Last week NBC announced it was cancelling The West Wing after seven seasons. This is a bummer - not only is The West Wing one of the best shows (excellent writing, casting and directing) on television today - it's a classic political drama, a genre which hardly exists today. Since I have not watched a single episode of Season Seven yet, I am going to patiently wait until the release of the DVD collection so that I watch the entire Presidential race between Santos and Vinnick unfold over a few days.
Having said that, I never fancied Law and Order all that much. There must be something about it since NBC keeps renewing it season after season.
Of the new shows yet to be broadcast in Sri Lanka, I would love to see the following:
1) Commander-in-Chief
2) Prison Break
3) My Name is Earl
4) Weeds
5) Grey's Anatomy
It's high time a tv channel in Sri Lanka is set up for only television shows instead of using it as a news channel as well. It's impossible to broadcast live news in addition to prime times shows successfully. Every time there is a "breaking news" story or a live debate, all scheduled programs are shuffled away and never seen again. Since shows are not repeated constantly, it doesn't help a viewer at all. ETV does telecast repeats but sometimes I get the feeling ETV doesn't seem to know what planet it's on at times. Check out ETV's website and take a look at the programs for this week - according to the site "ER", "That 70's show" and "Seinfeld" should be on but in reality none of them are shown at the specified times!! There are several new shows coming up in February and all trailers feature the phrase "check with www.etv.lk for details on all our programs" - right!!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sirasa Super Star - Final Eight
I wasn't a fan of Sirasa's Super Star program (SSS), which was made quite obvious by a previous post, until two weeks ago. I watched the program on a whim and found the Top Ten were pretty good singers - I must confess sometimes I don't really understand what they are singing about - but a couple of them were very, very good. So far I like Amila, Shihan, Malith and the sixteen year old kid.
The producers have changed the format of the show - each round has a different panel of judges, most of whom are relevant to the kind of music used for each program (drama, pop, specific singer etc). The advice offered (mostly positive for all contestants) is quite constructive and unbiased in comparison to what Nirosha and Rukantha doled out before.
My one and only gripe - and it's a biggie - is about the host of the show - Kamal Addaraarachchi (sp??). Try as he might, the man is no Ryan Seacrest and is at least fifteen years too old to be a bubbly, talkative host of a reality tv show. SSS even as a red room (what a coincidence!) in which Kamal chats to the contestants before each steps onto the stage. Most of his dialogue is a direct Engish-to-Sinhala translation of what Seacrest says on American Idol (Season 4). The single most annoying factor about Kamal is his lethargic delivery of the voter's results. In between five second pauses, he manages to squeeze out a single word in order to keep the contestants "in suspense". It's actually very boring because once the results are in, the only proper way to delay the announcement is to thrown in a series of advertisements in between saying "You're safe" or "You're in the bottom three". Kamal, who lacks the charisma of Seacrest, itakes all the time in the world and manages to come up with really corny lines - "You......are......not......going..........home......today..........." - and believe it or not, he says this to each and every contestant save the one who gets voted off. I have never wanted to see advertisements interrupt a program more than when I have to listen to Kamal announce the name of the unlucky chap who is headed home.
Kudos to the producers for choosing twelve excellent contestants for the final - and it is a wonderful opportunity for young singers to be discovered and I hope it will continue next year as well. Just one condition - find a new host!!
The producers have changed the format of the show - each round has a different panel of judges, most of whom are relevant to the kind of music used for each program (drama, pop, specific singer etc). The advice offered (mostly positive for all contestants) is quite constructive and unbiased in comparison to what Nirosha and Rukantha doled out before.
My one and only gripe - and it's a biggie - is about the host of the show - Kamal Addaraarachchi (sp??). Try as he might, the man is no Ryan Seacrest and is at least fifteen years too old to be a bubbly, talkative host of a reality tv show. SSS even as a red room (what a coincidence!) in which Kamal chats to the contestants before each steps onto the stage. Most of his dialogue is a direct Engish-to-Sinhala translation of what Seacrest says on American Idol (Season 4). The single most annoying factor about Kamal is his lethargic delivery of the voter's results. In between five second pauses, he manages to squeeze out a single word in order to keep the contestants "in suspense". It's actually very boring because once the results are in, the only proper way to delay the announcement is to thrown in a series of advertisements in between saying "You're safe" or "You're in the bottom three". Kamal, who lacks the charisma of Seacrest, itakes all the time in the world and manages to come up with really corny lines - "You......are......not......going..........home......today..........." - and believe it or not, he says this to each and every contestant save the one who gets voted off. I have never wanted to see advertisements interrupt a program more than when I have to listen to Kamal announce the name of the unlucky chap who is headed home.
Kudos to the producers for choosing twelve excellent contestants for the final - and it is a wonderful opportunity for young singers to be discovered and I hope it will continue next year as well. Just one condition - find a new host!!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
A Googley by Google
Typing in www.google.com now takes me to www.google.lk and offers the option of selecting either Sinhala or Tamil. I tried out Sinhala first and was stumped to find the Sinhala words were in fact written in English. For example: "soyanna" and " and my personal favorite "directoriya" - what's up with that?! The Tamil version is much better because a Tamil font is used. Couldn't Google get a Sinhala font? There are at least a dozen available out there free of charge.
Now that Google censors the content on Google's China web site, it appears that all Google.com pages have become country specific. Looks like Big Brother is keeping an eye on web activities here in Sri Lanka as well.................
I use http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ (saved as a bookmark) instead of Google.com - it's more convenient that the basic search engine page.
Now that Google censors the content on Google's China web site, it appears that all Google.com pages have become country specific. Looks like Big Brother is keeping an eye on web activities here in Sri Lanka as well.................
I use http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ (saved as a bookmark) instead of Google.com - it's more convenient that the basic search engine page.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
An Old Greeting Card That Never Fails to Amuse Me
I first received this card about eight years ago and I still find it funny!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)