Public Address | Monitor | Depravity, anyone?

Adrian Humm

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:34:29 +1300

Nice work, Gary. Now could you add up how many hours of "reality" TV we could watch each week? I'd do it myself but I'm too busy putting the finishing touches to my proposal for a new fly-on-the-wall series called.....

...sorry. I just spent 5 minutes trying to think of…

andrew llewellyn

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:49:22 +1300

I know it's good cos Tv1 always put anything non formulaic on when most people are asleep

Isn't it weird? But they can be relied upon. I've never personally met a TV programmer, but its hard to escape an unflattering opinion of the people drawn to the profession.

Stephen Hansen

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:37:53 +1300

If you want some decent crime drama – don't go past the British one – 55 Degrees North on Tv1 at 5 to 11 Tuesday nights.

I know it's good cos Tv1 always put anything non formulaic on when most people are asleep.

Tui Head

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:25:23 +1300

Why exclude British TV? Or, hell, why limit it to crime shows at all? It seems to me like there are multiple different categories represented here – procedural drama and dead body particularly, and action-adventure. Dead body is more crime-gore (CSI, NCIS, House); they're also intensely mystery focused – solving…

Lucy Stewart

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:50:54 +1300

I would put Numb3rs and a show not currently playing, Bones, in a slightly different category from the 'usual' crime shows – they're about the interaction between academic specialists and the FBI, and thus have a different take on things. The format of the episodes is often the same, but…

andrew llewellyn

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:37:33 +1300

I would add to your comment that from a writing perspective it is exactly the same every episode

Same with CSI – we check our watches to gauge whether they've got whodunnit yet, any earlier than 10 minutes before the end and it's a red herring.

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:32:18 +1300

You see, it is shows about public service which are what people want to watch.

Not so sure, Conor. In the end, I think it's much more visceral: In dice, tidy 44 minute packages the inexplicable, complex and mysterious — death, pain, justice – becomes a tidy moral universe where…

Hadyn Green

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:37:36 +1300

I thought we...I mean they were called AGENDAs? (Another Government Employee Not Doing Anything) Still I suppose there is already a show called Agenda.

Martha Craig

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:55:50 +1300

Wasn't Gliding On about Wonks?

Danyl Mclauchlan

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:23:30 +1300

I wouldn't rush to mock 'Wonks' – the first three seasons of 'The West Wing' had genuinely gripping episodes devoted to census methodologies and estate tax repeal.

Hadyn Green

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:58:04 +1300

dc_red: Absolutely! I think it might be the same reason we love skit shows (like Little Britain). Once you've seen the skit once you know what's going to happen (he's the only gay in the village) but you love it every time.

Sure, you can mix it up a little…

dc_red

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:05:09 +1300

Hadyn – as much as I enjoy House, I would add to your comment that from a writing perspective it is exactly the same every episode, full stop. The formula goes something along the lines of:

1/ One difficult case that presents early in the episode, generates at least 3…

Hadyn Green

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:27:06 +1300

It's funny how you describe _House_.

From a writing perspective _House_ is exactly the same (_exactly the same_) as a whodunnit. In fact the reason House is called House is becuase he's like Holmes (get it?)

andrew llewellyn

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 08:25:01 +1300

I can see it now: "Wonks", in which a band of heroic Wellington policy analysts... analyse policy.

Brilliant!

This reminds me of when I was an IT pleb working for a sharebroking firm in the 80s & 90s (I started in the first week of October 1987, things sure got interesting…

Idiot Savant

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 22:45:32 +1300

I can see it now: "Wonks", in which a band of heroic Wellington policy analysts... analyse policy. While drinking that good Wellington coffee. Lots of sweeping shots of Parliament (even though they all work in anonymous office buildings in Molesworth St and on the Terrace), and of people walking meaningfully…

Gary Rawnsley

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:32:57 +1300

Agreed about The Wire: possibly the best show about crime the US has produced this Century.

RB: Crime porn? Interesting term – guess that makes me a crime pervert? Which was kind of what I was getting at – I love this stuff, yet it doesn't make me feel wonderful…

Conor Roberts

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:40:56 +1300

You see, it is shows about public service which are what people want to watch.

Why are there so many shows about doctors and nurses (ER, Grey's Guts, Chicago Hope, etc), political operatives (The West Wing, Commander'n'Cheaf), naughty firemen... the list goes on.

Funny comedies about lawyers might also count…

Russell Brown

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:02:26 +1300

The Wire is a very large cut above most of the others noted in the parent post, which are basically crime-porn (but crime-porn that is doing very well for TV3). But I assume programmers look at it and assume "ooh ... a bit hard to get into if you've never…

Idiot Savant

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:08:30 +1300

Speaking of The Wire, why the hell do they screen it so late at night? It's easily the best police procedural on television, so you'd expect it to get a better slot.

BTW, Gary, you forgot "The Shield" – which is the only police drama I'm watching ATM.

matthewbuchanan

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:32:37 +1300

And the third season of The Wire just finished a few weeks back (screening midnights Tuesday on TV2). For me that one's near the top of the stack, and, ahem, what I've seen of the fourth season is good too.

Gary Rawnsley

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:54:33 +1300

Is there any limit to our appetite for shows about various aspects of the US criminal justice system? If you only watched such shows screening on the three main channels during primetime, you'd already be clocking up more than ten hours of viewing a week.

Saturday: 24
Sunday: CSI: Miami,…