So Now We Wait

I’ve always thought Twitter was aptly named, but today, it was palpable. A tweet popped up about Richard Armitage that literally has us fans atwitter. It really feels like we’re in a hen house and someone startled us. Here’s the tweet so you can be startled too:

Didn’t many of us think this might be a dead possibility? Well, I guess we were wrong unless this ETTtweet is having us on. I don’t think so. They look legit.

So now we know Richard Armitage is somehow preparing for The Rover. But I want to know when it will be?! Yes, I’m impatient and spoiled to getting information quickly. I can’t lie. I am indeed spoiled, and Twitter has something to do with it. It may be one of the most addictive tools I’ve used since my first IT job, and that’s going some. I’ve been privy to some pretty cool things over the last, uh, I’d rather not say. Suffice to say this tool is phenomenal for information. I’ve learned more from Twitter in a shorter period of time than I ever have from a newspaper or the radio or tv. Even my Google Reader is not as forthcoming, and it’s pretty good.

Back to Richard. I would so love to see him live on stage, and I’ve been wanting to go back to the UK. There are other things I need to do there that have nothing to do with RA, but it would be great to make it coincide with one of his performances. Wonder how many there will be. I was looking at the other productions from ETT and most seem to be about three months for touring. This has me wondering if RA is really going to be tied up so long on The Hobbit set. Surely, Peter Jackson doesn’t need him standing around in New Zealand for the duration of filming. What actor would submit to that? Even if it is a huge break? It seems risky to be off the radar that long. But then what do I know about the acting business. Then again, perhaps RA will be touring before February, or he is not required at the beginning of The Hobbit’s filming in February?

In the meantime, I’m sure you can check out RichardArmitageNet to keep up, or you can get a Twitter account. Yes, I hope to entice some of you to join Twitter, and I promise you that it does not make your IQ go down a few points just by doing so. :D Maybe I can even get some of you to use an app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck before I’m done. MUHAHAHAHA.

Yeah, Rich, that’s how I’m going to feel until I know something:

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

Aren’t you glad my tangents are over? For now? :D

November 26, 2010
Categories: Movies, Rumors, Stage Productions . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 34 Comments

In Search of the Story — SPOILERS

Spoilers for Spooks Series 2 and 3 as well as Series 9.

Spooks 9 has ended and left me dissatisfied with the completion of the series and certainly with the completion of Lucas North. A part of me wanted to blame RA. Even though I am fervently biased in Richard Armitage’s favor, I said I’m honest, and I am honest, so I had to honestly look at his performance to see if it passed muster. That is a hard admission, but I’ve been pretty much telling you how I feel, albeit mostly couched in jests, so here I am again being as candid as I am able but without much humor today. His performance was fine in the context of the show, but I have a hard time saying it was great or should garner him a BAFTA. The melodramatic tone of it was a little hard to bear. Then again, I’m not sure what the BAFTA committee judges a great performance.

What I do know is the character’s turning was awkward and supported by a plot so thin it could be used to strain tea. There just wasn’t enough of the story developed to make it plausible for this character, and it left an icky feeling which made me want to cast off Spooks. Almost needless to say I’ve been very disappointed in the writers and believe they are a great part of the reason that RA’s performance is not great. I say almost needless, because, well, I have a great need to say that.

These thoughts as well as a host of others, of which I won’t bore you with all of them, have made this overwhelmingly familiar. Yeah, I’ve been here before, and for the last two series I’ve been fighting off the feeling that I’ve been sort of reliving another story. In very late 2006 a friend of mine had the first few series of Spooks, and she encouraged me to watch them with the comment, “the guy who played Darcy is in this, and you’ll like it.” Well, I did like it until I got to the Series 2 finale, and then Tom Quinn was no more, and his send off was an awkward piece of writing that left me with so many questions and being disgusted at the plot so shakily contrived to bring him down. I was so disgusted I thought I wouldn’t watch anymore.

Last week I had a great rant ready with my disgust of these last couple of series and was about to post it, but I caught sight of a comment that this was the best send off since Tom Quinn. I’m not sure yet about “the best,” but it was definitely similar in its feel and quite a few particulars. In fact, here are the similarities to Tom’s demise from my memory:

A woman who’s a love interest is at the crux
A person from the past comes back to haunt him
A student from university is involved
Some co-workers not trusting him
Harry chastising the co-workers for not trusting him and then doing an about face and having them hunt him down
A threat occurs to his love interest
Love interest is somehow co-opted by authorities to try to catch him
He threatens Harry
He’s in such despair at what’s happened that he kills himself at the end — or does he?
Harry hangs in the balance

And I wonder how many similarities there may actually be. Since I haven’t watched those shows in a while, it might be interesting to watch again and find out. At the least, the ones I remember have me more convinced than ever that Lucas doesn’t die. For those of you familiar with early episodes of Spooks, you know why I’m saying this. If you’re a novice at this Spooks watching, and I would deem a novice someone who has only watched the last three series, then you need to know that the story is never over no matter how it looks. Of course there are differences in Tom’s and Lucas’ stories, but at this point it’s a little hard to believe the writers would lift that much from Tom’s story, whether consciously or subconsciously, and not have lifted the final resolution.

