Gambit’s Blog

So another year comes to an end, another one begins, and we start the whole routine of the previous year all over again. It’s not pretty, but every year brings us plenty of TV to watch, music to listen to and Films to see. With the writers’ strike going on, who can say if next year is going to be the same, but this year was certainly entertaining.

And therefore, before further ado, I am going to present you with my picks from last year!

Best Show: Doctor Who

This was a tough one, but for me, Doctor Who had it’s best season yet this year. David Tennant just is the Doctor, and Martha Jones was the most interesting companion we’ve had to date. Some great episodes, some great guest appearances (Jon Simm anyone?!) and altogether very deserving of this year’s Best Show.

Runners Up: Battlestar Galactica (consistently excellent), Entourage (still one of the funniest dramas on TV), Psych (one that seems to miss many people’s radars, but is still an amazing comedy that deserves a mention), The Tudors (taking over from where Rome left off, an amazing show in a similar style that is definitely on a par with its spiritual predecessor), Who Wants to be a Millionaire (after x number of series, this is still the best quiz show on tv) – ok, the last one’s a joke…

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Best Newcomer: Californication

Possibly a controversial choice, but Californication was brilliant. Constantly stepping over the line, always enjoyable, and some great performances - David Duchovny at his best. If you haven’t seen it, you must – Califonication is in a class of its own.

Runners Up: Dirty Sexy Money (like The OC, but better, and for adults), Journeyman (but has hit an untimely end), Moonlight (some really bad acting combined with some really good acting, but for some reason this keeps me coming back week after week)

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Best Comedy: Saxondale

Possibly the hardest category for me to judge, as I’ve been watching some past comedy this year too that can’t win it for this year – Arrested Development and Jeeves and Wooster to name two. I was never a fan of Alan Partridge, but Saxondale is just right on the button. Brilliant show.

Runners Up: Entourage (comedy or drama?! Who knows, who cares), Flight of the Conchords (musical genius), The IT Crowd (geeky, but brilliant – perfect)

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Best Short Series: Oliver Twist 2007

A new category this year as there were two series that I really wanted to mention but didn’t fit in anywhere else. Oliver Twist was an adaptation that I was totally going to miss – we’ve all seen the story a million times, who needs another. But the BBC nailed it with this one – the kids were brilliant, and as always Timothy Spall was amazing as Fagin. Definitely one for the DVD boxsets collection.

Runner Up: Secret Diary of a Call Girl (never been a huge Billie Piper fan, but she was superb in this – hugely entertaining, porn for the masses!)

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Best Factual: Human Weapon

It’s interesting, it’s factual, and it has martial arts – what more can you want. The history of all the modern martial arts, and them put to the test by two American Mixed Martial Artists. You learn the culture, you learn the techniques. Great factual TV.

Runners Up: Mythbusters (as usual, though it seems they’re clutching at straws a bit now), Jonathan Ross’s Japanorama (it’s entertaining and interesting – that’s what you want!), Top Gear (not sure this really fits in this category, but still excellent viewing!), QI (Stephen Fry is simply brilliant)

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Most Improved: Robin Hood

I know, I know, what am I thinking?! For those that bothered to stick with this show, it was worthwhile. It doesn’t fit into the other categories since it still isn’t that good. But it is entertaining, and brainless. If you want some Saturday night swashbuckling Robin Hood style, and if you turn off your reality filter, Robin Hood does stand up on its own, and it’s enjoyable. And the second season was much better than the first…

Runners Up: Lost (I still thought that this season was the best so far. I wish they’d hurry up and end it still, but it did grip me far more than the last season).

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Get your act together: Heroes

This category is for those shows that really were good but need to buck their ideas up. Heroes was still great, but lacked the magic that the first season had. They have apparently realised this and will be sorting it out, so here are my fingers crossed for the New Year…

Runners Up: Spooks (most people seemed to love this season. I didn’t. Go back to the old formula – it worked), Stargate Atlantis (I still tune in, but it isn’t a patch on SG1. Please get it right)

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And finally…

Most Disappointing: Bionic Woman

I thought this had a lot of promise. I was wrong. Simply awful TV. Switch Off.

Runners Up: Dexter (still an amazing show, but after one of the best first seasons I’ve ever seen, how could season two really live up to my hype), Bones (still dragging out the love interest. Still love the show, but sort it out!)

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So, that’s 2007’s TV for you! Check back later for more 2007 goodness

Myself and John Griffin recorded our first ever podcast together last night with a bit of info on UFC 70 which we attended live in Manchester. We have a full card run down, some personal opinions and shenannigans from before and after the show!

Check it out here.

So, this weekend, I went to see UFC 70 live in Manchester. And what can I say… it was AWESOME! We made a real weekend of it too…

We arrived on the Friday for the weigh-ins, which went down alot quicker than I expected, but were still worth attending! Then in the evening, we went to see Joe Rogan live in comedy at some tiny little venue called Charlies. This was awesome - not only becausethe act was great and we got to meet him, but also because Dana White, Matt Serra and their gang showed up, and we got to meet them and have a brief chat! How cool is that! One thing that I can say is that they all seemed genuinely nice guys, and quite up for having a brief chat - just shows that they are not just personalities put on for the TV!

Then the next day, the event itself. Nothing can describe the feeling of being at an event itself, it’s just awesome. I only paid £30 inc booking fee for my ticket (the lowest band), so I was a little worried that I wouldnt be able to see anything, but the view was great, as you can see from my photos!

