John Walker's Electronic House

Summer has traditionally always been the downtime for US TV, but after a disastrous year for the main season the summer schedule is turning everything around. While the major networks aren’t playing a huge part, cable is alight with great shows. Here are some of them.

Franklin & Bash – TNT

Yet another hour-long legal show isn’t too appealing, but seeing that it starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar was enough to have me want to check it out. Saved By The Bell’s Zack will be an obligatory mention until the day he dies, despite a multiple-year stint on NYPD Blue, but it was his impressively good turn in the much underrated Raising The Bar that’s made me interested to see what he does next. And this is perfect, teaming him up with Robot Chicken’s Breckin Meyer, in what turns out to be a buddy team with automatic chemistry. The pair bounce off each other so effortlessly that you wonder if they’re being given space to improvise their constantly funny dialogue.

The premise is pleasingly dumb. Two maverick lawyers working for a small, unsuccessful company, get hired by a giant firm under the leadership of a gloriously scene-chewing Malcolm McDowell. So yes, they bring their wayward ways to a firm that usually plays by the rules, etc, etc. But it’s really not about the cases, which over the first six episodes they’ve inevitably won – rather it’s about the spaces in between, the silliness, and most of all, the banter. So of course judges look sternly at them and warn that any more of their antics and they’ll find them in contempt, but for once it doesn’t matter. In fact, the writers have the good sense to often let the judges enjoy the spectacle.

Reed Diamond plays an excellent straight man as the pair’s main foil, along with an ensemble cast without any weak points. A few critics are making the stupid mistake of approaching the show as if it’s trying to be serious legal drama, confused when the cases are cartoonish or outright unrealistic. But that’s the point – this is a comedy, and an incredibly funny one. Few recent shows have had me skip back to watch a moment five or six times in a row, just to enjoy someone’s perfect (not quite literal) spit-take or superbly delivered off-the-cuff remark. The highlight of these so far came after Meyer delivered some faux-old man grumbling about loud rock and roll music, when Gosselaar mumbled in kind, almost to himself, simply, “YouTube.”

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In episode 77 of Rum Doings things return to normal. Just John, Nick, a bottle of rum and a microphone. Aaaaand relax. So we don’t discuss: is yet another washed out, rainy British summer the final nail in the coffin of the global warming conspiracy.

There’s some familiar complaining about how rubbish our listeners are, which somehow takes us into a dangerous new territory of telling jokes. This has portent. Fortunately we’re diverted by Nick’s exciting throat news, and then Nick ATTACKS John over how hard John works on this podcast, because Nick is a BUMFACE.

We voice some thoughts on mobile phone hacking, and then get onto grammar, which takes us to Nick’s education, and the books we were taught at school. Encounters of racism in childhood lead us back to horrendous jokes, and the floodgates are open. A diversion into the remake of Dambusters, and the nature of the n-word, then offending the religious.

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Oh, and at least leave a comment, you heartless bastards.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

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Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e77.mp3]

In a very special edition of Rum Doings, Nick and John sit down with Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow, and MakieLab founder and former head of Channel 4 Games, Alice Taylor. Just like John and Nick, they too are a married couple, one half obsessed with copyright issues, the other with games. It only made sense.

For some reason we chose to make Nick sit in an echo chamber – sometimes he needs to be kept aside for our safety. We begin discussing Disney, considering dark rides as an art form, the nature of their theme parks’ sponsorship, and the consequences of their idealism. Which is the most evil games publisher of the day, did Blackbird destroy the internet, and are Adobe in trouble?

What happens when printers print something better than themselves? And then as inevitably as day turns into zombie apocalypse, we turn to intellectual property law. What copyright issues will 3D printing lead to? What code is running on our computers against our will? And will our predictions of the future always be “insufficiently weird”.

Amazingly we get onto the economy of Star Trek, via the consequences of teleporters. There is much discussion of the consequences of new technology on, well, everything. And then comes piracy, geocoding, and the surprise appearance of LittleBigPlanet developer, Luke Petre. Finally, we move on to talking about MakieLab’s project to develop 3D toys linked to online gaming.

Big thanks to Cory and Alice (and Luke!) for joining us!

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e76.mp3]

I am alive. Which is something I wasn’t sure would be the case earlier today.

Something I’ve always wanted to do is fly in one of those research planes that go through thunderstorms with the deliberate intent of being struck. As I’ve mentioned so very often, I adore thunder, and the idea of being so close to it seems thrilling.

Well, as it turns out it’s just terrifying. Especially when you’re not in a research plane, but a small commercial vessel that’s circling above Brussels for an hour, insanely flying through the storm again and again and again. It’s hard to understand what was happening, especially since the pilot adopted that airline code of not explaining what was going on for enormous stretches of time, while we all stared at each other, not sure how much longer we had to live.

Things kicked as we approached Brussels to land, and the rollercoaster began. About twenty minutes earlier the flight attendant (the, as this was a very small plane) had warned us there was a chance of turbulence, but not said when. The plane lowered, we began our approach (wheels still up), and then dropped, my stomach left at our previous altitude. Now, I love it when that happens in planes, because I’m an idiot. It’s the ultimate ride, that sensation you get from a good coaster but without the tedium of seeing where it ends. I know that it’s just hitting an air pocket, and I know it’s fine, and I enjoy the adrenaline rush. I turned to the guy sat next to me and said, “That was a good one!”

But then it got a bit worse. And I saw the airport pass beneath us, as we continued on.

