Listing IV

TV that suggest it's a medium worth having after all:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The West Wing
ER
Any of Mark Thomas's series
Quality factual stuff

TV that suggests that its producers should be made to watch endless reruns of their own stuff:
Anything with the words Celebrity, Fit, or Fat in its title.
Anything suffixed by the words From Hell.
Anything in which the audience at home decides between contestants.
Footballers' Wives

Posted on December 31, 2002 10:38 AM

I'd add Oz, Futurama and Six Feet Under to the list of essential TV, and if Michael Moore was still doing TV regularly then I'd put him on the list in place of Mark Thomas. For fans of the SF/Fantasy/Horror genres, I'd add Angel and Farscape to the list.

Does "Quality factual stuff" include Faking It, which admittedly sails close to reality TV but was quite well done and generally at least entertaining.

I agree 100% with the second list. I think I'd probably add any cooking/gardening/home improvement programme, but that may just be my prejudices showing...

Posted by John on December 31, 2002 09:29 PM

Oh yeah, I've just remembered that one of the highlights of my TV year was The Book Group. Unfortunately it was a one-off, but it was a welcome (and rare) sign that Channel 4 could do a decent home-grown comedy series after all. (I don't expect to see anything else that good from C4 until season 3 of Spaced appears.)

Posted by John on December 31, 2002 10:15 PM

Add a couple more essential shows this year: 24, for being incredibly gripping despite some really tenuous plot twists, and Alias, for being tremendously stylish (and sometimes very silly) fun.

Posted by John on December 31, 2002 10:39 PM

I held myself back from adding any more US drama to my list, because to be honest, it would have got even more lop-sided than it is, but I do agree about those you mention being worthy of note.

I had a very specific internal dialogue going on about Faking It, because as a concept, I think it's very strong, but in execution, I think it's become rather self-indulgent.

Posted by Jon on January 1, 2003 01:46 PM

I haven't noticed that myself, but then I've really only been paying attention since the current season started so the neatness of the concept is still uppermost in my mind.

Do you think all the episodes suffer from self-indulgence, or is it just that particular ones fell into the trap?

As far as the dominance of US drama goes, what else can you do but be honest about the dreadful state of TV drama in the UK? I mean, ITV's idea of a big new drama for 2003 features Martin Kemp as a maverick detective with a tangled personal life, and the same channel is actually going to air a second season of Footballers' Wives! The only drama series I'm looking forward to on Channel 4 in the next couple of months is The Secret Life of Us. The BBC are putting out lots of ads for Messiah 2, which appears to be a sequel to yet another detective drama. At the same time the BBC are quite open about their lack of interest in producing any sort of science fiction drama. (Then again, their last effort was the dire Invasion Earth, so perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies.)

I'll stop now before my rant really gathers momentum. After all, that's what I have my own weblog for. :-)

Posted by John on January 1, 2003 09:22 PM

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