I can’t tell you how happy I am to have stepped away from the blog for two hours only to discover you all have not burnt the shit down. Thank you for that.
Still watching the Tudors. I have to say, I was not sure about Rhys Davies as the king for a while, but now I can not imagine anyone else. At least for this series.
cleek
plus, lots of pretty naked people.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Just finished Gridlock’d with Tim Roth and Tupac on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it your missing a very good, very funny flick.
Carrie
I know, isn’t he dreamy? le sigh..
JPL
I got hooked on In Plain Sight on netflix streaming. It created a syndrome that I labeled the sore butt condition. It was worth it though because I like Mary and her relationship with Marshall Marshall.
It’s not Monk and not even close second but is a nice diversion.
Anya
Hey John, thanks for the thoughtful post earlier today.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@JPL: Proly better than a flick about 2 junkies trying to get into rehab against incredible “Gridlock”!
Kelly
I’m pretty sure you mean Rhys Meyers. Though picturing Gimli as Henry VIII is kinda awesome.
anonymoose
rhys MEYERS
pattonbt
Question for the google-fu / BJ archive masters. I would like to see all my previous comments on BJ from earlier in the year (and a few years ago). As I don’t comment much, they are few. So I google, and I get one or two comments here and there in a link (googling “pattonbt comment balloon juice” or some variant). But I can’t get a listing of all my comments.
Is there a way to do this? Or I am stuck with searching fore a needle in a haystack.
Thanks in advance.
boss bitch
Same here. I thought he was too pretty but he’s damned good.
Martin
Well, the black people stopped oppressing us for the afternoon. That always helps.
The Dangerman
However, if you check the Blog’s refrigerator, you’ll note the beer is gone…
…and, for reasons unknown, there was a run on the catfood, too. Sorry, Tunch.
Akadad
Agreed. Also, Natalie Dormer did a great job portraying Ann Boleyn.
The Dangerman
Google for your name in advanced search, restricting the domain to balloon-juice.com. That should do it.
ABL
::drops can of gasoline::
::raises hands in the air::
Samara Morgan
@ABL:
so sorry for all the rudity, ABL.
and RELLY sorry i missed it.
/salutes ABL with respect
here’s some matches.
:)
res ipsa loqitur
I loved watching “The Tudors” and I am properly ashamed by it.
I watched two episodes of “The Borgias” and realized that I had seen many of the same actors naked before … in “The Tudors”. I think the same producers put both shows together.
One thing about “The Tudors” that I appreciated was that they got the reasons for Boleyn’s execution right. It wasn’t just that she failed to produce a male heir. It was also that Catherine of Aragon had died, and an alliance with Spain was convenient, but the Spanish would hear none of it with Ann Boleyn still walking this particular planet. And so…off with her head!
Mr Stagger Lee
What was JC’s verdict on the series Alphas? I thought it was not bad. Sons of Anarchy is on tonight YAHHHHOOO!
John Cole
@Mr Stagger Lee: Thumbs up. I am two episodes behind. Three behind on Suits.
Anya
DougJ needs to choose a theme song to go with the healing and reconciliation post. This is my contribution.
jnfr
@JPL:
In Plain Sight is fantastic. We’re working our way through it now.
Jay in Oregon
@JPL:
I agree! Season 4 isn’t on Netflix streaming yet, but I can’t wait.
General Stuck
Obama doing what he promised
dead existentialist
John, nobody’s gonna burn this place down; the pissing matches will prevent it. Feature, not bug.
Mr Stagger Lee
@John Cole: Well you won’t be disappointed, Alphas is one of the best on Syfy! I only wished NBC saved The Cape and moved it to SyFy, it was corny at times but good fun.
Jade Jordan
Quit wasting your time watching liberal elite TV and do something useful.
Anya
@General Stuck: WH denied the report already.
Samara Morgan
@General Stuck: hahaha
we arent leaving any troops.
that is kabuki to appease the Sauds.
US Terrified of Troop Withdrawal
RoonieRoo
Just started watching In Plain Sight this week and I am definitely enjoying it.
MacKenna
Jonathan Rhys Meyers must be who you mean.
He is very talented + major eye candy. Who knew an underwear model could play Henry VIII.
If he could have had a cat in the series, Tunch would have been perfect. In a little jewelled mini-me crown, those glaring gold eyes, plotting…
Samara Morgan
I repeat, we are not keeping any troops in Iraq past December.
On Friday, Muqtada al-Sadr is staging an Arab Spring style protest in Iraqs OWN Tahir Square.
He says if American troops stay past December they will die, and he will topple Maliki’s government.
General Stuck
@Anya:
Oh well, scratch that then.
60th Street
@MacKenna: The beheadings would have easily tripled under Tunch rule.
Mr Stagger Lee
@MacKenna: May I suggest a wickedly fun Rhys-Meyers character, as Demitrius in the movie Titus, which starred Anthony Hopkins.
Splitting Image
I finally got around to watching “The Great Dictator” the other night. It’s got a lot of great moments in it, but one of the ones that resonated the most was when Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel is giving a speech and his eyes are practically bugging out of his head as he screams with hate at the microphones.
The translator happily summarizes this: “The Phooey has just referred to the Jewish people.”
Amazing film.
Lysana
The thing about Henry VIII we got mis-taught in school is that he was always fat. Hardly. He was the quintessential ex-jock in those later-life images of him. So when I saw people claiming Rhys Myers was wrong for the part, it always came down to “he’s too skinny and hot.” Setting aside how fat and sexy CAN go together, it’s proof in the critic that they didn’t get taught Henry’s full history.
Mnemosyne
Rhys Davies would have been a more apt pick to play Henry in the Catherine Howard days (has the show gotten to that yet?) when he was old and fat and had an ulcer on his leg that kept seeping noxious pus, but I guess no one would want to see that guy naked.
Perfect Tommy
I can only assume that the television producers who are flooding the airwaves with 9/11 imagery in advance of the coming anniversary didn’t personally know anyone who died in the towers. For me, it still feels like someone is stabbing me in the heart every time I see those scenes. It’s going to be a long week.
eemom
excellent.
Y’all, we have finally succeeded in teaching Cole the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Next thing ya know he’ll be PAYING us to comment here.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Did everyone see Google’s home page today?
Raider Dave
rhys MEYERS sucked in that! I can’t believe people liked him as Henry 8. He was too gong and skinny to play that role. I guess I’m the only one who feels that way. Sigh
burnspbesq
Couldn’t find enough kindling on short notice. Give us time.
Also too, I would be a lot more impressed with Strasburg’s line in his return to the majors if it had come against a real baseball team.
burnspbesq
Y’all will love this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxaY_mxYflg
pattonbt
@The Dangerman: Thanks! I found the comment and thread I was looking for.
soonergrunt
@pattonbt: Search string as follows:
site: ballon-juice.com pattonbt
copy/paste that into google or a google toolbar.
suzanne
@Lysana:
That explains the awesome suits of armor with the successively larger genitalia as his venereal disease advanced.
Comrade Kevin
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: I had not seen it before, but that is fantastic.
Linda
Raven (formerly Stuckinred):
A fine little gem, Gridlock’d. Even though no part of it looked like Detroit and the geographic references were confusingly wrong. It was like a doped up Laurel and Hardy episode.
Comrade Mary
@pattonbt: Search for this:
“pattonbt -” site:balloon-juice.com
This will find all hits where you were the commenter and not just mentioned by someone else.
May God have mercy on your soul.
EDIT: And as said above, if you want to narrow by date, click the advanced search link after you build the basic search and define some dates.
And — hi John! I really liked your wrap-up post earlier today. Thanks for being so sensible.
Lojasmo
@Jade Jordan:
Like
voting forwriting in pat buchanan?The Commish
Still one spot left in the Balloon-Juice Fantasy Football League. Draft is tomorrow night. Here’s the link….password to join is alsotoo.
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/797340
Comrade Kevin
@The Commish: er, what is the group ID number? 797340 doesn’t seem to be it.
Lynn Dee
I absolutely loved the Tudors! One of the things that struck me most was how, as the seasons (the series seasons, that is) progressed, I found myself looking back with such longing to the first season when Henry was young and got to ride around on his horsie with his friends, and fall in love with (and be completely smitten with) Anne Boleyn. Then things got more complicated, Henry was never quite as free again or as on top of his game, and everything just went to shit.
That progression of the seasons of a man’s life (real seasons that is, not TV seasons) just felt so true. And so lovely.
hamletta
@Raider Dave: I don’t know what “gong” means, but as has been pointed out upthread, Henry VIII only got fat later in life. When he was young, he was slim and athletic. He got fat when his leg injury got too painful.
