Finally, i have reached the last part of “Television Soaps Killing Me Slowly”

And i would like to end with my personal favorite of all the soaps i have been watching. It’s the “Coupling UK“. I have just watched one episode of Coupling US Series and i must admit that Susan is very beautiful indeed in the US series. Anyways, talking about Coupling UK Series, well, i have watched all the four seasons that i have. And i have watched all episodes twice. You really can’t get bored of it, Can you?

Coupling is a comedy series, kinda sex comedy actually. It’s one of the most hilarious soaps of all. There are six main characters. A new guy though was introduced in the fourth season. Let’s have a look at the characters before i say more on the series. Here are the characters:

Starting with ladies, let’s talk about the character Jane Christie. Her role is played by Gina Bellman. She is the girl in the extreme left in the above pic. Well Jane is a completely insane girlie. She is a traffic reporter by profession and is known for her desperation for men, flirty nature and sexually explicit reports. She is a self claimed bisexual however truly she never dated a single woman in the series. She has got an incredible sense of humor is much more known for her desperate attempts to get a man. Often being hilariously rude to others in that attempt, though.

Then there is Susan Walker. She is the girl sitting next to Jane in the pic above. Her role is played by Sarah Alexander. Normally she is very organized and sensible in the series. I just love the way she uses the word “Apparently”, which she often does when she is angry about something. It’s the arguments and difference of opinions between Susan and her boyfriend/fiancee which gave me good laughs. Well she is a successful woman in her career, speaks French (I am not sure how well) and she is really good at cooking. Well….Apparently

Sally Harper.  She is the grl on the extreme right in the above picture. Her role is played by Kate Isitt. She is obsessed with her own appearance, all the time. She runs a beauty parlor and she is constantly worrying about the effects of aging and her looks. And i do mean, ALL the time. She is probably the most insecure and resentful out of the bunch.

Moving onto the men, well the guy right in the center in the above pic is Steve Taylor. Character played by Jack Davenport. He is ex of Jane and present boyfriend/fiance of Susan. As some one mentioned, “Steve is the perfect guy to say exact wrong thing at the wrong time”. Ha Ha… I love the pressure mounting situations in Coupling. Steve has never been able to handle any kind of pressure what so ever and this often lead to hilarious inappropriate and unexpected answers. Steve has more common sense compared to the other two lads in the show, but still he is never in full control of the situation. His expressions are excellent and he is pretty handsome too. Season 4 ends with Susan and Steve having a baby.

Then comes Patrick Maitland. He is the guy standing behind Stev, next to Sally in the image above. Character played by Ben Miles, whom i also saw in a recent movie named “V for Vendetta”. Anyways, in the series, Patrick is really good at getting women to bed. He has just one thing on his mind always: sex. Once Sally was trying to convince Patrick that she is only a friend to him and not a date. Patrick says he didn’t understood her. Sally asks as to what he called people whom he wasn’t looking to have sex with and Patrick replied “Men” So that’s Patrick in short. He is Susan’s ex and Sally’s boyfriend in fourth season. He was initially nicknamed by Sally as “Donkey” and “Tripod” because of his large size (you know what ) And Patrick also collects videos of nights spent with different girlfriends in his rather large “Cupboard of Love”. Great character again.

Lastly, the guy called Jeff Murdock. Character played Richard Coyle. He is the guy sitting on extreme right on the sofa in the above image. God! Where did they get this guy from? If you think that Coupling was hilarious. Think again. Jeff, actually puts life in the word “Comedy” Coupling is far more better because of Jeff Murdock. He is Steve’s best friend. He is constantly frustrated for sex. He has ridiculous stories and imaginations all the time. His fantasies for women and sex, well you can’t even imagine them.  Jeff is terrible at talking to women. He stumbles a lot. He sweats badly. He makes lies over lies, all unintentionally and then end up saying something stupid like “I Like to have women’s ears in my bucket, full of ears”. A complete hilarious nonsense. All his saying always backfires on him. Anyways, despite thse, he is very fond of using the words like “breasts” “stockings”, etc and continues to utter them every now and then, even in conversations. Sometimes, the whole lot is having serious talks and Jeff will jump in with some nasty stories like Blob or “Oh Jeffrey” or Giggle Loop and various other theories. He is such a great character. Too bad he wasn’t there in season 4.

