The good and the bad on TV in the same evening.
Let's start with the good, and Arrested Development, the US sitcom that I'd heard so much about, but hadn't previously seen. It's set amongst the Bluth family - a well to do Californian tribe, most of whom are leeching off the family property development business. The pilot episode sees the family have a large gathering on a boat, as we're introduced to them all. There's the hapless wouldbe magician, the moneyed sister and her mother, the slighly backward brother and also the father, who ends up in prison.
The humour is very dry, and there's no laughter track. The production values are high, and it's a miracle that it's made its mark on US TV. Despite winning a hatful of awards, it was likely to be cancelled at any moment. Just one black mark on it - and that's the BBC's fault. They decided it was necessary to tell us about the follow up episode being previewed on BBC4, 30 seconds before the BBC2 episode finished. Then we got into the credits and the continuity announcer repeated this information. I hate these pointless graphical intrusions while the programme's still running. It's one thing to shrink the credits and run a trail about the next episode. But don't interrupt the programme itself. I'll be complaining tomorrow.
Earlier in the evening, BBC2 had shown Talking to the Dead which is actually three part series under the Everyman banner. Now it might be too early in the series to be too negative about this series, but to my mind there wasn't enough scepticism shown in this first episode. Is it wrong to go out and expect proof? Well yes. I know that Spiritualism is considered a proper religion, but considering that there are well known techniques such as cold reading which can explain many of the things shown, I'd expect a decent look at this. If a conjourer or illusionist ("they're not tricks. Whores turn tricks" - Arrested Development) can do it, then it's not so spectacular to see a "Medium" do it.
Posted by adambowie at September 29, 2004 11:33 PM