Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as you've never seen them before

"...fan fiction, describing [frequently] gay pairings between media characters, often in explicit detail, and very frequently outside the canon of the source." (NSFW!)

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Deal or No Deal

Perhaps recovering the intense feeling of excitement and suspense of Who Wants to be a Millionare, Deal or No Deal is easily the best gameshow currently on TV.

Made by Endemol who are responsible for a hell of a lot of programmes including Big Brother, Deal or No Deal gives you 45 minutes of entertainment in a way that most other gameshows fail to deliver upon. One of the main reasons for this I feel is that even if the contestant doesn't win a large amount of money, the suspense is still maintained simply because all is usually not lost.

For those that don't know about Deal or No Deal, read up about it here. This post isn't to detail what the show is about, only to express my love of it. My only quarrel is that unfortunately, due to it being a relatively new show in the UK, Channel Four haven't gone all out on the set budget or titles which gives an excellent game a slightly tacky look. In addition, now that it's getting extremely popular, many people feel that a move from 4:10pm to a prime time slot each night would suit the programme perfectly. Currently, it's beating the likes of The Weakest Link over on BBC2.

It's great to see that the gameshow format is capable of constantly reinventing itself and Deal or No Deal has come at just the right time, since Millionaire is now completely void of any real excitement due to the fact that it's been going for quite a number of years now. The popularity has been declining for a while too, as proven by the fact that it's now shown only once per week instead of every night for two weeks as it was when it first started. Deal or No Deal is currently running six days a week and I can see it going at that pace for quite some time as the ratings keep on getting higher as more people find out about the show.

Yakalike is available to download

One of the joys of Firefox of course is that there are countless numbers of extensions. Perhaps one of the more interesting and interactive ones is Yakalike.

Yakalike gives anyone with the Yakalike extension installed the ability to talk to people viewing the same website as them. It acts the same as a chat room, only there is a chat room for every website.

One of the nice things too is that if no one happens to be on a particular site, you can still leave a message and it will be visible to whoever visits and whenever. It's like a global bulletin board when there's no one there and a chat room when there are.

Currently, since it's still new, there aren't that many people on even some of the more popular websites like yahoo.com or digg.com. There aren't any on Yakalike.com itself. This is in part why I'm giving Yakalike a mention, because it needs more awareness.

Go give it a try.

The Power of Advertising

Today I want to talk about TV adverts. While most people probably don't pay that much attention to them, they are the most important thing you'll ever see on TV aside from the programs themselves (although some would argue that). They're big business and businesses will do anything to make sure their advert and their product is directly in front of you and that you're taking note.

I'm going to talk about three ads from three different companies; Honda, Audi and Sony. These ads in particular have made me sit up and pay attention and therefore remember what the advert and brand was. Most definitely a good thing for these companies.

Honda

"The Power of Dreams" is Honda's slogan and with the kind of adverts that they've been producing for the last few years (or rather Wieden+Kennedy, the creative agency behind them), they really stand out.

Mention "Cog ad" to anyone who watches TV or uses the Internet and I'm sure they'll know instantly what ad you mean. Now one of the most famous adverts around the world (even though it only aired on TV in the UK) thanks to viral marketing, Honda has managed to create free advertising for itself, simply by creating a good advert - which it was going to do anyway. Honda had to pay a few million pounds to get this 2 minute long masterpiece created and then splash out on actually paying for it to air on TV. However, since the cog ad is now a worldwide success online, Honda have easily made up their money in free advertising. But anyway, it's not the cog advert I want to talk about, it's Honda's latest offering.

When I first saw it, I was sitting on the floor, playing with my cat when I heard Garrison Keillor, the voice of Honda simply say "This is what it feels like to be a Honda". I immediatly paid attention. See last paragraph for reasons why.

What follows is a two minute symphony of sounds created by a chorus of 'singers'. For example, in one part of the advert, the singers tap on their teeth repeatedly to describe the tyres of Honda's new Civic rolling over gravel with a depiction of a car actually doing it. There is no music, there is no narration, just these unusual - and yet familiar - sounds that the chorus of singers are making to imitate a car. I sat mesmerised, watching and listening happily for the two minutes that the advert was on and felt truly happy that I'd had the oppurtunity to watch it because it was so impressive in such a subtle way.

And that's how adverts should be.

Of course, Honda, being the kind people they are, are offering everyone the chance to watch this advert over at their site, so please do go and watch it. You won't be disappointed.

Audi

If Honda relies on simplicity and subtlety, Audi is the opposite with it's recent "in your face" closeups of an Audi driving towards the viewer and stopping just a few metres away.

This ad caught my attention not for the visuals, but for the choice of sounds the people at Bartle Bogle Hagerty (the creative agency behind the ad) had chosen; Just a few simple notes played on a violin was all it took to get my attention. At the time, I was in the kitchen, but the arrangement of the notes was enough to make me come into the living room and see what it was.

My first thought was that it reminded me of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Shelob, the giant spider stalks Frodo. It has exactly the same kind of atmosphere only instead of her prey being anything with two legs, it is instead four wheels, as you see cars hanging from the ceiling with masses of cobwebs. While the advert only lasts for around 30 seconds, the atmosphere has been created well enough that you can immerse yourself in what could easily be a scene straight out of a movie and to that end, you even get the aforementioned giant spider scuttling towards you, only to change into an Audi RS4 Quattro by the time it's up close and personal. It's impressive. In addition, the words "Vorsprung Durch Technik" are spelt out in cobwebs at the very end of the advert in such a way that it adds a second punch to the minor shocl you've just gotten from seeing a giant spider coming towards you.

