Now, in the article she critiques the 10 O’Clock Live show, Channel 4’s Thursday night satirical comedy and current affairs show. The show itself is an okay piece of television featuring Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell, Lauren Laverne and Jimmy Carr. It’s funny in parts but I’d much rather they hadn’t bothered and used the money on more episodes of The Daily Show, which has been horribly axed from More4.
In Orr’s article she spoke of Lauren Laverne being the ‘token woman’ of the show and insinuating that they’re all inept presenters. I wouldn’t mind this except for the fact she clearly hadn’t watched the show for herself.
In the article she wrote:
“Last week was particularly excruciating. The auto-cue went wrong while Laverne and Charlie Brooker were on camera. Neither of them could hold things together, but Laverne started dishing out what seemed like blame and responsibility, yelling at Brooker: "It's your item. It's your item."”
Now, as anyone who actually watched this show will know: This was a pre-recorded and scripted sketch! In fact just as Laverne starts yelling at Brooker they literally cut to a new shot of the live Laverne and Brooker mocking their pre-recorded selves! How the hell does Deborah Orr manage to watch this and not realise it was all a sketch? If you are going to critique something at least have the decency to watch it first. It shows a complete lack of respect, not just for the 10 O’Clock Live team, but for her employer: The Guardian who pay her money to be an insightful critic! It's just plain unprofessional.
Embarrassingly The Guardian has today had to publish an amendment in its ever growing corrections and clarifications column:
“An item referring to the Channel 4 current affairs and comedy show 10 O'Clock Live said an Autocue had failed last week when Lauren Laverne and Charlie Brooker were on camera and "neither of them could hold things together". In fact this segment was a pre-recorded, scripted sketch used to demonstrate the perils of live television (Tina Fey is back. Hooray!, 10 February, page 13, G2).”
Oh dear, I actually feel sorry for Deborah Orr. It was particularly excruciating to read. The thing is, she does actually have a point with what she says, she just loses all credibility by making it painfully obvious she didn’t watch the show.
10 O’Clock Live has its problems. Firstly Lauren Laverne, no problem with her as a comedian, but she doesn’t do a heck of a lot on the show, she’s essentially the host of it, holding it all together and such. I watched the first show and thought it was okay, and I might as well be upfront with you now: I’m only watching for Charlie Brooker.
He really needs more air time. His pieces are funny and he really knows his stuff when it comes to media. To be honest the best piece of advice I can give, if you only have an hour of viewing time to spare, is to watch How TV Ruined Your Life on BBC2 instead. It has ten times more laughs than 10 O’Clock Live and it’s only half an hour meaning you can use that other half hour elsewhere, maybe spend time with your spouse? Like that’ll happen, you’ll just waste half an hour on Sky Sports News like everyone else.
The other 10 O’Clock Live presenters aren’t quite as good as Brooker though. David Mitchell is funny, I do think he's a clever comedian, but it’s so frustrating to watch his interviews and debates. They’re rushed for a start, so once they actually get going he has to end it; in the debates there is a clear right and wrong answer he has to portray and he clearly isn’t sat on the fence; and the audience, my God, the audience!
There really is no diversity at all in them, and why on earth are they sat practically on the table. Do they really need to be that close? It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t laugh or applaud every single syllable that David Mitchell utters. Let the man talk for crying out loud! At least 30% of this show is just a pause filled by laughter or applause. And what’s with the cameramen? They seem to just focus on one member of the audience as if she’s a footballer’s wife, why do you keep going back to her? I don’t understand why we need to be constantly updated with her reaction to the jokes.
I’m not actually sure why 10 O’Clock Live is live in the first place really. Something else Deborah Orr questioned. I don’t think audiences are impressed with the -live suffix anymore. Live sport - yes please. Anything else - couldn‘t be buggered. Maybe they should just pre-record everything on a Thursday afternoon, then edit it down so it looks less rushed and then maybe just do the papers at the end live. Surely that’d do?
I’m going to keep watching it, as it has its moments and, as I say, Brooker is funny. I haven’t watched last night’s yet, I’ve got it recorded, but why let that tiny fact stop me from critiquing it? Did you see Jimmy Carr last night? That interview, hah! Wasn’t it awful? Didn't even get his lines right! He just couldn’t hold it together could he? Amateur! He’s a token idiot he is!
Right well, I’m off to reread Deborah Orr’s review of 127 Hours. Turns out she thought the ending was rubbish. “Saved by a gushing flow of water during a storm? Terrible, it would have been much more dramatic to have him cut his arm off.”
***
Here's Deborah Orr's article if you fancy reading it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/10/lauren-laverne-token-tv-woman
No comments:
Post a Comment