What follows is a detailed list of only five ways in which Heroes has failed its viewers. A full list would take too long and so this purely is the fist five that come to mind in no particular order.

Tracy Strauss

Ali Larter's contract with Heroes was a three season deal and therefore when they killed off Nikki/Jessica at the end of season two the writers had to figure out a way to bring her back. Enter Tracy, who apparently is some kind of manufactured triplet or clone, which the writers failed to fully explain presumably because they couldn't be arsed.

What the highly paid writing staff did do however was name Tracy's sisters. Of course there was Nikki, who we know, but the third sister was named Barbara. Hang on… wasn't Jessica Nikki's sister? The answer can be found here or if you want to do it the quick way I can simply confirm; yes she was.

Now there are two scenarios in which I can think that the highly paid writing staff made this error. One way is to presume that they knew exactly what they were doing and took care in inducing a character that totally contradicts another character's (played by the same actress) back story, all the while planning some elaborate end game as, say the writers of Lost, might do. Alternatively, and far more likely, the writers killed off a character two seasons into the actress who played said character's three year contract and had to think of a way to bring said actress back into the show. Being the highly paid professionals that they are they then half arsed some triplet/clone nonsense together and throw it on the screen giving absolutely no thought as to how this new character erases part of the old characters fully explored history.

***

Sylar/Elle relationship

The first time Elle and Sylar encounter one another is in episode 2.11 - Powerless and here they give no indication of having ever met. The second time they are together is in episode 3.02 – The Butterfly Effect again they give no indication of having met before and it is also noteworthy that in this episode Sylar kills Elle's father and tries to kill her. Then comes episode 3.08 - Villains. In this episode we learn that Elle went undercover and had a relationship with Sylar or, using his 'good guy' name Gabriel, pre the events of season one. After this they get all lovey-dovey in present time, in what I think of as a super powered version of this, and Sylar/Gabriel learns that he doesn't need to kill folks to get their powers after all. Sadly, three episodes later, he cuts her head off and sets her body on fire taking the old "treat'em mean" adage a tad too far.

***

Sylar's Morality

In the shows first season Sylar is the ultimate boogieman loping off the tops of heads and removing parts of their brain with frightening efficiency giving the heroes a much needed and highly effective villain. By season two Sylar is relegated to a powerless border hopping bastard who cons a ride with nubile Maya and her red shirt brother. However, at the end of this season we given allusions to the return of the terrifying serial murderer we all knew and loved. Enter season three it's looking like he's back to him old self, attacking Claire at her home. But then he catches her.

At this point the highly paid writing staff take time to explain that Sylar does not eat the parts of the brain he removes (as was the popular assumption) and that, in fact, he does not apparently remove parts of the brain at all. Rather he just kind of looks and softly pokes at it until he sees how it works. Fair enough I suppose, except that season one clearly established that he did remove parts of the brain. And to this the fact that he replaces the top of Claire's head and lets her live and suddenly he's not as bad as you thought he was. Except you didn't think he was bad, this was a fact shown time and time again throughout season one as he butchered nearly everyone he came in contact with.

As volume three progresses Sylar is made out to be a guilt ridden vampire type akin to Angel until near the end of the chapter where he more or less says "sod that", cuts Elle's head off and kills a whole bunch of people without giving any indication that he gives a toss about any of it.

***

Save the Cheerleader

The whole premise of season one – "Save the cheerleader, save the world." has now been made completely nonsensical. This has been the case ever since with pretty much every vision of the future thereafter. Let's break them down.

• Hiro, sporting a sword, a ponytail and missing his accent delivers Peter the now infamous message.
  

Hiro comes from a future in which Claire is dead, a fact we now know is apparently impossible since Sylar told Clair that she could not die in episode 3.01. It's also worth pointing out that Hiro's message is completely pointless as it is not even Sylar who became said bomb (to be fair I believe this to be a deliberate red herring), and really even if he had been the bomb Claire's power would not stop him detonating, it would just heal him after it.

• Peter discovers that a virus will wipe out 93% of the worlds population.
  

Whilst there is nothing particularly wrong with Peter's visions/travels to the future this same chapter features premonitions on Noah Bennet's supposed death. One the one hand the highly paid writing staff tell us that the future is unavoidable and that Noah will die and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Contradicting this is, of course the aversion of the nuclear detonation in season one and also that Matt, Nathan, Peter and Hiro manage to prevent the virus from being unleashed.

