Under the blacklight
So I was watching TV about 2 months ago. This was Newsnight Review which is BBC 2's arts review programme. The panel was discussing Armando Ianucci's new film In the Loop which is a spin-off of the hilarious political comedy The Thick of it. Its a very witty and clever film that shows the UK and US preparing to go to war against a certain Middle Eastern Country. Sound familiar? The run-up to the Iraq war might not strike you as a fitting subject for comedy. Not for the first time in your life, you'd be wrong my friend.
Anyway everyone on the panel liked it, except Michael Portillo who is-suprise, suprise- a politician. It's like asking a chicken to make a comment on a foxes' hunting raids on its coop. The film is one sustained attack on politicians and the art of politics. Its also notable for the bad language. The central character- Malcolm Tucker- attains vulgar language of almost Shakesperean quality. You'll come out of the film with profound thoughts about politics and war and the folly of man, but you'll also have a greater appreciation about how astonishingly versatile the word 'fuck' is. And there was no sexual intercourse in this film.
God, its taking me ages to get to the point. Anyway, Portillo dismissed the film but one of the reasons he gave for his reaction was that it was 'outdated'. He argued that because its a thinly-veiled account of the events leading up to the Iraq war, it was useless as a piece of satire. I rarely get outraged by views on 'Newsnight review' but I found myself longing for a technological invention that could enable the viewer to slap someone on screen. As someone else on the panel rightly pointed out, Iraq is not an outdated story at all. It still dominates the headlines and its still a pressing security concern for the US, the UK and every other nation that was unwise enough to get all up in its business. How can it then be outdated?
But it did set me wondering- how long is the 'shelf-life' for satire in relation to its subject matter? For example In the Loop is about war even if all the events occur before the war has broken out. War is obviously a topical subject at any given time. Does that mean that any satire on war is therefore immune to the ravages of time? How does one decide that a particular subject is no longer appropriate for satire because it is not sufficiently topical anymore? Can't good satire make the question of how topical its subject is, irrelevant?
These are the kind of questions you find yourself asking on a Friday evening once you are spending a very sober evening on the couch. I watch a hell of a lot of TV which is curious because it doesnt appear to interfere with my social or academic life. I'll be done with an assignment a week in advance and I'll go for whatever drink-ups my friends plan in the neighbourhood. Yet, I still find time to watch plenty of TV or at least watch the programmes I've missed later on the internet. How does that work? Perhaps I'm living in a parallel universe where a day is longer than 24 hours. Who the devil knows? The point is, Ive succesfully managed to do just about everything I've wanted to do this year and I've fit it comfortably in the time alloted to me by whatever forces run this joint. If you're wondering whether I'm happy, allow me to enquire in return whether the Pope has a balcony.
Okay, I hear time's winged chariot hurrying near so let me proceed. My hours and hours of TV watching have not been in vain and as the academic year comes to a close, I can't help but look back fondly on the highlights of my couch-based activities. One show that jumps out is BBC's utterly charming comedy Outnumbered. Focusing on a couple's attempts to raise their three unruly children, it was a partly-improvised show (The kids contributed a significant amount of the show's material themselves).Outnumbered was so amazing that I nearly wept in delight. It was also oddly profound- an hour after laughing at the children's witticisms on everthing from death to suicide bombers, I found myself thinking 'Hmm, they've got a point there'.
As always BBC had the best programmes- South Pacific was a mindblowing 6 part documentary focusing on the people and creatures of that region. It was so psychedelic and epic that it made you feel like you'd been ingesting acid. Just as good was Armando Iannuci's look on Milton's poem Paradise Lost which was part of BBC's exemplary poetry season. Ianucci's was the best of the dozens of poetry-related stuff that was on the BBC in that season- it was insightful, witty and made you realize why poetry is so important to us. It was also quite moving-there was this scene where he read a poem Milton had written about being blind to a blind man and the man fought back tears listening to it. It was a very moving moment. These are the kind of programmes that require swearing to fully convey how good they are- this wasn't just amazing-it was fucking amazing.
