I’m running out of ways to get more excited about Rose (26th March – 7pm – BBC1) what with the billboards \ trailers \ press coverage and all. Even Newsnight Review loved it, apart from American Bonnie Greer, who thought the acting and plots were wonderful but didn’t “get it”. Which gives me a very good feeling: it’s a British show after all.
(And yes, I promise I was only watching Newsnight Review for that!)
Now then – term ends on Wednesday (already!?) so I’ve got to finish my ICT Coursework and then it’s all revision. Although technically you can’t revise something until you’ve actually learnt it the first time… Humanities department, are you listening? 
Oh, and tonight’s shout out goes to Maya, because she’s shockingly escaped a mention here so far despite helping me to hijack Babbleblog. And she fancies Nic. Strange girl…
I don’t want to sound spiteful, because they’ve tried hard. Real hard. The boring sets, dull costumes, and even sticking (pretty much) to the UK plots. But somehow, from the promo at least, they just don’t ‘get it’.
A big problem is the incredibly stupid music that’s overlaid on top. Again, it’s just a promo thing, so I’ll reserve judgement. But the whole thing doesn’t look like a cheap documentary, it looks like a sitcom. Their David Brent is just – well – he’s too happy. Brent was never really a happy person, just desperate to entertain others. He would speak slowly in the talking heads section, trying to be a great philosopher rather trying to crack a joke.
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Over the past few days I’ve seen the first 3 episodes…. backwards. And – it’s good. It’s very good. There’s just the right blend of drama and comedy, with the ‘unmissable’ factor that comes from a good plot. It’s not particularly deep but there’s enough substance to make it great TV. The narration by the dead character (don’t worry – I’m not spoiling anything) is a bit cheesy but quirky enough to hold the thing together.
Everybody does end up looking like a supermodel though – aren’t the suburbs Super-Sized too?
Well, tonight was the last in the series (I presume) – it’s back ‘in the new year’.
We’ll see, of course, but it looks like the BBC have made the guest presenter arrangement permanent. It keeps the programme very fresh in my opinion. A new host would always appeal to some of the audience more than others, so why not have a mixture?
Why, by the way, are there so few sites dedicated to HIGNFY? I mean, look at the Yahoo Directory listing, it’s pathetic. Martyn Alner is about the only guy to have made anything. Sigh, I might have to do it myself sometime.
I suppose everyone has their own dream candidate to host a show. Personally, I’d love to see Jon Stewart, who seems to work his way into a scarily large number of my blog posts at the moment. Angus Deayton also needs a come back, maybe as a guest? In fantasy land now, but imagine Blair? Maybe when he resigns over Iraq he’ll consider it… (Told you I was in fantasy land.)
Christmas TV looks especially dire this year to be honest. At least we got The Office Christmas Specials last time, although Dead Ringers has been on a real high recently and so their show should be worth watching at least.
Beth on Bergen: “It’s always fun to see you two having such a great time exploring a new place!” Apr 7, 15:05
