I’m feeling a lot better today and decided to celebrate with a film. Well that’s a lie, it just happened to be on when everyone else was watching TV. Actually the only key point you should be taking away from this first paragraph is that I watched a film.

Akeelah and the Bee is actually as good as its 84 on Metacritic suggests. It’s not a clichéd story despite it’s inherent predictability, but that wasn’t what ultimately put me off it. The parent of the surprisingly gifted child seemed to have a vendetta against people learning. Now I’m not a parent, neither will I claim to know everything about parenting but no parent would deny their child trying to better themselves at something, especially something academic. Kind of made no sense and did nothing for the plot of the film. However, I could think of worse ways to spend two hours.

I also watched Up, which everyone should watch in one thousand and eighty pea. It looked very nice to say the least. They did a bad job of the plot twists but the overall story and breath of characters were strong enough to make it another classic Pixar film. Probably as good, if not better, than Toy Story… maybe.

Well that’s enough of me trying to be a film critic for one evening.

High Definition makes sense, it’s standard television made up to four times clearer and sharper. It was clearly a worthwhile piece of technology, definitely far from being another CES fad. Let’s just think about how important its been for gaming. If you really think about it, its signalled the death – or at the very least, steady incline – of PC gaming, now that consoles can match the fidelity. That’s probably more of a personal opinion than a fact but let’s be honest HD has had it’s part to play in the massive paradigm shift affecting the industry.

HD is great, let’s sing praises from the rooftops and the rest of it. However, the next evolution in home entertainment is something I’m struggling to get to grips with, 3D Television.

With films like Avatar and Up coming out recently, 3D is having a bit of a shocking resurgence. I could moan about how it never really works but let’s be honest it’s simply a gimmick, or at least that’s what its been traditionally perceived as. But these new TVs that are taking the Computer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas by storm, aren’t your traditional red and blue glassed affairs. The big disappointment is that they still require the use of glasses although this a slightly more advanced than multicoloured acetate glued to cardboard.

Instead of your normal 24 frames per second, the output will be doubled to 48. Then half of these frames will be the image from the left perspective and the other half will be from the right. Your glasses – that are synced up through the use of Bluetooth, Infrared or another similar Wireless Technology – will be then block the alternative side. So while the TV is outputting the left frame, the right eye will be blocked and vice versa. Obviously this will be happening 48 times per second so you shouldn’t really notice the flickering and the resulting image will appear to be coming at you, or at least that’s the theory. It’s all incredibly clever but it’s far from perfect.

Can you really picture “seeing pubs investing in the screens and football fans having a laugh, wearing the dark glasses, and enjoying a big match” as Sean Hannam would have you believe. I guess it’s not really that surprising that the last line in that Telegraph piece mentions headaches, I’m surprised they don’t cause epileptic fits.

Gaming in 3D has always been somewhat of a curiosity for me, however, I’ve only dabbled in occasional experiments – most of  them resulting in purple and green cluttered remains of ridiculous Trackmania circuits. Nevertheless, I really want to give this technology ago but as I mentioned in rant about networks the other day – all technology should be invisible, alternately flickering glasses aren’t exactly concealed.

Despite being amazingly clever, it’s far from being the obvious next step for home televisions. I’ll happily predict that the uptake will underwhelm companies as this one will peter out as being the first technology craze of the decade.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t keep up with the ego driven world of professional wrestling since the boom period in the early naughties. But I’d also be lying if I said I watched it every week, in fact I can’t remember the last time I watched a full event in the last five years. Granted it was a fad while at school but for some reason it stuck with me. Throughout all it’s horribleness, awful programming, backstage politicking and the fact that it’s generally garbage, I’ve always kept tabs on what’s going on.

Admittedly, this is only because of podcasting as I don’t have time to watch the hours of weekly content they throw out, not one of them vaguely resembling quality broadcasting. Still for those who didn’t keep up, last night was the return of the Monday Night Wars as the seven years young upstart, TNA, faced up against the behemoth that is the WWE.

On one hand you had Bret returning to the company that legitimately screwed him at the 1997 Survivor Series event and on the other, you had the balding concession known as Hulk Hogan making his TNA debut. Just look at that stream in stream screenshot above, you could easily have taken that 15 years ago, albeit they would both have more hair and I don’t think 56K dial-up was truly ready for Justin TV.

If I got nothing else out of last night’s ‘entertainment’ I was taken back to a simpler time, 1997. The more things change the more they stay the same. But both shows had enough negative points for me to ‘take-or-leave’ next week’s follow up shows, but I will quite happily keep subscribing to those podcasts. Something about their constant moaning and berating of will make me keep tuning in, maybe that justifies me not wasting time watching it any more.

Well hopefully that will be the only wrestling related post of the year, I hear it’s all about UFC now.

I’ve never really tried or wanted to be a TV critic. It’s weird but writing about a different medium is a totally different kettle of fish so I tend to stick to strictly gaming. But there is something that bugs me about House Season 5. I have soft spot towards the first three seasons and even a majority of season four was great but now it seems to be suffering from a recession of it’s own.

