A Spoonful of Shit
I have fallen in love with a show over in "Pommyland", unfortunately it is an American show, though it has an English bent. It is called Nanny 911 and it basically consists of one of the nannies from Nanny HQ (a quaint little English cottage with swivelling paintings/video screens) moving into an American household to fix up their domestic mess.
It is crappy reality television but it makes for great viewing because these American families are so way out there.
After the first day, the nanny makes a set of rules for the family's improvement. For a sneak peak of how ace this show is check out the rules for this week:
1. Food is eaten at the table.It is so ace. Let me know if they are showing this shit in Oz.
2. Everyone sleeps in their own beds.
3. Pee and poo go in the loo.
4. Kids inside, pigs outside.
Tags: reality television
posted by walypala @ 5:23 am
9 Comments:
Oh dear God, first you think Norton's Sound of Music reality tv shite is the bomb, and now this??? Do I need to send a search-and-rescue team? Where is Mike and what have you done with him?!!
Ha haaa, unfortunately I have succumbed to the persuasive idiocy of British television.
Everyone told me brit tv was great and I was dubious and it turns out that it is truly and utterly shit. So shit it is addictive!
The other show we watched last night was "Honey We're Killing The Kids". That one has some totally ridiculous CGI projections of what a family will look like in 30 years if they continue their current lifestyle.
All I need now is a water cooler!
persuasive idiocy is, well, er persuasive. Poor old Neale has to put up with my endless viewing of the E Entertainment Channel's high quality specials - "101 top balding sitcom sidekicks where are they now ?" etc.
Havent seen the new nanny show tho..
Oh, oh, they're good too. There is one of those countdown shows at least once a week over here.
Will the fun never end?
I am so pleased to see that Donald is now the last bastion of devotion to tasteful television (You too will fall, my friend). I, as you well know, succumbed to a love of shite at a very early age... though the balding sidekicks did truoble me somewhat... at least after the first 20 or so... :)
Hey, no fair. I loves my tacky tasteless telly.
However, I have a strong and increasing aversion to the faux-reality of so-called "reality tv": the endless time-wasting elements trying to generate tension and/or interest "Who will make it to the next episode?" (Who cares!), the emotional bullshit of contenders pretending to love one another "We've been through so much together, Shawanda! No matter what happens, we'll be friends for life!" (please pass the sick-bucket) and the idea that being humiliated on television somehow justifies "the journey" they've been on, cause "I feel like I've won, just by making it this far!". It's all so repetetive and booooring.
And nannies dealing with fucked-up American families? Please don't even go there.
And before I get off my high-horse, I wonder how long it will be before there is a "Top 20 Countdown of Top 20 Countdowns". It's all cheaply made tv which puts writers out of business!
Oh hell, it is not like "countdowns" are putting writers out of work. The stations are doing a good enough job of that!
A well written show requires time to build an audience. The networks are no longer willing to invest any faith in a well written show.
Look at the fate of Firefly, Wonderfalls, Arrested Development. Unless shows are highly formula driven (CSI: Kentucky) or "reality" (Limb:Swap) they are not going to have a big enough hook to get a look in.
Thank sweet baby lord Jesus for HBO. Six Feet Under, Carnivale and my new favourite that you all need to check out, The Wire all have a chance to build an audience and it has paid off. But they are a subscription station that doesn't rely so heavily on advertising.
Yes reality television is manufactured and tedious at times. But it can also be entertaining as a genre in its own right, with its own concomitant conventions. That is half the fun of Nanny 911. It is obvious that the timeline is so distorted and the disapproving cutaways so obviously shot afterwards and spliced in. If you buy into it it can be fun, just as game shows or soap operas can be fun.
"If you buy into it" I think is key. I guess I'm just fed up with having to "buy into" something in order to enjoy it; revelling in the artifice, the kitsch, the campiness, but too soon realising that there is simply nothing else to it. After a while it all becomes so devoid of meaning.
Yes indeed, thank God for HBO.
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