Familiarity Breeds Content

My Dear Fellows & Dear Princess,

It is rainy and dark outside. I love that, and the cats appear to be into it too. Consequently, me and Er Indoors are having a quiet day of murder mysteries. 

We've already had Hercule Poirot, Jessica Fletcher and Sherlock Holmes. I know a lot of people find these things formulaic and silly, but the formula is a big part of the appeal. 

All these detective shows feature a hero who goes around saying things like, "What IS it I'm not seeing?" and then their sidekick will say something clichéd like, "nice weather for ducks" or something and the detective will have a revelation and say, "say that again!" 

Because it will turn out the murderer is called "Tony Ducks" or he killed someone with a trained attack-duck. Or something.

You see? This is why we watch these things. The familiarity and ritual of the whole thing makes it comforting. In our house murder mysteries are almost as interactive as "Rocky Horror" with the two of joining in. "Oooh, look out, it's the gloved hand!" we'll shout at the screen when someone is about to get it. 

"Midsomer Murders" is our favourite. I think this is primarily because it has the most realistic onscreen married couple in it. Joyce has trouble concealing her annoyance with husband Tom's crime-solving even though it is his job. Every week she sighs and gets cross because he misses tea due to a dead body or two. Also "Midsomer" often features kinky rural people sex and old people taking drugs. We love it.

We also watched a lot of action films this weekend. They are also comfortably familiar, with angry lieutenants threatening to take guns and badges from maverick cops. And European villains with bad haircuts talking about stupid Americans before being shot by Will Smith or Mel Gibson.

What we like about both genres is that they are so familiar they really don't require much emotional engagement or even thought. We can both continue to work or do online shopping even during a car chase or a fatal stabbing. Equally, Jasper and Punky have learned to sleep through explosions and/or gun fights. 

It is somewhat odd to say this, but murder and violence really helps us to relax at the weekend.  

Our favourite film of the day though, was neither a murder mystery or an action film. It was "A Knight's Tale" starring Heath Ledger. I have to thank Mad Dog and Auslaender for introducing me to this film. From the poster I thought it was some teen movie crap, but in fact it's the funniest, most action-packed, medieval comedy musical I've ever seen. And it finishes with the world's best fart joke ever. 

EVER.

S.