Dance Fever

We've had Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing on Ice, Got to Dance and the barrel-scraping Dancing on Wheels. Now that this moment of zeitgeist has been well and truly wrung out, what we really need is a needle sharp satire of the whole dance show phenomenon.

Sky 1 has leapt manfully into the breach with the wonderfully ironic Pineapple Dance Studios. Watch this hilarious trailer featuring just about every dance related cliche imaginable.



Wait.... Talk amongst yourselves for a minute.....
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For the love of all that is holy - its not a spoof.

Or is it?

A quick google check would suggest that Pineapple is actually a real dance studio and this programme is not a satirical skewering of TV's obsession with all forms of feet twirling nonsense.

I need to lie down for a while.

We Are Klang

We Are Klang. Vic Reeves Big Night Out-esque chuckles or stupid, insulting nonsense.

Discuss...

What the.....

Having commented on the paucity of quality TV in my previous post. I wasn't planning to talk about TV again for a little while. Praise be then for Paris Hilton, who has made me seethe with righteous fury.

This pathetic excuse for a celebrity has a new programme that will be disgracing our screens shortly. It is called (brace yourself) Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. For the sake of all that is holy - how did this vile idea ever get the green light?

Here is a quote from the idiot in question.
“Everyone knows I love LA,” says the star. “But London, watch out – I’m coming to town and bringing my fast-paced life with me. I’m in the UK all the time, but of course I can’t bring all my friends, so I’ve decided to look for a new BFF across the pond. I need a best friend who is hot, who can keep up with me, and most of all, who is real and won't be a backstabber. I’m not leaving London until I find that amazing girl or guy who can meet the challenges of being my British bestie!”

The hideous trailer shows Paris cavorting with a pair of ridiculous looking dogs, one of which accompanies her everywhere. This of course could be suggesting that she is looking for the human British equivalent of her little rat-dog. A little playmate for her to swan around London with until she gets bored and jettisons them like the human waste they are. The most depressing aspect of this is that there are thousands of people who want to take part in this programme, thousands of people who will humiliate themselves to try and get a tiny slice of celebrity. Thousands of people who will essentially prostitute themselves to become a hanger on of a woman whose only talent is to be famous. Here are the cream of that particularly pathetic crop.
This apparently is a time when creative and interesting programmes that don't actually cause your soul to shrivel within you are being shelved due to a lack of money. How is it then that ITV are paying this vile woman $100,000 per EPISODE?!! Surely that money could have been better used?

However, there is a glimmer of hope. The following paragraph has been posted on the show's website.
"The ambitious wannabes will share a house and will gradually be eliminated until one of them will be inaugurated as Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend."

This may mean that instead of being merely evicted, the 'wannabes' will actually be executed in a Doctor Who Bad Wolf style. (Watch it here, if you aren't familiar with the Doctor's exploits)

We can but hope....

Movies
The Hive *
Miracle on 34th Street **
Thank you for Smoking ****
Airplane *****

Spooked

Now I don't often blog about TV , except to complain about it. I'm not really a massive fan of TV as most of it is drivel like bloody X-Factor, Big Brother or soap operas. But every now and then something comes along which really grabs my attention.

I have just finished watching the first two episodes of the new series of Spooks. If you are unfamiliar with said programme, it follows the activities of a group of MI5 agents. I won't bore you with the details except to say that I have been watching this since its first season and that is very unusual for me. One of the things I have always liked about it is that despite its glossy silliness, it does create some really interesting and tense scenarios.

The two episodes tonight involved a conspiracy at the highest level of the British government and intelligence agencies to seize power. Now it may sound very silly and implausible and for all I know, it probably is. However, the way the story was set up really resonated with current events and seemed all too terrifyingly plausible! I know that its just entertainment, but it did actually make me think...

I think the the idea that in order to catch terrorists we need to keep eroding people's legal rights is one that really bears close attention. The programme tonight featured a move by the (fictional) government to remove the legal rights of those detained under suspicion of terrorism and to directly appoint and influence the judiciary. Worringly, similar (although considerably less extreme) measures have already been defeated in the House of Commons. I don't for a moment think that I have the level of knowledge and expertise to decide how best to protect Britain from terrorists. However, if the 'War on Terror' is a battle of ideologies as well as a physical one, surely keeping those parts of our ideologies that protect all peoples' freedom is vital.

Forcing everyone to carry ID cards (although I don't feel particularly strongly about that as I carry several forms of ID already!) and allowing people to be kept indefinitely without charge or trial (which has been suggested to and by senior figures in this country) are the start of a worrying trend. For example, someone may say "Oh, if they are a suspected terrorist, of course they should be held indefinitely without charge or trial." Well, thats all well and good, but what if they came for you and held you for a year without charge or trial on the say so of some 'intelligence'? How much damage would that do to your life? Would you keep your job, house and family? Just because we are lucky enough to have a government that on the whole is decent and law abiding (much as it pains me to admit it!), doesn't mean we will always have one, and granting powers that remove freedoms is asking for trouble in the future.

We will never beat terrorists by removing all our freedoms and the freedoms of others. If we do that, we are letting them win. In fact, we are not just letting them win, we are helping them to do it.

Good grief, that was a bit serious. My next post will be full of fluffyness and penguins. I promise. Oh and I won't rant either.

Probably....