It wasn't cinematic

[sam]

Cyclists never made out very well in The Sopranos. Sal Bonpensiero aka What's-a-5-letter-word-for-cat-begins-with-P? knocks one into a coma while playing Junior G-Man. Phil "I'm named after a ballet costume" Leotardo visits the darker side and gives 'bents a bad name by association with a certain Italian-American subculture. And AJ manifests a distinct lack of sympathy after a dooring.



Title is a Sopranos reference.

PS. What can happen if you read too many youtube comments

[sam]

Grabbed this screenshot from Big Love, a series about Mormons (here's one now, in need of a restraining order). My wife tells me I should be wearing a helmet around the house. Bopped myself on the head with a ream of paper, of all things. Would've hurt less if it had Battlestar Galactica corners.

[sam]

From Rich Hall's documentary Inventing the Indian:
"Geronimo was offered the services of a car in 1905 after he was incarcerated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He turned the offer down...





The Bicycle Museum of America


Geronimo's actual name was Goyaałé, meaning "one who yawns"

[sam]

It's a shame that bikes aren't used more often in The Walking Dead, as we're dealing with mostly slower zombies here.



This is an early scene from the pilot episode. Former lawman / future I-am-the-law man Rick is still a bit out of sorts after checking himself out of a hospital which is clearly no longer accepting private patients. Fortunately he's compos mentis enough to have chosen an upright model suitable for providing the best posture for vigilance to avoid becoming roadkill himself. The lack of a bell is eerie foreshadowing of the imaginary ringing he will later hear when he loses the plot after the death of his wife.

In the background lies unfinished business.

[sam]

Bye bye Breaking Bad.

Of all Walter's crimes, perhaps the most chilling was when he ordered the death of Gale for being too quirky.



The vegan, Walt Whitman-loving, Major Tom and Crapa Pelada-singing, using a laser-guided infrared thermometer to check the temperature of water boiling in a kettle-ing chemist was doomed from the moment he came to work with this:

[sam]

I've finally started watching Borgen, which is Danish for "inevitable references will be made to The West Wing, which had snappier dialogue and the delightful Josh but was often self-righteous and full of itself."



Not long into my belated viewing pleasure came a stunning scene. No, not when Birgitte steps over the competition and becomes the first female prime minister in Denmark. This:



In case you missed it:



I won't go so far as to say that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but is it too much to expect bare heads in my Nordic noir?

[sam]

Taking my usual time, I've just watched the first episode of Call the Midwife. If you're willing to forgive the occasional Dr Feelgood overdose, it was well done. I was surprised by the choice to let español madre y el niño survive, but that's showbiz (and for all I know based on fact). Of course I was expecting Monty P. to stop in at any moment singing Every sperm is sacred...

From a cyclist's point of view all that was needed to establish the rough-and-tumble past was the first ride on cobblestones.

[sam]

Tom Nuttall's ride through Deadwood provided some light entertainment in a generally dark series...


Animals drunks and sundries cleared from my lane of passage


Suffer the low vantage

Alas, that particular ride didn't end well.

Cover your ears Dorothy

we're not in The Waltons anymore.

[sam]

You've just survived the most terrifying ordeal of your young life: holed up in a bunker full of desperate Nazis (OK, you kind of signed up for that) with Russian bombs falling outside, followed by a tense decampment through the enemy line. Quick, what device can we use to portray your escape from that madness, your freedom to go on living, even if it's as a bit player in a parody meme?



Oops, that was the big screen. Well, I saw it on the small one.

[sam]

Bikes made a few scattered appearances in The Shield.

In helping a kid find his stolen Streetjammer (good name for a bike, shame it's a scooter in RL), Aceveda inadvertently steals another:



The Strike Team do what they do best, crack wise as they're cracking heads:



And then there was that thrilling scene when Capt. Rawling interrogates Antwon, a suspect in a brutal singlespeed conversion: