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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Jul 29, 2012 21:42:51 GMT
I think it has something to do with the whole "Built in set top box" [censored]. So in theory every one who buys a TV, buys a TV with the ability to watch digital TV.
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Post by Alex on Jul 31, 2012 11:40:02 GMT
Every TV anyone has ever bought has had the built-in ability to watch TV. That's the smegging point of it.
I don't think it is really that wild an assumption that someone would buy a TV to watch TV on.
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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Jul 31, 2012 12:06:38 GMT
Yeah but in the past you used to be able to say "Its not connected to the aerial" [censored] like that. Now it doesn't matter because the aerial is in the TV.
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Post by Sam on Jul 31, 2012 16:14:07 GMT
But you can deactivate the aerial from within the settings of the TV. At least, you can on the TV's we've just bought.
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Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Jul 31, 2012 18:22:00 GMT
ITT: John is paranoid about the TV license people coming through the TV via a honey comb shield of Zeroes and Ones and then sucking him through the TV to become a major character in Eastenders.
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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Aug 3, 2012 7:34:40 GMT
You know, I have to say, as much as I love Red Dwarf (and I really do) and as much as I'm looking forward to this (and I really am) I do sort of think it would have been better had the budget been there to do the original planned conclusion to series eight, drawing a line under the whole thing.
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Post by Alex on Oct 4, 2012 19:34:02 GMT
New series starts tonight at 9 on Dave (if the massive billboard ads haven't reminded you enough).
Previews have looked good so far, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
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Post by Lost Mercenary on Oct 4, 2012 19:43:40 GMT
17 MINUTES TO GO!!!!
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Post by Alex on Oct 4, 2012 20:46:34 GMT
That was actually pretty good.
Hell, the production values on it alone look better than most modern BBC and ITV shows, let alone in comparison to classic Dwarf.
Quite impressed. Back to Earth is forgotten and forgiven.
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Post by Lost Mercenary on Oct 4, 2012 21:18:39 GMT
So a Swedish man is a driving a car...
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Post by The Stiv™ on Oct 4, 2012 22:50:37 GMT
It's a moose!
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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Oct 5, 2012 7:37:22 GMT
A good start, though not necessarily the best possible start. It had some seriously hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments (I startled my girlfriend laughing at one point), though some gags were verging on being a bit laboured (the moose gag almost stopped being funny, until that excellent punchline the Cat had and the phone thing was very un-Dwarf until Lister's mental breakdown at being the only human left alive to register a formal complaint). I always love episodes that expand on the science-fiction of Red Dwarf, so it was refreshing to see a Simulant doing what it was designed for (for a moment anyway!) since we've only seen those of the Rogue variety before now.
I'm still desperately wanting answers- what happened between series 8 and BTE?
Still, next week's looks REALLY good and scheduling logic dictates that people will tune in for a first episode anyway (especially for something as long-awaited and hyped as this), so it's the middle part of a series that the stronger episodes have to be to maintain ratings. I also checked out the BRD on Amazon and I'm very intrigued by the name of the series' final episode...
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Post by Super Sonic on Oct 6, 2012 21:37:36 GMT
Wow, is this episode canonical or what? I don't know where to begin with the inconsistencies if it is.
If it's not, I still didn't think it much of an improvement on Back to Earth.
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Post by madhair60 on Oct 6, 2012 22:58:26 GMT
Worst thing ever made, and I didn't even watch it.
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Post by Super Sonic on Oct 6, 2012 23:18:12 GMT
Worst thing ever made, and I didn't even watch it. Considering you once remarked that pretty much only series 1 was funny, I would advise against watching this.
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Post by Alex on Oct 7, 2012 10:13:45 GMT
If I were to compare it to a previous series, I'd say it was closest to about series 4 and 5. More about using the Sci-Fi setting as the 'sit' to the 'com' than getting all jizzed over itself trying to make some sci-fi epic or character drama as the later series did.
To the show's credit, it's probably the best new sit-com episode that's been on TV for years... but considering basically every single sit-com for the past decade has been god-[censored]ing-awful, that's not exactly a difficult title to earn.
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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Oct 7, 2012 11:41:36 GMT
Wow, is this episode canonical or what? I don't know where to begin with the inconsistencies if it is. Which bits in particular?
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Post by Super Sonic on Oct 7, 2012 14:00:49 GMT
Which bits in particular? I guess it can be summed up with the fact they're 3 million years into deep space. The fact that they were getting mail (where the hell from?) very quickly, there are still shopping channels with humans on, and just randomly bumping into Howard Rimmer?
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Post by Alex on Oct 7, 2012 14:47:19 GMT
1) The mail was 'internal mail' from the ship... so from the computer. Plus, they got mail from earth before in the second series. A whole episode was based on it.
