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Top five TV bugbears

Ricky Gervaise
  • Posted at 12:40pm
  • 11 September 2009
  • by LauraPledger-RT
  • 13 comments

You know those sweeping statements that people make about television that really get your goat? Now's your chance to get all that off your chest by sharing them with us. Here are my top five, most annoying observations - the ones that are guaranteed to make the steam come out of my ears:

1. Ricky Gervais isn't funny

Oh, yes, he is. Yet ever since the guy found global success, it's been the done thing to knock him. People criticise his arrogance, failing to see that the mantle of self-importance he assumes is just another joke.

But then these are probably the same folks who think all those gags about the sick and disabled are actually poking fun at the sick and disabled…

2. If you don't like it, switch it off/change channels

Now, there are times when this is a valid argument. Like if, for example, the Archbishop of Canterbury were to complain that the hour he spent watching Roy Chubby Brown did not constitute an evening's genteel entertainment.

But it's a line that is now trotted out with tiresome regularity every time somebody makes a remotely critical remark about a programme. Like all forms of entertainment, TV is there to be judged, and everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Sometimes that means your favourite show will get a kicking. And if this is the best you can muster in its defence, then frankly, it probably deserves to.

3. House is formulaic

Like this is news to anybody. But it's what happens between Dr Gregory House feigning indifference and then solving the case in an unlikely flash of insight that keeps fans hooked.

Harassing Wilson, baiting Cuddy, pouring scorn on patients and underlings alike; we lap it up. And anyway, when you've got a sarky, stubbly Hugh Laurie on your screen, who really cares about the plot?

4. The Wire is the best TV show ever

Not if you like good, strong, character-driven drama, it's not. I waded through three series in the hopes I'd finally "get" what everyone else seemed to be raving about. But it left me cold.

With the exception of McNulty, Greggs and Bubbles, I don't feel like I know these people - so there's no reason for me to invest in the storytelling. Give me The West Wing or Battlestar Galactica any day.

Celebrity fan Hugh Dennis recently enthused in Radio Times about how, for long periods of time, "nothing happens". (It does in my house, Hugh - I reach for the fast-forward button on my remote control…)

5. The public don't want challenging TV (aka reality TV is entertaining, honest!)

To which I would reply, "Who says?". Why would we want to watch yet another bunch of vain, vacant wannabes making a desperate bid for celebrity?

It's not the public who want more reality TV - it's the companies who produce such cheap pap. We boast about producing some of the world's finest actors - and then deny them the opportunity to use their talents (or, in the case of the stars of tomorrow, to hone their craft).

Thus we deprive ourselves of the chance to step into a different world, to question, or be moved by the power of a story and the force of good acting.

Television can and should make us think about more than just whether the latest reality reject will have an amazing career in entertainment or disappear back into obscurity.

**

Maybe you've said a few of these things yourself in your time - or maybe there are other comments that make you mad. Feel free to let off steam and share your bugbears…

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Comments

  • Posted on 15 November 2009
  • at 2:13pm
  • by Hazel

I think people have started saying Ricky Gervais isn't funny any more not because of his success but because... he isn't funny any more. And that's disappointing to those of us who loved The Office and had high hopes for his future projects.

  • Posted on 01 November 2009
  • at 10:16pm
  • by jttt

maybe the reason you didn't like the wire was because you reach for the fast forward button on the remote control instead of actually watching it.

  • Posted on 22 October 2009
  • at 7:15pm
  • by TWF

I agree with the Wire part, but Ricky Gervais ISN'T funny.

  • Posted on 08 October 2009
  • at 11:00am
  • by Govanmauler

Battlestar Galactica over the Wire ??

I'm shocked you are able to type your own name !

  • Posted on 08 October 2009
  • at 12:17am
  • by rhe

I'll need to preface this with the following points:

I am:

• highly intelligent.

• a liberal.

• not a racist.

• extremely interested in politics and sociology.

• happy watching dialogue that includes complicated slang, or watching TV with subtitles if I have to.

With that out of the way: I don't like The Wire. For the following reasons:

• All the intelligence goes into the plot and the characters are empty stereotypes: charming rogue, sassy lesbian, upright commander, reckless rookies.

