television

Masterchef: The Professionals is brilliant.  I’m no foodie – but I do like good food, and appreciate good restaurants (in the sense that I don’t give a shit about the associated pomp – rather the food).  And Masterchef: The Professionals is all about the food.  Unlike many television shows all of the contestants are already reasonable chefs, and many of the contestants are not just competent; they border on brilliance.  If the up and coming chefs on the show are representative of David Cameron’s Broken Britain, it’s another reason he should go inflate himself with a bicycle pump every time he utters the platitude.   Many of the featured chefs are the future of the UK restaurant scene.

It’s the best food show on television at the moment.  Bar none.  It’s better than Top Chef.  There is zero excessive drama worked in by producers. So well done BBC.  Michel Roux Jnr is a bit scary though.  He reminds me of my old French teacher, who was ex-military, and had a stare that was odd.  But Michel Roux Jnr, and Gregg Wallace, are very good presenters for the show.  Because they know their onions (it’s a good one to note that BBC – front shows with people who know, in-depth, about the subject they’re presenting – seems obvious that one).  They’re also personable.

Great stuff – it’s on iPlayer, but if you can’t get iPlayer where you are you have my permission (as a license fee payer) to pirate it for the benefit of mankind.  It’s a shame it’s on 18:30 on BBC 2 because many people aren’t home to watch it on their actual telly-boxes.  Thanks to iPlayer that’s less of a problem than it was, but I think placing Masterchef: The Professionals in that slot is as bigger crime as the slot the first series of The Mighty Boosh had.

There’s plenty on television but nothing that grabs me. Which got me thinking…

What would I like to watch?

Which is a question everybody should ask and write blog posts about. It’s a difficult question because it’s hard to go beyond simple statements like “a good comedy” or “a decent documentary”. Good and decent are not qualities that are universally appreciable – they’re relative to me/you. There’s plenty of things that are good that other people think are shit and vice-versa. So, maybe the question should be revised to:

What would I like to watch that other people would like to watch?

The difference between “What would I like to watch?” and “What would I like to watch that other people would like to watch?” is something that is often overlooked . Homer Simpson was not aware of the distinction between such questions when he designed his car. On the other-hand it’s a bit self important to make presumptions about what other people want to watch – but surely it would be more self-important to say what I’d like to watch without reference to other people? Or is that worse? Why bother to talk about it at all if I’m going to feel bad about it?

There comes a time, in every bloggers life, maybe during a flicker of remorse for wasted minutes bashing at a keyboard, that you start off with something, and talk yourself out of writing about it. Because it’s rubbish. Less lazy, more committed bloggers wouldn’t even bother to post this. What a loss to the world that would be.

TBC

There are qualities that exist in all great film-drama characters that are hard to pin down. It is too simplistic to say that the characters have depth or complexity because some great film characters aren’t complex and don’t have depth. An element may be that while a part of a narrative, at some point in the film, (or even all of it) a great character’s motivations are not obvious to the viewer. So elements of the character are open to interpretation and the character is interesting as a result. Another factor may be the freshness of a role. As defined by the script and/or director and/or acting skills. A memorable character – because they’re novel and a benchmark by which others will be judged. And, I suppose, the pathos or revulsion the character can elicit from an audience.

All in varying proportions. Of course. One day a twat will paid peanuts to put together a shoddy equation for the benefit of a cinema chain. Who’ll pump out press releases on the unsuspecting public like bukkake. Mopped up by the news.