Thoughts on Secret Diary of a Call Girl From a Doctor Who Fan

I've been meaning to check out Secret Diary of a Call Girl and this week, after forgetting to organize my Netflix queue, I got the first two discs comprising of the entire 8-episode first season. I finished them late last night, so of course I had to tweet my reaction immediately. Basically, I was surprised at how much I liked it, but even more surprised at why I thought I liked it so much: Doctor Who. The two shows couldn't have a more different audience. And yet...


First, there’s of course the beautiful and charming Billie Piper playing the titular Call Girl. She was my first. Er, my first companion. Um, my first Doctor Who companion, Rose Tyler. In this other show, she is just so confident, so sexy, and so personable that I’m guessing even if I’d never seen Doctor Who, I’d still like her. But knowing her as Rose Tyler definitely didn’t hurt.

Then there’s the role of best friend Ben who is played by Iddo Goldberg who is really easy on the eyes, but in a way that sort of sneaks up on you and before you know it, you’re just a little bit in love with him. I think I’ve felt this same way about all of the Doctors of my generation (Eccleston, Tennant, Smith), but the real person Ben/Iddo Goldberg reminds me of is Rory/Arthur Darvill who is one of the current companions traveling with the Doctor this season. You all should already know how I feel about Rory/Arthur, but if you don't let's say it's a mix of strong like and fan stalking (or stanning as the cool kids say these days). Never mind that physically they are rather quite similar to the point where I can totally see them playing brothers, but the fact that their characters also serve the same general purpose on their shows—sensitive and caring male confidant to the female lead—just make their similarities even more noticeable.

Don't you see the similarities?

There are also the little similarities such as both shows taking place in Britain with British actors, but I’ve always been an Anglophile so that’s nothing new. There’s the wonderful blend of humor and drama as well present in both shows, though of course presented in very different ways. Finally though, we even get an appearance of the Doctor himself in the form of Matt Smith being his cute, adorable self in a one-off guest role in the first season. I admit, seeing Rose shag the present Doctor was completely surreal, but immensely entertaining.

The Doctor and Rose. Tee hee.

I realize I didn't really talk about the show per se, but for a show about a call girl, I found it quaint/charming. Most of this I think can be attributed to how well Piper is able to guide the audience to this world without it seeming too sleazy. Her constantly breaking the fourth wall makes us less of a voyeur and more of a watchful friend. Plus I really do love her complicated relationship with Ben. Former lovers, now best friends, but maybe something more? The two have real chemistry. In a way, this show reminds me of early Weeds in that we see a woman in charge in a sketchy business which at first doesn't suit her and yet it perfectly does. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the next couple of seasons now.

Review: Buried (2010)

Didn't know much about Buried before I saw it a couple days ago. I knew a lot of people kept comparing it to 127 Hours last year so I knew to expect a one-man claustrophobic film that promises me to a harrowing experience. And boy, that is exactly what I got and frankly I'm still recovering from it all.

The film opens in complete darkness with some muffled sounds of something or someone shuffling. Finally, a light from a zippo illuminates the setting and the protagonist both of which will remain constant throughout the film. The audience slowly, but organically, parses out the situation of this guy essentially finding himself tied, gagged, and oh yeah, trapped inside a coffin seemingly buried underground. Talk about the nightmare scenario. And that's basically the whole film in a nutshell.

Of course, there's a cell phone left for Paul Conroy, the one person we see in the film, played by a surprisingly affective Ryan Reynolds, enabling him and the rest of us to venture forth into the outside world. We meet other characters through his phone, so we only ever get to hear them. Once Paul, and thus the rest of us, learn how he ended up there, the film becomes a race against time to escape his cramped prison. The journey Paul goes through, even as he's stuck in one place, is still quite gripping. Simple things such as being put on hold, getting someone's voicemail, dialing 411 for a forgotten number all becomes life-and-death situations and the audience along for the ride. A very scary, very claustrophobic ride. There's a particularly horrifying scene with a snake and because of it, I probably won't be able to watch this move again. I really don't like snakes.

