CNN’s Planet in Peril

CNN is about to premiere tonight a two-part environmentally focused documentary called Planet in Peril.

According to their press release, “Planet in Peril uses first-hand investigative reporting to provide a better understanding of the environment’s present state. Bringing viewers the stories behind the statistics, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin will focus on four main issues that threaten the planet and its inhabitants: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation.” You can watch a trailer for the show below.

The show, which was filmed across four continents and 13 countries, airs over two nights on CNN/U.S. on Tuesday, October 23rd, and Wednesday 24th, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET/PT) and globally on CNN International. You can find out more on the Planet In Peril website. If you do manage to watch it, we’d love to know you thoughts, please leave a comment below or email us.

24 Goes Carbon Neutral

Adam has written a review of the sixth season on the TV show 24, and it now turns out that 24 is also going green!

How are they doing this? “They want to be the first television show to cut their emissions low enough to be carbon neutral. The show will be taking important steps to clean up their sets and make them more efficient. Their generators ran on electricity in previous seasons, and their vehicles ran on regular diesel. They will now correct this by using bio-diesel fuel to power vehicles and generators instead. This will decrease emissions on their vehicles up to 5% and their generators up to 100%, which will be a significant change.

They also hope to incorporate more hybrid vehicles into their sets as well. They will be purchasing their energy from various renewable wind, water, and solar sources. And they will be rewiring the stage to use electric power instead of diesel-generated power.”

[Via: AboutMyPlanet]

24 Season 6 Review - The Best Yet?

While this is a green blog we like our entertainment (Heroes being our favourite - see our guide here), and 24 has consistently been entertaining. But the past few seasons haven’t been great and have even been formulaic at times, something that it certainly couldn’t be accused of when the show launched in 2001?

The real time format works better on DVD than it does weekly (I watched the original run on TV). In fact they could do away with the time as you can tell when an episode is coming to an end as there’s normally a big explosion or a death. And this season is no different, but somehow it’s better than all the previous seasons, except the first.

The fact that Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) is in a Chinese prison at the start helps, we get to see something a bit different and the thread continues throughout the series. Jack’s father, brother and his family are introduced to mix things up a bit. Traditional things like a mole inside CTU are turned on their head, major characters die (is no-one safe? Except Jack of course) and there’s a new love interest as well as an old one. Even the idea of a traditional terrorist is turned on its head.

It’s a fun ride and a fun watch - I do advise you to watch as many as you can at once. While it’s not quite “I can’t wait until the next episode” like season 1 was or Heroes is, it’s much better watching it like this. The only negatives are that it play on having to have something big happen every hour (well 45 minutes without the adverts) and the President Palmer is unconvincing in my eyes. That said it’s the best season for years.

You can buy it here.

Heroes Episode Guide - Chapter 23: How To Stop An Exploding Man

So it’s finally arrived. The final episode of Heroes. And it was a cracker. And a culmination of what all came before it does leave some questions, but I like finding out and didn’t feel annoyed at all.

Hiro saves Ando and for a moment it seems only Sylar dies. But then he doesn’t and will Pete of Nathan survive? What we saw in Five Years Gone doesn’t come to pass, Nathan steps up to the plate and helps Peter. Or so it seems, maybe it still does, we’ll have to wait and see. Why Peter can’t control his power I’m not sure, Sylar has he same one and he can but maybe it takes him longer.

Claire shows she is a true hero as does Hiro. Peter going into the past to see the man he looked after was an unexpected highlight, what does that generation have to do with everything and what powers do they have? Maybe the rumoured spin-off series, Heroes: Origins, will tell us.

If you can’t wait until September 24 for the next series (in America at least), you can find rumours and news at this excellent site.

Song of the Day - Lemon Jelly

Being a huge fan of the TV series Spaced, I recently came across this song, which I immediately recognised as the background track to the final scene of the final episode. I could only find two versions on YouTube, one which accompanied a random person’s photo collection, and a live version from last year. The photos weren’t really that interesting, so went for the live version! It takes a minute or so to get going, but stick with it. Oh, forgot to say it’s called The Staunton Lick.

Heroes Episode Guide - Chapter 22: Landslide

So I was wrong about Hiro’s dad - old Sulu from Star Trek seems to be a good guy and able to teach swordsmanship in an afternoon. I wonder what his power is? I feel bad for Ando though, there’s only one way it could end, unless it turns out a normal person saves the day.

This episode stepped up a pace after last week. Mr Bennet’s willingness to kill Johnson and maybe even Molly was a shock, but not as much as Mr Linderman buying the farm. Or has he? He seems to have been pretty powerful and if he can heal others like Nathan’s wife, then maybe he can heal himself, a bit like Claire.

It was nice to see both Peter and Sylar comfortable with their powers - Peter takes on Matt’s power easily and Sylar can not only control his hearing better than the woman he killed for it, but Ted’s too. Poor Ted, although he was annoying.

Claire was pushed into the background as events focused on the election and the forthcoming explosion. DL also seems to be dead and with so much happening with everyone, little touches like Candice actually looking like someone other than we think could get lost. But it’s insights like this, Claire mentioning wearing a costume and that Nathan’s father was also powerful that gives the series such depth.

I’m already looking beyond the next episode to see where the series can go from here. But in the meantime there’s one more episode to enjoy.

Heroes Episode Guide - Chapter 21: The Hard Part

Okay, okay it was a quieter episode this one, but what it did do was allow a bit of character development and we can take a breath before the last two episodes of the first season of this remarkable show.

Sylar and Hiro show more of their personalities in this episode. Sylar reveals he’s not a heartless killer and kills only is there’s something in it for him - exploding is not something that interests him. He tries to go back to a normal life. However by the end his quest not to become special has reversed and he wants to seek out Ted.

After seeing the future, Hiro wants to make sure it doesn’t happen, but that includes not becoming the future Hiro - meaning he can’t kill Sylar - even when he’s frozen time.

And more people reveal their intentions. Mrs Petrelli joins Mr Linderman, The Company (the grey haired guy is called Thompson) and Hiro’s dad (Mr Nakamura) in wanting the explosion to happen.

Peter and Claire don’t do much until the end, but the threesome of Mr Bennet, Parker and Ted seem to have a goal to stop the Walker system - but they don’t realise it’s a little girl. Actually, it’s nice to see Mohinder help Molly - he’s actually done some good!

And the end does manage to keep us wanting more. It may have been quiet but I enjoyed it as usal. Only two more to go - wooooo.

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