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6 Jul, 12 tweets, 3 min read
RIP Richard Donner. Completely missed that. Absolute directorial legend.

Also: everyone forgets he cut his teeth on some seriously classic bits of TV. Man from Uncle, Get Smart, Tales from the Crypt. The list goes on.

He directed the famous Shatner episode of The Twilight Zone. Shot from Shatner episode o...
Indeed if (like me) you're a golden era TV history nerd there's a point where you get VERY GOOD at spotting a Donner episode of something, even without seeing the Director credit. Because he's so bloody good at things like framing.
Indeed you've probably caught a whole bunch of Donner episodes without even realising it, through watching early afternoon repeats or catching random shows on TVs in the gym etc.

So here's a few eps of stuff to keep an eye out for which (for me) stand out.
Petrocelli - "Death in High Places"

Kojak - "One for the Morgue"

Man From UNCLE - "The Iowa Scuba Affair"

These are three worth noting because Donner was the KING of the 'third episode'. i.e. you've established the character in the first two shows, now you need a proper STORY.
Then maybe also these, which are decent examples of where he was a safe choice for either kicking off a season in style, or slamming out an episode that you could stick in for a technical award, or had a guest that needed proper handling.
Perry Mason - "Case of the Missing Button"

Ironside - "Who'll Cry for My Baby?"

And, obviously:

The Twilight Zone - "Nightmare at 20,000 feet"
I could give you more, but I'm not going to. Because, honestly, Donner is SUPER distinctive. And half the fun of watching old TV is doing it with half a critical eye and suddenly going...

"This is filmed so well. Who directed this?!"

If it's golden age, good chance it's Donner.
Donner never did a Columbo. It's an absolute fucking tragedy he didn't, IMHO.

If TV history and listening to absolute masters of it talking shop is your thing, then I HIGHLY recommend trawling through all Donner's contributions to the Television Academy Archive.

interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/ric…
And, as always, just a note that this is PRECISELY the kind of quality in-depth content you used to get back when me and @4DAConsultancy had a Cult TV Magazine in the mid-2000s.

Which no one ever bought.

And that's why you can't have nice things. 😜
@4DAConsultancy Trust me. The Donner issue we'd have been putting together right now would have been off-the-charts awesome.
(Random bits of it still lurking online here: medium.com/cult-tv-archive)

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More from @garius

John Bull Profile picture
3 Jul
Regardless of how far they go, I think it's possible that this England team is the classiest bunch of players to wear the shirt.

That's partly due to the manager, but also because the kids are alright. No matter what papers or politicians occasionally try to insist otherwise.
I think it's partly because this isn't the first generation of players to get the big contracts from a very young age.

But they ARE the first generation to grow up knowing it will happen, to be given extra support by the clubs, and to be more comfortable with social media.
Doesn't mean they don't go too far sometimes or make mistakes.

But it does mean they're better prepared to deal with the shit that gets thrown at them, and better supported when it does.

See Rashford and Sterling for examples there.
Read 9 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
3 Jul
It is practically a war crime that you never get Captain Kirrahe as a squad member in any of the Mass Effect games
I mean look at him. Dude's an absolute bad ass. Tactical genius spec ops commander who genuinely cares about his men.

How did they NOT give us Kirrahe as a squadmate?! He oozes charisma and potential storylines.

I want a Mass Effect turn-based squad shooter staring Kirrahe. ME1 Screenshot: salarian badass commando in armour talking t
Gets pinned down on a planet, surrounded by Geth?

No problem. Cannibalises his own starship to create a bomb big enough to take out the enemy base, rather than hide away or throw away his men in a needless frontal assault for glory alone.

Kirrahe is Mass Effect's forgotten MVP.
Read 4 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
1 Jul
It is quite possibly easier to get blood out of a stone than it is to get blood results out of my GP surgery.
"ring us to get your results. don't schedule an appointment."

"we don't give those out over the phone."

"how do i get them then?"

"you'll need to schedule an appointment."
No wonder they're in special measures.
Read 21 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
30 Jun
Every now and again I remember that Mass Effect has a whole lurking subplot about the importance of using "Synthetic Intelligence" rather than "Artificial Intelligence" if you accept everyone as 'alive'.

Easy to miss it, but it's there. One of the reasons I love the series.
To which it THEN throws in the concept of Virtual Intelligences, which are specifically manufactured not to be self-aware, which then opens up ANOTHER can of worms.

Specifically once you demonstrably have VIs that seem to exhibit self-awareness.
Throw in the whole issues of the galaxy's treatment of the Rachni and Krogan for "the greater good" (genocide in the first instance, biological alterations to reduce birth survival rates in the second) and ain't NO ONE in those games without historical blood on their hands.
Read 10 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
30 Jun
You can trace all of this back to his refusal to do the Andrew Neil interview in December 2019.

That was the moment he definitively knew he could get away with not conforming to the norms of politics.

And that not only would supporters not object, but they would cheer him on.
Plenty of seeds before that of course. Most critically the absolute destruction of parliamentary norms in August 2019, which I wrote about at the time with reference to A Man For All Seasons.

But December was the point he realised his voters didn't care.

garius.medium.com/and-the-devil-…
This is, ultimately, the problem with electing a sociopath.

They only follow norms when norms demonstrably matter.

And right now, for a WHOLE bunch of political and societal reasons in this country, they don't.

We'll pay for that in future, much more than it's costing us now.
Read 5 tweets
John Bull Profile picture
23 Jun
There's a cat snoozing somewhere in this house but I've given up trying to find him.

He'll no doubt make his presence known to me at about 3am.
NARRATOR: The head boops came at 2:30am
CAT: head boop!
ME: I was sleeping
CAT: hence the head boop
ME: Fine. I'll let you out.
CAT: Scritch me first
ME: No.
CAT: Wait... this duvet is warm
ME: You're going out
CAT: ignore head boop. Gonna snooze here for a bit first.
ME: *picks up cat*
CAT: HALP! I'M BEING OPPRESSED!
Read 16 tweets

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