Chez Wombat

Meh, obviously not something I condone bla bla, but where was this reaction at the time and why does it just so happen to come after they (rightfully) called Israel out for genocide at Coachella? They have outright said they condemn Hezbollah and say a lot of things to gain a reaction, Almost like some big suits got a bit panicked and started rustling through this anti-establishment group to see what they could find...

Oh I'm sorry I missed this, phenomenal, creative presentation, bravo ❤️ ChatGPT did neglect to mention Albatross Air has set records for plane wingspan, and is only beaten for the ability of duration of flights by Terra's other airline, Tern Air 😎 easyjet 2 and Taahino's airline name deserve a kudos as well, I'm hoping Hendinia's doesn't get the website demonetised x 90s trance for a Botanikka contest seemed right, although some clearly had the same idea as me! (I'd never heard of it until I heard it on 6Music the other day x)

Well that top 2 sums up my growing up! I did figure DW would win given it's consistent discussion on here, for a show I ranked as my number 1, I do feel I'm more critical of it than a lot of shows but I think it's just expectation management. It was ultimately the show that got me into Sci-Fi and by far the show I've been watching the longest. I thought my interest was fading but the visit to the 20th NuWho anniversary reignited my love for it and I do think the show has taken some good upwards turns this time. Long may it continue to regenerate x (I've not quite got round to the classic series yet, but will get there x) I've seen the whole time over many times and can quote it verbatim in some instances, it's great comfort TV, though it is difficult watching after Matthew Perry's death </3 Most of the top 10 that I know is worthy and I've been meaning to watch Fawlty Towers for some time now, shame it's taken off Netflix. Some other great British sitcoms just outside the top 10 and 20 like Peep Show and The Thick of It, and glad to see Breaking Bad and Lost in the top 20 too, the former got gradually better and the latter gradually worse but the highs for both were pretty high. Many thanks for the great work that went into this, Calum!

Day 19: Least favourite main character in a TV show This was probably intentional but Light Yagami from Death Note, just an utterly deluded psychopath which it all the more difficult to watch given we were following him, saying that, I should really finish it one of these days x Day 20: TV show that gave its fans what they wanted but it didn't work: Disney Star Wars seems quite guilty of pandering and failing, encompasses a lot of shows but The Mandalorian comes to mind.

Glad to see the UK also stopping free trade in protest, hopefully others follow suit, even though this should've been done sooner. I've had to switch off when I hear the news that blockades of aid for Gaza for innocent people are being stopped as it genuinely makes me really upset that this can happen in this day and age. I'm failing to see how any sound person can genuinely say Israel deserve our support after this or that any of this evil is justified.

Really liking this too after a few listens, an unexpected and quite busy sound especially after the last era, but the chorus still hits hard.

I think that would've been quite an unremarkable filler episode if it weren't for that really quite shocking out of character moment from the Doctor, took me back to Nine and his PTSD-driven torturing of the lone Dalek. It was probably the best I've seen Gatwa, I think RTD has got him much better this season, his emotional outbursts feel more in line with the Doctor. This did otherwise suffer from the usual pacing issues and contrivances, but I loved the set up and wanted a bit more about the songs and the background of the villains. I would like to think amongst all the allegories that the poppy honey is a subtle jab to some very current issues occuring in the EBU, but I might be giving BBC too much credit xx As with Sutekh, I don't have much view on the Rani as they were before my time, but here's hoping they are less of an anti-climax than he was!

Going for LDN, much as I love a pisstake of my hometown, really like all of these.

Excellent final 2 ❤️ Thrilled for Deadmau5 especially as it was looking like it may go inexplicably early before x I'm going for I Remember, but I Miss You is a modern classic too.

Day 18: Favourite reality TV show - Not generally a fan of this genre, and even the best ones like Big Brother and The Apprentice descended to become too predictable and manipulated for tension/laughs, I have really become obsessed with The Traitors though so that takes rhe mantle for now, helps that it's still in its early days.

Go on then, what's happening in the final? You can use spoilers x

Well I'm obviously very pleased my favourite won as that's very rare, but I'm even more pleased given what we almost got! To be positive for a minute, it's really deserved for such a brilliantly performed and genre-spanning song and a hell of a comeback after 2nd last last year! As for what came 2nd, eurgh x It seems they did pretty much equally to last year points-wise, just finished higher due to the lower scores all around but it's still quite disgusting we've got to put up with this every year now. Even putting aside the obvious, it's always a shame that a contest meant to reflect the best in music has been completely overrun with voters for anything but that reason. Juries need to seriously be careful with this now. Stanning Estonia as high as 3rd as it was really fun and Albania top 10 is a great result, that's a surprise underperformance for Sweden and a shame for something quite different from them. Surprisingly low for Finland and would've liked to see Latvia in the top 10 too. Brutal for ourselves but I completely expected it, It was a much better than expected performance from the juries, but we've got to go further to appeal to the public which this song was just never going to do.

Pleasing start from Austria x Quite wild to see us on the left side of the scoreboard, still expecting nothing from the public.

My final ranking: 01 Austria 🇦🇹 02 Latvia 🇱🇻 03 Albania 🇦🇱 04 Sweden 🇸🇪 05 Finland 🇫🇮 06 San Marino 🇸🇲 07 Lithuania 🇱🇹 08 Iceland 🇮🇸 09 Germany 🇩🇪 10 Estonia 🇪🇪 11 Denmark 🇩🇰 12 Luxembourg 🇱🇺 13 Armenia 🇦🇲 14 Poland 🇵🇱 15 Switzerland 🇨🇭 16 Ukraine 🇺🇦 17 Greece 🇬🇷 18 Italy 🇮🇹 19 Spain 🇪🇸 20 France 🇫🇷 21 United Kingdom 🇬🇧 22 Norway 🇳🇴 23 Malta 🇲🇹 24 Netherlands 🇳🇱 25 Israel 🇮🇱 26 Portugal 🇵🇹 Austria an absolutely clear winner this year so hope the odds are right x Sweden are a lot more interesting than their usual polished sound, so I wouldn’t mind that either. Usually like France entries but this one didn’t really click with me Elsewhere, Germany sound better than ever so hope that’s not yet another flop for them, and as for us…it fell a bit flat didn’t it? It’s not the worst entry we’ve sent recently but wouldn’t be surprised to see it last as it’s hard to see how it can really win over either public or jury whoops x and Israel continue to make it pretty easy to discard by sending the dullest stuff ever x

Day 14: TV show you've watched several times from start to finish Friends, mainly due to the E4 reruns back in the day, but it is always great comfort viewing. Day 15: Favourite character development in a TV show - Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, his journey from villain to hero was stunningly done, nothing he did felt over the top or out of character, it was frustrating at times to see him fall back to his old ways but it made it all the better when he overcame them. Day 16: Hottest male character - Spongebob Squarepants x (AKA using my asexual card to get out of this) Day 17: Biggest victim of one-series cancellation by Netflix or another streaming platform The OA fits this perfectly, but it actually managed one more season. I'll go with 1899, second show from the creator of Dark that had similar ambitious and cryptic storytelling and a cliffhanger ending, but sadly just didn't build up the audience to be fleshed out enough.

Oh yeah, you committed serious GBH with a history of other allegations and abuse but...you're a rich music star who has concerts, of course you can go free! Of the many hills you've picked to die on, I think this is the strangest yet.

Dark really felt like lightning in a bottle, it was such a complex, ambitious and risky show that you'd never expect to become so big yet it worked so well, never lost itself and was allowed to finish at the right time, it was a real victory for new ideas, just a shame the creator's next show wasn't allowed to flourish in the same way.

This one definitely felt undercooked, I really loved the focus on African culture and myths and legends and think it had a lot of potential, but it was just too rushed. The play-like execution and single setting just doesn't really work in such a short runtime, there was a lot of talking but they weren't actually saying much apart from exposition and the supporting characters all felt very sidelined, It took seconds for Abena to change allegiances! A shame, but I guess not every experiment they're trying this season can work.

Having finished now, I think this is the definitely the best season since Netflix first took over. Eulogy is fantastic and has got to be a future classic - such a wonderful performance from Paul Giamatti and touching story yet still very Black Mirror, the antithesis to Common People if you will. The US Callister sequel was essentially an out and out blocbuster but really enjoyable, I thought the ending scenes added some real dark twists, Jesse Plemons was fantastic in the short amount of time he was on. I would've liked Plaything to be a bit more fleshed out, but it has stuck with me, Capaldi is always great to watch and I really liked the slow build-up of tension as well as the 90s games callbacks. Bete-Noire went utterly ridiculous at the end, but it was fun to see it unfold. Hotel Reverie was the one that just didn't work for me - beautiful cinematography, a great concept and Emma Corrin was fantastic, but the execution just turned it into yet attempt at San Junipero that fell flat. There was so much more interesting angles they could've gone with. (so essentially the opposite to Calum lol x)

Day 12: Favourite love triangle in a TV show Timmy, Trixie and Tootie in the Fairly Odd Parents B-) (I have zero interest in love triangles x) Day 13: TV show villain you would fall victim to Villanelle from Killing Eve (at least before the show went off the rails), in the sense it would be very unlikely I'd suspect her or make it out alive.

This is the standard of the party, make no mistake. They do not have any political competence in any way or any practical solutions to anything, it is pure clickbait populism and scapegoating, God help us all if they actually get real governing power x

The two singles haven't really made me want to listen to it more and the reception is pretty lukewarm so may well be the first album I give a miss - even if the allegations hadn't happened, it just feels like it's missing anything standout. I know their last few eras weren't the best received but they all had memorable singles at least!

Day 9: Favourite TV soundtrack I'm trying not to repeat shows (would be Twin Peaks if so), so I'll go with Game of Thrones, can't get more epic than that opening theme. Day 10: Earliest memory of watching a TV show It was probably Teletubbies for me too, but as it's been mentioned, I'll go with similar chart topping legend, Bob the Builder x Day 11: Funniest moment or scene in a TV show There's probably many I can't quite recall, but this scene from the Simpsons always stands out to me (although the whole episode is hilarious) 😅

I have it etched into memory of the 12th of November 2006 being my first chart show, when Westlife's The Rose was announced as number 1 (their last one so I dodged that bullet x), I had followed charts sporadically up until then and watched unofficial countdowns on TV and radio but I consider that to be ground zero. I listened pretty consistently for almost a decade until summer 2015 when the date changed to Friday and it became less practical for me to listen and streaming did make the charts a hell of a lot more slow. My interest faded but then came back in ebbs and flows and I think that reflects it nicely today, right this moment, it's on the lower end given there's pretty much nothing interesting happening or being released. I think overall my interest has shifted into that less of one focusing on musical discoveries (as I've leant much less mainstream over time and most music to my tastes these days doesn't chart) and more the chart as a cultural/historical measuring of the UK's relationships with music genres and trends over time and how the industry is working, as well as some fun stats (though I can't rival some of you in that area).

This wasn't fully intentional but circumstance of discovery and in honour of the host, I am going 90s trance 😮