Let me start by saying this: "I have always hated Colm Meaney, for no reason at all." There I said it.
He first came to my attention as Miles O'Brien, the transporter chief on the USS Enterprise [ST:Next Generation]
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| Look at that ugly "smugface" |
The role was quite small at first, so I just had to ignore him, but as the years went by Miles seemed to take more and more screen time. At the time, I just thought that everything about him was completely wrong. The tone, the look, the accent, the overall face ... I don't know. Again, there is absolutely no real reason for the dislike.
This dislike turned into hate when Miles O'Brien reappeared as the Chief of Operations on Deep Space Nine [Also as Chief Engineer on the USS Defiant]
Man oh man, that was just ridiculous. That bogus friendship with Dr Bashir and that bland and uninteresting relationship with his wife Keiko .... What a useless character.
His subsequent appearance in TV shows such as Law and Order: CI and Stargate: Atlantis brought him in and out of my life like a looser acquaintance I could never get rid of.
This brings me to December 2011. A date to remember [surely]. I discovered this little show on AMC called Hell on Wheels.
Here is a short synopsis of the series [as I understand it, which doesn't say much]
Well, there is this guy who's wife was killed by a Union soldier [the whole thing happens in 1865]. So while looking for the killer, who, if found is going to get it big time, the guy ends up in a settlement that is built around the first transcontinental railroad construction site. So, I am guessing the settlement moves around with it. Colm Meaney plays Thomas 'Doc' Durant the rich entrepreneur who is [I think] overseeing the construction and managing the workers.
He is an overweight and shifty little fellow with tiny little eyes that always convey a certain level of cunning-sleaziness. And yet, I am able to appreciate him [miracle!]
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| Still with the smugface |
Portrayed on this show are:
Slaves, Native Americans [called Indian in this period piece], preachers, whores, drunks, vengeful armed guys, greedy businessmen, a lot of horses, a lot of mud and dirt, sweaty and basically unwashed smelly looking bodies.
It's pretty cool.
I missed the pilot but I have seen 5 subsequent episodes and I still feel like I've missed the most important setup of the series. I am still not exactly sure what's going on in all the A and B and C plots and subplots [my bad, I am actually streaming this on a 9in square screen, so it's not easy to catch everything]
But for some reason, I am still watching and would love to be able to discuss this with someone else since I seemed to be the only one watching this show.
Other Cool highlights of the day
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| Light hitting a bottle |
A camera capable of visualizing the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US. The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second.
The 39th anniversary of the last moon-walk
