FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Desert Island Telly?
It's one of those annoying dinner party questions, isn't it: if you were stuck on a desert island on your tod for the rest of your life and you happened to also have with you a HiFi system and an endless supply of AAA batteries, which 10 CD's would you most like to get sent over there on mail order? Something by Barry White, perhaps, for a chance encounter with a particularly curvaceous mermaid? Or maybe a bit of Glam Rock to get you through those bleak winter evenings??
But, I think we're missing the really important question in all this: sod the CD player - which TV programmes couldn't you live without? And for me the answer is simple...
There are only two programmes on telly that I think really are good for the soul. Firstly, those survival type shows with Ray Mears, just because he has the most gentile knack of reminding you that you're basically worm-food and all the things that you go around believing are important actually don't matter a jot. You really can live without them but try making dinner with only what you can find on the floor of a very moist rainforest. Get that right and you could really be free... at least until you get eaten by worms.
The other show that gets me through the night, as John Lennon might put it, is Scrubs. Now this really is something special because it holds a mirror up to the mundane concerns of the everyday. It uses the trials of a newly qualified doctor to parody the lives of all of us, employing a mixture of slap-stick comedy and a genius script to leave every viewer with that cosy 'it's all gonna be ok' feeling. Part of the magic of the show is the ongoing monologue by J.D. that usually acts as a commentary to the show (but also is now and again used to poke fun at this very technique) but by far the most important aspect for how Scrubs gets to you is in the Dr Cox character. He is the stereotype grumpy, miserable sod with a heart of gold and some of the things he comes out with just stick. A* to the script writers for gems such as this :
So, if I really have to be stuck on Tuin Island with neither a copy of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks or an Amanda Donohoe lookalike to keep me company, then there better be a VCR and a stack of Scrubs videos to hand!
But, I think we're missing the really important question in all this: sod the CD player - which TV programmes couldn't you live without? And for me the answer is simple...
There are only two programmes on telly that I think really are good for the soul. Firstly, those survival type shows with Ray Mears, just because he has the most gentile knack of reminding you that you're basically worm-food and all the things that you go around believing are important actually don't matter a jot. You really can live without them but try making dinner with only what you can find on the floor of a very moist rainforest. Get that right and you could really be free... at least until you get eaten by worms.
The other show that gets me through the night, as John Lennon might put it, is Scrubs. Now this really is something special because it holds a mirror up to the mundane concerns of the everyday. It uses the trials of a newly qualified doctor to parody the lives of all of us, employing a mixture of slap-stick comedy and a genius script to leave every viewer with that cosy 'it's all gonna be ok' feeling. Part of the magic of the show is the ongoing monologue by J.D. that usually acts as a commentary to the show (but also is now and again used to poke fun at this very technique) but by far the most important aspect for how Scrubs gets to you is in the Dr Cox character. He is the stereotype grumpy, miserable sod with a heart of gold and some of the things he comes out with just stick. A* to the script writers for gems such as this :
Dr. Cox: It's time. Sit down, and listen up Newbie. I suppose you want me to say you're great? That you've raised the bar for interns everywhere?
J.D.: I'm cool with that!
Dr. Cox: Well, I'm not going to say that. You're doing ok. Someday you might even be better than that. But right now, all I see is a guy who's so preoccupied with wondering what everyone else thinks about him, that he doesn't have anytime to think whether or not he believes in himself. DID YOU EVER WONDER WHY I TOLD YOU TO WRITE YOUR OWN EVALUATION?
J.D.: I don't have a safe answer for that. I just figured that... you...
Dr. Cox: Clam up Newbie! I wanted you to think about yourself... AND I MEAN REALLY THINK!... What are you good at? What do you suck at? And write it down. Not so I could read it, or anyone else could read it. BUT SO YOU COULD READ IT! You see in the end Newbie, you don't have to answer to me, or to Kelso, or even to your patients for Gods sake! The only one you have to answer to Newbie, is you! There, YOU ARE evaluated. Now get out of here, because you truely make me so damn mad I might just hurt myself!
So, if I really have to be stuck on Tuin Island with neither a copy of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks or an Amanda Donohoe lookalike to keep me company, then there better be a VCR and a stack of Scrubs videos to hand!
