TV music

It is quite common that I hear a song on TV that sounds good, but the programme doesn't show what the song is.  When Soccer AM uses backing music, they always show what the song is and who it is by.  This is brilliant.  All TV programmes should have to do this.

Spooks

Spooks is a very popular series.  On paper, I should like it a lot.  It ticks my boxes.  People are surprised that I’m not a fan.  Here is an explanation.

In this sort of multi-series drama, both plot and character are key to enjoyment.  The plots of individual episodes or shortish sequences of episodes keep short-term interest, and the characters sustain long-term interest over many series.  From what I’ve seen of Spooks (about 12 episodes), the plots are generally reasonable to excellent.  Series 2 episode 5 was one of the greatest pieces of TV I’ve ever seen.

I started watching Spooks at the start of series two, as my Dad and sister recommended it to me, rightly saying that I would like it.  I did like it, a lot.  But after series 3, I lost interest.  During the second series, the plots of individual episodes held my week-by-week attention, but the characters held my long-term attention.  Three characters in particular – Tom, Zoe and Danny.  They were engaging, I got to know them, and I wanted to see more of them.

Then swiftly, all three were gone – Tom at the end of series two and Zoe and Danny during series three.  I have no objection to killing off characters as a concept, but all three so quickly was too much.  In a long, many-series, drama, characters are what holds my interest, because while the plots are good, they generally form short, one or two series stories.  The stories of the characters are what sustains my interest over a series or several series.  When the three characters I cared about were all cut, I lost the interest I had.  The small, one or two series stories were not consistently excellent enough for me to watch without the appeal of the longer, character-based story arc.

In contrast, the recent HBO series Game of Thrones has a plot that is not episode-based.  Individual episodes do not have their own plot, as they often do in Spooks.  Game of Thrones is seven series long, and the single, continuous plot holds my interest as well as the stories of the individual characters.  And they don’t kill all my favourite characters at once.

Glee Plea

Glee seems to be very popular at the moment. The thing that intrigues me the most about its popularity is the range of different people who seem addicted to it – it appears to have almost universal popularity.
I've seen a few clips from Glee and didn't understand what all the fuss was all about, but I decided to watch an episode to give it a chance. I was very disappointed.
I have nothing against Glee. There is nothing there that offends me. But equally, there is nothing that is particularly commendable. I was firmly indifferent.
This is a plea for someone to explain what all the fuss is about. Two close friends have attempted to explain it to me. Their explanations included the following (my responses in brackets):

• It's very funny (I disagree – from what I've seen, it has the occasional amusing line, maximum. Is it just not my sort of humour?)
• It is an excellent mix between high school musical and Scrubs (maybe – I can definitely see HSM in there (personally I describe Glee as HSM on TV; however, I dislike HSM), and the style has similarities to Scrubs (but then, I haven't seen much Scrubs – of what I have seen, some is genius but much is unremarkable))
• The music is very good (I disagree. The music is not good. It's very much towards the poorer end of 'musical' music (however, part of the problem here may be that the songs are covers of songs I don't even know...having said that, I don't think I'd like the originals anyway))
• The mix of high school drama and random musical-ness is very entertaining (no it isn't, it's just unconvincing... American high school drama is 99% annoying, trashy musicals are 95% annoying, and the mix isn'treally any better - it's just quite silly)
• It's not to be taken too seriously (I understand that, and acknowledge that I have a tendency for hypercriticalness. But I still see no merit in the show.  If it's not a serious show, surely it should be entertaining...many people seem to find it so, but I don't understand why)

As far as I can tell, Glee is just High School Musical in series form. Part of me assumes I'm missing something – am I?
Someone, please explain what all the fuss is about! Although I don't watch things like 24 and Scrubs, I can see why people like them and I can acknowledge their merits. But Glee seems much more like Doctor Who – essentially unworthy of TV time.

The Apprentice

I’ve seen this show a couple of times, and I just don’t get it. Everyone in it is horrible, and I can’t see why anyone would want to work for Alan Sugar. I have several objections to the programme:

1. It centres on sales ability. Contestants have to sell their product. There is so much more to business than this.
2. The contestants act like kids – lying, moaning, backstabbing, betraying, selfish etc. Especially in the boardroom, when they are asked why they should be hired and all they can say is why the other person shouldn’t be hired. It’s a farce.
3. Alan Sugar is very nasty. He will frequently ask someone to speak and then cut right through them. I don’t care who he is or what position he has, this is just downright rudeness. It annoyed me after it happened about twice, and it happens all the time. He is essentially a bully – I would never want him as my boss.
4. The show is based around the magic six-figure salary. The whole point is to get that salary. The whole programme is centred on greed. This is not a good thing to make a TV programme about.

Rant over.