Moving on from the leading characters, well, Coupling UK features no recurring characters that last beyond a few episodes. In the series, “the women are mainly confident and sexually quite voracious, whilst the blokes are completely useless, riddled with self doubt and awkwardness.  Coupling was written by Steven Moffat and was aired on BBC from 2000 to 2004.

The best part of Coupling is that you never get bored of it. I have already watched all four season twice and nothing will stop me from watching is more times. Besides, laughter never bores you, Does it? I would recommend everyone to get the DVD’s if you haven’t watched it yet. It would be a shame if you missed such a soap in this lifetime. Atleast watch some YouTube videos to get the excitement started…

And with this, i just completed the “Television Soaps Killing Me Slowly…” series.  I watched all these four great serials in a span of two three months. I nearly became a TV freak. I just hope i do not start watching the next DVD’s of Prison Break too soon, for my own health

Ally Web Directory became an authority site/directory today. I know it’s not a very special thing but still it’s a lot “special”. At least now, people can differentiate better directories from rest of the lot. At least now people will not judge directories on PageRank alone. It’s a good feeling to own a quality directory which even Google ranks as an authority site.

If you don’t know about what usually webmaster refer to an authority site, then here is some brief description.

What actually most of webmaster call as authority sites are basically a feature of Google search engine called Sitelinks. They are the links shown below few sites in Google’s search engine results and are solely meant to help users navigate the site, much more easily. Accordingly to Google, they have a system (algorithm) which analyzes the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users to quickly find the information that they are looking for on your site.

Ally Web Directory is now an authority directory (so as to speak) with 7 sitelinks to the directory. It is a huge bonus. Specially when you know that page rank is not the thing that’s going to actually prove the worth of Ally Directory. The news kinda made my day. After probably whole year of Google’s miseries, this is the only good thing that happened in Google and mine relationship. Lol

Thanks to my close friend, Sumit Bahl for breaking this news to me.

Hello again. If you want to know what this post is regarding, then you should probably be reading “Television Soaps Killing Me Slowly” and “Television Soaps Killing Me Slowly.. Part II” to get a fair bit of idea. Anyways, moving on from NUMB3RS and LOST i got DVD’s of all seasons of the soap called “24“.

Fox’s 24, is one of the most famous, probably the best action category soap being aired on television. It’s a story about a federal agency called CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) and obviously as you can make out from it’s name, CTU’s main motive was to stop any or all terrorist activities in or around U.S. Every season has 24 episodes and all 24 episodes are in real time. It means that every minute in 24 is kinda real time minute in actual day. One episode constitutes the story of one hour in a day and the second episode is the following hour of the same day. So basically you can finish the season in 24 hours of continuous watching. Actually you would nearly like to watch it all at once. You will be thrilled with suspense, story and action.

The story moves around a CTU agent named Jack Bauer, a character played by Kiefer Sutherland. Ohh, he is such a great character. You’re going to love this guy. He is kinda guy who says “Damn the consequences” or “What rules?” and yes he is still a federal agent. He has his own ways and techniques to handle every kind of situations. He is the guy in the above image of 24. He has a lovely daughter, named “Kim Bauer“, a character played by the now, very famous, “Elisha Cuthbert“. Elisha is such a sweetheart. She is so pretty. She was kinda perfect for this action soap. A perfect girl for the role of cute little kid trying to be strong, etc etc. I mean, even if she didn’t act award-winningly well, at least she looked amazing. Then there is another woman called Teri Bauer. Character played by Leslie Hope. She is the mother of Kim Bauer and obviously wife of Jack Bauer. No more in 24 though. That’s the whole Bauer family for you! (The girl on the right is Elisha, if you don’t know)

Anyways, moving on… Well, Jack Bauer had some close friends like:

1. Tony Almeida, another Counter Terrorist Unit. His role was played by Carlos Bernard. (View Image: Tony Almeida)

2. Michelle Dessler, a CTU agent and in one season, she was the director of CTU as well. Role played by a hottie Reiko Aylesworth. She is a very beautiful actress. But i hate the director of 24 for ending Tony’s and Michelle’s role in the way he did. Ahh… for those who don’t know, Michelle and Tony got married, eventually in some later season i guess. (View Image: Reiko Aylesworth).

