WATCHING TV in 2011 was like gold mining. Viewers were forced to sift through mountains of rubbish if they wanted to find a rare nugget of gold.
It was thin picking most of the time, but there were certainly some worthwhile programs to watch.
Always the optimist, The Guide has compiled a wishlist of what the network programmers could do to increase our viewing pleasure in 2012.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:Scheduling
It’s an old chestnut, but one worth repeating – don’t put good shows in bad timeslots.
The American sitcom 30 Rock is a classic example of a far better than average show that is scheduled in the late, late evening – well after The Guide’s bedtime.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:Mini-series
It’s time the mini-series made a comeback. For people of a certain age, the mini-series will forever be associated with larger-than-life, must-see television events. Against the Wind, The Last Outlaw, Bodyline, The Dismissal, Return to Eden … and that’s just the local classics. They were longer than a movie, but shorter than a series. There can be no greater compliment.
@BT Sub Sport Gaz:Less reality, more fantasy
Reality television has been a weeping sore on the skin of television for several years. The wrongly named genre – it is contrived, scripted and far from reality – is cheap and easy and helps fill local content quotas. But TV is at its best when they allow gifted writers to run the show, rather than desperate celebrities and cynical producers. Celebrity Apprentice and Excess Baggage will make 2012 a poorer year for all of us.
The Guide doesn’t want (or expect) much from the idiot box this year, but just a few more hours each week of better than average programming would make 2012 one of the best years in television since the death of the mini-series.
– Danny Buttler
