Watching us, watching you

Terribly sad news about the death of Jeremy Beadle. Read the TV Cream tribute here.

2007

So how do you begin looking back on a year in which television went completely evil?

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Two thousand and heaven

I’m currently working through this year’s Off The Telly review of the year. The piece is a collaborative effort, so not all the opinions espoused therein are mine. That being the case I thought it might be a bit of fun to post here a list of my entirely own favourite programmes from 2007 – feel free to add yours to the following: Read more

Doctor Who

If ever an episode of Doctor Who was designed for a specific space and time, this was it. Read more

Review of the Year time

So with 2007 winding to a close with Manors Reborn and Doctor Whos preparing to disembark TARDISes, the time has come to solicit contributions for this year’s OTT Review of the Year. Read more

Dragons done

Having summarily dismissed all property shows from my viewing schedule last year, I am fearful that I’m now growing tired of Dragons’ Den. It’s not just that during this week’s episode I was able to correctly predict when Evan’s “In a bizarre twist” voice-over was about to commence, but I found it difficult to get at all interested in any of the pitches. Each one seemed to go on too long, and the concepts the visitors to the Den were proposing just weren’t very inventive. In fact, by half way through I’d started reading the latest issue of Radio Times instead. Read more

The Restaurant

Gripping reality television is all about hubris. That’s not a startling observation, but it is one that feels particularly appropriate when watching the aspirational brand. Read more

First it was noddee, now it’s reality

Further to my review of the first episode of Hell’s Kitchen, I am still trying to get to grips with why the show should feature the celebrities doing so well this early on in the series. As I have previously written, if they run a competent dinner service from the off, the series has no arc to follow. Read more

Hell’s Kitchen

So who won the last series of Hell’s Kitchen? This particular reviewer turned his back on the run somewhere near the beginning of week two. Read more

WIll they go through to boot camp?

As much as I am loving both The Restaurant and Kitchen Criminals, I can’t help but long for the development of a new kind of reality show mechanic. All of this bottom three, boot camp, and pregnant pause before announcing the eviction stuff is old hat, no? Indeed the use of the term “boot camp” in Kitchen Criminals, as if everyone knows what that means in the context of a TV show is something of a commentary on how pervasive and tiring this format has now become. The problem is, if you lose the eviction format, what do you replace it with?

Hyde 2612 – no return

Well 2612 was just a room number and not “too sick, want to” as I thought for about 10 minutes during last night’s final installment of Life On Mars. Hopefully I have an OTT Review forthcoming, but in the meantime scratching round the Internet today I have been surprised to see there is no real consensus on actually what happened in the end. Read more

Life on Mars

With Life on Mars falling off our screens for good, I suppose we’ll never find out why a comatose Sam bothered imagining a grain of sand on Annie’s hand. Read more

Doctor Who

The supposed wisdom in TV circles suggests series three is when a show really gets good. The course correction and refinement of the original concept have all been completed, and the programme makers, having learned from their mistakes, can push on with renewed confidence. From a viewing of “Smith and Jones” alone, is it possible to determine whether this maxim holds true for Doctor Who? Read more

Course correction

If you haven’t watched Sunday’s episode of Lost yet then best not to read on… Read more

Hyde 2612 – slight return

After some internet snooping it transpires that “Hyde 2612” – the telephone number that may prove crucial in unlocking the mystery surrounding Life on Mars is actually, the telephone number for a San Francisco Barbers from 1903, specifically “Serpa & Content, Barbers, 419 Larkin.Hyde 2612″. Read more

Primeval

Primeval isn’t really my kind of telefantasy. By that I probably mean it’s not Doctor Who. Read more

Are you feeling Jade-d?

This week has been polarising for those on either side of the long running Big Brother debate. As someone who has written in recent months to support the series, it is intriguing to see how easy it is to deconstruct all of this latest controversy into further proof that Big Brother remains an important and vital element of Channel 4′s public service remit. Indeed, to me, the very fact that there is conflicting opinion on whether or not Jade and her coterie’s actions constitute actual racism or not, is indication that there is a complex issue being explored here, and that there is a healthy discussion to be had on what does and doesn’t constitute racial abuse.  Read more

2006

Advancing years take away from us what we have inherited and give us what we have earned. Our relationship with television is a forever-burning example of this; the longer we feel we’ve hung around pouring our time and energy into watching it, the more we feel not merely blessed but actually owed an increasingly rarefied quality of enjoyment in return. Read more

Doctor Who

If you like your Doctor Who in the breezy style then “The Runaway Bride” was for you. Read more

Who’s a Hero two

Well in an update to my earlier post, it now appears that BBC2 are going to be screening Heroes next year. This of course is great news (although I wonder where they’ll schedule it), and having now watched the first nine episodes, I am still proclaiming this to be the best thing on telly in ages (albeit ep six is a bit dull).

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