What to make of Boardwalk Empire ? HBO’s costume drama set in the USA during Prohibition reminds me of one of those fascinating objects that often crop up on Antiques Roadshow . One can admire from afar the detailed textures and evident craft of the thing without having much of a clue as to its function. Everything looks so good – the fabrics, the sculpted light, the big complex stage of the boardwalk itself;
ITV celebrated the 50th anniversary of Candid Camera on UK screens with an archive show, originally broadcast on 28 December 2010. Ideal, I thought, for my course on TV history.
It is hard to imagine that Autumn is around the corner as we all bask in a late heatwave. And as I sit in front on my computer on the hottest day ever in October (since records began) I am pondering TV’s Autumn season so far.
I watch pirate television. Will you forgive me some narcissography in this first blog, given that enticing new status? I live in Mexico City, the biggest in the world. It also lays claim to more political demonstrations than anywhere else, more film clubs than Paris, more abortions than London, and the region’s most corrupt police force. My landlady lets me use her cable service. She dug a hole in the wall between her loft and mine.
Late last year John Caughie published an essay (in *Screen *vol 51 no 4 [Winter 2010]). Entitled ‘Mourning Television: the other screen’ his article characterised contemporary television in terms of decline, decadence and loss. I have responded to this elsewhere ( Screen vol 52 no 4 [Winter 2011]) but here I want to address its key moment of *praise *for television which comes at the end of the
Re: NOTICE OF CONSULTATION ON THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION BY NEWS CORPORATION OF UP TO 60.9% OF BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING GROUP PLC 8 JULY 2011 The result of the 100% acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would be the creation of a foreign-controlled monopoly news supplier in the area of subscription television. That this is a problem is acknowledged by the proposed arrangements in relation to Sky News.
Writing about the last episode of Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004) seven years after bidding farewell to the series for in media res recently, I was faced with an unexpected conundrum.
A piece I contributed to the “In Debate” section of the most recent issue of CST (6.1) ended somewhat enigmatically with these words: If television now leaps from platform to platform, TV scholarship must of course continue to take leaps of faith as well. Online publishing, a natural venue, is nothing new, of course. . . . But one day soon print small screen scholarship may seem as passé as watching television with an antennae.
Dana Delaney stars as Megan Hunt in a heavily trailed new series on ABC, Body of Proof , set right here in Philadelphia. Delayed from an autumn launch because of her illness, Delany plays a medical examiner with more than a touch of the Dr House about her. But being female and maybe approaching 50, she is a very welcome addition to American TV’s crowded medical facility.
THE DARK SIDE OF KELLEY David E.Kelley’s new primetime series on NBC, Harry’s Law , has just turned bleak. Fans of Ally McBeal were initially delighted by the idea of a sacked patents lawyer (‘Harriet Korn’/Kathy Bates) setting up a storefront law firm in an abandoned shoe shop.
Don’t Do It Ofcom! The US networks have vandalized their prime asset. The length and placing of commercial breaks has made drama and sitcom almost unwatchable. There are five breaks an hour, all of them inside the shows. Look at this analysis of an episode of House which shows how these breaks can be positioned episode. The start of the show has a clear run of 12 minutes to the first break.