I'm quite convinced that there's only 10 people in Britain. Every time someone tells me about a show, even though I've only been watching telly for about a year, there's at least one person I know. Case in point: my sister in law put on some movie about Oscar Wilde ( I came in late and was throughly confused) and who's in it? Stephen Fry.
Anway, one of my favorite 10 British people has to be Gordon Ramsay. Okay, I'm no foodie, and I can barely boil water myself. But Ramsay, especially on the F Word, makes food look soooo good. I thought watching his show was going to make me feel horrid, refering to special ingredients and secret techniques, and feel embarassed at my own ignorance. Instead I watch and say, I think I can make that! Well, some of the time at least. I just watched the episode with Graham Norton (another of the 10 people); they were talking about peaches and creams and other innuendos.
Speaking of funny gay presenter, I laugh at how many gay people are on telly. It's not that there isn't gay people on our programs, but the character's main focus is about being gay. Gay people on British telly are gay just because they are gay. That doesn't make sense, does it? Anyway, I just like to see people just get to be themselves.
I'm also amazed at the difference between British editing and American editing techniques. I didn't notice it until I started switching between BBC America Top Gear to the DVDs. The BBCA (new acronym, I called it) took more episodes and butchered out whole segments from the rest of the season. But once we watched it from the DVDs, we realized that they were actually cut out good parts. You know, when the trio were being funny British men. It seems like BBCA thinks that the only thing Americans will watch are explosions (don't get me wrong, I love me some good 'sploding) but I much prefer the more cinematic vignettes.
Anyway, everyone ready for the holiday season? What's Christmas like in Britain? The only idea I have is based off of Dr. Who, and you know how that goes!
There are in fact at least 273 people here in England but not that many are on telly so can be safely ignored.
ReplyDeleteAnyway i think i can explain why BBCA edits Top Gear so heavily. An hour of American telivision consists of about 40-45 minutes of programme and up to 20 minutes on adverts (commercials if you call it something else). But Top Gear is from the BBC which here on the home turf has no ads. This means theres about 20 minutes of programme to be cut out of each episode. If you want to see the full episodes I recommend you try Tvshack.com, as far as I could tell most of the streams are from british sources.
As for christmas in the blighted isles, its pretty hard to describe, theres presents, decorations, a tree, a turkey, a blood sacrifice to Bhaal and, usually, a screaming argument which leaves all participants happy that they won't see the rest of the family for another year.
No wonder I keep seeing the same people! :) There's over 10 million people in Los Angeles, California alone. That's where the crazy Hollywood, movie and tv people live/work. They've all gone crazy from the sun down there, in my defense.
ReplyDeleteI figured out quickly about our adverts (I've picked up that word myself). But BBCA goes beyond that; it doesn't just cut it down to fit the time slot, they cut and paste different segments from different episodes. I don't know if they cross season (I haven't checked that closely) but made a huge difference. Their editing also disrupted the flow of the show, which I find to be a very key point to the show.
I'm glad to hear that awkward situations, ugly sweaters, and family arguments isn't just an American thing. The commercialism over here though is simply appalling.
At least in America you have the (frankly bewildering) holiday of thanksgiving to limit how early christmas gets capitalised on. Over here we have nothing between easter and christmas to really kick off the shoppers. Nothing can sap your Good Will to All Men like hearing the soundtrack to 'Muppet's Christmas Carol' on an endless repeat of the damned in any public space from September onwards.
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