3. Chloe O’Brian. Ahh, the computer geek with a personality disorder. Or something like that. Great character played by pretty famous Mary Lynn Rajskub. I love computer geeks anyways. And i did like her partners in the field at CTU whom i should mention about. Chloe’s ex-husband named Morris O’Brian, he is a good geek again. Then there was Edgar Stiles, another computer geek as well as a comic character. Lastly, a good character called Milo Pressman. A poor fellow who was killed unexpectedly for being so brave. He had the most amazing end in 24.

4. President David Palmer. Now, an assassinated president in 24. Role was played by Dennis Haysbert. And i don’t think there could have been any better person in the whole damn world, who could have performed the role of President Palmer in the way Dennis did. Probably the best character in Fox’s 24. Good work Dennis. His brother in 24, Wayne Palmer (DB Woodside) was a good character as well. Their sister, Sandra Palmer (Regina King), had a short and sweet role to play as well. But God save me that shrewd cruel ex wife of President Palmer. Sherry Palmer, role played by Penny Johnson. Excellent role. Penny brings so much life into character that you would personally like to kill this character as and when you meet her. I meant she was great but character was ugly. Whatever… (View Image: Dennis Haysbert).

5. There were some other great CTU agents who deserve a mention for their great roles. Starting with personal favorite, Bill Buchanan. Role played by James Morrison. For most of the later part of the 24, Bill is the head director of CTU. I loved this character. Audrey Raines, character played by Kim Raver. I’m sorry but i don’t like this character at all. But since she has a major role in 24, that too being the girlfriend of leading character Jack Bauer, i think i should mention her. Curtis Manning (Roger Cross) was a great character as well. He was a great CTU field agent. Unfortunately, had to be killed in one outburst of his on a terrorist. Good work though. George Mason, played by Xander Berkeley. Another good CTU director for the early seasons of 24. No more in CTU as he was dead saving the world. Chase Edmunds, played by James Badge Dale, was a good field ops, who eventually ended up marrying Elisha Cuthbert in 24. Lastly, but very importantly, the guy who held the CTU itself, Ryan Chappelle, character played by Paul Schulze.

6. Rest of the characters that i think did a good work whether small or big: Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower), Mike Novick (Jude Ciccolella), President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke), Lovely Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson), The brilliant NUMB3RS mathematician guy, Tom Lennox (Peter MacNicol) and lastly, the very beautiful, pretty eyed, Marilyn Bauer (Rena Sofer). There was only one bad guy who impressed me. Habib Marwan, character played by Arnold Vosloo. You guys do remember him. The evil guy in “The Mummy”, “The Mummy Returns”, “Blood Diamond” etc etc.

If you can believe me, i haven’t even named half of the total characters in 24. These are the ones who impressed me. I believe Fox’s 24 is one of the best soap i have watched in my life. And i do recommend you to get all the seasons and watch them holistic-ly. It’s that great. Only problem is that it is part of “Television soaps killing me slowly series”

I guess it ain’t a breaking news for you to know that India beat Australia in Common Wealth Bank series final and clinched the historic series win over the one day world champions. Australian players were just not good enough for Indian team at all. They only know how to speak all rubbish on and off the field. Indians just told them how the cricket is to be played and what world champions really are. Once could have been luck or fortune. But Indians won best of three finals by 2-0, third game of course not required. So they proved that this was not a fluke. Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symmonds definitely have lessons to learn. So does Ricky Ponting. For once they thought that they were Kings of cricket. How cruel, how wrong they were doing to themselves. Huh?

Anyways, Indians clinched the series, proving that Australians, even if they are world champions does not mean that they are invincible. Let’s see the Jubilant Indian Cricket team.

This had been a very pleasing moment. So many youngsters in the team gives you the feeling that you will see many many coming years of success for Indian cricket team. However, i cannot end this post without mentioning about the great brave man, the great spinner, Harbhajan Singh. Ahh, he has been such a brave person. Aussies gave him lot of troubles. They put him so many controversies, with Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden and Ponting and party. And to lot of etent, the Australian media and people also. Harbhajan was never found guilty, rightly so. Aussies just wanted to make something out of nothing, as usual and this time Harbhajan was the one targetted. Anyways, Harbhajan took it bravely, he handled whole of the situation very very well. He played so well the whole series. The best of him came out with this unnecessary added pressure. Harbhajan really played very very well and his emotions came out just at winning the final. That was the right moment. Aussies’ mouth were all shut. No one could speak a thing. That’s the best way to answer. Go to Bhajji

Some great moment of jubilant Harbhajan Singh…

Some other players also emerged from Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team such as young and lethal Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Robin Utthappa and many more. Ofcourse there were greats like Sachin Tendulkar, the God of cricket. And MS Dhoni of course a great aggressive captain. No problems if Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan were little off sometimes in series, but they are still great assets.

