Presenter Oprah Winfrey
Genre Talk show
I know you think it's tripe. Well I am addicted to Dr Phil. He's a hard hitting, no nonsense Southern American psychiatrist. He holds no punches and takes no prisoners. He has pro-active advice for those floundering relationships. I have to say I admire Oprah for holding up on camera after what happened with her boyfriend.
The Outer Limits
Genre Sci-Fi
Very similar to 'The Twilight Zone', but not as engaging. The concepts don't really grab me in the way the original series did. The sort of ideas like Stephen King had about his computer. What if when you press delete, it doesn't delete the word it deletes the object from reality. Those kind of concepts
Starring Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Camryn Manheim, Lara Flynn Boyle
Creator David E Kelly
Genre Drama
I'm afraid this show is in re-runs again, but if you haven't seen it yet. Wait for the beginning of the next set of re-runs. It is the most compelling court room drama I have ever watched, more compelling than 'Kavanah', 'Judging Amy'. It combines soap oprah narrative, high drama, comedy and the surreal. Sometimes you can't decide whether to take it seriously or tongue in cheek. Certainly the current shows are stretching the boundaries between a serious concept exploration and a rediculous one, but somehow you don't mind the push the boundaries out, perhaps it's because of the great chemistry between all the main characters.
Starring Gale Harold, Scott Lowell, Peter Paige, Hal Sparkes
Created Russell T Davies
Genre comedy/drama
Oh Michael, Michael, Michael! Are you really gay? This programme has been on for ages, but I've only just started watching it. It's just sex, sex, sex all the way. Something for the hetro guy too if you f/fwd to the two lesbian characters. It explores the issues facing gay men, sometimes humerous sometimes more serious. It is to women what 'Womans magazine' is to men. I've learned a lot about the way men's minds work.
Seinfeld(link)
Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Julie Louise Dreyfus,
Genre Comedy
What? You mean to say you haven't seen this yet? Next you'll be telling me you haven't seen the 'X Files' or 'The Simpsons'. They say this is a show about nothing. I disagree. This is a show about social mores, about those uspoken rules that everyone must abide by so we can all live in harmony together. By exploring the consequences of not following those rules 'Seinfeld' speaks the unspoken desires of everyone, at the same time we can laugh at the obvious consequences of acting on those thoughts and desires. The show centers around four friends who are shallow, selfish, immoral and obsessive. They flit from date to date, project to project and hair brained scheme to hair brained scheme wreaking havoc as they go. They destroy their relationships through their obsessive concerns about irrelevant details, they confront the people about these issues and inveriably drive them away. [updated 11 Jan 03]. They put into action what most people would merely think about doing but not have the guts. Take for expample the episode where a former friend of Elaine's deteriorates to the person not even making eye contact or smiling. These things happen to everyone, we just let it go. Not Elaine, she has it out with him. Of course they also are wrong about some things they think and by confronting create a mess for themselves and everyone who comes in contact with them. Kramer is the worse culprit for this, he has these bizzare ideas and gets others to join in on the latest Kramer project and all hell brakes loose.
The Sketch Show
Starring Lee Mack, Jim Tavarc, Karen Taylor
Writers Ronni Ancona, John Archer
Genre Comedy(Alternative)
At first I thought this show was simplistic and barely funny, but I think that they have got better with their timing and writing. I loved the sketch where a male nurse is giving a patient a sponge bath. the patient says "So how long have you been working here", the 'nurse' replys "Oh I don't work here".
Smack the Ponysmh
Starring Fiona Allen, Sally Phillips, Doon Mackichan
writers Jesse Armstrong, Mick James
Genre Comedy(Alternative)
If you didn't catch this last time it was on, it's worth a look. I think it is representative of the change in female comedians. It is ok to have 'dumb blonde stereotypes' now, because it is generally accepted that women can do comedy. I find the sketches to have a masculine quality to them, because they make fun at numerous characatures of women in all walks of life. The comedy shows coming out of the UK are very similar, they are either like 'Big Train', 'The Fast Show', 'A League of Gentlemen' or 'Vicar of Dibley', then there's 'Time Gentlemen Please' or the remaining traditional style 'As Time Goes by'. I think there is a common thread through all these shows though, to laugh at stupidity and unreal situations to the point where it becomes surreal. We laugh at the exaggerations, nobody could be that stupid, that situation could never happen, so it becomes absurd. It's a comedy of surreal absurdism. In the US the genre seems to have returned to being politically incorrect and socially inappropriate 'Crank Yankers', 'The Jamie Kennedy Experiment' and the age old battle of the sexes, men are just different so don't expect much from them concept 'Everybody loves Raymond', 'Home Improvement', 'Friends'.
