Finally caught up with the new A&E version of THE LOST WORLD, featuring a perfectly cast Bob Hoskins as Prof. Challenger. The nice thing was that they were running both parts back to back. Commercial interruption frequency is still beyond belief; sometimes as little as seven minutes of the program between commercials. Meanwhile they were already advertising the DVD edition. If A&E keeps this up, then the original airing will serve as simply a preview as to whether to see it on DVD or not. Watch twenty minutes, figure, “Okay, this is worth buying/renting,” and tune in to something else.
With that said, we did watch the whole thing in one shot. Gotta tell ya, it had the fraction of the budget of, say, “Jurassic Park III,” far fewer dinos, and yet (commercials aside) the program itself seemed to fly by as opposed to the endless 90 minutes of JP III. Just reminds you of what a good story and great characters means, as opposed to simply throwing special FX at you.
Definitely check out the vide or DVD. Don’t slog through the commercial-ridden showing, though; I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
PAD
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Well, as it was a BBC production, it’s already available on DVD: http://www.bbcshop.com/bbc_shop/product.asp?shop=bbc&pf%5Fid=BBCDVD1086&mscssid=D1V8M9U7NGSR2NGB0002U40F666J8NPF
BTW, the dinosaurs were created by the same team that did Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts. So they must be great.
A&E sent me the DVD last week but I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I’m a fan of most everything that Peter Falk does, so looking forward to checking it out. I’ve heard great things about the miniseries.
So…
You don’t own a VCR?
Ya know, fast forward the commercials.
😉
The number of commercials in *any* TV show is getting ridiculous. It’s part of why I haven’t bothered to keep up with a few shows, including Andromeda and Enterprise. I read somewhere that Enterprise’s season premiere was, when you took out all the commercials and the recap of last season’s finale, only about 37 minutes long.
TNG never had it this bad, did it?
PAD — How is it that you don’t have TiVo yet? I started using it about a year ago, and it’s becoming hard to remember life without it. I find myself listening to the radio, missing a good bit, and looking for the button to rewind. This is nowhere near as disturbing as when it happens in conversations with other human beings.
But seriously — TiVo changed my life in ways that make heroin addictions look seem like methadone. Or something. Hmmm. Maybe I’m seeing why you don’t have TiVo yet…
Tivo?- I would love it, but i cannot afford 400 bucks for a unit, and the 13 bucks a month for the service seems a bit steep to me too when my VCR still works with no fee. If boxes were 200 bucks and the service free, or the box was free and you signed a contract to for a couple of years for the box, my intrest would be much higher. But I get by with my 2 VCRS and DVD in the meantime.
Your comment about a good story and great characters as opposed to fx, makes me wonder if A&E shouldn’t buy marvel. 😛
They sure could use to re-learn that.