General Chat

Ok I'll withdraw the fattist bit :D but they surely could have had a more flattering shot .

Basically its the same program each week ,only the names have been changed,I still dont like it. too much like Surprise Surprise Yuk !

Bring back Heir hunters, at least that was interesting !

"Voyeurism of the worst possible kind I think, suitable watching for hypochondriacs, those with Munchausens by proxy, and those who would have been a Dr/ nurse...if only...."

Rose - you know I respect much of what you say but many people - some of them even intelligent - watch these shows and shows like this for entertainment. Not everyone believes everything that happens in these programmes just as not everyone believes in the plots of soapies but we still watch'em. I love Corrie - unreservedly and unashamedly :P

Sue

I haven't watched it either, Rose - I might enjoy it if I did but reunions on telly make me cringe tbh

I haven't watched it either and for many of the above reasons but include the fact that I have enough trauma in my own life thanks!


Whilst I love the thought of families being reunited on a mutually happy basis, the 'hype' given to this programme made me uncomfortable - even the adverts for it made me cringe.



It smacks very much of playing on people's emotions plus bringing in cash for GR's coffers!



Why are there so many programmes around where the producers want people to be reduced to tears all the time?



Give me a good quality comedy show instead - and there aren't many of those around....... :D



Cx

I dare anyone to say they enjoyed the programme!!!!!!

GinaS

Don't know about that show 'cos we haven't got it yet but Casualty has just come on and I'm watching that.....which means I'm a hypochondriac, suffering from Munchausen by proxy or a frustrated doctor/nurse =I

Sue

SueMaid :-) I am sure you know I didn't intend to offend, or suggest people can't tell the difference between what is 'real' and the 'edited version' ( though some do believe the soaps are real you know! lol) nor that watching Corrie or anything other than 'serious' programmes shows a lack of intellect, I was bought up watching Corrie ( Peyton Place first?).

I do personally feel there is something a bit worrying about enjoying 'real life' hospital programmes, they are by their nature, intrusive at a time when most people don't need that, people's struggle with illness is not something that is helped by having an audience imo maybe I feel like that because of my experience of the lack of dignity some patients experience, and that without a camera and sound man in the room?

My apologies if I offended anyone, I shall go and watch 'Homes under the hammer', not in the least 'elitist' :-)

SueMaid, you posted while I was typing....no I am not speaking about Casualty, Holby city and the like...drama, I mean real patients, in real hospitals, being prodded and operated on and lying with tubes in them...yes they and family must give permission to be filmed, but I don't find it 'necessary' to have that as entertainment for 'strangers'.

Program/me shmowgram/me what does it matter? Same thing.

Andy Warhol was right and an awful lot of people clamour for their 15 minutes worth. Nothing voyeuristic or intrusive about it. We all have a 'no' button.

The finding family show is so formulaic it is like watching repeats. I've seen three episodes, the first out of interest and two more because I was either busy knitting or too pooped/lazy to switch channels.

I didn't find it at all voyeuristic as there was not enough of the seekers stories to render it so. they were simply slotted in the gaps of Davina and Nickys air time.

I see it as nothing more than a vehicle for Ms McCall and I do hope they vary the 'photo reveal' from time to time otherwise I'd think it was the same bit of footage. It really is like painting by numbers. =I

Just stirring you Rose - although if I'm honest I was a little offended. I definately don't watch the real life hospital shows - we have one over here that is so depressing. A lot of people must watch reality programs or they wouldn't get the ratings. Some I don't like and some are pure entertainment like Dancing on Ice and the like. The shows that hammer home the dark side of life are definately not entertaining for me but each to their own.

Sue :P

Hi Sue
I don't know why programmes such as Dancing on Ice are called 'reality shows'.
They're carefully cast, costumed, choreographed and critiqued by professionals.

Sorry, I digress. Just thought I'd have a picky moment. ;-) :D

You are being picky Island ;-) Meant it's real as opposed to fictional dramas, comedies.....you know what I mean :-)

Sue

Oooh Sue,
I wasn't being picky about your comment :-) but take your point.
I was having a pop at 'the media' as I'm sure the term 'Reality show' was conjured up by them to describe programmes such as Big Brother and the dreadful JK and JS circuses (circi ?) using members of the public and with no holds barred. The sort of done 'on the hoof' stuff rather than the four C's.

