The Cream of the Crop

About a month ago I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, Sound Opinions, and a listener left a message in their feedback section suggesting that someone needs to do some research as to why all the good music in 2009 comes from a small country like England when America is so much bigger and produces so much crap (I’m paraphrasing). Friday as I was eating my lunch I read this article which asks why is America kicking Britain’s ass when it comes to inventive television. The answer to both questions when you are evaluating a country’s exports is that you’re getting the cream of the crop.


My buddy R in DC recently sent me a message asking me what good television shows were happening here in the UK and since Gavin and Stacy has ended I racked my brains trying to think of a single British television show I’m watching these days. Instead I am basking in the glory of getting the best that the U.S. has to offer without having to purchase all of the pay channels to get it, shows like Nurse Jackie from Showtime, True Blood from HBO, Glee, Mad Men, and many more. With few exceptions, the imports make us look really good!

I sent a comment back to Sound Opinions about the listener’s concern. I explained that the entire spectrum of English music is not represented by what makes it to your shores. They don’t know that on Friday about 5pm when you turn on the radio to head home almost every station is playing awful techno, they don’t know that the songs that dominated the charts this past decade weren’t by hipster bands, but watered down remakes by reality show contestants. It’s just an illusion that the grass is always greener.

Extras

Just finished watching the box set of Ricky Gervais’ Extras. I’ve seen an episode here and there but wanted to watch it from start to finish. I really enjoyed it and after watching it in a series, no wonder, it has a lot of the same characteristics as another one of my all-time favourite shows – Seinfeld. Here are some of the similarities I noticed.

1. Some of Seinfeld’s bests episodes revolved around a misunderstanding as does Extras. Example, what about the scratch that was mistaken for a pick. “If we pick, do we not bleed?”

2. Jerry has Newman as a nemesis. Andy has Greg.

3. Andy is selfish like Jerry. Both of them reacted in a similar way when parents ask them to visit their sick kids. I just caught the bubble boy episode of Seinfeld recently and laughed all over again.

4. Who is Kramer? Well, Maggie has the same quality as Kramer in that she is too honest. Whatever she is thinking she says. The unconventional social interactions, well Darren, Andy’s manager covers that territory.

5. Some of the best moments in Extras are the guest stars. Seinfeld even has that with Keith Hernandez as Jerry’s man crush and of course, the Velvet Fog episode was a classic.

However, Extras has an unexpected dark quality that one might not expect in a sitcom which makes it different. If you like Ricky Gervais, it is must see tv.

That's Entertainment!

I’ve been seeing lots of advertisements here for the E! Show Chelsea Lately. Of all the American shows that they could be promoting here, I was puzzled that this was the one that was getting the treatment. But then at second glance, it fits right in. If you haven’t seen Chelsea Lately, it’s Chelsea Handler and a panel of other comedians (?) going through a list celebrities or celebrity happenings that everyone has a chance to make fun of. It’s actually just like some of the game shows on UK telly.

When we were on vacation we watched some programs in the evening that we normally wouldn’t watch and one of them was one of these game show/panel shows. It’s a game show in the very loosest interpretation. There are always two teams who you think are competing against each other, there might be a non-celebrity with celebrity regulars and a witty host but the only point seems to be either making fun of each of the participants or whatever the subject matter may be. So it’s actually like a stand-up comedy routine for comedians who don’t have enough material for an entire routine, but instead just enough for a quip or two. It’s an extremely popular format here. Once in awhile it’s fine but I like my snark in small doses.

Eurovision

A said it best when she said, “I can’t believe I sat through the whole thing”. As I drove A and her friends to school Friday morning her friends were talking about watching the Eurovision final on television Friday night. They had to explain to her what it was. They acknowledged its cheesiness but also couldn’t wait to watch it. I thought we needed to tune in to experience it at least once. Been there, done that. All I can say is wow. I’ve figured out that there are three elements that make up a winning performance:

1. Lots of color
2. Cheesy pop song
3. And more importantly…a fan for that windblown effect

Two countries did their best to try and stack the deck, Germany and the UK. The UK had their entry perform with Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, hoping his pedigree would bolster their chances. But Germany went in another direction. They hired American burlesque star Dita Von Teese to strip down to a boustier during their performance. Who won in the end? Norway!

If you want to learn more about Eurovision and listen to some of the songs, go here. Just a warning, Azerbaijan’s song is an earworm of massive proportions.