Okay…enough of disgrace brought by Ricky Ponting and his team to Australian Cricket. And enough of praise for Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni’s team. There is just one case that most do not know about. There were three instances where nude streakers came into field while the match was being played. Once it so happened that nude streaker, saving himself from security personnels, running nto field, came right in front of Andrew Symmonds while he was standing at the non striker end. And Andrew taking out his frustration, just knocked down the streaker with his shoulder, in the rugby style. Everyone enjoyed the knockout. But few know that how serious mistake Symmonds made. If the umpires decide to bring this matter up, then Andrew Symmonds can be banned from 5 test matches or 10 one day internationals to a lifetime ban. Wow. That would be such a wonderful insult to Symmonds. Poor he, taking all his frustrations out on that bloody streaker. Ha Ha. Let’s have a look at this incident. Sorry about little nudity….

India definitely deserved the win. They outplayed Aussies in every department whether it be batting or bowling or fielding.

I personally felt that Ricky Ponting and his team should have publicly apologized to Harbhajan Singh and all the rubbish they did in this series. And also that Ricky Ponting should have announced his leaving the captaincy. He is really not good enough to lead his side. In fact he is not even good enough to lead any side. He is a disgrace to the word captain.

Umm.. Brad Hogg, congrats on retirement. You did fairly good job in your career. Adam Gilchrist, you were a great cricketer. A great wicket keeper. A great person. Cricket world will miss you. Congrats on your retirement as well. God bless you.

Okay, i am tired of writing my reviews. I really wanted to take it out on Australian Cricket team. I just couldn’t stop myself. It was such a great match

Hello again. Last time i talked about a great TV soap called NUMB3RS. If you missed the first part somehow, don’t worry…here it is: Television Soaps Killing Me Slowly….
This time i am going to give my reviews on the second TV serial that i had been watching lately. Actually i am finished with it. It’s called LOST. Yes, it’s a Lost story about some Lost people in some Lost island. Boy, it did make me crazy in the very first episode. I just couldn’t resist watching one episode after another and another. It has some beautiful babes including Evangeline Lilly playing as Kate Austen and Maggie Grace as Shannon. There were some other actresses as well but i don’t remember much about them…Obviously Okay, there were some actors as well, strong and handsome. Best of all was Josh Halloway playing the role of James Sawyer Ford. Another good actors were Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond, Ian Somerhalder (Boone); Terry O’Quinn (John Locke), Naveen Andrews (Sayid Jarrah), Dominic (Charlie Pace), Jorge Garcia (as the famous Hugo) and the man that holds the whole team Matthew Fox (Jack Shephard). Apparently Mathew Fox has also starred in the very new movie “Vantage Point” which looks good so far. Anyways, sorry if i missed many many other actors including the Chinese couple. There are really so many people casted in Lost that it’s nearly not possible for me to name all of them.

All these people were in some airplane when the plane crashed into some island far in some ocean. Apparently, the island was a deserted island and kinda undiscovered by human race. So obviously these people that were on the plane were lost on this island. And thus the name “Lost”

Anyways, it will be foolish of me to tell you the whole story or even a summary of it. In your best interest i think you should watch all the seasons so far (4 I think). I got a DVD and have finished watching all the released seasons so far, excluding the latest season that’s being aired these days in US, obviously. But i would definitely like to warn you about something which is kinda irritating for me and i really didn’t appreciate. The story never ends. It ain’t based on individual stories per episode. Neither it is per season. I have watched four seasons and the story is still going on. So it’s more like Ekta Kapoor serials…Never ending. Lol So it can be very time consuming as you will have to wait for very very long to actually get the whole story in your head. I am still waiting for this new season to finish so that i can get a DVD and see it. I hope that this is the last season and the story ends this time.

Anyways, it’s a great story. You will like it as i believe. It has everything, comedy, drama, suspense, thrill, and…and whatever there are in a movie. So have a Lost mind in this Lost soap in your lost TV room. In case you need more reviews, video clips, wallpapers, images, you can go to ABC.com and browse for lost. See ya….