The Netflix free month challenge...

...or as good an excuse as any to become a recluse.

Last week saw the arrival of Netflix in the Santoro household. This decision was in no way based on the fact Breaking Bad is available on it, if at all interested please check out my previous blog here. Although its a relatively small library in comparison to its rivals, it has presented the opportunity to give a chance to tv shows I swore I would watch but never got round to or simply revisit old favourites

Here are Thursday Santoro's top 5 netflix recommendations:

1) 24.

This is the show that everyone knew not to bother me during. It could have been your birthday, I wouldn't care because Jack Bauer was on, you may be my long lost brother in town for one night only, I wouldn't care because Jack Bauer was on...you get the point. Chuck Norris wears Jack Bauer pyjamas and for that reason you should watch it.

2) Arrested Development.

Now I know I am rather late to this particular bandwagon but with the recent announcement that a new series and film is in production there really is no better time to get to know the Bluth family. Arrested Development focuses on Michael Bluth as he struggles to hold his dysfunctional family together after the arrest of the Michael's father, George Bluth Snr. Having only seen half of season 1 I can't believe I didn't watch this sooner.

3) Lost.

I had a love/hate relationship with this show. Although the final series on the whole failed to deliver on the words that the writers knew what they were doing from the start, there is no denying that at its peak Lost was a unique television event. Basically watch up to the end of season 3 and leave a happy viewer or stick with it, get your hopes and expectations up and probably be left disappointed. If anything watch Lost for the man love that is Desmond.

4) Heroes.

A show that got completely ruined by the Writers strike. The 1st season is brilliant, the 2nd season had the potential but lost its way. To be honest I gave up after the 2nd season, but I could be tempted back into it if any of you lot recommend it.

5) Dexter.

I have never seen Dexter so when I finally sit down to watch it I will have no idea what to expect. Dexter makes it onto this list as it has been recommended to me to a lot of people and who am I to question the masses?

So go forth, join up and become a sloth! Any recommendations would be much appreciated too!

Breaking Bad…the show you will never watch as described in the blog you will never read!!!

Finally the anticipation has got too much for everyone. If I delayed this blog any further you would all combust and leave a horrible horrible mess that I would no doubt have to clean up….well not this time!

If you have a short attention span then I will make this quick and painless, Breaking Bad is amazing. If you feel you can take my word for gospel then please scroll down to look at the pretty pictures of lego breaking bad sets that fans have made. If you don’t trust my word, apart from being evil people, please read on so I can convince you of the virtues of this wondrous show.

Now to the main cast.

Walter White (played by Thursday Santoro’s blog legend Bryan Cranston).

Walter White starts the show as a family man, holding down two jobs in order to make ends meet for his family. When he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, Walt decides to secure his family’s financial future by cooking top quality crystal meth with one of his former students Jesse Pinkman (more on him imminently). Being a high school chemistry teacher means that Walt not only has the science down to a tee but also access to the equipment needed. Walt and Jesse become known for their product ‘Blue Meth’ but success breeds competition in the form of criminals, rival gangs and the DEA, led by Walt’s brother in law, Hank, who is tasked with pursuing ‘Heisenberg’, Walt’s drug-world alter ego.

Skylar White (played by Anna Gunn)

Skylar, Walt’s long suffering wife, makes up one half of Walt’s 3 way marriage alongside Jesse (yes I am getting to him). I don’t wish to spoil any of her development throughout the show so will just give her an introduction here and let you learn about her for yourselves by watching the show.

Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul)

Jesse makes up the final part of the triumvirate between Walt and Skylar, although Walt goes out of his way to deny Jesse’s existence to Skylar. Jesse has experience of both taking and making drugs and so gives Walt an inside track into the grim world he has chosen. Again the character development for Jesse throughout each season means I can’t really say much without spoiling but his character will make you want to add ‘yo’ to the end of each sentence.

Walter White Jnr. (played by RJ Mitte)

Walter White Jnr is the son of Walt and Skylar and general all round good egg. Born with cerebral pawsy, Walt Jnr is the average high school student who idolises his father. Often the cause of tension between Walt and Skylar in terms of whose side he backs, Walt Jnr’s character means the viewer is able to see how Walt Snr’s actions impact the White family home in a very personal way.

Hank Schrader (played by Dean Norris)

Hank is one of those typical, all American, law enforcers. He is Walt’s brother in law and heads up the local DEA team in cracking down on drug use in Albuquerque. You will hate him at the start for his cockiness and his demeaning comments towards Walt. Its always good having a hate figure though!

Marie Schrader (played Betsy Brandt)

Marie, wife to Hank and sister to Skylar, starts off as the ideal match for Hank. House proud and seemingly lording it over the White family, Marie is another character that often grinds on the viewer to start with.

In a bid not to spoil things I haven’t covered all the characters, including my favourite but if anyone actually gets round to watching the show or has already watched it, I will happily discuss the merits of Saul Goodman!

Anyway I don’t want anyone going away from reading this thinking this show in anyway glamorises drugs or promotes drugs. Drugs are bad kids, the only addiction people should have is to Ribena. Breaking Bad makes a point of showing the horrors of drug abuse and the affects it can have on individuals and those around them so don’t go all Daily Mail on me and start ranting. It’s a TV show, its not real, you should be old enough and responsible enough to know what’s good and bad for you.

Season 5, soon to air in the USA will be the last season. The producers of the show have decided to split the season into two to a) let us fans live in denial that this show will never end b) milk the cash cow as much as they can. However fans in the UK may experience some difficulties if they wish to watch it through legal means. You see no UK based provider has picked up the rights to this season. Breaking Bad, along with arguably the best TV drama series’ The Wire, The Sopranos and Mad Men, have had a bit of a rough deal in the UK. The Wire was pushed to the graveyard slot on BBC and was aired daily so that if you missed an episode you were screwed (due to rights it wasn’t on iPlayer), Channel 4 and later E4 followed suit with The Sopranos and stuck this on in the graveyard slot intermittently, and Mad Men was broadcast on BBC4 again during the graveyard slot. Mercifully these series have since been aired on Sky Atlantic but again this is only available to a limited audience so the magic can’t be shared by everyone. The original series of Breaking Bad aired on FX, with season 2 appearing on Channel 5 at, you guessed it, the graveyard slot. Seasons 3 and 4 didn’t even air in this country and season 5 suffers from the same treatment. What I am basically saying here is if you do find yourself craving for Breaking Bad, you may have to wait a while…however Seasons 1-4 should tide you over until you get your grubby little mitts on season 5.

As a final point, Breaking Bad is known for its legendary season wrap parties. I won’t spoil anything for you but I leave you with the show’s two main characters rocking up as each other and as promised the Lego Breaking Bad RV van.

Holy Cow, a Batman post

This week saw me kicking it old school by using my feet and buying tickets in person. What tickets did I buy you ask, well at least I hear that in my head. Anyway tickets have now been bought for the opening day's release of The Dark Knight Rises, billed as the epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

Latest billboard advert in Time Square, New York

Now I am a rather massive fan of Batman so naturally the 20th July can’t come soon enough and warranted booking time off work so I can watch as much Batman as possible before the screening. For such a scenario I recommend a pasta bowl, a box of coco pops and at least a 4 pinter of milk (see below). Running order should be something like Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, with selected episodes of Batman: The Animated Series thrown in for a truly sickening day of Batman. I am disregarding Batman Forever (now known as Batman until Christmas) and Batman and Robin for obvious reasons.

Plot details are, thankfully, still under wraps but The Dark Knight Rises will see Batman taking on a new foe in the imposing shape of Bane, portrayed by one of the rising stars of British cinema Tom Hardy. There is also room for Selina Kyle, with Anne Hathaway taking over the claws from Michelle Pfeiffer as well as Joseph Gordon- Levitt in a cop role with very little details attached at the moment. All the usual cast return too except those who didn’t quite make it through The Dark Knight. However I am pleased to announce that there is a special cameo by the supposedly fallen white knight, Harvey Dent!!!!!