Spaced
Starring Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg
Writers Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg, Julia Deakin, Mark Heap, Nick Frost
Genre Comedy(Alternative)
Quirky comedy about 2 flat mates and their friends. Goes from the sublime to the surreal. Actors from 'Big Train' and one episode an actor from 'A League of Gentlemen'. The there are a number of humorous references to performance art in this which betray the writers personal experiences.
Star Trek Voyager
Starring Kate Mulgrew, Robert Duncan, Roxann Dawson, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan
Creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor
Genre Sci Fi
I find it interesting that people like the original Star Trek and the 'new generation' and other soapy type space adventures, it's like believing in God and evolution. The only spin off I took to was 'voyager', my interest in the original was the concept of earth inhabitants learning to coexist as a global nation and working together as a team to solve problems when encountering different 'cultures' and phenomenon. 'Voyager' has the same emphasis, not much is explored regarding relationships between ship crew, it's about pooling knowledge and resources and sticking to the prime directive. There are moral dilemas when the urge to intervene is strong. 7 of nine really stole the show I think though. I think she took the place of Caz who mysteriously left the show suddenly. There is an excellent team of writers on this show, they manage to keep it fresh after all this time, only slipping into self indulgences occasionally. I don't like episodes that involve the holographic world.
Starring Dawn French, Stephen Thomkinson
Writers Steve Shill, Nick Vivian
Genre Comedy
Very well written, tight script, engaging, multilayerd story line. Dawn French is great as ever when not with Jennifer Saunders. The amusement is derived mostly from the analysis on syntax and semantics. The literal vs the implied meaning, the out of context meanings of words. A comedy of errors and intregue.
Starring Dawn French, Emma Chambers, James Fleet, Gary Waldhorn
Writers Richard Curtis, Paul Mayhew Archer
Genre Comedy
If you haven't seen this yet, don't miss the Xmas dinner episode, it's hillarious. Ever been invited to have Xmas dinner by more than one friend?
Waiting for Godot
Starring Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy, Alan Stanford, Stephen Brennan
Director Michael Lindsay Hogg
Genre screenplay
Playwrite Samuel Beckett
This play is without doubt an intellectual's play. However, for those who do not know anything about Nihilism, Cosmic Purpose or religious doctrine, there is enough humour to be derived from the absent mindedness of the characters, the vaudavile sequences and the overall concept of the vutility of living a repetative, seemingly empty life.
There is much more to the play than that though and it's worth learning about philosophy and the religious references, for then the play really opens up on several levels. This play puts me in mind of the character in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' or 'bladerunner' as some may know it. Wilbur Macer, he pushes his boulder up the hill endlessly, never arriving at the top. How can life give happiness or hope if it has no purpose or meaning? It's extremely thought provoking, comical, black humour. We balk at the pathos and chuckle at the rediculousness of the situation.
Starring Robson Green, Hermione Norris
Directors Roger Gartland, Andrew Grieve
Genre Detective
As the final episode is on Friday 11 October, I thought I better get this on now. I was thinking that this concept has been done over and over. A profiler is brought in to solve a series of murders. There was 'Millennium', 'Profiler', 'Razors Edge', 'January Man', 'Silence of the Lambs', 'The Bone Collector'. What is interesting is how they manage to reinvent the wheel. I think its a matter of what the emphasis is. There is the characterisation, the relationships between characters, police politics, the killer, the crimes. This show emphasises the characterisation of the profiler. He's unusual, obsessive and fixated on his killer. This genre keeps giving.
Genre Sci-Fi
Very similar to 'The Twilight Zone', but not as engaging. The concepts don't really grab me in the way the original series did. The sort of ideas like Stephen King had about his computer. What if when you press delete, it doesn't delete the word it deletes the object from reality. Those kind of concepts
Starring Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Camryn Manheim, Lara Flynn Boyle
Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Julie Louise Dreyfus, 
Starring Fiona Allen, Sally Phillips, Doon Mackichan
writers Jesse Armstrong, Mick James
Starring Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg
Starring Kate Mulgrew, Robert Duncan, Roxann Dawson, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan
