TV
I received an e-mail this week informing me that “your constant praise of EastEnders is becoming tiresome”. There are few worse things you can accuse a TV critic of than being too nice, so this week I’ll focus on the bad points.
Normally, all I need to do in an effort to have a pop at the show is pick on Sonia but as she hasn’t featured much this week, I need to find a few other targets. Let’s start with Naomi. With her storyline with Sonia at an end there seems little point in the character at all. It’s almost as if she’s just there to make up the numbers.
It probably hasn’t helped that she’s stuck in the middle of the mind numbingly dull SJ storyline, which is unoriginal, boring and frankly badly played. I know that SJ is supposed to be an annoying figure but they have taken things too far. All that stuff with Phil’s kilt wasn’t so much a running gag as a running irritation. The sooner the reptilian SJ packs her back pack and goes off into the sunset the better things will be.
Now let’s have a pop at Honey. Except I can’t. I know that mispronunciation device is obvious and clumsy and I should hate it. It should really get on my nerves but somehow it just doesn’t. The Billy and Honey story has been great this week, moving effortlessly from the comic to tragic. Sorry if that’s a tiresome thing to say but it has been carried off really well.
However, the soap is starting to feel a bit issue led at the moment, with a helpline number being given out at the end of almost every episode. You can just imagine the continuity department coming with the voiceover on the end credits. “If you’re a back street mechanic that’s been taken for a ride by an Aussie slapper, phone 0800…”
There’s nothing wrong with serious issues being addressed as long they don’t take over completely. Brookside and Crossroads were both soaps that could be accused of going too far down the social responsibility route and they’re now extinct.
Does Mersey Television have a full time pyrotechnics department? The latter years of Brookie were marred by far too many stunts and there is a danger that Hollyoaks could end up down the same dark path. Just weeks after Emmerdale’s house collapse, we had the spectacular cast-culling pub explosion. There was a time when an event like this was really big news in a soap but we’re not at the stage where many are thinking “not another one”.
Rolling on a river
River City is a perfectly watchable soap that only airs in Scotland. I wonder why the BBC don’t think it deserves a national slot. Surely it would be better fit in the daytime schedule than the likes of Let Me Entertain You or Cash in the Attic.
Channel 4’s spoiler tactic of playing Deal or No Deal half an hour later in the schedule has certainly done damage to the ratings of The Sharon Osbourne Show. I hope that ITV keep their nerve and ride this one out rather than doing their usual panic measure of taking a show off and replacing it with something like You’ve Been Framed.
Sharon hasn’t taken to the format like a duck to water but given time her performance and those ratings will improve.
Five years on
There have been a plethora of documentaries covering the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but the big one on BBC One, 9/11 The Twin Towers took the drama documentary route and I can’t say I was overly comfortable with it.
Many of the tales recounted in this had been covered in depth and effectively in other more conventional shows screened on the likes of UKTV Documentary earlier in the week. The decision in this production to dramatise events certainly didn’t add any pertinent information to the tale but made the thing feel more emotive.
However it meant that at times the thing had more of the feel of a disaster movie than a serious examination of what happened that day. The poor quality of some of the acting seemed to reinforce this while I found some of the special effects laden reconstruction rather ghoulish. The worst part for though was the use of reaction shots from those who’d actually been involved or affected by the tragedy.
It felt exploitative.
Don’t get me wrong, despite these worries, I remained gripped by the piece until the end, but I was left wondering whether the makers had set out to entertain as much as inform. I’m sorry but using an event like this to produce a piece of entertainment is just wrong.
Oh Claire
Coronation Street’s slow burning post natal mania storyline has finally picked up pace, giving actress Julia Haworth something decent to get her teeth into after the best part of three years being light comic relief. Thankfully she has risen to the task well while hubby Ashley has largely had to look confused as the drama has unfolded, something of a forte of his.
The problem I’ve had with Corrie over the last few years is that there have been too many inconsequential and uninteresting storylines to sit through while waiting for the good stuff. Things may be perking up with the arrival of the Connor clan. Early days yet but let’s hope they settle in because The Street is badly in need of new blood at the minute.
Once in every lifetime
Fast forward two decades and barmy medical student Vivien from The Young Ones had surfaced as surgeon Abra down at Holby City.
