Category: Arts reviews

Monday, February 27, 2006

I’ve just finished John Banville’s The Sea, and I’m mad.

As a writer I don’t think I’ve got an inflated opinion of my own ability, but on a good day I think I can string the words together with clarity, precision and a certain style.

And then I read Banville and realise that I’m just an old hack. His prose shines. You know those creative writing MFA programs that tell you to leave out all the adjectives? Banville’s clearly never been to one, and his choice of perfect and unexpected adjectives help to fix his images in your mind.

The plotting and slow revelation of his characters is artfully done, and the book deals with grown-up subjects like grief, regret and the beastliness of adolescents.

But it’s the prose itself that lingers. And makes me think I should either become a plumber or work harder at the writing.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Since Finn’s been born (and also before, truth to tell), I’ve been very easily moved to tears.

Sometimes a news item will see me crying, especially if kids are involved somehow. But most of my tears are shed over movies.

This week, the great documentary Mad Hot Ballroom did it for me. 

It traces the progress of three sets of 11-year-olds from different New York public schools as they learn ballroom dancing and then compete in a city-wide dance off.

It’s thought-provoking, funny and ridiculously cute, and there are enough ‘aaahhhh’ moments to see me crying.

Worth a look (and you probably won’t cry).

Monday, November 14, 2005

Say it isn’t so. Fox have cancelled what I have no hesitation in saying is the funniest TV comedy I’ve ever seen – ‘Arrested Development’.

I came late to the party – the show is starting its third season (one that it won’t finish), and we started watching part of the way through the second – but it’s innovative and flat out hilarious.

It’s been honored with Emmys, and lauded by the critics, but it seems the viewing figures at the beginning of this season were poor. I partly blame baseball. Having moved the show from Sundays to Mondays, Fox then broadcast most of the playoff and World Series games, essentially wrecking the schedule for a month.

When things returned to normal last week with 2 back-to-back episodes, the viewing figures were down (unsurprisingly, as no-one knew where to find the show any more).

So to avoid losing viewers for ‘Prison Break’, which follows, they canned Arrested Development.

The only bright spot is that there are 40-odd episodes so I’d recommend doing what we’re doing: working through them at your own pace, and savouring the fantastic scripts and great acting.

Get ‘em while they’re hot (and if you’re in the UK or Ireland, just hope Channel 4 or someone still buys the episodes that did get made):

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Something very strange is happening to American TV – it’s come over all English.

We’re used to the sporadic attempts to remake British sit-coms for the US market – from Sanford and Son (Steptoe and Son in the UK), via an ill-advised attempt at Fawlty Towers, through to Coupling and the Office.

Most of the time these don’t work, with the standard explanations given that American audiences don’t like the cruel streak of English humour (the US versions of Absolutely Fabulous and Men Behaving Badly were so bland as to be unwatchable), and that the team approach of US sit-coms (needed because each season is so long) doesn’t sit well with the lone creator style preferred in the UK.

But if comedies don’t often work, it’s a different story with reality TV. Most Americans don’t know that Pop Idol started in England, along with Wife Swap, Nanny 911, What Not to Wear and Trading Places (the US Changing Rooms, because here changing rooms are called locker rooms so the pun doesn’t work).

There are also US versions of Airport, How Clean is Your House, Property Ladder, Antiques Roadshow, Brat Camp, Celebrity Come Dancing, Hit Me Baby One More Time and Life Laundry. Basically, any mildy watchable piece of cheap reality TV you’ve ever seen in Britain has reached our colonial cousins.

So the formats translate pretty well (I’d even argue that What Not to Wear is better here), but recently the personnel have also made it over here, with some weird results.

I’m not sure what the Amercian audiences make of Vernon Kaye’s flat vowels as the host of Hit Me Baby . . . , but everybody loves Gordon Ramsey.

Continuing the theme of British villains (Anne Robinson hosting The Weakest Link, Simon Cowell making hopefuls cry in Idol), it seems the folks here can’t get enough of Ramsey’s rants. The US version of Hell’s Kitchen involved real people rather than celebrities, competing to win a restaurant. It was riveting stuff.

And I switched on ABC the other night to see Johnny Vaughan presenting a frantic game show that looked a little like Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, but with a bigger budget.

Throw in the fey northerner Cash Peters on the Travel Channel’s Stranded, and you’ll see there are plenty of my countrymen on TV over here.

And that’s without watching BBC America, where I can currently get my fill of Little Britain, Teachers and the rest.

How long before Des Lynam’s introducing baseball games, and Paxo’s replacing the sadly departed Peter Jennings as the host of ABC’s flagship news programme?