Little Chef

On our way to Wales we made a pit stop at Little Chef for breakfast. It reminded me of an American Denny’s. Last month H and I watched a series on television called Big Chef Takes on Little Chef where world-renowned chef Heston Blumenthal worked as a consultant to this food chain in the hope of making it relevant once again. Here is the link to Little Chef. Here is the link to Heston’s Three Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck’s tasting menu. I think you will see that this was probably not the most sensible match. The show was very interesting. I think at the beginning of the show viewers might have had an image of Blumenthal that changed by the end. He was very pragmatic in his approach, knowing that his Fat Duck menu could not and should not become the Little Chef menu. The breakfast at Little Chef was okay, and since there were no signs of the items that Blumenthal tried to roll out in the taste test, I am afraid the company must not have gone through with the breakfast overhaul. I am attaching a pic of H’s Olympic Breakfast. The fact that this particular Little Chef was housed in a beautiful old building made it a little more appealing than the run of the mill chain location.

Nothing but Downtime

Mission accomplished. Nothing serious got done over the Christmas holiday except a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, which H would work on occasionally just to fix my mistakes. I also had a lot of American television on in the background, lots of episodes of Law & Order, Frasier, and Malcolm in the Middle. I also watched all of the episodes of a British comedy called Gavin and Stacey over the holiday as well, thanks to a recommendation from someone at work. I bought the DVDs after Christmas and felt like an addict, waiting for everyone else to go to sleep so I could watch three or four episodes.

The show is a classic tale of two people from different worlds falling in love. Gavin is English and Stacey is Welsh. They meet through telephone conversations at work and decide to meet up in London and a whirlwind romance ensues. They are a sweet couple but the true genius of the show is their family and friends who have to come together with varying degrees of success due to the couples’ romance. I don’t get all of the cultural references but it is still great television. I mention this show because I read recently that it is being developed for American television with Gavin being from New Jersey and Stacey being from South Carolina. While The Office was successfully adapted to U.S. television, I’m afraid the beauty of this one might get lost in the Americanization, so if you have access to the original through BBC America or Netflix, check it out.

I’m attaching a clip from youtube that I hope you can play from America. One of my favorite elements of the show is the relationship between Gavin and his best mate Smithy, who cannot deal with the fact that his friendship is being affected by this relationship. With Gavin and Stacey back from their honeymoon, Smithy acts like the other woman. This scene kills me.

Happy Christmas

Our first Christmas in England is going to be a quiet one. As I left work yesterday I picked up the pictured wreath. Due to a cold I didn’t do any Christmas baking as I usually do. My only goal is to wear my pajamas all day as A and I work on jigsaw puzzle I picked up. There’s no Christmas Story or It’s A Wonderful Life on television but there have been at least four versions of A Christmas Carol. I will miss Jimmy Stewart this year as well as the cheese grits we have had for Christmas morning ever since we moved to Alabama.

Happy Christmas all!

The Virgin Daughters

Channel 4 ran a very interesting documentary Thursday night about the so-called American phenomenon that is the purity movement. I was asked Friday morning by a work colleague if I saw it. I said yes and that I was just as unfamiliar with this whole slice of American life as she was. This article that ran the next day in The Independent gives you a good idea of what the documentary was all about.

I Warned Ya'll

I mentioned him in an earlier post. I don't think we need him back any time soon.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/05/mtv.awards.russell.brand.ap/

A. Turns 13

We are now officially parents of a teenager. Yikes! We plan to spend the evening watching episodes of the new season of Project Runway, our favorite show that is NOT broadcast in the UK. Our buddy M sent several episodes last week and we thought we would save it for a special occasion.

Thanks so much M! We couldn’t live without our Project Runway!

Long Weekend

This Monday is a holiday. Due to a cold, it’s been a very low key weekend, watching movies and the Reading and Leads Festival coverage on the television as well as the Olympics Closing Ceremony. The Leona Lewis/Jimmy Page segment reminded me of an American Super Bowl Halftime Show.

No one here seems very excited about the Olympics coming to London. They seem more annoyed.

The Olympics Begin!

I am very interested to watch the BBC coverage of the Olympics to see how different it might be. I wonder if some of the commentators will feel the need to fill up quiet moments as some of the U.S. commentators do. The result is a "Best in Show" moment when someone like John Tesh is covering gymnastics on NBC.

I've got the BBC on this morning and the commentators have said that the swimming schedule was moved around because American television, which has a lot of pull with the Olympic committe, wanted Michael Phelps' race to be timed for primetime American television. I will be interested to know if that fact makes it to the U.S. coverage.

Watercooler conversation on Friday drifted to the 2012 Games in London. How will the London transport system handle the event? There are a lot of doubts that it can.

Little Britain USA

America, you are in for a treat. A yahoo news story reported that the popular comedy show Little Britain will be making its debut in the U.S. this fall. Since moving to the UK I have been catching some re-runs of this show. It is absolutely hilarious. My friend R in D.C. and I have been discussing our favorite episodes recently. Here's just a taste from youtube.