This chapter also features Caitlin, an Oirish girl that Peter falls in love with only to then loose her in the future and later, seemingly, forget all about her.

• Future Peter shoots Nathan to stop him exposing the truth about superpowers which then leads to a kind of power wholesale where everyone and his dog has a superpower.
  

It soon becomes apparent that Nathan's revelation exposing the Heroes has absolutely nothing to do with the mass production of superpowers. A cynic would say that Nathan's shooting was just a cheap ploy to make you tune in for the next season after the largely disappointing second instalment.

Further exploration into this timeline revels that Sylar has stopped slaughtering the innocent, donned a apron and has a son named after his partner (for all of two days), Noah. After presumable making some cookies for his would-be brother Peter, they are attacked by Claire and some generic bad guys causing Sylar to blow up in what must be the most pointless special effect ever. It takes all of seven episodes for the highly paid writing staff to destroy any possibility of this future.

While I'm on the subject of the future it seems pertinent to point out that with the death of Isaac Mendez in season one that the paintings of the future should have ended. Fair enough for Peter to have the ability but since then Hiro has also experienced it and it's now inexplicably part of Matt's power as well. One might think that the highly paid writing staff simply has no other idea of how to present a storyline, but of course, that would be ridiculous.

***

Character Development

Based on various visions of the future their actions within the show both Peter and Hiro should be on their way to being more badass that Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, and he, if the song is to believed, was the baddest man in the whole damn town. Peter has shown hints of this by shooting his dad (even if Sylar caught the bullet the intention was there) and perhaps he may develop more in this direction as the show progresses (though clearly, I'll have to take your word for it). Hiro on the other hand is the same over excitable moron he's always been despite failing to save the waitress he fell in love with and burying a guy alive.

If I had lost a girlfriend to a brutal serial killer and then stabbed said serial killer at a later date as Hiro did you could pretty much bank of my enthusiasm about anything to wan quite a bit, especially if my particular enthusiasm was connected to how said girlfriend died. Most likely I'd take on board that that being a superhero may not be all fun and games as comic books (actually absolutely do not) make it out to be. If later on down the line another villain were to kill my dad then this would almost certainly put me in a generally grim disposition, and whilst I might deal with that person the same way; by burying him alive, this would almost certainly weigh heavily on my conscience. After all this I defiantly would not take my dead fathers warning about removing half of a formula from a safe (why didn't they just destroy it?) very lightly. If I did however unleash said formula, leading to countless deaths, then I think I defiantly would be a little hard on myself about it.

Not Hiro. He's forgotten all about poor long dead Charlie, didn't really give a toss about stabbing (and as far as he knew killing) Sylar, shrugged off his dad's death and the brutal punishment of his killer, and found it in his heart not to blame himself over the loss of the formula. Yata!

***

Believe me when I say I could go on and on, but really I think I've spent enough off my time on this once promising and bitterly disappointing show.

At the time of its printing Watchmen, a twelve issue miniseries (it was not a "graphic novel" as it is called today) was a dissection of the superhero comic book and asked the question for the first time – what if superheroes were real? That being the case it seems that at this time, when comic book movies are at fever pitch, is the right time for a movie adaptation to hit the big screen.

Coming from the man who brought 300 to our screens you won't be surprised to hear that this is a film not for the faint of heart. The sex and violence are extremely gratuitous and, while I can see the need for the latter, some of the sex scenes seems a little out of place and unnecessary (just as it did in 300). The violence you will see is crucial to the narrative, it needs to be so harsh and unrelenting to show that, should extra ordinary human beings choose to don costumes and take to fighting crime, it would not be the simple SLAM, BANG, POW that your favourite comic book would have you believe. Rorschach is an example of the 'Batman' figure seen in the extreme. Even in the excellent Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the square jawed handsome hero gives the bad guys a few hard knocks and sends them off to the pokey before heading home to his mansion/penthouse. Rorschach shows that to have the kind of commitment to fighting crime that Batman exhibits you would truly have to be a deeply disturbed individual with serious anger issues.

On the issue of sex, as I said before, some of it seems unnecessary – such as the length of Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre's love scene for example. What I do have to say is this: let's be grown ups. Yes you can see Dr. Manhattan's penis, but even if you were unaware of his nudity before entering the theatre, surely, one snigger is enough. On the flip side of that issue it does have to be said that I could have lived without the shot which comes from the ass-crack of a floating Dr. Manhattan while he sits in the lotus position.