So how does it compare to 127 Hours? Not bad actually. While Danny Boyle and James Franco had the luxury of being able to use the breathtaking Utah landscape and other storytelling devices like flashbacks and fantasy sequences to distract from the horrors their main protagonist was going through, Buried committed itself to focusing on the horrors of being buried alive with the camera not once leaving the darkly lit space. Granted director Rodrigo Cortes also had the the luxury of working with a wonderful original story from writer Chris Sparling while Boyle was limited to the real life story of Aron Ralston. But in the end, there's no real use to put one film over the other. Both delivered career-best performances from their main lead while sufficiently terrifying me to my bones. B/B+

Bewitching True Blood; Same Old Weeds

As I said last week, I didn't mind how disjointed the premiere of True Blood felt as long as it didn't feel this way for the rest of the season and I think the second episode delivered. Sure we still got Jason and Sam in their own little bubble of stories, but at least they are providing some much needed man flesh to the proceedings.

Just a little taste.

I was actually really intrigued by Sam's new friend Luna. Her story about turning into her mother was haunting and she has genuine chemistry with Sam who looks to have an bonafide good storyline this season. I'm also happy that Sam and Tommy seem to be finding their way back to each other. Unlike a lot of people, I actually love the Tommy character. Jason's storyline is a bit of a wait-and-see for me. The ending was deliciously gruesome though, but I don't know how I feel about Jason becoming a supernatural being.

A few of the other plot threads did converge this week with Sookie reuniting with Tara who then meets up with Lafayette/Jesus to their Wiccan meeting. There they run into Eric who was sent by King Bill to handle the necromancers. Next thing you know Marnie, played by the exquisite Fiona Shaw, does her dark magick Latin incantation thing to dispatch Eric. Sookie sees him in the end, shirtless and with his memories gone.

Something wicked this way comes!

Now maybe it's because I had a Wiccan phase when I was younger or because my favorite TV character is a redheaded witch, but I am LOVING this storyline so far. Yes, Marnie is awesome as are her unknown agenda, but I love that the reason why vampires are so wary of them is because if they can raise the dead then they can conceivably control vampires. Fascinating and in hindsight makes total sense. It's at least a relationship that way fresher than vampire/werewolves which has been done to death. With that said, great episode.

Looking forward to their awkward reunion.

We move on to Weeds and the verdict is a bit more mixed. They're still trying to get settled in this new setting so they're still in the process of figuring out exactly what to do. There's some promising things like Silas' continued hurt/angry feelings towards Nancy and his need to continue his modeling career (mostly probably to be on his own as much as possible) as well as Shane and Andy providing much needed comedy to the show.

I'm a bit more wary about Nancy. I get that the show is called Weeds and that she needs the money, but wanting to deal pot... again? Guess those years in prison taught her absolutely nothing at all. The new guy could provide some nice eye-candy so it's not a total loss. Also why is Doug still a series regular? Anyone? Can we at least get Celia back? I miss that crazy bitch.

Looking Forward To...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Release: July 15h, 2011
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Ruper Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Evanna Lynch, Jason Isaacs, Helen McCrory, Ciaran Hinds, Matthew Lewis, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Bonny Wright, David Thewlis, Julie Walters, Emma Thompson, & Robbie Coltrane.

Box Office: Big Damn Robots and Rich Pirates

The film about those Big Damn Robots ruled over the holiday weekend taking the title of highest grossing Independence Day weekend gross from Spider-Man 2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon also opened bigger than its two predecessors which begs the question WHAT THE HELL? Then again, I guess we found the rea$on why Paramount picked this film over the more obvious Captain America: First Avenger to open the weekend.

The other new openers debut dismally. Monte Carlo barely made a blip with just $8.5 million during the 4-day weekend, while the Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts film Larry Crowne took in a mediocre $16 million not befitting the salary they must have paid those two A-listers.

