Sunday 30 August 2009

TV

As Seen on TV
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Wildest Dreams
Part 5 (of 7)
What a poor show -- on the part of the makers, not the contestants. They were constantly, repetitively criticised for not "spotting the signs" and "seeing the story". How the hell were they meant to? They had two days, they're not familiar with the region or the animals, and their guides had obviously been told not to tell them anything -- it was only when they directly asked precisely the right question that they finally owned up. And throughout this we had to suffer one of the biggest tits on TV, Nick Knowles, taking the moral high ground. As if he would've noticed if he didn't have two -- two -- experts guiding him round and pointing it all out to him.
I'm severely disappointed to the point of anger with this edition, the only solace being that the contestants were evidently better at their jobs than they had any reason to be and all spotted the signs just in time. But it was pathetic, mean-spirited and unfair to expect them to get there any quicker in the way the task was presented to them, and for this stupidity the show loses serious marks in my book.
[Suffer it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

A Few Good Men (1992)
[#38 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
The final half-hour, finally. Could I handle the truth? Well, yes.

Articles

Ofcom regulation "astonishing", says Murdoch
and
BBC hits back at Murdoch criticism
and
BBC's Peston questions Murdoch's rationale
(all by James Welsh, from Digital Spy)
James Murdoch clearly thinks he's making some intelligent, if controversial, points. In fact, as the BBC's reasoned response only highlights, he's just having a whiney rant.
"The BBC are bigger than us, it's not fair, wah wah wah!"