If you pay any sort of attention to the goings on at Netflix, you can’t fail to have missed the introduction of their new original series House of Cards. It stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Mara and follows the inner workings of politics, newspapers, that kind of thing. We’re only three episodes in, so I thought I would just make some notes on the findings so far. Mr C was super keen to watch this. He’s not normally particularly bothered about any kind of TV, particularly after the whole LOST debacle, so this was a turn up for the books. Presumably this is down to the whole TV on demand thing, plus the fact it has a good cast and is, well, very good. But it just goes to show that making your content available and EASY means you get at least one more set of eyeballs.

People have told us to watch The Big Bang Theory over and over again. The Sidepodcast comments have been littered with references and quotes for years, and all of them have gone over our heads. iTunes gave away the first episode for free, we downloaded it, and still didn’t manage to watch. It wasn’t a stubborn reluctance, more that we just never got round to it. Now, of course, we are aghast at what we have been missing out on.

It’s a bit on the late side, as the original Killing trilogy came to an end on UK screens before Christmas, but after much thought it feels only fair to review the final series as I have the first (here and here) and second (here and here). I was excited to see how Lund was going to make her probably-not-graceful exit from our lives, and very keen to see what had happened to her in the intervening time between the end of the second series and the beginning of the third. With two dead partners behind her, it’s understandable that she would be starting to unravel, but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how isolated she was.

BBC Four started airing Lilyhammer a week or so ago, and I tuned in to the first episode to see what it was like. Lilyhammer is exciting because it’s a Netflix original - the DVD and streaming company put their hands in their pockets and paid for this show to be created. It’s a bold new move from them, rather than sitting back and waiting for deals to be done with existing production teams, they got on and did it themselves.

Lots of great TV has returned to our screens recently: The Great British Bake Off, Doctor Who, Only Connect, etc. There is still more to come, I believe, but actually it is Only Connect that caught my attention, making me ponder why exactly it is that we enjoy quizzes that are too hard for us? With Only Connect, I wondered if it was simply that the format is completely engaging. The answers are not always impossible (granted sometimes they are unfathomable but not always!) but it is the style of question that is unique to the connecting format. That could be true, and I know that personally I’m in love with Ms Coren which also makes it a must-view show.

The second series of Episodes came to an end a week or so ago and already it has left a bit of a gap on my Friday night schedule. (Not really, we tended to watch it late anyway, god bless the iPlayer!) Thankfully, the second series lived up to the promise of the first and was a fantastic way to end the working week - laughing all the way. Overall, I still believe the first series was the best and if they do carry on for more, I don’t think the first will ever be beaten. It was a perfectly crafted piece, with exceptional dialogue and incredibly funny scenes. My only complaint was the out-of-character action for Ms Grieg towards the end of the series, but even that was completely forgiven when the final episode fight scene had me in tears of laughter.

Part of the big website overhaul of 2012 includes a lot of my time doing some rather mindless admin/housekeeping tasks - reformatting posts, moving information around, checking lists, etc, etc. That is my excuse for having managed to watch five seasons of the US version of The Office in an embarrassingly short space of time. I’ve managed to catch up with all that Netflix have on offer, and I enjoyed pretty much all of it. Some of the episodes in the later series dragged a little bit, and there is definitely a change of feeling and tone once [spoiler alert] Jim and Pam get together, but altogether, I’ve liked what I’ve seen.

A while ago, I tagged on the end of a mish-mash post a paragraph about Being Human. The fourth series had yet to start, and I was speculating on whether it would be any good - given that significant cast members were going to change. I’ve always liked the show, watched it since the beginning, and been impressed with how they have embraced the online world. The blog, in particular, this year has kicked things up a notch with exclusive scenes, bonus goodies after each episode, and some kind of scroll/parchment game that I have not invested in but like the idea of anyway.

I’m going through one of those phases where I’m working on so many projects, that this here blog falls lower down the list. I know when I’m just posting Film Watches and Casual Reader reviews that I’ve got a little bit busy all of a sudden. I’ve got several items I’ve been meaning to write about, but there isn’t time, or I’ve written myself out of words on something else, or I’m just too darned tired. The topics are there, but they’re not inspiring me into whole posts, so I thought, instead, I’d capture them in note form. I’m not usually a massive fan of multi-purpose posts, but if I don’t get these down, they’ll just sit in my notebook instead. Better to publish and be damned!

