A little bit cross-media, but bear with me…
Over at the podcast, we get a lot of email from artists who have been channelled towards us by various PR agencies.
There’s a pattern. In a very short space of time…
- we’ll get a MySpace friend request. A couple of minutes later…
- we’ll get a ‘… is now following you on Twitter’ notification. Soon afterwards…
- we’ll get an email with the subject ‘Hi! Hope you enjoy my music’
I love enthusiasm in people. And I love artists who have self-belief. Talented musicians who are enthusiastic self-believers are totally gorgeous.
We always write back and say we’ll definitely give their work a listen, but when we add that, unfortunately, our ‘waiting to be played’ list is almost a year long, you can practically hear their disappointment without even picking up the phone.
Meanwhile…
We find ourselves watching less television these days. Actually, what I mean is that, on a decreasing curve, we’re watching fewer mainstream television programmes.
Is it me/us, or are BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, C4, C5 – the mainstream broadcasters (we don’t have Sky for obvious reasons) – putting out schedules that, really, are not even worth the effort of watching?
We don’t watch huge amounts of television, but to compensate for the shortfall in mainstream viewing, we’ve been stepping up the amount of films and the number of ‘on-demand’ TV shows.
As a result, we’ve discovered and crammed our way through the first series of Flash Forward – only to become bitterly disappointed that the show was cancelled before they made a second season!
The same kind of thing happened to Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip – cancelled from beneath our viewing feet.
We’re currently watching The Mentalist. It’s not as good as either Flash Forward or Studio 60, but it is still better than a hell of a lot of the dire output that the mainstream are offering.
So my question is.
What’s worth watching – in your eyes?
Please bear in mind our ‘no Murdoch’ situation.
We do have NZ’s Sky TV – don’t know if it’s Murdoch related. One of the main reasons we recently upgraded to their DVR is that prime time on our FTA channels is not exactly blessed with loads of quality shows, but there are some gems at odd hours on odd channels. We also regularly watch DVDs of favourite (mostly British) shows. I think “good TV” is so scarce these days they have to seriously pad it out with rubbish.
Hold on: you’re self-confessed fans of Big Brother.
If you can watch that, surely any old rubbish would suit your tv palate 😉
I felt that Studio 60 was nothing short of excellent, but whilst Flash Forward started with great promise, it fuzzled away towards the end,
People keep telling me to watch Mad Men, which I understand is on BBC2 late at night.
DEXTER!!!!!!
I would imagine you’ve already seen it, but a box set of The West Wing is a wonderful investment. Have heard good things about Mad Men & The Wire but not been a fan of the few episodes I’ve seen.
Love a bit of Spooks on BBC, new season starts tomorrow.
Allister, good TV is indeed scarce. And a significant proportion of good television seems to be coming from the US these days, which is a form reversal.
Masher, I just knew someone was going to bring BB in to the equation. But we do enjoy it. So there.
Matty, If ‘Dexter’ isn’t about an overweight dog, with a name like that it should be. Will stick it on the list for a look-see though. Thanks.
Femme, Yep, we have a full set of TWW. And Buffy. And Angel. I can’t get in to Spooks for real-life reasons, but like you we’ve heard good things about Mad Men, so that’s on the list. The Wire? Hmm… now there’s another thought. Thanks.
I’m not a big telebox watcher, but there are a few things I don’t like to miss.
‘The Inbetweeners’ as I stuggle not to wee or poo myself with laughter, and laughing is good.
Top Gear, as Boy 1 and I share an interest in all things metal, fast and unaffordable, plus he loves their stupid challenges.
That’s about it really, I’m pretty useless to ask as I don’t watch a great deal. Unless it’s the Six Nations rugby.
I’d like to thank Femme for letting us know that Spooks starts tomorrow!
Also: I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard nothing but good things said about The Wire.
Another vote here for The Wire.
I like Spooks, it’s full of improbably good looking people (and that thin-faced woman) doing unlikely things. Sometimes it’s dafter than a hatful of drunken weasels but it’s good escapism for an hour. I watched a good docu-drama thing on BBC2 last week, called First Light, about Spitfire pilots in the second world war. Other than that, I’m struggling because most telly is dire. I’ve not watched Mad Men so joining in now would be pointless and I don’t watch US series because they’re all about 30 episodes long so I lose too much time on them.