Idiot box: the week in review
Sunday Dec 10
Actually something on. Big Dippers on 1 promising, but as it approaches it turns out I can't be arsed watching it. Old School could be a refuge, or maybe not ("amusing film that never quite takes off": Leonard Maltin). Can't stand Will Ferrell. Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations looks the go. We go out to dinner instead.
Monday Dec 11
Minnie Driver in Tonga's rainforests? Nah. That's about it.
Tuesday Dec 12
Reality TV taking kids back to 1950s school or Celebrity Surgery? Neither. Whoever thought people would watch a jolly drama about a group of lesbians had more vision than me.
Wednesday Dec 13
Insomniacs might watch repeats of Black Books and Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. Or not. Unappealing is Harrison Ford in a sub (Maltin: "Much Sturm und Drang in this very long movie, but not enough meaning.") The American Office has much to recommend it, but at heart it's a dubbed repeat. Still, the basketball game had its moments. That thing on Prime about a group of Californian personal trainers has its fans, apparently. The French news at 6pm on Triangle is terrific - serious, in-depth, global.
Thursday Dec 14
Zip. Nada. Nothing.
Friday Dec 15
Competing Ten Years Younger. Swapping wives, twice. An unbearable film about a US teen who travels to the UK to be reunited with her father, Colin Firth. House, repeated.
Saturday Dec 16
Robin Williams in serious, creepy mode. Chris Rock in remake of Heaven Can Wait. Appallingly clumsy, said Mr Maltin. Some dreary British thing about a tussle over a baby. All missable.
Several other people I know, including me, would pay the British licence fee to have their programmes delivered by satellite. $30 a month.
Actually something on. Big Dippers on 1 promising, but as it approaches it turns out I can't be arsed watching it. Old School could be a refuge, or maybe not ("amusing film that never quite takes off": Leonard Maltin). Can't stand Will Ferrell. Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations looks the go. We go out to dinner instead.
Monday Dec 11
Minnie Driver in Tonga's rainforests? Nah. That's about it.
Tuesday Dec 12
Reality TV taking kids back to 1950s school or Celebrity Surgery? Neither. Whoever thought people would watch a jolly drama about a group of lesbians had more vision than me.
Wednesday Dec 13
Insomniacs might watch repeats of Black Books and Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. Or not. Unappealing is Harrison Ford in a sub (Maltin: "Much Sturm und Drang in this very long movie, but not enough meaning.") The American Office has much to recommend it, but at heart it's a dubbed repeat. Still, the basketball game had its moments. That thing on Prime about a group of Californian personal trainers has its fans, apparently. The French news at 6pm on Triangle is terrific - serious, in-depth, global.
Thursday Dec 14
Zip. Nada. Nothing.
Friday Dec 15
Competing Ten Years Younger. Swapping wives, twice. An unbearable film about a US teen who travels to the UK to be reunited with her father, Colin Firth. House, repeated.
Saturday Dec 16
Robin Williams in serious, creepy mode. Chris Rock in remake of Heaven Can Wait. Appallingly clumsy, said Mr Maltin. Some dreary British thing about a tussle over a baby. All missable.
Several other people I know, including me, would pay the British licence fee to have their programmes delivered by satellite. $30 a month.
7 Comments:
But what would you have delivered?
The Living Famously docos on the doco channel are excellent timewasters BTW.
My summary of Sky Digital is as follows:
Channels always worth having:
Food Channel
Rialto
UK TV
Arts Channel
Documentary Channel
Channels sometimes worth having:
J2
Living Channel
Hitler (sorry) History Channel
Animal Planet
National Geographic
BBC World Service
TCM
Channels that used to be worth having but which aren't any more:
Discovery
CNN
Sky News
Anything above 59
The other movie channels
The other music channels
Channels with slowly but steadily deteriorating programming:
Discovery
UKTV (now almost unwatchable)
History
Living Channel
Food Channel (probably in decline - too much bad US content)
And I totally agree with Llew about Living Famously.
Upside: I'm watching at least 25% less TV than I was at the beginning of the year.
I have to agree with some of that... (been waiting for the jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series to turn up on UKTV, but maybe we have to wait for several hundred years worth of John Nettles mysteries to finish first.)
BTW - have you MySky? It changes things. For the better. You just watch what you want & when.
Who needs free-to-air when you have BitTorrent? About the only things I watch now are news, EML and The Shield...
Is there a service called BitDribble? Cos that's what I need with my broadband connection.
Idiot/Savant said...
> Who needs free-to-air when you have BitTorrent? About the only things I watch now are news, EML and The
Shield...
Even with a wide 19-inch laptop screen and reasonably OK (NZ-originating) broadband speeds, I'd still rather watch TV on the thing I bought for, er, watching TV on... Device convergence my arse.
Being a TV programmer must involve all sort of very clever, counter-intuitive tortorous planning by very cnning and clever people. Certainly more cunning and clever than me, who just looks at the Xmas day T.V. line up and wonders why the day of the year with one of the biggest ever audiences available to good free to air T.V. (How many baches have Sky? To many probably) has such crap programs on. There has to be a reason, but I'll be buggered if I can think of it.
I wonder, how come no one has ever done a magazine profile of the people who do the programming for our free to air channels? I see an interview or three for NZBC here. The blog as a tool for the new angle. I would be fascinated to see the age, gender, race, income bracket and mindset of these people. After all, they are probably amongst the most influential of New Zealanders.
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