FlashForward, Batman Arkham Asylum, The Beatles & Biffy Clyro

I've been following FlashForward rather eagerly since it started, like a magpie chasing the Silver Surfer. The premise is so simple yet can offer so many possibilities. I've watched up until episode 5. I could have watched episode 6 too but I thought I should save it. Or more truthfully I was itching to clamber into the Bat-cape. Things have moved on quite nicely, with whether the flashforwards themselves are visions of the future or imagined nonsense still hanging in the balance. There was one cheapening factor in which to keep people interested it brought in hot lesbians. Now as a male I obviously love the idea of hot lesbians. We all do. I imagine lesbians themselves do as well. But it felt like it may have been a bit overplayed. Especially since the whole African tangent is hotting up. I'll watch episode 6 tonight or tomorrow to see what's happening.

So I dived in a bit further to Batman today. Its giving me that same vibe I got from Bioshock which is very exciting. So far everything works well, the combat, the detective mode and the fantastic voice acting. If I was to criticise one thing it would be that when Batman decides there needs to be a "crime scene" (he's like a goth Sherlock) there is always something conspicuously lying around. Not like a hair or a bit of clothing, more like his hip-flask or a pipe. Admittedly the pipe was left deliberately as said in the story. This is how much I'm struggling to get annoyed with it. I'm going to savour this one, I've got that GOTY feeling for it. We shall see.

I don't want to review The Beatles really. What's the point? They're awesome. Fact. If you say they're not its just to be edgy. Everyone likes at least one of their songs if not most of them. Which leads me to mention that today they are suing BlueBeat for selling their MP3's. Which firstly is fair doos really. But begs the question why not sell the MP3's? You can talk shit about people not appreciating the albums anymore when they can hear individual songs but does that even matter? Cd's have allowed skipping since they began so that's hardly a new issue. It just seems like a massive disservice to the greatest band of all time to not let everyone have the chance to hear them. Even if you just sell them through one website it'll do. We're almost a tenth of the way through the 00's, its about time they caught up.

Ah Biffy Clyro. One of my favourite bands. You even released "Mountains" and therefore put the gauntlet down for the next Meatloaf and I still stood by. But now you have released Only Revolutions, an album that has a lot riding on it. Puzzle didn't necessarily divide the hardcore Team Biffy like myself but it made us question. The set-lists in the following gigs certainly did though, I walked out of the Reading 2008 gig after hearing Puzzle live for what felt like the millionth time. This new album though has again left me unsure though, on my first listen it just feels alright. Acoustic tracks like "God & Satan" are a welcome addition to the Biffy arsenal. But the twisted, frantic rock of yore is lost and replaced with polished, pop rock everywhere else. It'll obviously take time to get into and I'm sure in time it'll be deep in my affections but Biffy do like to leave me hanging these days. I know they've got a great album left in them. But who knows when or if they'll deliver it.

Tubelord, Editors, FlashForward, True Blood & World Of Goo

Not long after I posted about not having received the Tubelord album yesterday the link turned up in my inbox. For those who are uninitiated in the wonder of the Kingston scamps they peddle a kind of jittery ADD enriched punk-pop. They buy their clothes at the same shop as Danananana(ananana)akroyd to put a metaphorical spin on it. I'm quite enjoying this new breed, they're from my generation after all. The ones who were listening to Blink 182 and Green Day when they were at school. When those bands used to be good as well, not when the colours dulled and the ballads were spun. As a thank you for pre-ordering (read paying for) the album I received an acoustic album. But the main album is pretty good to start with. "Night Of The Pencils" is exactly what punk-pop should be sounding like these days; the unpredictability of Infinity Land era Biffy and all the gang vocals and sing alongs of any of your more recent chart-botherers. The only detractor I can think of is the quality of the audio is a bit shit for me, but that may well be just my brand of headphones and speaker. I'm no expert. Anyway, listen to them, love them. Oh yeah, the acoustic album's good too. They can sing and all.

Editors seem to have been around for a while now. Although they're only now releasing their third album. Their contemporaries Bloc Party, Maximo Park and even Arctic Monkeys beat them to it. They've gone for a change of direction this time, out with Interpol in with Depeche Mode. First single "Papillion" made it seem like an inspired choice, sounding surprisingly addictive for a song so devoid of Editors' signature guitar. Although after listening to the rest of the album I'd say the result was not so inspired. In fact its a little boring. Which is the risk you take when its all monochrome clothing and rambles gloom. But all I've heard this year is records which inspire sadness and depression. There's only so much I can enjoy before it becomes an endurance. Maybe when I'm more in the mood I'll give it a proper listen but for now I'll remember the epic refrain of "Bullets". At least that sounded a little upbeat in its depressing musings.

