Holiday Musings

I have been taking it fairly easy over Easter which is grand, but I have nosed around at some TV items which I think might be worth a muse or two.

Newswipe
I find this programme rather fascinating. It's entertaining and rather daft in places but it is very incisive in the way it highlights the bizarre way news is presented. This is not a show which just picks up on some of the wierd satellite channels from America where the local newscaster gets things wrong and laughs about it. This is looking at BBC, Ch4, Sky, ITV and others and making very sharp remarks on their coverage of events. The first episode I saw picked out the way a gunman who kills several folk and shoots himself is often portrayed as some sort of tragic anti-hero. He is a voice for all the frustrated millions out there. As one psychologist pointed out, this 24 hour celebrity becomes an inspirational figure for other like minded killers. The second episode I saw looked more at how objectivity has been replaced by emotionalism. It took the coverage of Jade Goody's death as its centrepiece, showing the ridiculous adulation, the irrational hatred and the intrusive voyeurism with which this story was presented. In particular it viewed this whole saga as essentially a fight between the tabloids, the broadsheets, the glossy magazines and the TV channels for who could make the most money out of Jade's death.
In many ways I hope this program is overemphasising the way things are, but it smacks of truth. There is little that is subtle or sophisticated about this show, but it makes its point very effectively.

Rome
I got round to watching the last few episodes of this TV series this week, running up an irritating £2 fine in the process. Despite that I very much enjoyed it. My knowledge of Ancient Rome is very scanty. My knowledge of Caesar's life was taken in the main from once reading Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" and watching "Carry on Cleo" - never the most accurate of historical chronicles. So I found this portrayal of the life of Ancient Rome fascinating, from the first episode where Caesar crosses the Rubicon river at the head of his legion, marching on Rome, to the dramatic final episode when Caesar is assasinated on the floor of the Senate.

So many of the characters of that time have passed into legend: Marc Anthony, Cleopatra, Pompey, Cato, Brutus, Cicero and Cassius. But the story focusses on two very human and endearing characters, soldiers in Caesar's legion. Sometimes the plot seems a little contrived to enable them to take part in every aspect of the political life of the time: the most striking example would be sailing off a desert island on a raft made from corpses only to be washed up hundreds of miles away right beside Pompey's family as they flee to Egypt. But in general, things flow fairly smoothly and the characters are all well rounded enough that you can watch without getting pulled out of the experience.

The production values are exceptionally high, especially in the design. Only occasionally do you notice the budget stretching at the seams. Caesars triumphal parade through Rome was a notable example. It was grand but it wasn't as lavish as we would have expected from, say, a feature film.

The series ends with the closure of certain story arcs and with others left hanging, leaving the whole thing open for a second series, which I believe they have now done. I would recommend it highly. I did occasionally feel the sex and violence was a little blatant: the show was certainly marketed on the "tits and gore" factor but it often ended up feeling stapled onto a rather more intelligent show for a ratings boost, rather than an integral ingredient.