Strictly Come Dancing, and why it can't/won't last.

The following is a boring rant with lots of unsubstantiated reactionary guesswork and pathetic self-indulgent opinions on culture.

I hate Strictly Come Dancing. But I don't hate the people who watch it.
It's entertainment. It's made to be entertainment. I'm sad to say that for a long time, I was a bit delusional about hating it.

I think I'm just so used to liking things that, in general, most people don't like that I begin to associate things that I don't like with stupidity.
And that's not to say I think I'm more intelligent than people who watch Strictly, I'm not saying that at all. (I'll do a blog about intelligence later). But in general, I tend to find that counter-culture tends to attract a more intelligent level of person than the mainstream.
But my new thinking points me in the direction that perhaps there is just a lot more people counting as "mainstream" and so it has a wider range of intelligence.

As an example, I can use comedians.
My favourite comedian is Stewart Lee.
My favourite comedian is not Lee Evans.
Using a basic straw poll of my life I can tell you that I know more people who like Lee Evans than I know who like Stewart Lee.
I can also tell you that everyone I know who likes Stewart Lee, I would count as intelligent. And of all the people who like Lee Evans, I know some who are very intelligent, and some who are very stupid, and most variations in the middle.

Now, these days, Stewart Lee might be becoming a bit more mainstream. But he definitely has limited appeal. Lee Evans definitely counts as mainstream. I'm not having a go at him. I don't mind Lee Evans.

But anyway, so the point is, lots of people like Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor and all that other stuff that I think is rubbish. Lots of people who are much more intelligent than I am.
But I realised I am factoring intelligence far too much into the debate. It is just entertainment, that's all. It doesn't have to have intellectual properties. It doesn't need to make you think.

That's the first point I wanted to make: an acceptance that I was wrong, as usual.

The second point, however, is that Strictly Come Dancing has a limited life span.
Now, I suppose this is obvious. Nothing last forever, especially in fickle TV land.
But it hits home this series with the success of Ann Widdecombe, who is clearly the least skilled dancer, and the least attractive person on the show. And that is the reason she has been successful.

It is a glorified freak-show.
"What shall we do tonight for entertainment?"
"Let's laugh at the fat ugly woman making a fool of herself on TV again"

If you want proof, the exact same thing happened in the last series with John Sargeant. He quit the show for exactly the reason that he had a real chance of winning. Winning on the basis that he was the least talented and people just wanted to laugh at him a bit more.

So the problem arises as what's next for Strictly?

How do you top the entertainment factor of Ann Widdecombe?
We've had a fat, ugly man. Now a fat, ugly woman. What's next?
The American version has already used Heather Mills... she was the next logical step (forgive the pun).
Stephen Hawking perhaps? And then what? The rotting corpse of Michael Jackson? Hitler's skeleton?

It can't last. And it won't.

Musical "Talent" Shows.

I made the mistake of commiting half an hour of my life to watching Must Be The Music.
You know; Sky1's "The X-Factor" rip off with Dizzee Rascal, who appeared capable of giving two judgements throughout the night: "Yeah man, that was tight" and "Nah man, I wasn't feelin' it".

No disrespect intended towards Mr. Rascal of course. He is a phonomenally successful artist in his own right, and I don't doubt for a second his talent in writing catchy pop songs with archaic words our grandparents used.

It is a good example, though, (should we have needed any more than Charlotte Church) that just because you're good at one thing, doesn't remotely gain you skill at another. Dizzee Rascal is not a skilled judge of talent.

I'm not surprised, the judges appeared to have been selected utterly at random based on their accents. It was as if the producers had landed the London street accent of Dizzee, and chose to quickly counter balance it with the generic semi-posh of Jamie Cullum. Suddenly, though, they realised they had two judges representing the two sides of London, but had nothing from the rest of the UK.
In order to counterbalance this they employed Sharleen Spiteri, presumably on the basis that she came from as far away as possible from London whilst still being intelligable to the easily-confused British public.

Perhaps earlier, I was too quick to blame Dizzee for his lack of ability to judge ability.
The "talent" on display were like an assortment of good kareoke singers and instantly-forgettable pub bands, with the odd bit of classical music thrown in to break up the drone. Tack a little sad-story on top ala X-Factor and you've got yourself a TV show.

Now, at this point, it does become apparent that what you are now reading is someone of miniscule talent sitting in front of a screen, slagging off some people with talent enough to impress some highly successful recording artists. Certainly, that is true, but the problem I had was that the acts just weren't that good. Sure they were in tune, or full of energy, or passionate about their music, but there was nothing that stood out. I barely remember them, and it all just seemed really forced, like the judges had to put through pretty much anything that was half decent in the knowlegde that they were the best they were gonna get.

I was also annoyed by the fact that the show was just one long advert for Apple. During the selection process the judges gleefully scrolled through their iPhones and iPads and iDontGiveAFucks, as if somehow seeing them on an Apple product improved the musical experience in some way.

Don't watch it. Turn it off and listen to something decent.