News wasn't that great for some of the holdovers as well as Cars 2 plummeted recording Pixar's biggest 2nd-weekend fall ever. The story remains the same with Green Lantern which is the Underachieving Superhero Film of the summer. The $200 million film has made slightly over $100 in 3 weeks. For comparison, at the same point Thor took in $145.4 million while X-Men: First Class made $120.4 million. The downward trend doesn't bode well for the aforementioned Captain America flick.

It wasn't all bad news for everyone though. Super 8 crossed $100 milestone just before the weekend while Bridesmaids continues its phenomenal run passing $150 million becoming Judd Apatow's highest-grossing film. Meanwhile Midnight in Paris is the only top-ranked film to increase over the 4-day weekend compared to last weekend. Woody Allen's film is just a few million dollars away from being his highest-grossing film.


Speaking of high-grossing, Johnny Depp was yet again the Billion Dollar Man as he notched a third billion dollar movie in the worldwide charts with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides reaching that mark over the weekend. This was a monumental feat considering the mediocre North American tally of just over $230 million indicating the rabid international response for the film.

Many expect the final Harry Potter film which opens in less than 10 days, to be the 9th film to reach the billion dollar mark worldwide even though no previous Potter flicks have achieved this. The most recent film took in $954.5 million and that should be the floor of what the last film will do.

Video: America - Fuck Yeah!

Rodeos! Fuck yeah! Bed Bath & Beyond! Fuck yeah!

Really, it was either this or the Bill Pullman Independence Day speech. Happy Fourth of July!

Wimbledon: The Finale

For a tournament so steep in tradition, this year's Wimbledon Championships, which notably celebrated its 125th year, was marked by breakthroughs and a general feeling of change and transition. Most of this can be attributed to the crowning of first-time Wimbledon champions, Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova, who fought to claim the most coveted prize in tennis.


For so long, the tennis world has been dominated by two men, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, especially in Wimbledon where they have won the last 8 times. This year, however, Djokovic has defeated everyone, including notching a 9-1 record against Federer and Nadal. With this mindset, Djokovic went into his first Wimbledon final with the belief that not only could he win against Nadal, but that he would. Fortunately for Djokovic, Nadal blinked first in that all-important first set, playing a loose game, giving Djokovic the first set. With that in his pocket, Djokovic played lights out in the 2nd set not giving Nadal an inch in any game and eventually winning it 6-1. To his credit, Nadal upped his own game as well as took advantage of Djokovic's slight dip in concentration in the 3rd to get his own breadstick set. The 4th set was similar to the 1st with both players playing more within themselves and yet again it was Nadal to blink first in the 8th game giving Djokovic a chance to serve for the championships which he promptly did. Win or loss, he would've been ranked #1 tomorrow, but with this win, his 8th title of the year, he has quite literally shaken up the dominance of Nadal and Federer. It's scary to think what else he has in store this year.


The women's final didn't cause a monumental shake up in the women's tour and yet in smaller and indirect ways, it kind of did. First of all, the match really was in the hands of 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova who has had an amazing comeback year, reaching the finals here and the semifinals at the French Open. With her power and experience she was the favorite going to the match. And yet it was Kvitova who outhit and outplayed the former champion. What's more impressive though is how contained and relaxed she seemed playing in the biggest match of her life. After winning the first set, a dip of play might be expected, and there was a slight dip with both players trading breaks a couple of times each. Kvitova though was the more steady of the two and under the watch of her idol Martina Navratilova, she took down Sharapova in straight sets. Similarly to the men, Kvitova was able to breakthrough a tournament that in the past decade had been dominated by two players. For the women it was the Serena and Venus Williams, who both exited in the 4th round this year.

So is there a changing of guards in tennis? Are the era of Nadal, Federer, Serena, and/or Venus over? For the latter three, age is a big factor and they are all getting up there. And yet, I wouldn't be surprised to see them winning 1-2 more major titles. For Nadal, who is still at the top of his game, it's mostly adjusting to this new challenge that Djokovic has given him this year (5 straight losses in 3 different surfaces). Basically, their era of domination is probably over, but underestimate them at your peril.