David Mitchell and Robert Webb were also back with another series of their sketch show and thankfully this one was actually quite good compared to some of their previous efforts. Some of the sketches- like a smug brain surgeon meeting a rocket scientist at a party or a version of ER where the hospital practises only alternative medicine- were very good indeed. Mitchell also made several appearances on the one programme I never missed all week- Have I got news for you. As their job was to satirize news and politics, the MP's expenses scandal was like manna from heaven. However many of the expenses stories they were faced with were so ridiculous and stranger-than-fiction that they basically satirized themselves. They were already inherently funny so it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was still quite funny most of the time.
I was one of the few people in the Country who didnt cancel whatever I was doing everytime The Apprentice was on, but it did have its moments especially in the beginning when the candidates did their whole arent-i-so-cool spiel. Highlights included such monuments to stupidity as 'I have a rainbow of skills' and 'I dont KNOW the meaning of failure.' Reality TV fared a bit better with Undercover Princes about three princes who came to England to search for their true love but disguised their identities. Their misadventures were suprisingly hilarious especially their attempts to chat up other people. One of the three was an African prince and provided much of the humour albeit, unintentionally. One scene in which he loses money at a dog-racing competition was pant-wettingly funny. In another, he admonishes one of the gay princes for making out with his date for the camera- a session that includes the use of ice-cream for purposes beyond its specific remit. "The public won't appreciate this ice-cream licking life" He said solemmnly. It was one of the best lines of the year and I'm pretty sure it made me choke on my beer.
The Simpsons repeats were also a must- indeed one of the very few shows in which the common room was virtually full. The return of ER was also very welcome and Scrubs was always good value. Skins was a good-and entertaining- reminder that the 'facebook' generation was heading to hell in a handcart or whatever other mode of transportation was readily available.
And of course there was the news- but that's a story for another time.
Anyway everyone on the panel liked it, except Michael Portillo who is-suprise, suprise- a politician. It's like asking a chicken to make a comment on a foxes' hunting raids on its coop. The film is one sustained attack on politicians and the art of politics. Its also notable for the bad language. The central character- Malcolm Tucker- attains vulgar language of almost Shakesperean quality. You'll come out of the film with profound thoughts about politics and war and the folly of man, but you'll also have a greater appreciation about how astonishingly versatile the word 'fuck' is. And there was no sexual intercourse in this film.
God, its taking me ages to get to the point. Anyway, Portillo dismissed the film but one of the reasons he gave for his reaction was that it was 'outdated'. He argued that because its a thinly-veiled account of the events leading up to the Iraq war, it was useless as a piece of satire. I rarely get outraged by views on 'Newsnight review' but I found myself longing for a technological invention that could enable the viewer to slap someone on screen. As someone else on the panel rightly pointed out, Iraq is not an outdated story at all. It still dominates the headlines and its still a pressing security concern for the US, the UK and every other nation that was unwise enough to get all up in its business. How can it then be outdated?
But it did set me wondering- how long is the 'shelf-life' for satire in relation to its subject matter? For example In the Loop is about war even if all the events occur before the war has broken out. War is obviously a topical subject at any given time. Does that mean that any satire on war is therefore immune to the ravages of time? How does one decide that a particular subject is no longer appropriate for satire because it is not sufficiently topical anymore? Can't good satire make the question of how topical its subject is, irrelevant?
These are the kind of questions you find yourself asking on a Friday evening once you are spending a very sober evening on the couch. I watch a hell of a lot of TV which is curious because it doesnt appear to interfere with my social or academic life. I'll be done with an assignment a week in advance and I'll go for whatever drink-ups my friends plan in the neighbourhood. Yet, I still find time to watch plenty of TV or at least watch the programmes I've missed later on the internet. How does that work? Perhaps I'm living in a parallel universe where a day is longer than 24 hours. Who the devil knows? The point is, Ive succesfully managed to do just about everything I've wanted to do this year and I've fit it comfortably in the time alloted to me by whatever forces run this joint. If you're wondering whether I'm happy, allow me to enquire in return whether the Pope has a balcony.
Okay, I hear time's winged chariot hurrying near so let me proceed. My hours and hours of TV watching have not been in vain and as the academic year comes to a close, I can't help but look back fondly on the highlights of my couch-based activities. One show that jumps out is BBC's utterly charming comedy Outnumbered. Focusing on a couple's attempts to raise their three unruly children, it was a partly-improvised show (The kids contributed a significant amount of the show's material themselves).Outnumbered was so amazing that I nearly wept in delight. It was also oddly profound- an hour after laughing at the children's witticisms on everthing from death to suicide bombers, I found myself thinking 'Hmm, they've got a point there'.
As always BBC had the best programmes- South Pacific was a mindblowing 6 part documentary focusing on the people and creatures of that region. It was so psychedelic and epic that it made you feel like you'd been ingesting acid. Just as good was Armando Iannuci's look on Milton's poem Paradise Lost which was part of BBC's exemplary poetry season. Ianucci's was the best of the dozens of poetry-related stuff that was on the BBC in that season- it was insightful, witty and made you realize why poetry is so important to us. It was also quite moving-there was this scene where he read a poem Milton had written about being blind to a blind man and the man fought back tears listening to it. It was a very moving moment. These are the kind of programmes that require swearing to fully convey how good they are- this wasn't just amazing-it was fucking amazing.
David Mitchell and Robert Webb were also back with another series of their sketch show and thankfully this one was actually quite good compared to some of their previous efforts. Some of the sketches- like a smug brain surgeon meeting a rocket scientist at a party or a version of ER where the hospital practises only alternative medicine- were very good indeed. Mitchell also made several appearances on the one programme I never missed all week- Have I got news for you. As their job was to satirize news and politics, the MP's expenses scandal was like manna from heaven. However many of the expenses stories they were faced with were so ridiculous and stranger-than-fiction that they basically satirized themselves. They were already inherently funny so it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was still quite funny most of the time.
I was one of the few people in the Country who didnt cancel whatever I was doing everytime The Apprentice was on, but it did have its moments especially in the beginning when the candidates did their whole arent-i-so-cool spiel. Highlights included such monuments to stupidity as 'I have a rainbow of skills' and 'I dont KNOW the meaning of failure.' Reality TV fared a bit better with Undercover Princes about three princes who came to England to search for their true love but disguised their identities. Their misadventures were suprisingly hilarious especially their attempts to chat up other people. One of the three was an African prince and provided much of the humour albeit, unintentionally. One scene in which he loses money at a dog-racing competition was pant-wettingly funny. In another, he admonishes one of the gay princes for making out with his date for the camera- a session that includes the use of ice-cream for purposes beyond its specific remit. "The public won't appreciate this ice-cream licking life" He said solemmnly. It was one of the best lines of the year and I'm pretty sure it made me choke on my beer.
The Simpsons repeats were also a must- indeed one of the very few shows in which the common room was virtually full. The return of ER was also very welcome and Scrubs was always good value. Skins was a good-and entertaining- reminder that the 'facebook' generation was heading to hell in a handcart or whatever other mode of transportation was readily available.
And of course there was the news- but that's a story for another time.
posted by Minzo at 1:46 PM
1 Comments:
Bazi: Dude AwesomeYou're on the Blog Again!
Missed These.
I Loved "Outnumbered" too, I was blown away by how it so quietly wins you over with each minute. I have yet to watch In The Loop, and I really can't wait to do so, though I've seen The STUNNING "The Thick Of It" and Cannot wait for Series 2 to hit the BBC.
We do have to meet up before you head off back, but that's a discussion for another, not so Late hour.
Later, and Take Care!!
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