Box-Eyed: Eurovision, HIGNFY, Lie To Me
By Dan OwenOnce again, BBC1's Saturday evening was swallowed up by the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST for three hours.
There were actually a few good reasons to bother watching this year, too: Terry Wogan has been replaced as the competition's narrator, by fellow Irishman Graham Norton. Norton did a decent job of imparting the information while gently mocking the entries, although it was a little strange to hear him essentially reading a very Wogan-esque script. Maybe next year he'll have the confidence to bring some of his own brand of humour to the event.
But the real fun was seeing how well 21-year-old Jade Ewen would do for the UK, after an extended run of poor showings in the competition – culminating with joint-last in 2008. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber went on a crusade to reverse the UK's fortunes this year – hosting a reality show that crowned Jade the winner, then writing her the UK's song, and touring Europe with Jade for live performances and interviews. Their hard work paid off, as "It's My Time" leaped up the scoreboard to finish in a very respectable fifth place with 173 points (which could have been a winning score in earlier years.)
Sadly, nobody could beat Norway – who won the competition with a record-breaking 387 points. Of course, in typically cynical British fashion, it's time to speculate on why we did so well this time: has Europe politically softened towards Britain at last? Did Andrew Lloyd Webber's fanbase vote for him? Was the decision for Webber to appear on-stage with Jade, playing the piano, enough of a gimmick to sway musical-theatre lovers into voting? Did the new voting system help us (a mix of public vote and judge's scores)? Perhaps; perhaps not. Maybe Jade just sang a decent song very well? I know; unthinkable, right? BBC1, SAT, 8PM.
For me, the latest edition of topical news quiz HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU was the show at its absolute worst. Rolf Harris was this week's guest-presenter and he acquitted himself well at reading the autocue and laughing along to jokes at his expense. He wasn't the problem. The problem stems from the show's move into the whole "guest presenting" formatl, following the dismissal of original host Angus Deayton years ago. HIGNFY's never been the same since, really...
The problem with the new format is simple: some guests are better than others. That's an inescapable symptom of rotating the presenter. But what's really hurting HIGNFY is how the guest-host totally overshadows the show's raison d'etre: to satirize the week's news.
There were times during the Rolf Harris edition when I actually forgot this was designed to be a news-based quiz, as it had instead turned into a kind of Rolf Harris festival and appreciation society. Knowledge of Rolf being in the hot-seat had me awaiting the unavoidable mentions of Australia, didgeridoo's, art, animals, etc. And the show didn't disappoint: Rolf drew cartoons, played his stylophone, made some jokes based on his Animal Hospital days, and dropped in mentions of painting the Queen. They even played his old swimming public service video!
I can't remember a single joke about anything relating to the news or current affairs, just an endless stream of Rolf-based gags and references. The audience were even encouraged to sing-a-long to a few of his songs! Admittedly, I was watching the extended edition on Saturday night (elongated by 10-minutes from Friday's edition), so perhaps things felt worse than they were for the "proper" episode... but still. HIGNFY regularly indulges its guest-presenter in the same way the Sunday Night Project fawns over theirs, and it's becoming incredibly tiresome.
Clearly, the producers have no intention of replacing Angus Deayton fulltime, so the guest-host format is going to stay put. But please, can we move away from spending 90% of the time poking fun at the host, and actually focus back on the news? Have I Got News For You? Well, no, not usually! FRI, BBC1, 9PM / SAT, BBC2, 9.20PM.
The success of medical drama House has led to a stream of copycat shows in the US. Formulaic procedurals with a lead character whose eccentricities or specialized skills are more interesting than the storylines. We've seen it most recently with The Mentalist (a bland procedural where a Derren Brown-style mental illusionist uses his powers of observation to help the police solve crimes.) Now, we have the latest twist on this sub-genre: LIE TO ME...
Tim Roth headlines as psychologist Dr. Cal Lightman (in his own accent), the founder of an organization that specialize in spotting lies through "microexpressions", "facial action coding" and "body language". Cal and his team help local law enforcement solve crimes by interviewing suspects as "human lie detectors", effectively. It has a basis in real science and the first episode was definitely intriguing whenever it showed the audience how to detect dishonesty through eye-movement, expressions, posture and subconscious actions. But so would a documentary on the subject.
The problem facing Lie To Me (and the similarly-themed The Mentalist) is that its heroes are so gifted that the mysteries are never at the forefront of the show's entertainment. You don't watch either series to see a good crime investigation or for the pleasure of seeing a villain get their comeuppance – you watch because it's fun to watch the likes of Tim Roth "magically" deduce the truth and tell when people are being deceitful. But that's also something of a problem for the show...