So Flashforward has been rumbling on for a few weeks now. Rumbling is an appropriate term for it because I'm not really sure where its heading. Which I guess is part of the attraction. Its still walking the tightrope between sci-fi hokum and modern thriller. I'm not fussed either way really but I just know that I'm not going to find out for a while. Its appealing though, I'm being drawn in. The odd departure to Germany aside the drama is bubbling quite nicely. I just pray we get some kind of answer at the end of the season. I've heard ABC likes cutting good dramas short early, if they decide to end this after one season it might even be better for it. Which brings me on to True Blood, no new paragraph. This only going to be brief. Second episode was enjoyable, this is very much about the characters though as opposed to the previous. The central romance featured is starting to get a little Twilightesque (or what I think that would be like) but hopefully it will continue down a few more alleyways. Also the cliff hangers are surprisingly lame. I'll wait till next weeks to see if this one is as poor as I expect it to be.

Finally I come to World Of Goo which is celebrating its first birthday by doing a Radiohead. I paid a measly $2. I'm sorry. I'm poor. That's more than I paid for the Radiohead album mind. Anyway, its basically a little physics puzzle based around gooey blobs of smiles. The graphics are lovely, the sound endearing and the puzzles taxing. But I'm shit at puzzles. I get confused about using my keys sometimes. I've got stuck on many of the Lego games. I have no idea how to use the blind in my room, I've been here for 8 months. I digress, my point is you should buy it. Fund an indie developer a little and enjoy a great slice of left field gaming. Its more fun than Guitar Hero 2. That's for sure.

Max Payne, FlashForward and How Not To Live Your Life

Video games are pretty much my passion. They were a guilty pleasure but with an increase in spare time there's been more than a little increase in gaming. One of the first things I check in the morning is Eurogamer (which is great by the way) so I think that says it all. Due to this I always get a mixture of excitement and dread when a video game adaptation is announced. Max Payne was one I'd been waiting for since it was first rumoured to be knocking around, which was when the games first came out. Which was around what 8 or 9 years ago? The thing is though, the games were heavily cinematic themselves so a film was somewhat redundant already, a comic book of the cut-scenes may have served better as fan service. Although what the film definitely wasn't was fan service, it was more a boiled down version of the basic clichés which lay within the game. The drug was definitely a missed opportunity, bringing in some random Norse mythology nonsense from Too Human and ripping off the visuals of Constantine. The Sin City style was quite nice to look at, but the rest of the film fell by the wayside really and overall doesn't do justice to what is one of the best third person shooters there ever was.

FlashForward (I'm not sure how we're "supposed to be" spelling it, you know they always get funny about that stuff) is from the same stable as Lost. Not sure if it's by the same people but they're certainly leaping onto that bandwagon with this. Only a few years late, but you know whatever. A strange cast is assembled for it, Joseph "Not Ralph" Fiennes, Harold (No Kumar in sight), Steve from Coupling and Peter Griffin. Yeah that's right, Peter Griffin a.k.a. Seth Macfarlane is in it. I know that's weird isn't it. He isn't just a disembodied voice and a loose hand for drawing the cartoons. He's a person too. No wonder Family Guy got shit, he's off gallivanting in epic TV now. Anyway, something about people seeing the future all at the same time then everyone trying to work out what it means. It's a nice plot idea because you can explain it to someone in around 45 seconds unlike other shows of this kind. It's got all the hall marks of absorbing telly, random animals, glassy-eyed stares, everyone has a cut on their face at some point. Still, early days and if Five's on demand service is as shockingly slow at buffering as it was today I may just give up and try and Derren Browning the lottery numbers for my predictive fix.

Finally, How Not To Live Your Life is a little sitcom on BBC Three. Unlike most BBC Three sitcoms I actually feel like living is worth it after watching an episode. It's basically about Don who lives in his dead grandma's house with the butler and an attractive female housemate. Then stuff happens generally involving Don being an idiot. It's pretty standard fair is what I'm saying really, but it's easy viewing. Few laughs in each episode, and the "4 things Don shouldn't do now" device is a real winner for me and brings a bit of surrealism to an otherwise standard affair. Worth watching as it is on BBC iplayer all the time and repeated on BBC Three around every two hours as well.