Watching Century With Americans
You know when anniversary shows try to make out that the second part is different from the first, even though it’s just another set of clips with a new (but equally banal) gimmick? Well, now you get the point of this introduction. It’s somewhat fitting, however, as what I’m most proud of about this blog is that it is different from one week to the next, even if my obsessions do tend to re-surface like a pardoned 24 terrorist. It’s a freedom writing about American TV that you can’t have making it. Here’s some more re-runs before normal service resumes:
For the second of our hundred television posts celebration that’s…erm…crazy like a fox?
‘Given that this is how I spend most of my days anyway, it seemed perverse to be treating a TV marathon as the novelty it was supposed to be for the majority of the population. But I’m also not going to miss a golden opportunity to sit in my pants morning, noon and night continuously watching TV on one of the rare occasions it’s been deemed socially permissible’
‘It’s the inverse relationship between the interest taken and the research done that makes American TV’s obsession with the British so bemusing to me’
‘The Food Network could run Chard Week featuring all the best appearances of the vegetable in the mystery box on Chopped, including the time someone drizzled it with a gummiworm-infused vinaigrette’
‘If there’s a lesson here, it’s that people want reunions more than they ever want to see them happen’
‘It seems bizarre that in a country where the mere mention of healthcare can cause the government to shut down, science is such a popular commodity. Yet again and again American TV shows flashing their scientific credentials like phosphorus in a Bunsen burner are more likely to succeed’
‘It occurred to me recently that TV talks to us as if we’re all amnesiacs’
‘Film critics can no more admit to the abysmal hit rate of current movie releases than TV critics can acknowledge that most of the time on-air television resembles an endless sewage pipe’
‘One of the places I was surprised to find TV on the air was in the air’
‘The show is so ingrained in the city that it’s entirely possible to take a Breaking Bad tour of Albuquerque without even knowing’
‘Unlike other game shows, The Bachelor(ette) likes to invite its losing contestants back to occupy more senior roles in the programme, like Juan Pablo who was sent home in a previous season and is now The Bachelor. It’s like losing Final Jeopardy and then next day replacing Alex Trebek’
‘Ok, let’s consider how many people in television have ripped off Letterman since he started compared to Leno. And Bill O’Reilly doesn’t count, he just happens to be a disgusting Republican who’s bad at his job’
‘It occurred to me recently that TV talks to us as if we’re all amnesiacs’
‘I often feel guilty about recommending shows that don’t warm up until a few seasons in. In essence you’re asking someone to commit all their free time to something that won’t pay off for months. It’s like getting someone to invest their life-savings in a niche restaurant that you know won’t make any money for the first few years’
‘American TV seems to be in a permanent state of finale. The average season has more false endings than a Hobbit trilogy’
‘Aside from being the perfect audience since it’s guaranteed they haven’t heard his music, Vanilla Ice Goes Amish is the feeblest juxtaposition of topics since Ted Nugent tried to fight Obamacare with Dr. Seuss’
‘After all, there can’t be many clips out there of Orson Welles winding Dean Martin’s head 360 degrees with a handle’
‘I often wonder how long reality shows would last if there were no repetitions or duplications. Chopped would probably end before it began!’
‘Hours of broadcast prior to the official start time of the Oscars are taken up with reporters transmitting live from the red carpet-lined entrance as stars rotate their bodies more slowly than a Virgin Trains toilet door and answer existential questions like “who are you wearing?”’
‘Can we jump forward to a time when TV doesn’t time jump?’
‘With the possible exception of serial killing, the part of our culture most likely to produce copycats is television’
‘It occurred to me recently that TV talks to us as if we’re all amnesiacs’
Vanilla Ice takes an Amish selfie…or as they call it a ‘self-portrait’.
‘At least we now have an idea of what Return of the Jedi would have been like had David Lynch directed it’
Watching TV with Americans 
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