In this first episode, Cal interviews the teenage suspect in the murder of a teacher, and he knows in minutes that the boy's not the killer. The investigation is all about trying to determine why the boy's lying and why he feels guilty. Which is fair enough. But surely, in theory, every episode's mystery could be solved by Cal sitting down with every suspect the cops get their hands on, asking them "did you do it?" and watching for dilated pupils, and whatnot. Of course, the writing will no doubt be cleverer than that, but I'm not convinced I can watch many iterations of this formula before Lie To Me's "gimmick" starts to grow stale. And that's the unfortunate truth. SKY1, THU, 9PM.
.....
If you enjoyed Box-Eyed, why not head over to Dan's Media Digest for more entertainment-related news, reviews and musings?
Sadly, nobody could beat Norway – who won the competition with a record-breaking 387 points. Of course, in typically cynical British fashion, it's time to speculate on why we did so well this time: has Europe politically softened towards Britain at last? Did Andrew Lloyd Webber's fanbase vote for him? Was the decision for Webber to appear on-stage with Jade, playing the piano, enough of a gimmick to sway musical-theatre lovers into voting? Did the new voting system help us (a mix of public vote and judge's scores)? Perhaps; perhaps not. Maybe Jade just sang a decent song very well? I know; unthinkable, right? BBC1, SAT, 8PM.
For me, the latest edition of topical news quiz HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU was the show at its absolute worst. Rolf Harris was this week's guest-presenter and he acquitted himself well at reading the autocue and laughing along to jokes at his expense. He wasn't the problem. The problem stems from the show's move into the whole "guest presenting" formatl, following the dismissal of original host Angus Deayton years ago. HIGNFY's never been the same since, really...The problem with the new format is simple: some guests are better than others. That's an inescapable symptom of rotating the presenter. But what's really hurting HIGNFY is how the guest-host totally overshadows the show's raison d'etre: to satirize the week's news.
There were times during the Rolf Harris edition when I actually forgot this was designed to be a news-based quiz, as it had instead turned into a kind of Rolf Harris festival and appreciation society. Knowledge of Rolf being in the hot-seat had me awaiting the unavoidable mentions of Australia, didgeridoo's, art, animals, etc. And the show didn't disappoint: Rolf drew cartoons, played his stylophone, made some jokes based on his Animal Hospital days, and dropped in mentions of painting the Queen. They even played his old swimming public service video!
I can't remember a single joke about anything relating to the news or current affairs, just an endless stream of Rolf-based gags and references. The audience were even encouraged to sing-a-long to a few of his songs! Admittedly, I was watching the extended edition on Saturday night (elongated by 10-minutes from Friday's edition), so perhaps things felt worse than they were for the "proper" episode... but still. HIGNFY regularly indulges its guest-presenter in the same way the Sunday Night Project fawns over theirs, and it's becoming incredibly tiresome.
Clearly, the producers have no intention of replacing Angus Deayton fulltime, so the guest-host format is going to stay put. But please, can we move away from spending 90% of the time poking fun at the host, and actually focus back on the news? Have I Got News For You? Well, no, not usually! FRI, BBC1, 9PM / SAT, BBC2, 9.20PM.
The success of medical drama House has led to a stream of copycat shows in the US. Formulaic procedurals with a lead character whose eccentricities or specialized skills are more interesting than the storylines. We've seen it most recently with The Mentalist (a bland procedural where a Derren Brown-style mental illusionist uses his powers of observation to help the police solve crimes.) Now, we have the latest twist on this sub-genre: LIE TO ME...Tim Roth headlines as psychologist Dr. Cal Lightman (in his own accent), the founder of an organization that specialize in spotting lies through "microexpressions", "facial action coding" and "body language". Cal and his team help local law enforcement solve crimes by interviewing suspects as "human lie detectors", effectively. It has a basis in real science and the first episode was definitely intriguing whenever it showed the audience how to detect dishonesty through eye-movement, expressions, posture and subconscious actions. But so would a documentary on the subject.
The problem facing Lie To Me (and the similarly-themed The Mentalist) is that its heroes are so gifted that the mysteries are never at the forefront of the show's entertainment. You don't watch either series to see a good crime investigation or for the pleasure of seeing a villain get their comeuppance – you watch because it's fun to watch the likes of Tim Roth "magically" deduce the truth and tell when people are being deceitful. But that's also something of a problem for the show...
In this first episode, Cal interviews the teenage suspect in the murder of a teacher, and he knows in minutes that the boy's not the killer. The investigation is all about trying to determine why the boy's lying and why he feels guilty. Which is fair enough. But surely, in theory, every episode's mystery could be solved by Cal sitting down with every suspect the cops get their hands on, asking them "did you do it?" and watching for dilated pupils, and whatnot. Of course, the writing will no doubt be cleverer than that, but I'm not convinced I can watch many iterations of this formula before Lie To Me's "gimmick" starts to grow stale. And that's the unfortunate truth. SKY1, THU, 9PM.
.....
If you enjoyed Box-Eyed, why not head over to Dan's Media Digest for more entertainment-related news, reviews and musings?
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