Now for anyone who followed the build up to The Dark Knight, the viral campaign leading up to the release of that film was amazing. Using the tagline ‘Why so serious?’ to promote Harvey Dent, websites were then vandalised to slowly reveal the first image of Heath Ledger’s Joker. A couple of months later, a worldwide scavenger hunt was launched where fans were given clues to take pictures of their findings. This led to audio of the Joker and eventually tickets to screenings of the prologue found at the start of the Dark Knight. Now the viral campaign for The Dark Knight Rises hasn’t been on the same scale as for its predecessor, however in the last few weeks there has been small bursts of really cool marketing. To launch the new trailer, worldwide locations were posted on the film’s website and fans were told to go and find graffiti marks in these locations to reveal a frame of the trailer, one of which could be found in Digbeth!!! In the past couple of days documents highlighting the Harvey Dent Act as well as clippings from the Gotham Observer have raised the excitement levels just that little bit more.

Due to the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Chris Nolan and his team have a ridiculously tough ask in matching the expectations of the fans as well as matching the high standard of the first two. However press reports from an early screening of the film have described it as ‘magnificent’ and the trailers certainly seem to suggest that it can stand toe to toe with the first two films to make this, arguably, the best trilogy ever.

All in all I suggest you go watch all the trailers, stick on as much Hans Zimmer music you can get your hands on, including the Going for Gold theme tune, and practice your growling voice. Avoid any sort of social interaction from around the 18^th July as well: a) you don’t want someone spoiling it for you b) the isolation will make you think you are actually Batman!!! And finally treat yourself to watching this masterpiece in the format it deserves, IMAX….you will not be disappointed.

PS. For this week’s Bryan Cranston tenuous link, Bryan actually voices Commissioner Gordon in Batman: Year One. And I promise I will eventually do a Breaking Bad blog. 

Thursday Santoro has landed

Hello, pleased to meet you, thanks for welcoming me into your world. Prepare to be polarised!

Review: Rock of Ages

My first blog will focus on the recently released rock epic Rock of Ages. Based on the hit Broadway musical, Rock of Ages follows two youngsters, Sherrie and Drew, on their quest to keep on rockin'. To be truthful, both the main characters are easily forgettable, its the supporting cast who make this movie so I am basically going to ignore them.

Right time for that polarisation of you lot. I am a big Russell Brand fan, there I have said it. I won't get all preachy about it but everyone is entitled to their opinion...I am merely here to draw the battle lines. Anyway Russell plays a Brummie, acknowledging that it was in fact Brummies that gave rock n roll to you rather than God. Yes, this meant a rather exagerated approach to our beloved slang but I can't fault the lad for trying, in my head it made up for all those films where the Yanks come and win the war for us. Russell Brand is very good at playing Russell Brand and continues superb turns in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get him to the Greek in bringing his unique brand to Hollywood.

It makes me sad that Alec Baldwin will forever be immortalised in puppet form as the head of FAG in Team America when he is in fact a very good actor. If you need proof I suggest you check out one of the best cameos ever to make it onto celluloid with his appearance in Glengarry Glen Ross. Anyway Alec plays the owner of the film's main stage, the Bourbon. The chemistry between Alec and Russell evolves in a rather unexpected way but provides the movie with its biggest laughs.

Now to Tom Cruise. I just don't get him. He is a believer of the faith of Scientology, I am officially a doubter of said faith (long story...maybe for a future blog) so straight away we are at loggerheads. Basically, Rock of Ages is not the type of film you would expect to find Tom Cruise but yet here he is, with his stupid face. However I must admit that by going out of his comfort zone, Tom aint half bad in this, playing rock sex god Stacee Jaxx. He isn't the first actor I probably would have put in this role but consider this blogger pleasantly surprised. Still a weirdo though, and he is rather short....and he is in my lounge!!!

The last person I want to talk about is Bryan Cranston who is tragically underused and miscast in this film. I am a big fan of the show Breaking Bad, a show I am going to convince you to watch in next week's blog, and in my eyes Bryan Cranston can do no wrong. Rock of Ages is yet another recent movie that Cranston pops up in and its good to see his star rising. Its just a shame he plays a square in this instead of getting to rock out!

Anyway all this matters not for the movie's true star, the soundtrack. My predecessor Thursday Hulse appears to have made it her mission in life to instill the virtues of Def Leppard et al onto me. Rock of Ages is the culmination in this intoxication and I must admit I bloody love it. Featuring songs from Journey, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Xtreme amongst others, this film definitely rocks.

Thursday Santoro’s verdict: