Glasses!

Ah yes Tyra I see. Despite your campaigning that we are all beautiful, no matter what size, height or colour we are, the comedy here comes from the fact that you are wearing glasses and are therefore ugly. Then you take your glasses and coat off and are of course beautiful. I'm talking about this clip of America's Next Top Model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNw8Ej7q4s

It's not the only time in this series. Later on a girl wears glasses to judging and is questioned on why she has them on. Newsflash! It's because she's short sighted! It's really not that unusual. I could accept this sort of thing in the 90's, but I am now officially fed up of tv still doing what 90's teen movies were doing those may years ago: Nerds wearing glasses. It's 2011 and a ton of people wear glasses. I don't even notice whether someone has glasses on anymore. In the real world, no one cares, so it's time for tv to stop prescribing to a tired old stereotype and be a bit more creative.

NTA Winners- and an explanation

Last night's NTA awards certainly had some unexpected results, and some we all saw coming. Here's the full run down of winners, who I voted for and an explanation of some of the controversy.

Best Talent Show went to The X Factor, not overly surprising, but I would have preferred Britain's Got Talent, I think you get a lot more on that show. Constant singing can get a little dull. Suppose the more recent airing may have had some influence here. Other losers were Dancing on Ice and Strictly Come Dancing, shows which usually appeal more to the middle aged women (yep, stereotyping, but true). The fact that this year’s voting was done almost exclusively online, probably by bored students counts these shows out of the running almost straight away.

Best Comedy Programme went to Benidorm. Yes this caused me some confusion, especially as Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow was in the shortlist. Everyone loves Michael McIntyre right? Also missing out this time was Outnumbered, which is a bit of a shame; I'm quite fond of that show. The kids are adorable... and it's not often you'll hear me say that. Harry Hill's TV Burp was an unsurprising loser. It's a bit of a Marmite show... no not brown and sticky, Love it or Hate it!

Best Drama went to Waterloo Road... now, don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Waterloo Road, but it's not great drama. It's a Soap Opera that people would get bored of if it was on all the time. It is no-where near the quality of Steven Moffat's two offerings. Doctor Who and Sherlock. This one took some thinking about, but I eventually voted for Sherlock as I think it was the better DRAMA. Doctor Who doesn't take itself seriously enough to be counted as a Drama show. I think what went wrong here was that there were too many Moffat fans in the same situation as me. The shows were too similar and split what would have been a massive vote if only one was offered. As a result Waterloo Road swooped in and stole the crown. Shameless is trash, hence, it lost :P

Best Drama Performance went to David Jason from A Touch of Frost. I don't watch this show, but have been informed he deserved the win. I still think in different circumstances Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock would have won by a mile (again, sorry Matt Smith, but Doctor Who is not really Drama. Love you anyway). Lastly Philip Glenister of Ashes to Ashes offers another choice to an already conflicted group of Whovians and Sherlockies. Another show about time travel? Think these nominations need a bit more range.

Best Digital Choice went to The Inbetweeners. It's no Glee, but its miles better than Peter Andre: The Next Chapter, so no complaints here.

Best Factual Programme went to Top Gear, also nominated were Celebrity Masterchef, Junior Apprentice and Who Do You Think You Are. I don't watch any of these shows, so I didn't vote. If I did, I'd watch Top Gear, so huzzah!

Best Serial Drama went to Eastenders. Also nominated Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.... I couldn't care less. :P

Best Serial Drama Performance went to Lacey Turner (Eastenders). Again, I don't care about the soaps...

Best Topical Magazine Programme went to This Morning, meaning Loose Women lost out despite their massive campaigning. I voted Loose Women, but also fond of This Morning, and BBC Breakfast didn't win, so no complaints.

Best Newcomer goes to Ricky Norwood of Eastenders. Gutted. I wanted it to go to Olga Fedori from Holby City because she was the only one I recognised. Flipping soaps again!

Best Entertainment Show went to I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, in an unsurprising win over Big Brother. What did bug me was that Mock The Week and QI lost out. I suppose it may be that shows like I'm A Celebrity encourage audience participation as part of their format, and this may encourage voting in situations like this. Furthermore QI and Mock The Week seem to be on all the time and, though more enjoyable, tend to fade into the background and stay out of the media hype of "event" type TV.

Best Entertainment Presenter went to Ant and Dec for the 10th year running. Precisely how two people can win an award for best Presenter (singular) is beyond me, but good on them. I love them to bits.

Last but not least, a Special Recognition Award went to Bruce Forsyth. Thanks Bruce, we recognise all you've done for us. Time to retire now yeah?

Modern Family (short)

Gah the days blur into one and I'm not even aware if I even wrote a blog yesterday... no I didn't. Need more coffee...
*24 hours passes*
Wow... umm... yeah, took a long time to get that coffee. Sorry. I've been busy... uni is hard :(

Anyways, I started watching Modern Family after much persuasion. To be honest I wasn't overly impressed by the first episode, but it was late and I was tired. I think watching more episodes I might start to warm to the characters. In retrospect I can remember several funny moments, but they just didn't seem funny enough and none of the story was really compelling me to continue. I should be watching that on Wednesday nights from now on, so we'll see. Give it time.

Tonight is the triumphant return of Being Human. I've said a lot about this show already, so I'm gonna give up now and enjoy a night in with my second favourite vampire (top favourite is still Eric from True Blood... even with his nasty short hair :P). Lots of love and hope to have a proper blog with you soon.