• It is immensely pleased with itself and preachy, despite endlessly hammering home the same obvious messages.

• Disingenuously, it relies on the corruption and bad behaviour it displays to generate juvenile humour, as a plan B just in case it fails in outraging us.

There is little more annoying than when something becomes so overhyped that it is taken for granted that all intelligent people will like it. I can't tell you how good it is to hear someone saying otherwise.

  • Posted on 05 October 2009
  • at 6:44pm
  • by john

I have never found Gervais funny especially the office and all those jonathan t****r meetings on a regular basis like a love in,richard wilson did not find him funny and yes i do have an off switch and when the likes of him an woss are on i use it

  • Posted on 27 September 2009
  • at 10:01pm
  • by Ian

Ricky Gervais really isn't funny though! As someone has already stated, he's still doing the same thing he was doing on the 11 O'Clock show. The Office was a success in my opinion because of the Tim and Gareth characters.

  • Posted on 27 September 2009
  • at 2:58pm
  • by Baltimore City, South London

I agree Gervais is not funny, agree the "change channels" argument is pants, and House is so formulaic it should be taught in O'Level Chemistry.

Now this thing about The Wire, however is pure heresy. The programme is littered with well developed characters with the exception of a few introduced in season 5. I suspect you are inter-changing "likeable" with "well developed". The Wire is as close as you can get to the world it depicts without shipping and distributing a consignment of "Colombia's finest" yourself in Baltimore and this means it deals with quite a few unsavoury characters.

However over the course of the five season we begin to discover there is more their portrayal as the programme peels back the layers that define the characters.

The problem people fine with the Wire is we have become an instant "Pot Noodle" generation, while the Wire is an exquisitely cooked slow roast lamb, it does not deal in instant gratification.

  • Posted on 24 September 2009
  • at 7:56pm
  • by andy

Ricky Gervais isn't a good stand up - The Office was very funny, Extras was ok, but Gervais wasn't solely responsible for those, he had an excellent co-writer and, especially in the case of The Office, a cracking ensemble cast. As for the comments on The Wire, I'm left shaking my head in disbelief, but then again you've already revealed you like your drama formulaic...

  • Posted on 24 September 2009
  • at 4:50pm
  • by LauraPledger-RT

Actually, The Wire left me cold way back in series one - I just don't like to admit defeat! I thought if I kept watching I was bound to see at some point what everyone else loved about it, but unfortunately I never did. I'm not saying it isn't smart TV - just that it never really engaged me on a personal level.

  • Posted on 24 September 2009
  • at 4:40pm
  • by M Jones

Your comments on The Wire are rather baffling - you say that you "waded through three series" and then determined that it left you cold. Why wade through three series then? Most people determine whether they are going to like The Wire by episode 6, yet it took you three series .....

Most puzzling. Are you sure that you were paying attention and not playing around writing puzzling blog entries at the same time?

  • Posted on 16 September 2009
  • at 1:09pm
  • by Bigbeemer

Don's tin hat anticipating lots of flack, but here are my pet hates:-

1) People who seem to think they should dictate my viewing habits as in 'You must watch East Enders; it's so real'. If it's real to you then you must exist in a parallel universe to mine!"

2)Wildlife programme resenters who seem to think that they are the centre of attraction rather than the wildlife that they are supposed to be showing.

3) Weather presenters who seem to have no concept of the geography of the UK or indeed of correct scientific weather terms as in 'the temperature is going to get hotter'.

4) Inane questions posed by reporters during interviews eg when reporting from Afghanistan 'Would this IED cause much damage'? Just look at the coffins coming back to the UK for your answer. If they can't think/ haven't been fed a sensible question, they should just keep quiet!

5)Edgy comedy. Sorry but I'm obviously of the wrong generation to appreciate this.

Rant over...think I need to go and lie down to recover.

  • Posted on 12 September 2009
  • at 11:29am
  • by Si

Nobody thought Ricky Gervais was funny on the 11 o'clock show. He's still doing exactly the same act, but since he achieved global success, what wasn't funny has miraculously become hilarious.

As for the Wire it defines character-driven drama. I think what you're looking for is continuous drama, i.e. soap.

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