![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Guilty pleasures
Dec. 9th, 2017 11:10 pmThe first time I came across this saying, I didn't really understand it: I'm not guilty about my pleasures...
But there have been two things recently where I can see what makes some people go 'urgh'.
Bromans
This was on ITV2 and is the first thing that could be called 'reality TV' that I think I've watched since the first series of Big Brother. The premise is that a bunch of modern 'lads' are sent off to ancient Rome - erm, the permanent Roman set in Bulgaria that was most of the production values of Plebs* - to be trained as gladiators.
Sort of. We're not yet at the point where a programme is based around someone getting killed every week...
They also were accompanied by their girlfriends who were given another task each week.
There was a bit of 'laugh at them' - especially in relation to their lack of historical knowledge - but you also got a sense of them being real people, mostly, and interest in who was going to win. Tom Bell's host was wonderful and I wouldn't have predicted the final result.
Alas, there were two issues. The first was that the training was done by David McIntosh: ex-commando, ex-gladiator on the Sky1 version of that show, and full-time dick. What's he still on TV for?
The second was in episode five of the eight, where the producers introduced a new pair who they must have known hated / were hated by one of the pairs who'd been there from the start. That ended in a fight between the two women, and from the speed several (Bulgarian?) security staff got in the shot to break it up, it can't have come as a surprise. There was no need to add any 'drama' - by this point, they would have known the format was working - but they did it anyway.
Sadly, it looks as though there won't be a second series.
Shot in the Dark
This is a Netflix series following three 'stringers' competing to get the best (= most sold to TV stations) video news footage in the Los Angeles night. After each incident they film, we're shown whose footage sold to how many stations...
In one sense, this is literally car crash television and a critic in the Guardian was rude about it on that basis. It does test the edges of that 'a programme based around someone getting killed every week' statement. But video of car crashes (and fires and car chases and..) is what sells, usually, and that's down to the stations that buy it and the people who watch the news.
What raises it above that, for me anyway, is a combination of the people involved, their awareness of what they're doing, and the situations they get themselves in.
So there's one part of a team of three British ex-pat brothers, one very ambitious man with an increasing team who want to take over everything, and one asshole who's also got a small team. As well as all his other faults, the latter is 'packaging' - selling several stories to stations for the price of one - which is hurting everyone's income.
The core of the series is the way that one of the Brits films - and is actively involved with - the most successful story, when he saves someone's life following a car crash and fire. That he came so close to death himself (and broke one of the basic rules of 'don't become the story') means he takes time out, leaving the other two with even more to do.
And although even the Brits have some other support, it's striking how many more people were involved in filming the series than even the biggest of the three operations has covering the city.
A number of things aren't stated - why this is a night job beyond "that's when the crazy shit happens" (my guess is that a) you can actually get around LA by car quickly in the middle of the night and b) the TV stations have their own crews during the day) and how much a 'hit' (sale) is worth. A thousand dollars? If it's much less, they're risking their lives for not very much at all...
But it's essential viewing for anyone interested in TV news, including showing why some sorts of stories are covered the way that they are. As far as the news is concerned, every car chase needs a 'passing shot' of the chase going past the camera, for example, just as the footage of victims going in the ambulance makes the difference between who gets the sale and who doesn't. For the stringers, these are genuinely 'the money shot', and they can be put at risk to get them.
The series ends on a cliff-hanger, but the ultimate resolution of that is obvious if you look at the end credits** and there is going to be a second series...
... plus one of the Brits was the person who filmed the 'man saving rabbit from the wild fires' video which has been everywhere recently.
* I don't feel guilty about enjoying that... and one of the buildings in Bromans was very familiar because of seeing it :)
** Something Netflix makes it hard to do!
But there have been two things recently where I can see what makes some people go 'urgh'.
Bromans
This was on ITV2 and is the first thing that could be called 'reality TV' that I think I've watched since the first series of Big Brother. The premise is that a bunch of modern 'lads' are sent off to ancient Rome - erm, the permanent Roman set in Bulgaria that was most of the production values of Plebs* - to be trained as gladiators.
Sort of. We're not yet at the point where a programme is based around someone getting killed every week...
They also were accompanied by their girlfriends who were given another task each week.
There was a bit of 'laugh at them' - especially in relation to their lack of historical knowledge - but you also got a sense of them being real people, mostly, and interest in who was going to win. Tom Bell's host was wonderful and I wouldn't have predicted the final result.
Alas, there were two issues. The first was that the training was done by David McIntosh: ex-commando, ex-gladiator on the Sky1 version of that show, and full-time dick. What's he still on TV for?
The second was in episode five of the eight, where the producers introduced a new pair who they must have known hated / were hated by one of the pairs who'd been there from the start. That ended in a fight between the two women, and from the speed several (Bulgarian?) security staff got in the shot to break it up, it can't have come as a surprise. There was no need to add any 'drama' - by this point, they would have known the format was working - but they did it anyway.
Sadly, it looks as though there won't be a second series.
Shot in the Dark
This is a Netflix series following three 'stringers' competing to get the best (= most sold to TV stations) video news footage in the Los Angeles night. After each incident they film, we're shown whose footage sold to how many stations...
In one sense, this is literally car crash television and a critic in the Guardian was rude about it on that basis. It does test the edges of that 'a programme based around someone getting killed every week' statement. But video of car crashes (and fires and car chases and..) is what sells, usually, and that's down to the stations that buy it and the people who watch the news.
What raises it above that, for me anyway, is a combination of the people involved, their awareness of what they're doing, and the situations they get themselves in.
So there's one part of a team of three British ex-pat brothers, one very ambitious man with an increasing team who want to take over everything, and one asshole who's also got a small team. As well as all his other faults, the latter is 'packaging' - selling several stories to stations for the price of one - which is hurting everyone's income.
The core of the series is the way that one of the Brits films - and is actively involved with - the most successful story, when he saves someone's life following a car crash and fire. That he came so close to death himself (and broke one of the basic rules of 'don't become the story') means he takes time out, leaving the other two with even more to do.
And although even the Brits have some other support, it's striking how many more people were involved in filming the series than even the biggest of the three operations has covering the city.
A number of things aren't stated - why this is a night job beyond "that's when the crazy shit happens" (my guess is that a) you can actually get around LA by car quickly in the middle of the night and b) the TV stations have their own crews during the day) and how much a 'hit' (sale) is worth. A thousand dollars? If it's much less, they're risking their lives for not very much at all...
But it's essential viewing for anyone interested in TV news, including showing why some sorts of stories are covered the way that they are. As far as the news is concerned, every car chase needs a 'passing shot' of the chase going past the camera, for example, just as the footage of victims going in the ambulance makes the difference between who gets the sale and who doesn't. For the stringers, these are genuinely 'the money shot', and they can be put at risk to get them.
The series ends on a cliff-hanger, but the ultimate resolution of that is obvious if you look at the end credits** and there is going to be a second series...
... plus one of the Brits was the person who filmed the 'man saving rabbit from the wild fires' video which has been everywhere recently.
* I don't feel guilty about enjoying that... and one of the buildings in Bromans was very familiar because of seeing it :)
** Something Netflix makes it hard to do!