Tag: tv

Categories
Enjoyed

Sport On Telly

Over the last few years, there’s been a fair amount of derision of some US television channels for what they choose to define as a “sport program”. Depending on how entertained you are by the programming, your personal limit may be spelling bees, scrabble tournaments, texas hold’em, fishing, or possibly even golf.

That said, England has (at least) three sporting delicacies I’ve taken in during portions of my evenings at the hotel room:
First, **snooker**. Now, pool is no stranger to American television, but it’s generally 8-ball, sometimes 9, and often just trick shots. Snooker, on the other hand, doesn’t get televised much because…well, it’s slightly more dull than 8-ball, and certainly more complicated. Still, interesting to watch, if for no other reason than puzzling out the rules. (Alternately, you could [just read them](http://www.billiardworld.com/snooker.html).)

Next, **cricket**. Oh, the much derided cricket. While the game is possibly torture to those with ADD – test matches last five days, after all – it is actually entertaining. Finally seeing it played and being able to reconcile [the rules](http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/explanation.htm) against what’s happening are a great help. My god, it even actually looks fun.

By now you may be thinking, “He’s just going for the traditional British sports. Rugby will undoubtedly be the third.” And you, my friend, would be wrong. The third sport I’ve been prone to watch is somewhat tied into snooker, in that you’re likely to see it in a pub, but it’s about as far from Rugby as you can get.

If I said I spent a good half an hour last night watching [Premier League Darts](http://www.planetdarts.tv/page/PremierLeague/0,,10180,00.html), would you believe me?

If I told you that I was shocked that there were about 300 rowdy spectators – all cheering and cat-calling at the right times – would you believe me?

If I claimed that the throwers had entrance music and body guards, making the whole thing seem eerily close to professional wrestling, would you believe me?

Okay, here’s a stretch: would you believe that it was actually entertaining? Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.

(To those concerned that we’re spending our lives in the hotel room, trust me, we are not. Check the Flickr pool.)

Categories
Found

TARred And Feathered

I have had one general rule for television for as long as I can remember: I don’t “do” reality television. After watching the threshhold of watchable television get violated by the likes of VH1 (*Surreal Life* and all spinoffs thereof), NBC (*Biggest Loser*, *Fear Factor*), Fox (pretty much everything they’ve done), and MTV (*Osbournes*, *Newlyweds*, *Super Sweet 16*, anything involving *Real World* or *Road Rules*), I could only take so much.
And besides: what about these shows are truly ‘reality’, in any sense of the word? Flava Flav having to narrow down 25 catfighting women to one he wants to date isn’t reality. A guy pretending to be a millionaire isn’t reality. Reality TV such as this thrives on heavily edited conflict and personality clashes. It just isn’t my thing.

But like all rules, there eventually comes a conflict. And so when I’m randomly surfing past GSN and I happen on a reality show that doesn’t annoy me, and in fact compels me to keep watching, I’m immediately stuck in a dilemma:

Can a reality show that is largely just a competition, with only a small amount of personality clashes, win me over? Which will win, the side of me that hates reality TV, or the side of me that loves game shows and competition?

The show won. I swallowed my pride and began watching [The Amazing Race](http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race9/).

And today, one thing became painfully clear: when I get into a show, I go all-out.

Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no hiding – I’m [going to TARCon9](http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3139163). (And so is Katie.)

Anyone else want to go?

Categories
Found

A Plague Of The Plague

I can count on one hand the number of shows I follow on a weekly basis: Cheap Seats, Wonder Showzen, Amazing Race, and House M.D. This makes my life considerably easier as there’s only one per night and I’m not forced to endure the same commercials 50 times in one evening.
If you haven’t seen House this week yet and you don’t like being spoiled, you may want to skip the remainder of this post.

Anyhow – I love House, despite its very formulaic structure most weeks (Patient Collapses, Initial Battery Of Tests, Flailing Diagnosis, More Tests, Patient Goes Code, Crazy Idea That Might Work #1, Cameron Empathizes With Patient, Cutty Goes Ape, Revelatory Moment, Semi-Convoluted Explanation, Cure). Tonight, the patient hadn’t slept in 10 days, and it turned out to be – cue the minor chord, boys – the plague! Black death! It was certainly an entertaining episode, in any case.

But then I got slightly unnerved not an hour later as I read that [there’s been a case of the plague reported in LA](http://www.nbc4.tv/health/8801513/detail.html). Now, don’t panic, says a scientician:

>”Bubonic plague is not usually transmissible from person to person,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of public health. “Fortunately, human plague infection is rare in urban environments, and this single case should not be a cause for alarm in the area where this occurred.”

But hey, Fox, way to go on the timing. I can only imagine what watching this in LA would be like – where undoubtedly the Fox affiliate screams horrifying news during commercials just like NYC’s Fox 5.