I don't watch any hospital programs normally but I found myself watching one about a casualty last night when a young child of 11 was brought in. I don't know what the outcome was but if a traumatic situation might cause one person to stop and think, then try to prevent something like this happening then it is good viewing. With regard to Lost families, it gives a possible insight into what might occur if a reunion took place. No guarantees. I think these programs are an improvement on football. But we are all different, thank goodness. -jl

You only have to see the number of new posters who have handed over their £10 in order to name their missing relation, to realise it's a huge money making enterprise
.Nothing to do with sentimentality.

I thought you might be misunderstood, RR! I figured you meant the "reality" versions because I agree with you so wholeheartedly. ;)

What I hate most about them is that they are ousting good programming. I've mentioned how BBC Canada used to give us genuine BBC drama programming and the like. Now it's all "reality". Secret Millionnaire. Yeeeewww.

And the reason for this is that they are so *cheap* to produce. We are being fed utter garbage, no nutritional content whatsoever, just so the advertisers will pay the broadcasters to get access to *us*.

We are the product being sold by the broadcasters to the advertisers, and we're letting ourselves be sold way too cheap.

No.1 and I watched Casualty last night. ;) BBC Canada used to give it to us (even though it was months out of date), but it stopped last year, so now he downloads the current shows bootleg every week. We didn't watch it the night before because just as it was starting he pitched a fit about how I never switch the TV clicker back to TV from VCR (the VCR remote is worn out) so I walked out.

Anyhow, yes, it was the doomed 11-yr-old boy. The kind of thing that causes my mum awful stress. I think of her when a prime-time drama has an older woman losing her husband ... it must sometimes be tough to watch.

But that's what good fiction and drama do ... talk to us about universal human experiences so we think about them. "Reality" television is all about making us *feel*, uncritically. And I find it creepy.

It's exploiting *our* sentimentality for profit.

I'm going to sound contradictory ( nothing new there then lol) but a producer of drama has to make it seem 'real' in a way that 'reality' programmes don't...what I mean is, if a drama tackled the topic of a long lost family reunion, you would get ( if it was well written and acted) all the subtleties of emotion, anger, restraint and so on, whereas (imo) LLF tends to just show 'the good bits'.

As an example, I watched the John Sim/Jim Broadbent 3 parter recently, Jim Broadbent's character had Alzheimers, incidental to the storyline, but the situation was 'real' in that the performances could show all reactions, frustration, anger, tenderness, guilt,resentment ... and the reaction drawn from me, and I suspect most who watched it, was not 'uncritical tear jerking' but having more 'understanding'...not explaining myself well here but I know what I mean lol.

Well just read this and had a good chuckle, the programme has probably more advertisement here than anywhere else. you pays your money and takes your choice, if you don,t like it watch something else,I do. Oh and by the way,Just trying to get them to repeat "Emergency Ward 10" for lovers of Hospital Soaps .pmsl.**M**. :D :S ;-) :D.

That's just it Merlin. I don't think anyone on this thread IS watching it. They are put off by the thought of it being voyeuristic which is fair enough - there's been enough publicity to give that impression.
I watched it once out of interest and it was just 'on' twice more because I couldn't be arsked to switch channels.

I don't like hospital soap, it's stinky or that handwash stuff they have, it brings my skin out in a rash. :-) :D ;-)

No one has to watch Rita, and as you say " but people are only interested in the people that come together. who wants to watch a father or mother turn their back on a child or the child turn her back on her mother. ."

No, no one wants to see that, but that said do you not feel that it is holding out false hope to those who are desperate, and may have been searching for years already, to 'imply' by only showing success stories that a £14 sub to the sponsor is suddenly going to lead to the instant happy ending? If only it were that simple.

Witness the number of posts on the boards 'I have been looking for 50 years' and similar... there is no advice in the programmes for them, just the very smallest of chances they will get picked for the next series.