Friday, January 25, 2008

Yeah, you can come, but don't bring your sister

Al writes: I officially heart lowculture. A place where Lolcat speak is acceptable; a place where I can enjoy reading other people's critiques of Hollyoaks, despite having not watched an episode in years; a place where you can question whether Sean from Same Difference is fit without fear of retribution; a place where Charlie Brooker is king.



Al, don't worry, he's definitely fit. You can ALWAYS trust lowculture about this sort of thing.

Labels: Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Hollyoaks, LOLcat, Same Difference

By Paul :: Post link :: ::  
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The King's Christmas Message

CURMUDGEONLY! Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, BBC4, 10:35pm

Now as you should all know by now, Charlie Brooker is regarded as some kind of deity by lowculture and as such, it is your loyal duty to watch this show tonight (or at least try and catch one of the many repeats that are on over the next few weeks).

This special edition of Screenwipe has been billed in some quarters as a Christmas special, and others as a review of the year. So we don't know whether it'll be old 'Chuckles' reminding us of the TV highs and lows of the past year (although he's covered phone fakery, advertising, reality TV, talent shows, rolling news and yoof TV in the series proper already, so goodness knows what else is left), a preview of the festive fayre that awaits us, or, perhaps more likely, a combination of both. LC fave Aisleyne will no doubt crop up to, to the delight of the many 'Caisleyne' lovers on the board.

What we do know is, Voyage of the Damned aside (and the annual treat from new LC icon The Queen, of course, gawd bless ya, maam), this is the most essential thing on TV this festive period and anyone who doesn't watch will be demoted back down to 'slabface'.

Labels: 2007, BBC4, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, christmas, review of the year

By Rad :: Post link :: ::  
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Breaking news

CURRENT! Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, BBC2, 11.50pm

Sometimes it's just all about being in the right place, with the perfect combination of speak and subject. The third episode of the most recent series of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe was an in-depth study of television news, in particular the slight ridiculousness of some 24-hour rolling news channels, and it was so precise, so cutting and most importantly so belt-bustingly funny that it made it impossible for the rest of the series to match it. Even the subsequent episode where Charlie made his own Apprentice-style reality show ("then you'll come back to the boardroom, and one of you is going to get fucked") couldn't live up to the near perfection of the news episode. It's getting a terrestrial run tonight, and we just wouldn't feel right if we didn't draw your attention to it.

Where shows like The Day Today and Broken News satirised the news industry with well-observed spoofs, this focuses on how close news has come to self-parody by using actual news footage instead. Particularly cringeworthy moments include a Sky News presenter announcing the death of Harold Pinter (except he wasn't really dead at all and had in fact just won the Nobel Prize for Literature), and the news broadcast that felt we'd best understand the concept of war if there were a large CGI helicopter in front of the presenters.

Pretty much every broadcaster gets a rough ride of things, although there is a particularly appalling clip of Fox News's Bill O'Reilly that pretty much wins all of the "most terrifying news segment ever" awards. There's also an interesting look back at TV news through the ages. We could carry on about how great this was until the cows come home, so we'll just end by saying that this is one of the funniest, cleverest half-hours of television we've seen all year, and we can't recommend it highly enough.

Labels: BBC2, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, TV

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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

There's nowt so queer as folk (music)

COMEDY! Flight of the Conchords/Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, BBC4, from 9.30pm

Tuesday is at risk of becoming our absolute stay-at-home, don't-answer-the-phone television treat night. Or it would, if we hadn't just ruined that by signing up for an evening class. But since you don't really need to know about our daily schedule (and if we explained it in too much detail some internet shyster might try to rob us when they know we're going to be out), we'll get to the point, since Tuesday night now means two things: Flight of the Conchords and Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe directly afterwards. Both series started last week, and perhaps we should have warned you about them then, but now having seen an episode of each, we just feel more informed of their brilliance.

Flight of the Conchords, for the unfamiliar, follows the eponymous duo, billed as "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", as they attempt to make a (slightly shorter) name for themselves in New York. Hampered by their manager-slash-New Zealand Deputy Cultural Attaché Murray, who last week memorably attempted to film their new video on his mobile phone, and in possession of a fanbase of exactly one, they have their work cut out. There are some nice moments of the standard sitcom variety, but the real kick lies in the songs. Last week Bret and Jemaine duetted on the heartfelt ballad 'I'm Not Crying' when Bret's former girlfriend Sally broke up with Jemaine, including memorable lyrics such as "these aren't tears of sadness because you're leaving me / I've just been cutting onions / I'm making a lasagna / For one" and "I'm not upset because you left me this way / My eyes are just a little sweaty today".

Following that, the man who needs no introduction (though we'll give him one anyway), the wondrous Mr Charlie Brooker, patron saint of all those who yell angrily at their televisions. (We must invite him around to watch Hollyoaks with us.) Last week's show featured an analysis of the current crisis of trust in TV, and how even old favourites such as Cash in the Attic are LYING TO US. We especially liked it when he used The X Factor as an extended example, because it was almost like looking into our own heads. We don't know what he'll be getting riled up about this week, but whatever it is, we'll almost certainly be in stitches. So there you have it: the best hour of television this week, for our money.

Labels: BBC4, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Flight of the Conchords, TV

By Steve :: Post link :: ::  
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Monday, February 26, 2007

The Brooker prize

GOING! Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, BBC4, 10.00pm

Should we be worried that two of the best shows on TV at the moment are shows that essentially point out to us how bad TV is? Harry Hill's TV Burp is the highlight of our Saturday viewing, and its more bilious older sibling Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is officially the only good thing about Mondays at the moment. Except this is the last episode in the series, so we're going to have to go back to hating Mondays again. Bah.

Obviously it's not really that possibly for us to say what's going to be in tonight's episode since it's essentially a great big retrospective of the big issues in telly this week, and nobody knew what those were going to be when the listings got written, and try as we might, we still don't have the ability to look into the future. However, if previous form is anything to go by, this should be a hoot. Just be careful of approaching this show if you have a sacred TV cow of any kind, because you may find extremely mean things being said about it. Mean but true things, mind.

We'll miss this a lot when it's over, but at least we won't have to feel quite so shameful about our not-secret-any-more total addiction to Hollyoaks. Charlie has a habit of making us feel very very bad about things like that.

Labels: BBC4, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, TV

By Steve :: Post link :: ::  
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