You do read Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn every week in The Guardian Guide don't you? It's the most fun, most vituperous column on television (and I do include Victor Lewis Smith in this equation).
Brooker's just completed a second series of Screen Wipe finishing with a double length edition focused on American television that was very fair. I did love the fact the show opened with the music from, and mock graphics to Entertainment USA. I'll be honest - I used to really enjoy that programme (and I know that it's now not politically correct to enjoy anything that Jonathan King has ever done in his life now).
Brooker guided us pretty accurately around American telly, and showed us, as we know, that there's some really good stuff, and some really bad stuff. Which reminds me, I must really really catch up with The Wire. I've only seen part of series 3 and I stopped watching when I realised that I really needed to start watching from the start.
He had Rob Long explaining some of the shortcomings of the American sitcom, and how he preferred British stuff - although I'm not entirely sure what he's meaning aside from Ricky Gervais' recenet ouvre or perhaps one or two other things. I've been watching series two of Supernova and generally it's left me, well, uninspired. That's just one programme obviously, but you know what I mean. And I must get my podcast stream working for Rob Long's Martini Shot again.
Then we had The Daily Show's Lewis Black who was as entertaining as ever. I thought the sequence where Brooker played a focus group excerpts of various British shows was a little unfair. Yes The Bill, Eastenders and Countdown are all enormously popular in their own ways, but a few badly acted moments from both series probably doesn't help. And the appeal of the resolutely "analogue" Countdown must be nigh-on impossible to explain to a non-Brit (even if the show is actually French in its origin).
Still I'll forgive him anything for his spot on critique of Jeremy "Jezza" Kyle in the first programme...
Posted by adambowie at August 25, 2006 9:57 AM