Monday, November 23, 2009

It's Not That Quiet In The Country (Reality TV/Soap Blog)

One of my goals for this blogspot by 2010 is to be even more eclectic than usual. Reasons for this vary. I want the blog to be accessible as possible for everyone, even though the main theme is always going to be television related. Plus it will give me more to go on and it means I can cover stuff such as reality TV and soaps, which I do watch from time to time in an objective manner. Don't worry, I'll still be reviewing the usual shows and doing spoilers blogs as well.

If I tried ignoring I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, I'd probably have to try and literally bury myself underground in order to successfully accomplish that. That's not going to happen. The latest series hasn't exactly been much to gush about. In fact for the last eight days, it was more The Katie Price Show rather than anything else, with Miss Price enduring all the bushtucker trials as she finally realised that the public simply don't take to her. I'm not gonna lie - I can't stand Katie Price and generally think she's a Grade A moron whose constant yapping about every fucking thing she does is beyond irritating but even I felt a little sorry for her. Just a little and not enough to feel sad when she fled the camp. Mainly because that'll be another thing she won't shut up about for a good week and a half.

Prior to going onto I'm A Celebrity, Price went on Chelsea Lately, a pretty tacky talk show with a somewhat irritating but amusing host, Chelsea Handler. The show wasn't exactly her greatest moment either. As you can see here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brdA5Y3Gle

Every week on The X-Factor, I feel a sense of apathy growing in the room. As Simon Cowell protests to high heaven how much he supposedly hates, Irish duo John and Edward (or Jedward as they're known by), I get the urge to scream, 'liar' at the screen.

I'm under no delusions when it comes to The X-Factor in the sense that I'm aware of it's catered for popularity than musical talent. Jedward may be devoid in talents, despite being nice enough lads but they have been generating a lot more press for this show than their fellow contestants so there was little doubt that there would be some controversy upon their exit last night.

Personally I don't see the big deal. Even if by some weird fluke that they had actually won the bloody thing, would they realistically have a career with longevity? No! Stranger things might have happened but Jedward getting the boot after weeks of enduring boos from a clearly childish crowd is hardly shock of the century. If this had been an actual singing contest, they would've never made it as far as they did. I don't have anything against the lads but maybe it's time that the judges actually took the show seriously instead of treating proceedings in the farcical manner they've been doing for some time now

What is with soaps and gay storylines? For ages you can go without any and then you're attacked by many? Not that that's always a bad thing but 2009 wise, let's er see ...

Home And Away: Charlie, who was bisexual for five seconds before hooking up with the deathly dull Angelo. Now tends to mostly whine. A lot.
Fair City: Yvonne/Connie, not much plot there, even with the former's pregnancy. Plus Troy disappeared as quickly as he debuted.
Hollyoaks: Um, some bisexual plots with Kris/Ravi and the whole Lydia/Sarah/Zoe mess that's now involving Charlotte. Slightly better.
Coronation Street: Sean trying and failing to woo Leon, who in turn fancied Jason, who won Mr Gay Weatherfield, despite his heterosexuality. Hardly riveting.
EastEnders: Christian/Syed, which even without the Muslim aspect of the storyline should be really interesting. Except it's not. I feel a bit sympathetic towards Christian but Syed's doing very little that makes me think he's worth pursuing. Some of the upcoming Christmas spoilers with them and Amira suggest their relationship will be outed in the usual manner and will play a backburner to the 'Who Killed Archie?' plot line.
Doctors: Um, dishy Simon and the American guy, Todd but that didn't last long mind. Still both were exceptionally cute though.


Emmerdale meanwhile started the year by reuniting and exiting Paul and Johnny rather quickly as well as reawakening Debbie/Jasmine. Only then poor Jasmine went to jail for caving in the brains of a rapist police officer and Debbie hooked up with a bloke so bland that not even the revelation of him engaged to Charity was enough to ignite excitement into him.
Funnily enough from next month onwards, it seems that wayward Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) tries to snog his only mate Adam Barton (Adam Thomas), despite spending most of the time pursuing Adam's sister, Holly (Sophie Powles).
In terms of gay stories, Emmerdale do usually have a better track record and perhaps this is one that might not peter out so quickly if we're lucky.
Also someone on YouTube compiled as many Aaron/Adam scenes as they could muster. See here ... http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=624EE7524681A15E


2 comments:

Nat said...

I like that you're going to do more eclectic blogs :)
That said I don't watch any of those shows. Its been impossible completely staying away from I'm A Celebrity and X Factor but I have tried to for the most part.

There have been a lot of gay storylines in soaps this year. Hollyoaks isn't new to the gay storylines though.
For Home and Away I think there was just too much 'people getting hysterical' for them to continue with it. Didn't really buy the storyline for Charlie though.

shawnlunn2002 said...

Thanks, I just think some variety on my part would be a good thing and it should keep things interesting as well.

I'm not a big reality TV fan but it's so hard to ignore it as well and those shows do get a lethal amount of exposure, you'd have to be living underground not to know they're there.

Soaps and gay storylines are a mixed bag though. The one in EastEnders is particularly dire at this point.