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Welcome to Rum Doings… Late. Episode 75 was recorded after midnight, which means things are a little more… sexxxxy. It must be listened to after midnight, naked. Ideally on a creaky leather sofa.

We’re not discussing whether Madonna’s gone too far with her latest reinvention. But instead do discuss dipping biscuits in wine, and Nick quite alarmingly holds John’s hand. There’s chatter about booth babes, prosperity preaching, and the singularity.

Find out about the nature of Nick’s aquatic affair with John’s sister, find a middle name for Laura, and what John and Laura’s vows should be. Especially to Dexter. And it’s all so sexxxxxxxxxxxxxy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Late night. Mmmmmmmm.

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e75.mp3]

In episode 74 of Rum Doings we don’t discuss whether celebrity is good for democracy. But we do drink gingerbread cream liqueur. It’s also the third and final episode containing Judge Martin Coxcombe, who will finally rule on whether John Walker is allowed.

Thoughts appear on stag dos, and then there’s a splendid foray into making up facts. Something Nick doesn’t quite get. We get all serious about anti-Semitism, less so about night terrors, riddles, and video toasters. Is John a bear? Does his Gay Day contribute to that? Are brown eyed people normal? And how does Judge Coxcombe finally rule on John?

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e74.mp3]

With Nick on holiday, and John in the throes of E3, it’s a good job we pre-recorded Episode 73 of Rum Doings. This week we don’t discuss… we forget! Until ages in!

We get too excited by potentially gloopy liquid. And then with a sense of topicality you can only hope for from us, we discuss the distinct lack of a rapture. Special guest Judge Martin “Coxcombe” Coxall is inspired to start a new religion. Via a brief chat about cats, we then ponder copyright, publishing and piracy.

Oh, the topic! Is the NHS just a fairytale that won’t have a happy ending? And are there ladytits at E3? Which brands of mental allow you a blue badge? And then we’re very sensitive about DID. And Operation. Oh, and here’s that kitten tray:

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e73.mp3]

It’s the end of a personal era. The edition of PC Gamer that should be arriving with subscribers in a couple of days (in shops in about a week) will contain my last ever They’re Back.

They’re Back is PC Gamer’s budget section. Two pages dedicated to re-reviewing games that are either being re-released at a lower price, or coming out in a new bundle. And since 1999 I’ve been filling it up with as much irrelevant guff as I can get away with.

I’ve written 148 of them, over twelve years, which I think is probably some sort of record. And I’m really proud of what I’ve done.

My passion for magazines was born in the 1980s, reading wonderful nonsense in Your Sinclair, then Zero and the very early (pre its tedious laddish reinvention in the mid-to-late 90s) PC Zone (it got better again, of course). Inspired by writers like Rich Pelley, Stuart Campbell, J Nash and Charlie Brooker, I saw an opportunity for combining a love of silly comedy and playing games. Not an opportunity I was smart enough to realise I could take before a disastrous attempt to become a biologist, but an investment in my future that eventually hugely paid off. As a reader of PC Gamer in my teens, and reinspired by Kieron Gillen’s writing in my very early 20s, I was eventually lucky enough to get freelance work on the magazine, at the same time as pursuing a career as a youth worker. Two of the best jobs imaginable.

Very early on I was asked to take over They’re Back from Steve Owen, who had written it since its inception. The section immediately struck me as inherently pointless. The reviews of the games had all appeared in PC Gamer around six months previously, so readers already knew if they were any good. The whole spread could have been simply replaced by a small box in the corner of page 17 with the five game names, new price, and then a comment on whether they were more worth purchasing at this lower price. Which meant it shone out to me as a space for what I’d always loved about magazines: room to be silly.

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A sad truth is that as RPS has scaled up, my time for watching television has gone way down. The backlog of shows I love is hurting me just to look at. But fortunately the convenient 20 minute length of sitcoms means they can still sneak in. Which has allowed me to see what I think may be the best pay-off in sitcom history.

This year the two best in the format are unquestionably Community and Cougar Town. The former has embraced such a depth of unreality that it’s been free to feature claymation, while the latter has found a groove none could have expected from the name and opening few episodes. I can imagine many would bounce off Cougar Town at the concept, but it’s allowed itself such a charming collection of characters, and so refreshingly, no turmoil. It’s decent people having a good time, without constantly lying to each other or falling in and out of love. The representation of a working, real married couple is pretty much unique. (There’s no forgiving anyone who complains about the title, since the show itself features a complaint about it every episode.)

But I’ve brought you here to bring up one particular moment in each.

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In a sweary, adult-themed Rum Doings episode 72, we allow an email from a listener to provide a foundation for a good proportion of the episode. Which means we need an arbitrator, who exists in the form of special guest Judge Martin Coxall.

The email prompts discussions about the roles John and Nick bring to the podcast: Nick’s unabashed intelligence, and John’s desperate, failed attempts to try to be funny. Should we swear more? Should we not swear less? Is there anything wrong with the word “poo”? No. No there is not.

We introduce a new system for Nick to indicate when John’s trying too hard, such that Judge Coxcombe can interject with a ruling.

Once that’s complete, we move on to discuss super-injunctions. And Nick goes to some lengths to get himself sued into outer space. A pretty in-depth discussion of privacy, law and blackmailing follows.

Please consider writing a review on iTunes. It’s a really good way of raising our profile. And keep on tweeting and so forth.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/rumdoings_e72.mp3]