TV

Bright Falls – The Prequel to Alan Wake

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1 year ago
by John Pennycook in , , ,

The deer is dear to me.

The deer is dear to me.

Yesterday I started playing Alan Wake – the unboxing and review of which will be appearing here shortly — but have taken a break in order to catch up with (and finish) the six-episode live-action miniseries Bright Falls.

The series is very reminiscent of David Lynch’s masterpiece, Twin Peaks, and is a prime example of a game tie-in done well.  It introduces a few of the game’s characters and locations, and makes it very clear that strange things are happening in Bright Falls even before Alan Wake arrives.

I’d be lying if I said that I understood everything that was going on, but that’s just an excuse to watch it all again.  Whether you’re interested in Alan Wake, a fan of Twin Peaks or maybe even both, it’s well worth a look.

For anybody lucky enough to have Silverlight, you can view all six episodes (and some additional bonus goodies) by pointing your browser at the official Xbox website.

If, like me, Silverlight is out of the question for you, Machinima.com has helpfully uploaded all of the videos to Youtube:

  1. Episode One – Oh Deer
  2. Episode Two – Time Flies
  3. Episode Three – Lights Out
  4. Episode Four – Local Flavor
  5. Episode Five – Off the Record
  6. Episode Six – Clearcut

I haven’t added up the times exactly, but it shouldn’t take more than 40 minutes to rock through them all.  Enjoy!

Grand Designs Live

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3 years ago
by John Pennycook in ,

It’s not often that I am so appalled by something I see on TV that I feel the need to rant, but Grand Designs Live really does deserve everything that I’m about to say about it. For anybody familiar with Grand Designs — a program on Channel 4 that shows people building luxury houses — the premise sounds exciting; the brilliant presenter Kevin McCloud building an eco-friendly house live on TV.

But it couldn’t have been more wrong. For a start it wasn’t even “live”; the vast majority of the program was pre-recorded and fronted by “celebrities” with annoying voices and seemingly little-to-no knowledge of architecture or design, with Kevin McCloud offering brief commentary in between segments. If that wasn’t bad enough, the “commentary”‘s only purpose was to remind us that we could waste 25p on voting for one of three houses we’ve never seen to win the Grand Designs “conversion of the year award”. Seriously…who cares!?

For me and my housemates, who watch Grand Designs regularly, watching Kevin McCloud demean himself by pretending he doesn’t know how to build with straw bales or pretending he’s best friends with Bill Bailey was just cringeworthy. Who was Channel 4′s target audience? If it wasn’t fans of the show, I don’t know who it could be; nobody else is going to stop watching the soaps or a film to watch somebody they’ve never heard of build a house.

The whole thing reeked. A desperate cry for money and attention, it came across as nothing more than a sad amalgamation of an awards ceremony and celebrity has-been conference with a David Blaine impersonation thrown in for good measure.

What the hell was Channel 4 thinking?

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