The films soundtrack features great music though I did feel that some of the choices were a little off. The best example of this would be The Ride of the Valkyries, doubtlessly played in homage to Apocalypse Now during a Vietnam scene. As effective as the music is in the classic war movie's helicopter scene, played against the backdrop of a giant blue man blowing up the VC, it makes the scene play a little comically.

A sore point for many of the die hard fans of the comic book will be the ending, but at the risk of being unpopular, I would have to say that the films ending makes much more sense than that of the comic book. Just to be clear: I am saying Alan Moore is not infallible.

Overall the film is excellent and has come at the correct time in order to make sense to people who are not comic book readers. That being said I could not recommend this to everyone. Probably best to send mum and dad off to see Slumdog Millionaire. I would also warn that if you find the entire concept of superheroes unacceptable then, obviously, this is not the film for you. In closing, if you want to see a slick, stylish, adult superhero movie then you will enjoy this. However, even if all this is true but you don't think you can get over the sight of a male penis, do the rest of us a favour and wait for the DVD.

Seven episodes into the fifth season the veteran show still proves itself to be the most original and compelling drama on television. With the seasons now shortened (this years run is only seventeen episodes) the drama nips along at a quick pace, clearing up some mysteries, teasing at others and as always raising new questions in the build up to the sixth and final season.

So far this season we've seen Locke's journey back to the real world, the Oceanic Six take to the skys together again, discovered the enigmatic Ms Hawking from Desmond's time travel/flashback is Daniel Faraday's mother and, thanks to the island's quantum leaping through time, we've seen glimpses of "The Others" in their early day, a young Charles Widmore on the island, the French shipwreck survivors arrival and death at the hands(?) of the monster, and we have seen Daniel and Jin wearing the uniforms of the mysterious Dharma Initiative circa 1970. Yet despite all this and much more you'll still find plenty of people who regard the drama poorly.

Part of the reason for this is negative press. The British tabloids, desperately furrowing their caveman brows struggle to understand where the drama is going and despise it for asking it's viewers to think. The show's other detractors are frustrated, paradoxically, by what makes the show so gripping: The questions. The viewing public seem to hate the show constant cycle of questions and answers, seemingly wanting to know the answers to all the big questions all at once.

Way back when season one ended I remember the general consensus being one of anger that the protagonists were not off the islands and that it was not explained what the island was. This general feeling is the same today, only with new questions being the source of the viewers (or, more often than not, no viewers) irritation. The excellent writers and creators of the show have proved time and time again that they do have the answers and will reveal them when they feel the time is right, and still this does not sate said detractors.

The issue people have seems to be that they do not seem to appreciate that what they are watching is science fiction. To be fair the drama may have been misleading at first, seeming to be about the survivors of a plane crash. However, even if you started watching the drama on this small pretence, the appearance of 'The Monster' in the first episode should have clued you in that this wasn't going to be a modern day Robinson Crusoe. What people also do not seem to realise is that without the questions there would be no show. Lost is not suitable for the episodic formula of wrapping things up neatly at the end of each 45 minute chapter and does require that you invest yourself into its viewing. If you are the type of person who simply wishes to tune in and drop out this is not the show for you.

In fairness, the show is not for everyone, though if you do watch it then you must, especially at this stage of five years in, be prepared to accept the fantastic. Most importantly, if you do not want your entertainment to make you think, switch to another channel (X Factor or American Idol may be more your speed). I, for one, am loving every minute of Lost just I always have and have complete faith in the produces, writers and actors to keep me on the edge of my seat until the last frame.

100. Big

THE PLOT
After a disappointing night at an amusement park, 12 year-old Josh Baskin makes the simple wish to be “Big” and awakens the next morning as a fully grown adult. Josh soon finds himself in the big city where he quickly finds that everything he dreamed of as 12 year-old isn’t quite as simple for a man in his thirties

WHY I LOVE IT

Big, for the most part is every kid’s dream; the job at the toy store, the game filled apartment, and of course the hot girlfriend who can stay over when ever she likes. It’s simple to see why kids love it and why you loved it when you were their age. Watching it as an adult though, you can see that the real point of the movie is that children should be children and not grow up as fast they wish they could. When I was little I used to think the end of the movie was kind of a downer – I mean he’s leaving all that cool stuff behind right? I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that Josh’s wish being cancelled out is the real dream come true; which of us doesn’t wish they could be a kid again?

