BEGINNERS GUIDE TO (GOOD) US TV

Dammit! I was so onboard with the whole Obama thing until I saw this. Now I’m seriously going to miss George.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU

Oh, and do you remember the ‘I’m fucking Matt Damon’ song? Well this follow up was probably inevitable – very good though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIQrBouWRiE&NR=1

Beginners Guide to (Good) American Telly.

Part 1: The West Wing and 24.

A couple of weeks ago I used this blog to vent my spleen on exactly why US television is so much better than ours. You’d have thought I’d have it out of my system by now. Apparently not, this is the rant that keeps on ranting so prey silence for my beginners guide to good US TV via the medium of talking about its 6 best shows of recent years in no particular order....

1. The West Wing.

Some people think that this programme is merely an exercise in self congratulation by left-leaning media types. However, considerably more people, with more teeth and less ‘complex’ family trees, think it’s one of the best things ever to be shown on telly.

It centres on the challenges facing president Jed Bartlett and the group of ‘Harvard types’ that make up his staff. The first two seasons are produced and largely written by Aaron ‘A Few Good Men’ Sorkin, who is to pithy dialogue what Jimmy Hendrix was to the electric guitar. The back and forth is quick-fire, witty and generally of a quality that makes a viewer suicidally ashamed to have ever laughed at a joke on ‘The OC’.

It’s also educational without being (very) preachy; I’m not ashamed to say that about half of everything I know about world politics comes directly from the show. The amount of politicos, presidents and journalists that list it as their favourite show should tell you a little bit about its realism too.

When Mr Sorkin left the show, as a result of being arrested with enough cocaine to frost the Leicester Square Christmas tree in his carry-on luggage (officially exhaustion), the show became soapier and lost some of its spark though remained better than 99.896% of the worlds TV.

Down-points. It’s a little too impressed with itself sometimes: there’s only so many ‘God Bless Americas’ a European can take. The soundtrack is also FUCKING ANNOYING! On a technical note, they spend a lot of screen time introducing people and storylines only to drop them a couple of episodes later - in one case a member of the core cast, Mandy simply disappears, though she was a right pain in the arse so I forgive them. Also there’s a very daft character called Donna who exists solely to explain semi-complicated plot points by endlessly popping up out of the blue asking questions like ‘so what’s all this about?’ I don’t care how complicated your story is. That’s just sloppy writing.

These are just niggles however. It’s still one of the best things ever to grace our screens.

Quote:

Josh: I really don’t anticipate the Capitol Building exploding.
Donna: What percentage of things exploding have been anticpated?

See For Yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHaVUjjH3EI

2. 24.

Each series of 24 centres around a particularly hectic day for CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) agent, Jack Bauer, as he tries to thwart some terrorists who have a bomb/virus/state secret/thingy that can make nuclear plants go wrong - delete as appropriate. With the obvious exception of Warren from Hollyoaks, Jack Bauer is the hardest man in television. Over the six series of 24 Jack has been shot, stabbed, blown up, addicted to heroin, tortured by the Chinese for 2 years, seen his wife murdered in front of him and been forced to kill his father and brother. Throughout all this he has never just said ‘oh for fucks sake’ and gone down the pub. Speaking as someone who once left his place of work in a huff because a colleague deleted a semi-important excel spreadsheet, I find this trait particularly admirable.

In later series Jack is given a sidekick called Chloe who has a really weird looking face and sits somewhere on the autistic spectrum. I can’t put my finger on it, but some reason she’s my favourite character in any TV show ever.

The show isn’t perfect. In fact there’s a lot wrong with it, for instance it’s more in need of a sense of humour than any programme I’ve ever seen. It would also be nice to have just one episode where Jack doesn’t have to brutally torture someone for the good of national security – Amnesty International are very much not fans (Fucking hippies!). Also, the acting is highly suspect and there’s several niggling questions that don’t seem to leave your head when you watch it: Why do the terrorists only ever attack LA? Shouldn’t there be someone over 35 working at CTU? Why does no one ever eat?

None of this is really that important though. The real appeal of the show is that almost without fail the producers manage to create consistent tension with credible cliff-hangers every 15 minutes – a difficult thing to do. Often you literally can’t look away as Jack drives around at speed chopping people’s fingers off, having personal Crises and saying ‘Dammit!’

So much so that this programme should really come with a health warning. Seriously, it’s the crack cocaine of TV Drama. Sit down with a box set and watch an episode - I defy you not to watch another straight after. Before you know it you’re strung out on explosions and melodramatic dialogue and your attention span has shrunk to that of a Meer Cat on ProPlus. Smokers whinge about Nicotine. Pussies! Where’s my Bauer patch!

You realise things have gotten really bad when you start doing things like ringing the switchboard at work and asking to be ‘patched through’ to people. At that point it’s time to read a book.

Quote: ‘Chloe. We don’t have time for your personality disorder today!’
(Bill Buchanan. Director, CTU)