Box-Eyed: Shooting Stars & The X Factor
By Dan OwenIt was the zaniest, funniest gameshow of the '90s... and that's where it belongs. Unwisely re-commissioned after a successful 15th-anniversary special last Christmas, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are back for a sixth series of their comedy panel show, again joined by team captain Ulrika Jonsson and baby scorekeeper "George Dawes" (Matt Lucas).
Time hasn't been kind. There's something a little tragic about Reeves and Mortimer peddling their brand of surreal comedy now they're both 50. It's difficult to keep a youthful, anarchic streak alive when you're middle-aged (ask Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson), so watching two crinkled men beckoning down "The Dove From Above" or singing in a "club style" wasn't funny, or even pleasantly nostalgic, it just felt tired and stale.
Apathy for the format was the reason Shooting Stars was axed in the first place back in '02, so quite why the BBC have revived it is beyond me. I guess it's cheap to produce, has a loyal fan-base, there's a notable gap in the market (ignoring Celebrity Juice) and the principal players have nothing better to do. Which makes Lucas' return even more inexplicable, but I guess it's an easy gig and he owes this show everything for his subsequent success with Little Britain.
The only evidence of a good idea was replacing deadpan Will Self (himself a substitute for deadpan Mark Lamarr) with deadpan Jack Dee. Ironically, I think Lamarr would have returned their call this time. Whatever happened to him?! They've also replaced Johnny Vegas with a grubby Greek character called Angelos Epithemiou, whose shtick is making pitiful attempts to woo Ulrika – who has mellowed so much in middle-age that she's practically invisible. Catching repeats of the glowing, sparkly, funny Ulrika circa 1996 is like seeing an entirely different person.
To be fair, there were some funny moments sprinkled about (like Vic accidentally displaying a greasy skidmark to Bleakley as he tried to show her a tattoo above his bum crack, and a gleefully insane "final game" that involved singing a Tina Turner song while being vibrated whilst carrying trays of alcohol inside a "time machine"), but it was ultimately a tepid waste of time. Shooting Stars had outstayed its welcome when it returned after a five-year gap in 2002, so a further seven-year gap between series certainly hasn't helped. BBC2, WED, 10PM.
To ITV now, where the seventh series of The X Factor recently started its trek to a surefire Christmas Number One. Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole are back as judges, so the only notable change is that the audition rounds now take place in front of a live audience, a la Britain's Got Talent.
I can understand their reasoning for doing this, beyond just fixing what wasn't broken. It could result in another Susan Boyle-style moment that wouldn't have worked if she'd sung well to a quiet room of four judges and a camera crew. Maybe the Got Talent format will infect all talent shows in the wake of Boyle's YouTube phenomenon, as it appears to have done here already. American Idol tends to be three years behind the reality show curve, though, as Cowell uses the UK as a kind of testing ground for his innovations.
Singing to a huge crowd is an added pressure for the wannabes and doesn't always guarantee impartial judgement. Will the judges refuse to put a middle-of-the-road singer through the boot camp if the crowd go nuts for them? They could easily be swayed by the audience reaction in ways they wouldn't have been beforehand, so we'll have to see.
More than anything though, I just liked how The X Factor's old-style auditions felt more genuine. The setup was honest and not too dissimilar to how open auditions are handled in the industry. Or how the public perceive they are run, anyway (go watch Flashdance.) But now? No. Walking onto a stage and performing in front of a big crowd suits the vaudevillian style of Britain's Got Talent, but it strays from reality a bit too much for my taste in X Factor. There will also be a lack of progression this year, as it was always part of the development that the stakes and the platform got tougher as the weeks went by, leading to live shows in front of a real audience. But we appear to have leaped straight into that live show feel in Week One. And there are four months to go... ITV1, SAT, 7PM.
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If you enjoyed Box-Eyed, why not head over to Dan's Media Digest for more entertainment-related news, reviews and musings?
To be fair, there were some funny moments sprinkled about (like Vic accidentally displaying a greasy skidmark to Bleakley as he tried to show her a tattoo above his bum crack, and a gleefully insane "final game" that involved singing a Tina Turner song while being vibrated whilst carrying trays of alcohol inside a "time machine"), but it was ultimately a tepid waste of time. Shooting Stars had outstayed its welcome when it returned after a five-year gap in 2002, so a further seven-year gap between series certainly hasn't helped. BBC2, WED, 10PM.
To ITV now, where the seventh series of The X Factor recently started its trek to a surefire Christmas Number One. Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole are back as judges, so the only notable change is that the audition rounds now take place in front of a live audience, a la Britain's Got Talent.I can understand their reasoning for doing this, beyond just fixing what wasn't broken. It could result in another Susan Boyle-style moment that wouldn't have worked if she'd sung well to a quiet room of four judges and a camera crew. Maybe the Got Talent format will infect all talent shows in the wake of Boyle's YouTube phenomenon, as it appears to have done here already. American Idol tends to be three years behind the reality show curve, though, as Cowell uses the UK as a kind of testing ground for his innovations.
Singing to a huge crowd is an added pressure for the wannabes and doesn't always guarantee impartial judgement. Will the judges refuse to put a middle-of-the-road singer through the boot camp if the crowd go nuts for them? They could easily be swayed by the audience reaction in ways they wouldn't have been beforehand, so we'll have to see.
More than anything though, I just liked how The X Factor's old-style auditions felt more genuine. The setup was honest and not too dissimilar to how open auditions are handled in the industry. Or how the public perceive they are run, anyway (go watch Flashdance.) But now? No. Walking onto a stage and performing in front of a big crowd suits the vaudevillian style of Britain's Got Talent, but it strays from reality a bit too much for my taste in X Factor. There will also be a lack of progression this year, as it was always part of the development that the stakes and the platform got tougher as the weeks went by, leading to live shows in front of a real audience. But we appear to have leaped straight into that live show feel in Week One. And there are four months to go... ITV1, SAT, 7PM.
.....
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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