always more impressed by the underground sets than the surface ones. The cave and all the skulls, the ghosts... That was wonderful.

Part 2 - the last one :( - tomorrow!

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Also, I ordered "Silmarillion", the illustrated version. It's totally sold out here, I had to dig deep to find an available copy - hopefully, it's still available. If not, I will be so pissed. I know that there are other version of this book available in my language, but I want the illustrated one. I already own the illustrated version of "The Hobbit" and the whole "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, so I wanted this one in the same format too. Besides - purty pictures!!!