TRIVIA
Tom Hanks was the first choice to play Josh Baskin but was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with the films Dragnet (1987) and Punchline (1988). Robert DeNiro was then offered the lead role, and was rejected because his salary demand ($6 million) was too high. Tom Hanks then became available and accepted the lead role for $2 million.

99. Airplane!

THE PLOT
After some bag fish fells the crew of a passenger airplane only an ex-war pilot with a drinking problem and fear of flying can save the day.

WHY I LOVE IT

The Greatest Spoof of All Time™ is based of the disaster movies of old such as Zero Hour and Airport 1975 and is without a doubt one of the greatest comedies of all time. No matter how dated the joke’s you are still guaranteed plenty of laughs even after multiple viewings. The crucial difference in this spoof movie as compared today’s poor efforts is that it took some very serious movies and made them very funny.

Scary Movie fails as a spoof because although they send up a very popular movie – Scream – The brain trust and plague on society that is the Wayne’s brothers failed to realise that said movie was already a spoof of horror movies. Similarly, most resent titles such Date Movie, Not Another Teen Movie and Superhero Movie cannot seem to grasp that you cannot spoof comedic material. All they achieve is making good comedy into bad comedy.

Airplane! is rightfully single minded in it’s parody and rather that steal the big laughs of other comedies in creates big laughs in making the tense absurd, and the serious silly. Surely that’s what comedy is all about… though, don’t call me Shirley.

TRIVIA

The film's title in Germany was "The Incredible Trip in a Crazy Airplane".

98. Superbad

THE PLOT
Soon to be separated by collage, best friends Seth and Evan are determined to lose their virginity before their senior year ends. With the help of their geek friend Fogal and his fake I.D. they set out to supply the booze for the cool kid’s party, a task that meets with unexpected difficulty.

WHY I LOVE IT
The comedy is excellent and well thought out guy chat full of crass and gross jokes that are not as easy to pull off as they seem. The central protagonists mask their sadness over their impending separation in a casual fained apathy which I think many young men can identify with (we don’t talk about feelings and stuff) . Hill's aggressive and crass Seth is funny but it's Cena's brand of deadpan subdued comedy that is the really hilarious. Lest I forget McLovin; a character sure to be a comedy icon for years to come.

TRIVIA

Writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started this script when they were just 13 years old citing the reason as being "we just wanted to see if we could write a movie."

97. The Goonies

THE PLOT
A group of kids calling themselves The Goonies find an ancient treasure map and embark on a quest for treasure to save their homes from a greedy developer. All along their adventure the kids are dogged by bumbling criminals the Fratelli Family who want the treasure for themselves.

WHY I LOVE IT
The definitive kid’s movie of my generation, even the detestable Cory Feldman can't ruin the fun of this adventure classic. Who can help but love Sean Astin's naively determined leader of the pack Mikey, kid genius (and shameless Asian stereotype) Data, The Truffle Shuffle dancing fat kid Chunk and, of course, the hideously deformed but inescapably lovable Sloth.

TRIVIA
Sadly, four years after completing the film John Matuszak who played Sloth died in 1989 from heart failure, allegedly due to his long term use of steroid drugs.

96. Blood Simple

THE PLOT
A bar owner hires a shady Private Investigator to kill his adulterous wife and her lover but nothing quite goes to plan.

WHY I LOVE IT
The Coen Brothers film debut is closer in tone to their latest and critically beloved modern day western No Country for Old Men than their still excellent but somewhat zanier fare like The Big Lebowski or O Brother Where Art Thou? This is a mystery where you know what is going on but none of the characters do. You can’t keep your eyes off the screen the characters stumble on to one deadly misunderstanding after another.

TRIVIA
Frances McDormand’s film debut, McDormand would go on to win Best Actress in the Coen Brothers Fargo 12 years later.

95. Ed Wood

THE PLOT
Based on the life of Edward D. Wood Jnr, a man celebrated as the worst director of all time. This biopic focuses on Wood’s film making, his private life, and in particular his relationship with ageing star of the 30’s Dracula movies Bela Lugosi in the 1950’s.

WHY I LOVE IT
Without a doubt Tim Burton’s best movie to date, no matter how many time’s I see it you can’t help but be captivated by the enduringly positive ill-received, yet cult, director played by the always brilliant Johnny Depp. While Burton’s zany leanings are as ever present as in his other works, here he manages to bring them down to earth and also be genuinely moving, particularly in the scenes with Martin Landau in his Oscar-winning role as Bela Lugosi. This movie could have been easily snide about the long dead director in his truly awful catalogue of films, but so obvious is Burton’s love for the man and his work that his affection can’t help but be contagious.