It's a very well made piece of advertising. If you'd like to view it, visit4info.com has a copy of it.

Sony

Lastly, but my no means least is Sony's impressive advert for Bravia, the new LCD TV that's "like no other", which takes a leaf out of Honda's book and goes for the subtle approach.

Launching 250,000 bouncing balls down a street in L.A. has to be one of the most ludicrous ideas ever. To actually watch a quarter of a million bouncing balls bouncing down a street is amazing.

Using a piece of beautiful music by José Gonzaléz entitled "Heartbeats", Fallon London (The creative agency behind the ad) have created something really special. There really is colour "like no other" - at least in this advert. It's truly mesmerising seeing a multicoloured tidal wave of balls bouncing down a street. Like the two adverts I've mentioned already, I instantly felt that I had been shown something well worth watching and something worth watching more than once. Sony Bravia as a product may or may not be any good, but the quality of this advert instantly makes it a lot more famous that it would probably ever be without it. Personally, I feel that Sony aren't particularly famous when it comes to creating memorable adverts, but they've really achieved it with this one.

Furthermore, unlike most impressive adverts that have sites attached to them, Sony's bravia-advert.com has an adequate amount of information relating to the advert itself, including the edited version of it, the uncut version of it (both available in HD format too) and even behind the scenes clips and photos. They've even bothered to offer some high resolution wallpapers which impressed me, along with a Flickr album. By far the best website I've seen regarding an advert for a while.

Three adverts, all different, but all have something in common - they kept me watching. And if they keep you watching and you actually enjoy watching them, then at what point does an advert become more like a program? That is to say, if adverts can look this good and some adverts can last for two or three minutes, what makes a program more important than an advert?

If an advert is produced so well, who's to say that you can't sit down in front of the TV specifically to watch some great ads? You get to be entertained for a few minutes and the companies get their marketing. I'd say that was a fair deal and I hope that in the future, more companies begin to see that investing heavily in their advertising to make it entertaining rather than simply informative works so well.

The Invasion has begun

And not just on TV tonight, as the third episode airs tonight on Channel 4.

Hi, I'm Neil and I'm no one from Liverpool in the UK. No one with an opinion, that is. An opinion on all things media related. I've been meaning to create a blog like this one for some time now but just haven't got round to it. What you'll find here will be my opinions on things like TV shows and what's happening on the Web lately. I'm sure many of you will be familiar with digg.com, which is where most of my stories will come from when related to the net.

Invasion

So, as I said, Invasion is on tonight on Channel 4. I watched the first two episodes last week and although it had a high budget, it didn't really capture my attention that much. What I've noticed as of late with a lot of shows - specifically scifi shows - is that they're working on this somewhat new form of dragging the viewer along onto the next show before they let them in on some of the story. What I mean is that the episode you're watching doesn't leave you feeling as if there's been any conclusion to any part of the story and that you only get that satisfaction the week after. I don't really enjoy this kind of storytelling. While I'm not into one-off episodes of a show either, I do think that if you plan on telling a story, you should give the viewer some sort of 'reward' for watching it at the end. There should be some sort of logical tying up of at least some of the loose ends presented in the show. To leave everything wide open until the next episode leaves me feeling disappointed, the more I watch.

Threshold

Coupled with Invasion is Threshold, which I'm informed has already been cancelled in the US. Again, I thought this suffered from a lack of any conclusions in the first few episodes so I grew tired of it quickly, especially with the terrible acting from the main characters. The premise was great, but after watching the first three or four episodes, found that they had wasted it and I'm not really that surprised it only has one season.

Lost

Of course one of the huge successes last year was Lost, which also works on the "find out next week" storytelling mode. The two hour opener for the first season was very impressive and it did have me hooked. However, as the show began to carry on throughout the remaining episodes, I found myself getting increasingly bored and yet still watching, hoping that maybe this week, something climactic would happen. Of course I was wrong.

Channel Four aired the last two episodes on Wednesday and though they were filled with great visuals and lots of mystery, where were the answers? Yes, I realise that it has a second season and yes I realise that blowing the secrets is a bad thing but give me something. Something to make me feel as if my time watching the last 20 odd episodes of the show haven't been for nothing. And yet, that's exactly how I did feel. Locke and Jack open the hatch and that's it. Hardly the answers the audience deserved.

Battlestar Galactica

The one true show that definitely gets my thumbs up is Battlestar Galactica. When this show first aired in the UK last year, it was obvious to see that there was something different about it. Although there is still an element of "We'll tell you next week", where BSG succeeds is that it does give some satsifaction at the end of watching a single show and that makes me want to tune in next week. The writing is excellent, as is the directing and the effects are of course very impressive. This is what a science fiction show should be about. Many people have said that this isn't just a scifi show, but a drama that just happens to be set in space and I'd definitely agree. I think if you placed the characters of BSG somewhere other than in space, you'd still have a great story. This is why I'll certainly be watching the rest of season two, which started on Wednesday.

After it not being on for so long, I had actually forgotten a few of the character's names. I'm sure I'll remember them by the third episode though. It was great to see Adama with an awful hairstyle and moustache. The new Cylon ship is an interesting addition to the show and I'm wondering what other things Ron Moore has up his sleeve this series. I've tried my best to stay away from the US forums so I don't read any of the spoilers.

Science fiction shows seem to be in great supply as of late. A few years ago, it was reality shows that were the big thing but it seems that now, scifi is the must have show to have on your TV network.

And that's fine by me.