Review: Arthur and George, ep 1

The first episode of ITV’s new 3-part drama, Arthur and George, aired this evening. It stars Martin Clunes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who forms a friendship with George Edelji (played by Arsher Ali). George has recently been released from prison having been convicted of mutilating horses (and threatening to do the same to children), and the story follows his journey to clear his name.

Today’s episode featured a round-up of the original story of George’s case, and Arthur beginning his investigations into the case. Although it was a little slow to start, it had plenty of mystery. It’s nice to see Martin Clunes not playing Doc Martin for a change; some people on Twitter complained about his Scottish accent but as a born and bred southerner it sounded Scottish enough to me…

Frustratingly, the sound levels were quite poor – and the music over the top of speech was quite loud! Always makes a drama less enjoyable when you have to strain to hear what’s going on…

I’ll include the trailer below – I found it a little bit creepier than the trailer lets on, but if you like that sort of weird Edwardian/Victorian esque mystery (lots of mist, shadowy figures, symbolic dead animals, creepy dolls) then you’ll probably enjoy this. I also enjoyed the romantic subplot between Arthur and his “friend” Miss Leckie, which provides some needed light relief. I think I’ll probably tune in for next week’s episode, but mainly because I can’t cope with an unsolved mystery. All in all, I felt it was pretty average – it wasn’t the worst drama I’ve seen but it certainly isn’t the best. What did you think?

TV Weddings

I love weddings as much as the next girl, possibly more (I don’t want to admit to having picked my perfect engagement ring – but I have. Run now, boys). Weddings are great. Everyone’s happy and there’s great suits and dresses and flower arrangements which for some inexplicable reason I find fascinating. Celebrity weddings are so entertaining and I always feel I need to know who wore what, and how many tiers they had on their cake. It tends to be a girl thing which I think has been drilled into me from years of watching Disney films.

Of course, I love watching other people’s weddings so as a general rule weddings shown on TV are great. However, the TV weddings I am referring to here are the ones where the production company has paid for the wedding: Don’t Tell The Bride and Celebrity Wedding Planners are the only ones I can currently think of but I expect there are more!

Whilst they have different formats, essentially it boils down to a production company paying for your wedding. In DTTB the groom is given £12,000 to plan his wedding while the bride has no say whatsoever, in Celeb Wedding Planners, the celebrity is given £12,000 to plan the wedding, and the couple has no say whatsoever. So far, all good. These programs are funny and entertaining.

I only have one issue – why are brides the most ungrateful people on Earth?! Bearing in mind that someone else is paying for their entire wedding (so they’ve saved themselves 12 grand) why do they feel the  need to bitch and moan about everything in the lead up to their wedding? As far as I am aware, nobody forced them to take part in the show. If they wanted to plan it themselves that badly then they would never have signed up for the show. I know some of it must be for the cameras but a lot of the time they just come across as demanding and pretty self-centered.

I know its their ‘special day’ and everything, but you signed up for the show so suck it up and wear whatever dress (ugly or not) you are given. At the end of the day, it should be about the person waiting at the end of the aisle and not the chair covers, bridesmaid’s dresses or hen night!

The People of The Jeremy Kyle Show

If you have ever watched The Jeremy Kyle Show (and I assume that if you live in the UK then you have) you will understand the shows premise. People go on it in an attempt to find some sort of reasonable conclusion to arguments they have been having with friends, partners or their families – sometimes all three. They can have DNA and lie detector tests, and Jeremy Kyle attempts to mediate the feuding groups into some sort of peace. He does this aided by a very beefy security guard, who is present in case the participants forget they are on national TV and try and knockout their own mother or something, which happens all too frequently. He is also assisted by everybody’s favourite, Graham. Graham is Head of Aftercare on the show and is apparently able to help people with everything from drug addiction to organising child maintenance payments.

Often the title of the show revolves around a question that the participants wish to know the answer to. For example: Is my boyfriend also my brother? Will my fiance run off with my gay best friend? Is it true that my husband is sleeping with my sister? My brother stole my girlfriend but is he the father of my child? etc…

You get the general idea. However, when I watch The Jeremy Kyle Show, I have only usually have one question: HOW DID YOU GET ANYONE TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU?

To back up my point, I would like to supply you with some screenshots of people who have actually featured on the show:

I rest my case.

Maybe they just have really great personalities. Although judging from the show, this is difficult to believe. I reckon they must just have sex with other people who have also been on The Jeremy Kyle Show. I never ever see people that look this when I’m out and about, so god only knows where they all are. I hope they’re all very happy with each other, and all I would like to say to them is: ‘how about a visit to the dentist once in a while?’.

