Sunday Scrapbook 1.4 – Stuff from the King

This week Outside the Box brings you a selection of goodies floating out there in cyberspace from the king of television commentary Charlie Brooker.

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Charlie’s blog on the Guardian website is a treasure trove of wisdom and insight into the world of television, and he also offers advise. This week he shows readers how to escape the doom and gloom of living during the CREDIT CRUNCH.

From the Guardian:

Feeling helpless? Hollow? Futile and joyless? Crushed? Downtrodden? Just plain lousy? I could go on, but the list would only depress you. Depressed? Of course you are. There’s an eerie calm in the air as we glide through what feels like a brief “phoney war” period before the CREDIT CRUNCH (which from now on, according to official guidelines, must be capitalised each time it appears in print, just to make it even more frightening) . . . before the CREDIT CRUNCH starts to bite for real and your local park becomes a shantytown filled with dog-faced people in rags prostituting themselves for a thimbleful of water.

Still, there’s no point in despairing. You may feel scared and vulnerable right now, but all that can be turned around in an instant. You have the power within you! Or rather, slightly outside you! I’m talking about your skin. Your skin isn’t simply a handy pliable coating that stops your liver plopping on to the floor like a fat red salmon: it’s a magic cloak of empowerment. I’ve learned this from television: all you have to do is whip your clothes off, show everyone your bum for a few minutes and, bingo, you’re empowered. Trinny and Susannah pioneered the idea, encouraging members of the public to pose in front of full-length mirrors in their underwear as part of the makeover process, but it wasn’t until Gok Wan began saving women from certain death each week, by making them strip completely naked before projecting their photo up the side of a building, that the idea really took off.

[click here to continue reading]

So loved is Charlie Brooker that not only does he get to write for a National newspaper, but the BBC have also given him a TV show, Screenwipe, which is probably one of the most complained about shows across all of the BBC.

And Mr Brooker not only has his own TV show, he has also made a TV show, the zombie thriller Dead Set, set within the confines of the Big Brother house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ5ywNqbJrM

And if that was not enough, at one time Charlie had a very popular TV website, which sadly is no longer being updated, but IS still floating out there in cyberspace. TV Go Home.

2nd chance to see – The Wire

I was going to rave on like a maniac about how good The Wire is, but then I found this video from Charlie Brooker, so I will let you listen to him instead via this video – he says everything I was going to anyhow…

So with the explanation about how unbelievably good The Wire is, let me inform you here in the UK that you have a second chance to watch the series again beginning Monday, February 23 on FX. It really is one of those shows that you absolutely must watch before you die, and as only 40,000 people managed to tune in the last time it was on, there are quite a few of you out there in the UK who need to catch-up!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WIRE

CHARLIE BROOKER’S SCREENWIPE… you must see this!

Regular readers will know one of my main inspirations for creating this blog was the wonderful Charlie Brooker. This week on his television show about television, Screenwipe, Charlie focused on children’s TV. A short segment presented by his minion Andy Nyman featured a children’s show made for American public broadcasting TV in California, and it is so bad you just have to watch it!

Curls v boys in The Devil’s Whore – Times Online

Anybody who reads this blog on any sort of regular basis knows that my two inspirations for this mish mash of a telly blog are the wonderful Times columnist Caitlin Moran and the fantastic telly critic/TV presenter/TV producer Charlie Brooker. So occasionally when it is relevant I like to pass on bits and pieces of their articles… so I present Caitlin Moran’s views on the wonderful Channel 4 drama The Devil’s Whore.

From The Times:

Caitlin Moran

In terms of telly, the Second World War is, without doubt, the best one. The uniforms of the opposing armies are sufficiently different to alleviate confusion during battlefield scenes, the Americans pile in half-way – which facilitates the casting of exciting Hollywood stars – and in the end, the British, who are without doubt the goodies, win! Huzzah!

Consider, by contrast, the English Civil War. It’s a difficult war to love. Who are we supposed to be rooting for? The Roundheads are fighting for democracy – a set of attributes that almost infallibly signal “the goodies”. But when Cromwell eventually attains power, he bans Christmas – in effect, murders Santa – which puts him in a pop-culture category with the Grinch and the White Witch.

And what are you supposed to make of the Cavaliers? They might be running the country into the ground – what with their fascistic views on religion and democracy, punitive taxes, etc. But then, they have great hair. Whenever you see a group of humungo-wigged Cavalier soldiers marching off to war, curls bouncing in the sun, you feel like singing “Here come the girls” and doing the stirring-up-a-pot-of-funk dance. Again, great hair almost infallibly signals a goodie. Our Pavlovian instinct is to root for the glossy locks of the Cavalier. It’s all

continue reading via>>>  Curls v boys in The Devil’s Whore – Times Online

Dead Set… Dead Good!!!

Anybody who knows me, knows that I hate Big Brother! I cringe every year when it approaches, and it is my prime example of a show that showcases all that is wrong with our celebrity obsessed society.

So imagine how excited I was when I heard that Charlie Brooker, the Screenwipe guy, Guardian television critic, and creator of the once mighty but now defunct TV Go Home website, had created a series in which zombies attack the Big Brother house… I was so excited, small amounts of wee leaked out!

After my excitement waned a bit, I then got a bit nervous, as good as the premise of the show, as a telly fan, and self-confessed BB hater, what is to become of me if the show turns out to be shit… Always a possibility when dealing with any television show, especially one that is being made for E4, the only network in the world that still shows Friends during prime-time. My nervous disposition though was short-lived because after viewing the trailer, and then seeing the website, I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO BE INSTANTLY CLASSIC TELEVISION… Not classy, classic!

So after months of marking little x’s off of my calendar, Dead Set finally arrived to my telly box tonight, and as I guessed, it was good… really, really good!

The show began it’s broadcast with a voice-over set of warnings, standard issue in our cotton wool society, “This show contains violence, gore, swearing” etc etc, but then in an original move the voice over contained viewing instructions. “This show is best viewed in wide-screen, with surround sound, and the lights turned off”, original yes! but really is it necessary to alienate the poorer parts of your audience who don’t have a wide-screen telly and surround sound?

Anyhow, getting back to the subject at hand, I spent the next hour (45 minutes minus the annoying adverts) engrossed in glorious blood-splattered, Big Brother bashing television… And as an added bonus it also showcased the lovely and talented actress Jaime Winstone!

 

 

Truly this is “must-see TV”, so good that I actually even got to watch the lovely Davina McCall in a television show that didn’t make me cringe in horror… well actually perhaps that is not an accolade that a horror show wants, but anyone who has ever endured the horrors of Big Brother, and Davina (McCall’s failed talk show understand.

So if zombies eating BB contestants is your thing, then dash over to E4 this every night this week and check out what is sure to be one of the most talked about TV shows this year, or watch it online on the Channel4 Catch-up service.