The problem here is I keep waiting for a punchline. At first I thought I was just being shallow but Ade Edmondson punctuates his performance by making that face that he used to make as Eddie Hitler just before delivering a corny line. I wonder just how many gags he did squeeze in only for them to end up on the cutting room floor.
Meanwhile if barmy matron Chrissie wasn’t trying to cop off with a doctor, she was slapping her staff members across the mush. Is this sort of behaviour really tolerated in our NHS hospitals? If we are really expected to believe that matrons can go round assaulting their staff, they should at the least be shown washing their hands afterwards.
Moan, moan , moan
Not content with winding the highly strung Nikki up in the Big Brother house, it seems producers now want to do the same in the real world, hence Princess Nikki pops up on screen with the soul intent of making its star look ridiculous. I hope she’s laughing all the way to the bank, I really do, because they really are doing her image no favours.
People like Nikki exist because the rest of us let them develop like that for our entertainment.
Certainly if the body language on Friday Night with Jonathon Ross was anything to go by, the relationship between Nikki and Pete seems to be one of media convenience than one of everlasting love.
Julie Walters was the saving grace as Ross returned for a new series. His interview with Ricky Gervais was as self indulgent. I’m 100% sure that they enjoyed their childish sparring far more than we did. That said, the clips from the new series of Extras looked promising while Gervais’s interview with “Peter Crouch” and “Wayne Rooney” screened during the World Cup was the funniest thing on telly all year.
Clippity Clop
No real surprises in 50 Greatest TV Stars though the fifty had already been picked before we got the chance to vote so it’s no surprise that there were a few glaring omissions. Certainly Kermit the Frog would have made my Top Ten.
The whole thing was just another excuse for another cheap and cheerful clip show and quite why Bradley Walsh was picked as host was a bit of mystery. Indeed his links and the studio audience seemed entire superfluous.
The show was up against Last Night of The Proms which seems out of place these days on BBC One, where Titchmarsh seems a strange choice of presenter. Meanwhile BBC Two finally came to the end of its meandering and repetitive Story of Light Entertainment, narrated by Stephen Fry (who was placed an impressive number nine in the top fifty).
For real showmanship Sky One came up trumps with Robbie Williams Live, though his big mate Jonathan Wilkes stole the show, providing the humility that Robbie’s stage persona seems to lack. It was proper entertainment though.
Normally, all I need to do in an effort to have a pop at the show is pick on Sonia but as she hasn’t featured much this week, I need to find a few other targets. Let’s start with Naomi. With her storyline with Sonia at an end there seems little point in the character at all. It’s almost as if she’s just there to make up the numbers.
It probably hasn’t helped that she’s stuck in the middle of the mind numbingly dull SJ storyline, which is unoriginal, boring and frankly badly played. I know that SJ is supposed to be an annoying figure but they have taken things too far. All that stuff with Phil’s kilt wasn’t so much a running gag as a running irritation. The sooner the reptilian SJ packs her back pack and goes off into the sunset the better things will be.
Now let’s have a pop at Honey. Except I can’t. I know that mispronunciation device is obvious and clumsy and I should hate it. It should really get on my nerves but somehow it just doesn’t. The Billy and Honey story has been great this week, moving effortlessly from the comic to tragic. Sorry if that’s a tiresome thing to say but it has been carried off really well.
However, the soap is starting to feel a bit issue led at the moment, with a helpline number being given out at the end of almost every episode. You can just imagine the continuity department coming with the voiceover on the end credits. “If you’re a back street mechanic that’s been taken for a ride by an Aussie slapper, phone 0800…”
There’s nothing wrong with serious issues being addressed as long they don’t take over completely. Brookside and Crossroads were both soaps that could be accused of going too far down the social responsibility route and they’re now extinct.
Does Mersey Television have a full time pyrotechnics department? The latter years of Brookie were marred by far too many stunts and there is a danger that Hollyoaks could end up down the same dark path. Just weeks after Emmerdale’s house collapse, we had the spectacular cast-culling pub explosion. There was a time when an event like this was really big news in a soap but we’re not at the stage where many are thinking “not another one”.
Rolling on a river
River City is a perfectly watchable soap that only airs in Scotland. I wonder why the BBC don’t think it deserves a national slot. Surely it would be better fit in the daytime schedule than the likes of Let Me Entertain You or Cash in the Attic.
