On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 10:59:32 +0000, Mike Mitchell
wrote:

As these programmes progress through their allotted hour, one can see
the producers' - and scriptwriters' - minds at work. All such
programmes comprise deliberate peaks and troughs, the most blatant of
which currently is the "No Going Back" series on Channel 4. It is
almost laughable how one can predict with uncanny accuracy when the
next ad break (on ITV/Five/Channel 4) is coming up, as there will be a
sudden downturn in the family's fortunes. And then the ads are over,
and, magically, the problem is solved! Everything is once again
sweetness and light, and the intrepid family are now marching onward
and upward on the sunlit uplands of progress... yada yada yada.

Another 15 minutes and boom! Another calamity, another ad break. And
to think that there will be many thousands of viewers all lapping it
up and nodding sagely into their cardigans, "How brave, how very, very
brave..."

And me and the Missus sitting there shouting "you ****ing idiots" at
the telly every 10 minutes when another 10 grand of savings is lopped
off the family's savings as the result of another boneheaded decision



Hi.

All TV is staged like this, if not exactly like this. First you watch
the stuff and work out the plot. Then the theme, then what appeal-game
the show is playing, and who watches it. Then you figure out the
others too and then realise that watching these same cycles of rubbish
dressed up as 'exciting tv' is too mind numbing to continue with, and
go get a life.

Regards, NT