How Drugs Work (Short)

Recently I've been enjoying a show called "How Drugs work" on the BBC i-Player. It's particularly useful as I've just started a psychopharmacology module on my degree, but I'd suggest it's useful for anyone who's curious about drugs, because it gives a very balanced view on why people use them, therapeutic and medicinal uses and the downsides. The first one was about Cannabis, following some absolute stoners, a reasonably well adjusted young woman with a job who smoked in the evening to cope with stress, and an older woman with MS who used a medically prescribed form of cannabis to cope with the severe symptoms. It's pretty amazing what a wide range of users there are, and I definitely feel a lot more informed. The show takes several dives into a more neuroscientific view, but CGI makes it easy to follow what's going on, even for someone without a scientific background. The program on MDMA or Ecstasy was slightly less balanced, and showed a lot more of the dangers, but even here they found positive use in people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. There's a few more to be shown yet, the next one is tonight BB3 9pm.

Connections (Short)

I just found out that Lucy Gaskell who played Kathy Nightingale in Blink (Doctor Who) plays Kirsty in Casualty and played Sam in Being Human (that girl that George goes out with for a while. Single Mum). It's like the BBC just has this incredibly small list of actors and just uses the same ones over and over ad nausiem. Also, Andrew Garfield, Eduardo in The Social Network, Next Spider-Man and rising star of our generation. Yeah, he was in Doctor Who as well! He was Frank in Daleks of Manhattan! I knew I knew him from somewhere.

Note: Getting in a blog everyday will require shorter blogs like this. I will still be writing the same number of longer and more thought out blogs, they will just have short blogs inbetween, instead of silence. This format is still under change, and I think we'll see many more changes until I settle on something that works best for everybody.

Episodes

So Matt LeBlanc plays a character supposedly based on himself. The big roll to distinguish him from Joey... The character comes across as Joey... only with a slightly lower pitched voice and less excitable... and pretty darn mean! But stupid as ever.

I think what it comes down to is that Episodes is not funny. At least not in any way I appreciate. It's not witty, it's not clever and it’s not even slapstick or innuendous. It's embarrassment TV. It's the sort of show where you are meant to feel embarrassment for the characters and this is meant to be funny. Like The Inbetweeners or Peep Show. But I just don't like it. I feel the embarrassment sure enough, but it just makes for painful and rather unenjoyable television.

Hustle and Being Human

What? I missed a blog yesterday? I did indeed. That is what happens when you have to pack your entire life into a suitcase and move it somewhere else. Things get pushed out. Yesterday I made the big trip back to uni after the summer holidays, so this whole daily blog thing might be about to get a bit tricky. On the bright side, you'll be able to look forward to the second part of In the Absence of Television pretty darn soon.

Friday night I watched the second episode of the new series of Hustle, a show that is gradually slipping and slipping, but the BBC keep showing it and I keep watching it. In the old days the cons were clever and the hustlers were witty. These days the plots are help together mostly by luck and duct tape. The shows follow a predictable formula in which the team decide on a person to con, set out a plan, start the plan, everything goes wrong but OH! That was part of the plan the whole time and everything gets sorted out in time for them to go to the bar and enjoy a victory glass of bubbly. The show needs a shake up or it risks slipping into oblivion.

Yesterday I didn't watch any TV... oops. Tell a lie. I watched the first episode of Heroes! I might even watch the rest of it. I've heard many good things about it, but all the good American shows are starting again right now, and Being Human and Doctor Who are expected on our screens VERY soon, so I might not have time. In fact, new Being Human starts just 1 week from today! We can expect the gorgeous Mitchell back on our screens in just 7 short days. This season the gang will be trying to save tea-making Annie from beyond the door. Word is she's in hell! Let's hope they get her home safe. Mitchell's got his own demons to face though, after falling quite spectacularly off the wagon. Also, keep an eye open for new series Becoming Human on the Being Human website, a spin off following a younger vampire, ghost and werewolf, struggling with their own problems.

I didn't watch TV... did I?

Sat down to write blog and panicked. I didn’t watch anything on TV yesterday! What can I possibly write about? But then I reconsidered. I watched a lot more TV yesterday than immediately sprung to mind.

Yesterday was out of the ordinary for a Thursday. I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth and went down stairs. My dad was sat in the living room. This is out of the ordinary because my dad has usually left for work before I get up. Since my dad was home BBC morning news was on the TV, as opposed to my mum’s usual choice of Daybreak (the new name for GMTV. Grr. I hate change). I sat and caught up with the morning’s headlines and ridiculous magazine features whilst I ate my breakfast and had the day’s first cup of coffee. I never really count this as time watching TV. It’s not programming I plan for and look forward to, or even take note of. It’s just there, blabbering away in the background, occasionally with some item of interest I actually pay attention to. After a somewhat average morning at work, I hopped in the car and headed off to Ormskirk for my lovely friend James’ birthday (second mention in two days for him. He’ll be getting a big head). There we put FRIENDs on as we chatted and caught up (have I mentioned I watch FRIENDs? No? What do you mean “obsessed”?) Again, FRIENDs is one of those inconsequential shows. I’ve seen them all and know the plot of every episode, so it can be dipped in and out of in lulls of conversation or between tasks. So I don’t really qualify it as watching TV. The last thing I sort of watched yesterday was an episode of Eastenders. I am not an Eastenders fan; I want to make that very clear. However, I was staying in a house with two Eastenders fans and... When in Rome? Again, I don’t qualify this as TV watching because I hadn’t planned to watch it, wasn’t invested in it and wasn’t really paying attention. It is interesting though that a day in which I thought I hadn’t watched TV involved about an hour and a half of me having my eyes focused on a TV screen. Consider your TV watching habits. How much TV do you soak up over the day without even noticing it?