The TV Thread

[Ullman]

Black Sabbath - The End on Sky Arts.

One classic after another.

[Futtocks]

On 18/03/2018 at 8:47 PM, Futtocks said:

Just seen the trailer - 'Cunk on Britain' is coming soon.  

More info breaking - this will be a 5-part series, not a standalone programme.  

[Bedford Roughyed]

Westworld series 2 less than a month away.  Can't wait!

Trailer hints it won't be straight forward!

[Derwent]

2 new episodes of Car Share to air in May.

Season 3 of the excellent Billions starts tonight.

Happy days.

[Wiltshire Rhino]

Suits returns tonight. I'm sure Prince Harry will be tuning in. 

[ckn]

Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix, binge watching season 2 today  

[Wiltshire Rhino]

Just watched Pilgrimage on BBC2. So that's "walk the Camino" added to my bucket list...

[graveyard johnny]

if there was ever an argument to scrap the licence fee- mel and sue bring back the generation game tonight, danny dyer is on it too

 

[Spidey]

46 minutes ago, ckn said:

Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix, binge watching season 2 today  

Did that last week. Thoroughly enjoyed it

[graveyard johnny]

didn't watch the generation game but its had a slating from the critics as been "desperate" people might knock jim davidson  but he has actually been known to make people physically laugh for real in the past, why are mel and sue on tv or in front of cameras at all?

[Futtocks]

Out of curiosity, I watched the latest reboot of the Generation Game. A lot of negative comments on social media seemed to be aimed at the presenters or the corporation, rather than the programme itself, and followed a similar pattern to comments about other BBC programmes they have hosted.

The show itself was a bit of a greatest hits package, challenging the contestants to work on a potter's wheel (instructed by Johnny Vegas) and spin plates (a skill probably not seen on prime-time TV since the last time the show was exhumed) and sausage-making (which proved fertile ground for double entendres). And a nod to the new was the Bhangra dance troupe, who were spectacular... until the contestants tried to join in.

Cards on the table; I never was much of a fan of the show, even when Bruce Forsyth or Larry Grayson were the presenters (Isla St Clair, on the other hand...). But I was curious and, while it wasn't my cup of tea, there were enjoyable bits in an uneven whole. The contestants were enthusiastic and had fun, but some of the celeb guest spots fell very flat.

Oh, and Sue came up with the phrase "pork vortex", which will almost certainly be appearing in a Profanisaurus or Urban Dictionary very soon.  

In short, a bit of a curate's egg of a show. Nowhere near as bad as the "I hate the BBC and most modern things" mob would claim, but it looked like a rough-cut pilot show more than a polished final product. If I were Mel and Sue's agent, I'd have warned them off a programme with such a history, to be honest. It really is a no-win gig.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Futtocks

[graveyard johnny]

2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Out of curiosity, I watched the latest reboot of the Generation Game. A lot of negative comments on social media seemed to be aimed at the presenters or the corporation, rather than the programme itself, and followed a similar pattern to comments about other BBC programmes they have hosted.

The show itself was a bit of a greatest hits package, challenging the contestants to work on a potter's wheel (instructed by Johnny Vegas) and spin plates (a skill probably not seen on prime-time TV since the last time the show was exhumed) and sausage-making (which proved fertile ground for double entendres). And a nod to the new was the Bhangra dance troupe, who were spectacular... until the contestants tried to join in.

Cards on the table; I never was much of a fan of the show, even when Bruce Forsyth or Larry Grayson were the presenters (Isla St Clair, on the other hand...). But I was curious and, while it wasn't my cup of tea, there were enjoyable bits in an uneven whole. The contestants were enthusiastic and had fun, but some of the celeb guest spots fell very flat.

Oh, and Sue came up with the phrase "pork vortex", which will almost certainly be appearing in a Profanisaurus or Urban Dictionary very soon.  

In short, a bit of a curate's egg of a show. Nowhere near as bad as the "I hate the BBC and modern things" mob would claim, but it looked like a rough-cut pilot show more than a polished final product. If I were Mel and Sue's agent, I'd have warned them off a programme with such a history, to be honest. It really is a no-win gig.

mel and sue are like ant and dec to me, which ones sue which ones mel which ones ant which ones dec, who really cares?

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, graveyard johnny said:

mel and sue are like ant and dec to me, which ones sue which ones mel which ones ant which ones dec, who really cares?

If you don't like a presenter or presenters, there's always the option to watch something else. I know, because my dad can't stand about 99.99% of all TV presenters. An evening at his place sees him either changing channels or hitting the mute button almost constantly. He wears out remote controls like nothing I've ever seen!

[graveyard johnny]

2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

If you don't like a presenter or presenters, there's always the option to watch something else. I know, because my dad can't stand about 99.99% of all TV presenters. An evening at his place sees him either changing channels or hitting the mute button almost constantly. He wears out remote controls like nothing I've ever seen!

all round to your dads then, I like the sound of him

[Futtocks]

2 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

all round to your dads then, I like the sound of him

The problem is, he also misses lots of the programmes he enjoys, because as soon as the adverts come on, he's mashing buttons, muttering curses and zooming up and down the EPG. So he misses bits of the original show he was watching, because he's lost his place in the channel list.

[graveyard johnny]

2 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

The problem is, he also misses lots of the programmes he enjoys, because as soon as the adverts come on, he's mashing buttons, muttering curses and zooming up and down the EPG. So he misses bits of the original show he was watching, because he's lost his place in the channel list.

if I see that advert with james corden driving a car in America one more time I will go insane

[graveyard johnny]

mel  and sue are on tv because they went to Cambridge uni and were in the footights gang, they know him who knows her etc, oh they are both female and ones a lesbian ( well done there bbc) not because either has a shred of talent or real personality that conveys in to our living rooms, any how get the awards ready for them now ant n dec are on the wane

[Futtocks]

39 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

mel  and sue are on tv because they went to Cambridge uni and were in the footights gang, they know him who knows her etc, oh they are both female and ones a lesbian ( well done there bbc) not because either has a shred of talent or real personality that conveys in to our living rooms, any how get the awards ready for them now ant n dec are on the wane

They are also extremely popular with a large number of viewers. Not you, of course. But there are millions of other people with their own televisions and opinions.

See also And & Dec who (recent events aside), have been ITV's sole golden goose when it comes to audience appeal outside X-Factor. They get awards by the armful, whether it is decided by a panel vote or a public vote. The shows they present aren't to my taste, but I can see why they get so many gigs.

[John Drake]

22 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Out of curiosity, I watched the latest reboot of the Generation Game. A lot of negative comments on social media seemed to be aimed at the presenters or the corporation, rather than the programme itself, and followed a similar pattern to comments about other BBC programmes they have hosted.

The show itself was a bit of a greatest hits package, challenging the contestants to work on a potter's wheel (instructed by Johnny Vegas) and spin plates (a skill probably not seen on prime-time TV since the last time the show was exhumed) and sausage-making (which proved fertile ground for double entendres). And a nod to the new was the Bhangra dance troupe, who were spectacular... until the contestants tried to join in.

Cards on the table; I never was much of a fan of the show, even when Bruce Forsyth or Larry Grayson were the presenters (Isla St Clair, on the other hand...). But I was curious and, while it wasn't my cup of tea, there were enjoyable bits in an uneven whole. The contestants were enthusiastic and had fun, but some of the celeb guest spots fell very flat.

Oh, and Sue came up with the phrase "pork vortex", which will almost certainly be appearing in a Profanisaurus or Urban Dictionary very soon.  

In short, a bit of a curate's egg of a show. Nowhere near as bad as the "I hate the BBC and most modern things" mob would claim, but it looked like a rough-cut pilot show more than a polished final product. If I were Mel and Sue's agent, I'd have warned them off a programme with such a history, to be honest. It really is a no-win gig.

