I have to just say/rant that the standard of ‘Entertainment’ TV is very low these days. Unlike a lot of people, we tend to watch ‘something’ after as we’re usually working or talking. We look at the Telegraph Review section, my wife doesn’t like going to bed after miserable programmes so the choice is low.
Martin Lewis was ‘OK’ and we ‘tried’ the Phillip Schofield thing about pressies – grief! Even for the dumbed down/treat everyone like an idiot level of ITV this was really deep in the depths! Unknown celebs and others trying sock games?
George Clark’s building programme was ok the first time but drastically short on detail, we had to delve into the BBCi depths to find an old Pride & Prejudice which was good (we prefer the earlier version with David Rintoul but Firth is ok) and we’re also getting into the Upcycling programme with Jay Blades and others (Money For Nothing) – we loved the Repair Shop with him and the others but that’s not on at the moment.
There was a period drama that started last week (Death and Nightingales) and we thought o good – it had Mathew Rhys who I remember from ‘The Americans’ – but then the first scenes from it involved poison and all sorts so no go.
We have a free trial of Prime at the moment so thought lets take a look at the Romanoffs – that started with the F word and loads of sex so hey ho off that went. I personally like Berlin Station (Thanks Laurel of Laurel Leaf Network) and ‘The First’ both of which are brilliantly acted (‘The First’ this week was incredible) but again loads and loads of F words (particularly Berlin) – why the actors aren’t good enough to express anger and frustration with swearing I’ll never know…I also like Designated Survivor on Flix and incredibly that doesn’t have wall to wall swearing – season 2 episode 13 was, in my humble opinion, an award winner ,closely followed by this past week’s ‘The First’ (although you need to know the back story with both)
Anyway, my thoughts on these are why is the F word in almost every drama these days; why are (even the BBC) Lifestyle programmes full of long starts telling you what’s to come, a few minutes on the actual thing then minutes again telling you what’s coming up (like we’re all really really stupid), then more minutes at the end telling you about ‘Next Time’ ( we took a chance with ‘Kirsty’s Home Made Christmas’ – yes I know she self promotes at every turn and says everything is ‘My Absolute Favourite’! – there was so much preamble and ‘post-amble’ at every turn the actual craft things were minimal and no detail ; I just wonder when these ‘treating the watching public like they’re a swearing stupid rabble’ crept in? I’m not talking about specific programmes as such although I’ve quoted examples but there just seem to be so few new programmes for the older (like us) person who would like to go to bed with a smile rather than a snarl, or like a period piece without some sort of ghost or other, or sex or violence – or wanting to see people on Naked Attraction (what on earth is THAT all about?) or in the jungle ?
It’s no wonder that very dumbed down stuff like the Dancing thing is so popular – it’s one of the few non swearing, non violent things on…
Wouldn’t it be great to have some sort of drama that had no swearing and a good story line or a Lifestyle programme with no waffle and repetition?
If anyone has any thoughts please tweet me – @stesmi0756…
Blog originally published here.
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