Elsewhere, top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan claimed their 2nd Wimbledon title, 11th overall, beating 8th seeds Robert Lindstedt/Horia Tecau in Men's Doubles. Second seeds Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik defeated Sabine Lisicki /Samantha Stosur for the Women's Doubles title. Finally, 9th seed Jurgen Melzer /Iveta Benesova took out 4th seeds Mahesh Bhupathi/Elena Vesnina in straight sets for the Mixed Doubles. And just for old time's sake Martina Hingis/Lindsay Davenport defeated Martina Navratilova/Jana Novotna in the Ladies' Invitation Doubles. Sigh, come back to us.

Inaugural Film Reviews

I always feel like I don't talk about films on this blog as much as I do TV shows or even tennis during its four big tournaments of the year. I mean I talk about bits of casting news, celebrating anniversaries, feature posters or films I'm looking forward to, etc. but other than my year-end list I don't often readily give my opinions on films I see. So starting now, I'm going to do my best to at least post something briefly on the films I see.

To start, I'd like to venture into my Netflix queue and briefly talk about the films I saw last month:


Made in Dagenham - Sad that I miss this plucky film last year. It's a well-made piece of cinema serving as a bit of a love story to the brave women in Dagenham back in the 60s demanding equal rights/pay as the men. Sally Hawkins delivers a strong performance as the main driving force with some lovely support from Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike, and Geraldine James. The predictable story/ending doesn't hamper the film, mostly because Hawkins and the other women pulls you in with their struggles. B+

Release - This little-known gay prison drama felt laborious throughout, from its purposefully opaque beginning to its inevitable melodramatic end. I'm okay with the film's low production value, because the budget is obviously small, but good writing and characterizations are necessary and sadly this film didn't have that. Confusing, muddled, and disappointing. D-

The Mechanic - Here's the thing. I have a slight Jason Statham situation in which I just find him so damn watchable that even though 97% of his films are exactly the same and 100% he's playing the exact same character, that film and that character is kind of awesome. This is all to say that if you've seen one of his films, The Mechanic is more of the same though he does share some screen-time with the newly bad ass Ben Foster and they make quite a team. Fun if you like this sort of film, which I fortunately do. B

The Other Woman - Based on other reviews, I was prepared to hate this film, but I didn't. With that said, there are plenty of problems mainly the fact that this film has NO IDEA what kind of film it's supposed to be giving the film a fractured feeling. Frankly I think writer Don Roos just wanted to do too many things on screen. If he had dialed it back a bit, I think the film would've been much better. It also doesn't help that the protagonist, played by Natalie Portman, was bordering on unlikable for most of the film. C

Natalie Portman getting around

No Strings Attached - Another Natalie Portman film and well this movie was not good. Like her chemistry with Ashton Kutcher in the film, it just lacked in every department. There are probably two scenes I loved from the whole film. One, when Portman's character yelled "I made the ball its bitch!" when they played mini-golf and the scene, which I've forgotten by now, where Kutcher actually looked like he was acting, making me feel sorry for his character. In the end though, I just felt sorry for me sitting through that. D+

Tron: Legacy - I'm a huge fan of the original film so my feelings for this film was always going to be colored by that. With that said, I liked it way more than I thought I was going to. First of all, I was shocked at how not at all incompetent Garrett Hedlund was in his role. Second, all of the "TRON" stuff was actually relatively understated. Third, Michael Sheen and Jeff Bridges looked liked they had a ball. Okay, the ending was lame and the CGI-young Bridges was hella creepy, but still a good time. B

Kaboom - Gregg Araki's latest film was a bit too out there even for me. Actually, to be more accurate, I was completely fine with everything else, from Thomas Dekker and friends' hypersexuality to the murder/hazing mystery. It was the last third of the film where the film lost me as it tried to put it all together and conjure some kind of final answer for it all. It all just felt flat after that. C+

