mariedevereux Reviews

Britain's Got Talent (2007– )

more talent than the judges

[5/10 · 24 May 2012]

There are some fabulous performers in Britain' Got Talent every year. This year there have been some excellent singers, an amazing water acrobatics group which should have won and gone on to the Royal Variety Show.

There are some odd performers: a German 'plumber' had an act of throwing sink plungers at the backs of muscular men to make them stick. Accompanied with a running commentary in German which was entertaining for its humorous delivery.

Famous outcomes of this show have been Susan Boyle and Paul Potts. And that shows the ignorance of the judges. The panel are philistines most of the time. Susan can sing well but she's not the outstanding singer that all the applause and record sales would suggest. The surprise that her voice is good coming from someone who is unglamorous gave her the fame and winning on the show. Her voice is good enough for a career but there are far better singers who would have beaten her on vocal ability.

The judges pushed her forward because of the contrast of her voice with her appearance. The likes of Amanda Holden are not experienced casting directors. With the exception of Simon Cowell none of the judges has any experience promoting or producing a new act. The panel consist of whatever well known faces are available this year.

A panel of experts who can assess acts abilities and help them develop would be better but they would be unknown and the show panders to the audiences need for identifiable faces.

Consequently many real talents and years of practice either don't apply or are rejected because the judges are easily impressed by a nice sounding but only of average quality for professional standards.

To confirm my opinion a dog won and beat the water acrobatics, musicians, dancers and singers. That says it all.

Whitechapel (2009–2013)

Cut up drama about killers who cut up people

[7/10 · 3 May 2012]

What makes television different from theater or film? There's far more cliché and plot holes in television dramas. Whitechapel is no exception. Taking the premise and plot by itself its an awful idea: someone's re enacting famous crimes. Exactly re enacting them which should make it easy to solve. The Krays shot up a pub or boozer in the vernacular so it would be sensible to avoid the boozer on the anniversary that the same pub was shot to pieces. Machine guns replacing shotguns.

The first episode is the most documented and notorious of all: Jack the Ripper. A homicidal maniac that decapitated women and yet has a legendary cache due to the incompetence of the police to catch his bloody trail.

As expected the program follows the exact path, dates and places of the killings. The places, and they still can't catch the killer! But this is an enjoyable drama because its parts are greater than its whole.

Rupert Penry-Jones and Phil Davis as the two contrasting police officers are the heart of this drama. It maybe a cliché that good cop and cop that bends the rules will butt heads but find a real respect and loyalty to each other; but without this central teamwork the dram would fall to pieces.

Rupert Penry-Jones is the university graduate who has been fast tracked in to promotion and thinks the rule book is always right and the law can be trusted. Phil Daniels is the hard living police sergeant who, again the hackneyed, knows the streets he patrols. He has a chip on his shoulder about his Superior officer Rupert having been to university.

What makes this drama better than it really should be is Penry-Jones arrogant certainties breaking down in realization that a degree and faith in the law doesn't solve everything and that there are people more ruthless than he even as a police officer realized. Phil Daniels snearing contempt is tempered as his sympathy for Rupert's confusion and sense of helplessness and a growing respect for him.

Penry-Jones gives his best performance consisting of subtle but intense emotion and realism.

Steve Pemberton gives a performance similar to a couple of characters from the League of Gentlemen but with the over the top exaggerations toned down- slightly. He plays a wildly enthusiastic tour guide of London's criminal past. Ever happy to show off his in-depth knowledge of brutal killings, dates and places, Phil Daniels sergeant is understandably irritated by the amateur detective's fascination with the savage of Jack the Ripper. But its the same enthusiasm that provides the knowledge they need to hunt the killer.

If people find this program offensive, especially the Jack the Ripper episodes then they have a point. To appreciate this drama you may need to suspend reality, which is one of the purposes of television and appreciate the performances and the production

Gossip Girl (2007–2012)

Glitzy as a Tiffany box but is there anything inside?

[5/10 · 3 May 2012]

Gossip Girl gets a lot of bad reviews yet it is wildly popular. There has to be a reason for that. People who hate this program are more than likely missing the point. As Naom Chomsky says they are seeing the surface structure only.

The program features the flash, glamorous lives of a young generation in the middle of a cosmopolitan high society. Their lives are a circuit of expensive living and over reacting to trivial matters. They crave status in a media age and because of this fear the tweets and social information of the anonymous Gossip Girl.

So either the producers intended to produce a series, or we could call it product, to appeal to an early 20's demographic living in cities and upper middle class. Or they have satirized the aforementioned demographics empty and shallow aspirations.

I'll support the idea that Gossip Girl is a critique on a meaningless type of society that seeks to find meaning through how much media attention they are receiving. To be talked about is the only value worth holding. To be embarrassed and horrified by every revelation about your private life but more horrified is to be overlooked.

Maybe what I see is a misinterpretation but its more fun than believing the writers want the viewers to take this seriously