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Too fucked to work today, though I still had to do a morning of childcare, which was a stretch on my limited resources. I don’t think there’s anything specifically wrong with me, beyond fatigue. I haven’t had an alcoholic drink since Sunday, so it might be withdrawal. Interesting that I was fine until I stopped boozing though.
When I got out of bed I felt stiff and crumpled. I guess this might just be getting old. The usually gradual process by which we just get used to having to live in discomfort, but it’s come on a bit quickly for me if that’s what it is. I have a nasty mouth ulcer and some soreness in my gums too. And someone has hollowed out my brain with a spoon.
Apart from that I am good.
I gave up with the idea of work and tried to sleep in the afternoon but to no avail, so rested and watched the latest series of Death in Paradise. It’s very easy comforting TV about life on an island that not only has a terrifying murder rate that you think would scare away tourists, but where every murder is carried out by one of three or four people, usually in a situation where the murder seems impossible and where unusually nearly everyone has a valid motive and some dark secret from their past. No one ever just gets shot by someone - it’s always a convoluted and fiendish plot. You’d think people who wanted to do murders like that would try doing them somewhere else where the police force wasn’t so practised at cracking them.
But I still fucking love it.
It’s so comforting that even though they have to keep replacing the main actors for some reason (by series 9 only one of the main four stars has been in it for more than a couple of series and even he was a replacement for another character who I have already almost totally forgotten about). The new actors slip into place and it doesn’t matter, though I can’t work out why, though it’s been odd in recent episodes to see this new team bonded together as if they’re the best of friends.
It’s a bit like Doctor Who and we’re on the fourth incarnation of the main British detective with Ralf Little, who I have to say has really hit the ground running and might be my favourite of the four. They’ve all been at least OK - the bloke from Love Actually is my least favourite, but was still watchable. I’d like to have seen a bit more of Ardal O Hanlon, but I suspect he was as unhappy on a beautiful tropical island as his character and yearned for home. It looks like the perfect job - swanning around in the sunshine by the blue, blue sea, drinking beer by the sea after work is over (and during work too as much of the action involves that) and following the basic same template for every show. But maybe it’s more fun to turn up as a guest actor, have a couple of weeks in the sun and not too many scenes and then go home again. I’d quite like to make a TV drama about the making of a show like this. I suspect it would be pretty wild. One week someone could really get murdered on the island.
I am not even knocking Death in Paradise. There is something very calming and escapist about it and it is a rare phenomenon that would work regardless of casting (again, not that everyone isn’t great, because they are, but the show survives the loss of any character - except for the mayor or police chief who are the only two who have been in it from start and are like the ravens at the Tower of London.
What I like about Death in Paradise is you can basically watch it whilst idly doing something else (I played a bit of poker) and not be much the worse for wear. And it never really matters much who did it, just that the admin of finding out who it was is completed.
I decided to attempt to get all 4 lead detectives on RHLSTP and casually mention in each interview that they were my favourite one.