Undertow - This Peruvian film revolving around a man with a wife and child who is also carrying on a secret affair with a man was a joy to watch. When you think you know where this age-old love triangle storyline is going, the film gives it its own fresh twist that is both inventive and emotional. Other than this twist, one thing I loved about this film is how we get into the heads of the three characters with all the pain and confusion inherent to this kind of drama. A-

A note on my review grades: I'm inconsistent--a B- film might end up higher than a B+ if I was forced to rank them. It's largely arbitrary--mostly encompassing my whole mess of feelings for the film. And finally, there's a curve--since I was raised by Asian parents, a C- has always equated as an F growing up. So make that as you will.

Wimbledon Report: Gentlemen's Semifinals

The Wimbledon champion will be played between two of the hottest players of the men's tour this year. This year's Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic will face this year's French Open champion Rafael Nadal. This would be Djokovic's first Wimbledon title and Nadal's third. By reaching the finals, Djokovic takes over the world #1 ranking from Nadal.


Djokovic continued his impressive year, only losing one match all year, by taking out Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who had a 5-2 H2H advantage over the Serbian. Tsonga started strong and looked like could take the first set until Djokovic fought gamely to take it to a tiebreak which he won. Tsonga's level went down after that letting Djokovic easily win the 2nd set. In the third set, Djokovic had a chance to serve it out for his spot in the finals and the #1 ranking, but he got broken and Tsonga impressively won a tight tiebreak. After that though, it was all Djokovic.


The crowd was clearly behind Andy Murray from the start and to his credit Murray gave them plenty to cheer about early in the match going toe to toe with the defending champion Nadal. Centre Court was electic when Murray did manage to win the first set. At 1-2 in the second set with Nadal serving, Murray had the open court to go up 15-40, but his ball went long making it 30-30. Nadal held serve to bring it 2-2 then immediately breaks Murray. Murray was never ever to recover from, losing the set and the next two to the disappointment of his home crowd.

Predictions: Their H2H is 16-11 in Nadal's favor, but Djokovic has beaten Nadal the last 4 times they have played including two matched on Nadal's favored surface clay. In grass, Nadal leads 2-0. Djokovic has only lost one match all year while Nadal is riding a 20-match win streak at Wimbledon. Djokovic already has the #1 ranking, he'll test Nadal, but I believe the Spaniard will win his 3rd Wimbledon title in five epic sets.

Wimbledon Report: Ladies' Semifinals

The women's final will be The Battle of the Ovas as 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova face first-time Grand Slam finalist Petra Kvitova. With her serve clicking, Sharapova has looked sharped throughout the tournament being the only player to not have dropped a set. Kvitova is looking to be the first Czech player since Martina Navratilova to win a Grand Slam tournament.


Kvitova had to fight to get to her first final. After four rounds of easy matches, she was tested by Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarters and today by 4th seed Victoria Azarenka. Against Azarenka, she won the first set easily, but Azarenka fought back by handedly winning the second. Helped by Azarenka's shaky serve, Kvitova recovered nicely in the third set where she won on an Azarenka double fault booking her spot in the final.


It was a bit more routine for Sharapova who was looking to reach her first Grand Slam final since she got shoulder surgery three years ago. It was a dubious start for the Russian, broken early by her opponent, wildcard Sabine Lisicki, who seemed as relaxed as could be. Sharapova tightened up her game and fought to 4-4 before breaking Lisicki and then serving out the first set. Sharapova asserted and showed her experience in the 2nd set as Lisicki, perhaps starting to realize what she's playing for, just couldn't recover from losing the first set.

Finals Prediction: They've only played once before and it was last year at Memphis which Sharapova won in straights. Still they are both different players now than they were then and the occasion and venue is completely different. Kvitova is probably the more consistent player of the two at the moment, but Sharapova has the experience. Sharapova in 2.