Misfits misfiring

When Misfits burst onto our screens back in 2009 I was pleasantly surprised by a quirky Sci fi black comedy. Every character was centric to the show as we’re their powers. The immortal, non stop talking Nathan, time changing Curtis, sexual touch Alesha, invisible boy Simon, and everyone’s favourite ned girl, the telepathic Kelly. The stories were always fast paced, revolving around the various powers the people of the town possess since the freaky electric storm.
Now everything was great, the show just got better and better. We lost Nathan to Hollywood, but the delightful Rudy came to take his place. Then, with the finale of series three and the ending of a couple of character story arcs we were faced with a new dynamic. However, before filming, legal issues removed Lauren Socha, so Kelly was written out. For season four we still had Rudy and Curtis, recurring character Seth, as well as new Misfits Finn and Alex, with the powers of telekinesis and X-ray vision respectively. The new team do not seem to gel as much as the original cast and the powers are seemingly secondary to the weak story lines. Late on in the series we are introduced to another addition to the cast, the amnesiac Abbey, yet by the end of the series I am still left wanting. Another disappointment is the humour, it’s gone from being witty and fresh to just crude expletives and sexual innuendos. Fingers crossed the writers and producers will take hint from the ailing viewing figures and try to get back to the show was about, the characters have the potential to really work together well, but with shoddy writing that just won’t happen

Demons, demons everywhere…

So, I recently picked up The Painted Man by Peter V Brett. Loved it!!! An extremely exciting debut. The premise. Demons are real, they come out at night as the sun sets. There are loads of different types, wood, water, fire, big lumbering rock demons and they just get everywhere sand demons. And as demons are want to do, they pretty much want to eat everyone. Fear not though, the humans aren’t so easy prey, they have developed magical wards, painted signs and symbols that when placed correctly create a magical barrier keeping the fleshy humans safe. However these wards can fail if not maintained, failed wards let the demons in, hilarity ensues. The Painted Man tells the story from three main protagonists, three children as they make their way in the world, forcing them to grow up before their time. I really enjoyed the development of the characters, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, their strengths and weaknesses and motivations. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say, by the end of the book you will be itching for more. Luckily for us, the next too books are already available, The Desert Spear and The Daylight War, and being already half way through the Desert Spear, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet….

Check out the trailer below.

http://bit.ly/XIaFKE

Fangs and bangs and fur

Now, Fangs and Bangs is a phrase coined a few years ago to describe a certain genre of book. Typically it’s a girls falls for a vampire/werewolf/fallen angel, they fall right back, but this is a big no no in the world, yadda yadda, hilarity ensues. You know the type of book, think Twilight, it all comes under a sub genre called Dark Fantasy. Fangs and Bangs.
Now I usually pride myself in not judging a book by its cover, but sometimes when a book is deemed Dark Fantasy I don’t touch it with a barge pole. I’ve been burned before, I tried reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlainne Harris, and though I loved the series, I was practically screaming at the book for Sookie to just stake Bill already and go on with her life as a strong independent woman. So once bitten, twice shy (double pun intended), hence why I never bothered reading any Kelley Armstrong. Now, much to my chagrin.
I recently picked up Bitten(see my double pun now, bitten…..get it…. ) the first novel in the Women of the Otherworld series. I was very impressed, not your usual fangs and bangs story. It’s a gritty journey into the werewolf myth, where our main protagonist, Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in the world. Elena is a troubled soul, turned into a werewolf by her old boyfriend she struggles with what she sees as a curse. She wants nothing more than to fit in with the human world. However, problems with her old life are dragging her back to face up to her past, and more importantly, herself. If you want something that little bit different and not some ditzy blond falling for the brooding tortured soul, then this is the book for you.

Zombies Vs Superheroes

Zombies are cool, it’s just a fact, and they are big business, for example, Max Brooks’ World War Z, soon to be a movie starring Brad Pitt (I’ll deal with that at a later date), Warm Bodies, a zombie romance penned by Isaac Marion. Superheroes are also big business, look at the last few years, Spiderman, X-men, The Avengers, The Dark Night, Superman. They are all still making a smash at the box office, and the comics continue to evolve. So why should the two not mix?
We have already seen Marvel’s take on it, a darkly comic series where our favourite characters develop a taste for human flesh. DC comics had the Blackest Night where all the dead heroes rose from the grave and reaped havoc all over the glassy. Both these series were hugely successful, but they were in comic form, and not everyone is going to enjoy that.
For those who prefer the written word there is Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. Set in L.A, the world has been overrun by zombies, known as Exes. A small community of humans survive in this world, protected by a cadre of superheroes, St George the Mighty Dragon, Stealth, Gorgon and Zzzap. The book itself it very well written, we find out how they are surviving as well as the origins of the heroes, revealed gradually throughout the story. It’s extremely fun, Peter Clines really weaves the story well, revealing twists and turns, if you like both zombies and superheroes, then give this book a whirl.

Viva la resistance!!!! Twitter Style

So, at around 2pm today Twitter went wild, at one point I even thought it might explode. Why? Well, it appears that the problems at HMV are far from over. A tweet, direct from the official HMV twitter account (@hmvtweet) stating that 60 people had just been fired, and they were not going to be kept quiet about it. Twitter soon exploded with the hashtag #hmvxfactorfiring, it appears a disgruntled employee who still had access to the account had decided to tell the world, and so they did. The story was soon trending world wide as rumours spread about the numbers fired. The controversy just got worse as the original tweets were soon deleted, hashtags were flying everywhere, it seems people the world over were tuning in to find out more. The original tweets are below:

It goes to show the power of social media, with just a few words, a couple of lines of text, and it seemed the whole world was watching. Since then the account has released a couple of tweets saying one upset employee got access to the account and they confirmed losses of jobs but not in stores and they were trading as normal.
Was whomever sent the tweets right to do so? Will it keep them their job? Well, all I can say is it takes a lot of guts to do that sort of thing, to make a stand. Haven’t we all thought at one time or another to do the same but didn’t?

Jonbot Vs Martha

So we have Martha and Jon, a married couple, one lovely daughter called Sarah. But they are going through a rough patch, this is not wedded bliss. Then, pop, Jon’s heart gives out, sad times all round. Then some mad scientist type removes Jon’s brain, sticks it in a metal body and sends him home. HILARITY ENSUES.
If you want a giggle, and several laugh out loud crack your rib moment (Get away from her you BITCH), then you will love Jonbot Vs Martha. A fantastic collaboration from writer Colin Bell and Illustrator Neil Slorance, JvsM is a family sitcom, with swearing….quite a lot of swearing, you gotta love it.
Check it out from the beginning here:

http://jonbotvsmartha.com/2011/08/20/cold-open/

Lest we forget….