Dancing on Very Thin Ice

I have been watching this series of Dancing on Ice, mainly because there is nothing else on when I come in from work on a Sunday. But I’ve never really loved it, and I’m not sure why because judging by my taste in TV I should be completely obsessed. So, I’m breaking it down to try and understand why it doesn’t grab me as much as the other big reality shows (Strictly Come Dancing/X Factor)…

The things that are right with DOI:

• Phillip Schofield (my love for the Schofe knows no bounds).
• Getting to watch professional ice skaters do their job really well (in the professional routines, anyway)
• Getting to watch celebrities – I use the term loosely – fall over
• They wear pretty sparkly costumes

I was really scraping the barrel with that last one.

The things that are wrong with DOI:

• We no longer get to look at Holly Willoughby. Christine Bleakley is nice and everything, but she’s no Holly.
• It’s on a Sunday night, which is just wrong. As everyone knows, SATURDAY night is the home of reality TV. Sunday is for results night only, and by putting it all on a Sunday they have effectively ruined the structure of my weekend.
• The show doesn’t lead up to anything. When X Factor and Strictly start, everyone knows that its the run up to Christmas, and every week its gets a little bit more sparkly and exciting. DOI feels a little anti-climatic in comparison.
• They voted off Pamela Anderson in the first week. This would never have happened on Strictly. Its so disappointing.
• Speaking of them voting people off, the way they structured the first two weeks is ridiculous – they had just six celebrities performing each week and voted one out each week, which wasn’t fair at all.
• Jason Gardiner. He is mean, and not mean in a good way a la Craig Revel Horwood. Just mean. Maybe he just needs to get laid.
• Half of the judging panel know nothing about ice skating.
• Nobody really cares who wins.

In conclusion, DOI just isn’t as good as the other reality show offerings that ITV brings us throughout the year. Although I’ll probably carry on watching it as I’m always brain dead after work on a Sunday, and crave mindless entertainment. If my opinion of it improves then I will take it all back and explain myself, I promise…

10 Reasons why Daytime TV is a good thing

Daytime TV is one of my favourite guilty pleasures, but I no longer want to feel guilty for enjoying it when I can. Here’s ten reasons why we should all celebrate daytime TV:

1. When you’re allowed a day off school because you’re sick, it feels like a treat to be sat there watching Homes Under the Hammer knowing that all your friends are in their Maths lesson.

2. Old people use it for company/something to do when they can’t go out. Getting rid of daytime TV would be like age discrimination.

3. This Morning is sort of like the Mail Online in a TV show, so you can get all your gossip/health tips/cooking info/news updates without having to read anything. Which is probably pretty useful for a proportion of the population.

4. Jeremy Kyle will ALWAYS make you feel better about your own life. If you’re feeling miserable because you’ve been dumped/lost your job/having a bad day, switch on Jezza and immediately feel better because you know who your own father is/the father of your baby isn’t questioning the paternity because the baby is ginger/your mum isn’t a 62 year old pensioner who won’t stop sleeping around (all of these have actually featured on the show).

5. Students need something to distract them from work. As do people who work from home. Similarly, unemployed people need something to distract them from trying to get a job.

6. The adverts in the breaks between daytime TV shows are usually hilariously bad and tend to focus on a target market of incontinent elderly women.

7. Loose Women. I admit it divides people, and a lot of people hate it but I am not one of those people. I love it. Mostly because it means its lunch time, and I like to structure my day when I’m at home doing nothing.

8. Really (the channel) offers such gems as Bridezillas, Don’t Tell the Bride, and Cheaters. Which is brilliant for everybody who has an hour to spare because everybody loves these programs. I have heard so many men complain about watching DTTB, but I put it on when my whole family was around and everybody watched it (included Dad, uncles, brothers, grandad) and they were SO involved by the time the actual wedding came around. So don’t tell me you don’t love it, boys.

9. Getting to look at Holly Willoughby/Phillip Schofield. Because everybody must fancy one of them at least a little bit. How could you not?!

10. There is something for everyone on daytime TV. If you’re willing to surrender some of your intellectual integrity then you will undoubtedly find something to watch and enjoy. It would just be nice if we could all start admitting that we enjoy it so that people like me don’t feel quite so bad…

(I would like to add here that I don’t watch daytime TV EVERY day, and when I do it isn’t all day, because if you did that I think you would probably go a little bit insane)

One Born Every Minute

First things first, there was just too much good TV on tonight. I wanted to watch basically everything, and missed most of it because Mum had first choice with the remote, and she chose Midsomer Murders. Midsomer is one of my favourite guilty pleasures, and it is brilliant – but I really wanted to watch Gok’s Style Secrets and Africa! Hopefully will get to catch up on them soon and if I do I’ll be sure to let you know!