Mostly I simply forgot this is a tv show where a character’s story arc can never eclipse the show itself. The show is only about the experience of an episode, and enough of those strung together can make for a thrilling ride of a series, which hopefully, will become addictive and increase ratings. Isn’t the thrill of a roller coaster the ride itself and never the ending? It certainly seems to be about things rushing at you, pricking your senses, and when it’s over, you are anxious to go again or relieved it’s done.

For those who were interested in my rant, it was a good one. LOL! I just don’t have the heart to post it. This is about as negative as I’m willing to go. Maybe I’ll gut it up and post all that crap later. Hopefully, not.

In the meantime, how about something to lift your spirits:

Photo courtesy of mokulen on LJ.

November 17, 2010
Categories: Rumors, Spoilers, Spooks . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 31 Comments

Lucas Doesn’t Die!

Okay, that’s my gut talking. Sometimes it gets away from me and blurts things out. I just couldn’t resist messing with all of you even at the risk of being labeled the uh, girl who cried wolf. :D

But I really do think Lucas North won’t die even if he might still be toast, i.e., Richard Armitage will probably no longer be a regular on Spooks (MI-5). My gut says he will go off to prison or defect to another country or something that will allow him to come back as a guest star OR possibly be in the movie version of Spooks that RA’s talked about a few times. Yep, mention of that one too many times has tipped the scale in favor of Lucas surviving this series if not being a regular.

What say you?

October 31, 2010
Categories: Rumors, Spooks . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 19 Comments

Namor or Nazi?

I had a post ready to go about RA possibly being Namor in Captain America. But it seems after watching the recent footage of the filming of a gunfight in New York (aka Manchester), a man looking and running very much like RA appears to be a baddie, which means it can’t be Namor. I’m reasonably sure of this since reading up on the characters. Also, it doesn’t appear that he can be Namor if he’s just in a shootout (see clip below). I could be completely wrong about this, but after reading a few comic book sites, that’s what I understand.

However, it’s possible that RA is a Nazi henchman named Heinz Kruger. Deadgummit! That means he won’t be in the movie very long if he’s Kruger, and it also means I can’t go to town on the character. If I were more convinced he would play Namor, I would be prepared to go on and on about this character who comes from a fictitious race of people, is the first known comic book anti-hero and bi-polar to boot. Oh, great fodder for this blog! But it’s not to be. (I’m shaking my head as I write this. I hope RA knows he has some really rabid loyal fans out there who will even talk about comic book characters when they CAN’T STAND that stuff. Before now I’ve often imagined guys who were into comic books as the same ones who sat in rooms alone and did things to themselves that I can’t mention on this blog and still keep it “safe for work.”) Making light of a Nazi is not nearly so much fun. But if I had my clever hat on today, maybe I could have come up with a little ditty like “Springtime for Hitler” to describe Kruger. (Thoughts of an Argentine Tango dance in my head. Yeah, I know it doesn’t fit; I would have worked it in somehow.) But I’m not so clever today. Heck, I’m doing well to post this.

When the action starts, check out the man in the light gray suit who runs and jumps into car on the far right of the screen:

If you’re wondering if this is RA, then check out this screencap posted by kadamanja on yesterday’s blog piece:

Screencap courtesy of Cesta (C19)

September 23, 2010
Categories: Captain America, Miscellaneous works, Movies, Rumors . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 22 Comments

I May Get Serious

….eventually or maybe not. I toyed with again getting on my soapbox about the spoilers for Spooks, but I caved the day before it aired. Yes, I am weak. So very weak, but then I had an enormous temptation, or maybe I was just looking for an excuse to fall off the wagon.

Someone sent me the audio of RA’s interview with David Stephenson. I’m so glad! It was a pleasure to listen. Thank you, friend for sending me that file, and unless David is under a rock about now, he had to know that file would be passed around. It’s profitable life was no more than a day. I just happen to have a great scruple about these things, so I’ll hop over there sometime and buy it for a pound and happily help with overhead. But I hope my friend doesn’t let this talk of scruples keep her or anyone else from sending me things in the future. LOL!

After I was done listening, I read the print article. Wow. What a difference. I realize Mr. Stephenson has only so much space to write, and he must capture what he feels is salient for readers, and I really appreciate the way he writes. Please keep it up! But the casual reader does not get to really appreciate RA’s wonderful sense of humor. You must listen to the audio for that.

Once I got done listening and reading that interview, my appetite was pretty whet, so it was easy to just gorge myself on the rest of the interviews. Some were a rehash with a few extra comments. In particular RA mentions in one of having performed astral projection, and my first thought was he might need some pants that don’t ride up for that. I was going to make hay out of this until I had my second thought — wondering which Avengers fly. Yes, yes, I admit I’m not up on my Avenger characters! But I may have to bone up in light of today’s developments. Look at the last few lines of this interview from a couple of days ago. That tease!

September 22, 2010
Categories: Captain America, Fandom, Interviews, Miscellaneous works, Movies, Rumors, Spoilers, Spooks . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 16 Comments

Maybe It’s True?

