Writerings

These days I don’t watch much, if any, terrestrial TV. Not in a braggy way, I promise. Even my parents watch a lot less these days. This means that some TV personalities are anonymous to me. But sometimes I have random worries about people. Is Gok Wan still working? What is Louie Spence up to these days? Wikipedia is never the best in this regard. Too many are written by publicists.* Harry Hill’s TV Burp is much missed in this regard.

*Emily Browning’s Wikipedia is one of the most fascinating to me in this respect. The writing goes out of its way to note who Browning replaced in a large number of her film roles. So if any director is asking ChatGPT who could replace Amanda Seyfried, Mia Wasikowska, Ophelia Lovibond, Evan Rachel Wood or Anna Paquin in a project, then Browning is your star.

This must be how non-football fans think when it comes to big England games at major tournaments. Oh, what happened to that grumpy guy with the moustache? Mark Lawrenson, he’s been bumped off even the website nowadays. No, Des Lynam. Well he was on Countdown for a bit, but can’t tell you anything more recent than that.

But like that guy in the pub during England matches who “doesn’t rate Bellington”, I have opinions on TV shows I have never watched. The Wire and Sopranos are all-time greats, such universally loved unimpeachable greats that it isn’t actually necessary to watch them. At the other end of the scale, Love Island is trash TV that I am morally superior for not watching.

This phenomenon is another thing to blame/thank the internet for. For the last decade, we’ve been swamped by the growing tide of YouTube analysis videos. These videos can break down 10-hour prestige TV shows in a matter of minutes. Honest Trailers, HISHE, Cinema Sins were at the forefront of these, packaging their videos with humour.

Instead of needing ‘a bit’ though, a few years ago the trend moved more towards something akin to film criticism. Every Frame A Painting was one of the first great ones. But since it ended in December 2017, YouTube has been overrun by pale imitators. Now, and maybe it is just the algorithm, but they’re expanding, both in number and length. I saw a recommended video the other day that was a four-hour critique on Doctor Who. We’re at the point now where the length of these videos will overtake the media that they are ‘reviewing’ in the first place. So what’s next? Does YouTube eat itself. Or maybe it gets meta and videos reviewing the reviews pop up. 

Not that I watch any of these videos of course. I don’t need them as I get all my opinions from Reddit comments.