We ended up watching One Born Every Minute on Channel 4+1, which is honestly one of my favourite programs. I would hazard a guess that women make up the primary audience of this show, as childbirth is topic that women naturally tend to be more interested in – and are less bothered about watching (I’m not saying men don’t/can’t watch it, its just all male relatives leave the room the minute it comes on). If you haven’t seen it before, then just a note that if you’re squeamish you might want to avoid. Birth might be the most amazing, wonderful and miraculous process but it really isn’t pretty!

I love the way the program mixes scenes from the actual birth with interviews of the parents which are recorded before the baby arrives. It means you really get to know the parents (or at least feel like you do), and then when the baby arrives I always get emotional – but then I’ll cry at anything. It also includes interviews with the midwives talking about their experiences of mothers/birth/babies which are really interesting as they have a very unique insight into people’s lives.

The one thing this program definitely doesn’t do is make me feel broody (I’m sure Mum will be glad to hear that, as I’m only 19) because frankly, birth looks horrendous and I am happy to put it off for a VERY VERY long time…

The Undateables

When the first series of this aired last year I absolutely loved it – for anyone who hasn’t seen it, it follows disabled people who are looking for love, and challenges the concept that they are ‘undateable’.

The first series was brilliant. I felt the program was sensitive, interesting and funny without making a mockery of the people it featured. It definitely caused me to think about how society views disabled people. It did cause some controversy, especially regarding the name, but I felt this was unnecessary. The program makers weren’t saying that these people were undateable but rather that they are often viewed as ‘undateable’ by many people, which is obviously untrue as this program happily proves.

When I heard they were making a new series I was really excited and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Tonight’s episode on Channel 4 was really enjoyable, and I felt nothing but admiration for the people who featured on it.

One of my favourite people on tonight’s episode was a boy called Brent with Tourettes Syndrome, who lives in Plymouth – which is my hometown. I always get overexcited to see it on TV! It actually looked really good on screen, which was a pleasant surprise! Brent’s date was a success, happily, and the more relaxed he was the less prevalent his Tourettes became.

Watching this program challenges any preconceived ideas you might have about disability if you have no first hand awareness of it – it definitely did for me, as it shows very honestly what life is like for people living with disabilities. And if it makes just one person think about how they treat others, and stops them segregating people based on their disability then it is a success in my eyes!

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‘Girls’

The first season of Girls actually came out last year in both the UK and the US – the second season is due to start again in the US on 13th January. I had never watched it but had heard a huge amount about the show as it completely divided critics – some thought it was gritty and realistic and others thought it was over-hyped and racist (due to an almost completely white cast).

The show follows four girls in their 20s, living in New York: Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna. They are facing the problems that every girl has to face like being broke and boys being difficult!

I decided I would give it a go, and personally – I loved it. I watched the entire first season in two days (it was the Christmas holiday and I was procrastinating from getting any actual work done).

The show is realistic in the sense that it isn’t glamorous at all. The girls fight with each other, they don’t have perfect hair/bodies/wardrobes, they have horrible sex with rubbish boyfriends…all of this makes it really refreshing to watch. It made me feel a lot better about my own life for one, and has a number of relatable scenes in it that in many ways are reassuring, such as Hannah going to get checked for STDs, or Marnie’s awkward break-up with the boyfriend that she has begun to hate. I would really recommend this show to any girls (sounds like a terrible pun, its not, I just wouldn’t recommend it to most of my male friends because I’m not sure they’d appreciate a lot of it) who liked Sex and The City but who don’t want to feel depressed about their lack of designer wardrobe/absence of a model perfect body – this is the show for you!

The other refreshing thing about the show is that the character’s aren’t always likeable – I sometimes found myself frustrated by the life choices they made, and Hannah’s selfishness also really irritated me. The only character that at no point did I find annoying was Shoshanna, who is just adorable. The fact that I wasn’t completely bowled over by the characters actually made the show more interesting to watch, and because they were making choices that I wouldn’t have made, I couldn’t wait to see the next episode to see how things turned out. Here is the trailer for season one:

Give it a look, and then go and watch the first series!

An introduction

I’ve always wanted to blog, but never knew what about. My family never stop telling me that I watch too much TV – so I thought I would stick with what I know.

I personally don’t believe I watch ‘too much’ TV, I just happen to be a student and that means I have a lot of spare time on my hands! I am lover of all sorts of programs, everything from trashy daytime telly to American dramas, reality shows to nature documentaries. I always have an opinion on the things I watch and Twitter is constricted to just 140 characters so this seems the perfect way to share my thoughts – and I would love to hear yours in return!