Thats about all i have to say - couple of photos are after the break, otherwise, download the rar files of all of them here:

Weigh-ins (4.68mb), Comedy Club (515kb), Main Event (9.89mb)

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According to UFCJunkie, the UFC have recently put the cogs in motion to form a UK division!

For a UFC fan living in the UK, this is great news, since we may finally be able to see some of the fighters we love, under a strong brand come over here and showcase some of the best MMA in the world. It will also give the sport the push that it needs in the UK for it to become mainstream and more accepted.

There are still alot of people in the UK (much like the rest of the world) that think of the UFC as a ‘bloodsport’, and whenever I mention it to people, they are almost horrified that I watch it. I then have to explain that it really isnt as bad as they imagine! Anyway, when the UFC come over here, the inevitable media hype (be it good or bad) will at least push it more into the spotlight, gain more fans, and hopefully mean less explaining for me!

Bring on April 20th Who’s up for seeing it live?!

Yes, i’m in shock too. Kurt Angle has been released from the WWE.

Now, i don’t watch WWE a whole lot any more, although i did briefly follow ECW when it started again (although it was rubbish, so i’ve pretty much stopped), but it seemed to me that Kurt Angle was still a very big player.

This news comes as a bit of a surprise really, as when i did follow the WWE, Kurt was always one of my favorite wrestlers, whether face or heel, purely because he could carry a match with anyone. It was also nice to know that he genuinely had the abilities that were claimed since he had an Olympic Gold Medal.

I wish i knew more surrounding these ‘personal issues’, as from what i can see, Kurt has always give alot to the WWE, rushing through surgery just to get back to the ring and pulling in crowds when others couldn’t, and unless this is something very serious, i think its incredibly poor show on WWE’s part. No surprise there I guess…

I look forward to finding out more about this one.

I decided to bet on my first UFC event the other evening, UFC 59, on Bet365.com.

I’d placed bets on Forest Griffin to win (I predicted that the fight could go either way), Nick Diaz to win, and an accumulator on Tito, Arlovski and Diaz. To be honest, the Griffin bet was a free one, and i thought the only person who may let me down was Diaz.

So i was correct on that count , and lost all my bets. But hell, i didnt care. The event was Amazing. I was watching it in bed late last night, but I jumped out of bed twice during Tito-Forest - what a bout! I must admit tho, i honestly thought that Forest had done enough to win that fight - i scored it 29-28, with Forest losing the first bout, but gaining the upper hand in the other two.

The Diaz - Sherk fight i was very disappointed with. To me, Diaz had no energy, although he was holding his own. Not really got much to say on this one.

Alovski vs Silvia was a bit of a shocker to me - i honestly thought the Pitbull would win it hands down. When he landed that blow on Silvia that sent him to the ground, I thought he had it. But what a recovery by Silvia! I hope he gets to fight Mir as he said he wanted to!

Overall, i thought UFC 59 was top stuff, and I intend to re-watch a few of the fights when i get chance

After my post the other day, FightOpinion.com has commented and pointed me to their thread here.

I was actually aware that the event had been cut thanks to John Griffin, but I wasnt aware of the full extent of the cuts.

It’s one thing when Japanese viewers who are getting an event free get a cut down version - at least they got to see highlights of most fights - but when paying viewers in the US don’t get to see what they paid for, i think thats pretty appauling. I really hope they get their act together for the next PPV. It also makes me angry as these fighters train for weeks and put everything into a fight and then it doesn’t even get seen by the majority of viewers!

I don’t know whether this regularally happens on Pride PPV’s - I would assume not - but it has only led to my opinion of Pride dropping further! Let’s hope they get it sorted for next time.
In the meantime - bring on the 4th February

After saying that I defintely wasnt going to watch it, i ended up watching Pride last night, and all in all, i wasnt really that impressed.

In my mind, the best fight was the last fight of the night (Silva v Arona). In my mind Arona did the most work in that fight, but in the end he was robbed by a 2-1 judges decision.

Fedor v Zulu was amusing, purely beause of the way Fedor demolished Zulu! CroCop v Hunt was also a good fight to start with, but CroCop just seemed to lose interest in the final round, maybe when he realised that Hunt could just take whatever he could give! Hunt is a machine!

Anyways, being MMA, I did quite enjoy the event on the whole, but there is just something about Pride that I don’t like! I really wish i could say what it is, but I cant put my finger on it.

I got into MMA through the UFC, and maybe its the fact that in UFC you seem to learn a bit more of the back story to the fighters, and how they feel about each other etc. You really feel you can get behind the fighters due to the fact that you feel that you know them that little bit more! Having moved from a pro-wrestling addiction in the form of WWE onto MMA (although I’ve now started watching TNA, so am back to the wrestling), perhaps this insight into the back stories in UFC appeals to my pro-wrestling side, allowing me to gain an understanding with the fighters and actually care about the outcome of the match.

It probably also helps that having started watching UFC, I do know the fighters better, as I’ve seen them much more (whether it be on UFC PPV’s or on The Ultimate Fighter), and maybe this helps.
The only other thing i can think of is that the Octagon makes the event more exciting than having a generic ring? There is more space for the fighters to work in, and a barrier that they cant go through, but does this help the fight?! I really don’t know?!

Either way, I doubt you’ll find me raving about a Pride event on here in the same way you may hear about a UFC event, but you never know!
Finally, while I’m on MMA, if you havent already seen it, there is an amusing clip from K1 Figting of Heath Herring v Yoshihiro Nakao from last week on John Griffin’s blog. Deserved everything he got in my mind!!