Lost in London

That’s the theme of a new TV show that has just started on BBC 3. The idea behind Peckham Finishing School for Girls is to set four twenty-somethings from Peckham with four Surrey born, privately educated toffs.

From the onset, although the contrast is emphasised with a hyperbolic commentary from another frightening British voice actress, we get a stunningly different picture. At the start they all remark upon how they’ll get along in the future, either on account of their tendency to laugh, or rave, smoke and drink.

Most of them still start with the wrong view though, expecting benefit scroungers, or single mothers who are feeding off the system. In fact that’s exactly what the programme goes against, one is bi-polar and had their parents separate 11 and as a consequence has lived in 14-15 different places, another is a single mother pitted against someone who hates the very idea of single mothers on benefits, out of the idea that they just choose to have a baby.  There’s plenty of potential to go on a rant here, but this is simply an opportunity to re-iterate that “some people do stuff just to get by” as one man intelligently says on the show. Other sites suggest that we’re bullied by the show, and I happen to agree, but I can’t feel any sympathy for the privileged girls who time and time again pull out well-worn stereotypes, though at times it’s obvious that the documentary team have engineered antipathy between the two groups.

The general feeling of the show is one of realisation that all the reasons they perceived for people being on benefits and the like are not those that we read in the horror stories, but as Nat, a friend of one of the main characters, says “shit can be really hard.”

Everyone is entirely willing to accept that there is a certain element of gang culture and the like around them, but crucially, most of the characters in the show expose a willingness to overcome this, or to understand, but then, there are large moments where they just regress to people who stereotype others, and not grasping the seriousness of the situation.

I won’t spoil the show, though I’m not sure how worth watching it is, as the sad thing about this is that at the end of the day it’s a documentary, but one in which the creators have endeavoured to find posh girls who fulfil all the stereotypes and on the reverse end, girls who fulfil none of the lower class stereotypes. In a way I wish that they were perfect, because it makes for painful viewing when the girls are discussing what will happen if they “get slung at by our Peckham sisters” and the others declare that “they’re not worth fighting, they’re like puppies.” It’s rather interesting as well that they happily go up to people on the street and talk to them, and I think they’ve done well to do so.

The problem here is that the BBC has gone for comedic value rather than documentary integrity.

Verdict : Miss

Why has Glee captured our imaginations so? Most articles look to the humanization of musicals like High School Musical, which essentially opened them to a wider market. But there’s clearly something else which is key to their success. Despite having premiered in America in only November of last year, it was quickly picked up by channel 4 and has now been showing in the UK since January.

The key behind the show is clearly in the musical numbers. The characters are stereotypical, albeit with a new sense of risqué, and contribute little to the show, particularly as the season draws to a close.

So just what have Fox done to make these songs so attractive? Primarily the combination of current chart successes, and major singers, and even huge classics serve to interest a huge audience made up of a wide-ranging group of people. “Every single possible musical style and taste is going to be in there,” says co-creator Brad Falchuk. “It doesn’t matter what you like — you’re going to find what you like and stuff you never heard of that you’ll love.”

But secondly the characters add something to each of the songs, because their parts tend to reflect their characters and make the songs crucial to their emotional development, something that Brad Falchuk stated in an interview. These experiences not only inspire the TV programme’s increasing viewership but also sales success for the original bands on a wide scale.

I really want to know what has made this TV show so successful. Does it really differ from other shows? What is so unique about it? Any comments and views would be greatly appreciated.

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As we all know, nobody watches TV on TV anymore, and so I now don’t have to struggle through The X-Factor to watch my ITV movie on Saturday night. That said, just because I don’t watch the show it doesn’t mean I can’t chastise it.

The X-Factor follows a basic form of franchising. Like a movie studio, it receives lots of offers per year, chooses the best act and subsequently invests heavily in the idea. With studios it’s a big budget film, with X-Factor winners it’s a cover of an established song. Hopefully the act will be a success, whereby they will then follow a well-established marketing plan to make as much money as possible. For studios it’s sequels, action figures, theme park rides and so on. And, for The X-factor winners, it’s a bargain bin album, autobiography and an E4 documentary entitled Leona: a life before fame, or something equally banal. Clearly this is damaging the music industry as the success of these pop puppets detracts from other more credible bands and garners copycats, thus fuelling the Britpop fire. It has a similiar effect on the television industry and , for as long as the show remains this popular, ITV will never cancel it, thus stifling any more worthy or creative shows that could go on in its place.

And so i think we should bring the show down ourselves. The easiest way to do this would be a complete boycott of all things X-Factor, including past winners. As everyone knows knows, nothing destroys democracy like apathy, and The X-Factor is essentially just a big public vote. And so just like our attitude towards voting in elections if we all abstain it shouldn’t take long for the powers that be to get the message, and force the JLSs of this world to take their rightful place alongside Steve Brookstein, Chico Slimani and Journey South sining live on P&O ferries. A member of gossip website Digitalspy.com summed it up perfectly: “either The X-Factor singers are pop puppets, do what they’re told and deserve to fade away, or they actually choose the songs they release and so deserve to fade away. Simples.”

By Max Wagner

Derren Brown’s ‘the event’ has been big news recently as the psychologist and illusionist has predicted the lottery, almost beat a casino, and stuck people to their chairs. Well anyway that was the idea even if you, like I, were not stuck. Anyway, hot off the EchoBlog press here is how he did it.

Instead of the swirly wirly lines Derren showed, it was actually two subliminal flashes of a particular image that created the effect. Either side of the swirly lines, Derren showed an image of a man, drawn in pencil, trying to get out of a chair that he was tied to. So how about that…

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, and you can see it here on youtube:[bubblecast id=284663]

That’s him alright. I spotted him, and after a long time trying to pause right on him (he was there for less than a second) I finally caught him. EchoBlog 1 – 0 Derren Brown.