Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Square-Eyed Couch Potato: May 2009

I'm actually surprised that I have anything to write about at all, as there is nothing remotely decent on the box these days and don't even start me on "Britain's Got Talent" - am I the only person who doesn't "get" this show?

Another of Simon Cowell's long-running (and maybe past its sell-by date) shows is American Idol. I used to be a really big fan of this show but again I got bored with it after about 4 series. Nevertheless I couldn't resist sneaking a peek at the final, which was, in the words of Ryan Seacrest, "the guy next door versus the guyliner". The guy next door (Kris Allen) won: he's a handsome young man with boy-band appeal, but IMHO he lacked the charisma and originality of the very 'theatrical' Adam Lambert, who just screamed (literally) worldwide star. Much has been written elsewhere in blog-land and cyberspace so I don't have anything to add, except to say 'Adam woz robbed'.

I've even got round to watching a few films which have been on Sky Movies! I expected to hate "Juno" because it received so much praise and hype when it was released. However, I thought it was rather fab. This tale of teen pregnancy could have been a potential disaster but instead it was smart and funny with one of the best scripts in years.

A more conventional chick-flick was "27 Dresses" starring Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl in the leading role. I'm not a girly-girl or a chick-flick fan but sometimes you just need some light, fluffy, undemanding and predictable viewing, and this fitted the bill.

Another pleasant surprise for me was "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" which I actually found quite funny, and as it did have Judd Apatow's name on the credits it wasn't exactly 'family viewing' so I knew what to expect. And Russell Brand was in it, playing, well, a version of Russell Brand.

Whilst many reality tv shows are ready for the dumper, "The Apprentice" is still going strong. It has nothing new to offer, but its got tons of car-crash-tv appeal and I just keep coming back for more. I don't envy 'Siralan' having to pick from this year's dismal bunch, whose egos are a long way from their talent: remember Harry Hill's "This week's Apprentice in a nutshell" :)

As usual I'm a bit late getting into something which is probably old news already, but I've just discovered "Flight of the Conchords" : season two is currently airing on BBC Four, and I liked it enough to go out and buy the season one box set. (More about this next time)

"Coronation Street" has been much improved of late - perhaps due to some really sharp, funny scripts, perhaps due to it being a Platt-free zone, I don't know why? - but what does it have to do to win Best Soap at the "British Soap Awards" which recently took place. Change its name to "Eastenders" perhaps?

A brief mention for "ER" which finishes for good, tomorrow night on More 4. I'll do another post about this later on, but in the meantime what I will say is that I've rather enjoyed the final series, with the guest appearances of old characters being done in a meaningful and not just a token way. All good things must come to an end though, and they are doing the right thing finishing it now. Hopefully all the loose ends will be tied up too and will it be too much to ask for a happy ending?

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