First off, there are too many characters. Bringing in a new team, while being a great story arc initially, was a mistake or at least still having House’s old team of lackeys hanging around is. Chase & Cameron’s relationship was obviously a big part of previous series but in this season we’ve had one episode where it was heavily featured. The truth is that we saw these characters more in this one episode than the rest of the season. The show is overpopulated.

Secondly the show seems to have lost direction. The climax of House and Cuddy peaked when they kissed but apart from a few post-snog episodes, this ongoing storyline barely gets a mention. Current story lines seem to be rushed and crammed into one episode just so each character gets their own development. For example the most recent episode featured Chris Taub meeting a CEO of a medical supplies company and becoming friends to the point where Taub quits his job so they can work together. Later on he soon finds out that the CEO wasn’t really a CEO but more of a con artist. Taub reluctantly returns to the team.

Now I understand that with these three new characters they want to flesh out a lot of their traits and quirks. But that story was rushed into one episode, so it appeared that Taub quit out of the blue. Combine this with the fact that every character on the show has walked out or been fired at least once or twice this season and the rest of the story becomes highly predictable. If the writers were to tone it down and plan out stories like this over at least three or four episodes then the character’s dismissal or quitting would have some weight to it. Instead it comes off as predictable tosh without any hindsight or forthright planning.

House as a character still has his one liners but he is becoming less and less believable every day. Despite pushing friends and colleges away they still adore him and House still disregards anything they say or do to show this. It’s becoming old and repetitive even when they tease him opening up because you’ve come to expect the inevitable ‘joke’. Forgivable nonetheless because there aren’t many over foreseeable directions to push the character.

If he didn’t figure out the answer to the case while doing something unrelated every week it might be interesting. If he wasn’t the only one working in at the hospital who could figure things out then it would be interesting. If he got things wrong occasionally then this would be an exciting twist and definitely be interesting.

Still the next episode is played from the perspective of the patient (played by Mos Def) and this could be a promising idea. Season five has had a few good concepts but they all seem to be on the patient side of things rather than the post-season one focus on the core characters.

Maybe the series has gone on a bit to long or this is just the production company’s hangover from the writer strike last year. Instead of moving on they seemingly have crammed all of their ideas for half of season four and five into one rushed season. House is definetly feeling some fatigue after all these years and is starting to go down the road from intriguing medical drama to a melodramatic american throwaway.

It’s the end of the year which means a load of Stand-Up DVD’s come out just in time for Christmas. It’s like they planned it or something. Anyway with the large amount coming this year I’m going to spilt them into two articles although that’s mainly because I haven’t watched them all yet and a few are yet to be released.

I’ll probably post reviews of Sean Lock, Lee Evans, Frank Skinner and a few others at a later date. I won’t be posting a review of Bill Bailey – Tinselworm due to me going to see him later in the year so obviously I don’t want to spoil the DVD. Enjoy

Jimmy Carr – In Concert

Jimmy Carr’s 4th DVD aptly named In Concert is pretty standard as far as Jimmy Carr DVD’s go. Surprisingly most of this is original stuff but unsurprisingly it isn’t as funny as previous outings. You can only imagine that it’s hard to come up with new material every year and it really shows. It’s still worth a watch if you don’t mind Jimmy Carr’s brand of offensive comedy. Just about worth it for the skit were he throws out random thoughts to the ambiance of a live jazz band because it’s clever and easily the funniest part of the DVD.

Frankie Boyle – Live

Frankie Boyle otherwise known as the Scottish one on Mock The Week seems to be one of the fastest rising comedians on the UK scene. His highly anticipated first DVD is for all intents and purposes great but you feel left that he recycled a bit too much from Mock The Week. While watching you’ll often know the punchline to many of the jokes and it feels like you’ve seen it before. Not disappointing in the least but if your an avid fan of Mock The Week you might find too many recycled jokes for your liking.

Michael McIntyre – Live & Laughing

Michael McIntyre was fairly unknown to me at the beginning of the year yet his DVD is easily one of the best to come out this year. It takes a while to get going but has many brilliant moments. He might appear to be one of those annoying posh / camp comedians but he’s nothing but annoying. Worth a buy and definitely worth picking up.

Russell Howard – Live

Russell Howard is one of the stand out acts from the romp of comedians to be showcased on Mock The Week and similar panel shows. His DVD doesn’t disappoint and although he seems a bit too excitable (which results in you missing a few of the jokes sometimes) and way too fast, it’s definitely worth a watch. There are enough genuine moments throughout that showcase Russell’s unique personality and brand of almost childish comedy.

Dara O’Briain – Talks Funny Live From London

Dara O’Briain Talks Funny easily wins the best named DVD of the year but isn’t the funniest. Dara seems to be at his best while in hosting with other people to work with and his DVD seems a bit stale and offers up all too many simply un-funny jokes. Saying this when one does hit home, it really does and it goes to prove that the current crop of comedians all have their moments. Whether this show offers enough of them to make it worth the price of entry really relies on how much you like Dara O’Briain.