If you have been keeping up, then you may already know that some footage was taken on the Captain America set in Manchester yesterday, and it seems someone who looks like RA was on set. Here are a couple of screencaps from that footage.

If that’s not him, it’s someone who looks just like him.

And if you watch this footage you can see this person moves just like him:

Starts about 29 seconds

Footage courtesy of Hobbsy.com.

edit:

Here’s another shot from Hobbsy:

And a big thank you to RichardArmitageNet.Com and a nice woman named Antonella for the heads up!

September 22, 2010
Categories: Captain America, Miscellaneous works, Movies, Rumors . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 62 Comments

So I’ll Get My Fix Sooner??

According to Ali at RichardArmitageNet.Com, we might not have to wait SO LONG until we see Lucas in action.

4. It is looking more likely that Spooks could air in September this year (last year episode 1 aired on 4 November 2009). As reported on 12 August, Amazon and Play.com have brought the series 8 DVD release date forward to 20 September. Today, thanks to KK, we’ve discovered that the September print edition of the Virgin Media magazine lists Spooks series 9 as one of the programmes starting in September, but there’s no official airdate yet.

I’m not sure if this is more torturous than having to wait until November. Until then, I’ll have to be satisfied with this Ohcheemama picture:

edit:

You have to see this picture in all its glory. It’s here in RichardArmitageNet’s Gallery. I would link directly to the picture, but for the uninitiated, that’s called ‘hotlinking’ and is a no no. So click on the picture and then down below the lower right corner is “original picture.” Click on that then click on the picture that’s loaded to zoom in on it. Wow! It’s something else. You’re missing out if you don’t do this. Do it now! LOL!

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

August 19, 2010
Categories: PHWOAR!, Rumors, Spooks . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

Google Can Be Such a Tease

Those alerts can really mess with my head if I let them. Thankfully, I’m a skeptic so I mostly don’t fall for it. But sometimes I miss out because what I’m reading might be true. This morning (for those who don’t already know) there was an alert about Strike Back. Supposedly it’s been renewed for a second series. I will love that if it happens, but for now I’m reserving my hysteria happiness until someone can confirm for my jaded ass that it’s true.

Somehow The Mirror reporting it isn’t enough. Can’t remember what they burned me on, but it was something or I would be giddy by now. Plus, the lack of detail in that piece makes me want to stay away. Or is this just my cynical self running amok?

In the meantime, a picture of RA’s character being put upon:

Oh! Freudian slip. This is the one I meant:

Screencaps courtesy of RichardArmitageCentral.com and RichardArmitageNet.Com

July 28, 2010
Categories: Robin Hood, Rumors, Strike Back . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 6 Comments

The King May Have Been Dethroned

Or maybe a serious coup attempted.

I love this picture:

and I think it is the best picture of RA. King in my mind. I mean who could look at that and not have some reaction to it even if they have never seen him in any roles? Oh, someone dead? Yeah, that’s about it.

But I may have seen the one that can give it serious competition, and I wish someone who has something to do with the “Captain America” movie read my piddly blog. They could see how good RA looks in the picture below. Since the movie is being made by Hollywood, of course looks are the primary consideration. We know RA can act in anything, but does he have the look for a part in that movie? Oh, baby, yes!

A big thanks to Kaprekar for this photo. I was going to just add it to another post, but it deserves its own:

I need a new tag: PHWOAR!2

second edit: and I forgot to mark the jawline tag for this entry! Yes, you can click on that tag and look at all of the lovely profile shots in this blog, or most of them anyway. That’s my public service gene at work, so I just can’t help but think of these things for the edification of all of us. ;-) Thanks, fitzg for reminding me.

By the way, that second picture is an edit of a Robin Hood promo picture found on RichardArmitageNet.Com

July 23, 2010
Categories: Captain America, Miscellaneous works, Movies, PHWOAR!, Robin Hood, Rumors . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

Some Days I’m More Perfect Than Others

Sometimes I’m just on, and I can’t be stopped. If I ever let you meet SO, you can ask him if I’m telling you the truth. He has sometimes referred to me as “hell on wheels,” and he means that in a good way — I think. My eyes really are blue, er, I mean green.*

But today, I’m not on, or I would have had the perfect picture before I posted my last entry. HOW COULD I NOT THINK OF THIS PICTURE?!! Before you scroll down to see it, let me just say that I’m rethinking this Union Jack thing. When I look at this picture immediately below, it makes me think of all kinds of possibilities:

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and that’s why I’m miffed at myself for not thinking of the perfect picture in the last post. Of course, RA would be perfect as Union Jack. Look at the legs on that Union Jack guy, and then of course, we know RA can pull off the “fabric.

The Perfect Picture:

A couple more perfect pictures if you’re not convinced:

The last one is so you can see how good he looks in a mask.

Screencaps courtesy of RichardArmitageNet and my stash.

*major, major bs in this post. This comment is for the action fans. ;-)

July 22, 2010
Categories: Captain America, Miscellaneous works, Movies, PHWOAR!, Rumors, SO . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

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