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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Confessions pertaining to TV shows.

Tryphena Absent

01:32 / 05.02.06

This could be the most shameful thread I've ever started. I am so ashamed to admit this...

I like My Family.

I often wonder why. I ask myself, what's wrong with me? This show is terrible middle class nonsense. These people are appalling. Do I watch this occasionally because of Zoe Wanamaker's hair? That Christmas episode when they're on the tube though- love it.

Then there's As Time Goes By. I laugh out loud regularly. I, wait for this, steel yourselves, empathise with the characters. I think "poor Lionel, so hard done by". "Poor Jean, he just doesn't get it". Inside me there is an old woman who thinks stereotypical marital situations are hilarious.

Oh, you can try and argue with me but I know you have dirty secrets too. I just find myself laughing. I sit there in my shroud of middle class white guilt, forget my shroud of guilt, laugh and then find it again at the end.

I need help. No convincing, help me by confessing your love for terrible British sitcoms. Let me know that I am not alone.

All Acting Regiment

02:53 / 05.02.06

You know, I don't mind My Family that much, perhaps because I extrapolate from the father's general demeanour that what we are watching is the wreckage of a show; originally it was going to be a post-post-watershed Chris Morris is-it-comedy-or-is-it-something-darker thing where he eventually goes mad in a Kafka-esque fashion, having been chased home by gnashing dental tools, and his two sons shit into eachother's mouths, and his daughter gets trapped in the pages of Une Semaine De Bonte.

Phex: Dorset Doom

04:36 / 05.02.06

Friends.

I'm so sorry, but Friends.
This actually is the wreckage of a better, post-watershed show. Y'see, before the show started Matthew Perry was a stand-up comedian who pitched a show about six friends living in New York to Warner Brothers. They rejected it and a little while later approached Perry about starring in a new show they were working on. A show about six friends living in New York. Fast forward a bit and Matthew Perry, despite being everybody's favorite Friend is hooked on painkillers and gaining loads of weight.
Despite this, whenever Friends is on I find myself watching it and laughing my ass off. I don't seek it out, but I always, perhaps due to some subconcious desire, turn on the TV to watch the Simpsons far too early, just as Friends starts.
Actually, it's not as bad as watching My Family.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

20:31 / 07.02.06

OK, so its not for a long time, mind, but there was this unusual period, and it still, to this day, perplexes me and arrests my self-observing curiosity, when I somehow ended up, late at night, watching, and enjoying, consecutive episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a packet of Crisps. It never made me laugh, occasionally made me grimace, but I found it strangely compelling, and even developed a minor crush on the posh twit friend of the sassy 'heroine' who was also an MTV presenter for a short stint.

Bizarre.

I found it all strangely endearing and wrapped-up-in-a-duvet-at-3-am comforting, somehow.

Forgive me.

My Family, you say? Jeezus

Poke it with a stick

21:14 / 07.02.06

I too find My Family oddly and disturbingly compelling... I feel dirty for admitting it but, there you go.

And isn't it just a revamp of 2.4 Children with a cast who haven't, well, died?

On the flipside - the IT Crowd? Hated it...

08:17 / 08.02.06

You know I also quite like My Family. I would watch it most Fridays before/after Eastenders, haven't seen it in awhile but compared to some other BBC shite like Keeping up Appearances or Last of the Summer Wine it's not half bad.

I feel no shame and watch all kinds of shows others might hate although even I think I would feel a little bad if I watched Two Pints of Lager....

09:01 / 08.02.06

Actually, I have to confess Keeping Up Appearances is a secret like of mine.

You can just lie in bed on a Sunday morning and its very unobtrusive.

I also like it because it kinda pokes fun at the audience that watches it - that whole class snobbery thing. Some of the episodes also go a bit surreal, which is nice.

Then there are the darker touches - Hyacinth is clearly a lady-what-lunches who's had or is on the verge of breakdown - a sad woman who is always close to her world collapsing and can only acheive her happiness through flourishing her material wealth.

Her husband Richard in a relationship he doesn't enjoy and is dreading his retirement (and, I suspect, quite fancies the bit of stuff next door).

Patricia Routledge carries the entire show by herself. She always gives a manic OTT performance everytime.

So join me in appreciating the glory that is KUA....

10:24 / 08.02.06

I'm quite tired today. Reason? I was up late watching "Bad Lads Army". Something about the hard training appeals to me, as well as the usual reality based, toerags-to-riches stories. Funniest was the guy who was a Satanist who burst into tears when he went into the church. What a silly programme....

10:46 / 08.02.06

I'm honestly not sure where the shame is in most of this. Is it that these programmes aren't high-brow enough? Are they morally dubious?
Can't help but notice that all the programmes people have so far confessed to enjoying are popular, successful, mainstream shows that are enjoyed by lots of people. What's the problem? Or is that the problem?

10:57 / 08.02.06

That's what I was wondering. In the IT crowd thread it's mentioned that the show is like something that would be shown at 20:30 - like that's a bad thing....

12:59 / 08.02.06

Well the Thread Sumamry does say "Is it a British sitcom that everyone else your age thinks is toss?"

I think a lot of my contempories find Keeping Up Appearances toss.

I can understand why - It's firmly mainstream. Not a reason to dislike something in my mind, but tends to suggest that it is lacking in a certain cutting edge. Secondly I think its target audience, like Last of The Summer Wine, is older - all the cast are older, the shows deal with things that older people can perhaps relate to more easily - retirement, cruise holidays and so on. On top of that, they're repeats from 10 years ago.

I can also understand that KUA is a shit comedy in that nothing ever really changes. The same old shit happens everyweek. The jokes are the same. You know Daddy will be defending a trench in the county hall gardens or whatever, and that Onslow's dog is going to try and biote Hyacinth. There's no continuity. I know I shouldn't like something that does this, but I have an affection for it.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:45 / 08.02.06

Fastlane.

God help me, but this is one of the most entertaining shows in the past few years. I find myself laughing like a mad man at the cheesy updated Miami Vice one liners.

The action is over the top, but damn, pure entertainment value.

15:31 / 08.02.06

Ooh. I'll admit to kinda liking As Time Goes by whenever I see it on. It's harmless and sweet. My Family, on the other hand. Just.........no. I can't. I'm sorry.

Speaking of Patricia Routledge though, I've always found Hettie Wainthrope Investigates strangely compelling and I have no idea why. Perhaps it's to see what it was that Hobbits did before they got stranded on tropical islands.

You know, I'm sure there's another program I'm repressing here. I have this spectre of creeping dread swimming about the back of my brain. If it surfaces, I'll let you know.

07:02 / 09.02.06

I really liked Wild Palms - thought that James Belushi was excellent in it (used to think that he'd make a great Beast in X-Men film) and just thought that overall tone and scripting was fantastic - thought that the hotel shoot out scored with 'Rising Sun' was great television.

And Robert Loggia is supurb.

Haven't seen it in years though.