2) Those were robots, not people. (The same way that Kryten's favourite 'soap opera' was still broadcasting)
3) They bumped into Howard (a hologram, so also dead) because of the plot device that links things together as a faster than light travel engine thingie.
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Post by madhair60 on Oct 7, 2012 15:20:49 GMT
considering basically every single sit-com for the past decade has been god-[censored]ing-awful Red Dwarf fans. You don't know what you're talking about.
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Post by Alex on Oct 7, 2012 15:33:20 GMT
Do elucidate. If there are any good ones I've missed, I would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to check them out. The closest thing to a sit-com I've found properly funny in recent times has been Not Going Out, which isn't so much a sit-com as a stand up with sets.
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Post by Nam on Oct 7, 2012 15:46:29 GMT
I'd agree actually, there's really not been any decent British sitcoms that I've seen in the last decade or so. British comedy has spent the last decade relying heavily on panel shows, stand-up, and drama's with heavily comic moments (such as Doctor Who, not those God awful ITV comedy-dramas, that fail at being remotely funny). There have been good, funny sitcoms in the last ten years, but almost all of them have been American.
On topic, overall I liked it. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't the single worst thing to ever be called Red Dwarf. It was just a standard mid-quality episode that showed some promise, and while not a new high for the show, it was good enough. Few gags worked, few didn't.
The only complaint I have is that the sets are really over-detailed. Distractingly so at times, particularly when we're supposed to believe this is the same ship as earlier episodes.
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Post by madhair60 on Oct 7, 2012 17:46:16 GMT
Do elucidate. If there are any good ones I've missed, I would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to check them out. Well, it's going to be subjective, 'course. But Peep Show springs to mind. Inbetweeners. Grandma's House. The Thick of It. Miranda. IT Crowd. Ideal. Gary Tank Commander. Phoenix Nights. That's mainly the last few years. I enjoyed them, but you know, pick and choose.
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Post by Super Sonic on Oct 7, 2012 20:07:06 GMT
I have to agree with Stu here, and I'm not even much of a fan of sitcoms.
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Post by Alex on Oct 7, 2012 21:38:14 GMT
Do elucidate. If there are any good ones I've missed, I would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to check them out. Well, it's going to be subjective, 'course. But Peep Show springs to mind. Inbetweeners. Grandma's House. The Thick of It. Miranda. IT Crowd. Ideal. Gary Tank Commander. Phoenix Nights. That's mainly the last few years. I enjoyed them, but you know, pick and choose. I'd hardly call Phoenix Nights within the 'last few years' really. It's a full decade old. Ideal, Miranda and Peep Show all turn me off primarily because of the lead stars (in the case of Peep Show, it's more specific to the fact that I find Mitchell and Webb's sketches to be far funnier than Peep Show's awkward cringe-humour). Have to say I've never even heard of Grandma's House or Gary Tank Commander, though. I'll look into them at some point, ta. In all, though, you've very specifically noted examples that (for the most part) are subversive and in some cases deliberate turns away from the actual genre of a sit-com. The Office is essentially a sit-com, but like a number of those examples it's a deliberate divergence from the 'classic' sit-com. I think, really, the closest of them all (that I've seen) would be the It Crowd. There have been any number of attempts at a 'classic' sit-com in recent years though: Green Green Grass, After You've Gone, The Life of Riley, that [censored]ing awful circus one with Amanda Holden (or, just anything with Amanda Holden, really) and of course, the BBC's attempt to recreate Red Dwarf - Hyperspace. All of which are trash. However, upon further reflection, I will give exception to Gavin and Stacey and Outnumbered. Both of which I've enjoyed a fair amount of. Neither are classic sit-coms, either though. The new Red Dwarf is very much back in the world of sit-coms its former contemporaries: Ab Fab, Allo Allo, Birds of a Feather, Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, dinnerladies, Goodnight Sweetheart and Men Behaving Badly. A classic situation comedy focused on equal parts the characters and the situation they get into. Rather than going for a comedy drama (an American favourite we're adopting more and more), or a technical comedy that draws from its (subversive) use of the medium, or just going straight to that uncomfortable kind of humour that makes something like The League of Gentlemen so great. The reality is that something like Red Dwarf these days is a rarity. In the past decade there hasn't been many good examples of that style of classic sit-com. If that kind of sit-com never has and never will appeal to you, Red Dwarf obviously won't. However, I've always been a fan of a good 'old fashioned' sit-com and this new Red Dwarf actually does do a pretty good job of going back to those days. To me, that's the greater victory here than the fact it isn't as offensively bad as Back to Earth was. It's proof that a classic sit-com isn't an impossible thing to achieve well these days - it just needs better characters and better situations (and better writers, obviously - though far, far be it for me to claim that Doug Naylor is a great writer, Rob Grant was quite definitely the better half of that partnership).
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