Some more insights into English culture (and while I am at it, I really should come up with some pseudo-desi name for myself)
English television is a far, far cry from American television. American television has a good mix of drama, long-running soaps (I still watch The Bold and Beautiful when I can), reality TV and of course, loads of comedy. I would have expected British television to have a similar diversity given the population here and the exquisite quality of British comedy.
But no, British television is a ringside spectator sport into what was popular English hobbies - of the 19th century. There are an unbelievable number of shows devoted to cooking, a number that is rather proportional to the number of frozen food aisles in the supermarket. So if supply is being met by demand and people are sticking frozen food in the oven, who exactly is learning to cook from the shows which have a wide repertoire - from "Cook yourself thin" that shows you how to cook sinful food in a healthy way, Kitchen garden cooking, quick meals to make, competitions on cooking and what not! My guess would be that the TV shows here are a spectator sport.
Apart from cooking so far, I have watched a few episodes of Eastenders (where people have an unerringly dreadful sense of style) and some random programs involving a kitchen factory where one person shows us how to make whipped cream and dehydrated noodles at home (or a chem lab) and another involving a bunch of popular English comedians led by Stephen Fry spouting utter comic nonsense and getting points for it (mostly negative at that!).
Maybe this rant is coz I have all of 5 channels at this place that I watch in a pre-historic television set (the kind one would use on slide 3 of a History of Television presentation!!) I really do hope the quality of TV programming improves - what on earth is the point of us doing so much work on the Sky EPG if all it does is help us watch crap better?? That would be a sad day at work for a lot of us.
Right, so this was my initial preview of English television - as boring as it it (Thank god for Channel 131)..
1 comment:
agree that current british tv is crap, but it's also given us some of the finest comedies ever to hit any screen (think Fawlty Towers, Yes Minister). Also absolutely adore Coupling, besht sitcom ever. Try watching some of the retro stuff - some channels still show Fawlty and Coupling, the Stephen Fry version of Jeeves and Wooster and Agatha Christie adaptations.
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