On a side note, this film also boasts, I believe, one of Bill Murray’s finest and funniest performances, as Wood mainstay Bunny Breckinridge and is a master class in comic subtlety.

TRIVIA

This film cost more to produce than all of Edward D. Wood Jr.'s films put together.

94. The Insider

THE PLOT
After being persuaded by the producer of US TV network CBS show 60 Minutes to break a confidentiality agreement, Jeffrey Wigand, a former head researcher for a tobacco gives an interview regarding development within the company to make cigarettes more addictive. The price of this truth is that Wigand’s life gradually falls apart due to intimidation and family pressures, following which he discovers that the interview will not air due to corporate pressure from the show’s network.

WHY I LOVE IT

So awful are the actions of big business in this film they can only be true. Pacino gives a career best performance as the tenacious and uncompromising producer/reporter, Lowell Bergman and Russell Crowe is mesmerising as man who is slowly falling apart under the strain of doing the right thing. The script and director Michael Mann deliver the potently complex and dull subject as a quick paced and easily digestible tense drama. This is smart cinema at its finest.

TRIVIA

The real Jeffrey Wigand asked for two concessions from the filmmakers: that they change the names of his daughters, and that there be no smoking anywhere in the film. Both requests were granted.

93. Alien

THE PLOT
The crew of the Nostromo, a commercial towing space ship, receives an SOS signal from a nearby planet. When the crew investigate one of their crew is attacked by a creature hatched from an egg found within an alien spacecraft, the man survives but the worst is yet to come.

WHY I LOVE IT
The excellent cast, including Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm and John Hurt is top notch as the scared and tired blur collar space workers who encounter what remains as cinema’s greatest killer. The tension is high even when you know what is coming, the test of an enduring thriller. It’s also amazingly designed by H.R. Giger who created in the alien the most intricate and truly terrifying creatures ever to appear on page or screen.

TRIVIA

Yaphet Kotto (Parker) actually picked fights with Bolaji Badejo who played the Alien, in order to help his onscreen hatred of the creature.

92. Forrest Gump

THE PLOT
Slow but big hearted Forrest Gump runs through life interacting and effecting great events and people in history and changing the lives of those he encounters. No matter how hard he runs though he can never quite reach Jenny, his troubled best friend and love of his life.

WHY I LOVE IT
So endearing is Hanks’ portrayal as the dim witted Forrest that like many of the characters’ you can’t help but love him. Forrest is just the right amount of dumb which stops you being frustrated by his constant cheer and childlike recollection of his extraordinary and decidedly charmed life. It’s the movie you watch on holiday weekends and lazy Sunday afternoons, and though the laughs may not be as powerful it’s guaranteed to make you smile.

TRIVIA

Gary Sinise's lower legs were wrapped in a special blue fabric that allowed them to be optically removed from the film by computer later.

91. On the Waterfront

THE PLOT
Would be prize-fight contender and longshoreman Terry Malloy witnesses a murder by underworld thugs working for corrupt union leader Johnny Friendly. After meeting the victim’s sister Terry decides it’s time to stand up for the little man and struggles to take on Friendly and his crew.

WHY I LOVE IT

Brando’s Oscar winning turn as Terry is compelling viewing but the real reason I love this movie is the idea that a man stands up to be counted. Tired of being pushed around and terrorised by the gang land thugs that run the dock union Terry Malloy decides enough is enough. Had this film been made in the 80’s or 90’s Terry might have been envisioned as Bruce Willis gunning though the docks with a hand gun and some one liners, crucially this film show’s that to be a man all you need do is hold your head high and refuse to be bullied.

TRIVIA

Marlon Brando's Oscar for Best Actor was either lost or stolen. The award did show up later when Brando was contacted by a London auction house, intending to sell the item.

The greatest TV show ever has just ended and I'd be shocked if any of you has even heard of it. The Wire was more that your average show. A modern masterpiece, the American crime drama delved so deep into story details and character development, each episode was like reading a chapter of a book.

The creators of the show, a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a former Baltimore P.D. homicide detective and teacher, drew on their own experiences to create the in depth realism of the show.

The Wire started focusing on three institutions:

The Law - Focusing on the newly formed 'Major Crimes Unit' The Law focuses on the struggles of those referred to as 'good police' to make cases in an underfunded, uncaring and often corrupt system. One of the shows central themes is that a cops enemy are not murderers or dealers, but the politicians and higher-ups known as 'The Bosses'.

The Street - This group goes from the corner boys, on the drug corners, all the way up the drug kingpins and suppliers. The street focuses on what is referred to as 'the game', which is essentially the drug trade. The story of the street shows that the black urban poor in Baltimore are born into the attitude that you have to join the game in order to survive.

The Hall - City Hall is, in simplistic terms, the bad guy to The Law's good guys and The Street's anti heroes. The bureaucracy and self interest of those in the mayors office and in the upper echelons of the police force often impede police investigations and, in some cases, even benefit the the drug trade.

To add to the realism of the show many of the actors and contributors to the show are former cops of the Baltimore PD (including a former Commissioner who was indited for misappropriation of funds) and even the criminals portrayed in The Street are former dealers (some of whom were arrested by their now fellow actors).

As the story progresses over five seasons other institutions, such as the school system, the newspaper and the ports, are brought into the story, but, without insulting myself, even the explanations above are too simplistic to do the show real justice.

Do yourself a favour. Buy it. Rent it. Shee-it even steal it if you have to. Just watch it.

Here are some of my favorite scenes featuring some of my favorite characters from the last five years. Also, if you are interested, you can read my review of the first season here.

Omar


Detective McNulty


McNulty and Bunk


Corner Boys


Snoop


Clay Davis


Det. Lester Freamon


Bodie

Brick opens with our hero, high school loner Brendan (3rd Rock’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt), looking on to the lifeless body of former girlfriend Emily (Lost’s Emilie de Ravin). From there we’re taken back to the events that lead to her demise; a panicked phone call to Brendan starts him on the path for failed salvation to revenge as he roughs up and/or infiltrates the high school cliques which lead Emily down the road to her eventual demise with only the school nerd as his back-up.

Brick takes high school clichés – The jocks, the stoners, the popular, the geeks and loners – and create and Raymond Chandler-esque world around them based on the drug culture they live in. You won’t hear the valley speak that can be heard from the likes of The OC or even Clueless coming from these kids mouths but rather a complicated double speak the likes of which you’d expect from Bogart or Cagney or any other tough guy noir private eye.

Brendan talks fast and takes his punches as good as he gets them and there is no doubt that Gordon-Levitt(right) is the most accomplished of the young cast. As the would be gumshoe he is able to carry the dialog convincingly and bring the normally shadow filled noir mystery world into the sun drenched streets of America.


VERDICT
Empire Magazine called this film neo-noir – a whole new genre is born of this smart, interesting and intriguing film which places the style, attitude and smart dialogue of the 30’s and 40’s PI Mysteries into a modern day American high school whodunit.

It won’t be for everyone and even those who follow the goings on may not know what the hell these kids are talking about half the time but take my word for it; this film is destined to be a cult hit and you would be missing out something special if you didn’t give it a chance. My favourite film in a long while (aside from Superman Returns).

A man who needs no introduction, Pryor’s unflinching stand up routines were not only hilarious but also brutally honest, focusing on American race relations and his own highly controversial life.

Prior is quoted saying

“I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and
like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than
that".

Prior’s wife, Jennifer, tells a story of the effect Pryor had on people

"Bigoted rednecks came up to Richard and told him, 'Thank you for opening my
eyes,' because he was so in touch with the truth and only spoke the truth ...
people respond to that”

All I can say about Richard Pryor is that he lived an interesting life, was an interesting man and he made me laugh so hard that I could barley breath.

Read more about the man here

I was deeply saddened this morning to read of the death of John Spencer who will be best known to most as Leo McGarry from The West Wing. To me the West Wing is the finest television show ever to grace our screens and this was due on no small part to John Spencer who brought the character of Leo to life with his skill and enthusiasm for the role.

I have only seen one interview with the man, on which he earnestly talks of his role on The West Wing, his co-stars and the show as a whole, and it is clear to see his excitement in what he is doing and his friendliness just radiates through the screen.

Oddly as I write this I am remembering the Channel 4 adverts in which the stars of the channel 4 shows say a word or phrase relating to an unheard (by the viewer) question. From what has come before in the ad it was clear the question was ‘what is you favourite word’. Spencer’s reply was the last and he simply said that his favourite word was “Hope, I guess. Hope.”

Read more here