Rhys Meyers is about a head shorter than HVIII, though. Dude was 6’3″.
In season 4, they padded his belly and grayed his hair, and Rhys Meyers altered his gait and voice. He’s not Fatty McFatterson, but he does come off old and tired.
Lynn Dee
@boss bitch: Do you — or does anybody — happen to recall when Henry first met Anne of Cleves? And he turned around and went immediately back to London, strode into Hampton Court and shouted: “I like her not! I like her NOT!”
Hilarious. :)
Mike D.
I love the actor who plays Cromwell, as well as the way his whole story is told in the series.
Emerald
The best Henry VIII by far (and that’s sayin’ somethin’, because there have been some good portrayals) was Keith Mitchell in the Six Wives of Henry VIII.
He did the six-part BBC series back in the early seventies, and also a feature-length movie in ’72. Charlotte Rampling as Anne, Jane Asher as Jane Seymour, Donald Pleasence as Cromwell. Fabulous music too–David Munroe found fame for himself and Renaissance music with that film.
The Best Movie about Henry, period. It’s available on Amazon instant video. The video quality is poor, but at least we’ve still got the film!
Having said that, I couldn’t tear myself away from The Tudors. Rhys Meyers Davies (?) was wrong for the part but who cares? He did a good job and the sexed-up series was compelling, with even a few historical things right.
But nobody’s ever gonna play Henry better than Keith Mitchell. A super-stud in the beginning and an obese monster at the end, and you believe the man every moment. It’s a deep portrayal with nary a note wrong.
AkaDad
@Lynn Dee:
She has the face of a horse!
Joss Stone did a pretty good job portraying her.
Will
If the show had any balls it would have kept going after Henry’s death on into Mary’s reign, then Elizabeth’s, and made a kick-ass epic series out of the thing. It is called “The Tudors”, after all, not “Henry VIII”.
Lynn Dee
@Mike D.: I agree. Thomas Cromwell is such a fascinating character. Have you read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall? If you loved The Tudors, are fond of reading histories and are especially interested in Thomas Cromwell, I can’t recommend it enough. Great book.
Lynn Dee
@AkaDad: She did. In fact that whole story was fun, the way Henry sent Hans Holbein to Germany to paint her. I mean, what’s a king to do, right? Marry sight unseen?!
Joseph Nobles
I keep seeing atrocious ads for the American version of “Prime Suspect” and it makes me want to burn barns, y’all.
Comrade Kevin
@Joseph Nobles: Yeah, I have seen them too. They make me want to punch someone. What was wrong with the original series? The answer is, of course, “not invented here”, or “wrong accents”
Joseph Nobles
@Comrade Kevin: I’ve come to terms with remakes. Proven material, easy to get good people, and a core audience virtually guarantees a remake these days.
But with something like Prime Suspect, I was hoping that the remake would not be able to overwhelm the source material, and every ad is just as bad as it can possibly be. I haven’t seen footage of the actual show yet, though. But the awareness campaign is setting my expections in all the wrong places. Maybe that’s what it’s intended to do, and our rock-bottom expectations will be pleasantly rewarded. We’ll see.
Brachiator
OT: Yahoo follows Apple’s lead, appoints one of “those people” as CEO. I
If you follow the tech news, the hot story is that Yahoo has fired Carol Bartz and named Tim Morse as interim CEO. Note that Tim Cook was named CEO to replace Steve Jobs. Yes, the hot trend is naming people named Tim to be CEOs of top companies.
More seriously, Keith Michell, no T, is absolutely wonderful as Henry in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and does very well in going from a Renaissance prince to a paranoid, raging, diseased old man. Glenda Jackson in the series “Elizabeth R” ain’t no slouch either. But The Tudors is good stuff.
Given all the craziness going on in the tech world, as for example, the kingdom of Blackberry appears to be doomed and The Duchy of HP flirts with disaster, and the mighty state of ATT attempts to annex T Mobile, you could easily do a series likening tech leaders to the Tudors or the Borgias.
Comrade Kevin
@Brachiator: Yeah, they fired Bartz over the phone. Yahoo! and all that. Mind you, I was laid off over the phone too.
debbie
Check out Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Titus. Definitely worth the sighs, and it seems closest to his real-life persona.
bob h
You ought to try the superb “The Madness of King George” with Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Rupert Everett.
Darkrose
@Mike D.: Yes. Frain was absolutely brilliant as Cromwell; definitely one of the highlights of the series.