FF:NZ The Small Screen - TV Discussion

All free to air and some subscriber TV is analogue. There is no cable service. Some specialist pay TV is digital.

 

I myself have sky digital beaming inot my flat 24 hrs and man it is the best thing we've got.....we usually starve but we don't go without sky.
But seriously to whoever else has got it, how good is the History Channel! I mean there is some great stuff on there. I just lie back for a couple of hours and learn stuff instead of actually studying .

Mel - i see you're from Germany, what part exactly? As my flatmate is currently over in Dumstardt (spelling) doing his masters for 5 or so months. He reckons Berlin is the best place for a booze up!

 

Those who have Sky TV but don't subscribe to the movie channels can this week watch Sky Movies, Sky Movies 2, MGM and TCM, which have been made available free to all Sky subscribers until Sunday night.

 

And then do you have to manually unsubscribe from each to avoid being billed for them next month, a la the Rialto channel 'free trial'.

 

You don't have to do anything special to receive them ... I just clicked over to channel 20-21 and they were unlocked. Not sure about manually unsubscribing, though.

My fav channel is Animal Planet

 

There doesn't seem to be any of that kind of fine print with this*. They did a similar thing a couple of years ago with the then-Sundance Channel, and with the pretty bland games service in January. No unsubscribing required, you just couldn't access them when the week was up.


*But don't blame me if Sky screws anyone over.

 

Yea, every now and then the general Joe Bloggs who doesn't get SKY gets it and then after a few days it;s gone back to horozontal lines etc and they don't have to unsub.

Sky to it as a tempter I guess.

 

That's a different situation. I was referring to the dubious practice of giving a digital channel for "a free trial" for 2 weeks, and at the end of the "free trial" period not reverting to the previous non-subscribed setting, but continuing to make it available and charging for it. Meaning the subscriber has to manually 'opt-out' rather than have to 'opt-to-continue'.


Anyway... Kricfalusi's Ripping Friends was pretty cool last night. Nice to see Jimmy back. He may have appeared in the odd Ren & Stimpy, and he was definitely in cartoons on the spumco website back in the day.

"Pimp My Ride" on C4 looks like a hilarious take on the stupid renovation shows. Some kid with a bomb for a car gets it made-over "pimp style" by rap star Xzibit each week.

---

[link=http://www.mtv.com/onair/pimp_my_ride/episode_guide/?id=1][b]Episode 1[/b] [/link]
Meet Wyatt. This 18-year-old rocker just moved to L.A., and his ride is not feeling the love. Wyatt rolls in a 1988 Daihatsu Hi-Jet and feels that his car is holding him back from landing a job and making a new start for himself in L.A. Less than a minivan, this "micro-van" is held together with hope and duct tape. Side doors consist of little more than sheet metal and rivets. But that's all about to change. Xzibit is about to pimp his ride.
"Where's the engine?"
"Is that a door?"
There are no smooth ways to answer these questions.
X swoops in to take the car for an unparalleled makeover at West Coast Customs. These super-mechanics are used to tricking out Hummers and Ferraris. But there's a first time for everything as Ryan, Q, and the guys at West Coast plan to turn the Hi-Jet into a "Fly-Jet."
The guys have grand plans for the Daihatsu. And while it's not everyday that you see $20,000 worth of parts and labor put into a $400 1988 Daihatsu, hey, this is Pimp My Ride. A custom paint job, sweet 17-inch chrome rims, a wrap-around couch and an entertainment system that offers three screens of viewing are only the beginning.
After a few days it's time for the grand unveiling. Wyatt is beyond psyched. The car now has two MP3 players, a mini-fridge, a guitar amp, six-DVD changer, forward-facing camera, and a new battery system to keep both the car and its gadgets running smoothly.
It's time for a joy ride. Wyatt's friends and fam barely recognize the car. Wyatt is ready to take on the world in his new Fly Jet, thanks to all the folks at Pimp My Ride. [hr][/blockquote]

 

I hate it when your in the middle of a really good movie and it cuts out due to rain fade! its so annoying!

 

Mel - i see you're from Germany, what part exactly? As my flatmate is currently over in Dumstardt (spelling) doing his masters for 5 or so months. He reckons Berlin is the best place for a booze up!

I'm from Stuttgart. Is your friend in Darmstadt???? That's north from me. Berlin is an amazing city. Munich is pretty cool too.
What's your friend studying?

-Mel

 

that sounds halarious JP. :^0

 

Mel - Yeah Darmstadt that's the place. He's doing his Masters in Mechanical Engineering, majoring in fluids. He's getting back soon but we haven't told him that we've got a new flatmate in his room!

He's loving Germany,and just got back from Prague..man i'm so jealous. At least he's not getting lots of lovin .... He can hardly speak german !!

 

He's loving Germany,and just got back from Prague..man i'm so jealous. At least he's not getting lots of lovin .... He can hardly speak german !!

you know foreigners are strangely very appealing to german girls! as long as he speaks english....he's probabyl just telling you that so you won't be even more jealous!

you're getting back at him nicely with that new roomie though.... LOL

-Mel

 

I hate it when your in the middle of a really good movie and it cuts out due to rain fade! its so annoying!

That's why you get Saturn cable TV and throw that stupid Sky dish out the window.

 

On the Wednesday new season Simpsons episode, Bart came across Principal Skinner picking out wedding presents for a registry ... didn't they cancel the wedding in last week's ep? Gotta love that continuity screening.

Did anyone else check out that Jake 2.0 series on TV3, Friday nights? I was scared to, as I'd heard it was axed after only 12 episodes in the states, but I got stuck with the cat on my lap ... and yes, it was definitely axing material ... or maybe I just caught a bad episode.

 

Jake 2.0 reminds me of La Femme Nikita, that was awesome, they didn't need nanobots infecting their bloodstream.

 

It reminded me of that series 'The Invisible Man' where the guy had this gland in his brain that leaked some chemical called quick-something. He had the stereotypical beautiful female genius doctor looking after him, as well. Maybe that's the thing ... the concept has just been done so many times.

 

Given much of the garbage floating around TV these days, I'd watch Jake 2.0 anyday. At least someone put some thought into it, as opposed to all that "reality" TV they keep throwing at us. Now that Alias and Stargate have finished about the only decent programmes left are Angel and 24. If it wasn't for the Documentary Channels and The Simpsons, I probably wouldn't watch the TV at all.

 

> Gotta love that continuity screening

Probably TVNZ playing the episodes out of order, though Simpsons hasn't ever taken continuity particularly seriously.

 

> Probably TVNZ playing the episodes out of order, though Simpsons hasn't ever taken continuity particularly seriously.

The thing about The Simpsons is that that they do take continuity seriously, but often they'll deliberately subvert it. Like how Mr. Burns never knowing who Homer Simpson is. ("Simpson, eh?") Obviously, almost every thing on consequence that has happened to Mr. Burns revolves around Homer, so there's no way he couldn't know. In an episode a few weeks ago, Lisa consulted "The Complete Guide ..." (The Simpsons bible) to see when they'd been somewhere. I actually think that the show is one of the most internally consisitent shows on TV.

 

Yeah, by 'continuity screening' I meant TV3 were not screening them in order. According to the episode lists, last week's one was meant to screen before the wedding ep.

 

I watched the Simpsons last night - that chase sequence was cute. Using the style and music from the opening sequence from 'Catch Me If You Can'. Rather fitting

 

Heh, Homer as a superhero ... great episode

 

They timed that episode well, with all the Spiderman references, and the sequel opening later that night. The bit with Homer trying to squeeze into his costume reminded me of The Incredibles teaser.

 

Has anyone else seen that new chicken add? A kid builds a lightsaber hilt and shows his mom, who smiles, then notices him running around the living room with it - green blade and all, cutting up everything. When she goes to grab it off him, her left arm is accidentally cut off. Then later they use the lightsaber to cut the chicken. Very weird! I've never seen it before.