Channel 4’s spoiler tactic of playing Deal or No Deal half an hour later in the schedule has certainly done damage to the ratings of The Sharon Osbourne Show. I hope that ITV keep their nerve and ride this one out rather than doing their usual panic measure of taking a show off and replacing it with something like You’ve Been Framed.
Sharon hasn’t taken to the format like a duck to water but given time her performance and those ratings will improve.
Five years on
There have been a plethora of documentaries covering the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but the big one on BBC One, 9/11 The Twin Towers took the drama documentary route and I can’t say I was overly comfortable with it.
Many of the tales recounted in this had been covered in depth and effectively in other more conventional shows screened on the likes of UKTV Documentary earlier in the week. The decision in this production to dramatise events certainly didn’t add any pertinent information to the tale but made the thing feel more emotive.
However it meant that at times the thing had more of the feel of a disaster movie than a serious examination of what happened that day. The poor quality of some of the acting seemed to reinforce this while I found some of the special effects laden reconstruction rather ghoulish. The worst part for though was the use of reaction shots from those who’d actually been involved or affected by the tragedy.
It felt exploitative.
Don’t get me wrong, despite these worries, I remained gripped by the piece until the end, but I was left wondering whether the makers had set out to entertain as much as inform. I’m sorry but using an event like this to produce a piece of entertainment is just wrong.
Oh Claire
Coronation Street’s slow burning post natal mania storyline has finally picked up pace, giving actress Julia Haworth something decent to get her teeth into after the best part of three years being light comic relief. Thankfully she has risen to the task well while hubby Ashley has largely had to look confused as the drama has unfolded, something of a forte of his.
The problem I’ve had with Corrie over the last few years is that there have been too many inconsequential and uninteresting storylines to sit through while waiting for the good stuff. Things may be perking up with the arrival of the Connor clan. Early days yet but let’s hope they settle in because The Street is badly in need of new blood at the minute.
Once in every lifetime
Fast forward two decades and barmy medical student Vivien from The Young Ones had surfaced as surgeon Abra down at Holby City.
The problem here is I keep waiting for a punchline. At first I thought I was just being shallow but Ade Edmondson punctuates his performance by making that face that he used to make as Eddie Hitler just before delivering a corny line. I wonder just how many gags he did squeeze in only for them to end up on the cutting room floor.
Meanwhile if barmy matron Chrissie wasn’t trying to cop off with a doctor, she was slapping her staff members across the mush. Is this sort of behaviour really tolerated in our NHS hospitals? If we are really expected to believe that matrons can go round assaulting their staff, they should at the least be shown washing their hands afterwards.
Moan, moan , moan
Not content with winding the highly strung Nikki up in the Big Brother house, it seems producers now want to do the same in the real world, hence Princess Nikki pops up on screen with the soul intent of making its star look ridiculous. I hope she’s laughing all the way to the bank, I really do, because they really are doing her image no favours.
People like Nikki exist because the rest of us let them develop like that for our entertainment.
Certainly if the body language on Friday Night with Jonathon Ross was anything to go by, the relationship between Nikki and Pete seems to be one of media convenience than one of everlasting love.
Julie Walters was the saving grace as Ross returned for a new series. His interview with Ricky Gervais was as self indulgent. I’m 100% sure that they enjoyed their childish sparring far more than we did. That said, the clips from the new series of Extras looked promising while Gervais’s interview with “Peter Crouch” and “Wayne Rooney” screened during the World Cup was the funniest thing on telly all year.
Clippity Clop
No real surprises in 50 Greatest TV Stars though the fifty had already been picked before we got the chance to vote so it’s no surprise that there were a few glaring omissions. Certainly Kermit the Frog would have made my Top Ten.
The whole thing was just another excuse for another cheap and cheerful clip show and quite why Bradley Walsh was picked as host was a bit of mystery. Indeed his links and the studio audience seemed entire superfluous.
The show was up against Last Night of The Proms which seems out of place these days on BBC One, where Titchmarsh seems a strange choice of presenter. Meanwhile BBC Two finally came to the end of its meandering and repetitive Story of Light Entertainment, narrated by Stephen Fry (who was placed an impressive number nine in the top fifty).
For real showmanship Sky One came up trumps with Robbie Williams Live, though his big mate Jonathan Wilkes stole the show, providing the humility that Robbie’s stage persona seems to lack. It was proper entertainment though.
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