I used to always tune out when I heard talk of Netflix. They are prominent sponsors of a lot of good podcasts I listen to, but the service was never available in the UK. It sounded like heaven - pay a reasonable monthly subscription and get access to anything you want to watch. Films and TV, you could watch the same thing over and over, or whizz through fifty different TV shows. It’s flexible and it sounded ideal. But it wasn’t available in the UK.

I managed to finish watching the last five episodes of The Killing and have spent a little while pondering the entire prospect. Firstly, it wasn’t until I had embarked on the second half of the series that I realised it was only ten episodes - half the length of the previous outing. That being the case, the end felt quite abrupt. I had been anticipating something a little more drawn out, and then suddenly it was all ramping up to the big finale.

Finally, the second series of The Killing has begun airing on BBC4. I say finally, but as I watched the last series so recently, it doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was cheering on Sarah Lund and friends to find the murderer. At the end of the first series, Lund walked out of the police station and into the sunshine - presumably to a happier and better life.

It’s taken me a little longer than I had hoped but finally, I have seen the last ten episodes of The Killing. I wrote some brief and quite vague notes about the first ten previously, but now I know how the story ends I can talk in more detail. There are spoilers ahead, so look away now if you have yet to enjoy the drama of The Killing. The mystery is solved and we know it was Vagn. After many twists and turns, and suspect after suspect - some very wide of the mark - Sarah Lund finally got her man. In the first ten episodes, I never would have suspected Vagn. Gradually, he looked to be more and more in the frame but still the story twisted away from him. That moment, when he had been questioned and returned to the workshop was brilliant. Theis and Pernille would not let him take the boys to the toy shop, even though he protested his innocence and they should have known better, the look on his face broke my heart a little bit.

BBC Four are re-airing The Killing - 20 episodes of the Danish drama in its native language with subtitles. This is not the kind of thing I would normally watch. I love a good crime drama, but throw in subtitles as well and it all gets a bit tricky. I tend to watch TV whilst I am busy doing other things, so it is difficult to keep an eye on the subtitles as they flash up. There’s only a certain kind of task you can do when you have to keep flicking your attention to another screen every few seconds.

I was really looking forward to The Hour, a six part series on the BBC that followed some 1950s Beeb journalists setting up a news programme called, funnily enough, The Hour. It was compared to Mad Men from the outset, but it wasn’t much like that crazy advertising world. In fact, the only real similarity was the bad hair and the constant chain-smoking. After the first episode, I wasn’t sure I was going to keep watching. I couldn’t really reconcile the spy plot with the TV studio storyline, and I really wanted it to focus on one or the other. However, I gave it another episode, and then I was hooked… which was unfortunate because I found it quite slow-going.

After my rather foolish admission that I hadn’t necessarily paid much attention to those that went to the moon after the main three, Steven Roy recommended I watch this documentary film on 4OD - In the Shadow of the Moon. I watched, and I learned, and I made notes. I’ve posted the distilled version for Film Watch, but these are the full notes I made along the way - 90 minutes of brilliant space travel stuff, I highly recommend it.

So far, my blogging about media has been limited to films, Doctor Who and The Archers, with the occasional one-off if a piece of viewing really inspires me. It’s something of a dream of mine to have enough time and dedication to blog about TV more often, and I do have some vague plans to do more of it. Here are five blogs that inspire me in that direction, and are great reads.

With ITV finally bringing out their app for iDevices, we know have all channels from 1 through to 4 covered. The BBC iPlayer has been doing it’s iPad business for a while now, Channel 4 had their On Demand app out relatively recently, and ITV have now joined the gang. The ITV app is not a bad one but the choice is limited, considering how many channels ITV have. There was nothing on there I’d watch, but it has all the staples, Emmerdale, Coronation Street… Jeremy Kyle. The only thing that was remotely interesting was that recent detective show with the lovely Suranne Jones in it. They had the last episode available but no apparent series link to catch up. You can tell from the screenshot above that they do have the “Watch More Episodes” feature, but just not on the one thing I wanted to watch. Oh well.

For some reason, I saw the word ‘witch’ this week and it started me thinking about all the different witches that are out there in books and on TV. There are quite a lot when you give it some proper thought. To narrow it down to five, my top five at that, I decided to pick only the good ones. Sabrina the Teenage Witch. My goodness I loved Sabrina. Those shows were a staple of those lazy days watching kids TV. Even when I was too old for them, it was still fun to watch Sabrina messing everything up and trying to deal with a troublesome and talkative cat. I saw Melissa Joan Hart in some kind of Christmas tv movie thing over the holidays and it was not great, but it reminded me of the good old days. It all went a bit wrong when Sabrina moved to college, and I didn’t see the last couple of series, but it hasn’t really taken the shine off for me. Willow from Buffy. Mostly good, I said. Not always good. Willow was much better when she was just discovering her magical powers, and I still can’t quite fathom how she went from a tentative spellmaker to that all-powerful evil overlord who wanted to end the earth. Where did all that power come from? Perhaps practice really does make perfect after all. I haven’t seen any Buffy in ages, now I want to. Bewitched. I’m assuming that all subsequent programmes of the Sabrina ilk came about from Bewitched. You can’t really argue with a witch who just wriggles her nose to make things happen. There seems to be quite the market in programmes about running around trying to fix things with your magical powers, breaking things, and then having to run around and clean it all up without revealing your hidden talents. I’m happy with that though! The Worst Witch. There was a TV show of this but I have only glimpsed it. I get my knowledge of Mildred Hubble from the books, and they are brilliant. I suppose it is really a tale of being quite useless and bullied at school, but finding friendship and making the best of it. Inspirational stuff for kids, if you don’t count the broomsticks and cats. Simon and the Witch. This is a weird one for me. I know that I love it, but I can’t really remember a single thing about. I know that I’ve seen it on TV, and I know it had that girl out of Eastenders in it. I also know I had a novelisation of it at one point. But truly, I don’t remember anything about it. I’m guessing it was about Simon? And presumably a witch. In not quite so good witches, I had Anjelica Huston for her portrayal in the Roald Dahl movie, plus the evil scary witches from The Craft. I wonder if I could make another Friday Five of bad witches. Hmmm.

I treated myself to the first series of Miranda, and after watching the first episode I found myself ever so confused. The iTunes version has the Channel 4 logo at the beginning. How odd, I thought. Miranda couldn’t be more BBC. Created by BBC Productions, broadcast on the BBC. The show came about because of a radio comedy that was on… wait for it… BBC Radio. But there it was, large as life, a Channel 4 ident.

It’s getting to that time of year when the inevitable will happen. It’s unavoidable, you will be sucked in. It’s that dreaded period of indulgence known as: Christmas TV. Actually it’s not all that bad. This is the one time of year that I buy a TV guide to help keep track of what is on and when. Most of the year I can rely on perusing the iPlayer and keeping tabs on some excellent TV blogs, because I’m likely to be relying on the On Demand services more than live programming. When Christmas happens, the channels start bringing out the big guns, and I have more time to sit around and flick through the channels. This requires some extra information.

Last night, Mr C introduced me to some of his children’s TV purchases from iTunes. What you watched as a child is a conversation that is always popular, everyone has good and bad memories of things they used to consume via the tellybox, and nostalgia is often a good thing. This also reminded me of a post by Alex, where he pondered each generation thinking the next is going to the dogs. It’s easy to look at Kids TV these days and think it must be twisting the next generation’s mind. Look at the Teletubbies!

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the new Tumblr account for Sesasme Street. I’m not exactly a huge Sesame Street fan, although of course I watched it as a kid. I was more interested in the fact that it was an official account, using YouTube and in-house videos to show snippets from the show. I looked around a bit more and found they also have a regularly updated podcast with the same kind of content. They’re on Facebook, they have many apps, they’re on Twitter. I love a company that is happy to put their stuff out there. There are so many routes to Sesame Street now, that the intro song makes no sense!

The BBC have been bigging up this two-part drama for ages. I read not one but two entries on various Beeb blogs, and it was all over the other TV blogs that I tend to read. I couldn’t sit back and let it pass, so I tuned in. From the very first image, like the one above, it was clear that this wasn’t just a regular drama. It was all about the cinematography, and every single scene was sculpted to perfection. From where the focus was, to framing, to how many extras were in the background, each shot appeared to have been thought out. A lot of time and effort went into storyboarding this.

Only read this if you a) care and b) have seen the LOST finale. Let’s begin with something positive. The two things that made the finale worth watching: Miles: “I don’t believe in many things, but I believe in duct tape.” The scene with Hurley asking Ben for help. Love Ben. Now, I’m afraid, the rest of the post will be entirely negative, because… let’s face it. It sucked.

This week’s episode of LOST (don’t worry, no spoilers here) wasn’t the rip-roaring ride we’ve had recently with Richard and Desmond. It was good, but it was more of a transitional piece to get all the characters in the right place for whatever is to come in the final episodes. That is fine by me. Sometimes you need a break from the mind-blowing awesomeness - a breather to gather your thoughts. Not that we have many thoughts. We love watching the show, but instantly turn to Vozzek’s recaps so he can point out all the things we missed. (There will be spoilers in there.)

After watching the latest episode of LOST (don’t worry, no spoilers here), Mr C and I got into one of those conversations that goes something like - “Was Mr Widmore with Dharma? No, he wasn’t there then. Yes he was, he just was with the others instead. But I thought he was in the army. He had an army uniform. But it wasn’t his. When was that? Would he recognise Locke? Why doesn’t he know who Sawyer is?” I’m sure if you’re a LOST fan, you’ve experienced this kind of thing.

A while ago, my dad told me to check out a quiz show on the BBC called Only Connect, which I duly did. I watched one episode and gave it up immediately. I didn’t even understand the questions. I’m one of those people that loves to watch University Challenge in the vain hope that I might get one question right, but Only Connect is on a whole other level. It takes a different kind of mental agility which I really struggle with.

There’s always been a lot of talk about Flash and how, to be polite, it’s a bit of a CPU hog. In our house, Mr C will often be found bemoaning the existence of Flash, and it’s understandable that the Apple universe of products is less than supportive of it. I never really thought about the problem too much, but that has changed. I watch the majority of my TV on the iPlayer, with the occasional dip into Channel 4OD, and iTunes comes way down the list after that. I would love to buy up all my content on there, my Wish List is ridiculous, but sadly, I have yet to win enter the lottery.

I never really spent much time reading newspapers, which is apparent if you ask me about world events, but now that I spend a vast amount of time online, I do stumble across the online versions of the dead tree counterparts more often. There are two media type offerings from The Guardian that I wanted to give a bit of a shout out too. In my quest to catch up with podcasts (so much easier now I have double speed!) I’ve been listening to Media Talk. It’s a weekly, fast paced look at everything in the world of media - from newspapers, to TV, to blogging plus all that’s in between. It’s probably an acquired taste, as I can imagine the presenters aren’t easy listening for everyone, but I love it, and I find the subjects they cover fascinating.

Rumour has it that Amanda Holden is going to present a new game show based on the Crystal Maze. I can’t tell you how many parts of that sentence are just so. very. wrong. It’s not just that she is completely the wrong person to continue the tradition of Mazing. It’s that there are reportedly celebrities being lined up to play. And why is it “based on” the game? What tweaks are they going to make to completely ruin it?

I’m not sure how long this has been around for, but I noticed today that YouTube have a new section called Shows. This is an expansion of the idea that broadcasters and networks have been signing up and posting clips of their TV programmes to YouTube in an attempt to a) stop people ripping their stuff and b) still use the site as a marketing tool. Now, though, there is the option to watch full episodes of selected shows. The first thing to note is that the list of networks is extensive. They are including both online and television networks alongside each other - which is good. The lines between these two formats are becoming blurred.

I watched the BBC dramatisation of Enid Blyton’s life yesterday, cleverly titled “Enid.” I thought it was a really good piece, and Helena Bonham Carter was fabulous - I adore the subtle aging process that I have only noticed now, watching back the trailer. I’ve seen and heard some comments from people concerned that the documentary has shattered their illusions of the books they read as a child. I can’t really see this, as all it does is show you that Enid Blyton was human. Perhaps that’s the problem?

It’s all about Doctor Who today, naturally, as we eagerly await the second Tennant special that leads up to the two-part festive end-of-doctor-ten story. I can’t wait. While the time drags on, though, I discovered that some of the classic episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube. Full episodes provided by BBC Worldwide (channel no longer available). There are also other series on there, such as Dead Ringers, which has full episodes, and many nature programmes and others that only have clips as well.

If you have access to the BBC, and particularly iPlayer, I want to recommend the Saving Britain’s Past series. I have seen the first couple, and was very struck by the second episode in the series, all about the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield. The programme tracks the attempts to save some of the more iconic developments in Britain’s history, with other episodes focusing on country houses and the iconic buildings in Bath. The episode about Sheffield really captured my imagination though.

The Telegraph has been doing some digging into when Hulu will reach European shores and although it looks like deals are still be negotiated, progress is being made. Of course, they only have “a source” for their article but it claims that ITV are the closest to signing a deal with the online video provider and that would most likely have some exclusivity associated with it. The source says: Hulu has been in talks with all the major British broadcasters but has made the most progress with ITV. It has offered each broadcaster the chance to take equity in the company in exchange for full-length programme rights.

Of course, I’m not talking about real life friends (what are they?), I’m talking about the sitcom. This is my favourite TV show ever on earth, and my real life friend (oh!) and I used to spend hours watching and memorising the episodes. I was going to make this a top five list, but then realised firstly that I couldn’t narrow it down or decide which was my overall favourite. Secondly, I was worried that I would have missed an epic moment from somewhere in the ten years, and be annoyed about it later.

The BBC have teamed up with online video service Blinkbox to deliver some of its TV Shows for a price, plus a few programmes for free that come with ads. It’s important to point out this is BBC Worldwide, which is the commercial arm of the Beeb, and essentially completely separate from the non-advertising public service broadcaster. I have never heard of Blinkbox before, but it looks as though it is a UK version of Hulu, gathering content from all over the web, from many different providers.

This is singularly the best moment from Never Mind the Buzzcocks ever. In my opinion, Buzzcocks got better when Simon Amstell took over, although some of his humour was, it’s fair to say, evil. Bill Bailey also made a great addition, and his weird moments could be very amusing.

A report out this week suggests that TV viewers in the UK are now consuming more ads than ever before. This is purely taking into account actual television viewing, and not online TV, and the stats line up something like this: 16.7 hours of commercial TV per week on average in the first half of 2009 that’s up 9.9 minutes on 2008, which isn’t a lot, but who was expecting it to go up? commercial TV is now 63.7% of all broadcast TV viewing that’s up 3.2% on the last five years (still only counting the first half of the year) the Beeb accounts for the rest, naturally That’s good news for ITV, who had to sell their Friends Reunited site at a loss of almost £100 million, and I forget where I read it, but were also advised that going pay TV would be the best way to protect their future.

I remember writing a piece for The BBC Blog when Being Human got recommissioned for BBC Three. At the time, I said: Personally, I couldn’t get through the first episode, but it was even successful on the iPlayer. The first two episodes were the most watched at the time, and the website has seen a soar in hits. Well, as it turns out, they have been repeating the first season, presumably in preparation for the second to begin soon. I gave it another go on the iPlayer and absolutely loved it. Perhaps I wasn’t in the mood previously.

As a big cheerleading fan of the iPlayer, I’m glad to see that other channels are gradually trending towards some of the innovative work the BBC have done. Channel 4 upgraded their on-demand service a while back, and now it is all good to work on both PC and Mac, has online streaming instead of just a desktop application, and is generally a lot better. I have only found a couple of things on the schedule there I would want to watch, and they are coming to the end of a series, so I can’t start watching them now. However, I will be keeping an eye on it, and it does mean I can look at all the sections of the TV Guide, rather than just the Beeb.

It occurred to me recently that there are a few TV programmes I would like to go back and watch as if new. There are plenty of shows that I need to catch up on, but that’s a different matter. These are episodes I have watched, but would do anything to wipe my mind clean so I can enjoy them all over again. Jonathan Creek. I had the biggest crush on the lovable magician’s assistant when he first appeared on our screens, and I watched the first few series several times over. The problem is that a whodunit with a twist isn’t particularly engaging once you already know how it’s going to end. There were only a couple of episodes where I guessed what was going on, and I’d like to rewatch now and see if I am any smarter. (I am not.) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My overriding memory of this show is my friend telling me to watch a late night repeat of an episode I had missed - the one where Buffy’s mother dies. I watched and didn’t cry and that’s when I realised that I have a heart of stone. Therefore, now I have come to terms with that, I would like to go back and watch, and enjoy the series without feeling guilty that it doesn’t make me sad. Hornblower. Ahh, I am partial to watching a little bit of Ioan Gruffudd on screen, even if he is dressed up to the nine’s in dodgy 18th century sailor outfits. I remember being particularly dismayed when Mr Hornblower had his first on-screen kiss. Not allowed. Anyway, the stiff-upper-lipped-ness of the show appealed, but makes it hard to enjoy over and again. I’d love to go back and watch as new, though. Doctor Who. I hold my hands up and say I am one of those annoying people who has only watched the new series with the ninth and tenth doctor and still considers herself a fan. The problem is that the show is repeated endlessly on the iPlayer, and I get annoyed at seeing it. With only four new episodes this year, I’d love to go back and have the prospect of an entire brand new series to enjoy. Thunderbirds. Although any episode of Thunderbirds is easy to watch repeatedly (you know that the crisis will be averted in the end), my introduction to the puppets came when I lived with my parents. They were debuting on BBC2 for the first time in a long time. I was older than the target demographic, but watched them with my dad, and those were good times. As an aside, the film I would want to watch as new is Back to the Future 3. I may have mentioned previously how I saw the first and third films before the second one, so it made no sense. Having the benefit of watching the second film many, many times now, it would be good to go back and fix that.

I just want to write a quick note about all this fuss over the Eastenders Danielle death thing. I read what happened before I saw it because I am always miles behind, but I am now caught up. In fact, I even watched the extra programme on BBC3 that was behind the scenes of the whole story. I am that sad. The problem seems to be that it’s not fair to kill off a popular character minutes away from a happy ending when we have all invested so much time in the storyline.

I have never watched a minute of this show, but it’s certainly very popular, as it’s been recommissioned for a fifth series. Waterloo Road covers stories in and around a school, including both the adults and the teens attending. For the new series, the school is being merged with another, which will no doubt create a raft of new story arcs and characters. Eva Pope returns, and although there are no confirmations as yet, it looks like Angela Griffin and Denise Welch will both be back on our screens as well, along with other regulars.

A new natural history programme for BBC One is going to take a look at the earth through the eyes of birds. Called Earth Flight, the series of five episodes will travel with various birds as they make their journeys across the earth. From the press release: Using cutting edge new filming techniques to show everything in exquisite detail, viewers have a uniquely privileged perspective flying 9,000 metres high over the sands of the Sahara or skimming metres over the Great Wall of China.

The Wire was broadcast for five seasons in the US, produced by HBO to rave reviews from the critics. A total of 60 episodes were released between 2002 and 2008, and now UK viewers will get a chance to catch every season. BBC Two has confirmed they will screen the series, with transmission dates forthcoming very soon. The show is about crime in Baltimore, and takes the unusual step of using both the police and their suspects as the protagonists. Each season delves into a different theme, with Dominic West leading an ensemble cast to find and catch the various criminals. Of course, it’s never that simple, and now for the first time, the UK can join in as the stories are unravelled.

Sweeney Todd star, Helena Bonham Carter, is making the transition from big screen to small to play children’s author Enig Blyton in a one-off drama about the popular writer. The show will also star Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson. Blyton remains one of the most popular author’s for young children despite having been published for almost 80 years. From the adventures of the Famous Five and Secret Seven, to the fairytale lands of The Faraway Tree and Noddy, almost all children will have read or consumed something created by Enid Blyton.

I have never actually watched this Sunday night show, but what started out as a short series has now gained massive popularity for it’s feel good nature. The BBC today confirmed that Lark Rise to Candleford will return for a third series, remaining in its family slot. The show is written by Bill Gallagher, as an adaptation of books by Flora Thompson, and has a host of stars attached. The 19th century drama attracted Julia Sawalha, Jason Merrells and Brendan Coyle to name but a few.

The complaints over this episode range right across the spectrum. Some believe that the BBC should have made more of the fact it was the first soap episode in TV history to not feature a white person. Others think that drawing attention to it at all was simply making it an issue, when all that matters is the acting. Then there are those that thinking bringing up the Notting Hill Riots was an unnecessary part of the storyline - it didn’t fit in with the week’s events, and was simply there to cause a stir.