Paul Pott's made Hell freeze over...

...because he's shown that Reality TV can actually show something decent. Let me explain.

People who know me know I loathe Reality TV. I avoid it as much as I can. This morning, at Chapters, of all things, my manager wanted to show the staff a youtube video that was related to an upcoming promotion.

Last year, Simon Cowell started ANOTHER Reality TV show called "America's Got Talent", which is to find ordinary people doing extraordinary things, people vote on them, etc. etc. Simultaneously, he aired "Britain's Top Talent" in Britain, on the same premise.

In Cardiff, the judges met one contestant by the name of Paul Potts. He sold cell phones by day, but he had something else coursing through his veins: opera.



To say everyone was impressed by his performance would be an understatement. The judges' reactions were particularly brilliant. I'd admit that it definitely sent chills through my body when he was singing. The unexpectedness made the performance even more remarkable and no one was going to send him home.

To spoil the ending of that season, he wound up winning the whole thing, and has since released a CD of him singing (which was why we were being informed, because the CEO, Heather Reisman, planned to promote his CD in our stores soon). Now, there are other clips on youtube of his performances throughout each stage of the show. However, I find them less impressive because he was more polished, they had these unnecessary pyrotechnics, and a few times, the crowd drowned out his singing. That first time where it's just him, the mike and his music, is where I find you get the full effect of his voice.

Even giving full credit to his talent, I realize that most of us with the untrained ear will find his singing stunning. I wonder though, with his lack of professional training, how he would stack up against the 'average' (if you can even have such a thing) opera singer (?!?! I'm guessing here). Any guesses here? Meileen, I'm looking at you for some assistance here.

Little Mosque back-patting

As I noted in the comments here, I expected that the second week of "Little Mosque on the Prairie" would draw in about 1.2 million viewers. What was the magical number that the CBC reported?

1.2 million viewers.

If only guessing right actually got me anything but a smidgen of honour and glory. Oh well. I must say though, the second episode did improve, except for the 'hit-over-your-head' blatant jokes about hockey and such. Those were still really bad.

I'm looking forward to the third episode, except it gets pre-empted tonight by the NHL All-Star Game and returns on Jan. 31. With the novelty wearing off and a missed week, the question is whether it will keep consistent viewership numbers from next week onward.

Little Mosque on the Prairie review

eh. it was okay. Some jokes were well-delivered...some weren't. As I told my friend Elaine, it has potential, but I hope they don't run out of jokes after this episode. I guess we'll all find out if the next few episodes get better, or whether they'll end up re-hashing the same territory.

Between 6.5 and 7 out of 10.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

There've been a lot of press coverage on a new CBC half-hour comedy debuting next Tuesday (Jan. 9) at 830pm EST. Why? Because it's a show starring Muslims about Muslims in Canada.

Titled, "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (get it?), one of the actors commented that it may be getting a lot of press solely because the title might make people think it's going to be overtly political and controversial, while the actors and those involved say it's just a simple sitcom: think "Corner Gas", but with a mosque and not a gas station.

Hopefully, it'll be just as funny. And if it is as funny as hyped, that'll be TWO comedies set in the Prairies...who said there was nothing worthwhile out there.

I'll be watching it. I hope you will too.

One step forward, two steps back

CBC to revive hour-long local/regional newscasts for 6pm.

Oh, Good Grief!

The post's title was too easy, but I had to go there. I just saw the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and I had forgotten how much I had liked it, especially its straightforward message about the creeping (well, not so much creeping anymore) commercialism of current Christmas practices and how celebrants should remember and be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ (historical and political arguments, aside) instead.

But broadcasting it on Nov. 28 is a tad too early, isn't it?

The Limited Arc TV series

For all its trite and melodramatic delivery of the dialoge, I LOVE Babylon 5. I have likely posted about this before, but I don't feel like digging up the older post as I have yet to go back and add subject links to all my old posts (now that Google has provided this option) so it would take quite a bit of time.

One of my favourite things about the show was that J. Michael Straczynski, the creator, envisioned this series, his story, to have a definitive beginning, middle and an end. I had once heard that he wrote the scripts in order to have the series completed in 5 season. How long did it take the series to complete? 5. It made for very satisfying TV watching because the major plotlines and most of the subplots were resolved by the end.

Unlike Lost, where it seems like the current story's being dragged out because it's become popular so news execs want to milk it and stretch the series for all as long as possible. Consequently, the story's suffering from its poor storytelling and irrelevant plot twists; it's hemmorrhaging viewers to other shows because nothing's being resolved.

The solution of course is to have series like Lost be written with a limited number of seasons in mind, with a definite beginning, middle and end. I'm not the only one who believes this would work:

"Viewers would be both more willing to sign on at the beginning (knowing their investment will pay off) and more inclined to buy DVDs later (either as catch-up for newbies or as a satisfying boxed set)."

"But which would you rather tune in to next fall: a brand-new mystery from the creators of Lost, that entirely satisfying and thrilling limited-run series you loved? Or yet another season of Lost, that show that started out so well but is now meandering all over the damn place? Puzzles are meant to be solved, not prolonged. You can only tease viewers so long before they feel like they’re being mocked."