I watched it, for similar reasons. 

I laughed, several times, in all the right places. It's just a bit of innocent fun, after all. You don't watch the Gen Game for a cerebral challenge. You know what you're getting in advance.

I agree it felt a bit like a pilot show, and I'm not sure what the point of having Richard Osman and Lorraine Kelly sat watching on from the sidelines was, but I don't mind Mel & Sue at all. Their humour isn't cruel, which makes them ideal to present a show like this, IMO.

Funnily enough, on ITV3 the same night there was a show on about the career of Larry Grayson, which included lots of clips of his stint presenting the Generation Game. I laughed at those too, even though the clips were 40 years old. Apparently he was warned off taking over from Brucie as it might prove to be career suicide, but it turned out better than the original in terms of viewing figures because he did it in his own style, not copying.

Times have changed though. I wonder how many of the much loved shows that pulled in millions of viewers and ran for many years back in the 60s/70s/80s would have survived 'ordeal by Twitter', with people pulling them to bits in real time while it was still being broadcast?

Given that I'm a fan of Doctor Who, a show that was resurrected in 2005 after a 16 year absence from the screens to great success, I'm never gonna have a pop at the Beeb for digging up any of its other famous brands for another outing. I still carry a torch that they'll bring back TOTP one day!

[Amber Avenger]

The Generation Game is a sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t sort of format. Change it too much and people complain, don’t change it enough and it’s stuck in the past and just doing a load of greatest hits, apparently like what happened on Sunday. It’s obviously been through production hell, it was originally supposed to be four episodes and has been cut to just two.

It’s really easy to knock light entertainment (see plenty of posts in this thread for examples) and plenty of the complaints about the latest Gen Game could have been written to the letter before a second had even been recorded. When light entertainment is done right there really is nothing like it. In this day and age, shows that can be enjoyed in equal measure by people of all ages from 5 to 105 are in short supply. For me I think the hosts are key – for me Mel and Sue aren’t prime time bankers, they are a cult hit who enjoyed a bit of good fortune presenting the Bake Off (and did it very well, even if their presenting style isn’t to my taste) and shows of varying fortune before and after.  

I think the Generation Game is probably doomed to failure in any reboot as there are too many things working against it, as too many people think it should be different things. That doesn’t mean light entertainment elements can’t be taken by other shows. In fact many have – it’s fingerprints are all over Saturday Night Takeaway for example. What I think will probably happen in reality is that people will deem the latest Generation Game a failure and that will hinder any future light entertainment programmes trying anything similar for a while. It did rate reasonably well though, will be interesting to see if many people go back for episode two.

[Vernon]

I was moaning to the wife about the dearth of quality dramas on TV these days, evening schedules seem to be soaps, reality TV or cooking progs. Then I stumbled across 'The Looming Tower' on Amazon Prime ...   well worth a look

[Futtocks]

I sometimes wonder why people with no discernible sense of humour bother watching comedy shows. The Twitter fallout from the first episode of the latest HIGNFY is balanced about 50/50 between accusations of raving right-wing bias and loony leftie sympathies.

I'm sure these people would derive exactly as much enjoyment from just screaming obscenities at a switched-off TV set. One that was painted on the wall.

[Wiltshire Rhino]

7 hours ago, Futtocks said:

I sometimes wonder why people with no discernible sense of humour bother watching comedy shows. The Twitter fallout from the first episode of the latest HIGNFY is balanced about 50/50 between accusations of raving right-wing bias and loony leftie sympathies.

I'm sure these people would derive exactly as much enjoyment from just screaming obscenities at a switched-off TV set. One that was painted on the wall.

Paxman being stereotypical Paxman and the panelists giving him stick. I enjoyed it! 

[Bearman]

5 hours ago, Wiltshire Rhino said:

Paxman being stereotypical Paxman and the panelists giving him stick. I enjoyed it! 

Best HIGNFY for years. 

[Bearman]

Thank God for series link.

The Americans is back and I must have missed the ads.